They are, especially those which are from the Passamaquoddy
and Penobscot, inspired with a genial cosmopolite humor. While Glooskap
is always a gentleman, Lox ranges from Punch to Satan; passing through
the stages of an Indian Mephistopheles and the Norse Loki, who appears
to have been his true progenitor. But neither is quite like anything to
be found among really savage races. When it is borne in mind that the
most ancient and mythic of these legends have been taken down from the
trembling memories of old squaws who never understood their inner
meaning, or from ordinary _senaps_ who had not thought of them
since boyhood, it will be seen that the preservation of a mass of prose
poems, equal in bulk to the Kalevala or Heldenbuch, is indeed almost
miraculous.
THE ALGONQUIN LEGENDS OF NEW ENGLAND.
GLOOSKAP THE DIVINITY.
_Of Glooskap's Birth, and of his Brother Malsum the Wolf._
Now the great lord Glooskap, who was worshiped in after-days by all the
Wabanaki, or children of light, was a twin with a brother. As he was
good, this brother, whose name was Malsumsis, or Wolf the younger, was
bad. Before they were born, the babes consulted to consider how they
had best enter the world. And Glooskap said, "I will be born as others
are." But the evil Malsumsis thought himself too great to be brought
forth in such a manner, and declared that he would burst through his
mother's side.
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