the salt water, and see all those tracks on the sand and shore of it.

"So they made up their clothes, and they started in the morning. In the evening they come to a little cove, and right opposite them they seen fires on the other shore of it; first fires, and then people. Some made their own camps, and some they stayed overnight without camps. The Boy and Girl they went round this little cove till they come to the first camp. “Well, in that first camp the people was Old Bear and Young Marten. Next was Old Chief's, — and he had awful

big eyes, but he was Old Owl, you know; in them days just same as people! 'Nother camp was a widow woman's; she had a lot of girls, and she was Mis' Mink. She had a smart boy to help her, name Weasel.

"When Boy and Girl come to Old Bear's camp they stayed, for Old Bear she ask them. Girl was helping Old Bear best way she kin, and the young fellow her Brother was getting wood the best way he kin, and helping Marten. They worked awful well; better than Old Bear ever had seen.

"One day Old Chief was saying: 'We ought to get this Boy and Girl to be camping with us always. They work awful hard work, and they are company for us, because we can understand them; they talk our language.'

"So the people in those camps asks them, 'if they would get married there if they got the man and got the woman?' Says they, 'No! Because we have to go back home, not knowing how soon.'

"Old Chief said (and he let them go out first, before he said it): 'What we'll do, we'll make it so he never kin go back, and then his Sister she stay with him. We'll get "" —

The old lady broke off. "I don' know what I'm going to call what they get." She said an Indian word that I knew to mean "the great reptile," and translated it, “Great big lizard, kind of horned, awful deep jaw-one of them--I think most like crocodile!" (It was the first

thing I had ever heard in support of the tradition that the Micmacs came north from Florida, and if I might have substituted alligator for crocodile, I held my tongue.) She continued with decision:

:

"We'll get crocodile, and we'll take the horns off it"" (I am an unlearned person, and there may be crocodiles with horns; I make no stipulations about it); "and we'll get the old Witch to wish those horns on the Boy's head, so they can't come off. But how we kin do it?'

"Well, he think and think. Says he: 'We'll make party; only for men, not for women, so that Girl she can't come. Every man will have his form of arm what he'll use when he's hunting, and what he'll use in war with strange Indians; bow an' arrows and spears, and little tommyhawk and butcher's knife. We'll get up after we done eating, and we'll sing" She interrupted herself. "What'll I call neskowā? I don't know that word in English. Not war'hup," she said it indescribably, with a cold and rising inflection; and I interrupted. I know neskowa, it means to dance a magic dance, chanting the while a chant which is not used in churches; each man takes his turn at it, every one making his own song of what he has done, and what he will do, — and at this present day it is well known that during the duration of his neskowā the singer is impervious to bullets. It is not a blood-warming performance, even now. I said, "Kejeek, I know it!"

The old lady nodded. "My Mr. Paul, he knows all them old songs," she said casually. "You get him some day; tell him, 'neskowā a little for me.'" And Mr. Paul is a pillar of the church, and respected. They are not pretty songs.

Mrs. Paul puffed at her pipe, and thought a little.

"Well," she continued, "well, says Old Chief, 'we'll get up and neskowā; every man'll make his own song of what he would do, and every one'll go round and shake hands; and while we shake hands we'll put those horns on that boy.'

"Well, Girl she told her Brother: 'My

dear, they call each other together to put up some rig on you. That's what you were wishing for when you wish for people. But when you must go to this party don't forget me, not even for one minute; while you remember me nobody kin get at you.'

"But the Boy went away quite cheerful to the party. And when they was done eating, Old Chief done like he said he would. He got up, and he sing that neskowā all round the camp; and the rest of them all put those crocodile's horns on their heads, turn by turn, and say, 'How would I look if I had these horns on my head?' An' 'nother one would do the same, till they got all through. The Boy was the last one.

"And when he put those horns on, he could n't took them off. He forgot all about his Sister, and those horns stuck on his head. Old Chief and all his men were so pleased to get those horns stuck on his head, that they made an awful hurrah, all of them. And then all those men and women they cleared out their camps, and moved away from that place in canoes: since the Boy and his Sister would not marry one of them, nor be one of their people, they could stay now where they were, alone.

