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

INTRODUCTION
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great Indian heroes: Glooscap and Kitpooseagunow,
about each of whom is woven a story,
of which we have but a part. There is a third
hero, Pulowech, who, it seems, belongs to an
earlier cycle of stories than the others to the
days the "in long ago, when men were as ani
mals and animals as men," as the Indian him
self says. These are, perhaps, like the stories
of Glooscap, fragments of an epic poem, and one
day the other fragments may be found, and all
be welded together to make a connected whole,
as ethnologists have almost succeeded in do
ing with the Glooscap legends.
The Indian s fear of nature and the unknown
has taken form in his belief in giants, which
everywhere seems to shadow him, and which
gives to his stories an air of mystery and trag
edy. The Culloo and the Chenoo seem never
far from his mind. The Culloo was a giant
cannibal bird with a hundred claws. He ruled
in a kingdom beyond the sky. When he needed
provisions he would fly to the earth, and
stretching out one of his huge claws, he would
seize a whole village full of people and carry
them away to his own country, where he could
devour them at leisure.
The Chenoo, also, was a cannibal, a giant
from the north with heart of ice and stone.
He was a monster with extraordinary powers