The Indian Fairy Book From the Original Legends   By: Cornelius Mathews (1817-1889)

INDIAN FAIRY BOOK.

FROM THE ORIGINAL LEGENDS.

BY

CORNELIUS MATHEWS.

With Illustrations by John McLenan.

ENGRAVED BY A. V. S. ANTHONY.

NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY ALLEN BROTHERS. 1869.

Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1868, BY CORNELIUS MATHEWS, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

[Illustration: THE CELESTIAL SISTERS. Page 11.]

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.