WEST OF THE MOON
The Micmac and Malicete peoples, who currently live in the Maritime Provinces are
not thought related to the palaeolithic Indians. Their ancestors could not have
been in place to witness the great glacial floodings in the northeast, but may
have heard the tradition from their neighbours. In any event, all of the tribes
living along the continental glacial edge were familiar with the phenomenon, and
the world flood probably became entwined with tales of freshet floods along the
Saint John River and other local streams. In local Indian mythology Glooscap
inhabited this world, emptied of people, for ?seventy times seven nights and
seventy times seven days\u201d there being no other Indians on the land at the time ?
excepting wild Indians, very far away in the west.\u201d It is claimed that the ?
Master\u201d arrived on the scene in by ?stone canoe\u201d cruising in on the tide with the
rising sun; although others claim he came down from the moon. The least
imaginative version has Glooscap appearing from the depths of the forest. In the
legends this mortal-god is remembered as ?the wonder-worker\u201d but his name is a
synonym for ?liar.\u201d Like most mortalgods he assumed some of the prerogatives of
his betters, but the Indians were always careful to point out that he was not ?
Nikskam, Father of Us All, nor Kesoolkw, Our Maker, nor yet Espae Sakumow, the
Great Chief.\u201d Rather, he was spoken of as the first creation of Kji-kinap, the
Great Power. It was said that Glooscap was once a sentient but unmoving mountain
located in the Ukakumkak, or ?beginning place.\u201d This is amazingly close to the Old
Norse concept of a Ginungugap, or ?beginning gap:\u201d in fact the two places are both
north east of New England, the former being identified as Newfoundland, the latter
as beyond the Davis Strait. Before the beginning days, Kji-kinap, or Kesoolkw, is
said to have tired of perpetual chaos (which is the natural state of being) and
organized matter and energy as a rainy-day activity. In a Passamaquoddy version of
the creation myth Kji-kinap created the Six Worlds of the known universe and came
to earth in the form of a blazing meteorite. Standing over the rock mass that was
to become a man-god, Kji-kinap directed lighting bolts across Glooscap from north
to south and east to west. In some versions of the tale he breathed life into the
mouth of the ?stone man,\u201d ?the man from nothing.\u201d It was said that the Great
Spirit raised this first life form so that he might have someone to admire his
handcraft: ?Behold here, how wonderful is my work, all this I created by my wish
of mind: the existing world, ocean, rivers, river-lakes.\u201d Being a creation of the
one-god, the newly-made mortal god had an innate grasp of magic and immediately
strove against his creator to see if he could better him in bringing interesting
things into existence. Perhaps seeing that his cause was lost, Glooscap willed a
wind, which tore some of the newly formed trees up by the roots. His maker then
created a similar wind that was so strong it tore Glooscap\u2019s hair from his head.
But this wind was superior, being so subtle Glooscap only noticed the damage when
he put a hand to his bald head. Having a short attention span, the ?one god\u201d soon
tired of this play, turned the keys of the universe over to Glooscap, and stepped
back outside of time and place. 1

From the first Glooscap was said to have ?an evil twin\u201d but it appears that this
creature was his alter-ego rather than a separate personalty. The woman called
Noogumich (grandmother) who shared his tent, seems, in like manner, to represent
his feminine aspects. It was suggested that she was not his mate, but the provider
of food, medicines and sober, grave and good advice. Malsum (Wolf), the brother,
was understood to be evil from conception, and it was he who killed his mother,
the moon-goddess, by tearing his way from her womb in his premature desire to be
born. The origin of ?The Grandmother\u201d is rarely specified although it is said that
she owed her existence ?to the dew of the rock\u201d and was ?born of the noonday sun.\u201d
If we accept the myth, this three-in-one being stood long upon his strange land,
awaiting the coming of more commonplace men. It is said that he afterward
established an Indian village at Pictou, ?a town of a hundred wigwams.\u201d This
agrees with the archaeologic record, and if true, attaches Glooscap to the
linguistic group known first as the Sourisquois, and later as the Micmacs. Their
ancient bailiwick stretched from the Saint John River east to the ocean and from
the Gaspe to Cape Breton, including all of Prince Edward Island and most of Nova
Scotia. It also dates his coming to the period before ceramics evolved and
suggests he was not associated with the Celtic and Old Norse settlers who arrived
in the northeast in historic times. As the ceramic period commenced locally about
the year 500 B.C., Glooscap is associated with these or earlier times. Unless it
is assumed that Indian sources are unreliable Glooscap cannot be Prince Henry
Sinclair or an viking Norse traveller as some historians have suggested. The
ancestors of these Indians approached the northeastern shore from the west rather
than the east. We are told that the ?people of the dawn\u201d once lived beyond the
Cordellarian Range, perhaps as far north as the Rockies. Chief William Paul of
Shubenacadie claimed that three young families began this epic trip by paddling up
rivers from the shores of the west,through the canyons to the headwaters. Here the
party climbed to the mountain tops and portaged their canoes toward the south east
and the plains. Following brooks and rivers they arrived at the headwaters of the
Mississippi and followed this river to the ocean. At the delta, they struck out to
the east and rounded present-day Florida. Travelling along the coast they at last
came to the site of what is now New York. Here they penetrated inland to ?
