19. Pronunciation of the names of the fabulous personages
mentioned in Passamaquoddy stories.
20-22. Story of the birth of a medicine-man who turned man
into a cedar tree.
23. An ordinary conversation between the two Indians, Noel
Josephs and Peter Selmore.
24-27. Modern Passamaquoddy story, introducing many
incidents of ordinary life.
29-35. Story of Pogump and the Sable, and of their killing a
great snake. How the former was left on an island by
Pookjinsquess, and how the Morning Star saved him from
Quahbet, the giant beaver.[2]
[Footnote 2: I have given below English versions of these, or the
Indian stories told in English.]
It appears to me that the selections above given convey an idea of
some of the more important linguistic features of the Passamaquoddy
language, but it is needless to reiterate that these results and
observations are merely experimental. In another place I hope to
reproduce the stories in the original, by phonetic methods. I have
here given English versions of some of the stories recorded, as
translated for me by the narrator, or by Mrs. Brown, and added some
explanations which may be of assistance to a person listening when
songs or stories are being rendered on the phonograph.
The majority of the remnants of the Passamaquoddy tribe are found in
three settlements in the State of Maine,--one at Pleasant Point, near
Eastport; another at Peter Dana's Point, near Princeton; and a third
at a small settlement called The Camps, on the border of the city of
Calais.
The manners and customs of this people are fast dying out. The old
pointed caps, ornamented with beads, and the silver disks, which they
once wore, are now rarely seen except in collections of curiosities.
The old games, dances, and songs are fast becoming extinct, and the
Passamaquoddy has lost almost everything which characterized his
fathers.
There still remain among the Passamaquoddies certain nicknames borne
by persons of the tribe. These nicknames are sometimes the names of
animals, and in older times were more numerous than at present.
Possibly these names are the survivals of the gentile or clan name
once universal among them as among other Indian tribes.
I spent several days at Calais, while collecting traditions with the
phonograph, and also visited Pleasant Point, where I made the
acquaintance of some of the most prominent Indians, including the
governor. Most of them speak English very well, and are ready to grant
their assistance in preserving their old stories and customs. The
younger members of the tribe are able to read and write, and are
acquainted with the ordinary branches of knowledge as taught in our
common schools. I should judge from my own observations that the
language is rapidly dying out. The white women who have married into
the tribe have generally acquired the language more or less perfectly.
In their intercourse with each other, Indians make use of their own
language.
In taking these records with the phonograph I had an interesting
experience. The first time I met Noel Josephs, I greeted him after the
Zuñi fashion. I raised my hand to his mouth, and inhaled from it. He
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.]