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Abenaki - How Magic Friend Fox Helped Glooskap against the Panther-Witch
One day, meandering back to his cave by the sea, Glooskap stopped at an Indian village. As al-ways, the people there were pleased to see him. They fed him an abundance offish, moose meat, and rabbits. After his meal, Glooskap noticed there were only two children in the village, a girl and a boy. "Where are all the children?" he asked in alarm.
The village chief said, "It is the she-panther Pukjinskwest. She's been prowling. At night she throws a magic cloak over the moon, then scratches a boulder with her claws and screams loud enough to split any tree.
Then - suddenly - it gets deathly quiet. That's when we truly worry. And in the morning, we discover that Pukjinskwest has stolen another child!"
Pukjinskwest was a giant cat, with fangs like icicles. Long ago she learned to fly to the moon; there she put moonlight into her eyes so that they shone brightly in the dark.
"The last time I visited the moon," Glooskap said,
"Pukjinskwest was living there with her twin scissorbill birds."
"I'm afraid she's returned," the chief said. Pukjinskwest's constant companions were two scissorbill birds. They hovered above the sea rocks, looking for mermaids. They would swoop down, pluck up a mermaid, and snip her in half. Then they would sit on the rocks, crunching the mermaid's bones. It was hard to know who was more nasty, Pukjinskwest or her birds. Not only did Pukjinskwest want to kidnap all the Indian children, she wanted to replace Glooskap as chief of all the Indians. But Glooskap promised his people that these things would not happen. "Never," he said, "not as long as I'm here!"
Glooskap knew that Pukjinskwest loved to eat children.
But he knew she also found turtle eggs delectable. She had a favorite island where she hoarded the eggs. Her scissorbill birds would fly her there. Glooskap knew where this island was.
He paddled his canoe there and began searching for her supply of eggs. He knew that this would anger Pukjinskwest. After a while, her scissorbills clacked overhead, and began dropping mermaid bones on him.
But Glooskap put on a hat, and the bones ricocheted off.
Glooskap dug all day in the scorching sun, but found only sand and roots. "Egg hunting is hard work, especially if you can't find any!" he said. He grew tired and sat under a shade tree to take a nap. Just as he fell asleep, the scissorbills lifted his magic canoe into the air and delivered it to Pukjinskwest, who had been hiding in a gulch and gorging on turtle eggs.
Quickly, Pukjinskwest bounded to the beach with the canoe, and began to paddle toward the mainland. "I'm leaving this island," she sang, "and I'm going to be chief!" When she arrived at the mainland, she ran to the nearest Indian village. "Glooskap is dead," she announced. "I am the new chief!"
"That's impossible," one of the Indians said with a laugh. "Seize him!" Pukjinskwest ordered her scissorbills. The birds nabbed the Indian and quickly bit him in half.
The villagers gasped and wept. They threw rocks at Pukjinskwest, but the scissorbills batted them away. "Anyone who protests," Pukjinskwest warned, "will meet the same fate." For days and weeks and months the villagers waited for Glooskap to return. "Why doesn't he just leap back to the mainland?" they wondered aloud. "Maybe he's abandoned us!" The villagers were confused. Pukjinskwest remained as chief, and life was sorrowful.
The village began to fill with mermaid bones.
On the island, Glooskap said, "Pukjinskwest is one of the slyest, most powerful enemies I have ever faced. It has taken me a long time to puzzle out a special plan to outwit her, but finally I have!"
Glooskap closed his eyes and wished for his friend the fox to come to the island. When he opened his eyes, the fox was in front of him.
"What secret do you know about Pukjinskwest?" Glooskap asked the fox.
"I know that she cannot swim," the fox said. "She is terribly afraid of water and even has nightmares of drowning in the sea. That is why she either crosses to the island in a canoe, or orders her scissorbills to carry her. Their talons are strong, and they could never drop her, no matter how rough the winds."
"Very good," Glooskap said. "I knew I could count on you. Now go to the village and tell Pukjinskwest that you have used your magic on her behalf. Say that you have filled this island with turtle eggs. She won't be able to resist."
