MICMAC MYTHOLOGY.*

" \Veegegijik. Kessegook, wigwamk; Meskeek oodun Ulnoo, kes saak."

[May you be happy. The old people are encamped; There was once, long ago, a large Indian village.]

With this suggestive couplet the Legends, or Ahtookwokun of the Micmacs, in their original form, almost invariably commence. The inseparable introduction shows us how the literature of the people had long ago taken on a settled form, even though there were no written records; it confirms to a considerable degree the common impression that they had a ballad arrangement, and were chanted to weird music in that ancient time; and also indicates how carefully the old men cherish the memory of their former greatness.

These people look upon their folk-lore as a sacred treasure to be carefully preserved by their holy men; and, as in our Saxon traditions the dying Bleys relates the story of Arthur’s birth, so an aged Sakumow may be heard repeating the immortal legends to faithful witnesses, just before he passes on to the regions of the far West, where Glooscap dwells in the presence of the Great Spirit, and where the golden sunsets give us foregleams of that beautiful abode, the happy hunting-ground of the faithful.

Let us approach the study of Micmac Mythology with a becoming reverence, for we are dealing with sacred things; and, as we learn

*T he substance of this chapter was delivered as a graduating essay before the Faculty of Acadia University last June and it appemed in its present form in the October and November numbers of the Prince Edward Island Magazine. w]. S. C.