THE ALGONQUIN LEGENDS OF NEW ENGLAND

OR

_Myths and Folk Lore of the Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and PenobscotTribes_

BY CHARLES G. LELAND

[Frontispiece Illustration: MIK UM WESS THE INDIAN PUCK, OR ROBINGOOD-FELLOW. 

From a scraping on birch bark by Tomak Josephs, Indian Governor atPeter Dona's Point, Maine. The Mik um wees always wears a red cap likethe Norse Goblin. ]

PREFACE. 

When I began, in the summer of 1882, to collect among the PassamaquoddyIndians at Campobello, New Brunswick, their traditions and folk-lore, Iexpected to find very little indeed. These Indians, few in number, surrounded by white people, and thoroughly converted to RomanCatholicism, promised but scanty remains of heathenism. What was myamazement, however, at discovering, day by day, that there existedamong them, entirely by oral tradition, a far grander mythology thanthat which has been made known to us by either the Chippewa or IroquoisHiawatha Legends, and that this was illustrated by an incredible numberof tales. I soon ascertained that these were very ancient. The oldpeople declared that they had heard from their progenitors that all ofthese stories were once sung; that they themselves remembered when manyof them were poems. This was fully proved by discovering manifesttraces of poetry in many, and finally by receiving a long Micmac talewhich had been sung by an Indian. I found that all the relaters of thislore were positive as to the antiquity of the narratives, anddistinguished accurately between what was or was not pre-Columbian. Infact, I came in time to the opinion that the original stock of all theAlgonquin myths, and perhaps of many more, still existed, not far awayin the West, but at our very doors; that is to say, in Maine and NewBrunswick. It is at least certain, as the reader may convince himself, that these Wabanaki, or Northeastern Algonquin, legends give, with fewexceptions, in full and coherently, many tales which have only reachedus in a broken, imperfect form, from other sources. 

This work, then, contains a collection of the myths, legends, andfolk-lore of the principal Wabanaki, or Northeastern Algonquin, Indians;that is to say, of the Passamaquoddies and Penobscots of Maine, and ofthe Micmacs of New Brunswick. All of this material was gathereddirectly from Indian narrators, the greater part by myself, the rest bya few friends; in fact, I can give the name of the aboriginal authorityfor every tale except one. As my chief object has been simply tocollect and preserve valuable material, I have said little of thelabors of such critical writers as Brinton, Hale, Trumbull, Powers, Morgan, Bancroft, and the many more who have so ably studied and setforth red Indian ethnology. If I have rarely ventured on their field, it is because I believe that when the Indian shall have passed awaythere will come far better ethnologists than I am, who will be muchmore obliged to me for collecting raw material than for cooking it. 

Two or three subjects have, it is true, tempted me into occasionalcommenting. The manifest, I may say the undeniable, affinity betweenthe myths and legends of the Northeastern Indians and those of theEskimo could hardly be passed over, nor at the same time the identityof the latter and of the Shaman religion with those of the Finns, Laplanders, and Samoyedes. I believe that I have contributed materialnot devoid of value to those who are interested in the study of therelations of the aborigines of America with the Mongoloid races of theOld World. This is a subject which has been very little studied throughthe relations of these Wabanaki with the Eskimo. 

A far more hazardous venture has been the indicating points ofsimilarity between the myths or tales of the Algonquins and those ofthe Norsemen, as set forth in the Eddas, the Sagas, and popular talesof Scandinavia. When we, however, remember that the Eskimo once rangedas far south as Massachusetts, that they did not reach Greenland tillthe fourteenth century, that they had for three centuries intimaterelations with Scandinavians, that they were very fond of legends, andthat the Wabanaki even now mingle with them, the marvel would be thatthe Norsemen had not left among them traces of their tales or of theirreligion. But I do not say that this was positively the case; I simplyset forth in this book a great number of curious coincidences, fromwhich others may draw their own conclusions. I confess that I cannotaccount for these resemblances save by the so-called "historicaltheory" of direct transmission; but if any one can otherwise explainthem I should welcome the solution of what still seems to be, in manyrespects, a problem. 

I am, in fact, of the opinion that what is given in this work confirmswhat was conjectured by David Crantz, and which is thus expressed inhis History of Greenland (London, 1767): "If we read the accounts whichhave been given of the most northerly American Indians and AsiaticTartars, we find a pretty great resemblance between their manner oflife, morals, usages, and notions and what has been said in this bookof the Greenlanders, only with this difference: that the farther thesavage nations wandered towards the North, the fewer they retained oftheir ancient conceptions and customs. As for the Greenlanders, if itbe true, as is supposed, that a remnant of the old Norway Christiansincorporated themselves and became one people with them, theGreenlanders may thence have heard and adopted some of their notions, which they may have new-modeled in the coarse mould of their ownbrain. "

Among those who have greatly aided me in preparing this work I deem itto be a duty to mention MISS ABBY ALGER, of Boston, to whom it iscordially dedicated; the REV. SILAS T. RAND, of Hantsport, Nova Scotia, who lent me a manuscript collection of eighty-five Micmac tales, andcommunicated to me, with zealous kindness, much information by letter;and MRS. W. WALLACE BROWN, of Calais, Maine. It was through this ladythat I derived a great proportion of the most curious folk-lore of thePassamaquoddies, especially such parts as coincided with the Edda. Withthese I would include MR. E. JACK, of Fredericton, New Brunswick. Whenit is remembered that there are only forty-two of the Hiawatha Legendsof Schoolcraft, out of which five books have been made by otherauthors, and that I have collected more than two hundred, it will beseen how these friends must have worked to aid me. 

AUTHORITIES. 

The authorities consulted in writing this work were as follows:--

PERSONS. 

Tomah Josephs, Passamaquoddy, Indian Governor at Peter Dana's Point, Maine. 

The Rev. Silas T. Rand, Baptist Missionary among the Micmac Indians atHantsport, Nova Scotia. This gentleman lent me his manuscriptcollection of eighty-five stories, all taken down from verbal Indiannarration. He also communicated much information in letters, etc. 

John Gabriel, and his son Peter J. Gabriel, Passamaquoddy Indians, ofPoint Pleasant, Maine. 

Noel Josephs, of Peter Dana's Point, alias _Che gach goch_, theRaven. 

Joseph Tomah, Passamaquoddy, of Point Pleasant. 

Louis Mitchell, Indian member of the Legislature of Maine. To thisgentleman I am greatly indebted for manuscripts, letters, and oralnarrations of great value. 

Sapiel Selmo, keeper of the Wampum Record, formerly read every fouryears, at the kindling of the great fire at Canawagha. 

Marie Saksis, of Oldtown, a capital and very accurate narrator of manytraditions. 

Miss Abby Alger, of Boston, by whom I was greatly aided in collectingthe Passamaquoddy stories, and who obtained several for me among theSt. Francis or Abenaki Indians. 

Edward Jack, of Fredericton, for several Micmac legends and manyletters containing folk-lore, all taken down by him directly fromIndians. 

Mrs. W. Wallace Brown. Mr. Brown was agent in charge of thePassamaquoddies in Maine. To this lady, who has a great influence overthe Indians, and is much interested in their folk-lore and legends, Iam indebted for a large collection of very interesting material of themost varied description. 

Noel Neptune, Penobscot, Oldtown, Maine. 

BOOKS, MANUSCRIPTS, ETC. 

_The Story of Glooskap. _ A curious manuscript in Indian-English, obtained for me by Tomah Josephs. 

_The Dominion Monthly_ for 1871. Containing nine Micmac legends byRev. S. T. Rand. 

_Indian Legends. _ (Manuscript of 900 pp. Folio. ) Collected amongthe Micmac Indians, and translated by Silas T. Rand, Missionary to theMicmacs. 

_A Manuscript Collection of Passamaquoddy Legends and Folk-Lore. _By Mrs. W. Wallace Brown, of Calais, Maine. These are all given withthe greatest accuracy as narrated by Indians, some in brokenIndian-English. They embrace a very great variety of folk-lore. 

_Manuscript Fairy Tales in Indian and English. _ By Louis Mitchell. 

_Manuscript: The Superstitions of the Passamaquoddies. _ In Indianand English. 

_A History of the Passamaquoddy Indians. _ Manuscript of 80 pages, Indian and English. All of these were written for me by L. Mitchell, M. L. 

_Wampum Records. _ Read for me by Sapiel Selmo, the only livingIndian who has the key to them. 

David Cusick's _Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations. _Lockport, N. Y. , 1848. Printed, but written in Indian-English. 

_Manuscript: Six Stories of the St. Francis or Abenaki Indians. _Taken down by Miss Abby Alger. 

Osgood's _Maritime Provinces. _ In this work there are seven shortextracts relative to Glooskap given without reference to any book orauthor. 

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

GLOOSKAP, THE DIVINITY. 

Of Glooskap's Birth, and of his Brother Malsum, the Wolf

How Glooskap made the Elves and Fairies, and then Man of an Ash-Tree, and last of all the Beasts, and of his Coming at the Last Day

Of the Great Deeds which Glooskap did for Men; how he named theAnimals, and who they were that formed his Family

How Win-pe, the Sorcerer, having stolen Glooskap's Family, was by himpursued. How Glooskap for a Merry Jest cheated the Whale. Of the Songof the Clams, and how the Whale smoked a Pipe

Of the Dreadful Deeds of the Evil Pitcher, who was both Man and Woman;how she fell in Love with Glooskap, and, being scorned, became hisEnemy. Of the Toads and Porcupines, and the Awful Battle of the Giants

How the Story of Glooskap and Pook-jin-skwess, the Evil Pitcher, istold by the Passamaquoddy Indians

How Glooskap became friendly to the Loons, and made them his Messengers

How Glooskap made his Uncle Mikchich, the Turtle, into a Great Man, andgot him a Wife. Of the Turtles' Eggs, and how Glooskap vanquished aSorcerer by smoking Tobacco

How Glooskap sailed through the Great Cavern of Darkness

Of the Great Works which Glooskap made in the Land

The Story of Glooskap as told in a few Words by a Woman of thePenobscots

How Glooskap, leaving the World, all the Animals mourned for him, andhow, ere he departed, he gave Gifts to Men

How Glooskap had a Great Frolic with Kitpooseagunow, a Mighty Giant whocaught a Whale

How Glooskap made a Magician of a Young Man, who aided another to win aWife and do Wonderful Deeds

How a certain Wicked Witch sought to cajole the Great and GoodGlooskap, and of her Punishment

Of other Men who went to Glooskap for Gifts

Of Glooskap and the three other Seekers

Of Glooskap and the Sinful Serpent

The Tale of Glooskap as told by another Indian, showing how the Toadand Porcupine lost their Noses

How Glooskap changed Certain Saucy Indians into Rattlesnakes

How Glooskap bound Wuchowsen, the Great Wind-Bird, and made all theWaters in the World stagnant

How Glooskap conquered the Great Bull-Frog, and in what Manner all thePollywogs, Crabs, Leeches, and other Water Creatures were created

How the Lord of Men and Beasts strove with the Mighty Wasis, and wasshamefully defeated

How the Great Glooskap fought the Giant Sorcerers at Saco, and turnedthem into Fish

How Glooskap went to England and France, and was the first to makeAmerica known to the Europeans

How Glooskap is making Arrows, and preparing for a Great Battle. TheTwilight of the Indian Gods

How Glooskap found the Summer

THE MERRY TAXES OF LOX, THE MISCHIEF-MAKER. 

The Surprising and Singular Adventures of two Water Fairies who werealso Weasels, and how they each became the Bride of a Star. Includingthe Mysterious and Wonderful Works of Lox, the Great Indian Devil, whorose from the Dead

Of the Wolverine and the Wolves, or how Master Lox froze to Death

How Master Lox played a Trick on Mrs. Bear, who lost her Eyesight andhad her Eyes opened

How Lox came to Grief by trying to catch a Salmon

How Master Lox, as a Raccoon, killed the Bear and the Black Cats, andperformed other Notable Feats of Skill, all to his Great Discredit

How Lox deceived the Ducks, cheated the Chief, and beguiled the Bear

The Mischief-Maker. A Tradition of the Origin of the Mythology of theSenecas. A Lox Legend

How Lox told a Lie

THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF MASTER RABBIT. 

How Master Rabbit sought to rival Kecoony, the Otter

How Mahtigwess, the Rabbit, dined with the Woodpecker Girls, and wasagain humbled by trying to rival them

Of the Adventure with Mooin, the Bear; it being the Third and Last Timethat Master Rabbit made a Fool of himself

Relating how the Rabbit became Wise by being Original, and of theTerrible Tricks which he by Magic played Loup-Cervier, the WickedWild-Cat

How Master Rabbit went to a Wedding and won the Bride

How Master Rabbit gave himself Airs

The Young Man who was saved by a Rabbit and a Fox

THE CHENOO LEGENDS. 

The Chenoo, or the Story of a Cannibal with an Icy Heart

The Story of the Great Chenoo, as told by the Passamaquoddies

The Girl-Chenoo

THUNDER STORIES. 

Of the Girl who married Mount Katahdin, and how all the Indians broughtabout their own Ruin

How a Hunter visited the Thunder Spirits who dwell on Mount Katahdin

The Thunder and Lightning Men

Of the Woman who married the Thunder, and of their Boy

AT-O-SIS, THE SERPENT. 

How Two Girls were changed to Water-Snakes, and of Two others thatbecame Mermaids

Ne Hwas, the Mermaid

Of the Woman who loved a Serpent that lived in a Lake

The Mother of Serpents

Origin of the Black Snakes

THE PARTRIDGE. 

The Adventures of the Great Hero Pulowech, or the Partridge

The Story of a Partridge and his Wonderful Wigwam

How the Partridge built Good Canoes for all the Birds, and a Bad Onefor Himself

The Mournful Mystery of the Partridge-Witch; setting forth how a YoungMan died from Love

How one of the Partridge's Wives became a Sheldrake Duck, and why herFeet and Feathers are red

THE INVISIBLE ONE

STORY OF THE THREE STRONG MEN

THE WEEWILLMEKQ'

How a Woman lost a Gun for Fear of the Weewillmekq'

Muggahmaht'adem, the Dance of Old Age, or the Magic of the Weewillmekq'

Another Version of the Dance of Old Age

TALES OF MAGIC. 

M'teoulin, or Indian Magic

Story of the Beaver Trapper

How a Youth became a Magician

Of Old Joe, the M'teoulin

Of Governor Francis

How a Chiefs Son taught his Friend Sorcery

Tumilkoontaoo, or the Broken Wing

Fish-Hawk and Scapegrace

The Giant Magicians

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

MIK UM WESS, THE INDIAN PUCK, OR ROBIN GOOD-FELLOW

GLOOSKAP KILLING HIS BROTHER, THE WOLF

GLOOSKAP LOOKING AT THE WHALE SMOKING HIS PIPE

GLOOSKAP SETTING HIS DOGS ON THE WITCHES

THE MUD-TURTLE JUMPING OVER THE WIGWAM OF HIS FATHER-IN-LAW

GLOOSKAP AND KEANKE SPEARING THE WHALE

GLOOSKAP TURNING A MAN INTO A CEDAR-TREE

LOX CARRIED OFF BY CULLOO

THE INDIAN BOY AND THE MUSK-RAT. SEEPS, THE DUCK

THE RABBIT MAGICIAN

THE CHENOO AND THE LIZARD

THE WOMAN AND THE SERPENT

INTRODUCTION

Among the six chief divisions of the red Indians of North America themost widely extended is the Algonquin. This people ranged from Labradorto the far South, from Newfoundland to the Rocky Mountains, speakingforty dialects, as the Hon. J. H. Trumbull has shown in his valuablework on the subject. Belonging to this division are the Micmacs of NewBrunswick and the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes of Maine, who withthe St. Francis Indians of Canada and some smaller clans callthemselves the Wabanaki, a word derived from a root signifying white orlight, intimating that they live nearest to the rising sun or the east. In fact, the French-speaking St. Francis family, who are known _pareminence_ as "the Abenaki, " translate the term by _point dujour_. 

The Wabanaki have in common the traditions of a grand mythology, thecentral figure of which is a demigod or hero, who, while he is alwaysgreat, consistent, and benevolent, and never devoid of dignity, presents traits which are very much more like those of Odin and Thor, with not a little of Pantagruel, than anything in the characters of theChippewa Manobozho, or the Iroquois Hiawatha. The name of this divinityis Glooskap, meaning, strangely enough, the Liar, because it is saidthat when he left earth, like King Arthur, for Fairyland, he promisedto return, and has never done so. It is characteristic of the Norsegods that while they are grand they are manly, and combine with this apeculiarly domestic humanity. Glooskap is the Norse god intensified. Heis, however, more of a giant; he grows to a more appalling greatnessthan Thor or Odin in his battles; when a _Kiawaqu'_, or Jotun, rises to the clouds to oppose him, Glooskap's head touches the stars, and scorning to slay so mean a foe like an equal, he kills himcontemptuously with a light tap of his bow. But in the family circle heis the most benevolent of gentle heroes, and has his oft-repeatedlittle standard jokes. Yet he never, like the Manobozho-Hiawatha of theChippewas, becomes silly, cruel, or fantastic. He has his roaring revelwith a brother giant, even as Thor went fishing in fierce fun with thefrost god, but he is never low or feeble. 

Around Glooskap, who is by far the grandest and most Aryan-likecharacter ever evolved from a savage mind, and who is more congenial toa reader of Shakespeare and Rabelais than any deity ever imagined outof Europe, there are found strange giants: some literal Jotuns of stoneand ice, sorcerers who become giants like Glooskap, at will; theterrible Chenoo, a human being with an icy-stone heart, who has sunk toa cannibal and ghoul; all the weird monsters and horrors of the Eskimomythology, witches and demons, inherited from the terribly blacksorcery which preceded Shamanism, and compared to which the latter waslike an advanced religion, and all the minor mythology of dwarfs andfairies. The Indian _m'teoulin_, or magician, distinctly taughtthat every created thing, animate or inanimate, had its indwellingspirit. Whatever had an _idea_ had a soul. Therefore the Wabanakimythology is strangely like that of the Rosicrucians. But it createdspirits for the terrible Arctic winters of the north, for the icebergsand frozen wastes, for the Northern Lights and polar bears. It made, inshort, a mythology such as would be perfectly congenial to any one whohas read and understood the Edda, Beowulf, and the Kalevala, with thewildest and oldest Norse sagas. But it is, as regards spirit andmeaning, utterly and entirely unlike anything else that is American. Itis not like the Mexican pantheon; it has not the same sounds, colors, or feelings; and though many of its incidents or tales are the same asthose of the Chippewas, or other tribes, we still feel that there is anincredible difference in the spirit. Its ways are not as their ways. This Wabanaki mythology, which was that which gave a fairy, an elf, anaiad, or a hero to every rock and river and ancient hill in NewEngland, is just the one of all others which is least known to the NewEnglanders. When the last Indian shall be in his grave, those who comeafter us will ask in wonder why we had no curiosity as to the romanceof our country, and so much as to that of every other land on earth. 

Much is allowed to poets and painters, and no fault was found with Mr. Longfellow for attributing to the Iroquois Hiawatha the choice exploitsof the Chippewa demi-devil Manobozho. It was "all Indian" to themultitude, and one name answered as well in poetry as another, at atime when there was very little attention paid to ethnology. So that agood poem resulted, it was of little consequence that the plot was a_melange_ of very different characters, and characteristics. Andwhen, in connection with this, Mr. Longfellow spoke of the Chippewatales as forming an Indian Edda, the term was doubtless in a poetic andvery general sense permissible. But its want of literal truth seems tohave deeply impressed the not generally over particular or accurateSchoolcraft, since his first remarks in the Introduction to theHiawatha Legends are as follows:--

"Where analogies are so general, there is a constant liability tomistakes. Of these foreign analogies of myth-lore, the least tangible, it is believed, is that which has been suggested with the Scandinavianmythology. That mythology is of so marked and peculiar a character thatit has not been distinctly traced out of the great circle of tribes ofthe Indo-Germanic family. Odin and his terrific pantheon of war godsand social deities could only exist in the dreary latitudes of stormsand fire which produce a Hecla and a Maelstrom. These latitudes haveinvariably produced nations whose influence has been felt in anelevating power over the world. From such a source the Indian couldhave derived none of him vague symbolisms and mental idiosyncrasieswhich have left him as he is found to-day, without a government andwithout a god. "

This is all perfectly true of the myths of Hiawat'ha-Manobozho. Nothingon earth could be more unlike the Norse legends than the "Indian Edda"of the Chippewas and Ottawas. But it was not known to this writer thatthere already existed in Northeastern America a stupendous mythology, derived from a land of storms and fire more terrible and wonderful thanIceland; nay, so terrible that Icelanders themselves were appalled byit. "This country, " says the Abbe Morillot, "is the one most suggestiveof superstition. Everything there, sea, earth, or heaven, is strange. "The wild cries which rise from the depths of the caverned ice-hills, and are reechoed by the rocks, icebergs, or waves, were dreadful toEgbert Olafson in the seventeenth century. The interior is a desertwithout parallel for desolation. A frozen Sahara seen by Northernlightning and midnight suns is but a suggestion of this land. The soberMoravian missionary Crantz once only in his life rose to poetry, whenmore than a century ago he spoke of its scenery. Here then was thelatitude of storm and fire required by Schoolcraft to produce somethingwilder and grander than he had ever found among Indians. And hereindeed there existed all the time a cycle of mythological legends orpoems such as he declared Indians incapable of producing. But strangestof all, this American mythology of the North, which has been the verylast to become known to American readers, is literally so nearly likethe Edda itself that as this work fully proves, there is hardly a songin the Norse collection which does not contain an incident found in theIndian poem-legends, while in several there are many such coincidences. Thus, in the Edda we are told that the first birth on earth was that ofa giant girl and boy, begotten by the feet of a giant and born from hisarmpit. In the Wabanaki legends, the first birth was of Glooskap, theGood principle, and Malsum the Wolf, or Evil principle. The Wolf wasborn from his mother's armpit. He is sometimes male and sometimesfemale. His feet are male and female, and converse. We pass on onlytwelve lines in the Edda (Vafthrudnismal, 36) to be told that the windis caused by a giant in eagle's plumage, who sits on a rock far in thenorth "at the end of heaven. " This is simply and literally the_Wochowsen_ or Windblower of the Wabanaki word for word, --not the"Thunder-Bird" of the Western Indians. The second birth on earth, according to the Edda, was that of man. Odin found Ash and Elm "nearlypowerless, " and gave them sense. This was the first man and woman. According to the Indians of Maine, Glooskap made the first men from the_ash_-tree. They lived or were in it, "devoid of sense" till hegave it to them. It is to be observed that primevally among the Norsethe _ash_ alone stood for man. So it goes on through the wholeEdda, of which all the main incidents are to be found among the sagasof the Wabanaki. The most striking of these are the coincidencesbetween _Lox_ (lynx, wolf, wolverine, badger, or raccoon, andsometimes man) and Loki. It is very remarkable indeed that the only tworeligions in the world which possess a devil in whom _mischief_predominates should also give to each the same adventures, if both didnot come from the same source. In the Hymiskvida of the Edda, twogiants go to fish for whales, and then have a contest which is actuallyone of heat against cold. This is so like a Micmac legend in everydetail that about twenty lines are word for word the same in the Norseand Indian. The Micmac giants end their whale fishing by trying tofreeze one another to death. 

It is to the Rev. Silas T. Rand that the credit belongs of havingdiscovered Glooskap, and of having first published in the DominionMonthly several of these Northern legends. After I had collected nearlya hundred among the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Indians, thisgentleman, with unexampled kindness, lent me a manuscript of eighty-fourMicmac tales, making in all nine hundred folio pages. Many weresimilar to others in my collection, but I have never yet received aduplicate which did not contain something essential to the whole. Though the old Indians all declare that most of their lore hasperished, especially the more recondite mythic poems, I am confidentthat much more remains to be gathered than I have given in this work. As it is, I have omitted many tales simply because they were evidentlyCanadian French stories. Yet all of these, without exception, are halfIndian, and it may be old Norse modified; for a French story issometimes the same with one in the Eddas. Again, for want of room Ihave not given any Indian tales or chronicles of the wars with theMohawks. Of these I have enough to make a very curious volume. 

These legends belong to all New England. Many of them exist as yetamong the scattered fragments of Indian tribes here and there. ThePenobscots of Oldtown, Maine, still possess many. In fact, there is notan old Indian, male or female, in New England or Canada who does notretain stories and songs of the greatest interest. I sincerely trustthat this work may have the effect of stimulating collection. Let everyreader remember that everything thus taken down, and deposited in alocal historical society, or sent to the Ethnological Bureau atWashington, will forever transmit the name of its recorder toposterity. Archaeology is as yet in its very beginning; when theIndians shall have departed it will grow to giant-like proportions, andevery scrap of information relative to them will be eagerlyinvestigated. And the man does not live who knows what may be made ofit all. I need not say that I should be grateful for such Indian loreof any kind whatever which may be transmitted to me. 

It may very naturally be asked by many how it came to pass that theIndians of Maine and of the farther north have so much of the Edda intheir sagas; or, if it was derived through the Eskimo tribes, how thesegot it from Norsemen, who were professedly Christians. I do not thinkthat the time has come for fully answering the first question. There issome great mystery of mythology, as yet unsolved, regarding the originof the Edda and its relations with the faiths and folk-lore of theelder Shamanic beliefs, such as Lapp, Finn, Samoyed, Eskimo, andTartar. This was the world's first religion; it is found in theso-called Accadian Turanian beginning of Babylon, whence it possiblycame from the West. But what we have here to consider is whether theNorsemen did directly influence the Eskimo and Indians. Let us firstconsider that these latter were passionately fond of stories, and thatthey had attained to a very high standard of culture as regards bothappreciation and invention. They were as fond of recitations as anywhite man is of reading. Their memories were in this respect veryremarkable indeed. They have taken into their repertory during the pasttwo hundred years many French fairy tales, through the Canadians. Is itnot likely that they listened to the Northmen?

It is not generally noted among our learned men how long the Icelandersremained in Greenland, how many stories are still told of them by theEskimo, or to what extent the Indians continue to mingle with thelatter. During the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, saysthe Abbe Morillot, "there were in Greenland, after Archbishop Adalbert, more than twenty bishops, and in the colony were many churches andmonasteries. In the Oestrbugd, one of the two inhabited portions of thevast island, were one hundred and ninety villages, with twelvechurches. In Julianshaab, one may to-day see the ruins of eightchurches and of many monasteries. " In the fifteenth century all thesebuildings were in ruins, and the colony was exterminated by thepestilence or the natives. But among the latter there remained manytraditions of the Scandinavians associated with the ruins. Such is thestory of Oren'gortok, given by the Abbe Morillot, and several are to befound in Rink's Legends. When we learn that the Norsemen, during theirthree centuries of occupation of Greenland, brought away many of themarvelous tales of the Eskimo, it is not credible that they left noneof their own. Thus we are told in the Floamanna Saga how a hero, abandoned on the icy coast of Greenland, met with two giant witches(Troldkoner), and cut the band from one of them. An old Icelandic work, called the Konungs Skuggsjo (Danish, Kongespeilet), has much to say ofthe marvels of Greenland and its monsters of the sea. On the otherhand, Morillot declares that the belief in ghosts was brought toGreenland by the Icelanders and Scandinavians. The sagas have not beenas yet much studied with a view to establishing how much socialintercourse there was between the natives and the colonists, but commonexperience would teach that during three centuries it must have beensomething. 

There has always been intercourse between Greenland and Labrador, andin this latter country we find the first Algonquin Indians. Even at thepresent day there are men among the Micmacs and Passamaquoddies whohave gone on their hunting excursions even to the Eskimo. I myself knowone of the latter who has done so, and the Rev. S. T. Rand, in answerto a question on the subject, writes to me as follows:--

"Nancy Jeddore, a Micmac woman, assures me that her father, now dead, used to go as far as the wild (heathen) Eskimo, and remained once forthree years among the more civilized. She has so correctly describedtheir habits that I am satisfied that her statements are correct. "[Footnote: The word _Eskimo_ is Algonquin, meaning to eat rawfish, _Eskumoga_ in Micmac, and people who eat raw flesh, or_Eskimook_, that is, _eski_, raw, and _moo-uk_, people. This word recalls _in-noo-uk_, people, and spirits, in Eskimo, _Innue_, which has the same double meaning. This was all suggestedto me by an Indian. ]

These Eskimo brought from the Old World that primeval gloomy Shamanreligion, or sorcery, such as is practiced yet by Laplanders andTartars, such as formed the basis of the old Accadian Babyloniancultus, and such as is now in vogue among all our own red Indians. Ibelieve that it was from the Eskimo that this American Shamanism allcame. In Greenland this faith assumed its strangest form; it made foritself a new mythology. The Indians, their neighbors, borrowed fromthis, but also added new elements of an only _semi_-Arcticcharacter. Thus there is a series of steps, but every one different, from the Eskimo to the Wabanaki, of Labrador, New Brunswick, and Maine, from the Wabanaki to the Iroquois, and from the Iroquois to the morewestern Indians. And while they all have incidents in common, thecharacter of each is radically different. 

It may be specially noted that while there is hardly an important pointin the Edda which may not be found, as I have just shown, in Wabanakilegends, there is very little else in the latter which is in commonwith such Old World mythology as might have come to the Indians sincethe discovery by Columbus. Excluding French Canadian fairy tales, whatwe have left is chiefly Eskimo and Eddaic, and the proportion of thelatter is simply surprising. There are actually more incidents takenfrom the Edda than there are from lower sources. I can only account forthis by the fact that, as the Indians tell me, all these tales wereonce _poems_, handed down from generation to generation, andalways sung. Once they were religious. Now they are in a conditionanalogous to that of the German Heldenbuch. They have been cast into anew form, but they are not as yet quite degraded to the nursery tale. 

It may be objected that if the Norsemen in Greenland were Christians itis most unlikely that they would have taught the legends of the Edda tothe heathen; to which I reply that some scholar a few centuries hencemay declare it was a most improbable thing that Christian RomanCatholic Indians should have taught me the tales of Glooskap and Lox. But the truth is, we really know very little as to how soon wanderingVikings went to America, or how many were here. 

I would say in conclusion that, while these legends of the Wabanaki arefragmentary and incomplete, they still read like the fragments of abook whose subject was once broadly and coherently treated by a man ofgenius. They are handled in the same bold and artistic manner as theNorse. There is nothing like them in any other North American Indianrecords. They are, especially those which are from the Passamaquoddyand Penobscot, inspired with a genial cosmopolite humor. While Glooskapis always a gentleman, Lox ranges from Punch to Satan; passing throughthe stages of an Indian Mephistopheles and the Norse Loki, who appearsto have been his true progenitor. But neither is quite like anything tobe found among really savage races. When it is borne in mind that themost ancient and mythic of these legends have been taken down from thetrembling memories of old squaws who never understood their innermeaning, or from ordinary _senaps_ who had not thought of themsince boyhood, it will be seen that the preservation of a mass of prosepoems, equal in bulk to the Kalevala or Heldenbuch, is indeed almostmiraculous. 

THE ALGONQUIN LEGENDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

GLOOSKAP THE DIVINITY. 

_Of Glooskap's Birth, and of his Brother Malsum the Wolf. _

Now the great lord Glooskap, who was worshiped in after-days by all theWabanaki, or children of light, was a twin with a brother. As he wasgood, this brother, whose name was Malsumsis, or Wolf the younger, wasbad. Before they were born, the babes consulted to consider how theyhad best enter the world. And Glooskap said, "I will be born as othersare. " But the evil Malsumsis thought himself too great to be broughtforth in such a manner, and declared that he would burst through hismother's side. [Footnote: The reader of Rabelais cannot fail to recallhere the remarks of the author as to the extraordinary manner in whichit pleased the giant Gargantua to come into the world. The Armeniansbelieve that Christ was born through the right side of the Virgin. TheBuddhists say the same of Buddha's birth. (Heth and Moab, London, 1883. ) Another and as I believe the correct account declares thatMalsum the Wolf was born from his mother's armpit. ] And as they plannedit so it came to pass. Glooskap as first came quietly to light, whileMalsumsis kept his word, killing his mother. 

The two grew up together, and one day the younger, who knew that bothhad charmed lives, asked the elder what would kill him, Glooskap. Noweach had his own secret as to this, and Glooskap, remembering howwantonly Malsumsis had slain their mother, thought it would bemisplaced confidence to trust his life to one so fond of death, whileit might prove to be well to know the bane of the other. So they agreedto exchange secrets, and Glooskap, to test his brother, told him thatthe only way in which he himself could be slain was by the stroke of anowl's feather, [Footnote: There are different readings of thisincident. In Mr. Band's manuscript the alleged means of Glooskap'sdeath is described as being a cat-tail flag (_haw-kwee-usqu'_, Passamaquoddy), while a handful of bird's down is the bane of Malsumthe Wolf. The termination _sis_ is a diminutive, here meaning theyounger. ] though this was not true. And Malsumsis said, "I can only dieby a blow from a fern-root. "

It came to pass in after-days that Kwah-beet-a-sis, the son of theGreat Beaver, or, as others say, Miko the Squirrel, or else the evilwhich was in himself, tempted Malsumsis to kill Glooskap; for in thosedays all men were wicked. So taking his bow he shot Ko-ko-khas the Owl, and with one of his feathers he struck Glooskap while sleeping. Then heawoke in anger, yet craftily said that it was not by an owl's feather, but by a blow from a pine-root, that his life would end. 

[Illustration: Glooskap killing his brother the wolf]

Then the false man led his brother another day far into the forest tohunt, and, while he again slept, smote him on the head with a pine-root. But Glooskap arose unharmed, drove Malsumsis away into the woods, sat down by the brook-side, and thinking aver all that had happened, said, "Nothing but a flowering rush can kill me. " But the Beaver, whowas hidden among the reeds, heard this, and hastening to Malsumsis toldhim the secret of his brother's life. For this Malsumsis promised tobestow on Beaver whatever he should ask; but when the latter wished forwings like a pigeon, the warrior laughed, and scornfully said, "Getthee hence; thou with a tail like a file, what need hast thou ofwings?"

Then the Beaver was angry, and went forth to the camp of Glooskap, towhom he told what he had done. Therefore Glooskap arose in sorrow andin anger, took a fern-root, sought Malsumsis in the deep, dark forest, and smote him so that he fell down dead. And Glooskap sang a song overhim and lamented. 

The Beaver and the Owl and the Squirrel, for what they did and as theydid it, all come again into these stories; but Malsumsis, being dead, was turned into the Shick-shoe mountains in the Gaspe peninsula. 

For this chapter and parts of others I am indebted to the narrative ofa Micmac Indian, taken down by Mr. Edward Jock; also to another versionin the Rand MS. The story is, in the main-points, similar to that givenby David Cusick in his History of the Six Nations, of Enigorio the GoodMind, and Enigonhahetgea, Bad Mind, to which I shall refer anon. 

It is very evident that in this tradition Glooskap represents the Goodprinciple, and Malsumsis, the little wolf, --that is the Wolf who is theYounger, rather than little or small, --the Evil one. Malsum typifiesdestruction and sin in several of these tales. He will arise at thelast day, when Glooskap is to do battle with all the giants and evilbeasts of olden time, and will be the great destroyer. Malsum is theWolf Fenris of this the true Indian Edda. 

For a further comment on this birth of the twins and its resemblance toa passage in the Edda, the reader is referred to the notes on the nextchapter. 

_How Glooskap made the Elves and Fairies, and then Man of an AshTree, and last of all, Beasts, and of his Coming at the Last Day. _

(Passamaquoddy. )

Glooskap came first of all into this country, into Nova Scotia, Maine, Canada, into the land of the Wabanaki, next to sunrise. There were noIndians here then (only wild Indians very far to the west). 

First born were the Mikumwess, the Oonabgemessuk, the small Elves, little men, dwellers in rocks. 

And in this way he made Man: He took his bow and arrows and shot attrees, the basket-trees, the Ash. Then Indians came out of the bark ofthe Ash-trees. And then the Mikumwees said . .. Called tree-man. .. . [Footnote: The relater, an old woman, was quite unintelligible at thispoint. ]

Glooskap made all the animals. He made them at first very large. Thenhe said to Moose, the great Moose who was as tall as Ketawkqu's, [Footnote: A giant, high as the tallest pines, or as the clouds. ] "Whatwould you do should you see an Indian coming?" Moose replied, "I wouldtear down the trees on him. " Then Glooskap saw that the Moose was toostrong, and made him smaller, so that Indians could kill him. 

Then he said to the Squirrel, who was of the size of a Wolf, "Whatwould you do if you should meet an Indian?" And the Squirrel answered, "I would scratch down trees on him. " Then Glooskap said, "You also aretoo strong, " and he made him little. [Footnote: Another account statesthat Glooskap took the Squirrel in his hands and smoothed him down. ]

Then he asked the great White Bear what he would do if he met anIndian; and the Bear said, "Eat him. " And the Master bade him go andlive among rocks and ice, where he would see no Indians. 

So he questioned all the beasts, changing their size or allotting theirlives according to their answers. 

He took the Loon for his dog; but the Loon absented himself so muchthat he chose for this service two wolves, --one black and one white, [Footnote: Dogs are used for beasts of burden, to draw sledges, in theNorth. ] But the Loons are always his tale-bearers. Many years ago a manvery far to the North wished to cross a bay, a great distance, from onepoint to another. As he was stepping into his canoe he saw a man withtwo dogs, --one black and one white, --who asked to be set across. TheIndian said, "You may go, but what will become of your dogs?" Then thestranger replied, "Let them go round by land. " "Nay, " replied theIndian, "that is much too far. " But the stranger saying nothing, he puthim across. And as they reached the landing place there stood the dogs. But when he turned his head to address the man, he was gone. So he saidto himself, "I have seen Glooskap. "

Yet again, --but this was not so many years ago, --far in the North therewere at a certain place many Indians assembled. And there was afrightful commotion, caused by the ground heaving and rumbling; therocks shook and fell, they were greatly alarmed, and lo! Glooskap stoodbefore them, and said, "I go away now, but I shall return again; whenyou feel the ground tremble, then know it is I. " So they will know whenthe last great war is to be, for then Glooskap will make the groundshake with an awful noise. 

Glooskap was no friend of the Beavers; he slew many of them. Up on theTobaic are two salt-water rocks (that is, rocks by the ocean-side, neara freshwater stream). The Great Beaver, standing there one day, wasseen by Glooskap miles away, who had forbidden him that place. Thenpicking up a large rock where he stood by the shore, he threw it allthat distance at the Beaver, who indeed dodged it; but when anothercame, the beast ran into a mountain, and has never come forth to thisday. But the rocks which the master threw are yet to be seen. 

This very interesting tradition was taken down by Mrs. W. Wallace Brownfrom a very old Passamaquoddy Indian woman named Molly Sepsis, whocould not speak a word of English, with the aid of another youngerwoman named Sarah. 

It will be observed that it is said in the beginning that Glooskapproduced the first human beings from, the ash-tree. Ash and Elm in theEdda were the Adam and Eve of the human race. There were no intelligentmen on earth--

 "Until there came three mighty and benevolent Aesir to the world from their assembly nearly powerless, Ash and Embla (Ash and Elm), void of destiny. 

 "Spirit they possessed not, sense they had not, blood nor motive powers, nor goodly color. Spirit gave Odin, sense gave Hoenir, blood gave Lodur, and good color. "[Footnote: _The Edda of Saemund_, translated by Benjamin Thorpe. London: Trubner & Co. 1866. Voluspa, v. 17, 18. ]

It is certain, however, that the _ash_ was the typic tree of alllife, since the next verse of the Voluspa is devoted to Yggdrasil, thetree of existence, or of the world itself. It may be observed that inthe Finnish poem of Kalevala it is by the destruction of the great oakthat Wainamoien, aided by the hero of the sea, causes all things togrow. The early clearing away of trees, as a first step towardsculture, may be symbolized in the shooting of arrows at the ash. 

The wolf, as a beast for the deity to ride, is strongly Eddaic. 

 "Magic songs they sung, rode on wolves, the god (Odin) and gods. "[Footnote: _Rognnir og regin. _ Odin and the Powers. Note by B. Thorpe to the _Hrafnagalar Odins_, in Edda, p. 30. ]

We have here within a few lines, accordingly, the elm as the parent ofmankind, and wolves as the beasts of transport for the supreme deity, both in the Indian legend and in the Edda. 

As Glooskap is directly declared in one tradition to keep by him as anattendant a being who is the course of the sun and of the seasons, itmay be assumed that the black and white wolf represent day and night. 

Again, great stress is laid in the Glooskap legend upon the fact thatthe last great day of battle with Malsum the Wolf and the frost-giants, stone-giants, and other powers of evil, shall be announced by anearthquake. 

 "Trembles Yggdrasil's Ash yet standing, groans that aged tree. .. . And the Wolf runs. .. . The monster's kin goes all with the Wolf. .. . The stony hills are dashed together, The giantesses totter. Then arises Hlin's second grief When Odin goes with the wolf to fight. "

Word for word, ash-tree, giantesses, the supreme god fighting with awolf, and falling hills, are given in the Indian myth. This is not theChristian Day of Judgment, but the Norse. 

In this myth Glooskap has two wolves, one black and the other white. This is an indication of day and night, since he is distinctly statedto have as an attendant Kulpejotei, who typifies the course of theseasons. In the Eddas (Ragnarok) we are told that one wolf now followsthe sun, another the moon; one Fenris, the other Moongarm:--

 "The moon's devourer In a troll's disguise. "

The magic arrows of Glooskap are of course worldwide, and date from theshafts of Abaris and those used among the ancient Jews for divination. But it may be observed that those of the Indian hero are like the "Gusearrows, " described in Oervarodd's Saga, which always hit their mark andreturn to the one who shoots them. [Footnote: _The PrimitiveInhabitants of Scandinavia. _ By Svent Nilsson. Edited by Sir JohnLubbock, 1868. ]

It is important here to compare this _old_ Algonquin account ofthe Creation with that of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, as given byDavid Cusick, himself an Indian:--

"There was a woman who was with child, with twins. She descended fromthe higher world, and was received on the turtle. While she was in thedistress of travail, one of the infants in her womb was moved by anevil desire, and determined to pass out under the side of the parent'sarm, and the other infant endeavored in vain to prevent his design. They entered the dark world by compulsion, and their mother expired ina few minutes. One of them possessed a gentle disposition, and wasnamed Enigorio, the Good Mind. The other possessed an insolence ofcharacter, and was called Enigonhahetgea; that is, the Bad Mind. TheGood Mind was not content to remain in a dark situation, and wasdesirous to create a great light in the dark world; but the Bad Mindwas desirous that the world should remain in its original state. TheGood Mind, determined to prosecute his design, began the work ofcreation. Of his mother's head he made the sun, of her body the moon. After he had made creeks and rivers, animals and fishes, he formed twoimages of the dust of the ground in his own likeness, male and female, and by his breathing into their nostrils he gave them living souls, andnamed them _ea gwe howe_, that is a real people; and he gave theGreat Island all the animals--of game for the inheritance of thepeople. .. . The Bad Mind, while his brother was making the universe, went through the island, and made numerous high mountains and falls ofwater and great steeps, and also created reptiles which would beinjurious to mankind; but the Good Mind restored the island to itsformer condition. The Bad Mind made two images of clay in the form ofmankind, but while he was giving them existence they became_apes_. The Good Mind discovered his brother's contrivances, andaided in giving them living souls. 

Finding that his brother continually thwarted him, the Good Mindadmonished him to behave better. The Bad Mind then offered a challengeto his brother, on condition that the victor should rule the universe. The Good Mind was willing. He falsely mentioned that whipping withflags [bulrushes] would destroy his _temporal_ life, and earnestlysolicited his brother to observe the instrument of death, saying thatby using deer-horns he would expire. [This is very obscure in Cusick'sIndian-English. ] On the day appointed the battle began; it lasted fortwo days; they tore up the trees and mountains; at last the Good Mindgained the victory by using the horns. The last words uttered by theBad Mind were that he would have equal power over the souls of mankindafter their death, and so sank down to eternal doom and became the EvilSpirit. "

Contrasted with this hardly heathen cosmogony, which shows recent Bibleinfluence throughout, the Algonquin narrative reads like a song fromthe Edda. That the latter is the original and the older there can be nodoubt. Between the "Good Mind, " making man "from the dust of theearth, " and Glooskap, rousing him by magic arrows from the ash-tree, there is a great difference. It may be observed that the fight withhorns is explained in another legend in this book, called the Chenoo, and that these horns are the magic horns of the Chepitch calm, or GreatSerpent, who is somewhat like the dragon. 

In the Algonquin story, two Loons are Glooskap's "tale-bearers, " whichoccasion him great anxiety by their prolonged absences. This isdistinctly stated in the Indian legend, as it is of Odin's birds in theEdda. Odin has, as news-bringers, two ravens. 

 "Hugin and Munin Fly each day over the spacious earth. I fear for Hugin that he comes not back, yet more anxious am I for Munin. "

The Loons, indeed, occasioned Glooskap so much trouble by absences thathe took wolves in their place. The ravens of the Edda are probably ofbiblical origin. But it is a most extraordinary coincidence that theIndians have a corresponding perversion of Scripture, for they say thatGlooskap, when he was in the ark, that is as Noah, sent out a whitedove, which returned to him colored black, and became a raven. This isnot, however, related as part of the myth. 

The Ancient History of the Six Nations, by David Cusick, gives us inone particular a strange coincidence with the Edda. It tells us thatthe Bad Mind, the principle of Evil, forced himself out into life, asCusick expresses it in his broken Indian-English, "under the side ofthe parent's arm;" that is, through the armpit. In the Edda(Vafthrudnismal, 33) we are told of the first beings born on earth thatthey were twins, begotten by the two feet of a giant, and born out ofhis armpit. 

 "Under the armpit grew, 't is said of the Hrimthurs, a girl and boy together; foot with foot begat, of that wise Jotun, a six-headed son. "

There are in these six lines six coincidences with red Indianmythology: (1. ) The Evil principle as a Jotun's first-born in the oneand the Bad Mind in the other are born of the mother's armpit. (2. ) Inone of the tales of Lox, the Indian devil, also a giant, we are toldthat his feet are male and female. (3. ) In both faiths this is thefirst birth on earth. (4. ) The six-headed demon appears in a Micmactale. (5. ) There is in both the Eddaic and the Wabanaki account a veryremarkable coincidence in this: that there is a Titanic or giant birthof twins on earth, followed by the creation of man from the ash-tree. (6. ) The Evil principle, whether it be the Wolf-Lox, in the Wabanakimyths, or Loki in the Norse, often turns himself into a woman. Thus themale and female sex of the first-born twins is identified. 

According to the Edda, the order of births on earth was as follows:--

First, two giants were born from the mother's armpit. 

Secondly, the dwarfs were created. 

Thirdly, man was made from the ash-tree. 

According to the Wabanaki, this was the order:--

First, two giants were born, _one_ from his mother's armpit. 

Secondly, the dwarfs (Mikumwessuk) were created from the bark of theash-tree. 

Thirdly, man was made from the _trunk_ of the ash. 

The account of the creation of the dwarfs is wanting in the presentmanuscript. 

_Of the Great Deeds which Glooskap did for Men; how he named theAnimals, and who they were that formed his Family. _

(Passamaquoddy. )

_Woodenit atbk-hagen Gloosekap_: [Footnote: Passamaquoddy. ] thisis a story of Glooskap. It is told in traditions of the old time thatGlooskap was born in the land of the Wabanaki, which is nearest to thesunrise; but another story says that he came over the sea in a greatstone canoe, and that this canoe was an island of granite covered withtrees. When the great man, of all men and beasts chief ruler, had comedown from this ark, he went among the Wabanaki. [Footnote: This part ofthe legend is from a very singular and I may add almost unintelligiblemanuscript, _Storey about Glooscap_, written in English by aPassamaquoddy Indian. The word _ark_ which occurs in it reminds methat the Indian from whom I obtained it once asked me if I did notthink that Glooskap was the same as Noah. This sentence is as followsin the Indian-English of the original: "Gloosecap hat left from arkcome crosse even wiht wabnocelel. "] And calling all the animals he gavethem each a name: unto the Bear, _mooin_; and asked him what hewould do if he should meet with a man. The Bear said, "I fear him, andI should run. " Now in those days the Squirrel (_mi-ko_) wasgreater than the Bear. Then Glooskap took him in his hands, andsmoothing him down he grew smaller and smaller, till he became as wesee him now. In after-days the Squirrel was Glooskap's dog, and when heso willed, grew large again and slew his enemies, however fierce theymight be. But this time, when asked what he would do should he meetwith a man, Mi-ko replied, "I should run up a tree. "

Then the Moose, being questioned, answered, standing still and lookingdown, "I should run through the woods. " And so it was with Kwah-beetthe Beaver, [Footnote: This is very obscure in the original manuscript. It reads "Herask beaber did do anything just look behager. "] andGlooskap saw that of all created beings the first and greatest was Man. 

Before men were instructed by him, they lived in darkness; it was sodark that they could not even see to slay their enemies. [Footnote:This was read to me by an Indian from a wampum record, now kept atSebayk. I do not think I am mistaken in the phrase. It probably refersto ignorance of warlike weapons. ] Glooskap taught them how to hunt, andto build huts and canoes and weirs for fish. Before he came they knewnot how to make weapons or nets. He the Great Master showed them thehidden virtues of plants, roots, and barks, and pointed out to themsuch vegetables as might be used for food, as well as what kinds ofanimals, birds, and fish were to be eaten. And when this was done hetaught them the names of all the stars. He loved mankind, and whereverhe might be in the wilderness he was never very far from any of theIndians. He dwelt in a lonely land, but whenever they sought him theyfound him. [Footnote: This is from the Rand manuscript. The writerremarks that these expressions were the very words of a Micmac Indiannamed Stephen Flood, "who had no idea that he was using almost theidentical expressions of Holy Writ with reference to God. "] He traveledfar and wide: there is no place in all the land of the Wabanaki wherehe left not his name; hills, rocks and rivers, lakes and islands, bearwitness to him. 

Glooskap was never married, yet as he lived like other men he lived notalone. There dwelt with him an old woman, who kept his lodge; he calledher Noogumee, "my grandmother. " (Micmac. ) With her was a youth namedAbistariaooch, or the Martin. (M. ) And Martin could change himself to ababy or a little boy, a youth or a young man, as befitted the time inwhich he was to act; for all things about Glooskap were very wonderful. This Martin ate always from a small birch-bark dish, called_witch-kwed-lakun-cheech_ (M. ), and when he left this anywhereGlooskap was sure to find it, and could tell from its appearance all thathad befallen his family. And Martin was called by Glooskap Uch-keen (M. ), "my younger brother. " The Lord of men and beasts had a belt which gavehim magical power and endless strength. And when he lent this toMartin, the younger brother could also do great deeds, such as wereonly done in old times. 

Martin lived much with the Mikumwess or Elves, or Fairies, and is saidto have been one of them. 

_How Win-pe the Sorcerer, having stolen Glooskap's Family, was by himpursued, and how, Glooskap for a Merry Jest cheated the Whale. Of theSong of the Clams, and how the Whale smoked a Pipe. _

(Micmac. )

_N'kah-ne-oo_. In old times (P. ), in the beginning of things, menwere as animals and animals as men; how this was, no one knows. But itis told that all were at first men, and as they gave themselves up tothis and that desire, and to naught else, they became beasts. Butbefore this came to pass, they could change to one or the other form;yet even as men there was always something which showed what they were. 

Now Glooskap lived on an island named Aja-lig-un-mechk, and with himwere many Indians with the names and natures of animals and birds. 

These men, but most of all Pulowech, the Partridge, having acquiredpower themselves, became jealous of Glooskap, and made up their mindsto depart when he was away, taking with them Martin and thegrandmother. For they had great hope that Glooskap, being left alone onthe island, would perish, because they knew not his power. There isanother story which says that he was living at the mouth of theOolostook, at a place called Menogwes (St. John, N. B. ), and went awayinto the forest as far as Goolwahgik (Juan), and had been gone sixweeks, when he returned home and found the old woman, whose name wasMooinarkw, [Footnote: Mr. Rand translates this Micmac word as Mrs. Bear. ] and Martin had been taken away. Following their tracks to theshore he saw one of his greatest enemies, a terrible sorcerer namedWin-pe, just pushing off in his canoe. And with him were his wife andchild and Dame Bear and Martin. They were still within call, andGlooskap cried from the shore to the grandmother to send back his dogs, which were not larger than mice, and, as some stories tell us, weresquirrels. So she took a _woltes-takun_, which is a small woodenplatter, and on such Indian dice are tossed. This she put in the water, and placed the dogs on it, and it floated to the shore, and Glooskaptook it up. Win-pe with his family and prisoners pushed on toPassamoogwaddy (M. ), and thence to Grand Manan; and after remainingthere a while he crossed over to Kes-poog-itk (Yarmouth), and so wentslowly along the southern coast through Oona-mahgik (Cape Breton), andover to Uktukkamkw (Newfoundland), where he was slain. 

Now whether it was to gain magical power, or to weaken that of Win-pe, or to chasten the others by suffering, who knows? But Glooskap restedseven years alone before he pursued the enemy, though some say it wasseven months. And when the time had come, he took his dogs and went tothe shore, and looked far out to sea over the waves, and sang the magicsong which the whales obey. [Footnote: In the _Tales and Traditionsof the Eskimo_, by Dr. Henry Rink, we are told in the story ofAkigsiak that an old man taught the hero a magic lay for luring a whaleto him. In another, Katersparsuk sings such a song to the walrus. ] Soonthere rose in the distance a small whale, who had heard the call, andcame to Glooskap; but he was then very great, and he put one foot onthe whale to test his weight, and the fish sank under him. So he sentit away. 

Then the lord of men and beasts sang the song again, and there came thelargest, a mighty female, and she bore him well and easily over toKes-poog-itk. But she was greatly afraid of getting into shoal water, or of running ashore, and this was what Glooskap wished her to do that hemight not wet his feet. So as she approached she asked him if land werein sight. But he lied, and said "No. " So she went on rapidly. 

However, she saw shells below, and soon the water grew so shoal thatshe said in fear, "_Moon-as-taba-kan-kari-jean-nook_? (M. ) Doesnot the land show itself like a bow-string?" And he said, "We are stillfar from land. "

Then the water grew so shoal that she heard the song of the Clams asthey lay under the sand, singing to her that she should throw him offand drown him. For these Clams were his deadly enemies. But Bootup theWhale did not understand their language, so she asked her rider--for heknew Clam--what they were chanting to her. And he replied in a song:--

 "They tell you to hurry (_cussal_) (M), To hurry, to hurry him along, Over the water, Away as fast as you can!"

Then the Whale went like lightning, and suddenly found herself high onthe shore. Then she lamented and sang:--

 "Alas, my grandchild (_noojeech_), Ah, you have been my death; I can never leave the land, I shall swim in the sea no more. "

But Glooskap sang:--

 "Have no fear, _noogumee_, You shall not suffer, You shall swim in the sea once more. "

[Illustration: GLOOSKAP LOOKING AT THE WHALE SMOKING HIS PIPE]

Then with a push of his bow against her head he sent her off into deepwater. And the Whale rejoiced greatly. But ere she went she said, "Oh, my grandson, _K'teen pehabskwass n'aga tomawe_?" (P. ). "Hast thounot such a thing as an old pipe and some tobacco?" He replied, --

 "Ah yes. You want tobacco, I behold you. "

So he gave her a short pipe and some tobacco, and thereunto a light. And the Whale, being of good cheer, sailed away, smoking as she went, while Glooskap, standing silent on the shore, and ever leaning on hismaple bow, beheld the long low cloud which followed her until shevanished in the far away. 

In a Passamaquoddy tale of Pook-jin-skwess the Witch, the Clams sing asong deriding the hero. The words are:--

 "Mow chow nut-pess sell Peri marm-hole wett. "

These words are not Indian, but they are said to mean, --

 You look very funny with your long hair streaming in the wind, And sailing on a snail's horn. 

The large Clams sing this in a bass voice, the small ones in falsetto. The gypsies say that a Snail, when put on a pie, utters four cries, orsqueaks; hence in Germany the Romany call it _Stargoli_: that is, _shtor-godli_, four cries. 

_Of the Dreadful Deeds of the Evil Pitcher, who was both Man andWoman, and how she fell in love with Glooskap, and, being scorned, became his Enemy. Of the Toads and Porcupines, and the Awful Battle ofthe Giants. _

(Passamaquoddy. )

When Glooskap came into the world it abounded in giants, monsters, sorcerers and witches, fiends and devils. Among the witches there was, one whom the Passamaquoddy call Pook-jin-skwess, or the Pitcher. [Footnote: It is not impossible that this well-known Indian witch gaveher name to Moll Pitcher, the famous fortune-teller of Lynn. ] And theyhave a legend that she once fell in love with Glooskap when he wasyoung and had not gained the power of his riper age. He fled beforeher, and she pursued him. It was a dreadful flight, since to make rapidsteps both took the form of giants by their _m'-te-oulin_ (P. ), ormagic power. It was like an awful storm in winter, the wind chasing thecloud; it was like a frightful tempest in summer, the lightning chasingthe thunder. As the snow lay deep, both had snow-shoes on. When theycame to the shore Glooskap leaped from the main-land to the island ofGrand Manan, [Footnote: A leap of about nine miles. ] and so escapedher. Now the snow-shoes of Glooskap were _sams'ook_ (P. ), orround, while those of Pook-jin-skwess were long and pointed, [Footnote:The Penobscots give the long shoes to Glooskap. ] and the marks of themas they jumped are to be seen deep in the rocks to this day. 

When Glooskap came to the camp, which was at Ogumkegeak (M. ), now calledLiverpool, he found no one. But there lay the _witch-kwed-lakun-cheech_(M. ), or birch-bark dish of Martin, and from it, or, as another legendstates, from an old man and woman who dwelt hard by, he learned thatWin-pe and the families had been gone for seven years, along a roadguarded by wicked and horrible beings, placed by Win-pe to prevent theGreat Master from finding him. For it was a great triumph for him tokeep Glooskap's friends as slaves, and all the land spoke thereof. 

And these monsters were Pook-jin-skwess, or the Evil Pitcher herself, in many forms; for she could be man or woman, [Footnote: In the_Tales and Traditions_ of the Eskimo, we are told that a womannamed Arnakuak, being apparently gifted by magic with the ability tochange her sex, had her daughter-in-law; Ukuamak, for a wife, and, having eloped with her, was followed and killed by her own son. As thisis almost immediately followed by a story of a man who gave birth to achild, it would appear that the idea was common to both Eskimo andIndians. Only the wicked magicians in Indian tales change their sex, like Loki in the Edda. ] or many of them, and also several girls, whenshe willed it. Now it is a great part of Indian _m'teoulin_ (P. )to know what one's enemies are planning and plotting, and all theirtricks and darkened paths; and in this Glooskap went beyond them all, for before his time every one went his own way, even in wickedness. ButGlooskap first of all threw out his soul unto others. 

