Publications
NORTHEAST
FOLKLORE
Volume VI: 1964
MALECITE AND PASSAMAQUODDY TALES
Contents
|
Introduction |
Stories and the Art of Story-Telling
|
Kluskap Tales from the Malecite
|
Miscellaneous Malecite Tales |
Passamaquoddy Tales |
Bibliography
V. PASSAMAQUODDY
TALES
[Note: All of the following
tales were found among the E. Tappan Adney Manuscripts in the
Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts. All of them were collected by
Adney from Governor William Neptune of Pleasant Point Reservation,
Maine, in the early 1940's. Some of the manuscripts were in hurried
pencil script, clearly Adney's own field notes; others were in
typescript but appear to be no more than typed-out field notes;
still others had obviously been worked over. In one case I have
included both the field note version and Adney's later version of
it, since both were available and the contrast between the two was
interesting. I have corrected obvious misspellings and typing errors
and have made punctuation and paragraphing changes where it seemed
to me that they would make for easier reading. All other additions
or changes are indicated in the manner described in the
Introduction.]
A
Little
Boy Who Brought Good Luck
[1]
This occurred lately; my father
told it. A young boy had father and mother die and was left orphan.
He had little poodle dog. He go from house to house, but nobody lets
him stay. He stayed two three months all round Pleasant Point. There
was a married couple, no children. This young fellow had a little
bundle and this man say to his wife, “Fix him up a bed and feed
him,” and the woman did.
After he stay two weeks, one early
morning they [i.e. the husband and wife] wake up but didn't
get up, and as they lay in bed they hear young man and the little
dog talkin. They hear little dog say to young fellow, “This man is
awful nice. He uses us all right so far.”
“Yes,” replied young feller, “he is
awful good to us. They feed us nice, we got good bed, you don have [to]
git no food, no water.”
The little dog said to young
feller, “I know why this man is satisfied. I have him satisfied.
[2]
I know where bear is. I can find a bear any time man wants one.”
The man hears this and get up and
get breakfast and didn't let on he hear dog and boy talkin. After
breakfast the little dog play round camp waggin tail at him. Man
gittin ready go huntin and told you feller, “Let me take your dog
with me. Spose he foller me?”
“Oh I guess so. I don't know.”
Dog was jumping, barking like as if
[he] was glad go huntin and when [man] got ready dog
kept jumpingoin little ways, comin back barkin like you see dogs
when glad go huntin. When they got in woods, a little way back in
woods, the little dog runnin ahead. Bimeby he jump one side, barkin;
man follered and found dog diggin, and comin to big bear. Found
bear. That was good luck; man well satisfied, and he was always
lucky. Everybody wanted that little boy back but he didn't go back
to any of them. The man raised that boy; he got them everything they
wanted. This story was told by my father.
Return to Top
* * * * * *
An
Indian
Boy That Almost Turned Into A Bear
[3]
A Passamaquoddy boy was lost in the
woods. He was hungry and scared. He goes into a hole; a bear was in
there. He is scared and he comes out. The big bear was a female; she
had little cubs with her, and when boy come out big bear come close
to him, [and] now and then touch him but not want to hurt
him, like make [i.e. like she was making] some motion [for]
him [to] do something, but young fellow wouldn't move so bear
went around him and started on ahead walkin. Then at last young
fellow think, “I will go with it,” and starts out with bear.
Bear take him where she have cubs.
Night time come, [and to] keep little fellow from freezin she
put him together with cubs, and they don't eat nothing but berries
that summer. When little fellow saw got to [i.e. that he'd have
to] eat all winter he put stuff he gathered into den so [he]
could eat, and so big bear know he want to eat and help him and got
enough [for him] to eat all winter. So they went into den and
stay all winter. Bear don't eat nothin. Spring time they come out
and the bear would leave young fellow; course, young fellow go out,
but too cold for him; he go back. Big bear would not leave her
friend; he played with cub.
In two years time the Indians
discovered this big bear and the young feller, the young man, . . .
. and he told them not to kill his mother. When they found him his
breast had begun grow hair like a bear. Well, on account of this
young man, bear got away; this young man tell her he seen them
coming. Young man was wild, didn't want come home, tried to get
away. When came to settlement they looked after him but he wanted [to]
go back into the woods. [It] was about a year before he got
civilized, and when he got civilized every bit of hair come out. And
old people thinks, `If he stay one year more with bear he turn into
a bear.'
