Tlingit myths and texts (part 2 of 4)

Introduction

The following myths and texts were collected at Sitka and Wrangell, Alaska, in January, February, March, and April, 1904, at the same time as the material contained in the writer’s paper on the Social Condition, Beliefs, and Linguistic Relationship of the Tlingit Indians published in the Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau. For further information regarding these people the reader is referred to that paper, to Krause’s Tlinkit Indianer (Jena, 1885), Emmons’ Basketry of the Tlingit Indians, Niblack’s Coast Indians of Southern Alaska and Northern British Columbia, Dall’s Alaska and its Resources, Boas’s Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Küste Amerikas (Berlin, 1895), and the same writer in the Fifth Report of the Committee Appointed by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, to Investigate the Northwestern Tribes of Canada, and the two special reports on Alaska for the censuses of 1880 and 1890. Most of the ethnologic information contained in the works of Veniaminoff and other early writers is incorporated into the work of Krause.

Stories 7, 19, 94, 101, 102, and 103 were related by the writer’s Sitka interpreter, Don Cameron, of the Chilkat Kāˊgwᴀntān; stories 96 and 97 by Katlian, chief of the Kîksᴀˊdî; story 105 by a Yakutat man, Qǃāˊdᴀstin; and all the other Sitka stories, including the texts numbered 89–93, 95, 98, 99, and 104—by an old man of the Box-house people, named Dekināˊkǃᵘ. From Katishan, chief of the Kasqǃagueˊdî of Wrangell, were obtained stories 31, 32, 33, 38, 65, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 100, 106, and the potlatch speeches. Stories 34, 35, 42, 50, 52, 53, 54, 57, 64, and 75 were related by an old Kake man named Kᴀsāˊnkǃ, and the remaining Wrangell tales by Katishan’s mother. The last mentioned has lived for a considerable time among the whites at Victoria, but with one exception her stories appear to have been influenced little by the fact. Her son has been a church member and shows a moralizing tendency; at the same time he was considered the best speaker at feasts in past times, and is supposed to have a better knowledge of the myths than anyone else in Wrangell. Dekināˊkǃᵘ of Sitka is also a church member but his stories appear to be entirely after the ancient patterns.

MYTHS RECORDED IN ENGLISH AT SITKA

1. RAVEN[1]

No one knows just how the story of Raven really begins, so each starts from the point where he does know it. Here it was always begun in this way. Raven was first called Kit-kaˊositiyi-qā-yīt (“Son of Kit-kaˊositiyi-qā”). When his son was born, Kit-kaˊositiyi-qā tried to instruct him and train him in every way and, after he grew up, told him he would give him strength to make a world. After trying in all sorts of ways Raven finally succeeded. Then there was no light in this world, but it was told him that far up the Nass was a large house in which some one kept light just for himself.

Raven thought over all kinds of plans for getting this light into the world and finally he hit on a good one. The rich man living there had a daughter, and he thought, “I will make myself very small and drop into the water in the form of a small piece of dirt.” The girl swallowed this dirt and became pregnant. When her time was completed, they made a hole for her, as was customary, in which she was to bring forth, and lined it with rich furs of all sorts. But the child did not wish to be born on those fine things. Then its grandfather felt sad and said, “What do you think it would be best to put into that hole? Shall we put in moss?” So they put moss inside and the baby was born on it. Its eyes were very bright and moved around rapidly.

Round bundles of varying shapes and sizes hung about on the walls of the house. When the child became a little larger it crawled around back of the people weeping continually, and as it cried it pointed to the bundles. This lasted many days. Then its grandfather said, “Give my grandchild what he is crying for. Give him that one hanging on the end. That is the bag of stars.” So the child played with this, rolling it about on the floor back of the people, until suddenly he let it go up through the smoke hole. It went straight up into the sky and the stars scattered out of it, arranging themselves as you now see them. That was what he went there for.

Some time after this he began crying again, and he cried so much that it was thought he would die. Then his grandfather said, “Untie the next one and give it to him.” He played and played with it around behind his mother. After a while he let that go up through the smoke hole also, and there was the big moon.

Now just one thing more remained, the box that held the daylight, and he cried for that. His eyes turned around and showed different colors, and the people began thinking that he must be something other than an ordinary baby. But it always happens that a grandfather loves his grandchild just as he does his own daughter, so the grandfather said, “Untie the last thing and give it to him.” His grandfather felt very sad when he gave this to him. When the child had this in his hands, he uttered the raven cry, “G̣ā,” and flew out with it through the smoke hole. Then the person from whom he had stolen it said, “That old manuring raven has gotten all of my things.”

Journeying on, Raven was told of another place, where a man had an everlasting spring of water. This man was named Petrel (G̣ᴀnūˊk). Raven wanted this water because there was none to drink in this world, but Petrel always slept by his spring, and he had a cover over it so as to keep it all to himself. Then Raven came in and said to him, “My brother-in-law, I have just come to see you. How are you?” He told Petrel of all kinds of things that were happening outside, trying to induce him to go out to look at them, but Petrel was too smart for him and refused.

When night came, Raven said, “I am going to sleep with you, brother-in-law.” So they went to bed, and toward morning Raven heard Petrel sleeping very soundly. Then he went outside, took some dog manure and put it around Petrel’s buttocks. When it was beginning to grow light, he said, “Wake up, wake up, wake up, brother-in-law, you have defecated all over your clothes.” Petrel got up, looked at himself, and thought it was true, so he took his blankets and went outside. Then Raven went over to Petrel’s spring, took off the cover and began drinking. After he had drunk up almost all of the water, Petrel came in and saw him. Then Raven flew straight up, crying “G̣ā.”

Before he got through the smoke hole, however, Petrel said, “My spirits up the smoke hole, catch him.” So Raven stuck there, and Petrel put pitchwood on the fire under him so as to make a quantity of smoke. Raven was white before that time, but the smoke made him of the color you find him to-day. Still he did not drop the water. When the smoke-hole spirits let him go, he flew around the nearest point and rubbed himself all over so as to clear off as much of the soot as possible.

This happened somewhere about the Nass, and afterwards he started up this way. First he let some water fall from his mouth and made the Nass. By and by he spit more out and made the Stikine. Next he spit out Taku river, then Chilkat, then Alsek, and all the other large rivers. The small drops that came out of his mouth made the small salmon creeks.

After this Raven went on again and came to a large town where were people who had never seen daylight. They were out catching eulachon in the darkness when he came to the bank opposite, and he asked them to take him across but they would not. Then he said to them, “If you don’t come over I will have daylight break on you.” But they answered, “Where are you from? Do you come from far up the Nass where lives the man who has daylight?” At this Raven opened his box just a little and shed so great a light on them that they were nearly thrown down. He shut it quickly, but they quarreled with him so much across the creek that he became angry and opened the box completely, when the sun flew up into the sky. Then those people who had sea-otter or fur-seal skins, or the skins of any other sea animals, went into the ocean, while those who had land-otter, bear, or marten skins, or the skins of any other land animals, went into the woods [becoming the animals whose skins they wore].

Raven came to another place where a crowd of boys were throwing fat at one another. When they hit him with a piece he swallowed it. After a while he took dog’s manure and threw at the boys who became scared, ran away, and threw more fat at him. He consumed all in this way, and started on again.

After a while he came to an abandoned camp where lay a piece of jade (sǃū) half buried in the ground, on which some design had been pecked. This he dug up. Far out in the bay he saw a large spring salmon jumping about and wanted to get it but did not know how. Then he stuck his stone into the ground and put eagle down upon the head designed thereon. The next time the salmon jumped, he said, “See here, spring salmon jumping out there, do you know what this green stone is saying to you? It is saying, ‘You thing with dirty, filthy back, you thing with dirty, filthy gills, come ashore here.’”

Raven suddenly wanted to defecate and started off. Just then the big spring salmon also started to come ashore, so Raven said, “Just wait, my friend, don’t come ashore yet for I have some business to attend to.” So the salmon went out again. Afterward Raven took a piece of wild celery (yāˊnaet), and, when the salmon did come ashore, he struck it with this and killed it. Because Raven made this jade talk to the salmon, people have since made stone axes, picks, and spears out of it.

Then Raven, carrying along the spring salmon, got all kinds of birds, little and big, as his servants. When he came to a good place to cook his fish he said to all of them, “Here, you young fellows, go after skunk cabbage. We will bury this in the ground and roast it.” After they had brought it down, however, he said, “I don’t want any of that. My wife has defecated all over that, and I will not use it. Go back and pass over two mountains.” While they were gone, Raven put all of the salmon except one fat piece cut from around the “navel”[2] which is usually cooked separately, into the skunk cabbage and buried it in the fire. Before they returned, he dug this up and ate it, after which he put the bones back into the fire and covered them up.

When the birds at last came back he said to them, “I have been across two mountains myself. Now it is time to dig it up. Dig it out.” Then all crowded around the fire and dug, but, when they got it up, there was nothing there but bones.

By and by the birds dressed one another in different ways so that they might be named from their dress. They tied the hair of the blue jay up high with a string, and they added a long tail to the tsǃēg̣ēnîˊ, another crested bird. Then they named one another. Raven let out the tsǃēg̣ēnîˊ and told him that when the salmon comes he must call its slime unclean and stay high up until the salmon are all gone.[3]

Now Raven started off with the piece of salmon belly and came to a place where Bear and his wife lived. He entered and said, “My aunt’s son, is this you?” The piece of salmon he had buried behind a little point. Then Bear told him to sit down and said, “I will roast some dry salmon for you.” So he began to roast it. After it was done, he set a dish close to the fire and slit the back of his hands with a knife so as to let grease run out for Raven to eat on his salmon. After he had fixed the salmon, he cut a piece of flesh out from in front of his thighs and put it into the dish. That is why bears are not fat in that place.

Now Raven wanted to give a dinner to Bear in return, so he, too, took out a piece of fish, roasted it, set out the dish Bear had used, close to the fire and slit up the back of his hand, thinking that grease would run out of it. But instead nothing but white bubbles came forth. Although he knew he could not do it, he tried in every way.

Then Raven asked Bear, “Do you know of any halibut fishing ground out here?” He said “No.” Raven said, “Why! what is the use of staying here by this salt water, if you do not know of any fishing ground? I know a good fishing ground right out here called Just-on-the-edge-of-kelp (Gīˊckǃîcuwᴀnyîˊ). There are always halibut swimming there, mouth up, ready for the hook.”

By and by Raven got the piece of fish he had hidden behind the point and went out to the bank in company with Bear and Cormorant. Cormorant sat in the bow, Bear in the middle, and, because he knew where the fishing ground was, Raven steered. When they arrived Raven stopped the canoe all at once. He said to them, “Do you see that mountain, Wasǃēˊtî-cā?[4] When you sight that mountain, that is where you want to fish.” After this Raven began to fill the canoe with halibut. So Bear asked him, “What do you use for bait anyhow, my friend?” [Corvus respondit, “Testium cute ad escam praeparandam utor.” Ursus aiebat corvo, “Licetne uti meis quoque?” Sed corvus dixit, “Noli id facere, ne forte sint graviter attriti.” Paulo post ursus aegre ferens aiebat, “Abscide eos.” Tum corvus cultellum acuens aiebat, “Pone eos extrema in sede.” Postea corvus eos praecidit, at ursus gemens proripuit circum scapham et moriens incidit in undas extremo cum gemitu.]

After a while Raven said to Cormorant, “There is a louse coming down on the side of your head. Come here. Let me take it off.” When he came close to him, he picked it off. Then he said, “Open your mouth so that I can put it on your tongue.” When he did open his mouth, however, Raven reached far back and pulled his tongue out. He did this because he did not want Cormorant to tell about what he had done. He told Cormorant to speak, but Cormorant made only a gabbling noise. “That is how young fellows ought to speak,” said Raven. Then Raven towed the dead body of the bear behind the point and carried it ashore there. Afterwards he went to Bear’s wife and began to take out his halibut. He said to the female bear, “My father’s sister, cut out all the stomachs of the halibut and roast them.” So she went down on the beach to cut them out. While she was working on the rest of the halibut, he cooked the stomachs and filled them with hot rocks. Then he went down and said to her, “You better come up. I have cooked all those stomachs for you. You better wash your hands, come up, and eat.” After that Cormorant came in and tried to tell what had happened but made only a gabbling sound. Raven said to the bear, “Do you know what that fellow is talking about? He is saying that there were lots of halibut out where we fished. Every time we tried to get a canoe load they almost turned us over.” When she was about to eat he said, “People never chew what I get. They always swallow it whole.” Before she began she asked Raven where her husband was, and Raven said, “Somehow or other he caught nothing, so we landed him behind the point. He is cutting alders to make alder hooks. He is sitting there yet.”

After the bear had swallowed all of the food she began to feel uneasy in her stomach, and Raven said to Cormorant, “Run outside quickly and get her some water.” Then she drank a great quantity of water, and the things in her stomach began to boil harder and harder. Said Raven, “Run out Cormorant.” He did so, and Raven ran after him. Then the female bear ran about inside the house grabbing at everything and finally fell dead. Then Raven skinned the female bear, after which he went around the point and did the same thing to the male. While he was busy there Cormorant came near him, but he said, “Keep away, you small Cormorant,” and struck him on the buttocks with his hand saying, “Go out and stay on those rocks.” Ever since then the cormorants have been there. Raven stayed in that place until he had consumed both of the bears.

Starting on again, Raven came to a place where many people were encamped fishing. They used nothing but fat for bait. He entered a house and asked what they used for bait. They said “Fat.” Then he said, “Let me see you put enough on your hooks for bait,” and he noticed carefully how they baited and handled their hooks. The next time they went out, he walked off behind a point and went under water to get this bait. Now they got bites and pulled up quickly, but there was nothing on their hooks. This continued for a long time. The next time they went out they felt the thing again, but one man among them who knew just how fish bite, jerked at the right moment and felt that he had caught something. The line went around in the water very fast. They pulled away, however, until they got Raven under the canoe, and he kicked against it very hard. All at once his nose came off, and they pulled it up. When they landed, they took it to the chief’s house and said, “We have caught a wonderful thing. It must be the nose of the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt.” So they took it, put eagle down on it, and hung it up on the wall.

After that, Raven came ashore at the place where he had been in the habit of going down, got a lot of spruce gum and made a new nose out of it. Then he drew a root hat down over his face and went to the town. Beginning at the nearer end he went through the houses saying “I wonder in what house are the people who caught that G̣onaqᴀdēˊt’s nose.” After he had gone halfway, he entered the chief’s house and inquired, “Do you know where are the people who caught that G̣onaqᴀdēˊt’s nose?” They answered, “There it is on the wall.” Then he said, “Bring it here. Let me examine it.” So they gave it to him. “This is great,” he said, and he put up his hat to examine it. “Why,” said he, “this house is dark. You ought to take off the smoke-hole cover. Let some one run up and take it off so that I can see.” But, as soon as they removed it, he put the nose in its place, cried “G̣ā,” and flew away. They did not find out who he was.

Going thence, Raven saw a number of deer walking around on the beach, with a great deal of fat hanging out through their noses. As he passed one of these, he said, “Brother, you better blow your nose. Lots of dirt is hanging out of it.” When the deer would not do this, Raven came close to him, wiped his nose and threw the fat by his own side. Calling out, “Just for the Raven,” he swallowed it.

Now Raven formed a certain plan. He got a small canoe and began paddling along the beach saying, “I wonder who is able to go along with me.” Mink came down and said, “How am I?” and Raven said, “What with?” (i. e., What can you do?). Said Mink, “When I go to camp with my friends, I make a bad smell in their noses. With that.” But Raven said, “I guess not. You might make a hole in my canoe,” so he went along farther. The various animals and birds would come down and say, “How am I?” but he did not even listen. After some time Deer ran down to him, saying, “How am I?” Then he answered, “Come this way, ᴀxkwᴀˊʟǃî, come this way ᴀxkwᴀˊʟǃî.” He called him ᴀxkwᴀˊʟǃî because he never got angry. Finally Raven came ashore and said to Deer, “Don’t hurt yourself, ᴀxkwᴀˊʟǃî.” By and by Raven said “Not very far from here my father has been making a canoe. Let us go there and look at it.”

Then Raven brought him to a large valley. He took very many pieces of dried wild celery and laid them across the valley, covering them with moss. Said Raven, “ᴀxkwᴀˊʟǃî, watch me, ᴀxkwᴀˊʟǃî, watch me.” Repeating this over and over he went straight across on it, for he is light. Afterwards he said to Deer, “ᴀxkwᴀˊʟǃî, now you come and try it. It will not break,” and he crossed once more. “You better try it now,” he said. “Come on over.” Deer did so, but, as he was on the way, he broke through the bridge and smashed his head to pieces at the bottom. Then Raven went down, walked all over him, and said to himself, “I wonder where I better start, at the root of his tail, at the eyes, or at the heart.” Finally he began at his anus, skinning as he went along. He ate very fast.

When he started on from this place, he began crying, “ᴀxkwᴀˊʟǃî-ī-ī, ᴀxkwᴀˊʟǃî-ī-ī,” and the fowls asked him, “What has become of your friend, ᴀxkwᴀˊʟǃî?” “Some one has taken him and pounded him on the rocks, and I have been walking around and hopping around since he died.”

By and by he came to a certain cliff and saw a door in it swing open. He got behind a point quickly, for he knew that here lived the woman who has charge of the falling and rising of the tide. Far out Raven saw some kelp, and, going out to this, he climbed down on it to the bottom of the sea and gathered up a number of small sea urchins (nīsǃ) which were lying about there. He brought these ashore and began eating, making a great gulping noise as he did so. Meanwhile the woman inside of the cliff kept mocking him saying, “During what tide did he get those things?”

While Raven was eating Mink came along, and Raven said, “Come here. Come here.” Then he went on eating. And the woman again said, “On what tide did you get those sea urchins you are making so much noise about?” “That is not your business,” answered Raven. “Keep quiet or I will stick them all over your buttocks.” Finally Raven became angry, seized the knife he was cutting up the sea urchins with and slit up the front of the cliff out of which she spoke. Then he ran in, knocked her down and began sticking the spines into her buttocks. “Stop, Raven, stop,” she cried, “the tide will begin to go down.” So he said to his servant, Mink, “Run outside and see how far down the tide has gone.” Mink ran out and said, “It is just beginning to go down.” The next time he came in he said, “The tide is still farther down.” The third time he said, “The tide is lower yet. It has uncovered everything on the beach.” Then Raven said to the old woman, “Are you going to let the tide rise and fall again regularly through the months and years?” She answered “Yes.” Because Raven did this while he was making the world, nowadays, when a woman gets old and can not do much more work, there are spots all over her buttocks.

After the tide had gone down very far he and his servant went out. He said to Mink, “The thing that will be your food from now on is the sea urchin (nīsǃ). You will live on it.” The tide now goes up and down because he treated this woman so.

Now Raven started on from this place crying, “My wife, my wifeǃ” Coming to some trees, he saw a lot of gum on one of them and said to it, “Why! you are just like me. You are in the same state.” For he thought the tree was crying.

After this he got a canoe and began paddling along. By and by Petrel met him in another canoe. So he brought his canoe alongside and said, “Is this you, my brother-in-law? Where are you from?” He answered, “I am from over there.” Then Raven began to question him about the events in this world, asking him how long ago they happened, etc. He said, “When were you born? How long have you been living?” And Petrel answered, “I have been living ever since the great liver came up from under the earth. I have been living that long.” So said Petrel. “Why! that is but a few minutes ago,” said Raven. Then Petrel began to get angry and said to Raven, “When were you born?” “I was born before this world was known.” “That is just a little while back.”

They talked back and forth until they became very angry. Then Petrel pushed Raven’s canoe away from him and put on his hat called fog-hat (qog̣āˊsǃ sǃāx̣ᵘ) so that Raven could not see where he was. The world was round for him [in the fog]. At last he shouted, “My brother-in-law, Petrel, you are older than I am. You have lived longer than I.” Petrel also took water from the sea and sprinkled it in the air so that it fell through the fog as very fine rain. Said Raven, “Î, î.” He did not like it at all. After Petrel had fooled him for some time, he took off Fog-hat and found Raven close beside him, pulling about in all directions. Then Raven said to Petrel, “Brother-in-law, you better let that hat go into this world.” So he let it go. That is why we always know, when we see fog coming out of an open space in the woods and going right back again, that there will be good weather.

Leaving this place, Raven came to another where he saw something floating not far from shore, though it never came any nearer. He assembled all kinds of fowl. Toward evening he looked at the object and saw that it resembled fire. So he told a chicken hawk (kᴀǃkᵘ) which had a very long bill to fly out to it, saying, “Be very brave. If you get some of that fire, do not let go of it.” The chicken hawk reached the place, seized some fire and started back as fast as it could fly, but by the time it got the fire to Raven its bill was burned off. That is why its bill is short. Then Raven took some red cedar, and some white stones called nēqǃ which are found on the beach, and he put fire into them so that it could be found ever afterward all over the world.

After he had finished distributing the fire he started on again and came to a town where there were many people. He saw what looked like a large animal far off on the ocean with fowl all over the top of it. He wondered very much what it was and at last thought of a way of finding out. He said to one of his friends, “Go up and cut a cane for me.” Then he carved this cane so as to resemble two tentacles of a devil fish. He said, “No matter how far off a thing is, this cane will always reach it.”

Afterward he went to the middle of the town and said, “I am going to give a feast. My mother is dead, and I am going to beat the drums this evening. I want all of the people to come in and see me.” In the evening he assembled all of the people, and they began to beat drums. Then he held the cane in his hands and moved it around horizontally, testing it. He kept saying “Up, up, up.”[5] He said, “I have never given any feast for my mother, and it is time I did it, but I have nothing with which to give a feast. Therefore I made this cane, and I am going to give a feast for my mother with this wonderful thing.”

Then he got the people all down on the beach and extended his cane toward the mysterious object until it reached it. And he began to draw it in little by little, saying to the people, “Sing stronger all the time.”[6] When it struck land, a wave burst it open. It was an everlasting house, containing everything that was to be in the waters of the world. He told the people to carry up fish and they did so. If one had a canoe, he filled it; if he had a box, he filled that; and those that had canoes also boiled eulachon in them. Since then they have known how to boil them. With all of these things Raven gave the feast for his mother.

After this was over he thought up a plot against the killer whales and sent an invitation to them. Then he told each of his people to make a cane that would reach very much above his head. So, when the killer whales came in and inquired, “What do the people use those canes for that extend up over their heads?”, he replied, “They stick them down into their heads.” They asked him several times, and he replied each time in the same way. After a while one of the whales said, “Suppose we try it.” Raven was glad to hear that and said, “All right, we will try it with you people, but the people I have invited must not look when I put a cane into anyone’s head.” Then he went away and whittled a number of sticks until they were very sharp. After that he laid all of the killer whales on the beach at short distances apart, and again he told them not to look up while he was showing one how it was done. Then he took a hammer or maul and drove his sticks into the necks of these whales one after the other so that they died. But the last one happened to look up, saw what was being done, and jumped into the ocean.

[7][Now Raven and another person started to boil out the killer whales’ grease, and the other man had more than he. So Raven dreamed a dream which informed him that a lot of people were coming to fight with him, and, when such people really did make their appearance, he told his companion to run out. After he had done so, Raven quickly drank all the latter’s grease. By and by, however, the man returned, threw Raven into a grease box, and shut him in, and started to tie it up with a strong rope. Then Raven called out, “My brother, do not tie the box up very strongly. Tie it with a piece of straw such as our forefathers used to use.” The man did so, after which he took the box up on a high cliff and kicked it over. Then Raven, breaking the straw, flew out, crying “G̣ā.” When he got to the other side of the point, he alighted and began wiping himself.]

Next he came to a large whale blowing along out at sea, and noticed that every time it came up, its mouth was wide open. Then Raven took a knife and something with which to make fire. When the whale came up again he flew into its mouth and sat down at the farther end of its stomach. Near the place where he had entered he saw something that looked like an old woman. It was the whale’s uvula (ᴀnūˊtǃayî). When the whale came up, it made a big noise, the uvula went to one side and the herring and other fish it lived on poured right in. Then Raven began eating all these things that the whale had swallowed, and, presently, he made a fire to cook the fat of the whale itself that hung inside. Last of all he ate the heart. As soon as he cut out this, the whale threw itself about in the water and soon floated up dead. Raven felt this and said, “I wish it would float up on a good sandy beach.” After he had wished this many times, the whale began to drift along, and it finally floated ashore on a long sandy beach.

After a while some young fellows who were always shooting about in this neighborhood with their bows and arrows, heard a voice on the beach say, “I wonder who will make a hole on the top so that he can be my friend.” The boys ran home to the town and reported, “We heard a queer noise. Something floated ashore not far from this place, and a person inside said, ‘I wish that somebody would make a hole above me so that he can be my friend.’” Then the people assembled around the whale and heard Raven’s words very clearly. They began to cut a hole just over the place these came from and presently they heard some one inside say, “Xōnēˊ-ē.” When the hole was large enough, Raven flew straight up out of it until he was lost to sight. And they said to him, “Fly to any place where you would like to go.” After that they cut the whale up and in course of time came to the spot where Raven had lighted his fire to make oil.

Meanwhile Raven flew back of their camp to a large dead tree that had crumbled into fine pieces and began rubbing on it to dry himself. When he thought that the people were through making oil, he dressed himself up well and repaired to the town. There he said to the people, “Was anything heard in that tcǃān (his word for whale)?” and one answered, “Yes, a queer noise was heard inside of the whale.” “I wonder what it was,” said Raven.

After their food was all prepared Raven said to the people, “Long ago, when a sound was heard inside of a tcǃān, all the people moved out of their town so as not to be killed. All who remained were destroyed. So you better move from this town.” Then all of the people said, “All of us better move from this town rather than be destroyed.” So they went off leaving all of their things, and Raven promptly took possession of them.

Raven once went to a certain place outside of here (Sitka) in his canoe. It was calm there, but he began rocking the canoe up and down with his feet until he had made a great many waves. Therefore there are many waves there now even when it is calm outside, and a canoe going in thither always gets lost.

By and by Raven came to a sea gull standing at the mouth of a creek and said to it, “What are you sitting in this way for? How do you call your new month?” “Yᴀdāqǃoˊł,”[8] replied the sea gull. Raven was questioning him in this way because he saw many herring out at sea. So he said, “I don’t believe at all what you say. Fly out and see if you can bring in a herring.” This is why, until the present time, people have differed in their opinions concerning the months and have disputed with one another.

After they had quarreled over it for a long time, the gull became angry, flew out to sea, and brought back a big herring. He lighted near Raven and laid the herring beside him, but, when Raven tried to get it, he gulped it down. In another direction from the sea gull Raven saw a large heron and went over to it. He said to the heron, “Sea gull is calling you Big-long-legs-always-walking-upon-the-beach.” Then, although the heron did not reply, he went back to the sea gull and said, “Do you know what that heron is saying about you? He says that you have a big stomach and get your red eyes by sitting on the beach always looking out on the ocean for something to eat.” Then he went back to the heron and said to it, “When I meet a man of my own size, I always kick him just below the stomach. That fellow is talking too much about you. Go over, and I will help you thrash him.” So the heron went over toward the sea gull, and, when he came close to it, Raven said, “Kick him just under his stomach.” He did so, and the big herring came out. Then Raven swallowed it quickly saying, “Just for the Raven.”

Going on again, Raven came to a canoe in which were some people lying asleep along with a big salmon which he took away. When the people awoke, they saw the trail where he had dragged it off, and they followed him. They found him lying asleep by the fire after having eaten the salmon. Seeing his gizzard hanging out at his buttocks, they twisted it off, ran home with it and used it as a shinny ball; this is why no human being now has a gizzard.

The people knew it was Raven’s gizzard, so they liked to show it about, and they knocked it around so much that it grew large by the accumulation of sand. But Raven did not like losing his gizzard. He was cold without it and had to get close to the fire. When he came to the place where they were playing with it, he said, “Let it come this way.” No sooner had they gotten it near him, however, than they knocked it away again. After a while it reached him, and he seized it and ran off, with all the boys after him. As he ran he washed it in water and tried to fit it back in place. It was too hot from much knocking about, and he had to remove it again. He washed it again but did not get all of the sand off. That is why the raven’s gizzard is big and looks as if it had not been washed.

Next Raven came to a town where lived a man called Fog (or Cloud)-on-the-Salmon (Xāˊtkᴀ-kog̣āˊsǃî). He wanted to marry this man’s daughter because he always had plenty of salmon. He had charge of that place. So he married her, and they dried quantities of salmon, after which they filled many animal stomachs with salmon eggs. Then he loaded his canoe and started home. He put all of the fish eggs into the bow. On the way it became stormy, and they could not make much headway, so he became tired and threw his paddles into the bow, exclaiming to his wife, “Now you paddleǃ” Then the salmon eggs shouted out, “It is very hard to be in stomachs. Hand the paddles here and let me pull.” So the salmon eggs did, and, when they reached home, Raven took all of them and dumped them overboard. But the dried salmon he carried up. That is why people now use dried salmon and do not care much for salmon eggs.

Journeying on, Raven came to a seal sitting on the edge of a rock, and he wanted to get it, but the seal jumped into the ocean. Then he said, “Yâkǃōctǃᴀˊʟǃ,” because he was so sorry about it. Farther on he came to a town and went behind it to watch. After a while a man came out, took a little club from a certain place where he kept it in concealment, and said to it, “My little club, do you see that seal out there? Go and get it.” So it went out and brought the little seal ashore. The club was hanging to its neck. Then the man took it up and said, “My little club, you have done well,” after which he put it back in its place and returned to the town. Raven saw where it was kept, but first he went to the town and spoke kindly to the owner of it. In the night, however, when every one was asleep, he went back to the club, carried it behind a point and said to it, “See here, my little club, you see that seal out in the water. Go and get it.” But the club would not go because it did not know him. After he had tried to get it to go for some time, he became angry and said to it, “Little club, don’t you see that seal out there?” He kept striking it against a rock until he broke it in pieces.

Coming to a large bay, Raven talked to it in order to make it into Nass (i. e., he wanted to make it just like the Nass), but, when the tide was out great numbers of clams on the flats made so much noise shooting up at him that his voice was drowned, and he could not succeed. He tried to put all kinds of berries there but in vain. After many attempts, he gave it up and went away saying, “I tried to make you into Nass, but you would not let me. So you can be called Skᴀnᴀˊx” (the name of a place to the southward of Sitka).

Two brothers started to cross the Stikine river, but Raven saw them and said, “Be stones there.” So they became stones.[9]

Starting on, he came to the ground-hog people on the mainland. His mother had died some time before this, and, as he had no provisions with which to give a feast, he came to the ground hogs to get some. The ground-hog people know when slides descend from the mountains, and they know that spring is then near at hand, so they throw all of their winter food out of their burrows. Raven wanted them to do this, so he said, “There is going to be a world snow slide.” But the ground-hog chief answered, “Well! nobody in this town knows about it.” Toward spring, however, the slide really took place, and the ground hogs then threw all of their green herbs, roots, etc., outside to him.

[Postea corvus in litus descendit cum quidam eum certiorem faceret de quattuor mulieribus, quae essent in insula, maturitatem adipiscentes. Deinde conatus est muliebria genitalia conficere e cortice lini arboris, et cum adveniret mediam in viam, quae in insulam perducebat, simile nomine eam nuncupavit; sed res male processerunt. Cortex edidit vocem argutam at ille, ira incensus, in undas eum proiecit. Eodem modo tentavit tabaci folia et alias res, sed inutile erat. Postremo processit in insulam, cui nomen erat muliebribus genitalibus (G̣ânqǃāˊtê). Eius comes vir quidem nomine Ignavus (Qǃᴀtxāˊn) erat. Corvus autem aiebat ignavo, “Etiam si aliquid minime pavorem tibi iniicit, percute scapham.” Mox ignavus scapham quassabat atque exclamavit, “Iam luna adest.” Paene corvum in undas proiecit, qui, etsi ipse hortatus cum erat ut id faceret, aegre tulit. Corvus omnia genitalia, quae in insula erant, colligens, complevit scapham. Disponens ea locis in aequis, praeparvit dare propter ea convivium escis porci.]

After this he said to the people, “Make ear pendants because I am going to invite the whole world.” He was going to invite everyone because he had heard that the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt had a Chilkat blanket and a hat, and he wanted to see them. First he invited the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt and afterwards the other chiefs of all the tribes in the world. At the appointed time they began to come in. When the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt came in he had on his hat with many crowns and his blanket but was surrounded by a fog. Inside of the house, however, he appeared in his true form. It is from this feast of Raven’s that people now like to attend feasts. It is also from this that, when a man is going to have a feast, he has a many-crowned hat carved on top of the dead man’s grave post (kūtīˊyᴀ).

Raven made a woman under the earth to have charge of the rise and fall of the tides.[10] One time he wanted to learn about everything under the ocean and had this woman raise the water so that he could go there. He had it rise very slowly so that the people had time to load their canoes and get into them. When the tide had lifted them up between the mountains they could see bears and other wild animals walking around on the still unsubmerged tops. Many of the bears swam out to them, and at that time those who had their dogs had good protection. Some people walled the tops of the mountains about and tied their canoes inside. They could not take much wood up with them. Sometimes hunters see the rocks they piled up there, and at such times it begins to grow foggy. That was a very dangerous time. The people who survived could see trees swept up roots and all by the rush of waters, and large devilfish and other creatures were carried up by it.

When the tide began to fall, all the people followed it down, but the trees were gone and they had nothing to use as firewood, so they were destroyed by the cold. When Raven came back from under the earth, if he saw a fish left on top of a mountain or in a creek, he said, “Stay right there and become a stone.” So it became a stone. If he saw any person coming down, he would say, “Turn to a stone just where you are,” and it did so.