And when he came to Ogumkeok he found a hut, and in it, seated over afire, the ugliest old hag he had ever seen, trembling in every limb, asif near death, dirty, ragged, and loathsome in all ways. Looking up athim with bleared eyes, she begged him to gather her a little firewood, which he did. And then she prayed him to free her from the _wahgook_(M. ), or vermin, with which she was covered, and which weremaddening her with their bites. These were all devils in disguise, thespirits of foul poison, such as she deemed must kill even the Master. Now Glooskap, foreseeing all this, had taken with him, as he came, froma bog many cranberries. And bidding Pook-jin-skwess bend over, he beganto take from her hair the hideous vermin, and each, as he took it, became a horrid porcupine or toad. [Footnote: In the Eskimo mythology, _Arnarkuagsak_, the old woman of the sea, is tormented by verminabout her head. These are really the souls of still-born or murderedinfants, who have become imps. The first thing which the _angakok_or sorcerer, who visits her must do is to free her from these pests. The descent of the sorcerer to this mother of all the monsters of thesea, who are at the same time _giants_, when they choose to assumethe human form, recalls that of Odin to Hela. Both make this journey tohell, not for themselves, but in the interests of mankind. ] Then thehag asked, "Have you found one?" "I have, " replied the Master. "_Basp_!" (M. ) "Crush it!" was her answer, and Glooskap crushed acranberry; and she, hearing the noise, thought that he had done as shebid, and that the poison on his fingers would penetrate to his life. But he put the imps, one by one, under the wooden platter, which laybefore him. As this went on he put the witch to sleep. When she awokehe was gone. The foul porcupines and toads were swarming all over theground, having upset their hive. And filled with fury at being made ajest of, since it was a great despite that he had not even found itworth while to kill her when asleep, she burst out into her own form, which was beautiful as sin, wild as the devil, and gathering up all herimps, and making herself far more magical by fiercer will, went onwardto encounter him again. 

Then Glooskap came to a narrow pass in the hills. Here were twoterrible beasts, as one story has it, or two monstrous dogs, [Footnote:The Indians had dogs before the coming of the whites. They werewolf-like. ] as it is told in another. And they attacked him; but he sethis own at them, and they, growing to tremendous size, killed the others. His dogs were so trained that when called to come off they went on, andthe more they were bid to be quiet the more they bit. 

Soon he came to the top of a high hill, and looking thence over all theland saw afar off a large wigwam, and knew in his heart that an enemydwelt therein. And coming to it he found an old man and his twodaughters. [Footnote: In another account, an old sorceress and herdaughters; also an old man and his wife and daughters. According to twoversions, these are all separate wizards, but the whole spirit of thePassamaquoddy legends make them Pook-jin-skwess alone. ] Now the girlscame out greeting [Footnote: In the story of the Rabbit and Lusifee thesorcerer singly twice assumes the form of an old man and his twodaughters. There is yet another story, in which a magician thus tripleshimself with two daughters. It is, I believe, Eskimo, but I cannotdistinctly remember as to this. ] him with very pleasant glances, wooingsoftly and sweetly; they offered him a string of sausages, such as theIndians make from the entrails of the bear by only turning them insideout. For the fat, which clings to the outside, fills the skin. Whenthese are washed and dried and smoked, many deem them delicious. Butthese which the girls offered, as girls do, to show their love, bycasting the string round the neck of the favored youth, were enchanted, and had they once put the necklace upon him he would have beenoverpowered. However, they knew not of this new magic which the Masterhad brought into the land, by which one can read the heart; so, as theysidled up unto him with smiles and blandishments, waving in the wind asthey danced their garlands of enchanted sausages, he looked as if hewanted to be won. And when his dogs growled at them he cried, "_Cuss_!" (M. ), which means _Stop_! but which the dogs onlyknew as "Hie, at them!" So they flew at the witches, and these flashedup like fire into their own dreadful forms of female fiends. Then therewas a terrible tumult, for never before in the land of the Wabanaki hadthere been such a battle. All the earth and rocks around were torn up. All the while the Master cried to the dogs, "Stop! These are mysisters. Come off, ye evil beasts! Let them alone! Cease, oh cease!"Yet the more he exhorted them to peace the more they inclined to war, and the more fiercely they fought, until the witches fled. 

[Illustration: GLOOSKAP SETTING HIS DOGS ON THE WITCHES]

Then he entered the wigwam where the old sorcerer sat, waiting for himas food. And the Master said, "Are you hungry? Or do you love sausages?Here they are!" Instantly casting the links around his neck, he wastaken, and Glooskap slew him with one blow. 

Then, going on, he reached the Strait of Camsoke [Footnote: Camsokemeans, "There is a high bluff on the opposite side of the river. "--S. T. Rand. ] (M. ), or Canso, and to cross over again sang the song whichwins the whales, and one of these rising, carried him to the oppositeshore. Thence he made the circle of Oona-mah-gik, keeping round by thesouthern coast, and coming to the old camps where his enemy had been. From the _witch-kwed-lakun-cheech_, or birch-bark dish, left byMartin, he learned how long they had been gone. [Footnote: As the gypsyleaves his _patteran_, or sign, so the Indian makes marks whichset forth clearly enough how long he has camped at any place, and howmany were in the party, etc. It may be supposed that Martin, not daringto attract Win-pe's attention, effected this by a few secret scratches. Thus three lines and a crescent or moon would mean three nights. ] Whenhe came to Uk-tu-tun (M. , Cape North) he found they had rowed toUk-tuk-amqw (M. , Newfoundland), and had left three days before. 

Then again he sang, and once more a whale carried him over. And now heknew that he was indeed coming to what he sought, for in the desertedcamp he found the embers of a fire, still smoking. Advancing rapidly, he saw near the next camp Martin, seeking wood to burn. The youth andthe old Dame Bear had been most cruelly treated by Win-pe, and theywere nearly starved, but Martin's clothes were good. [Footnote: Thereis a reason for this singular detail. Nancy Jeddore, the Indian fromwhom Mr. Rand learned one version of this legend, informed him that theMartin, thin at all times, always has a fine fur, however starved hemay be. Dying with hunger, he is always well dressed. ] And Martin wasso sunk in sorrow that he did not hear Glooskap call him, and not tillthe Master threw a small stick at him did he look up, and even then hethought it had fallen from a tree. Then, seeing him, he cried out withjoy; but Glooskap, who was hiding in the woods, bade him be silent. "Wait till it is dark, " he said, "and I will go to your wigwam. Now youmay go home and tell your grandmother. "

In the other story (M. ) it is narrated that as Martin with thegrandmother were on the road, and Dame Bear bore him as almost a babeon her back, he turned his head and saw Glooskap following them, andcried out, --

 "Where, oh where, Where is my brother? He who fed me often On the marrow of the moose!"

And she replied, --

 "Alas for thee, boy! He is far, far away; You will see him no more. "

But the little fellow, seeing him again, sang as before, and Dame Bear, turning her head and beholding her Master, was so moved that shefainted and fell to the ground. Then Glooskap raised her in his arms, and when she had recovered she related how cruelly they had beentreated by Win-pe. And Glooskap said, "Bear with him yet a littlewhile, for I will soon pay him in full for what he has done. "

Then the Master bade the old woman go back to the camp with Martin, andsay nothing. It was the youth's duty to go for water and tend the babyin its swinging cot. And Glooskap told him all that he should do. Whenhe should bring water he must mix with it the worst filth, and so offerit to Win-pe, the sorcerer. 

And even as he ordered it was done, and Martin meekly offered the fouldrink to the evil man, who at the smell of it cried aloud, "_Uksay_!" (M. , Oh, horror!) and bade him bring a cleaner cup. ButMartin, bearing the babe, threw it into the fire, and, running to thespot where Glooskap hid, cried out, "_Nse-sako! nse-sako_!" (M. , My brother! my brother!) Win-pe, pursuing him, said, "Cry out to him;your brother cannot help you now. He is far away from here, on theisland where I left him. Cry out well, for now you must die!" All thishad been done that Win-pe's power might be put to sleep by anger, andhis mind drawn to other things. And the Master rose before him in allhis might, and stepped forward, while Win-pe drew backward a pace torecover his strength. And with great will the Master roused all themagic within him, and, as it came, he rose till his head was above thetallest pine; and truly in those days trees were giants beyond those ofthis time. But the lord of men and beasts laughed as he grew till hishead was far above the clouds and reached the stars, and ever higher, till Win-pe was as a child at his feet. And holding the man in scorn, and disdaining to use a nobler weapon, he tapped the sorcerer lightlywith the end of his bow, like a small dog, and he fell dead. 

_How the Story of Glooskap and Pook-jin-skwess, the Evil Pitcher, istold by the Passamaquoddy Indians_. [Footnote: In this storyGlooskap is called Pogumk, the Black Cat or Fisher, that is, a speciesof wild cat, while Martin is a N'mockswess, sable. There seems to be nosettled idea as to what was the _totem_ or innate animal nature ofthe lord of men and beasts. I have a series of pictures scraped onbirch-bark illustrating these myths, executed by a Passamaquoddy, inwhich Glooskap and the adopted grandmother in the stone canoe arerepresented as wood-chucks, or ground-hogs. (Mon-in-kwess, P. )]

(Passamaquoddy. )

There was a village of Indians who were all Black Cats, or Po'gum'k. One of them, the cleverest and bravest, went forth every day with bowand arrow, tomahawk and knife, and killed moose and bear, and sent meatto the poor, and so he fed them all. When he returned they came to himto know where his game lay, and when he had told them they went forthwith toboggins [Footnote: Toboggin, a sled made very simply by turningup the ends of one or more pieces of wood to prevent them from catchingin the snow. ] and returned with them loaded with meat. And the chief ofthe Black Cats was by his mother the son of a bear. [Footnote: Aconfused but important point in all these myths. ]

Pook-jin-skwess, the Witch, was a Black Cat. She was a woman or a manas she willed to be; but in these days she was a man. And she, beingevil, hated the chief, and thought long how she could kill or removehim, and take his place. Now, one day when all the camp had packed whatthey had, being about to travel, Pitcher asked the chief to go withhim, or with her, as you may will, down to the water-side to gathergulls' eggs. And then they went far out in a canoe, and very far, andstill farther, till they came to an island, and there they landed, andwhile Pogumk (who was Glooskap) sought for eggs, the false-heartedPitcher stole away in the _akweden_ (P. , canoe), and as shepaddled she sang a song--

 "Nikhed-ha Pogumk min nekuk, Netswil sagamawin!" (P)

 "I have left the Black Cat on an island, I shall be the chief of the Fishers now!"

So she came to the village, and the next day they all departed throughthe woods; there was not one of them left save the one who was worththem all. And at night they camped, expecting every day that the chiefwould come to them, and till then Pitcher was in his place. 

Now on the thirtieth day the chief remembered his friend the Fox, whohad _m'teoulin_ (P. ), or magic power. And he sang a song, and theFox heard it, although he was miles away, beyond forests and mountains. And thus knowing all, he went to the shore and swam to the island, where he found the chief. At this time the Black Cat could not swimsuch a distance, [Footnote: The most powerful _manitous_, ormagicians, in the Chippeway tales, as well as in all others of theIndians, may exhaust their power and be forced to depend on that ofinferiors in the great art. In this tale Glooskap is decidedly under acloud. ] but the Fox offered to take him to the mainland. Then theywaded into the water, and the Fox said, "Close thine eyes and hold fastto my tail as tightly as thou canst, and be of good faith, oh, my elderbrother, and we shall soon gain the shore. " Saying this, he swam awayand his friend followed. And it went well with them, but the chief grewweary, and he opened one eye a little, and saw that they were not tenfeet from the shore. And being of little faith he thought, for he spokenot aloud, "We shall never get to land. " But the Fox replied, "Do notbelieve it. " But the journey lasted long, for what seemed to Pogumk tobe ten feet was ten miles, and the wind was high and the waters werewild, for Pitcher had called forth a storm. So they swam all day andall the evening before they landed. "And now, my elder brother, " saidthe Fox, "you may go your way. " And he went to the camp of the BlackCats. 

When he came to the camp it was cold, and there were only ashes, forthe people had gone on. So he followed them, and in one day came nearthem. And the first whom he overtook was his mother, bearing hisyounger brother Sable ('Nmmok-swess, P. ) on her back, so that while shelooked forward he looked behind. And as Pogumk peeped out from amongthe leaves, Sable saw him, and said, "Here comes my brother!" And sheturned, but saw nothing, for the chief suddenly hid himself behind atree. Then they went on, and Sable cried again, "Indeed, mother, Ibehold my elder brother!" And this time the mother, glancing quickly, caught him, and they all laughed for joy, and she threw Sable down inthe leaves, like a stick. Then the chief bade Sable run to the camp. "And when you are there, " he said, "build up a great fire of hemlockbark, and take Pitcher's babe, even the babe which she loves, and whichyou tend, and throw it into the fire, and run to me as fast as you can, for verily thou wilt be in dire need to do so. "

And as he commanded it was done; and when the fire was hot, Sable threwthe babe into it, and it was burned to death. And Pitcher, being, asone may well believe, maddened at such a sight, pursued him as astarving wolf pursues a rabbit. Then Sable, in great fear, cried aloud, "Oh, my elder brother, my brother!" And Pitcher screamed, "Call aloudto him, for you must run as far as the island where Pogumk is, to saveyourself!" And at that word Pogumk stepped forward and confronted her, and said, "Truly, she need not run so far. "

And seeing him and hearing this, fear came upon her; but she laughedaloud to hide it, and said, "I did but chase him in sport, for I loveSable. " But Pogumk replied grimly, "I know thee and thy tricks, thouthe evil one. " Then, as his magic had come to him, he used his power, and put Pitcher with her back against a tree; and there she stayed, stuck to it, unable to get away. But the chief and Sable went to thecamp. Now Pitcher had a hatchet and wedge, and with much ado she cutherself away, and the Black Cats heard her pounding and chopping allnight long. And in the morning she came to them, and there was a greatpiece of wood sticking to her back, and they laughed her to scorn, andsang at her, --

 "He who made the chief Stay on a distant island, He is stuck by the chief Fast with his back to a tree. "

Now Pitcher the Witch, being mad with shame and spite, fled from theface of man, and ran through the woods like a wild wolf. And so shecame to Bar Harbor (Pes'sonkqu', P. ), and sat down on a log, and said, with her heart full of bitterness and malice, "I would that I couldbecome something which should torment all men. " And as she said thisshe became a mosquito (T'sis-o, P. ), and so it came to pass thatmosquitoes were made. And to this day men see that wherever the BlackCat is, there too is the Sable not far away. [Footnote: ThePassamaquoddy version relates that Pitcher in her flight pursued amoose to Bar Harbor, where, having killed him and drawn out theentrails, she petrified him. A Penobscot woman told me she had oftenseen the moose rock there, and the "inments. " But she attributed thedeed to Glooskap, to whom it properly belongs, his petrified moose anddogs and the print of his bow, etc. , being still shown in Nova Scotia;and it is also said that it was at Freshwater, after returning from BarHarbor (Maine), that Pitcher was changed into a mosquito. Another storystates that Pook-jin-skwess, having pursued young men all her life, changed into a mosquito that she might continue to prey on them. ]

Of this Pook-jin-skwess it was said that she had children of her own, begotten by sorcerers and giants and monsters; but as they were allugly she stole from the Indian women their fairest babes, and broughtthem up as if they were her own, that she might not be entirely put toshame because of her children. And once she had thus stolen a boy, andwhen he grew up some one said to him that he should not believe thatshe was his mother, but should question her as to it. Now the youth, reflecting on this, observed that his brothers and sisters were all asugly as evil beasts and no better behaved, while he himself was comelyand good. Then he asked her what this might mean. And she replied, laughing, "Because they were all begotten (or born) in the night-time, but you are a child of the day and of light. " [Footnote: There isprobably an allusion in this to the Wabanaki, or Children of Light;that is, the Algonquin. This story was told me by Noel Josephs, aPassamaquoddy. I have been told by an old Passamaquoddy woman that thedescendants of Pook-jin-skwess were the 'Nmmok-skwess. This stealingthe white boy is related in another tale more folly. It may refer tothe early dark Eskimo. ]

_How Glooskap became friendly to the Loons, and made them hisMessengers. _

(Micmac. )

When Glooskap was pursuing Win-pe, he one day on Uktukamkw saw fromafar flying over water the Kwe-moo (M. ), or Loons. And thrice did theirchief make the circle of the lake, coming near to the land of men andbeasts every time, as if he would fain seek somewhat. Then Glooskapasking him what he wanted, Kwe-moo replied that he would be his servantand friend. So Glooskap taught him a strange long cry like the howl ofa dog, and when the loons were in need of him or would pray to him theywere to utter this cry. 

And it came to pass that when he was in Newfoundland he came to anIndian town, and they who dwelt therein were all Kwee-moo-uk, or Loons. And they, as men, were exceeding glad to see their lord, who hadblessed them as birds, and did their best to please him. So he madethem his huntsmen and messengers, and in all the tales of Glooskap theKweemoo ever appears as faithful to him. Whence to this day, when theIndians hear the cry of the Loon, they say, "_Kwemoo el-komik-too-ajulGloocapal_" (He is calling upon Glooskap). 

_How Glooskap made his Uncle Mikchich the Turtle into a Great Man, and got him a Wife. [Footnote: This legend of the tortoise is carefullycompiled from six different versions: the narration of Tomah Josephs, aPassamaquoddy; the Anglo-Indian manuscript, already cited; two accountsin the Rand manuscript; the author quoted without credit in _TheMaritime Provinces_; and one by Mrs. W. Wallace Brown. As the totemof the Tortoise was of the highest rank among the Algonquins, thisaccount of its origin is of corresponding interest. Having employed anold Indian to carve the handle of a war or scalping knife for me, suchas was used by his Passamaquoddy ancestors, he carved on it a tortoise. It was especially the totem of the Lenni-Lenape, called by thePassamaquoddies _Lel-le-mabe_, "the people. "] Of Turtles' Eggs, and how Glooskap vanquished a Sorcerer by smoking Tobacco. _

(Micmac and Passamaquoddy. )

Now when Glooskap left Uktukamkw, or Newfoundland, it was in a canoe, and he came to Piktook (M. For Pictou), which means the bubbling up ofair, because there is much bubbling in the water near that place. Andhere there was an Indian village, and in that place the Master met witha man whom he loved all his life. 

And this was not because this man, whose name in Micmac is Mikchich andin Passamaquoddy Chick-we-notchk, meaning the Turtle, was great, orwell favored, or rich. For truly he was none of these, being very poorand lazy, no longer young, and not very clever or wise in any way. Itis said that he was indeed Glooskap's uncle, but others think that thiswas by adoption. However, this old fellow bore all his wants with suchgood nature that the Master, taking him in great affection, resolved tomake of him a mighty man. Which came to pass, and that in a strangemanner, as we shall see. 

For coming to Piktook, where there were above a hundred wigwams, Glooskap, being a very handsome, stately man, with the manner of agreat chief, was much admired, and that not a little by all the women, so that every one wished to have him in the house. Yet he gave them allthe go-by, and dwelt with his old uncle, in whose quaint ways andold-time stories he took great delight. And there was to be a greatfeast with games, but Glooskap did not care to go, either as a guestor a performer in the play. 

Still he inquired of Mikchich if he would not take part in it, tellinghim that all the maidens would be there, and asking him why he hadnever married, and saying that he should not live alone. Then the unclesaid: "Poor and old and plain am I; I have not even garments fit for afeast; better were it for me to smoke my pipe at home. " "Truly, if thatbe all, uncle, " replied Glooskap, "I trow I can turn tailor and fit youto a turn; and have no care as to your outside or your face, for to himwho knows how, 't is as easy to make a man over as a suit of clothes. ""Yes; but, nephew, " said Mikchich, "how say you as to making over theinside of a mortal?" "By the great Beaver!" answered the Master, "thatis something harder to do, else I were not so long at work in thisworld. But before I leave this town I shall do that also for you; andas for this present sport, do but put on my belt. " And when he had donethat, Mikchich became so young and handsome that no man or woman eversaw the like. And then Glooskap dressed him in his own best clothes, and promised him that to the end of his days, whenever he should be aman, he would be the comeliest of men; and because he was patient andtough, he should, as an animal, become the hardest to kill of allcreatures on the face of the earth, as it came to pass. 

So Mikchich went to the feast. Now the chief of Piktook had threebeautiful daughters, and the youngest was the loveliest in the land. And on her he cast his eyes, and returning said, "I have seen one whomI want. " Now all the young men in Piktook desired this girl, and wouldkill any one who would win her. 

So the next day Glooskap, taking a bunch of _wawbap_ (P. , wampum), went, to the chief and proposed for Mikchich, [Footnote: All invitationsto festivals, or formal ceremonies, proposals of marriage, etc. , werepreceded among these tribes by a gift of wampum. ] and the mother atonce said "Yes. " So the girl made up a bed of fresh twigs and coveredit with a great white bear-skin, and went to Mikchich, and theyreturned and had dried meat for supper. So they were married. 

Now Turtle seemed to be very lazy; and when others hunted he lounged athome. One day his young wife said to him that if this went on thus theymust soon starve. So he put on his snow-shoes and went forth, and shefollowed him to see what he would do. And he had not gone far ere hetripped and fell down, and the girl, returning, told her mother that hewas worthless. But the mother said, "He will do something yet. Bepatient. "

One day it came to pass that Glooskap said to Mikchich, "To-morrowthere will be a great game at ball, and you must play. But because youhave made yourself enemies of all the young men here, they will seek toslay you, by crowding all together and trampling upon you. And whenthey do this it will be by your father-in-law's lodge, and to escapethem I give you the power to jump high over it. This you may do twice, but the third time will be terrible for you, and yet it must be. "

All this happened as he foretold; for the young men indeed tried totake his life, and to escape them Mikchich jumped over the lodge, sothat he seemed like a bird flying. But the third time he did this hewas caught on the top of the tent-poles, and hung there dangling in thesmoke which rose from below. 

[Illustration: THE MUD TURTLE JUMPING OVER THE WIGWAM OF HISFATHER-IN-LAW. ]

Then Glooskap, who was seated in the tent, said, "Uncle, I will nowmake you the _sogmo_, or great chief of the Tortoises, and youshall bear up a great nation. " Then he smoked Mikchich [Footnote: In averbal Passamaquoddy narrative (John Gabriel), and in one given in_The Maritime Provinces_, this was effected by Glooskap withtobacco-smoke from his pipe. In Mr. Rand's manuscript it is the smokeof the tent-fire. The Passamaquoddy narrations are invariably morespirited and _humorous_ than the Micmac. ] so long that his skinbecame a hard shell, and the marks of the smoke may be seen thereon tothis day. And removing his entrails he destroyed them, so that but oneshort one was left. And he cried aloud, "_Milooks_! (M. ) Mynephew, you will kill me!" But the nephew replied, "Not so. I am givingyou great life. From this time you may roll through a flame and neverfeel it, and live on land or in the water. And though your head be cutoff, it will live for nine days, and your heart, even, shall beat aslong when taken from your body. " So Mikchich rejoiced greatly. 

And this came betimes, for he soon had need of it all. For the next dayall the men went on a hunt, and the Master warned him that they wouldseek to slay him. Now the young men went on before, and Turtle lingeredbehind; but all at once he made a magic flight far over their heads, unseen, and deep in the forest he slew a moose. Then he drew this tothe snow-shoe track or road, and when his foes came up there he satupon the moose, smoking, and waiting for them. Now Glooskap had toldthem that they would see some one come out ahead of them all that day, and when this came to pass they were more angered in their hearts thanever. 

So they plotted to kill Turtle, and his nephew, who was about to leave, told him how it would be. "First of all, they will build a mighty fireand throw you in it. But do thou, O uncle, go cheerfully, for by mypower thou wilt in nowise suffer. Then they will speak of drowning, butthou must beg and pray that this may not be; and then they will themore seek to do so, and thou shalt fight them to the bitter end, andyet it shall be. "

And as he said, so it came to pass; and Mikchich, being of good cheer, bade farewell to his nephew. [Footnote: This is amusingly, though notvery clearly, set forth in the Indian manuscript as follows: "Makebelieve but you dond want be trown. So he shaken hands witt is nuncelkick hororch good by do him. Tell is uncle you--I shall not be kill andI am going Lever (to live)--we may meet again. "] And they seized himand threw him into a great fire, but he turned over and went to sleepin it, being very lazy; and when the fire had burnt out he awoke, andcalled for more wood, because it was a cold night. 

Then they seized him yet again, and spoke of drowning. But, hearingthis, he, as if he were in mortal dread, begged them not to do thisthing. And he said they might cut him to pieces, or burn him, as theywould, but not to throw him into the water. [Footnote: This in theoriginal is extremely like Brer Rabbit's prayer not to be thrown intothe brier-bush. As this legend is one of the oldest of the Algonquin, and certainly antedating the coming of the whites, I give it thepriority over the negro. ] Therefore they resolved to do so, and draggedhim on. Then he screamed horribly and fought lustily, and tore up treesand roots and rocks like a madman; but they took him into a canoe andpaddled out into the middle of the lake (or to the sea), and, throwinghim in, watched him sink as he vanished far down below. So they thoughthim dead, and returned rejoicing. 

Now the next day at noon there was a hot sunshine, and something wasseen basking on a great rock, about a mile out in the lake. So twoyoung men took a canoe and went forth to see what this might be. Andwhen they came to the edge of the rock, which was about a foot high, there lay Mikchich sunning himself; but seeing them coming to take him, he only said, "Good-by, " and rolled over plump into the water, where heis living to this day. In memory whereof all turtles, when they see anyone coming, tip-tilt themselves over into the water at once. 

And Turtle lived happily with his wife, and she had a babe. New ithappened in after-days that Glooskap came to see his uncle, and thechild cried. "Dost thou know what he says?" exclaimed the Master. "Truly, not I, " answered Mikchich, "unless it be the language of theMu-se-gisk (P. , Spirits of the Air), which no man knoweth. " "Well, " repliedGlooskap, "he is talking of eggs, for he says '_Hoo-wah! hoo-wah_!'which methinks is much the same as '_Waw-wun, waw-wun_. ' Andthis in Passamaquoddy means egg. " "But where are there any?" askedMikchich. Then Glooskap bade him seek in the sand, and he found many, and admired and marveled over them greatly; and in memory of this, andto glorify this jest of Glooskap, the Turtle layeth eggs even to thisday. 

 * * * * *

The great Glooskap was a right valiant smoker; in all the world was noman who loved a pipe of good tobacco so much as he. In those days thesummers were longer in the land of the Wabanaki, the sun was warmer, and the Indians raised _tomawe_ (tobacco, P. ), and solacedthemselves mightily therewith. [Footnote: I have met with an old Indianwoman in New Brunswick who told me that her grandmother remembered tohave seen tobacco raised there by the Passamaquoddy. ] And there came toGlooskap a certain evil-minded magician, who sought to take his life, as the Master very well knew, for he read the hearts of men as if theyhad been strings of wampum. And this _m'teoulin_ (P. , magician), believing himself to be greatest in all things, thought to appallGlooskap by outdoing him at first in something at which he excelled;for a fish is frightened when another swims faster, but not till then. 

And the man sat down to smoke with an exceeding long pipe with a greatbowl, but that of Glooskap grew to be much greater. Then, having filledhis pipe, the sorcerer exhausted and burnt it out at one pull, and thenblew all the smoke out of his nose at one puff. So he sat and looked atthe Master. But Glooskap, whose pipe held ten times as much tobacco, did the same, and blowing it out split the rocky ground, so that agreat chasm opened before them. Then they were silent awhile, till theMaster said, "If you can do that you may kill me. " But he could not, and so went back with shame to those who had sent him. [Footnote: Inthis "tale of tobacco, " told me by John Gabriel, the evil-mindedmagician is described as a Black Cat. This is probably an error, asGlooskap himself appears as chief of the Black Cats in another tale. Itmay be, however, that this was Pook-jin-skwess in disguise. ]

_How Glooskap sailed through the great Cavern of Darkness. _

(Micmac. )

Now it is told in another tradition--and men tell even thisdifferently--that _pitche_, in these old times (P. ) Glooskap'sseven neighbors, who were all so many different animals, took away hisfamily, and that he followed them, even as it has been written, untoNewfoundland. And when he came there it was night, and, finding Martenalone, he took him forth into the forest to seek food, putting his belton the boy, which gave him such power that he hunted well and got muchmeat. 

So it came to pass that the next morning Dame Kah-kah-gooch, theCrow, [Footnote: _Kah-kah-gooch_, Micmac, _Kah-kah-goos_, Passamaquoddy. The Crow is represented in several stories as alwayspeeping, spying, begging, pilfering, and tale-bearing about a town. ThePassamaquoddy Indians hare peculiar superstitions as regards killingthe crow. ] observed that Marten was drying meat on his wigwam. And thisshe spread abroad. But when the people learned that the child had donethis, a great fear came upon them all, and they sat every man in hislodge and awaited death, for they knew that the Master had come. 

And he indeed came; but when he saw them all as frightened as rabbitsbefore the wild-cat, he laughed aloud and forgave them, for he wasnoble and generous. And as they were hungry--for he had come in hardtimes--he gave them much venison, and sorrow departed from theirwigwams. But as they had left him of old, he now left them. When theyknew him not they left him to die; now that they knew him they fearedlest they should perish without him. But he turned his steps towardsother paths. 

Now having made a canoe, the Master, with Marten and Dame Bear, wentupon a mighty river. As the story says, it was broad and beautiful atfirst, and so they sailed away down towards its mouth. Then they cameto great cliffs, which gathered round and closed over them. But theriver ran on beneath these, and ever on far underground, deeper anddeeper in the earth, till it dashed headlong into rapids, among rocksand ravines, and under cataracts which were so horrible that deathseemed to come and go with every plunge of the canoe. And the watergrew narrower and the current more dreadful, and fear came upon Martenand the woman, so that they died. But the Master sat with silent soul, though he sang the songs of magic, and so passed into the night, butcame forth again into sunlight. And there was a lonely wigwam on thebank, into which he bore Marten and the grandmother, and saying, "_Numchahse_! arise!" lo, they arose, and deemed they had onlyslept. And now Glooskap had gained the greatest power. [Footnote: Thisincident of the passage underground is deeply suggestive of Wabenomystery and initiation. It will strike every student of classic lore asalmost identical with much that he has read. If it has not the samesymbolical meaning here, it has apparently none whatever. ]

This incident of passing through darkness, on a roaring stream in afrail bark, before emerging to sunlight or illumination, was not onlyin the ancient heathen myths. We are reminded of it by the stormthrough which Jesus passed with the disciples. That it made a greatimpression upon the Indians is shown by its being told of Pulewech, thePartridge, who is a type of Glooskap, and who, like him, makes war onthe powers of evil, set forth in the Porcupines. The Indians, whoimagined and selected so many wild and terrible tests to form theShaman, or sorcerer, as well as the warrior, would hardly neglect thatof _de profundis clamari_, the storm, the waves, darkness, and theroaring flood. 

If there is really any Norse influence in this tale, this river must bethe one mentioned in the Vafthrudnismal, --

 "Ifing the stream is called which earth divides between the Jotuns and the gods. Open it shall run throughout all time. On that stream no ice shall he. "

It will be observed that, having gone down or across this stream, Pulewech finds himself in the country of the Evil sorcerers; that is, Jotunheim. To conquer a river among the Norse, in a dream, was a signof victory; to be carried away by one was a terrible omen. 

 "Methought a river ran Through the whole house, that it roared violently, rushed over the benches, brake the feet of yon brothers twain; Nothing the water spared; Something that will portend. "

 (Atlamal, in Groenlewzku, 25. )

_Of the Great Works which Glooskap made in the Land. _

(Micmac, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot. )

Over all the Land of the Wabanaki there is no place which was notmarked by the hand of the Master. And it is to be seen on hills andrivers and great roads, as well as mighty rocks, which were in theirday living monsters. 

For there is a very wonderful highway from Cwesowra legek [Footnote:Hardwood Point, Fort Cumberland. ] to Parrsborough, running parallelwith the river now called Hebert, and this road is called by IndiansOu-wokun, the Causeway, but by white men, or the Iglesmani, the Boar'sBack. For it is said that he meant to visit Partridge Island and CapeBlomidon, but they who were with him had got tired of the sea, andwished to cross over by land. And while they were resting and gettingready for their trip across, the Master, raising his magic power to agreat deed to be spoken of forever, went away a little time, and castup a great and beautiful level ridge, throwing it over bogs andstreams; and on this they traveled, rejoicing, and, having reached theisland, awaited him. 

And yet again the Master did a mighty deed. It came to pass in thosedays that the Beavers had built a dam across from Utkoguncheek, or CapeBlomidon, to the opposite shore, and thereby made a pond that filledall the valley of Annapolis. Now in those times the Beavers weremonstrous beasts, and the Master, though kind of heart, seems to havehad but little love for them ever since the day when Qwah-beetsis, theson of the Great Beaver, tempted Malsum to slay his brother. Now thebones of these Beavers may be found to this day, and many there are onOonamahgik, and their teeth are six inches across, and there are nosuch _qwah-beet_ to-day. [Footnote: Both Mr. Rand and myself havebeen solemnly assured by Indians who had seen these antediluvianremains that they are the petrified relics of Glooskap's victims. ] Andthese are the remains of the Beavers who built the dam at Cape Blomidonand forded the Annapolis Valley. Now Glooskap would have a hunt and doa deed which should equal the great whale-fishing of Kit-pooseeog-unow. So he cut the great dam near the shore, and bade Marten watch; for hesaid, "I mistrust that there is a little Beaver hiding hereabouts. " Andwhen the dam was cut from where it joined the shore there was a mightyrush of many waters, so that it swung round to the westward, yet it didnot break away from the other shore. Therefore the end of it lodgedwith a great split therein when the flood had found a free course, andthe whole may be seen there still, even to this day, and may be seen byall of those who pass up the bay; and this point, or Cape Split, iscalled by the Micmacs Pleegun, which, being interpreted, means theopening of a beaver dam. 

Then, to frighten the Beaver, Glooskap threw at it a few handfuls ofearth, and these, falling somewhat to the eastward of Partridge Island, became the Five Islands. And the pond which was left was the Basin ofMinas. 

And yet another tradition tells that, after cutting the dam, Glooskapsat and watched, but no beaver came out; [Footnote: This is theAnglo-Indian manuscript, already referred to. ] for _Qwah-beet_had gone out of a back door. So he took a rock and threw it afar, [Footnote: "He took Rock tructed 150 miles ip River to sker beaberbock down, but beaber has gone ober granfalls. "]--one hundred andfifty miles, --to scare the Beaver back again; but the Beaver had goneover the Grand Falls, and the stone remaineth there even to this day. 

_The Story of Glooskap as told in a few Words by a Woman of thePenobscots. _

"Glus-gahbe gave names to everything. He made men and gave them life, and made the winds to make the waters move. The Turtle was his uncle;the Mink, _Uk-see-meezel_, his adopted son; and _Monin-kwessos_, the Woodchuck, his grandmother. The Beaver built a great dam, andGlus-gahbe turned it away and killed the Beaver. At Moose-tchick hekilled a moose; the bones may be seen at Bar Harbor turned to stone. He threw the entrails of the Moose across the bay to his dogs, and they, too, may be seen there to this day, as I myself have seen them; and there, too, in the rock are the prints of his bow and arrow. " [Footnote: Many aplace is pointed out as the locality of the same legend. In addition tothose in New Brunswick and Bar Harbor, Thoreau found another in Maine, which he thus describes:--

"While we were crossing this bay" (that is, the mouth of Moose River), "where Mount Kineo rose dark before us, within two or three miles, theIndian repeated the tradition respecting this mountain's having beenanciently a cow-moose, --how a mighty Indian hunter, whose name Iforget, succeeded in killing this queen of the moose tribe with greatdifficulty, while her calf was killed somewhere among the islands inPenobscot Bay; and to his eyes this mountain had still the form of themoose in a reclining posture, its precipitous side presenting theoutline of her head. He told this at some length, though it did notamount to much, and with apparent good faith, and asked us how wesupposed the hunter could have killed such a mighty moose as that; howwe could do it. Whereupon a man-of-war to fire broadsides into her wassuggested, etc. An Indian tells such a story as if he thought itdeserved to have a good deal said about it, only he has not got it tosay; and so he makes up for the deficiency by a drawling tone, long-windedness, and a dumb wonder which he hopes will be contagious. "

This concluding criticism is indeed singularly characteristic of Mr. Thoreau's own nasal stories about Nature, but it is as utterly untrueas ridiculous when applied to any Indian storytelling to which I haveever listened, and I have known the near relatives of the Indians ofwhom he speaks, and heard many of them tell their tales. This writerpassed months in Maine, choosing Penobscot guides expressly to studythem, to read Indian feelings and get at Indian secrets, and thisaccount of Glooskap, whose name he forgets, is a fair specimen of whathe learned. Yet he could in the same book write as follows: "TheAnglo-American can indeed cut down and grub up all this waving forest, And make a stump and vote for Buchanan on its ruins; but he cannotConverse with the spirit of the tree he fells, he cannot read thepoetry and mythology which retires as he advances. "

If Mr. Thoreau had known the Indian legend of the spirit of the fallentree--and his guide knew it well--he might have been credited withspeaking wisely of the poetry and _mythology_ which he ridiculesthe poor rural Yankees for not possessing. 

Such a writer can, indeed, peep and botanize on the grave of MotherNature, but never evoke _her_ spirit. 

The moving the island is evidently of Eskimo origin, since Crantz(_History of Greenland_) heard nearly the same story of somemagician-giant. It was probably suggested by the very common floatingaway of ice-islands. ]

_How Glooskap, leaving the World, all the Animals mourned for him, and how, ere he departed, he gave Gifts to Men. _

(Micmac. )

Now Glooskap had freed the world from all the mighty monsters of anearly time: the giants wandered no longer in the wilderness; the_cullo_ terrified man no more, as it spread its wings like thecloud between him and the sun; the dreadful Chenoo of the Northdevoured him not; no evil beasts, devils, and serpents were to be foundnear his home. And the Master had, moreover, taught men the arts whichmade them happier; but they were not grateful to him, and though theyworshiped him they were not the less wicked. 

"Now when the ways of men and beasts waxed evil they greatly vexedGlooskap, and at length he could no longer endure them, and he made arich feast by the shore of the great Lake Minas. All the beasts came toit, and when the feast was over he got into a great canoe, and thebeasts looked after him till they saw him no more. And after theyceased to see him, they still heard his voice as he sang; but thesounds grew fainter and fainter in the distance, and at last theywholly died away; and then deep silence fell on them all, and a greatmarvel came to pass, and the beasts, who had till now spoken but onelanguage, were no longer able to understand each other, and they fledaway, each his own way, and never again have they met together incouncil. Until the day when Glooskap shall return to restore the GoldenAge, and make men and animals dwell once more together in amity andpeace, all Nature mourns. And tradition says that on his departure fromAcadia the Great Snowy Owl retired to the deep forests, to return nomore until he could come to welcome Glooskap; and in those sylvandepths the owls even yet repeat to the night _Koo-koo-skoos_!which is to say in the Indian tongue, 'Oh, I am sorry! Oh, I am sorry!'And the Loons, who had been the huntsmen of Glooskap, go restlessly upand down through the world, seeking vainly for their master, whom theycannot find, and wailing sadly because they find him not. " [Footnote:This passage is one of seven on the subject of Glooskap, cited inOsgood's _Maritime Provinces_, without giving either the name ofthe author or the book from which they were taken. ]

But ere the Master went away from life, or ceased to wander in the waysof men, he bade it be made known by the Loons, his faithful messengers, that before his departure years would pass, and that whoever would seekhim might have one wish granted, whatever that wish might be. Now, though the journey was long and the trials were terrible which thosemust endure who would find Glooskap, there were still many men whoadventured them. [Footnote: There is a great embarrassment of riches, or rather a great wealth of embarrassment, as regards this chapter. Inthe Rand manuscript there are three histories of the adventures of thepilgrims who sought Glooskap. Another and very different was given tome by John Gabriel. In one account there are three travelers, inanother four; others speak of seven and twelve. Finally, there are manyincidents which apparently belong to this part of the Glooskap cycle, scattered here and there in different disconnected legends. 

Mrs. W. Wallace Brown was told by the Passamaquoddy Indians that whenGlooskap departed he took with him the king of each of the differentkinds of animals; so that the wolves, loons, etc. , mourn not only forthe lord, but for their masters. ]

Now ye shall hear who some of these were and what happened to them. Andthis is the first tale as it was told me in the tent of John Gabriel, the Passamaquoddy. 

When all men had heard that Glooskap would grant a wish to any one whowould come to him, three Indians resolved to try this thing; and onewas a Maliseet from St. John, and the other two were Penobscots fromOld Town. And the path was long and the way was hard, and they sufferedmuch, and they were seven years on it ere they came to him. But whilethey were yet three months' journey from his dwelling, they heard thebarking of his dogs, and as they drew nearer, day by day, it waslouder. And so, after great trials, they found the lord of men andbeasts, and he made them welcome and entertained them. 

But, ere they went, he asked them what they wanted. And the eldest, whowas an honest, simple man, and of but little account among his people, because he was a bad hunter, asked that he might excel in the killingand catching of game. Then the Master gave him a flute, or the magicpipe, which pleases every ear, and has the power of persuading everyanimal to follow him who plays it. And he thanked the lord, and left. 

Now the second Indian, being asked what he would have, replied, 'Thelove of many women. ' And when Glooskap asked how many, he said, "I carenot how many; so that there are but enough of them, and more thanenough. " At hearing this the Master seemed displeased, but, smilinganon, he gave him a bag which was tightly tied, and told him not toopen it until he had reached his home. So he thanked the lord, andleft. 

Now the third Indian was a gay and handsome but foolish young fellow, whose whole heart was set on making people laugh, and on winning awelcome at every merry-making. And he, being asked what he would haveor what he chiefly wanted, said that it would please him most to beable to make a certain quaint and marvelous sound or noise, [Footnote:Pedere, crepitare. ] which was frequent in those primitive times amongall the Wabanaki, and which it is said may even yet be heard in a fewsequestered wigwams far in the wilderness, away from men; there beingstill here and there a deep magician, or man of mystery, who knows theart of producing it. And the property of this wondrous sound is suchthat they who hear it must needs burst into a laugh; whence it is thecause that the men of these our modern times are so sorrowful, sincethat sound is no more heard in the land. And to him Glooskap was alsoaffable, sending Marten into the woods to seek a certain mystical andmagic root, which when eaten would make the miracle the young mansought. But he warned him not to touch the root ere he got to his home, or it would be the worse for him. And so he kindly thanked the lord, and left. 

It had taken seven years to come, but seven days were all that wasrequired to tread the path returning to their home, that is, for himwho got there. Only one of all the three beheld his lodge again. Thiswas the hunter, who, with his pipe in his pocket, and not a care in hisheart, trudged through the woods, satisfied that so long as he shouldlive, there would always be venison in the larder. 

But he who loved women, and had never won even a wife, was filled withanxious wishfulness. And he had, not gone very far into the woodsbefore he opened the bag. And there flew out by hundreds, like whitedoves, swarming all about him, beautiful girls, with black burning eyesand flowing hair. And wild with passion the winsome witches threw theirarms about him, and kissed him as he responded to their embraces; butthey came ever more and more, wilder and more passionate. And he badethem give way, but they would not, and he sought to escape, but hecould not; and so panting, crying for breath, smothered, he perished. And those who came that way found him dead, but what became of thegirls no man knows. 

Now the third went merrily onward alone, when all at once it flashedupon his mind that Glooskap had given him a present, and without theleast heed to the injunction that he was to wait till he had reachedhis home drew out the root and ate it; and scarce had he done this erehe realized that he possessed the power of uttering the weird andmystic sound to absolute perfection. And as it rang o'er many a hilland dale, and woke the echoes of the distant hills, until it wasanswered by the solemn owl, he felt that it was indeed wonderful. So hewalked on gayly, trumpeting as he went, over hill and vale, happy as abird. 

But by and by he began to weary of himself. Seeing a deer he drew anarrow and stealing silently to the game was just about to shoot, whendespite himself the wild, unearthly sound broke forth like a demon'swarble. The deer bounded away, and the young man cursed! And when hereached Old Town, half dead with hanger, he was worth little to makelaughter, though the honest Indians at first did not fail to do so, andthereby somewhat cheered his heart. But as the days went on theywearied of him, and, life becoming a burden, he went into the woods andslew himself. And the evil spirit of the night-air even Bumole, [Footnote: For an account of Bumole, or Pamola, see the chapter onSupernatural Beings. Bumole seems to have been the personificationof the night-hawk. ] or Pamola, from whom came the gift, swooped downfrom the clouds and bore him away to 'Lahmkekqu', the dwelling place ofdarkness, and he was no more heard of among men. 

As regards the destruction of the giants by Glooskap, it may beobserved that the same tradition exists among the Six Nations. Cusicktells us that about 1250 years before Columbus discovered America apowerful tribe called Otne-yar-heh, that is, Stone Giants, who wereravenous cannibals, overran the country, and nearly exterminated theinhabitants. These Stone Giants practiced, themselves in rolling on thesand; by this means their bodies became hard. Then Tas-enyawa-gen, theHolder of the Heavens, came to earth as a giant, and being made theirchief, led them into a hollow, where he overwhelmed them with rocks. Only one escaped to the far North. The reader will recognize in thesethe Chenoos, or Kewahqu', who cover themselves with pitch and roll onthe ground. But no one can deny that, while that which Cusick narrateshas much in common with the mythology of the Wabanaki, it is much lesslike that of the Edda; that Indian grotesqueness has in it greatlyperverted an original: and finally, that it certainly occupies aposition midway between the mythology of the Northeastern Algonquinsand that of the Chippewas, Ottawas, and other Western tribes. Examination shows this in every story. Thus the Wabanaki warrior makeshis bow infallible in aim by stringing it with a cord made of hissister's hair. This is Norse, as it was of old Latin. But in theIroquois the young man "adorns his arms with the hairs of his sister. "Here the tradition has begun to weaken. 

It may be interesting to visitors to Niagara to know that the army ofStone Giants crossed the river during their journey just below theFalls. 

_How Glooskap had a great Frolic with Kitpooseagunow, a Mighty Giantwho caught a Whale. _

(Micmac. )

_N'kah-nee-oo_. In the old time (P. ) Glooskap came to PulewechMunegoo (M. , Partridge Island), and here he met with Kitpooseagunow, [Footnote: _Kitpooseagunow_, "one born after his mother's death, " isa magician-giant, who plays in the Algonquin mythology a part only inferiorto that of Glooskap, whom he in every way resembles. Both are benevolent, both make war on wicked sorcerers and evil wild beasts, and both, finally, are much like Gargantua and Pantagruel in their sense of humor. They aresometimes made the heroes of the same adventure in different stories. Thetrue origin of the name, according to Mr. Rand, is as follows: "After acow moose or caribou has been killed, her calf is sometimes taken outalive, and reared by hand. As may be supposed, the calf is very easilytamed. The animal thus born is called _Kitpooseagunow_, and fromthis a verb is formed which denotes the act. "--_Legends of the Mic Macs, Old Dominion Monthly_, 1871. 

This giant was also called the Protector of the Oppressed. He probablyrepresents the Glooskap myth in another form. ] whose mother had beenslain by a fearful cannibal giant. And it was against these that hemade war all his life long, as did Glooskap. Whence it came to passthat they loved one another, which did not at all hinder them fromhaving a hearty and merry encounter, in which they missed but little ofkilling one or the other, and all in the best natured way in the world. 

[Illustration: Glooskap and Keanke spearing the whale]

Now, having come to Pulewech Munegoo, the lord of men and beasts wasentertained by Kitpooseagunow. And when the night came, he who was bornafter his mother's death said to his guest, "Let us go on the sea in acanoe and catch whales by torchlight;" to which Glooskap, nothing loath, consented, for he was a mighty fisherman, as are all the Wabanaki ofthe seacoast. [Footnote: Glooskap would seem to have been the prototypeof the giant fisher so well known in song:--

 "His rod was made of a sturdy oak, His line, a cable, in storms ne'er broke; He baited his hook with a dragon's tail, And sat on a rock and bobbed for whale. "

A fabulous monster, apparently identical with the dragon, is common inMicmac stories. ]

Now when they came to the beach there were only great rocks, lying hereand there; but Kitpooseagunow, lifting the largest of these, put it onhis head, and it became a canoe. And picking up another, it turned to apaddle, while a long splinter which he split from a ledge seemed to bea spear. Then Glooskap asked, "Who shall sit in the stern and paddle, and who will take the spear?" Kitpooseagunow said "That will I. " SoGlooskap paddled, and soon the canoe passed over a mighty whale; in allthe great sea there was not his like; but he who held the spear sent itlike a thunderbolt down into the waters, and as the handle rose againto sight he snatched it up, and the great fish was caught. And asKitpooseagunow whirled it on high, the whale, roaring, touched theclouds. Then taking him from the point, the fisher tossed him into thebark as if he had been a trout. And the giants laughed; the sound oftheir laughter was heard all over the land of the Wabanaki. And beingat home, the host took a stone knife and split the whale, and threw onehalf to the guest Glooskap, and they roasted each his piece over thefire and ate it. 

Now the Master, having marked the light, which was long in the heavenafter the sun went down, said, "The sky is red; we shall have a coldnight. " And his host understood him well, and saw that he would make itcold by magic. So he bade Marten bring in all the fuel he could find, and all there was of the oil of a porpoise; and this oil he somultiplied by magic that there was ten times more of it. And they satthem down and smoked, and told tales of old times; but it grew evercolder and colder. And at midnight, when all was burnt out, Martenfroze to death, and then the grandmother, but the two giants smoked on, and laughed and talked. Then the rocks out-of-doors split with thecold, the great trees in the forest split; the sound thereof was asthunder, but the Master and he who was born after his mother's deathlaughed even louder. And so they sat until the sun rose. Then Glooskapsaid to the dead woman, "_Noogume, numchahse_!" (M. ) "Grandmother, arise!" and to his boy, "_Abistanooch numchahse_!" "Marten, arise!" and they arose, and went about their work. 

And the morning being bright, they went forth far into the forest tofind game. But they got very little, for they caught only one smallbeaver, and Glooskap gave up his share of this to Kitpooseagunow. Andhe, taking the skin, fastened it to his garter, whence it dangled likethe skin of a mouse at the knee of a tall man. But as he went onthrough the woods the skin grew larger and larger and larger, till itbroke away by its own weight. Then the giant twisted a mighty saplinginto a withe, and fastened it around his waist. But it still grew apaceas he went on, till, trailing after, it tore down all the forest, pulling away the trees, so that Kitpooseagunow left a clean, fair roadbehind him. [Footnote: Many of these stories have received lateradditions, which can be detected by their occurring only in singleversions of them. In the story of Kitpooseagunow (Rand's manuscript)the giants arrive at a "large town, " and go to a "store, " where theysell the skin for all the money, goods, houses, and lands which, themerchant possesses. "And the skin was so heavy that it took the greaterpart of the day to weigh it. "]

And when the night came on they fished again, as they had done before;and again it was said, but this time by the host, "The sky is red; weshall have a cold night. " So they heaped up wood more than the firsttime, but now it was far colder. And soon the boy was dead, and thegrandmother also lay frozen. But when the sun rose the Master broughtthem back to life, and, bidding good-by to Kitpooseagunow, went hisway. [Footnote: It is possible that there is a version of this story inwhich Glooskap kills his friend with frost, and then revives him. Inone story it is a _frozen stream_, incarnate as a man, whichattempts in vain to freeze Glooskap. The extraordinary manner in whichhost and guest, or even intimate friends, endeavor to _kill_ oneanother in the most good-natured rivalry, is of constant occurrence inthe Eskimo legends. It is not infrequent among our own backwoods orfrontier-men. 

The stone-canoe occurs in Eskimo legends (_vide_ Rink), as it doesin those of all American Indians. ]

The most striking feature, however, of this legend is its Norse-likebreadth or grandeur and its genial humor, which are very remarkablecharacteristics for the fictions of savages. Its resemblance to theScandinavian tales is, if accidental, very remarkable. The two heroesare, like Thor and Odin, giant heroes who make war on Jotuns andTrolls; that is, giant-like sorcerers. It is their profession; theylive in it. No one can read Beowulf or the Eddas without being struckby the great resemblance between Grendel, the hideous, semi-human nightprowler, and the Kewahqu', a precisely similar monster, who rises fromthe depths of waters to wantonly murder man. I do not recall any twobeings in any other two disconnected mythologies so strangely similar. The fishing for the whale recalls that which is told in the Older Edda(Hymiskrida, 21), where Hymir succeeds in hooking two of these fish:--

"Then he and Hymir rowed out to sea. Thor rowed oft with two oars, andso powerfully that the giant was obliged to acknowledge they werespeeding very fast. _He himself rowed at the prow_. "

If the reader will compare this account of the Edda with the Micmacstory, he cannot fail to be struck with the great resemblance betweenthem. It is even specified in both that the hero, though a guest, paddles. And in both instances the host catches a whale. Now comparewith this the legend of Manobozho-Hiawatha, who merely catches thegreat sunfish, and is swallowed by it. Does it not seem as if theWestern Indians had here borrowed from the Micmacs, and the Micmacsfrom the Norse? Whether this was done directly or through the Eskimo isas yet a problem. It may also be noted that both in the Edda and in theMicmac story, it is declared that one of the giants picked up the boatand carried it. 

It may be observed that most of these Indian traditions were originallypoems. It is probable that all were sung, while they still retained thecharacter of serious mythical or sacred narrative. Now they are in thetransition state of heroic tales. But they unquestionably still retainmany passages of very great antiquity, and it is not impossible thatEskimo and even Norse songs are still preserved in them. In this talethe following coincidences with passages in the Elder Edda (Hymiskrida)are remarkable. In both the host asks his guest to go with him to catchwhales, to which the latter assents. 

 "'We three to-morrow night Shall be compelled On what we catch to live. ' Thor said he would On the sea row. "

Kitpooseagunow picks up the heavy canoe, with its oars and a spear, andcarries them. 

 "Thor went, grasped the prow quickly with its hold-water, lifted the boat together with its oars and scoop; bore to the dwelling the curved vessel. "

Glooskap asks which of the two shall take the paddle, and which sit inthe stern. Hymir inquires, --

 "Wilt thou do half the work with me? either the whales home to the dwelling bear, Or the boat fast bind?"

Kitpooseagunow drew up a whale. 

 "The mighty Hymir, He alone two whales drew up with his hook. "

After this whale-fishing, the Scandinavian giants at home have a trialof strength and endurance. Thor throws a cup at Hymir. This cup canonly be broken on Hymir's head, which is of ice, and intensely hard. 

 "That is harder than any cup. "

This is therefore an effort on the part of Thor to overcome Cold. Hymiris the incarnation of Cold itself. 

 "The icebergs resounded as the churl approached; the thicket on his cheeks was frozen. In shivers flew the pillars At the Jotun's glance. "

That is, the frost cracks the stones and rocks. In the Indian tale thetwo giants try to see which can freeze the other. In both there isdistinctly a contest. In the Norse tale Strength or Heat fights Frost;in the American, Frost is battled with by Frost as a rival. 

It may be observed that the Indian tale is far from being perfect, andthat in all probability the whole of it includes a fishing for thesea-serpent. 

It is plainly set forth in the Edda that Cold may be overcome by amagic spell. Thus Groa (Grougaldr, 12) promises her son a rune toeffect this:--

 "A seventh (charm) I will sing thee: If on a mountain high frost should assail thee, deadly cold shall not thy body injure, nor draw it to thy limbs. "

_How Glooskap made a Magician of a Young Man, who aided another towin a Wife and do Wonderful Deeds_. 

(Micmac. )

It is well known unto all Indians who still keep the true faith of theolden time that there are wondrous dwellers in the lonely woods, suchas elves and fairies, called by the Micmacs _Mikumwessos_, and bythe Passamaquoddies _Oonahgawessos_. And these can work greatwonders, and also sing so as to charm the wildest beasts. From themalone come the magic pipes or flutes, which sometimes pass intopossession of noted sorcerers and great warriors; and when these areplayed upon, the woman who hears the melody is bewitched with love, andthe moose and caribou follow the sound even to their death. And whenthe _Megumawessos_ are pleased with a mortal they make him afairy, even like themselves. 

_N'Karnayoo_. In old times there was an Indian village, and in itwere two young men, [Footnote: According to another Micmac version ofthis legend, the elder of these pilgrims was Keekwahjoo, the Badger, and the younger Caktoogwasees, or Little Thunder. ] who had heard thatGlooskap, ere he left the world, would bestow on those who came to himwhatever they wanted. So they went their way, an exceeding longpilgrimage, until they came to a great island, where he dwelt. And therethey first met with Dame Bear and Marten, and next with the Masterhimself. Then they all, sitting down to supper, had placed before themonly one extremely small dish, and on this there was a tiny bit ofmeat, and nothing more. But being a bold and jolly fellow, the first ofthe pilgrims, thinking himself mocked for sport, cut off a great partof the meat, and ate it, when that which was in the dish grew in atwinkling to its former size; and so this went on all through thesupper, every one eating his fill, the dish at the end being as full asever. 

Of these two, one wished to become a Mikum-wess, and the other to win avery beautiful girl, the daughter of a great chief, who imposed suchcruel tasks on all who came for her, that they died in attempting them. 

And the first was taken by Glooskap; and after he had by a merry trickcovered him with filth and put him to great shame, he took him to theriver, and after washing him clean and combing his hair gave him achange of raiment and a hair string of exceeding great magic virtue, since when he had bound it on he became a Mikumwess, having all thepower of the elfin-world. And also because he desired to excel insinging and music, the Master gave him a small pipe, and it was thatwhich charmed all living beings; [Footnote: The identity of theseincidents with those of "classic" times is worth noting. There is alustration and the clothing the neophyte in a new garment, and hereceives the magic fillet, as in the Mysteries of the old world. Nor isthe resemblance of the pipe to that of Orpheus less striking. In manyrespects this is the most remarkable old Indian myth I have ever metwith. ] and then singing a song bade him join in with him. And doingthis he found that he could sing, and ever after had a wondrous voice. 

Now to seek the beautiful girl it was necessary to sail afar over the sea;and during this adventure the Mikumwess was charged to take care of theyounger pilgrim. So he begged the Master to lend him his canoe. AndGlooskap answered, "Yes, I will do this for thee, if thou wilt honestlyreturn it when thou needest it no more. Yet in very truth I did neveryet lend it to mortal man but that I had to go after it myself. "[Footnote: One of the traits of _bonhomie_ and common humanitywhich continually occur in the Glooskap tales, even in the most serioussituations and solemn myths. In this respect the resemblance of theNorthwest Algonquin tales to the Norse is truly striking. The canoe isamong all Indians, even in Central America, exactly what the umbrellais in civilized society. With all his immense originality Glooskap hada number of "old Joes, " of which he never seems to have tired. One wasthe inexhaustible dish, and another the giant skunk set upon end to salutehis visitors, and this of the canoe was probably the commonest of all. He is a true Indian divinity, shining like the lightning and strikingonly when there is a storm, but appearing like the Aurora Borealis, oreven the Robin Goodfellow-Will-o'-the-Wisp at others. ]

Thereupon the young man promised most faithfully that he would indeedreturn the canoe, and with this they got them ready for the journey. But when they came to the bay there was no canoe, and they knew notwhat was to be done. But Glooskap pointed to a small island of granitewhich rose amid the waves, and it was covered with tall pine-trees. "There is my canoe!" said he; [Footnote: Another standard "piece ofwitt" with the incorrigible joker. Glooskap's "floating island" wasserved up as a dessert to all guests, and I doubt not that if thedouble meaning of the word had been known to him, they would have hadthat too. ] and when he had taken them unto it, it became a real canoe, with masts, and they set sail on it, rejoicing. 

So they came in time to a very large island, where they drew up thecanoe and hid it in the bushes. Then they went forward to seek forpeople, and found a village in which dwelt the chief who had thebeautiful daughter, in seeking whom so many had lost their lives. 

