Forty-third Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1925-1926, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1928, pages 165-198 The texts are published with the permission of the Division of Anthropology, National Museum of Canada BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 13 FRANÇOIS NEPTUNE, THE LAST SPEAKER OF WAWENOCK (1912) WAWENOCK MYTH TEXTS FROM MAINE By Frank G. Speck...

It is one of the laments of ethnology that the smaller tribes of the northern coast of New England faded from the scene of history before we were able to grasp the content of their languages and culture. At this late day practically all have dwindled below the power of retaining the memory of their own institutions—their link with the past. Nevertheless, some few groups along the coast have maintained existence in one form or another down to the present. In regions somewhat more remote, the trib

Although closely related with the Penobscot and the St. Francis dialects, Wawenock has some distinctive qualities of its own. The list of sounds is as follows: Two stop consonants coming together have a slight vocalic pause, sometimes amounting to ə , between them. The vowels e , i , a , o , u before stops have a tendency to show a slight aspiration following them. This quality, however, is hardly noticeable in Wawenock in comparison with Penobscot or Malecite. Where words differ in spelling in

THE TURTLE INSULTS THE CHIEF OF THE BIRDS; GLUSKABE HELPS HIM TO ESCAPE; MOUNTAINS ARE CREATED; AND AGAIN TURTLE ESCAPES BY GETTING HIS CAPTORS TO THROW HIM INTO THE WATER, BUT IS FINALLY KILLED 51 Given as “eagle” by Neptune, but, in Penobscot, Newell Lyon identified this with the extinct “auk.” 52 A secondary chief, from English “captain.” 53 In a monotonous singsong tone. 54 This accounts for the mountain ridges and valleys of to-day....

55 Said by the informant to have been the ridge dividing the waters flowing into the St. Lawrence from those flowing southward into the Atlantic. 56 A mythical character common to the Malecite, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, and Wawenock. She is described as having a figure like a “jug,” who lives alone in the remote forests. 57 A common concept among the Wabanaki, “to know a thing by intuition.”...

GLUSKABE BECOMES ANGRY AT THE BIRCH TREE AND MARKS IT FOR LIFE 58 Some kind of a hollowed-out canoe....

Here begins Gluskabe. When the Owner made the first man then when the first man was made Gluskabe created himself out of the left-over material, out of this earth left over, this earth sprinkled. 59 That is why Gluskabe was so strong. Well, this Gluskabe was able to create himself. Then he moved about in a sitting position. Upon seeing this the Owner was astonished and he said, “How happened you to be here?” and Gluskabe told him, “Well, because I formed myself from the waste pieces of earth out

Well, then, as he wandered along the shore of the ocean, Gluskabe killed a whale and when he had killed the whale he went to inform his uncle, the Turtle. Then he said to him, “Great luck! Killed a whale.” So he told his uncle, “And also we will go and get it, the whale meat.” So accordingly they went, went to the ocean; and when they arrived there where the whale lay they took as much of it as they wanted; and when they had taken it they placed it to one side for a while and that Turtle called

Then Gluskabe went away from there to the ocean. And he followed a river up as far as the great divide (the frontier between New England and Canada). There he started up a moose and this moose started to make away among the rivers in the direction of Penobscot Valley. Pukdjinskwessu knew that he was coming, for she could sense it, being a magic woman. Then she wanted to plague Gluskabe, for she wanted to scare away from him the moose so that he could not kill him. But that Gluskabe knew it, that

Here comes my story of that Gluskabe. Then wandering about the ocean he started in a canoe and when he had worn this out, his canoe, he thought “I shall stop until I build another canoe.” And accordingly he looked for a birch tree, a straight one. Then he cut it down, and when it fell down, that tree, apparently it nearly fell upon him. He had difficulty in being able to run away from under it. So he thought, “Never again will you fall on and kill anybody.” That big branch he took hold of it and

62 Used in a somewhat humorous sense. 63 Lit. “yellow money,” mani´, “money” borrowed during early English contact. 64 Literally “once move (sun)” referring to division of portions of the day....

Once there was a man who went hunting but he could not find anything. Soon he came to a river and as he had become thirsty, he sat down and after he had sat down, he was about to drink. While he stooped down toward the water, there in the water he saw some one’s reflection really resembling a human being, but one whom he did not know but of whom he had heard. Behold he was like Bmulε´, and at once the man got up and hid himself and after he had hidden, he watched to see what the other, his frien

66 The narrator added that some old woman would catch the beads in a receptacle as they fell from the magician’s mouth....

Accordingly, then, whenever they held a council there were shamans there. And according to their strength among these shamans it was known who was the most powerful. After they held their council they lighted their pipes and smoked. In the case of an exceedingly great shaman every time he drew upon his pipe, wampum fell from his mouth. If the wampum was white, then it denoted that the shaman was of medium power. If the wampum was half white and half reddish it denoted the least powerful shaman.

In the following text, obtained at Tadousac from Joseph Nicolar, a Wawenock descendant affiliated with the Montagnais, we have a type of song common among the Penobscot and the other Wabanaki tribes and known as “Lonesome songs.” Owing to his unfamiliarity with the language the informant has used some forms which are not very clear. 67 For the want of a better explanation it seems that the song refers to some place called “Long Town” (gwenodana´, “long-town"), probably in Canada. The expression