370 PRINCE. 



torical and ethnological point of view, are the so-called Wam- 

 pum Records, which embody a detailed description of various 

 ancient rites and ceremonies, peculiar not only to the Passama- 

 quoddies, but to all the northern Algonkin clans (JVa/?anah), 

 who, after a long period of internal strife, seem to have formed 

 a close offensive and defensive alliance. These records I have 

 published in the Proceedings of th: American Philosophical So- 

 ciety, XXXVI, pp. 479-495. Besides the Wampum Records, 

 I have a number of other documents, the most important of 

 which is an outline of the Wabanaki history previous to the 

 establishment of the inter-tribal treaty of peace between the 

 Wabanaki clans and the foundation of the common modus 

 vivendi set forth in the Wampum Laws. 



I have ventured in the following pages to reproduce this his- 

 torical sketch, which has, at least, the merit of being purely 

 native, and, as a specimen of the Passamaquoddy poetic genius, 

 I have added, in both Indian and P2nglish, part of a character- 

 istic love-song. 



The original text of the Indian history was not included in 

 the manuscript which I received. It is necessary to remark that, 

 as Mr. Mitchell's translations were written in what may be 

 termed Indian-English, I have been compelled to rearrange his 

 versions into our current vernacular. His Indian text, both in 

 the song in the present paper and throughout the Wampum 

 Records, is written syllabically without any attempt to divide 

 the sentence into words, so that it is extremely difficult to edit 

 the Passamaquoddy original with even approximate correctness. 



Wabanaki History Previous to the P^stablishment of 



THE Wampum Laws. 



In former days the Wabanaki nation, the Indians called Me- 

 gnyik^ or Mohawks and other members of the Iroquoian Six 

 Nations^ were want to wage bloody and unceasing war with one 

 another. The Wabanaki nation consisted of five tribes, e. g., 

 Passamaquoddies, Penobscots,*^ Micmacs, Maliseets^ and the 

 tribe (now extinct) which formerly inhabited the banks of the 

 Kennebec river.^ The bitterest foes of the Wabanaki were un- 



