xvi INTRODUCTION
kuns. Here is evidently a clear conception of God as the friend, companion, guide, instructor and helper of the human race.”
In the Micmac’s belief, Glooscap looked and lived like other Indians. But he was never sick; he never grew old; he never died. He was not married, but a venerable old woman, whom he called Noogumee (grandmother) and a little servant, Marten, kept his lodge for him. This great Wigwam was on Cape Blomidon. Minas Basin was his beaver pond. The dam was at Cape Split, but Glooscap, once angry with the treacherous beavers, tore open the dam and the water rushed through. The Micmacs still call the place Pleegum, which means, “the opening made in a beaver dam.” What is now Spencer’s Island, the Indians to this day point out as the Master’s kettle, a huge stone; and near the kettle which he overturned when he went away, his faithful dogs, transformed into rock, await their Master’s return.
To Glooscap the Indians give thanks for all their knowledge. It was he, they say, who taught them to hunt and to build their weirs for fish. He told them what animals and what fish were suitable to be their food. He taught them the hidden virtues of plants, roots and barks. He told them the names of all the stars. He travelled far and wide among his people, and there is not a place in all the land of the