While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
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.
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.
I think there are internal evidences of the
antiquity of this song, although the English
sentence, "Wait for me," shows the modern
character of certain of the words. This
sentence seems to supply the place of
unknown Indian words. Several Indians
assured me that the song was old. According
to Leland, Pookjinsquess sang the following
words when she left Black Cat:
Niked ha Pogump min nekuk
Netsnil sagamawin!
Which he translates,
I have left the Black Cat on an island;
I shall be the chief of the Fishers now.
The best I can make out of the phonographic
record given me by Peter Selmore of the
words which she sang is,-
Er tin le ber nits nah o o o o.
Wait for me.
Nick ne ar ber yer hay ey.
The second line sounds like the English
"Wait for me," but is not distinct. The end
of the first line is violently explosive.
The third line ends in a word expressive of
strong feeling, possibly revenge.
In a version of this story by Leland,
Pookjinsquess leaves Black Cat on the
island, and paddles away, singing songs. In
his story, Black Cat was carried off from
the island by the Fox, who swam out to get
him.
Black Cat called to the gulls to defile
Pookjinsquess with their dung. They flew
over her, and as she looked up they covered
her face with bird-lime.14
They then burst out in a laugh, which they
still have, when they saw how changed her
face was.
Black Cat wandered about the island, until
at last he found a wigwam of the
grandfather, the "Morning Star," who told
him he was on a very dangerous island. He
told him it was the habit of the Great
Beaver to destroy every one who came to the
island.15
He told the Black Cat to climb a tree, and
when he needed help to call out for him.
Night coming on, water began to rise about
the base of the tree, and the Giant Beaver
came and began to gnaw at its base. The
friendly ants16
tried to keep the tree upright, but the
water continued to rise and the Beaver kept
on gnawing. Then the Black Cat in his sore
dilemma called out, "Grandpa, come!" The
grandfather responded, "I am coming; wait
till I get my moccasins." The water rose
higher. Again Black Cat called out, "Come,
grandpa, come!" "I am coming," his
grandfather said; "wait till I get my cap."
Again Black Cat called, "Hurry, grandpa!"
"Wait until I get my pipe," said the
grandparent. But the waters had reached him.
The tree swayed to and fro. "Come, grandpa,
come!" said Black Cat for the last time.
Then he said, "I am coming; wait till I open
my door;" and then he opened the door of his
wigwam and the Morning Star came forth, the
water began to recede, and the Beaver swam
away.17
Then Black Cat's grandfather told him to
come down, and he would send him over the
water to the other shore on the back of the
Wewillemuck. Black Cat thought that
Wewillemuck was too small to carry him over,
but his grandfather told him to seat himself
between his horns, and when he wished
Wewillemuck18
to go faster he should tap him on the horns.
The grandfather then gave his grandson a
small bow and arrows, and put him on the
snail's back between his horns.
As they were crossing the channel,
Wewillemuck said to the Black Cat, "When we
get near shore tell me." But Black Cat gave
Wewillemuck a sharp rap on the horns, and
the snail jumped forward and went so far
that both went a far distance inland.
Wewillemuck said, "Why did you not tell me
we were near the land? Now I cannot get back
to the water again." But Black Cat took his
small bow and arrows, and with them carried
Wewillemuck back to the water. So pleased
was he that he said, "Scrape from my horns
some fine dust, and, whatever you wish, put
this powder upon it and it is yours." So
Black Cat scraped off some powder from the
horns of Wewillemuck.
The Raven was told to build a wigwam for
Cooloo, who was chief. Pogump (Black Cat)
went to see the chief, and killed him with
the powder. Black Cat went to see
Pookjinsquess; he scattered a ring of powder
around her wigwam, and then set it on fire.
It blazed up and ignited the wigwam, burning
up the old woman Pookjinsquess; whose ashes,
blown about by the winds, made the
mosquitoes.19
Leland, in his version of this story,
represents the Black Cat as identical with
Glooscap,20
and the Sable as a boy who had a flute by
which he could entice to himself all the
animals. The story of the sticks is similar,
but the cutting up of the serpent is not
mentioned. He says that Black Cat, who is
preparing his arrows, and will return and
destroy all, is Glooscap, who in another
story kills the Snake, cuts him in
fragments, and invites all the animals to
eat him. The Turtle, the grandfather
(adopted), arrives last, and only gets the
blood for his share.
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