Post by Okwes on Apr 14, 2008 12:37:43 GMT -5
Glooscap Fights The Water Monster - Micmac
Glooscap yet lives, somewhere at the southern edge of the world, He never
grows old, and he will last as long as this world lasts. Sometimes Glooscap
gets tired of running the world, ruling the animals, regulating nature,
instructing people how to live. Then he tells us: "I'm tired of it.
Good-bye; I'm going to make myself die now." He paddles off in his magic
white canoe and disappears in misty clouds. But he always comes back. He
cannot abandon the people forever, and they cannot live without him.
Glooscap was a spirit, a medicine man, a sorcerer. He can make men useful to
humans. When he formed the first squirrel, it was as big as a whale. "What
would you do if I let you loose on the world?" Glooscap asked, and the
squirrel attacked a big tree, chewing it to pieces in no time. "You're too
destructive for your size," said Glooscap, and remade him small. The first
beaver was also as big as a whale, and it built a dam that flooded the
country from horizon to horizon. Glooscap said, "You'll drown all the people
if I let you loose like this." He tapped the beaver on the back, and it
shrank to its present size. The first moose was so tall that it reached to
the sky and looked altogether different from the way it looks now. It
trampled everything in its path-forests, mountains, everything. "You'll ruin
everything," Glooscap said. "You'll step on people and kill them." Glooscap
tapped the moose on the back to make it small, but the moose refused to
become smaller. So Glooscap killed it and recreated it in a different size
and with a different look. In this way Glooscap made everything as it should
be.
Glooscap had also created a village and taught the people there everything
they needed to know. They were happy hunting and fishing. Men and women were
happy making love. Children were happy playing. Parents cherished their
children, and children respected their parents. All was well as Glooscap had
made it.
The village had one spring, the only source of water far and wide, that
always flowed with pure, clear, cold water. But one day the spring ran dry;
only a little bit of slimy ooze issued from it. It stayed dry even in the
fall when the rains came, and in the spring when the snows melted. The
people wondered, "What shall we do? We can't live without water." The wise
men and elders held a council and decided to send a man north to the source
of the spring to see why it had run dry.
This man walked a long time until at last he came to a village. The people
there were not like humans; they had webbed hands and feet. Here the brook
widened out. There was some water in it, not much, but a little, though it
was slimy, yellowish, and stinking. The man was thirsty from his walk and
asked to be given a little water, even if it was bad.
"We can't give you any water," said the people with the webbed hands and
feet, "unless our great chief permits it. He wants all the water for
himself."
"Where is your chief?" asked the man.
"you must follow the brook further up," they told him.
The man walked on and at last met the big chief. When he saw him he trembled
with fright, because the chief was a monster so huge that if one stood at
his feet, one would not see his head. The monster filled the whole valley
from end to end. He had dug himself a huge hole and dammed it up, so that
all the water was in it and none could flow into the stream bed. And he
fouled the water and made it poisonous, so that stinking mists covered its
slimy surface.
The monster had a mile-wide mouth going from ear to ear. His dull yellow
eyes started out of his head like huge pine knots. His body was bloated and
covered with warts as big as mountains. The monster stared dully at the man
with his protruding eyes and finally said in a fearsome croak: "Little man,
what do you want?"
The man was terrified, but he said: "I come from a village far downstream.
Our only spring ran dry, because you're keeping all the water for yourself.
We would like you to let us have some of this water. Also, please don't
muddy it so much."
The monster blinked at him a few times. Finally he croaked:
Do as you please,
Do as you please,
I don't care,
I don't care,
If you want water,
If you want water,
Go elsewhere!
The man said, "We need the water. The people are dying of thirst." The
monster replied:
I don't care,
I don't care,
Don't bother me,
Don't bother me,
Go away,
Go away,
Or I'll swallow you up!
The monster opened his mouth wide from ear to ear, and inside it the man
could see many things that the creature has killed. The monster gulped a few
times and smacked his lips with a noise like thunder. At this the man's
courage broke, and he turned and ran away as fast as he could.
Back at his village the man told the people: "Nothing can be done. If we
complain, this monster will swallow us up. He'll kill us all,"
The people were in despair. "What shall we do?" they cried. Now, Glooscap
knows everything that goes on in the world, even before it happens. He sees
everything with his inward eye. He said: "I must set things right. I'll have
to get water for the people!"
