The translation of the following tale of Pogump, or Black Cat and the
Sable, was given me by Mrs. W. Wallace Brown.[9] The original was told
into the phonograph in Passamaquoddy by Peter Selmore, in the presence
of Noel Josephs. A bark picture of Pookjinsquess leaving the island,
representing the gulls, and Black Cat on the back of the Snail, was
made by Josephs. A copy of this picture is given at the end of this
paper.
[Footnote 9: The version gives only the incidents as remembered, and
can hardly be called a translation.]
Mrs. Brown tells me there is a story which accounts for the hump on
the back of Pookjinsquess, as follows: While leaning against a tree,
some one cut off the tree above and below her shoulders, and she
consequently carries the hump on her back.
Cooloo, the great bird that overspreads all with his wings, was a
chief. His wife was named Pookjinsquess. The Sable and the Black Cat
went in a stone canoe to a place where they make maple sugar. In this
journey they were lost, and separated from each other. Sable in his
wanderings came to a peculiarly shaped wigwam. He went in and found
within a large Snake. The Snake said he was glad the Sable had come,
as he was very hungry. The Snake told him to go into the woods and get
a straight stick, so that when he pierced him he would not tear open
his entrails. Sable then went out and sang in a loud voice a song
which he hoped his brother the Black Cat would hear and come to his
aid.[10] The Black Cat heard him and came to him. Then the Sable told
the Black Cat the trouble he was in, and how the Snake was going to
kill him. The Black Cat told Sable not to be afraid, but that he would
kill the big Snake. He told him that he would lie down behind the
trunk of a hemlock tree which had fallen, and that Sable should search
out a stick that was very crooked, obeying the commands of the big
Snake. When he had found a stick, he should carry it to the Snake, who
would complain that the stick was not straight enough. The Black Cat
instructed Sable to reply that he would straighten it in the fire,
holding it there until the steam came out of the end.[11] While the
Snake was watching the process of straightening the stick and the exit
of the steam, Black Cat told Sable that he should strike the Snake
over the head. The Sable sought out the most crooked stick he could
find, and then returned to the wigwam where the Snake was. The Snake
said the stick was too crooked. The Sable replied, "I can straighten
it," and held it in the fire.[12] When it was hot he struck the Snake
on the head and blinded him.[13] The Snake then followed the Sable,
and, as he passed over the hemlock trunk, Black Cat killed him, and
they cut him in small fragments. Black Cat and Sable called all the
animals and birds to the feast; the caribous, wild horses, and swift
animals and birds were first to arrive at the feast. The Turtle was
the last, and got only the blood. Then the Black Cat and Sable
returned home to Cooloo, whose wife was Pookjinsquess. She thought she
would like to have for her husband Black Cat if she could get rid of
Cooloo. But Black Cat offended Pookjinsquess and made her angry. To
make way with him she invited him to go with her for gulls' eggs. She
took him across the water in a canoe to an island which was very
distant. There they filled baskets with eggs and started home in the
canoe. A large, very beautiful bird flew over them. They both shot
their arrows at it. The bird fell, and Black Cat jumped into the
water to get what they had shot. When he got to where the bird fell he
could not find it. Pookjinsquess went off, singing as she went the
following song, which has been written out from the phonographic
record by Mr. Cheney, and left Black Cat on the island.
[Footnote 10: Probably Sable had a _m' toulin_, or magic power, and
his song was heard by Black Cat, although miles away beyond hills and
mountains.]
[Footnote 11: Evidently to excite the curiosity of the Snake.]
[Footnote 12: The fire was outside the wigwam, and the Snake put his
head out of the wigwam, when he was struck. Possibly the Snake watched
the process of straightening the stick through curiosity, and was off
his guard.]
[Footnote 13: In another story which was told me, Glooscap turned the
eyes of the Snake white in the following manner:--
"Once on a time Glooscap was cooking something in his wigwam, and the
Snake wished to see what it was. So the Snake crawled up the outside
of the wigwam and looked down through the smoke-hole into the cooking
vessel. But Glooscap, who was stirring the pot of cooking food, held
in his hand a great ladle. He noticed the Snake peering in at the
smoke-hole, and, filling the bowl of the ladle full of the hot food,
threw it into the eyes of the Snake. From that time the eyes of the
Snake have been white."]
[Music illustration:
Er tim lee ber nits nah o o o o Wait for me.