Thunderer

“ These in their dark nativity the deep Shall yield us, pregnant with infernal flame; Which, into hollow engines, long and round, Thick rammed, at the other bore with touch of fire Dilated and infuriate, shall send forth From far, with thundering noise, among our foes Such implements of mischief, as shall dash To pieces, and o'erwhelm whatever stands Adverse, that they shall fear we have disarmed The Thunderer of his only dreaded bolt. Nor long shall be our labour ”

“ As the marriage was hateful to her, and by the customs of the nations there was no escape, [132] she resolved upon self-destruction. Launching a bark canoe upon the Niagara, she directed it towards the current, and was soon swept over the frightful precipice amid the foaming waters. He-no the Thunderer had his home behind the sheet, and seeing her descend, he caught her in a blanket and carried her behind the fall. One of the servants of He-no being attracted by her beauty desired to marry her, to which she had no objection, and by the voice of the Thunderer they were united. ”

“ Anisga′ya Tsunsdi′—Abbreviated from Anisga′ya Tsunsdi′ga, “Little Men.” These two sons of Kana′tĭ, who are sometimes called Thunder Boys and who live in Usûñhi′yĭ above the sky vault, must not be confounded with the Yûñwĭ Tsunsdi′, or “Little People,” who are also Thunderers, but who live in caves of the rocks and cause the short, sharp claps of thunder. There is also the Great Thunderer, the thunder of the whirlwind and the hurricane, who seems to be identical with Kana′tĭ himself.
Deer songs—The Indian hunters of the olden time had many songs intended to call up the deer and the bear. ”

“ Nothing can kill or destroy the Thunderbird but an immense giant, who can stride over rivers and mountains and can kill anything by a look. This giant still exists, but nobody knows where, and is always hunting for the thunderer, who has to fly from place to place to keep away from the evil giant, thus causing storms by flying about. ”

“ When the business of sending the momentous news to press was over, and an enormous "scoop" assured for next morning's Thunderer (there were to be no doubts, no reservations this time) , the Editor turned to Stafford, who stood thoughtfully beside his closed rosewood box.
"You're a wonderful fellow—a valuable man for England!" he enthusiastically exclaimed. "Now, how much will you take to give the Thunderer the exclusive use of this instrument? Shall we say ten thousand a year?"
"Money does not tempt me as it once might—a year ago, for instance," said Stafford. ”

“ This is how Wolf and Crane became younger brothers of Bear. Wolf afterwards let Dog and Deer join him, having seats in the council.
Now Big Thunder lived at Winnebago Lake, near Fond du Lac. The Thunderers were all made by Masha Manido to be of benefit to the whole world. When they return from the Southwest in the spring, they bring with them the rains which make the earth [Pg 30] green and the plants and trees to grow. If it were not for the Thunderers, the earth would be dry and all things would perish. ”

“ Thumper, a magnificently constructed lie, a lie about which there is no stint of imaginative power.
Thumping, large, fine, or strong.
Thunderbomb, an imaginary ship of vast size. See Merry Dun of Dover.
Thunderer, the Times newspaper, sometimes termed “the Thunderer of Printing House Square,” from the locality where it is printed.
Thundering, large, extra-sized.
Tibbing out, going out of bounds.—Charterhouse.
Tibby, the head. Street slang, with no known etymology. To drop on one’s TIBBY is to frighten or startle any one, to take one unawares. ”

“ And why should he hesitate, when he has been used to melt down an entire Thunderer? Compare too the manufacturers and sellers of poison, and the man who should be cast into the sea inside an ox's hide, with whom a luckless destiny encloses a harmless ape. ”

“ Arthur Winstanley, as everybody knows, is Under-Secretary for India and the most rising politician of our day.
It is said that William Rolston, editor of the Evening Special, is our most brilliant journalist, though the older school condemn him for an excess of imagination. I saw the other day, in the old-fashioned Thunderer, a slashing attack upon a series of articles which had recently appeared upon China, and which the critic of the Thunderer conclusively proved to be written from an abysmal depth of ignorance. ”

