“It was a fearful race.  Nanahboozhoo had to jump from one mountain top to the next, and so on and on from peak to peak.  Closely behind him followed the giant, and Nanahboozhoo had all he could do to keep from being captured.  Fortunately for him he now knew the mountains well, and he remembered one ahead of him the opposite side of which was very steep.  When he reached this top he suddenly threw himself down upon the very edge, and as the giant passed over him Nanahboozhoo suddenly sprang up and gave him such a push that he tumbled down into the fearful chasm.  He was so bruised and wounded that, as he got up and hobbled away down the far-off valley, Nanahboozhoo watching him saw that he looked just like a great grasshopper.  He burst out laughing, and then shouted to the giant: 

“’For your meanness and selfishness I change you into a grasshopper; Pukaneh shall be your name and you will always have a dirty mouth.’

“And so it is to this day, for every little boy who has caught grasshoppers knows that their saliva is as though they had been chewing tobacco.

“When Nanahboozhoo had rested himself a little he returned to the cave of the giant and took possession of the great quantities of tobacco he found there.  He divided it among the Indian tribes, and from that time those who live where it will grow have cultivated it and have supplied all the others.”

“I wish,” said Minnehaha, “that Nanahboozhoo had left Pukaneh and his tobacco in the cave, for I don’t think tobacco smoke is very nice in the house.”

[Illustration:  Nanahboozhoo gave him a great push.]

Souwanas was amused with the little girl’s opposition to his beloved weed, and while she was talking took the opportunity to refill his calumet.  When it was in good smoking order he, urgently requested by Sagastao, resumed his story-telling.

“Sometimes it did not fare so well with Nanahboozhoo.  There were times when his cleverness seemed to forsake him, and he got into trouble’ that at other times he would easily have avoided.  For example, one day in the summer time as he was hurrying along he became very thirsty.  Soon, however, he came to a river which has many trees on its banks.  He pushed his way through them until he came to the bank.  Just as he was stooping down to drink he saw some nice ripe fruit in the water.  Without seeming to think of what he was doing he dived into the quite shallow water to get the fruit, hit his head against the rocky bottom and was pretty badly hurt.  He was vexed and angry as well as disappointed, but he took a good drink of the water and then he lay down on the grass in the shade of the trees to rest.  As he lay there on his back he saw above him on the branches of the trees the fruit which he had at first thought was in the water.

“Laughing at his own stupidity and climbing up into the trees he soon had all the ripe fruit he could eat.

“Then on he went, and as his head was quite sore from the bump he had got when he dived into the shallow river he determined to visit some wigwams which he saw not far off.