FOOTNOTES:
[1] This plant is much used by an Indian tribe in Lower California who are said to live to a great age, one hundred and eighty years being no uncommon term of life with them. It is not now known to exist among the Eastern Indians. It grew like maize, about two feet high, and was always in motion, even when boiling in the pot. Louis Mitchell’s mother, whom I knew well, received it from an Indian who wished to marry, and to whom she gave in return enough goods to set up housekeeping. She divided it with her four sisters, but at their death no trace of it was found. It gave him who drank it great length of life.
[2] C. G. Leland gives a similar story in his “Algonquin Legends of New England.”
[3] Magician.
[4] A pack kettle made of birch bark, used by the Indian before the days of trunks. I have a toy one a hundred years old or more.
[5] Grandmother.
[6] This incident occurs in several tales.
[7] Stones were heated in a fire on the ground, when red-hot, cold water was thrown on them to make a steam.
[8] A different version of this story is given in C. G. Leland’s “Algonquin Legends of New England,” Houghton & Mifflin, Boston, 1884.
[9] Red-headed duck.