He saw her sit beside the stream, and still he heard her
song, soft as a magic flute. He went to her, and in a minute he was won
again.
And then she said, "This world is ever false. I know another, let us go
to it." So then again she sang a magic spell, and as she sang they saw
the great Culloo, the giant bird, broad as a thunder cloud, winging his
way towards them. Then he came; they stepped upon him, and he soared
away. But to this earth they never came again.
This very singular legend was obtained for me by Mrs. W. Wallace Brown.
It is from the Micmac, and is in the original from beginning to end a
song, or poem. For this reason I have given it a plain metrical form,
neither prose nor poetry, such being quite the character of the
original. But I, have not introduced anything not in the original.
This story consists of a very old Indian legend mingled with a European
fairy tale drawn through a French-Canadian source. The incident of the
Elf who eats the food of three men is to be found in another tale. In
one version, the bride, finding that her husband, though utterly
deprived by magic of his memory, has married again, sails away on the
great bird, leaving him forever. I have naturally rejected this
senseless termination in favor of one found in another form.
The calling on the Lightning to build a wigwam is probably a mistake.
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