(Micmac and Passamaquoddy.) Of the old time. An Indian, with his wife and their little boy, went one autumn far away to hunt in the northwest. And having found a fit place to pass the winter, they built a wigwam. The man brought home the game, the woman dressed and dried the meat, the small […]

(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 legends from the Anglo-Indian manuscript collection of Mitchell are given, many of the phrases or words in the original are retained, without regard […]

(Micmac.) Of the old time. Far up the Saguenay River a branch turns off to the north, running back into the land of ice and snow. Ten families went up this stream one autumn in their canoes, to be gone all winter on a hunt. Among them was a beautiful girl, twenty years of age. […]

Of the Girl who married Mount Katahdin, and how all the Indians brought about their own Ruin. (Penobscot.) Of the old time. There was once an Indian girl gathering blueberries on Mount Katahdin. And, being lonely, she said, “I would that I had a husband!” And seeing the great mountain in all its glory rising […]

(Passamaquoddy.) N’karnayoo. Of old times. Once an Indian went forth to hunt. And he departed from the east branch of the Penobscot, and came to the head of another branch that leads into the east branch, and this he followed even to the foot of Mount Katahdin. [Footnote: This minuteness of needless detail is very […]

(Passamaquoddy.) This is truly an old Indian story of old time. Once an Indian was whirled up by the roaring wind: he was taken up in a thunder-storm, and set down again in the village of the Thunders. [Footnote: This tale is transcribed, with very little alteration, from a manuscript collection of tales written in […]

(Passamaquoddy.) Once a woman went to the edge of a lake [Footnote: It is impossible to distinguish in any Indian story between lake and sea.] and lay down to sleep. As she awoke, she saw a great serpent, with glittering eyes, crawl from the water, and stealthily approach her. She had no power to resist […]

(Passamaquoddy.) Pocumkwess, or Thoroughfare, is sixty-five miles from Campobello. There was an Indian village there in the old times. Two young Indian girls had a strange habit of absenting themselves all day every Sunday. No one knew for a long time where they went or what they did. But this was how they passed their […]

(Passamaquoddy.) Of old times. There was a very beautiful woman. She turned the heads of all the men. She married, and her husband died very soon after, but she immediately 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 […]

(Passamaquoddy.) There was once a couple well advanced in years. They were powerful and rich in the Indian fashion, but they were unhappy because they had no children. This was near the river St. John’s, on the shore of a small lake. After the woman had gone in vain to all the medicine men and […]

(Passamaquoddy.) Far away, very far in the north, there dwelt by the border of a great lake a man and his wife. They had no children, and the woman was very beautiful and passionate. The lake was frozen over during the greater part of the year. One day when the woman cut away the ice, […]

Once a man was traveling through the woods, and he heard afar off a sound as of footsteps beating the ground. So he sought to find the people 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, […]

[How The Partridge Built Good Canoes For All The Birds, And A Bad One For Himself] When a partridge beats upon a hollow log he makes a noise like an Indian at work upon a canoe, and when an Indian taps at a canoe it sounds afar off like the drumming of a partridge, even […]

The Mournful Mystery of the Partridge-witch; Setting Forth How a Young Man died from Love. Of the olden time. Two brothers went hunting in the autumn, and that as far as the head waters of the Penobscot, where they remained all winter. But in March their snow-shoes (agahmook, P.) gave out, as did their moccasins, […]

How One of the Partridge’s Wives Became a Sheldrake Duck, and Why her Feet and Feathers are Red. N’karnayoo, of the old time, there was a hunter who lived in the woods. He had a brother, [Footnote: The word brother is so generally applied in adoption or friendship that it cannot here be taken in […]

(Micmac.) There was once a large Indian village situated on the border of a lake,–Nameskeek’ oodun Kuspemku (M.). At the end of the place was a lodge, in which dwelt a being who was always invisible. [Footnote: In this Micmac tale, which is manifestly corrupted in many ways, the hero is said to be “a […]

(Micmac.) There was a chieftain in the days of yore. He had a great desire for a poor girl who was a servant, and who worked for him. To win this girl he first I most lose his wife. He took his wife afar into the woods to gather spruce-gum, and then left her there. […]

There was a man and his wife who had got together all they had for the fall hunt. They went up the St. John’s River; they left the village of Foxerbica; they went twenty-five miles beyond it. They passed the falls on the upper side to get some game. They cooked and ate. They got […]

Muggahmaht’adem, the Dance of Old Age, Or the Magic of the Weewillmekq’ [Footnote: This mysterious being is called Wee-wil-li-ah-mek in Penobscot The correct pronounciation is very nearly Wee-wil-‘l-mekqu’ for both Penobscot and Passamaquoddy, but this would be a difficult utterence for any one who has never listened to the Algonquin soft gutturals. Mrs. W. Wallace […]

De moon shines ofer de cloudlens,Und de cloudts plow ofer de sea,Und I vent to Coney Island,Und I took mein Schatz mit me.Mein Schatz, Katrina Bauer,I gife her mein heart und vortdt;Boot ve tidn’t know vot beoplesDe Dampfsschiff hafe cot on poard. De preeze plowed cool und bleasant,We looket at de townMit sonn-light on de […]