But lo! while combing him, there entered a hideous
being, an awful devil, who caught the small elf from her and ran away.
Then she was terribly frightened. And trying to wash her hands, the red
stain remained. When her husband returned that night he had no game;
when he saw the red stain he knew all that had happened; when he knew
what had happened he seized his bow to beat her; when she saw him seize
his bow to beat her she ran down to the river, and jumped in to escape
death at his hands, though it should be by drowning. But as she fell
into the water she became a sheldrake duck. And to this day the marks
of the red stain are to be seen on her feet and feathers. [Footnote:
Related to me by Noel Josephs, a Passamaquoddy. Notwithstanding its
resemblance to Blue Beard, it is probably in every detail a very old
Indian tradition. It bears a slight resemblance to several far western
legends, which refer to peculiarities in the duck. It is partly
repeated in a Lox legend.]
THE INVISIBLE ONE.
(Micmac.)
There was once a large Indian village situated on the border of a
lake,--_Nameskeek' oodun Kuspemku_ (M.). At the end of the place
was a lodge, in which dwelt a being who was always invisible.
[Footnote: In this Micmac tale, which is manifestly corrupted in many
ways, the hero is said to be "a youth whose _teeomul_ (or tutelary
animal) was the moose," whence he took his name.
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