Week 9: Reading Diary B

I read the Native American Hero Tales

The Son-in-Law Tests

• Wemicus (the animal trickster) had a son-in-law that always outwitted Wemicus. 
• One day they were in camp and Wemicus told the man that they called the lake burnt moccasins lake. The man knew that Wemicus would try to burn his moccasins in his sleep, so he switched their moccasins. Wemicus then had to walk in the snow without moccasins. 
• Wemicus told the man to come sliding with him, but his wife warned him the hill was covered with poisonous snakes. She gave him a stick with a magic tobacco that would prevent the snakes from hurting him. 
• His wife then told him that Wemicus would ask him to pick the lice from his head, but they would be poisonous lizards. He fooled him by cracking cranberries instead of the lice. 
• Wemicus then wanted to race him on a canoe and Wemicus went to fast and flipped in the lake. The man went up to where he landed and saw that Wemicus had been transformed into a pike and this is where they come from. 

The Jealous Father

• Aioswé had two wives and he became jealous of one his sons. One day he came home and found that his other wife had been intimate with the son.
• One day they went to an island to gather eggs together and the father left him on the island. 
• A walrus found him on the island and said he would take him back to the mainland. The walrus asked if the sky was clear, but the boy lied and they headed to sea. The walrus then said to warn him if he heard thunder and when it came the boy lied again. The walrus left him in a shallow part of the sea, but was killed by lightning. 
• An old woman found him on the shore and instructed him how to arrive home safely and gave him the stuffed skin of a weasel. 
• Then two blind women tried to kill him with dagger elbows, but he tricked them into killing each other. 
• When the boy made it home he sang at a fire how he would make the world burn and cause the water to boil. He shot an arrow and the forest began to blaze and the water boiling. He told his father to hide in his bear grease and he drew a line around him and his mother. They were the only survivors and his mother transformed into a robin and he a Canada jay. 

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