"The Boy came home to his Sister. He looked very sad.

"She told him: 'Well, you got what you were seeking for when you wished to see other people! You always said that you liked me, and would never forget me; and now it shows that you did forget me. Now you brought us here to those people, and they leave us,—no camp, not anybody left, and you not able to home go because of those horns fixed on your head.'

"He sat down by an elm tree, and she was making a camp of the leavings of those people that had gone away; and while she was making it her Brother's horns growed that fast they twisted round the elm tree, so tight he could n't get them off. He got to sit there. Then his Sister made little shed for him, round

the elm tree, and she finished her camp for herself. And he sits there in his little shed, and she in her camp.

"She feel pretty bad. She feel worse than if she had stayed at home, and never seen nobody. One day she feel so bad she went to work and washed herself, and combed her hair, and put on her best clothing, and painted her cheeks; and she went over to where there was a flat rock stuck out into the sea, and was sitting down there and singing lonesome tunes to herself. She commenced to cry, and she cried till by and by she went to sleep. While she was sleeping there was a Whale going beside the rock, for there was deep water round it, and what he seen was a little young girl laying down; and he never see any prettier girl than that. He stopped, and he change himself into a man in a canoe.

"And this," said Mrs. Paul, “is where I don't understand 'bout the men and animals; seems like as if you could n't tell always which was which. So I don't believe 'em now when they say that birds and the beasts they don't have no souls, - but I don' know, and you don' know! "That man that was a Whale, he took his paddle and lifted up the Girl with it, and he put her in his canoe. Then he paddled home to his own house.

"He got a Mother and Sister. When he get home he say to his Sister:

"You go down to my canoe and wake up your sister-in-law; and tell her to come to her dinner.'

"This Whale-girl she was so pleased that she run; she'd never had no company at all, where she lived. Looking in canoe, there was the girl, just waking up. Says the Whale-girl:

"My dear sister-in-law, get up and come home.'

"They went home together, and when they got in the old Whale-woman look up. Says she, 'Well, daughter-in-law, go up 'long side of your man.'

"And that's the way," said Mrs. Paul, "that us Indians used to get married before we knew the Scriptures. The old

people, you know, they sit at home; and when their son bring in a girl, if they like her they says, 'Come up to the back part of camp, daughter-in-law,' - that the place of honor. After that, they make good cheer, and feast for wedding; and that's the way the Whale-woman did.

"So that Girl she was married, and she got so contented that her mind was put away from her Brother. She had company, and they used her very well. She liked the place, and she liked the people, and she liked her man very well; with him she was awfully pleased. She had her own prayers yet; the Whales they never pray, but they would n't hinder her from saying her prayers. She knowed a great deal, and she used to tell them stories about Kesoolk, our Creator and Great Chief, as well as she kin. They got into her way, every one of 'em, to honor their Maker. She was thankful to Kesoolk for everything she had got; but these Whales used to grab everything, and never thank for it till she learned them. They got so that they got along real good together.

"She got a baby, little boy. By and by the baby was one year old; and one day, looking at the baby, something struck her that she remembered her Brother. She could n't help herself, and she was crying.

"Old Woman Whale badly struck when she seen her daughter-in-law crying; she thought she was sick.

"My dear child,' she says, 'what wrong with you? You sick?' "No, dear mother.'

where I come from, and he was wished them crocodile horns on his head; when I came away they were growing so fast they were growing round the tree he was sat down under. By this time he must be dead; and I'm so wishing to see him once more.'

"Ho,' the Whale-girl says, 'those horns can be cured off! I got simple cure to cure them off. When my brother come home to-night, if the sun goes down in red cloud, you pinch little baby; make him cry whole evening. If my brother he ask what you with the child, you wrong tell him, "He's foolish! He's crying after that red cloud he see when sun was down.'

