Part 3 (1/2)
=Dennysville.= Yet, if any one chances to feel that he is too much a part of the fog in a row-boat, take the little steamer to Dennysville.
The ebb and flow along the coast in this region is so marked, that in going up the Denny River the pilot carefully guides the steamer through the whirlpools and maelstroms, which are dangerous only in winter. The river grows very narrow, till at its source it seems to be set in meadow lands, along which one wanders, through the quiet village roads,--for the town is fifty miles from any railroad,--trying to comprehend why anybody should forsake a spot so soothing to the spirit and so simple in its loveliness for the confusion of city life.
=Grand Manan.= Of all the water excursions that to Grand Manan is by far the most rich in reward. The best way is to take the steamer Flus.h.i.+ng, which runs three times a week from Campobello to Grand Manan, and spend two nights and one day there,--longer, if you wish. There is little fear of sea-sickness on board the big steamer. The extraordinary cliffs and the sixteen-mile drive to Southern Head are scenes never to be forgotten, but which beggar words to describe. The sternness of nature stands here revealed, and the moans of the sea-gulls tell of even their need of sympathy.
=The Friar.= Beside these cliffs the noted one of the Friar at Campobello seems comparatively short; yet it is the prominent rock of the Island as one approaches it, and its importance is increased by the legendary lore that has gathered around it. Mr. Charles G. Leland tells the story in this wise:--
”Once there was a young Indian who had married a wife of great beauty, and they were attached to each other by a wonderful love. They lived together on the headland which rises so boldly and beautifully above the so-called Friar. Unfortunately her parents lived with the young married couple, and acted as though they were still ent.i.tled to all control over her. One summer the elder couple wished to go up the St. John River, while the young man was determined to remain on Pa.s.samaquoddy Bay. Then the parents bade the daughter to come with them, happen what might. She wished to obey her husband, yet greatly feared her father, and was in dire distress. Now the young man grew desperate. He foresaw that he must either yield to the parents--which all his Indian stubbornness and sense of dignity forbade--or else lose his wife. Now, he was _m'te[=u]lin_, and, thinking that magic could aid him, did all he could to increase his supernatural power. Then, feeling himself strong, he said to his wife one morning, 'Sit here until I return.' She said, 'I will,' and obeyed.
But no sooner was she seated than the _m'te[=u]lin_ spell began to work, and she, still as death, soon hardened into stone. Going to the point of land directly opposite, over the bay, the husband called his friends, with his father-in-law and mother-in-law, and told them that he was determined never to part from his wife nor to lose sight of her for an instant to the end of time, and yet withal they would never quit Pa.s.samaquoddy. On being asked sneeringly by his wife's father how he would effect this, he said: 'Look across the water. There sits your daughter, and she will never move. Here am I gazing on her. Farewell!'
And as he spoke the hue of stone came over his face, and in a few minutes he was a rock. And there they stood for ages, until, some years ago, several fishermen, prompted by the spirit which moves the Anglo-Saxon everywhere to wantonly destroy, rolled the husband with great effort into the bay. As for the bride, she still exists as the Friar; although she has long been a favorite object for artillery practice by both English and American vandal captains, who have thus far, however, only succeeded in knocking off her head.”
=Tomar.= Many an Indian legend of doubtful authority still clings to various points on the Island; yet only the Indians themselves are persistent and real. Each summer day they bring their baskets for sale.
Tomar, at one time governor of his tribe, on a small salary with large work to do, is one of the few thoroughbred Indians who still live in this region. He is a man of integrity, skill, and gentleness. Each visitor is eager to gain his companions.h.i.+p and guidance in his canoe, as he paddles into nooks where one less experienced might hesitate to penetrate. Greater than his skill in paddling is Tomar's ingenuity in sc.r.a.ping pictures on birch bark symbolical of Indian life.
=His Tribe.= The Pa.s.samaquoddy Indians, or Openangoes, were a branch of the Etechemin nation, and apparently of comparatively recent origin.
Their earliest village near Campobello was at Joe's Point, near St.
Andrews. The majority of the remnants of the tribe are found at Pleasant Point, near Eastport, at Peter Dana's Point, near Princeton, and at The Camps, on the border of Calais. Their language is fast dying out; but their traditions and customs have been carefully studied and collected largely by Mrs. W. Wallace Brown, of Calais, and also by Professor J.
Walter Fewkes, who has taken down on the wax cylinders of the phonograph many of their songs and stories.
The following original poem by one of the tribe was written for a sale that was held on August, 1883, for the benefit of a new rectory on the Island, in which Miss Lucy Derby was interested, and through whose efforts the rectory was built, the Company giving the land.
AMWES-WINTO-WAGEN.
Amwezik 'klithwon ya skedabe zogel; Skedap tatchuwi melan kekouse kiziolgweh.
Ulzee-ik 'lee madjhe goltook kizosook; Tatchuuwi tewebn'm nenwel kthlee-tahazoo wagenen woolsum'kik.
Piyemee absegekook beskwaswesuk tchicook Pemee woolip p'setawkqu'm'see you wen.
P'skedab tatchuwe oolazoo weeahl m'pseeoo-wenil.
Amwess ooktee-in aboozek; Uppes kootee-in hedlegit; Beskwas'wess lookquem hahze; Nojeemeeko gemit chooiwigeou: Weejokegem wee you'h.
Piel John Gabriel kweezee-toon yoot lin to wagun.
Kee zee skee jin wih tun; Whu-t.i.tli keezeetoon Ebawg'hwit, We jee kissi tahzik wenoch chigwam.
N'paowlin kweezee Iglesmani tun.
THE SONG OF THE BEES.
The bees make honey for man; Man should give something to G.o.d.