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How Glooskap went to England and France, and was the first to make America known to the Europeans. She had lost a boy; she always thought of him. Once there came to her a strange boy; he called her mother. He had a pipe with which he could call all the animals. He said, "Mother, if you let any one have this pipe we shall starve." "Where did you get it?" "A stranger gave it to me."
And an hour passed, and he came not, and yet another ere they beheld him; but when he at last rose the old chief said, "This is the end of all our weary work, for this time truly I have lost my child." Yet it was not the end of the wonderful deeds which were done in that village by the power of the great Glooskap.
A real Indian tale may always be assumed to be ancient when it is told to set forth an origin. How the great Glooskap fought the Giant Sorcerers at Saco, and turned them into Fish. N'karnayoo, of old times: Woodenit atok hagen Glusgahbe. And if it be so, they shall die. I will not spare one of those who oppress and devour men, I do not care who he may be."
And this being told, Glooskap received no reply for more than an hour, during which time he sat on a log and smoked his pipe. Then the boy returned with a small cup, and this not half full, of very dirty water. So he arose, and said to the boy, "I will go and see your chief, and I think he will soon give me better water than this."
Then the stranger replied, "Let them go round by land." "Nay," replied the Indian, "that is much too far." But the stranger saying nothing, he put him across. And as they reached the landing place there stood the dogs. But when he turned his head to address the man, he was gone. So he said to himself, "I have seen Glooskap."
The white men did not discover this country first at all. Glooskap discovered England, and told them about it. He got to London. The people had never seen a canoe before. They came flocking down to look at it. The Woodchuck had lost her boy. They offered him a large ship for his stone canoe. He refused it. He feared lest the ship should burn. They offered him servants. He refused them.
The magic arrows of Glooskap are of course worldwide, and date from the shafts of Abaris and those used among the ancient Jews for divination. By Svent Nilsson. It is important here to compare this old Algonquin account of the Creation with that of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, as given by David Cusick, himself an Indian: "There was a woman who was with child, with twins.
Another and very different was given to me by John Gabriel. In one account there are three travelers, in another four; others speak of seven and twelve. Finally, there are many incidents which apparently belong to this part of the Glooskap cycle, scattered here and there in different disconnected legends. Mrs. Now ye shall hear who some of these were and what happened to them.
Then the uncle said: "Poor and old and plain am I; I have not even garments fit for a feast; better were it for me to smoke my pipe at home." "Truly, if that be all, uncle," replied Glooskap, "I trow I can turn tailor and fit you to a turn; and have no care as to your outside or your face, for to him who knows how, 't is as easy to make a man over as a suit of clothes."
The two grew up together, and one day the younger, who knew that both had charmed lives, asked the elder what would kill him, Glooskap. Now each had his own secret as to this, and Glooskap, remembering how wantonly Malsumsis had slain their mother, thought it would be misplaced confidence to trust his life to one so fond of death, while it might prove to be well to know the bane of the other.
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