202 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [Vou I1T. 
THE TRADITIONS OF THE ABENAKIS. 
The Indians of the St. Joh nRiver have a vast number of traditions . 
some of these agree exactly with those which I have heard from the 
Chippeways on the head of Lake Superior, and a comparison between 
those common to the two tribes would form a most interesting study. 
Among uneducated people oral traditions form their history and litera- 
ture, and hence it is that one hardly meets with an old Abenaki who has 
not a vast number of stories of various kinds relative to his people, as 
to those mysterious and shadowy beings which his ancestors taught him 
were to be found in the forests or around the lakes; a favorite situation 
for the dwelling place of these spirits was the top of some lofty mountain, 
the more inaccessible the better it suited the purpose. The Indian who 
in former years wandered solitary through the vast forests among which 
the St. John winds in its course to the sea, was forced to commune with 
his own mind ; if the deep voiced thunder bellowed or the lightnings 
flashed, the more easily impressed among them heard in this the voice 
of the Great Spirit. He may have said on his return from his hunt that 
the Great Spirit had spoken to him, adding to what he had heard the 
creations of his own heated imagination ; the story being retold by the 
listener was added to by him, and thus by a series of increments these 
traditions have been built up to a perfect story, just as the larger crystal 
is built up on and around its primitive molecule. In a short and imper- 
fect sketch such as the present one is, I give only a few of these 
traditions, and they are given in a very ‘disconnected manner, but as 
nearly as I can in the language of the narrators as taken down from their 
own lips. The most prominent character in all the traditions of the 
Abenakis of the St. John is Glooscap. They tell me that the traditions 
respecting Glooscap they received from the Micmacs, and that the 
language which the Turtle, Glooscap’s uncle, spoke was Mic-mac. 
Glooscap was a twin, his brother burst his way out of his mother’s side, 
after they had grown up his brother became jealous of Glooscap and 
determined to kill him. In conversation with him one day, Glooscap’s 
brother casually asked him what would kill him? Glooscap, knowing his 
brother’s evil thoughts, did not tell him the truth, but said to him that a 
blow from the down which forms the head of the bullrush would do it ; 
and “what would kill you?” said he to his brother. “A bird’s down,” was 
the reply. As soon as the younger brother could get a bullrush he picked 
off some of the down and threw a handful at Glooscap’s head, it knocked 
him over and he remained stunned for a long time. When he came to 
himself and knowing that his brother was very dangerous and wanted to 
do all the evil he could, he determined to get rid of him, which he did by 
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