At last young man got married and
his wife wanted some bear meat. They had deer, raccoon; he will kill
any kind of meat. He kin tell [from a] den without digging it
whether a female or a male bear inside how much smoke (steam) [rises
from it; it is] more strong from female. He told them, “If you
see that, keep away from it; that will (may) be my mother,” and he
wouldn't kill any female bear. And this young man he kill so many
bear, this woman ask husband, “Why you not kill female? Might taste
different.”
He didn't pay attention. Wife don't
know his story; he keep that secret himself. And she coaxed him to
kill female bear. At last wife got troubled he not kill female. “If
you don't bring she bear, I won't live with you any longer.”
So he went out and kill female bear
and brought her home and said, “Here it is. That will be last bear
you eat. No more bear meat.”
And it was the last one, too. That
young man didn't live much longer. He died. It worried him till he
died. He couldn't think of nothin else but how he had killed his
mother that had saved him in the woods.
Return to Top
* * * * * *
The Man Whose Life
Was In A
Weasel
[4]
I will tell you a story I heard
from my father. In a tribe of Indians was an old man who had long
whiskers, and every time they had a ceremony they have a great big
pot, and the people all were in the power of this old man and they
couldn't eat until the old fellow take his whiskers and put them
down into the pot. He wash his whiskers in the pot and then he tells
the people to eat. The pot was in the kwun du un, a kind of
hall. He did that several times when there was a ceremony.
And there was an old woman lived
near the village and she had a grandson, a little fellow, and this
young fellow was arranging to have a ceremony. “I am going over
there tonight,” he said to his grandmother.
“You had better not go,” she said
to him.
“I got to go. I want to see long
whiskers fellow do that again tonight.”
The old woman was frightened; she
was afraid of the old fellow like all the other people. She [was]
afraid what the young fellow going to do; she know he going to do
something. She afraid.
Coming on night the young fellow
goes over to the kwun du un. There is a big crowd getting
ready to eat, but [they] had to wait for the long whiskered
fellow. The old fellow come in and he walk up and next moment he put
in his whiskers. The young fellow called out, “Hey! What you
doingstop! You been doing that every time. You not going to [do]
it now.”
The old fellow look at little
fellow as little fellow steps up to the pot. He give the command,
“Everybody eat!”
After all eat, the young fellow
take a bit of the stuff home to his grandmother. “This is what I
brought,” he said. “Long whiskered fellow didn't do that tonight! I
stop him.” The little fellow walks to the fire in center of wigwam
and picks up a little piece of cloth and a little stick and he stood
alongside the fire, watching it.
By and by he said to his
grandmother, “He is coming, he is coming. Do you want to see him?”
“No! No! I don't want to see him,”
she said.
Just that moment he entered. The
old woman didn't see him; [she saw] just a little thing like
Sogwes, Weasel. The little fellow grabs him and wraps him in
handkerchief and squeeze him hard.
They report around that old fellow
very sick, and hollerinawful sick. Big crowd of people went around
there. Old fellow awful sick every time young fellow squeeze the
weasel. “You better get that young fellow,” old fellow say.
By and by [a] young man tell
little fellow, “Old man very sick, wants to see you.”
“What does he want to see me for? I
don't want to see him.”
The young man run back and told the
old fellow, “He won't come.”
The old fellow is easing up a
little and young fellow squeeze weasel again, and old man begin
roarin and yellin again. And he sent another fellow out to get that
young fellow. [This one] he told the little fellow, “You
better go see what he wants. He wants you awful bad.”
The old woman say, “You better go
see what he wants. You better go.”
“All right, Gramma!” With that he
walks along slow. Every little bit he squeeze the weasel. When he
get in the door he squeeze him this time hard and he heard the old
fellow holler, and look at him. “What do you want?” young fellow
ask.
“I want to speak to you.” “Let you
go?” young fellow say. “If I let you go would you do that thing
again? You been washin your whiskers every time [we] have
ceremony. All right, I let you go!” And with that he threw the
weasel under the bed, and walked out and went home.
The second night everybody was
happy. Had big supper. They called young fellow and tell him, “You
going to be the leader after this.”
“No, I won't be leader. I'm just
doing this to help the people.”
Next day old fellow call him again
and he say to young fellow, “You and I will work together. We will
be leaders.”
“No,” young fellow said, “I don't
want to do that. I don't want hurt people.” Everybody been free
after that.