And having found him, they went into his wigwam, and were placed on theseat of honor. Now when an Indian seeks a wife, he or his mutual friendmakes no great ado about it, but utters two words, which tell the wholestory. And these are _Sewin-coadoo-gwah-loogwet_', which mean--inMicmac, "I am tired of living alone. " And the chief, hearing this, consented that the young man should marry her whom he sought; but onone condition: and this was that he should slay and bring unto him thehead of a certain horned dragon, called in Micmac _Chepichealm_. [Footnote: Vide "Supernatural Beings. " The _Chepichealm_ (M. ) isan immense horned serpent or wingless dragon. It is probably identicalwith the Wiwillmekq' (P. And Pen. ), which is a singular horned wormfound on trees or by water. It is believed to be capable of assuming avast size and to be gifted with supernatural powers. ] So this wasagreed upon, and the two strangers went to the wigwam which wasassigned them. 

Now in the night he that was Mikumwess arose and went alone and afaruntil he came to the den of the dragon, and this was a great hole inthe ground. And over this he laid a mighty log, and then began themagic dance around the den. So the serpent, or the great Chepichcalm, hearing the call, came forth, putting out his head after the manner ofsnakes, waving it all about in every way and looking round him. Whiledoing this he rested his neck upon the log, when the Indian with a blowof his hatchet severed it. Then taking the head by one of the shiningyellow horns he bore it to his friend, who in the morning gave it tothe chief. And the old man said to himself, "This time I fear me Ishall lose my child. "

Yet the young man had more to do; for the chief said, "I would fain seemy son coast down yonder hill on hand-sled. " Now this lull was anexceeding high mountain; the sides thereof were ragged with rocks andterrible with trees and ice. Then two toboggins [Footnote: Toboggin: asled or sledge. ] were brought out, one of them for the two strangers, and this he that was Mikumwess was to direct. And on the other were twopowerful men, and these were both _boo-oinak_, [Footnote:Magicians, the original of _pow-wow-in_. It is apparently the samein meaning as the _angakok_ of the neighboring Eskimo. ] who hopedto see the former soon fall out, and then to run over them. And at theword they went flying fearfully down the mountain, and yet ever faster, as if to death. And soon he that sought the girl went whirling headlongfrom the sled, and the two _boo-oinak_ gave a loud hurrah; forthey knew not that this had been done with intent by the Mikumwess, that he might get them before him. So he put forth his hand, and, seizing the younger man, turned a little aside, but in an instant wenton after; and erelong the sled of the _boo-oinak_ stopped, but theother, bounding upwards from a mighty wall of ice, flew far over theirheads onwards; nor did it stop in the valley, but, running withtremendous speed up the opposite hill and into the village, struck theside of the chief's wigwam, ripping it up from end to end ere itstopped. And the old man, seeing this, said, "This time I have lost mydaughter!"

Yet the young man had more to do; for the chief said, "There is here aman who has never been beaten in running, and thou must strive with himin that and overcome him, to win thy wife. " And the race was appointed;but ere it came off he that was Mikumwess lent to his friend the magicpipe to give him power. [Footnote: It may be observed that Indian magicdepends on fetich, or objects having innate power. Glooskap himselfrelies on his belt, and when he lends it to Marten, the boy becomes"manitoo, " as the more Western Indians term it. There is in the earlyred Indian mythology really no God; only more or less powerfulmagicians. ] And when he that was the racer of the village met the youngman, the youth said, "Who art thou?" and he replied, "I am Wey-ad-esk"(the Northern Lights, M. ); "but who art thou?" And he answered, "I amWosogwodesk" (the Chain Lightning). And they ran. In an instant theywere no longer in sight; they were far away over the most distanthills. Then all sat and waited, and ere it was noon he that was theChain Lightning returned, and he was not out of breath, nor weary, andhe had gone round the world. And at evening they saw the NorthernLights return, and he trembled and quivered with fatigue; yet for allthat he had not been round the world, but had turned back. And the oldchief, seeing him beaten, exclaimed, "This time I shall lose my child!"

And yet there was another trial of the young man ere he could win herwhom he wanted. For the chief had a man whom no one could overcome inswimming and diving, and it was chiefly in this last thing that heexcelled. And the young man must strive with him. And when they met heasked the man of the village his name, and he replied, "I am an_Ukchigumooech_" (a Sea Duck, M. ); "but who are you?" And heanswered, "I am a _Kweemoo_" (a Loon, M. ). So they dived, andafter a time the Sea Duck rose again for breath, but those who waitedwaited long indeed ere they saw the Loon. And an hour passed, and hecame not, and yet another ere they beheld him; but when he at last rosethe old chief said, "This is the end of all our weary work, for thistime truly I have lost my child. "

Yet it was not the end of the wonderful deeds which were done in thatvillage by the power of the great Glooskap. For the Mikumwess, at thegreat dance which was held that evening at the wedding, astonished allwho beheld him. As he danced around the circle, upon the very hardbeaten floor, they saw his feet sink deeper at every step, and everdeeper as the dance went on; ploughing the ground up into high, unevenridges, forming a trench as he went, until at length only his head wasto be seen. [Footnote: This is very characteristic of the truemagician, both in the Algonquin and Eskimo folk-lore. "The_angakok_, " or sorcerer of Greenland, "after meeting with_tomarsuk_, or guardian spirits, sometimes manifested it by hisfeet sinking into the rocky ground _just as if in snow_. " (Rink. )This phrase indicates the Northern origin of the idea, which occurs inmany Indian stories. I have been assured in all faith that there is aPassamaquoddy _m'teoulin_, or sorcerer, now living, who can walkup to his knees in a floor or in the paved street, and an honest andtrustworthy Indian assured me that he had seen him do it. ]

And this ended the dancing for that night, since the ground was nolonger to be danced upon by anybody except wizards and witches. 

Then the young man and his wife and the Mikumwess entered their canoeand sailed _boosijk_ (homewards, M. ). And yet their trials werenot over. [Footnote: These subsequent trials were not inflicted by theold chief, but were, as appears by comparison with other legends, simply jokes played by the incorrigible Glooskap. It is most probablethat in its original form this remarkable myth was all _maya_, or illusion, and the whole a series of illusions, caused by thearch-conjurer, typifying natural phenomena. ] For they had not gonefar ere they saw an awful storm coming to meet them; and he that hadthe Elfin spells knew that it was raised by _boo-oin_, or sorcery, since these storms are the worst of all. Then, without fear, he rose, and, filling his lungs and puffing his cheeks, he blew against thetempest, wind against wind, until he blew the wind away, and the greatwater was '_aoobuneak_', as calm and smooth as before. 

So they sailed on over the sunlit sea, but it was not long before theElf-gifted saw rising among the waves far before them a dark mass, which soon proved to be a tremendous Beast coming to attack them. Andas he drew near they saw it was Quahbeet, the giant beaver, and his eyeswere angry. [Footnote: From the beginning, when _Quahbeetsis_, the son of the Beaver, inspired Malsumsis with hatred of Glooskap, thisquadruped appears as an enemy. ] But the Mikumwess, seeing this, steeredstraight to meet the monster, and, coming to him, said, "I am the greathunter of beavers; lo, I am their butcher; many a one has fallen by myhand. " [Footnote: This is oddly like the speech of the beaver-killer in_The Hunting of the Snark_. ] Now the Beaver had placed himselfunder water, with his tail out of it and rising upwards, that he mightsink the canoe with a blow thereof; for the Beaver strikes mightily insuch wise, as is his wont. But he of the magic power, with one blow ofhis tomahawk, cut the tail from the body, and sailed onward. 

Yet they had not gone far ere, on rounding a point, they saw beforethem another animal of giant size, who likewise had his tail in theair, waiting to overcome them, and this was A-bekk-thee-lo (M. ), theSkunk. Yet ere he made his hideous attack the Mikumwess, ever on thewatch, caught up his spear, and, hurling it, pierced A-bekk-thee-lo, who did but kick two or three times ere he died. And, stepping ashore, he who had slain him took a pole, a long dead pine, which lay upon thesand, and, transfixing the Skunk, lifted him high in air, and, plantingthe tree on the ground, left him, saying scornfully, as he left, "_Lik cho je nain_!" which, being interpreted, meaneth, "And nowshow your tail there!" [Footnote: The Skunk is here a parody on theBeaver. ]

So they returned safely. And Glooskap met them at the landing, and hisfirst words were, "Well, my friends, I see that you have brought backmy canoe. " And they answered, "We have, indeed. " Then he inquired, " Hasall gone well with ye?" And they replied that it had. Then Glooskap, laughing, let them know that in all they had experienced he had beenbusy, and that in all their triumphs he had had a hand. And to theMikumwess he said, "Go now thy ways, thou and these, and ever leadhappy lives: thou amid the Elfin, they among mankind. And be sure ofthis, that if danger or trouble should come to you, you have but tothink of me, and verily aid will come. " So they rose and went to theirwigwams. [Footnote: In its earlier form this must have been a veryremarkable narrative, or poem. That the two combatants in the race wereoriginally the personified Northern Lights and Lightning, and thatthese were _not_ merely names assumed for boasting, is shown bythe incident that the Lightning actually _passed round the world_, while the Aurora Borealis only covered a portion of it. The diving iseither a later addition, or it represents the same stupendous spiritstaking on the appearance of mastering the element of water as well asthat of fire. Without carrying the Solar myth theory to extremes, itcannot be denied that Glooskap appears in several of these stories asSpring, or as the melter of ice, the conqueror of the frozen stream andof the iceberg. In this narrative he is active and creative Natureitself, directing and sporting with the warring elements. His vastpractical joking cannot fail to remind the reader yet again of theNorse deities and their jovial household godhood. 

This tradition is Micmac, and taken almost entirely from Mr. Rand'smanuscript. It should be borne in mind that it is not from a singlestory of this collection, but from a careful analysis and comparison ofthem all, that their entire value is to be ascertained. 

Certain incidents in this tale deserve special attention. The young mengo to a land of evil sorcerers, of _boo-oin_. When one is requiredto run a race he conquers because he is really the Lightning. When Thorvisits Utgard Loki, there is also a race, in which Hugi wins, becausehe is _Thought_ disguised as a man. Glooskap has a canoe, which issometimes immensely large, but which at other times shrinks to a verysmall size. In the Edda, Odin is said to have had made for him by thedwarfs a boat, Skidbladnir, which, like Glooskap's bark, expanded ordiminished. Sigurd, in the New Edda, is obliged to kill a dragon, andit is very remarkable that he does it by a special previouspreparation. That is to say, he digs a little ditch, and when thedragon crawls over it the hero pierces him with his sword. In thisstory the Indian lays a log over the dragon's hole, to enable him tochop his head off. The dragon, or horned snake, is an old-timetradition in America, or pre-Columbian. ]

_How a Certain Wicked Witch sought to cajole the Great and GoodGlooskap, and of her Punishment. _

(Micmac. )

_N'karnayoo_, of old time. Once it came to pass that Glooskap metwith an evil witch, and she had made herself like unto a fair younggirl, and believed that he could not know who she was. And she askedhim to take her with him in his canoe. So they sailed out over a summersea: and as they went the witch sought to beguile him with sweet words;but he answered naught, for he wist well what kind of passenger he hadon board. And as they went on she played her cajoleries, but heremained grim as a bear. Then she, being angry, showed it, and therearose a great storm. The wind howled over the waves as they rose andfell, like white wolves jumping while they run, the first lightningsflashed, and the sky grew dark as night. The Master was angered that somean a creature dared to play him such tricks, and, paddling the canoeto the beach, he leaped ashore. Then giving the bark, with the witch init, a push out to sea, he cried to her, "Sail thou with the devil! Butnever be in human form again, O she-beast!"

Then she, being frightened, said, "Master, what wilt thou that Ibecome?" And he replied, "Whatever thou wilt; that grace alone I givethee. " And in despair she plunged into the waters, and became a_keegunibe_, a ferocious fish, which has upon its back a greatfin, which it shows like a sail when swimming through the water. So thecanoe and the witch became one in the evil fish, and the Indians tothis day when they see it, cry, "See the witch, who was punished by thegreat Master!"

Now of sinful men, evil beasts, foul sorcerers, witches, and giants, there were in those days many who sought to do great harm to Glooskap;but of them all there did not escape any; verily, no, not one. [Footnote: A Micmac story, from the Rand manuscript. I believe that thefish here spoken of is a shark. ]

_Of other Men who went to Glooskap for Gifts_. 

(Micmac. )

_N'karnayoo: wood-enit-atokhagen Glooskap_. Of the old times: thisis a story of Glooskap. Now there went forth many men unto Glooskap, hearing that they could win the desires of their hearts; and all gotwhat they asked for, in any case; but as for having what they wanted, that depended on the wisdom with which they wished or acted. 

The good Glooskap liked it not that when he had told any one evenly andplainly what to do, that man should then act otherwise, or double withhim. And it came to pass that a certain fool, of the kind who can donothing unless it be in his own way, made a long journey to the Master. And his trials were indeed many. For he came to an exceeding highmountain in a dark and lonely land, where he heard no sound. And theascent thereof was like a smooth pole, and the descent on the otherside far worse, for it hung over the bottom. Yet it was worse beyond, for there the road lay between the heads of two huge serpents, almosttouching each other, who darted their terrible tongues at those whowent between. And yet again the path passed under the Wall of Death. Now this wall hung like an awful cloud over a plain, rising and fallingat times, yet no man knew when. And when it fell it struck the ground, and that so as to crush all that was beneath it. 

But the young man escaped all these trials, and came to the island ofthe Great Master. And when he had dwelt there a certain time, and wasasked what he would have, he replied, "If my lord will, let him give mea medicine which will cure all disease. " More than this he asked not. So the Master gave him a certain small package, and said, "Herein isthat which thou seekest; but I charge thee that thou lettest not thineeyes behold it until thou shalt reach thy home. " So he thanked theMaster, and left. 

But he was not far away ere he desired to open the package and test themedicine, and, yet more, the truth of the Master. And he said tohimself, "Truly, if this be but a deceit it was shrewdly devised to bidme not open it till I returned. For he knew well that once so far Iwould make no second journey to him. Tush! if the medicine avail aughtit cannot change in aught. " So he opened it, when that which wastherein fell to the ground, and spread itself like water everywhere, and then dried away like a mist. And when he returned and told histale, men mocked him. 

Then again there were three brothers, who, having adventured, madeknown their wishes. Now the first was very tall, far above all hisfellows, and vain of his comeliness. For he was of those who put barkor fur into their moccasins, that they may be looked up to by thelittle folk and be loved by the squaws; and his hair was plastered tostand up on high, and on the summit of it was a very long turkey-tailfeather. And this man asked to become taller than any Indian in all theland. [Footnote: This story has been told to me in three differentforms. I have here given it with great care in what I conceive to bethe original. In one version it is the pine, in another the cedar-tree. ]

And the second wished that he might ever remain where he was to beholdthe land and the beauty of it, and to do naught else. 

And the third wished to live to an exceeding old age, and ever to be ingood health. 

Now the three, when they came to the island, had found there threewigwams, and in two of these were dwellers, not spoken of in othertraditions. In one lived _Cool-puj-ot_, a very strange man. For hehas no bones, and cannot move himself, but every spring and autumn heis _rolled over with handspikes_ by the order of Glooskap, andthis is what his name means in the Micmac tongue. And in the autumn heis turned towards the west, but in the spring towards the east, andthis is a figure of speech denoting the revolving seasons of the year. With his breath he can sweep down whole armies, and with his looksalone he can work great wonders, and all this means this weather, --frost, snow, ice, and sunshine. [Footnote: Mr. Rand (manuscript, p. 471) says that all of this explanation was given _verbatim_ by aMicmac named Stephen Flood, who was a "very intelligent and reliableIndian. " Cool-puj-ot is almost identical with Shawandasee, the guardianof the South. "He is represented as an affluent, plethoric old man, whohas grown unwieldy from repletion, and seldom moves. He keeps his eyessteadfastly fixed on the north. When he sighs in autumn, we have thosebalmy southern airs, which communicate warmth and delight over thenorthern hemisphere, and make the Indian summer. " The "affluence" and"grown unwieldy from repletion, " in this account, are probably due toSchoolcraft's florid style. (_Hiawatha Legends_. ) Shawandasee isidentical with Svasud of the Edda. (Vafthrudnisnal, 27. )]

And in the other wigwam dwelt _Cuhkw_ (M. ), which meansEarthquake. And this mighty man can pass along under the ground, andmake all things shake and tremble by his power. 

Now when Glooskap had heard what these visitors wished for, he calledEarthquake, and bid him take them all three and put them with theirfeet in the ground. And he did so, when they at once became threetrees: as one tradition declares, pines; and another, cedars. 

So that he that would be tall became exceeding tall, for his head roseabove the forest; and even the turkey-feather at the top thereof is notforgotten, since to this day it is seen waving in the wind. And he whowill listen in a pine-wood may hear the tree murmuring all day long inthe Indian tongue of the olden time, --

 "Ee nil Etuchi nek m'kilaskitopp Ee nil Etuche wiski nek n'kil ooskedjin. " [Footnote: Passamaquoddy. ]

 Oh, I am such a great man! Oh, I am such a great Indian!

And the second, who would remain in the land, remains there; for whilehis roots are in the ground he cannot depart from it. 

And the third, who would live long in health, unless men have cut himdown, is standing as of yore. [Footnote: In another version of thistale, Glooskap transformed him into an old gnarled and twisted cedar, with limbs growing out rough and ugly all the way from the bottom. "There, " he said to the cedar-tree, "I cannot say how long you willlive; only the Great Spirit above can tell that; but you will not bedisturbed for a good while, as no one can have any object in cuttingyou down. You are yourself unfit for any earthly purpose, and the landaround you is useless for cultivation. I think you will stand there fora long while. " (Rand manuscript. )

It should be added that in one version we are told that the seeds fromthese cedars or pines were blown by the wind, and so spread forth allover the earth. The planting of the cedar by Earthquake possiblyindicates the storms by which seeds are blown afar. ]

_Of Glooskap and the Three Other Seekers_. 

(Micmac. )

Of old time. Now when it was noised abroad that whoever besoughtGlooskap could obtain the desire of his heart, there were three men whosaid among themselves, "Let us seek the Master. " So they left theirhome in the early spring when the bluebird first sang, and walked tillthe fall frosts, and then into winter, and ever on till the nextmidsummer. And having come to a small path in a great forest, theyfollowed it, till they came out by a very beautiful river; so fair asight they had never seen, and so went onward till it grew to be agreat lake. And so they kept to the path which, when untrodden, wasmarked by blazed trees, the bark having been removed, in Indianfashion, on the side of the trunk which is _opposite_ the placewhere the wigwam or village lies towards which it turns. So the markcan be seen as the traveler goes towards the goal, but not whileleaving it. 

[Illustration: GLOOSKAP TURNING A MAN INTO A CEDAR-TREE]

Then after a time they came to a long point of land running out intothe lake, and, having ascended a high hill, they saw in the distance asmoke, which guided them to a large, well-built wigwam. And, entering, they found seated on the right side a handsome, healthy man of middleage, and by the other a woman so decrepit that she seemed to be ahundred years old. Opposite the door, and on the left side, was a mat, which seemed to show that a third person had there a seat. 

And the man made them welcome, and spoke as if he were _weleda'asitkesegvou_ (M. )--well pleased to see them, but did not ask themwhence they came or whither they were going, as is wont among Indianswhen strangers come to their homes or are met in travel. Erelong theyheard the sound of a paddle, and then the noise of a canoe being drawnashore. And there came in a youth of fine form and features and wellclad, bearing weapons as if from hunting who addressed the old woman as_Kejoo_, or mother, and told her that he had brought game. Andwith sore ado--for she was feeble--the old dame tottered out andbrought in four beavers; but she was so much troubled to cut them upthat the elder, saying to the younger man _Uoh-keen_! (M. ), "Mybrother, " bade him do the work. And they supped on beaver. So theyremained for a week, resting themselves, for they were sadly worn withtheir wearisome journey, and also utterly ragged. And then a wondrousthing came to pass, which first taught them that they were in anenchanted land. For one morning the elder man bade the younger washtheir mother's face. And as he did this all her wrinkles vanished, andshe became young and very beautiful; in all their lives the travelershad never seen so lovely a woman. Her hair, which had been white andscanty, now hung to her feet, dark and glossy as a blackbird's breast. Then, having been clad in fine array, she showed a tall, lithe, andgraceful form at its best. 

And the travelers said to themselves, "Truly this man is a greatmagician!" They all walked forth to see the place. Never was sunshineso pleasantly tempered by a soft breeze; for all in that land was fair, and it grew fairer day by day to all who dwelt there. Tall trees withrich foliage and fragrant flowers, but without lower limbs orunderbrush, grew as in a grove, wide as a forest, yet so far apart thatthe eye could pierce the distance in every direction. 

Now when they felt for the first time that they were in a new life anda magic land, he that was host asked them whence they came and whatthey sought. So they said that they sought Glooskap. And the hostreplied, "Lo, I am he!" And they were awed by his presence, for a greatglory and majesty now sat upon him. As the woman had changed, so hadhe, for all in that place was wonderful. 

Then the first, telling what he wanted, said, "I am a wicked man, and Ihave a bad temper. I am prone to wrath and reviling, yet I would fainbe pious, meek, and holy. "

And the next said, "I am very poor, and my life is hard. I toil, butcan barely make my living. I would fain be rich. "

Now the third replied, "I am of low estate, being despised and hated byall my people, and I wish to be loved and respected. " And to all thesethe Master made answer, "So shall it be!"

And taking his medicine-bag (_Upsakumoode_, M. ) he gave unto eacha small box, and bade them keep it closed until they should be oncemore at home. [Footnote: In this version (Rand manuscript) there is afourth Indian introduced, --he who would fain be tall and long-lived, and is changed to a tree. As it is precisely the same tale as that ofthe three who became cypresses or pines, I have not repeated it. ] Andon returning to the wigwam he also, gave to each of them new garments;in all their lives they had never seen or heard of such rich apparel orsuch ornaments as they now had. Then when it was time to depart, asthey knew not the way to their home, he arose and went with them. Nowthey had been more than a year in coming. But he, having put on hisbelt, went forth, and they followed, till in the forenoon he led themto the top of a high mountain, from which in the distance they beheldyet another, the blue outline of which could just be seen above thehorizon. And having been told that their way was unto it, they thoughtit would be a week's journey to reach it. But they went on, and in themiddle of the afternoon of the same day they were there, on the summitof the second mountain. And looking from this afar, all was familiar tothem--hill and river, and wood and lakes; all was in their memory. "Andthere, " said the Master, pointing unto it, --"there is your own village!"So he left them alone, and they went on their way, and before the sun hadset were safe at home. 

Yet when they came no one knew them, because of the great change intheir appearance and their fine attire, the like of which had neverbeen seen by man in those days. But having made themselves known totheir friends, all that were there of old and young gathered togetherto gaze upon and hear what they had to say. And they were amazed. 

Then each of them, having opened his box, found therein an unguent, rich and fragrant, and with this they rubbed their bodies completely. And they were ever after so fragrant from the divine anointing that allsought to be near them. Happy were they who could but sniff at theblessed smell which came from them. 

Now he who had been despised for his deformity and weakness andmeanness became beautiful and strong and stately as a pine-tree. Therewas no man in all the land so graceful or of such good behavior. 

And he who had desired abundance had it, in all fullness, his wish. Forthe moose and caribou came to him in the forest, the fish leaped intohis nets, all men gave unto him, and he gave unto all freely, to theend. 

And he that had been wicked and of evil mind, hasty and cruel, becamemeek and patient, good and gentle, and he made others like himself. Andhe had his reward, for there was a blessing upon him as upon all thosewho had wished wisely even unto the end of their days. [Footnote: Thisbeautiful story, in its original simplicity, reminds one of thetenderest biblical narratives. There is in it nothing reflected orsecond-hand; it is a very ancient or truly aboriginal tale. I can butsincerely regret my utter inability to do justice to it. The pen of agreat master would be required to describe the fairyland freshness andlight of Glooskap's home as it is _felt_ in the original by menfar more familiar with the forest in all its loveliness at all seasonsthan any white writer can be. The _naivete_ or simplicity of thepilgrims is as striking as that of the narrator or poet, to whom fineclothes--a Homeric trait--are as wonderful as all the deeds of magicwhich he describes. 

In this and other tales a man is represented as being punished by beingturned into a tree, so that he can never leave a certain spot. This isa kind of imprisonment. In the Edda the Ash Yggdrasil is the prison ofIduna. 

 "She ill brooked her descent under the hoar tree's trunk confined. "

 (_Hrofnagaldr Odins_, 7. )

It is to keep a man or a woman in a certain place, as prisoner, thatthe characters described in the Indian and Norse myths are put intotrees. 

This was related to Mr. Rand by Benjamin Brooks, a Micmac. ]

_Of Glooskap and the Sinful Serpent. _

(Passamaquoddy. )

Of old time it befell that Glooskap had an enemy, an evil man, a sinfulbeast, a great sorcerer. And this man, after trying many things, madehimself a great serpent, hoping so to slay the Master. 

Of old time Glooskap met a boy whose name was _'Nmmokswess_, theSable. [Footnote: Evidently no other than Marten, or the Abistanooch ofthe Micmac mythology. ] And the boy had a flute: whoever played on itcould entice unto him all the animals. And once, when the Master wasafar, the boy broke the flute, and in his great sorrow he would notreturn home, but wandered away into the wilderness. Now Glooskap knewin his heart that the flute was broken: he who is a magician knows atonce of a great evil. And coming home, he asked of the grandmotherwhere the boy was, and she could only weep. Then the Master said, "Though I roam forever, yet will I find the boy. " So he went forth, andhe tracked him in the snow for three days; and on the third night heheard some one singing in a hollow; and it was a magic song, that whichthe _m'teoulin_ sings when he is in dire need and death is near. And making a circle round about the place, Glooskap looked down and sawa wigwam, and heard the voice more distinctly as he drew nearer; and itwas the voice of the boy, and he was singing a song against all of thesnake kind. And he was wandering about the wigwam, seeking a straightstick. 

Then Glooskap understood all the thing, and how the boy had beenenticed into the wilderness by the evil arts of At-o-sis, the Snake, and that the Great Serpent was in the wigwam, and had sent him out toseek a straight stick. Then Glooskap, singing again softly, bade himget a very crooked one, and told what more to do. So the boy got anexceedingly crooked one; and when he entered, the Snake, seeing it, said, "Why hast thou got such a bad stick?" And the boy, answering, said, "Truly, it is very crooked, but that which is crookedest may bemade straightest, and I know a charm whereby this can be done; for Iwill but heat this stick in the fire, and, then I will make it quitestraight, as you shall see. " Now At-o-sis was very anxious to beholdthis wonderful thing, and he looked closely; but the boy, as soon asthe end of the stick was red-hot, thrust it into his eyes and blindedhim, and ran forth. Yet the Snake followed him; but when he was withoutthe wigwam he met the Master, who slew him out of hand. [Footnote: Thiscurious legend is suggestive of Ulysses and the Cyclops. The enemies ofGlooskap are all cannibals; the boy is sent out for a straight stick toserve as a spit to roast him on. It is not impossible that the Snake, in some perfect version of the tale, has but a single eye since many ofthe evil creatures of red Indian mythology are half stone lengthwise. But the whole story is full of strange hints. It was told me by TomahJosephs, at Campobello, N. B. ]

Of old times. This is an end of the story. 

_The Tale of Glooskap as told by another Indian. Showing how the Toadand Porcupine lost their Noses. _

(Micmac. )

In the old time. Far before men knew themselves, in the light beforethe sun, Glooskap and his brother were as yet unborn; they waited forthe day to appear. Then they talked together, and the youngest said, "Why should I wait? I will go into the world and begin my life atonce. " Then the elder said, "Not so, for this were a great evil. " Butthe younger gave no heed to any wisdom: in his wickedness he brokethrough his mother's side, he rent the wall; his beginning of life washis mother's death. 

Now, in after years, the younger brother would learn in what lay thesecret of the elder's death. And Glooskap, being crafty, told the truthand yet lied; for his name was the Liar, yet did he never lie for evilor aught to harm. So he told his brother that the blow of a ball, orhandful of the down of feathers, would take away his life; and this wastrue, for it would stun him, but it would not prevent his returning tolife. Then Glooskap asked the younger for his own secret. And he, beingdetermined to give the elder no time, answered truly and fearlessly, "Ican only be slain by the stroke of a cat-tail or bulrush. "

And then the younger, having gathered the down of bird's feathers, struck the elder, so that he fell dead, and therein he told the truth. But he soon recovered, and in that was his deceit. Howbeit it was wellfor the world and well for him that he then gathered bulrushes andsmote his younger brother, so that he died. But the plant never grewthat could harm the Master, wherefore he is alive to this day. 

Who was his mother? The female Turtle was his mother. 

The Master was the Lord of Men and Beasts. Beasts and Men, one as theother, he ruled them all Great was his army, his tribe was All. In itthe Great Golden Eagle was a chief; he married a female Caribou. TheTurtle was Glooskap's uncle; he married a daughter of the Golden Eagleand Caribou. Of all these things there are many and long traditions. Our people tell them in the winter by the fire: the old people knowthem; the young forget them and the wisdom which is in them. 

When the Turtle married, the Master bade him make a feast, and wishedthat the banquet should be a mighty one. To do this he gave him greatpower. He bade him go down to a point of rocks by the sea, where manywhales were always to be found. He bade him bring one; he gave himpower to do so, but he set a mark, or an appointed space, and bade himnot go an inch beyond it. So the Turtle went down to the sea; he caughta great whale, he bore it to camp; it seemed to him easy to do this. But like all men there was in him vain curiosity; the falsehood ofdisobedience was in him, and to try the Master he went beyond the mark;and as he did this he lost his magic strength; he became as a man; evenas a common mortal his nerves weakened, and he fell, crushed flatbeneath the weight of the great fish. 

Then men ran to Glooskap, saying that Turtle was dead. But the Masteranswered, "Cut up the Whale; he who is now dead will revive. " So theycut it up; (and when the feast was ready) Turtle came in yawning, andstretching out his leg he cried, "How tired I am! Truly, I must haveoverslept myself. " Now from this time all men greatly feared Glooskap, for they saw that he was a spirit. 

It came to pass that the Turtle waxed mighty in his own conceit, andthought that he could take Glooskap's place and reign in his stead. Sohe held a council of all the animals to find out how he could be slain. The Lord of Men and Beasts laughed at this. Little did he care forthem!

And knowing all that was in their hearts, he put on the shape of an oldsquaw and went into the council-house. And he sat down by two witches:one was the Porcupine, the other the Toad; as women they sat there. Ofthem the Master asked humbly how they expected to kill him. And theToad answered savagely, "What is that to thee, and what hast thou to dowith this thing?" "Truly, " he replied, "I meant no harm, " and sayingthis he softly touched the tips of their noses, and rising went hisway. But the two, witches, looking one at the other, saw presently thattheir noses were both gone, and they screamed aloud in terror, buttheir faces were none the less flat. And so it came that the Toad andthe Porcupine both lost their noses and have none to this day. 

Glooskap had two dogs. One was the Loon (Kwemoo), the other the Wolf(Malsum). Of old all animals were as men; the Master gave them theshapes which they now bear. But the Wolf and the Loon loved Glooskap sogreatly that since he left them they howl and wail. He who hears theircries over the still sound and lonely lake, by the streams where nodwellers are, or afar at night in the forests and hollows, hears themsorrowing for the Master. 

I am indebted for this legend to Mr. Edward Jack, of Fredericton, N. B. "I give it to you, " he writes, "just as it came from an Indian's lips, as he sat before the fire in my room this evening, smoking his tobaccomixed with willow bark. He has an endless store of Indian lore. " It maybe observed that this story gives a far more ingenious reason forGlooskap's telling his brother what would be his bane than appears inthe other version. For he tells him what would indeed deprive him oflife, but not forever. 

No one can compare the story of Glooskap with that of Manobozho-Hiawathaand the like, as given by Schoolcraft or Cusick, and not decide that thelatter seems to be a second-hand version of the former. In one we havethe _root_ of the bulrush, --not the light, feathery rush itself. Inthis story, as in that of Balder and Loki, it is the very apparentharmlessness of the bane which points the incident. Manobozho's father_says_ that a black rock will kill him; but it does not, althoughhe flies before it. Glooskap declares that a handful of down will causehis death. The _double entendre_ of the swoon is entirely wantingin the Western tale, as is the apparent harmlessness of the medium ofdeath. In the Edda the mistletoe, the softest, and apparently the leastinjurious, of plants, kills Balder; in the Wabanaki tale it is a ball ofdown or a rush. The Chippewas change it, like savages, to a substantialroot and a black rock, thereby manifesting an insensibility to the pointof the original, which is that the most trifling thing may be the causeof the most terrible events. 

_How Glooskap changed Certain Saucy Indians into Rattlesnakes_

(Passamaquoddy. )

You know At-o-sis, the Snake? Well, the worst of all is Rattlesnake. Long time ago the Rattlesnakes were saucy Indians. They were verysaucy. They had too much face. They could not be put down by much, andthey got up for very little. 

When the great Flood was coming Glooskap told them about it. They saidthey did not care. He told them the water would come over their heads. They said that would be very wet. He told them to be good and quiet, and pray. Then those Indians hurrahed. He said, "A great Flood iscoming. " Then they gave three cheers for the great Flood. He said, "TheFlood will come and drown you all. " Then these Indians hurrahed again, and got their rattles, made of turtle-shells, in the old fashion, fastened together, filled with pebbles, and rattled them and had agrand dance. Afterwards, when the white men brought cows and oxen intothe country, they made rattles of horns. 

Yes, they had a great dance. The rain began to fall, but they danced. The thunder roared, and they shook their rattles and yelled at it. ThenGlooskap was angry. He did not drown them in the Flood, however, but hechanged them into rattlesnakes. Nowadays, when they see a man coming, they lift up their heads and move them about. That's the way snakesdance. And they shake the rattles in their tails just as Indians shaketheir rattles when they dance. How do you like such music?

A Passamaquoddy tale related by an old woman to Mrs. W. Wallace Brown. These Indians still keep up a very curious snake-dance. 

_How Glooskap bound Wuchowsen, the Great Wind-Bird, and made all theWaters in all the World Stagnant. _

(Passamaquoddy. )

The Indians believe in a great bird called by them _Wochowsen_ or_Wuchowsen_, meaning Wind-Blow or the Wind-Blower, who lives farto the North, and sits upon a great rock at the end of the sky. And itis because whenever he moves his wings the wind blows they of old timescalled him that. 

When Glooskap was among men he often went out in his canoe with bow andarrows to kill sea-fowl. At one time it was every day very windy; itgrew worse; at last it blew a tempest, and he could not go out at all. Then he said, "Wuchowsen, the Great Bird, has done this!"

He went to find him; it was long ere he reached his abode. He foundsitting on a high rock a large white Bird. 

"Grandfather, " said Glooskap, "you take no compassion on your_Koosesek_, your grandchildren. You have caused this wind andstorm; it is too much. Be easier with your wings!"

The Giant Bird replied, "I have been here since ancient times; in theearliest days, ere aught else spoke, I first moved my wings; mine wasthe first voice, --and I will ever move my wings as I will. "

Then Glooskap rose in his might; he rose to the clouds; he took theGreat Bird-giant Wuchowsen as though he were a duck, and tied both hiswings, and threw him down into a chasm between deep rocks, and left himlying there. 

The Indians could now go out in their canoes all day long, for therewas a dead calm for many weeks and months. And with that all the watersbecame stagnant. They were so thick that Glooskap could not paddle hiscanoe. Then he thought of the Great Bird, and went to see him. 

As he had left him he found him, for Wuchowsen is immortal. So, raisinghim, he put him on his rock again, and untied one of his wings. Sincethen the winds have never been so terrible as in the old time. Thereader will find the main incident of this story repeated in"Tumilkoontaoo, the Broken Wing, " from the Micmac, in which there is nomention of Glooskap. This of _Wuchowsen_ is from the Passamaquoddymanuscript collection by Louis Mitchell. It is unquestionably theoriginal. Glooskap, as the greatest magician, most appropriatelysubdues the giant eagle of the North, the terrible god of the storm. 

No one who knows the Edda will deny that Wuchowsen, or the Wind-blower, as he appears in the Passamaquoddy tale, is far more like the same birdof the Norsemen than the grotesque Thunder Bird of the Western tribes. He is distinctly spoken of by the Indians of Maine as a giant and abird in one, sitting on a high cliff at the end of the sky, the wind--notthunder--coming from his pinions:--

 "Tell me ninthly, Since thou art called wise, Whence the wind comes, That over ocean passes, Itself invisible to man. 

 "Hraesvelg he is called Who at the end of heaven sits, A Jotun (giant) in eagle's plumage: From his wings comes, It is said, the wind. That over all men passes. "

 (The Lay of Vafthrudnir. The Edda, trans. By B. Thorpe. )

_How Glooskcap conquered the Great Bull-Frog, and in what Manner allthe Pollywogs, Crabs, Leeches, and other Water Creatures werecreated. _

(Passamaquoddy and Micmac. )

_N'karnayoo_, of old times, there was an Indian village far awayamong the mountains, little known to other men. And the dwellerstherein were very comfortable: the men hunted every day, the women didthe work at home, and all went well in all things save in this. Thetown was by a brook, and except in it there was not a drop of water inall the country round, unless in a few rain-puddles. No one there hadever found even a spring. 

Now these Indians were very fond of good water. The brook was of asuperior quality, and they became dainty over it. 

But after a time they began to observe that the brook was beginning torun low, and that not in the summer time, but in autumn, even after therains. And day by day it diminished, until its bed was as dry as a deadbone in the ashes of a warm fire. 

Now it was said that far away up in the land where none had ever beenthere was on this very stream another Indian village; but what mannerof men dwelt therein no one knew. And thinking that these people of theupper country might be in some way concerned in the drought, they sentone of their number to go and see into the matter. 

And after he had traveled three days he came to the place; and there hefound that a dam had been raised across the rivulet, so that no watercould pass, for it was all kept in a pond. Then asking them why theyhad made this mischief, since the dam was of no use to them, they badehim go and see their chief, by whose order this had been built. 

And when he came to him, lo, there lay lazily in the mud a creature whowas more of a monster than a man, though he had a human form. For hewas immense to measure, like a giant, fat, bloated, and brutal tobehold. His great yellow eyes stuck from his head like pine-knots, hismouth went almost from ear to ear, and he had broad, skinny feet withlong toes, exceeding marvelous. 

The messenger complained to this monster, who at first said nothing, and then croaked, and finally replied in a loud bellow, --

 "Do as you choose, Do as you choose, Do as you choose. 

 "What do I care? What do I care? What do I care?

 "If you want water, If you want water, If you want water, Go somewhere else. "

Then the messenger remonstrated, and described the suffering of thepeople, who were dying of thirst. And this seemed to please themonster, who grinned. At last he got up, and, making a single spring tothe dam, took an arrow and bored a hole in it, so that a little watertrickled out, and then he bellowed, --

 "Up and begone! Up and begone! Up and begone!"

So the man departed, little comforted. He came to his home, and for afew days there was a little water in the stream; but this soon stopped, and there was great suffering again. 

Now these Indians, who were the honestest fellows in all the world, andnever did harm to any one save their enemies, were in a sorry pickle. For it is a bad thing to have nothing but water to drink, but to wantthat is to be mightily dry. And the great Glooskap, who knew all thatwas passing in the hearts of men and beasts, took note of this, andwhen he willed it he was among them; for he ever came as the windcomes, and no man wist how. 

And just before he came all of these good fellows had resolved incouncil that they would send the boldest man among them to certaindeath, even to the village which built the dam that kept the waterwhich filled the brook that quenched their thirst, whenever it was notempty. And when there he was either to obtain that they should cut thedam, or do something desperate, and to this intent he should go armed, and sing his death-song as he went. And they were all agog. 

Then Glooskap, who was much pleased with all this, for he loved a braveman, came among them looking terribly ferocious; in all the land therewas not one who seemed half so horrible. For he appeared ten feet high, with a hundred red and black feathers in his scalp-lock, his facepainted like fresh blood with green rings round his eyes, a largeclam-shell hanging from each ear, a spread eagle, very awful to behold, flapping its wings from the back of his neck, so that as he strode intothe village all hearts quaked. Being but simple Indians, they accountedthat this must be, if not Lox the Great Wolverine, at least Mitche-hant, the devil himself in person, turned Wabanaki; and they admiredhim greatly, and the squaws said they had never seen aught so lovely. 

Then Glooskap, having heard the whole story, bade them be of goodcheer, declaring that he would soon set all to rights. And he withoutdelay departed up the bed of the brook; and coming to the town, satdown and bade a boy bring him water to drink. To which the boy repliedthat no water could be had in that town unless it were given out by thechief. "Go then to your chief, " said the Master, "and bid him hurry, or, verily, I will know the reason why. " And this being told, Glooskapreceived no reply for more than an hour, during which time he sat on alog and smoked his pipe. Then the boy returned with a small cup, andthis not half full, of very dirty water. 

So he arose, and said to the boy, "I will go and see your chief, and Ithink he will soon give me better water than this. " And having come tothe monster, he said, "Give me to drink, and that of the best, at once, thou Thing of Mud!" But the chief reviled him, and said, "Get theehence, to find water where thou canst. " Then Glooskap thrust a spearinto his belly, and lo! there gushed forth a mighty river; even all thewater which should have run on while in the rivulet, for he had made itinto himself. And Glooskap, rising high as a giant pine, caught thechief in his hand and crumpled in his back with a mighty grip. And lo!it was the Bull-Frog. So he hurled him with contempt into the stream, to follow the current. 

And ever since that time the Bull-Frog's back has crumpled wrinkles inthe lower part, showing the prints of Glooskap's awful squeeze. 

Then he returned to the village; but there he found no people, --no, notone. For a marvelous thing had come to pass during his absence, whichshall be heard in every Indian's speech through all the ages. For themen, being, as I said, simple, honest folk, did as boys do when theyare hungry, and say unto one another, "What would you like to have, andwhat you?" "Truly, I would be pleased with a slice of hot venisondipped in maple-sugar and bear's oil. " "Nay, give me for my sharesuccotash and honey. " Even so these villagers had said, "Suppose_you_ had all the nice cold, fresh, sparkling, delicious waterthere is in the world, what would _you_ do?"

And one said that he would live in the soft mud, and always be wet andcool. 

And another, that he would plunge from the rocks, and take headers, diving into the deep, cold water, drinking as he dived. 

And the third, that he would be washed up and down with the ripplingwaves, living on the land, yet ever in the water. 

Then the fourth said, "Verily, you know not how to wish, and I willteach you. I would live in the water all the time, and swim about in itforever. "

Now it chanced that these things were said in the hour which, when itpasses over the world, all the wishes uttered by men are granted. Andso it was with these Indians. For the first became a Leech, the seconda Spotted Frog, the third a Crab, which is washed up and down with thetide, and the fourth a Fish. Ere this there had been in all the worldnone of the creatures which dwell in the water, and now they werethere, and of all kinds. And the river came rushing and roaring on, andthey all went headlong down to the sea, to be washed into many landsover all the world. [Footnote: This was told by Tomah Josephs. It isgiven much more imperfectly in the tale of Kitpooseagunow in the Randmanuscript, and in the Anglo-Indian "Storey of Glooscap. " I have takenvery great pains in this, as in all the tales written down from verbalnarration, to be accurate in details, and to convey as well as I couldthe quaint manner and dry humor which characterized the style of thenarrator. Even white men do not tell the same story in the same way toeverybody; and if Tomahquah and others fully expressed their feelingsto me, it was because they had never before met with a white man wholistened to them with such sympathy. It may be observed that theIndians commonly say that wherever the bull-frog is to be found insummer there is always water. It is not to be understood, in this tale, that the bull-frog is supposed to have merely drunk up the river. It isthe river which has become incarnate in him. It is the ice of winterpenetrated by the spear of the sun; that is, Glooskap. Thus, in anothertale, a frozen river tries, as a man, to destroy the hero, but ismelted by him. The conception of _the hour_ when all wishes aregranted, and the abrupt termination of the whole in a grandtransformation scene, are both very striking. There is something likethe former in Rabelais, in his narrative of the golden hatchet; asregards the latter, it is like the ending of a Christmas pantomime. Indeed, the entire tale is perfectly adapted to such a "dramatization. "

I have been told by an old Passamaquoddy woman that the name of themonster who swallowed the stream was _Hahk-lee-be-mo_. ]

_How the Lord of Men and Beasts strove with the Mighty Wasis, and wasshamefully defeated. _

(Penobscot. )

Now it came to pass when Glooskap had conquered all his enemies, even the_Kewahqu'_, who were giants and sorcerers, and the _m'teoulin_, who were magicians, and the _Pamola_, who is the evil spirit of thenight air, and all manner of ghosts, witches, devils, cannibals, andgoblins, that he thought upon what he had done, and wondered if hiswork was at an end. 

And he said this to a certain woman. But she replied, "Not so fast, Master, for there yet remains One whom no one has ever conquered or gotthe better of in any way, and who will remain unconquered to the end oftime. "

"And who is he?" inquired the Master. 

"It is the mighty _Wasis_, " she replied, "and there he sits; and Iwarn you that if you meddle with him you will be in sore trouble. "

Now _Wasis_ was the Baby. And he sat on the floor sucking a pieceof maple-sugar, greatly contented, troubling no one. 

As the Lord of Men and Beasts had never married or had a child, he knewnaught of the way of managing children. Therefore he was quite certain, as is the wont of such people, that he knew all about it. So he turnedto Baby with a bewitching smile and bade him come to him. 

Then Baby smiled again, but did not budge. And the Master spake sweetlyand made his voice like that of the summer bird, but it was of noavail, for Wasis sat still and sucked his maple-sugar. 

Then the Master frowned and spoke terribly, and ordered Wasis to comecrawling to him immediately. And Baby burst out into crying andyelling, but did not move for all that. 

Then, since he could do but one thing more, the Master had recourse tomagic. He used his most awful spells, and sang the songs which raisethe dead and scare the devils. And Wasis sat and looked on admiringly, and seemed to find it very interesting, but all the same he never movedan inch. 

So Glooskap gave it up in despair, and Wasis, sitting on the floor inthe sunshine, went _goo! goo!_ and crowed. 

And to this day when you see a babe well contented, going _goo!goo!_ and crowing, and no one can tell why, know that it is becausehe remembers the time when he overcame the Master who had conquered allthe world. For of all the beings that have ever been since thebeginning, Baby is alone the only invincible one. [Footnote: I amindebted for this "marchen" to Maria Saksis, a very intelligentPenobscot woman, a widow of a former governor, whom I met at NorthConway, in the White Mountains, N. H. In her dialect Glooskap isinvariably called _Glus-gah-be_. She told it with that admirabledry drollery, characteristic of a good story-teller in a race wherethere are no bad ones. The exquisite humor and humanity of this littlelegend, placed as a pendant to the stupendous successes of the gianthero, are such as to entitle its Indian author to rank as a genius. Ihave frequently asserted that these Wabanaki or Northeastern Algonquintales bore to those of the West the apparent relation of originals topoor copies. Let the reader compare this, which is given as nearly wordfor word as was possible from the Indian narrative, with that ofManobozho-Hiawatha's effort to compete with a baby. The Cherokeeaccount is that, seeing an infant sucking its own toe, he tried to dothe same, and failed. It is in accounting for the unaccountable crowingof Baby that the point of the Penobscot story lies. Of this there is nomention made in the Western tale, which is utterly wanting in anyfeeling as to the power of childhood or its charm over the strongest. Areal Indian tale may always be assumed to be ancient when it is told toset forth an _origin_. This gives the origin of a baby's crowing. ]

_How the great Glooskap fought the Giant Sorcerers at Saco, andturned them into Fish. _

(Penobscot. )

_N'karnayoo_, of old times: _Woodenit atok hagen__Glusgahbe_. This is a story of Glooskap (P. ) There was a fatherwho had three sons and a daughter: they were _m'teoulin_, ormighty magicians; they were giants; they ate men, women, and children;they did everything that was wicked and horrible; and the world grewtired of them and of all their abominations. Yet when this family wasyoung, Glooskap had been their friend; he had made the father hisadopted father, the brothers his brothers, the sister his sister. [Footnote: The Indians make formal adoptions of relatives of everygrade, and in addition to this use all the terms of relationship asfriendly greetings. This is in fact made apparent in all the stories inthis collection. ] Yet as they grew older, and he began to hear on everyside of their wickedness, he said: "I will go among them and find ifthis be true. And if it be so, they shall die. I will not spare one ofthose who oppress and devour men, I do not care who he may be. "

This family was at _Samgadihawk_, or Saco, on the sandy fieldwhich is in the Intervale or the summer bed of the Saco River, in theEl-now-e-bit, the White Mountains, between Geh-sit-wah-zuch [Footnote:_Geh-sit-wah-zuch_, "many mountains" (Pen. ). Mount Kearsarge, socalled from the several lesser peaks around it. ] and K'tchee penahbesk, [Footnote: _K'tchee penabesk_, "the great rock, " a much moresensible and appropriate name than that of "Cathedral Rocks, " which hasbeen bestowed upon it; also _chee penabsk_. ] and near Oonahgemessukweegeet, the Home of the Water Fairies. [Footnote: Also called from alegend, _Oonahgemessuk k'tubbee_, the Water Fairies' Spring. Thisappropriate and beautiful name has been rejected in favor of theridiculously rococo term "Diana's Bath. " As there is a "Diana's Bath"at almost every summer watering place in America, North Conway must ofcourse have one. The absolute antipathy which the majority of Americansmanifest for the aboriginal names, even in a translation, is reallyremarkable. ] Now the old man, the father of the evil magicians and hisadopted father, had only one eye, and was half gray. [Footnote: This woulddirectly connect him with the beings which are half stone, like theOonahgemessuk, or water-goblins, the dwellers in Katahdin, and the Eskimoelves. This will be referred to again. ] And Glooskap made himself likehim, --there was not between them the difference of a hair; and havingthis form, he entered the wigwam and sat down by the old man. And thebrothers, who killed everybody, not sparing one living soul, hearing atalking, looked in slyly, and seeing the new-comer, so like their fatherthat they knew not which was which, said, "This is a great magician. Buthe shall be tried ere he goes, and that bitterly. "

Then the sister took the tail of a whale, and cooked it for thestranger to eat. But as it lay before him, on the platter and on hisknees, the elder brother entered, and saying rudely, "This is too goodfor a beggar like you, " took it away to his own wigwam. Then Glooskapspoke: "That which was given to me was mine; therefore I take itagain. " And sitting still he simply _wished_ for it, and it cameflying into the platter where it was before. So he ate it. 

Then the brothers said, "Indeed, he is a great magician. But he shallbe tried ere he goes, and that bitterly. "

When he had eaten, they brought in a mighty bone, the jaw of a whale, and the eldest brother, with great ado, and using both his arms and allhis strength, bent it a little. Then he handed it to Glooskap, who withhis thumb and fingers, snapped it like a pipe-stem. And the brotherssaid again, "Truly, this is a great magician. But he shall for all thatbe tried ere he goes, and that bitterly. "

Then they brought a great pipe full of the strongest tobacco; no mannot a magician could have smoked it. And it was passed round: every onesmoked; the brothers blew the smoke through their nostrils. ButGlooskap filled it full, and, lighting it, burnt all the tobacco toashes at one pull, and blew all the smoke through his nostrils at onepuff. Then the brothers said again in anger, "This is indeed a greatmagician. Yet he shall be tried again ere he goes, and that bitterly. "But they never said it again. 

And they still tried to smoke with him, and the wigwam was closed; theyhoped to smother him in smoke, but he sat and puffed away as if he hadbeen on a mountain-top, till they could bear it no longer. And onesaid, "This is idle; let us go and play at ball. " The place where theywere to play was on the sandy plain of Samgadihawk, or Saco, on thebend of the river. [Footnote: I have an Indian stone pestle, or hominypounder, which I picked up on the site of this ball-play. ] And the gamebegun; but Glooskap found that the ball with which they played was ahideous skull; it was alive and snapped at his heels, and had he beenas other men and it had bitten him, it would have taken his foot off. Then Glooskap laughed, and said, "So this is the game you play. Good, but let us all play with our own balls. " So he stepped up to a tree onthe edge of the river-bed and broke off the end of a bough, and itturned into a skull ten times more terrible than the other. And themagicians ran before it as it chased them as a lynx chases rabbits;they were entirely beaten. Then Glooskap stamped on the sand, and thewaters rose and came rushing fearfully from the mountains adown theriver-bed; the whole land rang with their roar. Now Glooskap sang amagic song, which changes all beings, and the three brothers and theirfather became the _chinahmess_, a fish which is as long and largeas a man, and they went headlong down on the flood, to the deep sea, todwell there forever. And the magicians had on, each of them, a wampumcollar; wherefore the _chinahmess_ has beneath its head, as onemay say, round its neck, the wampum collar, as may be seen to this day. And they were mighty _m'teoulin_ in their time; but they weretried before they went, and that bitterly. 

Yes, _seewass_, my brother, this is a true story. For Glus-gah-bewas a great man in his day, and the day will come when I shall go tohim and see him. [Footnote: This legend is from a single authority, Maria Saksis. ]

_How Glooskap went to England and France, and was the first to makeAmerica known to the Europeans_. 

(Passamaquoddy. )

There was an Indian woman: she was a Woodchuck (Mon-in-kwess, P. ). Shehad lost a boy; she always thought of him. Once there came to her astrange boy; he called her mother. 

He had a pipe with which he could call all the animals. He said, "Mother, if you let any one have this pipe we shall starve. "

"Where did you get it?"

"A stranger gave it to me. "

One day the boy was making a canoe. The woman took the pipe and blewit. There came a deer and a _qwah-beet_, --a beaver. They camerunning; the deer came first, the beaver next. The beaver had a stickin his mouth; he gave it to her, and said, "Whenever you wish to killanything, though it were half a mile off, point this stick at it. " Shepointed it at the deer; it fell dead. 

The boy was Glooskap. He was building a stone canoe. Every morning hewent forth, and was gone all day. He worked a year at it. The motherhad killed many animals. When the great canoe was finished he took his(adopted) mother to see it. He said that he would make sails for it. She asked him, "Of what will you make them?" He answered, "Of leaves. "She replied, "Let the leaves alone. I have something better. " She hadmany buffalo skins already tanned, and said, "Take as many as youneed. "

He took his pipe. He piped for moose; he piped for elk and for bear:they came. He pointed his stick at them: they were slain. He driedtheir meat, and so provisioned his great canoe. To carry water hekilled many seals; he filled their bladders with water. 

So they sailed across the sea. This was before the white people hadever heard of America. The white men did not discover this countryfirst at all. Glooskap discovered England, and told them about it. Hegot to London. The people had never seen a canoe before. They cameflocking down to look at it. 

The Woodchuck had lost her boy. This boy it was, who first discoveredAmerica (England?). This boy could walk on the water and fly up to thesky. [Footnote: This tale was taken down in very strange and confusedEnglish. The first part is in my notes almost unintelligible. ] He tookhis mother to England. They offered him a large ship for his stonecanoe. He refused it. He feared lest the ship should burn. They offeredhim servants. He refused them. They gave him presents which almostoverloaded the canoe. They gave him an anchor and an English flag. 

He and his mother went to France. The French people fired cannon at himtill the afternoon. They could not hurt the stone canoe. In the nightGlooskap drew all their men-of-war ashore. Next morning the French sawthis. They said, "Who did this?" He answered, "I did it. "

They took him prisoner. They put him into a great cannon and fired itoff. They looked into the cannon, and there he sat smoking his stonepipe, knocking the ashes out. 

The king heard how they had treated him. He said it was wrong. He whocould do such deeds must be a great man. He sent for Glooskap, whoreplied, "I do not want to see your king. I came to this country tohave my mother baptized as a Catholic. " They sent boats, they sent acoach; he was taken to the king, who put many questions to him. 

He wished to have his mother christened. It was done. They called herMolly. [Footnote: The Indians pronounce the word Marie Mahli or Molly. Mahlinskwess, "Miss Molly, " sounds like Mon-in-kwess, a woodchuck. Hence this very poor pun. ] Therefore to this day all woodchucks arecalled Molly. They went down to the shore; to please the king Glooskapdrew all the ships into the sea again. So the king gave him what hewanted, and he returned home. Since that time white men have come toAmerica. 

 * * * * *

This is an old Eskimo tale, greatly modernized and altered. The Eskimobelieve in a kind of sorcerers or spirits, who have instruments whichthey merely point at people or animals, to kill them. I think that theIndian who told me this story (P. ) was aware of its feebleness, and wasashamed to attribute such nonsense to Glooskap, and therefore made thehero an Indian named Woodchuck. But among Mr. Rand's Micmac tales itfigures as a later tribute to the memory of the great hero. 

One version of this story was given to me by Tomah Josephs, another byMrs. W. Wallace Brown. In the latter Glooskap's canoe is a great ship, with all kinds of birds for sailors. In the Shawnee legend of theCelestial Sisters (Hiawatha Legends), a youth who goes to the sky musttake with him one of every kind of bird. This indicates that theGlooskap voyage meant a trip to heaven. 

_How Glooskap is making Arrows, and preparing for a Great Battle. TheTwilight of the Indian Gods. _

(Passamaquoddy. )

"_Is Glooskap living yet_?" "Yes, far away; no one knows where. Some say he sailed away in his stone canoe beyond the sea, to the east, but he will return in it one day; others, that he went to the west. Onestory tells that while he was alive those who went to him and found himcould have their wishes given to them. But there is a story that if onetravels long, and is not afraid, he may still find the great sagamore(_sogmo_). Yes. He lives in a very great, a very long wigwam. Healways making arrows. One side of the lodge is full of arrows now. Theyso thick as that. When it is all quite full, he will come forth andmake war. He never allows any one to enter the wigwam while he ismaking these arrows. "

"_And on whom will he make war_?" "He will make war on all, killall; there will be no more world, --world all gone. Dunno how quick, --mebbe long time; all be dead then, mebbe, --guess it will be long time. "

"_Are any to be saved by any one_?" "Dunno. _Me hear_ howsome say world all burn up some day, water all boil all fire; some goodones be taken up in good heavens, but me dunno, --me just _hear_that. Only hear so. "

It was owing to a mere chance question that this account of the LastDay was obtained from an Indian. It was related to Mrs. W. WallaceBrown, of Calais, Maine, by Mrs. Le Cool, an old Passamaquoddy Indian. It casts a great light on the myth of Glooskap, since it appears that aday is to come when, like Arthur, Barbarossa, and other heroes inretreat, he is to come forth at a new twilight of the gods, exterminatethe _Iglesmani_, and establish an eternal happy hunting-ground. This preparing for a great final battle is more suggestive of Norse orScandinavian influence than of aught else. It is certainly not of alate date, or Christian, but it is very much like the Edda andRagnarok. Heine does not observe, in the Twilight of the Gods, thatJupiter or Mars intend to return and conquer the world. But theNorsemen expected such a fight, when arrows would fly like hail, andGlooskap is supposed to be deliberately preparing for it. 

