Cape Breton's Magazine

No, God Almighty did not want that, He took a big smoke. In the morning the bag was under his head, it had come back. The old lady went to tell the priest, "That bag you fixed he got it under his head this morning," • "Well, well, wellI very queer that bag came back. The Devil brought it back," said the priest, "Tell the man to bring it to me himself." She told her husband. "What does he want it for? The bag is all right. It was chris? tened as well as myself. It won't hurt anybody anymore," • "It will," said the old lady. Well, at last he carried the bag to the priest. The priest said, "Come, kiss this bible, promise to give up the bag for good." • "Didn't you christen it yesterday? I will take it to Heaven with me." • "No, you must give up that bag for good." • "What will you give me for that?" • "No? thing, but I will send you to Heaven, if you're a good man and don't hurt anybody. But that bag you've got to give up." He took off his cap, got down on his knees. The priest closed the bible with a slam and said, "You've got to give up the bag for good." • "All right," • "Have you got the canoe ready?" • "Yes."--"Well, I am go? ing along this time. Tie up the bag, fas- ''' three stones to it this time." So in the deepest water the could find they sank it. Last end. That bag never came back to him. Ever since that folks have been chris? tened, praying, paying Indian taxes. Isabelle Googoo Morris told this story to Elsie Clews Parson and it appeared in her article "Micmac Folklore," Journal of American Folklore, in 1925. It is printed here with permission. The illustrations are from tracings of Micmac petroglyphs, pictures cut in rock at Lake Kejimkoojik and Medway River, Nova Scotia. They include what in 1888 Indians identified as the ground plan of a medicine man's lodge as well as what is taken to be a medTcme man's bag. Marion Robertson writes:"One (.medicine bag) ex? amined by Father Chretien LeClercq contained a stone • the medicine man's ouahich, or manitou, which was his source of power (the size of a walnut 'wrapped in a box which he called the house of his Devil'); a bit of bark with the figure of a wolverine in black and white wampum; a small foot-long bow with a cord interlaced with quills; a fragment of bark wrapped in skin and decorated with drawings ot children, birds, bears, bea.yers and moose; a stick adorned with white and red porcupine quills and a strap bearing two dozen dewclaws of moose; and a wooden bird which the medicine men carried with them when the Indians went hunting, believing it would enable them to kill many waterfowl." These petroglyphs are among 319 included in "Rock Drawings"Tf the Micmac Indians" by Marion Robertson. $2.50 from the Nova Scotia Museum. Halifax. All Rooms Overlook Sydney Harbour Vista Motel King's Road, Sydney, N.S, RESERVATION NUMBER: 539-6550 Best wishes to Cape Breton's Magazine SHAD'S SBRVICB STATIOK GENBRAL STORE & RESTAURANT Skir Dhtt Liordon 'y PHOTOGRAPHIC 'PHOTOGRAPHIC 355 Charlotte (902) 564-5665 CAPE BRBTC??J?S MAGAZINB/15 occori -rt'??rO-oUV't??p • N. c.ti.