Tricksters. Myths and Folklore of the Timiskaming Algonquin

This week of trickster resources at the Internet Archive is going to be dedicated to Wisakedjak, the trickster hero of the Cree and other Algonquin peoples. I'll start with an old book by Frank Speck: Myths and Folklore of the Timiskaming Algonquin and Timagami Ojibwa.

This book was published in 1915, and it features a cycle of Wisakedjak stories told by Benjamin Mackenzie of Timiskaming Band in 1913. Speck published only the English translations, but he retains the distinctive features of the storyteller's style, such as the way he ends the stories as if he were a spectator at the events of the story: "So I had some travelling to do and I left Wisakedjak there, and I don't know where he went."

There are six Wiskedjak stories here: Wiskedjak Pursues the Beaver, Wiskedjak Kills the Bear and Gets his Head Fastened in the Skull, Wiskedjak Invites the Ducks to a Dance. Wiskedjak Anum Suum Urit and Originates Rock-Weed and Red Willow from the Scabs, Wiskedjak Disguises himself as a Lynx, and Wiskedjak's Love Affair. (The Ojibwa section contains stories about Nenebuc, i.e. Nanabush, Manabozho, etc.)

Did you notice that part of that fourth title is in Latin? Yep. That's because even though Speck is transmitting the story as told by Benjamin Mackenzie, he is also censoring the story, turning all the references to Wiskedjak's butt (specifically, his butt-hole, Latin anus) into Latin to protect innocent readers, mixing the Latin right in with the English, just as he did there in the title: Wiskedjak Anum Suum Urit and Originates Rock-Weed and Red Willow from the Scabs (Anum Suum Urit means "burns his butt"). Many anthropologists of the time did the same, and I've often thought about creating an anthology of these Latin stories and bits of stories! So in this story, every time there is a reference to the trickster's butt, Speck puts that in Latin. Wiskedjak tells his butt o stand guard over the roasting ducks, but when the butt warns Wiskedjak, Wiskedjak doesn't listen, and then when the ducks are stolen, he gets angry at his butt and decides to burn it... but of course that means he is burning himself! And it hurts!

These stories about Wiskedjak are sometimes told about other tricksters too; you might recall the story of the skull from a book I wrote about earlier: Iktomi and the Buffalo Skull: A Plains Indian Story. The details of the two stories are very different: Wiskedjak follows ants into a bear-skull where they are eating the brains, while Iktomi follows the mice into a buffalo-skull where the mouse are having a pow-wow. To me, that's just fascinating: it tells us that the story traveled far, from one storyteller to another to another, with each storyteller adjusting and changing the story along the way!

I'll be back with more Wiskedjak stories tomorrow!

Myths and Folklore of the

Timiskaming Algonquin

and Timagami Ojibwa

by Frank Speck