But he growled out that he had
been married in the spring, and that one wife was enough for any man.
So he went his way. [Footnote: N. B.--There is a joke here. The animals
who pass by the tree each mate at the season of the year when they
declare that they were married. The White Ladies, weasels or ermines,
therefore, came at the wrong time. The fickle, variable nature ascribed
to woman, _varium et mutabile semper femina_, is supposed to be
most decidedly expressed by such slender, slippery, active little
animals.]
And then who should come along but Marten himself, even the
Abistanooch, whom they had deserted! And they cried out for joy,
begging him to take them back. But he, behaving as if they were utter
strangers, replied that he had been married in the early spring to one
of his own tribe, and unto a damsel whose name was Marten, and that it
was not seemly for animals to wed out of their own land. So he
scampered off, leaving the little Weasels all alone.
And last of all came Lox, whom hunters call the Indian Devil,
[Footnote: In the Micmac it is the Badger, Keekwajoo, who is the rogue
and teaser of the tale. But in the Passamaquoddy versions it is the
dreaded and mysterious Lox, who appears to be a species of Lynx or
Wolverine. The Lox is said, by trustworthy white travelers as well as
Indians, to follow hunting parties for weeks, inspired apparently only
by an incredible mania for mischief, much like that of a monkey or a
revengeful savage, but guided by remarkable intelligence.
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