[9] The version gives only the incidents as remembered, and can hardly be called a translation.
[10] Probably Sable had a m' toulin, or magic power, and his song was heard by Black Cat, although miles away beyond hills and mountains.
[11] Evidently to excite the curiosity of the Snake.
[12] The fire was outside the wigwam, and the Snake put his head out of the wigwam, when he was struck. Possibly the Snake watched the process of straightening the stick through curiosity, and was off his guard.
[13] In another story which was told me, Glooscap turned the eyes of the Snake white in the following manner:—
"Once on a time Glooscap was cooking something in his wigwam, and the Snake wished to see what it was. So the Snake crawled up the outside of the wigwam and looked down through the smoke-hole into the cooking vessel. But Glooscap, who was stirring the pot of cooking food, held in his hand a great ladle. He noticed the Snake peering in at the smoke-hole, and, filling the bowl of the ladle full of the hot food, threw it into the eyes of the Snake. From that time the eyes of the Snake have been white."
[14] According to the narrator, the bird that did this was a very large one. Possibly it was Cooloo, the offended husband of Pookjinsquess.
[15] Quahbet, or the Giant Beaver, was not on the best of terms with Black Cat, for Glooscap had slain many of the beavers, whose bones still exist, and are of giant size. This hatred probably arose, says Leland, from the time when Quahbeetsis, the son of the Beaver, inspired Malsumsis to kill Glooscap.
[16] The ants assisted Black Cat in many ways. They were also friendly to Leux, and on one occasion are said to have gathered the bones and fragments of the "Merry God" together and restored his life. Whether in the present instance they tried to keep the tree upright by piling the earth about its trunk or not, the narrator does not say.
[17] Possibly the gnawing of the Beaver is the ripple of the waves around the base of the tree.