Episode 5 - Wolverine and the rock

 Told by John Peastitute of Kawawachikamach and Joseph, Edward and Charlotte Rich of Sheshatshiu. Translated by Joseph Peastitute of Kawawachikamach and Matthew Rich of Sheshatshiu. Ref. Peter Desbarats (ed.). 1969. What they used to tell about. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Ltd.

The wolverine was traveling near the river, beside some rocks and a cliff, when he thought he saw something walking on the mountain.  It was only a big rock but the wolverine didn’t know that.   The mountain was on the other side of the river and when the wolverine was walking, the rock looked like it was moving too.

 The wolverine went across the river.  He looked for tracks but he didn’t see any. All he could see was the rock.  So he thought that it was the rock walking on the mountain.  So he talked to the rock. “I saw you walking.”

 The rock said, “Not me. I’ve never walked.  I’ve been sitting here for a long time.”

 “No, that’s a lie,” said the wolverine.  “I saw you walking.  So why don’t you walk with me? Nobody ever walks with me.”

 But the rock said, “How can I come with you? I never move.   I’ve been sitting in the same place since the earth was here.”

 “No,” said the wolverine.  “I saw you walking. Now you come with me. Come with me.”

 And the rock said, “Okay.”

 The wolverine went on this way.  He walked but the rock didn’t move.  The rock stayed in the same place.  The wolverine went back to the rock.

 “Come with me!” said the rock and it began to roll very slowly and roll and roll.

 The wolverine said, “You are walking too slow.  You can go faster than that.”

 “All right!” the rock said and it began to roll faster and faster.

 After a while, the wolverine started to get tired.  They went down the hill but the rock was still going fast.   They went up the hill but the rock was going faster.  The rock began to gain on the wolverine.  It hit the heels of the wolverine and the wolverine said, “Don’t walk so fast.  You are hurting my heels.”

 The rock said, “You asked me to come with you.”

 The wolverine didn’t know what to do.  He asked the rock, “Slow down.”

 But the said, “No. This is the way I am going.”

 Suddenly the wolverine fell down and the rock went over and sat on his back.

 “Get off me!” the wolverine said.

 “I won’t get off you,” said the rock, “because you wanted me to come with you.”

 “If you won’t get off,” said the wolverine, “I will call my brothers, the thunderstorms.”

 “Call your brothers,” the rock said. “I won’t get off.”

 The wolverine called out, “Brothers! Brothers! The rock is sitting on me.”

 The thunderstorms heard the wolverine calling and said, “It must be our brother, the wolverine.  He’s always doing something foolish and I guess that’s why the rock is sitting on him.”

 The thunderstorms went over to where the wolverine was.  The wolverine heard the thunderstorms coming and he said to the rock, “Don’t go no.” And the rock replied, “I won’t leave you.”

 When they got close, the thunderstorms told the thunder to strike the rock but not to kill the wolverine.  Just strip off his shirt.  So the lightning came, stripped off the shirt and broke the rock.  So the thunders made a noise.  So the lightning came, striking the stone.  The wolverine’s shirt was ripped.

 The wolverine said, “My brothers are not helping too much.”

 The wolverine looked around for his shirt.  He saw it lying in pieces, like a puzzle.

 He said to himself, “I will look for my brother, the frog, to help me.”

 He went on his way and he saw the frog.  The wolverine said, “Brother, can you sew my shirt? Look what your brothers did to it.”

 “All right,” said the frog, “but you will have to put it together on the ground first.”

 The wolverine put together the pieces of his shirt.  The frog jumped from one piece to another to sew it.

 When it was finished, the wolverine didn’t like it and he said to the frog, “You are very poor at sewing a shirt.”

 The frog said, “That’s the way I sew!”

 The wolverine said to the frog, “All right.  I will make your hands tiny and your eyes like bubbles on balls.  You will look like that.”

 The wolverine took the frong and threw it into the water and that’s why the frog stays there.

 “When the winter comes, when it is cold, you will go down to the earth,” said the wolverine.

 The wolverine went on his way and he said, “I will look for my brother, the mouse, to sew it.”

 So he saw a mouse running and he said, “My brother, sew my shirt.”

 The mouse said, “Put the pieces together on the ground.”

 So he put them on the ground.  So the mouse sewed it.  Where it was torn, he ran.  He ran like a sewing needle.  He went to all the places where it was torn and he finished the job.

 So the wolverine liked it and put it on, and he said to the mouse, “Okay, brother. Come I will make you.”

 He picked up the mouse and he began to make a long tail, sharp at the end, and a pointed snout.  The wolverine took the mouse and threw it on a tree where there was some dry, rotten wood.

 “Stay there, that will keep you warm,” he said, “and when the people will be born, they will call you Tshinistuiapukushish, if you live then.”

 So the wolverine ran and is still running.

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