After that the sea went down so far that it was dry everywhere. Then Raven went about picking up the smallest fish, as bull heads and tom cod, which he strung on a stick, while a friend who was with him at this time, named Cᴀkǃᴀˊkᵘ,[11] took large creatures like whales. With the grease he boiled out, Cᴀkǃᴀˊkᵘ filled an entire house, while Raven filled only a small bladder.

Raven stayed with Cᴀkǃᴀˊkᵘ and one night had a dream. He said to his friend, “I dreamed that a great enemy came and attacked us.” Then he had all the fowls assemble and come to fight, so that his dream might be fulfilled. As soon as Raven had told his dream, Cᴀkǃᴀˊkᵘ went down and saw the birds. Then Raven went into the house and began drinking up his grease. But the man came back, saw what Raven was doing, and threw him into a grease box, which he started to tie up with a strong rope. Raven, however, called out, “My brother, do not tie me up with a strong rope, but take a straw such as our forefathers used to employ.” He did so. Then Raven drank up all the grease in the box, and, when the man took him up on a high cliff and kicked him off, he came out easily and flew away crying “G̣ā.”

One time Raven assembled all the birds in preparation for a feast and had the bears in the rear of his house as guests. All the birds had canes and helped him sing. As he sang along Raven would say quietly, “Do you think one of you could fly into the anus of a bear?” Then he would start another song and end it by saying in much the same language, “One of you ought to fly up into that hole” (i. e., anus). He kept taunting the birds with their inability to do this, so, when the bears started out, the wren (wuˊłnᴀxwūˊckᴀq, “bird-that-can-go-through-a-hole”) flew up into the anus of one of them and came out with his intestines. Before it had pulled them far out the bear fell dead. Then Raven chased all of the small birds away, sat down, and began eating.

Raven never got full because he had eaten the black spots off of his own toes. He learned about this after having inquired everywhere for some way of bringing such a state about. Then he wandered through all the world in search of things to eat.

After all the human beings had been destroyed Raven made new ones out of leaves. Because he made this new generation, people know that he must have changed all of the first people who had survived the flood, into stones. Since human beings were made from leaves people always die off rapidly in the fall of the year when flowers and leaves are falling.

At the time when he made this world, Raven made a devilfish digging-stick and went around to all created things (shellfish apparently) saying, “Are you going to hurt human beings? Say now either yes or no.” Those that said “No” he passed by; those that said “Yes” he rooted up. He said to the people, “When the tide goes out, your food will be there. When the tide comes in, your food will be in the woods,” indicating bear and other forest animals.

In Raven’s time the butts of ferns (kǃwᴀłx) were already cooked, but, after some women had brought several of these in, Raven broke a stick over the fern roots. Therefore they became green like this stick. He also broke the roots up into many layers one above another.

Devilfish were very fat then, and the people used to make grease out of them, but, when Raven came to a place where they were making he said, “Give me a piece of that hard thing.” That is why its fatness left it.

[Corvus appellavit saxum, quod erat tectum algis, “Pudenda, ubi crescunt crines.” Nepotes patris eius rogaverunt, “Esne capillatus?” Et ille respondit, “Sane, pudenda mea pilis vestita sunt.” At modo habebat in mente copias algarum, quae protegebant saxum in quo sedebat.]

One time Raven invited all the tribes of little people and laid down bear skins for them to sit on. After they had come in and reached the bear skins, they shouted to one another, “Here is a swampy, open space.” That was the name they gave to those places on the skins from which the hair had fallen out. By and by Raven seized the bear skins and shook them over the fire, when all the little people flew into the eyes of the human beings. He said, “You shall be pupils in people’s eyes,” and ever since human beings have had them.

Now he went on from this place and camped by himself. There he saw a large sculpin trying to get ashore below him, and he said to it, “My uncle’s son, come ashore here. Come way up. One time, when you and I were going along in our uncle’s canoe we fell into the water. So come up a little farther.” Raven was very hungry, and, when the sculpin came ashore, he seized it by its big, broad tail intending to eat it. But it slipped through his fingers. This happened many times, and each time the sculpin’s tail became smaller. That is why it is so slender to-day. Then Raven said to it, “From now on you shall be named sculpin (wēqǃ).”

Raven had a blanket which kept blowing out from him, so he threw it into the water and let it float away. Then he obtained a wife, and, as he was traveling along with her, he said, “There is going to be a great southwest wind. We better stop here for a little while. I expect my blanket ashore here.” After a while it came in. Then his wife said to him, “Take your blanket ashore and throw it on some branches.” He did so and it became Rebis bracteosum (Tlingit, cāx). When they went on farther the sea became so rough that his wife was frightened, and told him to put ashore some of the fat with which his canoe was loaded. He did this, but was so angry with his wife for having asked him, that he said to her, “You better put ashore your sewing basket,” and so she did.[12]

Then he left his wife and went along by himself. He assembled very many young birds, and, when he camped told them to go after cātǃkǃ, the term he at that time applied to drinking water.

Afterwards he came to a certain place and started to make a salmon creek. He said, “This woman shall be at the head of this creek.” The woman he spoke of had long teats, so he called her Woman-with-long-teats-floating-around (Hīn-cᴀkxēˊnaỵî), saying, “When the salmon come to the creeks, they shall all go up to see her.” That is why salmon run up the creeks.

After this he went into the woods and set out to make the porcupine. For quills he took pieces of yellow cedar bark, which he set all the way up and down its back so that bears would be afraid of it. This is why bears never eat porcupines. He said to the porcupine, “Whenever anyone comes near you, throw your tail about.” This is why people are afraid of it when it does so.

Now Raven went off to a certain place and made the west wind, naming it Qǃāxōˊ. He said to it, “You shall be my son’s daughter. No matter how hard you blow you shall hurt nobody.”

He took up a piece of red salmon and said to it, “If anyone is not strong enough to paddle home he shall take up this fish and blow behind him.”

Raven is a grandchild of the mouse (kułēˊłtᴀǃnî). That is why a mouse can never get enough to eat.

Raven also made the south wind (sāˊnaxet). When the south wind climbs on top of a rock it never ceases to blow.

He made the north wind (x̣ūn), and on top of a mountain he made a house for it with something like ice hanging down on the sides. Then he went in and said to it, “Your buttocks are white.” This is why the mountains are white with snow.

He made all the different races, as the Haida and the Tsimshian. They are human beings like the Tlingit, but he made their languages different.

He also made the dog. It was at first a human being and did everything Raven wanted done, but he was too quick with everything, so Raven took him by the neck and pushed him down, saying, “You are nothing but a dog. You shall have four legs.”

One time Raven came to a certain thing called fat-on-the-sea (ỵīkᴀtāỵîˊ), which stuck out of the ocean. He kept saying to it, “Get down a little,” so it kept going under the surface. But every time it came up he took his paddle and cut part off. It did this seven times, but, when he spoke to it the eighth time, it went down out of sight, and he never saw it again.

As he was traveling along in another place, a wild celery came out, became angry with Raven, and said, “You are always wandering around for things to eat.” Then he named it wild celery (yāˊnaet) and said to it, “You shall stay there, and people shall eat you.”

Once he passed a large tree and saw something up in it called cᴀxdᴀˊq. Raven called out “Cᴀxdᴀˊq,” and it shouted back, “You Raven.” They called back and forth to each other for some time.

[Advenit in alium locum et alligavit aliquid circum caput ostrei, quod protrudebat ex arena. Appellavit idem ʟdas-qēˊt (viri pudenda).]

SUPPLEMENTARY TO STORY 1

Near a bay not far from Kōtsǃēˊʟǃ there used to be a sea-water pond in which lived a beaver. Raven very much wanted to get at this beaver and kill it, so he dug two trenches in order to drain the lake at low tide. After the water had run out through them, and the beaver had become visible at the bottom, he let down a kind of hook and pulled it up.

Raven had tried every sort of thing as a post under this earth. Last of all he caught this beaver and made the post out of the bone of its foreleg [which is very solid]. That is why the world is now standing. Old-woman-underneath (Haỵicāˊnakǃᵘ) attends to this post, but, when she is hungry, the earth shakes. Then people put grease into the fire and it goes to her.

After he had killed the beaver Raven killed also a big whale and got his people to tow it to the place where the beaver had formerly lived. He got four large canoes full of people to tow it up the rapids in one of the canals he had then made. After they had labored for many days, they became tired, and he said to them, “Take it easy.” Finally he himself became tired and said, “Turn into stone.” All did so, and to this day you can see a large island there shaped like a whale and a string of four smaller islands extending out from one end of it.

Raven named several places in this neighborhood. One was Qāgᵘᴀntoqaˊ, (A-hidden-person); another Tsētkǃ (Little Ladder). He named an island outside, Łatǃᴀˊn. Still another was called Łᴀqoˊx̣ᴀsǃ, after the name of a small canoe, because one of these was passing at the time.

Between two mountain peaks just eastward of Sitka is a hollow filled with trees supposed to resemble boys, so the place is called Kǃêsāˊnî-āˊỵaodihaỵiỵa, Where-is-a-big-crowd-of-boys. Raven appointed this as the place from which the sun would turn back north. A point on the coast just north of Sitka was called by him Kǃoˊłacᴀtqǃaˊ, Point-holding-things-back, because when a canoe passes it coming toward Sitka it can not go fast (i. e., it does not seem to get by this rapidly). Just north of this is a kind of bay which Raven called Kᴀˊdᴀłᴀtc-x̣ᴀkᵘ, Noisy-beach.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Cf. story 31.

[2] Perhaps the anal opening.

[3] See Twenty-sixth Annual Report of Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 455.

[4] Perhaps Mount St Elias.

[5] A song goes with this.

[6] A song goes with this also.

[7] This paragraph is perhaps misplaced, the incident being confounded with another on page 17.

[8] This name does not occur in the list given by this same man (Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 426.) He said it was the eighth month and according to his list the eighth month is March, which he calls Hīn taˊnᴀx kayāˊnî dīˊsî, “Month when things under the sea begin to grow.”

[9] Possibly the heroes of story 3. See also story 31.

[10] This appears to be retrospective. Cf. p. 9.

[11] Said to be a kind of bird. Kǃᴀkᵘ alone would mean “chicken hawk.”

[12] This is evidently told to account for certain peculiarly shaped rocks.

2. THE BIG CLAM

At the farther end of Tenakee inlet (Tǃīˊnag̣e) is a little bay called Where-sweetness-killed-a-person (Gᴀtłqōˊwag̣eya). One summer there were many people encamped there drying salmon, and among them many lively young people. One day some girls took a canoe and crossed the bay to a strawberry patch on the other side. Afterwards a man named Tsǃēʟǃ went down into the water to wade over to them but was swallowed by a halibut. So they named the place Kotsǃēˊʟǃ after this man.

Near this inlet is a high cliff in front of which a big clam formerly lived. It used to stick its head (lit. penis) high up out of the water. It always had its valves open, and if a canoe passed that way, it would close them on it (lit. shut its mouth on it), and the canoe was gone.

Raven heard of this clam, and he instructed a little mink to call to it, “Stick out your head and let us see you,” (īłiˊł-ᴀnᴀxdāˊx tsǃᴀg̣āˊx dustīˊn), while the people stood ready above with sharpened sticks. But, instead of speaking as it was told, the mink said, “Raven made clam” (Yēł djeˊaosîniỵî g̣āʟǃ). Finally the mink said plainly as he had been directed, “Stick your head out of the water and let us see you,” and it began to put out its head. He said, “A little more.” When it was well out, all the people seized their sticks and plunged them into it, cutting the ligament which held the valves together so that they sprang apart. Then the whole bay began to smell badly from it. On the rock slide back of the place where this clans used to run out its head all sorts of things now grow. It is called Clam-slide (Yēs-kādêˊ).

3. ENGLISH VERSION OF THE STORY OF THE FOUR BROTHERS[13]

There were four brothers who owned a dog of an Athapascan variety called dzī.[14] They had one sister. One day the dog began barking at something. Then Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ, the eldest brother, put red paint inside of his blanket, took his rattle, and followed. The other brothers went with him. They pursued it up, up, up, into the sky. The dog kept on barking, and they did not know what it was going to do. It was chasing a cloud.

When they got to the other side of the world they came out on the edge of a very steep cliff. They did not know what to do. The dog, however, went right down the cliff, and they saw the cloud still going on ahead. Now these brothers had had nothing to eat and were very hungry. Presently they saw the dog coming up from far below bringing the tail of a salmon. After a while they saw it run back.

Then they said to one another, “What shall we do? We might as well go down also.” But, when Łqǃayāˊkǃ, the youngest brother, started he was smashed in pieces. The two next fared in the same way. Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ, however, braced his stick against the wall behind him and reached the bottom in safety. Then he put the bones of each of his brothers together, rubbed red paint on them, and shook his rattle over them, and they came to life.

Starting on again around this world, they came to a creek full of salmon. This was where the dog had been before. When they got down to it they saw a man coming up the creek. He was a large man with but one leg and had a kind of spear in his hand with which he was spearing all the salmon. They watched him from between the limbs of a large, dead tree. When he got through hooking the salmon, he put all on two strings, one of which hung out of each corner of his mouth. Then he carried them down.

Then Łqǃayāˊkǃ said to his brothers, “Let us devise some plan for getting the salmon spear.” So he seized a salmon, brought it ashore and skinned it. First Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ tried to get inside of it but failed. When Łqǃayāˊkǃ made the attempt, however, he swam off at once, and, if one of his brothers came near him, he swam away. Then the other brothers sat up in the dead tree, Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ at the top.

When the big man came up again after salmon, Łqǃayāˊkǃ swam close up to him, and he said, “Oh! my salmon. It is a fine salmon.” But, when he made a motion toward it with his spear, it swam back into deep water. Finally it swam up close, and the big man speared it easily. Then Łqǃayāˊkǃ went to the tail of the fish, cut the string which fastened the big man’s spear point to the shaft and swam off with the point. Upon this the big man pulled his shaft up, looked at it and said, “My spear is gone.” Then he went downstream. In the meantime Łqǃayāˊkǃ came ashore, got out of the fish, came up to his usual station on the lowest limb of the tree, and sat down there. They had him sit below because he talked so much, and because he was the most precipitate.

That night the one-legged man did not sleep at all on account of his lost spear. He was using it in working for the bear people. When he came up next morning he had a quill in his hands which would tell him things. He took this about among the trees, and, when he came to that on which the brothers were sitting, it bent straight down. Then he cried, “Bring my spear this way.” Although he saw no one, he knew that there were people there who had it. Then he came to the bottom of the tree, seized Łqǃayāˊkǃ and tore him in pieces. So he served the next two brothers. But Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ had his dog, which he was able to make small, concealed under his coat and, after his brothers were torn up, he let it go, and it tore the big man all to pieces. Because he had his red paint, rattle, and dog he cared for nothing. Now he put the red paint on his brothers’ bodies and shook the rattle over them so that they came to life.

Next morning they got into the same tree again. Then they saw a man with two heads placed one over another coming up the stream. It was the bear chief. He hooked a great many salmon and put them on pieces of string on each side of his mouth. Next evening a little old man came up. Łqǃayāˊkǃ came down and asked, “What are you doing here?” He said, “I have come up after salmon.” But he could hook none at all, so Łqǃayāˊkǃ caught a lot for him. Then Łqǃayāˊkǃ asked him: “What does that double-head that came up here do?” The old man said, “I will tell you about it.” So they said to him: “Now we want you to tell the truth about this? What does he really do when he gets home with his salmon? We will get you more salmon if you tell us truly.” And the old man answered: “When he gets home with a load of salmon, he leaves it down by the river. Then he takes off his skin coat and hangs it up.” This is what he told them.

The next time the two heads came up and began to throw salmon ashore, it said all at once, “I feel people’s looks.”[15] As soon as he came opposite the place where they were sitting, Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ threw his dog right upon him. It caught this big bear by the neck and killed him. Every time thereafter, when the little old man came up, they questioned him about the people in the place he came from.

At last they caught a lot of salmon and prepared to descend. Then Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ put on the bear skin, placed his brothers under his arms inside of it, took strings of salmon as the bear had done, and started on. When he came in front of the houses he acted just like the two-headed man. First he entered the two-headed man’s house and shook his skin, whereupon his brothers and the dog passed behind the screens in the rear of the house and hid themselves. After that he began fixing his salmon, and, when he was through, took off his coat and hung it up in the manner that had been described to him.

Toward evening a great deal of noise was heard outside, made over some object. Łqǃayāˊkǃ very much wanted to go out and look, but they tried to prevent him. Finally he did go out and began to play with the object, whereupon the players rolled it on him and cut him in two. After that the two brothers next older went out and were cut in two in the same manner. After this Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ sent his dog out. He seized the object, shook it and made it fly to the tops of the mountains, where it made the curved shapes the mountains have to-day. Then it rolled right back again. When it rolled back, the dog became very angry, seized it a second time, shook it hard, and threw it so high that it went clear around the sun. It made the halo of light seen there. Then Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ took his brothers’ bodies, pieced them together, put red paint upon them and shook his rattle over them. They came to life again. Then he took the dog, made it small, and put it under his arm; and they started off. Since that time people have had the kind of spear (dīnaˊ) above referred to. The brothers started on with it, and, whenever they were hungry, they got food with it. They always kept together.

After a while they came across some Athapascan Indians called Worm-eating people (Wūn-xa qoan). These were so named because, when they killed game, they let worms feed upon it, and, when the worms had become big enough, they ate them through holes in the middle of their foreheads which served them as mouths. Łqǃayāˊkǃ wanted to be among these Athapascans, because they had bows and arrows and wore quills attached to their hair. They used their bows and arrows to shoot caribou, and, when they were pursuing this animal, they used to eat snow.

After Łqǃayāˊkǃ had obtained his bow and arrows they came out at a certain place, probably the Stikine river, and stayed among some people who were whipping one another for strength, in the sea. Every morning they went into the water with them.

At that time they thought that Łqǃayāˊkǃ was going with his sister, and they put some spruce gum around the place where she slept. Then they found the spruce gum on him and called him all sorts of names when they came from bathing. They called him Messenger-with-pitch-on-his-thigh (Naqāˊnî qǃᴀcgūˊqǃo), the messenger being a brother-in-law of the people of the clan giving a feast. They named him so because they were very much ashamed. This is why people have ever since been very watchful about their sisters. Because he had been fooling with his sister, when Łqǃayāˊkǃ went out, his brothers said to him, “You do not behave yourself. Go somewhere else. You can be a thunder (hēʟǃ).” They said to him, “Hāˊagun kādîˊ.”[16]

This is why, when thunder is heard, people always say, “You gummy thigh.” It is because Łqǃayāˊkǃ became a thunder. Their sister was ashamed. She went down into Mount Edgecumbe (ʟǃux̣) through the crater.

Because the thunder is a man, when the thunder is heard far out at sea, people blow up into the air through their hands and say, “Let it drive the sickness away,” or “Let it go far northward.” The other brothers started across the Stikine and became rocks there.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] This story was told by Dekināˊkǃᵘ. According to some, the story begins with the birth of five children from a dog father. See stories 97 and 31 (pp. 99–106).

[14] Łᴀkîtcᴀneˊ, the father of these boys, is said to have lived near the site of the Presbyterian school at Sitka and to have used the “blarney stone,” so called, as a grindstone.

[15] Meaning “I feel that people’s looks are on me.”

[16] It is said that no one knows what these words mean.

4. ORIGIN OF THE KILLER WHALE[17]

A man named Nātsᴀłᴀneˊ, belonging to the Tsagueˊdî (Seal people), made killer whales. He first tried to carve them out of red cedar, then out of hemlock, then out of all other kinds of wood in succession. He took each set of figures to the beach and tried to make them swim out, but instead they floated up on the surface. Last of all he tried yellow cedar, and was successful.

He made these of different sorts. On one he marked white lines with Indian chalk from the corners of its mouth back to its head. He said, “This is going to be the white-mouthed killer whale.” When he first put them into the water he headed them up the inlet, telling them that whenever they went up to the heads of the bays they were to hunt for seal, halibut, and all other things under the sea; but he told them not to hurt a human being. When you are going up the bay, people will say to you, “Give us something to eat.” Before this people did not know what the killer whale is.

* * * * *

Another thing people did not know was that the killer whale could go ashore and camp. One time a man married a high-caste woman and went up to the head of a certain bay with her, because he knew that the killer whales always went there. On the way they saw a camp fire blazing upon the shore. There were killer whales encamped here, but he thought they were human beings and landed to see them. When they got close in, he jumped into the water to urinate. All at once the killer-whale chief said, “I feel people’s looks. Go outside and look on the beach.” But, when they saw him urinating, they started off, leaving their camp just as it was, jumped into the water, and swam away.

Then he went up to the camp with his wife, and they saw all kinds of food there. His wife said, “It is lucky that we came across this;” and after a while the man said, “Let us cook some, my wife.” Then the woman took her cooking basket and put some water into it. Presently she said, “Way out there is a canoe coming.” It was a black canoe. She said, “We better leave this alone until the canoe comes so that we can invite them to eat with us.” Her husband said, “All right.” By and by his wife said, “What is the matter? To my eyes it does not appear like a canoe. It is too black.” It was really a young killer whale, under which the other killer whales were swimming to make it appear like a canoe. When the supposed canoe reached land, the whales rushed ashore, seized the woman, who had concealed herself behind her husband, and carried her down to the sea. They took her away because her husband had taken their provisions. This time, when the killer whales rose again, instead of appearing like only one canoe, they came up out of the water thick everywhere and began to swim down the bay very fast. Meanwhile the husband went down to his canoe, got in, and paddled after them along the shore. But, when they came to a high cliff where the water went down deep, all the whales suddenly dived out of sight.

Now the man climbed to the top of this cliff, fastened a bough to his head and another slim spruce bough around his waist, filled the space inside of his shirt with rocks, and jumped into the ocean at the spot where his wife had disappeared, falling upon a smooth, mossy place on the bottom. When he awoke, he arose, looked about, and saw a long town near by. He entered the last house, which proved to belong to the chief of the shark people.

In this house he saw a man with a crooked mouth peeping out at him from behind a post. A long time before, when he had been fishing, a shark had cut his line and carried off the hook, and it was this hook that now peeped out at him. It said, “Master, it is I. When your line broke, they took me down here and have made me a slave.”

Then he said to the shark chief, “Is there any news in this town?” and he replied, “Nothing especial in our town, but right across from us is the killer-whales’ town, and recently we heard that a woman had been captured there and is now married to the killer-whale chief.” Then the shark chief continued: “The killer-whale chief has a slave who is always chopping wood back in the forest with a stone ax. When you come to him, say within yourself, ‘I wish your stone ax would break.’ Wish it continually.” So the shark instructed him.

Then he went over to the killer-whale town, and, when the slave’s ax did break, he went up to him and said, “I will help you to fix that stone ax if you will tell me where my wife is.” So he began to fix it in place for him. It was the only stone ax in the killer-whale tribe. Then the slave said, “I always bring wood down and make a fire in the evening, after which my master sends me for water. When you see me going after water, come to the door and wait there for me. As soon as I come in I am going to push over the fire. At the same time I am going to empty the water into it so as to make a quantity of steam. Then rush in and carry out your wife.”

The man followed these directions and started away with his wife. Then his halibut hook shouted, “This way, my master, this way.” So he ran toward the shark people’s town, and they pursued him. Now the killer whales attacked the shark people because they said that the sharks had instructed him what to do, and they killed many sharks.

In return the sharks began to make themselves strong. They were going out again to fight the killer whales. They went to some rocks and began sharpening their teeth. Then they began the battle, and whenever the killer whales approached, the sharks would run against their bellies and rip them open, letting out their entrails. The whole bay was full of killer whales and sharks. What happened to the woman is not told.

* * * * *

When the killer-whale tribe start north the seals say, “Here comes another battle. Here come the warriors.” They say this because the killer whales are always after seals. Killer whales are of different kinds, and the one that always swims ahead is the red killer whale, called “killer-whale-spear” (Kīt-wusāˊnî). It was so named by the man who made these animals because he shaped it long and slender. The Tsagueˊdî, to which this man belonged, are a branch of the Dᴀqʟǃaweˊdî; therefore the Dᴀqʟǃaweˊdî are the only people who make the killer whale their emblem.[18]

On their way to us the first killer whales came into a bay called Kotsǃēˊʟǃ, after Tsǃēʟǃ, the first man who came to that bay. They encamped at its head and the day after began digging into the cliff. The land there is not very high, so they were soon through, laid skids down, and carried their canoes across. Some people watched them. The killer whales always used to cross at the place where they laid down these skids, and now people cross there. It is called Killer-whale-crossing place (Kītgūˊnî), but is now overgrown with trees and underbrush.

[This place is said to be on the north arm of Tenakee bay, where a canal has been projected to enable boats to reach Huna more easily.]

FOOTNOTES:

[17] See stories 59 and 71.

[18] The Wūˊckitan must, however, be added.

5. KAKAˊ[19]

When Kᴀkaˊ was taken south, either to Cape Ommaney or farther, a woman came to him and said, “I am in the same fix as you. We are both saved[20] by the land otters.” That is how he found out what had happened to him. The woman also said, “I am your friend, and I have two land-otter husbands who will take you to your home.” Then she called him to her and began to look over his hair. Finally she said, “Your wife has put the sinew from a land-otter’s tail through your ear. That is what has caused you to become a land otter.”

Then they took down what looked to him like a canoe, but really it was a skate. The skate is the land-otter’s canoe. When they set out, they put him into the canoe, laid a woven mat over him and said, “You must not look up again.” He did look up, however, after a time and found himself tangled among the kelp stems. These land otters were going to become his spirits.

On their journey they started to cross a bay called Kēn to an island called Tēłnuˊ, and, as daylight was coming on, they began to be afraid that the raven would call and kill them before they reached the other side. It was almost daylight when they came to land, so they ran off at once among the bushes and rocks, leaving Kᴀkaˊ to pull up the canoe. This was hard work, and while he was at it the skin was all worn from his lower arm, so he knew that it was a skate.

Some people traveling in a canoe saw his shadow there and tried hard to make him out clearly, but in vain. They did not want to have him turn into a land otter, so they said, “Kᴀkaˊ, you have already turned into a ground hog.”

By and by one of his friends heard him singing in the midst of a thick fog at a place near the southern end of Baranoff island on the outside. Each time he ended his song with the words, “Let the log drift landward with me.” Then it would drift shoreward with him. Meanwhile he was lying on the log head down with blood running out of his nose and mouth and all kinds of sea birds were feeding on him. It was his spirits that made him that way. The real land otters had left him, but they had come to him again as spirits.

Now the people sang a song on shore that could be heard where Kᴀkaˊ was floating, but, although they heard the noise of a shaman’s beating sticks, they could not get at him. Then the friend who had first found him went ashore and fasted two days, after which he went out and saw Kᴀkaˊ lying on his back on the log. He was as well as when he had left Sitka. Then his friend brought him ashore, but the land-otter spirits remained with him, and he became a great shaman.

FOOTNOTES:

[19] See story 31, pp. 87–88.

[20] So interpreters persist in speaking of the capture of a human being by anthropomorphic animals or other supernatural beings.

6. THE LAND-OTTER SISTER[21]

A man set out from Sitka to a certain camp with his children in order to dry halibut, for in those days that was how they had to get their food. It was spring time. Then, too, they had stone axes and used small half baskets for pots in which to do cooking. His wife and children spent all of their time digging clams, cockles, and other shellfish down on the beach and in laying them aside for future use. The man, meantime, was hewing out a canoe with his stone ax. They had a hard time, for they had nothing to live on except the things picked up at low tide.

Many years before this man’s sister had been drowned, but so long a time had passed that he had forgotten her. She, however, had been taken by the land otters and was married among them, having many children. From around a neighboring point she was watching him. Her children were all working to collect a quantity of food.

After this the woman’s husband told her to take a lot of food to her brother. All the land-otter-people are called “Point people” (Qǃātkwedîˊ); they have plenty of halibut, seal, etc. So she began packing these things up to take them to her brother. In front of his dwelling house her brother had a house made of branches, and one evening he heard someone come in front of his house and seem to lay down a heavy pack there. Then the person said, “The place where you are stopping is wonderfully far from us.” He went out and saw a woman but did not know who she was because her arms were grown to her breast and her mouth was thrown open with her upper lip drawn up under her nose. But the woman could see how he felt, so she said to him, “It is I. I am your sister who lives a short distance away around this point.” Then she brought the basket into her brother’s house and said to him, “Take the things out of the basket, for I have to return before the raven calls.”

Next evening she came back with another full basket. This time she said, “You have three nephews who will come over and help you get halibut and other things.” So the little otters came to their uncle. From their waist up they looked like human beings; below they were otters, and they had tails. Their mother came with them and began to take her brother’s children on her lap saying, “Little tail (ʟǃīt kǃᴀtskǃuˊ), little tail growing down.” As she sang tails began to grow down from them. Then their father looked at them, became angry, and said, “What are you doing to my children anyway?” Immediately she slapped them on the buttocks and said, “Up goes the little tail, up into the buttocks (tūˊdenᴀtsî yēq),” and the tails went up into their buttocks.

After his nephews had stayed with him for some time the man said within himself, “I have no devilfish for bait,” and the same evening the young fellows were gone after it. Although it was high tide many devilfish were found in front of his house. The young otters called good weather bad and bad weather good.

One day they went out with their uncle to fish, and, when he put his line down with the buoy on it, the little otters all jumped into the water. They went down on the line and put on the hook the biggest halibut they could find. After they had brought in the canoe loaded twice their uncle had an abundance of provisions.

In the evening the otters had worked so hard that they fell asleep on the opposite side of the fire with their tails close to the blaze. Then their uncle said to them, “Your handy little tails are beginning to burn.” On account of those words all became angry and left him, going back to their father. Then the man’s sister came to him and asked what he had said to his nephews. He said, “I simply told them that their clothes were beginning to burn on them.” So the otters’ father tried to explain it, saying to them: “Your uncle did not mean anything when he said your clothes were beginning to burn. He wanted only to save your clothes. Now go back and stay with him.” So they got over their displeasure and went back.

All that time the man was working upon his canoe. He said within himself, “I wonder how my canoe can be gotten down.” Next morning his nephews went up, put their tails under it, and pulled it down. When they got it to their uncle’s house, he loaded the canoe and started home with them, but quite near his town he missed them out of the canoe. Then all the people there wondered where he could have gotten a canoe load of such things as he had. He gave everything to his friends. Then his wife said to the people, “Something came to help us. We have seen my husband’s sister who was drowned long ago, and that is the way we got help.”

Afterward he went back to the place where he had received assistance but saw nothing of those who had helped him. He hunted all about the place from which his sister used to come but found nothing except land-otter holes. He became discouraged and gave up searching.

FOOTNOTES:

[21] See story 45.

7. THE LAND-OTTER SON

There was a great famine at Sitka, and all the people went halibut fishing. Then a certain man went with his wife to the mouth of Redoubt bay. He had prepared barks some time before, and, when they got to this place, they made a house out of them. They fished there for a long time, but caught no more than one or two halibut a week. By the end of two months they had little to live on except shellfish and other things picked up at low tide.

One evening they caught a small halibut at their fishing ground. They cooked a piece of it and put the rest on the drying frame in the brush house the man had constructed outside.

Next day they heard a noise there as if something were being thrown down and moved about. The woman said, “What can that be?” Then her husband went out and was astonished to see two medium-sized devilfish lying there. He wondered how they had gotten up from the beach. Then he went in and said, “Wife (dja), I am in luck. There are two large devilfish out there. I do not know who brought them. To-morrow morning we will take them and see if we can not catch some halibut. The person who brought them here is very kind, for I have been hunting everywhere vainly for bait.” The woman sat down and considered. She said, “Do you know who brought them here?” He said, “No.” Then she said, “I will tell you who brought them here. Don’t you remember that my son was drowned a year ago, and no one has seen anything of him since? It must be he, who has taken pity on us because he sees how poor we are. I will call his name if I hear anyone whistle to-morrow or any other night, for I know it is my son.” So the woman spoke.

In the morning they went out with these devilfish and caught two halibut. Evening came on. After they had reached home and it was dark, they began to cook some halibut. Just as the woman was putting some into the pot a person whistled behind the house. Then she said, “We have longed for you, my dear son. Come in. Don’t whistle around us. We have been wishing for you for the last year, so do not be afraid. It is only your father and I. Come in.” Then it whistled again. The man went to the door, opened it, and said, “Come in, my son, I think you have come to help us because we are very poorly off here. The door is open. Come right in.” So the father said. And without their seeing him enter, all of a sudden he was seated opposite them with his hands over his face. Then they spoke to him, saying, “Is it you, my son?” He only whistled [by drawing in his breath]. That was the way he spoke to them. Toward midnight he began to speak. The father said, “Is it you, my son?” The land-otter-man (kūˊcta-qa) said, “Yes.” He motioned to them that there was something outside which he had brought for them. It was some more devilfish. He said, “In the morning we will go out.” The woman gave him a pillow and two blankets for the night, and he slept on the other side of the fire.

So early in the morning that it was yet dark he took his father by the feet and shook him, saying, “Get up. We will go out.” He told him to take his fishing line, and they carried down the canoe. Then the land-otter-man stepped in and his father followed. His father gave him a paddle. The canoe went flying out to the halibut ground. It was his son’s strength that took them there so quickly. Then the land-otter-man suddenly stopped the canoe. He took the line and baited a hook with one devilfish tentacle. He baited all of the hooks and lowered them. Then he tied the end of the line to the seat. He said to his father, “Put the blanket over you. Do not watch me.” His father did so but observed him through a hole in the blanket. The land-otter-man, without causing any motion in the canoe, jumped overboard, went down the line, and put the largest halibut that he could find on their hooks. When he came in he shook the canoe and his father pretended to wake up. He gave the line to his father who began to pull up. Very many big halibut began to come up, which he clubbed and threw into the canoe as fast as he could. Then he turned the canoe around and started for home. The canoe was full.

