Nanahboozhoo was
sorry that he did not get the lion's skin, indeed he was greatly vexed and
annoyed to have to return to his wigwam without it. A day or two after, as
he was walking in the woods, he met with a very old woman. She had a bundle
of slippery elm bark, out of which poultices were made by the Indians for
wounds and bruises, and also some roots for medicine.
"'Where are you going, nookoom (grandmother), and what are you going to do
with the bark and roots?'
"'O' said she, 'you cannot imagine what trouble we are in, for Nanahboozhoo
has shot and badly wounded one of our chiefs, and great efforts are going
to be made to catch and kill him.'
"She also told him that she had been honored in being sent for to come and
use all of her healing arts to try and restore the wounded chief to health
again, and that now she was on her way to his abode to poultice him with
the slippery elm bark, and to give him medicine, made by boiling the roots,
to allay the great fever from which he was suffering.
"Nanahboozhoo thus discovered that these lions, as he had supposed them to
be, were wicked magicians who had been doing a great deal of harm, and who
when they chose to do so could change themselves into the form of lions and
live either under the water or on land, as best suited them, to escape from
being killed by those whom they had injured. As the old woman was very
talkative, Nanahboozhoo soon obtained from her all the information he
desired.
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