Native American Legends
Of the woman who loved a Serpent who lived in a lake
A Passamaquoddy Legend
Of old times. There was a very beautiful woman. She turned the
heads of all the men. She married, and her husband died very soon
after, but she immediately took another. Within a single year she
had five husbands, and these were the cleverest and handsomest and
bravest in the tribe. And then she married again.
This, the sixth, was such a silent man that he passed for a fool.
But he was wiser than people thought. He came to believe, by thinking
it over, that this woman had some strange secret. He resolved to
find it out. So he watched her all the time. He kept his eye on
her by night and by day.
It was summer, and she proposed to go into the woods to pick berries,
and to camp there. By and by, when they were in the forest, she
suggested that he should go on to the spot where they intended to
remain and build a wigwam. He said that he would do so. But he went
a little way into the woods and watched her.
As soon as she believed that he was gone, she rose and walked rapidly
onwards. He followed her, unseen. She went on, till, in a deep,
wild place among the rocks, she came to a pond. She sat down and
sang a song. A great foam, or froth, rose to the surface of the
water. Then in the foam appeared the tail of a serpent. The creature
was of immense size.
The woman, who had laid aside all her garments, embraced the serpent,
which twined around her, enveloping all her limbs and body in his
folds. The husband watched it all. He now understood that, the venom
of the serpent having entered the woman, she had saved her life
by transferring it to others, who died.
He went on to the camping ground and built a wigwam. He made up
two beds; he built a fire. His wife came. She was earnest that there
should be only a single bed. He sternly bade her lie by herself.
She was afraid of him. She lay down, and went to sleep. He arose
three times during the night to replenish the fire. Every time he
called her, and there was no answer. In the morning he shook her.
She was dead. She had died by the poison of the serpent. They sunk
her in the pond where the snake lived.
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