SPECK] A MOHEGAN-PEQUOT DIARY 261 



The following short narrative of Mrs. Fielding explains all that is 

 known about them: 



" The makia'wisag were dwarfs who lived in the woods. They 

 were the ones who made the pictures and scratchings on the rock 

 which stood on Fort Hill. (Since blasted out by road makers.) 

 The old glass bottles which are plowed out of the ground here and 

 there were left by them, as were also the brass kettles found in 

 graves. 



" The last of them to be seen around here were some whom Martha 

 Uncas told about. It must have been before 1800. She was then a 

 child coming down the Yantic River in a canoe with her parents. 

 Tliey saw some makia'wisag running along the shore. A pine forest 

 grew near the water, and they could be seen through the trees. Her 

 mother saw them and said, ' Don't look at the dwarfs. They will 

 point their fingers at you, and then you can not see them.' She 

 turned her head away. There did not seem to be many of them. 



" The dwarfs came to people's houses, asking for something to eat. 

 Accoi'ding to the old Indians, one must always give the dwarfs what 

 was wanted; for if they were refused, they would point their fingers 

 at one, so that one could not see them, and the dwarfs would 

 take whatever they chose. 



" There was an Indian and his wife who lived near here long ago. 

 They saw some makia'wisag. It was this way: One stormy night 

 there was a rap on their door. When the woman opened the door 

 the wind blew very hard. Some one was standing outside, but she 

 did not know who it was. When she found out what the person 

 wanted, she told her husband that someone wanted her to go and 

 take care of a sick woman a long way off. She decided to go, and 

 packed up her things to leave. The person was a dwarf, but she 

 thought he was a boy. He led her far away through the storm. After 

 a while they reached a small underground house. The dwarf led the 

 Indian woman inside, and there la.y a dwarf woman ill on a bed of 

 skins. The Indian woman then recognized them as makia'wisag. 

 She stayed with them some time and cared for the sick one until she 

 got well. When she was ready to return home the dwarf gave the 

 Indian woman a lot of presents, blindfolded her, and led her back to 

 her home. She was very well treated. The Indians often tried to 

 find these dwarfs, but they never succeeded. They were never heard 

 of afterwards. I believe these were the last. They generally kept 

 away from the Indians, but never molested them. People used 

 to think that the mounds in this part of the Thames Valley were 

 made b}' the dwarfs." 



The term makia'wis is interesting in several connections. Be- 

 sides meaning "little boy," in Stiles's Pequot vocabulary mucko- 

 wheese (ma'kawi s) is given as whippoorwill. There is evidently 



