Page:Acadiensis Q2.djvu/117

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

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;
  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.]

87

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.