A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
Tomah Josephs’s lost-gun narrative begins with a canoe accident on the St John’s River. A practitioner sends the woman who lost the equipment to a ledge above a dangerous eddy. A monstrous horned head emerges carrying the gun across its antlers. She cannot bring herself to take it; the being sinks, and the gun is lost permanently. The story’s rebuke of the woman belongs to the historical telling, not a rule endorsed by this profile.
Noel Joseph’s Dance of Old Age, recorded at Campobello on 26 August 1883, concerns a hunter harmed by a rejected suitor’s magic. His brother summons the Weewillmekq’, withstands its frightening appearance and receives scrapings from a horn. One portion restores the hunter; the other causes the woman to age rapidly while dancing until she dies. A separate version makes the substance wither a tree before it is used against her. The cure and destructive aging are narrative powers, not medical claims.
The notes preserve unresolved differences rather than one standardized anatomy. Josephs describes a small creature in wood and a horned aquatic form as large as a horse; his reported sighting associated it with a lightning-struck tree. Mrs. W. Wallace Brown calls it a snail. Leland compares it with the Mi’kmaq Chepitchcalm, but that comparison does not establish that every named being is interchangeable.
Origins & earliest records
Leland publishes the gun episode as Josephs’s telling and dates Noel Joseph’s dance narrative to 26 August 1883. Brown separately supplies the printed song and a natural-creature identification. The 1884 publication is a located historical witness, not an origin date.
Records & interpretation
Complete gun and both dance episodes were read; named narrator, supplied song and collector commentary remain distinct. No sacred or ceremonial text is reproduced. Spellings follow the inspected edition rather than asserting a current standardized orthography.
In the literature
“a kind of monstrous head, with great forked horns and terrible eyes.”
I. How a Woman Lost a Gun for Fear of the Weewillmekq’; complete account/all notes · Leland English collected retelling; specific credits retained
A canoe accident loses hunting gear. A magician arranges gun recovery, and a head rises from an eddy bearing the weapon on forked horns. The woman is too frightened to reach; it disappears with the gun. Notes describe a small tree worm, horse-sized water form and reported lightning attraction. These differing descriptions are testimony rather than a zoological identification; the printed gendered moral is not endorsed.
“Its eyes were like fire; its horns rose.”
II. Muggahmaht’adem, the Dance of Old Age ...; complete account/all notes · Leland English collected retelling; specific credits retained
A rejected woman curses a hunter. His elder brother receives help from the horned being and the hunter recovers. Returning home, the younger hunter gives the woman a drink and she ages during dancing until she dies. Results are retained without reproducing preparation or ritual instructions. Its fire-like eyes and risen horns belong to this episode.
“a creature like an alligator, with horns.”
III. Another Version of the Dance of Old Age; complete account/all notes · Leland English collected retelling; specific credits retained
A hunter keeps a size-changing fairy but is driven toward Kewahqu transformation by the jealous woman at home, expressly not the fairy. A friend prevents his killing and helps him recover. An alligator-like horned creature rises from a lake; a test ages and destroys a green tree, then the woman dies through contact during dancing. The main meal is human remains; the editor’s deer alternative is conjecture. Contact ending differs from the drink version.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
The Algonquin Legends of New England
How a Woman Lost a Gun for Fear of the Weewillmekq’; Muggahmaht’adem, the Dance of Old Age; Another Version of the Dance of Old Age; complete narratives and contributor notes.
- 02
The Algonquin Legends of New England — I. How a Woman Lost a Gun for Fear of the Weewillmekq’
Original work1884; Gutenberg6803 selected transcription, exact source print impression/pages unidentified. Full 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; Gutenberg6803 selected transcription, exact source print impression/pages unidentified. Full Preface and Authorities independently read.
- A canoe accident loses hunting gear. A magician arranges gun recovery, and a head rises from an eddy bearing the weapon on forked horns. The woman is too frightened to reach; it disappears with the gun. Notes describe a small tree worm, horse-sized water form and reported lightning attraction. These differing descriptions are testimony rather than a zoological identification; the printed gendered moral is not endorsed.
I. How a Woman Lost a Gun for Fear of the Weewillmekq’; complete account/all notes
- A rejected woman curses a hunter. His elder brother receives help from the horned being and the hunter recovers. Returning home, the younger hunter gives the woman a drink and she ages during dancing until she dies. Results are retained without reproducing preparation or ritual instructions. Its fire-like eyes and risen horns belong to this episode.
II. Muggahmaht’adem, the Dance of Old Age ...; complete account/all notes
- A hunter keeps a size-changing fairy but is driven toward Kewahqu transformation by the jealous woman at home, expressly not the fairy. A friend prevents his killing and helps him recover. An alligator-like horned creature rises from a lake; a test ages and destroys a green tree, then the woman dies through contact during dancing. The main meal is human remains; the editor’s deer alternative is conjecture. Contact ending differs from the drink version.
III. Another Version of the Dance of Old Age; complete account/all notes
No whole collection, separately recorded oral transcript or separately cited manuscript/comparative edition inspected. Variant/narrator distinctions preserved; no earliest/diffusion/treatment proof claimed.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- ResearchLeland: complete located narratives and contributor notesResearch access: 2026-10-05
- ReferenceUniversity of Pennsylvania: original 1884 edition bibliographyResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.