A very curious point remains to be noted in this narration. When theIndians speak of Christian, or white, or civilized teachings, they say, "I heard, " or, "I have been told. " This they never do as regards theirown ancient traditions. When Mrs. Le Cool said that she "had heard"that some were to be taken up into _good_ heavens, she declared, in her way, that this was what Christians said, but that she was not sosure of it. The Northeastern Algonquin always distinguish very accuratelybetween their ancient lore and that derived from the whites. I have oftenheard French fairy tales and Aesop's fables Indianized to perfection, butthe narrator always knew that they were not _N'Karnayoo_, "of theold time. "

Glooskap is now living in a Norse-like Asa-heim; but there is to come aday when the arrows will be ready, and he will go forth and slay allthe wicked. Malsum the Wolf, his twin brother, the typical colossaltype of all Evil, will come to life, with all the giant cannibals, witches, and wild devils slain of old; but the champion will gird onhis magic belt, and the arrows will fly in a rain as at Ragnarok: thehero will come sailing in his wonderful canoe, which expands to hold anarmy. Thus it will be on

 "That day of wrath, that dreadful day, When heaven and earth shall pass away, "

with all things, in blood and death and fire. Then there will come theeternal happy hunting-grounds. 

If this was derived from Christian priests, it must be admitted that ithas changed wonderfully on the way. It is to me very heathen, grimlyarchaic, and with the strong stamp of an original. Its resemblance tothe Norse is striking. Either the Norsemen told it to the Eskimo andthe Indians, or the latter to the Norsemen. None know, after all, whatwas going on for ages in the early time, up about Jotunheim, in theNorth Atlantic! Vessels came to Newfoundland to fish for cod sinceunknown antiquity, and, returning, reported that they had been toTartary. 

It may be assumed at once that this Indian Last Battle of the Giants, or of the good hero giants against the Evil, led by the Malsum-FenrisWolf, was not derived from the Canadian French. The influence of, thelatter is to be found even among the Chippewas, but they never dealt inmyths like this. 

It is very remarkable indeed that the one great principle of the Norsemythology is identical with that of the Indian. So long as man shallmake war and heroism his standard, just so long his hero god exists. But there will come a day when mankind can war no more, --when highercivilization must prevail. Then there will be a great final war, anddeath of the heroes, and death of their foes, and after all a newworld. 

 "Then shall another come yet mightier, although I dare not his name declare. 

 Few may see further forth than when Odin meets the Wolf. " (Hyndluloid, 42. )

The Norsemen may have drawn this from a Christian source; but theIndian, to judge by form, spirit, and expression, would seem to havetaken it from the Norse. 

_How Glooskap found the Summer. _

In the long ago time when people lived always in the early red morning, before sunrise, before the _Squid to neck_ was peopled as to-day, Glooskap went very far north, where all was ice. 

He came to a wigwam. Therein he found a giant, a great giant, for hewas Winter. Glooskap entered; he sat down. Then Winter gave him a pipe;he smoked, and the giant told tales of the old times. 

The charm was on him; it was the Frost. The giant talked on and froze, and Glooskap fell asleep. He slept for six months, like a toad. Thenthe charm fled, and he awoke. He went his way home; he went to thesouth, and at every step it grew warmer, and the flowers began to comeup and talk to him. 

He came to where there were many little ones dancing in the forest;their queen was Summer. I am singing the truth: it was Summer, theinmost beautiful one ever born. He caught her up; he kept her by acrafty trick. The Master cut a moose-hide into a long cord; as he ranaway with Summer he let the end trail behind him. 

They, the fairies of Light, pulled at the cord, but as Glooskap ran, the cord ran out, and though they pulled he left them far away. So hecame to the lodge of Winter, but now he had Summer in his bosom; andWinter welcomed him, for he hoped to freeze him again to sleep. I amsinging the song of Summer. 

But this time the Master did the talking. This time his _m'teoulin_was the strongest. And ere long the sweat ran down Winter's face, andthen he melted more and quite away, as did the wigwam. Then every thingawoke; the grass grew, the fairies came out, and the snow ran down therivers, carrying away the dead leaves. Then Glooskap left Summer withthem, and went home. 

This poem--for it is such--was related to Mrs. W. Wallace Brown by anIndian named Neptune. It appears to be the completer form of thebeautiful allegory of Winter and Spring given in the Hiawatha Legendsas Peboan and Seegwum (Odjibwa). The struggle between Spring andWinter, Summer and Winter, or Heat and Cold, represented as incarnatehuman or mythic beings, forms the subject of several Indian legends, asit does a part of the Hymiskrida, in the Edda. The German J. B. Friedreich (Symbolik der Natur, Wurzburg, 1859) remarks that in theBible, Job xxxviii. 28, and in the Song of the Three in the FieryFurnace, Ice and Snow are spoken of as intelligences. 

Heat and cold, in classic times, were supposed to be united, yet inconflict, in the lightning and hail (Virgil, Aen, VIII. 429), the symbolfor this being a twisted horn. In the legend of the _Culloo_ thefrost giantess can only be killed by a crooked horn thrust into herear. The horn darts out at once into incredible, irregular length, andevidently means lightning. In the Edda the he-goat is, on account ofhis horns, the symbol of lightning and storm. (Schwenk, Sinnbilden deralten Volker. ) The Giala-horn of the Edda (Nyer up. Dict Scan. Mythol. )is the thunder which summons the Elves. "Miolner, the hammer of Thor, with which he kills frost giants, is the lightning. " (Kirchner, Thor'sDonnerkeil, Neu Strelitz, 1853, p. 60. ) The coincidence of the symbolsin the Edda with that of the lightning horn in the Indian legend isvery curious, if nothing more. 

The cord which Glooskap unrolls, and with which he deceives thefairies, who think they have him fast, while he is escaping, meansdelusive speech or plausible talk. To "talk like paying out rope" is anold simile. 

 "Speech runes thou must know, If thou wilt that no one for injury with hate requite thee. Those thou must wind, Those thou must wrap round (thee), Those thou must altogether place in the assembly, where people have into full court to go. " (Sigrdrifumal. )

This is a merely accidental coincidence, but it illustrates the meaningof the myth. In both cases it is "wound or wrapped around" and rapidlyunrolled, and the same simile. 

The following poem on Glooskap may be appropriately placed in thiswork. The allusion to the agates of Cape Blomidon refers to a traditiongiven by S. T. Rand, which states that when Glooskap would make hisadopted grandmother young again he created the brilliant stones, whichare still found at that place, to adorn her. [Footnote: _Youth'sCompanion_. ]

 THE LEGEND OF GLOOSKAP. 

 Bathed in the sunshine still as of yore Stretches the peaceful Acadian shore; Fertile meadows and fields of grain Smile as they drink the summer rain. 

 There like a sentinel, grim and gray, Blomidon stands at the head of the bay, And the famous Fundy tides, at will, Sweep into Minas Basin still. 

 With wondrous beauty the Gaspereanx Winds its way to the sea below, And the old Acadian Grand Pre Is the home of prosperous men to-day. 

 The place where Basil the blacksmith wrought, In the glow of his forge, is a classic spot, And every summer tourists are seen In the fairy haunts of Evangeline. 

 But the old Acadian woods and shores, Rich in beautiful legend stores, Were once the home of an older race, Who wore their epics with untaught grace. Long ere the dikes that guard for aye From the merciless tides the old Grand Pre, Built by the Frenchman's tireless hands, Grew round the rich Acadian lands. 

 The Micmac sailed in his birch canoe Over the Basin, calm and blue; Speared the salmon, his heart's desire, Danced and slept by his wigwam fire;

 Far in the depth of the forest gray Hunted the moose the livelong day, While the mother sang to her Micmac child Songs of the forest, weird and wild. 

 Over the tribe, with jealous eye, Watched the Great Spirit from on high, While on the crest of Blomidon Glooskap, the God-man, dwelt alone. 

 No matter how far his feet might stray From the favorite haunts of his tribe away, Glooskap could hear the Indian's prayer, And send some message of comfort there. 

 Glooskap it was who taught the use Of the bow and the spear, and sent the moose Into the Indian banter's hands; Glooskap who strewed the shining sands

 Of the tide-swept beach of the stormy bay With amethysts purple and agates gray, And brought to each newly wedded pair The Great Spirit's benediction fair. 

 But the white man came, and with ruthless hand Cleared the forests and sowed the land, And drove from their haunts by the sunny shore Micmac and moose, forevermore. 

 And Glooskap, saddened and sore distressed, Took his way to the unknown West, And the Micmac kindled his wigwam fire Far from the grave of his child and his sire;

 Where now, as he weaves his basket gay, And paddles his birch canoe away, He dreams of the happy time for men When Glooskap shall come to his tribe again. 

 ARTHUR WENTWORTH EATON. 

THE MERRY TALES OF LOX, THE MISCHIEF MAKER, COMMONLY KNOWN AS THE INDIAN DEVIL. 

_Of the Surprising and Singular Adventures of two Water Fairies whowere also Weasels, and how they each became the Bride of a Star. Including the Mysterious and Wonderful Works of Lox, the Great IndianDevil, who rose from the Dead. _

(Micmac and Passamaquoddy. )

_Wee-zig-yik-keseyook_. "Of old times. " Far back in the forest, bya brook, dwelt two young men, Abistanooch, the Marten, and Team, theMoose. Of these each had a wigwam, and therewith a grandmother who kepthouse. And Team hunted and worked industriously, but Master Marten wasgreatly _moalet_ (M. ), which signifies one who liveth upon hisneighbors, depending on their good nature, even as he that plantethcorn and beans depends upon the pleasant smiles of the sun; whence itcame to pass that wherever victuals were in store there too his presencedid greatly abound. 

Now it happened that one day Team, the Moose, had killed a bear, andbrought home a single load of the meat, leaving the rest to be lookedafter anon. And being thrifty, and not caring to feed those who fed himnot, neither did they thank, he said unto himself, and also to hisgrandmother, "Truly, the eyes of Marten shall not see this thing, hisnose shall not smell thereof, neither shall his tongue taste it; so letnot the tidings of our good luck go forth from the wigwam. " "Yes, "replied the old woman, "and well and wisely thou speakest, my son. Butwe have this day broken our kettle, while Marten has brought in a newone. Behold, I will go and borrow it, and having cooked in it I willwash and wipe it, so that there shall be no sign of what we didtherewith, and so return it. "

Now, this was done, but he who is _moalet_ and a haunter of feastsis like a hunter of beasts: he knows well from a small sign where thereis a large load, and the borrowing of kettles means the boiling ofvictuals therein. So having in him somewhat of sorcery, he did but stepto his friend's wigwam, and, peeping through a crevice, saw a greatstore of bear's meat. And when the grandmother of Moose came unto himto return the kettle, just as she entered the lodge there arose from ita savory steam, and looking in it was full of well-cooked food. AndMarten thanked her greatly, yet she, being put to shame, fled to herown home. But Moose said it was no matter, so the next day they went tothe woods together, and all was well. 

Now it befell Marten, as it might have befallen any other man, that oneday he came to a distant and lonely lake in the mountains. Yet there, stepping softly as a cat behind the rocks bung with grapevines, heheard laughing and splashing, and a pleasant sound as of girls' voices. So, peeping carefully, he saw many maids merrily bathing in the lake:and these were of the fairy race, who dwell in deep waters and darkcaves, and keep away from mankind. And seeing their garments lying onthe shore, and beholding among the damsels one whom he desired toobtain, [Footnote: There are many of these stories which indicatepassionate and deeply seated attachment, but I never once heard a realIndian say that man or woman loved, though they have words which fullyexpress it. "He wanted her" is the nearest approach to tenderness whichI have ever heard from them. This is not the result of a want offeeling, but of the suppression of all manifestation of it, to whichevery red man is trained from earliest infancy. ] Marten quietly slippedalong unseen, as all of his species can do, till he had the clothes inhis hands. For being tinctured with magic and learned in the lore ofall kind of goblins, elves, and witches, Master Marten knew that whenNaiads are naked and a man has their garments he holds them at hismercy. For in the apparel lies their fairy power; and if you doubt it, do but give it a trial and see for yourself!

And having done this, the merry fellow ran inland with a brave whoop, which the fairies hearing, they in a great rage ran after the ravisherof their robes. But she whom he desired outstripped the rest, and whenshe approached him he did but tap her lightly on the head with a smallstick, according to a certain ancient prescription followed in Fairy-land, which makes of a woman a wife; whereupon she, according to theantique rite, being astonished to find herself so, suddenly married, fainted dead away, and was carried off in peace. And as for the clothesof the others, the Marten gave them back without taking fee or rewards. 

Then Team, the Moose, who was a good soul, but not wise above all theworld, coming home and finding Marten married, wished also for a wife. And having heard all the tale, he said, "Well, if it is no harder thanthat, 'tis as easy as sucking a honeysuckle, and I am as good asmarried. " And going to the pond in the mountains, among the rocks andbehind the grapevines, he too beheld the virgins jumping, flapping, splashing, and mischieving merrily, like mad minxes, in the water;whereat he, being all of a rage, as it were, caught up the clothes ofthese, poor maids and ran; she whom he most admired catching up withhim. And being resolved to do the thing thoroughly, he grappled up agreat club and gave her a bang on her small head, which stunned herindeed, and that forever, inasmuch as she was slain outright. So theMoose remained unmarried. 

Now Team was one of the kind not uncommon, in this world, who hold thatif any other man has or gets more than they have, then they are deeplywronged. And it had come to pass that Master Marten, finding that hiswife yearned greatly for the society of her sisters, offered to takeyet another of them in marriage, merely to oblige his wife; for in sucha kind of benevolence he was one of the best souls that ever lived, andrather than have trouble in the family he would have wedded all thepretty girls in the country. So going as before to the pond in themountains, among the rocks and behind the grapevines, he, by the samedevice, captured yet another fairy, whom, taking home, he wedded. 

Yet Team took this sadly to heart, and willed that Marten should givehim this last spouse, to which Marten would in nowise agree. Truly, Team argued earnestly that as he had no wife, and no wisdom wherewithto win one, of course he must have one of Marten's, or that Martenshould go and get him one. To which Marten replied that Moose mightskin his own skunks, and fish for his own minnows, and also paddle hisown canoe to the devil, if it so pleased him, --all of these beingapproved Indian sayings of high and racy antiquity. Whereupon Teamsought to persuade Marten with a club, who gave a soft answer byshooting a flint-headed arrow through Team's scalp-lock; and thisfriendship they continued for many days, passing their evenings inmanufacturing missiles, and the mornings in sending them one at theother. 

Now the fairy water-wives, not being accustomed to this kind of intimacy, sought to subtract themselves from it. So one morning, when Marten andTeam were most industriously endeavoring to effect mutual murder, thetwo wives of the former fled afar to seek fortune, and succeeded thereinto perfection. And it came to pass when the sun had set and the voice ofBumole, the Spirit of Night, was heard afar on high, and Nibauchset (P. ), the Night-Walker, shone over all, that the two brides lay in an oakopening of the forest, and looked at P'ses'muk, the Stars, and talkedabout them even as children might do. And one said to the other, "Ifthose Stars be men, which would you have for a husband?" "By my faith, "replied the other, " it should be that little red, twinkling fellow, forI like the little stars best. " "And I, " said the other, "will wed theWisawaioo P'ses'm (P. ), the Great Yellow Star, for I love the largestars. " And, saying this in jest, they fell asleep. 

But many a word spoken in jest is recalled in earnest, as these brideslearned when they awoke, and found themselves married again in theIndian manner, at only a word. For she who had wished for the GreatYellow Shining Star, as she opened her eyes, heard a man's voice say, "Take care, or you will upset my war-paint!" [Footnote: Sekroon (redochre). ] And lo, there lay by her side a great and handsome man, verynoble, with large and lustrous eyes. [Footnote: In the Passamaquoddyversion of this tale, given me by Tomah Josephs, the brides awake inStar-Land. The husbands are both elderly men, and he who is the YellowStar has bright yellow corners to his eyes, while the other has red. Inanother the Yellow Star is called Wobeyu, the White. While they are alldistinctly forms of one tale, the three differ so much that I have hadgreat difficulty in reconstituting what appears to be the Originallegend. ] Then the other, as she awoke and stirred, heard a little feeble, cracked voice crying, "Take care, or you will spill my eye-water!"[Footnote: _Nebijegwode_ (eye medicine, M. )] And by her was thesmaller star, whom she had chosen; but he was a weak-looking old fellow, with little red, twinkling eyes. And as they had chosen so it came untothem. 

But yellow or red, young or old, in a few days they both grew a-wearyof the star country to which they were taken, and wished to return tothe earth. And then that came to pass which made them yearn withtenfold longing; for their husbands, who were absent all day hunting, had pointed out to them a large flat stone, which they were on noaccount to lift; which they obeyed in this wise, that they did not bothlift the stone, but only the younger, who, as soon as the Stars hadgone to the greenwood, rushed to the slab, and, lifting it up, gazedgreedily down into the hole beneath. And what she saw was wonderful, for it was the sky itself, and directly under them was the world inwhich they had lived, and specially in sight was the home of theirchildhood, with all its woods and rivers. And then the elder havinglooked, both almost broke their hearts with weeping. 

Now the Stars were by no means such evil-minded men as you may havedeemed; for having perceived by magic that their wives had lookedthrough the hole in the sky, and knowing that they were lying whenthey denied it, they gave them leave to go back to earth. Yet therewere conditions, and those not easy to such fidgety damsels as these;for they said, "Ye shall lie together all this night, and in themorning when ye awake ye shall be in no haste to open your eyes orto uncover your faces. Wait until ye shall have heard the song of the_Ktsee-gee-gil-laxsis_ (P. ), or chick-a-dee-dee. And even then yeshall not arise, but be quiet until the song of the red squirrel shallbe heard. And even then ye must wait and keep your faces covered andyour eyes closed until ye hear the striped squirrel sing. And then yemay leave your bed and look around. "

Now the younger wife was ever impatient, and when the chick-a-dee-deesang she would have leaped up at once, but the elder restrained her. "Wait, " she said, "my sister, until we hear the _Abalkakmooech_. "[Footnote: Ground squirrel] And she lay still till the _Adoo-doo-dech_[Footnote: Red squirrel] began his early chatter and his morning's work. Then, without waiting, she jumped up, as did the elder, when they foundthemselves indeed on earth, but in the summit of a tall, spreadinghemlock-tree, and that in such a manner that they could not descendwithout assistance. And it had come to pass in this wise: for as eachsong was sung by the bird and the squirrels, they had come nearer andnearer to the earth; even as the light of day drew near, but as theycould not delay they had been deserted. [Footnote: A want of patienceor of dignity, and restlessness, are more scorned by every Indian thanany other fault. This is not the only story in which people are representedas being punished for being unable to bide their time. Glooskap wasspecially severe on all such sinners. ]

And as they sat there and day dawned, men of the different Indianfamilies went by, and unto all of these they cried for help. It is truethat their star husbands had made for them in the tree, a bed of moss, but they cared not to rest in the hemlock, for all that. [Footnote: Inanother very full version of this legend (M. ), the water-wives arecalled Weasels (_Uskoolsh_), "from their great whiteness. " This, however, indicates supernatural fairness or beauty. In the same storythe tree is a pine, not a hemlock. Insignificant as these differencesmay appear, they are of primary importance in the elucidation of amyth. ] And of all the beasts of the forest or men of the clearing, whoshould be the first to appear but Team, or Master Moose, himself. Andto him they cried, "_N'sesenen-apkwahlin, n'sesenen_!" "Oh, ourelder brother, let us free; take us down, and we will be your two dearlittle wives, and go home with you. " But he, looking up scornfully, said, "I was married this autumn. " And so he went his way. 

And he who next came was the shaggy Bear, or _mooin_, to whom theymade the same request, offering themselves for no higher price than tobe taken down safely out of their nest. But he growled out that he hadbeen married in the spring, and that one wife was enough for any man. So he went his way. [Footnote: N. B. --There is a joke here. The animalswho pass by the tree each mate at the season of the year when theydeclare that they were married. The White Ladies, weasels or ermines, therefore, came at the wrong time. The fickle, variable nature ascribedto woman, _varium et mutabile semper femina_, is supposed to bemost decidedly expressed by such slender, slippery, active littleanimals. ]

And then who should come along but Marten himself, even theAbistanooch, whom they had deserted! And they cried out for joy, begging him to take them back. But he, behaving as if they were utterstrangers, replied that he had been married in the early spring to oneof his own tribe, and unto a damsel whose name was Marten, and that itwas not seemly for animals to wed out of their own land. So hescampered off, leaving the little Weasels all alone. 

And last of all came Lox, whom hunters call the Indian Devil, [Footnote: In the Micmac it is the Badger, Keekwajoo, who is the rogueand teaser of the tale. But in the Passamaquoddy versions it is thedreaded and mysterious Lox, who appears to be a species of Lynx orWolverine. The Lox is said, by trustworthy white travelers as well asIndians, to follow hunting parties for weeks, inspired apparently onlyby an incredible mania for mischief, much like that of a monkey or arevengeful savage, but guided by remarkable intelligence. He will findhis way into a camp and destroy every object made by the hand of manwith a thoroughness akin to genius, and what he cannot destroy he willcarry to a great distance and carefully conceal. As his ferocity isequal to his craftiness, he is very appropriately termed the IndianDevil. ] and others the Wolverine, who is exceeding subtle above thebeasts of the forest, and who is gifted with more evil mischief thanall of them in one. And when the Weasels called to him for help hetarried, for it came into his heart that he might in some way tormentand tease them. But verily he had to deal with those who were not muchmore virtuous than himself, and quite as cunning, for what withtraveling from the earth to the heavens and changing husbands, thesefair minevers were learning wisdom rapidly. So the elder sister, whohad not the least idea of keeping her promise unless it suited herfancy, played a trick, and that quickly anon. For she at once took offher hair-string [Footnote: The Hair-String, _Saggalobee_ (M), occurs very often in Indian legends, generally as gifted with magic. The Indian women allowed their hair to grow long, then doubled it uponthe back of the head, often making additions of something to enlargethe roll. It was then bound in a bunch with the string. ] and tied itinto a few less than a hundred knots among the twigs of the trees, tangling it so that you would have deemed it a week's work before a mancould loosen it again without injury. 

Now Master Lox, having taken down the younger sister with all thepoliteness in the world, came for the other, and aided her also todescend. And when on the ground she indeed said, "_Willcr-oon_" "Ithank you" (P. ), but begged him to go up the tree again and bring downa great treasure which she had left there, her hair-string: beseechinghim for all their lives not to break or injure it in any way, but tomost carefully untie every knot, for thus doing it would bring untoldfelicity on them all; and that they, the Weasels, would meantime builda beautiful bridal bower, or a wigwam, and that so furnished as he hadnever seen the like before, --in which verily they kept their word. 

For they speedily built the wigwam, but the furniture thereof was ofthis rare kind. The Weasels had, it seems, certain sworn friends, --forbirds of a feather flock together, --and these were not far to seek, asthey were the Thorns, Burrs, and Briers of all kinds, Hornets and otherwinged and stinged insects, besides the Ants. And they were, moreover, intimate with all the sharp-edged Flints in the land, which was agoodly company. So when the bower was built it had therein a hornet'snest for a bridal bed, thorns for a carpet, flints for a floor, and anant's nest for a seat, which for a bare-footed and bare-breeched Indianis indeed a sore essay. Now it had taken Master Lox the entire day tountie the hair-string, so when he came down it was dark, and he wasglad when he saw the hut and thought of resting therein. 

But, as he entered, he ran among the Thorns, which pierced his nose, and Flints, which cut his feet, so that he roared aloud. Then he hearda voice, which seemed to be that of the younger Miss Weasel, crying"_Names-cole_" (M. ), "Go to my sister, yonder!" So he went, and trodin an ant-hill, and this was worse than the Briers. And then he heardanother voice on that side which cried, laughing, "_N'kwech-kale_!"(M. ), "Go to my sister, who is younger than I. " And plunging furiouslythrough the darkness, he fell on the hornet's nest; and verily the laststate of that Indian was worst of all. Thus, seeing himself mocked, hebecame furious; so that he who has by nature the very worst temper ofall beasts or men was never so angry before, and, seeking the tracks ofthe Weasels, he pursued them as they fled in the night and through thethick forest. 

Now it came to pass that by daybreak the two girls, even the MissesWeasel, had come to a broad river which they could not cross. ButIn The edge of the water stood a large Crane, motionless, or the_Tum-gwo-lig-unach_, who was the ferryman. Now truly this isesteemed to be the least beautiful of all the birds, for which causehe is greedy of good words and fondest of flattery. And of all beingsthere were none who had more bear's oil ready to anoint every one's hairwith--that is to say, more compliments ready for everybody--than theWeasels. So, seeing the Crane, they sang:--

 "Wa wela quis kip pat kasqu', Wa wela quis kip pat kasqu'. " (P. )

 The Crane has a very beautiful long neck, The Crane has a very beautiful long neck. 

This charmed the old ferryman very much, and when they said, "Please, grandfather, hurry along, " he came quickly. Seeing this, they began tochant in chorus, sweetly as the Seven Stars themselves:--

 "Wa wela quig nat kasqu', Wa wela quig nat kasqu'. " (P. )

 The Crane has very beautiful long legs, The Crane has very beautiful long legs. 

Hearing this, the good Crane wanted more; so when they asked him togive them a lift across, he answered slowly that to do so he must bewell paid, but that good praise would answer as well. Now they who hadabundance of this and to spare for everybody were these very girls. "Have I not a beautiful form?" he inquired; and they both cried aloud, "Oh, uncle, it is indeed beautiful!" "And my feathers?" "Ah, _pegeakopchu_" (M. ), "Beautiful and straight feathers indeed!""And have I not a charming long, straight neck?" "Truly our uncle hasit straight and long. " "And will ye not acknowledge, oh, maidens, thatmy legs are fine?" "Fine! oh, uncle, they are perfection. Never in thislife did we see such legs!" So being well pleased, the Crane put themacross, and then the two little Weasels scampered like mice into thebush. 

And scarcely were they concealed, or the Crane well again in his place, ere Master Lox appeared. And being in no good temper he called to UncleCrane to set him across, and that speedily. Now the Crane had been mademightily pleased and proud by the winsome words of the Weasels, and wasbut little inclined to be rudely addressed. So he said to Lox, "I willbear thee over the river if thou wilt bear witness to my beauty. Arenot my legs straight?" "Yea" replied the Lox, "and beautifully painted, too. " Now the color thereof was little pleasing to poor Uncle Crane. "Are not my feathers very smooth and fine?" "Yea, smooth and fine; whata pity, though, that they are mildewed and dusty!" "And my straightneck?" "Yes, wonderfully straight, --straight as _this_" said Loxto himself, taking up a crooked stick. And then he sang:--

 "Mecha guiskipat kasqu', Mecha quig nat kasqu'. "

 The Crane has a very ugly neck, The Crane has dirty, ugly legs. 

"Come, _mooso me_ (grandfather), hurry up!"

 Oh, the Crane has a very ugly neck, The Crane has dirty, ugly legs. 

"I wish you to be quick, _mooso me_. Hurry up, I say!" [Footnote:This dialogue, including the songs, is from a very curiousPassamaquoddy version of the tale, sent to me by Louis Mitchell. As inall such cases, there is far more humor in the Passamaquoddy narrativesthan in the Micmac or Eskimo. ]

And all of this ill-temper and insincerity was deeply and inwardlydetected by Uncle Crane, but he said not a word, and only meekly benthim down to take the traveler on his back. But when in the stream, andwhere it was deepest and most dangerous, he gave himself a shake, andin another instant Lox was whirling round and round like a chip in therapids. And yet a little time he was dashed against the rocks, and thenanon was thrown high and dry on the shore, but dead as a seven-year-oldcedar cone. 

Now the Lox is a great magician at certain times and seasons, albeithis power fails at others. [Footnote: From this point of the legendonward there is an inextricable confusion as regards the four differentversions. While the hero is decidedly a Badger in the Micmac, I regardthe great ferocity, craft, and above all the vitality which he displaysas far more characteristic of the Lox or Wolverine of the Passamaquoddy. What is almost decisively in favor of the latter theory is that in allthe stories, despite his craft and power, he is always getting himselfinto trouble through them. This is eminently characteristic of the Lox, much less so of the Badger. ] And he is one of those who rise from thedead. Now it came to pass that some days after two boys of the Kwedechor Mohawk race found the Lox lying dead on a rock in the sunshine, andthe worms were crawling from him. But when they touched him he arose asif from sleep, and stood before them as a proud and fierce warrior. Buthe was scarce alive ere he sought to do them who had roused him to lifea mischief; for having noted that they had fine bows, he got them intohis hands, and broke them, yet all as if he meant it not. [Footnote: Inthe Passamaquoddy version of this tale, when Lox is thus dismembered, the ants, pitying him, bring his scattered members together. As soon ashe recovers, the Wolverine, with characteristic ingratitude, amuseshimself by trampling his benefactors to death beneath his feet. ] Andthen by magic making a sound as of many children at play, afar offacross the next point of land by the river, he bade them run and jointhe pleasant games. And when he had got them a space onward, lo, thesound seemed ever farther on, mingled with the murmur of the stream;and so they went without him, seeking it, and yet it wandered everfar away. 

Now he had learned from the boys that they were of a _Cullo_family; and the Culloos are certain monstrous birds, exceeding fierce. But Master Lox, having seen in the cabin plenty of fine meat, desiredgreatly to become one of the family, and having been much about in lifeknew something of the ways of every one. So putting on the Culloostyle, he, seeing a babe, began to sing with the most natural air inthe world a Culloo nursery-song:--

 "Agoo ge abeol, Wetkusanabeol. " [Footnote: Micmac. ]

 A seal-skin strap, A shoulder-strap. 

Now it costs very little to fall into the humor of a man; but this thewoman would not do, and told him plainly that he could not deceive her. On hearing which Master Lox, in a great rage, seized his tomahawk andslew her. Then seeing a kettle boiling on the fire, he cut off her headand put it into the pot, hiding the body. And this was a merry jestafter his own heart, so that it greatly solaced him. But after a time, the two boys, returning, missed their mother, and looking into thekettle, found her head. Then they knew well who had done this. And, being fearless, they pursued him, but having no bows they could do himno harm; however, they took from him his gloves, and with these theyreturned. 

And anon there came also an uncle of the boys, or _Kah-kah-goos_(P. ), the Crow. So he gave chase to Lox, yet all that he could do wasto snatch away his cap as he ran. Yet without shame he cried aloud, "Well, my head was getting warm, and now I am cooler. Thank you!"

[Illustration: LOX CARRIED OFF BY CULLOO]

Then came another relative, _Kitpoo_, the Eagle (M. ). And he, pursuing Lox, took from him his coat. Yet all unabashed he replied, "Thanks unto you also; for I was just wishing that my younger brotherwere here to carry my coat for me. " But he who now arrived, hearing ofthe deadly deed, was the great Culloo himself, the most terrible of allcreated creatures, and he, pursuing Lox, caught him up, and carryinghim in his claws, even to the summit of the sky itself, let him drop, and he was a whole day in falling; even from the first dawn unto sunsethe went down ere he touched the earth. But before he was let drop, andwhen on high, he burst into a mocking song on what he saw, and thewords were as follows:--

 "Kumut kenovek, Telap tumun ek, Stugach' kesenagasikel, Yog wa egen' Yog wa egeno Telap tumen ek Kumut ken ooik' Stuga 'mkudomoos koon. "

 Our country all lost Seems clearly to us As though it were all spread with boughs. Heigh ho, hay hum! Heigh ho, hay hum! Our country now lost Seems now unto us To be blue like the clear blue sky. Hum, hum--tol de rol!

And when let fall, this graceless jackanapes in nowise ceased hisribaldry; for while pretending to flap with his arms as if they werewings, he imitated with his mouth, mockingly, the _wish! wish!_ ofthe wide wings of the Culloo. Yet ere he touched the earth he utteredone little magic spell, "Oh, spare my poor backbone!" And with that allthe trouble of all the birds went for nothing. Truly he was mashed to abatter, and his blood and brains flew in every direction, likeraspberry pudding; but among the remains his backbone lay whole, andthis was his life. 

And in a few days after his younger brother came by, who, seeing thedire mess, exclaimed, "Hey, what is all this?" [Footnote: The dead bodyof a sorcerer must lie until addressed by some human being. Then itrevives. This is suggestive of vampirism, which is well known to theIndians. There is something strangely ghastly in the idea of the Voicecalling separately to each dead limb to come to it. The Culloo is anemblem of the cloud, and Lox let fall from one probably signified fire, or the lightning. ] Whereupon a Voice came from the bone, crying, "_Nuloogoon, ba ho_!" "Ho, my leg, come hither!" and a leg cameunto the spine. Then the Voice cried, " _N'petunagum, ba ho_!" "Ho, myarm, come hither!" And when the last fragment had come he arose, thesame indomitable Lox as ever, even the Indian Devil, or Wolverine, whonever says Die, and whom nothing can kill, and who is hard to put away. 

Now the two brothers went on till they came to the top of a highmountain, where there lay a very great round rock, or a mighty boulder. And being full of fun, they turned it over with great sticks, saying toit, "Now let us run a race!" Then it rolled downhill till it stopped atthe foot, they rushing along by it all the time. And when it restedthey jeered it, and bade it race with them again, when it so listed. 

And truly they had not long to wait, for soon after, as they satcooking their food, they heard a mighty commotion as of somethingcoming with dreadful speed through the forest. And lo! it was the stonein dire wrath, which, having rested a little while, came rushingthrough the forest, crashing the mighty trees like grass, with a roarlike thunder, leaving a smooth road behind it in the roughestwilderness. Up and after the sorcerers flew the stone, and the youngerslipped aside like a snake, but the elder had scarcely time to utterhis magic charm, "_Noo-goon ooskudeskuch_!" "Let my backboneremain uninjured!" ere the awful rock rolled down upon him, crushinghis bones and mashing his flesh. Yet the spine was unhurt; it remainedsound as ever. 

And the stone went on and ever on, till the sound of its roar died awayin the breeze and afar in the wilderness. 

Then the younger brother turned to the Backbone and said, "_Cagooeewejismook' tumun_?" (M. ) "Why are you lying there?" And hearing thischarm the Bone called aloud, "_Ntenin ba ho_!" "My body, ho!" and"_Nuloogoon ba ho_!" "My leg, ho!" and so with the rest of themembers as before, until he that was decomposed was now recomposed;yes, and composed perfectly. And then he that was dead, but was nowalive, arose, and said as one awaking, "What have I been doing?" So hisbrother told him all. 

Then he was greatly angered, and when the Wolverine is angry it is nota little. And he said in his wrath, "Shall I that am the devil of thewoods himself be slain by birds and stones, and not be revenged?" Sothey went onwards through the woods till they found the Great Rock:they followed in the path of the broken trees; even by the trees didthey track it. Which having found, they built a fire around it; withgreat stones for hammers they broke it, and ever more and stillsmaller, till it was all mere dust, for their souls were sore forrevenge. 

When lo, a great wonder! For the Spirit of the Old Rock, even thatwhich was itself, turned all the dust to black flies, into the stingingand evil things which drive men and beasts mad, so that its hatred andspite might be carried out on all living creatures unto the end oftime. 

And having had their ill-will of the Rock and seen it become Flies, thetwo went through the forest, and so on till they came to a village ofgood, honest folk; and knowing what manner of men they were, Loxresolved to forthwith play them an evil trick, for in all life therewas nothing half so dear to him as to make mischief, the worse thebetter. 

And this time it came into his head that it would be a fine piece ofwit to go into the town as a gay girl and get married, and see whatwould come of it, trusting to luck to fashion a sad fool out ofsomebody. So having made himself into a delicate young beauty, richlyattired, he entered the place; and truly the town was soon agog overthe new guests. And the young chief of the tribe, wanting her, won herwithout waste of time. Truly there lieth herein some mystery. I knownot what, only this I know: that there are in all towns certain folkwho, by means of magic or meddling, always find out everything abouteverybody, and then tittle-tattle thereof. Now, albeit Lox had utterlyabjured all the sinfulness of manhood, and had made a new departure inan utterly new direction, saying not a word thereof to any one, yet ina brief measure of time, one here, another there, Jack in a corner andJane by the bush, began to whisper of a strange thing, and hint thatall was not as it should be, and, whatever the chief might think, thatin their minds matters were going wrong in his wigwam. 

Now Lox, knowing all this thread as soon as it was spun, began to thinkit high time to show his hand in the game. And what was the amazementof all the town to hear, one fine evening, that the chief's wife wouldsoon be a mother. And when the time came Dame Lox informed her husbandthat, according to the custom of her people, she must be left utterlyalone till he was a father and the babe born. And when in due time thecry of a small child was heard in the lodge the women waiting ran in, and received from the mother the little one, abundantly rolled in manywrappers, which they took to the chief. But what was his amazement, when having unrolled the package, he found under one skin afteranother, tied up hard, yet another sewed up, and yet again, as theinmost kernel of this nut, the little withered, wizened, dead, anddried shrivelment of an unborn moose calf. Which pleased the chief somuch that, dashing Master Moose into the fire, he seized his tomahawkand ran to his lodge to make his first morning call on the mother. 

But Master Lox was now a man again, and expecting this call, and notwishing to see visitors, had with his brother fled to the woods, andthat rapidly. And in the rush he came to a river, and, seeing a veryhigh waterfall, thought of a rare device whereby he might eludepursuit. For he with his brother soon built a dam across the top withtrees and earth, so that but little water went below. And lying in acave, concealed with care, he imitated the _boo-oo-oo_ of afalling stream with quaint and wondrous skill. And there he lay, and noman wist thereof. 

But verily the wicked one is caught in his own snare, and even so itbefell Master Lox. For as he hid, the water above, having gathered to agreat lake, burst the dam, so that it all came down upon him at onceand drowned him; nor was there any great weeping for him that ever Iheard of. So here he passes out of this story, and does not come intoit again. But whether he went for good and all out of this life isdoubtful, since I find him living again in so many rare, strangehistories that it has become a proverb that Lox never dies. 

Now the tale returns to the two little Weasels, or Ermines, orWater-Maids, poor souls, who had such a hard life! And it happenedthat, fleeing from Master Lox, they came at evening to a desertedvillage, and entered a wigwam to pass the night. But the elder, beingthe wiser, and somewhat of a witch in the bud, mistrusted the place, deeming it not so empty as it seemed. And beholding by the door, lyingon the ground, the Neckbone of a man or some other animal, she warnedher sister that she should in nowise offend it or treat it lightly, towhich the younger replied by giving it a kick which sent it flying, andby otherwise treating it with scorn and disdain. 

Then they laid them down to sleep; but before their slumber came theyheard a doleful, bitter voice chanting aloud and shouting, and it was_Chamach keg wech_, or the Neckbone, bewailing the scorn that hadbeen put upon him, and reviling them with all manner of curses. Thenthe elder said, "There, truly, I said it. I knew you would be our deathif you did not mind me:" it being in all cases an esteemed solace forevery woman and most men to say, "I told you so!" But the younger, being well-nigh frightened to a corpse, in a soft whisper implored theelder to let her hide herself in her roll of hair, [Footnote: That is, the elder should retain the human form, and the younger become aweasel. ] which the Voice, mocking her, repeated; adding thereto all thereviling and railing that Mitche-hant, the devil, himself ever yetinvented, and abusing her so for her past life, and exhorting her sofor all the sins, slips, and slaps therein (of which there were many), that even the impenitent little Weasel repented and wept bitterly. Howbeit no further harm came to them beyond this, so that the nextmorning they went their way in peace; and I warrant you Master Neckbonegot no kicks that day from them, departing. [Footnote: This incident ofthe Neckbone is very much like the common nursery tale of Teeny Tiny, in which an old woman takes home a human bone and puts it in thecupboard. It torments her all night by its cries. ]

Then, coming to a river, they saw on the other side a handsome youngman holding a bow, and to him they called, making their usual offer tobecome his wives, and all for no greater thing than to carry them overthe ferry. And this man's name was See-witch, [Footnote: A kind ofsmall sea-duck. ] and to please them he did indeed pass them over in hiscanoe; but as for taking them home, he said that he had housekeepers instore, and as many as he needed just then, and that of a kind who kepthim very busy. So they went their way onwards. 

And coming anon to the great sea, they beheld yet another canoe withtwo men therein, and these were Kwe-moo, the Loon, and Mahgwis, theScapegrace. And embarking with them, Loon soon began to admire thegirls greatly. And saying many sweet things, he told them that he dweltin the Wigem territory, or in the land of the Owealkesk, [Footnote: Avery beautiful species of sea-duck. ] of which he himself was one. Butthe Mahgwis whispered to them aside that they should put little trustin what he told them, for Loon was a great liar. Now when they came tothe land of the Owealkesk, they were amazed at the beauty of thepeople, and saw that all in that land was lovely, nor did theythemselves seem less marvelously fair to the men therein. Indeed, thepoor little Weasels began to see the end of their sorrows, for, beingwater-fairies, these sea-birds were nigh akin to them. And there was agreat feast, a great dance, and great games held in honor of theirarrival, and the two finest young Sea-Duck men, utterly unheeding theold Loon, who believed indeed that they were his own wives, carriedthem off, and nothing loath wedded them. 

And it was in this wise. There was a canoe-race, and Kwee-moo, beingbitterly angry that he was held of so little account in the Sea-Duckland, went forth with the rest, and, paddling far outside, upset hiscanoe, and making as if he were drowning called to the Weasels to comeand save him. But the Sea-Ducks laughed, and said, "Let him alone. Truly he will never drown. We know him. " And the race ended they wentashore in peace. [Footnote: Here the Micmac narrative ends. The rest isas it was given to me by Noel Josephs, or _Chi gatch gok_, theRaven, a Passamaquoddy. It would not be a complete Indian tale if a manhaving received a slight or injury did not take a bloody revenge forit. ]

And that night they danced late, and the Weasels, being better pleasedwith the two handsome Sea-Ducks than with Loon, forthwith divorcedthemselves out of hand, and at once married them, going to where theircanoe lay, to pass the bridal night. Now Loon had not gone to thedance, but sat at home nursing his vengeance till he was well-nigh mad. And as the Weasels did not return, he went forth and sought them; andthis he did so carefully that at last he found all four by the sea, sound asleep. Whereupon he, with his knife, slew the young men, andbeing in great fear of their friends took his canoe and went down theriver to kill a deer. But not daring to return, and being mad for lossof the Weasels, and fearing to fall into the hands of the enemy, he indespair took his knife and killed himself. 

Yet the Weasels, who had seen the deed done, did not betray him, forthere was at least so much truth left in them. And they lived with theSea-Ducks, and I doubt me not went on marrying and mischief-makingafter their wont even unto the end of their days. And their kind arenot dead as yet in any land. 

 * * * * *

This is a fair specimen of many Indian legends. So much of it as isMicmac was told to Mr. Rand by a highly intelligent Indian, namedBenjamin Brooks, who was certain that the story was of great antiquity. As I at first heard it, it was limited to the adventure with the Stars, but I was told that this formed only a part of an extremely longnarrative. It consists, in fact, of different parts of other talesconnected, and I doubt not that there is much more of it. It cannotescape the reader versed in fairy-lore that the incident of thewater-maiden captured by her clothes is common to all European nations, but that it is especially Norse; while the adventures of the Wolverine, and indeed his whole character, are strangely suggestive of Loki, theSpirit of mere Mischief, who becomes evil. The fact that both Loki andLox end their earthly career at a waterfall is very curious. The twoalso become, in wizard fashion, women at will. But it is chiefly in theextreme and wanton devilishness of their tricks that they are alike. Many other resemblances will suggest themselves to those who know theEddas. 

In the Passamaquoddy version of this tale, it is Seewitch, and not theLoon, who plays the part of the jealous husband at the end. The careerof the Weasels _seems_ to set forth the adventures of a couple ofIndian Becky Sharps, very much in the spirit of an Indian Thackeray. The immorality of these damsels, the sponging of Marten, the deviltryof Lox, the servile follies and ferocious vindictiveness of the Loon, all seem to impress the composer of the tale as so many bubbles risingand falling on the sea of life, only remarkable for the sun-gleam ofhumor which they reflect. Outside these tales I know of nothing whichso resembles the inner spirit of Aristophanes, Rabelais, andShakespeare. I do not say that the genius of these great masters is inthem, but their manner of seeing humor and wickedness combined. Thecause of this lies in the cultivated stoicism with which every Indiantrains himself to regard life. The inevitable result of such culture isalways in some way a kind of humor, either grim or gay. 

A re-perusal of the Eddas has impressed me with the remarkableresemblance of Lox, the Wolverine, to Loki. The story begins with theincident of a bird maiden caught by a trick, and married. This isdistinctly Scandinavian. It is known in all lands, but the Norse madethe most of it. Then the two girls sit and choose the kind of starsthey will have. In the Eskimo (Rink, No. 8), two girls sitting on abeach, talking in the same way, seeing eagles' and whales' bones bythem, declare that they would like to marry, the one an eagle, theother a whale, and both get their wishes. In the Norse legends starsare like human beings. Lox is pursued by a giant bird; Loki is chasedby Thiassi, the giant, in eagle plumage. Again, in the Edda a gianteagle drags and trails Loki over woods and mountains, till he screamsfor pity. The Wolverine's race with a stone giant also recalls thisrace, the eagle being really one of the Jotuns, who were also allmountains and rocks. The Wolverine wizard becomes a girl, merely tomake mischief. Loki took the form of a woman in Fensal, where heschemed to kill Balder. This is certainly a strange coincidence; for asin the Edda, Loki's becoming a woman led to all the subsequent tragedyand to his own doom, so in the Indian tale the very same thing causedthe Wolverine to be chased to the high waterfall, where, owing to hisown tricks, he perished, just as Loki came to grief in Franangursfors, the bright and glistening cataract. But the most remarkable point isthat the general immoral character of the Lox, [Footnote: Thecoincidence of name amounts to nothing, as Lox is not, I believe, anIndian word. ] or Wolverine, is so much like that of Loki, consisting ofevil or mischief of the worst kind, always tempered by humor, whichprovokes a laugh. Now to find a similar and very singular charactersupported by several coincidences of incident is, if nothing more, atleast very remarkable. 

Loki is fire, and Lox, when killed in another tale, is revived by heat. He is carried off by the Culloo, or cloud, and let fall, typifying fireor lightning coming from a cloud. Again, in another story he dies forwant of fire. And he twice dies by drowning; that is, the fire isquenched by water. 

In one of the Passamaquoddy versions of this tale, which is, thoughless detailed, far superior in humor to the Micmac, the Loon is cheatedby his two nephews, the _Assoops_, a species of loon, who stealthe Weasels from him. He revenges himself, not by murdering, but bymerely frightening them. He fills a bladder with blood, puts it underhis shirt, and then stabs himself. They, thinking he is killed, lament, when he grandly comes to life, and is regarded as a great magician. 

_Of the Wolverine and the Wolves, or how Master Lox Froze toDeath. _

(Passamaquoddy. )

Of old times it came to pass that Master Lox, the Wolverine, or IndianDevil, he who was slain many times and as often rose from the dead, foundhimself deeply down in luck; for he was crossing a wide and dismal heathin winter-time, being but poorly provided in any way for travel. The windblew like knives; the snow fell; sleet, frost, hail, and rain seemed tocome all together in bad company, and still Lox was not happy, althoughhe had no blanket or fur coat beyond his own. Yet this evil-minded jollycompanion with every vice had one virtue, and that was that of all thebeasts of the forest or devils in _P'lamkik'_ he was the hardesthearted, toughest, and most unconquerable, being ever the first to fightand the last to give in, which even then he did not, never having doneit and never intending to; whence it happened that he was greatly admiredand made much of by all the blackguardly beasts of the backwoods, --whereinthey differed but little from many among men. 

Now as of all rowdies and rascals the wolves are the worst, we may wellbelieve that it was with great joy Lox heard, as the darkness wascoming on, a long, sad howl, far away, betokening the coming of a packof these pleasant people; to which he raised his own voice in the wolftongue, --for he was learned in many languages, --and soon was surroundedby some fifteen or sixteen lupine land loafers, who danced, rollingover, barking and biting one another, all for very joy at meeting withhim. And the elder, he who was captain, or the sogmo, [Footnote:_Sogmo_, sagamore, a chief; the word corrupted into sachem. ] said, "Peradventure thou wilt encamp with us this night, for it is ill for agentleman to be alone, where he might encounter vulgar fellows. " AndLox thanked him as if he were doing him a favor, and accepted the bestof their dried meat, and took the highest place by their fire, andsmoked the chief's choicest _tomawe_ out of his best pipe, and allthat with such vast condescension that the wolves grinned with delight. 

And when they laid them down to sleep he that was the eldest, or thesogmo, bade the younger cover their guest Lox over very carefully. Nowthe tail of the wolf has broad-spreading, shaggy hair, and Lox, beingsleepy, really thought it was a fur blanket that they spread, andthough the night was cold enough to crack the rocks he threw thecovering off; twice he did this, and the chief who looked after him, with all the rest, admired him greatly because he cared so little forthe cold or for their care. 

And having eaten after they arose, when in the morning they would wendaway, the Wolf Chief said unto Lox, "Uncle, thou hast yet three days'hard travel before thee in a land where there is neither home, house, nor hearth, and it will be ill camping without a fire. Now I have amost approved and excellent charm, or spell, by which I can give theethree fires, but no more; yet will they suffice, one for each night, until thou gettest to thy journey's end. And this is the manner thereof:that thou shalt take unto thee dry wood, even such as men commonly burn, and thou shalt put them together, even as boys build little wigwams forsport, and then thou shalt jump over it. And truly, uncle, this is anapproved and excellent charm of ripe antiquity, kept as a solemn secretamong the wolves, and thou art the first not of our holy nation to whomit hath been given. " So they parted. 

Now Lox trudged on, and as he went westwards kept thinking of thisgreat secret of the pious and peculiar people, and wondering if it wereeven as the Wolf said, or only a deceit; for however kindly he wastreated by people, he always suspected that they mocked him to scorn, or were preparing to do so; for as he ever did this thing himself toevery condition of mankind or beasts, he constantly awaited to have itdone to him. And being curious withal, and anxious to see some newthing, he had not walked half an hour ere he said, "Tush! let me tryit. Yea, and I will!" So building up the sticks, he jumped over them, and at once they caught fire and blazed up, and it came to pass even asthe Wolf had prophesied. 

Now having solaced himself by the heat, Lox went on. And anon it grewcold again, and he began to think how pleasant it was to be warm; andbeing, like most evil people, wanting in a corner of wisdom, he at onceput the sticks together again and jumped over them, and as before thererose a blaze, and he was happy. And this was the second fire, and hehad still three cold nights before him before he could reach his home. 

And yet this Wolverine, who was so wise in all wickedness and witty inevil-doing, had not walked into the afternoon before he began to thinkof the third fire. "Truly, " he said to himself, "who knows but theweather may take a turn to a thaw, and give us a warm night? Hum! ha!methinks by the look of the clouds the wind will soon be southwesterly. Have I not heard my grandmother say that such a color, even the red, meant something?--I forget what, but it might be a warm change. Luck beon me, I will risk the odds. " And, saying this, he set up the sticksagain; and this was the last fire, though it was not even the firstnight. 

And when he came after dark to the first camping place it grew cold inearnest. Howbeit Lox, thinking that what was good for once must be goodforever, made him his little pile of sticks and jumped over them. Itwas of no avail. Finally, when he had jumped twenty or thirty timesmore, there arose a little smoke, and, having his heart cheered bythis, he kept on jumping. Now it is said that there can be no smokewithout fire, but this time it went not beyond smoke. Then Lox jumpedagain, and this time the Indian Devil came up within him, and he sworeby it that he would jump till it blazed or burst. So he kept on, andyet there came no comfort, not even a spark; and being at last awearyhe fell down in a swoon, and so froze to death. And so the Devil wasdead, and that was the last of him for that turn; but I think he gotover it, for he has been seen many a time since. 

In two stories Lox (once as the _loup cervier_) is intimate withthe wolves. Loki was the father of the wolves. Loki is fire: here Loxdies for want of fire. Since I wrote the foregoing, Mrs. W. WallaceBrown has learned that Lox is definitely the king or chief of thewolves, and that many Indians deny that he is really an animal at all, though he assumes the forms of certain animals. He is a spirit, and theMischief Maker. It will be admitted that this brings the Lox muchnearer to Loki. 

It is said that when Glooskap left the world, as he took away with himthe kings of all the animals, Lox went with him as king of the Wolves. This is an identification of him with Malsum, the Wolf, himself. 

_How Master Lox played a Trick on Mrs. Bear, who lost her eyesightand had her eyes opened. _

(Micmac. )

Don't live with mean people if you can help it. They will turn yourgreatest sorrow to their own account if they can. Bad habit gets to bedevilish second nature. One dead herring is not much, but one by oneyou may make such a heap of them as to stink out a whole village. 

As it happened to old Mrs. Bear, who was easy as regarded people, And thought well of everybody, and trusted all. So she took in forA house-mate another old woman. Their wigwam was all by itself, andthe next neighbor was so far off that he was not their neighbor atall, but that of some other folks. 

One night the old women made up a fire, and lay down and went to sleepIndian-fashion, --_witkusoodijik_, --heads and points, so that bothcould lie with their back to the fire. 

Now while they were sound asleep, Lox, the Wolverine, or Indian Devil, came prowling round. Some people say it was Hespuns, the Raccoon; andit is a fact that Master Coon can play a very close game of deviltry onhis own account. However, this time it must have been Lox, as you cansee by the tracks. 

While they were both sound asleep Lox looked in. He found the old womenasleep, heads and points, and at once saw his way to a neat little bitof mischief. So, going into the woods, he cut a fine long sapling-poleof _ow-bo-goos_, and poked one end of it into the fire till it wasa burning coal. Then he touched the soles of Mrs. Bear; and she, waking, cried out to the other, "Take care! you are burning me!" whichthe other denied like a thunder-clap. 

Then Master Lox carefully applied the end of the hot pole to the feetof the other woman. First she dreamed that she was walking on hot sandand roasting rocks in summer-time, and then that the Mohawks werecooking her at the death-fire; and then she woke up, and, seeing whereshe was, began to blame Mrs. Bear for it all, just as if she were aMohawk. 

Ah, yes. Well, Master Lox, seeing them fighting in a great rage, burstout laughing, so that he actually burst himself, and fell down deadwith delight. It was a regular side-splitter. When my grandfather said_that_ we _always_ laughed. 

In the morning, when the women came out, there lay a dead devil at thedoor. He must indeed have looked like a Raccoon this time; but whateverhe was, they took him, skinned him, and dressed him for breakfast. Thenthe kettle was hung and the water boiled, and they popped him in. Butas soon as it began to scald he began to come to life. In a minute hewas all together again, alive and well, and with one good leap wentclear of the kettle. Rushing out of the lodge, he grabbed his skin, which hung on a bush outside, put it on, and in ten seconds was safe inthe greenwood. He just saved himself with a whole skin. 

Now Master Lox had precious little time, you will say, to do any moremischief between his coming to life and running away; yet, short as theallowance was, he made a great deal of it. For even while jumping outhis wits for wickedness came to him, and he just kicked the edge of thepot, so that it spilled all the scalding hot water into the fire, andthrew up the ashes with a great splutter. They flew into the eyes ofDame Bear and blinded her. 

Now this was hard on the old lady. She could not go out hunting, or settraps, or fish any more; and her partner, being mean, kept all the nicemorsels for herself. Mrs. Bear only got the leanest and poorest of themeat, though there was plenty of the best. As my grandfather used tosay, Mrs. Bear might have fared better if she had used her eyes earlier. 

One day, when she was sitting alone in the wigwam, Mrs. Bear began toremember all she had ever heard about eyes, and it came into her headthat sometimes they were closed up in such a way that clever folk couldcut them open again. So she got her knife and sharpened it, and, carefully cutting a little, saw the light of day. Then she was gladindeed, and with a little more cutting found that she could see aswell as ever. And as good luck does nut come single, the very firstthing she beheld was an abundance of beautiful fat venison, fish, andmaple-sugar hung up overhead. 

Dame Bear said nothing about her having recovered her eyesight. Shewatched all the cooking going on, and saw the daintiest dinner, whichall went into one platter, and a very poor lot of bones and scrapsplaced in another. Then, when she was called to eat, she simply said tothe other woman, who kept the best, "Well, you have done well foryourself!"

The other saw that Mrs. Bear had recovered her sight. She wasfrightened, for Dame Bear was by far the better man of the two. So shecried out, "Bless me! what a mistake I've made! Why, I gave you thewrong dish. You know, my dear sister, that I always give you the bestbecause you are blind. "

My grandfather said that after this Mrs. Bear kept her eyes open onpeople in two ways. And it always made us laugh, _that_ did. 

The Spirit of Mischief in these stories is sometimes Lox, theWolverine; at others the Raccoon, or the Badger. Their adventures areinterchangeable. But the character is always the same, and it is muchlike that of Loki. Now Loki is Fire; and it may be observed in thislegend that the wolverine or raccoon comes to life when thrown intoscalding water, and that in another narrative Lox dies for want offire; in another he is pricked by thorns and stung by ants. "We must, "says C. F. Keary, in his Mythology of the Eddas, "admit that theconstant appearance of thorn-hedges, pricking with a sleep-thorn (Lox'sthorns are his bed), in German and Norse legends, is a mythical way ofexpressing the idea of the funeral _fire_. "

The first thing that the Lox-Raccoon does in this tale, on coming tolife, is to upset a pot into the ashes for mischief's sake. And thevery first exploit of the magic deer, made by the evil spirits andsorcerers in the Kalevala (Runes XIII. ), is thus set forth:--

 "Then the Husi stag went bounding, Bounding to the land of Pohja, Till he reached the fields of Lapland. Passing there before a cabin (_goatte_), With a single kick while running

 He upset the boiling kettle, So that all the meat went rolling, Rolling ruined in the ashes, And the soup upon the hearth-stone. "

This is, in both cases, the very first act of an animal, created andliving only for mischief, on coming to a magic or artificial life. 

The legends of Finland and Lapland are as important as the Norse toexplain the origin of our Indian mythology. 

_How Lox came to Grief by trying to catch a Salmon. _

(Passamaquoddy. )

Kusk, the Crane, had two brothers. One of these was Lox, the Wolverine, or Indian Devil. And his other brother was Koskomines, the Blue Jay. 

Kusk was very lazy, and one day, being hungry, thought he would go andget a dinner from Lox. Lox served him a kind of pudding-soup in abroad, flat platter. Poor Kusk could hardly get a mouthful, while Loxhipped it all up with ease. 

Soon after, Kusk made a fine soup, and invited Lox to dinner. This heserved up in a jug, a long cylinder. None of it had Lox. Kusk ate itall. 

The next day the pair went to dine with Blue Jay. Blue Jay said, "Waittill I get our food. " Then he ran out on a bough of a tree which spreadover a river, and in a minute fished out a large salmon. "Truly, "thought Lox, "that is easy to do, and I can do it. "

So the next day he invited the Blue Jay and Crane to feed with him. Then he, too, ran down to the river and out on a tree, and, seeing afine salmon, caught at it with his claws. But he had not learned theart, and so fell into the river, and was swept away by the rushingcurrent. 

This is one of AEsop's fables Indianized and oddly eked out with afragment from a myth attributed to both Manobozho and the WabanakiRabbit. As the Wolverine has a great resemblance to Loki, it may behere observed that, while he dies in trying to catch a salmon, "Loki, in the likeness of a salmon, cast himself into the waterfall ofFranangr. " which was effectively his last act in life before beingcaptured by the gods, as told in the Edda. Otter, in the Edda, caught asalmon, and was then caught by Loki. There is, of course, greatconfusion here, but the Indian tale is a mere fragment, carelesslypieced and indifferently told. Lox is, like Loki, _fire_ andperishes by water. 

