In
the Eskimo mythology the _mersugat_ or _kutadlit_, who are
the higher or benevolent spirits, protecting mortals, are distinguished
from the evil ones by dwelling in cliffs, to which there are invisible
entrances.
There is a remarkable resemblance between Katahdin and Hrungnir of the
Edda. Hrungnir has a face of stone; he is unquestionably a mountain
personified, as Miss Larned declares: "His stony head pierces the blue
sky." [Footnote: _Tales of the Elder Edda_, p. 235.] Both giants
are the typical great mountain of their respective countries. Hrungnir
has also very great affinity with the Chenoo giant. He has a _stony
heart_, an insatiable appetite, and is cruel and brutal.
The Iroquois have the very stone giants--or, as Schoolcraft calls them,
the stonish giants--themselves, and a very curious picture of them has
been preserved. [Footnote: Vide Cusick's _Five Nations_, 2d
edition, and Schoolcraft's _Indian Tribes_, vol. i p: 429.] Of
them he remarks, "Who the giants are intended to symbolize is
uncertain. They are represented as impenetrable by darts." The
connection between the stone giants of the Indians, the Eskimo, and the
Norsemen, if not historical, is at least identical in this, that they
all typify the mountains.
_The Thunder and Lightning Men._
(Passamaquoddy.)
This is truly an old Indian story of old time.
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