Acadiensis/Volume 2/Number 2/Glooscap

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Glooscap,

The First Acadian Exile.

"Weegejiik! kessegook wigwaink;Meskeek oodun ulnoo, kes saak,"[May you be happy! the old people are encamped.There was once, long ago, a large Indian village.]

Introduction to Ancient Ahtookwokun.[1]

Mighty in friendship was Glooscap, and mighty in magic.He who loved Truth as his life,—the one true necromancer.He was a kenap,[2] boooin,[3] a great malbalaawe[4]Yet he stood true to his friends; he was mighty in friendship!
Over the far-heaving sea came the mighty in friendship,Came from the East, in his kweedun,[5] a small rocky island,That sped with the swiftness of light at the beck of its master,And reached without paddle or sail the wild shores of Megamagee.[6]
He dwelt many lifetimes in fertile Acadian valleys,Then passed,—alas that he must, to the land of the sunset.He cannot come back until men shall speak truth with their neighhors.The Acadie,[7] that he has made now knows him no longer.
"Paalumaklk koobetaku"[8] Cape Split, and he dug through at Digby,And drained the Annapolis Valley, to make it his garden; ​He counselled great Kuhkivu,[9] the Earthquake, the spirit of justice; And rolled old Koolpujut[9] with handspikes in springtime and Autumn.
He taught all the arts,—even hunting and fishing, and weaving,The planting of pumpkins echkooaak, with corn, peaskwmun,As people still plant them to-day, for they love one another.He taught, too, how homes should be made, though he never was married.
For he was a demi-god; his was a love above mortals;He loved all the tribe; and might not tie down his affectionsTo any fair maiden on earth,—he is married in Wasoak,The home of the faithful, that glows with the glories of sunset.
Sage Noogumich[10] ordered his wigwam, assisted by Marten,Called Uhkeen[11] in deference, not his cognomen Abistatiaooch[12]These followed their lord when he sojurned in Ajaaligunuk[13]Or when he dwelt high in his home on the brow of old Blomidon[14]
He shared of his best with the meanest that came to his wigwam;He aided in myriad quests those who sought his assistance;Until the booktaawik[15] was brought by the thunder-club traders,Which dragged down the Micmacs till Glooscap could help them no longer.
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He could not endure the deceit of the double-tongued trader ; He grieved when his people when down like the trees of the forest Before the debauchery and greed of the unscrupulous paleface, Who laid on him impious hands,[16] as the heathen on Samson.
His kettle[17] lies turned upside-down near the base of old Blomidon;His dogs are transformed into rocks,[17] where they stood looking westward When Glooscap sailed out on the ebb-tide,[18] an exile through falsehood, To return when his people learn Truth, amidst wildest rejoicings.[19]
Oh helpless and hopeless indeed were the gods of tradition,The power of God must come down to uplift what has fallen,Or Glooscap can never return to his people who love him.Our forests are yours, cries the sage, if you give us our Glooscap.[20]

Jeremiah S. Clark.

Bay View, P. E. I., Nov. 1901.

  1. ↑ "Ahtookwokun," legendary folk lore.
  2. ↑ "Kenap," supernatural warrior.
  3. ↑ "Boooin," magican.
  4. ↑ "Malbalaawe," physician and surgeon.
  5. ↑ "Kweedun," canoe.
  6. ↑ "Megamagee," Micmac name for the Maritime Provinces, meaning the home of the true men, the Micmacs.
  7. ↑ "Acadie," the place. See Shubenacadie, [Segubun-acadie] the place of the segubun or ground-nuts, cf., also Baslooacadie, the landing place, Cape Traverse, P. E. I.
  8. ↑ "Paalumakik koobetaku," he cut through the beaver-dam at [Cape Split.]
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 These mythical characters were brought to Megamagee by Gloos. cap, the latter has no bones, and cannot help himself, he has to be rolled over with handspikes, hence his name. In autumn he is turned toward the west, causing winter, and again in spring to the east, causing the other great change of the seasons which fills the world with life and beautiful sunshine.
  10. ↑ "Noogumich," used as a term of respect, as we now use "aunt."
  11. ↑ "Uhkeen," my younger brother.
  12. ↑ "Abistanaooch," marten.
  13. ↑ "Ajaaligunuk," an island not yet identified [possibly P. E. I.], where Glooscap dwelt when not at Blomidon.
  14. ↑ "Blomidon," the promontory where North Mountains terminate abruptly at the Basin of Minas.
  15. ↑ "Booktaawik," fire-stuff [booktaa, fire] rum.
  16. ↑ Tradition relates how the early French did their utmost to capture Glooscap that they might exhibit him in France. He burst great ropes, and proved his superhuman powers in a hundred ways
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 These rocks, near the base of Blomidon, are still known to the Micmacs as Glooscap's kettle and dogs.
  18. ↑ The irresistible ebb-tide carries objects past Cape Split far out into the Bay of Fundy.
  19. ↑ They also look for a Millennium.
  20. ↑ See "Legends of the Micmacs," Rand.
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