But the plant never grew
that could harm the Master, wherefore he is alive to this day.
Who was his mother? The female Turtle was his mother.
The Master was the Lord of Men and Beasts. Beasts and Men, one as the
other, he ruled them all Great was his army, his tribe was All. In it
the Great Golden Eagle was a chief; he married a female Caribou. The
Turtle was Glooskap's uncle; he married a daughter of the Golden Eagle
and Caribou. Of all these things there are many and long traditions.
Our people tell them in the winter by the fire: the old people know
them; the young forget them and the wisdom which is in them.
When the Turtle married, the Master bade him make a feast, and wished
that the banquet should be a mighty one. To do this he gave him great
power. He bade him go down to a point of rocks by the sea, where many
whales were always to be found. He bade him bring one; he gave him
power to do so, but he set a mark, or an appointed space, and bade him
not go an inch beyond it. So the Turtle went down to the sea; he caught
a great whale, he bore it to camp; it seemed to him easy to do this.
But like all men there was in him vain curiosity; the falsehood of
disobedience was in him, and to try the Master he went beyond the mark;
and as he did this he lost his magic strength; he became as a man; even
as a common mortal his nerves weakened, and he fell, crushed flat
beneath the weight of the great fish.
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