On the way the land-otter-man was in the bow holding a spear. After he had held it there for a long time he threw it. His father could not see that he had thrown it at a large seal. He brought it close to the canoe, gave it one blow to kill it and threw it into the canoe. When they came ashore it was almost daybreak. Then, motioning to his father that the raven might call before he reached shelter, he ran straight up into the woods.

Now the man’s wife came down and began cutting up the halibut. By the time they had it all into the house it was dark. The same evening, before they knew it, he was with them again. Then the man took some pieces of raw halibut, cut them into bits and placed them before him. He turned his back on them and ate very fast. He could eat only raw food.

About a week later they told their son not to go into the woods at night but to stay with them. So he did. When he wanted to go fishing he would awaken his father while it was still dark, and they would start off. Each time they brought in a load of seal, halibut, and all sorts of things. They began to have great quantities of provisions.

After that they began to see his body plainly. His mouth was round, and long hair had grown down over his back to his buttocks. He took nothing from his father and mother but raw food.

Some time after they began to pack up to come to Sitka. He now talked to them like a human being and always stayed with them. He helped load their canoe, and his father gave him a paddle. Then they set out, the land-otter-man in the bow, his father in the stern, and his mother between. When they came to Poverotni point (Kaodjîxîtî-qǃa), the woman saw the shadow of her son’s arms moving, his hands which held the paddle being invisible. She said to her husband, “What is the matter with my son? He does not seem to be paddling. I can see only his shadow now.” So she moved forward to see whether he was asleep or had fallen into the water. Her son was not there. The blanket he had had around his knees was there, but he was gone. She said to her husband, “Your son is gone again,” and he replied, “I can not do anything more. He is gone. How can I bring him back?” So they went on to Sitka.

When they came to Sitka, they reported all that had happened. The father said, “My son helped us. Just as we got around the point he disappeared out of the canoe.” So his friends gave a feast for him. His father’s name was Sᴀkīˊ, and the place where they fished for halibut is now called Sᴀkīˊ-īˊdî.

8. THE WOLF-CHIEF’S SON

Famine visited a certain town, and many people died of starvation. There was a young boy there who always went around with bow and arrows. One day, as he was hunting about, he came across a little animal that looked like a dog and put it under his blanket. He brought it to his mother, and his mother washed it for him. Then he took the red paint left by his dead uncles, spit upon the dog and threw paint on so that it would stick to its hair and face. When he took the dog into the woods, it would bring him all kinds of birds, such as grouse, which he carried home to his family. They cooked these in a basket pot. Afterward he brought the animal down, washed it, and put more paint upon its legs and head. This enabled him to trace it when he was out hunting.

One day after he had traced it for some distance, he found it had killed a small mountain sheep, and, when he came down, he gave it the fat part. With the meat so obtained he began to take good care of his mother and his friends. He had not yet found out whether the animal was really a dog.

The next time they went hunting they came across a large flock of sheep, and he sent the dog right up to them. It killed all of them, and he cut the best one open for it. Then he took down the rest of the sheep and dressed them. What the animal was killing was keeping some of his friends alive.

One time the husband of a sister came to him and said, “I wish to borrow your animal. It is doing great things in this place.” So he brought the little dog from the house he had made for it, painted its face and feet, and said to his brother-in-law, “When you kill the first one cut it open quickly and let him have it. That is the way I always do.” Then this brother-in-law took up the little dog, and, when they came to a flock of sheep, it went straight among them, killing them and throwing them down one after another. But, after he had cut one open, he took out the entrails, threw them into the dog’s face, and said, “Dogs always eat the insides of animals, not the good part.” The dog, however, instead of eating it, ran straight up between the mountains, yelping.

Now when his brother-in-law brought the sheep down, the man asked him, “Where is the little dog?” And he said, “It ran away from me.” That was the report he brought down. Then the owner of the dog called his sister to him and said, “Tell me truly what he did with the little dog. I did not want to let it go at first because I knew people would do that thing to it.” His sister said, “He threw the entrails to it to eat. That is why it ran off.”

Then the youth felt very sad on account of his little animal and prepared to follow it. His brother-in-law showed him the place between the mountains where the dog had gone up, and he went up in that direction until he came to its footprints and saw the red paint he had put upon it. This animal was really the wolf-chief’s son who had been sent to help him, and, because the man put red upon its head and feet, a wolf can now be told by the red on its feet and around its mouth.

After he had followed the trail for a long distance he came to a lake with a long town on the opposite side. There he heard a great noise made by people playing. It was a very large lake, so he thought, “I wonder how I can get over there.” Just then he saw smoke coming out from under his feet. Then a door swung open, and he was told to enter. An old woman lived there called Woman-always-wondering (Łūwat-uwadjīˊgî-cānᴀˊkǃᵘ), who said to him, “Grandchild, why are you here?” He answered “I came across a young dog which helped me, but it is lost, and I come to find where it went.” Then the woman answered, “Its people live right across there. It is a wolf-chief’s son. That is its father’s town over there where they are making a noise.” So the old woman instructed him.

Then he wondered and said to himself, “How can I get across?” But the old woman spoke out, saying, “My little canoe is just below here.” He said to himself, “It might turn over with me.” Then the old woman answered, “Take it down. Before you get in shake it and it will become large.” Then she continued: “Get inside of the boat and stretch yourself on the bottom, but do not paddle it. Instead wish continually to come in front of that place.”

He did as she directed and landed upon the other side. Then he got out, made the canoe small and put it into his pocket, after which he went up among the boys who were playing about, and watched them. They were playing with a round, twisted thing called gîtcxᴀnag̣āˊt (rainbow). Then some one directed him to the wolf-chief’s house at the farther end of the village. An evening fire, such as people used to make in olden times, was burning there, and, creeping in behind the other people, the man saw his little wolf playing about near it in front of his father.

Then the wolf chief said, “There is some human being looking in here. Clear away from before his face.” Upon this the little wolf ran right up to him, smelt of him, and knew him at once. The wolf chief said, “I feel well disposed toward you. I let my son live among you because your uncles and friends were starving, and now I am very much pleased that you have come here after him.” By and by he said, “I think I will not let him go back with you, but I will do something else to help you.” He was happy at the way the man had painted up his son. Now he did not appear like a wolf but like a human being. The chief said, “Take out the fish-hawk’s quill that is hanging on the wall and give it to him in place of my son.” Then he was instructed how to use it. “Whenever a bear meets you,” he said, “hold the quill straight toward it and it will fly out of your hand.” He also took out a thing that was tied up like a blanket and gave it to him, at the same time giving him instructions. “One side,” he said, “is for sickness. If you put this on a sick person it will make him well. If anyone hates you, put the other side on him and it will kill him. After they have agreed to pay you for treating him put the other side on to cure him.”

Then the chief said, “You see that thing that the boys are playing with? That belongs to me. Whenever one sees it in the evening it means bad weather; whenever one sees it in the morning it means good weather.” So he spoke to him.

Then they put something else into his mouth and said to him, “Take this, for you have a long journey to make.” He was gone up there probably two years, but he thought it was only two nights.

At the time when he came within sight of his town he met a bear. He held the quill out toward it as he had been instructed and suddenly let it go. It hit the bear in the heart. Still closer to his town he came upon a flock of sheep on the mountain, and sent his quill at them. When he reached them, he found all dead, and, after he had cut them all open, he found the quill stuck into the heart of the last. He took a little meat for his own use and covered up the rest.

Coming to the town, he found no one in it. All had been destroyed. Then he felt very sad, and, taking his blanket out, laid the side of it that would save people, upon their bodies, and they all came to life. After that he asked all of them to go hunting with him, but he kept the quill hidden away so that they would not bother him as they had before. When they came to a big flock of mountain sheep, he let his quill go at them so quickly that they could not see it. Then he went up, looked the dead sheep over, and immediately cut out the quill. All his friends were surprised at what had happened. After they had gotten down, those who were not his close friends came to him and gave payment for the meat.

The people he restored to life after they had been dead for very many years had very deep set eyes and did not get well at once.

After that he went to a town where the people were all well and killed some of them with his blanket. Then he went to the other people in that place and said, “How are your friends? Are they dead?” “Yes.” “Well I know a way of making them well.” He went up to them again with his blanket and brought them back to life. They were perfectly well.

This man went around everywhere doing the same thing and became very famous. Whenever one was sick in any place they came after him and offered him a certain amount for his services, so that he became the richest man of his time.

9. WOLVERINE-MAN

There were people living in a certain town on the mainland. You know that in olden times the people did not use guns. They hunted with bows and arrows, and horn spears, and it was very hard work to use them. So, when they were going hunting, they had to fast and wash their heads in urine. That is why in all of these stories—which I am telling you just as they were told in the olden times—food was very scarce and hard to get. Success depended on what things were used and how people prepared themselves.

One day a certain man at this place began preparing himself by washing his head in urine, and the following morning he dressed and started up the valley carrying his horn spear. At the head of this valley he saw a flock of mountain sheep, but he could not get at them, so he camped over night. In the morning he saw that a wolverine (nūsk) was among these sheep killing them off.

Next evening he reached the top of the mountain and started into the brush to camp, but came to a house with the door wide open for him. On the inside hung pieces of fat from all kinds of animals the wolverine had killed. He wanted to go in very much, but instead he sat down in the brush near by and waited.

Presently a man came along carrying a pack. This was Wolverine-man (Nūˊsgu-qa). He said, “My trader, you are here. Why don’t you step inside?” Then they entered, and Wolverine-man took off his clothes and began wringing them out just like a human being. Then he heated some hot rocks, took his half-basket, chopped up the bones of a ground hog and put these into it along with the cooking stones. Then he said to the man, “Give me that kᴀndᴀʟāˊx. Give me that kǃᴀx̣ᴀˊkaok.” These were his own words which he was teaching to this man, and they mean, “Give me my dish. Give me my little spoon.” So, when one went up to the top of this mountain in olden times he called his dishes and spoons by those names.

Then Wolverine-man placed the food before his guest, but, when the latter was about to take some, Wolverine-man said something that sounded strange to him. He said, “There he is picking it up. There he is going to eat it.” It sounded strange. Then he kept on talking: “He is getting closer to the small bones. He is getting closer to the small bones. He is getting closer to the small brother of the big bone. He is getting closer to the small brother of the big bone.” He did not want the man to eat the small bones at the joint,[22] and it was from Wolverine-man that people learned not to eat these. He said, “I am not saying this to you because I hate you. If anybody swallows these, the weather is not clear on top of the mountain. It is always foggy, and one can kill nothing. This is why I am telling you.” Meanwhile the people in the camps hunted every day for this man but in vain.

By and by Wolverine-man said to him, “Go around to the other side of the mountain and sit down where the ground-hogs’ places are.” He went there every day, but always came home without anything. Wolverine-man, however, brought him a great load every time. Finally Wolverine-man told him to go and cut off two small limbs with his ax. People generally carried a stone ax when off hunting. With these he made a trap for him and named it Never-lasting-over-night (Łankāˊkǃîxē). It was so named because it was certain to catch.

When they went up next day, Wolverine-man said, “I am going this way. Do not set your trap until you see a large ground hog going into a hole. Set it there.” Soon after he left Wolverine-man he saw a big ground hog going into its hole. He set up his trap there, stood near, and watched. Soon he heard the crack of his trap falling. He set it up many times, and each time he caught one. He killed four that day. That is why the trap is called Never-lasting-over-night. From that time on he increased the size of his catch every day, while Wolverine-man did not catch much. When he got home with all his ground hogs Wolverine-man lay down by the fire and began singing, “What I would have killed has all gone over to a lazy man’s side.”

Next morning, when they again started off to hunt, Wolverine-man, instead of continuing on his usual route, came back to see what his companion was doing. Then he climbed into a tree to watch him, began to play around in the tree, and afterwards suddenly fell down. He wanted to deceive the trapper. This tree is a small bushy one called sǃᴀx, and it is Wolverine-man’s wife with which he had really been cohabiting. The man, however, observed what he was doing, and returned home at once, upon which Wolverine-man became so ashamed that he lay down and covered himself with ashes.

After that Wolverine-man told his guest to lie down and cover himself up. Then he took his urinal full of urine, with two white rocks in it, to another place. He was going to bathe to purify himself from his wife. After he had purified himself, he came home, put grease into the fire and began to motion toward his face and to blow with his mouth. Then he took a wooden comb and began to comb his hair. The man had covered his head with the blanket but was watching through a hole.

Now the man arose and said to Wolverine-man, “I am going home to my children.” Then Wolverine-man told him not to say where he had been but to keep him in remembrance by means of the trap. He had stayed with Wolverine-man more than a month, and, when he went down, he had a big pack of skins.

Then he began to distribute these to all his friends, telling them that he had discovered a place where there were lots of things, and that he had a trap which never failed to kill ground hogs and other animals if set on the mountain over night. When he explained to the people how to set up this trap, a man named Coward (Qǃᴀtxāˊn) said, “I will go along with you.” This time they did not go way up to the place where Wolverine-man had helped him but into one of the lower valleys where there were many ground hogs. There they constructed a house out of dry sticks and began trapping. Coward had understood him to say that he caught ground hogs by whittling up sticks near the hole. That was what he was doing every day, until finally his companion said, “What do you do by the holes that you do not catch anything?” He said, “Why, I have already cut up two big sticks by the holes.” Then the other answered, “That is not right. You have to cut and make a trap with which to trap the ground hog.”

After that this man thought he would do the same thing to the tree he had seen Wolverine-man do, but he fell to the ground and was barely able to crawl home. When he thought he had enough skins, he started to pack up and return. The trap was very valuable at that time because it was new, and anyone borrowing it paid a great deal. So he became wealthy by means of it. He went to every other town to let people know about it. They would invite him to a place, feast him, and ask him for it. He became very wealthy.

FOOTNOTES:

[22] The knee-pan or the ankle and wrist bones.

10. THE HALIBUT PEOPLE

There was a very long town where people were fishing for halibut. One evening the daughter of the chief, whose house was in the middle of the place, went down on the beach to cut up halibut, and slipped on some halibut slime. She used bad words to it.

A few days afterward many canoe loads of people came to get this girl in marriage, and she started off with them. But, although they appeared to her like human beings, they were really the halibut people. As soon as they had left the village they went around a point, landed, and went up into the woods after spruce gum and pitch. They brought down a great quantity of this, heated a rock in the fire and spread pitch all over it. When it was melted they seated the woman upon it. The two brothers of this girl searched along shore for her continually, and finally they discovered where she was; but she was dead.

Then they felt very sad on her account and asked each other, “What shall we do about her?” They thought of all kinds of schemes, and at last hit upon a plan. Then they went home, filled a bladder full of blood, and went out to the halibut fishing ground. The elder brother let his younger brother down on a line, but before he got far he lost his breath and had to be pulled up. So the elder brother prepared himself. He put on his sister’s dress, took his knife and the bladder full of blood, and got safely to the bottom. When he arrived there he found himself in front of a house. Some one came out to look and then said to the chief inside, “Has your wife come out to see you?” They thought it was the dead woman. So the halibut chief said, “Tell her to come in,” and he married her.

At this time the friends of the young man were vainly endeavoring to catch halibut, and he could see their hooks. Instead of coming into the houses these would fall around on the outside. They tried all kinds of hooks of native manufacture, but the only one that succeeded was Raven-backbone-hook (Yēł-tūˊdᴀqǃê), which came right in through the smoke hole.

After a while the halibut chief said, “Let us go and take a sweat bath.” [Frater autem puellae mortuae semper secum portabat vesicam cruore plenam, quo ungebat extrema vestem qua indutus erat, ut rhombum deciperet, dicens, “Mensibus affectus sum; noli mihi appropinquare.”]

That night, as soon as the halibut chief was asleep, the man took his knife, cut the chief’s head off and ran outside with it. Everybody in the town was asleep. Then he jerked on his brother’s line, and his brother pulled him up along with the head.

After that they paddled along shore for some time, and on the way the elder brother kept shooting at ducks with his arrows. Finally he hit one and took it into the canoe. It was shivering, and his brother said, “Look at this little duck. It is dying of cold. I wish you were by my father’s camp fire.” On account of these bad words the canoe went straight down into the ocean.

Arrived at the bottom, they saw a long town, and some one said, “Get out of the canoe and come up.” Then the duck led them up into the house of his grandfather, the killer whale—for the killer whale is grandfather to the duck—and a big fire was built for them. Then they seated the brothers close to this and said, “Do you think it is only your father who has a big fire?” After they were so badly burned that their heads were made to turn backward with the heat, they were thrown outside. There they became the ducks called Always-crying-around-[the-bay] (Ỵīkᴀg̣āˊxe). You can hear them crying almost any time when you are in camp. They never got back to their friends.

11. STORIES OF THE MONSTER DEVILFISH[23] AND THE CRY-BABY[24]

Many people once went to a certain camp to dry salmon. They did not know that a big devilfish lived under a steep cliff not very far from this place. In olden times, besides using hooks, they caught salmon by means of traps (cᴀł), and when the trap was full, they would take out the fish and hang them on drying frames. When these people had many fish on the frames, they took off their covers so that the red color shone out on the ocean very distinctly.

A man and his two brothers living at this camp were fond of hunting, and one day, when very many salmon were on the frames, they started out. While they were gone the devilfish saw the glow on the water from the red salmon, threw his tentacles around the camp and swept every vestige of it into the sea. In those times a hunter washed in urine before going out hunting and was then sure to kill something, but on that day everything the hunters speared got away. When they returned to the camp, they saw many pieces of canoes drifting about the bay. Then they were very sad on account of the loss of their friends, but they did not know what had destroyed them.

After they had remained there for four days, they told the youngest to climb to the top of a high hill and watch them. Then the eldest told his other brother to cut four young spruce trees, and he sharpened these, making two for himself and two for his brother. Early in the morning they loaded their canoe with rocks and prepared to meet the dangerous animal. They went out in front of the high cliff and began throwing rocks down there, the elder saying to his youngest brother, “Look down.”

After a while they saw the large devilfish coming up right under them. Then they took the sharpened sticks and began to pierce its flesh. The youngest watched all that happened. When their canoe was broken up, they climbed on top of the devilfish and continued running the sticks into it until it died. When that happened it carried them down along with it.

Then the youngest brother started off to find some settlement, and when he came to one, the people set out at once to look for his brothers. Finally they discovered the place to which the devilfish had floated, along with the hunters and their canoe. But it did not get the salmon it had destroyed so many people for. Then the people gave a death feast and all cut their hair off short.

In the town to which these people belonged once lived a little boy who was always crying. His parents tried to rear him properly, yet he cried, cried, cried all the time. Finally his father shouted out, “Come this way Djînᴀkᴀx̣wᴀˊtsǃa.[25] Pull this boy away, for he cries too much.” Toward evening he repeated the same words, and this time a land-otter-man behind the house shouted out stutteringly, “Bring my grandchild here and let him eat gᴀłkᴀdax̣ᴀˊkǃᵘ to keep him quiet.” So the little boy was taken away and given what appeared to him to be blackberries.

Two days afterward they began searching for him, and they finally found him far up in the woods. When they brought him down he had a big belly and did not cry as loudly as he had before, so they thought that something was wrong. Then they boiled some dried salmon and gave him broth made from it. The heat of this broth expelled all of the small creatures that had been given him to eat under the appearance of blackberries. Spiders began running out of his mouth, ears, nose, eyes, and buttocks. His insides were filled with them, and they had eaten out all of his flesh. When these were expelled, nothing was left but the skin which they threw away.

FOOTNOTES:

[23] See pp. 150–151, story 31.

[24] See p. 145, story 31.

[25] The name of some man that had been captured by land otters.

12. THE WOMAN WHO WAS KILLED BY A CLAM

There was a famine at a certain town and many people had to depend on shellfish, so the women went down to the beach at low tide every day to gather them. One time a chief’s daughter went down and reached far under a rock to find some clams. Then a large bivalve called xīt closed upon her hand, holding her prisoner. Presently the tide began to rise, and, when it had almost reached her, she began singing a song about herself. She kept on singing until the tide passed right over her. Then all felt sad and held a feast for her at which they put food, blankets, and other things into the water.

13. ROOT-STUMP[26]

There was a certain town in which many people were dying of sickness, but those who felt well used to play shinney on the beach every day. Then something came down through the air and one of them seized it and was dragged up from the ground. Another person grasped his feet, endeavoring to pull him back, but he, too, was carried up and another and another until there were ten. All of these were taken up out of sight.

The next day the same thing came down a second time, and ten more were carried off. This happened every day until all the men in the town were gone. Next it came to a woman, and all the women were carried away in the same manner except two.

These two women now walked along the beach calling for help. They did not know whither their friends had gone. And every day they went up into the forest after roots.

One day, after they had gone up into the woods, one of these women began swallowing root-juice, and it formed a child in her. This was born and proved to be a boy. After he had grown a little larger, his mother named him Root-stump (Xᴀt-cūgūˊʟkǃî). This is what helped her. All the men who used to chop canoes away from town had also disappeared.

The child grew very rapidly and repeatedly asked his mother, “Where have all my friends gone?” She said to him, “We do not know. They kept going up into the air.” When he was a little larger he began to test himself. He would go up to a tree, seize a limb, and try to stretch himself. Then roots would run out from him in every direction because his mother had named him to have that sort of strength.[27]

His mother said to him, “Look out when you go down on the beach to play, because those who do so go up into the air and you will also go up. So look out.” Then he ran down to the beach and began playing. All at once the thing came down. He seized it, and immediately roots grew out from him into the ground in every direction. So he pulled down the thing that was killing his people, and it broke into small pieces.

There was another being in the woods who always chopped and made noises to entice people to him in order to kill them. He was in the habit of killing people by asking them to get into his canoe, when he knocked out a thwart so that it closed in upon them. He was the one who had killed the canoe makers. Root-stump once found this man engaged in making a canoe, and the man asked him to jump inside. Root-stump knew what he was about, however, and jumped out too quickly. Then Root-stump was so angry that he seized the canoe-maker and beat his brains out. He broke up the canoe and piled it on top of him.

This boy grew up into a very fine man. He brought in all kinds of things for his mother. If he were hunting mountain sheep and came to a chasm or other similar place, he would cross it by sticking his roots into the ground on the other side.

This is why they say even at the present time to a woman who works with roots, “Do not swallow the sap. You might have a baby from it.”

FOOTNOTES:

[26] See story 49.

[27] The exact words of the story-teller.

14. THE PROTRACTED WINTER

One time some boys pulled a piece of drifting seaweed out of the water on one side of their canoe and put it in again on the other. It was almost summer then, but, for having done this, winter came on again and snow was piled high in front of the houses so that people began to be in want of food. One day, however, a blue jay perched on the edge of a smoke hole, with elderberries in its mouth, and cried, “Kîłnᴀˊxe.” This was the name of a neighboring town. So the people took all the cedar bark they had prepared to make houses out of and went to Kîłnᴀˊxe where they found that it was already summer and the berries were ripe. Only about their own town was it still winter. This happened just beyond the town of Wrangell.

I tell you this story to show how particular people used to be in olden times about things, for it was only a piece of seaweed that brought winter on.

15. BEAVER AND PORCUPINE[28]

A porcupine and a beaver were once very close friends.[29] They traveled about everywhere and reported to each other all that happened. The bear is very much afraid of the porcupine, but he hates the beaver. Wherever the beaver has a dam the bear breaks it up so as to let the water down, catches the beaver and eats him. But he is afraid of the porcupine’s sharp quills, so the porcupine sometimes stayed in the beaver’s house, which is always dry inside.

When the lake began falling, they knew it was caused by the bear, and the porcupine would go out to reconnoiter. Then he would come back and say to his friend, “Do not go out. I will go out first.” Then the bear would be afraid of the porcupine’s sharp quills and go away, after which all the beavers began repairing their dam while the porcupine acted as guard.

By and by the porcupine said to the beaver, “I am hungry. I want to go to my own place.” Porcupine got his food from the bark and sap of trees, so he told the beaver to go up a tree with him, but the beaver could not climb. Then the porcupine told him to stay below while he went up to eat. Soon they saw the bear coming, and the beaver said, “Partner (xōˊne), what shall I do? The bear is getting near.” Then the porcupine slid down quickly and said, “Lay your head close to my back.” In that way he got the beaver to the top of the tree. But, after a while, the porcupine left him, and the beaver did not know how to climb down. He began to beg the porcupine in every way to let him down, but in vain. After quite a while, however, the squirrel, another friend of the beaver, came to him and helped him down, while the porcupine was off in a hole in the rocks with a number of other porcupines.

By and by the porcupine went back and saw his friend swimming in the lake. The beaver asked him down to the lake and then said, “Partner, let us go out to the middle of the lake. Just put your head on the back of my head and you will not get wet at all.” Because these two friends fell out, people now become friends, and, after they have loved each other for a while, fall out. Then the porcupine did as he was directed, the beaver told him to hold on tight, and they started. The beaver would flap his tail on the water and dive down for some distance, come to the surface, flap his tail, and go down again; and he repeated the performance until he came to an island in the center of the lake. Then he put the porcupine ashore and went flapping away from him in the same manner.

Now the little porcupine wandered around the whole island, not knowing how to get off. He climbed a tree, came down again, and climbed another, and so on. But the wolverine lived on the mainland near by, so after a while he began to sing for the wolverine (nūsk) “Nū-u-sguē-eˊ, Nū-u-sguē-eˊ, Nū-u-sguē-eˊ.” He called all the animals on the mainland, but he called the wolverine especially, because he wanted the north wind to blow so that it would freeze.[30]

Then the wolverine called out, “What is the matter with you?” So he at last sang a song about himself, saying that he wanted to go home badly. After he had sung this the whole sea froze over, and the porcupine ran across it to his home. This is why they were going to be friends no longer.

Then the porcupine made friends with the ground hog and they stayed up between the mountains where they could see people whenever they started up hunting. One day a man started out, and when they saw him, the porcupine began singing, “Up to the land of ground hog. Up to the land of ground hog.” The man heard him. That is why people know that the porcupine sings about the ground hog.

After this the man began trapping ground hogs for food and caught a small ground hog. He took it home and skinned it. Then he took off the head and heated some stones in order to cook it. When he was just about to put it into the steaming box the head sang plainly, “Poor little head, my poor little head, how am I going to fill him?” The man was frightened, and, instead of eating, he went to his traps in the morning, took them up (lit. “threw them off”) and came home.

Next morning he reported everything to his friends, saying, “I killed a ground hog, skinned it and started to cook the head. Then it said to me, ‘Poor little head.’” After that he went out to see his bear traps. While he was endeavoring to tighten the release of one of these, the dead fall came down and struck him in the neck, making his head fly off. When he had been absent for two days they searched for him and found him in his own trap. This was what the ground hog had predicted when it said, “My poor little head.” They took his body down to the beach, beat the drums for him, and had a feast on the ground hogs and other animals he had trapped.

FOOTNOTES:

[28] See story 63.

[29] Wutcyᴀqāˊwu, signifying friendship between people regardless of relationship.

[30] See Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 453.

16. THE POOR MAN WHO CAUGHT WONDERFUL THINGS

There was a long town from which all the people used to go out fishing for halibut and other large fish every day. In those times, before bone was used, they made hooks of two pieces of spruce from young trees, sharpened the point and hardened it in the fire. For lines they dried slender kelp stems.

A very poor man living at one end of the town fished among the others, but did not catch anything. While they were having a good time fishing he remained perfectly quiet, and they kept laughing at him. One day, when he pulled at his line, it acted as if it were fast to something. He thought it had caught upon a rock and pulled it about in the endeavor to free it. All at once it began to come slowly up, and, although every one laughed at him, he held on.

After he had brought it close to the canoe, he looked down and saw that it was a great live abalone caught in the flesh. Its color shone out of the water. As it ascended it was so big that all the canoes seemed to come inside of it, and it shone in every one’s face. Then some people who wanted to take this valuable thing away from him, said, “Cut the line. It is a great thing that you have caught. You better let it go.” After a while he became tired of the people’s talk, so he cut his line. Then it began to go down very slowly, shining all over.

Then others came to him and said, “You did not do the right thing. It is a very valuable thing you let go.” He said, “Has it sunk?” So nowadays, when a person has lost a valuable thing, they say to him, “Is it an abalone that has sunk?” (Dêˊca guˊnxa ak we wutǃaˊqǃ) Whenever he thought about this he cried at the riches he had let go.

Another time they went out fishing, and he was with them. He had a sponge in his hand, and taking a piece of flesh out of his nose inside so as to make it bleed, he filled the sponge with blood and let it down into the ocean. When he began to pull up his hook, it was again fast. He pulled it up slowly, for it was very heavy. It was another valuable thing, the nest of a fish called îcqēˊn. Then he filled his canoe with these fishes, called the other canoes to him and filled them. After that he stood up in his canoe and said, “The abalone has not been drowned from me yet. I still have it.” He distributed these fishes all over the town and began to get rich from the property he received. People gave him all kinds of skins—moose, caribou, fox, etc. He had great stores of riches from having caught the abalone and the nest of fishes.

17. THE FINDING OF THE BLUE PAINT, AND HOW A CERTAIN CREEK RECEIVED ITS NAME

At Sitka lived four brothers who were very fond of hunting. In those days people liked to hunt about the straits north of Sitka for fur seals, sea otters, etc. One day, while they were out, they were forced to take refuge from a storm at a place near Mount Edgecumbe, called Town-on-the-inside-of-blue-paint-point (Nex̣îˊntaiataqǃ-ān), and while hunting about this place during their long stay they discovered a rocky cave or overhanging cliff from which soft blue stuff continually dropped. The youngest said, “I have discovered a valuable thing which will be used for painting and for everything carved.”

After they had been there for a long time the weather became fine and the sea smooth. Now in olden times people knew that everything was dangerous. When the brothers were about to start, they said, “We will take some off now to carry home.” So they knocked off a big piece, rolled it up among their clothes and hid it away. But the canoe had scarcely started before the sea began to get rough. When they were some way out they headed for an island outside of Edgecumbe which they had to pass. Then the eldest, who was steering, began to compose a song about the course he was taking: “Which way shall I steer the canoe, straight out into the ocean or straight on to the shore?” The youngest said, “There is no way of getting home. Would it not be better to throw this blue paint into the water? Then we can get ashore.” So the eldest brother put in the next verse as follows: “Which way shall we steer, straight in or not? Shall we not throw this blue paint into the water? If not how shall we be saved?” Then he exclaimed, “Bring the blue stuff here and tie it to my head, and I will be drowned with it so that things shall eat me up with it.”

They were not drowned, however, and reached shore in safety, so people still speak of their bravery in not throwing the blue paint overboard. To this day they say that, if you take anything from there, the weather will be stormy, and people are still afraid to do it, but take the risk because the thing obtained is valuable.

For a long time after the brothers reached shore with this blue paint the weather was bad and great rollers came sweeping in out of the ocean. No one could go to sea after halibut.

At that time some people were camping a short distance north of Sitka, and one day two women went from there with their children to dig clams. They came into a small inlet and made their camp. Then the women began bringing up shellfish, which they afterwards boiled to get the insides out, ran small sticks through them, and hung them up to dry for their children. One day they went down on the beach as usual, leaving their babies in camp, and the smallest began crying. Then a child somewhat larger shouted, “The baby is crying. The baby is crying.” Its mother said, “Bury one of those cockles in the fire and cook it for her,” but the little boy understood his mother to say, “Dig a hole for your little sister in the fire and put her into it.” So the little boy began to pull the fire apart and to make a hole in the middle of it. He tried to knock his little sister into this hole but she kept getting up again, so he shouted, “She keeps trying to get away from me.” After a while he became too strong for his little sister, put her in, and covered her over.

When his mother came up, she said, “Little son, where is your little sister?” “I have buried her in the fire. She is there.” So after that they named the stream Creek-where-a-person-was-burned (Kᴀˊxsîgᴀnîhīn).

18. VARIOUS ADVENTURES NEAR CROSS SOUND

There is a place in the neighborhood of Cross sound called Kǃudēˊs-qǃaỵîk, which people used to frequent in olden times to hunt, catch halibut, and so on. People were then in the habit of traveling from camp to camp a great deal. One time a man and his wife went out to get cedar bark off from some trees, and the man went quite a distance up into the woods from his wife with his stone ax and tree climber. This tree-climber was an apparatus composed of ropes, with a board for the climber to stand on. But, while he was high up in a tree, the board slipped from under the man’s feet, and the rope held him tight to the tree by his neck so that he died. Since he did not come back, his wife went home and reported that he was missing. Then they hunted for him everywhere, and finally a man found him hanging from the tree dead. The dead man was brother of a chief. So they took the board that had fallen from under his feet home, laid it across the neck of a slave and killed him to be revenged on the board. They kept the board and exhibited it at feasts. Afterward people were called for the death feast.

People continued going to the different bays hunting, and one day a canoe with two men in it anchored close by a cliff. While they were there one of them saw two huge devilfish arms moving across the bay. They ran ashore and hid under a rock, letting the arms pass over them, while the devilfish took the canoe into its hole under water.

Then the men started up the hill. On their way home they saw in a small creek what appeared to be a little halibut, but on coming closer they found that it was only a white rock which had that appearance.

After they had reached home and had reported what had happened, all the people began to chop at a log. Then they started a big fire and began to burn it. But, when it was half burned, they put out the fire by throwing hot water upon it. They were going to take it to the devilfish hole and drown it there. So they took it over to that place and let it down, but never saw it again.

