Post by Okwes on Apr 14, 2008 12:44:50 GMT -5
Glooscap fights the water monster - Wabanaki
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 this 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 mist clouds. But he always comes back. He
cannot abandon the people forever, and they cannot live without him.
Glooscap is a spirit, a medicine man, a sorcerer. He can make men and women
smile. He can do anything. Glooscap made all the animals, creating them to
be peaceful and 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," Glooscap said, and
remade him small. The first beaver also was 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 it's 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 could not see his head. The monster
filled the whole valley from end to end. He had dug himself a huge hole and
d**ned it up, so that all the water was in it and none could flow into the
stream bed. And he had fouled the water and made it poisonous, so that
stinking mists covered it's slimy surface. The monster had a mile- wide,
grinning 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 down-stream. 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 the many things that the creature had 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 thunder and lightening, with
mighty eagles circling above him. Then 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'll think I'll get 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 lump of mud!" cried Glooscap. "We'll see who will be killed!" They
fought. The mountains shook. The earth split open. The swamp smoked and
burst into flames. Mighty trees were shivered into splinters. The monster
opened it's 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 in his mighty palm, squeezed and squeezed and threw
him away, flinging him into the swamp. Glooscap had squeezed this great
creature into a small bullfrog, and ever since, the bullfrogs' skin has been
wrinkled because Glooscap squeezed so hard.
Retold from 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 this 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 mist clouds. But he always comes back. He
cannot abandon the people forever, and they cannot live without him.
Glooscap is a spirit, a medicine man, a sorcerer. He can make men and women
smile. He can do anything. Glooscap made all the animals, creating them to
be peaceful and 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," Glooscap said, and
remade him small. The first beaver also was 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 it's 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 could not see his head. The monster
filled the whole valley from end to end. He had dug himself a huge hole and
d**ned it up, so that all the water was in it and none could flow into the
stream bed. And he had fouled the water and made it poisonous, so that
stinking mists covered it's slimy surface. The monster had a mile- wide,
grinning 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 down-stream. 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 the many things that the creature had 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 thunder and lightening, with
mighty eagles circling above him. Then 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'll think I'll get 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 lump of mud!" cried Glooscap. "We'll see who will be killed!" They
fought. The mountains shook. The earth split open. The swamp smoked and
burst into flames. Mighty trees were shivered into splinters. The monster
opened it's 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 in his mighty palm, squeezed and squeezed and threw
him away, flinging him into the swamp. Glooscap had squeezed this great
creature into a small bullfrog, and ever since, the bullfrogs' skin has been
wrinkled because Glooscap squeezed so hard.
Retold from nineteenth-century sources