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Overview
Their mother forbids them to enter the water, but they repeatedly swim anyway. One day their father finds them far out from shore. They cannot return to land because their bodies have grown heavy and slimy, changing into snakes below the waist. They emerge as beautiful long-haired beings with silver ornaments and ask their parents to leave their abandoned clothes untouched.
The sisters promise that their transformation will not harm their parents, and thereafter propel the parental canoe without paddling. Other people eventually discover the clothes and try to catch them. Their slippery bodies defeat capture until one pursuer cuts off a girl’s hair. The sisters rock the canoe and demand its return; when it is restored, the threat ends. The next day both appear again, the shorn hair already regrown.
The preceding, separately told Grand Lake narrative also features two transforming girls, but they remain snakes after a hunter observes them and announce a departure toward salt water. Brown’s Ne Hwas account instead emphasizes continued relations with the parents and the encounter with captors. These endings are not combined.
Origins & earliest records
Leland publishes Ne Hwas, the Mermaid in 1884 as a Passamaquoddy variant obtained by Mrs. W. Wallace Brown. The chapter does not name the individual teller or a precise collection date. The title is retained without treating Ne Hwas as the personal name of only one sister.
Records & interpretation
Both complete neighbouring transformation narratives were read. Leland’s attempt to identify the hair-cutter with Lox and connect the episode to a Norse myth is his own interpretation; the actual Ne Hwas narrative leaves the captor unnamed.
In the literature
“the girls carried it safely on everywhere”
Ne Hwas, the Mermaid · Leland English collector/reteller; individual teller qualification in attestation
Brown’s separate variant has daughters changing from the waist down, growing too heavy to leave the water, becoming handsome snake-maids and safely carrying their parents’ canoe. A later unnamed captor cuts one girl’s hair; threats force its return, and it is fully grown next day. The main telling does not name the captor Lox; that is Leland’s subsequent identification and Norse comparison.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
The Algonquin Legends of New England
At-o-sis section: How Two Girls were changed to Water-Snakes, and Ne Hwas, the Mermaid; complete distinct narratives and collector notes.
- 02
The Algonquin Legends of New England — Ne Hwas selected lake narratives
Leland original work1884; selected Gutenberg6803 plain transcription lacks inspected printed-imprint/page data, exact print impression and page numbers unidentified. Full author Preface and Authorities read.
Family, evolution & connections
The two Ne Hwas daughters — Brown’s variant in Leland
The complete Ne Hwas narrative, introduced as a variant obtained by Mrs. W. Wallace Brown.
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- Unnamed father and mother
Opening explicitly names family roles: father, his wife and their two daughters. No individual teller, parental names or daughters’ birth order are supplied. This variant is kept distinct from the preceding two water-snakes story. Leland’s identification of the unnamed hair-cutter with Lox and his Norse borrowing theory are not adopted.
The unnamed father and mother in Ne Hwas
The opening gives a man and his wife two daughters. Their change of form does not sever the stated family: afterward the girls carry their parents’ canoe. No names are supplied for either parent.
The two daughters represented by Ne Hwas
Ne Hwas is the title of this two-daughter account, not an explicitly stated personal name for only one sister. Their shared parents establish sisterhood; no individual names or birth order are supplied.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
The Algonquin Legends of New England
Leland original work1884; selected Gutenberg6803 plain transcription lacks inspected printed-imprint/page data, exact print impression and page numbers unidentified. Full author Preface and Authorities read.
- The first two girls become long snakes with female heads after a hunter observes their private swimming; subsequent witnesses see the snake-girls and hear their announced departure. The second NeHwas case is a separately obtained version, not four girls in a single encounter. No individual first-case teller is named in inspected passage.
- Brown’s separate variant has daughters changing from the waist down, growing too heavy to leave the water, becoming handsome snake-maids and safely carrying their parents’ canoe. A later unnamed captor cuts one girl’s hair; threats force its return, and it is fully grown next day. The main telling does not name the captor Lox; that is Leland’s subsequent identification and Norse comparison.
Ne Hwas, the Mermaid; complete bounded selected prose narrative and described appended note
No whole collection/introduction, independent oral recording or separate comparative work inspected; diffusion/antiquity/scientific interpretations not independently demonstrated. Lyrics, formulas and practical ritual/treatment instructions excluded.
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
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