Later four other men went hunting by canoe one autumn to a place called Wᴀtᴀsǃāˊx, where they encamped. By and by one of the party, on going to his traps, found a big land otter in one of them. He took the bough of a tree, twisted it around the land otter’s neck, and carried it home. He did not know what it was. As he dragged it home it went bouncing along behind him and at every bounce something whistled behind him. Arrived at camp he began to skin it. Then he said to his brothers, “Go and get your pot ready to cook it,” but, when they began to cut it up to put it in, something whistled. “That is just what I heard on the way,” he said.

After the pot had boiled and they had begun eating, something began to whistle in a tree near by and threw a rock down. They threw one back and soon rocks were flying back and forth. It was a great thing to fool with. By and by the men said, “You might cut our faces,” so, instead of throwing rocks, they seized long cones and threw these back and forth all night. Toward morning the being in the tree, which was a land-otter-man, began to hit people, and they on their part had become very tired. Finally they tried to get him down by lighting a fire under the tree where he was sitting. When it was burning well, all suddenly shouted, and he fell into it. Then they threw the fire over him, and he burned up. But when they started for the beach to go home, all wriggled from side to side and acted as if they were crazy; and when anyone went to that place afterward he would act in the same manner.

These men lived at a place called Person-petrified (Cᴀkdahᴀnaˊ), and when they came home, it was told them, “A woman and her child have been lost from this place.” This woman had been attacked by some strange man, whom she also killed with the pole which was used to take off cedar bark. At that time many persons had disappeared, and the people were wearied out looking for them. Now, however, they were determined to find the murderers, so all got into one canoe and started along the coast. After a time the high waves compelled them to encamp, and all went up into the woods to hunt through them for a beach. Then they came to a house made of driftwood, where the murderers lived. They went to each end where the main stringer protruded, lifted it off of its supporting posts and let it fall on the occupants. Those who tried to get out between the logs they killed. Then they set the ruined house on fire and burned it with all it contained; and they broke up the canoe belonging to those people.

Close by lived a shaman related to the same people. His spirits told him that there was a mountain near by where flint could be obtained. His spirits had so much strength that he went right to that place and broke it off. In those days every time a shaman cut an animal’s tongue he had more strength, so, when his strength was all combined, it amounted to considerable.

At that time the people did not have any flint, but, after the spirit discovered it, all knew where it was to be found, and they have since brought it from there.

19. KĀTSǃ[31]

Kātsǃ belonged to the Kāˊgwᴀntān and lived at Sitka. One day he went hunting with dogs, and, while his dogs ran on after a male bear, this bear’s wife took him into her den, concealed him from her husband, and married him. He had several children by her. Indoors the bears take off their skin coats and are just like human beings.

By and by he wanted to go back to his people, but before he started she told him not to smile at or touch his Indian wife or take up either of his children. After his return, he would go out for seal, sea lions, and other animals which he carried up into an inlet where his bear wife was awaiting him. Then the cubs would come down, pull the canoe ashore violently, take out the game and throw it from one to another up to their mother. On account of the roughness of these cubs it came to be a saying in Sitka, “If you think you are brave, be steersman for Kātsǃ.”

One day Kātsǃ pitied one of his children and took it up. The next time he went up the inlet, however, the cubs seized him and threw him from one to another up to their mother, and so killed him. Then they scattered all over the world and are said to have been killed in various places.

What is thought to have been the last of these was killed at White Stone Narrows. When some people were encamped there a girl spoke angrily about Kātsǃ’s child, and it came upon them, killing all except a few who escaped in their canoes, and this woman, whom it carried off alive, making her groan with pain. One man tried to kill it but did not cut farther than its hair. Finally all the Indians together killed it with their spears and knives.[32]

FOOTNOTES:

[31] See story 69; also Boas, Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Küste Amerikas, p. 328.

[32] Because a human being married among the grizzly bears, people will not eat grizzly-bear meat.

20. THE UNSUCCESSFUL HUNTERS

Two persons very fond of hunting were in the habit of washing in urine, as was usual in old times when one wanted something very much. Then they went to a sea-lion rock, and one of them threw his spear at a sea lion but the point broke off the handle. The animal was the sea-lion-chief’s son. Afterwards the man who had done it was drowned, but his companion reached the sea-lion rock in safety. He looked about for his friend, but could not see him, so he went up on top of the rock, lay down, and, pulling the grass over himself, fell asleep. While he was asleep and dreaming, some one came to him and said, “I come to help you.” He awoke, but there was nothing visible except nesting birds flying about the island. Then he again fell asleep, and again he heard some one come to him and say, “I come to help you. The place you have drifted upon is a house. When you hear the noise of a shaman’s beating sticks, go straight to the door of the place from which it comes.”

Soon he heard the noise of the sticks, as the man had forewarned him, just a little below the place where he was lying. He stepped forward quietly, and lo! he came to the door of a fine, large house. Inside of this he saw those who were beating the sticks and a man lying sick “with pneumonia,” out of whom the string of the spear hung. Then he crept in quietly, hiding behind the people, and said within himself, “If it were I, I would push that spear in a little farther, twist it to one side and pull it out.” Upon this everybody said, “Make way for him. This shaman says he can take the spear out by twisting it and then pulling out.” He said to himself, “I guess I can do it,” so he let them have their way. Then he came out in the middle of the house, pulled his blanket about himself, used his hand like a rattle and ran around the fire just like a shaman. When he went to the spear and moved it a little, the sick man cried out. After that he let it alone for a while. He wished very much that they would give him in payment a large animal stomach which was hanging on a post. So the man’s father said, “Pay it to him.”

Now he tied his blanket tightly about himself and said, “Bring in some water.” Then he ran around the sick man again, and, when he came to where the spear was, he summoned all his strength, pushed it in a little, turned it round slightly and pulled it out. At once he pushed it into the water in the customary manner and blew eagle down upon it, when all of the white matter came out of the wound and the sick man got his breath. After that he hid the spear quickly from the eyes of the people.

When he went out, the man who had first come to his assistance came again. This was the puffin (xîk). It said, “Take that big stomach, get inside, and go home in it. After you get inside do not think of this place again.” He did as the puffin had directed, but, when he was within a short distance of the shore, he thought of the place where he had been and immediately floated back to the island. The second time the skin carried him right ashore. Then he got out, went home to his friends and reported everything that had happened.

* * * * *

Another canoe also set out to hunt in much the same way. After the people had gone on for a very long time unsuccessfully, they came upon a great seal standing out of the water, and one of the hunters speared it. It was nothing but an old log drifting about which had appeared to him like a seal. That night they anchored their canoe in front of a steep cliff not far from this place and prepared to spend the night there. By and by they heard a skate flopping along on the water near by, whereupon the steersman took his spear and struck it on one side of the belly. Then the skate swam right down into the ocean.

This skate was a slave of the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt who lived under that same cliff, and when the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt heard him groaning under the house steps where he always stayed, he said to one of his other slaves, “Get up and find what he is groaning about.” Then the skate said, “There is a canoe outside here. The people in that canoe have done something to me.”

Then the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt awoke all his slaves’ nephews and said, “Bring that canoe in here.”

Presently the man in the bow of the canoe awoke and looked about. Their canoe was on top of the inside partitions of a house. He took something and poked his steersman quietly to awaken him, for he saw that something was wrong.

Early in the morning the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt awoke and said to his nephews, “Make a big fire.” Then he exclaimed angrily, “It is of no use to bother poor slaves. Why did they want to kill that slave?”

Meanwhile the friends of these people were searching for them everywhere.

Then the chief told them to come forward, saying to them, “You will now be judged.” One could not see the part of the house near the door, it was so crowded with the nephews and friends of the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt (i. e., all kinds of fishes and marine animals) dressed in every style. They said to them, “To what tribe do you belong?” and the bow man replied, “We are of the Kᴀtagwᴀˊdî family.” Then the chief said, “If one is going to visit a person, he should enter his house in a polite manner and not destroy anybody. Let them wash their hands. Give them food and dress them up well. I am a Kᴀtagwᴀˊdî myself, so you are my friends.” Then they fixed them up well, dressing them and combing their hair. But at home the people were beating drums, because they thought these men were dead.

Then the chief said to them, “When you build a house, name it Rock House (Tᴀ hît). It is a good thing that we use each other’s emblems.” Afterward the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt’s people loaded their canoe, combed their hair with cottonwood boughs so that it smelt good, and let them go home.

And when they first reached home they were dressed so finely that the people did not know them. The chief said to his friends, “A great living thing saved us. He gave us a thing to go by which shall be our emblem, namely, that whenever we build a house we shall call it Rock House.”

21. ORIGIN OF ICEBERG HOUSE[33]

A man and his wife were living at a certain fort. At that time some disease came into the world and destroyed all of their uncles, fathers, and friends. Then the man thought within himself, “I ought to give some sort of feast to my dead friends,” and he began to gather berries.

One day a quantity of ice floated up on the beach below him. He took this up piece by piece and put it into the house, treating the pieces as his guests. He poured a great deal of oil into the fire to make it blaze. Then he took dishes, put berries into them, and placed these in front of the pieces of ice to show that he was sorry for the dead people, and desired to give some one a feast. After he had given to them, the ice gave forth a kind of squeak as if the pieces were talking to him, though he could not make out what was said. It is from this squeak that the people now know that he invited them, and it is from this circumstance also that, when ice drifts down upon a person in a canoe, he talks to it and gives it tobacco, calling it “My son’s daughter” or “My son’s wife.” This is ahead of the Tcūkᴀneˊdî (i. e., the beginning of the Tcūkᴀneˊdî clan). Therefore they own Iceberg House.[34]

Afterwards this man went out again. He said to himself, “I will invite anyone out on the sea that hears me.” After he had gotten well out in his canoe he shouted, “Everybody this way. Everybody this way,” just as though he were calling guests, and immediately crowds of the bear tribe, thinking they were the ones invited, began coming down between the mountains.

When he saw these animals coming, the man told his wife to be courageous, but for himself he said he did not care whether he lived or died, because all of his friends were dead. When the bear people began to come in, he told them to go up to the rear end of the house, saying, “It is your brother-in-law’s seat you are going to sit down in” (i. e., that was where he formerly sat). His wife was somewhat frightened, but he talked to them as if they were his own people. As he called out the names of the dead men who had held those seats they would say in turn, “Hadeˊ (present),” and he would pass a dish up to the speaker.

After they were through eating the chief of the bear tribe said to his friends very plainly, “Do not leave this man friendless, but go to him every one of you and show your respect.” So they told the man to lie down in front of them, and before they left they licked him, meaning that thereby they licked his sorrow away. They said, “This is because you feel lonely.” Then the bears started off.

At that time men from some other town came near, watched the big animals come out and heard the man speak to them as if they were his own friends, but they were afraid to go near.

FOOTNOTES:

[33] See story 64.

[34] This man can not have belonged to the Tcūkᴀneˊdî himself, because the ice he invited must be of the opposite clan, but his wife may have been. He perhaps belonged to the Tǃᴀˊqǃdentān.

22. THE WOMAN TAKEN AWAY BY THE FROG PEOPLE[35]

There was a large town in the Yakutat country not very far back of which lay a big lake very full of frogs. In the middle of the lake was a swampy patch on which many frogs used to sit.

One day the town chief’s daughter talked badly to the frogs. She took one up and made fun of it, saying, “There are so many of these creatures, I wonder if they do things like human beings. I wonder if men and women cohabit among them.”

When she went out of doors that night, a young man came to her and said, “May I marry you?” She had rejected very many men, but she wanted to marry this one right away. Pointing toward the lake he said, “My father’s house is right up here,” and the girl replied, “How fine it looks!” When they went up to it, it seemed as though a door was opened for them, but in reality the edge of the lake had been raised. They walked under. So many young people were there that she did not think of home again.

Meanwhile her friends missed her and hunted for her everywhere. Finally they gave her up, and her father had the drums beaten for a death feast. They cut their hair and blackened their faces.

Next spring a man who was about to go hunting came to the lake to bathe himself with urine. When he was done, he threw the urine among a number of frogs sitting there and they jumped into the water. When he was bathing next day he saw all the frogs sitting together in the middle of the lake with the missing woman among them. He dressed as quickly as possible, ran home to the girl’s father, and said, “I saw your daughter sitting in the middle of the pond in company with a lot of frogs.” So her father and mother went up that evening with a number of other people, saw, and recognized her.

After that they took all kinds of things to make the frog tribe feel good so that they would let the woman return to her parents, but in vain. By and by her father determined upon a plan and called all of his friends together. Then he told them to dig trenches out from the lake in order to drain it. From the lake the frog chief could see how the people had determined, and he told his tribe all about it. The frog people call the mud around a lake their laid-up food.

After the people had worked away for some time, the trench was completed and the lake began draining away fast. The frogs asked the woman to tell her people to have pity on them and not destroy all, but the people killed none because they wanted only the girl. Then the water flowed out, carrying numbers of frogs which scattered in every direction. All the frog tribe then talked poorly about themselves, and the frog chief, who had talked of letting her go before, now had her dressed up and their own odor, which they called “sweet perfumery,” was put upon her. After a while she came down the trench half out of water with her frog husband beside her. They pulled her out and let the frog go.

When anyone spoke to this woman, she made a popping noise “Hu,” such as a frog makes, but after some time she came to her senses. She explained, “It was the Kîkcaˊ (i. e., Kîksᴀˊdî women) that floated down with me,” meaning that all the frog women and men had drifted away. The woman could not eat at all, though they tried everything. After a while they hung her over a pole, and the black mud she had eaten when she was among the frogs came out of her, but, as soon as it was all out, she died. Because this woman was taken away by the frog tribe at that place, the frogs there can understand human beings very well when they talk to them. It was a Kîksᴀˊdî woman who was taken off by the frogs, and so those people can almost understand them. They also have songs from the frogs, frog personal names, and the frog emblem. All the people know about them.

FOOTNOTES:

[35] See story 76. This myth is more often localized at Wrangell, and the woman’s name is said to have been Qałtsîˊxkǃî.

23. HOW THE FROGS HONORED THE DEAD

One time, when they were afraid of being attacked, all of the Kîksᴀˊdî and Kāˊgwᴀntān encamped on Kᴀnᴀsqǃēˊ (St. Lazaria island). There are two parts to this island separated at high tide, and the Kîksᴀˊdî encamped upon one, while the Kāgwᴀntān lived upon the other. On the same island there is also a small salt-water pond at the bottom of which was a creature called ʟǃīn, and, being pressed for food on account of their fear of the enemy, the allies often tried to bail out this pond when the tide left it, to get at the sea animal.

While the people were there, a chief of the Kāˊgwᴀntān died, and, after he had been in the house among his friends for eight days, one of his friends said to the Kîksᴀˊdî, “Take care of his dead body.” All the Kāˊgwᴀntān chiefs marry Kîkcaˊ (Kîksᴀˊdî women). But the real frog tribe thought they were the ones who were summoned, because they are also Kîkcaˊ.

Then all the Kîksᴀˊdî made ready to go ashore to burn his dead body. They chopped much wood and made a fire, while all of the Kîksᴀˊdî and Kāˊgwᴀntān stood around it, and everyone felt badly. All at once a big frog, as long as the hand and wrist, jumped out from the place where the fire was and began making a noise. All looked at it. It had come out because the frogs were the ones to whom the Kāˊgwᴀntān had spoken. After that it jumped into the fire and burned up.

Then all the people tied themselves up (gᴀˊxᴀnî) (i. e., tied their blankets around their waists, as they did when they were engaged in lifting the sun[36]) out of respect to the chief. All felt very badly about the dead man, and one person said, “It will not be like draining out the ʟǃīn lake (ʟǃīn āˊya). Let us go to war.” So they captured slaves and killed them for the dead man, and, when they put food into the fire for him, they also named the frog that it might receive some as well.

FOOTNOTES:

[36] See Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 430.

24. THE BRANT WIVES[37]

A Kîksᴀˊdî youth lived with his father in a long town. When he was well grown, he went about in the woods hunting with bow and arrows. One time he came close to a lake and heard the voices of girls. When he got nearer he saw two girls bathing there. Then he skirted the shore toward them, and, when he was very close, discovered two coats just back of the place where they were. These were really the girls’ skins. He took them up, and they began talking to him, saying, “Give us those skins.” But he said, “I want to marry both of you.” So he married both of them and took them to his father’s house.

Both of this man’s wives used to look over his hair to pick out the lice. When spring was coming on and the brants were coming from the south, the girls sat on top of the house with him and kept saying, “There comes my uncle’s canoe. There comes my father’s canoe.” They were beginning to get homesick, and they asked their husband if he would let them go home. When the brants began coming, one would say, “Those are my friends coming up. I am going to ask them to give me something to eat.” So, when they were above the house, she said, “Give me something to eat,” and down came green herbs one after another.

When it was time for the brants to start back south, both of the girls had become tired. They wanted to go home. They knew when it was time for their father’s canoe to pass over, and just before it was due they told their husband to go up into the woods after something. When he came down, his wives were gone. He said to his father, “Do you know where they went?” but he answered, “No.”

Then the young man said, “I will start down on foot to the place whither I think they have gone.” So he set out, and after he had gone on for some time, he heard people making a noise. It was the brant tribe in camp. On this journey he took a bag full of arrows with mussel-shell points, and bows. For this reason, when he came back of the place where they were, and they caught sight of him, they were afraid and flew away. Then he went down to the place where they had been sitting and found all kinds of green herbs such as brants live on.

After this the girls said to their father, “Let us camp a little way off. He has been with us for some time, and we have gotten his heat. Therefore let us camp near by so that he can come to us and be taken along.” But their father answered, “When he comes behind us again and camps, say to him, ‘Our fathers[38] do not like to see your bows and arrows. Get rid of them.’” They came to him and repeated these words, but he said, “I do not take them in order to do harm to your fathers but to get game for myself. I wish you would tell them that I want to go along, too.” So they told him to come down, and, when he did so, his father-in-law said, “Bring out the best coat. I want to put it on my son-in-law.”

After that his wives said to him, “We are going to start along with you. When we set out do not think about going back and do not look down.” Then they put a woven mat over him and started. After they had gone on for some distance the man wanted to urinate and dropped down from among them on the smooth grass. The brants did not want to leave him, and they followed. It was quite close to their real camping place. The brant tribe was so large that he felt as if he were in his own father’s house. They would play all the evening, and he felt very happy among them.

When they arrived at their real home, this man took off his bag of bows and arrows and hid it back in the woods so that they could not see it. In the same town were fowls of all kinds—brants, swans, herons, etc.—and by and by war arose over a woman, between the brant tribe and the heron tribe. They went outside and started to fight. The swan tribe was between, trying to make peace. When they came out to fight for the second time, the brant tribe was pretty well destroyed by the heron people’s long, pick-like bills. It was from the herons that the Indians learned how to make picks. This is also the reason why the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî use the swan as their crest, for they are very slow, and the Kîksᴀˊdî use the brant as their emblem because they are very lively.

Then the brant chief said to his son-in-law, “Your wives’ friends are almost destroyed. Could you do anything with your bows and arrows to help them?” You could not see whether these were brants or people. They looked just like people to him. When he ran among them to help his wives’ friends, he killed numbers at each shot and made them flee away from him. The heron tribe was so scared that they sent out word they would make peace. So messengers were sent back and forth, and the heron chief was taken up among the brants while the brant chief was taken up among the herons.[39] They renamed the heron with his own name and the brant with his own name. In making peace they had a great deal of sport and all sorts of dances. From that time on the heron has known how to dance, and one always sees him dancing by the creeks. Then the birds began to lay up herbs and all kinds of things that grow along the beach, for their journey north.

Meanwhile the man’s people had already given a feast for him, and he never returned to his father. He became as one of the brants. That is why in olden times, when brants were flying along, the people would ask them for food.

FOOTNOTES:

[37] See story 54.

[38] Meaning their father and his brothers.

[39] See Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 451.

25. STORY OF THE PUFFIN

There is a place called G̣ānᴀxaˊ and a creek close by called G̣ānᴀxaˊ-hīn whither many people used to go to dry salmon and do other work. One day some women went out from there at low tide to a neighboring island to dig shellfish. They brought their canoe to a place where there was a hole in the side of the island, but, when they endeavored to land, a breaker came in, upset the canoe, and drowned all of them except one. In former times, when this woman went by in her father’s canoe, she used to think the birds here looked pretty and was in the habit of saying, “I wish I could sit among those birds.” These birds were the ones that saved her. They felt so happy at having gotten her that they flew about all the time.

Meanwhile drums were beaten at the town to call people to the death feast, for they thought that she was drowned.

One time a canoe from the village containing her father happened to pass this place, and they said to him, “Look among those birds. Your daughter is sitting there.”

The puffin chief had ordered the łᴀgwâˊtcǃ, a bird which lives on the outer islands and is the puffin’s slave, to braid the woman’s hair, and she always sat on the edge of the cliff.

Her father was very rich, so he filled many canoes with sea-otter, beaver, and marten skins for the birds to settle on when they flew out. When they reached the place, however, he could not see his daughter, for they had taken her inside. Then he became angry. They carried all sorts of things out there but in vain.

At last, about four days afterward, the girl’s mother thought of the white hair that had belonged to her grandfather. In the morning she said to her husband, “We have that old hair in a box. What can we do with it? We ought to try a stratagem with it. Suppose we put boards on the canoes, spread the hair all over them, and take it out.” They did this, and, when they got to the cliff where their daughter used to be, they saw her sitting on the edge with her hair hanging over. They went close in. Then all the birds flew out to them, and each stuck a white hair in its head where you may see it at this day. The girl, however, remained where she was.

Then these birds flew in to the puffin chief and told him about the hair. They thought a great deal of it. Therefore the chief told them to carry the girl back to her father. But before she went he said to her, “If you are ever tired of staying with your father, come back to us.” At that time she had a nose just like one of these birds, because she had wanted to be one of them.

The sea gull is also the slave of the puffin. Therefore the Huna people say that when anyone goes to that place it calls his name, because it was the slave of the puffin at the time when this woman was there.

Because some of their people were drowned at that island, all of the Tǃᴀˊqǃdentān claim it. Later they built a house which they named after it.

26. STORY OF THE WAIN-HOUSE PEOPLE

People came to a fort to live and began to kill bears, ground hogs, porcupines, mountain sheep, etc., with spears, and bows and arrows, laying the meat up in the fort. After they had killed some of these animals they would cut off their heads, set them up on sticks, and begin to sing for them.

There was a young man among them who had been put into a mountain-sheep’s skin instead of a cradle as soon as he was born. When he grew older he was able to follow the mountain sheep to places where no one else could get, so he killed more than the others. He would also play and dance around the heads after they had been cut off and say, “I wish my head were cut off, too.” Then people sang about it. Meanwhile the sheep were getting tired of losing so many of their number.

One day all the people went up to a mountain to hunt, and, finding a flock of sheep, began to chase them to a certain place where they could bunch all together. Suddenly this youth became separated from the other people, and on the very top of the mountain was met by a fine-looking man who shone all over and had a long white beard. This man led him through a door into what he at first thought was a house, but it was really the inside of the mountain. All at once it looked very strange to him. Piles of horns lay about everywhere.

Meanwhile all of his friends had missed him and were hunting about, but had to go home without him. They thought he was gone forever. They hunted for him every day and found his horn spear stuck into the ground at a certain place near the top of the mountain, but nothing more. After searching everywhere in vain they became discouraged and beat the drums for him.

Meanwhile the mountain sheep tried to fit a pair of horns on the young man’s head. They heated these first in the fire, and tried to put them on, when it seemed to him as if the insides of his head were all coming out.

The people kept up their search for him, however, and about a year afterward a man climbed up on the same mountain to hunt sheep. Above him he saw a big flock, and he heard a noise as though some one were shouting or talking there. Then he went straight down, for he knew that it was the person who had been lost, and he knew that the mountain sheep had captured him. Pointing this mountain out to the people, he said to them, “It is he, for I know his voice.” So all the people started up.

Now the sheep could see whenever the Indians set out to hunt for the person they had taken, and they said to him, “There come your friends. If you will tell them to throw away their weapons, we will let you go to them.” So he said to his friends, “If you will lay down your hunting weapons, I will tell you what these mountain sheep say to me.” Afterward he said, “They say that I am being punished because you are destroying them too much, and, when you have killed them, you take the heads and put them on sticks.” Although he was among the mountain sheep he retained his own language. He said besides, “The mountain-sheep chief tells me to say to you that you must hang up the sheep skins with their heads toward the mountain and the rising sun and put eagle feathers upon them. They tell me to say, ‘Do not put our heads on sticks. Grizzly-bears’ heads are the only ones you should treat that way—not ours.’” One could not see or hear this man unless he were specially purified by bathing in urine. Afterward the sheep went right into the mountain with him to the place where they have their homes.

Now they tried in every way to recover him, and finally came out with dogs. Then the mountain sheep said to him, “You can go among your friends after a while, but now you may talk to them from the top of a little cliff.” So his friends came up underneath this, and he talked down to them. By and by the sheep again changed their minds regarding him, and one day he said to his friends, “This is the last time I shall come to see you. If you are going to begin a war on my account, try it in the fall. Then they always come down into the thick timber below the glacier, and you can come up there with dogs.”

In the autumn, therefore, they prepared to kill the sheep. The people were told to put the sheep heads toward the rising sun and throw their skins about anywhere without drying, for they thought that this would make the mountain sheep let their friend go.

Then the mountain-sheep chief said to the man, “They are going to let you go now, because all of your fathers are suffering very much from not having their skins well dried.”

The mountain sheep could easily see when all of his friends started out to fight for him, and they got him ready to send down to them. Then they said, “Now you will be allowed to start down to them.” When they got down far enough the dogs which were coming up in front met the flock he was standing among. Then they took off his mountain-sheep skin and put it aside, leaving him in human form, and he chased all the dogs away from them.

He stood in the midst of the flock of sheep, and all the people stood below. Then he said to his friends, “Do not kill any more mountain sheep, for they will now let me go among you.” So they broke all of the shafts of the spears they had used in fighting the mountain sheep and threw them away.

When he came down he smelt like the things that grow on the tops of cottonwood trees (dōxkwāˊnkǃ). They brought him into the house and he saw the mountain-sheep skins lying about there at random. Then he said, “They let me come among you again that I might have you dampen these, hang them up, and dry them thoroughly.” After they had worked upon the skins for some time they put red paint upon them and eagle down. The man who had come down from among the sheep told his people to say this to the skins while they were doing so: “We will put your skins in just the position in which they came off from the flesh.”

In the morning all of the houses shook. Every piece of flesh that had come off of the mountain sheep was in its place in the skins, and, when the man who had come back to them opened the door, they came down from the drying racks and marched off. But they had been so long among the Indians that just before they reached the highest mountain where they belonged they lost their way and became scattered over all the mountains. Because the mountain sheep once saved (or captured) a man, they have beards and look in other respects like human beings.

After this the mountain sheep sent a spirit called Ỵīx̣âˊ (A-very-young-man (or -yēk)) to the man who had been rescued, to be his strength (yēk). There was great rejoicing among his friends when this spirit began to manifest itself in him, and all commenced to sing for him. At the command of this spirit he had them make him a pair of snowshoes with which his spirit could take him around the fire, a shaman’s mask, and bows and arrows.

Then they came with him to Fort-by-small-lake (Ākǃᵘ Nū), just west of Juneau,[40] and built a big house for him with inside rooms (tǃāqǃ), corner and middle posts, the last mentioned being carved to represent the Great Dipper (Yᴀxtêˊ). At that time the shaman fasted for four days and Yᴀxtêˊ (the constellation) appeared to him. So from that house the people were called Yᴀxtêˊ-hît-tan (Wain-House people).

The mountain-sheep tribe gave this man the name of Skōwadᴀˊł, and he was also called Cᴀxtcāˊtc (Long-toothed-humpback). When his spirit was about to work in him, two porcupine bladders were blown up and hung in the house, and, when the spirit arrived, all stood up in the customary way. Then he put on his mask and his snowshoes, which were thrown down on the floor for him, and carried his bow and arrows in his hand. Although he could not see through this mask, he climbed up on the walls of the inside rooms and ran around there backward. While there he shot at a bladder and the arrow passed straight through it.

When the shaman’s spirits left him he said, “You people are going to see a wonderful gift. It is coming to such and such a place.” In the morning they went out with a dog and armed with spears, and before they got far away the dog began to bark at a bear. Then the animal ran under a log, and all climbed on top of the log prepared to spear it. The shaman had said, “Something is going to happen to one of you,” and sure enough the first man that speared this bear fell down before it and was caught and killed. Then the others quickly speared the bear through and through and killed it.

Meanwhile a spirit came to the shaman, who had remained at home, saying, “Your friend has been killed by a bear.” They brought the bear and the dead man’s body down at once and laid the body before him in the middle of the house. Then the shaman took some of the red paint with which they had brought the mountain sheep to life and put it on the body after which he began running around it. The third time he did this the dead man sat up. The shaman always had such strength.

Some time afterward he again began testing his spirits, because they were going south to war, and, when they left him, he told his people that they would destroy an entire town.

When he was walking around in the woods a raven fell in front of him, and on getting back to the house he said to his clothes man, “I am in luck.” He told some one to return with him, and they found the raven still with life in it. Then he said to his friends, “I will set up all these things.” So he took sticks and set them all round the raven. “Before I cut it,” he said, “I will let the wings flap over it. This will be (i. e., represent) your enemies. Before I cut it I will cause it to kill all of your enemies. The raven will have so much strength.” When they tested him[41] the spirit said, “All people on sticks,” meaning that it wanted all of their foes to fall on sticks and be destroyed when they fought. Then they prepared, saying, “We will start.” The shaman said, “At the moment when we arrive a man is going to chop down a tree in front of us.”

Toward morning they came close to the fort, all prepared for fighting. After they had surrounded it a man came out with a stone ax and climbed up a tree to chop off limbs. Then they shot him with arrows, unnoticed by the fort people, so that he fell down dead. But a little while afterward the fort people said, “Where is that man who climbed the tree a short time ago. He is not there now.” At once they rushed together on both sides, and all those in the fort were destroyed just as the shaman had predicted. Then they returned to their own fort, which was also known as Eulachon-trap fort (Cāł nū).

Another time five women went around the island where they had their fort, after mussels, and came to a reef on the outer side. They left their canoe untied and it floated away. Then the tide began to come up. They stood up on the reef with their hands in the air, singing death songs for themselves, for they knew they were about to die. After that the reef was called Woman reef (Cā qǃāˊtǃagu), on account of the women who were destroyed there.

A year after this some people went across from the fort to a lake into which salmon run, and were surprised on encountering people. They thought it was some war party from very far south and beat a precipitate retreat to the fort. Then the people in the fort saw a big canoe all covered with abalone shell come out from this place and make straight toward them. When it had come close in, the chief questioned these strangers and learned that they were on a friendly visit from Yakutat. It took the strength of all the people to bring up this canoe. Then they made the fort chief a present of land-otter skins, marten skins, skins of all kinds. This was the custom in olden times, a slave being generally given back.

The chief at this place had a nephew named Yêtx̣âˊ who was very fond of gambling. The fourth day that the visitors were in town the chief’s nephew was away from home, and the fire went out. Then he acted as though he were crazy. He went down to the valuable canoe of the visitors, broke off the stern piece for firewood, and threw it indoors so that the abalone shells fell off of it.

Next morning, when the man that owned the canoe got up, he saw that his stern piece was missing, and that burnt abalone shells were lying by the fire. He called to his companions, “Get up and let us be gone. Push the canoe down and load it quickly.” He had a number of copper plates and other property which he had not yet unpacked, and, after he had gotten a little distance from the fort, he landed and took these out. Then he went right back in front of the fort to destroy them on account of the injury he had received. When these people came opposite they took out a copper plate, struck it on the edge of the canoe so as to make it sound and threw it into the sea. They threw away four. Then the fort chief also took four coppers, flung them on the wall of the fort and threw them into the ocean.

[I have explained to you before where this copper came from. It came from the Copper river. Probably this rich man came several times before the fort. Coppers were valued according to their height when they were first made, some at four slaves and some at six.][42]

When the Yakutat man came before this fort again, his copper plates were all gone, and he began to use cedar bark. His people would tie a rock on each piece and throw it into the water. Meanwhile the fort chief put his canoe on the walls of the fort and began to put Indian beads, caribou skins, moose skins, and other articles into it. Since these ʟǃenēˊdî have the dog salmon for their emblem, the chief’s sister began acting like one when it is shaking out its eggs. She pretended to be shaking out riches in the same way, and, while she did so, they threw the canoe over the edge of the fort, and all the good things spilled out. The man from Yakutat was foolish to try to contend with so wealthy a chief. His name (i. e., the Yakutat man’s) was Kāˊyeswūsâˊt. They chased him out with riches, and told him to come back again with more property. A song was composed about this afterward to the effect that he was simply fooling the people with this yellow cedar bark which was not real property at all. (See song 43.)

In the same fort a woman gave birth to a boy, who exclaimed as soon as he was born, “How many things there will be for all the people who are holding my mother.” In olden times certain women used to hold a woman who was about to give birth, and they were paid for this service. The child grew very fast. He was going to be the greatest liar among his people. After he was grown up and had a family of his own, his mother died, and he started for Chilkat to invite people to the death feast. This was before the Russians came.

