WAWENOCK MYTH TEXTS FROM MAINE 



By Frank G. Speck 



INTRODUCTION" 



It is one of the laments of ethnology that the smaller tribes of the 

 northern coast of New England faded from the scene of history 

 before we were able to grasp the content of their languages and 

 culture. At this late day practically all have dwindled below the 

 power of retaining the memory of their own institutions — their link 

 with the past. Nevertheless, some few groups along the coast have 

 maintained existence in one form or another down to the present. 

 In regions somewhat more remote, the tribes of the Wabanaki group, 

 hovering within the shelter of the northeastern wilderness, success- 

 fully struggled through the trials of the transition period, preserved 

 their oral inheritance, and even, to a considerable degree, the 

 practices of their early culture. Here on native soil still dwell 

 the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy. On the western and southern 

 boundaries of Maine the Wabanald bands escaped extinction only 

 by fleeing to Canada, where their descendants now live at the 

 village of St. Francis. Of the tribal names included in this group, 

 however, one in particular, the Wawenock, has long been reckoned 

 among the obsolete, though several times the suggestion had 

 appeared in print that the Indians residing at Becancour, Province 

 of Quebec, might be its survivors. In 1912 my interest in possi- 

 bilities of the sort culminated in the intention to follow up this 

 source myself. The results were extremely gratifying, for during 

 the winter's visit traces were uncovered of those eternal values of 

 native language and tradition, which happily were still preserved 

 in the memory of Frangois Neptune (pi. 13), one of the Wawenock 

 men. My object in the following pages is to present part of the 

 literary material obtained from him, to which I have prefixed a 

 sketch of the tribe's history. 



The proper name of the tribe is, however, Walina'Jciak, "People of 

 the Bay country." ' The term is current among the Wawenock sur- 

 vivors of to-day, as well as among their neighbors and former allies, 

 the affiliated tribes originally from southern Maine, which now 

 constitute the St. Francis Abenaki. 



■ J. A. Maurault, Histoire des Abenakis, Quebec, 1866, p. vn, gives Solinak as the native name of 

 Becancour, offering his idea of its meaning as "river which makes many detours." 



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