The fox did as Glooskap had requested. He used his magic to fly to the mainland, then ran to the village. When Pukjinskwest saw the fox, she was suspicious.
She knew that Glooskap and the fox were old friends. Still, she bragged, "Look around you, fox. See how I am in control here. Don't try any of your fox tricks, because my scissorbills are right behind you!"
The fox heard a horrible clacking and turned around to find the scissorbills, with their dull eyes, shabby feathers, and scaly legs, close by. The fox was truly afraid, but he was brave, too, and went ahead with Glooskap's plan. "No," he said to Pukjinskwest, "I wouldn't think of using my tricks. In fact, I've come to tell you some good news."
"What is it?" asked Pukjinskwest.
"Your favorite island is now loaded with thousands of turtle eggs. I have made it so!"
"That's as it should be," Pukjinskwest said. "Every-one should bestow fine gifts on the chief of all the Indians - me! And do you know what your reward will be?"
"Pray tell," said the fox.
"You shall have all the mermaid bones you can carry!" said Pukjinskwest.
The fox gulped. "Thank you," he said. "Mermaid bones are what I've always wanted!"
The fox dragged off some bones, which he gently cast off one by one into the sea, hoping the mer-maid spirits would be happy to havetheir bones returned.
That night, Pukjinskwest dreamed of turtle eggs, as usual. She lay on her mattress stuffed with mermaid bones, growling with delight. Then, she woke up and walked to the sea, with her moonlit eyes shining out ahead as her guide. The sea was very wild; the waves crashed against the cliffs. But Pukjinskwest couldn't get the eggs out of her mind. "I will summon my scissorbills to fly me to the island, where I'll feast all night," she said.
Just then, she heard a voice. "It is I, the fox. I'll take you across on my back, Mistress Pukjinskwest. It would be an honor." "Well, all right," said Pukjinskwest. "But swim strongly and swiftly, and go directly to the island."
Pukjinskwest climbed upon the fox's back and the fox began to swim with sure strokes toward the island. "Please," he said to Pukjinskwest, "draw in your claws, for they are making deep scratches in my back."
Pukjinskwest drew in her talon-claws and said, "How much farther is the island?"
Instead of replying, the fox rose into the air and spilled the panther-witch into the roiling sea!
"I can't swim!" Pukjinskwest cried out. "Who is the chief of all the Indians?" the fox asked from up in the air.
"I am - Pukjinskwest!" the she-cat shouted. But then she sank below the surface. When she bobbed up again, the fox saw that the water had doused her eyes. They hissed like wet coals.
"I think you are mistaken," the fox said. "I ask again: Who is chief of all the Indians?"
"It is Pukjinskwest who is chief!" the panther-witch replied. But then her fearful growl turned to a gargling purr, as seawater filled her throat.
"One more time I will ask you: Who is the chief of all the Indians?" the fox said.
Pukjinskwest knew that she was about to drown. With a last choking gasp she said, "Glooskap - the great Glooskap is chief of all the Indians."
"Did you hear that?" the fox called out into the darkness.
"Yes," said Glooskap. "I was listening the whole time."
"Shall I deliver Pukjinskwest to the moon now?" asked the faithful fox.
"Yes," said Glooskap, "do that very thing."
So it was that the magic fox flew the panther-witch Pukjinskwest back to her lair on the moon. Glooskap then leapt to the mainland and went to the Indian village. "I have outwitted Pukjinskwest," he said with pride. And he resumed his life as chief of all the Indians.
Now Pukjinskwest lives on the moon without turtle eggs, without children to devour. She whimpers and is a mangy sight. She lives alone, because her scissor-bill birds choked to death on mermaid bones. The magic fox saw to that. She has never forgotten her grudge against Glooskap, but there is nothing she can do about it.
Once in a while Glooskap stands on a cliff by the sea, places his hands together to make a telescope, and peers up at the moon. There he sees the moon-hermit Pukjinskwest, sitting on her raft made of mermaid bones, in the middle of a waterless crater.
Taken from book - How Glooskap Outwits The Ice Giants and Other Tales of the Maritime Indians Retold by Howard Norman
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