Chapter VIII: Wizard Warfare

[_Abenaki_]

_Noñwat nd-odananok
Mʾsalok mdaulinʾwak._[54]

Long, long years ago
When wizards were not few
There happened near our town
A war of which I’ll tell.
One day a wizard wise
Sought counsel from the gods,
And entered in the hut
They knew as _petegwîgun_--
A round-house made of bark,
With opening above;
No door nor window there
Save only at the top
Through which the wizard climbed,
And, lying there in trance,
Saw all the foemen’s wiles.
Then, singing magic songs,
Forth from that hut he came
And ordered all the tribe
To rise and meet the foe,
The cruel Mohawk foe,
Encamped not far away.
So all the Indian braves
Embarked in their canoes,
Went down one stream, then up
Another, paddling soft,
Avoiding any sound.
At last they saw a smoke
Arising far away.
Then spake the wizard thus:
“Do ye all wait me here
And I will go and spy
The numbers of the foe,
Taking with me but one;
Another Indian brave
Who hath the magic gift.”
These wizards then withdrew
Into a thicket’s shade,
Whence suddenly emerged
In beaver’s guise the one,
In muskrat form his friend.
When they drew very near
The island where the foe,
The cruel Iroquois,
Were feasting on a moose,
The beaver and the rat
Dived deep beneath the stream,
Causing that sudden plash
Which even to this day
Makes many a hunter jump.
Among the Iroquois
Another wizard sat
And when he heard the plash
Quoth he: “The foe is there,
The fierce Abenakis.”
Then, grasping in his hand,
The legbone of a moose,
He flung it straight and far
To where the muskrat swam
And struck him on the head.
The beaver seized his friend
And drew him ’neath the stream
And held him till he drowned,
In order that his pains
And struggle for his life
Should not alarm the foe.
The Iroquois then rose
And danced around the fire
Thinking in hideous glee
Of how when morrow came
They’d torture all their foes.

They then lay down to sleep.
At once the beaver swam
To shore to their canoes
And gnawed with his sharp teeth
Great holes in the birch bark
Of which these craft were made.
The wizard beaver then
Swam back to his own folk
To whom he said: “Arise,
Come, quickly hunt them out.”
The fierce Abenakis
Came stealthily and still
And landed on the isle
Where lay the Iroquois.
Then, whooping with the cry
Of war which chills the soul,
The fierce Abenakis
Awoke the Iroquois
Who, paralyzed with fright,
Rushed straight to their canoes
Which sank in mid-stream all--
The work of wizard teeth.

Then the Abenakis
Swooped down with horrid cries
And then slew all their foes
Save only two. I’ll tell
What ’twas they did to them.
Of all their slaughtered foes
They first cut off the heads
And stuck them up on stakes
All over that fair isle.
Then to their prisoners
Whom they had saved alive,
They gave a little thought.
So first they bound them fast
Then pried with cruel sticks
Their mouths till open wide;
Cut off their lower lips,
Showing the grinning teeth,
Then severing half their ears
And half their noses too,
They said to them in scorn:
“_Kdihleba nda mina
Ni nojimigahakw_:”
“We warn you now, my friends,
Do not attempt again
To come against us here.”
This was the way they marked
The prisoners in old days.

Then they gave them food
Enough to give them life
Upon the journey home,
In order that these maimed
And harshly usèd foes
Should tell the Iroquois
In northern forest far
That the Abenakis
Were mightier than they.

That island to this day
Is called the Place of Skulls,
Wdupsek in our tongue. P.

FOOTNOTES:

[54] Long ago there were many wizards in our town.