He said to his children, “Pull away. Pull fast.” He had started off without any of the property he had intended to take, but on his way Indian rice hailed into his canoe, and a large box of grease floated down to him. When he got close to the mouth of Chilkat river he came in front of a waterfall. He tasted the water of this and found it very sweet. Then he took all of his buckets and filled them with it so that they might put this water on the rice when they ate it. As he was bound for Klukwan, the village farthest up the river, he said to his children, “Blow on the sail.” They did so and passed right up to Klukwan. Then he stood up in his canoe and began to talk. They took all of his stuff up, and in the evening the drums were beaten as a sign that he was going to give out property.

He began to cry in the customary manner as he beat the drums. Then he took a piece of bark and put it in front of his eyes, upon which the tears ran down it in a stream. Afterward he gave out two copper plates and invited the people to eat what he had brought. Then the people danced for him in return, and a man came in with something very shiny on top of his head.[43]

That is all he told when he returned.

FOOTNOTES:

[40] Or on the side toward Sitka.

[41] That is, when the people allowed him to perform before them.

[42] An “aside” by the story-teller.

[43] This last was said to be “the way the story went,” but otherwise was unexplained.

27. THE ALSEK RIVER PEOPLE

Once there was a famine among the people of Alsek (Ałsēˊx) river. There were two shamans there, one of whom began singing to bring up eulachon, while the other sang for strength in order to obtain bears and other forest animals.

The first shaman’s spirit told him that if he would go down the little rapids he would see great numbers of eulachon. So he dressed up next morning and went straight down under the water in a little canoe.

That night the other shaman’s spirits came to him, saying that the first shaman would remain under water for four nights; that he had gone into a house where were eulachon, salmon, and other fish and had thrown the door open.

At the end of four days they hunted all around and found him lying dead on the beach amid piles of eulachon. As soon as they brought him up, all the eulachon that were in the ocean started to run up river, and everyone tried to preserve as many of them as he could.

In the same town were two menstruant women, and the other shaman told these that there would be a great many land otters about the town that evening. Just as he had said, at the time when his spirits came to him that evening, numbers of land-otter-men came through the village. They could be heard whistling about the town. Finally some one said, “Why is it that it sounds as if they were all where the two women are?” Sure enough, they found that the land otters were talking inside of the two women. The ones that were inside of them were really land-otter-men, that is, men who had been taken away by the land otters and made like themselves.

A person would often creep close up to these women to find out what they were, but every time something spoke out inside, “Do not sneak around here for I can see you.” They could not get at them. These land-otter-men had come to the women to turn them into land-otter-people also.

A menstruant woman is the only thing that will enfeeble the power of a shaman’s spirit, therefore, although the shaman endeavored to get these land-otter-men out of the women, his spirits kept turning back. When the shaman’s spirit came to him next evening, it said that there were more land-otter-men coming to take away the ones in these women and the women with them. He told the people to be watchful, because there was going to be a great disturbance that night. When night came on the people were all very much frightened at the noises the land-otter-men made under the houses, and they had great trouble keeping the two women in their rooms so that they should not be carried off. All the people helped them, but the land otters were invisible. After that nobody went out to camp for a long time. Then they said to the two women, “Take your bloody clothes to different beaches, leave them there, and tell the land otters that they are too great animals to fight with weak beings.” In those times whenever a menstruant woman said anything of that kind it had to be obeyed. So the land otters went off.

The shamans in those times were very strict and strong, and whatever they saw was true. By and by these shamans said, “Something is going to happen to that great town there by the lake.” When the things that had happened in their neighbors’ town regarding the land otters were reported to the people there, they said, “Are you afraid of those things that stutter and can not talk like you and I?” By and by two men started hunting from this place. When they had reached the top of a neighboring mountain, they looked back and saw a great flood come down between the mountains and overwhelm their town. This flood was caused by an avalanche which poured into the lake and filled it up, forcing the water out. Some human bodies were hanging to the branches of trees. The men knew this had happened on account of the way they had spoken of the land otters, and, starting on aimlessly, they came to the town where the shamans lived.

One of these two shamans had a quantity of oil which he was going to carry to another town. He wanted to buy skins of kinds different from those his own people had. When they reached a camping place outside of the town the man’s spirit told him to go down to the beach at low tide and carry a hook with him. A shaman’s spirits never liked salt things. There he saw a very big devilfish under a rock, and his spirit said to him, “Look out, master, that is a big live devilfish.” As soon as he had hooked it, he saw what appeared to be two ducks flying toward him from either side, but they were really the devilfish’s arms. Then his spirit told him to run up quickly on the bank, and he squatted down there under a rock, while the devilfish’s tentacles swept over him, carrying all the forest trees along with them. Two days after this his spirit told him to set out again.

When this shaman arrived at Kǃᴀkᴀnuwūˊ, where many people lived, everybody wanted to see him and try his strength, because they had heard that he was a great shaman. One evening they began trying him. They threw his mask on his face and it stayed there, covering up his eyes so that he could not see where he was going. Then, when he ran around the fire, the people stuck out their feet to trip him, but he jumped over them every time. This showed how strong his spirits were. Another time his spirits came to him they built a big fire and he started around it. Then he threw the fire round upon everyone who was there and as high up as the ceiling, but the fire hurt nobody. By and by his clothes man said, “Another spirit is coming to him soon, named Gutsǃcaxoˊtǃqā.” This spirit had a big knife in his hand with which he would hit people on the breast. When it came to him, the shaman told the older people to stand up straight and motionless and not to fear, for if one got scared he would die. He hit one, and they laid him in a certain place. Then everyone said, “You better kill that shaman, for he has slain the best man in the company.” After his spirits had gone away, however, the shaman went to the body out of which blood was still flowing and said, “It will be all right,” while his spirits made a noise. Then the man got up and jumped about. The people looked at the wounded place, but there was not so much as a scar upon it.

After a while the shaman began trading off his grease to all who wanted it. One day he said, “Something is about to come up that will be very dangerous to you people.” It was the moon. When the moon came up it shone brightly, and the stars were bright, but after a time the moon began to hide its face from them. That was what he had predicted. The people, however, thought this was caused by the shaman himself.

Then the leading men and women of the Kāˊgwᴀntān dressed themselves up, put grease on the fire, and began dancing to dance the moon out. After awhile it came out just a little, so they felt very happy and danced still harder. They continued doing so until the whole moon was out. At the same time people took whatever property they had, held it up and called the moon for it. They say the moon acts in this way because it feels poor and lonely, so, when the moon or sun does thus, they act in this manner. After that the shaman went home and told his fellow shaman how everyone had tried him in this place. “When I went around the fire, people put out their feet to make me stumble. They tried me in every way.”

The shaman left at home was also trying to exert his power. His spirits were singing inside of him in order to bring salmon into the creeks, and he told someone to make him a one-barbed hook (dinaˊ). Whenever the salmon he was after came he was going to use this in order to get it. When it came up it filled the whole of Alsek river and broke all the hooks of those who tried to catch it. Then the shaman selected a small boy and said, “This little boy is going to hook it.” So he gave him the hook he had had made, and the little boy pulled it up easily. The shaman’s spirits had killed it. This salmon was so large that all in that town had a share, and even then it was more than they could cook for one meal. It was the biggest salmon ever killed. There are two creeks in that region, and to this day a young boy can easily pull in a large spring salmon there such as is hard for an adult to manage.

There is a hole near by called Hole-Raven-bored (Yēł-djuwᴀtuˊłia), because Raven made it long ago. In early times, whenever there was to be a large run of eulachon or other fish, quantities of rocks came out of that hole. So people used to go there to look at it.

In one place Alsek river runs under a glacier. People can pass beneath in their canoes, but, if anyone speaks, while they are under it, the glacier comes down on them. They say that in those times this glacier was like an animal, and could hear what was said to it. So, when they camped just below it, people would say, “Give us some food. We have need of food.” Then the glacier always came down with a rush and raised a wave which threw numbers of salmon ashore.

The people were also in the habit of going up some distance above the glacier to a place called Cānyukᴀˊ after soapberries which grow there in abundance. The first time they went up they discovered people who were all naked except about the loins, and there was a shaman among them who was reputed to have a great deal of strength. For that reason they tried him. They took mussel shells, clam shells, and sharp stones and tried to cut his hair, but a single hair on his head was 3 inches across, so everything broke. This shaman had many spirits. Some were glacier spirits, called Sītǃ tu kohaˊnî, Fair-girls-of-the-glacier; others were of the sky tribe called Gūsǃ tu kohaˊnî, Fair-girls-of-the-sky.

The shaman said that, on their way down, one canoe load of the down-river people would be drowned as they passed under the glacier; but the spirits of the shaman below told him about this, and he went up to see the Athapascan shaman. In those days shamans hated one another exceedingly. So the Athapascan shaman placed kᴀqǃᴀnaqǃᴀqǃ, something to destroy all of one’s opponent’s people, before his guest. The latter, however, all at once saw what it was and went home. Soon after he got there, the Athapascan shaman died, killed by his rival’s spirits, and his spirits passed to one of his friends.

The shamans living on Alsek river had a great deal of strength. All things in the sea and in the forest obeyed them. A rock just south of Alsek river, named Tᴀˊnᴀku, has within it the spirits of a shaman called Qātsatîˊ. When a person wanted to kill some animal he placed things there, and now the Tǃᴀˊqǃdentān make a door like it and use it as an emblem. Near by is a place where many wild onions grow. They were planted there by Raven.

There is a small river beyond Alsek to which the Alsek River people once went for slaves. On their second expedition they killed a rich man, and those people, who were called ʟǃuqǃoedîˊ, built a fort. Among them was a very brave man, named Łucwâˊk, who conceived the idea of making the gate very strong, and of having it fastened on the inside so that it could be opened only wide enough to admit a single person at a time. Now, when the Alsek River people came up again and tried to enter the fort through this door, they were clubbed to death one at a time. By morning there were piles of dead bodies around the door.

Then the survivors begged Łucwâˊk to let them have the bodies of those who had been wealthy, but he climbed up on the fort and said, “I will name my fort again. Know that it is Eagle fort. The eagle’s claws are fastened in the dead bodies, and he can not let go of them. Poor as we are you always bring war against us, but now it is our turn. We have done this work, and I can not let one go.” Toward evening, however, he had all of the bodies thrown outside, and climbed on the top beam of the fort where he walked about whistling with happiness. Meanwhile his opponents loaded their canoes with the dead and took them home. When they burned these, they took all the women they had enslaved in previous expeditions and threw them also into the flames. Then all the Eagle people assembled, returned to Eagle fort, burned it, and destroyed nearly everybody inside. Łucwâˊk’s body was not burned, because he was a brave man, and brave men do not want to sit close to the fire in the Ghosts’ home like weaklings.

Another time some Alsek people went visiting at a certain place and were invited to take sweat baths. But their hosts remained outside, and, when the Alsek people came out, they killed them. One of their victims was a man named Sītāˊn, related to the Athapascans. He protected himself at first by holding a board in front of his face. Then they said, “Take down the board, Sītāˊn. What we are doing now is especially for you.” In those times a person used to make some kind of noise when he went out expecting to be killed. So Sītāˊn uttered this cry, ran out, and was killed.

After they had collected all of the dead bodies on a board a woman came crying out of the town. Then they said to her, “Are you really crying? If you are really crying for the dead bodies, lend us your husband’s stone ax so that we can cut firewood with which to burn them.” In those times stone axes were valuable and, when one was broken, people beat a drum as though somebody had died. It means that this woman was very sorry indeed for the dead people when she lent her stone ax for this purpose.

When the Alsek River people heard of this slaughter they were very sad, but first they started their respective shamans fighting. It was really the shamans’ spirits that fought. The shaman would stand in one place and say, “Now we are going to fight.” He would also perform with knives just as if he were fighting something, though at that time the shamans were very far apart. Their spirits, however, could see each other plainly. They would also give the names of those warriors who were to be killed.

On the next expedition from Alsek against the people who had killed so many of their friends, they killed the same number on the other side. That was the way people did in olden times. They kept on fighting until both sides were even. Therefore they stopped at this point.

28. THE YOUTHFUL WARRIOR

A man belonging to the Wolf clan went hunting with his brothers-in-law. He wore a black bear-skin coat. They went up a certain creek after grizzly bears, but one time at camp he climbed a tree with his bear skin on and was filled with arrows by his companions who mistook him for an animal. Then he said to them, “I will not say that you filled me with arrows. I will say that I fell from the tree.” So, when they got him home, he said, “I fell from a tree.” After he was dead, however, and his body burned, they found mussel-shell arrow points lying among his bones.

After this his friends told his sister’s son to go up to the place where he had been killed. The name of this place is Creek-with-a-cliff-at-its-mouth (Wᴀtłag̣êˊʟ), and it is near Port Frederick. When the hunters came into camp with a bear the boy pretended to be asleep, but really he was looking through a hole in his blanket. While they were cooking the bear some of them suggested that they say to this boy, “The bear’s soup is very sweet,” but others did not wish to. They tried to get the boy to eat some of it, but he would not. Then they started home with him.

After he had reached home he said to his mother, “Let us go down to the beach. I want you to look over my hair for lice.” But, when she got down there with him, he said, “Mother, I want you to tell me truly what my fathers meant. They said, ‘Wake this young fellow up and let him drink some of this bear’s soup.’” Then his mother became frightened and said to him, “Your uncle went to that creek. They shot him full of arrows there.” When he found that out he chased his mother away.

When he was a few years older he began bathing for strength in winter time. After people had whipped each other they would go to the shaman to see what he predicted. This had been going on for some time when four persons went out of the town to carve things for the shaman. They were gone so long that late in the winter it was thought they had been lost, and the shaman was consulted. They laid him in the middle of the house and tested his spirits in every way to find out what the matter was. Finally, the shaman got his spirits to take a certain man up to the sky to see if he could discover the missing men. The man he chose knew that the young man was preparing to kill some one, so, when he awoke, he said to him, “Tell the shaman that they are there (i. e., in the heaven to which those go who are killed).” And the youth said to the people, “The persons who destroyed my uncle are the same who destroyed these. Let us go to war.”

Then they made a war hat for the young man all covered with abalone shells, and he went out to fight. Every time he went out he conquered, because he was strong. The missing men, however, got home safely. After some time the youth came against a fort where lived an old sister of his father, and this woman shouted down to him during the fight, “I never thought that that boy would grow into such a powerful man. When I took away the moss[44] from his cradle he never felt how cold it was.” So the young man, when he got into the fort, inquired, “Who said that to me?” “It was your father’s sister who said it.” So he pitied his father’s sister, pulled off his war hat, and smashed it on the rocks in front of her, breaking the abalone shells all to pieces. He gave up fighting, and they made peace.

Some time after this, however, he killed one of his own friends belonging to another town, and they came over and killed two of his people in revenge. After that every time the young man ate, he would say, “I will leave this good part for my enemy,” meaning that he would feed them on a good war. He always made fun of his enemies because he was brave. So the people at this place, when they had destroyed all of his companions, took him captive because he had talked so much. They would not let him touch the bodies of his friends, and he said to them at last, “Let me have my friends.” “Will you do this any more?” they said. “No, I will not set out to war any more. Let me have my friends.” Then they lowered a canoe into the water with himself and a few others who had been preserved, and they started home with the bodies. On the way one of his companions said to him, “I wish you would steer this canoe well.” “It can not be steered well,” he said, “because there are so few to paddle it.” Some of the women belonging to his enemies were in the canoe along with them. When they burned their dead, they put these women into the fire along with the bodies. Then the man gave up all idea of fighting. He was the last one left in that clan.

After they had made peace on both sides, a man named Qoxtīˊtc came there from Prince of Wales island on the way to Chilkat. He went to the man who used to fight so much and said, “How is Chilkat? Is it a town?” He answered, “It is a notable town. A man has to be careful what he does there or he will suffer a great shame.” Then he started for Klukwan, which he wanted to see very much. He came in sight of the first village, Yêndēˊstaqǃê, with many people going around in it, and said to his wife, “Put on your earring [of abalone shell].” The earring was called Earring-that-can-be-seen-clear-across-the-Nass (Nāˊskᴀnᴀx-dutīˊn). Then the man also put on his leggings and dressed up finely, for if one were not dressed up just right he would suffer a great shame. Afterward he began dancing in his canoe. When he came away from Chilkat he left his dancing clothes with the people but brought back a great quantity of presents received for dancing.

A very rich man once started from Chilkat to Kᴀqǃᴀnuwūˊ on a visit with his wife and all of his property.[45] When they approached the town the people heard his wife singing. She had a very powerful voice. Then they were frightened and wondered what man was smart enough to reply to this wealthy visitor. There was a certain poor man who always sat with his head down, and they kept taunting him, saying, “Will you speak to that rich man?”

When the visitor came in front of the houses he did not speak to the men who lived in them but to the dead chiefs who had formerly owned them. No one replied, for they did not know what to say. After a while, however, the poor man seized a spear and rushed down to the rich man’s canoe. Then the people shouted, “There goes Sᴀqayêˊ. He is going to kill this rich man. Stop him.” When he got right in front of the canoe they caught him, but he said, “I did not want to kill this rich man, but I heard people talking so much about him that I pretended to.” His action had a sarcastic import, because others were so much afraid of the visitor.

The rich man talked from the canoe for such a long time that they made a long noise instead of speaking to him, to let him know that he had talked too long about things that were past. Then they said to him, “Jump into the water.” This was formerly said to a visitor when blankets were about to be given away for some dead person, though they always stood ready to catch him. Afterward they took the man up into a house, placed a Chilkat blanket under him, and gave him five slaves and a canoe load of property for his dead friend. When he went home they returned his visit.

FOOTNOTES:

[44] A piece of moss was placed in the cradle for sanitary purposes.

[45] There seems to be no connection between this part of the story and that which goes before except that both happened at Kᴀqǃᴀnuwūˊ.

29. THE FIRST WAR IN THE WORLD[46]

A man named Xakuˊtcǃ was very fond of hunting and hunted almost every day with his brother-in-law, bringing home seal and all sorts of game which he had speared. There was no money in those days.

It was winter. One morning when he went out he speared a porpoise near the place where a devilfish lived, and began to skin it there, letting its blood spread out over the water. He told his steersman to keep a sharp lookout for the devilfish.

While they were moving along slowly skinning it, they saw the color of the devilfish coming toward them from under the water. It had its arms extended upward ready for action.

Xakuˊtcǃ had a big spear ready by his side, while his brother-in-law began to sharpen his knife and thought to do great things with it. When the devilfish came up out of the water he jumped into the midst of its arms along with his knife and was swallowed so quickly that he was able to do nothing; so his brother-in-law had to fight by himself. After he had fought with it for a long time he killed it, and it began to sink with him. The canoe stood up on one end before it went under, and he climbed up on the thwarts as high as he could go. At last the devilfish went right under with them, and finally floated up again at a place called Narrow point (Kułîsaˊo qǃa).

Some one must have witnessed this fight, for they cut the devilfish open to see if the hunter were there, and found him stowed away snugly inside of it. That was the man that people often talk about in these days as Xakuˊtcǃ.[47] He it was who killed the devilfish.

Afterward his spirit came to one of his friends. People now try to get strength from him because he killed this devilfish. In olden times, when one killed a great creature, his strength always came to another person. Then his strength came to a certain person, impelling him to go to war.

They used to put a light, thin-skinned coat on this person’s back to try his strength by endeavoring to pull it off, but they were not able to do so. They would pull this coat as far back as his shoulders, but, try as hard as they might, they could not get it farther. Then [the spirit in this shaman] told his name. He said, “I am Xakuˊtcǃ. I have been swallowed by a devilfish, and I come to you as a spirit (yēk).” Many people came to see the shaman when he was possessed and to try him with the coat which no one could pull off. What do you think it was that held it on his back?

After they had tested all of his spirits they started south to war. They were always warring with the southern people. They and the southern people hated each other. When they went down with this shaman they always enslaved many women and sometimes destroyed a whole town, all on account of his strength.

There was a brave man among the southern people, called Qǃōg̣aˊ, who liked to kill people from up this way. One time a little boy they had captured escaped from the fort where he was. He had a bow and arrows with him. The brave man discovered where he was, went after him, and pulled him out from under the log where he was hiding. But meanwhile the spirits in the canoes of the northern people had seen Qǃōg̣aˊ. Then Qǃōg̣aˊ took the little boy down on the beach and said to him, “Shoot me in the eye.” He put an arrow in his bow and took such good aim that the arrow passed straight through it. The point of this arrow was made of the large mussel shell. The brave man fell just like a piece of wood thrown down. The little boy had killed him. Then all ran to the little boy and took off his head. The chiefs passed his dried scalp from one to another and wondered at what he had done. They named him ever after Little-head (Qācāˊkǃᵘ), and the man he killed was called One-Little-head-killed (X̣ūg̣āˊwadjag̣et). Even now they relate how Little-head killed the brave man. Then the northern people came around the fort and destroyed everybody there, some of those in the canoes being also killed.

After that the southern people started north to war. They had a shaman among them. On the way they came to a man named Murrelet (Tcǃīt). When this man was young, he had been trained to run up steep cliffs by having a mountain-sheep’s hoof tied to his leg or neck, and being held up to the walls of the house and made to go through the motions of climbing. They said, “Is this the man they talk about so much who can run up any mountain?” This is what they said when they were chasing him. Then they caught him and took him into one of their canoes.

Now the war chief said to his friends, “Let us take him ashore to that cliff.” So they took him to a place called Bell point (Gao łîtuˊ) where part of the town of Huna is, to try him there. They said to him, “Murrelet, go up this cliff.” When he attempted it, however, he fell back into the canoe. All the people in the canoes laughed at him. They said, “Oh! you little thing. Why is it that they say you are the best runner up this way?” After he had fallen back the third time, he said, “This is not the way I am dressed when I go up a cliff. I always carry a stone ax, a staff, and a flint, and I always carry along a seal’s stomach full of grease.” They prepared these things for him and gave them to him. Then he started up, wearing his claw snowshoes, which must have been shod with points as strong as the iron ones people have now. He stepped up a little distance, shook himself, and looked down. Then he called like the murrelet and went up flying. The warriors were surprised and said, “Now give him some more things to put on his feet.” They talked about him in the canoes. They said, “Look! he is up on the very top of the mountain peeping at us.” Then he lit fires all along on top of the mountain. All the war canoes went along to another place where was a sandy beach.

Then they tied all the canoe ropes to the body of Murrelet’s steersman, intending to use him as an anchor. Murrelet heard him crying and ran down the mountain toward him. He turned the world over with his foes.[48] As he came he made a noise like the murrelet. When he got near he told the man to cry very loudly. Probably this man was his brother. It is rather hard to say. Then he said, “I am going to cut the ropes now. Cry harder.” So he cut all of the ropes, and they ran off, while the war canoes floated away. Afterward, however, the warriors found where they had drifted to and recovered them.

Then they started for the fort toward which they had originally set out and captured it.

One high-caste woman they saved and carried south. They took good care of her on account of her birth. At the time when she was captured she was pregnant, and her child was born among the southern people. They also took good care of him; and while he was growing up his mother would take some of his blood and put it upon his nose to make him brave.

For a long time he was ignorant that they were slaves, until one day a young fellow kicked his mother in the nose so that it bled. Then they told him, but he said, “You people know that she is my mother. Why don’t you take good care of her even if she is a slave?” After that a spirit possessed him. It was sorrow that made him have this spirit. Then he ordered them to make a paddle for him, and they made him a big one. His spirit was so very powerful that he obtained enough blankets for his services to purchase his mother’s freedom. Afterward he got ready to come north with his father and mother, and they helped him to load his canoe. Before he started his father’s people asked him not to bring war down upon them. No one else went with them because his spirit was going to guide them.

When they were about to start they put matting over his mother, and, whenever they were going to encamp, they never went right ashore but always dropped anchor outside. How it happened they did not know, but on the way up his mother became pregnant and what was born from her had strength. This strength was what brought them up. During that journey the shaman never ate.

When they came to the beach his friends did not know at first who he was, but his mother related all that had happened. Then his friends came in and began to help him show his spirits. He was getting other spirits from the country of the people he was going to war against. From his wrist up to his elbow he made as many black spots as there were towns he intended to conquer, and, while all were helping him with his spirits, the spots one after another began to smoke. His father told him to remember the place where he had stayed and not destroy it. So, when the spots burned, the burning stopped at the one at his elbow which he simply cleaned away with his hand. This meant that he would extinguish the fire at that point and not fight there.

Then all of his friends prepared themselves and set out to war. They came straight up to a certain fort without attempting to hide, and the fort people shouted, “Come on, you Chilkat people.” They had no iron in those days, but were armed with mussel-shell knives and spears, and wore round wooden fighting hats. They destroyed all the men at this fort and enslaved the women and children. Afterward they stood opposite the fort, took off their war hats and began to scalp all they had killed. When they got off they put the scalps on sticks and tied them all around the canoe. They called this, “Shouting out for the scalped heads” (Kēcayᴀt-dus-huˊktc). They felt very happy over the number of people they had killed and over the number of slaves they had captured. There were no white people here then, not even Russians. It was very close to the time when Raven made us. The people who were doing these things were Kāˊgwᴀntān. They had started to war from ʟucāˊcakǃî-ān and Kᴀqǃᴀnuwūˊ.

After that all the southern people started north to make war, coming by the outside passage. The first place they reached while rounding this island was Murrelet-point fort (Aołî-tcǃīˊtînū). One canoe started off to spy upon them and was chased ashore but was carried across a narrow strip of land and so got back. Therefore this place is called Things-taken-over (Āˊnᴀxgᴀłnaˊ). Then they came right up to the fort, destroyed it, and captured the women. There must have been a hundred canoes coming to war. In those days they always used bows and arrows.

A certain woman captured here said, “There is another town up the inlet from us.” So they started up about evening and, when the tide was pretty well up, passed through a place where there is a small tide rip. They caught sight of the town far back inside of this and exclaimed, “There’s the town.” Then they landed just below it and started up into the forest in order to surround it. When it became very dark they began to make noises like birds up in the woods. In the morning they descended to fight, and the women and children began crying. They captured all. Meanwhile the tidal rapids began to roar as the tide fell.

One woman among the captives was very old. They asked her what time of tide to run the rapids, and she said to herself, “It is of no use for me to live, for all of my friends and brothers are gone. It is just as well to die as to be enslaved.” So she said to them, “At half tide.”

Then two canoes started down ahead in order to reach some forts said to lie in another direction. They rushed straight under and were seen no more. The old woman was drowned with them. So they made a mark with their blood at the place where these two canoe loads had been drowned to tell what had happened. It may be seen to-day and looks like yellowish paint.

Next day the remaining canoes started out when the tide was high and came to another fort next morning. While they were around behind this a woman came out. Then they seized her and ran a spear up into her body from beneath many times until she dropped dead without speaking. So this fort came to be called, Fort-where-they-stabbed-up-into-a-woman’s-privates (Kᴀkǃ-kagūs-wudūˊwatᴀˊqî-nū). Then the people fought with clubs and bows and arrows until all in the fort were destroyed, and started on to another. When they made an attack in those days, they never approached in the daytime but toward morning when everybody was sleeping soundly. Both sides used wooden helmets and spears.

At this fort the women were always digging a big variety of clam (called g̣āʟǃ), storing these clams in the fort for food. The fort was filled with them. So, when the assailants started up the cliff, one of the men inside struck him with a clam shell just under the war hat so that he bled profusely. He could not see on account of the blood. Then the man in the fort took an Indian ax and beat out his brains. Afterward all in the fort seized clam shells and struck their foes in the face with them so that they could not come up. They threw so fast that the canoes were all kept away; so that place is now called Where-clams-kept-out-the-foes (Xaˊosîxani-g̣āʟǃ). For the same reason this was the only fort where any people were saved, and on the other hand many of the enemy were destroyed by the fort people.

Now they left this fort and came to another, landing on a beach near by, and between them and the fort was what they supposed to be a fresh water pond. Then one of them called Little-bear-man, because he had on a bear-skin coat, began to shoot at the fort with arrows. But the people in the fort shouted to him, “Do not be in such great haste. The tide runs out from the place where you are.” Then the bear man said, “The people here say that the tide runs out from this place, but [I know] that it is a fresh water pond.” Presently the tide began to run out from it as they had told him, so he chopped some wood, made a fire and lay by it to wait. After the tide had ebbed they began to fight, destroyed everybody there, and burned the fort down. Close by the site of this fort is a place called Porpoise-belly (Tcītcîūˊkǃ).

The warriors thought they were getting much the best of the people up this way, but really only a few were left to look after the forts, most being collected elsewhere.

After they had destroyed all the people in four forts they landed on a long sandy beach to cut off the scalps. When there was no time to scalp, the heads were carried away until there should be more leisure. Scalps and slaves were what people fought for, and they dried the scalps by rubbing them on hot stones or holding them near the fire. Then they again started north. This raid consumed the whole summer.

Southward of Huna was a fort on a high cliff, called Jealous-man fort (Caosîtīˊyīqā-nuwuˊ). It was named from the man who encamped there who was so jealous of his wife that he would let no one else live near him. When the foes all stopped in front of him, and he could hear them talking, he began to quarrel with them, saying, “You big round heads, you want to destroy all of the people up this way.” While they were talking back at him one of their canoes struck a rock and split in two, and, after they had rescued the people in it, they began talking about this circumstance, saying, “If we wait any longer he will quarrel us over as well.” So they left him and went on north.

The next fort they attacked is called Huna-people’s fort (Hūˊna-qāwu-nuwuˊ), and it stood just where they were going to turn south again. Here they had the greatest fight of all, and the fort people killed many of them. Finally they broke up all the canoes of these people and started south. At this time they were overloaded with the slaves they had taken, but they went in to every fort they passed near and broke up the canoes belonging to it. The last of these forts was called Fort-that-rapids-run-around (Dātx-xātkᴀnᴀdaˊ-nū). When they had destroyed all of the canoes there, they said, “Will you people bring any more wars upon us? You will not dare to fight us again.” They felt very happy, for they thought that they had destroyed all of the northern people, and that no more raids would be made upon them.

Most of the northern people, however, were encamped along the coast to the westward, and, when they heard what had happened, they came from Yakutat, Alsek river, and other places to ʟucāˊcakǃî-ān. They talked together for a long time and finally decided upon a plan. All the men began to sharpen their stone axes, and, when that was finished, they came to a big tree they had already marked out and began to chop at it from all sides. This was the biggest tree ever known. While they worked, the women would come around it wailing and mourning for their dead friends. It took two days to chop this tree down, and, if anybody broke his stone ax, they felt very sorry for him and beat the drums as though some one were dead. Then they cut the tree in two and took a section off along the whole length where the upper side of the canoe was to be, and the head workman directed that it be burnt out inside with fire. So all the people assembled about it to work, and as fast as it was burnt they took sticks and knocked off the burnt part so as to burn deeper and to shape it properly when it had been burned enough. There was one heavy limb that they let stand, merely finishing about it. This work took them all winter. During the same time they bathed in the sea and whipped one another in order to be brave in the approaching war.

Toward spring they got inside of the canoe with their stone axes and began to smooth it by cutting out the burnt part. Then they began to give names to the canoe. It was finally called Spruce-canoe (Sīt-yākᵘ). The thing they left in the middle was the real thing they were going to kill people with. Finally they finished it by putting in seats.

Now they were only waiting for it to get warmer. In those days there were special war leaders, and in fighting they wore helmets and greaves made of common varieties of wood.

There was a shaman among these people named Qāłᴀˊtkǃ belonging to the Nāsteˊdî. Because they were going to war, all of his people would come about him to help him capture the souls of the enemy. One time he said to his clothes man, “Go out for food, and be brave. The head spirit is going to help you.” So the clothes man went out as directed and the spirit showed him the biggest halibut in the ocean. For the float to his line he used the largest sea-lion stomach, and, when he began to pull it up, it looked as though the whole ocean were flowing into its mouth. But the shaman told him to be courageous and hold on though the hook looked like nothing more than a small spot. It did not even move, for the strength of the spirits killed it, but it was so large that they had to tow it in below the town. Then all the people who were going to fight cut the halibut up and began to dry it. There was enough for all who were going to war and for all the women left at home. When it was dried they started to pack part away in the canoe. Then they pushed the canoe down on skids made of the bodies of two women whom they had captured from the southern people on a previous expedition and whom they now killed for the purpose. Meanwhile the southern people thought that they had destroyed all of those at the north and were scattered everywhere in camps, not taking the trouble to make forts.

Finally all the northern warriors got into the big canoe and they started south. It took probably ten days to get there. At the first camp they reached they killed all the men and put the women and children down on the sharpened limb alive. Of one woman who was saved they asked where the other people were, and she said that they were scattered everywhere in camps which she named. After they had destroyed the second camp they enslaved more women, whom they also put upon the sharpened limb. As they never took any off, the number on this increased continually. Then they asked the woman: “Didn’t you expect any war party to come down here?” She said, “No one expected another raid down here, so they built no forts.”

The big canoe went around everywhere, killing people, destroying property, and enslaving women. The women captured at each place told them where others were to be found, and so they continued from place to place. They destroyed more of the southern people than were killed up this way. When they thought that they had killed everybody they started north, stopping at a certain place to scalp the bodies. Then they reached home, and everybody felt happy. They not only brought numbers of slaves but liberated those of their own people who had been taken south. Since that time people have been freer to camp where they please, and, although the northern and southern people fought against each other for a long time, more slaves were taken up this way, so the northern people did not esteem the southern people very highly. This is said to have been the very oldest war.

FOOTNOTES:

[46] Cf. the first part of this story with story 11 and story 31, pp. 150–151.

[47] Said to mean “shaggy,” referring to the thick, lumpy hair of the grizzly bear. The man was probably one of the Kāˊgwᴀntān.

[48] Meaning that he sent sleep on them to make them sleep harder.

