IN INDIAN TENTS

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IN INDIAN TENTS

Stories

TOLD BY PENOBSCOT, PASSAMAQUODDY
AND MICMAC INDIANS

TO

ABBY L. ALGER




BOSTON
ROBERTS BROTHERS
1897{4}

Copyright, 1897,
By Roberts Brothers.

University Press:
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A.

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This Book

IS

AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED

TO

CHARLES GODFREY LELAND,

TO WHOSE INSPIRATION IT OWES

ITS ORIGIN.

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PREFACE

In the summer of 1882 and 1883, I was associated with Charles G. Lelandin the collection of the material for his book “The Algonquin Legends ofNew England,” published by Houghton and Mifflin in 1884.

I found the work so delightful, that I have gone on with it since,whenever I found myself in the neighborhood of Indians. The supply oflegends and tales seems to be endless, one supplementing and completinganother, so that there may be a dozen versions of one tale, eachcontaining something new. I have tried, in this little book, in everycase, to bring these various versions into a single whole; though Iscarcely hope to give my readers the pleasure which I found in hearingthem from the Indian story-tellers. Only the very old men and womenremember these stories now; and though{8} they know that their legendswill soon be buried with them, and forgotten, it is no easy task toinduce them to repeat them. One may make half-a-dozen visits, tell hisown best stories, and exert all his arts of persuasion in vain, thenstroll hopelessly by some day, to be called in to hear some marvellousbit of folk-lore. These old people have firm faith in the witches,fairies, and giants of whom they tell; and any trace of amusement orincredulity would meet with quick indignation and reserve.

Two of these stories have been printed in Appleton’s “Popular ScienceMonthly,” and are in the English Magazine “Folk-Lore.”

I am under the deepest obligation to my friend, Mrs. Wallace Brown, ofCalais, Maine, who has generously contributed a number of stories fromher own collection.

The woman whose likeness appears on the cover of this book was a famousstory-teller, one of the few nearly pure-blooded Indians in thePassamaquoddy tribe. She was over eighty-seven when this picture wastaken.{9}

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