CANADIAN WO NDER TALES o c n o l F p m: T H E S ' N ’ S TR IA L C A N A D I A N WO ND E R TA L ES B' C' R ' S MA C MI L LA N W I T H I L L ' S T R A T I O N S I N COLO'R B' G EORGE S H ERIN G HA M A ND A FORE ORD B' SIR WILLIA M PETERSON W , LONDON : OH N LA NE THE BODLE' HEA D ' , O M P A ' N E W ' O R K : 'O H N L A N E C N ' N D Y M C M X V I I I E D S N LTD R S P M D WI L LI A M B R N D O N A N O . P I N TER L' O U N A N , , , TH, E G L TO M' MOTH E R WHO F I RS T T A'GHT ME TO S E E THE FA I R' WO RLD A ND TO H EA R THE HO RNS O F ELF-LA ND B LOW I N G. FO REWO RD - H IS is the book of a soldier student . Captain Macmillan i nterru pted his teach ing work in Montreal to go overseas w ith one of our McGill ' Batteries , and from Somewhere in France he has asked v me to stand sponsor for his olume . The author’ s method resembles that followed by the brothers Grimm a century ago . He has taken down from to the lips of living people , pretty much as they were given of him , a series stories which obviously contain many elements that have been handed down by oral tradition ' - from some far off past . They are mostly animal stories , of with all the usual features magic and transformation , on articulate speech the part of the animals , and interchange of more or less kindly offices between man and beast . — The result is a collection of fables which especially as — illustrated by an eminent artist will prove a very acceptable al so Christmas book for children , and will give their elders Not i s as some food for reflection . that there , so far I b have een able to discover, any moral about some at least vii CANADIAN WO NDER TALES ' of the tales . They are not stories with a purpose . But they suggest to the adult reader the essential identity of many of the methods by which in a more or less remote antiquity the human race expressed itself in various parts of the world . That has now become a matter of scientific study . The floating material of popular tradition at different times ff and in di erent places has been spread out , as it were , on a - - dissecting table by our Folk lore Societies , and the thoughts o t v and beliefs , customs and superstiti ns herein preser ed have been studied from the comparative point of view for the light they throw on the primitive development of the human mind . Those of us who read the Journal of American - Folk lore , or the papers on I ndian mythology recently con tributed by C . M . Barbeau to the anthropological series n issued by the Geological Survey of Canada, have ma y ’ - sources at hand with which Mr . Macmillan s folk tales may — be profitably compared . Some of the stories those , for instance , that refer to Shrove Tuesday on the one hand , and packed sardines on the other—are obviously of no ' earlier d w w ' date than the ays hen Canada as owned by the French . But many of them go back to ' long before the white men ' - came to Canada . That these are folk tales of the universal type is evidenced by the primitive traditions which they FO REWO RD ix embody . In all such stories striking resemblances occur, ' whether they are the records of Algonquins or ulus , Hotten sa h tots or Australian Bushmen . To y nothing of c arms and incantations , magic coats and magic wands , ogres and giants , mermen and mermaidens , supernatural creatures and speak ing beasts , evil spirits in disguise , there are the standing — dishes of all such folk - tales the strong man and his r adventu es , the bride carried off by the youthful hero and pursued by her father , the promise that the bride shall be f given to anyone who shall accomplish some di ficult task , - with death as the penalty of failure . These and such like features are all examples of primitive methods of self ’ a nd expression , represent , in the case before us , the Indian s elemental ideas of the universe around him and his relation to it . c l ’ Thus Mr . Ma mil an s Wonder Tales , while serving for the pleasure and delight of children , have their points of contact with what we must take to be the background of prehistoric culture on the continent of America . But the e and childr n will read enjoy them for their own sake , and unhampered by any such applications of the comparative method . They will learn in this book the answers to such — conundrums as the following Why Frog croaks , Why