INTRODUCTION xix great Indian heroes: Glooscap and Kitpoosea- gunow, about each of whom is woven a story, of which we have but a part. There is a third hero, Pulowech , who, it seems, belongs to an earlier cycle of stories than the others—to the days "in the long ago, when men were as ani¬ mals and animals as men," as the Indian him¬ self says. These are, perhaps, like the stories of Glooscap, fragments of an epic poem, and one day the other fragments may be found, and all be welded together to make a connected whole, as ethnologists have almost succeeded in do¬ ing with the Glooscap legends. The Indian's fear of nature and the unknown has taken form in his belief in giants, which everywhere seems to shadow him, and which gives to his stories an air of mystery and trag¬ edy. The Culloo and the Chenoo seem never far from his mind. The Culloo was a giant cannibal bird with a hundred claws. He ruled in a kingdom beyond the sky. When he needed provisions he would fly to the earth, and stretching out one of his huge claws, he would seize a whole village full of people and carry them away to his own country, where he could devour them at leisure. The Chenoo, also, was a cannibal, a giant from the north with heart of ice and stone. He was a monster with extraordinary powers