A Guide to MythologyClarke, Helen A. (Helen Archibald)
General
A Guide to Mythology
Clarke, Helen A. (Helen Archibald)
Mythology -- Juvenile literature
He could conquer Manitoes, no matter what their evil power might
be. Manitoes in Indian stories are not unlike fairies in their
characteristics. They were of all imaginary kinds, grades, powers,
sometimes benign, sometimes malicious, but Manabozho was a personage
strong enough in his necromantic powers to baffle the most malicious,
beat the stoutest, and overreach the most cunning. He was not, however,
the wholly benevolent being we might expect he would be with all these
great gifts; he was unfortunately ambitious, vainglorious, and deceitful,
and at times not much better himself than a wicked Manito. But what could
be expected of a son of the West Wind, for his father was Ningabiun, the
West Wind, and you will find that mythical beings which personify the
wind are always of a tricksy disposition just as the wind itself is. As a
god he was often spoken of as the great white Hare.
The Algonquin hero, Glooskap,[2] is equally interesting, and of a more
truly heroic disposition than Manabozho. The name of this divinity,
Glooskap, means a liar, because it is said that when he left the earth
for the land of spirits he promised to return and he has never done so.
Many and wonderful are the tales told of Glooskap, but he is never silly,
or cruel, or fantastic like Manabozho. Any one who goes to Nova Scotia,
to-day, may see the grand Cape Blomidon, where Glooskap lived. It juts
out between the Bay of Fundy and the Basin of Minas. Its foundations are
of red sandstone and far up toward the sky it is crowned with granite
battlements. Sometimes the waters of the Basin of Minas gently wash
against the base of this gigantic cape and sometimes one could walk a
mile or two from the cape to reach the water. Twice a day this happens as
the tide comes up and recedes. Truly, it is a magical land, and Blomidon
is a noble home, well befitting the great Indian divinity whose head
rises to the stars, and who could slay a giant enemy with a mere tap of
his bow. We shall meet with both of these heroes again later.
THE STORY OF MANABOZHO
(_Iroquois_)
To begin at the beginning, Manabozho, while yet a youngster, was living
with his grandmother, near the edge of a wide prairie. It was on this
prairie that he first saw animals and birds of every kind; he also there
made first acquaintance with thunder and lightning; he would sit by the
hour watching the clouds as they rolled, and musing on the shades of
light and darkness as the day rose and fell.
For a stripling, Manabozho was uncommonly wide-awake. Every new sight he
beheld in the heavens was a subject of remark; every new animal or bird,
an object of deep interest; and every sound that came from the bosom of
nature, was like a new lesson which he was expected to learn. He often
trembled at what he heard and saw.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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