The Indian Fairy Book: From the Original Legends

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New-York. PREFACE. The following stories have been, time out of mind, in their original form, recited around the lodge-fires and under the trees, by the Indian story-tellers, for the entertainment of the red children of the West. They were originally interpreted from the old tales and legends by the late Henry R. Schoolcraft, and are now re-interpreted and developed by the Editor, so as to enable them, as far as worthy, to take a place with the popular versions of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and other world-renowned tales of Europe and the East, to which, in their original conception, they bear a resemblance in romantic interest and quaint extravagance of fancy. The Editor hopes that these beautiful and sprightly legends of the West, if not marred in the handling, will repay, in part at least, the glorious debt which we have incurred to the Eastern World for her magical gifts of the same kind. October, 1868. CONTENTS. PAGE I.— The Celestial Sisters 7 II.— The Boy who Set a Snare for the Sun 16 III.— Strong Desire and the Red Sorcerer 22 IV.— The Wonderful Exploits of Grasshopper 34 V.— The Two Jeebi 68 VI.— Osseo, the Son of the Evening Star 74 VII.— Gray Eagle and his Five Brothers 83 VIII.— The Toad-Woman 90 IX.— The Origin of the Robin 98 X.— White Feather and the Six Giants 102 XI.— Sheem, the Forsaken Boy 115 XII.— The Magic Bundle 135 XIII.— The Red Swan 138 XIV.— The Man with his Leg Tied Up 170 XV.— The Little Spirit or Boy-Man 179 XVI.— The Enchanted Moccasins 190 XVII.— He of the Little Shell 207 XVIII.— Manabozho, the Mischief-Maker 215 XIX.— Leelinau, the Lost Daughter 252 XX.— The Winter Spirit and his Visitor 261 XXI.— the Fire-Plume 264 XXII.— Weendigoes and the Bone-Dwarf 288 XXIII.— The Bird Lover 299 XXIV.— Bokwewa the Humpback 315 XXV.— The Crane that Crossed the River 324 XXVI.— Wunzh, the Father of Indian Corn 330 ILLUSTRATIONS. Frontispiece.—The Celestial Sisters 11 The Bear Servants 59 The Man with his Leg Tied Up 176 The Morning Star and Her Brother 212 I. THE CELESTIAL SISTERS. Waupee, or the White Hawk, lived in a remote part of the forest, where animals abounded. Every day he returned from the chase with a…