🧚 Opening, part 3

The Micmacs are the easternmost and by far the most numerous of the Wabanaki remnants.1 They are to be found in various places in the Canadian provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward’s Island, and Newfoundland.2 Their grade of intelligence is much lower than that of the other members of the same family, but they still have a vast store of folk-lore, legends, and poems which is perishing for want of interested collectors.3 Their language differs so greatly from the dialects of the Penobscots, Abenakis, and Passamaquoddies that the members of these clans always use English or French when communicating with their Micmac neighbors, while an intelligent Passamaquoddy can without difficulty understand a Penobscot or Abenaki, if the dialect is pronounced slowly.4

The story of the enforced westward wanderings of the ill-fated Delawares or Lenâpe has been told in detail by my late friend Dr. Brinton (“The Lenâpe and their Legends,” pp.5 122–6).6

At the present day this famous tribe, whose three clans--the Minsi, the Unami, and the Unalachtigo--were once the dominant native race in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and parts of New York State is represented by but a few bands living on scattered reservations, some in Indian Territory and some in Ontario, Canada.7 The Delawares of Indian Territory have quite lost their identity as a tribe of Indians, as they have been incorporated with the Cherokee Nation, by whose chief and council they are governed.8 The last recognized Delaware chief of this division of the tribe was Charles Jurney-cake, whose daughters are now married to white men.9 These Indians occupy lands in the Muskogee Agency, situated in the northwestern part of the Cherokee Nation.10 There are still about eight hundred Delawares in this region, all of whom moved to the Cherokee country from Kansas, in 1867.11 I am informed that a few members of the race linger on at New Westfield, near Ottawa, Kansas, most of whom are under the charge of the Moravian Church.12

In Ontario, Canada, there are only about three hundred in all; one hundred at Hagersville, on the Six Nations’ (Iroquois) Reserve (Chief Nelles Montour), one hundred at Munceytown, and the same number at Moraviantown, which is the seat of a Moravian mission.13 The Canadian Delawares are all Protestants, belonging, for the most part, either to the Church of England or to the Moravians.14 [11]15

Brinton (_op. cit.16 _, pp.17 91 ff.) has pointed out the chief differences between the two ancient dialects of the Lenâpe, viz.: the Unami-Unalachtigo and the Minsi.18 Of these, the Minsi is spoken by all the Canadian Delawares.19 In this connection, however, it is interesting to note that, in a letter to Dr. Brinton, dated Moraviantown, 1884, Chief Gottlieb Tobias states that three aged persons were then living who could still talk the other dialect.20 It is evident that most of the Delawares of Indian Territory use the Unami-Unalachtigo, since Chief Montour, of Hagersville, Ont., writes that, when he visited the Cherokee settlement of his race some years ago, he could only understand with difficulty the speech of his congeners resident there.21 On the other hand, he asserts that the Delawares near Ottawa, Kansas, use pure Minsi.22

Chief Montour is a highly intelligent and well educated Indian who takes a deep interest in the language and lore of his tribe.23 The Delaware witchcraft tale given in the following collection about the Muttóntoe was sent to me by him.24

The lore of the Maine and eastern Canadian Wabanaki may be said to center chiefly around the clown-like being known to the Passamaquoddies as Kulóskap and to the Penobscots as Klûskâbe.25 My coadjutor, Mr. Leland, has ably treated of the nature of this purely American creation in his Algonquin Legends, pp.26 15–139.27 Kulóskap (Klûskâbe) is a god-man of truly Indian type who undoubtedly represents the principle of good, and particularly good nature, as opposed to his twin-brother Malsum the Wolf, who may be called the Ahrimân of the Wabanaki, although this is almost too dignified a term.28 It is highly interesting to notice that these twins were born from an unknown divine mother, the good Kulóskap in the natural manner, and the evil Wolf through the woman’s side, a method which he deliberately chose in order to kill his mother.29 The tendency of Kulóskap, in spite of his name, was essentially benevolent.30 Oddly enough Kulóskap means “the liar,” from a stem √_klûsk_, “lie” + _ap_, “a man, person, one who stands.”31 The stem appears in Penobscot only in compounds; cf.32 _klûskachemuwâgon_, “a lie falsehood.”33 This appellation, uncomplimentary as it sounds to our ears, was not really meant in this sense by the Indians.34 Kulóskap is called the deceiver, not because he deceives or injures man, but because he is clever enough to lead his enemies astray, the highest possible virtue to the early American mind.35 Kulóskap was at once the creator and friend of Man, and, strangely enough, he made the Indian (or Man; the terms are synonymous) from the ash tree.36 The following collection of songs, mostly from Micmac sources, bearing especially on the doings of Kulóskap, has been arranged by Mr. Leland and myself into a sort of epic embracing all the native lore known to us concerning this personage.37 The same culture-hero appears in the legends of the entire Algonkin family, although often under another name.38 In the present collection, to secure uniformity, the single name of Kulóskap has been used throughout.39

Wabanaki mythology was really pure Shamanism, seeing a spirit in every tree and waterfall, and a malignant or benevolent influence in many animals.40 Like most barbaric races, these people were also fervent believers in witchcraft, a superstition which still survives in the minds of many of the older Indians.41 Any missionary to the Passamaquoddies, or to their kindred, the New Brunswick Milicetes, the Penobscots of Oldtown, Me., or to the Micmacs and Abenakis of Quebec, will admit that belief in the ancient Shamanistic sorcery among these Indians has by no means died out.42 Among the Passamaquoddies and Milicetes particularly, there is still a perfect mine of material relating to the wizards and their power over other men and over the curious beings with which the Indians have peopled the mysterious forests of their country.43

In pre-Christian times the Passamaquoddies, like their other Algic kindred, were firm believers in the almost unlimited power of their _Mʾdeolinʾwuk_ or wizards, belief in the existence of many of whom still remains, subordinate, of course, to the Catholic doctrine, which nearly all the Indians profess--there being, I am informed, only three or four Protestant Passamaquoddy families.44

A few examples of these sorcerers’ power are described below in the curiously curt style of Algic narrative.45 [12] We see from these tales that the wizards could transform themselves into animals at will; that they could cast a spell or curse on an enemy, even though he might also be a _Mʾdeolin_; that they could violate the laws of nature so far as to walk in hard ground, sinking up to the ankles or knees at every step, and, finally--that they could communicate with each other telepathically.46 I need hardly comment on the first two and the fourth of these wonders, as they are common among all Shamanistic conjurers, but the third phenomenon, the power to sink into hard ground while walking, is, I believe, characteristically American.47 Rink states that this is not an unusual feat among the conjurers of the Greenland Eskimo, who frequently sink into rocky and frozen ground “as if in snow.”48 The trick is probably done by some peculiar way of stooping, or is merely suggested, possibly by means of hypnotic influence.49 Leland compares here, however, the Old Norse statements regarding their wizards, who occasionally sank into the ground and who had power to pass through earth with the same ease as through air or water (Algonquin Legends, p. 342).50 It would be hardly permissible to draw a parallel between the ancient Norsemen and the northern Indians on this account, as the case Leland cites is that of a conjurer who disappeared into the ground head downwards, when he was stabbed at by a foe.51 It should be noticed that in the following tale, my Passamaquoddy authority did not see the actual feat, but only the deep tracks of the wizard where he had sunk into the earth “the night before.”52