Chibiabos, the Ruler of the
Underworld
My brother Chibiabos has had the
most interesting "life" of all my
brothers. He was not a great warrior like my brother Mudjekeewis,
nor
was he a great dancer like my brother Pau-Puk-Keewis, but he was the
man who brought the drum and music to our people. My brother
lives in
the Underworld now and I worried about how he would get his message to
me, but my grandmother told me that my brother was powerful and would
find a way. Last night as I slept my brother entered my dreams
and
told me the story of his life. I will now recount the story for
you.
When my brother Chibiabos
was a child, my father visited him closely hoping that he too
would be a great warrior like Mudjekeewis, but my father was worried
watching Chibiabos because it seemed all he could do was stand there
and watch the animals. As my brother grew into his teenage years,
he
would spend hours in the forests watching the animals. Chibiabos
got
the music from the animals as he listened to the sounds of the
forest.
The thump of an animal's foot, the woodpecker's beating, and the sounds
of the wind became the drum and singing that Chibiabos brought to our
people. This is the music that Pau-Puk-Keewis learned to dance
to.
Pau-Puk-Keewis and Chibiabos were very close as brothers because they
had similar lives of traveling and entertaining. They also both
understood what it was like to live in the shadow of Mudjekeewis.
Mudjekeewis tried to ignore
the antics of his younger brothers, but at
the same time he was deeply upset by their closeness. Also, the
people
seemed to forget the protection he brought when his brothers were
entertaining them. In a fit of jealousy and anger after watching
Pau-Puk-Keewis and Chibiabos entertain a village with a song and dance
making fun of him, Mudjekeewis pleaded with the manitous to end the
life of his brother Chibiabos. He believed without music,
Pau-Puk-Keewis would end his dancing. Mudjekeewis later regretted
his
plea, but did not think that manitous would actually take his brother's
life.
Winter came and the two
brothers ended their traveling tour and headed
back to their home village. This was before Pau-Puk-Keewis was
married,
so they shared a hut together. One day, Chibiabos decided to
travel to
the other side of the lake in search of deer to feed him and his
brother. As he crossed the frozen lake, he thought of the spring
and
the songs that came with it. However, the manitous also thought
of the
thaw that came with spring and weakened the ice below Chibiabos.
The
manitous of the lake looked forward to bringing Chibiabos to their icy
depths. As Chibiabos got to the center of the lake it cracked
all over
and he fell through the ice to his death.
My brothers and father were
devastated and pleaded with the manitous to
bring Chibiabos back to them. The manitou of the lake came to
Mudjekeewis and told him that he had asked for his brother's death, but
there was an in-between world and that is where Chibiabos lives
now.
The great medicine men of the time held a sacred meeting to bring
Chibiabos back to the world. As he stood outside the hut, he
exclaimed
to his brothers and father that he was the ruler of the underworld and
he would see them again someday.
My brother's story is a sad
one, but it also shows me that I can never
be jealous of the great things my brothers have done. I am
destined to
be who I am and can never be like them. I hope to soon find my
future.
Author's Note:
I retold the story of
Chibiabos from The Song of Hiawatha. In this
story, Chibiabos is a very important character and the text focuses on
the way music came to him. I touched on that, but did not tell
the
greater stories of the drum and the flute. In the original story,
Chibiabos is killed because of the jealousy of the manitous. They
believed
he
had power over the animals because of his music and they thought he was
entering their territory. I decided to change it to Mudjekeewis'
jealousy because my storybook is about the brothers and their
relationships with each other. In the last story, we see
Pau-Puk-Keewis' jealousy of his older brother and I thought it would be
an interesting change to add Mudjekeewis' jealousy to this story.
He
always seems like the great hero, but I like the idea of him being
flawed also. I also adapted the relationship between
Pau-Puk-Keewis
and
Chibiabos. In the original, they are only together at the wedding
of
Hiawatha, but I thought that because one is known for music and the
other is known for dancing that they would be together a great
deal. I
chose to tell the story of the death of Chibiabos because it was the
first time that all three of the brothers and their father were brought
together. I thought that it showed their humans sides and that
although they are manitou or part-manitou they had human
qualities.
Many reasons that the Ojibway loved the stories of the brothers was
because they could see their human qualities in them which made them
more like a brother or cousin than a great half-manitou.
Source: "The Song of Hiawatha" By Henry M. Longfellow.
1855. Web Source: Project
Gutenberg
Image Information: Blair Debassige. Two Birds with Chicks. Hand
Drum. Web
Link.