_How Master Lox as a Raccoon killed the Bear and the Black Cats andperformed other Notable Feats of Skill, all to his Great Discredit. _

(Passamaquoddy. )

Now of old time there is a tale of Hespuns, the Raccoon, according tothe Passamaquoddy Indians, but by another record it is Master Lox, towhom all Indian deviltry truly belongs. And this is the story. One finemorning Master Lox started off as a Raccoon; [Footnote: The samestories are attributed to the Wolverine, Badger, and Raccoon. ] for hewalked the earth in divers disguises, to take his usual roundabouts, and as he went he saw a huge bear, as the manuscript reads, "rightstraight ahead of him. "

Now the old Bear was very glad, to see the Raccoon, for he had made uphis mind to kill him at once if he could: firstly, to punish him forhis sins; and secondly, to eat him for breakfast. Then the Raccoon raninto a hollow tree, the Bear following, and beginning to root it up. 

Now the Coon saw that in a few minutes the tree would go and he begone. But he began to sing as if he did not care a bean, and said, "Allthe digging and pushing this tree will never catch me. Push your way inbackwards, and then I must yield and die. But that you cannot do, sincethe hole is too small for you. " Then Mooin, the Bruin, hearing this, believed it, but saw that he could easily enlarge the hole, which hedid, and so put himself in arrear; upon which the Raccoon seized him, and held on till he was slain. [Footnote: As Reynard, the Fox, won thevictory in the famous tale versified by Goethe. Vide _ReineckeFuchs_. ]

Then he crawled out of the tree, and, having made himself a fine pairOf mittens out of the Bear's skin, started off again, and soon saw awigwam from which rose a smoke, and, walking in, he found a family of_Begemkessisek_, or Black Cats. So, greeting them, he said, "Young folks, comb me down and make me nice, and I will give you thesebeautiful bear-skin mittens. " So the little Black Cats combed him down, and parted his hair, and brushed his tail, and while they were doing thishe fell asleep; and they, being very hungry, took the fresh bear-skinmitts, and scraped them all up, and cooked and ate them. Then the Coon, waking up, looked very angry at them, and said in an awful voice, "Where are my bear-skin mitts?" And they, in great fear, replied, "Please, sir, we cooked and ate them. " Then the Coon flew at them andstrangled them every one, all except the youngest, who, since he couldnot speak as yet, the Raccoon, or Lox, thought could not tell of him. Then, for a great joke, he took all the little dead creatures and setthem up by the road-side in a row; as it was a cold day they all frozestiff, and then he put a stick across their jaws, so that the littleBlack Cats looked as if they were laughing for joy. Then he made off atfull speed. 

Soon the father, the old Black Cat, came home, and, seeing his childrenall grinning at him, he said, "How glad the dear little things are tosee me. " But as none moved he saw that something was wrong, and his joysoon changed to sorrow. [Footnote: This trick is so precisely in thestyle of Lox that it seems a gross mistake to attribute it to theRaccoon. Those who have seen a wild cat grin will appreciate the humorof Lox on this occasion. ]

Then the youngest Black Cat, the baby, came out of some hole where hehad hid himself. Now the baby was too young to speak, but he was veryclever, and, picking up a piece of charcoal, he made a mark from theend of his mouth around his cheek. [Footnote: The reader cannot fail torecall the peculiar mustache of the Raccoon so well indicated by theinfant artist. ] Then the father cried, "Ah, _now_ I know who itwas, --the Raccoon, as sure as I live!" And he started after him in hotpursuit. 

Soon the Raccoon saw the fierce Black Cat, as an Indian, coming afterhim with a club. And, looking at him, he said, "No club can kill me;nothing but a bulrush or cat-tail can take my life. " Then the BlackCat, who knew where to get one, galloped off to a swamp, and, havinggot a large cat-tail, came to the Coon and hit him hard with it. Itburst and spread all over the Raccoon's head, and, being wet, the fuzzstuck to him. And the Black Cat, thinking it was the Coon's brains andall out, went his way. 

The Raccoon lay quite still till his foe was gone, and then went on histravels. Now he was a great magician, though little to other folks'good. And he came to a place where there were many women nursing theirbabes, and said, "This is but a slow way you have of raising children. "To which the good women replied, "How else should we raise them?" Thenhe answered, "I will show you how we do in our country. When we wantthem to grow fast, we dip them into cold water over night. Just lend meone, and I will show you how to raise them in a hurry. " They gave himone: he took it to the river, and, cutting a hole in the ice, put thechild into it. The next morning he went to the place, and took out afull-grown man, alive and well. The women were indeed astonished atthis. All hastened to put their babes that night under the ice, andthen the Raccoon rushed away. So they all died. 

Then he came to another camp, where many women with fine stuff and furswere making bags. "That is a very slow way you have of working, " hesaid to the goodwives. "In our country we cook them under the ashes. Let me see the stuff and show you how!" They gave him a piece: he putit under the hot coals and ashes, and in a few minutes drew out fromthem a beautiful bag. Then they all hurried to put their cloth underthe fire. Just then he left in haste. And when they drew the stuff outit was scorched or burned, and all spoiled. 

Then he came to a great river, and did not know how to get across. Hesaw on the bank an old _Wiwillmekq'_, a strange worm which is likea horned, alligator; but he was blind. "Grandfather, " said the Raccoon, "carry me over the lake. " "Yes, my grandson, " said the Wiwillmekq', andaway he swam; the Ravens and Crows above began to ridicule them. "Whatare those birds saying?" inquired the Old One. "Oh, they are crying toyou to hurry, hurry, for your life, with that Raccoon!" So theWiwillmekq', not seeing land ahead, hurried with such speed that theRaccoon made him run his head and half his body into the bank, and thenjumped off and left him. But whether the Wiwillmekq' ever got out againis more than he ever troubled himself to know. 

So he went on till he came to some Black Berries, and said, "Berries, how would you agree with me if I should eat you?" "Badly indeed, MasterCoon, " they replied, "for we are Choke-berries. " "Choke-berries, indeed! Then I will have none of you. " And then further he found onsome bushes, Rice-berries. "Berries, " he cried, "how would you agreewith me if I should eat you?" "We should make you itch, for we areItch-berries. " "Ah, that is what I like, " he replied, and so ate hisfill. Then as he went on he felt very uneasy: he seemed to be tormentedwith prickles, he scratched and scratched, but it did not help or cure. So he rubbed himself on a ragged rock; he slid up and down it till thehair came off. 

Now the Raccoon is bare or has little fur where he scratched himself, to this very day. This story is at an end. 

This story is from the Passamaquoddy Indian-English collection made forme by Louis Mitchell. In the original, the same incident of boiling thehero in a kettle and of his springing out of it occurs as in the taleof Mrs. Bear and the Raccoon. This I have here omitted. TheMephistophelian and mocking character of Lox is strongly shown when hesays, "Nothing but a cat-tail or bulrush can kill me, " this beingevidently an allusion to Glooskap. This is to an Indian much likeblasphemy. Lox, or Raccoon, or Badger, --for they are all the same, --inhis journeyings after mere mischief reminds us of an Indian TylEulenspiegel. But the atrocious nature of his jokes is like nothingelse, unless it be indeed the homicide Punch. It is the indomitablenature of both which commends them respectively to the Englishman andto the Red Indian. In this tale Lox appears as the spirit of fire bydrawing a bag from it. The itching or pricking from which he suffers isalso significant of that element, as appears, according to Keary, inmany Norse, etc. , legends. 

In the Seneca tale of the Mischief Maker, the Berries are distinctlydeclared to have souls. 

_How Lox deceived the Ducks, cheated the Chief, and beguiled theBear. _

(Micmac and Passamaquoddy. )

Somewhere in the forest lived Lox, with a small boy, his brother. Whenwinter came they went far into the woods to hunt. And going on, theyreached at last a very large and beautiful lake. It was covered withwater-fowl. There were wild geese and brant, black ducks and wood-ducks, and all the smaller kinds down to teal and whistlers. 

The small boy was delighted to see so much game. He eagerly asked hisbrother how he meant to catch them. He answered, "We must first go towork and build a large wigwam. It must be very strong, with a heavy, solid door. " This was done; and Lox, being a great magician, thusarranged his plans for taking the wild-fowl. He sent the boy out to apoint of land, where he was to cry to the birds and tell them that hisbrother wished to give them a kingly reception. (_Nakamit_, to actthe king. ) He told them their king had come. Then Lox, arraying himselfgrandly, sat with dignity next the door, with his eyes closed, as if ingreat state. Then the little boy shouted that they might enter and hearwhat the great sagamore had to say. They flocked in, and took theirseats in the order of their size. The Wild Geese came nearest and satdown, then the Ducks, and so on to the smallest, who sat nearest thedoor. Last of all came the boy, who entering also sat down by the door, closed it, and held it fast. So the little birds, _altumabedajik_(M. ), sat next to him. 

Then they were all told "_Spegwedajik_!" "Shut your eyes!" andwere directed to keep them closed for their very lives, until directedto open them again. Unless they did this first, their eyes would beblinded forever when they beheld their king in all his magnificence. Sothey sat in silence. Then the sorcerer, stepping softly, took them oneby one, grasping each tightly by the wings, and ere the bird knew whathe was about it had its head crushed between his teeth. And so withoutnoise or fluttering he killed all the Wild Geese and Brant and BlackDucks. Then the little boy began to pity the poor small wild-fowl. Hethought it was a shame to kill so many, having already more than theyneeded. So stooping down, he whispered to a very little bird to openits eyes. It did so, but very cautiously indeed, for fear of beingblinded. 

Great was his horror to see what Lox was doing! He screamed, "_Kedumeds'lk_!" "We are all being killed!" Then they opened theireyes, and flew about in the utmost confusion, screaming loudly interror. The little boy dropped down as if he had been knocked over inthe confusion, so that the door flew wide open, and the birds, rushingover him, began to, escape, while Lox in a rage continued to seize themand kill them with his teeth. Then the little boy, to avoid suspicion, grasped the last fugitive by the legs and held him fast. But he wassuspected all the same by the wily sorcerer, who caught him up roughly, and would have beaten him cruelly but that he earnestly protested thatthe birds knocked him down and forced the door open, and that he couldby no means help it: which being somewhat slowly believed, he wasforgiven, and they began to pluck and dress the game. The giblets werepreserved, the fowls sliced and dried and laid by for the winter'sstore. 

Then having plenty of provisions, Lox gave a feast. Among the guestswere Marten and Mahtigwess, the Rabbit, who talked together for a longtime in the most confidential manner, the Rabbit confiding and theMarten attending to him. 

Now while this conversation had been going on, Lox, who was deeplyaddicted to all kinds of roguery and mischief, had listened to it withinterest. And when the two little guests had ceased he asked them wheretheir village was, and who lived in it. Then he was told that all thelargest animals had their homes there: the bear, caribou or reindeer, deer, wolf, wild cat, to say nothing of squirrels and mice. And havinggot them to show him the way, he some time after turned himself into ayoung woman of great beauty, or at least disguised himself like one, and going to the village married the young chief. And having leftlittle Marten alone in a hollow tree outside the village, the boy, getting hungry, began to howl for food; which the villagers hearingwere in a great fright. But the young chiefs wife, or the magicianLox, soon explained to them what it meant. "It is, " she-he said, "_Owoolakumooejit_, the Spirit of Famine. He is grim and gaunt;hear how he howls for food! Woe be unto you, should he reach thisvillage! Ah, I remember only too well what happened when he oncecame among us. Horror! starvation!"

"Can you drive him back?" cried all the villagers. 

"Yes, 'tis in my power. Do but give me the well-tanned hide of ayearling moose and a good supply of moose-tallow, [Footnote: A greatdelicacy among these semi-Arctic Indians. ] then the noise will cease. "And seizing it, and howling furiously the name of his brother after afashion which no one could understand, --_Aa-chowwa'n_!--andbidding him begone, he rushed out into the night, until he came toMarten, to whom he gave the food, and, wrapping him up well in themoose-skin, bade him wait a while. And the villagers thought thechief's wife was indeed a very great conjurer. 

And then she-he announced that a child would soon be born. And when theday came Badger handed out a bundle, and said that the babe was in it. "_Noolmusugakelaimadijul_, " "They kiss it outside the blanket. "But when the chief opened it what he found therein was the dried, withered embryo of a moose-calf. In a great rage he flung it into thefire, and all rushed headlong in a furious pack to catch Badger. Theysaw him and Marten rushing to the lake. They pursued him, but when hereached the bank the wily sorcerer cast in a stick; it turned into acanoe, and long ere the infuriated villagers could reach them they wereon the opposite shore and in the woods. 

Now it came to pass one day that as Lox sat on a log a bear came by, who, being a sociable fellow, sat down by him and smoked a pipe. Whilethey were talking a gull flew over, and inadvertently offered to Loxwhat he considered, or affected to consider, as a great insult. Andwiping the insult off, Lox cried to the Gull, "Oh, ungrateful andinsolent creature, is this the way you reward me for having made youwhite!"

Now the Bear would always be white if he could, for the White Bear(_wabeyu mooin_) is the aristocrat of Beardom. So he eagerlycried, "Ha! did you make the Gull white?"

"Indeed I did, " replied Lox. "And this is what I get for it. "

"Could you, my dear friend, --could you make _me_ white?"

Then Lox saw his way, and replied that he could indeed, but that itwould be a long and agonizing process; Mooin might die of it. To besure the Gull stood it, but could a Bear?

Now the Bear, who had a frame as hard as a rock, felt sure that hecould endure anything that a gull could, especially to become a whitebear. So, with much ceremony, the Great Enchanter went to work. Hebuilt a strong wigwam, three feet high, of stones, and having put theBear into it he cast in red-hot stones, and poured water on themthrough a small hole in the roof. Erelong the Bear was in a terriblesteam. 

"Ah, Doctor Lox, " he cried, "this is awfully hot! I fear I am dying!"

"Courage, " said Lox; "this is nothing. The Gull had it twice as hot. "

"Can't stand it any more, doctor. _O-o-o-oh_!"

Doctor Lox threw in more hot stones and poured more water on them. TheBear yelled. 

"Let me out! _O-o-h_! let me out! _O-o-o-oh_!"

So he came bursting through the door. The doctor examined himcritically. 

Now there is on an old bear a small white or light spot on his upperbreast, which he cannot see. [Footnote: This is very white on theJapanese bears. ] And Doctor Lox, looking at this, said, --

"What a pity! You came out just as you were beginning to turn white. Here is the first spot. Five minutes more and you'd have been a whitebear. Ah, you haven't the pluck of a gull; that I can see. "

Now the Bear was mortified and disappointed. He had not seen the spot, so he asked Lox if it was really there. 

"Wait a minute, " said the doctor. He led the Bear to a pool and madehim look in. Sure enough, the spot was there. Then he asked if theycould not begin again. 

"Certainly we can, " replied the doctor. "But it will be much hotter andharder and longer this time. Don't try it if you feel afraid, and don'tblame _me_ if you die of it. "

The Bear went in again, but he never came out alive. The doctor hadroast bear meat all that winter, and much bear's oil. He gave some ofthe oil to his younger brother. The boy took it in a measure. Goingalong the creek, he saw a Muskrat (_Keuchus_, Pass. ). He said tothe Muskrat, "If you can harden this oil for me, I will give you half. "The Muskrat made it as hard as ice. The boy said, "If my brother comesand asks you to do this for him, do you keep it all. " And, returning, he showed the oil thus hardened to his brother, who, taking a largemeasure of it, went to the Muskrat and asked him to harden it. TheMuskrat indeed took the dish and swam away with it, and never returned. 

Then the elder, vexed with the younger, and remembering the ducks inthe wigwam, and believing now that he had indeed been cheated, slewhim. 

[Illustration: THE INDIAN BOY AND THE MUSK-RAT. SEEPS, THE DUCK. ]

This confused and strange story is manifestly pieced together out ofseveral others, each of which have incidents in common. A part of itis very ancient. Firstly, the inveigling the ducks into the wigwam isfound in the Eskimo tale of Avurungnak (Rink, p. 177). The Eskimo istold by a sorcerer to let the sea-birds into the tent, and not tobegin to kill them till the tent is full. He disobeys, and a part ofthem escape. In Schoolcraft's Hiawatha Legends, Manobozho gets themysterious oil which ends the foregoing story from a fish. He fattensall the animals in the world with it, and the amount which they consumeis the present measure of their fatness. When this ceremony is over, heinveigles all the birds into his power by telling them to shut theireyes. At last a small duck, the diver, suspecting something, opens oneeye, and gives the alarm. 

The sorcerer's passing himself off for a woman and the trick of themoose abortion occurs in three tales, but it is most completely givenin this. To this point the narrative follows the Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Chippewa versions. After the tale of the chief is at an end it isentirely Passamaquoddy; but of the latter I have two versions, one fromTomah Josephs and one from Mrs. W. Wallace Brown. 

I can see no sense in the account of the bear's oil hardened by ice, but that oil is an essential part of the duck story appears from theChippewa legend (Hiawatha L. P. 30). In the latter it is represented asgiving size to those who partake of it. 

_The Mischief Maker. A Tradition of the Origin of the Mythology ofthe Senecas. A Lox Legend. _

(Seneca. )

An Indian mischief maker was once roving about. He saw that he wasapproaching a village, and said, "How can I attract attention?"

Seeing two girls coming from the wigwams, he pulled up a wild plum-bushand placed it upon his head, the roots clasping about his chin. 

It will be strange to see a plum-tree on my head, bearing ripe fruit. These girls will want trees also. So he thought. The tree shook as hewalked, and many plums fell to the ground. 

The girls wondered greatly at the strange man with the tree. Theyadmired it, and said they, too, would like to be always supplied withfruit in such a manner. 

"I can manage that, " he replied. So he pulled up a bush for each, andplanted them on their heads. The plums were delicious, and grew as fastas they were plucked; and the girls stepped along proudly, for they hadsomething which certainly no girls ever had before. 

The Mischief Maker went on to the village. On the way he reflected, "There is no such thing in the world as a plum-tree growing on a man'shead. I will take this off. " He did so, and, on entering the village, gave a loud signal (a whoop). All the people listened, and the chiefssent messengers to inquire what news he brought. 

He said, "I have seen a very strange sight. As I was coming hither Isaw two girls walking. Trees grew on their heads; the boughs werecovered with plums, and the roots, which came through their hair, werefastened about their necks. They were beautiful, and seemed to be veryhappy. "

"We will go and see them!" cried the women. 

They had not gone far before they saw one of the girls lying on theground, while the other pulled at the tree on her head. The roots gaveway and the tree came out, but all the hair came with it also. Then theother lay down, and her friend in turn pulled the tree from her head. They were very angry, and said, "If we meet with the man who played usthis trick we will punish him. "

When the women who had gathered round them learned how the trees hadbeen fastened by magic upon the girls' heads, they returned to thevillage, resolved to chastise the man who had played the trick. Butwhen they reached home he was gone. 

Gone far and away to another town. Before reaching it he sat down, andsaid, "Now I will show these people also what I can do. " He went alittle distance into the woods, where he found a wigwam. A woman with abucket in her hand came from it. He saw that as she passed along shereached high with one hand, and felt her way by a thong which ran fromtree to tree till it ended at a spring of cold water. She went on, filled her bucket, and so returned. Then another woman after her didthe same. 

"They must be blind, " said the Mischief Maker. "I will have some funwith them. " And so it was. There lived in that wigwam five blindsisters. 

Then he untied the thong from the tree near the spring and fastened itto another, where there was no water. Then a third blind woman camewith a bucket, and followed the line to the end, but found no water. She returned to the wigwam, and said, "The spring is dried up. "

"No, it isn't, " replied one of the sisters, who was stirring puddingover the fire. "You say that because you are too lazy to bring water;you never work. Here, do you stir the pudding, and let me go forwater. "

The Mischief Maker heard all this, and made haste to tie the end of thethong where it belonged. The blind woman filled her bucket, and whenshe returned said to her sister, "There, you lazy creature, I found thewater!"

By this time the Mischief Maker was in the house, and slipping quietlyup to the fire he dipped out some of the pudding and threw it, scaldinghot, into the face of the scolding woman, who cried in a rage, --

"You throw hot pudding at me, do you?"

"No, I did not throw any at you, " replied the sister. 

Then the Mischief Maker threw some into _her_ face. She screamed, being very angry. 

"You mean thing! You threw hot pudding at me, when I did you no harm. "

"I didn't throw any!" said the other, in a rage. 

"Yes, you _did_, you mean thing!"

"Stop! stop!" cried the others. Just then hot pudding flew in all theirfaces; they had a terrible quarrel, and the Mischief Maker left them tosettle it among themselves as they could. 

He entered the village near by, and gave the usual signal for news. Therunners came out and met him; the chiefs and all the people assembled, lining the path on both sides for a long way. They asked, "What news doyou bring?"

He replied, "I come from at village where there is great distress. Apestilence visited the people. The medicine man could not cure thesick; till I came there was no remedy; the tribe was becoming verysmall. But I told them the remedy, and now they are getting well. Ihave come to tell you to prepare for the pestilence: it will soon behere; it is flying like the wind, and there is only one remedy. "

"What is it? what is it? what is it?" interrupted the people. 

He answered, "Every man must embrace the woman who is next to him atthis very instant; kiss her, quick, immediately!"

They all did so on the spot, he with the rest. 

As he was leaving them an elderly man came to him and whispered, "Areyou going to do this thing again at the next village? If you are Ishould like to be on hand. I didn't get any girl myself here. The womanI went for dodged me, and said she had rather have the pestilence, anddeath too, than have me kiss her. Is the operation to be repeated?"

The Mischief Maker said that it certainly would be, about the middle ofthe morrow forenoon. 

"Then I will start now, " said the middle-aged man, "for I am lame, andit will take me all night to get there. "

So he hurried on, and at daylight entered the village. He found awigwam, by which several beautiful Indian girls were pounding corn in agreat wooden mortar. He sat down by them. He could hardly take his eyesfrom them, they were so charming, and they wondered at his strangebehavior. 

He talked with them, and said, "My eyelids quiver, and by that I knowthat some great and strange news will soon be brought to this tribe. Hark!"--here he moved up towards the one whom he most admired, --"didyou not hear a signal?"

"No, " they replied. 

The middle-aged man became very uneasy. Suddenly the girls gave a cry, and dropped their corn pestles. A voice was heard afar; the runnersleaped and flew, the chiefs and people went forth. With them went thegirls and the middle-aged man, who took great pains to keep very nearhis chosen one, so as to lose no time in applying the remedy for thepestilence when the Mischief Maker should give the signal. He wasdetermined that a life should not be lost if he could prevent it. 

The Stranger went through his story as at the other village. The peoplebecame very much excited. They cried, out to know the remedy, and theold bachelor drew nearer to the pretty girl. 

"The only remedy for the pestilence is for every woman _to knock downthe man who is nearest her_. "

The women began to knock down, and the first to fall was the toofamiliar old bachelor. So the Mischief Maker waited no longer than tosee the whole town in one general and bitter fight, tooth and nail, tomahawk and scalper, and then ran at the top of his speed far away andfleet, to find another village. Then the people, finding they had beentricked, said, as people generally do on such occasions, "If we hadthat fellow here, wouldn't we pay him up for this?"

The Mischief Maker was greatly pleased at his success. It was nearlydark when he stopped, and said, "I will not enter the next villageto-night; I will camp here in the woods. " So he had piled up logs for afire, and was just about to strike a light, when he saw a strangerapproaching. "Camp with me here over night, " said the Mischief Maker, "and we will go to the village in the morning. "

So they ate and smoked their pipes, and told stories till it was verylate. But the stranger did not seem to tire; nay, he even proposed totell stories all night long. The Mischief Maker looked at him aslant. 

"My friend, " he said, "can you tell me of what wood my back-log is?"

"Hickory?" inquired the stranger. 

"No, not hickory. "

"Maple?"

"No, not maple. "

"White oak?"

"No, not white oak. "

"Black walnut?"

"No, not black walnut. "

"Moosewood?"

"No, not moosewood. "

"Ash?"

"No, not ash. "

"Pine?"

"No, not pine. "

"Cedar?"

"No, not cedar. "

"Birch?"

The stranger began to yawn, but he kept on guessing. Then his headnodded. By the time he had found out that it was slippery elm he wassound asleep. 

"This fellow deserves punishment, " remarked the Mischief Maker. "He isan enemy to mankind. " Here he adroitly put some sticky clay on thesleeper's eyes, and departed. When the stranger awoke he thoughthimself still fast asleep in darkness, and then that he was blind. 

"If ever I meet with that fellow again, " he said, "I'll punish him!"

The Mischief Maker played so many pranks that all the tribes sent outrunners to catch him. He heard their whoops in every forest. He knewthat he was being hunted down. He hurried on, and once at night hid ina cave under a rock. The runners did not quite overtake him, but theysaw that his tracks were fresh, and thought they might catch him in themorning. In the morning he was up and far away long before they awoke. The next night he hid again in a hollow log. In the middle of theafternoon of the next day he heard the whoops of the pursuers verynear, and knew that they were gaining fast on him. He climbed a thicklylimbed tree, and hid in the top. Here the runners lost his track, because he had broken the weeds and bushes down beyond the tree, as ifhe had gone further on. They ran for a long distance. Then theyreturned, and camped and built a fire under the tree. 

The smoke crept up among the branches and curled above, and rose in astraight column to the sky. The fugitive sailed away on the smoke, going up and up, --past beautiful lakes and hunting-grounds stocked withdeer, large fields of corn and beans, tobacco and squashes; past greatcompanies of handsome Indians, whose wigwams were hung full of driedvenison and bear's meat. And so he went on and up to the wig-wam of theGreat Chief. 

Here he rested. He remained for a hundred moons observing the customsof the people and learning their language. One morning the Great Chieftold him that he must return to his own people. He disliked to do this, for he was very happy in the new place. The Chief said, "These are thehappy hunting grounds. We have admitted you that you may know how andwhat to teach your people, that they may get here. Go, and if you dowhat I tell you, you may return to remain forever. You have not beenallowed to come here to remain, but only to observe. When you comeagain, you shall join us in all things. You shall hunt and fish then, and have whatever you wish. But return now, and teach what you havelearned here. "

A cloud of smoke in the form of a great eagle came to him, and, seatedon its back, he was borne down to the top of the tree from which he hadrisen. He opened his eyes. The sun was shining. His pursuers had goneaway. He descended and traveled on. His mind was filled with what hehad seen. He said, "I will no longer play tricks, but tell the peopleabout what I learned in the happy hunting-grounds. "

After a long journey he drew near a village. He gave the common signal. Runners came to meet him. The head chief and all the people came tohear. He was asked, "What news do you bring us?"

He said, "I that was the Mischief Maker am the Peace Maker now. TheGreat Spirit took me to the happy hunting-grounds, and I am sent backto tell you how to get there. " Then the Peace Maker described all hehad seen. The people built a great fire and danced around it, andshouted as they had never done before. Then he said, "This is themessage I bring you. "

So the people sat in a great circle round the fire and listened. Hespoke:--

"The Great Spirit is unseen, but he is about us. He will not forsake us. He rules all things for us. He will take care of us. He told me that weshould return thanks to him, for he changes the seasons, and makes cornand beans and squashes grow for us. He is displeased when we kill ourbrothers. He hopes that we will not forget him. He will never die. Hisname is _Ha-wen-ni-yu_, --the Ruler. He bids us keep away from hiswicked brother, whose name is _Ha-ne-go-ate-geh_, the Evil-Minded. He is very bad. He brings pestilence and fevers, and lizards and poisonousweeds. He destroys peace, and brings war. Ha-wen-ni-yu will care for usif we trust in him. Obey his words, and Ha-ne-go-ate-geh will neverharm us. 

The Great Spirit, has messengers, who aid him in his work. They watchover the people. They take care of the mother and her new-born babe, that they receive no harm; they watch over those whom the Evil-Mindedhas troubled with disease. The Evil-Minded has messengers who do hiswork. They scatter pestilence, and whisper in our ears, and tell us togo against Ha-wen-ni-yu. 

The Great Spirit has messengers. Heno has a pouch filled withthunderbolts. Heno gathers the clouds and sends the rain. He is afriend to the corn and beans and squashes. He also punishes witches andevil persons. Pray to Heno when you plant, and thank him when yougather your crop. Pray also to Ha-wen-ni-yu, who will send Heno to carefor you. Let Heno be called Grandfather. 

Ga-oh is the Spirit of the Winds. He moves the winds, but he is chainedto a rock. The winds trouble him, and he tries very hard to get free. When he struggles the winds are forced away from him, and they blowupon the earth. Sometimes he suffers terrible pain, and then hisstruggles are violent. This makes the winds wild, and they do damage onthe earth. Then he feels better and goes to sleep, and the winds becomequiet also. 

There is a spirit for the corn, another for beans, another for squashes. They are sisters, and are very kind to each other. They dwell together, and live in the fields. They shall be known as _De-o-ha-ka_, --thekeepers of our life. 

There are spirits in the water, in fire, in all the trees and berries, in herbs and in tobacco, in the grass. They assist the Great Spirit. 

Always return thanks to _Ho-noh-che-noh-keh_, the Guardian Spirits. 

_Ha-ne-go-ate-geh_ has messengers. These are the spirits of disease, of fever, of witches, weeds, and murder. But the Great Spirit will keepthem away from his children. 

This is the message I bring from the happy hunting-grounds. Obey thesewords, and the Great Spirit will give you a place there. "

So Peace Maker taught the people. They threw tobacco on the fire, according to his instructions, and on the column of its smoke he wasborne away to the happy hunting-grounds. And the people danced and sangaround the dying embers of the council fire. 

This is probably an ancient legend with a modern moral. The idea of anIndian Tyl Eulenspiegel going about the country making mischief recallsa great part of the adventures of Hiawatha or Manobozho; in fact, itcould not fail to suggest itself to a believer in Shamanism, or pow-wow, according to which evil spirits and men like them are continuallyteasing mankind, out of sheer malice. The reform of the wicked man, under the influence of the "Great Spirit, " is of later days. I do notbelieve that the idea of a Great Spirit, in the sense in which it isgenerally used by Indians, or is attributed to them, was ever knowntill learned from the whites. Nothing is more natural than that duringthe two hundred years past intelligent Indians, who felt that therewere many evils in the old barbaric state, yet who were still under theinfluence of its myths and poetry, should have made up legends likethis purporting to be revelations. There is one of the kind given inthe Hiawatha Legend, as "Eroneniera, an Indian visit to the GreatSpirit, " which bears on its face every mark of modern manufacture for apurpose. For these very reasons, however, the tale here given is ofgreat interest to the impartial historian. I am indebted for it to thekindness of Colonel T. Wentworth Higginson. This is the only story inmy collection of which I cannot give the name and residence of theoriginal Indian narrator. 

In the first part we have in the _Mischief Maker_ the samecharacter or principle who appears as Lox, the Wolverine, the Raccoon, and Badger among the Wabanaki. The setting the blind women together bythe ears, and the dashing of hot pudding, soup, or water in theirfaces, is another form of a Lox story, which occurs again in theKalevala. But the entire spirit of the tricks is that of Lox, as thoseof Lox are like those of Loki. The Rev. D. Moncure Conway once said tome, as Miss E. Robins has also said in an article in the AtlanticMonthly, that it is only in the Norse mythology that the Evil One, ordevil, is represented as growing up from or inspired solely by recklesswanton _mischief_, --the mischief of a bad boy or a monkey. But thevery same is as true of so much of a devil as there is in the Wabanakimythology. It is as a grotesque shadow of Loki, but still it is his. The Germans say the devil is God's ape; the Indian Lox is the Norsedevil's. 

_How Lox told a Lie. _

(Passamaquoddy. )

Lox had a brother, who had married a red squaw. When she was touchedthe red color rubbed off. The brother kept this wife in a box. 

One day, returning, the brother saw that Lox had red fingers. "Aha!" hecried, in a rage, "you have taken my wife out of the box. " But Loxdenied it, so that his brother believed him. 

The next time the husband returned, Lox's fingers were again red. Andagain he was accused, and once more he denied it. But as he swore withall his might that he was innocent, something, as if on the floor, laughed, and said, "You lie. I was with you; I helped you. "

Lox thought it was his right foot. So he cut off the toes, and then thefoot, but the accusation continued. Thinking it was the other foot, hecut that off; yet as the testimony was continued, he found that it was_Taloose_, even he himself, the bodily offender in person, testifying against his lying soul. So in a rage he struck himself sucha blow with his war-club that he fell dead. I cannot give in full allthe adventures of Lox. I may, however, observe one thing of greatimportance. Lox, in these tales, is the Evil Principle, that is, agiant by birth. His two feet in this story are male and female; theytalk as if they were human. In the Edda, a giant's two feet begettogether a six-headed son (Vafthrudnismal):--

 "Foot with foot begot Of that wise Jotun, A six-headed son. "

This six-headed son reappears as a demon in the Passamaquoddy tale ofthe Three Strong Men. 

_Tuloose_, literally translated, is the phallus. The red squawrefers to the Newfoundland Indians, covered with red ochre. They arebelieved to be now extinct. 

THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF MASTER RABBIT

WITH THE OTTER, THE WOODPECKER GIRLS, AND MOOIN THE BEAR

ALSO A FULL ACCOUNT OF THE FAMOUS CHASE, IN WHICH HE FOOLED LUSIFEE, THE WILD CAT

_I. How Master Rabbit sought to rival Keeoony, the Otter_. 

Of old times, _Mahtigwess_, the Rabbit, who is called in theMicmac tongue _Ableegumooch_, lived with his grandmother, waitingfor better times; and truly he found it a hard matter in midwinter, when ice was on the river and snow was on the plain, to provide evenfor his small household. And running through the forest one day hefound a lonely wigwam, and he that dwelt therein was _Keeoony_, the Otter. The lodge was on the bank of a river, and a smooth road ofice slanted from the door down to the water. And the Otter made himwelcome, and directed his housekeeper to get ready to cook; sayingwhich, he took the hooks on which he was wont to string fish when hehad them, and went to fetch a mess for dinner. Placing himself on thetop of the slide, he coasted in and under the water, and then came outwith a great bunch of eels, which were soon cooked, and on which theydined. 

"By my life, " thought Master Rabbit, "but that is an easy way ofgetting a living! Truly these fishing-folk have fine fare, and cheap!Cannot I, who am so clever, do as well as this mere Otter? Of course Ican. Why not?" Thereupon he grew so confident of himself as to invitethe Otter to dine with him--_adamadusk ketkewop_--on the third dayafter that, and so went home. 

"Come on!" he said to his grandmother the next morning; "let us removeour wigwam down to the lake. " So they removed; and he selected a sitesuch as the Otter had chosen for his home, and the weather being coldhe made a road of ice, or a coast, down from his door to the water, andall was well. Then the guest came at the time set, and Rabbit, callinghis grandmother, bade her get ready to cook a dinner. "But what am I tocook, grandson?" inquired the old dame. 

"Truly I will see to that, " said he, and made him a _nabogun_, orstick to string eels. Then going to the ice path, he tried to slidelike one skilled in the art, but indeed with little luck, for be wentfirst to the right side, then to the left, and so hitched and jumpedtill he came to the water, where he went in with a bob backwards. Andthis bad beginning had no better ending, since of all swimmers anddivers the Rabbit is the very worst, and this one was no better thanhis brothers. The water was cold, he lost his breath, he struggled, andwas well-nigh drowned. 

"But what on earth ails the fellow?" said the Otter to the grandmother, who was looking on in amazement. 

"Well, he has seen somebody do something, and is trying to do likewise, "replied the old lady. 

"Ho! come out of that now, " cried the Otter, "and hand me your_nabogun_!" And the poor Rabbit, shivering with cold, and almostfrozen, came from the water and limped into the lodge. And there herequired much nursing from his grandmother, while the Otter, plunginginto the stream, soon returned with a load of fish. But, disgusted atthe Rabbit for attempting what he could not perform, he threw them downas a gift, and went home without tasting the meal. 

_II. How Mahtigwess, the Rabbit dined with the Woodpecker Girls, andwas again humbled by trying to rival them. _

Now Master Rabbit, though disappointed, was not discouraged, for thisone virtue he had, that he never gave up. [Footnote: It will be seen inthe end that this great Indian virtue of never giving in eventuallyraised Rabbit to power and prosperity. _Il y a de morale ici_. ]And wandering one day in the wilderness, he found a wigwam well filledwith young women, all wearing red head-dresses; and no wonder, for theywere Woodpeckers. Now, Master Rabbit was a well-bred Indian, who madehimself as a melody to all voices, and so he was cheerfully bidden tobide to dinner, which he did. Then one of the red-polled pretty girls, taking a _woltes_, or wooden dish, lightly climbed a tree, so thatshe seemed to run; and while ascending, stopping here and there andtapping now and then, took from this place and that many of thoseinsects called by the Indians _apchel-moal-timpkawal_, or rice, because they so much resemble it. And note that this rice is a daintydish for those who like it. And when it was boiled, and they had dined, Master Rabbit again reflected, "La! how easily some folks live! What isto hinder me from doing the same? Ho, you girls! come over and dinewith me the day after to-morrow!"

And having accepted this invitation, all the guests came on the dayset, when Master Rabbit undertook to play woodpecker. So having takenthe head of an eel-spear and fastened it to his nose to make a bill, heclimbed as well as he could--and bad was the best--up a tree, and triedto get his harvest of rice. Truly he got none; only in this did hesucceed in resembling a Woodpecker, that he had a red poll; for hispate was all torn and bleeding, bruised by the fishing-point. And thepretty birds all looked and laughed, and wondered what the Rabbit wasabout. 

"Ah!" said his grandmother, "I suppose he is trying again to dosomething which he has seen some one do. 'T is just like him. "

"Oh, come down there!" cried Miss Woodpecker, as well as she could forlaughing. "Give me your dish!" And having got it she scampered up thetrunk, and soon brought down a dinner. But it was long ere MasterRabbit heard the last of it from these gay tree-tappers. 

_III. Of the Adventure with Mooin, the Bear; it being the Third andLast Time that Master Rabbit made a Fool of himself. _

Now, truly, one would think that after all that had befallen Master_Mahtigwess_, the Rabbit, that he would have had enough of tryingother people's trades; but his nature was such that, having once sethis mighty mind to a thing, little short of sudden death would curehim. And being one day with the Bear in his cave, he beheld with greatwonder how _Mooin_ fed his folk. For, having put a great pot onthe fire, he did but cut a little slice from his own foot and drop itinto the boiling water, when it spread and grew into a mess of meatwhich served for all. [Footnote: Mr. Rand observes that this isevidently an allusion to the bear's being supposed to live during thewinter by sucking his own paws. ] Nay, there was a great piece given toRabbit to take home to feed his family. 

"Now, truly, " he said, "this is a thing which I can indeed do. Is itnot recorded in the family wampum that whatever a Bear can do well aRabbit can do better? "So, in fine, he invited his friend to come anddine with him, _Ketkewopk'_, the day after to-morrow. 

And the Bear being there, Rabbit did but say, "_Noogume' kuesawal'wohu_!" "Grandmother, set your pot to boiling!" And, whetting hisknife on a stone, he tried to do as the Bear had done; but little didhe get from his small, thin soles, though he cut himself madly andsadly. 

"What can he be trying to do?" growled the guest. 

"Ah!" sighed the grandmother, "something which he has seen some oneelse do. "

"Ho! I say there! Give me the knife, " quoth Bruin. And, getting it, hetook a slice from his sole, which did him no harm, and then, what withmagic and fire, gave them a good dinner. But Master Rabbit was in sadcase, and it was many a day ere he got well. 

_IV. Relating how the Rabbit became Wise by being Original, and ofthe Terrible Tricks which he by Magic played Loup-Cervier, the WickedWild Cat. _

There are men who are bad at copying, yet are good originals, and ofthis kind was Master Rabbit, who, when he gave up trying to do asothers did, succeeded very well. And, having found out his foible, heapplied himself to become able in good earnest, and studied_m'teoulin_, or magic, so severely that in time he grew to be anawful conjurer, so that he could raise ghosts, crops, storms, or devilswhenever he wanted them. [Footnote: The three previous chapters of theRabbit legend are from the Micmac. The rest is Passamaquoddy, as toldby Tomah Josephs, who in his narration not only often interpolatedjocose remarks, but was wont to ejaculate "By Jolly!" especially in themost striking scenes. I think that with him the interjection had becomerefined and dignified. ] For he had perseverance, and out of this maycome anything, if it be only brought into the right road. 

Now it came to pass that Master Rabbit got into great trouble. Therecords of the Micmacs say that it was from his stealing a string offish from the Otter, who pursued him; but the Passamaquoddies declarethat he was innocent of this evil deed, probably because they makegreat account of him as their ancestor and as the father of theWabanaki. Howbeit, this is the way in which they tell the tale. 

Now the Rabbit is the natural prey of the Loup-Cervier, or Lusifee, whois a kind of wild cat, none being more obstinate. And this Wild Catonce went hunting with a gang of wolves, and they got nothing. ThenWild Cat, who had made them great promises and acted as chief, becameangry, and, thinking of the Rabbit, promised them that this time theyshould indeed get their dinner. So he took them to Rabbit's wigwam; buthe was out, and the Wolves, being vexed and starved, reviled Wild Cat, and then rushed off howling through the woods. 

Now I think that the Rabbit is _m'teoulin_. Yes, he must be, forwhen Wild Cat started to hunt him alone, he determined with all hissoul not to be caught, and made himself as magical as he could. So hepicked up a handful of chips, and threw one as far as possible, thenjumped to it, --for he had a charm for a long jump; and then threwanother, and so on, for a great distance. This was to make no tracks, and when he thought he had got out of scent and sight and sound hescampered away like the wind. 

[Illustration: THE RABBIT MAGICIAN. ]

Now, as I said, when the wolves got to Master Rabbit's house and foundnothing, they smelt about and left Wild Cat, who swore by his tail thathe would catch Rabbit, if he had to hunt forever and run himself todeath. So, taking the house for a centre, he kept going round and roundit, all the time a little further, and so more around and still further. [Footnote: While telling this, Tomah described a spiral line. It isevident that if the volute were only continued long enough it mustinevitably end in finding any trail, if the point of departure be onlyknown. This device is familiar to all Indians, and it is mentioned inother stories. ] Then at last having found the track, he went in hot hasteafter Mr. Rabbit. And both ran hard, till, night coming on, Rabbit, toprotect himself, had only just time _to trample down the snow a little, and stick up a spruce twig on end and sit on it_. But when Wild Catcame up he found there a fine wigwam, and put his head in. All that hesaw was an old man of very grave and dignified appearance, whose hairwas gray, and whose majestic (_sogmoye_) appearance was heightenedby a pair of long and venerable ears. And of him Wild Cat asked in agasping hurry if he had seen a Rabbit running that way. 

"Rabbits!" replied the old man. "Why, of course I have seen many. Theyabound in the woods about here. I see dozens of them every day. " Withthis he said kindly to Wild Cat that he had better tarry with him for atime. "I am an old man, " he remarked with solemnity, --"an old man, living alone, and a respectable guest, like you, sir, comes to me likea blessing. " And the Cat, greatly impressed, remained. After a goodsupper he lay down by the fire, and, having run all day, was at onceasleep, and made but one nap of it till morning. But how astonished, and oh, how miserable he was, when he awoke, to find himself on theopen heath in the snow and almost starved! The wind blew as if it had akeen will to kill him; it seemed to go all through his body. Then hesaw that he had been a fool and cheated by magic, and in a rage sworeagain by his teeth, as well as his tail, that the Rabbit should die. There was no hut now, only the trampled snow and a spruce twig, and yetout of this little, Rabbit had conjured up so great a delusion. 

Then he ran again all day. And when night came, Master Rabbit, having alittle more time than before, again trampled down the snow, but for agreater space, and strewed many branches all about, for now a hugeeffort was to be made. And when Wild Cat got there he found a greatIndian village, with crowds of people going to and fro. The firstbuilding he saw was a church, in which service was being held. And he, entering, said hastily to the first person he saw, "Ha! ho! have youseen a Rabbit running by here?"

"Hush--sh, sh!" replied the man. "You must wait till meeting is overbefore asking such questions. " [Footnote: Though this story is veryold, the incident of the church (_sogmoye wigwam_, or chief house)is manifestly modern. ] Then a young man beckoned to him to come in, andhe listened till the end to a long sermon on the wickedness of beingvindictive and rapacious; and the preacher was a gray ancient, and hisears stood up over his little cap like the two handles of a pitcher, yet for all that the Wild Cat's heart was not moved one whit. And whenit was all at an end he said to the obliging young man, "But_have_ you seen a Rabbit running by?"

"Rabbits! Rabbits!" replied the young man. "Why, there are hundredsracing about in the cedar swamps near this place, and you can have asmany as you want. " "Ah!" replied Wild Cat, "but they are not what Iseek. Mine is an entirely different kind. " The other said that he knewof no sort save the wild wood-rabbits, but that perhaps their Governor, or Chief, who was very wise, could tell him all about them. Then theGovernor, or Sagamore, came up. Like the preacher, he was veryremarkable and gray, with the long locks standing up one on either sideof his head. And he invited the stranger to his house, where his twovery beautiful daughters cooked him a fine supper. And when he wishedto retire they brought out blankets and a beautiful _white bear'sskin_, and made up a bed for him by the fire. Truly, his eyes wereclosed as soon as he lay down, but when he awoke there had been a greatchange. For now he was in a wet cedar swamp, the wind blowing ten timesworse than ever, and his supper and sleep had done him little good, forthey were all a delusion. All around him were rabbits' tracks andbroken twigs, but nothing more. 

Yet he sprang up, more enraged than ever, and swearing more terribly byhis tail, teeth, and claws that he would be revenged. So he ran on allday, and at night, when he came to another large village, he was soweary that he could just gasp, "Have--you--seen a Rab--bit run thisway?" With much concern and kindness they all asked him what was thematter. So he told them all this story, and they pitied him very much;yea, one gray old man, --and this was the Chief, --with two beautifuldaughters, shed tears and comforted him, and advised him to stay withthem. So they took him to a large hall, where there was a great fireburning in the middle thereof. And over it hung two pots with soup andmeat, and two Indians stood by and gave food to all the people. And hehad his share with the rest, and all feasted gayly. 

Now, when they had done eating, the old Governor, who was very gray, and from either side of whose head rose two very venerable, long whitefeathers, rose to welcome the stranger, and in a long speech said itwas, indeed, the custom of their village to entertain guests, but thatthey expected from them a song. Then Wild Cat, who was vain of hisvoice, uplifted it in vengeance against the Rabbits:--

 "Oh, how I hate them! How I despise them! How I laugh at them! May I scalp them all!"

Then he said that he thought the Governor should sing. And to this theChief consented, but declared that all who were present should bowtheir heads while seated, and shut their eyes, which they did. ThenChief Rabbit, at one bound, cleared the heads of his guests, anddrawing his _timheyen_, or tomahawk, as he jumped, gave Wild Cat awound which cut deeply into his head, and only fell short of killinghim by entirely stunning him. When he recovered, he was again in snow, slush, and filth, more starved than ever, his head bleeding from adreadful blow, and he himself almost dead. Yet, with all that, theIndian devil was stronger in him than ever, for every new disgrace didbut bring more resolve to be revenged, and he swore it by his tail, claws, teeth, and eyes. 

So he tottered along, though he could hardly walk; nor could he, indeed, go very far that day. And when, almost broken down with painand weariness, he came about noon to two good wigwams. Looking intoone, he saw a gray-haired old man, and in the other a young girl, apparently his daughter. And they received him kindly, and listened tohis story, saying it was very sad, the old man declaring that he mustreally remain there, and that he would get him a doctor, since, unlesshe were well cared for at once, he would die. Then he went forth as ifin great concern, leaving his daughter to nurse the weary, woundedstranger. 

Now, when the Doctor came, he, too, was an old gray man, with ascalp-lock strangely divided like two horns. But the Wild Cat hadbecome a little suspicious, having been so often deceived, for muchabuse will cease to amuse even the most innocent; and truly he wasnone of these. And, looking grimly at the Doctor, [Footnote: Thiscross-examination of the Doctor is taken from an Abenaki version, narrated by a St. Francis Indian to Miss Alger. This Indian is thewell-known Josep Cappino. ] he said: "I was asking if any Rabbits arehere, and truly you look very much like one yourself. How did you getthat split nose?" "Oh, that is very simple, " replied the old man. "OnceI was hammering wampum beads, and the stone on which I beat them brokein halves, and one piece flew up, and, as you see, split my nose. ""But, " persisted the Wild Cat, "why are the soles of your feet so yellow, even like a Rabbit's?" "Ah, that is because I have been preparing sometobacco, and I had to hold it down with my feet, for, truly, I neededboth my hands to work with. So the tobacco stained them yellow. " Thenthe Wild Cat suspected no more, and the Doctor put salve on his wound, so that he felt much better, and, ere he departed, put by him a platterof very delicate little round biscuits, or rolls, and a beautiful pitcherfull of nice wine, and bade him refresh himself from these during thenight, and so, stealing away softly, he departed. 

But oh, the wretchedness of the awaking in the morning! For then WildCat found himself indeed in the extreme of misery. His head was swollenand aching to an incredible degree, and the horrible wound, which wasgaping wide, had been stuffed with hemlock needles and pine splinters, and this was the cool salve which the Doctor had applied. And as a lasttouch to his rage and shame, thinking in his deadly thirst of the wine, he beheld on the ground, still left in the snow, a last summer'spitcher-plant, half full of what might indeed pass for wine by the meresight thereof, though hardly to the taste. While seeking for thebiscuits on a platter, he found only certain small pellets, such asabound about a rabbit warren. And then he swore by all his body andsoul that he would slay the next being he met, Rabbit or Indian. Verilythis time he would be utterly revenged. 

Now Mahtigwess, the Rabbit, had almost come to an end of his_m'teoulin_, or wizard power, for that time, yet he had stillenough left for one more great effort. And, coming to a lake, he pickedup a very large chip, and having seamed it with sorcery and magnifiedit by magic threw it into the water, where it at once seemed to be agreat ship, such as white men build. And when the Wild Cat came up hesaw it, with sails spread and flags flying, and the captain stood sostately on the deck, with folded arms, and he was a fine, gray-haired, dignified man, with a cocked hat, the two points of which were likegrand and stately horns. But the Wild Cat had sworn, and he was mindfulof his great oath; so he cried, "You cannot escape me this time, Rabbit! I have you now!" Saying this he plunged in, and tried to swimto the ship. And the captain, seeing a Wild Cat in the water, beingengaged in musket drill, ordered his men to fire at it, which they didwith a bang! Now this was caused by a party of night-hawks overhead, who swooped down with a sudden cry like a shot; at least it seemed soto Wild Cat, who, deceived and appalled by this volley, deeming that hehad verily made a mistake this time, turned, tail and swam ashore intothe dark old forest, where, if he is not dead, he is running still. [Footnote: This expression, very common among the Indians, appears tohave been taken from the Canadians, _Il court encore_ ends many oftheir stories. This was related to me by Tomah Josephs, September 2, 1882. I have four versions of it. In one, the Chippewa, given bySchoolcraft, the wretched efforts to rival the woodpeckers and bear areattributed to a no less personage than Hiawatha, or Manobozho, himself, when under a cloud. But Hiawatha as a poem deals only with the betterpart of the hero's character. In the Rand manuscript, the most amusingportion of the adventures of the Rabbit, or those with the Wild Cat, are much abbreviated. Tomah's tale supplies this missing portion, butconsists of nothing else. The Abenaki tale is slightly different in itsbeginning: "Rabbit was making maple-sugar in the woods, but he was verypious, and rested on the Sabbath. While praying on this day by hishearth, there came a great black fierce man, who glared at him, butMahtigwess kept saying 'Peace! peace! peace!' for that is the way theRabbit prays. Then the stranger was angry because he would not ceasepraying and talk to him, but the Rabbit said, 'Would you have me breakthe Sabbath?' Then he went and brought the stranger, who was a WildCat, refreshments. " These refreshments were the same as those given bythe Doctor. Here the chase begins. 

There is probably much more of this story. ]

_V. How Master Rabbit went to a Wedding and won the Bride. _

(Passamaquoddy. )

Chee mahtigwess, or the Great Rabbit, was once very stout or large ofbody, having a very long tail. And one day in the old times, as he saton the rock, with his fine long tail trailing afar into the bushes, anold man came by who asked the way. And Master Rabbit, being as usualobliging, offered to show it to him. So they talked together and grewintimate, but as the old man went very slowly, while Rabbit was alwaysrunning, he said, "Go on before, and I will follow. " So the guide wassoon out of sight, and then the old man, hurrying without heeding, felldown into a deep pit or chasm, where he cried out aloud for help, butwas not heard. After a time, Rabbit, missing his follower, turned backand tracked him till he found the pit. Yet they could not between themmanage to bring the traveler up again, until Rabbit said, "Catch holdof my tail;" and when this was done he gave a jump, but alas! the finetail broke off short within an inch of the root. 

One would think that by this time Master Rabbit must have had enough ofhelping, but all the stories of him show that he never gave up anythingwhich he had once begun. So he simply said to the old man, "Catch holdof me round the waist;" and when this was done he gave another leap, and brought the prisoner out. But the man, being heavy, had slippeddown, and almost broken Rabbit's back. So it came to pass that sincethat day Master Rabbit has had a very short tail and a slender waist. 

The old man was on his way to marry a young girl. But she was in lovewith Mikumwess, the forest fairy. However, the old man married her, andinvited Master Rabbit to the dance, which in old times made theceremony. And the guest dressed for the occasion by putting ear-ringson his heels--for Rabbits or Hares dance on their tip-toes--and abeautiful bangle round his neck, and he danced opposite the bride. Nowthe bride had on only a very short skirt, and in crossing a brook ithad got wet. So that as she danced, it began to shrink and shrink, until Master Rabbit, pitying the poor girl, ran out and got a deer-skin, and hastily twisted a cord to tie it with. But it seemed as if MasterRabbit's efforts to oblige people always got him into trouble, for hetwisted this string so rapidly and earnestly, holding one end of it inhis teeth as he did so, that he cut his upper lip through to the nose, for which reason his descendants all have hare-lips to this day. 

Now having dressed the bride, she was so grateful to Rabbit that shedanced with him all the night. The old man, seeing this, was so angryat her fickleness that, without saying a word, he walked away, and lefther to Mahtigwess, with whom she lived very happily until she ran awaywith Mikumwess; with whom, if she has not run away again, she is livingyet. This story is at an end. 

_VI. How Master Rabbit gave himself Airs. _

(Micmac. )

It happened once that Lox was living in great luxury. He had a wigwamfull of hundreds of dried sea-ducks, moose meat, maple sugar, and corn. He gave a dinner, and among the guests invited Marten and Mahtigwess, the Rabbit. 

Now it is a great weakness of Master Rabbit that he is much given tohinting at one minute, and saying pretty plainly the next, that he hasbeen in better society than that around him, and has lived among greatpeople, and no one was quicker than the Marten to find out that whereinany one was foolish or feeble. So when Master Rabbit, smoothing downhis white fur, said it was the only kind of a coat worn by thearistocracy, Marten humbly inquired, "if that were so, how he came byit. "

"It shows, " replied Master Rabbit, "that I have habitually kept companywith gentlemen. "

"How did you get that slit in your lip?" inquired Marten, who knew verywell what this Indian really was. 

"Ah!" replied the Rabbit, "where _I_ live they use knives andforks. And one day, while eating with some great sagamores, my knifeslipped, and I cut my lip. "

"And why are your mouth and whiskers always going when you are still?Is that high style?"

"Yes; I am meditating, planning, combining great affairs; talking tomyself, you see. That's the way _we_ do. "

"But why do you always hop? Why don't you sometimes walk, like otherpeople?"

"Ah, that's _our_ style. We gentlemen don't run, like the vulgar. _We_ have a gait of our own, don't you know?"

"Indeed! Well, if you don't mind a question, I would like to know whyyou always scamper away so suddenly, and jump so far and so rapidlywhen you run. "

"Aw! don't you know? I used to be employed in very genteel business;public service, --in fact, diplomatic. I carried dispatches(_weegadigunn_, Micmac; _wighiggin_, Pass. )--books, letters, papers, and so I got in the way of moving nimbly. Now it comesnaturally to me. One of my old aristocratic habits. " [Footnote: Thisdroll dialogue occurs in the middle of the Micmac story of Lox, orBadger, and the Ducks and Bear, where it evidently does not belong, orhas been interpolated to make length. In the original, Marten carrieshis inquiries much further into certain physiological details, all ofwhich Master Rabbit naively explains as the result of the delicate dietand the wine to which he as a gentleman had been accustomed. ]

Upon this Marten gave it up. He had seen something of good societyhimself, as he lived habitually with Glooskap, but Master Rabbit wastoo much for him. 

_VII. The Young Man who was Saved by a Rabbit and a Fox. _

(Passamaquoddy. )

There dwelt a couple in the woods, far away from other people, --a manand his wife. They had one boy, who grew up strong and clever. One dayhe said, "Father and mother, let me go and see other men and women. "They grieved, but let him go. 

He went afar. All night he lay on the ground. In the morning he heardsomething coming. He rose and saw it was a Rabbit, who said, "Ha, friend, where go you?" The boy answered, "To find people. " "That iswhat I want, " replied the Rabbit. "Let us go together. "

So they went on for a long time, till they heard voices far off, andwalking quietly came to a village. "Now, " said the Rabbit, "steal upunseen, and listen to them!" The boy did so, and heard the peoplesaying that a _kewahqu'_, a cannibal monster, was to come the nextday to devour the daughter of their sagamore. And having returned andreported this to the Rabbit, the latter said to the boy, "Have no fear;go to the people and tell them that you can save her. " He did so, butit was long before they would listen to him. Yet at last it came to theears of the old chief that a strange young man insisted that he couldsave the girl; so the chief sent for him, and said, "They tell me thatyou think you can deliver my daughter from death. Do so, and she shallbe yours. "

Then he returned to the Rabbit, who said, "They did not send the girlfar away because they know that the demon can follow any track. But Ihope to make a track which he cannot follow. Now do you, as soon as itshall be dark, bring her to this place. " The young man did so, and theRabbit was there with a sled, and in his hand he had two squirrels. These he smoothed down, and as he did so they grew to be as large asthe largest sled-dogs. Then all three went headlong, like the wind, till they came to another village. 

The Rabbit looked about till he found a certain wigwam, and then peeredthrough a crevice into it. "This is the place, " he said. "Enter. " Theydid so; then the Rabbit ran away. They found in the cabin an old woman, who was very kind, but who, on seeing them, burst into tears. "Ah, mydear grandchildren, " [Footnote: The terms grandchildren, grandmother, etc. , do not here signify actual relationship, but only friendshipbetween elderly and young people. ] she cried, "your death is followingyou rapidly, for the kewahqu' is on your track, and will soon be here. But run down to the river, where you will find your grandfathercamping. "

They went, and were joined by the Rabbit, who had spent the time inmaking many divergent tracks in the ground. The kewahqu' came. Thetracks delayed him a long time, but at last he found the right one. Meanwhile the young couple went on, and found an old man by the river. He said, "Truly you are in great danger, for the kewahqu' is coming. But I will help you. " Saying this, he threw himself into the water, where he floated with outstretched limbs, and said, "Now, my children, get on me. " The girl feared lest she should fall off, but beingreassured mounted, when he turned into a canoe, which carried themsafely across. But when they turned to look at him, lo! he was nolonger a canoe, but an old Duck. "Now, my dear children, " he said, "hasten to the top of yonder old mountain, high among the gray rocks. There you will find your friend. " They fled, to the old gray mountain. The kewahqu' came raging and roaring in a fury, but however he pursuedthey were at the foot of the precipice before him. 

