The Atikamekw Legend of the Pike
Legend told by: Basile Awashish, Obedjiwan
Illustration : Denis Chilton / Alice Clary
Adapted by the work team of Centre d’Amitié Autochtone de La Tuque
A father had a daughter.
One day, the daughter met a young man who soon thereafter asked for her hand in marriage.
The father enjoyed challenging his daughter’s suitor. The father always won every challenge.
This did not go unnoticed by the young suitor.
One day, the young man, tired of always being defeated by his fiancée’s father, decided to challenge the old man himself: “Are there rapids nearby where we could jump from one shoreline to the next?”
The father knew just the place, and accepted the young man’s challenge.
So off they went, and upon arriving the father said: “Here is the ideal spot. Here’s where we shall jump from one side of the river to the other.”
The father pointed to the young man and told him to go first.
The young man took a few steps back and braced himself for the perilous jump.
The father was already celebrating his victory.
However, the young man made it safely across the river.
Never one to be defeated, the father prepared to do the same.
He took a leap and landed . . . in the middle of the treacherous rapids. This time, the old man had lost.
The young man rushed along the water’s edge, frantically looking for the father’s body.
He finally found it, floating on the water’s surface.