Return to Top
* * * * * *
The Story Of A
Wicked
Medeulin
[5]
[Adney's Introduction]: This
story of the Beaver-Girl is listed by Charles G. Leland in Pilling's
Bibliography as one of a number of manuscripts by the late Louis
Mitchell of Passamaquoddy, that are now, so far as known to us,
lost. In his title, the Indian has translated kwabit-it-skwessis
“Beaver's daughter,” instead of “Beaver-girl,” while in the present
version, which we obtained in 1941 from Governor William Neptune,
the narrator uses the expression pil-skwassis, a virgin-girl,
one as yet a “stranger,” a maiden. The spoken words, when reduced to
written form, lacked so much of indicating the real purport of the
story that we had it carefully gone over by Peter Paul of the St.
John River Indians, Woodstock, with such an introduction as Louis
Mitchell was accustomed to give in other manuscripts of his, both
some in our possession and [others] as recorded in Leland's
Algonquin Legends. It was obvious that Neptune, after telling
the story in his English, gave in the Indian rather the bald
substance than the thought-out form, and so little even of the
substance that Peter Paul, who was not familiar with the story,
found it most difficult, in places, to understand.
The story of a wicked Medeulin
who had his Power from Ki-won-ik, the Otter, and how he was
punished for his evil doings.
Maybe two, three hundred years ago,
in a certain village, when a young couple married, a meduelin
who lived in the same village had his power to work magic from
Ki-won-ik, the Otter, who was his tiamul or tutelary
animal. As soon as a young couple were married, this wicked
medeulin caused the girl to follow him away to his camp in the
woods and kept her sometimes as long as a month before restoring her
to her husband. There was great trouble, naturally, among the young
people, who feared to marry because of this wicked man.
Now the old medeulins or
sorcerers made it a dead secret what animal was their tiamul
or tutelary spirit, which might be Owl or some other animal, for
ordinary people are not possessed of the medeulin or occult
power by which they can read what is in other people's minds. But it
happened that there came to this village a young man who was
medeulin who knew at once that it was Ki-won-ik who was
helping the wicked Indian in his evil doings. But he did not let on
to anyone that he knew and he laid his plan.
He said, “I'm not afraid to get
married.” And so he married a young girl, and he told her when the
old man came to take her away to go with him. “As you go up the
river,” he said, “you will see Wab-i-ki-won-ik, a White
Otter. You must tell the old man he must kill that otter. He will
not want to do it. But you must make him do it.”
(The Indian of old knew that a
white animal was the appearance of the younger brother of the great
Gluskap, and also the elder brother of his kind on earth today. And
Indians today will tell you that it is a sign of good luck to see a
white deer or other white animal, and very bad luck to kill one in
any circumstances. It would be especially so if that animal was the
the tutelary of that Indian and nothing but direst necessity would
cause him to bring it harm).
The wicked medeulin
protested and at first refused, but he very much desired the young
woman and she kept pleading for the skin of a white otter. So when
they saw the very white otter that her medeulin husband had
told her she would see, she kept telling the old medeulin he
must kill it, until he finally killed it.
“Now you must take out its liver,”
she told him. “I want that liver.” At supper time she cooked that
liver. She said to the old medeulin, “You must eat that piece
of liver.”
He did not want to do it, but
finally, unable to resist the pleadings of the young woman, who was
very beautiful, he said, “I suppose I've got to,” and he ate it for
supper.
A little while after, he was
sitting on the ground. He began to go “Umph! Umph!” just like that,
every once in a while. Then he was taken with a violent pain in his
belly every now and then, and then to relieve the pain he stretched
himself back, and he lay there and died.
All this was [duly] related
by the young woman when she returned to the village. When they heard
how she had killed the old medeulin, ten couples immediately
got married, and they were all glad and happy. This is the story
that the old people have told.
[Note: It may be interesting
to compare Peter Paul's re-working of this story with the following
version in Adney's pencil-script, presumably taken down directly
from William Neptune's narration. What follows is given just as it
appears in the manuscript.]
Marriage story of magic
Old time when young people in a
certain village marry the Medeulin take the girl away, keep her
maybe month and bring her back, and not till then the young man live
with her This was a cause of great sorrow & many young couples
differed [?deferred] their marriage for this reason. But, one
time young man says I'll get marriedhe was Medeulin himself. When he
get married, old [Medeulin] take her away & at same time he told his
wife, as they go up the river, you'll see white otter. Be sure kill
that white otter. Be sure tell that man, & he not want to
kill him told him, Got to kill him. He killed him at last “Take the
liver out; I want that liver.” She cooked that liver. At supper
time. Other [medeulin] don't like eat it. “You've got to eat it
anyway.”
