Truly this was as if he had been asked to clothe himself
with a great house, since the smallest fold in them would have been to
him as a cavern. But he stepped in, and as he did this he rose to great
size; he filled out the garments till they fitted; he was a giant, of
Giant-Land. With the clothes came the wisdom, the _m'teoulin_, the
_manitou_ power of the greatest and wisest of the olden time. He
was indeed _Megumoowessoo_, and had attained to the Mystery.
This very remarkable and evidently ancient tale is one of that kind
which the keepers of tribe chronicles among the pagan Indians do not
tell to the world, and which they conceal from white men. It is not a
fragment, nor is it unfinished, as some readers may suppose. Its plot
is of a much higher nature than a novel, which ends in a marriage. To
an Indian, whose ideas of earthly happiness were not in money, houses,
and lands, personal power was the one thing to be most desired. As a
Passamaquoddy said once to me, "To be rich in those days meant to be a
great hunter and always have plenty of meat for everybody." Hence the
desire to be great and strong, to be able to entice wild animals, to
run like the wind, to be crafty in all things, especially in making
war; hence to have prophetic dreams. All of this was to be attained by
_m'teoulin_, or magic. The highest ambition of an Indian was to
become a _Megumoowessoo_, a mystical being, which is explained
differently as fairy, faun, sylvan deity, but which means one who
enjoys all the highest privileges of humanity allied to the
supernatural.
Pages:
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404