Contribution to Passamaquoddy Folk-Lore by J. Walter Fewkes
page 8 of 43 (18%)
page 8 of 43 (18%)
|
followed in identically the same manner in which a Zuñi Indian would
respond. I asked him what it meant. He said that it was a way of showing friendship. He remembered that, when he was a boy, a similar mode of greeting was common among Indians.[3] Mrs. Brown recalled having seen a similar ceremony after she was received into the tribe. The meaning of this similarity I leave to others to conjecture. In a legend mentioned by Mrs. Brown concerning a game of "All-tes-teg-enuk," played by a youth against an old man, the latter, who has magic power, has several times regained his youth by inhaling the breath of his young opponent.[4] [Footnote 3: My surprise at this coincidence was very great, but I confess that I was also interested to hear from the lips of my Indian friend, at parting, the familiar Italian word, "Addio."] [Footnote 4: _Some Indoor and Outdoor Games of the Wabanaki Indians_, Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, Section II. 1889.] THE SNAKE DANCE. The Passamaquoddies, no doubt, in old times, had many dances, sacred and secular. Some of these were very different from what they now are, and in consequence it is not easy to recognize their meaning. Indians declare that in their youth dances were much more common. Possibly some of these will never be danced again. That the Micmacs, neighbors of the Passamaquoddies, had dances in which elaborate masks were worn, seems to be indicated by pictographs found on the rocks in Nova Scotia. Mrs. Brown has in her possession a head-band made of silver, similar to those worn in ancient times on festive occasions, and |
|