In the first part we have in the _Mischief Maker_ the same
character or principle who appears as Lox, the Wolverine, the Raccoon,
and Badger among the Wabanaki. The setting the blind women together by
the ears, and the dashing of hot pudding, soup, or water in their
faces, is another form of a Lox story, which occurs again in the
Kalevala. But the entire spirit of the tricks is that of Lox, as those
of Lox are like those of Loki. The Rev. D. Moncure Conway once said to
me, as Miss E. Robins has also said in an article in the Atlantic
Monthly, that it is only in the Norse mythology that the Evil One, or
devil, is represented as growing up from or inspired solely by reckless
wanton _mischief_,--the mischief of a bad boy or a monkey. But the
very same is as true of so much of a devil as there is in the Wabanaki
mythology. It is as a grotesque shadow of Loki, but still it is his.
The Germans say the devil is God's ape; the Indian Lox is the Norse
devil's.
_How Lox told a Lie._
(Passamaquoddy.)
Lox had a brother, who had married a red squaw. When she was touched
the red color rubbed off. The brother kept this wife in a box.
One day, returning, the brother saw that Lox had red fingers. "Aha!" he
cried, in a rage, "you have taken my wife out of the box." But Lox
denied it, so that his brother believed him.
The next time the husband returned, Lox's fingers were again red.
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