American Indian Trickster Tales (Myths and Legends) (39 page)

“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.

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Micmac
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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, fringed 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!

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Micmac
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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.