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By R.V.D Smith 1 An Ojibway tale. In addition to the numerous traditions of a religious nature which are handed down from one generation to another, by the North American tribes, they have many others relating to their wars, their distinguished warriors, and their most prominent hunters, with their sayings, doings, and adventures. These traditions or legends in the lapse of time are subject to many changes, and almost necessarily receive some fresh embellishments from each new narrator. And although each of them may have been founded on facts, so prone is the Indian mind to weave in something of the marvellous and supernatural with every transaction of their lives, that it becomes a matter of no astonishment to find their accounts of known facts so blended with the miraculous, as to cast a shade of doubt over the whole narration. Yet are they received with implicit faith by the Indian, and the very Interpolator who has drawn freely from his own imagination to make some old legends the more interesting, comes in time to believe the fictions of his own coinage.

The following legend, or tale, I picked up somewhere amongst the Ojibways during my residence amongst them; it matters not how or when; and believing that the ingenious stratagems of the two principal actors, and the view that it gives of some of the superstitions of the tribe render it worthy of publication, I herewith present it to the public without further excuse.

Ish-pau-bi-kau gia Wau-bish-kizzi Muk-kwah. High Rock and the White Bear

Many years ago there lived a great hunter named Ish-pau-bi-kau, or the High Rock; he grew so expert in all kinds of hunting, that he would start out in the morning from his lodge, without any weapon, and never returned without meat for his family.

One evening a number of old warriors and young braves were sitting around the fire; the old men were telling tales of their youthful days, and the young men were listening with respectful attention. The old men Ayer N. A mo. 814?