Page 96 - Linda MacLellan Visits Archie Neil

ISSUE : Issue 67

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1994/8/1

ard there who had put an evil spell and a curse on you and his name was Charlie. Lu? bie told me that his father used to fish for the Jerseys. And that was before Fa? ther Fiset's time. And his father was al? ways poor and he got married and he lived in a shack and he wanted to build a house. He had lumber. He could get the lumber and he could saw it with a rip-saw but the one thing that (was hard for) him was to get the nails. Now Lubie told me that one day his father was down on the shore standing on the wharf and he heard a noise beneath the wharf. And there was this Charlie turning himself--now, remember, these are stories, I'm not telling you as a fact; but Lubie would tell it as a fact--Charlie was con? verting himself into an animal. They were supposed to have this ability to transfer themselves from one body to another. And he was in the midst of this when Mr. Chi? asson looked down at him. Now one of the things that they could not do was if they were caught, if you kept your eye on them, they couldn't keep changing--they'd have to remain in the condition they were in. So Charlie told the old man--well, he wasn't an old man then--to go away and the old man said he wouldn't. And then Charlie said, "What do you want? I'll give you what you want if you'll go away." And he says, "I want a promise that you'll give me the nails to build my house." And when he did the old man went away and Charlie turned himself into whatever animal he wished to be for the time being. The next day Chiasson went down to the store that they had then and Charlie gave him the nails on the condition that he wouldn't tell anyone while he was living that he saw him converting himself into another creature. Now, that happened, oh, probably a hundred years ago and Lubie was able to tell it because both his father and Charlie were long dead when Lubie told that on my program. If you were to look in Father Anselme Chiasson's History of Chet? icamp you will find page after page after page of this material that I'm giving you right now. Different stories and different curses and different beliefs that they had. And one of the things that they be? lieved in was the fact that the Jerseymen had supernatural powers. EDITOR'S NOTE: Sticking to the courte? sies and restrictions of his own traditions, Archie Neil told Linda the story of "changing form" as he would properly tell it to a woman. On another occasion, Archie Neil told the same event to a man. The difference was that Charlie was seen under the bridge turning himself into a bull. And later, after the deal for the nails was made, Charlie was seen completely trans? formed into a bull, heading off for a pas? ture full of cows. Our thanks to Linda MacLellan of Belle C6te] for sharing the tapes of her visit with Archie Neil Chisholm. MABOU GARDENS Complete Flower Shop • Locally Owned y > OPEN S Cape Breton's Largest Full-Service Garden Centre ly'visifV 'Florence's ' Grand Lake Road SYDNEY • 562-6000 12 MONTHS A YEAR! Buy All Your Garden & Gift Needs Country Traditions Gift Shop %." INSIDE A COMMITMENT TO CAPE BRETON

Cape Breton's Magazine