There stood the Rabbit. He was holding up a very long pole; no pine wasever longer. "Climb this, " he said. And, as they climbed, itlengthened, till they left it for the hill, and then scrambled up therocks. Then the kewahqu' came yelling and howling horribly. Seeing thefugitives far above, he swarmed up the pole. With him, too, it grew, and grew rapidly, till it seemed to be half a mile high. Now thekewahqu' was no such sorcerer that he could fly; neither had he wings;he must remain on the pole; and when he came to the top the young manpushed it afar. It fell, and the monster was killed by the fallthereof. 

They went with the squirrel-sledge; they flew through the woods on thesnow by the moonlight; they were very glad. And at last they came tothe girl's village, when the Rabbit said, "Now, friend, good-by. Yetthere is more trouble coming, and when it is with you I and mine willaid you. So farewell. " And when they were home again it all appearedlike a dream. Then the wedding feast was held, and all seemed well. 

But the young men of the village hated the youth, and desired to killhim, that they might take his wife. They persuaded him to go with themfishing on the sea. Then they raised a cry, and said, "A whale ischasing us! he is under the canoe!" and suddenly they knocked himoverboard, and paddled away like an arrow in flight. 

The young man called for help. A Crow came, and said, "Swim or float aslong as you can. I will bring you aid. " He floated a long time. TheCrow returned with a strong cord; the Crow made himself very large; hethrew one end of the cord to the youth; by the other he towed him to asmall island. "I can do no more, " he said; "but there is anotherfriend. " So as the youth sat there, starving and freezing, there cameto him a Fox. "Ha, friend, " he said, "are you here?" "Yes, " replied theyouth, "and dying of hunger. " The Fox reflected an instant, and said, "Truly I have no meat; and yet there is a way. " So he picked from theground a blade of dry grass, and bade the youth eat it. He did so, andfound himself a moose (or a _horse_). Then he fed richly on theyoung grass till he had enough, when the Fox gave him a second straw, and he became a man again. "Friend, " said the Fox, "there is an Indianvillage on the main-land, where there is to be a great feast, a granddance. Would you like to be there?" "Indeed I would, " replied theyouth. "Then wait till dark, and I will take you there, " said the Fox. And when night came he bade the youth close his eyes and enter theriver, and take hold of the end of his tail, while he should draw. Soin the tossing sea they went on for hours. _Thought_ the youth, "We shall never get there. " _Said_ the Fox, "Yes, we will, butkeep your eyes shut. " So it went on for another hour, when the youth_thought_ again, "We shall never reach land. " _Said_ the Fox, "Yes, we shall. " However, after a time he opened his eyes, when theywere only ten feet from the shore, and this cost them more time andtrouble than all the previous swim ere they had the beach under foot. 

It was his own village. The festival was for the marriage of his ownwife to one of the young men who had pushed him overboard. Great washis magic power, great was his anger; he became strong as death. Thenhe went to his own wigwam, and his wife, seeing him, cried aloud forjoy, and kissed him and wept all at once. He said, "Be glad, but thehour of punishment for the men who made these tears is come. " So hewent to the sagamore and told him all. 

The old chief called for the young men. "Slay them all as you choose, "he said to his son-in-law; "scalp them. " But the youth refused. Hecalled to the Fox, and got the straws which gave the power to transformmen to beasts. He changed his enemies into bad animals, --one into aporcupine, one into a hog, --and they were driven into the woods. Thusit was that the first hog and the first porcupine came into the world. 

This story, narrated by Tomah Josephs, is partly old Indian and partlyEuropean, but whether the latter element was derived from a FrenchCanadian or a Norse source I cannot tell, since it is common to both. The mention of the horse and the hog, or of cattle, does not prove thata story is not pre-Columbian. The Norsemen had brought cattle ofvarious descriptions even to New England. It is to be very muchregretted that the first settlers in New England took no pains toascertain what the Indians knew of the white men who had preceded them. But modern material may have easily been added to an old legend. 

THE CHENOO LEGENDS. 

_I. The Chenoo, or the Story of a Cannibal with an Icy Heart. _

(Micmac and Passamaquoddy. )

Of the old time. An Indian, with his wife and their little boy, wentone autumn far away to hunt in the northwest. And having found a fitplace to pass the winter, they built a wigwam. The man brought home thegame, the woman dressed and dried the meat, the small boy played aboutshooting birds with bow and arrow; in Indian-wise all went well. 

One afternoon, when the man was away and the wife gathering wood, sheheard a rustling in the bushes, as though some beast were brushingthrough them, and, looking up, she saw with horror something worse thanthe worst she had feared. It was an awful face glaring at her, --asomething made of devil, man, and beast in their most dreadful, forms. It was like a haggard old man, with wolfish eyes; he was stark naked;his shoulders and lips were gnawed away, as if, when mad with hunger, he had eaten his own flesh. He carried a bundle on big back. The womanhad heard of the terrible Chenoo, the being who comes from the far, icynorth, a creature who is a man grown to be both devil and cannibal, andsaw at once that this was one of them. 

Truly she was in trouble; but dire need gives quick wit, as it was withthis woman, who, instead of showing fear, ran up and addressed him withfair words, as "My dear father, " pretending surprise and joy, and, telling him how glad her heart was, asked where he had been so long. The Chenoo was amazed beyond measure at such a greeting where heexpected yells and prayers, and in mute wonder let himself be led intothe wigwam. 

She was a wise and good woman. She took him in; she said she was sorryto see him so woe-begone; she pitied his sad state; she brought a suitof her husband's clothes; she told him to dress himself and be cleaned. He did as she bade. He sat by the side of the wigwam, and looked surlyand sad, but kept quiet. It was all a new thing to him. 

She arose and went out. She kept gathering sticks. The Chenoo rose andfollowed her. She was in great fear. "Now, " she thought, "my death isnear; now he will kill and devour me. "

The Chenoo came to her. He said, "Give me the axe!" She gave it, and hebegan to cut down the trees. Man never saw such chopping! The greatpines fell right and left, like summer saplings; the boughs were hewedand split as if by a tempest. She cried out, "_Noo, tabeagulboohsoogul_!" "My father, there is enough!" [Footnote: Thetremendous pine chopper is a character in another Indian tale. ] He laiddown the axe; he walked into the wigwam and sat down, always in grimsilence. The woman gathered her wood, and remained as silent on theopposite side. 

She heard her husband coming. She ran out and told him all. She askedhim to do as she was doing. He thought it well. He went in and spokekindly. He said, "_N'chilch_, " "My father-in-law, " and asked wherehe had been so long. The Chenoo stared in amazement, but when he heardthe man talk of all that had happened for years his fierce face grewgentler. 

They had their meal; they offered him food, but he hardly touched it. He lay down to sleep. The man and his wife kept awake in terror. Whenthe fire burned up, and it became warm, the Chenoo asked that a screenshould be placed before him. He was from the ice; he could not endureheat. 

For three days he stayed in the wigwam; for three days he was sullenand grim; he hardly ate. Then he seemed to change. He spoke to thewoman; he asked her if she had any tallow. She told him they had much. He filled a large kettle; there was a gallon of it. He put it on thefire. When it was scalding hot he drank it all off at a draught. 

He became sick; he grew pale. He cast up all the horrors andabominations of earth, things appalling to every sense. When all wasover he seemed changed. [Footnote: The Chenoo is not only a cannibal, but a ghoul. He preys on nameless horrors. In this case, "havingyielded to the power of kindness, he has made up his mind to partake ofthe food and hospitality of his hosts, "" to change his life; but toadapt his system to the new regimen, he must thoroughly clear it of theold. "--Rand manuscript. This is a very _naive_ and curious Indianconception of moral reformation. It appears to be a very ancient Eskimotale, recast in modern time by some zealous recent Christian convert. ]

He lay down and slept. When he awoke he asked for food, and ate much. From that time he was kind and good. They feared him no more. 

They lived on meat such as Indians prepare. [Footnote: That is, cured, dried, smoked, and then packed and pressed in large blocks. ] The Chenoowas tired of it. One day he said, "_N'toos_" (my daughter), "haveyou no _pela weoos_?" (fresh meat). She said, "No. " When her husbandreturned the Chenoo saw that there was black mud on his snow-shoes. Heasked him if there was a spring of water near. The friend said there wasone half a day's journey distant. "We must go there to-morrow, " said theChenoo. 

And they went together, very early. The Indian was fleet in such running. But the old man, who seemed so wasted and worn, went on his snow-shoeslike the wind. They came to the spring. [Footnote: "The Micmacs have twowords for a spring of water: one for summer, _utkuboh_, which meansthat the water is cool; the other for winter, _keesoobok_, indicatingthat it is warm. "--S. T. Rand. ] It was large and beautiful; the snow wasall melted away around it; the border was flat and green. [Footnote: Notuncommon round warm springs even in midwinter, and among ice and snow. ]

[Illustration: THE CHENOO AND THE LIZARD. ]

Then the Chenoo stripped himself, and danced around the spring hismagic dance; and soon the water began to foam, and anon to rise andfall, as if some monster below were heaving in accord with the stepsand the song. The Chenoo danced faster and wilder; then the head of animmense _Taktalok_, or lizard, rose above the surface. The old mankilled it with a blow of his hatchet. Dragging it out he began again todance. He brought out another, the female, not so large, but stillheavy as an elk. They were small spring lizards, but the Chenook hadconjured them; by his magic they were made into monsters. 

He dressed the game; he cut it up. He took the heads and feet and tailsand all that he did not want, and cast them back into the spring. "Theywill grow again into many lizards, " he said. When the meat was trimmedit looked like that of the bear. He bound it together with withes; hetook it on his shoulders; he ran like the wind; his load was nothing. 

The Indian was a great runner; in all the land was not his like; butnow he lagged far behind. "Can you go no faster than that?" asked theChenoo. "The sun is setting; the red will be black anon. At this rateit will be dark ere we get home. Get on my shoulders. "

The Indian mounted on the load. The Chenoo bade him hold his head low, so that he could not be knocked off by the branches. "Brace your feet, "he said, "so as to be steady. " Then the old man flew like the wind, --_ne[original illegible] sokano'v'jal samastukteskugul chel wegwasumugwegul_; the bushes whistled as they flew past them. They got homebefore sunset. 

The wife was afraid to touch such meat. [Footnote: "The Indians aremuch less particular than white men as to food, but they avoid_choojeeck_, or reptiles. "--Rand manuscript. ] But her husband waspersuaded to eat of it. It was like bear's meat. The Chenoo fed on it. So they all lived as friends. 

Then the spring was at hand. One day the Chenoo told them thatsomething terrible would soon come to pass. An enemy, a Chenoo, a womanwas coming like wind, yes--on the wind--from the north to kill him. There could be no escape from the battle. She would be far morefurious, mad, and cruel than any male, even one of his own cruel race, could be. He knew not how the battle would end; but the man and hiswife must be put in a place of safety. To keep from hearing theterrible war-whoops of the Chenoo, which is death to mortals, theirears must be closed. They must hide themselves in a cave. 

Then he sent the woman for the bundle which he had brought with him, and which had hung untouched on a branch of a tree since he had beenwith them. And he said if she found aught in it offensive to her tothrow it away, but to certainly bring him a smaller bundle which waswithin the other. So she went and opened it, and that which she foundtherein was a pair of human legs and feet, the remains of some earlierhorrid meal. She threw them far away. The small bundle she brought tohim. 

The Chenoo opened it and took from it a pair of horns, --horns of the_chepitchcalm_, or dragon. One of them has two branches; the otheris straight and smooth. [Footnote: In the winter of 1882-1883, TomahJosephs killed a deer whose horns were precisely like those of thechepitchcalm as regarded shape. ] They were golden-bright. He gave thestraight horn to the Indian; he kept the other. He said that these weremagical weapons, and the only ones of any use in the coming fight. Sothey waited for the foe. 

And the third day came. The Chenoo was fierce and bold; he listened; hehad no fear. He heard the long and awful scream--like nothing of earth--ofthe enemy, as she sped through the air far away in the icy north, long ere the others could hear it. And the manner of it was this: thatif they without harm should live after hearing the first deadly yell ofthe enemy they could take no harm, and if they did but hear theanswering shout of their friend all would be well with them. [Footnote:In all this we clearly perceive the horrible scream of the_angakok_, or Eskimo Shaman, trained through years and generationsto utter sounds which terrify even brave men. ] But he said, "Should youhear me call for help, then hasten with the horn, and you may save mylife. "

They did as he bade: they stopped their ears; they hid in a deep holedug in the ground. All at once the cry of the foe burst on them likescreaming thunder; their ears rang with pain: they were well-nighkilled, for all the care they had taken. But then they heard theanswering cry of their friend, and were no longer in danger from merenoise. 

The battle begun, the fight was fearful. The monsters, by their magicwith their rage, rose to the size of mountains. The tall pines weretorn up, the ground trembled as in an earthquake, rocks crashed uponrocks, the conflict deepened and darkened; no tempest was ever soterrible. Then the male Chenoo was heard crying: "_N'loosook!choogooye! abog unumooe!_" "My son-in-law, come and help me!"

He ran to the fight. What he saw was terrible! The Chenoos, who uprightwould have risen far above the clouds as giants of hideous form, werestruggling on the ground. The female seemed to be the conqueror. Shewas holding her foe down, she knelt on him, she was doing all she couldto thrust her dragon's horn into his ear. And he, to avoid death, wasmoving his head rapidly from side to side, while she, mocking his cries, said, "You have no son-in-law to help you. " _Neen nabujjeole_, "I'll take your cursed life, [Footnote: It is generally said that therecan be no swearing in Indian, but Mr. Rand corrects this gross error. "It is a mistake, " he writes, "to suppose that the red man cannot swearin his own tongue. " It cannot, of course, be expected that simple savagescan swear like cultivated Christians, but they do the best they can. Theyintroduce the venom into their speech by inserting an extra syllable. Thus _nabole_ or _nabol'_ means, "I will kill you, " but_nabujeol'_ is the equivalent of "I'll take your cursed life, "though it has not that literal meaning. Having only one small syllableto swear with, the Indians are, however, not so profuse and wasteful ofprofanity as their more gifted and pious white brethren. ] and, eat yourliver. "

 The Indian was so small by these giants that the stranger did notnotice him. "Now, " said his friend, "thrust the horn into her ear!" Hedid this with a well-directed blow; he struck hard; the point enteredher head. At the touch it sprouted quick as a flash of lightning, itdarted through the head, it came out of the other ear, it had becomelike a long pole. It touched the ground, it struck downward, it tookdeep and firm root. 

The male Chenoo bade him raise the other end of the horn and place itagainst a large tree. He did so. It coiled itself round the tree like asnake, it grew rapidly; the enemy was held hard and fast. Then the twobegan to dispatch her. It was long and weary work. Such a being, to bekilled at all, must be hewed into small pieces; flesh and bones mustall be utterly consumed by fire. Should the least fragment remainunburnt, from it would spring a grown Chenoo, with all the force andfire of the first. [Footnote: The idea is common to both Eskimo andIndian that so long as a fragment of a body remains unburned, thebeing, man or beast, may, by magic, be revived from it. It was probablysuggested by observing the great vitality and power of self-productioninherent in many lower forms of life, and may have given rise to thebelief in vampires. ]

The fury of battle past, the Chenoos had become of their usual size. The victor hewed the enemy to small pieces, to be revenged for theinsult and threat as to eating his liver. He, having roasted that partof his captive, ate it before her; while she was yet alive he did this. He told her she was served as she would have served him. 

But the hardest task of all was to come. It was to burn or melt theheart. It was of ice, and more than ice: as much colder as ice iscolder than fire, as much harder as ice is harder than water. Whenplaced in the fire it put out the flame, yet by long burning it meltedslowly, until they at last broke it to fragments with a hatchet, andthen melted these. So they returned to the camp. 

Spring came. The snows of winter, as water, ran down the rivers to thesea; the ice and snow which had encamped on the inland hills sought theshore. So did the Indian and his wife; the Chenoo, with softened soul, went with them. Now he was becoming a man like other men. Before goingthey built a canoe for the old man: they did not cover it with birch bark;they made it of moose-skin. [Footnote: "The Indians have several namesfor a canoe: _Kwedun_ (M. ); _A'kweden_ (P. ); _N'tooal_(M. ), my canoe or my water-craft of any kind; _Mooseoolk_, a canoecovered with moose-skin (M. ); _Skogumoolk_ (M. . ), a new canoe;_N'canoolk_ (M. ), an old canoe. "--Rand manuscript. To these maybe added the different patterns of canoes peculiar to different tribes, as for instance the Mohawk, which is broad, with peculiar ends, etc. ]In it they placed a part of their venison and skins. The Chenoo tookhis place in it; they took the lead, he followed. 

And after winding on with the river, down rapids and under forest-boughs, they came out into the sunshine, on a broad, beautiful lake. Butsuddenly, when midway in the water, the Chenoo laid flat in the canoe, as if to hide himself. And to explain this he said that be had just thenbeen discovered by another Chenoo, who was standing on the top of amountain, whose dim blue outline could just be seen stretching far awayto the north. "He has seen me, " he said, "but he cannot see you. Nor canhe behold me now; but should he discover me again, his wrath will beroused. Then he will attack me; I know not who might conquer. I preferpeace. "

So he lay hidden, and they took his canoe in tow. But when they hadcrossed the lake and come to the river again, the Chenoo said that hecould not travel further by water. He would walk the woods, but sailon streams no more. So they told him where they meant to camp thatnight. He started over mountains and through woods and up rocks, a far, round-about journey. And the man and his wife went down the river in aspring freshet, headlong with the rapids. [Footnote: One should befamiliar with the almost impassable forests of Maine and Canada, evenas they are at the present day, to properly appreciate the Chenook'sjourney. As for the speed of the canoe, I have myself gone down theKenawha River (Va. ), in a dug-out, at the rate of one hundred milesin a day. ] But when they had paddled round the point where they meantto pass the night, they saw smoke rising among the trees, and on landingthey found the Chenoo sleeping soundly by the fire which had been builtfor them. 

This he repeated for several days. But as they went south a greatchange came over him. He was a being of the north. Ice and snow had noeffect on him, but he could not endure the soft airs of summer. He grewweaker and weaker; when they had reached their village he had to becarried like a little child. He had grown gentle. His fierce andformidable face was now like that of a man. His wounds had healed; histeeth no longer grinned wildly all the time. The people gathered roundhim in wonder. 

He was dying. This was after the white men had come. They sent for apriest. He found the Chenoo as ignorant of all religion as a wildbeast. At first he would repel the father in anger. Then he listenedand learned the truth. So the old heathen's heart changed; he wasdeeply moved. He asked to be baptized, and as the first tear which hehad ever shed in all his life came to his eyes he died. [Footnote: Thisstrange and touching tale was told to Mr. Rand by a Micmac Indian, Louis Brooks, who heard it from his grandfather, Samuel Paul, a chief, who died in 1843, at the age of eighty. He was a living chronicle ofancient traditions. The Chenoo can be directly identified with theso-called Inlander of the Greenland Eskimo. He is a cannibal, a giant, a mysterious being who haunts the horrible and almost unexploredinterior. He assumes different forms; in one shape he is supposed to bea man who has become a recluse and a misanthrope. But no such being asa Chenoo could ever have been imagined out of an arctic country. Theconception of the heart of hardest ice and the gradual civilization ofthe savage by kindness; the tact with which this is done, as only awoman could do it; the indication of the old nature, as shown by eatingthe liver of his conquered foe, and his final conversion, display agenius which is greatly heightened by the simplicity of the narrative. ]

As there is actually a tribe of Indians in the Northwest called Chenoo, there can be little doubt as to the derivation of the name. Such acharacter could have originated, as I have said, only in the icy north;it could never have grown in the milder regions of the west and south. But the Chenoo, the monstrous, ferocious cannibal giant, with an icyheart, is the central figure of the evil supernatural beings of thenorth. The Schoolcraft traditions and Hiawatha have little to say ofTitans whose heads top the clouds, who tear up forests and rend rocks, and change the whole face of Nature in their hideous battles orhorrible revels. But such scenes are continually described by thePassamaquoddy and Micmac story-tellers, and they would be naturalenough to Greenlanders, familiar with whales, icebergs, frozen wastes, long winter nights, and all the frozen desolation of the north. 

There is a mystery connected with the _eating of the liver_, whichis to be explained, like many other Indian mysteries, by havingrecourse to the Eskimo Shamanism. "In Greenland a man who has beenmurdered can revenge himself by _rushing into_ him, " that is, entering his soul, "which can only be prevented by eating a piece ofhis liver. " (Rink, T. And T. Of the Eskimo, page 45. ) The Chenoo is inall essentials identical with the _Kivigtok_ of Greenland, "a manwho has fled mankind, and acquired extraordinary mental and physicalpowers. " The story which I have here given is probably that of theEskimo tale of the Blind Man who recovered his sight (Rink, page 99), in which a _Kivigtok_, after becoming incredibly old, returns tomankind to seek a Shaman priest and repent. In both stories there is a"Chenoo, " and in both there is atonement with mankind and the higherpowers. 

It may be observed that while the Chenoo is a giant with a heart of iceas hard as stone, the giant Hrungnir, of the Edda, has a heart ofstone. The Chenoo agrees with the Jotuns in many respects. 

_The Story of the Great Chenoo, as told by the Passamaquoddies. _

(Passamaquoddy. )

What the Micmacs call a Chenoo is known to the Passamaquoddies as a_Kewahqu'_ or _Kewoqu'_. And this is their origin. When the_k'tchi m'teoulin_, or Great Big Witch, [Footnote: When legendsfrom the Anglo-Indian manuscript collection of Mitchell are given, manyof the phrases or words in the original are retained, without regard tostyle or correctness. Wizard is here placed for witch. ] is conquered bythe smaller witches, or _M'teoulinssisk_, they can kill him orturn him into a _Kewahqu'_. He still fights, however, with theother _Kewaquiyck_. When they get ready to fight, they suddenlybecome as tall as the highest trees; their weapons are the treesthemselves, which they uproot with great strength. And this strengthdepends upon the quantity or size of the piece of ice which makes theheart of the _Kewahqu'_. This piece of ice is like distance. "There is a great female Kewahqu' coming to fight me. In the struggle Imay not know you, and may hurt you. " So they went away as fast and asfar as they could, but they heard the fighting, the most frightfulnoises, howls, yells, thundering and crashing of wood and rocks. Aftera time the man determined to see the fight. When he got to the place hesaw a horrible sight: big trees uprooted, the giants in a deadlystruggle. Then the Indian, who was very brave, and who was afraid thathis father-in-law would be killed, came up and helped as much as hecould, and in fact so much that between them they killed the enemy. Theold Kewahqu' was badly but not fatally hurt, and the woman was veryglad her father came off victorious. She had always heard that aKewahqu' had a piece of ice for a heart. If this can be taken out, theKewahqu' can be tamed and cured. So she made a preparation or medicine, and offered it to him. He did not know what it was, nor its strength, so he swallowed it, and it gave him a vomit. She saw something drop, soquietly picked it up: it was the figure of a man of ice; it was theKewahqu's heart. She, not being seen or noticed, put it in the fire, when he cried, " Daughter, you are killing me now; you destroy mystrength. " Yet she made him take more of the medicine, and a secondheart came out. This she also put on the fire. But when a third came hegrabbed it from her hand, and swallowed it. However, he was almostentirely cured. 

Another time an Indian village was visited by a Kewahqu', but he wasdriven away by magic. The people marked _crosses_ on the treeswhere they expected the Kewahqu' to come. There was a great excitementamong the Indians, expecting to hear their strange visitor with hisfrightful noises. It was the old people who gave the advice to markcrosses on the trees. 

Another time an Indian of either the Passamaquoddy or Mareschite tribewas turned to a Kewahqu'. The last time he was seen was by a party ofIndian hunters, who recognized him. He had only small strips ofclothing. "This country, "' he said, " is too warm for me. I am going toa colder one. "

This story from the Passamaquoddy Anglo-Indian, manuscript of Mitchellsupplies some very important deficiencies in the preceding Micmacversion. We are told that the _heart_ of the Chenoo is of ice inhuman figure. This human figure is that of the Kewahqu' himself, orrather his very self, or microcosm. It is this, and not the liver, which is swallowed by the victor, who thus adds another frozen "soul"to his own. Of the three vomited by the Kewahqu', two were the heartsof enemies whom he had conquered. He could not give up his own, however. It is much more according to common sense that the womanshould have given the cannibal the magic medicine which made him yieldhis heart than that he should voluntarily have purged himself. In theMicmac tale he merely relieves his stomach; in the Passamaquoddyversion he, by woman's influence, loses his icy _heart_. It isinteresting to observe that the use of the Christian cross is in theadditional anecdote described as _magic_. 

It is the main point in the Chenoo stories that this horrible being, this most devilish of devils, is at first human; perhaps an unusuallygood girl, or youth. From having the heart once chilled, she or he goeson in cruelty, until at last the sufferer eats the heart of anotherChenoo, especially a female's. Then utter wickedness ensues. It is morethan probable that this leads us back to some dark and terrible Shamansuperstition, older than we can now fathom. There is a passage in theEdda which its translator, Thorpe, thinks can never be explained. "Ibelieve, " he writes, "the difficulty is beyond help. " The lines are asfollows:--

 "Loki scorched up [Footnote: The _Edda_, p. 112. ] In his heart's affections, Had found a half-burnt Woman's heart. Loki became guileful from that wicked woman: thence in the world are all giantesses come. "

Of which Thorpe writes, "The sense of this and the following line isnot apparent. They stand thus in the original: _Loki of hiarta lyrdibrendu, fann hann halfsvidthin hugstein konu_, for which Grimm(Myth. Vorrede 37) would read _Loki at hiarta lundi brenda_, etc. , _Lokius comedit cor in nemore assum, invenit semiustum mentis lapidemmulieris_. " Whatever obscurity exists here, it is evident that itmeans that Loki, having become bad, grew worse after having got thehalf-burnt stone of a woman's soul. That is, his own heart, halfruined, became utterly so after he had added to it the demoralized_hugstein_, soul-stone, thought-stone, or _heart_ of a woman. If we assume that stone and heart are the same, the difficultyvanishes. And they are one in the Chenoo, who, like Loki, illustratesor symbolizes the passage from good to evil, which a German writerdeclares is quicker than thought, or that very same _Ilugi_ whichthe Norse myth puts forwards as swiftest of all runners. Loki, not asyet lost, gets the stone heart of a giantess, and becomes an utterdevil at once. The Chenoo becomes an utter devil when he has swallowedthe _thought-stone_ of a giantess, and so does Loki. 

_The Girl-Chenoo. _

(Micmac. )

Of the old time. Far up the Saguenay River a branch turns off to thenorth, running back into the land of ice and snow. Ten families went upthis stream one autumn in their canoes, to be gone all winter on ahunt. Among them was a beautiful girl, twenty years of age. A young manin the band wished her to become his wife, but she flatly refused him. Perhaps she did it in such a way as to wound his pride; certainly sheroused all that was savage in him, and he gave up all his mind torevenge. He was skilled in medicine, or in magic, so he went into thewoods and gathered an herb which makes people insensible. Then stealinginto the lodge when all were asleep, he held it to the girl's face, until she had inhaled the odor and could not be easily awakened. Goingout he made a ball of snow, and returning placed it in the hollow ofher neck, in front, just below the throat. Then he retired withoutbeing discovered. So she could not awake, while the chill went to herheart. [Footnote: The Eskimo Shamans and the Indian _boo-oin_ arefamiliar with many very ingenious and singular ways of producingprolonged illness and death. There is one known to a very few oldgypsies, of gradually inducing insanity and death, which I have neverseen noted in any work on toxicology. In a work which I lately read, itwas positively denied that there was any such thing as a "lingeringpoison"!]

When she awoke she was chilly, shivering, and sick. She refused to eat. This lasted long, and her parents became alarmed. They inquired whatailed her. She was ill-tempered; she said that nothing was the matter. One day, having been sent to the spring for water, she remained absentso long that her mother went to seek her. Approaching unseen, sheobserved her greedily eating snow. And asking her what it meant, thedaughter explained that she felt within a burning sensation, which thesnow relieved. More than that, she craved the snow; the taste of it waspleasant to her. 

After a few days she began to grow fierce, as though she wished to killsome one. At last she begged her parents to kill her. Hitherto she hadloved them very much. Now she told them that unless they killed her shewould certainly be their death. Her whole nature was being changed. 

"How can we kill you?" her mother asked. 

"You must shoot at me, " she replied, "with seven arrows. [Footnote: TheMicmac version gives _guns_. But the Chenoo stories are evidentlyvery ancient, and refer to terrors of the olden time. ] And if you cankill me with seven shots, all will be well. But if you cannot, I shallkill you. "

Seven men shot at her, as she sat in the wigwam. She was not bound. Every arrow struck her in the breast, but she sat firm and unmoved. Forty-nine times they pierced her; from time to time she looked up withan encouraging smile. When the last arrow struck she fell dead. 

Then they burned the body, as she had directed. It was soon reduced toashes, with the exception of the heart, which was of the hardest ice. This required much time to melt and break. At last all was over. 

She had been brought under the power of an evil spirit; she was rapidlybeing changed into a Chenoo a wild, fierce, unconquerable being. Butshe knew it all the while, and it was against her will. So she beggedthat she might be killed. 

The Indians left the place; since that day none have ever returned toit. They feared lest some small part of the body might have remainedunconsumed, and that from it another Chenoo would rise, capable ofkilling all whom she met. [Footnote: Mr. Rand (manuscript) gives adetailed account of an Indian who went mad during the winter, ran awaynaked into the wilderness among the snows, and was unanimously declaredto have turned into a Chenoo. I agree with Mr. Rand that "thehistorical basis of these tales, if they have any, may be the same, --acase of lunacy; fiction and figure adding the incredible details. "]

THUNDER STORIES

_Of the Girl who married Mount Katahdin, and how all the Indiansbrought about their own Ruin. _

(Penobscot. )

Of the old time. There was once an Indian girl gathering blueberries onMount Katahdin. And, being lonely, she said, "I would that I had ahusband!" And seeing the great mountain in all its glory rising onhigh, with the red sunlight on the top, she added, "I wish Katahdinwere a man, and would marry me!"

All this she was heard to say ere she went onward and up the mountain, but for three years she was never seen again. Then she reappeared, bearing a babe, a beautiful child, but his little eyebrows were ofstone. For the Spirit of the Mountain had taken her to himself; andwhen she greatly desired to return to her own people, he told her to goin peace, but forbade her to tell any man who had married her. 

Now the boy had strange gifts, and the wise men said that he was bornto become a mighty magician. For when he did but point his finger at amoose, or anything which ran, it would drop dead; and when in a canoe, if he pointed at the flocks of wild ducks or swans, then the water wasat once covered with the floating game, and they gathered them in asthey listed, and through that boy his mother and every one had food andto spare. 

Now this was the truth, and it was great wonder, that Katahdin hadwedded this girl, thinking with himself and his wife to bring up achild who should build up his nation, and make of the Wabanaki a mightyrace. And he said, "Declare unto these people that they are not toinquire of thee who is the father of thy child; truly they will allknow it by seeing him, for they shall not grieve thee withimpertinence. " Now the woman had made it known that she would not bequestioned, and she gave them all what they needed; yet, for all this, they could not refrain nor restrain themselves from talking to her onwhat they well knew she would fain be silent. And one day when they hadangered her, she thought, "Truly Katahdin was right; these people arein nowise worthy of my son, neither shall he serve them; he shall notlead them to victory; they are not of those who make a great nation. "And being still further teased and tormented, she spake and said, "Yefools, who by your own folly will kill yourselves; ye mud-wasps, whosting the fingers which would pick ye out of the water, why will yeever trouble me to tell you what you well know? Can you not see who wasthe father of my boy? Behold his eyebrows; do ye not know Katahdin bythem? But it shall be to your exceeding great sorrow that ever yeinquired. From this day ye may feed yourselves and find your ownvenison, for this child shall do so no more for you. "

And she arose and went her way into the woods and up the mountain, andwas seen on earth no more. And since that day the Indians, who shouldhave been great, have become a little people. Truly it would have beenwise and well for those of early times if they could have held theirtongues. 

This remarkable legend was related to me by Mrs. Marie Sakis, aPenobscot, a very clever story-teller. It gives the Fall of Man from apurely Indian standpoint. Nothing is so contemptible in Indian eyes asa want of dignity and idle, loquacious teasing; therefore it is made inthe myth the sin which destroyed their race. The tendency of the lowerclass of Americans, especially in New England, to raise and emphasizethe voice, to speak continually in italics and small and largecapitals, with a wide display, and the constant disposition to chaffand tease, have contributed more than any other cause to destroyconfidence and respect for them among the Indians. 

Since writing the foregoing paragraph, I have read The Abnakis, by Rev. Eugene Vetromile. In his chapter on the Religion and Superstition ofthese Indians he gives this story, but, as I think, in a corruptedform. Firstly, he states that Pamola (that is, Bumole), who is the evilspirit of the night air, was the Spirit of Mount Katahdin. Now theseare certainly _at present_ two very distinct beings, which aredescribed as being personally quite unlike. Secondly, in Vetromile'sstory the mother and child disappear in consequence of the child having_inadvertently_ killed an Indian by pointing at him. It will beseen that this feeble, impotent conclusion utterly spoils the manifestmeaning of the whole legend. 

Of this story Vetromile remarks that "it is, of course, a superstitioustale, made up by the prolific imagination of some Indians, yet we canperceive in it some vestiges of the fall of the first man in havingtransgressed the command of God, and how it could be repaired only byGod. We can also trace some ideas of the mystery of the Incarnation ofthe Son of God in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, mixed withfables, superstitions, and pagan errors. The appearance of God to Mosesin the Burning Bush may be glimpsed in Pamole appearing to the Indianon Mount Katahdin, and so forth. "

The pilgrims in Rabelais did not point out scriptural coincidences withgreater ingenuity than this. It is deeply to be regretted that thereverend father's entire knowledge of the mythology of the Abenakis waslimited to this single story. (Vide Bumole, in chapter on SupernaturalBeings. ) It may be, however, observed, that if the name Bumole orPamola really means "he curses on the mountain, " or curse on mountain, it was natural that the evil spirit should be supposed to be on themountain. Pamola was perhaps at an early period the spirit oflightning, and might thus be very easily confused with Katahdin. 

_How a hunter visited the Thunder Spirits who dwell in MountKatahdin. _

(Passamaquoddy. )

_N'karnayoo_. Of old times. Once an Indian went forth to hunt. Andhe departed from the east branch of the Penobscot, and came to the headof another branch that leads into the east branch, and this he followedeven to the foot of Mount Katahdin. [Footnote: This minuteness ofneedless detail is very characteristic of Indian tales. I do not thinkthat it is introduced for the sake of local color, or to give an air oftruthful seeming, because the Indian simply believes the whole, as itis. I think the reason may be that, owing to their love of adventure, they enjoy the mere recitation of topographical details. ] And there hehunted many a day alone, and met none, till one morning in midwinter hefound the track of snow-shoes. So he returned to his camp; but the nextday he met with it again in a far-distant place. And thus it was that, wherever he went, this track came to him every day. Then noting this, as a sign to be observed, he followed it, and it went up the mountain, Katahdin, which, being interpreted, means "the great mountain, " untilat last it was lost in a hard snow-shoe road made by many travelers. And since it was hard and even, he took off his _agahmook_ (P. ), or snow-shoes, and went ever on and up with the road; and it was astrange path and strange was its ending, for it stopped just before ahigh ledge, like an immense wall, on a platform at its foot. And therewere many signs there, as of many people, yet he saw no one. And as hestayed it seemed to grow stranger and stranger. At last he heard asound as of footsteps coming, yet within the wall, when lo! a girlstepped directly out of the precipice upon the platform. But though shewas beautiful beyond belief, he was afraid. And to his every thoughtshe answered in words, and that so sweetly and kindly and cleverly thathe was soon without fear, though he saw that she had powerful_m'teoulin_, or great magic power. And they being soon pleased onewith the other, and wanting each other, she bade him accompany her, andthat by walking directly through the rock. "Have no fear, " said she, "but, advance boldly!" So he obeyed, and lo! the rock was as the air, and it gave way as he went on. And ever as they went the maiden talkedto him, answering his thoughts, so that he spoke not aloud. 

And anon they came to a great cavern far within, and there was an oldman seated by a fire, and the old man welcomed him. And he was verykindly treated by the strange pair all day: in all his life he hadnever been so happy. Now as the night drew near, the old man said tohis daughter, "Can you hear aught of your brothers?" Then she went outto the terrace, and, returning, said, "No. " Then anon he asked heragain, and she, going and returning as before, replied, "Now I hearthem coming. " Then they listened, when lo! there came, as at the doorwithout, a crash of thunder with a flash of lightning, and out of thelight stepped two young men of great beauty, but like giants, stupendous and of awful mien. And, like their father, their eyebrowswere of stone, while their cheeks were as rocks. 

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! itis time now for you to go forth over the world and save our friends. Gonot too near the trees, but if you see aught that is harmful to thosewhom we love, strike, and spare not!" Then when they went forth theyflew on high among the clouds; and thus it is that the Thunder andLightning, whose home is in the mighty Katahdin, are made. And when thethunder strikes, the brothers are shooting at the enemies of theirfriends. 

Now when the day was done the hunter returned to his home, and whenthere, found he had been gone seven years. All this I have heard fromthe old people who are dead and gone. 

This tale was told me by Tomah Josephs (P. ). It seems to have nothingin common with the very widely spread myth that the thunder is theflapping of the wings of a giant bird, and the lightning the flashes ofits eyes. The tradition is probably of Eskimo origin, supernaturalbeings partially of stone being common to Greenland and Labrador. Thereis a strange but entirely accidental resemblance between this storyand Rip Van Winkle, as in the distant sound of the nine-pins likelow-muttered thunder, the hospitable entertainment, and finally theseven years as one day. Apparent resemblances are very deceptive. Inthe Eskimo mythology the _mersugat_ or _kutadlit_, who arethe higher or benevolent spirits, protecting mortals, are distinguishedfrom the evil ones by dwelling in cliffs, to which there are invisibleentrances. 

There is a remarkable resemblance between Katahdin and Hrungnir of theEdda. Hrungnir has a face of stone; he is unquestionably a mountainpersonified, as Miss Larned declares: "His stony head pierces the bluesky. " [Footnote: _Tales of the Elder Edda_, p. 235. ] Both giantsare the typical great mountain of their respective countries. Hrungnirhas also very great affinity with the Chenoo giant. He has a _stonyheart_, an insatiable appetite, and is cruel and brutal. 

The Iroquois have the very stone giants--or, as Schoolcraft calls them, the stonish giants--themselves, and a very curious picture of them hasbeen preserved. [Footnote: Vide Cusick's _Five Nations_, 2dedition, and Schoolcraft's _Indian Tribes_, vol. I p: 429. ] Ofthem he remarks, "Who the giants are intended to symbolize isuncertain. They are represented as impenetrable by darts. " Theconnection between the stone giants of the Indians, the Eskimo, and theNorsemen, if not historical, is at least identical in this, that theyall typify the mountains. 

_The Thunder and Lightning Men. _

(Passamaquoddy. )

This is truly an old Indian story of old time. Once an Indian waswhirled up by the roaring wind: he was taken up in a thunder-storm, andset down again in the village of the Thunders. [Footnote: This tale istranscribed, with very little alteration, from a manuscript collectionof tales written in Indian-English by an Indian. I retain the word_thunders_ as expressive of the beings in question. It has fortitle, _A Story called "An Indian transformed into a Thunder!"_]In after-times he described them as very like human beings: they usedbows and arrows (_tah-bokque_), and had wings. 

But these wings can be laid aside, and kept for use. And from time totime their chief gives these Thunders orders to put them on, and tellsthem where to go. He also tells them how long they are to be gone, andwarns them not to go too low, for it is sure death for them to becaught in the crotch of a tree. 

The great chief of the Thunders, hearing of the stranger's arrival, sent for him, and received him very kindly, and told him that he woulddo well to become one of them. To which the man being willing, thechief soon after called all his people together to see the ceremony ofthunderifying [Footnote: This word is one of the Indian author's own, but as I know of no synonym for it I retain it. It is certainly notworse than "Native-Americanizing. "] the Indian. 

Then they bade him go into a square thing, or box, and while in it helost his senses and became a Thunder. Then they brought him a pair ofwings, and he put them on. So he flew about like the rest of theThunders; he became quite like them, and followed all their ways. Andhe said that they always flew towards the _sou' n' snook_, or, south, and that the roar and crash of the thunder was the sound oftheir wings. Their great amusement is to play at ball across the sky. [Footnote: The Eskimo say that the lightning of the Northern Lights iscaused by spirits playing at ball with the head of a walrus. ] When theyreturn they carefully put away their wings for their next flight. Thereis a big bird in the south, and this they are always trying to kill, but never succeed in doing so. 

They made long journeys, and always took him with them. So it went onfor a long time, but it came to pass that the Indian began to tire ofhis strange friends. Then he told the chief that he wished to see hisfamily on earth, and the sagamore listened to him and was very kind. Then he called all his people together, and said that their brotherfrom the other world was very lonesome, and wished to return. They wereall very sorry indeed to lose him, but because they loved him they lethim have his own way, and decided to carry him back again. So biddinghim close his eyes till he should be on earth, they carried him down. 

The Indians saw a great thunder-storm drawing near; they heard suchthunder as they never knew before, and then something in the shape of ahuman being coming down with lightning; then they ran to the spot wherehe sat, and it was their long-lost brother, who had been gone sevenyears. 

He had been in the Thunder-world. He told them how he had been playingball with the Thunder-boys: yes, how he had been turned into a realThunder himself. 

This is why the Indians to this very day have a firm belief that thethunder and lightning we hear and see are caused by (beings or spirits)(called) in Indian _Bed-dag yek_ (or thunder), [Footnote: Themanuscript is here difficult to understand, but this is apparently thereal meaning of it. ] because they see them, and have, moreover, actually picked up the _bed-dags k'chisousan_, or thunder-bullet. [Footnote: Thunderbolt. ] It is of many different kinds of stone, butalways of the same shape. The last was picked up by Peter Sabattis, [Footnote: I heard of the existence of this legend a long time before Ifound it in the manuscript collection obtained for me by LouisMitchell. It is very curious as being unquestionably of Eskimo origin, or common to the Eskimo; also because it speaks of the Thunders asalways endeavoring to kill a great bird in the south. This is probablythe thunder or storm bird, called by the Passamaquoddy Indians_Wochowsen_ or _Wuchowsen_, that is, Wind-Blower. Anotherlegend makes Thunder and Lightning the sons of Mount Katahdin. 

I may here mention that I am well acquainted with old Peter Sabattis, the possessor of the "thunder-bullet. "] one of the Passamaquoddy tribe. He has it yet. He found it in a crotch-root of a spruce-tree at HeadHarbor, on the island of Campobello. This stone is a sign of good-luckto him who finds it. 

The thunder is the sound of the wings of the men who fly above. Thelightning we see is the fire and smoke of their pipes. 

_Of the Woman who married the Thunder, and of their Boy. _

(Passamaquoddy. )

Once a woman went to the edge of a lake [Footnote: It is impossible todistinguish in any Indian story between lake and sea. ] and lay down tosleep. As she awoke, she saw a great serpent, with glittering eyes, crawl from the water, and stealthily approach her. She had no power toresist his embrace. After her return to her people her conditionbetrayed itself, and she was much persecuted; they pursued her withsticks and stones, howling abuse. 

She fled from the village; she went afar into wild places, and, sittingdown on the grass, wept, wishing that she were dead. As she sat andwailed, a very beautiful girl, dressed in silver and gold, [Footnote:Both silver and gold were known in pre-Columbian, times to the Indians. I had a cousin who once found a very old stone pipe in which a smallpiece of gold had been set. Particles of gold are found in manymountain-streams in New England. ] appeared, and after listening to hersad story said, "Follow me!"

Then they went up on high into a mountain, through three rocks, untilthey came into a pleasant wigwam with a very smooth floor. An old man, so old that he was all white, came to meet them. Then he, taking ashort stick, bade her dance. He began to sing, and as he sang she gavebirth, one by one, to twelve serpents. These the old man killed insuccession with his stick as they were born. Then she had become thinagain, and was in her natural form. 

The old man had a son, Badawk, the Thunder, and a daughter, _Psawk-tankapic_, the Lightning, and when Thunder returned heoffered to take her back to her own people, but she refused to go. Then the old man, said to his son, "Take her for your wife and begood to her. " So they were married. 

In time she bore a son. When the boy could stand, the old man, whonever leaves the mountain, called him to stand before him, while befastened wings to the child. He was soon able, with these wings, tomake a noise, which greatly pleased the grandfather. When a storm isapproaching, the distant rumbling is the muttering thunder made by thechild, but it is _Badawk_, his father, who comes in the dark cloudand makes the roaring crash, while _Psawk-tankapic_ flashes herlightnings. 

In after days, when the woman visited her people, she told them thatthey never need fear the thunder or lightning. 

AT-O-SIS, THE SERPENT

_How Two Girls were changed to Water-Snakes, and of Two Others thatbecame Mermaids. _

(Passamaquoddy. )

Pocumkwess, or Thoroughfare, is sixty-five miles from Campobello. Therewas an Indian village there in the old times. Two young Indian girlshad a strange habit of absenting themselves all day every Sunday. Noone knew for a long time where they went or what they did. But this washow they passed their time. They would take a canoe and go six milesdown the Grand Lake, where, at the north end, is a great ledge of rockand sixty feet of water. There they stayed. All day long they ran aboutnaked or swam; they were wanton, witch-like girls, liking eccentric andforbidden ways. 

They kept this up for a long time. Once, while they were in the water, an Indian who was hunting spied them. He came nearer and nearer, unseen. He saw them come out of the water and sit on the shore, andthen go in again; but as he looked they grew longer and longer, untilthey became snakes. 

He went home and told this. (But now they had been seen by a man theymust keep the serpent form. ) Men of the village, in four or fivecanoes, went to find them. They found the canoe and clothes of thegirls; nothing more. A few days after, two men on Grand Lake saw thesnake-girls on shore, showing their heads over the bushes. One began tosing. 

 "N'ktieh ieben iut, Qu'spen ma ke owse. "

 We are going to stay in this lake A few days, and then go down the river. Bid adieu to our friends for us; We are going to the great salt water. 

After singing this they sank into the water. They had very long hair. 

A picture of the man looking at the snake-girls was scraped for me bythe Indian who told me this story. The pair were represented as snakeswith female heads. When I first heard this tale, I promptly set it downas nothing else but the Melusina story derived from a Canadian Frenchsource. But I have since found that it is so widely spread, and is toldin so many different forms, and is so deeply connected with tribaltraditions and totems, that there is now no doubt in my mind that it isat least pre-Columbian. 

Another and a very curious version of this story was obtained by Mrs. W. Wallace Brown, who has been the chief discoverer of curious Indianlore among the Passamaquoddies. It is called:

_Ne Hwas, the Mermaid. _

A long time ago there was an Indian, with his wife and two daughters. They lived by a great lake, or the sea, and the mother told her girlsnever to go into the water there, for that, if they did, somethingwould happen to them. 

They, however, deceived her repeatedly. When swimming is prohibited itbecomes delightful. The shore of this lake _sands_ away out orslopes to an island. One day they went to it, leaving their clothes onthe beach. The parents missed them. 

The father went to seek them. He saw them swimming far out, and calledto them. The girls swam up to the sand, but could get no further. Theirfather asked them why they could not. They cried that they had grown tobe so heavy that it was impossible. They were all slimy; they grew tobe snakes from below the waist. After sinking a few times in thisstrange slime they became very handsome, with long black hair andlarge, bright black eyes, with silver bands on their neck and arms. 

When their father went to get their clothes, they began to sing in themost exquisite tones:--

 "Leave them there! Do not touch them! Leave them there!"

Hearing this, their mother began to weep, but the girls kept on:--

 "It is all our own fault, But do not blame us; 'T will be none the worse for you. When you go in your canoe, Then you need not paddle; We shall carry it along!"

And so it was: when their parents went in the canoe, the girls carriedit safely on everywhere. 

One day some Indians saw the girls' clothes on the beach, and so lookedout for the wearers. They found them in the water, and pursued them, and tried to capture them, but they were so slimy that it wasimpossible to take them, till one, catching hold of a mermaid by herlong black hair, cut it off. 

Then the girl began to rock the canoe, and threatened to upset itunless her hair was given to her again. The fellow who had played thetrick at first refused, but as the mermaids, or snake-maids, promisedthat they should all be drowned unless this was done, the locks wererestored. And the next day they were heard singing and were seen, andon her who had lost her hair it was all growing as long as ever. 

We may very easily detect the hand of Lox, the Mischief Maker, in thislast incident. It was the same trick which Loki played on Sif, the wifeof Odin. That both Lox and Loki were compelled to replace the hair andmake it grow again--the one on the snake-maid, the other on thegoddess--is, if a coincidence, at least a very remarkable one. It is arule with little exception that where we have to deal with myths whichhave passed into romances or tales, that which was originally onecharacter becomes many, just as the king who has but one name and oneappearance at court assumes a score when he descends to disguise of lowdegree and goes among the people. But when, in addition tocharacteristic traits, we have even a single anecdote or attribute incommon, the identification is very far advanced. When not one, butmany, of these coincidences occur, we are in all probability at thetruth. Thus we find in the mythology of the Wabanaki, as in the Edda, the chief evil being indulging in mere wanton, comic mischief, to anextent not to be found in the devil of any other race whatever. Here, in a mythical tale, the same mischief maker steals a snake-girl's hair, and is compelled to replace it. In the Edda, the corresponding mischiefmaker steals the hair of a goddess, and is also forced to makerestitution. Yet this is only one of many such resemblances in thesetales. It will be observed that in both cases the hair of the loser ismade to grow again. But while the incident has in the Edda a meaning, as appears from its context, it has none in the Indian tale. All thatwe can conclude from this is that the Wabanaki tale is subsequent tothe Norse, or taken from it. The incidents of tales are oftenremembered when the plot is lost. It is certainly very remarkable that, wherever the mischief maker occurs in these Indian tales, he in everynarrative does something in common with his Norse prototype. 

_Of the Woman who loved a Serpent who lived in a Lake_. 

(Passamaquoddy. )

Of old times. There was a very beautiful woman. She turned the heads ofall the men. She married, and her husband died very soon after, but sheimmediately took another. Within a single year she had five husbands, and these were the cleverest and handsomest and bravest in the tribe. And then she married again. 

This, the sixth, was such a silent man that he passed for a fool. Buthe was wiser than people thought. He came to believe, by thinking itover, that this woman had some strange secret. He resolved to find itout. So he watched her all the time. He kept his eye on her by nightand by day. 

It was summer, and she proposed to go into the woods to pick berries, and to camp there. By and by, when they were in the forest, shesuggested that he should go on to the spot where they intended toremain and build a wigwam. He said that he would do so. But he went alittle way into the woods and watched her. 

As soon as she believed that he was gone, she rose and walked rapidlyonwards. He followed her, unseen. She went on, till, in a deep, wildplace among the rocks, she came to a pond. She sat down and sang asong. A great foam, or froth, rose to the surface of the water. Then inthe foam appeared the tail of a serpent. The creature was of immensesize. The woman, who had laid aside all her garments, embraced theserpent, which twined around her, enveloping all her limbs and body inhis folds. The husband watched it all. He now understood that, thevenom of the serpent having entered the woman, she had saved her lifeby transferring it to others, who died. 

He went on to the camping ground and built a wigwam. He made up twobeds; he built a fire. His wife came. She was earnest that there shouldbe only a single bed. He sternly bade her lie by herself. She wasafraid of him. She laid down, and went to sleep. He arose three timesduring the night to replenish the fire. Every time he called her, andthere was no answer. In the morning he shook her. She was dead. She haddied by the poison of the serpent. They sunk her in the pond where thesnake lived. 

[Illustration: THE WOMAN AND THE SERPENT]

I do not omit this ghastly and repulsive legend for the following reasons:One might hastily conclude, from its resemblance to the old legend of theorigin of the Merovingian family, that this idea of the woman with thehorrible water spirit for a lover was of Canadian French origin. But astory like it in the main detail is told by the Indians of Guiana, andthat of the Faithless Wife, given in Rink's Tales and Traditions of theEskimo (p. 143), is almost the same. But in the latter the husbandrevenges himself by stuffing the woman full of poisonous vermin. Rinksays that he had five different versions of this tale, and that one wasfrom Labrador, a country often traveled by the Micmacs, and even by thePenobscots and Passamaquoddies; I myself knowing one of the latter whohas been there. I conjecture that this tale sets forth the aboriginalidea of the origin of a certain disease supposed to have come fromAmerica. It is popularly believed among the vulgar that this disease canbe transferred to another person, thereby removing it from the first. Ofthis the Rev. Thistleton Dyer, in his Folk Lore of Shakespeare, says, "According to an old but erroneous belief, infection communicated toanother left the infecter free; in allusion to which Timon of Athens(Act IV. 3) says, --

 "'I will not kiss thee; then the rot returns To thy own lips again. '"

Bonifacius, Historia Ludicra, has collected all the instances known toclassical antiquity of women who had serpent lovers. The kings of theearly races of Central America laid great stress on the fact that theywere descendants of serpents. One could fill a volume with all theArab, Hindoo, and other Oriental tales belonging to the beloved of"ophitic monsters. "

I am indebted for this very curious and ancient tale to Governor TomahJosephs, of Peter Dana's Point, Maine. 

_The Mother of Serpents. _

(Passamaquoddy. )

There was once a couple well advanced in years. They were powerful andrich in the Indian fashion, but they were unhappy because they had nochildren. This was near the river St. John's, on the shore of a smalllake. 

After the woman had gone in vain to all the medicine men and_m'teoulin_, she heard of an old doctress, or witch, who lived notvery far off. And though hope was almost dead, the witch was consulted. 

She gave the wife some herbs, and bade her steep them in a potout-of-doors, and then let them boil. When the vessel should danceover the flame, the propitious moment would be at hand. 

Everything succeeded according to the witch's prediction. A few daysafter she appeared in the town. The mother, who was a very proud woman, had in advance hung up an Indian cradle with very fine ornaments. Theold woman was very dirty, poor, and squalid. The proud woman wasfurious at the visit, which mortified her in every way. She drove thewitch away with bitter words, bidding her begone with her rags. The oldwoman went away muttering, "That woman--too proud--too ugly proud--I'llsee. " [Footnote: The story was narrated in Indian-English. ]

What she saw was bad for the mother. She took some more herbs from herbox and threw them in the fire, crying with a loud voice, "_At-o-sis!At-o-sis!_" and imitated the motions of a snake. 

When the proud woman was confined, she gave birth to two largeserpents. They had each a white ring round the neck and red stripesdown the sides. As soon as they were born they went rapidly to thelake, and disappeared in its water. They have been seen there, now andthen, ever since. 

She who gave birth, to them was a Mohawk, and she is called the Motherof Serpents. 

Another Passamaquoddy tale gives the following account of the origin ofthe Serpent-race. 

Once there was an Indian sorcerer came to a wigwam where there was aman who had a very handsome daughter. 

The magician wished to win the girl; the father made up his mind thathe should not have her. 

The magician told them that he was very wealthy, and had a great lodgefilled with furs and wampum. It was of no use. 

Then he told the father that if he would go and cast his lines in acertain place he would catch as many of the finest fish as he wanted. The old man went, but took his daughter with him. 

When they returned, loaded with fish, the magician, smiling, said tothe girl with great mystery, "When you have cooked _these_ fish, always throw away the tail, and begin by eating the head first. "

He knew very well that her curiosity and perversity would make herdisobey him. She waited with impatience till the man had left, when shehurried to cook and eat the fish. Thereby she became a mother, and themagician had his revenge. 

_Origin of the Black Snakes. _

(Passamaquoddy. )

Far away, very far in the north, there dwelt by the border of a greatlake a man and his wife. They had no children, and the woman was verybeautiful and passionate. 

The lake was frozen over during the greater part of the year. One daywhen the woman cut away the ice, she saw in the water a bright pair oflarge eyes looking steadily at her. They charmed her so that she couldnot move. Then she distinguished a handsome face; it was that of a fineslender young man. He came out of the water. His eyes seemed brighterand more fascinating than ever; he glittered from head to foot; on hisbreast was a large shining silvery plate. 

The woman learned that this was At-o-sis, the Serpent, but she returnedhis embraces and held conversation with him, and was so charmed withher lover that she not only met him more than once every day, but evenwent forth to see him in the night. 

Her husband, noticing these frequent absences asked her why she wentforth so frequently. She replied, "To get the fresh air. "

The weather grew warmer; the ice left the lake; grass and leaves weregrowing. Then the woman waited till her husband slept, and stole outfrom the man whom she kissed no more, to the lover whom she fondled andkissed more than ever. 

At last the husband's suspicions being fairly aroused, he resolved towatch her. To do this he said that he would be absent for three days. But he returned at the end of the first day, and found that she wasabsent. As she came in he observed something like silvery scales on thelogs. He asked what they were. She replied, _Brooches_. [Footnote:_Nskmahn'l_: coins of all sizes hammered out by the Indians andmade into pin-brooches. ]

He was still dissatisfied, and said that he would be gone for one day. He went to the top of a hill not far distant, whence he watched her. She went to the shore, and sat there. By and by there rose up out ofthe lake, at a distance, what seemed to be a brightly shining piece ofice. It came to the strand and rose from the water. It was a very talland very handsome man, dressed in silver. His wife clasped the brightstranger in her arms, kissing him again and again. 

The husband was awed by this strange event. He went home, and tried topersuade his wife to leave the place and to return to her people. Thisshe refused to do. He departed; he left her forever. But her father andmother came to find her. They found her there; they dwelt with her. Every day she brought to them furs and meat. They asked her whence shegot them. "I have another husband, " she replied; "one who suits me. Theone I had was bad, and did not use me well. This one brings all theanimals to me. " Then she sent them away with many presents, tellingthem not to return until the ice had formed; that was in the autumn. 

When they returned she had become white. She was with young, and soongave birth to her offspring. It consisted of many serpents. The parentswent home. As they departed she said to them, "When you come again youmay see me, but you will not know me. "

Years after some hunters, roaming that way, remembered the tale, andlooked for the wigwam. It was there, but no one was in it. But all thewoods about the place were full of great black snakes, which would riseup like a human being and look one in the face, then glide away withoutdoing any harm. 

THE PARTRIDGE

_The Adventures of the Great Hero Pulowech, or the Partridge. _

(Micmac. )

_Wee-yig-yik-keseyook_. A tale of old times. Two men once livedtogether in one wigwam in the woods, on the border of a beautiful lake. Many hard-wood trees made their pictures in it. One of these Indianswas Pulowech, the Partridge in the Micmac tongue, but who is called bythe Passamaquoddy Mitchihess; but the other was Wejek (M. ), the TreePartridge. 

Now it befell that one day Pulowech was walking along the shore, whenit was winter, and he beheld three girls, fair and fine, with flowinghair, sitting on the ice braiding their locks. Then he knew that theywere of the fairy kind, who dwell in the water; and, verily, these wereplentier of old than they are now, --to our sorrow be it said, for theywere good company for the one who could get them. And Pulowech, knowingthis, said, "I will essay this thing, and perchance I may catch one ortwo of them; which will be a great comfort, for a pretty girl is a nicething to have about the wigwam. " So he sought to secure them bystealing softly along; but one cried, "_Ne miha skedap_!" "I see aman!" P. , and they all went head over heels, first best time, into thewater; and verily that was a cold duck for December in the Bay ofFundy. 