Then Glooscap girded himself for war. He painted his body with paint as red
as blood. He made himself twelve feet tall. He used two huge clamshells for
his earrings. He put a hundred black eagle feathers and a hundred white
eagle feathers in his scalp lock. He painted yellow rings around his eyes.
He twisted his mouth into a snarl and made himself look ferocious. He
stamped, and the earth trembled. He uttered his fearful war cry, and it
echoed and re-echoed from all the mountains. He grasped a huge mountain in
his hand, a mountain composed of flint, and from it made himself a single
knife sharp as a weasel's teeth. "Now I am going," he said, striding forth
among the thunder and lightning, with mighty eagles circling above him. Thus
Glooscap came to the village of the people with webbed hands and feet.
"I want water," he told them. Looking at him, they were afraid. They brought
him a little muddy water. "I think I'll get some more and cleaner water," he
said. Glooscap went upstream and confronted the monster. "I want clean
water," he said, "a lot of it, for the people downstream."
Ho! Ho!
Ho! Ho!
All the waters are mine!
All the waters are mine!
Go away!
Go away!
Or I'll kill you!
"Slimy hump of mud!" cried Glooscap, "We'll see who will be killed!" They
fought. The monster shook. The earth split open. The swamp smoked and burst
into flames. Mighty trees were shivered into splinters.
The monster opened its huge mouth wide to swallow Glooscap. Glooscap made
himself taller than the tallest tree, and even the monster's mile-wide mouth
was too small for him. Glooscap seized his great flint knife and slit the
monster's bloated belly. From the wound gushed a mighty stream, a roaring
river, tumbling, rolling, foaming down, down, down, gouging out for itself a
vast, deep bed, flowing by the village and on to the great sea of the east.
"That should be enough water for the people," said Glooscap. He grasped the
monster and squeezed him with his mighty palm, squeezed and squeezed and
threw him away, flinging him into the swamp. Glooscap had squeezed this
giant creature into a small bullfrog, and ever since, the bullfrog's skin
has been wrinkled because Glooscap squeezed so hard.
Retold from several nineteenth-century sources.
Glooscap yet lives, somewhere at the southern edge of the world, He never
grows old, and he will last as long as this world lasts. Sometimes Glooscap
gets tired of running the world, ruling the animals, regulating nature,
instructing people how to live. Then he tells us: "I'm tired of it.
Good-bye; I'm going to make myself die now." He paddles off in his magic
white canoe and disappears in misty clouds. But he always comes back. He
cannot abandon the people forever, and they cannot live without him.
Glooscap was a spirit, a medicine man, a sorcerer. He can make men useful to
humans. When he formed the first squirrel, it was as big as a whale. "What
would you do if I let you loose on the world?" Glooscap asked, and the
squirrel attacked a big tree, chewing it to pieces in no time. "You're too
destructive for your size," said Glooscap, and remade him small. The first
beaver was also as big as a whale, and it built a dam that flooded the
country from horizon to horizon. Glooscap said, "You'll drown all the people
if I let you loose like this." He tapped the beaver on the back, and it
shrank to its present size. The first moose was so tall that it reached to
the sky and looked altogether different from the way it looks now. It
trampled everything in its path-forests, mountains, everything. "You'll ruin
everything," Glooscap said. "You'll step on people and kill them." Glooscap
tapped the moose on the back to make it small, but the moose refused to
become smaller. So Glooscap killed it and recreated it in a different size
and with a different look. In this way Glooscap made everything as it should
be.
Glooscap had also created a village and taught the people there everything
they needed to know. They were happy hunting and fishing. Men and women were
happy making love. Children were happy playing. Parents cherished their
children, and children respected their parents. All was well as Glooscap had
made it.
The village had one spring, the only source of water far and wide, that
always flowed with pure, clear, cold water. But one day the spring ran dry;
only a little bit of slimy ooze issued from it. It stayed dry even in the
fall when the rains came, and in the spring when the snows melted. The
people wondered, "What shall we do? We can't live without water." The wise
men and elders held a council and decided to send a man north to the source
of the spring to see why it had run dry.