30. HOW PROTESTANT CHRISTIANITY WAS FIRST HEARD OF AT SITKA[49]

A man went south from Sitka and returned after two months. When he came ashore he called all the people to a dance and told them that God (Dekīˊ-anqāˊwo, Distant-chief) had come down from heaven to help them.

Then all the women made beadwork for their hair and ears. One evening, when they were through with that, they again began dancing. While the women danced they would fall flat on their backs. When this happened, in accordance with directions the man had received below, they brought up salt water, wet part of each woman’s blanket and flapped it against her breast to make her come to. This prevented the smallpox from having any effect upon her. They kept on dancing a whole year.

FOOTNOTES:

[49] It is possible, however, that this was the result of Jesuit teaching on the upper Skeena.

MYTHS RECORDED IN ENGLISH AT WRANGELL

31. RAVEN[50]

In olden times only high-caste people knew the story of Raven properly because only they had time to learn it.

At the beginning of things there was no daylight and the world lay in blackness. Then there lived in a house at the head of Nass river a being called Raven-at-the-head-of-Nass (Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł), the principal deity to whom the Tlingit formerly prayed[51] but whom no one had seen; and in his house were all kinds of things including sun, moon, stars, and daylight. He was addressed in prayers as ᴀxcagūˊn, or ᴀxkînayeˊgî, My Creator, and Wayîgênaˊłxe, Invisible-rich-man. With him were two old men called Old-man-who-foresees-all-troubles-in-the-world (Adawūˊlǃ-caˊnakǃᵘ) and He-who-knows-everything-that-happens (Łiuˊwᴀt-uwadjīˊgî-can). Next to Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł, they prayed to the latter of these. Under the earth was a third old person, Old-woman-underneath (Haỵicāˊnakǃᵘ), placed under the world by Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł.[52] Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł was unmarried and lived alone with these two men, and yet he had a daughter, a thing no one is able to explain. Nor do people know what this daughter was. The two old persons took care of her like servants, and especially they always looked into the water before she drank to see that it was perfectly clean.

First of all beings Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł created the Heron (Łᴀqǃ) as a very tall and very wise man and after him the Raven (Yēł), who was also a very good and very wise man at that time.

Raven came into being in this wise. His first mother had many children, but they all died young, and she cried over them continually. According to some, this woman was Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł’s sister and it was Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł who was doing this because he did not wish her to have any male children. By and by Heron came to her and said, “What is it that you are crying about all the time?” She answered, “I am always losing my children. I can not bring them up.” Then he said, “Go down on the beach when the tide is lowest, get a small, smooth stone, and put it into the fire. When it is red hot, swallow it. Do not be afraid.” She said, “All right.” Then she followed Heron’s directions and gave birth to Raven. Therefore Raven’s name was really Ītcᴀˊkǃᵘ, the name of a very hard rock, and he was hence called Tᴀˊqłîkǃ-īc (Hammer-father). This is why Raven was so tough and could not easily be killed.

Heron and Raven both became servants to Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł, but he thought more of Raven and made him head man over the world. Then Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł made some people.

All of the beings Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł had created, however, existed in darkness, and this existence lasted for a long time, how long is unknown. But Raven felt very sorry for the few people in darkness and, at last, he said to himself, “If I were only the son of Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł I could do almost anything.” So he studied what he should do and decided upon a plan. He made himself very small, turned himself into a hemlock needle, and floated upon the water Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł’s daughter was about to drink. Then she swallowed it and soon after became pregnant.

Although all this was by the will of Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł and although he knew what was the matter with his daughter, yet he asked her how she had gotten into that condition. She said, “I drank water, and I felt that I had swallowed something in it.” Then Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł instructed them to get moss for his daughter to lie upon, and on that the child was born. They named him Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł also. Then Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł cut a basket in two and used half of it for a cradle, and he said that people would do the same thing in future times, so they have since referred its use to him.

Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł tried to make human beings out of a rock and out of a leaf at the same time, but the rock was slow while the leaf was very quick. Therefore human beings came from the leaf. Then he showed a leaf to the human beings and said, “You see this leaf. You are to be like it. When it falls off the branch and rots there is nothing left of it.” That is why there is death in the world. If men had come from the rock there would be no death. Years ago people used to say when they were getting old, “We are unfortunate in not having been made from a rock. Being made from a leaf, we must die.”

Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł also said, “After people die, if they are not witches, and do not lie or steal, there is a good place for them to go to.”[53] Wicked people are to be dogs and such low animals hereafter. The place for good people is above, and, when one comes up there, he is asked, “What were you killed for?” or “What was your life in the world?” The place he went to was governed by his reply. So people used to say to their children, “Do not lie. Do not steal. For the Maker (Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł) will see you.”

Some time afterward a man died, and Raven, coming into the house, saw him there with his wife and children weeping around him. So he raised the dead man’s blanket with both hands, held it over the body, and brought him back to life.

After that both Raven and her husband told this woman that there was no death, but she disbelieved them. Then Raven said to her, “Lie down and go to sleep.” And, as she slept, she thought she saw a wide trail with many people upon it and all kinds of fierce animals around. Good people had to pass along this trail in order to live again. When she came to the end of the trail there was a great river there, and a canoe came across to her from the other side of it. She entered this and crossed. There some people came to her and said, “You better go back. We are not in a good place. There is starvation here, we are cold, and we get no water to drink.”

This is why people burn the bodies of the dead and put food into the fire for them to eat. Burning their bodies makes the dead comfortable. If they were not burned their spirits would be cold. This is why they invite all those of the opposite clan as well as the nearest relations of the dead man’s wife, seating them together in one place, and burn food in front of them. It is because they think that the dead person gets all of the property destroyed at the feast and all of the food then burned up. It is on account of what Raven showed them that they do so.

Because Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł got it into his mind to wish for daylight in the world, he had wished for a grandchild through whom it might come. Now, therefore, although he knew what answer he would receive, he sent for Łiuˊwᴀt-uwadjīˊgî-can and questioned him to see whether he would answer right: “Where did this child come from? Whose is it? Can you tell?” And the other said, “His eyes look like the eyes of Raven.” That is how he came to get the name Raven.

After a while the baby began to crawl about. His grandfather thought a great deal of him and let him play with everything in the house. Everything in the house was his. The Raven began crying for the moon, until finally they handed it to him and quick as a wink he let it go up into the sky. After he had obtained everything else, he began to cry for the box in which daylight was stored. He cried, cried, cried for a very long time, until he looked as though he were getting very sick, and finally his grandfather said, “Bring my child here.” So they handed Raven to his grandfather. Then his grandfather said to him, “My grandchild, I am giving you the last thing I have in the world.” So he gave it to him.

Then Raven, who was already quite large, walked down along the bank of Nass river until he heard the noise people were making as they fished along the shore for eulachon in the darkness. All the people in the world then lived at one place at the mouth of the Nass. They had already heard that Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł had something called “daylight,” which would some day come into the world, and they used to talk about it a great deal. They were afraid of it.

Then Raven shouted to the fishermen, “Why do you make so much noise? If you make so much noise I will break daylight on you.” Eight canoe loads of people were fishing there. But they answered, “You are not Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł. How can you have the daylight?”, and the noise continued. Then Raven opened the box a little and light shot over the world like lightning. At that they made still more noise. So he opened the box completely and there was daylight everywhere.

When this daylight burst upon the people they were very much frightened, and some ran into the water, some into the woods. Those that had hair-seal or fur-seal skins for clothing ran into the water and became hair seals and fur seals. Hair seal and fur seal were formerly only the names of the clothing they had. Those who had skins called marten skins, black bear skins, grizzly-bear skins, etc., ran into the woods and turned into such animals.

Petrel (G̣ᴀnūˊk) was one of the first persons created by Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł. He was keeper of the fresh water, and would let none else touch it. The spring he owned was on a rocky island outside of Kuiu, called Dekīˊ-nū (Fort-far-out), where the well may still be seen. Raven stole a great mouthful of this water and dropped it here and there as he went along. This is the origin of the great rivers of the world, the Nass, Skeena, Stikine, Chilkat, and others. He said, “This thing that I drop here and there will whirl all the time. It will not overflow the world, yet there will be plenty of water.” Before this time Raven is said to have been pure white, but, as he was flying up through the smoke hole with Petrel’s water, the latter said, “Spirits, hold down my smoke hole.” So they held him until he was turned black by the smoke.

After this Raven saw a fire far out at sea. Tying a piece of pitchwood to a chicken hawk’s bill, he told him to go out to this fire, touch it with the pitchwood, and bring it back. When he had brought it to him Raven put it into the rock and the red cedar saying, “This is how you are to get your fire, from this rock and this red cedar,” and that is the way they formerly did.

Thus Raven (Yēł) went about among the natives of Alaska telling them what to do, but Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł they never saw. Raven showed all the Tlingit what to do for a living, but he did not get to be such a high person as Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł, and he taught the people much foolishness. At that time the world was full of dangerous animals and fish. Raven also tied up some witches, and so it was through him that the people believed in witchcraft. Then he told the people that some wild animals were to be their friends (i. e., their crest animals) to which they were to talk.

Once he gave a feast and invited persons to it from other places. He had two slaves after that, named Gîdzag̣ēˊt and Gîdzanūˊqǃu. This is why the natives here had slaves. It was on account of his example. There was a man who had no arm, so Raven thought he would be a shaman and cure him. This is how the Tlingit came to have shamans. After there was death he showed them how to dance over the body placed in the middle of the floor.

Raven also taught the people how to make halibut hooks, and went out fishing with them. He had names for the halibut hooks and talked to them before he let them down into the sea. That is why the natives do so now. He also taught them to be very quick when they went out halibut fishing or they would catch nothing.

He also made different kinds of fish traps and taught the people how to use them. He made the small variety and a big trap, shaped like a barrel, for use in the Stikine.

He taught them how to make the seal spear (kᴀt). It has many barbs, and there are different kinds. One is called tsa-cᴀxîctdzāˊs. It is provided with some attachment that hits the seal (tsa) upon the head whenever it comes to the surface, driving its head under water until it dies, and that is what the name signifies.

Then he showed them how to make a canoe. This he did on the Queen Charlotte islands. At first the people were afraid to get into it, but he said, “The canoe is not dangerous. People will seldom get drowned.”

He taught them how to catch a salmon called îcqēˊn, which requires a different kind of hook from that used for halibut. The place where he taught people how to get different kinds of shellfish is a beach on the Queen Charlotte islands called Raven’s beach to this day.

After he was through teaching the people these things, he went under the ocean, and when he came back, taught them that the sea animals are not what we think they are, but are like human beings. First he went to the halibut people. They have a chief who invited him to eat, and had dried devilfish and other kinds of dried fish brought out. He was well liked everywhere he went under the sea because he was a very smart man. After that he went to see the sculpin people, who were very industrious and had all kinds of things in their houses. The killer-whale people seemed to live on hair-seal meat, fat, and oil. Their head chief was named G̣onaqᴀdēˊt, and even to this day the natives say that the sight of him brings good fortune.

While he was under the ocean he saw some people fishing for halibut, and he tried to tease them by taking hold of their bait. They, however, caught him by the bill and pulled him up as far as the bottom of their canoe, where he braced himself so that they pulled his bill out. They did not know what this bill was and called it g̣onēˊt-łuwuˊ (bill-of-something-unknown). Then Raven went from house to house inquiring for his bill until he came to the house of the chief. Upon asking for it there, they handed it to him wrapped in eagle down. Then he put it back into its place and flew off through the smoke hole.

Raven left that town and came to another. There he saw a king salmon jumping about far out at sea. He got it ashore and killed it. Because he was able to do everything, the natives did all that he told them. He was the one who taught all things to the natives, and some of them still follow his teachings. After that he got all kinds of birds for his servants. It was through these that people found out he was the Raven.

Once he went to a certain place and told the people to go and fight others. He said, “You go there and kill them all, and you will have all the things in that town.” This was the beginning of war.

After having been down among the fish teaching them, Raven went among the birds and land animals. He said to the grouse (nukt), “You are to live in a place where it is wintry, and you will always look out for a place high up so that you can get plenty of breeze.” Then he handed the grouse four white pebbles, telling him to swallow them so that they might become his strength. “You will never starve,” he said, “so long as you have these four pebbles.” He also said, “You know that Sea-lion is your grandchild. You must be generous, get four more pebbles and give them to him.” That is how the sea-lion came to have four large pebbles. It throws these at hunters, and, if one strikes a person, it kills him. From this story it is known that the grouse and the sea-lion can understand each other.

Raven said to the ptarmigan: “You will be the maker of snowshoes. You will know how to travel in snow.” It was from these birds that the Athapascans learned how to make snowshoes, and it was from them that they learned how to put their lacings on.

Next Raven came to the “wild canary” (sǃāsǃ), which is found in the Tlingit country all the year round, and said: “You will be head among the very small birds. You are not to live on what human beings eat. Keep away from them.”

Then he went to the robin and said: “You will make the people happy by letting them hear your whistle. You will be a good whistler.”

Then he said to the flicker (kūn): “You will be the head one among the birds next in size. You will not be found in all places. You will be very seldom seen.”

He said to the ługᴀˊn, a bird that lives far out on the ocean: “You will live far out on the ocean on lonely rocks. You will be very seldom seen near shore.”

Then he came to the snipes and said to them: “You will always go in flocks. You will never go out alone.” Therefore we always see them in flocks.

He said to the āsqǃacāˊtcî, a small bird with greenish-yellow plumage: “You will always go in flocks. You will always be on the tops of the trees. That is where your food is.”

To a very small bird called kotǃaiˊ, about the size of a butterfly, he said: “You will be a very respectable bird. You will be seen only to give good luck. People will hear your voice always but never see you.”

Then Raven came to the blue jay and said: “You will have very fine clothes and be a good talker. People will take patterns (probably “colors”) from your clothes.”

Then he went to a bird called x̣ūnkᴀhāˊ and said: “You will never be seen unless the north wind is going to blow.” That is what its name signifies.

He came to the crows and said: “You will make lots of noise. You will be great talkers.” That is why, when you hear one crow, you hear a lot of others right afterward.

He came to a bird called gusǃyiadūˊł and said to it: “You will be seen only when the warm weather is coming on. Never come near except when warm weather is coming.”

He came to the humming bird and said: “A person will enjoy seeing you. If he sees you once, he will want to see you again.”

He said to the eagle: “You will be very powerful and above all birds. Your eyesight will be very good. What you want will be very easy for you.” He put talons on the eagle and said that they would be very useful to him.

And so he went on speaking to all the birds.

Then he said to the land otter: “You will live in the water just as well as on land.” He and the land otter were good friends, so they went halibut fishing together. The land otter was a fine fisherman. Finally he said to the land otter: “You will always have your house on a point where there is plenty of breeze from either side. Whenever a canoe capsizes with people in it you will save them and make them your friends.” The land-otter-man (kūˊcta-qā) originated from Raven telling this to the land otter. All Alaskans know about the land-otter-man but very few tell the story of Raven correctly.

If the friends of those who have been taken away by the land otters get them back, they become shamans, therefore it was through the land otters that shamans were first known. Shamans can see one another by means of the land-otter spirits although others can not.

The first man captured (or “saved”) by the land otters was a Kîksᴀˊdî named Kᴀkaˊ. The land otters kept coming to him in large canoes looking like his mother or his sister or other dear relation, and pretending that they had been looking for him for a long time. But they could not control themselves as well as he, and at such times he would discover who they were and that their canoe was nothing but a skate. Finally, when Kᴀkaˊ found that he could not see his friends, he thought that he might as well give himself up to the land otters. Then they named him Qōwułkaˊ, a word in the land-otter language now applied to a kind of fishhook which the halibut are thought to like better than all others. Nowadays, when a figure of Qōwułkaˊ is made, it is covered with a dog skin, because it was by means of a dog skin that he frightened the land otters, and they also hang his apron about with dog bones. The shaman who is possessed by him dresses in the same manner. From Kᴀkaˊ the people learned that the land otters affect the minds of those who have been with them for a long time so as to turn them against their own friends. They also learned from him that there are shamans among the land otters, and that the land otters have a language of their own.

For two years Kᴀkaˊ’s friends hunted for him, fasting at the same time and remaining away from their wives. At the end of this period the land otters went to an island about 50 miles from Sitka and took Kᴀkaˊ with them. The land-otter tribe goes to this place every year. Then an old land-otter-woman called to Kᴀkaˊ: “My nephew, I see that you are worrying about the people at your home. When you get to the place whither we are going place yourself astride of the first log you see lying on the beach and sit there as long as you can.” And her husband said to him: “Keep your head covered over. Do not look around.” They gave him this direction because they thought, “If this human being sees all of our ways and learns all of our habits, we shall die.” On the way across the land-otter-people sang a song, really a kind of prayer, of which the words are, “May we get on the current running to the shore.”

The moment they came to land the land-otter-people disappeared and he did not know what had become of them. They may have run into some den. Then he ran up the sandy beach and sat on the first log he came to, as he had been directed. The instant his body touched it he became unconscious. It was a shaman’s spirit that made him so.

By and by Kᴀkaˊ’s friends, who were at that time hunting for fur seals, an occupation that carries one far out to sea, suddenly heard the noise of a shaman’s drum and people beating for him with batons. They followed the sound seaward until they saw thousands and thousands of sea birds flying about something floating upon the ocean a mile or two ahead of them. Arrived there they saw that it was a log with Kᴀkaˊ lying upon it clothed only in a kelp apron. The people were delighted to find even his body, and took it into their canoe. He looked very wild and strange. He did not open his eyes, yet he seemed to know who had possession of him, and without having his lips stir a voice far down in his chest said, “It is I my masters.” It was a shaman’s spirit that said this, and to the present day a shaman’s spirit will call the shaman’s relations “my masters.”

The old woman that saved him and told him to sit astride of the log was his spirit and so was her husband. The log was the spirit’s canoe. This woman and her husband had been captured by the land otters long before, but Kᴀkaˊ was so strong-minded a fellow that they felt they could do nothing with him, so they let him go and became his spirits. They could not turn him into a land otter because he did not believe that land otters are stronger than human beings.

After the people had brought Kᴀkaˊ to a place just around the point from their village, he said, “Leave me here for a little while.” So most of his relations remained with him, while two went home to tell the people who were there. They were not allowed to keep it from the women. Then they made a house for him out of devil clubs and he was left there for two days while the people of the town fasted. They believed in these spirits as we now believe in God. Before he was brought home the house and the people in it had to be very clean, because he would not go where there was filth. After they got him home they heard the spirit saying far down within him, “It is I, Old-land-otter-spirit (Kūˊcta-kocaˊnqo-yek).” This was the name of the old woman who first told him what to do. The next spirit was The-spirit-that-saves (Qōsîneˊxe-yek). He sang inside of him the same song that the land otters sang. It was his spirit’s song and has many words to it.

All the birds that assembled around him when he was floating upon the sea were also his spirits. Even the wind and waves that first upset him were his spirits. Everything strange that he had seen at the time when the land otters got possession of him were his spirits. There are always sea birds sitting on a floating log, and from Kᴀkaˊ people learned that these are shamans’ spirits. It is from his experience that all Alaskans—Tlingit, Haida, even Eskimo and Athapascans—believe in the land-otter-men (kūˊcta-qa). By means of his spirits Kᴀkaˊ was able to stand going naked for two years. This story of Kᴀkaˊ is a true story, and it is from him that the Tlingit believe in shamans’ spirits (yēk).[54]

After leaving the land otters Raven appeared at Taku. There is a cliff at the mouth of that inlet called Wᴀsǃᴀsǃeˊ where the North Wind used to live, and Raven stayed there with him. The North Wind was very proud and shone all over with what the Indians thought were icicles. So the Indians never say anything against the North Wind, however long it blows, because it has spirits (i. e., power). Years ago people thought that there were spirits in all the large cliffs upon the islands, and they would pray to those cliffs. They had this feeling toward them because Raven once lived in this cliff with the North Wind.

Raven observed certain regulations very strictly when he was among the rivers he had created. He told people never to mention anything that lives in the sea by its right name while they were there, but to call a seal a rabbit, for instance, and so with the other animals. This was to keep them from meeting with misfortune among the rapids. Formerly the Indians were very strict with their children when they went up the rivers, but nowadays all that has been forgotten.

After this Raven went to Chilkat and entered a sweat house along with the chief of the killer whales who tried to roast him. Raven, however, had a piece of ice near him and every now and then put part of it into his mouth. Then he would tell the killer whale that he felt chilly and make him feel ashamed. “If I did not belong to the G̣ānᴀxteˊdî family,” said Raven, “I could not have stood that sweat house.” For this reason the G̣ānᴀxteˊdî now claim the raven as an emblem and think they have more right to it than anybody else.

It was from Raven that people found out there are Athapascan Indians. He went back into their country. So the Chilkat people to this day make their money by going thither. He also showed the Chilkat people how to make tcîł, secret storehouses maintained some distance out of town, and he taught them how to put salmon into these and keep them frozen there over winter. So the Chilkat people got their name from tcîł, “storehouse,” and xāt, “salmon.”

Raven also showed the Chilkat people the first seeds of the Indian tobacco and taught them how to plant it. After it was grown up, he dried it, gathered clam shells, roasted them until they were very soft, and pounded them up with the tobacco. They used to chew this, and it was so good that it is surprising they gave it up. They made a great deal of money at Chilkat by trading with this among the interior Indians, but nowadays it is no longer planted.

* * * * *

Then Raven went to a river beyond Copper river called Łᴀxaỵîˊk[55] and told the people that they were to make canoes out of skins. There he found a chief named ᴀyāˊỵî, who had married the daughter of another chief by whom he had five children, four boys and a girl. His wife was always making baskets, while ᴀyāˊỵî himself went out camping or to other villages. He had a long box that he took about everywhere he went and always had hung overhead. In those days each family tattooed the hands in some special way. One time, when the chief’s wife was sitting under this box a drop of blood fell out of it upon her hand. Her husband was away, so she took the box down and looked into it. It was full of severed hands, and by the tattoo marks she knew that they belonged to her uncles. She was very fond of her uncles and cried continually for them.

After her husband had found her weeping several times he asked, “What are you always crying about?” and she said, “I am getting tired of living here. I want to go back to my father and mother.” Then he said, “We will start back to your father’s place to-morrow.” So next day he carried her and her children to a place not far from her father’s town and let them off there telling them to walk across. Then he paddled home.

Even before she started across, his wife noticed that there was a heavy fog over her father’s village, and when she got there she found it vacant. There was nothing in it but dead bodies, and she went from house to house weeping. Now after her children had thought over this matter for a while, they skinned some of the bodies and made a canoe out of them. It was the first of the skin canoes. It was all on account of ᴀyāˊỵî having murdered the people of that town. They tied those places on the canoe that had to be made tight, with human hair. Afterward they took it down to the water and put it in, making a kind of singing noise as they went. Nowadays these canoes are made of all kinds of skins, but the hair used is always human hair and they sing in the same manner when they put them into the water. They also made a drum out of human skin.

After that all got into the canoe, and they started for their father’s town, singing as they went, while their mother steered. When they came in front of it the people said, “There is a canoe coming. We can hear singing in it, and in the song they are mentioning ᴀyāˊỵî’s name.” That was all they could hear. The whole town came out to look at the canoe. Then the eldest son arose in the canoe, mentioned his father’s name, and said, “Give me my uncle’s hands. If you do not give them to me I will turn this town of yours upside down.” When he started this song again he began drumming and the town began to sink. It shook as if there were an earthquake. Now the people of the town became frightened. They went to ᴀyāˊỵî and told him he would be killed if he did not let the hands go. So he gave them up. When the children got these hands they went away singing the same song. At that the town again began to sink and carried down all of the people with it. Afterward it resumed its former position, but it is said that you can see shells all over the place to this day.

After they had reached their own village Raven said to the eldest boy, “Get some eagle feathers and put them on the mouths of your uncles and all the other town people. After you have placed them there blow them away again. Put their hands in their proper places, and put feathers over the cuts. As soon as you have blown the feathers away from their mouths, they will return to life.” He did so, and all the dead people came to life.

* * * * *

One day Raven saw a whale far out at sea and sat down on the beach to study how he should bring it ashore. Then he got some pitchwood and rocks of the kind that was formerly used in making fire, flew out to the place where he thought the whale would come up, and went into its open mouth. He made a fire inside of the whale and cooked everything there. Only he would not touch the heart. When the whale took in many fish he ate them. Finally he did cut the whale’s heart out and killed it, after which it began drifting about from place to place. Then he sang: “Let the one who wants to be high-born like me cut the whale open and let me out, and he will be as high as I am.” He also sang: “Let the whale go ashore. Let the whale go ashore on a long sandy beach.” Finally he heard waves breaking on a sandy beach, and he said again: “Let the one who wants to be high-born like me cut the whale open and let me out, and he will be as high as I am.” Suddenly he heard the voices of children. These children heard his voice, went home and informed their parents. Then the people all came there and cut the whale open, and Raven flew off into the woods crying “Qǃoneˊ, qǃoneˊ, qǃoneˊ.”

Raven stayed up in the woods a long time in order to get the grease and smell off of his feathers, and, when he came down again, he saw boxes and boxes of whale grease. Then he made believe he was surprised and asked the people where they got all of it. They said: “We found a whale that had come right in here where we could get it easily. So we are making oil out of it.” Said he: “Did you hear anything inside when it first came ashore.” “Yes! there was some strange sound in there, and something flew out calling itself qǃoneˊ.” Then Raven answered, “Years ago just such a thing as this happened, and all of the people of that town that heard the noise died. It brings bad luck to hear such a noise in a whale. You people must leave this right away. Don’t eat any of it. Leave it here.” Then all of the people believed him and left their oil there. It became his.[56]

Next Raven went to a place where many sea lions, seals, and porpoises were lying about. Among these there were a number of children, who cut pieces of fat from the animals and threw them back and forth. So he made himself look like a child and, when they threw him a piece of fat, he ate it. Finally the children missed their fat and said, “What is becoming of all the fat we were playing with? It is all disappearing.”[57]

Then Raven came to a large town where everyone appeared to have died. He entered the largest house, and saw no one inside, yet he could feel a person continually pushing against him. It was a ghost house, and the town was called the Town of Ghosts (Qaỵahāỵîˊ ānîˊ). Afterward Raven loaded a canoe with provisions from the ghosts’ houses and started to paddle away, but he did not notice that a very long line was fastened to the stern of the canoe and secured at the other end round a tree. When he reached the end of this rope the canoe was pulled right back to the beach, and the goods were all carried up to the house by invisible hands. One of the ghosts also dropped a very large rock upon his foot, making him lame.[58]

Next Raven went among the Athapascan Indians of the interior beyond the place he had reached before. There he saw a giant cannibal called Cannibal-man. Knowing that this cannibal was very smart he tried to get the better of him, so he won his confidence and learned that he was married to the black pine (łᴀł).[59] In the morning the cannibal bathed. After that the two became very good friends, and the cannibal said to Raven, “I am going hunting, and I am going to get four animals, two mountain goats and two ground hogs.” So the cannibal took a hide rope such as the interior Indians used to make and started. On the way Raven said to the cannibal, “Where is that man called Tsᴀˊmaya?” He was another very powerful man. And the cannibal showed him where Tsᴀˊmaya lived.

Then Raven stayed with Tsᴀˊmaya, and they became good friends also. The latter lived all by himself at that time, all of his friends having been killed by Wolverine-man (Nūsgᴀ-qāˊ). So he said to Raven, “I do not know what to do with him. I would like to kill him.” And Raven said to him, “Do you see this spear? Go and get a bear skin and put it around yourself. Put the spear in such a position as to make him believe he has killed a bear.” Tsᴀˊmaya did so, and by and by Wolverine-man came along. He was very glad when he saw the bear and said, “I have another.” Then he picked the bear up, took out the spear and carried it home. After that he went to gather wood. While he was gone Raven made himself appear like a common blackbird and in that form said to Tsᴀˊmaya, “Wolverine-man’s heart is in his foot.” Then he took the little spear he had concealed in his long hair and gave it to Tsᴀˊmaya, who speared Wolverine-man in the foot as soon as he came in. He was hurt badly but ran away from them. When they caught up with him and told him they were going to kill him, he said, “All right.” But every time they killed him he came to life again until finally they burned him. Then, when they were about to pulverize his bones, the bones spoke up and said to them, “Pulverize my bones and blow them away. They will always be a bother to you and everybody else. I shall always remain in the world.” That is where the mosquitoes and gnats come from.[60]

Afterward Raven came to where a house was floating far out at sea, called Kǃuˊdatᴀn kahîˊtî. Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł had been keeping it there, and in it were all kinds of fishes, but Raven did not know how to get at them. At the same place he also met a monster, called Qǃāˊnᴀxg̣ādaỵiỵê (which seems to mean “a thing that is in the way”), who had spear like the arm of a devilfish called, “devilfish-arm spear.” Raven wanted this, and obtained it by marrying the monster’s daughter. Then he got into a canoe, paddled out near the house, and speared it. Inside he heard all kinds of songs sung by different voices. These were the songs people were to sing in the fishing season. When Raven threw his spear, it became very long and wrapped itself around the house so firmly that he was enabled to take his canoe ashore. He had great difficulty, however, for as he did so he had to sing continually, “I think so, I think so,” a song known to all of the Raven people. Whenever he stopped singing, the house went back to the place where it had been at first. This happened three times and the fourth time he got it in.

After that the door of the house opened, and all kinds of fish came out of it. He sang, “Some go to Stikine river. Some go to Chilkat river,” which they immediately did. Then he sang again, “Some go to the small creeks to provide the poor people.” That is how fish came to be all over the world.[61]

* * * * *

Now Raven went farther and came to a woman and a little girl all alone. She was crying and Raven asked her, “What are you crying about?” “I have lost all of my friends. I am all alone here with my little girl. The people kept going off hunting or fishing and never come back. What has happened to them I do not know.” Then Raven said to the girl, “Do you know the thing with which they make fire?” She said “No,” for they had kept their fires all night since the other people were gone. Then Raven showed her how to make fire with the fire drill. He said, “Drill away until you get a lot of this fine stuff. Then take some and eat it.”

After the girl had done this she became pregnant and gave birth to a male child whom they called Fire-drill’s son (Tūˊłî-ỵᴀˊdî). Then Raven said to her, “There is a cold spring back here. Bathe your little one in it every day, and he will grow up very fast.” To this day they call that spring Water-that-makes-one-grow. The woman bathed him as directed and he soon grew up into a man very skilful at work of all kinds. Finally he asked his mother: “Mother, is this the way you have always been? Didn’t you have a father, mother, and friends?” But she said, “We have always been this way.” He was so bright that she would not tell him. Then the child went on asking, “Whose houses are those? I think that you had friends who have all died off, and you will not tell me.” So his grandmother finally told him what had happened.

This boy was a good shot with arrows, but he said, “What can I do? All the canoes lying here are old and broken.” In the night, however, his father, Fire-drill, appeared to him in a dream and said, “Take one of those old canoes up into the woods and cover it with brush. No matter how old it is. Do it.” The morning after he had done this, he went there and found a very pretty little canoe with all things in it that he needed. Then his father appeared to him again, pulled the root of a burned tree out of the ground and made it into a little dog for him. He called it G̣ᴀnt (Burnt), and it could scent things from a great distance. Although small it was as powerful as a bear. He also gave his son a bow, and arrows pointed with obsidian(?). Finally he gave him a very powerful club called Qōtᴀcāˊỵî-qǃus.

Now he thought of what his grandmother had told him, took his canoe down, and prepared to go away. He told his mother that he might be gone for two days and said, “Take care of this fire drill. Hang it in a safe place overhead, and, if I am killed, it will fall.” He went along on the water shooting at birds and suddenly saw a canoe coming toward him. “There is the thing that has killed all of my mother’s friends,” he thought. Then he began talking to his dog, his club, and his bow and arrows, all of which could understand him.

The man coming toward him had only one eye, placed in the middle of his face and from this fact was called ʟēcᴀwāˊg̣î (Man-with-one-eye). He was a very big man whose home was in a cliff. Then he said to the boy, “Is this you, my nephew?” He answered, “It is I.” “Where did you come from?” “From my uncle’s village.” “Yes, I know you.” The one-eyed man could read the boy’s thoughts and said to him, “It was not I who killed your uncles and your mother’s friends. It was the East wind and the North wind.” He mentioned all of the winds. But the boy knew that this big man was after him, and he knew what he meant by talking to him so kindly. Then the big man said, “Let us trade arrows.” “Oh! no, my arrows are better than yours. They cost a great deal.” One of the boy’s arrows was named Heart-stopper (Tēqǃ-g̣ōts), because a person’s heart stopped beating the instant it touched his body. Another was pointed with porcupine quills, and a third with bark. The big man made the boy believe that his arrow points were sea-urchin spines, but in reality they were only the seed vessels of fireweed. This man was a bad shaman. He held his arrow points up, and said, “Do you see these arrows?” He could see that the points were all moving. Then the boy said, “It is wonderful, but my arrows are not like that. They are only good for shooting birds.” Now the shaman’s object was to get Heart-stopper. Finally the boy said to the shaman, “Look here, you call yourself my uncle. That is how you did away with my uncles and my mother’s friends, is it? You will never make away with me so.” That angered the big man, and before they knew it both had their arrows in hand, but the boy was the quicker and killed his antagonist; the dog helped him. Then the boy took the big man’s tongue out and burned his body. All this time his mother was worrying about him.

