In the pleasant volume which Mr. Charles G. Leland has written on the surviving aboriginal folk-lore of New England,[163] the chief divinity of the Micmacs and Penobscots appears under what seems at first the outrageously incongruous name of _Gluskap, the Liar!_ This is the translation of the name as given by the Rev. S. T. Rand, late missionary among the Micmacs, and the best authority on that language. From a comparison of the radicals of the name in related dialects of the Algonkin stock, I should say that a more strictly literal rendering would be “word-breaker,” or “deceiver with words.” In the Penobscot dialect the word is divided thus,—_Glus-Gahbé_, where the component parts are more distinctly visible.[164] The explanation of this epithet, as quoted from native sources by Mr. Leland, is that he was called the liar because “when he left earth, like King Arthur, for fairy land, he promised to return, and has never done so.” It is true that the Algonkian Hero-God, like all the American culture-heroes, Ioskeha, Quetzalcoatl, Zamna, Bochica, Viracocha, and the rest, disappeared in some mysterious way, promising again to visit his people, and has long delayed his coming. But it was not for that reason that he was called the “deceiver in words.” Had Mr. Leland made himself acquainted with Algonkin mythology in general, he would have found that this is but one of several, to our thinking, opprobrious names they applied to their highest divinity, their national hero, and the reputed saviour and benefactor of their race. The Crees, living northwest of the Micmacs, call this divine personage, whom, as Father Lacombe tells us, they regard as “The principal deity and the founder of these nations,” by the name _Wisakketjâk_, which means “the trickster,” “the deceiver.”[165] The Chipeways apply to him a similar term, _Nenaboj_, or as it is usually written, _Nanabojoo_, and _Nanaboshoo_, “the Cheat,” perhaps allied to _Nanabanisi_, he is cheated.[166] This is the same deity that reappears under the names _Manabozho_, _Michabo_, and _Messou_, among the Chipeway tribes; as _Napiw_ among the Blackfeet; and as _Wetucks_ among the New England Indians where he is mentioned by Roger Williams as “A man that wrought great miracles among them, with some kind of broken resemblance to the Sonne of God.”[167] These appellations have various significations. The last mentioned is apparently from _ock_ or _ogh_, father, with the prefix _wit_, which conveys the sense “in common” or “general.” Hence it would be “the common father.” _Michabo_, constantly translated by writers “the Great Hare,” as if derived from _michi_, great, and _wabos_, hare, is really a verbal form from _michi_ and _wabi_, white, and should be translated, “the Great White One.” The reference is to the white light of the dawn, he, like most of the other American hero-gods, being an impersonation of the light.