He said, I suppose “I got to eat
it,” and he eat it for his supper.
A little while after he eat it, he
setting down [on ground]. & by & by he say Umph! like that every
once in a while. He had a pain in his guts & little while, he
stretch himself back & he lay down & died, liver killed him. The
woman came back & told story how she killed the Medeoulin. &
when she told it, all the young people happy. 10 couples get married
right away, & they were all glad, happy
That was maybe about 2.300 years
ago
Return to Top
* * * * * *
How
Bear
Got His Short Tail
[6]
Old time. Indian fish [in]
winter. Make hole. Left bunch fish [behind him]. When he come
back, fish gone. Saw track of fox.
Fox met Bear, [and Bear said he]
didn't know what to do [to catch fish. Fox] told Bear, “[I'll
show you] how [to] ketch fish. Over there [is] a
hole. Sit down on that hole. Set there. By and by [you'll]
feel fish bite. When [you] get good bunch [on your tail,
pull it up].”
[Bear] stay half a day. [Tail]
frozen [in ice]. Try [to] pull out; can't pull out.
Tells where [and] when Bear got short tail. Heard when a boy.
Old Indian story.
* * * * * *
How
Rabbit
Came by His Split Lip
[7]
One Sunday Rabbit start cruisin'
around. By and by see wigwam. It was Kingfisher, and he said, “Come
in.” They talk and talk; by and by dinner time. Kingfisher went up
brook and dive down [and] ketch big fish. Rabbit say, “Nice
dinner.” [That] afternoon, Rabbit say to Kingfisher, “Come
see me.”
One Sunday Kingfisher come up and
find [Rabbit's] wigwam. Rabbit say, “Come in.” They talked a
while. By and by, [Rabbit get] all rigged.
[8]
A spruce tree lean out over stream. It pretty near dinner time and
he walk up tree and, lookin down, he said he'd do same as
Kingfisher. By and By Rabbit dove down [and] struck [a]
rock and split his lip. Kingfisher heard him call for help. He
nearly drown. That's how Rabbit got split lip. This old Indian
story.
Return to Top
* * * * * *
Four
Legends
of Mohawk Encounters
[9]
1. Single
Combat
[10]
[Adney's note:] William
Neptune tells of a form that personal encounter (the duel) took in
the wars with the Mohawks. We have heard of battles on the western
plains in which the issue was settled by two selected champions. The
Malecites went much further than that. Between the Mohawks and
Malecites it was war to the death, to the destruction of one party
or the other:
In the last battle, they put up a
stake between the lines. A man from each side went out with his
hatchet and stayed at the stake. There they fight, the stake between
them, and when one man gets killed another man jumps out and takes
his place. This [was] in the wars between the Malecites and
Mohawks. The Malecite kills two Mohawks and this man hollers for
another man to come out, and the Mohawk leader forces another man to
come out. And the Malecite killed that Mohawk, too, and he hollered
again. He hollered three times for a Mohawk to come out, and at the
third call, when no Mohawk came out, the Malecites rushed the
Mohawks.
When they had finished the Mohawks,
they saw on a point of ground a partridge, and the partridge was
walking along, and the partridge spoke to the men: “You people very
lucky. If I wasn't a woman you people [would] all be killed.
If I was a man you would have been swept away.” That was what she
said.
* * * * * *
2. The Last
Mohawk
Scout
[Adney's note]: That Mohawk
woman was medeulin, and the narrator of the story of the last
battle with the Mohawks told of another instance of the power of a
medeulin to turn himself into an animal or bird.
The last scout of the Mohawks that
came here was medeulin. Some boys see him and tell the
warriors and they surround the field where the scout was seen. They
got all around him so he couldn't get away, and just then a bull
runs out and the scout got away.
[11]
That was the scout; he was madeulin and turn himself into the
bull. If they hit that bull, he [would] turn into a man but
they didn't hit him. They got out of his way. I hear my father tell
about that last ausks-o, scout. Ausk-o means “he keeps
out of sight.”
[12]
That was last scout seen [at] Passamaquoddy. My father showed
me the place. It was right alongside the cemetery.
[13]
* * * * * *
3.
