This was the first man and woman.
According to the Indians of Maine, Glooskap made the first men from the
_ash_-tree. They lived or were in it, "devoid of sense" till he
gave it to them. It is to be observed that primevally among the Norse
the _ash_ alone stood for man. So it goes on through the whole
Edda, of which all the main incidents are to be found among the sagas
of the Wabanaki. The most striking of these are the coincidences
between _Lox_ (lynx, wolf, wolverine, badger, or raccoon, and
sometimes man) and Loki. It is very remarkable indeed that the only two
religions in the world which possess a devil in whom _mischief_
predominates should also give to each the same adventures, if both did
not come from the same source. In the Hymiskvida of the Edda, two
giants go to fish for whales, and then have a contest which is actually
one of heat against cold. This is so like a Micmac legend in every
detail that about twenty lines are word for word the same in the Norse
and Indian. The Micmac giants end their whale fishing by trying to
freeze one another to death.
It is to the Rev. Silas T. Rand that the credit belongs of having
discovered Glooskap, and of having first published in the Dominion
Monthly several of these Northern legends. After I had collected nearly
a hundred among the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Indians, this
gentleman, with unexampled kindness, lent me a manuscript of eighty-four
Micmac tales, making in all nine hundred folio pages.
Pages:
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29