Canadian Fairy Tales

MP3 Audio CD. Canadian Fairy Tales

HOW GLOOSKAP MADE THE BIRDS


Once upon a time long before the white men came to Canada there lived
a wicked giant who caused great trouble and sorrow wherever he went.
Men called him Wolf-Wind. Where he was born no man knows, but his home
was in the Cave of the Winds, far in the north country in the
Night-Night Land, and there men knew he was hiding on calm days when
the sun was hot and the sea was still, and on quiet nights when not a
leaf or a flower or a blade of grass was stirring. But whenever he
appeared, the great trees cracked in fear and the little trees
trembled and the flowers bent their heads close to the earth, trying
to hide from his presence. Often he came upon them without warning and
with little sign of his coming. And then the corn fell flat never to
rise again, and tall trees crashed in the forest, and the flowers
dropped dead because of their terror; and often the great waters grew
white and moaned or screamed loudly or dashed themselves against the
rocks trying to escape from Wolf-Wind. And in the darkness of the
night when Wolf-Wind howled, there was great fear upon all the earth.

It happened once in those old times that Wolf-Wind was in a great
rage, and he went forth to kill and devour all who dared to come in
his path. It chanced in that time that many Indian families were
living near the sea. The men and women were fishing far off the coast.
They were catching fish to make food for the winter. They went very
far away in small canoes, for the sea had long been still and they
thought there was no danger. The little children were alone on shore.
Suddenly as the sun went down, without a sign of his coming, out of
the north came Wolf-Wind in his great rage looking for prey, and
roaring loudly as he came. "I am Wolf-Wind, the gian