Post by Okwes on Apr 14, 2008 13:02:11 GMT -5
Glooscap and His People - Wabanaki
In the Old Time, long before the White Man came, the Indians believed that
every rock and river, every tree and bird and animal, possessed a
spirit--and some spirits were good and some were evil. Around these spirits,
which they pictured as giants and wizards and magical animals, the Indians
invented marvelous stories called "atookwakuns," or wonder tales.
They tell these stories to amuse the children, even to this day, and the
stories the children love best are the stories of Glooscap and his People.
In the beginning, the Indians tell the children, there was just the forest
and the sea--no people and no animals. Then Glooscap came. Where this
wondrous giant was born and when, they cannot tell, but he came from
somewhere in the Sky with Malsum his twin brother to the part of North
America nearest the rising sun. There, anchoring his canoe, he turned it
into a granite island covered with spruce and pine. He called the island
Uktamkoo, the land we know to day as Newfoundland. This, in the beginning,
was Glooscap's lodge. The Great Chief looked and lived like an ordinary
Indian except that he was twice as tall and twice as strong, and possessed
great magic. He was never sick, never married, never grew old, and never
died. He had a magic belt which gave him great power, and he used this power
only for good. Malsum, his brother, also great of stature, had the head of a
wolf and the body of an Indian. He knew magic too, but he used his power for
evil. It was the warm time when Glooscap came. As he set about his work, the
air was fragrant with balsam and the tang of the sea. First, out of the
rocks, he made the Little People--the fairies, or Megumoowesoos, small hairy
creatures who dwelt among the rocks and made wonderful music on the flute,
such music that all who heard it were bewitched. From amongst them, Glooscap
chose a servant, Marten, who was like a younger brother to him. Next
Glooscap made men. Taking up his great bow, he shot arrows into the trunks
of ash trees.
Out of the trees stepped men and women. They were a strong and graceful
people with light brown skins and shining black hair, and Glooscap called
them the Wabanaki, which means "those who live where the day breaks." In
time, the Wabanaki left Uktamkoo and divided into separate tribes and are
today a part of the great Algonquin nation--but in the old days only the
Micmacs, Malicetes, Penobscots and Passamaquoddies, living in the eastern
woodlands of Canada and the United States, were Glooscap's People. Gazing
upon his handiwork, Glooscap was pleased and his shout of triumph made the
tall pines bend like grass. He told the people he was their Great Chief and
would rule them with love and justice. He taught them how to build birch
bark wigwams and canoes, how to make weirs for catching fish, and how to
identify plants useful in medicine. He taught them the names of all the
Stars, who were his brothers. Then, from among them, he chose an elderly
woman whom he called Noogumee, or grandmother, which is a term of respect
amongst Indians for any elderly female. Noogumee was the Great Chief's
housekeeper all her days.
Now, finally, out of rocks and clay, Glooscap made the animals-- Miko the
Squirrel, Team the Moose, Mooin the Bear, and many, many others.
Malsum looked on enviously, thinking he too should have had a hand in
creation, but he had not been given that power. However, he whispered an
evil charm, and the remainder of the clay in Glooscap's hands twisted and
fell to the ground in the form of a strange animal--not beaver, not badger,
not wolverine, but some thing of all three, and capable of taking any of
these forms he chose. "His name is Lox!" said Malsum triumphantly. "So be
it," said Glooscap.
"Let Lox live amongst us in peace, so long as he remains a friend." Yet he
resolved to watch Lox closely, for he could read the heart and knew that Lox
had Malsum's evil in him. Now Glooscap had made the animals all very large,
most of them larger and stronger than man. Lox, the trouble maker, at once
saw his chance to make mischief. He went in his wolverine body to Team the
Moose and admired his fine antlers, which reached up to the top of the
tallest pine tree. "If you should ever meet a man," said Lox, "you could
toss him on your horns up to the top of the world." Now Team, who was just a
little bit stupid, went at once to Glooscap and said, "Please, Master, give
me a man, so I can toss him on my horns up to the top of the world!"
"I should say not!" cried Glooscap, touching Team with his hand-- and the
moose was suddenly the size he is today. Then Lox went in his badger form to
the squirrel and said, "With that magnificent tail of yours, Miko, you could
smash down every lodge in the village." "So I could," said Miko proudly, and
with his great tail he swept the nearest wigwam right off the ground.
But the Great Chief was near. He caught Miko up in his hand and stroked the
squirrel's back until he was as small as he is today. "From now on," said
his Master, "you will live in trees and keep your tail where it belongs."
And since that time Miko the Squirrel has carried his bushy tail on his
back. Next, the rascally Lox put on his beaver shape and went to Mooin the
Bear, who was hardly any bigger than he is today, but had a much larger
throat. "Mooin," said Lox slyly, "supposing you met a man, what would you do
to him?" The bear scratched his head thoughtfully. "Eat him," he said at
last, with a grin. "Yes, that's what I'd do--I'd swallow him whole!"
