Among the hundreds of figures and characters seen by the present writer on the slate rocks that abound on the shores and islands of Kejimkoojik Lake, Queen’s county, Nova Scotia, described in Chap. II, Sec. [1], there appears a class of incised figures illustrating the religious myths and folk lore of the Indian tribes which inhabited the neighborhood within historic times. It is probable that in other parts of America, and, indeed, in all lands, the pictographic impulses and habits of the people have induced them to represent the scenes and characters of their myths on such rocks as were adapted to the purpose, as they are known to have done on bark, skins, and other objects. But these exhibitions of the favorite or prevalent myths in the shape of petroglyphs, though doubtless existing, have seldom been understood and deciphered by modern students. Sometimes they have not originally been sufficiently distinct or have become indefinite by age, and frequently their artists have been people of languages, religions, and customs different from the tribes now or lately found in the localities and from whom the significance of the petroglyphs has been sought in vain. The conditions of the characters at Kejimkoojik, now mentioned, are perhaps unique. They are drawn with great distinctness and sufficient skill, so that when traced on the rocks they immediately struck the present writer as illustrative of the myths and tales of the Abnaki. Many of these myths had been recently repeated to him by Mrs. W. Wallace Brown, of Calais, Maine, the highest authority in that line of study, and by other persons visited in Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and in Cape Breton and Prince Edwards Islands, who were familiar with the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Amalecite, and Micmac tribes. A number of these myths and tales had before been collected in variant forms by Mr. Charles G. Leland (a). It is a more important and convincing fact that the printed impressions of the figures now presented were at once recognized by individual Indians of the several Abnaki tribes above mentioned to have the signification explained below. It is also to be noted that these Abnaki have preserved the habit of making illustrations from their stories by scratchings and scrapings on birch bark. The writer saw several such figures on bark ornaments and utensils which exhibited parts of the identical myths indicated in the petroglyphs but not the precise scenes or characters depicted on the rocks. The selection of themes and their treatment were not conventional and showed some originality and individuality both in design and execution. From the appearance and surroundings of the rock drawings now specially under discussion they were probably of considerable antiquity and suggested that the Micmacs, who doubtless were the artists, had gained the idea of practicing art for itself, not merely using the devices of pictography for practical purposes, such as to record the past or to convey information.
Fig. 654.—Myth of Pokinsquss.
Fig. 654 is one of the drawings mentioned, and indicates one episode among the very numerous adventures of Glooscap, the Hero-God of the Abnaki, several of which are connected with a powerful witch called by Mr. Leland Pook-jin-skwess, or the Evil Pitcher, and by Mrs. W. Wallace Brown, Pokinsquss, the Jug Woman. She is also called the toad woman, from one of her transformations, and often appeared in a male form to fight Glooscap after he had disdained her love proffered as a female. Among the multitude of tales on this general theme, one narrates how Glooscap was at one time a Pogumk, or the small animal of the weasel family commonly called Fisher (Mustela Canadensis), also translated as Black Cat, and was the son of the chief of a village of Indians who were all Black Cats, his mother being a bear. Doubtless these animal names and the attributes of the animals in the tales refer to the origin of totemic divisions among the Abnaki. Pokinsquss was also of the Black Cat village, and hated the chief and contrived long how she could kill him and take his place. Now, one day when the camp had packed up to travel, the witch asked the chief Pogumk to go with her to gather gull’s eggs; and they went far away in a canoe to an island where the gulls were breeding and landed there, and then she hid herself to spy, and having found out that the Pogumk was Glooscap, ran to the canoe and paddled away singing:
Nikhed-ha Pogumk min nekuk,
Netswil sāgāmawin!
Which being translated from the Passamaquoddy language means—
I have left the Black Cat on an island,
I shall be chief of the Fishers now!
The continuation of the story is found in many variant shapes. In one of them Glooscap’s friend the Fox came to his rescue, as through Glooscap’s m’toulin or magic power he heard the song of appeal though miles away beyond forests and mountains. In others the Sea Serpent appears in answer to the Hero-God’s call, and the latter, mounting the serpent’s back, takes a load of stones as his cargo to throw at the serpent’s horns when the latter did not swim fast enough. In the figure the island is shown at the lower right hand as a roundish outline with Glooscap inside. The small round objects to the left are probably the gull’s eggs, but may be the stimulating stones above mentioned. Pokinsquss stands rejoicing in the stern of a canoe, which points in the wavy water away from the island. The device to the left of the witch may be the dismantled camp of the Black Cats, and the one to her right is perhaps where the Fox “beyond forests and mountains” heard Glooscap’s song of distress.