It is not to be understood, in this tale,
that the bull-frog is supposed to have merely drunk up the river. It is
the river which has become incarnate in him. It is the ice of winter
penetrated by the spear of the sun; that is, Glooskap. Thus, in another
tale, a frozen river tries, as a man, to destroy the hero, but is
melted by him. The conception of _the hour_ when all wishes are
granted, and the abrupt termination of the whole in a grand
transformation scene, are both very striking. There is something like
the former in Rabelais, in his narrative of the golden hatchet; as
regards the latter, it is like the ending of a Christmas pantomime.
Indeed, the entire tale is perfectly adapted to such a "dramatization."
I have been told by an old Passamaquoddy woman that the name of the
monster who swallowed the stream was _Hahk-lee-be-mo_.]
_How the Lord of Men and Beasts strove with the Mighty Wasis, and was
shamefully defeated._
(Penobscot.)
Now it came to pass when Glooskap had conquered all his enemies, even the
_Kewahqu'_, who were giants and sorcerers, and the _m'teoulin_,
who were magicians, and the _Pamola_, who is the evil spirit of the
night air, and all manner of ghosts, witches, devils, cannibals, and
goblins, that he thought upon what he had done, and wondered if his
work was at an end.
And he said this to a certain woman.
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