sharply round, and saw, not forty yards away in our rear, a party of five mounted Indians, coming swiftly towards us; but that very moment we saw them their animals came to a dead halt and at the same instant the five riders leaped up, and stood erect on their horses' backs. Satisfied that they had no intention of attacking us, and were only looking out for strayed horses, we continued watching them for some time, as they stood gazing away over the plain in different directions, motionless and silent, like bronze men on strange horse-shaped pedestals of dark stone; so dark in their copper skins and long black hair against the far-off ethereal sky, flushed with amber light; and at their feet, and all around, the cloud of white and faintly blushing plumes."

This last passage is not only a thing of beauty but a symbol of an era of Argentina that is gone, a symbol of a life that is passing from the world. It is often with passages of Mr. Hudson as with this passage. They are of things some would call provinical but their humanity is so basic and their imagery so clear that they can be understood and appreciated anywhere.

That such passages are not read everywhere is perhaps in the nature of things. In our age the essay carries around the world only when it reverberates with a preachment. A story or play of a new kind of beauty and not topical has on publication a chance of a hearing; a book of poems not topical a half chance; a book of essays not topical, not on an issue of the times, one chance in a hundred. Yet even the essay's lack of popular appreciation cannot prevent such a book, if it is great, from making its appeal to men. And when book on book of essays of first power beat on the public's resistance, that resistance will eventually be worn away. The roll of great books by Mr. Hudson is now nine at least, "Birds in a Village" and "Idle Days in Patagonia" "Nature in Downland" and "Birds and Men," "Hampshire Days" and "Afoot in England," "A Shepherd's Life" and "Adventures among Birds," "Far Away and Long Ago." Few of our essayists have so many to boast, and few of all our great writers of prose any more.

BIRD-LORE OF THE NORTHERN INDIANS

BY FRANK G. SPECK

Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Men and their manners naturally hold first rank in the attention of the student and traveler. And yet whatever contributes to our experience is also of equal importance whether it be found in the animal or vegetable kingdom. In the realm of nature, birds are such social, intelligent and active beings that in the combination of the two spheres of observation, man-kind and birds, we find pleasant and profitable employment. The world of bird-life seems to have engaged the lively interest of men in ancient as well as in modern times, for there is hardly any part of creation within the reach of our observations which exhibits a more glorious display. Such a variety of pleasing scenes as the bird world shows, ever changing throughout the seasons, arising from various causes, and destined for different purposes, naturally held a strong appeal to the primitive men who dwelt in the forests of North America. These scenes were free to the enjoyment and inspection of various tribes who developed different reactions to them under the influence of their differing inner lives. They observed that the order of birds, like themselves, constituted tribes and bands, separated by their different structure, manners and utterances, as each tribe, though subdivided into smaller groups, retains its form in customs and language particular to that nation or genus from which it seems to have descended.

It may be said, I think without exaggeration, that the native Indians live much closer to Nature than most white people could hope to do. Their knowledge of wild life is therefore inexhaustible in quantity though it is often far from being scientifically correct. From their childhood, girls are taught much practical botany, the identity and use of scores of plants.

The boys, accompanying their fathers on the hunt, learn the habits of wild animals with an intensity of interest that is only found in matters of vital importance. This applies of course to the tribes of the north who practice no agriculture and whose subsistence is gained solely by the hunt. In their natural history it is to be expected, moreover, that the Indians are better mammalogists than ornithologists, since the observation of birds is something of a fine art with them; not an essential to their success in the life-sustaining chase. Likewise, we also find that considerably more superstition, folk-lore and fancy at large, are connected with their knowledge of birds. The birds in general are considered by these people to form a race of beings, subdivided into tribes just as people are, with their head chief and minor chiefs and local groups. Ordinarily the eagle is spoken of as the head chief of the birds but in the copious native mythology there is frequent mention of mythical birds such as the Wampum Bird, the Great Bird, the Wind Bird, and Gellu. Their description makes them out to be monstrous creatures; in some stories they are more comparable to the Roc of European lore. It is needless to say that birds figure prominently in the mythology of the natives but the allusions are so numerous that to treat them one would have to summarize the whole body of tradition. The partridges figure somewhat as dupes in the stories, the owls as solemn or mischievous characters, the herons as majestic indifferent beings and many other smaller birds assume the rôles of helpers, hinderers, tell-tales and the like. In different stages of the same story perhaps the hero may assume a bird guise at one time, his own form or an animal guise at another. The stories also betray some interpretative ability on the part of the myth-makers because the psychological traits of the creatures, as they appear to the observer, are often faithfully brought out, as for instance friendliness, reciprocal obligation, malice, apathy, stealth, thievery and so on.

