Chapter II: Kulóskap and the Beaver

[_Micmac_]

_Kulóskap naga Kwâbît._[25]

Over all the land
Of the Wabanaki,
The Land of the Break of Day,
There is never a place
Where the hand of Kulóskap
Made not a mark.
It is seen on hills and rivers,
On the great roads through mountains,
As well as on mighty rocks
Which once were living monsters.

Such is the wonderful highway
Running along the river
Called Herbert--the road which is named
By white men the Boar’s Back,
By Indians Onwokun,
Which is their word for Causeway.

The tale is told of Kulóskap
That, once while travelling
To visit Partridge Island
And then Cape Blomidon,
His friends were tired of rowing,
Tired of travel by water,
And wished to cross by land;
And, while they all were resting,
The Master, raising his magic
Unto a mighty deed
To be spoken of forever,
Went away for a little time
And cast up a giant ridge,
A wide and beautiful level
Over great bogs and streams,
And across this they travelled
Rejoicing, to await him.

And yet again the Master
Did a very wondrous deed;
For it came to pass in those days
That the beavers had built a dam
From Âûkogegéchk or Blomidon,
Even unto the opposite shore,
And thereby made a pond
Which filled up all the valley.
Now in those times the beavers
Were beasts of monstrous size,
And the Master, though kind of heart,
Seems to have had indeed
But little love for them
Since the day when young Kwâbîtsis,
The son of the Great Beaver,
Tempted Malsum to slay his brother
In the very early time.
Now to this very day
They find the bones of these beavers;
There are many on Unamagik,
Their teeth are six inches wide,
There are no such beavers to-day!
And these are indeed the bones
Of the beavers who built the dam
Across at Cape Blomidon
And crossed the Annapolis Valley.

Now the Master would fain go hunting,
And thereby do a deed
Which should equal the great whale-fishing
Of Kitpûsiigʾnâû.

So he cut the great dam near the shore,
And he bade the boy Marten watch;
For he said, “I greatly suspect
That there is a little beaver
Who is hiding hereabouts.”
And when the dam was cut
From where it joined the shore,
There was a mighty rush,
And the roar of many waters,
So that the beaver dam,
Which was made of giant trees
Deftly fastened together,
Swung full around to the westward;
And yet it did not break
Away from the other shore.
Therefore the end of it lodged
With a great split therein
When the flood had found a passage;
And the whole may be seen there still,
To this very day, even,
As it is seen by all
Of those who pass up the bay;
And still this point, Cape Split,
Is called by the Micmacs Plîgun
Which means the opening
Or cleft of a beaver dam.

Then to frighten the Beaver
The Master threw at it
Several handfuls of earth,
Which falling to eastward
Of what is called Partridge Island,
Became the Five Islands, and
The pond which was left behind
Became the Basin of Minas.

Yet another tradition tells
That after cutting the dam
The Master sat and watched,
And yet no Beaver came forth,
For Kwâbît had escaped by a hole
Which led back to the other side;
Kulóskap then tore up
A rock and he threw it
Very far indeed,
One hundred and fifty miles,
To frighten the Beaver back;
But over the Grand Falls
Kwâbît had gone in haste
And so for the time escaped;
Yet the stone remaineth there
As a wonder to this day.

However, others declare
That by this rock the Beaver
Was killed while swimming away;
For thus the tale was told
By a Penobscot woman
As she sat weaving a basket,
A basket or _abaznoda_
Of that sweet-scented grass
Which Indians dearly love.

Kulóskap gave the names
To everything on earth;
He first made man and woman
Bestowing on them life;
He also made the winds
To make the waters move;
The Turtle was his uncle,
Tiakēūch the Mink
Was his adopted son,
While Mūnŭmkwech, the Woodchuck--
She was his grandmother.
The Beaver built a dam
The greatest ever seen.

Kulóskap turned it away,
And killed the Beaver, too;
At Mûschik he killed a moose;
The bones are there e’en now,
At Bar Harbor, turned to stone.
The entrails of the moose,
Across the bay he cast
Unto his dogs, and they,
Which were also turned to stone,
To this day may be seen there,
As I have seen them myself;
And there, too, in the rock
Are the prints of his arrow and bow.

FOOTNOTES:

[25] Kulóskap and the Beaver.