When Indians in it, as they do in many others,
speak of kings and queens or ships and ivory, I think they got it all
from Europe. But perhaps when the Indians came here from Asia they
brought these stories with them. Thus they very often mention ivory,
calling it white bone. They also mention cities. But these things are
not new, for they were handed down from one generation to another."
I have to add that, while the story agrees with an universally spread
Aryan fairy tale, it is very remarkable that it should add to these,
several strictly Eddaic details, such as the white bear.
THE WEEWILLMEKQ'.
_I. How a Woman Lost a Gun for Fear of the Weewillmekq'_.
There was a man and his wife who had got together all they had for the
fall hunt. They went up the St. John's River; they left the village of
Foxerbica; they went twenty-five miles beyond it. They passed the falls
on the upper side to get some game. They cooked and ate. They got ready
to start again; they launched the canoe. [Footnote: This story and the
preceding are taken _word for word_ from the Indian narration. The
singular precision of minute details is very characteristic of many of
these legends.] They shoved the canoe twenty-five feet from the shore.
The woman turned, and upset it. It went like lightning down the rapids.
They had hard work to get ashore, and lost their gun, traps, kettle,
and everything.
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