"The role of storyteller among Canada's native peoples has always been an honoured one, combining the functions of philosopher, historian and entertainer. Winter was the time for stories around the fire, when the hunt was over and people longed to be "lifted to the fairylands of pure imagination," as an early twentieth-century Indian has said. This book contains the magic created arond the Indian fireside, for readers of all ages. It includes muths of creation, culture myths, nature myths and beast fables, as well as the legends, personal narratives and historical traditions of thirty North American Indian tribes."