American Indian Trickster Tales (Myths and Legends) (38 page)

These people decided to have a big feast of eating, singing, and dancing. They made rattles out of turtle shells filled with pebbles. They danced in rhythm with their rattles. It began to rain, but these people kept dancing. It thundered, but still they danced. Lightning struck the ground around them. They only laughed and kept dancing.

Glooskap became angry. He did not drown them in the flood. He turned them into rattlesnakes. So now, when the snakes hear somebody coming, they rise up and lift their heads, while their bodies sway as if in a dance. And they shake their rattles as they did when they were still human beings.

“I like this kind of music,” said Glooskap.

{
Passamaquoddy
}

At Saco, Maine, there lives a man with his two sons and a daughter. All are great wizards; all are Kiwa‘kws, Ice-Giants, who eat people—men, women, and children. Everything they do is wickedness, horrible deeds, and in the world people are tired of them and their evil acts.

Once, when they were young, Kuloskap was a friend to them; he made their father his father, their brothers his brethren, their sisters his sisters. But they grew older and he has learned of their evil deeds. Kuloskap says: “Now I shall go. I shall seek the truth; if this is true, I shall go do it. They must die. No one will I spare who eats people. It makes no difference who it may be.”

This family lives at Saco on the sandy field in the bed of river of Saco at Elnowebit, or Ogyagwchh, between Kearsarge and the big rock where the water fairies live.

This old man, the father of the wizards and the father adopted by Kuloskap, is one-eyed and half gray. Kuloskap now makes himself like him. One cannot distinguish which is which. He enters the wigwam and sits down by the old man.

These brothers who kill hear someone talking. Slyly they look in; they see a newcomer so like their father that one can know that it is not the same. They say: “A great wizard this, but he must be tried or he goes.”

Their sister takes a whale’s tail and cooks it for the stranger. She puts it on birch bark newly peeled. One of the brothers enters; he takes it. This one says: “You are eating too well.” He removes it to his house.

Kuloskap says: “What was given to me, that is mine. So then I shall take it back.” But he only sits still; he wishes it to return. Back it comes on the newly peeled birch bark to where it was before.

They say: “This indeed is a great wizard, but he must be tried or he goes.”

After they eat, they fetch in a great bone, a whale’s jaw. The oldest Indian tries to break it with both hands, but it bends only a little. He gives it to Kuloskap. He really breaks it, using only his thumb; like a pipestem it snaps.

Again the brothers say: “He is a great wizard, but he must be tried.” Then they fetch a great pipe filled with strong tobacco. No one who is not a wizard can smoke it. This they pass around; everyone smokes. The brothers swallow the smoke. Kuloskap fills it full and burns out all the tobacco with a single puff.

They say: “”He is a very great wizard, but once more he must be tried.“ They all try to smoke with him still. The wigwam is closed; they must smother him with smoke. He puffs away, as if he were sitting on top of a mountain. They cannot bear it any longer. They say: ”This is not worthwhile; let us play ball.“

Where they play is near Saco where it bends in the river. They begin to play ball. Kuloskap finds that the ball is a hideous skull alive, which snaps at his heels. If he were another man and it bit him, it would cut off his foot.

Kuloskap then laughs and says: “You then are playing such a game; it is well, but let us all play with our own balls.” So he goes to where a tree stands. He breaks off a bough. He turns it into a skull more hideous than the other. The wizards run away from it, as when a lynx chases rabbits; they are really completely beaten.

Then Kuloskap stamps on the ground. The water, foaming, rushes down, coming from the mountains; all the earth rings with the roar. Then Kuloskap sings a song such as can change the form of everyone. These brothers and their father become fish. They rush off together where the water foams; they are as long as men. Then they go to the sea where it is deep. There they dwell forever.

{
Passamaquoddy
}

Glooskap asked Master Rabbit: “Why is it that you can walk on top of the snow?”

“Because my feet are like snowshoes.”

“How come you have no tail?”

“Because I am always sitting on my ass nibbling plants. So it withered away.”

“Why are your eyes so red?”

“I looked once too often into the sun.”

“Why do you have a groove in your nose?”

“Because I am always sniffing, sniffing to the right and sniffing to the left. I sniffed so hard it split my nose.”

“Why are your ears so long?”

“Because I like to eavesdrop. I am nosy. I strain so hard to listen to what other people are saying that my ears get longer from day to day.”

