This tradition is Micmac, and taken almost entirely from Mr. Rand's
manuscript. It should be borne in mind that it is not from a single
story of this collection, but from a careful analysis and comparison of
them all, that their entire value is to be ascertained.

Certain incidents in this tale deserve special attention. The young men
go to a land of evil sorcerers, of _boo-oin_. When one is required
to run a race he conquers because he is really the Lightning. When Thor
visits Utgard Loki, there is also a race, in which Hugi wins, because
he is _Thought_ disguised as a man. Glooskap has a canoe, which is
sometimes immensely large, but which at other times shrinks to a very
small size. In the Edda, Odin is said to have had made for him by the
dwarfs a boat, Skidbladnir, which, like Glooskap's bark, expanded or
diminished. Sigurd, in the New Edda, is obliged to kill a dragon, and
it is very remarkable that he does it by a special previous
preparation. That is to say, he digs a little ditch, and when the
dragon crawls over it the hero pierces him with his sword. In this
story the Indian lays a log over the dragon's hole, to enable him to
chop his head off. The dragon, or horned snake, is an old-time
tradition in America, or pre-Columbian.]




_How a Certain Wicked Witch sought to cajole the Great and Good
Glooskap, and of her Punishment._

(Micmac.)