250 THE AMERICAN MOOSE 



migrated to avoid persistent pursuit, the belief 

 that they had taken refuge in the depths of the 

 ocean would not seem to the aboriginal mind an 

 illogical conclusion. 



In many Indian legends the characters described 

 are given the names of animals or birds, while 

 having the form and traits of men. Often a 

 single attribute of the animal or bird whose name 

 is used will be mixed incongruously with the 

 qualities of men, and with the attributes of super- 

 natural beings. Such a story is that of Mana- 

 bozho and the Moose, told by Schoolcraft in The 

 Myth of Hiawatha (1856), page 45. The story was 

 related to Schoolcraft by the Ojibwas of Lake 

 Superior in 1822. 



Another of this type is the story of '^The Invisi- 

 ble Boy," related by Rev. Silas T. Rand in Legends 

 of the Micmacs. This is a long story of an amiable 

 young man who took his name. Team, from his 

 guardian genius, a moose. The young man's leg 

 was broken while he was moose hunting one day, 

 and his sister went in search of him. On finding 

 him, she proceeded, at the brother's direction, to 

 kill him with an ax. At the instant of the young 

 man's death his body was transformed into that of 

 a moose. The sister then, as previously directed^ 