“ In a few seconds the gun muzzle is raised, and projects through its port-hole. When the object and distance are named, the captain of the turret takes aim, and then follows, in more or less rapid succession, ‘Elevate,’ ‘Depress,’ ‘Extreme elevation,’ or the reverse, ‘Ready!’—‘Fire!’ when the Thunderer is shaken to her centre, and twelve pounds ten shillings sterling go groaning uselessly into the deep, or crashing terrifically through the armour-plates of an unfortunate enemy. ”

“ The sons of the Thunderer are, of course, hero-gods whose effulgence confounds the powers of darkness, and to some extent they resemble the Hun-Apu and Xbalanque of the Central American Popol Vuh, who travel to the dark kingdom of Xibalba to rescue their father and uncle, and succeed in overthrowing its hideous denizens. ”

“ This fetish was highly prized by its former owner, and was believed to be a medium whereby the favor of the Great Thunderer, or Thunder God, might be invoked and his anger appeased. This deity is represented in pictography by the eagle, or frequently by one of the Falconidæ; hence it is but natural that the superstitious should look with awe and reverence upon such an abnormality on one of the terrestrial representatives of this deity. ”

“ Swimmer makes the Little People help in the chase. In Cherokee figure an invitation to a ball contest is a challenge to battle. Thunder is always personified in the plural, Ani′-Hyûñ′tikwălâ′skĭ, “The Thunderers.” The father and the two older sons seem to be Kana′tĭ and the Thunder Boys (see number 3, “Kana′tĭ and Selu”) , although neither informant would positively assert this, while the boy hero, who has no other name, is said to be the lightning. ”

“ The water monster which the Thunderers had fought resembled a rattlesnake, but he had short legs and rusty-yellow fur.
§ 119. The Thunderers are represented as cruel and destructive in disposition. They are ever on the war path. A mortal hatred exists between them and the family of the Unkteḣi. Neither has power to resist the tonwan of the other if it strikes him. Their attacks are never open, and neither is safe except he eludes the vigilance of the other. The Wakinyan, in turn, are often surprised and killed by the Unkteḣi. Many stories are told of the combats of these gods. ”

“ But Rabbit reached his canoe and paddled quickly away, to the wigwam of Nokomis. He paddled so quickly that the fire stick burned fiercely. Sparks flew from it and burned Rabbit.
At once Rabbit and Nokomis gave fire to the Thunderers. They have had the care of fire ever since.
[Pg 28]
THE THUNDERERS AND THE ORIGIN OF FIRE Menomini
WHEN the Great Mystery created the earth, he made also many manidos. Those of animal form were People of the Underground, and evil. But the bird manidos were Eagles and Hawks. They were the Thunderers. The golden eagle was the Thunder-which-no-one-could-see. ”

“ A blinding flash, a roar of thunder, and there stepped into the cave two men of giant size and gravely beautiful faces, hardened at the cheeks and brows to stone. "These," said the girl to the hunter, "are my brothers, the Thunder and the Lightning. My father sends them forth whenever there is wrong to redress, that those who love us may not be smitten. When you hear Thunder, know that they are shooting at our enemies." ”

“ Their wings made a mighty roaring and crashing as they flew, and the people on the earth said, “Listen, how the thunder roars and crashes!”
Then they shot their golden arrows from their bows, and the earth people cried, “See, how the lightning flashes across the sky!” And [Pg 121] some of the earth people ran and hid, for they were afraid.
But the old man of the Thunder World had said to his sons: “Shoot your arrows only at the great bird of the south, which is our enemy. Destroy not the people of the earth. And fly not too low. Touch not the trees, for they are our friends.” ”

“ The Thunder-Bird resorts to cunning. He takes the form of a large bird, but his disguise is always penetrated by the smallest forest-bird; they know him, and, like faithful servants, keep near their lord. Again and again the thunder rolls, and the lightning plays about the branches of the tree. The waters swell and rise up to anger the Thunder-Bird, and to tempt him to do battle, but he has too many quarrels to resent against the forest gods, and the day of his vengeance is come. It is not often that he has courage to tempt the forest god to battle, for he knows his power ”

“ The view on Thunder-Bay is one of the grandest in America. Thunder-Cap, with its sleeping stone-giant, looms up into the heavens. Here Ka-be-bon-ikka—the Ojibway's god of storms—flaps his huge wings and makes the Thunder. From this mountain he sends forth the rain, the snow, the hail, the lightning and the tempest. A vast giant, turned to stone by his magic, lies asleep at his feet. The island called by the Ojibways the Mak-i-nak (the turtle) from its tortoise-like shape, lifts its huge form in the distance. ”

