The Indian _m'teoulin_, or magician, distinctly taught
that every created thing, animate or inanimate, had its indwelling
spirit. Whatever had an _idea_ had a soul. Therefore the Wabanaki
mythology is strangely like that of the Rosicrucians. But it created
spirits for the terrible Arctic winters of the north, for the icebergs
and frozen wastes, for the Northern Lights and polar bears. It made, in
short, a mythology such as would be perfectly congenial to any one who
has read and understood the Edda, Beowulf, and the Kalevala, with the
wildest and oldest Norse sagas. But it is, as regards spirit and
meaning, utterly and entirely unlike anything else that is American. It
is not like the Mexican pantheon; it has not the same sounds, colors,
or feelings; and though many of its incidents or tales are the same as
those of the Chippewas, or other tribes, we still feel that there is an
incredible difference in the spirit. Its ways are not as their ways.
This Wabanaki mythology, which was that which gave a fairy, an elf, a
naiad, or a hero to every rock and river and ancient hill in New
England, is just the one of all others which is least known to the New
Englanders. When the last Indian shall be in his grave, those who come
after us will ask in wonder why we had no curiosity as to the romance
of our country, and so much as to that of every other land on earth.
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