He had been in the Thunder-world. He told them how he had been playing
ball with the Thunder-boys: yes, how he had been turned into a real
Thunder himself.
This is why the Indians to this very day have a firm belief that the
thunder and lightning we hear and see are caused by (beings or spirits)
(called) in Indian _Bed-dag yek_ (or thunder), [Footnote: The
manuscript is here difficult to understand, but this is apparently the
real meaning of it.] because they see them, and have, moreover,
actually picked up the _bed-dags k'chisousan_, or thunder-bullet.
[Footnote: Thunderbolt.] It is of many different kinds of stone, but
always of the same shape. The last was picked up by Peter Sabattis,
[Footnote: I heard of the existence of this legend a long time before I
found it in the manuscript collection obtained for me by Louis
Mitchell. It is very curious as being unquestionably of Eskimo origin,
or common to the Eskimo; also because it speaks of the Thunders as
always endeavoring to kill a great bird in the south. This is probably
the thunder or storm bird, called by the Passamaquoddy Indians
_Wochowsen_ or _Wuchowsen_, that is, Wind-Blower. Another
legend makes Thunder and Lightning the sons of Mount Katahdin.
I may here mention that I am well acquainted with old Peter Sabattis,
the possessor of the "thunder-bullet."] one of the Passamaquoddy tribe.
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