Preparation
For War
The me-o-wit, the leader of
the war party, calls the young men together and tells them what they
must do: “Keep away from women, and don't eat meat that sticks on
the bone, only the outside meat.” One time, in [his] first
battle, a young man got shot in the knee. This young man didn't
believe what the me-o-wit told him, and he got shot in the
knee. The me-o-wit took his hatchet and he kill him himself
with the hatchet.
* * * * * *
4. The Last
Battle
With The Mohawks
The last battle between the Mohawks
and French against the Passamaquoddies was at St. Andrews. They
didn't fight, but I will tell how they done. The old men were out
huntin. Just [a] few men [were] left, and children and
old people, and they found the enemy near. The chief gave orders [for]
all women [to] dress as men [and] play ball all day
till men get back home.
[14]
The chief that was with the French
every once and a while come and look down and see these men playin
ball. Mohawks see so many men they say, “We better go make peace,”
but French say, “No, we won't make peace. We want to take that place
[and] kill all the men and women.”
The [Passamaquoddy] chief he
sent two men [to] notify hunters, and [he] tell women,
“Maybe enemy come. Keep on playin.” One afternoon men get home and
still women keep on playin ball, while men preparin for war that
night. The chief sends two men that evening to meet that [Mohawk]
chief who was watchin. They found his hiding place. One was a fellow
named Lox (“Wolverine” or “Indian Devil”). . . . They stood
there waiting for the Mohawk chief to come to that place. The [rest
of the] men are behind the [two] fellows who watch, but
the women are still dancin before the big fire.
By and by, [Lox and his
companion] see [Mohawk] chief comin. There was a great
big snag and chief got on top that snag to look down. These two men
sat facing [with] guns pointed that way. Chief all shiny
valuable silver buckles; all covered up, rattling as he walked. This
Lox point gun, Just [at that] moment he raised [himself]
up and [Lox] he fired. All Lox do [is] pull the
trigger guessin and struck him just half inch below neskum
(headband covered with brooches of silver). But when he fell his
friends drag him down in holler and buried him somewhere. Then [Lox
and his companion] they creep up and listen [to] what
going on. [The Mohawks] they talk about [how there had]
pretty near been fight among themselves on account Mohawks want to
go to village [and] make peace but French unwilling. At last
[it was] decided [the] Mohawks [would] go back
and French [would] follow Indians. Only four out of Mohawk
bunch come through; rest all starve. Not one French left.
Afterwards these Passamaquoddy
Indians see those Mohawks [and] talked [about] what
happened. Mohawks told where chief [was] buried but
Passamaquoddy Indians never could find him. That is last battle the
Mohawks came down [to] try to fight with Indians.
[15]
Return to Top
Footnotes
[1]
Adney Mss. Adney collected this tale in 1942. For a different but
analogous tale of a man who understood dog's talk, treated his dog
well, and as a result found much game, see Mechling II, 104-105 (Malecite);
Speck VIII, 93 (Penobscot). The following motifs may be helpful for
further study: B121.1.1 Infallible Hunting Dog; B211.1.7
Speaking Dog; B421 Helpful Dog; B391 Animal grateful
for food.
[2]
The sense is obscure here. Has the dog already brought the man luck?
If so, Neptune forgot to mention it. Or does he mean the dog to say,
in effect, “I will now reward the man?” Probably the first of these
is more nearly correct.
[3]
Adney Mss. Adney's note: “Neptune 1942.” This tale appears to be
very well known amongst Wabanaki groups and it is also found north
of the St. Lawrence, though it seems to be of less importance there.
It does not always involve a tabu or its violation, the core of the
story obviously being the bear foster-parent and the child's
acquiring the bear's characteristics. Among the Penobscot, according
to Speck (IX, 218-220), it became an origin legend for the Bear
(Mitchell) family. For the Malecite version, see Mechling II,
199-201. Penobscot: Leland and Prince, 239-241; Speck VIII, 85-86.
Micmac; Rand, 259-262; Parsons, 96-97; Wallis I, 431.
Montagnais-Naskapi: Speck V, 27 (see also Speck VII, 108-109).
Compare Michelson, 33-35 (Micmac). Motifs B535 Animals nourish
abandoned child; C841.7 Tabu: killing totem animal;
C933.1 Luck in hunting lost for breaking tabu; D113.2
Transformation; man to bear; F521.1 Man covered with hair
like animal.