Then he paddled along by the shore and heard some one calling to him. He thought, “There is another bad man.” So he went to the place and discovered on a very steep cliff falling sheer into the water an aperture with red paint around it and devil clubs tied into a ring hanging close by. Some one inside of this invited him in, and, as he was very brave and cared for nothing, he went up to the entrance. The person who lived there was the wife of the man he had killed. She had seen his canoe passing and thought, “He must have killed my husband.” So she said, “Your aunt’s husband went across that way.” And the boy said, “I have seen your husband.” This woman’s name was Knife-hand (Djîwᴀn-yīsǃ), because she had a knife on each hand. She said to the boy, “You better come in here and let me give you food before you go on.” “All right,” he said. So he entered and found her cooking the parts of a human being. She called the ends of its fingers, “crab apples,” its eyes, “berries,” etc. When he told her that he did not eat that sort of food, she at once said, “Well! let us have a fight then. We will kill each other.” He agreed and she went to a large rock where he could hear her drawing both hands back and forth to sharpen them. As soon as she had finished, she threw her hand at him, but he jumped aside so quickly that it stuck in the spot where he had been sitting, and, when she drew her hand away, the knife remained there. Then the boy jumped forward, seized it, and threw it back with such good aim that it killed her. He also cut her tongue out. He had no more than finished with her, however, than he noticed that the entrance hole was growing smaller and smaller. So he made himself small also, crept into one of the ermine skins he had tied in his hair, and ran out. When he came home again with his canoe loaded down with seal and deer, his mother and grandmother were very glad to see him, for they had been weeping for him and worrying about him ever since he left. Now he told them not to worry any longer because he had killed the bad people who destroyed their friends.

Next he said to his mother, “Mother, do not be afraid to tell me. What was it that killed my uncles when they went back here hunting?” By and by he went back into the woods to hunt and saw smoke rising a long distance off. He came to a house and entered. There he saw a very old woman called Old-mole-woman (Kǃᴀgᴀˊkqōcāˊ-nᴀkᵘ). As soon as she saw the boy this woman said, “My grandson what is it that you are after?” The boy felt that she was an honest old woman and said, “I am looking for the person that killed my uncles and all of my mother’s friends.” Then she told him to come in and eat. She picked a small piece of salmon out from between her teeth which at once turned into a whole salmon. That was the way she got anything she wanted, and it was the only way she got her food. Then she said to the boy, “Grandson, it is pretty hard to get at the beings that murdered your uncles. They are the hawks (kîdjūˊk). You must find their nests, which are very high up, and watch until the old birds go away, leaving their two young ones.” When he came to the nest, however, he saw that the old birds were away, so he went up to the young ones and said to them, “What do you live on?” The birds showed him numbers of human skulls and other human bones lying about the base of the tree and said, “That is what we live on.” They also said, “Our father and our mother always come just at daybreak. You can not see them because they come in clouds. Our mother comes over the mountain in a yellow cloud and our father comes in a black cloud.” Then he said to the birds, “Do not tell about me or I will kill you,” and they believed he would do it.

Suddenly the boy saw the yellow cloud coming. He distinguished the mother bird bringing a human body for her children to eat. Then he killed her and threw her down to the foot of the tree along with the body she was carrying. After that he saw the black cloud coming and presently distinguished the father bird. The father bird said to the young ones, “Where is your mother?” and they answered, “Our mother dropped the dead body she was bringing and went down after it.” As he was sitting there talking the boy killed him also and threw his body down. Then he said to the little birds, “You must never kill people any more or live on human flesh. I will go and get something for you to eat until you are strong enough.” So he went out hunting and brought them a lot of ground hogs, saying to them, “This is what you are to live upon.” So these birds now live only on ground-hog meat. They do not live on human flesh any more. They kill their victims with rocks, and a person who is about to become rich will see them throw one of these. Then he picks it up and it brings him good luck.

After that he went back to the old woman and told her what he had done, and she was very happy to learn that these dangerous birds were killed. He said to her, “I am going back to my mother and grandmother. I and my dog have obtained a great deal of food for them.” He also gave a quantity of food to the old woman who had helped him. His mother and grandmother were very glad when they saw him come back with the skins of those birds and a quantity of provisions.

Now Fire-drill’s son collected enough food and grease in boxes to last his mother and grandmother all their lives and said, “Mother, I am going to leave you forever. I was not put here to be with you always. I have done what I wanted to do. If what you have hanging overhead falls, you may know that you will never see me again. But do not worry, for it is my duty to leave you.” Then he went away.

As he was traveling along from that place, Fire-drill’s son saw some one ahead of him called Dry-cloud (Gusǃ-x̣ūk). He was able to travel very fast, and he chased it. As he was running along he came to the mink people. He ran along again and came to the marten people. Both kept saying to him, “We want you to be our friend,” but he paid no attention to them and kept on pursuing Dry-cloud. Then he came to the wolf people and stayed there.

One of the wolf chiefs thought a great deal of Fire-drill’s son. One time the wolves began talking about all those things that can run very fast, and finally they spoke about the mountain goats, how they can travel about easily among the cliffs, and said that they were going out to hunt them. When they set out, all ran hard to see who could kill the first one, but Fire-drill’s son’s dog killed a great number before anyone could get near them, so many, in fact, that Fire-drill’s son took only the leaf lard home to show how many he had gotten. Then the wolves all went up and brought down the dead goats, and they felt very much ashamed that they, who were noted runners and hunters, had gotten nothing. They wondered what they could do to get even with Fire-drill’s son. Then they took a quantity of long stringy vines called mountain-eel (cayałīˊtǃî), made them into rings and began playing with them. They would let these roll down the sides of the mountains and jump through them when they were at full speed. Anyone who got caught in one of these would be cut in two.

Fire-drill’s son’s wolf friend said to him, however, “My friend, don’t go near those people that are playing. You do not know anything about the things they are using. They will kill you.” He answered, “No, I will not play with them, but let us watch them.” So they went out and watched them. Then Fire-drill’s son said to his dog, “Now, you play there and throw it as high as you can.” So the dog played with it and threw it as high as he could. It was a fine moonlight night, and the ring rolled right up to the moon, where it became the ring you see there whenever there is going to be a change in weather.[62] After that his friend, the wolf chief, said to the rest of the wolves, “You know that this son of Fire-drill is a wonderful fellow. He can do anything. Do not try to injure him in any way, but treat him as a friend.”[63]

After that Fire-drill’s son and his wolf friend went off together, and the wolf said, “Some strange being walks around here. Don’t run after him or he will take your life.” It was Dry-cloud that he meant. “Don’t mind me,” said Fire-drill’s son, “I know what he is. I only play with him. I know that this fellow can’t be killed, and I know that he can not kill anybody else, but I have to follow him. That was my father’s advice to me.” So they kept on after Dry-cloud and the wolf had to run with all his might, but it did not seem to Fire-drill’s son that he was going rapidly at all. Whenever the wolf got his tail wet in crossing a stream he was too much tired out to shake it, so he simply yelped and Fire-drill’s son shook it for him. By and by they saw smoke far ahead of them and presently came to where an old woman lived alone by herself. They stayed with her for some time, and could see Dry-cloud as long as they were there, for he lived in the neighborhood of her house. Then they helped the old woman and collected a quantity of wood for her. After that she said to the boy, “Grandson, there is a big fish over yonder. It killed all of my friends in this town. That is why I am all alone here.” He went to the place where she said the monster lived and found a red cod. He said to her, “Grandmother, that is not a monster fish. It is good to eat.” So he took his bow and arrows and told his friend to watch him. Then he went to the red cod and killed it, and, seeing that there were numbers of sharp spines upon it, he took off its skin and dried it. He said to the wolf: “My friend, do you know this woman? She is really Daughter-of-the-calm (Kayeˊʟǃî-sī). She is a very nice, pretty girl.” Afterward Fire-drill’s son married Daughter-of-the-calm and had a child by her named Łᴀkîtcîneˊ. He gave this boy his dog and put the red-cod skin upon him as a shirt. Then he said to his wife: “This is going to be a very bad boy.”[64]

* * * * *

Łᴀkîtcîneˊ lived at Sitka.[65] He had a wife from among human beings, and every day, while he went out halibut fishing, she dug clams. The dog, G̣ᴀnt, that his father had given him he renamed Cᴀqǃ. Łᴀkîtcîneˊ had several children, but he killed all of them. He would take a child up, pet it, and sing cradle songs to it, and at the same time make his red-cod spines stick into it so that it died. He also used the “Blarney stone”[66] as a grindstone, and killed some of his children by rubbing their faces upon it.

His wife mourned very much for her children, and finally thought of a way of being revenged upon him. She had a litter of puppies by the dog. There were originally twelve, but seven died, leaving four male puppies and one female. These puppies grew up very fast. While the man and his wife were away fishing and digging clams the puppies played about the house, and the noise they made sounded just like that of children. But the female always watched at the door, and when their mother ran up to stop them all would be lying about on the floor asleep. They kept getting noisier and noisier, and sounded more and more like human beings. Finally Łᴀkîtcîneˊ heard it and said to his wife: “Who are these making so much noise here?” “It is those dogs.” Then she thought very seriously what she should do with the puppies. The next time Łᴀkîtcîneˊ was out he heard them still more plainly, and now he thought that he heard human voices. He came ashore in great anger and said to his wife: “It is not those dogs that I hear talking.” He was so dangerous a man that his wife was very much frightened.

After that she formed a plan. So, when her husband went out halibut fishing the next time, she stuck her digging stick into the ground, put her blanket around it, and her hat upon the end. Then she ran up through the woods and hid herself, while the little dog was watching Łᴀkîtcîneˊ. After that she crept back to the house, which was made of brush, and in which they were again making a great deal of noise. Looking inside, she found that the boys were all playing about in human forms, their dog skins lying a short distance away from them. Then she quickly ran in upon them, exclaiming, “You must like to be dogs since you wear dog skins,” grabbed the skins and threw them into the fire. The little dog that sat outside was the only one that remained in its original form.

Now, when Łᴀkîtcîneˊ came ashore, and saw the children, he was angry and felt very much ashamed at having been outwitted. He did not know how to kill them, for he thought they had more power than he. One, named Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ, was a shaman. He had his grandfather and the one-eyed man and his wife that his grandfather had killed as his spirits. Łᴀkîtcîneˊ thought that he would first quarrel with his wife, and, when he came into the house, he began to throw and kick things about. But, when he began to beat his wife, the children jumped upon him and fought with him. They also asked the dog to help them. Together they killed him.

After these boys were grown up, their mother told them many times of a certain monster at a place called Kᴀg̣ēˊtǃ, that had been killing many people. Finally they set out to see it, anchored off the mouth of the bay, and killed it with spears and arrows. They took the skin from its head. Then they went throughout Alaska, killing off the monsters of the sea and land that had troubled people and making others less harmful. The natives say, if it had not been for those boys, they would be there yet. They made some of these monsters promise that they would not kill people. The wolves, which were very destructive in those days, became less harmful through them. Although people in Alaska are afraid of wolves, you have not heard of anyone being killed by them.

There was one person called Tcākǃîˊsǃ resembling an eagle, who flew around and was very powerful. He would say to the bears and other game animals, “You are going to be killed.” Because he kept warning the animals, human beings were starving, so the brothers came to him and made him promise not to injure people or forewarn the other animals.

Afterward the brothers left their mother at that place and went up to Łāxaỵîˊk, where they had heard of a bad person called One-legged-man (ʟē-łaqǃocîˊ). His proper name, however, is Man-that-dries-fish-for-the-eagle (Tcākǃ-qǃēˊdî-ᴀt-qǃᴀn-qā), and he is very fond of spearing salmon. First the boys came to the prints of his one foot going up beside the river, and after a while they saw him coming down toward them spearing salmon. His shirt was the skin of a brown bear and had strength as well as he.

Afterward Łqǃayāˊkǃ caught a salmon, took all of the meat out, and got into its skin. Next day, at the time when they knew One-legged-man was about to come up, Łqǃayāˊkǃ put it on again and laid himself in a salmon hole in the creek. The big man, who was just coming along, saw a fine salmon go into the hole and said, “What a fine-looking salmon.” He thought that he could not get it, but, after he had stood watching it for a while, it swam up toward him, and he speared it. Just as he was dragging it ashore, however, Łqǃayāˊkǃ cut the cord to his spear point with a knife he had taken along and swam back into the water hole. Then the big man looked at his spear and said to himself, “My fine spear is gone;” but after he had observed closer he said, “This is not broken. It is cut. I suppose it is Łqǃayāˊkǃ’s doing.” After that he went on up the stream while the brothers cooked salmon for their meal.

By a by they saw One-legged-man coming down again carrying a feather tied on the end of a long stick. He would point this feather at different trees and then smell of it. Finally he pointed it at the tree in which Łqǃayāˊkǃ and his brothers were then sitting and said, “Łqǃayāˊkǃ is in that tree.” Then he spoke out saying, “Give me my spear.” Łqǃayāˊkǃ kept saying to his brothers, “Shall I go out and fight him?” But they answered, “No, no, don’t go yet.” He was so determined, however, that he finally went out and was killed. Then the other brothers and the dog fell upon this man. After they had set their dog on him, they killed him. They took his bear-skin shirt off and burned his body. Łqǃayāˊkǃ had been torn all to pieces, but Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ put the pieces together, acted around him like a shaman, and brought him back to life.

Then Łqǃayāˊkǃ went along up to the head of that stream dressed in One-legged-man’s shirt and acting like him. When he got there he found the largest two bears that ever lived. These were the wife and father-in-law of the man they had killed. Łqǃayāˊkǃ threw down one salmon before the woman and another very bright one before her father just as One-legged-man had been in the habit of doing. The woman found out right away that Łqǃayāˊkǃ was not her husband, but she made love to him and he took her as his wife. His father-in-law also thought a great deal of him. Every morning Łqǃayāˊkǃ would go off down stream after salmon just as One-legged-man had done. On these expeditions he was always accompanied by his dog, which kept chewing on something continually. He was really chewing those wild peoples’ minds away to make them tame so that they would not hurt Łqǃayāˊkǃ’s brothers. His brothers all came to him.

After that they began pursuing Dry-cloud like Fire-drill’s son. Like him they chased it from one kind of animal to another. They chased it for months and months until they had followed it far up into the sky where you can see the tracks of Łqǃayāˊkǃ to this very day (the milky way). Finally they reached a very cold region in the sky and wanted to get back, but the clouds gathered so thickly about them that they could not pass through. Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ, therefore, called his spirits to open a passage. After they had done so his brothers fell through and were smashed to pieces on the earth. Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ, however, had his spirits make him enter a ptarmigan (qǃēsǃawaˊ), and reached the earth in safety. Then he shook his rattle over his brothers and brought them to life.

Before they ascended into the sky the brothers had killed all of the monsters on Prince of Wales island and elsewhere in Alaska except one at Wrangell called Kᴀxqoyêˊnduᴀ. When they heard about this one, they went to He-who-knows-everything-that-happens (Łiuˊwᴀt-uwadjīˊgî-canᴀˊkᵘ) and said to him, “Grandfather, we want your canoe. Will you lend it to us?” Its name was Arrow-canoe (Tcūˊnet-yākᵘ). Then the old man said, “What do you want the canoe for, grandchildren?” So they told him, and he said, “There is a very bad thing living there. No one can get to him. Several different kinds of spirits are to be met before you reach him. They are very dangerous.” Then he gave them directions, saying, “When the monster is sleeping, he has his eyes open, but when he is awake he has his eyes closed, and he is then watching everything. When you see that his eyes are closed, do not try to kill him. Approach him when his eyes are open. The canoe,” he said, “is right round there back of my house.” They went to look for it but saw nothing at that place except an old log covered with moss. They said to him, “Where is the canoe you were talking about?” Then the old man came out and threw the moss off, revealing a fine painted canoe. Another name for this was Canoe-that-travels-in-the-air (Qᴀxỵīˊxdoxoa), referring to its swiftness. All of the paddles that he brought out to them were beautifully painted. Then they got into the canoe and tested it.

Next day they set out and soon came to a point named Point-that-moves-up-and-down (Yên-yułuˊ-sǃîtᴀˊngî-qǃa). Whenever a canoe approached it this point would rise, and, as soon as the canoe attempted to pass under, would fall and smash it. They, however, passed right underneath, and it did not fall upon them. They killed it by doing so, theirs being the first canoe that had passed under.

Beyond this they saw a patch of kelp called Kelps-washed-up-against-one-another-by-the-waves (Wūcxkᴀdutīˊt-gīc), which closed on those trying to pass, but they shot through as soon as the kelp parted. Thus they killed the kelp patch, and the kelp piled up in one place, becoming a kelp-covered rock which may still be seen.

Next they reached Fire-coming-up-out-of-the-sea (Hīnᴀx-qeg̣ᴀˊntc), which rose out of the ocean quickly and fell back again. When it fell back they passed over it and killed it.

After that they came to Dogs-of-the-sea (Wūcłᴀdᴀgūˊq-cᴀqǃ), after whom Łᴀkîtcîneˊ’s dog is said to have been named.[67] These drew to each side and then ran together upon anyone who tried to pass between. Arrow-canoe was too quick for them, however, and killed them by running through in safety. Then they became rocks.

Before the monster’s dwelling were two mountains, called Mountains-that-divide (Wūˊcqᴀdag̣ᴀt-ca), which formed his doors. These would separate and come together again. Arrow-canoe passed between when they were separated and killed them. You can see them now, one on each side of a salt-water pond, looking as though they had been cut apart.

As soon as they had passed between these they saw the monster, a very bad shaman called also Shaman-of-the-sea (Hīn-tǃᴀq-îˊxtǃî). He looked as though his eyes were open, so they threw a rope made of whale sinew about his neck. Immediately he shook himself and broke it. They made ropes out of the sinews of all the different monsters they had killed, but he broke them. All the time they were doing this a little bird called Old-person (ʟaguqāˊwu),[68] kept coming to their camp and saying, “My sinews only, my sinews.” So they finally killed this bird, took out its sinews, and worked them into a very small thread. As soon as they threw this around the monster’s head it came off. Then they took off its scalp, which had long hair like that of other shamans, and the rest of its head turned into a rock at that place. They now had two principal scalps from the two big monsters they had killed.

When the brothers now returned to the old man and related what had happened, he felt very good and said, “There would have been no person living. This monster would have killed them all, if you had not destroyed it.” Everybody who heard that the monster was dead, was glad, and did not fear to go to that place any more.

After this they returned to their mother and sister. At that time their sister had just reached puberty and was shut up in the house with a mat curtain hung in front of her. So they hung the shaman’s scalp up in front of the curtain. They also made her drink water through the leg bones of geese and swans so that she should not touch the drinking cups. Her mother put a large hat upon her so that she should not look at anything she was forbidden to see. If one shouted that a canoe was coming, or that anything else was taking place that she wanted to witness, she did not dare to look out. Since her time these same regulations have been observed.

Then they left that place and moved south through the interior. Having killed off the ocean monsters, they were now going to kill those in the forest. Besides that, they hunted all of this time, killing bear, ground hogs, and other animals; but their sister was not allowed to look at any of them. Among other wild animals they told the wolverine and wolf that they must not kill human beings but be friendly with them. They killed ground hogs, mountain sheep, and other animals for them and told them that that was what they were to live upon.

At one place they saw a smoke far off in the woods and, advancing toward it, came to the house of a man named He-whose-hands-see (Djīnqotīˊn). He was so called because he was blind and had his wife aim his arrows for him. He said to Łqǃayāˊkǃ, “My wife saw a grizzly bear and told me where it was. She aimed my arrow and I shot at it. I felt that I had killed it, but she said I had not. My wife has left me on account of this, and I don’t know where she is or what I am living on or how I am living without her.” Then Łqǃayāˊkǃ and his brothers gave him ground-hog skins filled with grease and fat such as the interior people used to make, also dried meat.

While they were in the interior the brothers also made needles out of animal bones and threads out of sinew for their sister to use behind the screen. She worked with porcupine quills and dyed sinews, and it is through her that the interior women are such fine workers with the needle.

After they met this man the girl’s brothers asked her to make a small net for them. This net was patterned after a spider’s web which Spider-spirit (Qasîstǃaˊn yēk) showed to Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ, saying, “You are to take this as a pattern.” Then they took the old man to the creek and said, “Do you feel this creek along here?” Putting a long handle on the net, they said to him again, “Dip this net into the water here. It is easy. You can feel when a fish gets into it.” They gave him also a basket their sister had made and said, “When you want to cook the fish, put it in here together with many hot rocks.” After showing him how to cook his fish they left him and came to another camp. There another old man lived who said to them, “Do you see that mountain?” There were two mountains close together. “A very bad person lives over there named Long-haired-person (Cᴀkułyᴀˊtǃ).” So, after the brothers had gotten a great deal of food together for the old man, they left their mother and sister with him and went out to look for Long-haired-person. After a while they came upon good, hard trails made by him along which he had set spears with obsidian points, and presently they saw him coming along one of these with his long hair dragging on the ground. He had a bone in his nose and swan’s down around his head and wrists. Then he said, “Come to my house. I invite you home to eat something. I know you are there.” He said this although he could not see them. Then the boys came out to him and called him “brother-in-law,” and he said, “It is four days since I saw you, my brothers-in-law. Your story is known everywhere.” This Athapascan shaman’s spirits were telling him all these things. So he took them home and gave them all the different kinds of food to which they were accustomed, not treating them as a wild man would. Then they said to him, “You see the old person that lives near by. Do not do any harm to him. He is our grandfather. If you see that old blind fellow down yonder, give him food also. Treat him like the other.” Presently the shaman said to the brothers, “Let us make a sweat house.” In olden times people used to talk to each other in the sweat houses, and the shamans learned a great deal from their spirits inside of them. That was why the shaman wanted them to go in. But, when they were inside, and he and Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ had showed each other their spirits, it was found that Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ’s spirits were the stronger.

Now they returned to their mother and sister and took them to the head of the Taku river, where they spent some time in hunting. Then they crossed to this side and, moving along slowly on account of their sister, they came to a place on the Stikine called in Athapascan Hᴀkǃîˊts, where they also hunted. Their destination was the Nass. Coming down along the north bank of the Stikine to find a good place for their sister to cross, they started to make the passage between Telegraph and the narrows, one of them taking the dog on his back.

Before the brothers set out, however, their mother covered their sister up so that she would not look at them until they got over. But when they were half way across, they started back and it looked to the mother as if they were drifting downstream. She said to her daughter, “Daughter, it looks as if your brothers were going to be drowned. They are already drifting down the river.” Upon that, the girl raised her covering a little and looked out at them, and immediately they turned into stone. The pack that one of them was carrying fell off and floated down a short distance before petrifying, and it may still be seen there. The dog also turned to rock on its master’s head and the mother and sister on shore. One of the boys had green and red paints with him, such as they used to paint their bows and arrows and their faces, and nowadays you can go there and get it. Years ago people passing these rocks prayed to them, stuffed pieces of their clothing into the crevices, and asked the rocks for long life.[69]

Raven was then living just below this place. His smoke may still be seen there, and they call it Raven’s smoke (Yēł sǃēˊg̣e). When Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ turned into a rock, Raven said, “Where is that shaman that was going to come to after he had died?” He meant that, while he used to restore his brothers to life by shaking his rattle over them, he could not now restore himself; and people now apply these remarks to a shaman who has not succeeded in saving a person after he has been paid a great deal for his services. They will say, “Where is that shaman that could save anybody, but could not save the very person we wanted saved?” If a shaman were not truthful, they would say, “He is trying to have Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ’s spirits but will never get them because he is not truthful like Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ.”[70]

* * * * *

As Raven was traveling along after his encounter with the mother of Fire-drill’s son, he saw a sculpin on the beach looking at him and hid from it to see what it would do. Then he saw it swim out on the surface of the ocean and go down out of sight some distance off. After that he opened the door of the sea, went to the house of the sculpin, which was under a large rock, and said to it, “My younger brother, this is you, is it?” “I am not your younger brother.” “Oh! yes, you are my younger brother. We were once coming down Nass river in a canoe with our father and had just reached its mouth when you fell overboard and sank forever.” Then the sculpin said, “I can not be your younger brother for I am a very old person.” Said Raven, “I want you to be next to me. There will be many sculpins, but you shall be the principal one.” So he placed the sculpin (wēqǃ) in the sky where it may still be seen [as the Pleiades].[71]

Raven saw a canoe out after halibut and said, “Come ashore and take me across,” but they paid no attention to him. Then he said, “If you do not I will put you up in the sky also. I will make an example of you, too.” Then he held his walking stick out toward the canoe and they found themselves going up into the sky. That is what you can see in the sky now. It is called The-halibut-fishers (Dᴀnᴀˊqᵘsǃîkê).[72]

Raven went to another place and determined to invite some people to a feast, so he invited all the seal people. When each seal came in he smeared its forehead with pitch, and, as soon as it got warm, the pitch ran down over the seal’s eyes and blinded it. Then he clubbed it to death.[73]

He went along again, saw a nice fat deer, and said to it, “My friend this is you is it?” There was a deep, narrow canyon near by and Raven laid a rotten stick across it saying, “Let us go across to the other side upon this,” but the deer said, “No, I can not. It will break with me and I shall get hurt.” “No, you shall see how I cross it.” So Raven went over and Deer tried to follow him but fell to the bottom of the canyon and was crushed to death. Then Raven went down and ate him, stuffing himself so full that he could scarcely move. He then acted as though he were very sad and pretended to cry, saying, “My friend, my friend, he is gone.” He pretended that the wild animals had devoured him.[74]

After this Raven went to ground-hog’s house for the winter. The ground hogs go into their holes in September. At home they live like human beings and to them we are animals just as much. So Raven spent the winter with one of them and became very sick of it, but he could not get out. The ground hog enjoyed himself very much, but Raven acted as if he were in prison and kept shouting to his companion, “Winter comes on, Winter comes on,” thinking that the ground hog had power to make the winter pass rapidly. The ground hog had to stay in his hole for six months, and at that time he had six toes, one for each, but Raven pulled one of his toes out of each foot in order to shorten the winter. That is why he has but five nowadays.[75]

Next Raven married the daughter of a chief named Fog-over-the-salmon (Xāt-ka-qog̣āˊsǃî). It was winter, and they were without food, so Raven wanted salmon very much. His wife made a large basket and next morning washed her hands in it. When she got through there was a salmon there. Both were very glad, and cooked and ate it. Every day afterward she did the same thing until their house was full of drying salmon. After that, however, Raven and his wife quarreled, and he hit her on the shoulder with a piece of dried salmon. Then she ran away from him, but, when he ran after her and seized her, his hands passed right through her body. Then she went into the water and disappeared forever, while all of the salmon she had dried followed her. He could not catch her because she was the fog (gūsǃ). After that he kept going to his father-in-law to beg him to have his wife come back, but his father-in-law said, “You promised me that you would have respect for her and take care of her. You did not do it, therefore you can not have her back.”[76]

* * * * *

Then Raven had to leave this place, and went on to another town where he found a widower. He said to this man, “I am in the same fix as you. My wife also has died.” Raven wanted to marry the daughter of the chief in that town, so he said, “Of course I have to marry a woman of as high caste as my first wife. That is the kind I am looking for.” But Tsᴀgwâˊn (a bird), who was also looking for a high-caste wife, followed Raven about all the time. He said to the people, “That man is telling stories around here. His first wife left him because he was cruel to her.” For this reason they refused to give the girl to him. Then he said to the chief, “If I had married your daughter you would have had a great name in the world. You will presently see your daughter take up with some person who is a nobody, and, when they speak of you in the world, it will always be as Chief-with-no-name. You may listen to this Tsᴀgwâˊn if you want to, but you will be sorry for it. He is a man from whom no good comes. Hereafter this Tsᴀgwâˊn will live far out at sea. And I will tell you this much, that neither Tsᴀgwâˊn nor myself will get this woman.” This is why Tsᴀgwâˊn is now always alone. Raven also said to the chief, “You will soon hear something of this daughter of yours.” All the high-caste men wanted to marry this woman, but she would not have them.

Going on again, Raven came to an old man living alone, named Dᴀmnāˊdjî, and said to him, “Do you know the young daughter of the chief close by here?” “Yes, I know her.” “Why don’t you try to marry her?” “I can’t get her. I know I can’t, so I don’t want to try.” Then Raven said, “I will make a medicine to enable you to get her.” “But I have no slave,” said the old man; “to get her a man must have slaves.” “Oh!” said Raven, “you do not have to have a slave to get her. She will take a liking to you and nobody can help it. She will marry you. Her father will lose half of his property.” Then he made the old man look young, got feathers to put into his hair and a marten-skin robe to put over him so that he appeared very handsome. But Raven said to him, “You are not going to look like this all of the time. It is only for a day or so.”

After this the rejuvenated man got into his skin canoe, for this was well to the north, and paddled over to where the girl lived. He did not ask her father’s consent but went directly to her, and she immediately fell in love with him. Although so many had been after her she now said, “I will marry you. I will go with you even if my father kills me for it.”

When the chief’s slaves found them in the bedroom at the rear of the house, they said to the chief, “Your daughter is married.” So her mother looked in there and found it was true. Then her father said, “Come out from that room, my daughter.” He had already told his slaves to lay down valuable furs on the floor for his daughter and her husband to sit on. He thought if she were already married it was of no use for him to be angry with her. So the girl came out with her husband, and, when her father saw him he was very glad, for he liked his looks, and he was dressed like a high-caste person.

Then the chief related to his son-in-law how a fellow came along wanting to marry his daughter, and how Tsᴀgwâˊn had come afterward and told him that he had been cruel to his first wife. Said the chief, “This man had a wife. His first wife is living yet. I don’t want to hurt his wife’s feelings.”

After that his son-in-law said, “My father told me to start right out after him to-day in my canoe.” He was in a hurry to depart because he was afraid that all of his good clothing would leave him. He said to his wife, “Take only your blanket to use on the passage, because I have plenty of furs of every description at home.” So she took nothing but her marten-skin robe and a fox robe.

As she lay in the canoe, however, with her head resting on his lap she kept feeling drops of water fall upon her face, and she said many times, “What is that dripping on my face?” Then he would say, “It must be the water splashing from my paddle,” but it was really the drippings that fall from an old man’s eyes when he is very filthy. Her husband had already become an old man again and had lost his fine clothing, but she could not see it because her face was turned the other way. When the woman thought that they were nearly at their destination she raised herself to look out, glanced at her husband’s face, and saw that he was an altogether different man. She cried very hard.

After they had arrived at his town the old man went from house to house asking the people to take pity on him and let him bring his wife to one of them, because he knew that his own house was not fit for her. These, however, were some of the people that had wanted to marry this woman, so they said, “Why don’t you take her to your own fine house? You wanted her.” Meanwhile she sat on the beach by the canoe, weeping. Finally the shabby sister of this old man, who was still older than he, came down to her and said, “See here, you are a high-caste girl. Everybody says this man is your husband, and you know he is your husband, so you better come up to the house with me.” Then she saw the place where he lived, and observed that his bed was worse than that of one of her father’s slaves. The other people also paid no attention to her, although they knew who she was, because she had married this man. They would eat after everybody else was through, and, while he was eating, the people of the town would make fun of him by shouting out, “Dᴀmnāˊdjî’s father-in-law and his brothers-in-law are coming to his grand house to see him.” Then he would run out to see whether it were so and find that they were making fun of him. Every morning, while he was breakfasting with his wife, the people fooled him in this way.

Although he had not said so, the father-in-law and the brothers-in-law of Dᴀmnāˊdjî thought that he was a very high-caste person because he was dressed so finely. So they got together all their expensive furs to visit him, and they had one canoe load of slaves, which they intended to give him, all dressed with green feathers from the heads of mallard drakes. One morning the people again shouted, “Dᴀmnāˊdjî’s father-in-law and his brothers-in-law are coming to see him.” Running out to look this time, he saw canoe after canoe coming, loaded down deep. Then he did not know what to do. He began to sweep out the house and begged some boys to help him clean up, but they said, “You clean up yourself. Those are your people coming.” The people of the place also began hiding all of their basket-work pots, and buckets.

As they came in, the people in the canoes sang together and all of them were iridescent with color. They were very proud people. Then the old man begged the boys to carry up the strangers’ goods, but they replied as before, “You carry them up yourself. You can do it.” So the strangers had to bring up their own things into the house and sit about without anyone telling them where. The old man’s sister was crying all the time. Then the strangers understood at once what was the matter and felt very sorry for these old people.

After that the old man kept saying to the boys who came in to look at his visitors, “One of you go after water,” but they answered, “Go after water yourself. You can do it.” He tried to borrow a basket for his guests to eat off of, but they all said, “Use your own basket. What did you go and get that high-caste girl for? You knew that you couldn’t afford it. Why didn’t you get a poor person like yourself instead of a chief’s daughter? Now you may know that it isn’t fun to get a high-caste person when one is poor.” His brothers-in-law and his father-in-law felt ashamed at what they heard, and they also felt badly for him. Then the old woman gave her brother a basket that was unfit for the chief’s slaves to eat out of, and he ran out to get water for his guests.

When he got there, however, and was stooping down to fill his basket, the creek moved back from him and he followed it. It kept doing this and he kept running after it until he came to the mountain, where it finally vanished into a house. Running into this, he saw a very old woman sitting there who said to him, “What are you after? Is there anything I can do for you?” He said, “There is much that you can do for me, if you can really do it. My friends are very mean to me. My father-in-law and the other relations of my wife have all come to my place to visit me. I married a very high-caste woman, and the people of my place seem to be very mean about it. I am very poor and have nothing with which to entertain them.” He told all of his troubles to her from the beginning, and, when he was through, she said, “Is that all?” “Yes, that is all.” Then the woman brushed back his hair several times with her hand, and lo! he had a head of beautiful hair, while his ragged clothes changed into valuable ones. He was handsomer and better clothed than at the time when he first obtained his wife. The old woman that brought him luck is called ʟǃêˊnᴀxx̣īˊdᴀq-that-lives-in-the-water (Hīntᴀk-ʟǃêˊnᴀxx̣īˊdᴀq). The old basket he had also turned into a very large beautiful basket. Then she said to him, “There is a spring back in the corner. Go there and uncover it and dip that basket as far down as you can reach.” He did so and, when he drew it out, it was full of dentalia.