“ In eddies round us, and our leader’s roar
Smote peal on peal, and from their bases flung
The rocks that towered along the trembling shore.
A Thunder-Bird—alas, my chosen friend,
But even so a warrior’s life should end,—
A Thunder-Bird was stricken; his bright beak,
Cleaving the tumult like a lightning streak,
Smote with a fiery hiss the watery plain;
His upturned breast, where gleamed one fleck of red,
His sable wings, one moment wide outspread,
Blackened the whirlpool o’er his sinking head.
The Water-Demon’s sons by scores were slain
By our swift arrows falling like the rain ”

“ They bring the rain to water our crops and refresh the earth. You have often heard the rumbling of their wings in the storm, and have seen their arrows of flame shoot toward the earth as they hunt the great horned serpents and other man-destroying monsters which form their daily food. And it was one of those very arrows which, as you know, started you in life as a Lenape.
“Well, I suppose I must tell you, one of these Thunder-Beings is my Guardian Spirit and that is why people say that I am in league with the Thunder, and have Thunder power, and why they call on me in cases like yours. ”

“ And the hunter was told by their sister that when they went forth, which was every few days, their father said to them: “Sons, arise! it is time now for you to go forth over the world and save our friends. Go not too near the trees, but if you see aught that is harmful to those whom we love, strike, and spare not!” Then when they went forth they flew on high, among the clouds: and thus it is that the Thunder and Lightning, whose home is in the mighty Katahdin, are made. And when the thunder strikes, the brothers are shooting at the enemies of their friends. ”

“ This the hunters and the women did, and Thunder Man himself made a long, high-sided basket of a buffalo bull’s hide and willow sticks. This and the long, long one-strand rope of buffalo hide were taken to the hole that Mink Woman had torn in the sky earth, and then Thunder Man brought her to the place and laid her carefully in the basket, which he had lined with soft robes: ‘Because I love you so dearly, I am going to let you down to your people,’ he told her. ‘But we do not part forever. ”

“ BULLER.
What think you of the thunder in Thomson's Seasons?
NORTH.
What all the world thinks—that it is our very best British Thunder. He gives the Gathering, the General engagement, and the Retreat. In the Gathering there are touches and strokes that make all mankind shudder—the foreboding—the ominous! And the terror, when it comes, aggrandises the premonitory symptoms. "Follows the loosened aggravated roar" is a line of power to bring the voice of thunder upon your soul on the most peaceable day. He, too—prevailing poet—feels the grandeur of the Rain. ”

“ You alone, girl as you are, know the full secret of the Thunder Bird, as you romantically call it, the principle on which I am working, child–in so far as you can understand it–in creating this model rocket for experiments and the master sky-rocket, the full-fledged Thunder Bird, later, to soar even to the moon itself–Mars, too, maybe–you alone know and you have kept it dark. ”

“ One morning just before Little Thunder’s father was to go off on a hunt with the other warriors of the village, he called Little Thunder to him.
24
“You must take care of your mother while I am away,” Big Thunder told the boy. “You must be the man of the house now. You must protect your mother and your home and see that all of the work is done.” He smiled and pressed his son’s shoulders. “You will soon be a man and then we can go on the big hunt together. But you are man enough now to watch over your mother while I am away.” ”

“ Therefore Thunder seems now to run horizontally, now from above downwards, now upwards from the Earth, for if the Matter of Thunder pressing out of the Earth is enflamed near the Ground, the Flame darting upwards, the Thunder will seem to be projected out of the Earth. If the same Tract be set on Fire at its upper end, the Flame will move downwards, and the Thunder will seem to descend out of the Sky. ”

“ As with the Twanas, the lightning is a glance from the eye, and a person who has a presentment that the Thunderbird is displeased with him and intends to kill him, retires to a high hill to await his doom, after having bid his friends farewell. Sometimes, owing to the isolated position of the individual, he is actually struck by lightning during some of the heavy thunder storms of the region, and that settles the myth all the firmer in the Indian mind, for the Thunderbird it was who killed him, just as he said it would. ”