Plains Ojibwa (Bungee)

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Hooper attributes this account to a Mr. MacKenzie, who spent much time with the Saulteaux Indians (Plains Ojibwa) early in his life and may have been the first to record this tale in English. The version here is much abridged from the original.

Wis-kay-tchach, a great medicine man, called the wolves his brother and nephews. After traveling with them for a time, they separated, but one stayed with him. Wis learned from his enchantments that the young wolf must never cross a hollow without first throwing a stick across it. But his nephew, chasing a deer, neglected to do this and was caught and devoured by the water-lynxes.

Given information by a kingfisher, Wis first prepared a canoe, embarking animals on it. Then he disguised himself as a stump (which frogs and snakes tried to pull down) and when the water-lynxes were asleep, went to spear their chief. The kingfisher had told him to aim at its shadow, but he neglected to do that until it was escaping, so he only wounded it. The beasts then flooded the world, which Wis created anew from dirt brought up by a rat.

Wis later met the toad come to doctor the wounded water-lynx. Taking its skin, he went in its place and killed the water-lynx. He later met the water-lynx's mother on the way to its funeral. Killing her and assuming her dress, he asked to be alone with the body. Then he made grease from the carcass. When a couple of snakes were sent to investigate the delay, he sent some grease back with them to the water-lynx's brothers and fled with the rest. A badger hid him from the pursuit in exchange for a promise of the grease, but Wis reneged on payment. Instead, he emptied the grease into a hollow and invited the animals to gather fat from it.

William Hulme Hooper, Ten Months among the Tents of the Tuski (London: John Murray, 1853), 285-295.