And having said this, Mooin felt his throat begin to shrink. "From now on,"
said Glooscap sternly, "you may swallow only very small creatures." And
today the bear, big as he is, eats only small animals, fish and wild
berries. Now the Great Chief was greatly annoyed at the way his animals were
behaving, and wondered if he ought to have made them. He summoned them all
and gave them a solemn warning: "I have made you man's equal, but you wish
to be his master.
Take care--or he may become yours!" This did not worry the troublemaker Lox,
who only resolved to be more cunning in the future. He knew very well that
Malsum was jealous of Glooscap and wished to be lord of the Indians himself.
He also knew that both brothers had magic powers and that neither could be
killed except in one certain way. What that way was, each kept secret--from
all but the Stars, whom they trusted. Each sometimes talked in the starlight
to the people of the Sky. "Little does Malsum know," said Glooscap to the
Stars, "that I can never be killed except by the blow of a flowering rush."
And not far off, Malsum boasted to those same Stars --"I am quite safe from
Glooscap's power. I can do any thing I like, for nothing can harm me but the
roots of a flowering fern." Now, alas, Lox was hidden close by and overheard
both secrets. Seeing how he might turn this to his own advantage, he went to
Malsum and said with a knowing smile, "What will you give me, Malsum, if I
tell you Glooscap's secret?" "Anything you like," cried Malsum.
"Quick--tell me!" "Nothing can hurt Glooscap save a flowering rush," said
the traitor. "Now give me a pair of wings, like the pigeon, so I can fly."
But Malsum laughed. "What need has a beaver of wings?" And kicking the
troublemaker aside, he sped to find a flowering rush. Lox picked himself up
furiously and hurried to Glooscap. "Master!" he cried, "Malsum knows your
secret and is about to kill you. If you would save yourself, know that only
a fern root can destroy him!" Glooscap snatched up the nearest fern, root
and all, just in time--for his evil brother was upon him, shouting his war
cry. And all the animals, who were angry at Glooscap for reducing their size
and power, cheered Malsum; but the Indians were afraid for their Master.
Glooscap braced his feet against a cliff, and Malsum paused. For a moment,
the two crouched face to face, waiting for the moment to strike. Then the
wolf-like Malsum lunged at Glooscap's head. Twisting his body aside, the
Great Chief flung his weapon. It went swift to its target, and Malsum leapt
back--too late. The fern root pierced his envious heart, and he died. Now
the Indians rejoiced, and the animals crept sullenly away. Only Lox came to
Glooscap, impudently. "I'll have my reward now, Master," he said, "a pair of
wings, like the pigeon's." "Faithless creature!" Glooscap thundered, knowing
full well who had betrayed him, "I made no such bargain. Be gone!" And he
hurled stone after stone at the fleeing Lox. Where the stones fell--in Minas
Basin--they turned into islands and are there still. And the banished Lox
roams the world to this day, appealing to the evil in men's hearts and
making trouble wherever he goes. Now Glooscap called his people around him
and said, "I made the animals to be man's friends, but they have acted with
selfishness and treachery. Hereafter, they shall be your servants and
provide you with food and clothing." Then he showed the men how to make bows
and arrows and stone- tipped spears, and how to use them. He also showed the
women how to scrape hides and turn them into clothing.
"Now you have power over even the largest wild creatures," he said. "Yet I
charge you to use this power gently. If you take more game than you need for
food and clothing, or kill for the pleasure of killing, then you will be
visited by a pitiless giant named Famine, and when he comes among men, they
suffer hunger and die." The Indians readily promised to obey Glooscap in
this, as in all things. But now, to their dismay, they saw Marten launch the
Master's canoe and Noogumee entering it with Glooscap's household goods.
Glooscap was leaving them! "I must dwell now in a separate place," said the
Great Chief, "so that you, my people, will learn to stand alone, and become
brave and resourceful. Nevertheless, I shall never be far from you, and
whoever seeks me diligently in time of trouble will find me." Then, waving
farewell to his sorrowful Wabanaki, Glooscap set off for the mainland.
Rounding the southern tip of what is now Nova Scotia, the Great Chief
paddled up the Bay of Fundy.
In the distance, where the Bay narrows and the great tides of Fundy rush
into Minas Basin, Glooscap saw a long purple headland, like a moose
swimming, with clouds for antlers, and headed his canoe in that direction.
