The idea of an
Indian Tyl Eulenspiegel going about the country making mischief recalls
a great part of the adventures of Hiawatha or Manobozho; in fact, it
could not fail to suggest itself to a believer in Shamanism, or pow-wow,
according to which evil spirits and men like them are continually
teasing mankind, out of sheer malice. The reform of the wicked man,
under the influence of the "Great Spirit," is of later days. I do not
believe that the idea of a Great Spirit, in the sense in which it is
generally used by Indians, or is attributed to them, was ever known
till learned from the whites. Nothing is more natural than that during
the two hundred years past intelligent Indians, who felt that there
were many evils in the old barbaric state, yet who were still under the
influence of its myths and poetry, should have made up legends like
this purporting to be revelations. There is one of the kind given in
the Hiawatha Legend, as "Eroneniera, an Indian visit to the Great
Spirit," which bears on its face every mark of modern manufacture for a
purpose. For these very reasons, however, the tale here given is of
great interest to the impartial historian. I am indebted for it to the
kindness of Colonel T. Wentworth Higginson. This is the only story in
my collection of which I cannot give the name and residence of the
original Indian narrator.
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