rated what to do.
Finally they took him and put him in a mortar and pounded him up so
that all his bones were broken. Then they took him out and gave him
wings and a bow and arrows, and sent him away. They told him he must
not go near the trees, for if he did he would go so fast that he could
not stop, but would get caught in the crotch of a tree.
[Footnote 7: The Zuni folk-tales always begin with a similar
introduction, which may be translated, "In the time of the ancients."
The Passamaquoddies often end a story by the words which, being
translated, mean "this is the end." The same occurs in other Indian
stories.]
He could not get to his home because the bird Wochowsen blew so hard
that he could make no progress against it. As the Thunder-Bird is an
Indian, the lightning from him never strikes one of his kind.[8]
[Footnote 8: The wind (Wochowsen) is represented as resisting the
Thunder-Bird. According to Chamberlain and Leland, "thunder beings are
always trying to kill a big bird in the south." It is said by the
Passamaquoddies that Wochowsen is the great bird which overspreads all
with his wings and darkens the sky. Often when he passes by, the glare
of the bright sun is ample to blind them.]
This is the same bird one of whose wings Glooscap once cut when it had
used too much force. There was for a long time, the story goes, no
moving air, so that the sea became full of slime, and all the fish
died. But Glooscap is said to have repaired the wing of Wochowsen, so
that we now have wind alternating with calm.
BLACK CAT AND THE SABLE.
The translation of the following tale of Pogump, or Black Cat and the
Sable, was given me by Mrs. W. Wallace Brown.[9] The original was told
into the phonograph in Passamaquoddy by Peter Selmore, in the presence
of Noel Josephs. A bark picture of Pookjinsquess leaving the island,
representing the gulls, and Black Cat on the back of the Snail, was
made by Josephs. A copy of this picture is given at the end of this
paper.
[Footnote 9: The version gives only the incidents as remembered, and
can hardly be called a translation.]
Mrs. Brown tells me there is a story which accounts for the hump on
the back of Pookjinsquess, as follows: While leaning against a tree,
some one cut off the tree above and below her shoulders, and she
consequently carries the hump on her back.
Cooloo, the great bird that overspreads all with his wings, was a
chief. His wife was named Pookjinsquess.
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