[4]
Andey Mss. Adney's note: “A variant of this theme is one in which
the sorcerer turned himself into the form of his tutelary animal,
and when the animal was killed, the medeulin was killed.”
Collected from William Neptune in 1942. Motif D2063.1.1
Tormenting by sympathetic magic. See also motif G275.12 Witch
in the form of an animal is injured or killed as a result of the
injury to the animal.
[5]
Adney Mss. The following motifs may be of some help: B192 Magic
animal killed; C221.2 Tabu: eating totem animal;
K1371 Bride stealing.
[6]
Adney Mss. Taken from Adney's pencil script. Of this and the
following tale Adney said, “These two stories told by Wm. Neptune,
Passamaquoddy, 1941. Claims Indian but first doubtful; second also
doubtful.” The present tale is The Bear Fisher (Type 2; Motif
K1021), a European tale that has wide distribution among North
American Indians. Thompson cites versions among the Iroquois,
Menominee, Ponka, and Thompson River Indians. (I, 437-444), to which
list Fisher (242) adds Ojibwa, Potawatomi, and Blackfoot. So far as
I know, this is the first record of the tale among any of the
Wabanaki groups. Wherever the tale is found, it is usually part of a
trickster cycle; here, however, it is entirely independent.
[7]
Adney Mss. See note to foregoing tale. Unlike the preceding tale,
this one has no European antecedents and in that sense of the term
we can speak of it as real Indian. It belongs to a cycle of
trickster episodes known (to folklorists, not to Indians) as “The
Bungling Host” (motif J2425). The trickster visits different
animals, sees how each catches his food, tries the method himself,
and barely escapes with his life. While “bungling host” cycles are
found all over North America, the present episode seems to be found
only in the northern half, from the Rockies to the Maritimes. Among
the Wabanaki, this cycle is usually told about Hare (Rabbit). For
Penobscot versions, see Speck I, 52-54; Speck VIII, 101-102. For
some Micmac versions of the bungling host cycle (none containing the
present tale), see Rand, 300-303; Leland (208-213: suspiciously
close to Rand's versions); Speck II, 64-65; Wallis I, 414-416. For
other Penobscot versions, see Alger, 108-110.
[8]
“All rigged.” Neptune here seems to be alluding to the sort of
perparation Hare makes in a Penobscot version (Speck VIII, 101),
where he ties a sharp bone on his forehead to act as a bill.
[9]
If we could believe all the stories we hear, Micmac, Malecite,
Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot wrought havoc on Mohawk war parties. In
point of fact, however, many Wabanaki victories were of the “I hit
him a good one on the fist with my nose” variety, because these
Indians suffered repeatedly from all too successful Iroquois (which
is to say Mohawk) raids. While there may be occasional truth in the
multitude of tales of Wabanaki victories, they really represent a
vast chorus of whistles in the dark. Not only were the Iroquois
better organized for war, they had the good fortune to be sided with
the English more often than not, while the Algonkian groups usually
found themselves allied with the French. Small wonder the Wabanaki
talked a good war!
For a good account of Malecite-Iroquois
relations, see Mechling III, 114-119; Wallis II, 12-14. For the
Micmac-Iroquois picture, see Wallis I, 208-211. For customs of war,
see Mechling III, 119-140 (Malecite); Wallis I, 211-225 (Micmac);
Nicolar, 108-140 (Penobscot). For other tales of Mohawk encounters
see the following sources. Malecite: Mechling II, 106-126; Wallis
II, 42; Smith, 27-29. Micmac: Rand, 137-141, 200-224, 238-245,
341-346; Mechling II, 126-133; Wallis I, 382, 448-469, 490-492.
Abenaki: Masta, 17-18, 33-34.
[10]
For a possible Micmac parallel from Nova Scotia, see Wallis I, 453.
[11]
For a possible analogue, see Wallis II, 32-33, where medeulin
appears as a bull (not a Mohawk).
[12]
Speck (VIII,17) gives the Penobscot word as awuskhowa:
“spy.”
[13]
Adney's note: “The burial ground at Sebyik (Sebayik, Pleasant Point)
is on higher ground overlooking the village, yet by “here” the
narrator may have meant the ancient village at present St. Andrews.”
[14]
For a possible parallel to the woman dancing and the ball-game
(though this time using heads), see Jack, 203-204.
[15]
Adney's note: “Where the Mohawk allies French or were they English?”
After that, in pencil, “Probably wars between French and English in
Acadia, perhaps 1745, perhaps 1759.”
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