Chapter V: How Mikchik the Turtle Was False to the Master

[_Passamaquoddy_]

_Kulóskap meiawet._[30]

Kulóskap the Master
Was lord of beasts and men
Even the one as the other
He ruled them one and all.
Great indeed was his army
His tribe indeed was the whole.
In it the Golden Eagle
Was a leading chief who married
A female Caribou;
And the Turtle, Kulóskap’s uncle,
Married the only daughter
Of the Eagle and Caribou.
Of these things are many traditions,
Many and very long,
Which are told by the fire in winter;
Old people knew these stories,
The younger now forget them
And the wisdom in them all.

It is said that Mikchik the Turtle
Was ever loved by his nephew,
While another tradition tells
That he was false to the Master:
I know not how it may be,
I can only tell the story
As it was told to me.

When the Turtle married,
The Master bade him make
A splendid feast, and for this
He gave him wonderful power.
Then he bade him go down to a point
Of very great rocks by the sea
Where whales were always found,
And told him to bring a whale,
And gave him the might to do so.
But he set an appointed mark
Or space, and said that he must not
Go even an inch beyond it:
So the Turtle went down to the sea,
And caught a monstrous whale,
And bore it up to the camp;
It all seemed very easy,
But he quite forgot that the power
Was given him by the Master;
So he took it all as his own.

Like all men of his kind
He was very vain and curious.
So to see what would come of it
He went beyond the mark
While carrying the whale,
And doing this he lost
The strength on him bestowed;
And sank beneath his burden
Crushed by the mighty whale.

Then many ran to the Master
Saying that Turtle was dead,
But he answered “Cut up the whale
For the dead will soon revive.”
So they cut it up and cooked it;
And when the feast was ready,
The Turtle came yawning on,
And stretching out his leg
Cried out: “How tired I am!
Truly, I think I must
Have overslept myself!”
Then all men feared the Lord,
For now they knew him a spirit,
A spirit of terrible power.

However it came to pass
That the Turtle grew mightily
All in his own conceit,
And thought he could take the place
Of the Master and reign in his stead;
So he called together a council
Of all the beasts, to find
How Kulóskap might be slain.
Greatly the Great One laughed
When he had learned all this
And little did he care.

And knowing all that passed
In their evil hearts, he went
Disguised as an agèd squaw
Into the Council Lodge.
There were two witches there,
The Porcupine and Toad,
Bearing the human form;
Of them he humbly asked
How the Master was to die,
And to him the Toad replied,
“Well! What is that to thee?
And what hast thou to do
With such a thing as this?”
“Truly I meant no harm,”
Was all the Master said.
And then he softly touched
The tip of either’s nose.
And rising, went his way.
But when the witches looked
At one another--both
Screamed out in dire dismay
For neither had a nose!
Their faces were smooth and flat;
So it came that the Porcupine
And Toad, are to this day
Noseless among the beasts.
So the Council came to an end. L.

FOOTNOTES:

[30] Kulóskap the Master.