This required much time to melt and break. At last all was over.
She had been brought under the power of an evil spirit; she was rapidly
being changed into a Chenoo a wild, fierce, unconquerable being. But
she knew it all the while, and it was against her will. So she begged
that she might be killed.
The Indians left the place; since that day none have ever returned to
it. They feared lest some small part of the body might have remained
unconsumed, and that from it another Chenoo would rise, capable of
killing all whom she met. [Footnote: Mr. Rand (manuscript) gives a
detailed account of an Indian who went mad during the winter, ran away
naked into the wilderness among the snows, and was unanimously declared
to have turned into a Chenoo. I agree with Mr. Rand that "the
historical basis of these tales, if they have any, may be the same,--a
case of lunacy; fiction and figure adding the incredible details."]
THUNDER STORIES
_Of the Girl who married Mount Katahdin, and how all the Indians
brought about their own Ruin._
(Penobscot.)
Of the old time. There was once an Indian girl gathering blueberries on
Mount Katahdin. And, being lonely, she said, "I would that I had a
husband!" And seeing the great mountain in all its glory rising on
high, with the red sunlight on the top, she added, "I wish Katahdin
were a man, and would marry me!"
All this she was heard to say ere she went onward and up the mountain,
but for three years she was never seen again.
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