Daily Kennebec journal., 1902-03-29

sickly moonbeam broke through the
heavy black veil of clouds, and l seen
fifteen coffins all in row on the Isl
dores deck-fifteen coffins all in a row
| as plain as | see you now
The Cap'en he give a big guffaw.
Well says he, you're gOin' to give up
your berth on account of a fool dream.
are you? What am l a-going to do
with a hand short, man.
You can do the best you cam says
the mate. without me. You've got a
crew of fourteen, and there's plenty of
seamen round looking for job
".All right says the Cap'en, and l
guess he swOre little may be. If
you're a-leaving me like this, you'll get
no more passage with me on the Isl
dore, l guess.
mo says the mate, L guess you're
right there; anyway, l take that there
dream as a sign and a token
Your sign and token be damned,
roared the Cap'en, and so they parted.
We'll" continued Uncle Theodore,
the Cap'en got another mate and the
IsidOre set sail with a crew of fifteen,
all hands told, but. my dear, she never
came into port again. On the way back
she was struck by a gale and all souls
went down. Yes, fifteen bodies was
washed ashore along the coast, and
there was fifteen cOffinS made to put
'em in. l call that n strange thing, now
don't you? but God rules by strange
ways, and that there mate was not Or
dained to die by water
Uncle Theodore's infantile bald head
nodded solemnly as he spoke, and
shortly after he departed, with the
earnest hope that he might meet us in
a better land some day.
1t was some weeks later that the
writer's attention was called to the
somewhat vague legend of Saint
Aspinquid,' which has grown haZy
through it's transmission from one gen
Grafton to another of unlettered chrOni-
clers. In Saint Aspinquid Park at
York Beach there is the large figure of
an Indian. resplendent in a crown of
feathers and bearing on it's base the in
scription Saint Aspinquid.'
Mr. Samuel Drake says, in his book
of New England legends, that this
Saint Aspinquid was an Indian chief,
who became convert to the teachings
of the Jesuit priests and devoted his
life to Christianizing his race.
Some members of the Folk Lore So
ciety, on the other hand, believe that
Saint Aspinquid was an Englishman,
who devoted his life to the work of
teaching the gospel of Christ to the
savages of the New World. They hold
that Saint Aspnquid was a native of
York, England. where he was born in
1888; thatshe emigrated to York, Me-,
and died there, at the advanced age of
ninety-four years.
The real facts probably are that
Saint Aspinquid was himself a Jesuit
priest rather than an Indian convert,
for it was one of the rules of that order
themselves by adopting the manner Of
life of the people they sought to teach
This theory makes the legend plain
The Anglo-SaXon Jesuit priest, in the
habiiments Of an American Indian
chief, went from tribe to tribe pro-
claiming his doctrines to the children
of the forest. He is an interesting and
romantic figure in the early history of
Maine. and visitors should view with
reverence the monument of stone which
succeeding generations of grateful alb
orignes have piled together over his
grave on the summit of Mount Aga
mentcus.
Tradition has preserved an account
of the funeral rites for the aged saint.
He was attended to his last resting
place by Indian warriors, sachems,
braves, and squaws, who brought Gill
wild animals as an offering to the
Great Spirit for the safety of their de-
parted saint on his journey to the is
lands of the blessed, or perhaps, with a
strange intermixture of heather and
Jesuit faith, as propitiatory gifts to
purchase for him a brief stay in pur-
gatory.
At all events, they came laden with
90 bears, SO moose. 80 buffaloes, 1,500
mink 900 musk-rats, 4S2 foxes, 112 rat
le-snakes. besides a goodly array of
wolves otters, raccoons, and beavers.
A strange sight it must have been, this
funeral of the dead white saint with
these aboriginal mourners and their Of
ferings of dead beasts. The following
inscription is said to have been cut
upon the headstone:
PRESENT, USEFUL,
ABSENT. WANTED.
LIVING. DESIRED.
DEAD, LAMENTED.
One of the most singular of the
Maine coast legends is that of Old
Trickey, who lived at Bra'-boat Har-
bor. and fshed for a living. Old
Trickey was hated and feared along the
coast because of his malevolent dispo-
sition, and when he died he was sup
10. ha ;rh ,f
J York with, great persistence. The
superstition was that he was doomed
TO haul sand with rope, and that his