Wokumeak\u201d, a clear water lake that used to back New York City. Following streams
out of it, they paddled northeast to Boston. ?When they got there one of the young
men died and they named a river ?Soogogea\u201d after him. Following north, they
explored the Penobscot River and the Saint John, naming the latter ?Oolotook, ? ?a
very quiet running water\u201d which they noted ran ?back and forth\u201d with the tides
(the Reversing Falls). They remained here for a year, and then moved on to ?
Shubenacadie\u201d, Nova Scotia, ?the place of the wild nuts.\u201d1 Creighton, Helen,
Bluenose Magic (1978) p. 86: Paul also refers to this as the Indian potato and
as ?sugebbun-k\u201d. It is described elsewhere as the ?segabun\u201d or Indian Turnip and
is now best known as the Jack-In-A-Pulpit. The plant contains crystals of oxalate
of lime and is not eaten in the raw state but is allowed to dry for several months
so that the pungent taste dissipates. Slices of the dried bulb are still
considered a cure for chest ailments and it is used to treat stomach complaints. 2
1

Having explored all of Nova Scotia and some of New Brunswick, these early Micmacs
decided to stay in the region, noting, ?we can live into this place better than
where we come from...no disasters will trouble our children here, no storms, no
thunderstorms, no earthquakes, no cold weather (a relative and perhaps premature
judgement). Every particle that belongs to this land is very precious and nice and
not hurtful. Everything is ready to hold life up, and that\u2019s\u2019bout all.\u201d
Interestingly, Shubenacadie, the new population centre, was only a few miles from
Debert, the former south of Truro, the latter immediately north. Thus the early
Micmacs settled not far from the old haunts of the mysterious el-folk. In the
archaeological records this tribe was first designated as the Souriquios, and they
soon occupied Nova Scotia and all of New Brunswick west of the Saint John River.
At this same time the lands west of the river, down into New England, became the
province of the Malecite tribes, to whom the Micmacs are linguistically allied.
The Passamaquoddies may have been a costal element of the Malecite tribe, most of
which dwelt inland. The newcomers must not have been long in discovering the
presence of Glooscap\u2019s major encampments at Blomidon and Pictou, which are both
close to Shubenacadie. The mangod afterwards came among men, but kept his own
camps at Blomidon, at the Fairy Hole in Cape Breton, and at Minister\u2019s Head, on
the Kennebecasis River in New Brunswick. In his book Prince Henry Sinclair, the
writer Frederick Pohl equates the merchant-prince with Glooscap, and traces his
movements in unbelievable detail (considering the fact that Glooscap\u2019s history is
ambiguous and entirely oral). He contends that Glooscap spent no more than a part
of one summer and a single winter among the People, leaving on the following
summer. Considering the far-flung camps that the Master established, and his
adventures in every part of the northeast, he must certainly have been a busy god
to accomplish all of this in a single year! We are more inclined to suppose that
Glooscap represents the sum of a number of visitors from the outside world.
Whether he visited little, or long, Glooscap made a serious impression on all he
encountered, having ?the air of a great chief.\u201d It was admitted that he was
especially admired ?by the women,\u201d although all felt honoured ?whose wigwam he
deigned to enter.\u201d He was a clever politician, ?able to read the thoughts of men
as if they were beads strung one after another as wampum. He could see deeply into
every heart.\u201d In addition he was reported ?a right boon companion, who loved
nothing better than ?a well-filled pipe full of fragrant tobacco.\u201d Glooscap often
took leave from the Indians disappearing into the earth, or journeying in distant
lands, but he frequently returned to a winter camp at Blomodin, or established
himself northwest across the Minas Basin, at Cape D\u2019Or. The latter place was first
named Owokun, ?where the deep sea surges,\u201d and is a promontory well suited to
guard against unexpected intrusions. Cape D\u2019Or projects into the tidal race of
Minas Basin at a place where the mouth constricts to six miles, thus it is well
named. Glooscap may have had good reason for visiting this rather exposed
highland, which once stood like a spear in the waters between Advocate Bay and
Greville Bay. The west side of the Cape is precipitous and more than 250 feet in
height where it looks out on the Bay of Fundy. It has the aspect of a grounded
island, which is exactly its history. The whole Minas 3