Landing, he gazed at the slope of red sandstone, with its groves of green
trees at the summit, and admired the amethysts encircling its base like a
string of purple beads. "Here I shall build my lodge," said Glooscap, and he
named the place Blomidon. Now Glooscap dwelt on Blomidon a very long time,
and during that time did many wonderful things for his People.
www.indians.org/welker/hispeopl.htm
In the Old Time, long before the White Man came, the Indians believed that
every rock and river, every tree and bird and animal, possessed a
spirit--and some spirits were good and some were evil. Around these spirits,
which they pictured as giants and wizards and magical animals, the Indians
invented marvelous stories called "atookwakuns," or wonder tales.
They tell these stories to amuse the children, even to this day, and the
stories the children love best are the stories of Glooscap and his People.
In the beginning, the Indians tell the children, there was just the forest
and the sea--no people and no animals. Then Glooscap came. Where this
wondrous giant was born and when, they cannot tell, but he came from
somewhere in the Sky with Malsum his twin brother to the part of North
America nearest the rising sun. There, anchoring his canoe, he turned it
into a granite island covered with spruce and pine. He called the island
Uktamkoo, the land we know to day as Newfoundland. This, in the beginning,
was Glooscap's lodge. The Great Chief looked and lived like an ordinary
Indian except that he was twice as tall and twice as strong, and possessed
great magic. He was never sick, never married, never grew old, and never
died. He had a magic belt which gave him great power, and he used this power
only for good. Malsum, his brother, also great of stature, had the head of a
wolf and the body of an Indian. He knew magic too, but he used his power for
evil. It was the warm time when Glooscap came. As he set about his work, the
air was fragrant with balsam and the tang of the sea. First, out of the
rocks, he made the Little People--the fairies, or Megumoowesoos, small hairy
creatures who dwelt among the rocks and made wonderful music on the flute,
such music that all who heard it were bewitched. From amongst them, Glooscap
chose a servant, Marten, who was like a younger brother to him. Next
Glooscap made men. Taking up his great bow, he shot arrows into the trunks
of ash trees.
Out of the trees stepped men and women. They were a strong and graceful
people with light brown skins and shining black hair, and Glooscap called
them the Wabanaki, which means "those who live where the day breaks." In
time, the Wabanaki left Uktamkoo and divided into separate tribes and are
today a part of the great Algonquin nation--but in the old days only the
Micmacs, Malicetes, Penobscots and Passamaquoddies, living in the eastern
woodlands of Canada and the United States, were Glooscap's People. Gazing
upon his handiwork, Glooscap was pleased and his shout of triumph made the
tall pines bend like grass. He told the people he was their Great Chief and
would rule them with love and justice. He taught them how to build birch
bark wigwams and canoes, how to make weirs for catching fish, and how to
identify plants useful in medicine. He taught them the names of all the
Stars, who were his brothers. Then, from among them, he chose an elderly
woman whom he called Noogumee, or grandmother, which is a term of respect
amongst Indians for any elderly female. Noogumee was the Great Chief's
housekeeper all her days.
Now, finally, out of rocks and clay, Glooscap made the animals-- Miko the
Squirrel, Team the Moose, Mooin the Bear, and many, many others.
Malsum looked on enviously, thinking he too should have had a hand in
creation, but he had not been given that power. However, he whispered an
evil charm, and the remainder of the clay in Glooscap's hands twisted and
fell to the ground in the form of a strange animal--not beaver, not badger,
not wolverine, but some thing of all three, and capable of taking any of
these forms he chose. "His name is Lox!" said Malsum triumphantly. "So be
it," said Glooscap.
"Let Lox live amongst us in peace, so long as he remains a friend." Yet he
resolved to watch Lox closely, for he could read the heart and knew that Lox
had Malsum's evil in him. Now Glooscap had made the animals all very large,
most of them larger and stronger than man. Lox, the trouble maker, at once
saw his chance to make mischief. He went in his wolverine body to Team the
Moose and admired his fine antlers, which reached up to the top of the
tallest pine tree. "If you should ever meet a man," said Lox, "you could
toss him on your horns up to the top of the world." Now Team, who was just a
little bit stupid, went at once to Glooscap and said, "Please, Master, give
me a man, so I can toss him on my horns up to the top of the world!"
"I should say not!" cried Glooscap, touching Team with his hand-- and the
moose was suddenly the size he is today. Then Lox went in his badger form to
the squirrel and said, "With that magnificent tail of yours, Miko, you could
smash down every lodge in the village." "So I could," said Miko proudly, and
with his great tail he swept the nearest wigwam right off the ground.
But the Great Chief was near. He caught Miko up in his hand and stroked the
squirrel's back until he was as small as he is today. "From now on," said
his Master, "you will live in trees and keep your tail where it belongs."
And since that time Miko the Squirrel has carried his bushy tail on his
back. Next, the rascally Lox put on his beaver shape and went to Mooin the
Bear, who was hardly any bigger than he is today, but had a much larger
throat. "Mooin," said Lox slyly, "supposing you met a man, what would you do
to him?" The bear scratched his head thoughtfully. "Eat him," he said at
last, with a grin. "Yes, that's what I'd do--I'd swallow him whole!"
