FORT LA JOYE AND MICMAC TALES 55

sold the fishermen favourable winds. The French began to avoid them. The chief’s family became more intimate.

“Then, at the farewell feast in the autumn after which the hunters withdrew to the mainland, the chief announced the betrothal of his son to the beautiful paleface. Many of the tribe objected. Kaktoogwasee must marry a woman of his own race, they said. Their objections were of no avail. The marriage must take place.

“Winter passed. And with the lengthening of the days, and the appearance of the mayflowers, Madame Grandville set out for the Gulf of Mexico to bring back for her daughter a dowry befitting the wife of an Indian chief’s son. From La Grande Source they set out in their canoe for Fort la Joye, their first port of call. From this port Madame Grandville planned to sail for the south. In the afternoon their overturned canoe drifted past the fort to the open sea. Kaktoog- wasee, who had come to the fort to meet Marie, recognized the canoe. A searching party was organized and was successful in finding the bodies of the two women. The mother was dead but Marie still showed signs of life. For weeks they waited on her. Still she seemed no better. All the arts of the medicine men proved unavailing. Finally the old chief called for the stone of the fair Mineota. The tribe objected. It would lose its healing power, they said, if used to cure any one not of Micmac blood. But the chief overruled all objections. On the next day at noon, the young Kaktoogwasee and his father appeared at La Grande Source. The young chief plunged into the chilly depths of the spring and soon