"Well, this Girl carried the child out to meet his father, because he's sure to come home after sundown; and when she look at the cloud it was red. So when her man come home she pinched the young one. He cried, and cried, and cried.

"Her man says, 'What wrong with

the child?'

"Girl told him, 'He has such a simple notion that he cried after that red cloud he see, when the sun was down.'

"Is that all?' said her man, and he laugh. 'Well, we see about that in the morning!'

"The child stop crying, because his mother did n't pinch him any more, and in the morning the Whale-man he start for that red cloud; and he brought it home, mind you, that next night! Child did n't play with it, 'cause of course he never thinking nothing about it. But his mother she put it away carefully, rolled in a little bark box. Next night says the Whale-girl:

up

"Yellow cloud to-night. You pinch this child hard, so to make him cry for this yellow cloud which comes now with sundown, and to-morrow morning his father he go and fetch it for him. And to-morrow morning you must get up early, soon as he has gone, and make ready to do whatever I tell you.'

"So when the Whale-man gone, the Whale-girl and her sister-in-law were

ready. They went off by themselves in the canoe the Whale-woman had told them to make when she see her daughterin-law cry, and took the child in his little cradle, laced up like Indian child is carried. The Whale-girl says to her mother, 'We going over to little island to see if we kin pick few berries.' But they started for good, and they went over to the Girl's home.

"Whale-girl told her, 'I know your home where the Whale my brother got you;' and she steer canoe herself. They paddle hard.

"But just when this Whale-man got that yellow cloud the baby cry for, he begin to feel bad; he know something wrong in his home. He begin hurry for home. When he got there, they was n't there; not the Whale-girl, nor the child and his mother.

"Old Woman Whale said, "They started for picking berries, ever since you started in the morning.'

"Says he, "They'll not picking berries! My sister she takes her sister-inlaw home. They made some plan up for to take her home.' He started after them.

"Says the Whale-girl to her sister-inlaw, 'My dear, he coming after us! Very fast.' Was n't she frightened! 'But he'll not kill us; only take us back. If he comes handy, you drop the cradle in water, and paddle away all you kin.'

"And he was coming so handy they saw the water raised up where he blow. But next time he blow was right handy. The Whale-girl told her, 'He's coming fast!'

"At that she threw the cradle into the water, and he hollered, "This poor little baby's cradle fall into the water!' And he caught it, and pet it up, and sing songs to it, till they went very far, and he put it into his bosom. And then they only could see the place where they were going.

"When he too handy again the Girl went and throw the stick that raised the veil from off her baby's face, and he pick

that up. When he come handy again she took her baby's little clothes and throw them in the sea; and he taking so much time to pick them all up. Then once more he will overtake them, if they had n't anything more to put in the water. Thinking about her baby's pillow, she emptied all the feathers out of it in the water. When he picked them up, one by one, they were at the shore.

"The Whale he won't come too handy to shore, and he stopped; and advised her to take good care of that child, and not to cross water of any distance wide, because he sure to catch her crossing. The Whale-girl she took that little box what the red cloud was in, and says she,

"My sister-in-law, when we come to your Brother's shed what you built over him, don't look at him, don't stop at all, don't feel sorry for him, make your own way to your own camp what you built that same day.'

"But when she passed her Brother spoke to her. 'My dear sister, I'm living yet; very miserable, very poor, very hungry, and very tired sitting.'

"She never looked at him, nor touched her heart for him saying this. She passed by.

"This Whale-girl she went and looked at him. She anointed him with the red cloud out of the little box, and rubbed him in it, and melted some of it in water, and gave it to him to drink. When he was sitting there he was nothing but skeleton, but after she rubbed him, he was filled out all over. Then he stood up, and his horns was off, and hair was where his horns had growed; and she dressed him with fine clothes. He thanked her for doing this for him, and call her his dear wife," and that was another quick marriage!"He come in to the camp where his Sister was waiting, and oh, they was proud to see one another!

"They made good home for to stay there; and they stay there till it was winter. There was a little cove there, and one day they went to it for boughs for