1 Gellu has, however, in Penobscot some attributes ascribed to him which make it at least possible that the great auk, which formerly inhabited the New England coast, is meant.

When, however, we come to what would correspond to actual Indian ornithology we find knowledge to be based really less upon observation than upon interpretation. We learn for instance that in some past age the reign of winter was uninterrupted by the intrusion of any warm season, and that a body of adventurers went to the southland to try to secure the "summer fluid" to bring it back north with them. This they did not succeed in doing until they had captured the summer birds from the south and brought them north. Having secured these, one of the characteristics of the summer season, summer itself followed in their wake and thenceforth has continued its annual habit.1

NOTE. We may take the Penobscot Indian names and beliefs as the basis of discussion in this paper, because from my own experience with this tribe I am more able to undertake etymological analysis and partially because the information is more abundant. The Penobscot occupied central and northern Maine. Related fables and names from the Malecite of St. Johns river, New Brunswick, the Abenaki of St. Francis, Canada, and the Micmac of Nova Scotia, are also given, since all these tribes belong to the same culture group, known in ethnographical literature as the Wabanaki. The dialects of the four tribes are fairly close, though, as we shall see, the bird names and indentities do not always correspond in all of them.

In giving the names, the Penobscot words are noted by Pen., the Malecite by Mal., the Micmac by Mic., and the St. Francis Abenaki by St. Fr. The numbers in parentheses are the American Ornithologists' Union check list numbers. These will provide for the ornithologist a reference list of the birds which I identified in the Penobscot country. I found C. A. Reed's Pocket Bird Guides very useful in this work in the Indian villages, as the informants could recognize the creatures from the cuts. In writing the Indian words it is necessary to use some characters that may not be understood. Crossed 1 (†) denotes a lateral not unlike the Polish sound or Welsh II, k and g are not sharply differentiated, an aspiration following a vowel denotes an open breath following it, small n after and above the line of a vowel denotes nasalization, the long vowels are marked so above them, and small capital A is used to represent u as in but, while small capital E represents an obscure vowel like e in her.

1 From the Saulteaux who live near the Height of Land in Ontario comes a version of the same tale, adding the pretty conception, however, of the Milky Way as "The Birds' Pathway" during the migrations.

The family of the divers and swimmers naturally claims a large share of the attention of the northern natives whose homes lie among the rivers and lakes where these large and conspicuous birds resort during the breeding season. Naturally, too, the natives have been close observers of the differences of cry and in appearance manifested in this family. The prominent temperamental and economic characteristics of these birds have caused them to appear as figures in many of the mythical narratives and beliefs of folk-lore. Among them the loon stands forth rather sharply. His name "choice, admired bird" shows the esteem which he has earned by his constancy as a weather prophet, his beautiful plumage and his thrilling cry. The loon is regarded as a model of constancy both in story and in reality. To kill one is a sacrilege. Its attenuated cry, which echoes in stirring tones across the lakes and bays of the north, is regarded among the Wabanaki as a wail of grief for the loss of a lover; which event forms the theme of a legend. A brother and sister enamoured of one another, the story runs, eloped. Hotly pursued by their kinfolk, they were overtaken at last while crossing a frozen lake. At the moment when punishment was about to be administered, the ice gave way, the pair sank out of sight before the eyes of the indignant pursuers and rose again the next instant in the form of the loon, uttering the cry which is still the call of these mysterious birds. The lovers then became the celestial constellation which we call Orion. To the ears of European and Indian this cry has taken different values. The French Canadians hear it as huard, while in Ontario the Ojibwa hear it as mānk.

The Micmac say that to hear a passing loon give forth a laugh is a sign of coming happiness, but the mournful cry of the bird is to them harbinger of sorrow. The loon again

1

1 (A. O. U. 7) Pen. mEde'wite, "choice, admired bird," Mal. Agwún. The Red-throated Loon (A. O. U. 11) is Pen. mángwis. The corresponding mank is also the name of the common Loon in Ojibwa of Ontario. It is noticeable how inconstant are the identities and names in their distribution among various northern tribes whose languages are at the same time embraced in the single Algonkian stock.