Here,
in a mythical tale, the same mischief maker steals a snake-girl's hair,
and is compelled to replace it. In the Edda, the corresponding mischief
maker steals the hair of a goddess, and is also forced to make
restitution. Yet this is only one of many such resemblances in these
tales. It will be observed that in both cases the hair of the loser is
made to grow again. But while the incident has in the Edda a meaning,
as appears from its context, it has none in the Indian tale. All that
we can conclude from this is that the Wabanaki tale is subsequent to
the Norse, or taken from it. The incidents of tales are often
remembered when the plot is lost. It is certainly very remarkable that,
wherever the mischief maker occurs in these Indian tales, he in every
narrative does something in common with his Norse prototype.
_Of the Woman who loved a Serpent who lived in a Lake_.
(Passamaquoddy.)
Of old times. There was a very beautiful woman. She turned the heads of
all the men. She married, and her husband died very soon after, but she
immediately took another. Within a single year she had five husbands,
and these were the cleverest and handsomest and bravest in the tribe.
And then she married again.
This, the sixth, was such a silent man that he passed for a fool. But
he was wiser than people thought. He came to believe, by thinking it
over, that this woman had some strange secret.
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