I would live in the water all the time, and swim about in it
forever."
Now it chanced that these things were said in the hour which, when it
passes over the world, all the wishes uttered by men are granted. And
so it was with these Indians. For the first became a Leech, the second
a Spotted Frog, the third a Crab, which is washed up and down with the
tide, and the fourth a Fish. Ere this there had been in all the world
none of the creatures which dwell in the water, and now they were
there, and of all kinds. And the river came rushing and roaring on, and
they all went headlong down to the sea, to be washed into many lands
over all the world. [Footnote: This was told by Tomah Josephs. It is
given much more imperfectly in the tale of Kitpooseagunow in the Rand
manuscript, and in the Anglo-Indian "Storey of Glooscap." I have taken
very great pains in this, as in all the tales written down from verbal
narration, to be accurate in details, and to convey as well as I could
the quaint manner and dry humor which characterized the style of the
narrator. Even white men do not tell the same story in the same way to
everybody; and if Tomahquah and others fully expressed their feelings
to me, it was because they had never before met with a white man who
listened to them with such sympathy. It may be observed that the
Indians commonly say that wherever the bull-frog is to be found in
summer there is always water.
Pages:
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145