176 WAWENOCK MYTH TEXTS FROM MAINE 



|ETH. ANN. 43 



encountered several families who have migrated to Lake St. John 

 and Hve with the Montagnais as hunters and trappers." 



The following are the family names of the tribe. Some are still 

 in existence (marked *) ; others have recently become extinct. 



Pabiwela ma't ''He is thought small." The family name of the grand- 

 mother of Franfois Neptune, our informant. This name 

 may be the original of " Paterramett " mentioned in the 

 treaty of 1727 (cf. p. 174). 



♦Metsalab^la't "Lost his Breath" (?) This name is undoubtedly the original 



of " Wooszurraboonet " of 1727 (cf. p. 174). 



Sogala'n "It rains." 



Sezawegwu'n "Feather in the hair." 



Mekwas-a'k "Red stain." 



Abalawe's- French "Ambroise." The same as "Omborowess" in 1727 



(cf. p. 175). 



♦Ob^' French, (St.) Urbain. 



*Nepta'n Neptune, doubtful origin. This is also a Penobscot family 



name. 

 ♦Nicola' Nicholas, also a Penobscot family name. 



So far as can be said at present the material culture of the Wawe- 

 nock was practically identical with that of the Penobscot and St. 

 Francis Abenaki. Not much of this is preserved by the survivors at 

 the present day. The tribe, however, still keeps its organization 

 under a chief. In the traditions of the Wabanaki Confederacy, as 

 far as we know them, the Wawenock are not mentioned, though they 

 had been represented in the alliance at an earlier time. 



As for social organization no knowledge is preserved of the family 

 hunting territories, for it seems that at Becancour hunting has not 



<3 In traveling among the Montagnais of the Province of Quebec I have encountered some of the dis- 

 persed Wawenock families and descendants from whom the following information was secured. 



In about 1870 Charles Neptune and his sister of Becancour, in company with some .\benaki from St. 

 Francis (Aimable Gille, Obomsawin family), and relatives, came to Lake .St. John by way of Chicoutimi. 

 They migrated to Metabetchouan by canoe from Chicoutimi, and settled near the Hudson Bay Co.'s post, 

 long since abandoned. Here they appropriated hunting territories with the permission of the Montagnais. 

 Charles Neptune died in 1907. He spoke the Wawenock language. Six sons and three daughters survived 

 him, his wife having been a Canadian. Their descendants are now living among the Montagnais at Lake 

 St. John, under the family names of Neptune, du ChPne, and Phillippe. Another Wawenock from Becan- 

 cour, Louis Philip, lives at Lake St. John. His father came from Lake Megantic on the border between 

 Maine and the Province of Quebec. He was probably the last Wawenock to have been born in Maine. 

 Philip has descendants at Lake St. John. He knows a lew words and expressions which indicate the dialect 

 of his father to have been really Wawenock. Of the 23 Wawenock descendants at Lake St. John, as enu- 

 merated by Noah Neptune in 1915, none know anything distinctive of their ancestral language or 

 customs. 



.Vgain on the lower St. Lawrence there are Wawenock descendants. At Tadousac and Chicoutimi, the 

 Nicola larailies have become admitted to land rights with the Montagnais of these places. At Escoumains 

 is another named Jacques. Four children of old Joseph Nicola who migrated many years ago from Trois 

 Rivieres, and settled also at Chicoutimi, also have numerous offspring by either Montagnais or Canadian 

 wives. Possibly these emigrants came to the Saguenay with the ancestors of the Gille, Neptune, and 

 Phillippe families at Lake St. John. -At Tadousac, Joseph Nicolar remembered the text of a Wawenock 

 song which his father used to sing. This is given with the other texts in this paper (see p. 197). 



I should add, that with few exceptions among the older people, these Wawenock descendants have be- 

 come so merged either with the Canadian or the Montagnais that they know almost nothing of their own 

 people. In the family names, however, we can see the survival of influences which began in Maine when the 

 ancestors of the Wawenock were close to the Penobscot with whom they have some family names in 

 eommOD. 



