The brothers said, “Indeed he is a great magician, but we will get the
better of him.”
So when he was through eating, the eldest brother took up the mighty
jawbone of a whale, and to show that he was strong bent it a little. But
Glooskap took it and snapped it in two between his thumb and finger. And
the giant brothers said again, “Indeed he is a great magician, but we will
get the better of him.”
Then they tested him with strong tobacco which no one but great magicians
could possibly smoke. Each took a puff and inhaled it and blew the smoke
out through his nose to show his strength. But Glooskap took the great
pipe and filled it full, and at a single puff burnt all the tobacco to
ashes and inhaled all the smoke and puffed it out through his nostrils.
When they were beaten at smoking, the giants proposed a game of ball and
went out into the sandy plain by the riverside. And the ball they used was
thrown upon the ground. It was really a dreadful skull, that rolled and
snapped at Glooskap’s heels, and if he had been a common man or a weak
magician it would have bitten his foot off. But Glooskap laughed and broke
off a tip of a tree branch for _his_ ball and set it to rolling. And it
turned into a skull ten times more dreadful than the other, and it chased
the wicked giants as a lynx chases a rabbit. As they fled Glooskap stamped
upon the sand with his foot, and sang a magic song. And the river rose
like a mighty flood, and the bad magicians, changed into fishes, floated
away in it and caused men no more trouble.
Scar-Face: A Blackfoot Story.
There was a man who had a beautiful daughter. Each of the brave and
handsome and rich young men had asked her to marry him, but she had always
said No, that she did not want a husband. When at last her father and
mother asked her why she would not marry some one, she told them the sun
had told her he loved her and that she should marry no one without his
consent.
Now there was a poor young man in the village, whose name was Scar-face.
He was a good-looking young man except for a dreadful scar across his
face. He had always been poor, and had no relatives and no friends. One
day when all the rich young men had been refused by the beautiful girl,
they began to tease poor Scar-face. They said to him:—
“Why don’t you ask that girl to marry you? You are so rich and handsome.”
Scar-face did not laugh at their unkind joke, but said, “I will go.”
He asked the girl, and she liked him because he was good; and she was
willing to have him for her husband. So she said: “I belong to the sun. Go
to him. If he says so, I will marry you.”
Then Scar-face was very sad, for who could know the way to the sun? At
last he went to an old woman who was kind of heart. He asked her to make
him some moccasins, as he was going on a long journey. So she made him
seven pairs and gave him a sack of food, and he started.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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