Page:The International Folk-Lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893.djvu/331

Rh phratry tatooed on his or her body, but not those belonging to the eagles. The same rule applied to the eagles with regard to the ravens. Each of these phratries and crests appears to have had a legend, a few of which I shall give, beginning with the hero of the scannahs above quoted. Scannah gun nuncas had nine or ten brothers who one after the other went to find the queen of the Cowgans (wood-mice) and never returned. It is as follows:

Scannahgunnuncus himself, having gone to find the queen of the Cowgans, saw while walking along the seashore what he took to be a man standing on the edge of the woods. Wondering who the stranger was he called to him, but got no answer. He then went up to it in order to see what it was, found it to be a stump with a man's head on it. While looking at it, a voice said, "Take me down," he did so, and it suddenly turned into a man, and gave the following account of himself: "I am a man, I went to find the queen of the Cowgans. I got along with her maids, they led me on until I commenced to take liberties with them, and then as a punishment they turned me into a stump, in which condition I was to remain until Scannahgunnuncus came to break the enchantment. You are the man, and I am again free. You are looking for the palace of the beautiful queen of the Cowgans. If you follow my advice, you will find her; if you do not, you will share the fate of your brothers. Over that hill on a log you will find a lame mouse, help it along. Do not run after it; your brothers did so, and were killed. I am once more free, thanks, go and do as I tell you."

When our hero got on to the hill he found a log on which a lame mouse was trying to walk; as often as it tried, it fell off, so he picked it up and placed it on again. At last the mouse, who was not at all lame, came to him and said: "You are Scannahgunnuncus, the hero of the Scannahs; you are not a hero by name, but one in deed. You wish to find the lovely queen of the Cowgans, I will show you. Your brothers wished the same, but ran after me and tried to kill me and so got killed themselves. Come along." So the mouse, who was one of the queen's guards, led the way to the palace. After passing through long grass and timber, they came to a beautiful country in the midst of which the palace stood. "Yonder