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!
A story of the old time. In winter, while
travelling, Leux met a number of wolves, which were going in
the same direction that he was. At nightfall the old wolf
built a fire and gave Leux supper. He gave him skins to
cover himself while he slept, but Leux said that the fire
was so warm that he did not need or wish a covering. At
midnight Leux awoke and was almost frozen with cold. The
next morning Leux was obliged to part with the wolves.21
The old wolf said, "How far are you going?" Leux answered,
"Three days' journey." The wolf said then, "I will do for
you the very best thing I can. I will give you three fires,
one for each night." The wolf told him to gather some dry
wood, put it in a pile, jump over it, and it would burn.22
Leux parted from the wolf, and as soon as he was out of
sight he thought he would try to make a fire as directed by
the wolf, remarking that he did not think it would burn. So
he gathered some dry wood, made a little pile, and jumped
over it, as he had been directed. The wood was ignited, as
the wolf had predicted, much to the surprise of Leux. Leux
then put out the fire. After walking a short distance he
kindled another in the same way. This he put out as before,
and at noon tried again, kindling the fire as before and
putting it out immediately after. Now when night came Leux
made a camp and collected a pile of good dry wood and jumped
over it, as he had done previously, and as he had been
directed by the wolf. But this time the wood did not burn.
He repeatedly jumped over the wood, but in vain. The wood
gave off a cloud of smoke, but no blaze appeared. That night
it was bitter cold,-so cold that Leux was nearly frozen to
death.23
One day two young girls (in Leland's account the two girls
are weasels) were walking along, and k'Cheebellock came to
them and carried them to his home in another world high up
in the sky. The girls became homesick in the strange place,
and every day they longed more and more to get back to the
earth. Every day they cried for their homes. At last
k'Cheebellock offered to carry them back to the earth, and
took them up to transport them to their native land. But
k'Cheebellock's wings were so large that he could not get to
the ground on account of the high trees. So he left them in
the top of a very high hemlock in the midst of the forest.24
The girls could not get down out of the tree. As time passed
on, after a long time they saw a young man walking in the
woods. They cried out to him to come and take them down. The
first time they called, the young man did not look up. Now
this man was Leux: they called again, and he replied that he
was very busy building a road trail, and he said he could
not take them down he was so occupied. After a long time the
girls saw Leux pass by again, and they begged him to take
them down from the tree. This time Leux replied that he
would take them down if one of them would consent to become
his wife. To this they agreed.
Now these girls had their hair tied with long shreds of
eelskins. They took off these strings, which bound their
hair behind, and securely tied them in hard knots on the top
branches of the tree upon which they were. Leux climbed the
tree and brought the girls down safe and sound. He then
demanded one of them for his wife.25
But the girls said, "First, it is necessary for you to untie
and bring down our hair bands for us." Leux climbed the tree
to get the eelskin hair bands, but they had tied them so
securely that it took him a long time to loosen the knots.
When he came down the girls had built a large and beautiful
wigwam. They then made Leux blind26
how, the narrator did not know.
Then the maidens call out to him, and now one and now the
other invites him to come to her. As he follows their voices
one of them leads him to fall into the water, and the other
makes him stumble on porcupine quills. Exhausted, Leux then
goes to sleep, wearied out with his exertions, but when he
awoke the maidens had vanished.
The story of the Indian maids who were loved by
k'Cheebellock, the spirit of the air, is told in another way
by Leland, although that part of the story which pertains to
Leux and the hair bands is the same in both accounts. In
Leland's account we have a beautiful legend, Micmac and
Passamaquoddy, in which two maids, called the weasels, are
loved by the stars, not by k'Cheebellock. It is interesting
also to note that the hair bands in this variant of the
story were of eelskin, a fact which is not brought in
Leland's account. k'Cheebellock is a superhuman deity of the
Passamaquoddies, and is represented as a being without body,
but with heart, head, wings, and long legs. He is stronger
than the wind, and is the genius of the air. k'Cheebellock
has sometimes been confounded with Kewok, but Kewok is the
cannibal deity, or a cannibal giant. He is said to have a
heart of ice, and to afflict the Indians in many ways. It is
he who tears the bark from the wigwam, and who frightens men
and women. Kewok is the being in whom a Norse divinity has
been recognized by one or two well-known scholars.
In olden times the hair of women was tied with hair strings
which were securely bound to a flat plate on the outside.
This plate was formerly of shell, or later of metal. To this
hair string was ascribed certain magic powers, especially in
love affairs, and the possession of it was a potent spell.
This site includes some historical
materials that may imply negative
stereotypes reflecting the culture or
language of a particular period or place.
These items are presented as part of the
historical record and should not be
interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in
any way endorse the stereotypes implied
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