Contribution to Passamaquoddy Folk-Lore by J. Walter Fewkes
page 27 of 43 (62%)
page 27 of 43 (62%)
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not burn. He repeatedly jumped over the wood, but in vain. The wood
gave off a cloud of smoke, but no blaze appeared. That night it was bitter cold,--so cold that Leux was nearly frozen to death.[23] [Footnote 23: The above story is told substantially as here given by Leland, but with many additions. The source from which Leland obtained his account is not given. The account which I give is from Noel Josephs. In Leland's account Leux froze to death.] One day two young girls (in Leland's account the two girls are weasels) were walking along, and k'Cheebellock came to them and carried them to his home in another world high up in the sky. The girls became homesick in the strange place, and every day they longed more and more to get back to the earth. Every day they cried for their homes. At last k'Cheebellock offered to carry them back to the earth, and took them up to transport them to their native land. But k'Cheebellock's wings were so large that he could not get to the ground on account of the high trees. So he left them in the top of a very high hemlock in the midst of the forest.[24] [Footnote 24: Notice, also, that the thunder-birds were not able to approach the trees, and the Indian who was turned into a thunder-bird was warned not to approach the forest, for he moved so rapidly that he would get caught in the crotch of a tree.] The girls could not get down out of the tree. As time passed on, after a long time they saw a young man walking in the woods. They cried out to him to come and take them down. The first time they called, the young man did not look up. Now this man was Leux: they called again, and he replied that he was very busy building a road [trail], and he |
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