This man walked a long time until at last he came to a village. The people
there were not like humans; they had webbed hands and feet. Here the brook
widened out. There was some water in it, not much, but a little, though it
was slimy, yellowish, and stinking. The man was thirsty from his walk and
asked to be given a little water, even if it was bad.
"We can't give you any water," said the people with the webbed hands and
feet, "unless our great chief permits it. He wants all the water for
himself."
"Where is your chief?" asked the man.
"you must follow the brook further up," they told him.
The man walked on and at last met the big chief. When he saw him he trembled
with fright, because the chief was a monster so huge that if one stood at
his feet, one would not see his head. The monster filled the whole valley
from end to end. He had dug himself a huge hole and dammed it up, so that
all the water was in it and none could flow into the stream bed. And he
fouled the water and made it poisonous, so that stinking mists covered its
slimy surface.
The monster had a mile-wide mouth going from ear to ear. His dull yellow
eyes started out of his head like huge pine knots. His body was bloated and
covered with warts as big as mountains. The monster stared dully at the man
with his protruding eyes and finally said in a fearsome croak: "Little man,
what do you want?"
The man was terrified, but he said: "I come from a village far downstream.
Our only spring ran dry, because you're keeping all the water for yourself.
We would like you to let us have some of this water. Also, please don't
muddy it so much."
The monster blinked at him a few times. Finally he croaked:
Do as you please,
Do as you please,
I don't care,
I don't care,
If you want water,
If you want water,
Go elsewhere!
The man said, "We need the water. The people are dying of thirst." The
monster replied:
I don't care,
I don't care,
Don't bother me,
Don't bother me,
Go away,
Go away,
Or I'll swallow you up!
The monster opened his mouth wide from ear to ear, and inside it the man
could see many things that the creature has killed. The monster gulped a few
times and smacked his lips with a noise like thunder. At this the man's
courage broke, and he turned and ran away as fast as he could.
Back at his village the man told the people: "Nothing can be done. If we
complain, this monster will swallow us up. He'll kill us all,"
The people were in despair. "What shall we do?" they cried. Now, Glooscap
knows everything that goes on in the world, even before it happens. He sees
everything with his inward eye. He said: "I must set things right. I'll have
to get water for the people!"
Then Glooscap girded himself for war. He painted his body with paint as red
as blood. He made himself twelve feet tall. He used two huge clamshells for
his earrings. He put a hundred black eagle feathers and a hundred white
eagle feathers in his scalp lock. He painted yellow rings around his eyes.
He twisted his mouth into a snarl and made himself look ferocious. He
stamped, and the earth trembled. He uttered his fearful war cry, and it
echoed and re-echoed from all the mountains. He grasped a huge mountain in
his hand, a mountain composed of flint, and from it made himself a single
knife sharp as a weasel's teeth. "Now I am going," he said, striding forth
among the thunder and lightning, with mighty eagles circling above him. Thus
Glooscap came to the village of the people with webbed hands and feet.
"I want water," he told them. Looking at him, they were afraid. They brought
him a little muddy water. "I think I'll get some more and cleaner water," he
said. Glooscap went upstream and confronted the monster. "I want clean
water," he said, "a lot of it, for the people downstream."
Ho! Ho!
Ho! Ho!
All the waters are mine!
All the waters are mine!
Go away!
Go away!
Or I'll kill you!
"Slimy hump of mud!" cried Glooscap, "We'll see who will be killed!" They
fought. The monster shook. The earth split open. The swamp smoked and burst
into flames. Mighty trees were shivered into splinters.
The monster opened its huge mouth wide to swallow Glooscap. Glooscap made
himself taller than the tallest tree, and even the monster's mile-wide mouth
was too small for him. Glooscap seized his great flint knife and slit the
monster's bloated belly. From the wound gushed a mighty stream, a roaring
river, tumbling, rolling, foaming down, down, down, gouging out for itself a
vast, deep bed, flowing by the village and on to the great sea of the east.
"That should be enough water for the people," said Glooscap. He grasped the
monster and squeezed him with his mighty palm, squeezed and squeezed and
threw him away, flinging him into the swamp. Glooscap had squeezed this
giant creature into a small bullfrog, and ever since, the bullfrog's skin
has been wrinkled because Glooscap squeezed so hard.
Retold from several nineteenth-century sources.