Chapter II: The Woman and the Serpent

[_Passamaquoddy_]

_Piʿchedog Laʿtogwesnuk._[47]

Far away, very far in the North,
There dwelt by a great fair lake
An Indian and his wife,
A very beautiful woman
Given to strange wild dreams;
Passion was in her blood.

The lake was frozen over
For many months in the year;
One day, when she cut away
The ice, she saw in the water
A pair of wonderful eyes
Steadily gazing at her;
Bright eyes which charmed her so
That she could not move a hand;
Then she saw a handsome face
And a graceful slender young man,
Who rose from the glittering water,
And he himself, like it,
Glittered from head to foot;
On his breast were _nʾskemanul_,
Or shining silvery plates.

He said, “I am Aʿtosis,
The King of all the Serpents”;
Little she cared for his nature,
She talked with him of love,
She returned his fond embraces;
Every day she came to meet him,
And often in the night.

Her husband noticed that often
She strayed away from home,
And asked her, why she wandered?
She answered, “To get fresh air.”

The weather grew ever warmer;
The ice from the lake had melted,
Grass, flowers and leaves were growing.
The woman patiently waited
Till her husband was asleep;
Then she stole away in silence
From the one whom she kissed no more
Unto her serpent lover
Whom she kissed with all her heart.

The husband greatly suspecting,
Resolved to watch her wandering.
And so, to avert suspicion,
Said, “Stay here in the wigwam,
For I shall be gone three days
To hunt the deer in the forest.”
But at the end of the second
He came again to the wigwam,
And found that she was absent.
As he sat, re-kindling the fire,
She entered. He saw upon her
Bright shining silver scales;
He asked her what ’twas that glittered?
She answered, “My silver brooches.”

He said. “I must go again
To be absent hunting to-morrow.”
He went to the top of a hill
Overlooking the lake, where he watched her.
She went and sat by the shore;
Then rose afar in the water
What seemed to his sight to be
A shining flake of ice,
But when it came to the shore
’Twas a tall and slender man
All clad, as it seemed, in silver.
The woman leapt up and embraced him,
And gave him many kisses.

The husband in awe and anger
Went forth to other people,
And left his wife forever;
But soon her father and mother
Came to her home to see her,
And dwelt with her many days.
And every day, when returning
From an absence they knew not whither,
She brought them furs and venison,
With fish and fowl in plenty.

They asked her whence she had it?
She answered, “I have another,
A husband who suits me better
Than him whom first I married.
This one can give me all.
He is a better hunter.”
She sent them away with presents,
With many silver bracelets,
With many ear-rings and brooches
And said: “Do not return
Till the ice is here in winter.”

When they returned they found her
White as a silver lily:
Her Indian hue had faded;
And soon she gave birth to offspring
But her children all were serpents.
Then the parents went away;
But even as they left her
She said: “When you come again
You will see me but never know me!”

Years after three Indian hunters
Who had heard this wondrous story
Sought by the lake for the wigwam.
It was standing still, but empty,
But all the wood about it
Was full of great black serpents
Which from the grass uprising
Would look them in the face
Then glide away in silence. L.

FOOTNOTES:

[47] Far away in the north.