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                            IN INDIAN TENTS




                            IN INDIAN TENTS

                                Stories

                   TOLD BY PENOBSCOT, PASSAMAQUODDY
                          AND MICMAC INDIANS

                                  TO

                             ABBY L. ALGER

                       [Illustration: colophon]

                                BOSTON
                           ROBERTS BROTHERS
                                 1897

                          _Copyright, 1897_,

                         BY ROBERTS BROTHERS.

                           University Press:

                JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.

                               This Book

                                  IS

                       AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED

                                  TO

                        CHARLES GODFREY LELAND,

                     TO WHOSE INSPIRATION IT OWES
                              ITS ORIGIN.




PREFACE


In the summer of 1882 and 1883, I was associated with Charles G. Leland
in the collection of the material for his book “The Algonquin Legends of
New England,” published by Houghton and Mifflin in 1884.

I found the work so delightful, that I have gone on with it since,
whenever I found myself in the neighborhood of Indians. The supply of
legends and tales seems to be endless, one supplementing and completing
another, so that there may be a dozen versions of one tale, each
containing something new. I have tried, in this little book, in every
case, to bring these various versions into a single whole; though I
scarcely hope to give my readers the pleasure which I found in hearing
them from the Indian story-tellers. Only the very old men and women
remember these stories now; and though they know that their legends
will soon be buried with them, and forgotten, it is no easy task to
induce them to repeat them. One may make half-a-dozen visits, tell his
own best stories, and exert all his arts of persuasion in vain, then
stroll hopelessly by some day, to be called in to hear some marvellous
bit of folk-lore. These old people have firm faith in the witches,
fairies, and giants of whom they tell; and any trace of amusement or
incredulity would meet with quick indignation and reserve.

Two of these stories have been printed in Appleton’s “Popular Science
Monthly,” and are in the English Magazine “Folk-Lore.”

I am under the deepest obligation to my friend, Mrs. Wallace Brown, of
Calais, Maine, who has generously contributed a number of stories from
her own collection.

The woman whose likeness appears on the cover of this book was a famous
story-teller, one of the few nearly pure-blooded Indians in the
Passamaquoddy tribe. She was over eighty-seven when this picture was
taken.




CONTENTS


                                                                    PAGE

THE CREATION                                                          11

GRANDFATHER THUNDER                                                   15

THE FIGHT OF THE WITCHES                                              19

ŪLISKE                                                                30

STORY OF WĀLŪT                                                        34

OLD SNOWBALL                                                          44

ĀL-WŪS-KI-NI-GESS, THE SPIRIT OF THE WOODS                            51

M’TĒŪLIN, THE GREAT WITCH                                             53

SUMMER                                                                57

THE BUILDING OF THE BOATS                                             61

THE MERMAN                                                            66

STORY OF STURGEON                                                     72

GRANDFATHER KIAWĀKQ’                                                  77

OLD GOVERNOR JOHN                                                     81

K’CHĪ GESS’N, THE NORTHWEST WIND                                      84

BIG BELLY                                                             95

CHĪBALOCH, THE SPIRIT OF THE AIR                                      99

STORY OF TEAM, THE MOOSE                                             101

THE SNAKE AND THE PORCUPINE                                          106

WHY THE RABBIT’S NOSE IS SPLIT                                       108

STORY OF THE SQUIRREL                                                111

WAWBĀBAN, THE NORTHERN LIGHTS                                        130

THE WOOD WORM’S STORY, SHOWING WHY THE
RAVEN’S FEATHERS ARE BLACK                                           134




IN INDIAN TENTS




THE CREATION


In the beginning God made Adam out of the earth, but he did not make
Glūs-kābé (the Indian God). Glūs-kābé made himself out of the dirt that
was kicked up in the creation of Adam. He rose and walked about, but he
could not speak until the Lord opened his lips.

God made the earth and the sea, and then he took counsel with Glūs-kābé
concerning them. He asked