But though Pulowech had never hunted for sea-girls, yet he had fishedfor seals, who are greatly akin unto them, being almost as slippery;and wotting well that no man hath the mitten till he is refused thirtytimes and many more, he went about it in another wise. For this time hegat many fir boughs, strewing them about as if blown by the wind, andhiding himself behind them, again came up and made a sudden dart. Thenthe maids, crying as before, "_Ne miha skedap_!" "I see a, man!"went with a dive into the deep. But this time he caught, if not thehair, at least the hair-string, of the fairest, which remained in hishand. And, gazing on this, it came into his mind that he had got thatwhich was her charm, or life, and that she could not live without it, [Footnote: The magic hair-string plays a part in many of these tales. It belongs to the sorcery of all the world in all ages. ] or hercherished _sakultobee_ (M. ). And taking it home, he tied it to theplace in the wigwam above that wherein he slept. Nor had he waited longbefore she came, and, with little ado, remained with him as his wife. 

Now Pulowech, being himself addicted to sorcery, knew that there weredivers knaves of the same stamp prowling about the woods, who wouldmake short work of a wife if they could find a plump young one in theway, --they being robbers, ravishers, and cannibals withal. Therefore hewarned his bride to keep well within doors when he was away, and toopen to none, which she, poor soul, meant to obey with all her might. But being alone at midnight, and hearing a call outside, even"_Pantahdooe_!" M. , "Open the door to me!" she wondered greatly whoit might be. And it was a very wicked wizard, a _boo-oin_, orpow-wow; and he, being subtle and crafty, and knowing of her family, so imitated the voices of her brothers and sisters; beseeching her to letthem in, that her very heart ached. "O sister, we have come from afar!"they cried. "We missed you, and have followed you. Let us in!" And yetagain she heard a sad and very earnest voice, and it was that of herold mother, crying, "_N'toos', n'toos', pantahdooe_!" M. , "Mydaughter! my daughter! open unto me!" and she verily wist that it mustbe so. But when she heard the voice of her dear old father, shaking andsaying, "_Pantahdooe loke cyowchee_!" "Open the door, for I am verycold!" she could resist no more, and, springing up, opened it to thosewho were without. And then the evil sorcerers, springing on her likemad wolves, dragged her away and devoured her. They did not leave twoof her little bones one with another. [Footnote: This Indian Little RedRiding-Hood story is very effective. The wolfish sorcerers bursting inat midnight are even more terrible, from a nursery melodramatic point, than the old wolf in bed. ]

Now when _Wejek_, the Tree Partridge, came in and found hisfriend's wife gone, he was so angry that, without waiting, he set forthto seek her. And this was not wisely done, since, falling among them, he was himself slain. Then Pulowech, returning last of all, and findingno one, sought by means of magic to know where friend and wife mightbe. For taking a _woltes_, or a wooden dish, he filled it withwater, and charmed it with a spell, and placed it in the back part ofhis wigwam, just opposite the door. So he laid him down to sleep, andin the morning when he arose he looked upon the dish, --even the dish ofdivination, --and lo! it was half full of blood. Then he knew that thetwain had been murdered. 

Then gathering all his arms, he went forth for revenge, and passed manydays on the path, tracking the _boo-oin_; and having the eyesightof sorcery, he one day beheld very far away, upon an exceeding highcliff, the knee of a man sticking out of the stone, and knew that asorcerer had hidden himself in the solid rock, even as a child mighthide itself in a pile of feathers. Then throwing his tomahawk he cutaway the knee, and the _boo-oin_, his spell broken, remained hardand fast forever in the ledge. And yet, anon, a little further on, hesaw a foot projecting from a wall, and this he likewise cut off, andwith that he had slain two. 

And as he went further he found by the way a poor little squirrel, even_Meeko_, who was crawling along, half dead, in sorry plight. Andtaking her up he made her well, and placing her in his bosom, said, "Rest there yet a while, _Meeko_, for thou must fight to-day, andthat fiercely. Yet fear not, for I will stand by thee, and when I tapthy back, then shalt thou bring forth thy young!"

Then going ever on, he saw from the mountains far in a lake below aflock of wild geese sporting merrily, even the _Senum-kwak'_. Buthe wist right well that these also were of the _boo-oin_, whom hesought, and placing a spell on his bow, and singing a charm over hisarrows that they should not miss, he slew the wild fowl one by one, andtying their heads together, he carried them in a bunch upon his back. And truly he deemed it a good bag of game for one day. 

And yet further on he came to a wigwam, and entering it saw a man thereseated, whom he knew at once was of the enemy. For he who sat thereglared at him grimly; he did not say to him, "_'Kutakumoogwal!_" "Comehigher up!" as they do who are hospitable. But having cooked some meat, and given it in a dish to Pulowech's hand, he snatched it back again, and said he would sooner give it to his dog. And this he did more thanonce, saying the same thing. But Pulowech kept quiet. Then the rude mansaid, "Hast thou met with aught to-day, thou knave?" And the guestreplied, "Truly I saw a fellow's knee sticking out of a stone, and Icut it off. And yet, anon, I saw a foot coming from a rock, and this Ialso chopped. And further on there was a flock of wild geese, and themI slew; there was not one left, --no, not one. And if you will lookwithout there you may see them all dead, and much good may it do you!"

Then the savage sorcerer burst forth in all his rage: "Come on, then, our dogs must fight this out!" "Thou sayest well, " replied Pulowech;"truly I am fond of a good dog-fight, so bring out thy pup!" And thatwhich the man brought forth was terrible; for it was no dog, but ahideous savage beast, known to Micmacs as the _Weisum_. [Footnote:The _Amarok_ of the Eskimo. ]

But that which Pulowech produced was quite as different from a dog aswas the _Weisum_; for it was only _Meeko_, a poor littlesquirrel, and half dead at that, which he laid carefully before thefire that it might revive. [Footnote: In another version of this story, the savage stranger puts up a real dog against the squirrel; and in thestory of Glooskap, it is that great man who makes the squirrel great orsmall. ] But anon it began to revive, and grew until it was well-nigh asgreat as the _Weisum_. And then there was indeed a battle as ofdevils and witches; he who had been a hundred miles away might haveheard it. 

But anon it seemed that the _Weisum_ was getting the better of_Meeko_. Then Pulowech did but tap the squirrel on the back, whenlo! she brought forth two other squirrels, and these grew in an instantto be as large as their mother, and the three were soon too many forthe beast. "Ho! call off your dogs!" cried the _boo-oin_; "youhave beaten. But spare mine, since, indeed, he does not belong to me, but to my grandmother, who is very fond of him. " [Footnote: Thistrivial episode of begging a call-off seems to have deeply impressedthe Indians, who are generally sporting-men, since I find it in boththe Passamaquoddy and Micmac versions of the legend. ]

Pulowech, who held to his own in all things like a wolverine, was thelast man alive to think of, and he encouraged the squirrels until theyhad torn the _Weisum_ to rags. 

Then he who had staked it, bitterly lamented, saying, "Alack, my poorgrandmother! Alas, how she will wail when she hears that her_Weisum_ is dead! Woe the day that ever I did put him up! Alas, mygrandmother!" For all which the cruel Pulowech, the hard-hearted, impenitent Partridge, did not care the hair of a dead musk-rat. 

Now the host, who had thus suddenly grown so tender-hearted, said, "Letus sail forth upon the river in a canoe. " Then they were soon on thestream, and rushing down a rapid like a dart. And anon they came to aterribly high cliff, in which there was a narrow cavern into which theriver ran. And on it, thundering through this door of death, borne on aboiling surge, the bark was forced furiously into darkness. AndPulowech sat firmly in his seat, and steered the boat with steady, certain hand; but just as he entered the horrible hole, glancingaround, he saw the sorcerer leap ashore. For the evil man, believingthat no one had ever come alive out of the cavern, had betrayed himinto it. 

Yet ever cool and calm the mighty man went on, for danger now wasbringing out all the force of his magic; [Footnote: It is verycharacteristic of the heroes of these Indian tales that they graduallyunfold or develop from small characteristics to very great ones. Thereis a lesson in this, and it has been perfectly appreciated by poets andsimilar sorcerers. ] and soon the stream grew smoother, the rocksdisappeared from its bed, and then from afar there was a brightness, and he was soon in the daylight and sunshine on a beautiful stream, and by the banks thereof there grew the _wabeyu-beskwan_, orwater-lilies, and very pleasant it was to him to feel the wind again. So using his paddle he saw a smoke rising from a cave in the rocks, And landing and softly stepping up heard talking within. 

Nor had he listened long ere he knew the voice of the man who had luredhim into the canoe, and he was telling his grandmother how, one afterthe other, all the best _boo-oin_ of their band had been slain bya mighty sorcerer. But when she heard from him how her beloved, or theone who had inspired the _Weisum_, had been beaten, her wrathburst forth in a storm, like the raving of devils, like a mad wind onthe waves. And she said, "If Pulowech were but before me, were he butalive, I would roast him. " The man, hearing this, cried, "Aye; but heis _not_ alive, for I sent him afloat down into the dark cavern!"

And then Pulowech, stepping in before them, said, "And yet I am alive. And do thou, woman, _bak sok bok sooc_!" (roast me to death). Thenshe scowled horribly at him, but said naught; and he, sitting down, looked at them. 

This woman was of the Porcupines, who are never long without raisingtheir quills, and they are fond of heat. Now there was in the cave muchhemlock bark, and this she began to heap on the fire. Then it blazed, it crackled and roared; but Pulowech sat still, and said naught, neither did his eyes change. And he called unto himself all his might, the might of his magic did he awaken, and the spirit came unto him veryterribly, so that all the _boo-oin_, with their vile blackwitchcraft, were but as worms before him, the Great and Terrible One. And when the fire had burned low he brought in by his will great storeof bark, so that the whole cave was filled, and closing the door helighted the fuel. Then the Porcupines, who were those who had slain hiswife and friend, howled for mercy, but he was deaf as a stone to theircries. Then the roof and sides of the cavern cracked with the heat, thered-hot stones fell in heavy blocks, the red flames rose in thethickest smoke, but Pulowech sat and sang his song until the witch andwizard were burned to cinders; yea, till their white bones crumbled toashes beneath his feet. And then he arose and went unto his home. [Footnote: In this Micmac legend, which is plainly a poem, there is onevery striking and original element in the art with which the greatknowledge and power of Pulowech are kept out of sight until towards thefinal unfolding. When he picks up the Squirrel it is with a fullcomprehension that he will be confronted with the _Weisum_. Fromthe beginning to the end, he is master of the situation; all goes onwith him like the unfolding of Fate in a Greek tragedy, until the end, when, stern and unpitying, he sits in the cavern of fire and sees hisenemies roasted alive before him. --From the Rand Manuscript. ]

In this legend the hero passes the mysterious river which separates inseveral Indian tales the ordinary world from that where the evilgiants, Jotuns, sorcerers, or witches live. It appears to correspondexactly to "the stream called Ifing, which divides the earth betweenthe Jotuns and the Gods. " (Edda, Vafthrudnismal, 16. ) The attempt bythe Porcupine host to roast the guest alive and its failure bearsmarked likeness to the scene in the Grimnismal, in which King Geirrodvainly strives to roast his guest, Odin, and is himself slain. 

 "Fire, thou art hot, and much too great; flame, let us separate. "

The grandeur of Odin and the behavior of the Indian are set forth in astrikingly similar manner in both narratives. If any modern poet haddepicted this incident in so like a style, every critic would havecried out plagiarism!

_The Story of a Partridge and his Wonderful Wigwam. _

Once a man was traveling through the woods, and he heard afar off asound as of footsteps beating the ground. So he sought to find thepeople that made it, and went on for a full week ere he came to them. And it was a man and his wife dancing about a tree, in the top of whichwas a Raccoon. They had, by their constant treading, worn a trench inthe ground; indeed, they were in it up to their waists. [Footnote: Todance away the ground, or walk knee-deep in it, was characteristic ofwizards. So was the hearing of any sound at an apparently incredibledistance. To an Indian mind this tale is weird and wonderful from thefirst words thereof. ] Then, being asked why they did this strangething, they answered that, being hungry, they were trying to dance downthe tree to catch the Raccoon. 

Then the man who had come said, "Truly there is a newer and better wayof felling trees, which has lately come into the land. " As they wishedto know what this might be, he showed them how to cut it down, and didso; making it a condition that if they got the game they might have themeat and he should get the skin. So when the tree fell they caught theanimal, and the woman, having tanned the skin, gave it to the man, andhe went his way. 

And being afar, in a path in the forest, he met another man, and wasgreatly amazed at him because he was bearing on his head a house, or alarge birch wigwam of many rooms. He was frightened at first at such asight, but the man, putting down his house, shook hands with him, andseemed to be a right honest good fellow. Then while they smoked andtalked, the Man of the House, seeing the skin of _Hespuns_, orthat of the Raccoon, in the other's belt, said, "Well, that is a finepelt! Where did you get it, brother?" And he, answering, told all thestory of the Dancing Man and Wife; whereupon he of the House becamemightily anxious to buy it, offering one thing after another for it, and at last the House, which was accepted. And, examining it, the buyerwas amazed to find how many rooms it contained, and how full it was ofgood furniture. "Truly, " said he, "I can never carry this as you do!""Yes, you can, " replied the _Pil-wee-mon-soo-in_ (P. , one whobelongs somewhere else, --a stranger). "Do but try it!" So he essayedand lifted it easily, for he found it as light as any _bassinode_or basket. 

So they parted and he went on carrying his cabin till night-fall, whencoming to a hard-wood ridge, near a good spring of water, he resolvedto settle there. [Footnote: A hard-wood ridge; that is, where there isplenty of birch, ash, and such trees as are necessary for baskets, dishes, canoes, and other Indian wants. Hence it is mentioned in manytales as a desirable place to live. ] And, searching, he found a room inwhich there was a very fine bed, covered with a _white bear-skin_. [Footnote: A sure indication of sorcery. ] And as it was very soft, andhe was very weary, he slept well. 

In the morning, when he awoke, what was his astonishment and delight tosee above him, hanging to the beams, all kinds of nice provisions, --venison, hams, ducks, baskets of berries and of maple-sugar, with manyears of Indian corn. And as he, in his joy, stretched out his arms andmade a jump towards all these dainties, behold the white bear-skinmelted and ran away, for it was the snow of winter; and his arms spreadforth into wings, and he flew up to the food, which was the early budsof the birch, on which they hung. [Footnote: Birch-buds are the food ofthe partridge. The unexpected ending of this tale signifies the suddenreturn of spring. As told by an Indian, it is very effective. This talewas told me by Tomah Josephs. ] And he was a Partridge, who after themanner of his kind had been wintering under a snow-drift, and now cameforth to greet the pleasant spring. 

_How the Partridge built Good Canoes for all the Birds, and a Bad Onefor Himself. _

When a partridge beats upon a hollow log he makes a noise like anIndian at work upon a canoe, and when an Indian taps at a canoe itsounds afar off like the drumming of a partridge, even of_Mitchihess_. And this comes because that _N'karnayoo_, ofancient days, the Partridge, was the canoe builder for all the otherbirds. Yes, for all at once. 

And on a certain day they every one assembled, and each got into his bark, and truly it was a brave sight to see. First of all _Kicheeplagon_, the Eagle, entered his great shell and paddled off, using the ends of hiswings; and then came _Ko-ko-kas_, the Owl, doing the same; and, _Kosqu'_, the Crane, _Wee-sow-wee-hessis_, the Bluebird, _Tjidge-is-skwess_, the Snipe, and _Meg-sweit-tchip-sis_, the Blackbird, all came sailing proudly after. Even the tiny_A-la-Mussit_, the Humming-Bird, had a dear little boat, and forhim the good Partridge had made a pretty little paddle, only thatsome thought it rather large, for it was almost an inch long. And_Ishmegwess_, the Fish-Hawk, who lived on the wing, cried inamazement, "_Akweden skouje_!" "A canoe is coming!" when hebeheld this beautiful squadron standing out to sea. 

But when _Mitchihess_, the great builder, was asked why he had notbuilt a canoe for himself, he merely looked mysterious and drummed. Andbeing further questioned by the birds, he shook his head, and at lasthinted that when he built a canoe unto himself it would be indeed amarvel; yea, a wonder such as even birds' eyes had never beheld, --anentire novelty, and something to dream of. And this went on for manydays. 

But in due time it was noised abroad that the wonderful canoe had atlast been really built, and would soon be shown. And at an appointedtime all the birds assembled on the banks to behold this new thing. Nowthe Partridge had reasoned that if a boat having two ends could berowed in two ways, one which was all ends, all round, could be rowed inevery way. So he had made a canoe which was exactly like a nest, orperfectly round. And this idea had greatly amazed the honest featheredfolk, who were astonished that so simple a thing had not occurred toall of them. 

But what was their wonder when Partridge, having entered his canoe andproceeded to paddle, made no headway at all; for it simply turned roundand round, and ever and again the same way, let him work it as hewould. And after wearying himself and all in vain, he went ashore, and, flying far inland, hid himself for very shame under the low bushes, onthe earth, where he yet remains. This is the reason why he never seeksthe sea or rivers, and has ever since remained an inland bird. [Footnote: Having met Mr. Louis Mitchell, the Indian member of thelegislature in Maine, one day in Eastport, I asked him to occupy thefew minutes which would pass before I should take the steamboat forCalais by telling me a story. He complied by narrating the foregoing. It is very remarkable that the Indian story-tellers of ancient daysshould have taken it into their heads to satirize an idea which hasbeen of late carried out completely by the Russian Admiral Popoff, inhis celebrated circular war steamer. The story and all the Indian wordsin it are Passamaquoddy. ]

_The Mournful Mystery of the Partridge-Witch; setting forth how aYoung Man died from Love. _

Of the olden time. Two brothers went hunting in the autumn, and that asfar as the head waters of the Penobscot, where they remained allwinter. But in March their snow-shoes (_agahmook_, P. ) gave out, as did their moccasins, and they wished that a woman were there to mendthem. 

When the younger brother returned first to the lodge, the next day, --which he generally did, to get it ready for the elder, --he wasastonished to find that some one had been there before him, and that, too, in the housekeeping. For garments had been mended, the placecleaned and swept, a fire built, and the pot was boiling. He saidnothing of this to his brother; but returning the next day at the sametime, found that all had been attended to, as at first. And again hesaid nothing; but in the morning, when he went forth to hunt, he didbut go a little way, and, returning, watched, from a hidden place, thedoor. And there came a beautiful and graceful girl, well attired, whoentered the wigwam. And he, stepping softly, looking through a hole inthe hut, saw her very busy with his housekeeping. 

Then he entered, and she seemed to be greatly alarmed and confused; buthe calmed her, and they soon became good friends, sporting togethervery happily all day long like children, for indeed they were bothyoung. 

When the sun's height was little and his shadows long, the girl said, "I must go now. I hear your brother coming, and I fear him. But I willreturn to-morrow. _Addio_!" So she went, and the elder brother knewnothing of what had happened. The next day she came again, and oncemore they played in sunshine and shadow until evening; but ere she wenthe sought to persuade her to remain always. And she, as if in doubt, answered, "Tell thy brother all, and it may be that I will stay andserve ye both. For I can make the snow-shoes and moccasins which ye somuch need, and also canoes. " Then she departed with the day, and theelder, returning, heard from his brother all that had happened, andsaid, "Truly I should be glad to have some one here to take care of thewigwam and make snow-shoes. " So she came in the morning, and hearingfrom the younger that his brother had consented to her coming was veryglad, and went away, as in haste. But she returned about noon, drawinga _toboggin_ (sled) piled up with garments and arms, for she was ahuntress. Indeed, she could do all things as few women could, whetherit were cooking, needle-work, or making all that men need. And thewinter passed very pleasantly, until the snow grew soft, and it wastime for them to return. Till she came they had little luck in hunting, but since her coming all had gone well with them, and they now had awonderful quantity of furs. 

Then they returned in a canoe, going down the river to their village. But as they came near it the girl grew sad, for she had thrown out hersoul to their home, though they knew it not, by _meelahbi-give_. [Footnote: Passamaquoddy: Clairvoyance, or state of vision. ] Andsuddenly she said, as they came to a point of land, "Here I must leave. I can go no further. Say nothing of me to your parents, for your fatherwould have but little love for me. " And the young men sought topersuade her, but she only answered sorrowfully, "It cannot be. " Sothey came home with their furs, and the elder was so proud of theirluck and their strange adventure that he could not hold his peace, buttold all. 

Then his father was very angry, and said, "All my life have I fearedthis. Know that this woman was a devil of the woods, a witch of theMitche-hant, a sister of the _Oonahgamess_ [Footnote: P. Goblinsand ghosts. ] and of the _Ke'tahks_. " And he spoke so earnestly andso long of this thing that they were afraid, and the elder, beingpersuaded by the sire, went forth to slay her, and the younger followedhim afar. So they sought her by the stream, and found her bathing, and, seeing them, she ran up a little hill. And, as she ran, the elder shotan arrow at her. Then there was a strange flurry about her, afluttering of scattered feathers, and they saw her fly away as apartridge. Returning, they told all this to their father, who said, "You did well. I know all about these female devils who seek to destroymen. Verily this was a she Mikumwess. " [Footnote: P. The Mikumwess is aRobin Goodfellow, who plays pranks on people, or treats them kindly, according to his caprice. ]

But the younger could not forget her, and longed to see her again; soone day he went into the woods, and there he indeed found her, and shewas as kind as before. Then he said, "Truly it was not by my goodwillthat my brother shot at you. " And she answered, "Well do I know that, and that it was all by your father; yet I blame him not, for this is anaffair of _N'karnayoo_, the days of old; and even yet it is not atan end, and the greatest is to come. But let the day be only a day untoitself; the things of to-morrow are for to-morrow, and those ofyesterday are departed. " So they forgot their troubles, and playedtogether merrily all day long in the woods and in the open places, andtold stories of old times till sunset. And as, the _Kah-kah-goos_, or Crow, went to his tree, the boy said, "I must return;" and shereplied, "Whenever you would see me, come to the woods. And rememberwhat I say. Do not marry any one else. For your father wishes you to doso, and he will speak of it to you, and that soon. Yet it is for yoursake only that I say this. " Then she told him word by word all that hisfather had said; but he was not astonished, for now he knew that shewas not as other women; but he cared not. And he grew brave and bold, and then he was above all things. And when she told him that if heshould marry another he would surely die, it was as nothing to him. 

Then returning, the first thing his father said was, "My son, I haveprovided a wife for you, and the wedding must be at once. " And he said, "It is well. Let it be so. " Then the bride came. For four days theyheld the wedding dance; four days they feasted. But on the last day hesaid, "This is the end of it all, " and he laid him down on a whitebear-skin, and a great sickness came upon him, and when they broughtthe bride to him he was dead. 

Truly the father knew what ailed him, and more withal, of which he saidnothing. But he liked the place no longer, and he and his went awaytherefrom, and scattered far and wide. 

This strange story recalls the Undine of La Motte Fouque. There is init an element of mystery and destiny, equal in every way to anything inGerman literature. The family secret, touched on but never explained, which ends in such a death, is, speaking from an artistic point ofview, very skillfully managed. It must be borne in mind that in this, as in most of these tales, there are associations and chords which makeas gold to an Indian that which is only copper, or at best silver, tothe civilized reader of my translations. 

There is a characteristic feature of this story superior to anything inUndine. It is the growth in the hero, when he knows the worst to come, of that will, or stoicism, or complete indifference to fate, which theIndians regard as equivalent to attaining _m'teoulin_, or magicpower. When a man has in him such courage that nothing earthly can domore than increase it, he has attained to what is in one sense at least_Nirvana_. From an Algonquin point of view the plot is perfect. 

I have given this story accurately as it was told to me by TomahJosephs, a Passamaquoddy Indian. 

_How one of the Partridge's Wives became a Sheldrake Duck, and whyher Feet and Feathers are Red. _

_N'karnayoo_, of the old time, there was a hunter who lived in thewoods. He had a brother, [Footnote: The word brother is so generallyapplied in adoption or friendship that it cannot here be taken in aliteral sense. The brother in this case seems to have been a goblin orspirit. ] who was so small that he kept him in a box, and when he wentforth he closed this very carefully, for fear lest an evil spirit(Mitche-hant) should get him. 

One day this hunter, returning, saw a very beautiful girl sitting on arock by a river, making a moccasin. And being in a canoe he paddled upsoftly and silently to capture her; but she, seeing him coming, jumpedinto the water and disappeared. On returning to her mother, who livedat the bottom of the river, she was told to go back to the hunter andbe his wife; "for now, " said the mother, "you belong to that man. "

The hunter's name was Mitchihess, the Partridge. When she came to hislodge he was absent. So she arranged everything for his return, makinga bed of boughs. At night he came back with one beaver. This hedivided; cooked one half for supper and laid by the other half. In themorning when she awoke he was gone, and the other half of the beaverhad also disappeared. That night he returned with another beaver, andthe same thing took place again. Then she resolved to spy and find outwhat all this meant. 

So she laid down and went to sleep, wide awake, with one eye open. Thenhe quietly rose and cooked the half of the beaver, and taking a key(_Apkwosgehegan_, P. ) unlocked a box, and took out a little reddwarf and fed him. Replacing the elf, he locked him up again, and laydown to sleep. And the small creature had eaten the whole half beaver. But ere he put him in his box he washed him and combed his hair, whichseemed to delight him. 

The next morning, when her husband had gone for the day, the wifesought for the key, and having found it opened the box and called tothe little fellow to come out. This he refused to do for a long time, though she promised to wash and comb him. Being at length persuaded, hepeeped out, when she pulled him forth. But whenever she touched him herhands became red, though of this she took no heed, thinking she couldwash it off at will. But lo! while combing him, there entered a hideousbeing, an awful devil, who caught the small elf from her and ran away. 

Then she was terribly frightened. And trying to wash her hands, the redstain remained. When her husband returned that night he had no game;when he saw the red stain he knew all that had happened; when he knewwhat had happened he seized his bow to beat her; when she saw him seizehis bow to beat her she ran down to the river, and jumped in to escapedeath at his hands, though it should be by drowning. But as she fellinto the water she became a sheldrake duck. And to this day the marksof the red stain are to be seen on her feet and feathers. [Footnote:Related to me by Noel Josephs, a Passamaquoddy. Notwithstanding itsresemblance to Blue Beard, it is probably in every detail a very oldIndian tradition. It bears a slight resemblance to several far westernlegends, which refer to peculiarities in the duck. It is partlyrepeated in a Lox legend. ]

THE INVISIBLE ONE. 

(Micmac. )

There was once a large Indian village situated on the border of alake, --_Nameskeek' oodun Kuspemku_ (M. ). At the end of the placewas a lodge, in which dwelt a being who was always invisible. [Footnote: In this Micmac tale, which is manifestly corrupted in manyways, the hero is said to be "a youth whose _teeomul_ (or tutelaryanimal) was the moose, " whence he took his name. In the Passamaquoddyversion nothing is said about a moose. A detailed account of thedifficulty attending the proper analysis of this tradition will befound at the end of this chapter. ] He had a sister who attended to hiswants, and it was known that any girl who could see him might marryhim. Therefore there were indeed few who did not make the trial, but itwas long ere one succeeded:

And it passed in this wise. Towards evening, when the Invisible One wassupposed to be returning home, his sister would walk with any girls whocame down to the shore of the lake. She indeed could see her brother, since to her he was always visible, and beholding him she would say toher companions, "Do you see my brother?" And then they would mostlyanswer, "Yes, " though some said, "Nay, "--_alt telovejich, aaalttelooejik_. And then the sister would say, "_Cogoowa'wiskobooksich_?" "Of what is his shoulder-strap made?" But as sometell the tale, she would, inquire other things, such as, "What is hismoose-runner's haul?" or, "With what does he draw his sled?" And theywould reply, "A strip of rawhide, " or "A green withe, " or something ofthe kind. And then she, knowing they had not told the truth, wouldreply quietly, "Very well, let us return to the wigwam!"

And when they entered the place she would bid them not to take acertain seat, for it was his. And after they had helped to cook thesupper they would wait with great curiosity to see Him eat. Truly hegave proof that he was a real person, for as he took off his moccasinsthey became visible, and his sister hung them up; but beyond this theybeheld nothing not even when they remained all night, as many did. 

There dwelt in the village an old man, a widower, with three daughters. The youngest of these was very small, weak, and often ill, which didnot prevent her sisters, especially the eldest, treating her with greatcruelty. The second daughter was kinder, and sometimes took the part ofthe poor abused little girl, but the other would burn her lands andface with hot coals; yes, her whole body was scarred with the marksmade by torture, so that people called her _Oochigeaskw_ (therough-faced girl). And when her father, coming home, asked what itmeant that the child was so disfigured, her sister would promptly saythat it was the fault of the girl, herself, for that, having beenforbidden to go near the fire, she had disobeyed and fallen in. 

Now it came to pass that it entered the heads of the two elder sistersof this poor girl that they would go and try their fortune at seeingthe Invisible One. So they clad themselves in their finest and stroveto look their fairest; and finding his sister at home went with her totake the wonted walk down to the water. Then when He came, being askedif they saw him, they said, "Certainly, " and also replied to thequestion of the shoulder-strap or sled cord, "A piece of rawhide. " Insaying which, they lied, like the rest, for they had seen nothing, andgot nothing for their pains. 

When their father returned home the next evening he brought with himmany of the pretty little shells from which _weiopeskool_ (M. ), or wampum, was made, [Footnote: In Passamaquoddy wampum is called_waw-bap_. It is said that a single bead required a full day's workto make and finish it. It is not many years since it was made much moreexpeditiously in certain New York villages. ] and they were soon engaged_napawejik_ (in stringing them). That day poor littleOochigeaskw', the burnt-faced girl, who had always run barefoot, got apair of her father's old moccasins, and put them into water that theymight become flexible to wear. And begging her sisters for a few wampumshells, the eldest did but call her "a lying little pest, " but theother gave her a few. And having no clothes beyond a few paltry rags, the poor creature went forth and got herself from the woods a fewsheets of birch bark, of which she made a dress, putting some figureson the bark. [Footnote: Probably by scraping. Birch bark(_moskwe_) peeled in winter can have the thin dark brown coatscraped away, leaving a very light yellowish-brown ground. TornahJosephs and his niece Susan, of Princeton, Maine, are experts at thiswork. ] And this dress she shaped like those worn of old. [Footnote:This remark indicates the lateness of the Micmac version of this veryold myth. ] So she made a petticoat and a loose gown, a cap, leggins, and handkerchief, and, having put on her father's great old moccasins, --which came nearly up to her knees, --she went forth to try her luck. For even this little thing would see the Invisible One in the greatwigwam at the end of the village. 

Truly her luck had a most inauspicious beginning, for there was onelong storm of ridicule and hisses, yells and hoots, from her own doorto that which she went to seek. Her sisters tried to shame her, andbade her stay at home, but she would not obey; and all the idlers, seeing this strange little creature in her odd array, cried "Shame!"But she went on, for she was greatly resolved; it may be that somespirit had inspired her. 

Now this poor small wretch in her mad attire, with her hair singed offand her little face as full of burns and scars as there are holes in asieve, was, for all this, most kindly received by the sister of theInvisible One; for this noble girl knew more than the mere outside ofthings as the world knows them. And as the brown of the evening skybecame black, she took her down to the lake. And erelong the girls knewthat He had come. Then the sister said, "Do you see him?" And the otherreplied with awe, "Truly I do, --and He is wonderful. " "And what is hissled-string?" "It is, " she replied, "the Rainbow. " And great fear wason her. "But, my sister, " said the other, "what is his bow-string?""His bowstring is _Ketaksoowowcht_" (the Spirits' Road, the MilkyWay). [Footnote: The Spirits' or Ghosts' Road, so called because it isbelieved to be the highway by which spirits pass to and from the earth. The Micmac version, belittled and reduced in every way, limits thisreply to "a _piece_ of a rainbow. " There is a grandeur ofconception in the Passamaquoddy myth which recalls the most stupendoussimiles in Scripture. ]

"Thou hast seen him, " said the sister. And, taking the girl home, shebathed her, and as she washed all the scars disappeared from face andbody. Her hair grew again; it was very long, and like a blackbird'swing. Her eyes were like stars. In all the world was no such beauty. Then from her treasures she gave her a wedding garment, and adornedher. Under the comb, as she combed her, her hair grew. It was a greatmarvel to behold. 

Then, having done this, she bade her take the _wife's seat_ in thewigwam, --that by which her brother sat, the seat next the door. Andwhen He entered, terrible and beautiful, he smiled and said, "_Wajoolkoos_!" "So we are found out!" "_Alajulaa_. " "Yes, "was her reply. So she became his wife. [Footnote: This is the true end ofthis Indian Cupid and Psyche legend. But the Micmacs having, for noapparent reason, made the Stupendous Deity of the Heavens a moose(Team), have added to it another for the sake of the name, and which Igive in due succession simply as an illustration of the manner in whichtales are tacked together. I have very little doubt that the story ashere given is an old solar myth, worked up, perhaps, with the story ofCinderella, derived from a Canadian-French source. There are enough ofthese French-Indian stories in my possession alone to form what wouldmake one of the most interesting volumes of the series of the _ContesPopulaires_. The Passamaquoddy version is to this effect: "There wasa great being, a mighty hunter, who had a wife, of wonderful magicgifts, and a boy; and the child became blind. After a long time hissight returned, and he said so; but his mother was suspicious, and didnot believe him. " It is evident that she suspected that he saw by_clairvoyance_, not by literal vision. "So one day she bade herhusband put on certain things which no one could behold who did not seethem in truth. Then she asked the boy, 'What has your father for asled-string?' (literally for a moose-runner haul). And he replied, 'Therainbow to haul by. ' Then she asked him yet again, 'What has he for abow-string?' And he answered, '_Ke'taksoo wowcht_;' 'The Spirits'or Ghosts' Road. ' And once more she inquired, 'What has he on hissled?' To which he said, 'A beaver. ' Then she knew that he could indeedsee. " (T. Josephs. )

We can perceive by shreds and patches such as these the _all but_loss of an early and grand mythology which has undergone the usualtransmutation into romantic and nursery legends. By great exertion wemight recover it, but the old Indians who retain its fragments arepassing away rapidly, and no subject attracts so little interest amongour _literati_. A few hundred dollars expended annually in eachState would result in the collection of all that is extant of thisfolk-lore; and a hundred years hence some few will, perhaps, regretthat it was not done. 

It may be observed that in the Edda the rainbow is the heavenly roadover which the gods pass. The rainbow is not the Milky Way, but it maybe observed that in this tale the two are curiously compared, or almostidentified. But according to Charles Francis Keary (_Mythology of theEddas_, London, 1882), "there is small hint in the Edda of the useof the _rainbow_ as a path for souls, save where Helgi says to hiswife, --

 "''Tis time for me to ride the ruddy road, And on my horse to tread the path of flight, '"

which is more applicable to the Milky Way than the rainbow. "We owe, "he says, "to the learned Adalbert Kohn some researches which havetraced the path of the Milky Way as a bridge of souls from its firstappearance in Eastern creeds to its later appearance in mediaevalGerman tradition. " (_Zeitschrift f. V. Sp. L. C. _) In the Vedas theMilky Way is called the Gods' Path. The American Indians firmly believethat the Spirits' Road is one of their very earliest traditions, and Ibelieve with them that they had it long before Columbus discovered thiscountry. 

Since the foregoing remarks were written, Mrs. W. Wallace Brown hasobtained the following fragment, which was given as a song, anddeclared to be very ancient:--

 "Then was woman, long, long ago: She came out of a hole. In it dead people were buried. She made her house in a tree; She was dressed in leaves, All long ago. When she walked among the dry leaves Her feet were so covered The feet were invisible. She walked through the woods, Singing all the time, 'I want company; I'm lonesome!' A wild man heard her: From afar over the lakes and mountains He came to her. She saw him; she was afraid; She tried to flee away, For he was covered with the rainbow; Color and light were his garments. She ran, and he pursued rapidly; He chased her to the foot of a mountain. He spoke in a strange language, She could not understand him at first. He would make her tell where she dwelt. They married, they had two children. One of them was a boy, He was blind from his birth, But he frightened his mother by his sight. He could tell her what was coming, What was coming from afar What was near he could not see. He could see the bear and the moose Far away beyond the mountains, He could see through everything. "

The old Indian woman ended this story by saying abruptly, "Don't knowany more. Guess they all eat up by _mooin_" (the bear). She saidthat it was only a fragment. "If you could have heard her repeat this, "adds Mrs. Brown, "in pieces, stopping to explain what the characterssaid, and describing how they looked, and anon singing it again, youwould have got the _inner sense_ of a wonderfully weird tale. Thewoman's feet covering and the man's dress _like_ a rainbow, yetnot one, which made their bodies invisible, seemed to exercise herimagination strangely; and these were to her the most important part ofthe story. " The fragment is part of a very old myth; I regret to say avery obscure one. ]

STORY OF THE THREE STRONG MEN. 

(Micmac. )

There was a chieftain in the days of yore. He had a great desire for apoor girl who was a servant, and who worked for him. To win this girlhe first I most lose his wife. He took his wife afar into the woods togather spruce-gum, and then left her there. 

She soon found out that she had lost her way, and, wandering, she lostit more and more for many days, until she came at last to a bear's den, where, going in, she found the Chief of all the bears, who welcomedher, provided for her wants, and furnished her with pleasant food; butas the meat was raw he went into a neighboring town for fire. And asshe lived with him she was to him in all things as he wished, and as awife. 

So that it came to pass, as time went on, that a new-comer wasexpected, and she bade the Bear provide the baby's clothes. And whenthe long-expected infant came it was a boy, large, beautiful, andstrong; he was in everything beyond all other boys. 

And as the child was born in a strange way, he very soon displayed amagic power. No baby ever grew so rapidly: when four months old hewrestled with the Bear and threw him easily upon the floor. And so themother saw that he would be a warrior, and the chief of other men. 

She loathed the life she led, and wished to leave, and live as she haddone in days of old. To this the Bear would in nowise consent, and asher son was human, like herself, he loved his mother best, and thoughtwith her. 

One day he said, "Now I can wrestle well and throw the Bear as often asI choose. When I next time cast him upon the ground, catch up a club;the rest remains for you!"

They waited yet a while till he had grown so strong that the Bear wasnothing in his grasp. One day they wrestled as they ever did, and thenthe woman, with a vigorous blow, strengthened by hate and famishingdesire of freedom and a better human life, laid him in death upon themossy floor. 

They went their way back to the chieftain's town, and found him marriedto the servant-girl. The mother only spoke, and the wild boy tore downthe wigwam of the Indian chief just with a blow, and then he calledaloud unto the Lightning in the sky above, "Come down to me and help mein my need! Build a grand wigwam such as man ne'er saw! Build it, Isay, and for my mother here!"

The Lightning came, and with a single flash built such a home as manhad never seen. 

And then he said, "Mother, I mean to go and travel everywhere, until Ifind another man who is as strong as I. When he is found I will returnto thee. "

So on he went afar until he saw a man who lifted up a vast canoe withmany people in it. This he did, raising it in the water; but the boybore it ashore, and lifted it on land. 

And so the two agreed that they would go on together until they found athird equal to them in strength, if such a man were living anywhere inall the world. 

So traveling by hill and lake, they went, until one day, far in alonely land, they saw a man rolling a mighty rock, large as the largestwigwam, up a hill. But the Bear's son, lifting the stone with ease, threw it afar over the mountain-top, --threw it afar beyond the rockyrange; they heard it thunder down the depths below. 

Then the three strong men went to hunt the moose. He who had tossed theship remained in camp to do the cooking, while the others went with bowand spear afar to find their game. 

Now when the sun was at the edge of noon, just balancing to fall, therecame a boy, a little wretched, elfish-looking child, as sad and sicklyas a boy could be, who asked the man for food. He answered him, "Poorlittle fellow! there, the pot is full of venison, so go and eat yourfill. "

He ate, indeed, the dinner for the three. When he had done he did notleave a scrap; then walked into the stony mountain-side, as any manmight walk into the fog, and in a second he was seen no more. 

Now when the two returned and heard the tale they were right angry, being hungry men. The man; who rolled the stone stayed next in turn, but when the I little fellow came to him he seemed so famished and heshed such tears that this one also gave him leave to eat. Then, in asingle swallow, as it seemed, he bolted all the food, and yelled aloudwith an insulting laugh. The man, enraged, grappled him by the throat, but the strange boy flung him away as one would throw a not, andvanished in the mountain as before. 

On the third day the mighty man himself remained at home, and soon thestarveling child came and began to beg, with tears, for food. "Eat, "said the chief, "as other people eat, and no more tricks, or I willdeal with you. " But as it was with him the day before, so it went now;he swallowed all the meat with the same jeering yell Then the strongman closed with the boy. It was an awful strife; they fought togetherfrom the early morn until the sun went down, and then the Elf--for elfhe was--cried out, "I now give in!" So both his arms were tightly boundbehind, and with a long, tough cord of plaited hide the strong man kepthis prey, the lariat fast noosed about his neck. The child went on, thestrong man ever following behind, holding the cord well twisted roundhis hand. 

And so they went into the mountain-side, and ever on, a long andwinding way, down a deep cavern, on for many a mile, --the light ofsorcery shining from the elf made it all clear, --until at last theguide stopped in ins course, and said:--

"Now list to me. I am the servant of a frightful fiend, a seven-beadeddevil, whom I deemed no man could ever conquer, he and I being of equalstrength; but I believe that thou mayst conquer him, since I havefound, by bitter proof, that thou canst conquer me. Here is a staff, the only thing on earth that man may smite him with and give him pain. Now, do your best; it is all one to me which of you gains, so one ofyou be slain, for well I wot 't will be a roaring fight. "

In came the evil being with a scream, and clutched the Indian withteeth and claws. There, in the magic cavern, many a mile from the sun'srays, they fought for seven days, the stubborn devil and the stubbornman, whose savage temper gave him fresher strength with every freshwound; the more his blood ran from his body all the more his heart grewharder with the love of fight, until he beat away the monster's sevenheads. And so he slew him, and the watching elf burst into laughter atthe victory. 

"Now, " said the Elf, "I have a gift for thee. I have three sisters: allare beautiful, and all shall be thine own if thou wilt but unbind myhands. " The strong man set him free. And so he led the man to anothercave, and there he saw three girls so strangely fair they seemed to bea dream. The first, indeed, was very beautiful, and yet as plump as shewas lovely; then the second maid was tall, superb, and mostmagnificent, in rarest furs, with richest wampum bands, the verypicture of a perfect bride; bet fairer than them both, as much morefair as swans outrival ducks, the youngest smiled. And the youngchieftain chose her for his own. 

With the three girls he went into the day. Far on the rocks above himhe could see his two companions, and a sudden thought came to his mind, for he was quick to think, and so he called, "I say, let down a rope; Ihave three girls here, and they cannot climb. " And so the two strongmen let down a cord: then the first fairy-maid went up by it, and thenthe second. Now the chief cried out, "It is my turn; now you must pullon me!" And saying this, he tied a heavy stone, just his own weight, unto the long rope's end, then bid them haul. It rose, but as it camejust to the top the traitors let it fall, as he supposed they would, tomurder him. 

And then the chieftain said unto the elf, "You know the mountain andits winding ways: bear me upon thy back, and that in haste, to wherethose fellows are!" The goblin flew, and in an instant he was by theirside. 

He found the villains in a deadly fight, quarreling for the maids; butseeing him they ceased to wrestle, upon which he said, "I risked mylife to bring away these girls; I would have given each of you a wife:for doing this you would have murdered me. Now I could kill you, andyou both deserve death at the stake, vile serpents that you are; buttake your lives, --you are too low for me, --and with them take thesewomen, if they wish to wed with such incarnate brutes as you!"

They went their way; the women followed them along the forest paths, and ever on. Into this story they return no more. 

And then the strong man said to his young bride, "I must return unto myvillage; then I'll come again to you; await me here. " But she, as oneto elfin magic born, replied, "I warn you of a single thing. When youagain are at your wigwam door a small black dog will leap to lick yourhand. Beware, I say; if he succeed in it, you surely will forget meutterly. " As she predicted so it came to pass. 

And so she waited in the lonely wood beside the mountain till a monthwas gone, and then arose and went to seek her love. All in the earlydawn she reached the town, and found the wigwam of the sagamore. Shesought a neighboring hiding-place, where she might watch unseen, andfound a tree, a broad old ash, which spread its stooping boughs overthe surface of a silent pool. 

An old black Indian had a hut hard by. His daughter, coming, lookedinto the spring, and saw a lovely face. The simple girl thought it washers, her own grown beautiful by sorcery which hung about the place. She flung away her pail, and said, "Aha! I'll work no more; some chiefshall marry me!" and so she went to smile among the men. 

Then came the mother, who beheld the same sweet, smiling, also girlishface. She said, "Now I am young and beautiful again; I'll seek anotherhusband, and at once. " She threw her pail afar and went away, losing notime to smile among the men. 

And then in turn the old black Indian came, and looking in the springbeheld the face. He knew right well that it was not his own, for in hisyouth he never had been fair. So looking up above he saw the bride, andbade her come to him; and then he said, "My wife has gone away; mydaughter, too. You were the cause of it; it is but right that youshould take the place my wife has left. Therefore remain with me and bemy own. "

He fares but ill who weds unwilling witch. When night came on they laidthem down to sleep, and then the bride murmured a magic prayer, beggingthe awful Spirit of the Wind, the giant Eagle of the wilderness, to dohis worst. A fearful tempest blew, and all night long the old blackIndian was out-of-doors, working with all his power to keep the lodgefrom being blown away. As soon as he had pinned one sheet of bark intoits place another blew away, and then a tent pole rattling in the rainbounded afar. It was a weary work, but all night long the young brideslept in peace, until the morning came, and then he slept. 

Then she arose, and, walking to the wood, sat down beside a stream andsang a song:--

 "There are many men in the world, But only one is dear to me. He is good and brave and strong. He swore to love none but me; He has forgotten me. It was a bad spirit that changed him, But I will love none but him. "

And as she sat and sang, the sagamore her husband, paddling by in hiscanoe, heard the sweet song intoned in magic style, [Footnote: Not onlythe words, but the peculiar intonations of them, were essential to producethe proper effect of a magic song. An intelligent white man has left iton record that it required two years to learn one of these incantationsof only a few lines. ] and all at once recalled what had been lost, --thetwo strong giants, the cavern and the elf, the seven-headed monster andthe fight, the sisters and the evil-minded men, and the black dog wholeaped to lick his hand: it flashed upon him like some early dream broughtout by sorcery. He saw her sit beside the stream, and still he heard hersong, soft as a magic flute. He went to her, and in a minute he was wonagain. 

And then she said, "This world is ever false. I know another, let us goto it. " So then again she sang a magic spell, and as she sang they sawthe great Culloo, the giant bird, broad as a thunder cloud, winging hisway towards them. Then he came; they stepped upon him, and he soaredaway. But to this earth they never came again. 

This very singular legend was obtained for me by Mrs. W. Wallace Brown. It is from the Micmac, and is in the original from beginning to end asong, or poem. For this reason I have given it a plain metrical form, neither prose nor poetry, such being quite the character of theoriginal. But I, have not introduced anything not in the original. 

This story consists of a very old Indian legend mingled with a Europeanfairy tale drawn through a French-Canadian source. The incident of theElf who eats the food of three men is to be found in another tale. Inone version, the bride, finding that her husband, though utterlydeprived by magic of his memory, has married again, sails away on thegreat bird, leaving him forever. I have naturally rejected thissenseless termination in favor of one found in another form. 

The calling on the Lightning to build a wigwam is probably a mistake. It is more likely that it was summoned to destroy the chiefs wigwam, but the narrator, confused with the subject of the hero's strength, changed the original. The invocations of Lightning, and subsequently ofthe Storm Bird are probably entirely Indian, though there are Norseinvocations to Hroesvelgar, or the Eagle of the Northwest, as we readin Scott's Pirate. 

The black whelp or small black dog is in this tale ominous of evil. Itcauses oblivion. In the Edda to dream of the same thing is the mostevil of all Atli's bad dreams (vide the second lay of Gudrun, 41):--

 "Seemed to me from my hand Whelps I let slip. Lacking cause of joy;"

and in the very same song (24) be takes a potion which causes oblivion. But there is even a third point in the Atlamal in Groenlenzku, whichresembles one in the Indian tale. It is where the half enchantressKostbera warns Hogni against leaving her:

 "From home thou art going: Give ear to counsel; Few are fully prudent; Go another time. "

In the Norse lay we are told that to dream of a white bear indicates astorm, but here it means a strange and terrible event. Long before Imet with this, I observed that the introduction, or mention, of a whitebear-skin in these Indian stories invariably intimates some strangemagical change. 

But it is most remarkable of all, that, while the poems of the Eddahave nothing but a very few incidents in common with the traditions ofthe western tribes, they are inspired throughout with a strange andmysterious sentiment or _manner_ wonderfully like that of theWabanaki. As regards literal resemblance the following coincidences mayhere be noted. 

In a widely spread Norse tale a very small goblin sustains a long andobstinate contest with an immense white bear. 

The Norsemen invoked the Eagle Giant of the Winds, as Scott has shownin his song of the Reimkennar. The same being is invoked in thislegend. 

The whelp, as an omen of evil, is mentioned in the Edda. In this talehe causes forgetfulness. A potion of oblivion is also mentioned in theNorse poem in close connection with the omen of the dog. 

If we accept the termination of this tale as given in the Micmac poemit amounts to this: A certain woman causes the whelp to lick the hero'shand. This causes forgetfulness. The hero marries her, and therebyloses his first wife. In the Edda, Brynhild, who has morally the firstclaim to Sigurd, says of Crymhild, "She presented to Sigurd thepernicious drink, so that he no more remembers me. " In the saga ofThorstein, Viking's son the hero, is made by the witch Dis to utterlyforget his bride Hunoor. 

The Kalmuk tale of How the Schimm-Khan was Slain contains strikinganalogies to this of the Three Strong Men. [Footnote: _Sagas from HeFar East_, London, 1873. ] In it the hero associates with three men, who take turns to cook. Their food is devoured, as in this tale, everyday by a little old witch who is very strong. He overcomes her bycraft. His companions, instead of drawing him up by the rope, as agreedon, leave him to perish, in order to possess themselves of a treasure. There can be no doubt as to the Hindoo origin of this and many moreplots found among the red Indians. But a careful study of the Norsestory convinces me that the tale did not come to the Wabanaki throughany other than a Norse source. 

Since writing out the foregoing poem, with the comment, I have receivedfrom Louis Mitchell the Penobscot version of it. It is about twice aslong as the Micmac story, and differs from it very materially. In itthe hero conquers the goblin by getting possession of his red cap. Inthe Norse tales the same incident occurs in different forms. He thenfights with a copper demon; also with one of silver and another ofgold. Each devil, while he is sharpening his sword, exclaims, "Hurry!hurry! I am hungry!" The last of the three, the _Kche mitche-hant_, or great devil, has three heads, which replace themselves when cut off;but the hero summons a lion (_pee'tahlo_) and an eagle, who devoureach a head, when the demon, to save the last, surrenders. There are old"aboriginal" incidents in this Passamaquoddy tale, but the Europeanelements predominate to such an extent as to call for the followingremark from the Indian writer:--

"This story is ended. When Indians in it, as they do in many others, speak of kings and queens or ships and ivory, I think they got it allfrom Europe. But perhaps when the Indians came here from Asia theybrought these stories with them. Thus they very often mention ivory, calling it white bone. They also mention cities. But these things arenot new, for they were handed down from one generation to another. "

I have to add that, while the story agrees with an universally spreadAryan fairy tale, it is very remarkable that it should add to these, several strictly Eddaic details, such as the white bear. 

THE WEEWILLMEKQ'. 

_I. How a Woman Lost a Gun for Fear of the Weewillmekq'_. 

There was a man and his wife who had got together all they had for thefall hunt. They went up the St. John's River; they left the village ofFoxerbica; they went twenty-five miles beyond it. They passed the fallson the upper side to get some game. They cooked and ate. They got readyto start again; they launched the canoe. [Footnote: This story and thepreceding are taken _word for word_ from the Indian narration. Thesingular precision of minute details is very characteristic of many ofthese legends. ] They shoved the canoe twenty-five feet from the shore. The woman turned, and upset it. It went like lightning down the rapids. They had hard work to get ashore, and lost their gun, traps, kettle, and everything. They escaped with great trouble; they had trouble tosave their canoe. 

The man was in great grief at the loss of his gun. He sat down andsang:--

 "Nici sigi psach ke-yin, Dich m'djel mieol wagh nuch'. "

 I am sorry, I am in great trouble. 

There came two Indians down to the portage where the man and his wifesat. They asked him why he was so sad. He told them all. One of themwas a _m'teoulin_. He asked of them, "Could you tell your gun ifyou saw it?" The woman cried quickly, "I could!" He was not pleased ather forwardness, but put the question again; when she as pertlyanswered, "Yes, " for her husband. He looked sternly at her, and said, "Are you sure?" To which she cried, "Yes, yes!" Then he said, "If youare very bold, and not afraid of anything, you may get it again. " Andthis, too, she took on herself, saying, "Oh, yes, _I'm_ notafraid; _I'll_ get it, " making no account of her husband. 

Then, by the order of the man, she went to a ledge just below thefalls, where they are seventy-five feet high. There was a littleprojecting rock on which she could just sit, --a horrible place. Belowit was a dreadful eddy, in which nothing could live. He helped her downto it, and she was in mortal terror, as such glib-tongued womengenerally are when there is the least danger. Then the man went away. 

And as she sat there, trembling and half dead with fright, she sawSomething come up out of the eddy, --even out of the worst of it. Itrose; it was an awful sight, --a kind of monstrous head, with greatforked horns and terrible eyes. She was stiff as a stone with fear. Thelost gun lay crosswise on the prongs of the horns. It moved slowly onthrough the eddy, glaring at her. It came nearer and nearer; the gunwas within her reach, but she was too frightened to touch it. Then themonster passed by and sank into the water, and was seen no more, norwas the gun. 

They got her back with trouble from the place where she sat. The_m'teoulin_ was furious with rage at her, that he had taken suchpains for nothing. He said, "This serves you right for your impudenceand forwardness. Learn your proper place, and never undertake to dowhat is none of your business. " He then condoled with the husband, butsaid, "If you could give me all you could think of, I could never getyour gun again. "

By this women may learn not to speak too quickly, or propose to domen's duties, "_Hu 'sami n'zama wiuch wee lel n'aga samee n'gammawiool petin'l. _" (P. "Too quick with the tongue, slow with the hands. ")[Footnote: Though the Weewillmekq' is a worm inhabiting the forest andfound in dry wood, it is certainly identified, or confused, by thePassamaquoddy Indians with the alligator, or some kind of a horriblewater-goblin, which appears to have many points in common with the_Chepitchcalm, _ or dragon of the Micmacs. This story was related tome by Tomah Josephs, now Indian governor at Princeton, Maine. 

Among various notes I find the following:--

"The weewillmekq' becomes human at times, even now. "

"Six years ago, " said T. J. , "I was in the woods collecting boughs, andI saw a _weewillmekq'_ on a tree. The thunder kept approaching thetree on which it was, and finally struck it. It seemed to me as if theworm had attracted the lightning. " (August 26, 1883. )

"The Weewillmekq' is a small worm, sometimes two or three inches long. It is seen sometimes in the water as large as a horse. Then it hashorns. It is a very horrible-looking little worm. "]

_II. Muggahmaht'adem, the Dance of Old Age, or the Magic of theWeewillmekq'. _ [Footnote: This mysterious being is called_Wee-wil-li-ah-mek_ in Penobscot The correct pronounciation is verynearly _Wee-wil-'l-mekqu'_ for both Penobscot and Passamaquoddy, but this would be a difficult utterence for any one who has neverlistened to the Algonquin soft gutturals. 

Mrs. W. Wallace Brown informs me that "the _Weewillmekqu'_ is asnail. " This would account for its being thought to inhabit both landand water. ]

(Passamaquoddy. )

Of old times. There lived in a village many Indians. Among them was ahandsome young man, very brave, a great hunter. And there was abeautiful girl. What was her name? Mahli-hahn-sqwess, or Kaliwahdazi, --I don't remember which. But she was proud and high-tempered, and, whatwas worse, a great witch, but nobody knew it. She wanted the young manto marry her, but he was very busy getting ready for the fall andwinter hunt, and had no time to attend to such a thing; and told her sovery plainly. 

Yes, he must have been very plain with her, for she was very angry, andsaid to him, "You may go; but you will never return as you went. " Shemeant that, he would be ill or changed. He gave no heed to her words;he did not care for her nor fear her. But far away in the woods, far inthe north, in midwinter, he went raging mad. The witch had struck him, when far away, with her magic. 

He had with him an elder brother, a great brave, a very fierce man. He, not being able to do aught else, did the most desperate thing aWabanaki Indian can do. He went down to the river, and sang the songwhich calls the _Weewillmekq'_. 

 "We que moh wee will l'mick, We que moh m'cha micso, Som'awo wee will l'mick! Cardup ke su m'so wo Sawo!"

 I call on the Wee-will-l'mick! I call on the Terrible One! On the One with the Horns! I dare him to appear!

It came to him in all its terrors. Its eyes were like fire; its hornsrose. It asked him what he wanted. He said that he wished his brotherto be in his right mind again. 

"I will give you what you want, " said the Weewillmekq', "if you are notafraid. "

"I am not afraid of anything, " said the Indian. 

"Not of me?"

"Not of you nor of Mitche-hant, the devil himself. "

"If you dare take me by my horns and scrape somewhat from one of themwith your knife, " said the monster, "you may have your wish. "

Now this Indian was indeed as savage and brave as the devil; and he hadneed to be so to do this, for the Weewillmekq' looked his very worst. But the man drew his knife and scraped from the horn till he was toldthat he had enough. 

"Go to your camp, " said the Worm. "Put half the scrapings into a cup ofwater. Make your brother drink it. "

"And the other half?" asked the Indian. 

"Give it to the girl who made all this trouble. She needs medicine, too. "

He returned to camp, and gave the drink to his brother, who recovered. When the hunt was at an end they went home. 

They arrived at night. There was an immense lodge in the town, and adance was going on. The younger brother had prepared a cool drink, --sweet with maple-sugar, fragrant with herbs, --and in it was the powderof the horn of the Weewillmekq'. The witch, warm and very thirsty fromdancing, came to the door. He offered her the cup. Without heeding whogave it, she drank it dry, and, turning to her partner, went on in thedance. 

And then a strange thing happened. For at every turn of the dance shegrew a year older. She began as a young girl; when at the end of theroom she was fifty years of age; and when she got back to the doorwhence she started she fell dead on the floor, at the feet of him whogave her the drink, a little, wrinkled, wizened-up old squaw of ahundred years. 

_Aha, yes? wood enit atokhahyen, muggoh mah't adem_. This is thestory of the Dance of Old Age. But you may call it _Sektegah_, theDance of Death, if you like it better. [Footnote: This extraordinarystory was related to me by Noel Joseph, at Campobello, August 26, 1883. I am indebted to Mrs. W. Wallace Brown for the incantation song. TheWeewillmekq' has, as it appears in several tales, an extraordinaryresemblance to the Norse dragon. It cures mental diseases. It seems tobe the same with the _Chepitchcalm_. ]

_III. Another Version of the Dance of Old Age. _

(Passamaquoddy. )

It was in the autumn, the time when Indians go up the rivers to theirhunting-grounds, that two young men left home. They ascended thestream; they came to a branch, where they parted: one going alone, another with his married brother. This latter, with the brother, hadleft in the village a female friend, a witch, who had forbidden him togo hunting, but he had not obeyed her. 

