Then Glooskap stopped asking questions.
A NEW WAY TO TRAVEL
{Micmac}
Some Glooskap tales are strongly influenced by contacts
with Europeans. This story reflects memories of the
so-called French and Indian Wars of the eighteenth
century, which ended in tragedy for the natives.
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.”
“No, I have better things to do than that,” said Glooskap, “I don’t care for castles.”
The King got angry. He shouted: “You impolite fellow, how dare you speak that way to me? Am I not the King?”
“Younger brother,” said Glooskap, “I don’t like Kings, either. What are they good for? Kings are of no account to me. The English King tried to kill me.”
“But I am French!” answered the King.
“French or English, what does it matter?” said Glooskap. “They are all the same. All they want is to steal our land. Well, I am going now. Better watch your step or I shall make you sorry.”
The King fell down in a faint, because Glooskap had frightened him.
Glooskap went to the water’s edge. The whale was already there. “Let’s go home,” said Glooskap. The whale opened his mouth. Glooskap walked in. They swam off toward the West.
GLOOSKAP GRANTS FOUR WISHES
{Micmac}
Glooskap lived on an island shrouded in fog. The fog was the smoke from his great pipe. Glooskap sent out Rabbit with the message that those who could find and reach his island would be granted a wish. Rabbit brought the message to four men. The first, who was short, wished to be taller than any other man alive. The second wanted to be rich. The third wanted to live forever. The fourth was a poor man who longed to become a good hunter so that he could feed his family.
These four men launched their canoes upon the sea, paddling into the direction where they hoped to find Glooskap’s island. It was hard going. The waves were high. They tossed the canoes backward, threatening to sink them. The man who wanted to become taller than anyone else knew a song to calm the waters. The waves abated.
Then arose a great wind blowing the canoes back toward the shore. The man who wanted to be rich and own many things made a tobacco offering, and the winds ceased to blow.
Then up came a great white whale, swimming around the canoes, churning the sea into white foam, threatening to smash canoes and men with his mighty fluke. The man who wanted to live forever had a whale charm carved from a whale tooth. He cast it into the swirling foam and at once the great whale swam away.
Then the four men in their canoes encountered a fog bank stretching from horizon to horizon. They knew that somewhere, inside this impenetrable mist, Glooskap’s island had to be. But how to find it inside that seemingly endless fog? The poor man who wanted to be a good hunter had a pipe. He lit and smoked it, and as he puffed the smoke into the fog, it dissolved and Glooskap’s island was revealed. Thus the four men appeared before Glooskap.
“I imagine,” said Glooskap, “that you have come to have a wish fulfilled.”
“That is why we have come,” said the four men.
Glooskap addressed the first man. “Tell me your wish.”
“I am short,” said the man, “I am puny. Women laugh at me. None of them wants to marry me. I wish to be taller than any man alive.”
Glooskap gave him a small, fr
inged rawhide bag. “In this pouch,” he said, “is contained what will make you tall. Take it, but under no circumstances open it until you are back in your own home.”
“I will do as you say,” answered the man.
Glooskap addressed the second man. “Tell me your wish.”
“I want to be rich and to possess many things,” said the man. “If one is rich and owns many possessions, it is easy to get a beautiful chief’s daughter for a wife.”
Glooskap gave him a small, fringed rawhide bag. “In this pouch are contained the riches you desire. Under no circumstances open it before you are back in your own home.”
“I will do as you say,” said the man.
Glooskap turned to the third man. “Tell me your wish.”
“I want to live forever,” said the man. “I am afraid of death. I cannot bear the thought of dying.”
Glooskap handed him a small, fringed rawhide bag. “In this pouch,” he said, “is a medicine that will make you immortal. Take it, but under no circumstances open it until you are back in your own home.”
“I will do as you say,” said the man.
Finally Glooskap addressed the fourth man, saying: “Tell me your wish.”
“I am poor,” said the man, “I am a bad provider. I wish to become a good hunter so that I can feed my family.”
