HOW A HUNTER ENCOUNTERED BMULE', VISITED HIS 

 COUNTRY AND OBTAINED A BOON ' 



FREE TRANSLATION 



Once there was a man who went hunting but he could not find any- 

 thing. Soon he came to a river and as he had become thirsty, he 

 sat down and after he had sat down, he was about to drink. While 

 he stooped down toward the water, there in the water he saw some 

 one's reflection really resembling a human being, but one whom he 

 did not know but of whom he had heard. Behold he was like Bmule', 

 and at once the man got up and hid himself and after he had hidden, 

 he watched to see what the other, his friend Bmule', would do. Then 

 he climbed into a tree. Then the other, whose reflection he had 

 seen in the water while lying on his face, that one in his turn was 

 about to come down and drink. He had a piece of gold in his mouth 

 and he took it out and laid it on the ground. Then the man, when 

 he saw where Bmule' had hidden it after taking it from his mouth, 

 thought that he would go and steal it. Accordingly, the man started 

 to crawl flat on his belly so that his friend would not see hun, and 

 when he came near, crawling slyly along, he took the gold. ' 



Then when Bmule' had finished drinking, returning for his gold, 

 behold he could not find it and, thinking about it, he reached a con- 

 clusion. "So it is evidently stolen from me." Now that Bmule' 



' .\ St. Francis .\beniiki tale, given by C. G. Lelaud and J. D. Prince (Kuloskap The Master, New Yorii 

 1902, p. 236), rather closely follows this narrative, though in the St. Francis story "P'mula" gives magic 

 eyerings of a snake to the hunter. 



Paniu'la seems to be known locally among the western Wabanaki. To the St. Francis .\benaki he is a 

 bird-like monster which flies from one end of the world to the other in one day. He can hear the merest 

 mention of his name if anyone calls him. (Ct. Maurault, op. cit., p. 574.) In Penobscot mythology, 

 Pamu'le, " Comes flying," is believed to heed the appeal of men. Once a year he flies across the sky, pro- 

 polling himself with bull-roarers, giving three cries; one at the horizon; one at the zenith, and one at the other 

 horizon. He may be stopped by an ascending column of smoke and will then grant supplications for aid. 



The concept is interesting as an element of religious and social fabric among related western Algonkian. 

 Among the .\lgonquin and Ojibwa of Ontario, the creature is known under the name Pa"'guk' (Timiskam- 

 ing) (cf. F. G. Speck, Myths and Folk-Lore of the Timiskaming, Algonqum, and Timagami Ojibwa, 

 Memoir 70. Anthropological Series No. 9, Geological Survey of Canada, 1915, p. 22) and Pa''gak (Tuna- 

 gami) (ibid., p. 81). The beliefs regarding him are similar to those of the Wabanaki; though the Timagami 

 believe his appearance to be an omen of death. With the Menomlni " Pa»ka» is a flying skeleton . . . cor- 

 responding to the western Ojibway Paguk" (A. B. Skinner, Social Life and Ceremonial Bundles of the 

 .Menomini Indians, Anthropological Papers of the .American Museum of Natural History (1913), Vol. 

 XIII, pt. 1, p. 8.3). 



On the northern plains, however, among the Plains Ojibwa, "Pagflk, a skeleton being with glaring eyes 

 which is sometimes seen flitting through the air," is the dream patron of a cannibal cult (Windigokan), 

 the members of which perform in a m;isk costume and blow on whistles. The functions of the society are 

 to heal disease and to e.vorcise demons. Taboo associations have become centered about the society. (A. 

 B. Skinner, Political Organization, Cults, and Ceremonies of the Plains Ojibway and Plains Cree Indians, 

 ibid.. Vol. XI, Part VI, pp. 500-505.) The Plains Crec had the same society (Skinner, ibid., p. 628-529) 

 and so do the Assiniboine (R. 11. Lowie, The .Vssinibolne, ibid.. Vol. IV, Part I (1909), pp. 62-€6), who also 

 designate the dance by a cognate term Wi'tgo'gax. This series of cases makes me feel that we have here 

 a case of more recent elaboration from a common .^.Igonkian idea, the result of a tendency toward socializa- 

 tion on the Plains, where the cannibal cult evolving out of the flying-head conception has taken on the 

 characteristics of the crazy dance of the -Vrapaho, Oros Ventre and the others of this region. 



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