A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
Maria Saksis’s Penobscot-labelled tale locates the family on the sandy river interval at Saco in the White Mountains. The father, three sons and daughter had once been Glooskap’s adopted kin. Hearing of their killings and cannibalism, he visits to test the reports. He copies the one-eyed, partly grey father’s appearance so exactly that the sons cannot distinguish them.
The daughter serves whale tail, but a brother confiscates it; Glooskap recalls the food by wishing. He then effortlessly breaks a whale jaw which a brother can barely bend, and survives an intended suffocation contest with strong tobacco. During the subsequent ball game he discovers that their ball is a living skull snapping at his heels. His own larger skull, made from a branch, puts them to flight.
Glooskap raises a river flood and changes the father and three brothers into chinahmess, fish described as human-sized. Their neck markings preserve the wampum collars worn before transformation. The ending specifically enumerates these four males; it does not explain the daughter’s final fate. Leland’s attempted comparison between the father’s grey appearance and partly stone beings is editorial speculation, not an anatomical statement made by the story.
Origins & earliest records
Leland’s 1884 chapter labels the story Penobscot and explicitly identifies Maria Saksis as its single authority. Its specific Saco landscape and named adoption relationships belong to this witness; no individual collection date is supplied.
Records & interpretation
Complete selected narrative and attached source notes were inspected. Leland’s editorial comparisons and theories remain separate from the narrated actions.
In the literature
“and they went headlong down on the flood”
How the great Glooskap fought the Giant Sorcerers at Saco, and turned them into Fish; complete chapter and notes · Leland English collected retelling; source-specific credits retained
A cannibal-magician family has father, three sons and daughter, with Glooskap’s adopted relations expressly stated. Disguised as their one-eyed half-gray father, he defeats meal theft, jawbone strength and smoke trials. Their living-skull ball threatens him; his branch-transformed skull chases them away. Flood and transformation send father and three sons to sea as collar-marked chinahmess fish. The daughter’s final fate is not narrated.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
The Algonquin Legends of New England
How the great Glooskap fought the Giant Sorcerers at Saco, and turned them into Fish; complete Maria Saksis narrative.
- 02
The Algonquin Legends of New England — complete Maria Saksis Saco confrontation
Original work1884; Gutenberg6803 selected transcription, exact source print impression and pages unidentified. Full Preface and Authorities read.
Family, evolution & connections
Saco’s giant sorcerer family — Maria Saksis’s account in Leland
The complete Penobscot-labelled Saco narrative, attributed to Maria Saksis in Leland’s closing note.
Scroll sideways to see all branches. With a keyboard, focus the tree and use the arrow keys.
- Eldest of three sons, later transformed into chinahmess
- Another son, later transformed into chinahmess
- Another son, later transformed into chinahmess
- Unnamed daughter, final fate unstated
Opening father, three sons and daughter; later explicit eldest-brother references. Glooskap’s formally adopted ties are excluded from the biological branch. Only the father and three sons are transformed into fish at the ending; the daughter’s fate is unstated. No natural fish ancestry or Leland cross-cultural origin theory is inferred.
Unnamed father, three sons and daughter at Saco
The opening states a father with three sons and one daughter. The conclusion transforms the father and three sons into fish; it does not state the daughter’s final fate.
Glooskap in Maria Saksis’s Saco account
The account expressly says Glooskap adopted the old man as father and the children as brothers and sister. These social ties are distinct from the old man’s stated parentage of the four giant children.
Chinahmess in the Saco account
The closing transformation identifies the three brothers and their father as chinahmess. This is the tale’s change of form, not a claim that a real fish species descends biologically from humanlike giants.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
The Algonquin Legends of New England
Original work1884; Gutenberg6803 selected transcription, exact source print impression and pages unidentified. Full Preface and Authorities read.
- A cannibal-magician family has father, three sons and daughter, with Glooskap’s adopted relations expressly stated. Disguised as their one-eyed half-gray father, he defeats meal theft, jawbone strength and smoke trials. Their living-skull ball threatens him; his branch-transformed skull chases them away. Flood and transformation send father and three sons to sea as collar-marked chinahmess fish. The daughter’s final fate is not narrated.
No entire volume, independent oral record or separate cited manuscript/comparative edition reviewed. Variant/narrator boundaries preserved; no earliest, medical or diffusion proof claimed.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textLeland 1884: How the great Glooskap fought the Giant Sorcerers at Saco, and turned them into FishResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.