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Overview
Marie Sakis’s story begins with a girl gathering blueberries on Katahdin and wishing that the mountain were a husband. She disappears for three years and returns with a child whose eyebrows are stone. The mountain has permitted her return on condition that people do not demand the father’s identity. The boy supplies abundant game by pointing at animals, which immediately fall.
The narrative makes the child a potential future protector of his people. Repeated questioning angers the mother despite their dependence on his gifts. She finally points to the stone eyebrows as the answer, withdraws both herself and her child, and returns to the mountain. Their departure concludes the story’s explanation for the loss of a promised collective future.
Leland compares this with a version in Eugene Vetromile that names Pamola and ends after the child accidentally kills a person. He objects to that identification and ending. The disagreement is preserved as a conflict between published witnesses, not resolved by borrowing Pamola’s later familiar anatomy for Sakis’s mountain spouse.
Origins & earliest records
Leland explicitly credits Mrs. Marie Sakis, a Penobscot storyteller, for the principal narrative in his 1884 volume. The printed account’s child and mountain parent are distinct from the adjacent Passamaquoddy stories about visiting the Thunder household.
Records & interpretation
The complete disappearance, return, taboo and final departure were read. No specific bodily appearance is supplied for the mountain spouse himself. Leland’s comparison with a Christian fall narrative and his conjecture about Pamola’s earlier identity remain collector interpretation.
In the literature
“his little eyebrows were of stone.”
Thunder Stories — Of the Girl who married Mount Katahdin, and how all the Indians brought about their own Ruin; complete account and all commentary · Leland English collected retelling; case-specific contributor mediation retained
A blueberry-gathering girl wishes Katahdin were a husband, disappears for three years and returns with a son whose eyebrows are stone. He provides game through pointing. The condition against questioning his parentage is repeatedly broken, and the mother withdraws herself and the boy to the mountain. Leland compares a Vetromile account naming Pamola and ending with the boy’s accidental killing, but that separate book was not independently inspected. The mountain spouse’s complete body shape is not supplied.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
The Algonquin Legends of New England
Thunder Stories: Of the Girl who married Mount Katahdin, and how all the Indians brought about their own Ruin; complete Marie Sakis account and comparison with Vetromile.
- 02
The Algonquin Legends of New England — complete Marie Sakis mountain-spouse account
Original work1884; selected Gutenberg6803 plain transcription, exact source print impression and printed pagination unidentified. Full author Preface and Authorities independently read.
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
The Algonquin Legends of New England
Original work1884; selected Gutenberg6803 plain transcription, exact source print impression and printed pagination unidentified. Full author Preface and Authorities independently read.
- A blueberry-gathering girl wishes Katahdin were a husband, disappears for three years and returns with a son whose eyebrows are stone. He provides game through pointing. The condition against questioning his parentage is repeatedly broken, and the mother withdraws herself and the boy to the mountain. Leland compares a Vetromile account naming Pamola and ending with the boy’s accidental killing, but that separate book was not independently inspected. The mountain spouse’s complete body shape is not supplied.
No entire volume, independently recorded oral performance or separate cited manuscript/comparative book read. Narrator credits and endings remain case-specific; editorial origin, medical and diffusion hypotheses are not established facts.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textLeland: complete located narrative and contributor notesResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.