And having said this, Mooin felt his throat begin to shrink. "From now on,"
said Glooscap sternly, "you may swallow only very small creatures." And
today the bear, big as he is, eats only small animals, fish and wild
berries. Now the Great Chief was greatly annoyed at the way his animals were
behaving, and wondered if he ought to have made them. He summoned them all
and gave them a solemn warning: "I have made you man's equal, but you wish
to be his master.
Take care--or he may become yours!" This did not worry the troublemaker Lox,
who only resolved to be more cunning in the future. He knew very well that
Malsum was jealous of Glooscap and wished to be lord of the Indians himself.
He also knew that both brothers had magic powers and that neither could be
killed except in one certain way. What that way was, each kept secret--from
all but the Stars, whom they trusted. Each sometimes talked in the starlight
to the people of the Sky. "Little does Malsum know," said Glooscap to the
Stars, "that I can never be killed except by the blow of a flowering rush."
And not far off, Malsum boasted to those same Stars --"I am quite safe from
Glooscap's power. I can do any thing I like, for nothing can harm me but the
roots of a flowering fern." Now, alas, Lox was hidden close by and overheard
both secrets. Seeing how he might turn this to his own advantage, he went to
Malsum and said with a knowing smile, "What will you give me, Malsum, if I
tell you Glooscap's secret?" "Anything you like," cried Malsum.
"Quick--tell me!" "Nothing can hurt Glooscap save a flowering rush," said
the traitor. "Now give me a pair of wings, like the pigeon, so I can fly."
But Malsum laughed. "What need has a beaver of wings?" And kicking the
troublemaker aside, he sped to find a flowering rush. Lox picked himself up
furiously and hurried to Glooscap. "Master!" he cried, "Malsum knows your
secret and is about to kill you. If you would save yourself, know that only
a fern root can destroy him!" Glooscap snatched up the nearest fern, root
and all, just in time--for his evil brother was upon him, shouting his war
cry. And all the animals, who were angry at Glooscap for reducing their size
and power, cheered Malsum; but the Indians were afraid for their Master.
Glooscap braced his feet against a cliff, and Malsum paused. For a moment,
the two crouched face to face, waiting for the moment to strike. Then the
wolf-like Malsum lunged at Glooscap's head. Twisting his body aside, the
Great Chief flung his weapon. It went swift to its target, and Malsum leapt
back--too late. The fern root pierced his envious heart, and he died. Now
the Indians rejoiced, and the animals crept sullenly away. Only Lox came to
Glooscap, impudently. "I'll have my reward now, Master," he said, "a pair of
wings, like the pigeon's." "Faithless creature!" Glooscap thundered, knowing
full well who had betrayed him, "I made no such bargain. Be gone!" And he
hurled stone after stone at the fleeing Lox. Where the stones fell--in Minas
Basin--they turned into islands and are there still. And the banished Lox
roams the world to this day, appealing to the evil in men's hearts and
making trouble wherever he goes. Now Glooscap called his people around him
and said, "I made the animals to be man's friends, but they have acted with
selfishness and treachery. Hereafter, they shall be your servants and
provide you with food and clothing." Then he showed the men how to make bows
and arrows and stone- tipped spears, and how to use them. He also showed the
women how to scrape hides and turn them into clothing.
"Now you have power over even the largest wild creatures," he said. "Yet I
charge you to use this power gently. If you take more game than you need for
food and clothing, or kill for the pleasure of killing, then you will be
visited by a pitiless giant named Famine, and when he comes among men, they
suffer hunger and die." The Indians readily promised to obey Glooscap in
this, as in all things. But now, to their dismay, they saw Marten launch the
Master's canoe and Noogumee entering it with Glooscap's household goods.
Glooscap was leaving them! "I must dwell now in a separate place," said the
Great Chief, "so that you, my people, will learn to stand alone, and become
brave and resourceful. Nevertheless, I shall never be far from you, and
whoever seeks me diligently in time of trouble will find me." Then, waving
farewell to his sorrowful Wabanaki, Glooscap set off for the mainland.
Rounding the southern tip of what is now Nova Scotia, the Great Chief
paddled up the Bay of Fundy.
In the distance, where the Bay narrows and the great tides of Fundy rush
into Minas Basin, Glooscap saw a long purple headland, like a moose
swimming, with clouds for antlers, and headed his canoe in that direction.
Landing, he gazed at the slope of red sandstone, with its groves of green
trees at the summit, and admired the amethysts encircling its base like a
string of purple beads. "Here I shall build my lodge," said Glooscap, and he
named the place Blomidon. Now Glooscap dwelt on Blomidon a very long time,
and during that time did many wonderful things for his People.
www.indians.org/welker/hispeopl.htm