Chapter VIII: Kulóskap and Wuchoʿsen, the Wind-Eagle

[_Passamaquoddy_]

_Wuchoʿsen nit kininagwʾsit
Kʾchî plakʾn potowatak pemlamsuk._[34]

Wuchoʿsen the Giant Eagle,
The Bird-Who-Blows-the-Winds,
Lives far away in the North,
Ever sitting on a rock
Which is at the end of the sky;
Because when he flaps his wings
The wind blows over the earth,
Men gave him the name of old.

When Kulóskap lived among men,
He often in his canoe
Went forth to kill the wild-fowl,
Ducks or swans or brant,
Which swim upon the sea.
One day the tempest roared,
The waves were as high as hillocks,
Even Kulóskap the Lord
Cared not to face the storm;
So then he said to himself:
“Wuchoʿsen has made this mischief
And all to show his power,
So now he shall feel mine!”

He turned him to the North,
It was long ere he came to the end;
There on a moss-grown rock
He found a great White Bird,
The Eagle of the Wind.

“Grandfather!” said the God,
“Thou takest no compassion
Upon us Kosesak--
That is, ’thy suffering children’--
For thou hast raised this storm.
It is too terrible!
Be easier with thy wings!”

The Giant Bird replied:
“Even from the earliest time,
And from the earliest days,
Ere aught beside on earth
Had ever uttered word,
I moved my wings and spoke
In Wind unto the World;
For mine was the first Voice
E’er heard in life or time,
Therefore I’ll ever speak,
And ever move my wings,
At freedom, as I will.”

Then Kulóskap the God,
Arose in all his might,
Tremendous--for he rose
Up to the clouds above--
And took the Giant Bird
As if he were a duck,
And, tying fast his wings,
Cast him afar, adown
Into a deep dark cleft
Between the splintered rocks,
And left him lying there.

Then all the Indians
Could go in their canoes
As freely as they chose
For many days and months.
But then as time went by,
They noted day by day
That all the waters grew
So stagnant and so foul
That even the Master found
He could not row his bark;
All was so thick and dead,
And rottenness and slime
Crept into all the world.
And then he thought upon
The Giant Bird, and went
To find him, far away.
As he had left him, so
He found him, for the Bird,
The Spirit of Air,
Can never truly die.

And so he picked him up,
And then with care untied
One single wing, but left
The other tightly bound.
And since that time the Wind
Has never been so wild
As ’t ever was of yore. L.

FOOTNOTES:

[34] Wuchoʿsen, that is the great eagle which blows the winds.

=Canto Fourth=

THE MASTER AND THE SORCERERS