Now this Indian, who had in the past been always poor, seemed to have
quite recovered from that complaint. When he let down his lines the
biggest fish bit; all his sprats were salmon; he prayed for goslings,
and got geese; moose were as mice to him now; yea, he had the best in
the land, with all the fatness thereof. So seven years passed away, and
then, as he slept, there came unto him divers dreams, and in them he
went back to the Land of the Giants, and saw all those who had been so
kind to him. And yet again he dreamed one night that he was standing by
his wigwam near the sea, and that a great whale swam up to him and
began to sing, and that the singing was the sweetest he had ever heard.
Then he remembered that the giant had told him he would think of him in
seven years; and it came clearly before him what it all meant, and that
he was erelong to have magical power given to him, and that he should
become a _Megumoowessoo_. This he told his wife, who, not being
learned in darksome lore, would fain know more nearly what kind of a
being he expected to be, and whether a spirit or a man, good or bad;
which was, indeed, not easy to explain, nor is it clearly set down in
the chronicles beyond this,--that, whatever it might be, it was all for
the best, and that there was a great deal of magic in it.
That day they saw a great shark cruising about in their bay, chasing
fish, and this they held for an evil omen.
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