Here begins Gluskabe. When the Owner made the first man then when the first man was made Gluskabe created himself out of the left-over material, out of this earth left over, this earth sprinkled.59 That is why Gluskabe was so strong. Well, this Gluskabe was able to create himself. Then he moved about in a sitting position. Upon seeing this the Owner was astonished and he said, “How happened you to be here?” and Gluskabe told him, “Well, because I formed myself from the waste pieces of earth out of which you made the first man.” Then the Owner told him, “You are indeed a very wonderful man.” And Gluskabe answered, “I am a wonderful man, because you sprinkled me, and on account of being so near to you.” Then Owner said to him, “So, then, you and I shall roam about from now on.” Accordingly, they started out. They went up a hill, they went up a mountain, and when they got on top of the mountain, when they began to gaze all around with open eyes, so great a distance around could they see the lakes, the rivers, and the trees, and all the lay of the land of the country. Then the Owner said, “Look at this; behold such is my wonderful work, all created by my wish of mine. The earth, the water, the ocean, the rivers, the basins, the lakes.” Then he said to Gluskabe, “What might you have brought into existence?” Then he answered him, this Gluskabe. “I can not bring a thing into existence, but, then, one thing maybe I can accomplish.” Then he said, “Well, I could perhaps do one thing, make the wind.” Then said the Owner, “Well, then, make it; whatever you can do, according to how powerful you are.” Then, accordingly, he made the wind. It began to blow. Then it increased so strong, the rising wind, and then it blew harder until those trees were torn out by the roots and blown over. Then said the Owner to Gluskabe, “That is enough; I have seen your power, even what you can do.” Then said the Owner, “Now, I for my part. I will make a wind.” Then, accordingly, it commenced to blow in return. Then it blew so hard that they could not hold on where they were standing(?); and it blew so hard that the hair on the head of Gluskabe became all tangled up. Then when he tried to smooth it out, the hair of his head, all of it blew off and the head of hair that he had was all blown off by the wind. That is the end of this story.

B

Well, then, as he wandered along the shore of the ocean, Gluskabe killed a whale and when he had killed the whale he went to inform his uncle, the Turtle. Then he said to him, “Great luck! Killed a whale.” So he told his uncle, “And also we will go and get it, the whale meat.” So accordingly they went, went to the ocean; and when they arrived there where the whale lay they took as much of it as they wanted; and when they had taken it they placed it to one side for a while and that Turtle called together the birds, as many kinds as there were in all the world, and they came along flying in droves. On account of their number the ground fairly shook and, moreover, they fairly covered up the sun by their numbers. Then they all came flying together and ate because they were invited to the feast. Then the Eagle was the chief of the birds, and close by here where he sat was the Turtle. Then that Turtle took out his knife and he cut the buttocks off from the Eagle, this chief. Even then the chief did not feel that his buttocks had been cut off. Then this man, the second chief, a captain, said to his chief, “Who then has done such a deed to you, belittling you? We are all insulted.” Then they all became angry and they laid a plan what to do to the Turtle so as to kill him. Thereupon, immediately they (prepared to) attack him. Then the Turtle took the feathers of the bird and fanned himself, for which he said, “Wing is his fan, wing is his fan,” because he was using a wing as a fan. Then Gluskabe said to his uncle, “By so doing you have done wrong, indeed, cutting the buttocks of the chief. For soon they will attack us.” Then he said, “On account of it, what shall we do?” So he said, “In the meanwhile I will build a nest in this tree.” Then Gluskabe built a nest and he said to his uncle, “You shin up the tree.” Then the Turtle tried to shin up, but he was not able to do it; not able to shin up; so he said, “Dull are my heel claws.” Then Gluskabe took hold of him, the Turtle, and he tossed him up into the nest. And when they were in the nest they sat down to pass off water. Then the Turtle said, “How am I going to urinate up here?” Then Gluskabe said to him, “Extend your buttocks over the edge of the nest.” Then, accordingly, Turtle urinated water, which ran down below. Now the warriors discovered it (where Gluskabe and his uncle were hiding) and their captain looked up and he saw Turtle in the nest. Thereupon, he shot an arrow at him and brought him down. Then he said, “Bad stooping coward, bad stooping coward.” But where the Turtle fell on the ground there he disappeared, and they made a search for him but could not find him. And the captain hunted all about. Soon he saw a bark vessel upside down. Then he kicked it over, and found the Turtle. Thereupon they held a council over him and it was decided that he should die. Then said the captain, “What, then, shall we do with you?” The second chief spoke and said, “We shall have to cut him up in pieces.” Then said the Turtle, “Not me; that will not kill me.” Then he said (the captain), “Then we shall burn him up.” Then again said the Turtle, “Not me; that will not kill me.” Then they all said, “Then we shall drown him.” Then that Turtle said again, “That will kill me.” Immediately they grabbed him to kill him. Well, in a little lake they were going to throw him. From the place where they dragged him the earth was torn up and furrowed, where they hauled him. But at last, here in the lake, they threw him into the water, that Turtle; then he sank, his back down and belly up, like a dead animal. But he riled up the water with his paws, and then when it was all muddy he poked his head out of his shell from the water and then he cried out, “Oh ho! as for you all, your earth kills you, but as for me my land does not kill me.” Then the birds heard him, that Turtle, by the noise of his screeching, and they rushed upon him, these warriors, and they chose one that was an expert diver. They selected the loon. Then this one dove down for him. When he had done this the second and the third time he found the Turtle. And thereupon they threw him ashore out upon the ground, and they knocked him dead, the Turtle, and that is the end of my story.

C

Then Gluskabe went away from there to the ocean. And he followed a river up as far as the great divide (the frontier between New England and Canada). There he started up a moose and this moose started to make away among the rivers in the direction of Penobscot Valley. Pukdjinskwessu knew that he was coming, for she could sense it, being a magic woman. Then she wanted to plague Gluskabe, for she wanted to scare away from him the moose so that he could not kill him. But that Gluskabe knew it, that Pukdjinskwessu, how she wanted to plague him. So he thought, “On account of this, you will not see me passing by.” Accordingly, that Pukdjinskwessu wandered all about to see if she could find out whether anyone had gone by. But she could see nothing except how the tracks of his snowshoes were left on the bare ledge. For a long time she followed the tracks, but at last she lost the tracks of Gluskabe, because he commanded, in his mind, that she could not find him. Then Gluskabe went down to a river, and he saw the very moose he was following; and he shot at it, and there it fell, the moose. And while he was falling he went up and skinned it, and after he had skinned it he took out its intestines. Then he threw them to his dog. He threw them where the moose was killed. That is now called “moose buttocks” by the people. And as the intestines of that moose were stretched out there they showed white underneath the water. And even, now and forever until the end of the world, they will be white.60 That is as far as my story goes.

D

Here comes my story of that Gluskabe. Then wandering about the ocean he started in a canoe and when he had worn this out, his canoe, he thought “I shall stop until I build another canoe.” And accordingly he looked for a birch tree, a straight one. Then he cut it down, and when it fell down, that tree, apparently it nearly fell upon him. He had difficulty in being able to run away from under it. So he thought, “Never again will you fall on and kill anybody.” That big branch he took hold of it and switched this birch tree right away along its whole length. He kept on switching it and now it will forever be marked while there are people living in the world. This is the end of my story.61