He said, "The
Flood will come and drown you all." Then these Indians hurrahed again,
and got their rattles, made of turtle-shells, in the old fashion,
fastened together, filled with pebbles, and rattled them and had a
grand dance. Afterwards, when the white men brought cows and oxen into
the country, they made rattles of horns.
Yes, they had a great dance. The rain began to fall, but they danced.
The thunder roared, and they shook their rattles and yelled at it. Then
Glooskap was angry. He did not drown them in the Flood, however, but he
changed them into rattlesnakes. Nowadays, when they see a man coming,
they lift up their heads and move them about. That's the way snakes
dance. And they shake the rattles in their tails just as Indians shake
their rattles when they dance. How do you like such music?
A Passamaquoddy tale related by an old woman to Mrs. W. Wallace Brown.
These Indians still keep up a very curious snake-dance.
_How Glooskap bound Wuchowsen, the Great Wind-Bird, and made all the
Waters in all the World Stagnant._
(Passamaquoddy.)
The Indians believe in a great bird called by them _Wochowsen_ or
_Wuchowsen_, meaning Wind-Blow or the Wind-Blower, who lives far
to the North, and sits upon a great rock at the end of the sky. And it
is because whenever he moves his wings the wind blows they of old times
called him that.
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