Conte Ojibwé : Papase

Le terme Ojibwé vient de Outchibou, nom donné au XVIIe siècle à un groupe qui vivait au nord de ce qui est aujourd’hui Sault Ste. Marie, en Ontario.Voici un de leur conte : Papase (en anglais).

Les Ojibwés faisaient partie d’une série de groupes très proches, mais distincts, occupant un territoire situé entre le nord-est de la baie Géorgienne et l’est du lac Supérieur. Ces peuplades qui se rassemblent près de la ville actuelle de Sault Ste. Marie sont aussi appelées Saulteaux, un terme qui désigne aujourd’hui principalement les peuples ojibwés du nord-ouest de l’Ontario et du sud-est du Manitoba.

Ojibwé Papase

Contenus

Papase

A woman wearing a red scarf, a black dress, and a white apron was
cooking in her kitchen early one morning when an old man approached
her. « May I have some bread, please? » he asked. « Sure, »
she said.

The woman had just prepared a big batch of dough to make fry bread
(a traditional Ojibwe bread), so she put a nice big piece of dough
in the fry pan. It turned out to be a really nice piece and she
thought, « I can’t give him this one – it’s much too nice. »
For the second piece, she put a smaller amount of dough in the pan.
Well, this piece turned out much better than the first and she thought,
« Oh, this one is also too nice to give to this old man. »
So, she started on a third piece. This time, she put barely any
dough in the pan. When it was ready, she was very surprised, for
this piece had turned out even more beautiful than the all the others.

Finally, the old man asked, « Is there any bread ready yet? »
So she threw some crumbs in the pan and they produced by far the
most beautiful piece of fry bread. This made her angry. « Quit
begging, » she cried. « Get out of here! You can’t have
any of my bread! » The old man stopped begging all right. He
stomped his foot a few times and said, « From now on you’re
going to have to hunt and search for your food. » And he turned
the woman into a woodpecker.