himself a great serpent, hoping so to slay the Master.

Of old time Glooskap met a boy whose name was _'Nmmokswess_, the
Sable. [Footnote: Evidently no other than Marten, or the Abistanooch of
the Micmac mythology.] And the boy had a flute: whoever played on it
could entice unto him all the animals. And once, when the Master was
afar, the boy broke the flute, and in his great sorrow he would not
return home, but wandered away into the wilderness. Now Glooskap knew
in his heart that the flute was broken: he who is a magician knows at
once of a great evil. And coming home, he asked of the grandmother
where the boy was, and she could only weep. Then the Master said,
"Though I roam forever, yet will I find the boy." So he went forth, and
he tracked him in the snow for three days; and on the third night he
heard some one singing in a hollow; and it was a magic song, that which
the _m'teoulin_ sings when he is in dire need and death is near.
And making a circle round about the place, Glooskap looked down and saw
a wigwam, and heard the voice more distinctly as he drew nearer; and it
was the voice of the boy, and he was singing a song against all of the
snake kind. And he was wandering about the wigwam, seeking a straight
stick.

Then Glooskap understood all the thing, and how the boy had been
enticed into the wilderness by the evil arts of At-o-sis, the Snake,
and that the Great Serpent was in the wigwam, and had sent him out to
seek a straight stick. Then Glooskap, singing again softly, bade him
get a very crooked one, and told what more to do. So the boy got an
exceedingly crooked one; and when he entered, the Snake, seeing it,
said, "Why hast thou got such a bad stick?" And the boy, answering,
said, "Truly, it is very crooked, but that which is crookedest may be
made straightest, and I know a charm whereby this can be done; for I