Bear fi sh h as - eats , Why Bunny a short tail and long hind legs x CANADIAN WONDE R TALES - and a split upper lip , Why Partridge makes a drumming noise , Why Mosquitoes sting, Why Aspen leaves tremble, What Woodpecker and Bluejay were before they were changed into birds , Why the Moon usually travels alone in the forest . And , if they find anything unsatisfactory about the answers herein recorded , they will have the opportunity of exercising their imaginations to better purpose than w as done by those who gave these answers in the days when the world was young ' W P R N . ETE S O October 1 1 , 9 7 . PR E FAC E \ H E tales in this collection have been gathered in of I various parts Canada . They have been selected from a larger collection of folk-tales and folk-songs i made by the wr ter for more academic and scientific purposes . ’ They are not the product of the writer s imagination ; they f ' ' of are the common possession o the folk . Many them v are still reverently belie ed by the Canadian Indians , and all are still told with seriousness around camp fires in forests sea . and on plains , upon the and by cottage hearths The now dress in which they appear may be new, but the skeleton of each story has been left unchanged . Canada is a country with a romantic past . The atmosphere in which our ancestors lived in the early days of exploration and colonization , if not one of enchantment , was at least one of ’ of mystery . The traditions and tales our country s past are rapidly disappearing in its practical present , and the poetry of its former times is rarely heard above the hum ' - of its modern life . Its old unhappy far off things and ' battles long ago are fading memories , for comparatively X1 CANADIAN WO NDER TALES little has been done to save its ol d tales from oblivion . That the children of the land may know something of the tradi tions of the mysterious past in which their forefathers dwelt and laboured is the writer’ s only excuse for the publication of this volume . The writer ’ s deepest thanks are here expressed to the nameless I ndians and habitants , the fishermen and sailors , ' n the spi ners and the knitters in the sun , from whose lips he heard these stories . It is perhaps but fair to explain that the proofs were corrected by the writer in the intervals between other duties V u on imy Ridge, France , and that to this fact and the co se quent haste any minor errors may in part at least be attributed . CONTENTS FOREWORD PREFACE ’ TH E BAKER S MAGI C WAN D S TAR -BO' AND TH E S U N DANCE AND HIS MAGIC AIDS ’ BAD I NDIAN S ASH ES THE MERMAID OF TH E MAGDALEN ES TH E BO' AND TH E DANCI NG FAI RY THE MOU S E AND TH E S U N ’ GLOOSKA P S COU N TRY How RABBIT LOST H I S TAIL TH E PARTRIDGE AND H IS DR U M How S U MM ER CAM E To CANADA How TU RTLE CAME THE FIRST MOS'UITO TH E MOON A ND H I S FROG-WIFE GLOOSKA P AND TH E FAIRY TH E PASSI NG OF GLOOSKAP THE I NDIA N CI NDERELLA TH E BO' AND H I S TH RE E H ELPERS THE DUCK WIT H RED FEET THE NORT H ERN LIGH TS ’ TH E BO' AND TH E ROBBERS MAGICAL BOOTY xiv CANADIAN WO NDE R TALES TH E COMIN G OF TH E CORN TH E DANCE OF DEAT H TH E FIRS T PIG AN D PORCUPI N E TH E S HRO'E T U ESDA Y 'ISITOR TH E BO' OF GREAT S TREN GT H AN D TH E GIA NT S TH E S T RA NGE TALE OF CARI BOU A ND MOOSE 'ACK AND H I S WONDERFU L H EN TH E S AD TALE OF WOODPECKER AND BLU E'AY TH E S TU PID BO' A ND TH E WAND TH E B LACKFOOT AND TH E B EAR TH E BOYS AND TH E GIA NT CANADIAN WO NDER TALES I AM TIRED OF THE LONELY LIFE ; I HA'E COME FOR YOUR DAUGHTER SHE WAS 'ERY BEAUTIFUL A ND GENTLE THE CHIEF HAD A BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER A 'ERY BEAUTIFUL GIRL SITTING ON THE BANK OF THE STREAM SHE CLIMBED INTO A TREE THAT STRETCHED O'T OVE R THE WATER MANY WOMEN SAT AROUND IN A CIRCLE ALL SAD AND WEEPING , HE WALKED THROUGH THE FOREST UNTIL HE CAME SUDDENLY UPON A WIDE A ND OPEN RED PLAIN IN THE TRIBE WAS A VERY HANDSOME YOUNG MAN FROM THE BEACH CAME A LARGE WHITE SEAGULL THE NIGHT WAS ALWAYS ONE OF GREAT MERRIMENT AND FEASTING HE SAW FOUR LARGE FISH LYING ON THE ICE IN THE E'ENING THEY CAME To A CAMP HE BOUGHT A LARGE UANTITY OF FOOD PUT IT IN A BASKET AND CARRIED ' , , IT To THE ANIMAL YARD THEN HE DRESSED HIS SISTER IN GOOD CLOTHES AND WASHED AND GOMBED HER HAIR THE PIGS CAME GRUNTING OVER THE SAND O T To THE PEOPLE SET ' FIND THE GIANTS .