“Your wish is granted,” said Glooskap, giving the man a small, fringed rawhide bag. “This pouch contains what will make you a great hunter. Do not open it until you are back in your own home.”
“I will do as you say,” answered the man.
The four men paddled their canoes back toward the shore. The man who wanted to be rich steered his canoe so that it was soon out of sight of the others. “I cannot wait to find out what is in this little bag,” he said to himself. “How can it contain all the riches I want?” His curiosity got the better of him. He opened the bag. At once many things turned out of it: fine buckskin coats decorated with quills, rich furs, beaver pelts, beaded moccasins, bags filled with corn, tobacco, and jerky meat, shell ornaments, wampum belts—everything a man wanting to be rich could desire. The things piled up in the canoe and their weight threatened to sink it. Desperately, the man tried to close the pouch and prevent more things from pouring out. He could not do it. The canoe sank and the greedy man, who wanted to be rich, drowned.
Of the others, the short man, who wanted to be tall, landed first. “I cannot wait to become taller than any man alive,” he cried. “I cannot stop myself from opening this pouch. It is sure to contain some medicine that, once eaten, will make me tall.” He opened the pouch and at once was changed into a pine tree, the tallest in the land.
The third man, who wanted to live forever, landed next. He set out for home. He was halfway there when curiosity overcame him. He said to himself: “Glooskap ordered us not to open our little bags until we were back inside our homes. But as I am to live forever, what can happen to me if I open it?” He opened the pouch and at once was changed into a huge rock. It is still standing at the spot where he opened his bag. It will stand there forever.
The fourth man, the one who was poor and wished to become a great hunter, did not open the pouch Glooskap had given him. He joined his wife and children. He told them: “The little bag I am holding here was given to me by Glooskap. It contains a medicine that will make me a great hunter. But I will not open it. I think a man should become a skilled hunter by his own efforts.” At once he heard the voices of all the game animals—deer, elk, moose, beavers, rabbits, the fish in the sea, and the birds in the sky, telling him their secrets, telling him the best way to catch them. And so this poor man became the mightiest hunter in the land and his wigwam was always full of good food and his wife’s cooking fire was always burning.
If Glooskap tells you not to do a certain thing, don’t do it!
A PUFF OF HIS PIPE
{Micmac}
Glooskap was a mighty smoker. No one else loved smoking as much as he. One puff from his pipe became a huge cloud covering the whole sky. Glooskap himself had a large field of fertile earth upon which he grew tobacco. He raised so much tobacco that he could have given a bag full of it to every man living in this world.
Now, one day, came to Glooskap a shaman, an M‘teoulin, who was an evil sorcerer who wished to kill Glooskap, but Glooskap could read what was going on in another person’s mind, as if it had been a string of wampum. He saw and read the evil thoughts in that M’teoulin’s mind.
“I hear that you are a mighty smoker,” the M‘teoulin said to Glooskap, “but I think I am mightier than you.”
“Maybe so,” said Glooskap.
“Let us have a smoking contest,” said the M‘teoulin.
“If that’s what you want.” The evil M‘teoulin took out of his bag an enormous pipe, bigger than any ever seen before, filled its bowl with a mountain of tobacco, and lit it. Then the evil M’teoulin sucked and burned up the whole contents of his pipe bowl with one big pull, blowing the smoke out through his nose with one gigantic puff. “Behold my power!” he said to Glooskap.
Glooskap did not answer, but only smiled. He pulled out of his bag the mightiest pipe in the world. Its stem was a hundred paces long. Its bowl was so large that four ordinary human beings could hide themselves in it. He filled it with a whole year’s harvest from his vast tobacco fields. He made a forest fire to light it. Then he sucked mightily and puffed the evil M‘teoulin right out of this world into nothingness.
PART THIRTEEN
SKELETON MAN
WHILE THE GODS SNORED
{Hopi}
At the beginning of time a number of gods emerged into the world. We don’t know from where they came. They took council together at the foot of a mountain peak. They tried to share out the land between them, but could not agree to who should get what, or how much. They quarreled about this.
