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However, she saw shells below, and soon the water grew so shoal that she said in fear, “Moon-as-taba-kan-kari-jean-nook? (M.) Does not the land show itself like a bow-string?” And he said, “We are still far from land.”

Then the water grew so shoal that she heard the song of the Clams as they lay under the sand, singing to her that she should throw him off and drown him. For these Clams were his deadly enemies. But Bootup the Whale did not understand their language, so she asked her rider–for he knew 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 on the 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.”

Then with a push of his bow against her head he sent her off into deep water. And the Whale rejoiced greatly. But ere she went she said, “Oh, my grandson, K’teen pehabskwass n’aga tomawe?” (P.). “Hast thou not 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 his maple bow, beheld the long low cloud which followed her until she vanished in the far away.

In a Passamaquoddy tale of Pook-jin-skwess the Witch, the Clams sing a song 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, or squeaks; hence in Germany the Romany call it Stargoli: that is, shtor-godli, four cries.