1890.] [Gatschet. 



enmity between the two tribes must have been at a high pitch to prompt 

 a man to perform such an act against a defenseless woman. 



Micmac tradition states, however, that in earlier times a better feeling 

 existed between the two peoples. The Red Indians certainly were on 

 good terms with the "Mountaineers" or Nuskapi of Labrador, whose 

 language is of the same family as that of the Micmacs. 



The above anecdote fully proves that Shanandithit became acquainted 

 with individuals of the Micmac tribe, and this explains why Cormack has 

 so many Micmac terms mixed with his Beothuk words. He was unable 

 to distinguish the ones from the others. Mudty, "bad," is a Micmac, not 

 a Beothuk word. 



A CAPTURE FOLLOWED BY A WEDDING. 



The capture of another Beothuk woman is related at length in the fol- 

 lowing traditionary account, which Rev. Silas Tertius Rand, of Hantsport, 

 Nova Scotia, sent me in August, 1886. The event may have occurred as 

 early as the beginning of the nineteenth century, for Mr. Rand heard it 

 from an aged woman of Hantsport, Mrs. Nancy Jeddore, and she heard it 

 from her father, Joseph Nowlan, who died about A. D. 1870, ninety-five 

 years old. Nowlan had at one time stayed with the family of which that 

 Beothuk woman was the mother and mistress, in Newfoundland, and had 

 also lived long with the Eskimos. His regular home was in Nova Scotia, 

 at St. Margaret's Bay, on the side of the Atlantic ocean. 



The history of this woman is rather extraordinary, and with serious peo- 

 ple I might incur the peril of being regarded as pitching into the domain 

 of romance. But to avoid all suspicion, I shall transcribe the account 

 with the very words of my correspondent, who made use of the same 

 provincialisms, which have served in delivering the "story " to him. The 

 absence of the Beothuk woman's name is a great deficiency in the tale. 

 Some of the more learned remarks will be readily recognized as additions 

 made by Mr. Rand, whose works prove him to have been a studious ex- 

 pounder of the Micmac grammar and lexicon (died October 4, 1889). 



"The Micmacs have been in the habit of crossing over to Newfoundland 

 to hunt 'time out of mind.' They called it Uktakumcook, mainland; 

 so they supposed at the time when the name was given that it was not an 

 island. Still it is as good or perhaps better than the silly and untruthful 

 long name Newfoundland. The Micmacs could never 'scrape acquaint- 

 ance ' with the Indians of the other tribe there. Still, they found them 

 out, also their red custom (their skin was quite white) and their power of 

 magic, by which they became aware of the distant approach of strangers, 

 when they fled on their snowshoes for their lives. But once three young 

 hunters from 'Micmac-Land,' Meghum-ahghee, came upon three huts 

 belonging to them, which were built up with logs around a ' cradle hol- 

 low,' so as to afford protection from the guns of the foe. These huts had 

 just been deserted, but the three men gave chase, came as near to the 



