x INTRODUCTION The Micmac Indians, from whom these legends were gathered, lived chiefly in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick . How numerous they once were no one can tell, but there are now about four thousand to bear witness to their former greatness, of which they still boast. The Micmacs, with the Penobscot, the Passamaquoddy, the Maliseet, and a few smal¬ ler tribes make up the Wabanaki family, a branch of the Algonquin Nation, the most widely extended of the six great divisions of aborigines. The Passama¬ quoddy are of New Brunswick and Maine, and the Penobscot of Maine and lower New Eng¬ land. The most important fact about the Wa¬ banaki is that they were united by the common possession of a deity or demi-god called Gloos- cap, about whom developed an exceedingly rich and imaginative mythology. Little was known about the Micmacs in a defi¬ nite way until 1846, when Dr. Silas T . Eand of Nova Scotia began his work as missionary among them. Dr. Rand was a man of broad learning, and one of the best linguists America has produced. Throughout a long and remark¬ ably industrious life his interest in these peo¬ ple never waned. He translated the Bible into their language, and with great care accumu¬ lated a dictionary of forty thousand of their Words. He wrote articles about their language