xviii INTRODUCTION

In the last day an earthquake will announce the mighty battle which Glooscap will fight with his enemies, the giants and sorcerers, suggest- ing the last great battle on the plain Vigrid, in which the drama of the gods culminates, in the Icelandic sagas.

Both the Norse and the Micmac mythologies have a mischief-maker, in the Indian legends appearing as the badger, or woodchuck, or wol- verine, or merry Lox, who is also a man.

Again the mighty giant, Kitpooseaguno-W, the friend of the Master, suggests Thor. In the fishing trip of Glooscap and Kitpoosea- gunow one is reminded of the visit of Thor to Hymir, and of the scene in the boat when Thor caught up the head of the great Midgard ser- pent from the bottom of the sea.

Whether there is more than accidental re- semblances, in these stories of the two mytholo- gies, or more than such likeness as grows out of the common nature of the minds of men and the similarity of the materials which they have wrought, we will leave to the ethnologists to decide. That the interesting theory that these old stories are one in origin is discountenanced now by many scientists only leaves the prob- lem of these strange relations of the Norse and Indian heroes the more deep and perplex- mg.

We have mentioned now two of the three