Cape Breton's Magazine

leaving the young man more disconsolate than ever, yet more determined to win one of them for his bride. He looked about for some new place in which to hide, and espying a bunch of rushes growing near the water, he broke one off and found within it a little hollow, in which he hid. A third time the water fairies appeared and set about their game, coming very near the rushes in which our hero lay • but a third time something alarmed one of them and, with the usual cry, they all fled to the water; but this time our hero managed to capture one of them before she could disappear. She begged him to let her go, pleading that she was married, and pro? mising that if he would release her she would bring her younger sister to him on the following day. So he did as she wished, and the next day she returned with her beautiful young sister, who willingly followed hira to his wigwam. The next spring his wife said that she wished to see her father and mother again. The young man consented, and decided to accompany her • so she led the way to the ocean, carrying her child in a case on her back. Arrived at the shore, she contin? ued straight on into the water, where her husband was at first afraid to follow her. At lengthy however, she managed to overcome his fears, and he went with her, even under the surface of the water. Things soon began to appear to him much as in the upper world. After a journey they came to a large village in the midst of a hard-wood country of wondrous beauty* "My father is chief here," said the wife, and she led her husband and child to his wigwam, where they were hospitably received. All kinds of fish dwelt in the village, and the chief and his wife xvere themselves fish below the waist. The chief was the ruler of all the fish. Our hero and his wife passed some time very pleasantly with the parents of the lat? ter, but at last he wished to return to earth. He and his wife had not gone far, however, when they were pursued by an enormous shark, and after a wearisome flight the wife's strength began to fail her. Then she took off her case in which she car? ried her child and fastened it upon her husband's back, so that it might be saved. "Do not wait for me," she said, "but flee yonder" • pointing to the sun • "and you will reach the shore at the point where we left it. If I am saved I will follow you." Our hero did as she directed, and when he reached the shore sat there and waited for a long and weary time, but his wife never appeared again. At last he knew she must have been slain by the shark, and so he went sorrowfully home. Abrara Glode told this story to Stansbury Hagar. who included it in an article pub? lished in The American Anthropologist in January, 1895. Abram Glode added this; "When Moses led the children of Israel tKrough the Red Sea one woman was drowned. and she became a fish frora her waist downward, was lost in this tale." I think she was the same woman who OCEAN GLASS LTD. WINDSHIELDS INSTALLED ON THE SPOT Mobile Service 765 Grand Lake Road Sydney Call Collect 539-6140 "Tires Our Specialty" SYL'S dSsq) SERVICE located Two Miles West of Baddeck on the Trans-Canada Highway 24-Hour Towing Service 2 Wreckers • Call Anytime 295-2911 or 295-9970 Now that the Tourists have gone home we can be nice to the Local People, at GEORGE'S DAIRY Baddeck Ladies and Children's Wear 314 Charlotte Street SYDNEY Year Round Service to Cape Bretoners and their Friends Campbeirs Market Baddeck Cape Breton's Maga2ine/23