382 PRINCE 



telling (liookaiitiji), at which many of the old men and women 

 were adepts. A group of young indians would often gather in a 

 wigwam and listen with eager interest for hours to the protracted 

 tales of some professional narrator {iiotathookef). A great num- 

 ber of these stories of love, war, and witchcraft still exist in the 

 memories of older indians, and, as the tribe diminishes year by 

 year, are bound to perish unless collected by those who feel an 

 interest in the history of the aborigines of America. 



Example of Narrative. The following narration of con- 

 stancy in a Wabaiiaki girl, which is, of course, much abridged 

 from the original, is a fair specimen of their style. 



Long ago in the village of Lusigantook,^ there lived a beauti- 

 ful maiden whose heart many a young man had tried in vain to 

 win. Finally, howev^er, she succumbed to the charms of a brave 

 and successful young hunter, who had long been in love with 

 her, and, in spite of the ill luck of his fellows, ventured to send 

 to her the nojiqiietsettasit or ''old woman who carried proposals 

 of marriage." Greatly to his delight, he received a favorable 

 reply, and he accordingly determined, indian fashion, to win 

 even greater fame as a hunter. He, therefore, told her that he 

 would not marry her until he had gone on a hunt which should 

 last two years. The girl agreed to his proposal and promised 

 to remain true to him at all hazards, adding that even if he never 

 returned she would stay single all her days, a v^ow which the 

 young man echoed with equal fervor. Not long after his de- 

 parture, the village of Lusigantook was attacked and destroyed 

 by Mohawks ^ who carried away all the young girls as prisoners 

 and among them the hunter's promised bride. When the vic- 

 tors reached their own territory, they tried in vain to persuade 

 our heroine to marry one of their braves, even threatening to 

 burn her alive when she obstinately persisted in her refusal. 

 Many of her tribeswomen had yielded to the inevitable and mar- 

 ried Mohawk warriors, but she preferred the stake to breaking 



^ Liisigantook is the Passamaquoddy form of the Abenaki Alsigontegw , the name 

 of the St. Francis River in the P. Que., Canada, where the Abenakis, akin to the 

 Penobscots, now reside (see Prince, '98). The name probably means " river where 

 no habitations are." The indians of St. Francis call themselves Alsigdntci^tuiak . 



2 Canadian Iroquois, see Princp: '98, p. 376, note 5. 



