In those days the
summers were longer in the land of the Wabanaki, the sun was warmer,
and the Indians raised _tomawe_ (tobacco, P.), and solaced
themselves mightily therewith. [Footnote: I have met with an old Indian
woman in New Brunswick who told me that her grandmother remembered to
have seen tobacco raised there by the Passamaquoddy.] And there came to
Glooskap a certain evil-minded magician, who sought to take his life,
as the Master very well knew, for he read the hearts of men as if they
had been strings of wampum. And this _m'teoulin_ (P., magician),
believing himself to be greatest in all things, thought to appall
Glooskap by outdoing him at first in something at which he excelled;
for a fish is frightened when another swims faster, but not till then.
And the man sat down to smoke with an exceeding long pipe with a great
bowl, but that of Glooskap grew to be much greater. Then, having filled
his pipe, the sorcerer exhausted and burnt it out at one pull, and then
blew all the smoke out of his nose at one puff. So he sat and looked at
the Master. But Glooskap, whose pipe held ten times as much tobacco,
did the same, and blowing it out split the rocky ground, so that a
great chasm opened before them. Then they were silent awhile, till the
Master said, "If you can do that you may kill me." But he could not,
and so went back with shame to those who had sent him.
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