And the captain, seeing a Wild Cat in the water, being
engaged in musket drill, ordered his men to fire at it, which they did
with a bang! Now this was caused by a party of night-hawks overhead,
who swooped down with a sudden cry like a shot; at least it seemed so
to Wild Cat, who, deceived and appalled by this volley, deeming that he
had verily made a mistake this time, turned, tail and swam ashore into
the dark old forest, where, if he is not dead, he is running still.
[Footnote: This expression, very common among the Indians, appears to
have been taken from the Canadians, _Il court encore_ ends many of
their stories. This was related to me by Tomah Josephs, September 2,
1882. I have four versions of it. In one, the Chippewa, given by
Schoolcraft, the wretched efforts to rival the woodpeckers and bear are
attributed to a no less personage than Hiawatha, or Manobozho, himself,
when under a cloud. But Hiawatha as a poem deals only with the better
part of the hero's character. In the Rand manuscript, the most amusing
portion of the adventures of the Rabbit, or those with the Wild Cat,
are much abbreviated. Tomah's tale supplies this missing portion, but
consists of nothing else. The Abenaki tale is slightly different in its
beginning: "Rabbit was making maple-sugar in the woods, but he was very
pious, and rested on the Sabbath. While praying on this day by his
hearth, there came a great black fierce man, who glared at him, but
Mahtigwess kept saying 'Peace! peace! peace!' for that is the way the
Rabbit prays.
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