Glooscap the great chief, and other stories - ElectricCanadian.com

INTEODUCTION
"This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines
and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct
in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and pro
phetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their
bosoms.
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neigh
bouring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail
of the forest."
The stories told in this book will be read with
greater sympathy and understanding if one
knows something about the people who pro
duced them about their history and the ori
gin of their legends. For these tales are not
merely stories; they are fragments of the men
tal life of an ancient race. If one is to enter
into the spirit of the stories, he must, so far as
he can, forget for the moment the environment
of civilised life; he must place himself, in
fancy, in the ancient forest before the coming
of the white man, and partake of the life and
the thought and the feelings of its people.
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