Masau‘u traveled south, then he came full circle back to the place from where he had started. Everything within the circle he had thus made he called his land. It was very large, maybe ten times as large as Hopi land is now, maybe a hundred times. This was the land of the Hopitu then.
Masau‘u is a god, a creator, a boundary-maker. He is also a thief, a liar, and a lecher who plays tricks upon men, animals, and inanimate things. He plays jokes even upon his fellow gods. He makes trees grow crooked and makes the faces of humans look ugly or ridiculous so that he can laugh at them.
From a hilltop he would watch the gods meet in council and perform their rituals. From his vantage point he would mimic and make fun of them—ape their movements and songs until the angry gods had to stop whatever they were doing. Often they chased Masau‘u in order to punish him, but he could never be caught.
One day all the gods came together to sing and dance, as was their custom. They were surprised when Masau‘u joined them, and were suspicious, fearing that he would play a trick on them, but he sweet-talked his way into their confidence and was on his best behavior, so that the gods thought he had reformed himself and let him stick around. He had brought a bundle with him, but nobody paid any attention to it. The day and the dances came to an end. Then Masau’u sang to the gods. He sang so sweetly and soothingly that the gods became drowsy and fell asleep.
Still continuing his song, Masau‘u watched the gods snoring, dead to the world, oblivious to what was happening around them. Then Masau’u took out of his bundle an image of himself, which he placed in the attitude of someone sleeping like the rest of the gods, with the legs drawn up under the chin and the head resting on the knees. Masau‘u then climbed a nearby hill and started to roll boulders down its side. The crashing noise woke up the gods, who cried: “This must be Masau’u at his usual tricks, flinging rocks at us.”
“No,” said others. “Look, he is among us, fast asleep.”
They did not know what to think. One god tried to wake up the hunched-over figure, thinking it was Masau‘u. Then they discovered that it was just a lifeless image. The gods got very angry and became even m
ore enraged when they saw the real Masau’u on the hilltop rolling down boulders. Then they all tore up the hill to seize Masau‘u and punish him. Masau’u did not wait for them but ran away. For many days the gods chased after him, but Masau‘u was too fast and could not be caught.
At last Masau‘u got tired. He thought himself so far ahead of the other gods that he thought it safe to lie down for a short rest. But the gods were much closer to him than he thought. Hard on his heels, they heard him snoring and found him asleep in the shade of a large rock.
The angry gods grabbed Masau‘u, stripped him, took away everything he had on his person, and administered a severe beating. Masau’u limped away, naked and hurt. But, being very resourceful, he was soon his old self again. Then he thought how to revenge himself. He went to see Sun, saying: “I am one against many. I need a friend to help me. I need a brother to fight by my side against my enemies.”
Sun said he was too busy with his daily traveling from East to West, making daylight, but suggested that Masau‘u go to Shotukinunwa, the God of the Sky, for assistance. Masau’u followed Sun’s advice. Masau‘u made many promises to the Sky God, telling him of what he would do for him in return for his help. Then Shotukinunwa gave to Masau’u a brother and comrade to help him in his fight. So Masau‘u and his new friend each got himself a club and a round stone and set forth to take vengeance. And any enemy they encountered they clubbed down and robbed. And, likewise, any Hopitu who were lazy and did not want to plant corn for Masau’u, they also beat. They did this for many years.
Today, Masau‘u comes to visit the people in daytime, and shows them by his gestures how he used to beat his enemies and that he would punish them in the same way if they grew lazy and did not plant corn. This ceremony takes place in the afternoon, after the people have planted Masau’u’s corn, and continues until dark. Then Masau‘u lets the people go and returns to his home in the rocks, where he stays for a year. Then he comes back to the people at the end of corn-planting, when they renew their promise not to be lazy and the ceremony is repeated.
American Indian Trickster Tales (Myths and Legends) Page 21
