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.

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 mortal- gods 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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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 man- god 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.

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 namedOwokun,?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