Chapter IV: The Measuring Worm

[_Abenaki_]

_Noñwat alnoñbak liwʾlalmoñldamōk
Ali mʾdaulinʾwak aïdit._[49]

Long, long ago the Indians believed in witches’ power.
One day a man was hunting far from human sights and sounds,
Deep in the wildest forest glades, nor thought of magic wiles,
When suddenly he heard a voice which said to him: “Depart,
And come again to this same spot at earliest streak of dawn.”
Awestruck, the hunter at the hour appointed sought once more
To hear the mystic tones which came to him he knew not whence.
So at the morrow’s dawn he trod again the darksome glade;
And once again he heard the voice command him in this wise:
“Begone from here and seek the spot where yawns a precipice.
There on the earth thine eyes shall see a liver freshly cut
This eat and then depart; but come again, I’ll give thee strength.”
Then on the following day, he brought his bow and arrows sharp
And heard the voice command him: “Do thou shoot at yonder tree,”
He shot, and saw his arrow pass straight through the doomèd tree.

Astonished beyond measure then, he bade his mother look.
“_O kini nikʾn_,” “mother, see,” he cried in wonder great.
His mother saw and straightway feared; began to watch the lad,
And marked that when he lay at night no sleep would come to him,
But always after little time he’d rise and steal away,
Till daylight dawned and then he would come creeping back to bed.
At last, all tortured by her pain and harrowed by her fears,
She questioned him and said: “My son, where hast thou been all
night?”
Quoth he: “My friend and I have played together in the wood.”
She asked once more: “My son, pray tell what is it that you do.”
“We have been killing serpents vile and eating them,” said he;
“A serpent’s liver eaten giveth magic gifts to man.
I am not as I was before, but have the power to move
And climb from ledge to ledge as doth a worm, upon my head.
My friend hath taught me how to pass through ways impassable
To all save us.” “Who is thy friend?” His mother asked of him.
“His name is Tatebákwunowat, which means ‘a Measuring Worm.’
Of sport like this I never dreamed;” and yet the mother feared,
And told her agèd husband that their son was lost to them;
For he’d become _mʾdaulin_ and endowed with secret might.
Then spake the father: “This shall cease; I know a way to save
The foolish lad.” So when the evening came, he locked him in
And would not let him forth to roam in spite of all his prayers.
Then came the sound of some one walking heavily and hard,
The old man looked and saw a Thing of horror at his door,
Large eyes, short arms, short body and long legs of insect shape.
“Set free thy son thou foolish one,” the loathsome wizard cried.
“Not I,” replied the father, and at once let fall the flap
Before his wigwam door. The lad grew very ill and begged,
Entreated and implored that he might be allowed to roam
As he had done before, but only got the answer “No.”

Yet once again when morning’s light shone whitely on the trees,
Another wizard slowly came before the wigwam door.
At his approach the leaves and shrubs all rustled as from wind.
“Why dost thou seek to keep thy son from getting magic power?
He hath the magic gift to be the greatest of the great
Among us men who practise arts unknown to thee and thine.”
So spoke the wizard scornfully; the father stern replied:
“I have no wish that son of mine should be like thee and thine.”
Then quoth the wizard: “Thou shalt see thy son die here to-night,
For we have taken him too far to let him back to thee.”
“I care not if he die or no,” the father answering said,
And moaning with an angry moan the wizard drew away
And soon was lost to sight amid the waving forest leaves.

In awful agony the boy lay stretched upon the earth
Retching and crying out as one who soon must breathe his last.
Till suddenly he vomited a mass of serpent skins,
And then at last cast up the magic liver from his mouth.
This was the end of all his woe, for when that loathsome thing
Had left his body he arose all strong and purged and clean
And never more was known to seek to practise magic arts. P.

FOOTNOTES:

[49] Long ago the Indians believed there were wizards.