They
also informed Nanahboozhoo that they would be glad if he would help them to
get back their much needed possessions.
"Nanahboozhoo promised that he would assist them on condition that after
their possessions were regained they should give up the pernicious habit of
gambling. This they unanimously promised to do. The first thing
Nanahboozhoo did was to disguise himself as a whisky-jack and fly over to
the village of the Moose people and try to discover how it was that they
had been so invariably successful when they gambled with the Elk people. It
was as he suspected. His old enemies the Anamakquis, the evil spirits that
had destroyed his brother Nahpootee, the wolf, had sent one of their number
among the Moose people, and he had enabled them to win nearly all of the
dogs, as well as other things, from the Elk people. Indeed, he himself had
generally been the one who had tossed the plum stones with which they
gambled, and they had won by his magic powers.
"When Nanahboozhoo heard this he knew that his first work must be to secure
the magic muskamoot (medicine bag). So he flew round and round, and peering
in through the top of the wigwam, where the poles crossed each other, he
was fortunate enough to see the magic bag hanging up on a cross pole over
the place where the Anamakqui slept. He noticed also that it was well
guarded and that it would require some cleverness on his part to get it.
"Nanahboozhoo was, as you know, a very clever fellow.
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