The flood rose steadily and perceptibly.  He soon felt the lower part of his body to be immersed in it.  He addressed the tree; “Grandfather, stretch yourself.”  The tree did so.  But the waters still rose.  He repeated his request, and was again obeyed.  He asked a third time, and was again obeyed; but the tree replied, “It is the last time; I cannot get any higher.”  The waters continued to rise till they reached up to his chin, at which point they stood, and soon began to abate.  Hope revived in his heart.  He then cast his eyes around the illimitable expanse, and spied a loon.  “Dive down, my brother,” he said to him, “and fetch up some earth, so that I can make a new earth.”  The bird obeyed, but rose up to the surface a lifeless form.  He then saw a muskrat.  “Dive!” said he, “and if you succeed, you may hereafter live either on land or water, as you please; or I will give you a chain of beautiful little lakes, surrounded with rushes, to inhabit.”  He dove down, but floated up senseless.  He took the body and breathed in his nostrils, which restored him to life.  “Try again,” said he.  The muskrat did so.  He came up senseless the second time, but clutched a little earth in one of his paws, from which, together with the carcass of the dead loon, he created a new earth as large as the former had been, with all living animals, fowls, and plants.

As he was walking to survey the new earth, he heard some one singing.  He went to the place, and found a female spirit, in the disguise of an old woman, singing these words, and crying at every pause: 

  “Ma nau bo sho, O do zheem un,
  Ogeem au wun, Onis sa waun,
  Hee-Ub bub ub bub (crying). 
  Dread Hiawatha in revenge,
  For his grandson lost—­
  Has killed the chief—­the king.”

“Noko,” said he, “what is the matter?” “Matter!” said she, “where have you been, that you have not heard how Hiawatha shot my son, the Prince of serpents, in revenge for the loss of his grandson, and how the earth was overflowed, and created anew?  So I brought my son here, that he might kill and destroy the inhabitants, as he did on the former earth.  But,” she continued, casting a scrutinizing glance, “N’yau! indego Hiawatha! hub! ub! ub! ub!  Oh, I am afraid you are Hiawatha!” He burst out into a laugh to quiet her fears.  “Ha! ha! ha! how can that be?  Has not the old world perished, and all that was in it?” “Impossible! impossible!” “But, Noko,” he continued, “what do you intend doing with all that cedar cord on your back?” “Why,” said she, “I am fixing a snare for Hiawatha, if he should be on this earth; and, in the mean time, I am looking for herbs to heal my son.  I am the only person that can do him any good.  He always gets better when I sing: 

  “’Hiawatha a ne we guawk,
  Koan dan mau wah, ne we guawk,
  Koan dan mau wah, ne we guawk,
     It is Hiawatha’s dart,
  I try my magic power to withdraw.”