And she had cause to keep him at home, for, when he was afar in thewoods, and alone, he met one day with a very beautiful girl, whofascinated him, and gave herself to him. And when he said that he didnot know how to conceal her from his friends she told him that she wasa fairy, and could make herself as small as a newly born squirrel, andthat all he need do was to wrap her up in a handkerchief and carry herin his pocket. When alone, he could take her out, enjoy her company, and then reduce and fold her up and put her away again. 

He did so, but from that hour, while he carried the fairy near hisheart, he began to be wicked and strange. This was not caused by her, but by the girl at home. He was entirely changed; he grew devilish; herefused to eat, and never spoke. His sister-in-law began to fear him. When she offered him food he cried out, "Unless I can devour one ofyour children I will have nothing!"

When his brother returned and heard all this, he, too, offered himmeat, but met with a refusal and the reply, "Give me one of your littlechildren. " To which he answered, "The child is so small that it willnot satisfy you. Let me go and get a larger one. " Then he ran to thevillage and informed his friends of what had come over the brother. Andas they knew that he was about to become a _kewahqu'_(_chenoo_) they resolved to kill him. 

But there was a young man there, a friend of the sufferer, who saidthat he could save him. So all who were assembled bade him try. 

And when night came he went apart, and began to sing his_m'teoulin_, or magic song. When it ended there was a loud soundas of some heavy body falling and striking the earth, which fairlyshook. The next morning he called all his friends and the marriedbrother, and showed them a human corpse. "Now leave me, " he said. "Goto my friend and tell him that I have food for him. " The Indians didso, and in horror left the two cannibals to devour their disgustingmeal. When the insane youth was satisfied, his friend asked, "Have youhad enough?" He replied that he had. [Footnote: The human body whichsupplied the meal was probably in reality a deer, or some such animal. ]Then the magician said, "You are bewitched by the girl who forbade youto go hunting; she knew you would find a maid better than she is. Nowcome with me. "

They went to a small lake; they sat down by its side; the sorcererbegan his magic song. And as he sang the waters opened; from thedisturbed waves rose a huge Weewillmekq', a creature like an alligator, with horns. And, as the terrible being came ashore, the magician said, "Go and scrape somewhat from his horn and bring it here!" The young manhad become fearless; he went and did as he was bid: he scraped thehorn, and brought the scraping. 

"Now, my friend, " said the magician, "let us try this on a tree. " Therewas a large green beech growing by them. It was simply touched with thefragment from the horn when another color spread all over the bark asrapidly as the eye could follow it: in an instant it was dead, and in afew minutes more it fell to the ground, utterly rotten, as if it were acentury old. 

"Now, " said the sorcerer, "we will experiment with this on the witchwho wishes to destroy you. " So as it was night they went to thevillage. A dance was being held, and the beautiful tall witch havingpaused to rest, the two men approached her. The young man placed hishand on her head; he held in it a scraping of the horn of the_weewillmekq'_. As he did so she grew older in an instant, --shebecame very old; a pale color rippled all over her; she fell, looking ahundred years, dead on the floor, shriveled, dried, and dropped topowder. 

"She will not trouble you any more, " said the sorcerer. "Her dance isover. "

This is the same story as the preceding; but I give it to show nowdifferently a tale may be told by neighbors. In one it is the _spretaeinjuria formae_, the wrath of rejected love, which inspires the witchto revenge; in the other it is jealousy. In one she inflicts madness; inthe other she turns him into a cannibal demon, as Loki, when only halfbad, was made utterly so by getting the "thought-stone" or heart of awitch. This legend was sent to me by Louis Mitchell. It is written notby him, but by some other Passamaquoddy, in Indian-English. 

TALES OF MAGIC. 

_M'teoulin, or Indian Magic_. 

The study of magic as it is believed in or understood by the Indians ofAmerica is extremely interesting, for it involves that of allsupernaturalism or of all religion whatever. But if we, declining allquestion as to the origin of monotheism, limit ourselves definitely towhat is known of Shamanism alone, we shall still have before us animmense field for investigation. Shamanism is the belief that_all_ the events and accidents of life are caused or influenced byspirits, and as fear of suffering is in all men, but particularly thesavage, the strongest moral emotion, the natural consequence is agreater fear of _evil_ invisible beings. The result of it is afaith that everything which is obscure or invisible is supposed to bethe work of mysterious agents, generally evil. Thus all diseasewhatever, all suffering, pain, loss, or disaster, or bad weather, is atonce attributed either to a spirit or to some enemy who practiceswitchcraft. The Shaman is the priest or doctor, who professes to beable, by his counter-charms, to counteract or neutralize this devil'swork. 

It will be long ere the scholar definitely determines whether Shamanismas it now exists originated spontaneously in different countries wherethe same causes were to be found, or whether it is _historical_;that is, derived from a single source. I believe that while darkness, hunger, fear, and similar causes could not fail to create a rudereligion anywhere, as Moncure Conway has shown, yet that the derivationfrom one beginning, or at least later modifications from it, has beenvery great indeed. Investigation indicates that it was in Assyria, at avery remote age, that Shamanism had, if not its origin, at least itsfullest development. The reader who will consult Lenormant's work onChaldean magic will learn from it that the fear of devils and the artof neutralizing their power were never carried to such an extentelsewhere as in the Land of Bel. Now as Shamanism has at the presentday its stronghold among the Turanian races of Central Asia, it maygreatly strengthen the theory, somewhat doubted of late, of the earlyAccadian predecessors of the Chaldeans and their Turanian origin, if wecan only prove that their magical religion was the same as that of theTartars. So far as my reading has aided me, I am inclined to believethat they are identical. "Magic" went so far among the former that, while they discovered natural remedies for natural ills, they neverdoubted that one was as much the result of sorcery as the other. Thistheory spread everywhere. 

Shamanism, or a vague fear of invisible evils and the sorcerer, mayindeed have sprung up independently in Tartary, Central Africa, Finland, and North America. But it is almost incredible that the use ofa drum inscribed with magical figures, the spirit flight of the angakokor Shaman, and twenty other characteristics of the art should havebecome, without transmission, common to all these countries. Shamanismhas probably been at the root of all religions; there was a great dealof it in all those of the Semitic races, and, admitting this, it is notdifficult to see how from Chaldea and Babylon it may have found its wayinto Africa, where black savages, who would have rejected a higherreligion, would grasp greedily at what they sympathized with. The onlyreal difference between the Voodoo and Pow-wow practices is that theformer is, so to speak, the _blacker_ and more revolting. This isbecause a low state of culture has induced the believers in it toretain more of the coarse witchcraft on which Shamanism was based, orout of which it grew. 

For wherever Shamanism exists, there is to be found, in company withit, an older sorcery, or witchcraft, which it professes to despise, andagainst which it does battle. As the Catholic priest, by Bibleincantations or scriptural magic, exorcises devils and charms cattle orsore throats, disowning the darker magic of older days, so the Shamanacts against the real _wizard_. Rink tells us that among theheathen Eskimo the Shaman is sacred, and witchcraft a deadly crime, butthat the latter is the secret survival of a more ancient religion. _Voodoo_, whether practiced, as it is to-day, in Philadelphia, NewYork, Havana, or Senegambia, deals with alleged devils, poisons, chicken bones, the ivory root, unnatural orgies, --all, in short, thatcan startle and astonish ignorant natures; it is the combination of theoldest faith with its successor. Far higher forms are those of themagic of the black _Takowri_ whom one meets divining about thestreets of Cairo, or of the Arab proper, which brings us fairly to theCabala and the Jew, Cornelius Agrippa and Eliphas Levi. 

It is not difficult to understand how Shamanism with its drums anddarkened rooms, its conjuring of evil-doers and extraction of diseasesin tangible forms, should have spread from Central Asia to theLaplanders and Eskimo, and thence to the red Indians. Very littleattention has been paid to the intercourse actually existing at thepresent day between these races. I have met with a Passamaquoddy Indianwho spoke French well, who had been educated at a mission school, andwho had been among the Eskimo. As regards legends and folk-lore, no onecan read the Eskimo tales and those of this volume and not feel thatthe Algonquin is to the man of the icy north what the gypsy is to theHindoo. As regards the early religion of both races, it is simply_identical_, and it is far too peculiar in its many similardetails to have simply sprung up, as many might assume, from the commonlikeness in customs of all savages. For there is in both a great dealof "literary" culture, especially in the Algonquin, and it would belittle less than miraculous that this too should have assimilated bychance. It does not help the "opposition" to point out that Algonquinlegends, declare that their ancestors came from the west. Even so, theycame from the Pacific coast, where Eskimo Shamanism exists in its mostdecided forms. But in any case it cannot be denied that in the redIndian mythology of New England, and of Canada and New Brunswick, wehave a collection of vigorous, icy, powerful legends, like those of astrong northern race, while those of the middle continent, or Chippewa, are far feebler and gentler. Hiawatha-Manobozho is to Glooskap as aflute to a war trumpet. 

It is absurd to laugh at or pity the Indian for believing in his magic. Living as he does in the woods, becoming familiar with animals, andlearning how much more intelligent and allied to man they are thancivilized man supposes, he believes they have souls, and were perhapsoriginally human. Balaam's ass spoke once for every Christian; everyanimal spoke once for the Indian. If a child can be put to sleep bysinging to it, why cannot insensibility to pain or a cure be caused bythe same process? He is told that the wafer becomes the body of Christ;this may confirm his belief that the Indian god Manobozho turned bitsof his own flesh or his wife's into raccoons, for food. If it isdifficult for any educated or cultivated man to conceive how, if anycondition or phase of supernaturalism be admitted, any other can bedenied, how can the Indian be logically blamed for believing anything?But the greatest cause of all for a faith in magic is one which thewhite man talks about without feeling, and which the Indian feelswithout talking about it. I mean the poetry of nature, with all itsquaint and beautiful superstitions. To every Algonquin a rotten log bythe road, covered with moss, suggests the wild legend of the log-demon;the Indian corn and sweet flag in the swamp are the descendants ofbeautiful spirits who still live in them; Meeko, the squirrel, has thepower of becoming a giant monster; flowers, beasts, trees, have allloved and talked and sung, and can even now do so, should the magicianonly come to speak the spell. And there are such magicians. Why shouldhe doubt it? If the squirrel once yielded to such a power in man, itfollows that some man may still have the power, or that he himself mayacquire it. And how much of this feeling of the real poetry of naturedoes the white man or woman possess, who pities the poor ignorantIndian? A few second-hand scraps of Byron and Tupper, Tennyson andLongfellow, the jingle of a few rhymes and a few similes, and a littlesecond-hand supernaturalism, more "accepted" than felt, and thatderived from far foreign sources, does not give the white man what theIndian _feels_. Joe, or Noel, or Sabattis may seem to the AmericanPhilistine to be a ragged, miserable, ignorant Indian; but to the_scholar_ he is by far the Philistine's superior in that whichlife is _best_ worth living for. 

The magic of the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot, like the magician himself, is called _meteowlin_, _m'deoolin_ or _m'teoulin_. It isthe same effectively as _meda_, which is from the same root. It isa power, but opinions differ as to how it is acquired. It is certain, as I was told by an old Passamaquoddy Indian, of Sebayk, near Campobello, that some children are born _m'teoulin_. They manifest it, evenwhile babes, by being capricious, eccentric, and malicious. Othersacquire the art as they grow older. From all that I have heard I inferthat _m'teoulin_ takes two forms, --one of witchcraft, the other ofmagic. The former is innate, or may be acquired; the latter, for aughtI know, may be sometimes inborn, but is generally acquired by fasting, abstinence of other kinds, and ceremonies. The two are distinctlydifferent. Rink found in Greenland and Labrador that the Eskimo, as Ihave said, made this difference. 

I will now give, word for word, the remarks of certain Indians on thissubject, beginning with those of an intelligent and prosperous old man, who is certainly enlightened and Christianized very much beyond theaverage, of his race. I had asked him if there were any_m'teoulin_, or magicians, living. He replied:--

"There are. Many at St. John and Sebayk are still _m'teoulin_. Isaw this myself thirty-five years ago at St. John's. There was a deafIndian there. The white men were abusing him. They spat on him. By andby a _m'teoulin_ from St. John's came, a man of thirty-five orforty. I saw this. The _m'teoulin_ asked them not to abuse thedeaf and dumb Indian. They turned on the _m'teoulin_. Then hescreamed so horribly, so awfully, and looked so like a devil that themen were frightened. They fell on their knees, and could not move. Theylet the man go. "

This is precisely what is narrated by many writers of the Shamanscreaming and distorting of the features. Very few people know of whatthe human, voice is capable. It can not only be trained to divine song, but to such demoniacal howling as to deafen and appall even theguardians of a lunatic asylum. In Lapland, Central Asia, or on NootkaSound the initiated are trained in remote solitudes to theseutterances, to which no one can listen without terror. My informantcontinued:--

"Two or three weeks after I was in another place. We spoke of the_m'teoulin_. The white folks ridiculed them. I said there was onein Fredericton, and I said I would bet ten dollars that he would getthe better of them. And they bet that no Indian could do more than theycould. So the _m'teoulin_ came. And first of all he screamed sothat no one could move. It was dreadful. Then he took seven stepsthrough the ground up to his ankles, _just as if it had been lightsnow_. When I asked for the ten dollars, the white men paid. I gaveit to the _m'teoulin_. "

Among the Greenland Eskimo the sorcerer, writes Rink, "after meetingwith _tomassuk_, or guardian spirits, sometimes manifests it byhis feet sinking into the rocky ground _just as if in snow_. " Heuses the very words of the Indian who described the same thing to me. And very recently in Philadelphia, in fact while I was writing thepreceding remarks, a spiritualist named Gordon performed the very sametrick. Having been detected, a full account of the manner of actionappeared in the Press of that city. It was done by a peculiar method ofstooping, and of concealing the stoop behind a skirt. It was a very oddcoincidence that the explanation should thus present itself while I wasseeking it. 

This Shaman Eskimo trick was known to the Norsemen. In the Saga ofThorstein it is said that Ogantun, a noted sorcerer, when stabbed at, "thrust himself down into the ground, so that only the soles of hisfeet could be seen;" and of Kol it was said that "he could pass throughthe earth as well as walk upon it. "

"Women are sometimes _m'teoulin_. There is one at Psesuk (BarHarbor) now, this summer. You have met her. She is ---'s wife. [Footnote: I am acquainted with all the parties, but for obviousreasons suppress their names. ] If you offend her she can hurt you instrange ways. 

"She is a good doctor. Once she cured a man. When he got well he couldnot pay her for the medicine. His name is Louis ---. She asked for hermoney; she asked many times; she could not get it. He was going to thewoods, far away, to trap; he said he would pay her when he returned, but she wanted it then. She said, 'I will never forget this; I will berevenged. ' He went far up the St. John River with his traps; he setthem in the stream for beaver. All that he caught that winter wassticks, and sometimes an eel. Then at the end of the day he would sayto his man, 'It is of no use. ' And then they could hear the witchlaughing behind the bushes, and tittering when he came home. So it wenton long. Then he was sorry, and said, 'I wish I had paid that womanwhat I owed her. ' And at once they heard a voice from the bushes, orrocks, say, 'Louis, that will do. It is enough. ' And the next day theycaught two beaver, and every day two, and so on, till the season wasover. 

"This happened in 1872, in Miramichi Waters. "

There does not appear to be any single approved method of acquiring_m'teoulin_. Some, as I have said, are born to it, but they appearto be wizards or witches. Others are formally trained from boyhood bythe experienced magicians. Others acquire certain gifts by certainceremonies or penances. Of this kind was the power obtained in themanner narrated in the following story, which I heard from an oldPassamaquoddy:--

"There was once a young man who wished to become a very wise and bravewarrior, like his father. And his father said to him, 'I get all myluck of every kind from my dreams. You can have such dreams; any mancan, if he will do a certain thing; but that thing is not easy for ayoung man like you. You must sleep seven nights with a virgin, andnever touch her. '

"The young man thought this over for a few days, and then asked hisfather how it could be arranged or managed. 

"'I will tell you, ' replied the old man. 'Find a girl; the morebeautiful she is and the more you want her, the stronger the magic willbe. Go to the parents for their daughter as a wife. Cheat them so. Before you marry get seven bear-skins, and let no man except one knowanything about it. Make him clean them. One skin should be cleanedevery twenty-four hours. Seven days must pass so. '

"The young man was accepted by the parents; he sent the seven bear-skinsto the young woman; they were married; they went to their wigwam. He layon the bear-skins; he directed his wife to make another bed and sleep onit. They lay apart. The bride thought this was strange; she told hermother of it. The mother said, 'Never mind. By and by it will be allright. ' The wife thought it was all wrong. When seven nights had passedthe bridegroom disappeared. He was not seen in his village for twenty-fiveor thirty years. Then he returned to his father. He could divine allthings by dreams. He had but to take the magic bear-skin and sleep onit, and dream. He could tell where to find good hunting or fishing. He_foredreamed_ war with the Mohawks. Can any man do this? They sayso, and I have known many who tried it in vain. They could not pass thetrial successfully. "

"There are stones in the forest with names on them. They give greatpower to dream. I have seen in my dreams the _m'teoulin_ ofancient times, --the magicians, my father told me, of long ago. I haveseen them diving under the waters from one island to another. I haveseen them dive ten miles. 

"When I was, young, J. N. , who was a great _m'teoulin_, offered toteach me the art. I could have become one, but I would not. I did notthink it was right. 

"Once old J. N. And my grandfather hunted in the woods. It was nearKatahdin, the Great Mountain. [Footnote: Katahdin, like the Intervalenear North Conway, is haunted and enchanted ground, abounding infairies and other marvelous beings. But there is not a mile square ofNew England which has not its legends. ] And they wanted everything. They had got out of everything. One night old N. Said, 'I can bear thisno longer. Would you like a nice pipe of tobacco? We have had nothingbut meat for four weeks. ' So he went away for a short time; perhaps itwas an hour. He returned with a box. There was in it three pounds oftobacco; there was cheese, rice, and sugar; there was fifty pounds ofprovision in all. "

This famous _m'teoulin_ was long a popular governor of thePassamaquoddies. I have a curious old brass candlestick, said to be onehundred and fifty years old, which he owned all his life. The followingremarkable reminiscences of this very clever old sagamore were given tome by Marie Sakis, a Penobscot:

"The old governor was a great _m'teoulin_. He had got it among theChippewas. He said that it would come to pass that he would die beforethe next snow-storm. No, he did not care himself, but my husband'smother did, when she heard this, and she cried. Then he said, 'Well, Iwill try to live, or else die in a month; but it will be a hard fight. 'So he made him a bow, and strung it with his wife's hair; [Footnote: Ina Chippewa legend a boy confers magic power on a bow by stringing itwith his sister's hair. ] and having done this, he shot an arrow throughthe smoke-hole of his wigwam. [Footnote: This is also mentioned in alegend where it is said that every arrow killed a supernatural enemy. ]

All this was at Nessaik, near Eastport. Then he said to his wife, 'Takeone of your leggins and put it on my head. ' She did so. Then he tookmedicine. A rainbow appeared in the sky, and a great horse-fly came outof his mouth, and then a large grasshopper. He cried to his wife, 'Donot kill it!' And then came a stone spear-head. [Footnote: This is allin detail perfectly Shamanic. The smell of the fresh fish after such afight is the same in an Eskimo legend. The horse-fly (_gan_) isLapp. ]

'Now, ' said the governor, 'this is all right so far, but the greatstruggle is yet to come. It is a _wee-wilmekq'_ who has donethis. ' (You know what that is: the Passamaquoddies call it_weewilmekq'_. It is a worm an inch long, which can make itselfinto a horrid monster as large as a deer; yes, and much larger. It is_m'teoulin_; yes, it is a great magician. ) 'I am going to fightit. You must come with a small stick to hit it once, and only a meretap. ' [Footnote: In the legend of Partridge, a mere tap stuns thewater-fairy. ] But she would not go. So he went and fought with theWeewillmekq'. He killed it. It was a frightful battle. When he returnedhe smelt like fresh fish. His wife bade him go and wash himself; butlet him bathe as much as he could, the smell remained for days. Thepond where he fought has been muddy, and foul ever since. 

The governor could with a gimlet bore a hole in any tree in the woods, and draw from it as he pleased; any kind of wine or other liquor. Oncehe was far in the forest with some white gentlemen; he wished toentertain them. He did this, to their astonishment. He produced tobaccoin a miraculous manner when it was wanted. Then, returning to Eastport, he went to Mr. Pearce, who kept a store, and showed him that a certainamount of wine had disappeared from his barrels, and paid him for it. He never drank wine or spirits himself. 

He once went hunting. He took his wife with him; she was_enceinte_. It was in midwinter. She had a great yearning forgreen corn. He put a dish on the ground, and there fell from above earsof fresh-boiled green corn into it. 'There, ' said he, 'as I promised, you have it. '

She had a silver cross and beads. One day she lost it, and grievedvery much. He said, 'Put that wooden dish upside down, near the fire. 'It was done, and when she turned it up the cross was under the dish. And he said the Ketawks, or Spirits, had brought it. "

The following legend, told me by Tomah Josephs, sets forth anothermanner by which _m'teoulin_ may be acquired. 

"There were two Indian families camped away at some distance from themain village. In one lived a young man, and every night he would go tothe other wigwams to see some girls. His mother warned him that hewould come to harm, for there was danger abroad, but he never mindedher. 

Now, one night at the end of winter, when the ground was bare of snow, as he was walking along he heard something come after. It had a veryheavy, steady tramp. He stopped, and saw a long figure, white, butwithout arms or legs. It looked like a corpse rolled up. He washorribly frightened, but when it attacked him he grew angry. Theobject, though it had no arms, fought madly. It twined round him; itstruck itself against him, and thrashed itself, bending like a fish allabout. And he, too, fought as if he was crazy. He was one of thosewhose blood and courage go up, but never down; he could die, but nevergive in till dead. Before daylight the Ghost suggested a rest, orpeace; the Indian would not hear of it, but fought on. The Ghost beganto implore mercy, but the youth just then saw in the north _Kival lokesso_, the break of day. Then he knew that if he could but endurethe battle a little longer he should indeed get a great victory. 

Then the Ghost implored him, saying, 'Let me go, and whatever you may wantyou shall get, and good luck all your life. ' Yet for all this he would notyield, for he knew that by conquering he would win all the Spirit had togive. And as the first sun-ray shone on him he became insensible, and whenhe awoke it was as from a sleep. But by his side lay a large, old, decayedlog, covered with moss. He remembered that during the fight he had seemedonce to plunge his fist, by a violent blow, completely into the enemy upto his elbow, and there was a hole in it corresponding to this wound. Hehad torn away the other's scalp-lock, stripping the skin down to thewaist; he found a long, hairy-looking piece of moss ripped from the endof the log to the middle. And all about lay pieces of moss and locks ofhis own hair, testifying to the fury of the fight. 

He was terribly bruised and torn, but that he did not heed, for now hewas another man, and a terrible one. His mother said, 'I warned you ofdanger:' but he had conquered the danger. He had all the strength offive strong men, and all the might and magic of the Spirit; yes, theSpirit itself was now in him. After this he could do anything, and findgame where no one else could. To conquer a ghost gives power. "

To conquer the dead, or to fight terrible spirits, to thereby absorbtheir power, and finally to keep them in a struggle until the dayshines on them, is both Norse and Celtic, if not, indeed, world-wide. But the grim spirit of this narrative is Norse; it is that of the herowresting from a corpse's hold the sword of victory. 

 "Farewell, daughter! Fleet give I thee, Five men's bane, If thou it believe. "

But the great element or chief cause of magic power among, the Indiansis that of Will. It manifests itself in many forms, mere courage beingone. Thus the _Weewillmekq'_ confers supernatural ability or otherfavors only on those who are not afraid of it. The demon Log, as wehave just seen, gives strength and prosperity to a man for simplyfighting like a bull-dog. Beyond courage, pluck or bottom is with theseIndians as nearly allied to magic as poetry was among the Greeks, orwith an Eschenwaya. When the true magician "gets mad, " and continues toget madder till the end, he is invincible. Allied to this isperseverance. The Rabbit is rewarded with skill as an enchanter merelyfor continuing to try. His very failures have this in them, that hekeeps on resolutely, though in a wrong road. No one can fail to bestruck, in these legends of the Northeast Algonquins, how often a boy, or adult, when asked if he can do a difficult thing, replies, "I cantry. " All of this apotheosis of pluck, perseverance, and patience is_far_ more developed among these legends than in those of theChippewas or other western and southern tribes, at least so far as I amfamiliar with them. It exists wherever there are red Indians, but theEastern Algonquin seems to have thought it out more and made more of itthan others have done. Therefore his cycle of myths, or his Edda, occupies a higher place. It is less chaotic; it is more consistent; itis a chorus in which every voice is trained to respond to or correspondwith the leader. In this respect it has a remarkable resemblance to theScandinavian myths and poems. In its theory that magic power may beobtained by "penitence, "--I do not mean here "repentance, "--that is byself-inflicted pain, it agrees with the Hindoo, and in fact more orless with all religions. But it is only, I believe, in the red Indianand Hindoo creeds that it is distinctly admitted that man can attainthe power to do both good and evil, or whatever he pleases, if he willonly pay for it by suffering. The doctrine of power through penance isso simple and obvious in its origin that it would long precedemonotheism. A man exercises himself with great exertion in liftingstones, as in an Eskimo tale, till he is strong; he practices shootingarrows and running after them, as in the story of the Chief's Son, tillhe can outrun them. Then the secret of such marvelous deeds is supposedto exist in the bow, and it becomes a fetich. 

A very important part of _m'teoulin_ is the materials employed. InOld World magic these are exclusively objects which startle or disgust, parts of the human body, dead reptiles, or things singular and rare. Among the Indians, very commonplace articles are employed indifferentlywith those of the former kind. The magic consists not in them, but inthe magician and his methods. He has had, let us say, his dreams, orreceived, while alone in the forest, his inspirations, which have toldhim what to do. He takes the objects suggested, and with them performshis wonder works. Sometimes he tells others to do the same with thesame things, but in this case he is still the motive force; it is_his_ enchantment. In illustration of this I give the followinglegend:--

Far in the woods was an Indian town; near it lived two old people, whohad two beautiful daughters, and no son. The girls were very shy. Theyseldom let themselves be seen. They would not listen to the young men. 

The chief of the tribe had a fine son, a great hunter, and skilled inmysteries. [Footnote: In Passamaquoddy, _N'paowlin_: a man learnedin mysteries, a scholar. This is my own Indian name. It is apparentlythe same with: _boo-oin_; that is, pow-wow man. ] The young manwanted one of the girls. His father went to their parents and obtainedtheir consent, but the girls refused to be married. 

There lived in the village a young man who was neither strong, handsome, nor clever at any kind of work. Hearing that the chief's sonhad failed to get one of the shy or proud girls, he said--but all injest, for he had but a poor opinion of himself--that he was the rightkind of a man to get them. "If they had, for example, only seen_me_, now, " he exclaimed, "they would have wished to be married atonce!" Then they all laughed, and proposed that they should go thatnight and try to see the girls, and how they would receive the plainlooking youth. 

So they went quietly, about supper-time, and entered so suddenly thatthe girls had not time to hide behind the curtain, and so were obligedto receive the visitors. After supper they engaged in playing_Mingwadokadjik_. In this game a ring is hidden in the ashes orsand, and each player, with a pointed stick, makes a plunge until thering is hit, and brought out. (This is Indian _poker_. --T. B. )

So the evening passed, and nothing was said of marriage; and at lastthe guests went away, and for some time the young man made a jest ofhis having gone courting. One day he was far and alone in the woods, when he met an old woman of very strange appearance. She was wrinkledand bent with extreme age, and her head was braided up with a verygreat number of _sakalobeek_, or hair-strings, which hung down toher heels. After greeting him civilly, she asked him if he was reallyanxious to marry one of the beauties whom he had visited. "O_Nugumee_" (grandmother), he replied, "I do not care about it. ""Only if you did, " she replied, "I can give you the one you want, ifyou will only say so. "

Now the young man saw that the old woman was in earnest, and he repliedthat in fact he would be very glad to get one of the girls, but that nogirl worth having would look at him. Then the old dame, taking one ofher hair-strings, said, "Roll this up, and carry it in your pouch for awhile; [Footnote: One of the infallible ancient methods to makeanything into a fetich, or amulet, is to carry it a long time about theperson. Familiarity, as Heine observes (_Reisebilder_), gives asilent life, or apparent sympathy, to even old clothes. Thus domesticwell-known objects become fairies, and thus they talk to children. ] andthen go, and, catching an opportunity, toss the cord upon her back. Buttake care that she does not know that you have done this, and let it beindeed a secret to all. "

So he took the _sakalobe_, and, visiting the girls once again, threw it on one of them, more hopeful of success this time. And thecast succeeded, though she said nothing then. But the next day, alonein the woods, he met her, for she had followed him. And she said, "_Tamealeen_?" "Where are you going?" "I am going hunting, " hereplied. "But, if you have not lost your way, what are you doing here?""I am not lost in the woods, " she replied, but said no more. Then he, seeing how it was, said, "It would be better, though, if I returnedwith you to your parents, and told them that I found you lost, andshowed you the way home. " And having done this, the girl's father, noting that she liked the young man, asked him if he wished to marryher; and as both were willing, and something more, the wedding feastwas soon ready, the friends invited, and the couple settled down. 

Some days after, the husband, seeing his wife wearing the magichair-string, asked her, "Where did you get that pretty _sakalobe_?""I found it, " she replied, "in my _'ntuboonk_" (usual sitting placein the wigwam). This caused the young man to reflect how kindly he hadbeen treated by the old fairy or witch, and how easily he, without anymerit, had won his wife, and then to think of the deserving youngchiefs son who had failed. So, taking him into the woods, they foundthe old woman, who, kind as ever, did for the chief's son what she hadalready done for his friend, and gave him also a magic hair-string. Andusing it in the same way he in like manner won the other sister; and itwas indeed well, for she was the one whom he wanted most. And the twomen whose wives were sisters (_wechoosjik_), were on the best ofterms and much together. 

Now the young chief reflected that his brother-in-law had been verykind to him, for little cause, and thought how he could repay him. Sohe asked him one day if he would like to be a swift runner. "Truly Iwould, " replied the other. "Then go and gather some feathers, and letthem blow when the wind is high, and chase them. You will soon be ableto outstrip the wind, and when the art comes it will never depart fromyou. " Then he did this, and became so swift that no man or beast couldescape him. 

Yet again the chiefs son said, "Would you like to become strong andvery active?" And as he of course said "Yes, " the friend replied, "Dress yourself in the worst and raggedest garments, and attack thefirst man you find. He will catch you by the clothes; but do you slipout of them and run. " This he did; the first man whom he met was alunatic, who gladly grappled for a fight. So he slipped out of theclothes and ran; but the madman thought the apparel made the man, andbeat it a long time, and left it for dead. But after he had done thiswith many men he indeed became strong and active. 

Then the chief's son said, "I will teach you quickness of sight, sothat you may perceive animals while hunting, though other men may not. Take a handful of moose's hairs; hold them firmly in a roll betweenyour thumb and finger; hold them up in a high wind and let them go. Soyou will be able to perceive, in time, all the moose. And to see deer, or any other animal, you must take their hair and treat it in the sameway. " So he did; and by means of this magic became so keen of sightthat he beheld every beast. 

Yet again the chief's son said, "Would you see birds where no other mencan?" And he, assenting, was told to strip the feathery part from abird's quills (_chekakadega_), and, blowing it into the air, lookcarefully in the direction in which it flew. And having practiced thisalso, he became very perfect in the art. [Footnote: The secret of thesespells is very apparent. But the teacher would make the pupil believethat the successful result would greatly depend on the color and kindof the fur or feathers employed. It is curious to observe how, in theover-refinement of "sport" among gentlemen, the idea that this or thatis "good form" and "the correct thing, " which _must_ be done, hashad the effect of establishing much which is mere fetich. A fox inEngland and a bear in Canada must be killed in a certain way by men ofcaste. ]

Now, having learned all these things, he asked the chief's son how hecould learn to see the fishes of the sea. And being told that he mustcollect all kinds of fishes' bones, and burn them and pound them todust, he did so; and, having blown them up into the wind, he could seeall manner of fish and call them to him. 

This young man went afar in his thoughts; for reflecting that thewhales were giant-like in power, he wondered what might be done bymagic with them. And his friend said that it was true that the whalescould give to man unearthly power and exceeding long life. "For, " saidhe, "they never die till they are killed, and by their aid one may liveon till life borders on immortality. " So burning a piece of whale-bone(_pootup-awigun_), he pounded it to powder, and, standing on arock that jutted out into the sea, the sorcerer blew the dust seawards. And erelong he saw dark spots far away, and as they grew to be morenumerous they became larger, and yet more numerous anon, and for everygrain of dust which he blew there came a whale; and yet he blew againseven times. Then the whole school of immense creatures came towardshim; and he that was largest, or the sagamore of the whales, swimmingclose to the man on the rock, said, "Why hast thou called me?" And hereplied, "Make me strong. "

And the Whale answered, "It is well. Put thy hand in my mouth!" And, doing this, he found and took out a golden key. [Footnote: This is amanifestly modern addition. There is every indication that the storyitself is ancient, probably Eskimo. ] "Keep that, " said the Whale. "While you have it you will be safe against man, beast, or illness. Thefoe shall not harm you; the spirits which haunt the wilderness shallpass you by; hunger and pain shall not know you; death shall not be inyour road. "

So the young man thanked the great magician, and went home; and as ithad been promised it came to pass. All was ever well with him; troubleand trial were with him no more. Those who were, in his village neverknew hunger; the wild game abounded, and came to them when called; noenemy attacked them; the sun and moon smiled on them; they sang thesongs of the olden time, and played the flute in peace. 

In time the old chief drew near the end of his life, and his son askedthe friend if his father's days could not be prolonged. But themagician thought it best to let him pass in peace; and he did so. Thenthe young chief offered his place and power to his brother-in-law(_wechoosul_); but he refused it, and passed his, life in aidinghis friend in every way by his power and wisdom. _Kespeahdvoksit_(here the story ends). 

This legend is little more than an enumeration of the recipes popularlyemployed to obtain certain powers. It may be observed that it islimited to all that a real Indian requires. It is very different fromwhat a white man or an Asiatic savage would have wanted; and there isjust enough truth and common sense in the methods recommended to makethe whole plausible. The reader will observe that the magic hair-stringand locks of hair play the same important part in _m'teoulin_ thatthey did in Old World magic. This is hardly one of the coincidenceswhich can be attributed to spontaneous development from similar causes. It may be such, but there may be also an Eskimo sidegate through whichit entered from the other side. 

Another magic means was the influencing high and mysterious powers. Ofthis the following is an admirable illustration:--

_Tumilkoontaoo, or the Broken Wing. _

(Micmac. )

An Indian family lived on the sea-shore. They had two sons; the eldestof these was married, and had many small children. They lived byfishing; they chiefly caught eels. 

It came to pass that the weather was so stormy that they could notfish. The wind blew terribly night and day; the waves were like dancinghills. Hunger made them fierce. One day the father told his boys towalk along the shore and see if no fish had been cast on the beach. 

A young man went; he went far along; and as he went the wind was everworse; it blew so fiercely that he could hardly stand. It seemed tocome from a point of land. He resolved to pass it, and when there hesaw the cause of the tempest. Upon a _kwesopskeak'_--a high androcky ledge, a bold cliff, but surrounded by the water--sat theWind-Bird, or storm-sagamore himself, flapping his wings, and therebyraising all the wind. 

Then the young man, who was brave and wise, resolved to outwit thewind-god. And approaching him and addressing him as _Nikskamich_, "My grandfather, " he inquired, "are you cold!" And he answered, "Nay;"but the young man insisted that he must be suffering, and offered tocarry him on his back to the main-land. [Footnote: It would appear thatwhile the bird flapped his wings he did not fly. I believe this was thesame with the Norse Hrosvelgar. ] And the offer being accepted, hecarried the mighty bird from one weedy, slippery rock to another, upand down, jumping anon, and wading through the pools. But at the lastrock he, with full intention, stumbled and fell as if by accident, yetmanaged it so well as to break one of the wings of the eagle, as heindeed meant to do. Yet he made great show of being very sorry, and, having set the wing, bade the bird keep quiet, and not move his wingsfor many days; not till the wound was healed should he stir them. "Sitstill, _Nikskamich_, " he said, "and I will bring you food; I willbe attentive; you shall want nothing. " And the god sat still: there wasa calm on the water; no leaves moved in the forest; there was no windin all the world. 

The young man went home; there was not a breeze, the canoe wentsmoothly over the sea, the eels could be seen in the depths, theIndians caught fish by thousands; never before had they caught so many. And the sagamore of the birds sat still; the Wind-Bird waited to getwell; the young man fed him every day. 

There can be too much of what is good; good turns to evil, sweet tosour. After many days of quiet calm the sea was covered with_Ogokpegeak_, a scum which is caused by sickness among the fish, and which is thrown off by them, for they suffer in still water. Thenthe fisherman can no longer look down into the sea; then he cannot usethe spear. 

Then the young man, examining the wing of the storm-bird, said, "Grandfather, it is much better; move it but a little now, that I maysee!" So he moved it; he gave a flap, and lo! a slight ripple passedover the surface of the sleeping sea. And striking lightly with hiswings, again there came a breeze, and the _Ogokpegeak_, or thescum, was blown away, and the Indians fished again, and all was well. 

So they had the Wind-Bird for a friend, and the sea was smooth orstormy as they willed. But these Indians wished for more than theycould manage. They grew tired of catching small fish; they wantedwhales. "Let us go and catch the Bootup!" said the elder brother. "Howwill you take him?" asked the younger. "I will entice him with the_peepoogwokan_, " said the elder, "with my pipe. " So he sat by thesea; he played on the pipe; he played, but no whale came. So they wentback to their small fishery. 

This is manifestly the beginning and end of a very ancient Indian mythicaltale. The Micmacs have tacked on to it a ridiculous fragment of anindifferent French nursery tale, without an end and without any connectionwith the Indian beginning. The tradition is probably entirely Eskimo. Among the Greenlanders there is a caste of whale-fishers, separate andapart, and this story, in its second stage, was applied to teach, _Nesutor ultra crepidam_, --that all should stick to their trades, and thatthough a sorcerer might rule the winds it did not follow that he could winthe whales. 

I have spoken before of the curious identity of the Indian storm-king, or Wind-Bird, with that of the Norse Hrosvelgar. When among theChippewas, west of Lake Superior, I met with a white man who hadreceived the name of Thunder-Bird from the Indians still further west. 

The magicians of all countries, be they of Africa, Asia, or NorthAmerica, are invariably represented by travelers as holding their flockin subjection, and never being doubted as to power or skill. But thereare skeptics or Agnostics among the men of the woods as well as amongthose of civilized cities. There are shrewd fellows who cannot onlydetect impostors, but turn their tricks to their own advantage. Anamusing illustration of this is given in the following story:

_Fish-Hawk and Scapegrace_. [Footnote: Wiskumagwasoo and Mahgwis. The Mahgwis, or "Scapegrace, " is a kind of sea-gull. ]

(Micmac. )

Two men met and talked: one was Fish-Hawk, the other was Scapegrace. Now the Fish-Hawk can fly higher than any other ocean bird, and he isproud and particular as to his food; he is only beaten by the eagle. When he dives and takes a fish the eagle pursues him; he lets it drop;the great sagamore of the birds catches it; but to less than the chiefhe yields nothing. But the Scapegrace will eat anything he is heavy inflying; he is slow and of low degree. 

So when the Scapegrace proposed to the Fish-Hawk that they shouldbecome partners the proud bird was angry in his heart, but saidnothing, as he was crafty, and as it occurred to him that he couldpunish the other; and this he was the more willing to do because theScapegrace actually proposed to fly a race with him! So he said, "Letus go together to a certain Indian village. " And they went offtogether. 

The Fish-Hawk arrived there far before the other. And on arriving hesaid, "Beware of him who will come after me. You will know him by thesesigns: he is ugly and heavy; he will bring with him his own food. It iscoarse and common; in fact it is poison. He wishes to kill you; he willoffer it. Do not eat of it, or you will die. "

Then having been very well entertained himself, he took his departure. Scapegrace soon appeared, but was treated with great reserve. Heoffered his food, and the people pretended to eat it, but took goodcare to quietly throw it away. Then he told the chief that he wasseeking a wife, and asked if there were girls to marry in the town. Towhich the chief replied, "Yes, there is a mother with severaldaughters, of the _Amalchoogwech'_ or Raccoon tribe. "

He went to see the girls. A bad name had gone before him. One of themstood before the lodge. She saw him, and cried, "_Mahgwiswechooveet_!" "Scapegrace is coming!" They received him as if he hadbeen Sickness. He was welcomed like filth on fine clothes. They criedout, "_Ulummeye_!" "Go home!" He asked the mother if she haddaughters. She answered, "Yes. " He asked her if she would give him one. She replied, "I will not. " So he went his way. 

Now when he had gone Fish-Hawk came again, and asked if Scapegrace hadbeen there. He inquired if all had passed as he predicted. They said ithad. Then it occurred to him to pass himself off for a great prophet, awise magician, well knowing that he could make much of it. So he said, "It is well. Remember that you would have all died but for myforesight. That wizard would have poisoned you all. But have no fear. In future I will watch over you. "

Then, he said to a man of the people that if at any time he should seea large bird flying over the village it would be an omen of greatcoming danger. "Then, " he said, "think of me; call on me, and I willcome. " So he departed. 

The man thought it all over for a long time. He was shrewd and wise. "He foretold the coming of Scapegrace, " he reflected. "Now he pretendsto be a very great sorcerer. We shall see!"

Sure enough, in a few days he saw a bird flying on high. "That, " saidhe, "must be the _Wis-kuma-gwasoo_. " He called him, and he came. "You spoke, " he said, "of danger to our town. What is it?"

"There is great danger. In a few days your town will be attacked by aKookwes. [Footnote: In Passamaquoddy _Kewahqu'_, a cannibal giant, who is also a sorcerer. ] Unless you save yourselves you will all bedevoured. "

"What shall we do to be saved?" asked the man. "When will he come?"

"In seven days, " replied the Fish-Hawk. "Before that time you must taketo your canoes and flee afar. You may get beyond his reach, but youcannot before that time get beyond the horrible roar of his voice. Andall who hear it will drop dead. "

"How can we escape this second danger?" asked the man. 

"You must all close your ears, so that you can hear nothing. When thetime is over you may return. "

The man's name was Oscoon. [Footnote: Oscoon (M. ): the Liver. ] He ledthe people away. He closed their ears; he did not close his own. Oncehe heard-a far-away whoop. It was not very terrible. But he saidnothing. After a time, the scouts who were sent out returned. Theyreported that the Kookwes had departed. They had not even seen him. Itwas a great escape. 

The people thought much of Oscoon. They made him their chief. In a fewdays the Fish-Hawk returned. He spoke to Oscoon: "Did the giant come?""He did. " "You escaped?" "By following your advice, we did. " "And inwhich direction did he go?" [Footnote: Here the Fish-Hawk inadvertentlybetrays himself. In the Edda, Loki changes himself into a falcon andflies to Jotunheim to make mischief, as usual. Odin also changeshimself to a hawk or eagle when he is chased by the giant Suttung. There is a strong Norse color to all this tale. The Fish-Hawk is veryLoki-like and tricky. ] "Surely you, who know so much about him, mustknow that better than we do. " Then the Fish-Hawk saw that he was foundout. He flew away, and never returned to the town to play the prophet. 

He who would cheat must watch his words well. 

As in the preceding tradition, there has been tacked to this a fragmentof a very poor French tale about a king, a great city, a royalcarriage, and the forest of wild beasts, borrowed from so many oldEuropean romances. But what is here given is apparently really Indian, and it shows with spirit and humor how men tricked one another and rosein life by trickery, in the days of old. 

There are naturally contradictory opinions on such a subject as to whatconstitutes the morality of magic. The old Shaman or Manitou regardedwitchcraft as wicked. The Roman Catholic has taught the Indian that allsorceries and spells except his own are of the devil. Hence it camethat I got from two Passamaquoddy Indians, next-door neighbors, thefollowing opinions:--

_Tomah_. --"There was once a man who hated another. So he prayeduntil he became a snake, " etc. 

_Another Indian_. --"If a man wanted to be _m'teoulin_ he mustgo without food, or sleep, or saying his prayers, for seven days. Yes, that certainly. He must go far into the woods. He must go again whenhis power was used up. "

The faith in and fondness for magic were so great among the Algonquinsthat there is not one even of their most serious histories into whichit has not been introduced. The Passamaquoddies will narrate anincident of their wars with the Mohawks. The first time it will all beprobable enough; but hear it again, when the story-teller has becomemore trustful, and some of the actors in it or the scene will be sureto end like a Christmas pantomime in fairy-land. With them_m'teoulin_ covered everything; it entered into every detail oflife. I do not think that it was so deeply felt even by the ancientBabylonians or the modern Arabs and Hindoos as by our red men. It is nowonder they prefer the Catholic religion to the Protestant. 

There is a Micmac legend which is so magical and mystical, so inspiredwith Eskimo Shamanism, that it would not be remarkable if it had beenoriginally a sacred song. This is

_The Giant Magicians. _

There was once a man and his wife who lived by the sea, far away fromother people. They had many children, and they were very poor. One daythis couple were in their canoe, far from land. There came up a densefog; they were quite lost. 

They heard a noise as of paddles and voices. It drew nearer. They sawdimly a monstrous canoe filled with giants, who greeted the little folklike friends. "_Uch keen, tahmee wejeaok_?" "My little brother, "said the leader, "where are you going?" "I am lost in the fog, " saidthe poor Indian, very sadly. "Ah, come with us to our camp, " said thegiant, who seemed to be a good fellow, if there ever was one. "Truly, ye will be well treated, my small friends, for my father is the chief;so be of good cheer!" And they, being much amazed at this gentleness, sat still in awe, while two of the giants, each putting a tip of hispaddle under their bark, lifted it up and put it into their own, as ifit had been a chip. And truly the giants seemed to be as much pleasedwith the little folk as a boy would be who had found a flying squirrel. [Footnote: A story like this of giants in a canoe would very naturallyoriginate about the Bay of Fundy, where, in the dense and frequentfogs, all objects assume greatly exaggerated apparent dimensions. Oneoften beholds there, on the shore, "men as trees walking. "]

And as they drew near the beach, lo! they beheld three wigwams, high asmountains, in size according to that of the giants. And coming to meetthem was the chief, who was taller than the rest. 

"Ha!" he cried. "Son, what have you there? Where did you pick up thatlittle brother?" "_Noo_, my father, I found him lost in the fog. ""Well, bring him home to the lodge, my son!" So the giant took thesmall canoe in the palm of his hand, the man and his wife sittingtherein, and carried them home. Then they were taken into the wigwam, and the canoe was laid carefully in the eaves, but within easy reach, about a hundred and fifty yards from the ground. 

Then an abundant meal was set before them, but the benevolent host, mindful of their small size, did not give them more to eat than theywould have needed for about ten years to come, and informed them in asubdued whisper, which could hardly have been heard a hundred milesoff, that his name was Oscoon. [Footnote: Mr. Rand suggests that thismay indicate the dark color of his tribe. Eskimo legends speak ofpeople among them who were black. ]

Now it came to pass, a few days after, that a company of these well-grownpeople went hunting, and when they returned the guests must needs pitythem that they had no game in their land which answered to their size;for they came in with strings of such small affairs as two or threedozen caribou hanging in their belts, as a Micmac would carry a stringof squirrels, and swinging one or two moose in their hands like rabbits. Yet, what with these and many deer, bears, and beavers, they made up inthe weight of their game what it lacked in size, and of what they hadthey were generous. 

Now the giants became very fond of the small folk, and would not forthe world that they should in any way come to harm. And it came to passthat one morning the chief told them that they were to have a grandbattle, since they expected in three days to be attacked by a Chenoo. Therefore the Micmac saw that in all things it was even with the giantsas with his own people at home, they having their troubles with thewicked, and the chiefs their share in being obliged to keep up theirmagic and know all that was going on in the world. Yea, for he would bea poor _powwow_ and a necromancer worth nothing who could notforetell such a trifle as the day and hour when an enemy would be onthem!

But this time the Sakumow (M. ), or sagamore, was forewarned, and badehis little guests stop their ears and bind up their heads, and rollthemselves in many folds of dressed skins, lest they should hear thedeadly war-scream of the Chenoo. And with all their care they hardlysurvived it; but the second scream hurt them less; and after the thirdthe chief came to them with a cheerful countenance, and bade them ariseand unpack themselves, for the monster was slain, and though his foursons, with two other giants, had been sorely tried, yet they hadconquered. 

But the sorrows of the good are never at an end, and so it was withthese honest giants, who were always being pestered with some kind ofscurvy knaves or others who would not leave them in peace. For anon thechief announced that this time a Kookwes--a burly, beastly villain, nottwo points better than his cousin the Chenoo--was coming to play atrough murder with them. And, verily, by this time the Micmac began tobelieve, without bating an ace on it, that all of these tall peoplewere like the wolves, who, meeting with nobody else, bite one another. So they were bound and bundled up as before, and put to bed like dolls. And again they heard the horrible shout, the moderate shout, and thesmaller shout, until _sooel moonoodooahdigool_, which, beinginterpreted, meaneth that they hardly heard him at all. 

Then the warriors, returning, gave proof that they had indeed donesomething more than kick the wind, for they were covered with blood, and their legs were stuck full of large pines, with here and there anoak or hemlock, for the fight had been in a forest; so that they hadbeen as much troubled as men would be with thistles, nettles, and pinesplinters, which is truly often a great trouble. But this was theirleast trial, for, as they told their chief, the enemy had well-nighmade Jack Drum's entertainment for them, and led them the devil'sdance, had not one of them, by good luck, opened his eye for him with arock which drove it into his brain. And as it was, the chiefs youngestson had been so mauled that, coming home, he fell dead just before hisfather's door. Truly this might have been deemed almost an accident insome families; but lo! what a good thing it is to have an enchanter inthe house, especially one who knows his business, as did the old chief, who, going out, asked the young man why he was lying there. To which hereplying that it was because he was dead, his father bade him rise andwalk, which he did straight to the supper table, and ate none the lessfor it. 

Now the old chief, thinking that perhaps, his dear little people foundlife dull and devoid of incident with him, asked them if they wereaweary of him. They, with golden truth indeed, answered that they hadnever been so merry, but that they were anxious as to their children athome. He answered that they were indeed right, and that the nextmorning they might depart. So their canoe was reached down for them, and packed full of the finest furs and best meat, when they were toldto _tebah'-dikw'_, or get in. Then a small dog was put in, andthis dog was solemnly charged that he should take the people home, while the people were told to paddle in the direction in which the dogshould point. [Footnote: Strange as it may seem, there is not the leastexaggeration in this. Lieutenant-Colonel Barclay Kennan told me thatwhen surveying in the far North Pacific he had an Eskimo dog which, inthe thickest fog, would scent the land at a great distance, andcontinually point to it. ] And to the Micmac he said, "Seven years henceyou will be reminded of me. " And then _tokooboosijik_ (off theywent). The man sat in the stern, his wife in the prow, and the dog inthe middle of the canoe. The dog pointed, the Indian paddled, the waterwas smooth. They soon reached home; the children with joy ran to meetthem; the dog as joyfully ran to see the children, wagging his tailwith great glee, just as if he had been like any other dog, and not afairy. For, having made acquaintance, he without delay turned tail andtrotted off for home again, running over the ocean surface as if it hadbeen hard ice; which might, indeed, have once astonished the good manand his wife, but they had of late days seen so many wonders that theywere past marveling. 

Now this Indian, who had in the past been always poor, seemed to havequite recovered from that complaint. When he let down his lines thebiggest fish bit; all his sprats were salmon; he prayed for goslings, and got geese; moose were as mice to him now; yea, he had the best inthe land, with all the fatness thereof. So seven years passed away, andthen, as he slept, there came unto him divers dreams, and in them hewent back to the Land of the Giants, and saw all those who had been sokind to him. And yet again he dreamed one night that he was standing byhis wigwam near the sea, and that a great whale swam up to him andbegan to sing, and that the singing was the sweetest he had ever heard. 

Then he remembered that the giant had told him he would think of him inseven years; and it came clearly before him what it all meant, and thathe was erelong to have magical power given to him, and that he shouldbecome a _Megumoowessoo_. This he told his wife, who, not beinglearned in darksome lore, would fain know more nearly what kind of abeing he expected to be, and whether a spirit or a man, good or bad;which was, indeed, not easy to explain, nor is it clearly set down inthe chronicles beyond this, --that, whatever it might be, it was all forthe best, and that there was a great deal of magic in it. 

That day they saw a great shark cruising about in their bay, chasingfish, and this they held for an evil omen. But, soon after, there cametrotting towards them over the sea the same small dog who had beentheir pilot from the Land of the Giants. So he, full of joy, as before, at seeing them and the children, wagged his tail and danced for glee, and then looked earnestly at the man as if for some message. And to himthe man said, "It is well. In three years' time I will make you avisit. I will look to the southwest. " Then the dog licked the hands andthe ears and the eyes of the man, and went home as before over the sea, running on the water. 

And when the three years had passed the Indian entered his canoe, and, paddling without fear, found his way to the Land of the Giants. He sawthe wigwams standing on the beach; the immense canoes were drawn up onthe water's edge; from afar he beheld the old giant coming down towelcome him. But he was alone. And when he had been welcomed, and wasin the wigwam, he learned that all the sons were dead. They had diedthree years before, when the shark, the great sorcerer, had been seen. 

They had gone, and the old man had but lingered a little longer. Theyhad made the magic change, they had departed, and he would soon jointhem _in his own kingdom_. But ere he went he would leave theirgreat inheritance, their magic, to the man. 

Therewith the giant brought out his son's clothes, and bade the Indianput them on. Truly this was as if he had been asked to clothe himselfwith a great house, since the smallest fold in them would have been tohim as a cavern. But he stepped in, and as he did this he rose to greatsize; he filled out the garments till they fitted; he was a giant, ofGiant-Land. With the clothes came the wisdom, the _m'teoulin_, the_manitou_ power of the greatest and wisest of the olden time. Hewas indeed _Megumoowessoo_, and had attained to the Mystery. 

This very remarkable and evidently ancient tale is one of that kindwhich the keepers of tribe chronicles among the pagan Indians do nottell to the world, and which they conceal from white men. It is not afragment, nor is it unfinished, as some readers may suppose. Its plotis of a much higher nature than a novel, which ends in a marriage. Toan Indian, whose ideas of earthly happiness were not in money, houses, and lands, personal power was the one thing to be most desired. As aPassamaquoddy said once to me, "To be rich in those days meant to be agreat hunter and always have plenty of meat for everybody. " Hence thedesire to be great and strong, to be able to entice wild animals, torun like the wind, to be crafty in all things, especially in makingwar; hence to have prophetic dreams. All of this was to be attained by_m'teoulin_, or magic. The highest ambition of an Indian was tobecome a _Megumoowessoo_, a mystical being, which is explaineddifferently as fairy, faun, sylvan deity, but which means one whoenjoys all the highest privileges of humanity allied to thesupernatural. This is what the hero of this story gets by favor of thegiant. 

It may be observed that in this tale the Indian cannot explain to hiswife what he nevertheless perfectly understands; that is, the exactnature of a _Megumoowessoo_. The giant, by speaking of his ownkingdom, gives the true key of the whole mystery. He has attained magicpower so far as one can exercise it in this life. Like Glooskap he canbe, or unlike him prefers, to be habitually, a giant. He has battledwith the Chenoo and Kookwess; he has, like Hercules, fulfilled hismission; and now he departs for his own realm, that of the_Megumoowessoo_, as Arthur went to Fairy-Land, as Buddha to theunknown Nirvana, --that is, to something beyond the conception of poetor theosophist. 

I suspect that the period of seven years, and again of three years, hadbeen employed by the Indian in preparing himself by penance for_m'teoulin_. The respect of the Indians for the number_seven_ is so remarkable, that if it be true that _Deusimparibus numeris gaudet_, they are in that respect, at least, likedeities. Whenever _seven_ or a white bear's skin occurs in thesetales, there always lies hidden a magical mystery. 

It is not the least remarkable feature of this tale that it abounds inthat quiet small humor which recalls the adventures of Captain LemuelGulliver. The Indian, like, the Norseman, was such an _implicit_believer in his own myths, and he had evolved them so entirely fromhimself without borrowing, --since we may regard him as one in thisrespect with the Eskimo, --that no human characteristic detracted fromthe dignity of the Manitou. 

There is a strong suggestion in this story that the giants were whales. This and the incident of their inhabiting a mysterious country beyondthe sea and the fog would identify them with the enchanted land of theEskimo, visited by the Angakok in their trances, and by others in_kayaks_. This country was named _Akilinek_, "a fabulous landbeyond the sea. " The whole story of Malaise, the man who traveled toAkilinek, is in every detail extremely like an Indian tale. (Rink, page169. ) It has also a Norse affinity. The land of the giants was supposedby both Icelanders and Indians to be in the North Atlantic. There is aNorse tale of a man changed to a whale which indicates a common originwith the one here given. 

It is believed that the _m'teoulin_ can, when speaking, makethemselves heard to whom they will, at any distance. They, can conferwith one another secretly when miles away, or make themselves known tomany. I was informed by an Indian in all faith that an old witch whodied in 1876, twelve miles from Pleasant Point, was heard to speak inthe latter place when at her last. A very intelligent Passamaquoddytold me that when Osalik (Sarah) Hequin died he himself heard all shesaid, though sixty-five miles distant. I am certain that he firmlybelieved this. This woman died a strange death, for she was foundstanding up, dead, in the snow, with her arms extended and "handssticking out. " It is generally believed that she was killed by other_m'teoulin_. 

There are really very few ideas in modern mesmerism not known to Eskimoor Indian Shamans. Clairvoyance is called by the Passamaquoddies_Meelah bi give he_. 

 GLINT-WAH-GNOUR PES SAUSMOK. 

 N'loan pes-sans, mok glint ont-aven Glint ont-aven, nosh mor-gun N'loan sep-scess syne-duc Mach-ak wah le-de-born harlo kirk Pes-sauk-wa morgun pa-zazeu. Dout-tu eowall, yu' eke ne-mess comall Dow-dar bowsee des ge-che-ne-wes skump, Na-havak dunko to-awk w'che-mon wh'oak No-saw yu-well _Mooen_ nill Mask da-ah gawank la me la-tak-a-dea-on Di-wa godamr Kudunk-ah dea-on Glor-ba dea-on glom-de-nec Glint-wah-gnour pes sausmok. 

 THE SONG OF THE STARS. 

 We are the stars which sing, We sing with our light; We are the birds of fire, We fly over the sky. Our light is a voice; We make a road for spirits, For the spirits to pass over. Among us are three hunters Who chase a bear; There never was a time When they were not hunting. We look down on the mountains. This is the Song of the Stars. 

 "Ahboohe b'lo maryna Piel to-marcess" We poual gee yuaa Mar-yuon _cordect_ delo son Ne morn-en nute magk med-agon On-e-est Molly duse-al _ca-soo-son nen_. 

 Tumbling end over end, goes Piel to _mercess_, With feathers on his eyes. To the maple-sap ridge _we are going_, Our lunch a cod-fish skin; _One est_ Molly's daughter goes with us.