But whether the Wiwillmekq' ever got out again
is more than he ever troubled himself to know.
So he went on till he came to some Black Berries, and said, "Berries,
how would you agree with me if I should eat you?" "Badly indeed, Master
Coon," they replied, "for we are Choke-berries." "Choke-berries,
indeed! Then I will have none of you." And then further he found on
some bushes, Rice-berries. "Berries," he cried, "how would you agree
with me if I should eat you?" "We should make you itch, for we are
Itch-berries." "Ah, that is what I like," he replied, and so ate his
fill. Then as he went on he felt very uneasy: he seemed to be tormented
with prickles, he scratched and scratched, but it did not help or cure.
So he rubbed himself on a ragged rock; he slid up and down it till the
hair came off.
Now the Raccoon is bare or has little fur where he scratched himself,
to this very day. This story is at an end.
This story is from the Passamaquoddy Indian-English collection made for
me by Louis Mitchell. In the original, the same incident of boiling the
hero in a kettle and of his springing out of it occurs as in the tale
of Mrs. Bear and the Raccoon. This I have here omitted. The
Mephistophelian and mocking character of Lox is strongly shown when he
says, "Nothing but a cat-tail or bulrush can kill me," this being
evidently an allusion to Glooskap.
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