TEXTO II

SHINING STAR’S FAVORITE STORIES

The Indian child Shining Star trudged behind her parents and her older brother, Little Salmon. She glanced wistfully back at their summer campsite where the river met the sea. She sighed, remembering the huge gathering of clansmen who had camped together since last spring. (...)

Shining Star’s family was returning to their wintering grounds deep in the forest. There the moose, caribou, and the deer would provide them with meat and skins to keep them well fed and warm all winter. (...)

Shining Star walked slowly. She dreamily recalled her favorite part of winter: long evenings by the fire listening to the stories told by the old folk. Tales and legends to some, to her they were the history of her people, the Penobscots.

Her favorite stories were about Gluskap, the giant with magical powers. It was he, according to their legends, who had shaped the land, the animals, and even the Indians themselves (1).

Gluskap had fashioned the fishes from dirt. Then he breathed life into them to populate the rivers and the sea. The first few fishes that he made were crude and ugly, but he improved with practice. Soon he could create beautiful fishes. One day just as Gluskap had finished his most perfect fish, his evil twin stomped it flat. That is how the flounder carne to be.

Gluskap also made the Indians, corn to feed them, and food for the other creatures. Gluskap wanted to make sure the other animals wouldn’t harm his favorite creation, so he gathered together all the animals he had made and said, “Man!" The prudent ones ran and hid. But the squirrel, which at that time was very large, became very upset. It began to ran around wildly, screeching loudly and knocking down large trees in its path. Obviously the squirrel would not be a friend to man. Gluskap patted the squirrel to calm it. With each stroke he made it smaller and smaller, until it became the size of a man’s hand. Even today, whenever a squirrel sees man, it still rans up and down trees, scolding and chattering in a very quarrelsome way.

(http://octopus.gma.org)

Lendas indígenas como as que você acabou de ler procuram explicar o mundo, unindo o real e o mágico. Com base na primeira lenda sobre Gluskap, justifique o formato atual do linguado.