“Why is your shit round?”

“Because I like to eat berries. They are round when they go in, and they are round when they come out.”

“Why is your piss red?”

“Because I drink a lot of brandy. I learned drinking from a white man.”

Then Glooskap stopped asking questions.

{
Micmac
}

 

Once, Glooskap was sitting by the seashore eating a meal. You can still see the bones of the animals and fish he ate there. They have turned to stone. He walked along the beach. Because Glooskap is ten times as big and heavy as an ordinary man, with every step he took, he sank into the ground up to his ankles. His sunken footsteps can still be seen today. They have turned into stone. Walking along this beach, Glooskap came upon a stranded whale. The whale could not get off. With a mighty push Glooskap shoved him back into the sea where it was deep enough for the whale to float. The whale then opened his mouth wide and Glooskap walked in. The whale swam away with Glooskap inside his belly. He was swimming toward England. “A good way to travel,” said Glooskap.

When he came to England’s shore the whale opened his mouth again and Glooskap walked out. He had landed in a place where trees were so tall one could not see their tops. The King had heard of Glooskap’s arrival and he sent men to find out what kind of man this Glooskap was.

The men asked Glooskap: “Where do you come from?”

He pointed to the West, across the ocean, and said: “I come from over there.”

They asked: “Do you plan to stay here?”

“Yes,” said Glooskap, “I like this country.”

The men went back and told the King: “This stranger, Glooskap, is a big and powerful fellow.”

The King sent his men back to see Glooskap. They told him: “The King wants to see you. We have come to bring you to him.”

Glooskap said: “I don’t feel like seeing the King right now. I’ll see him when I feel like it.”

The men went back to the King and said: “Glooskap doesn’t feel like seeing you.”

The King grew angry. He said to his men: “Go, tell Glooskap to come, or I shall punish him. I am the King. Who does Glooskap think he is?”

The men went back to Glooskap and said: “You better come along now or there will be trouble.”

Glooskap answered: “I’m not ready yet. I shall see the King when I am ready.”

When the King heard this, he was mad, very mad. He sent his soldiers to punish Glooskap. The soldiers bound Glooskap’s hands and dragged him to the King’s castle. They gathered wood and stacked it up into a big pile. They put Glooskap on top of it. They told him: “The King has ordered us to burn you alive for having insulted him.” Then they set fire to the woodpile. When the wood had burned down to ashes and the smoke had lifted, Glooskap could be seen, alive and well, sitting calmly in the black ashes, smoking his pipe.

The King, who had watched this, was frightened. He told his men: “Put a double charge of powder into that cannon over there. Then stick Glooskap into the barrel. Ram him down tight. Then fire him off. Shoot him back across the sea to his own country. I don’t want him here.”

The soldiers did as they were told. They put a double charge of powder in the barrel. They rammed Glooskap down after it with a big ramrod. They put a match to the touch-hole. They fired off the gun. There was a big flash and a big bang. Then Glooskap came out of the cannon, smiling.

The King said to his men: “I must humble myself to this fellow, because he is powerful.” The King went to Glooskap and said: “Let’s shake hands.”

Glooskap would not take the King’s hand. He told him: “You are no good. You tried to kill me. You have sent soldiers to my country across the sea and they have done evil.”

The King was afraid of what Glooskap might do to him. He fell down on his knees, imploring Glooskap: “Be merciful.”

Glooskap said: “Get up. I don’t want people kneeling before me. I’m going now. I don’t care for you, I don’t care for your people, I don’t care for your country.”

He went back to the seashore. He went to the water’s edge. The whale was already waiting. He opened his mouth wide and Glooskap walked in. This time the whale had to swim only a short distance. He brought Glooskap to France. Glooskap landed. He put up a wigwam. He sat in it smoking his pipe. He waited.

Some men went to the King of France. They told him: “Glooskap is here. He has put up a wigwam on the beach.” The King had already heard of Glooskap and his great powers. “I must be polite to this fellow,” he told his men, “I don’t want to, but it can’t be helped.” The King mounted his horse and, together with his men, rode all the way to see Glooskap in his wigwam.

When the French King arrived Glooskap did not even bother to get up. The King got down from his horse and sat down beside Glooskap. They had a talk. The King could not speak Micmac. It did not matter because Glooskap speaks all languages spoken in this world. The King told Glooskap: “I would be very honored if you came to visit me in my castle.”