Now Dᴀmnāˊdjî returned home very quickly, but nobody recognized him at first except his wife and those who had seen him when he went to get her. Afterward he gave water to his guests, and they could see dentalia shells at the bottom. The house was now filled with spectators, and those who had made fun of him were very much ashamed of themselves. After he had given them water, he gave them handfuls of dentalia, for which his father-in-law and his brothers-in-law gave him slaves, valuable furs, and other property. So he became very rich and was chief of that town. That is why the Indians do the same now. If a brother-in-law gives them the least thing they return much more than its value.

Now he had a big house built, and everything that he said had to be done. The people that formerly made fun of him were like slaves to him. He also gave great feasts, inviting people from many villages. But, after he had become very great among them, he was too hard upon the people of his town. His wife was prouder than when she was with her father and if boys or anyone else displeased her they were put to death.

As they were now very proud and had plenty of people to work for them, the husband and wife spent much time sitting on the roof of their house looking about. One spring the woman saw a flock of swans (g̣oqł) coming from the southeast, and said, “Oh! there is a high-caste person among those birds that I was going to marry.” Another time they went up, and a flock of geese (tǃāwᴀˊq) came along. Then she again said to her husband, “Oh! there is the high-caste person I was going to marry.” By and by some sand-hill cranes (dūł) flew past, and she repeated the same words. But, when the brants (qên) came over, and she spoke these words, they at once flew down to her and carried her off with them. Her husband ran after the brants underneath as fast as he could, and every now and then some of her clothing fell down, but he was unable to overtake her.

When the birds finally let this woman drop, she was naked and all of her hair even was gone. Then she got up and walked along the beach crying, and she made a kind of apron for herself out of leaves. Continuing on along the beach, she came upon a red snapper head, which she picked up. She wandered on aimlessly, not knowing what to do, because she was very sad at the thought of her fine home and her husband. Presently she saw smoke ahead of her and arrived at a house where was an old woman. She opened the door, and the old woman said, “Come in.” Then she said to the old woman, “Let us cook this red snapper head.” “Yes, let us cook it,” said the latter. After they had eaten it, the old woman said to her, “Go along the beach and try to find something else.” So she went out and found a sculpin (wēqǃ). Then she came back to the house and cooked that, but, while they were eating, she heard many boys shouting, and she thought they were laughing at her because she was naked. She looked around but saw no one. Then the old woman said to her, “Take it (the food) out to that hole.” She went outside with the tray and saw an underground sweathouse out of which many hands protruded. This was the place from which the shouting came. She handed the tray down and it was soon handed up again with two fine fox skins in it. Then the old woman said to her, “Make your clothing out of these furs,” and so she did.

After she had put the skins on, this old woman said, “Your father and mother live a short distance away along this beach. You better go to them. They are living at a salmon creek.” So the girl went on and soon saw her father and mother in a canoe far out where her father was catching salmon. But, when she ran down toward the canoe to meet them, her father said to his wife, “Here comes a fox.” As he was looking for something with which to kill it, she ran back into the woods.

Then she felt very badly, and returned to the old woman crying. “Did you see your father?” said the latter. “Yes.” “What did he say to you?” “He took me for a fox. He was going to kill me.” Then the old woman said, “Yes, what else do you think you are? You have already turned into a fox. Now go back to your father and let him kill you.”

The woman went to the same place again and saw her father still closer to the shore; and she heard him say, “Here comes that big fox again.” Then she ran right up to him, saying to herself, “Let him kill me,” and he did so. Years ago all the high-caste people wore bracelets and necklaces, and each family had its own way of fixing them. Now, as this woman was skinning the fox, she felt something around its foreleg. She looked at it and found something like her daughter’s bracelet. Afterward she also cut around the neck and found her daughter’s necklace. Then she told her husband to come and look saying, “Here on this fox are our daughter’s necklace and bracelet.” So they cried over the fox and said, “Something must have made her turn into a fox.” They knew how this fox ran toward them instead of going away.

Now they took the body of the fox, placed it upon a very nice mat, and laid another over it. They put eagle’s down, which was always kept in bags ready for use, on the body, crying above it all the time. They also began fasting, and all of her brothers and relations in that village fasted with them. All cleaned up their houses and talked to their Creator (Cagūˊn). One midnight, after they had fasted for many days, they felt the house shaking, and they heard a noise in the place where the body lay. Then the father and mother felt very happy. The mother went there with a light and saw that her daughter was in her own proper shape, acting like a shaman. Then the woman named the spirits in her. The first she mentioned was the swan spirit, the next the goose spirit, the next the sand-hill-crane spirit, the next the brant spirit. Another spirit was the red-snapper head spirit which called itself Spirit-with-a-labret-in-its-chin (Tūts-ya-ūˊwu-yēk), and another the fox spirit (Nāg̣ᴀsǃeˊ koyēˊk). Now the father and mother of this woman were very happy, but her husband lost all of his wealth and became poor again.[77]

* * * * *

Raven went to another place and turned himself into a woman. Then she thought within herself, “Whose daughter shall I say I am?” She saw a sea gull sitting out on a high rock and thought she would call that her father. Years ago a chief would always pick out a high place in the village on which to sit in the morning, and when Raven saw the sea gull she thought within herself, “I am Tᴀcᴀkītūᴀˊn’s (Sitter-on-a-high-cliff’s) daughter.” A canoe came along filled with killer whales returning to their own village, and she married one of them. When they got near the town, some one on the beach called to them, “Where is that canoe coming from?” and one replied, “We have been after a wife and we have her.” “Which chief’s daughter is that?” they inquired, because in olden times people never went for any woman by canoe except the daughter of a chief. “It is Tᴀcᴀkītūᴀˊn’s daughter,” said they. “It is Cudāˊxduxōˊ’s (Barked-hemlock’s) daughter.” All of the killer whales believed this.

After that, the killer whales began to notice that their food was disappearing very rapidly, although they were always out fishing and hunting and had had their house piled full of boxes of grease. They said, “What is wrong? What has become of all the grease and fat in these boxes?” They could not find out for a long time. Raven wore a labret at that time set with abalone shell which was formerly very valuable, and it is from him that high-caste people afterward used these. After some time they found this labret in one of the boxes of grease and said, “Just look at this labret in here.” Then Raven exclaimed, “Ih! my labret, that is always the way with my labret. Whenever it feels like doing so, it will leave my lip and go off anywhere.”

By and by Raven said, “I wonder what is wrong that I have such bad dreams. I dreamt that all the people of this village were asleep, and my husband went to sleep and never woke up. My dreams always come true. Whatever I dream surely happens.” Late the next night she got a stick, sharpened the ends, and killed her husband; and early in the morning they heard her crying, “My husband, Cāwᴀˊt-kaʟᴀˊqdagê’s father.” Years ago, before the white laws came in force, when a chief used these words in his speech, people knew that he had a grudge against some one and was going to murder him. The killer whales, however, did not know what she meant.

Then Raven told the people that her husband had said, “Take me and place me quite a distance from the town.” They did so, and she said, “When you hear me cry, I don’t want any of you to pass the place where I am mourning. Tie up the fingers of my right hand. Allow me to eat with my left hand only. You people must also wait upon me. You must bring me everything I eat. Also paint my face black.” She being the widow, they had to do everything just as she told them, and these are the regulations people have observed up to the present time. When they heard her crying around the spot where her husband’s body had been laid, no one dared go near, and to this day those who go by a house where people are mourning have to be very quiet. Nor do they pass it at all unless they are compelled to.

Raven stayed there mourning for a long time, but she was really eating the killer-whale’s body. After she had remained by it for a very long time, she would come home chewing gum, but, when the husband’s relations asked her for a piece, she would say, “No, no one can chew this gum but Macaˊ,” which was the name she gave to herself.

She lived there for a long time, continually crying out of doors, but she was really crying for joy because she intended to kill all of the killer whales.

While sitting outside one day a kēkǃᵘ (a small sea gull with black head and white body) flew past, and Raven said, “Here comes the man I made white.” By and by she saw another, called kuʟêˊta, also white, and repeated the same words. Then some swans came along far up in the sky, and she said the same thing about them. The killer whales heard all this and said, “Since you have made them white, can’t you make us white also?” “It will hurt you to be made white,” said Raven. “Those people that came along were made white because they were brave.” Then she sharpened the same hardwood stick with which she had killed her husband and told all of the killers to lie in a row. She began pounding this into their ears, and so killed all of them but the last. This looked up in time to see what she was doing and rushed into the sea saying, “Raven has finished us sure enough” (Qothagᴀˊsînīˊyēł). Raven remained there for some time eating the whales she had killed.

The reason why there are so many cowards among men nowadays is because Raven, being a man, made himself into a woman at that time. The people that live single all their lives are such as came from Raven at that period. This is also why thieves are great talkers and, when they have gotten into trouble, have a way of getting out, and why some women are bad and deceive their husbands; for Raven said that his husband had wanted to be buried a long way from town, and they believed him. This is why the Tlingit used to be very careful of the way they spoke and even of the way they walked when in public.[78]

After that Raven came to a fish-hawk (kūnackᴀnỵēˊt) and exclaiming, “Oh! my friend” entered its house, where was a great quantity of food. He felt very happy at the sight, and said to the bird, “I will stay with you all winter.” Then he stayed so long that the hawk began to get tired of him, because Raven would not work. When he saw that the bird was getting weary of him he would say, “The time for me to work hasn’t come yet. When I work you will have plenty of rest. You will not have to do a thing. This beach will be covered with all kinds of fish, and you will be tired of preparing them.” So the hawk would think of what Raven was going to do for him, forget everything else, and work all the harder to supply him with food while Raven stayed in the house. Raven would also talk to him, saying, “I remember to have seen you long ago. You were very high-caste. I remember it very well.” In that way he made the hawk forget for a time all the bad feelings he had had toward him. But finally the little hawk determined to go away, and he left Raven there alone.[79]

Then Raven went to another industrious bird, called hīnỵîkłēˊx̣î, a fishing bird living along the river. He called him “brother-in-law,” and was invited to have something to eat, but next morning the bird left him for he knew that he was a lazy fellow.[80]

After that Raven came to the goose people, and married a woman among them. By and by they said to him, “We are going to leave for other countries. I don’t think you can stand the journey.” “Oh! yes,” said Raven, “I think I can stand the journey. If you can, I can.” So they set out, and, when Raven became tired, his wife flew along under him to hold him up. Finally they came to camp and began going out on the beaches to dig roots. Raven helped them, but he did not like the goose life nor the food they ate, so he commenced to get very lean. One day he killed a goose and began cooking it apart by himself, but they discovered him and said, “He is a man-eater.” So they left him.[81]

Raven went to another place, and they said to him, “There will soon be a great feast here,” and they asked him to make a totem pole. He finished it, and, when they put it up, they had a big dance. The people who gave this were of the Wolf clan, so he danced with one of the two Raven parties. Afterward he made a long speech to the host. Then they danced again, and Raven held a spear in his hands. This meant that he was going to invite to a feast next, and was done that they might give him more than the others. So nowadays some are in earnest in doing this while others go through the performance and leave without keeping it in mind. Raven was the person who first had those dances and speeches.

While they were engaged in the last dance the opposite company of Ravens danced very hard and showed fight by crossing the line which is always set between. For this reason Raven would not go to the next feast, to be confronted by these people. They sent after him many times, and when they finally became tired of sending, began the feast without him. Then he told his slave to go over and see if they were already eating, and on his return he said, “They are having a grand time. They are eating a great quantity of food.” “Take me there,” said Raven to his slaves. So they went along with him, one on each side. When he came there he saw that they were having a grand time distributing boxes of food to all the head chiefs, and he said to a slave, “Ask them where this chief shall sit.” He did so, but they went on with their feast without paying the slightest attention to him. Then Raven made his slave ask again, “Where shall this chief sit? Where shall this chief sit?” and again they paid no attention, although he shouted so that all in the house could hear him. When the people left he was still standing around, so his slaves said to him, “Why were you so particular? We could have had a great deal to eat.” After all were gone Raven ate the leavings.

So nowadays, when a person wants more than anyone else and makes people send for him again and again, they go on with the feast, lest those of the opposite party think that the host cares more for this one person than for all the rest of them and leave his house. That is why they paid no attention to Raven when he did come. One reason why Raven stayed away was that he thought he would make them come after him several times because he had promised to give a feast in return. Nowadays a person who is going to give a feast acts in the same way, and people know by it what he intends.

The following winter Raven gave his feast. This was at Alsek river, and you can still see his house there with the boxes inside [a rock hollowed out like a cave with other rocks inside of it]. When they came in sight of that the Indians would pray to it.

As soon as his guests came, Raven went down to meet them with his bow and arrows. That is why people now go down with their guns. He had so much respect for his guests that he had all of his relations act as servants, washing their hands and waiting on them while they ate. Therefore the natives now act just so when they invite people from other towns. Raven taught that all who came after should do just as he had done. He also prepared chewing tobacco for his guests.

Then he began building his house, and, when the frame, consisting of four uprights and two crosspieces, was completed, he and his friends danced the first dance. In this dance people sing funeral songs. Eight songs, or one song with eight verses, are used at this time, following a certain regular sequence and, if one that does not know the song starts it and begins with the wrong verse, it is looked on as a disgrace to his people. The guests danced, wearing their masks, hats, emblem coats, and other festal paraphernalia. After that he distributed his property, the people that had invited him before and the leading chiefs obtaining most of it.[82]

After this Raven returned to the place where he was born and found the box which had held the sun, moon, and stars, and which now contained his mother, still hanging up in the house of Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł. Then he went out with his bow and arrows and shot a whale (yāˊî). It floated ashore on the beach and every day he saw all kinds of sea birds sitting upon it, but he did not like the looks of any of them. Finally, however, he shot a bird called cāx and a large bird which was very pretty and had a bill that looked like copper. Then he went to Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł’s house, took down the box which contained his mother,[84] and liberated the flickers (kūn) which she always kept under her arms. When Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł saw that, he said, “All those pretty things of mine are gone.” They knew that Raven had done this, so they called him into the house, and Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł asked him if it was indeed he. He said, “Yes.” Then Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł said, “Go and fell that tree standing over there,” for he wanted the tree to kill him. But when the tree fell upon Raven it could not kill him because he was made of rock. Finding him still alive, Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł called him in the following day and said, “Go and clean out that canoe.” It was a canoe just being made, and when Raven got into it to clean it out it closed upon him. Then he simply extended his elbows and broke the canoe after which he smashed it up for firewood. All this Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł saw, and again sent for him. He came in, and they put into the fire a large copper kettle made like a box, filled it with water, and put heated stones into it. Then they told him to get in, and they covered it over in order to kill him. Raven, however, again changed himself into a rock, and, when they thought he was cooked to pieces and looked inside, they saw that he was still there. Then they told him to come out.

Now Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł was very angry and said, “Let rain pour down all over the world, and let people die of starvation.” Then it became so wet and stormy that people could not get food and began to starve. Their canoes were also broken up, their houses fell in on them, and they suffered terribly. Now Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł asked for his jointed dance hat and when he put it on, water began pouring out of the very top of it. It is from Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł that the Indians obtained this kind of hat. When the water rose so as to cover the house floor, Raven and his mother got upon the lowest retaining timber. This house we are talking of, although it looked like a house to them, was really part of the world. It had eight rows of retaining timbers, and, as the water came up, Raven and his mother climbed to a higher one. At the same time the people of the world were climbing up into the hills. When the waters reached the fourth retaining timber they were half way up the mountains. When the house was nearly full of water, Raven had his mother get into the skin of the cāx he had killed, while he got into the skin of the white bird with copper-colored bill, and to this very day Tlingit do not eat the cāx because it was Raven’s mother. The cāx, which is a great diver, now stayed on the surface of the water, but Raven himself flew to the very highest cloud in the sky and hung there by his bill.[85]

After Raven had hung to this cloud for days and days, nobody knows how long, he pulled his bill out and prayed to fall upon a piece of kelp, for he thought that the water had gone down. He did so, and, flying off, found the waters just half way down the mountains.

Then he traveled along again and came to a shark which had a long stick it had been swimming around with. He took this, stuck it straight down into the sea and used it as a ladder on which to descend under the ocean. Arrived at the bottom, he gathered up some sea urchins and started along with them.

By and by Raven came to a place where an old woman lived and said to her, “How cold I am after eating those sea urchins.” As she paid no attention to him, he repeated it over and over for a long time. At last she said, “What low tide is this Raven talking about?” He did not answer, and presently she said again, “What low tide are you talking about?” After she had asked him this question many times Raven became very angry and said, “I will stick these sea-urchin shells into your body if you don’t keep quiet.” At last he did so, and she began singing, “Don’t, Raven, the tide will go down if you don’t stop.” At the same time Raven kept asking Eagle, whom he had set to watch the tide, “How far down is the tide now?” “The tide is down as far as half a man.” By and by he asked again, “How far down is the tide?” “The tide is very low,” said Eagle. Then the old woman would start her song again. “Let it get dry all around the world,” said Raven to Eagle. By and by Eagle said, “The tide is very, very low now. You can see hardly any water.” “Let it get still drier,” said Raven. Finally everything became dry, and this was the lowest tide that there ever was. All kinds of salmon, whales, seals, and other sea creatures lay round on the sand flats where the people that were saved could get them. They had enough from that ebb tide to supply them for a long, long time. When the tide began to rise again all the people watched it, fearing that there would be another flood, and they carried their food a long distance back, praying for it to stop.

Quite a while before this flood took place the shamans had predicted it, and those who worked from that time on collecting food were saved while the others were destroyed.

After the flood Raven stayed in a town of considerable size. A man there, named Cᴀqǃᵘkǃᵘ, collected all kinds of big sea animals, as whales and seals, at the time of this great ebb and made a great quantity of grease out of them, while Raven collected only small fishes like cod and red cod and obtained but a few stomachs full of oil. He would eat this up as fast as he made it, but his companion worked hard so as to have a large quantity on hand.

By and by Raven said to Cᴀqǃᵘkǃᵘ, “My uncle, I had a bad dream last night. I dreamt that there was war here and that we were all killed. You must be on the watch.” After that Raven said to the birds, “You must make a lot of noise now.” They did so and Cᴀqǃᵘkǃᵘ, thinking warriors were coming to kill him, ran out of the house. At once Raven began carrying off the boxes of grease to a certain place in the woods. Just as he was at work on the last of these the people of the house came back, pushed him into it, and tied him up, but he made a hole with his bill and escaped. Then he went to the place where he had hidden the boxes and stayed there for a year, until he had eaten everything up.

Next Raven returned to Nass river and found that the people there had not changed their ways. They were dancing and feasting and invited him to join them.

By and by he came to where war was going on between two different parties, and he said to them, “Make carved fighting hats, greaves, and war coats to protect your bodies.” The name of one village was Gîtǃîˊkc and the warring families were the Gînᴀxdâˊyîkc (or Gîtgîcᴀłk) and the Gîtᴀnduˊ. The people of Gîtǃîˊkc were getting the worst of it. There were only three of them left—the chief, his sister, and his sister’s daughter. So the chief began sending to all the villages for an aged man who was very smart and knew the old stories. Whenever he brought in an old man, however, the latter would talk of what good food he had been eating and what a high family he belonged to, or tell what a wild life he had led when he was young, all which had no interest for the chief. He thought if he could find an old man that would tell him just the old story he wanted, he would pay him well. Finally he found that among his enemies was Old-man-who-foresees-all-troubles-in-the-world, the one spoken of at the beginning of this story, and he sent for him without letting the rest of his enemies know about it.

After a while he heard this old man coming along, talking very loud, like a brave person, and he thought, “This is the old man from whom I am going to hear the story.” Then the old man said, “Chief, if you are pleased with the story I am about to tell you, let me know how long I shall stay in your house, and, if you are not pleased, let me go at once.” After that he told him all about the brave people that had lived in times gone by, and said, “Always speak very highly of your enemies. If you speak slightingly of them they will get above you. If you speak to them in a nice manner, you will be able to stand alone. If you speak to your enemies kindly, they will say, ‘Let us give ourselves up to him.’” Then the chief said to the old man, “You shall stay with me a long time,” so he stayed there, and next day they waited on him, giving him water to wash his hands and face and food to eat.

After that the old man sent for a piece of Alaska maple (qǃāłqǃēˊ) and made a war hat out of it carved to resemble a wolf. Then he said, “Isn’t there a wolf skin around here somewhere?” So they killed a wolf, skinned it entire along with the claws and teeth and put the dancing hat inside to fill out the head. He sent for another piece of hard wood from a tree called sᴀks and made an arrow out of it. He burned black lines around the shaft of this arrow like those on gambling sticks. Then he said to the chief, “Your sister shall sing the war song for you, and your sister’s daughter shall beat the drum. Put the wolf on while the song is being sung and go down toward that beach just below the house. Jump over that rock four times.” There was a big rock upon the beach just below the house. As he gave these directions the old man made his voice sound as though he were making war. He began to excite the chief. “My nephews,” he continued, “are out in the canoe farthest from the beach. Be careful how you use your arrow. Do not point it toward that canoe.” When the old man was about to leave him he handed him the arrow and a bow and said, “Put on your war clothes about midnight. Then stand in front of your house and pretend that you are going to shoot. Stand with the arrow pointed toward your enemies’ village and say to the arrow just before you let it go, ‘I am shooting you to kill the chief of my enemies.’ Then let the arrow go.” After that the old man left, saying that that was all he intended to tell him.

The chief did everything just as he had been directed. At midnight he put on his war clothes and said to his sister, “You start the war song, and let my niece go to the drum.” Then he took the position the old man had told him and shot the arrow saying, “Lodge in the heart of my enemies’ chief.” He shot, and in the morning the people of that village saw that the chief was dead. They thought that he had died of heart disease, but, when they examined his body, they found the small arrow sticking into his heart. Then they cut this out and began asking one another, “Where has this arrow come from? What tribe does it belong to?” So they sent for the old man who had made it and, as he was examining it, he said, “I wonder to what place this belongs.” Just then it flew out of his hand, and he said, “Run out and see what it is going to say.” So all ran outside, and the arrow flew up and down in the sky saying “Nuˊx̣gayu.” This is the Tsimshian name of an animal, but the old man made it indicate by that the village from which it came. After that it went across to their enemies’ town. Now, when they saw this, they got into their canoes and went over to fight. As soon as the canoes had gotten around his house the chief said, “I am not afraid to be killed by you, because I know that you are all from a high family.” Then he again had his sister sing the war song and his niece beat the drum, and he acted as the old man had directed him. Just before he came out he threw out ashes which looked like smoke and concealed his movements. In the midst of this he came out and shot the arrow toward their canoes, which passed through every man in four of them. Then it came back to him, and he shot it through four more canoe loads. Those who were left went home.

The day after this still more came to fight him with like result, but the next time he made a mistake, shot toward the canoe which contained the old man’s relations, and killed all of them. Then the arrow flew back to the old man, who sent it at the chief for whom he had made it, and killed him.

Now the chief’s sister put on her brother’s war clothes, while her daughter sang the song and drummed. With the arrow which had traveled back to her, she began killing off her enemies just as her brother had done. So the people made fun of the old man, saying, “I thought you said you had killed that chief.” “I did kill him.” “Well! if you killed the chief, who is it that is killing our friends?” Still he kept assuring them that he had killed the chief. Then they started over once more. But, this time, when the woman had shot and was running back into the house, they saw by the apron she wore that it was a woman, and the canoes started shoreward, the people exclaiming, “It is a woman. It is a woman.” When all had landed, and she saw that they were coming after her, she and her daughter escaped out of the rear of the house and ran up into the woods. From the top of the mountain there she glanced back and said to her daughter, “Look at your uncle’s house. It is burning.” They could see the fire and smoke coming from it. Then they felt very sad and composed songs which the Indians sing to this very day. They cried so hard that they fell asleep. After that they went farther into the forest crying, and the mother said as she wept, “I wonder whom I can get to marry my daughter so that he can help me.”

By and by Mink came to the woman and said, “What is the matter with me? Will not I do for your daughter?” “What do you do for a living?” she asked him. “I have a smell that kills everything.” Then the woman went straight on without paying the least attention to him. Next Marten came along. To this woman they appeared as human beings. And Marten said, “What is the matter with me?” “What can you do for a living?” He said he was a very fast runner and could get anything he wanted, but she rejected him. Then she went on again singing as before, “Who will marry my daughter in order to help me?” Next came Mountain-goat. “What is the matter with me?” “What do you do for a living?” “I can kill anything with my horns. I live far up among the bluffs where nothing can harm me.” He did not please her, and she went on past. Then Wolf came, saying, “What is the matter with me? Can not I get your daughter?” “What do you do for a living?” “I am a fast runner. I can kill anything I want. I have plenty to eat.” He did not suit her, and she passed by him, but he was so determined that he met her again with a mountain goat in his mouth. She went right by, however, and came to a lake where she repeated the same words. At that place she met a very fine-looking young man, Frog. “What do you do for a living?” she asked, and he did not tell her what he did but said, “Although I am small very few people like me. Even the big animals are scared of me.” After him Grizzly Bear asked, “What is the matter with me?” “What do you do for a living?” “Don’t you see how large I am? I am a very powerful fellow.” He showed her his strength and what teeth he had, and said that he was very quick and active, but she refused to have him, and went on. Then she met the Wild Canary (sǃāsǃ). “What do you do for a living?” she said. “I am a fine singer.” She went on and met another bird, called Tsǃīnîg̣ēˊnî, and asked, “What do you do for a living?” “Don’t you see that I am a very handsome fellow. All the women want to marry me.” Then she went along and met Fox, who said, “What is the matter with me?” “What do you do for a living?” she asked. She noticed that he was dressed very warmly in very beautiful clothing. “I can run and get anything I want,” he said. “I have plenty to eat.” He did not suit her, and she went right by. After a while there came Lynx (g̣āk), who replied to her question by saying, “I am a traveler and get all kinds of birds to eat.” Next she met Wolverine (Nūsk) which answered, “I am a good hunter and I kill all kinds of animals.”

After that she went along sadly, repeating as usual, “Who will marry my daughter so that he can help me?” Then she saw a man who shone all over, standing on top of a mountain. She came very close to him, and he said, “What is the matter with me?” “What do you do for a living?” “I move about as quick as thought. Wherever I want to go, there I am at once. My father is the sun.” She said, “Let us see him then.” So he spoke to the sun. It was a cloudy day, but, when he spoke to it, the sun appeared and it became very warm. “All right,” she said, “you can have my daughter for your wife.”

After that the man took a limb from a tree and said to his mother-in-law, “You shall be this limb.” He put her inside and shoved the limb back. Then he said to her, “The world will call you ‘Woman-of-the-forest’ (Ās-gutuˊỵîk-cā). You will mock everybody that shouts or whistles. When they hear you they will know what it is.” So she became the echo.

After this a spherical cloud came down and rolled up with them. As the cloud was going up, the man said to his wife, “Don’t look at it. Keep your face hidden.” When he told her to open her eyes again she saw that she was in a beautiful place with flowers all about. It was his house. It was a grassy country and there were all kinds of fruits about the place.

There this woman had eight children, seven boys and a girl. She was very much afraid of everything, and that is why women are so to-day. Then they built for these children a small house with a painted front, put up forty boxes of every kind of fruit and berry, also dried salmon, grease, and other kinds of food, and stored the house with them. They had bracelets and a marten-skin robe made for the girl, and her grandfather said to her, “You are going to be very quarrelsome. While quarreling you will always examine your bracelets.” Then their grandfather prepared war clothes for the boys and said, “You are now going down to fight.” He also gave them a painted wooden wedge and said, “Keep this with you all the time. When you are fighting and see that your enemies are too strong for you, and you are getting beaten, put this wedge into the fire. While putting it into the fire, say this: ‘Grandfather, our enemies are beating us?’” Then they were all placed, together with their house and its contents, in the spherical cloud and set down on the site of Gîtǃîˊkc. As soon as it landed, the little house grew to be a big house with painted front, and the boxes of berries, salmon, and other provisions were all big painted boxes. Everything had been made small so as to come down without being seen.

Then the children of the sun were all very happy, and made so much noise that their enemies, who were out on the river fishing for eulachon, heard then and said, “Those are the bones of the Gîtǃîˊkc people that are making so much racket.” As soon, however, as they found that their enemies’ village was repeopled they started off in their canoes to make war upon them. They were so numerous that the children of the sun found they were going to be beaten and put their wedge into the fire. Then the sun came out fiercely, and many of the enemy became so hot that they jumped into the ocean. The ocean was so hot that they died there, while those upon land, becoming too blinded to fight, were also killed.[86]

Therefore nowadays people do the same thing. When they fight and a good man of high caste is killed, his friends do not come to their opponents as though they were angry. They use good words to them, and thereby induce a man of equally high rank on the other side to come out and be killed by them. If they went there talking meanly they would not get him to come out. The woman who was saved remembered how her brother and all of her relations had been killed. Therefore she took good care in selecting a husband for her daughter, because she felt if she did so she would get all of her relatives back. That is why the Indians of good family took such good care of a daughter in old times. They knew that if she married well she would be a help to the family.

* * * * *

When the inhabitants of that town became very numerous the daughter of the chief there used to go out berrying. One day, while she was out after berries, she stepped into the manure of a grizzly bear and said, “That nasty thing is right in the way.” Then the grizzly bear came to her in the form of a fine-looking man, and she went off with him but they thought that a grizzly bear had killed her. Now the grizzly-bear people watched her very closely, and, whenever she went out of the den, they covered up her tracks. This girl had dentalium shells around her neck, and the bears were very much surprised to find one of these lying in her tracks every time they covered them over. Early in the morning the male bears went out after salmon, while their wives gathered firewood. They always selected wet wood for this, but the girl got nothing but dry wood, and her fire continually went out. She could never start a fire with it. One day, however, an old woman called to her and said, “You are with a different sort of people. You are brought away from your own people. I got here because the same thing happened to me. Use wet wood like the rest of the women. Leave that dry wood alone.” Then she used wet wood and had good fires.

When this girl had lost almost all the dentalia from her clothing she thought, “What is going to become of me?” But the old woman said to her, “Do you want to save yourself? Do you want to go back to your father and mother? This is not a good place where you are. Now,” she said, “go and get a piece of devil’s club, a thorn from a wild rose bush, some sand, and a small rock. When you see these bear people coming after you, throw that devil’s club back of you first. Next throw the thorn, then the mud, then the sand, then the rock.”

So the woman collected these things and started off on the run, and after a while she saw the bears coming behind her. When they had gotten quite close to her she threw back the devil’s club and there came to be so many devil’s clubs in that spot that the bears could not get through easily. While they were in the midst of these she got a long distance off. The next time they got close she threw back the thorn, and rose bushes covered the country they had to traverse, retarding the bears again and enabling her to obtain another long lead. Next she threw back the mud, and the place became so muddy that they had to wade through it slowly. After that she threw the sand which became a sand bank, and the bears slid back from it in attempting to cross. Finally she threw back the rock, and there was a high cliff which it took the bears a long time to surmount.

Before the bears had overcome this obstacle the girl came out on a beach and saw a man in front of her in a canoe fishing for halibut. She said to him, “Come ashore and save me,” but he paid no attention to her. After she had entreated him for some time he said, “Will you be my wife if I come to save you?” “Let me get into your canoe, and let us go out. Then I will talk to you about that.” Finally, when she saw that the bears were very close to her, she said, “Have pity on me. Come and save me.” “Will you be my wife, if I come and save you?” “Yes, I will be your wife.” Upon that he came in very quickly, took her into his canoe and went out again. He was fishing with a float on the end of his line, and, when he came back to it, he began pulling his line up. Then the bears rushed down to the beach and shouted, “Bring us our wife. That is our wife you have in your canoe. If you don’t bring her to us we will kill you.” At first he paid no attention, but after a while he said, “Well! if you think you can kill me, swim out here.” Immediately they plunged into the water and when she saw them coming the girl was frightened, but the man said, “Don’t be frightened. My father was of the Ginᴀxcᴀmgêˊtk.”[87] When the bears got close to the canoe, he put his club into the sea and it killed them all. Then they went to his home.

The morning after this, when her husband was about to go out fishing, he said to the woman, “I have a wife living on the other side of the house. She is a very bad woman. Don’t look at her while she is eating.” After her husband got home from fishing he waited on his new wife and was very kind to her, and, when they were through eating, they went up to the top of the house to sit. Then she said to him, “I am your wife now. Anything you know or whatever you have seen you must tell me all about.” So her husband said, “This wife of mine is a very large clam. She is very high. Nobody looks at her. You see that there is always water in the place where she is sitting. Anyone that looks at her falls into this water and drifts away.” This man lived under ground, but the girl thought she was in a house because she was as if out of her head. Her husband caught halibut all of the time to give to his monster wife, and the girl thought to herself, “How does that thing he feeds so much eat?” One time, therefore, as soon as the clam began eating, she lay down, made a hole in her blanket and looked through it at the big clam eating. She saw that it was a real clam. When the clam saw that she was looking, it shot out so much water that the house was filled, and the girl was carried underneath the clam by the current. When her husband got home, however, and found the girl gone, he said to the clam, “Where is that girl?” He became very angry with the clam and killed it by breaking its shell. Then he found the girl’s dead body in the water under the clam, took it out, put eagle feathers upon it, and restored it to life. Therefore nowadays eagle feathers are used a great deal at dances and in making peace.[88]

By and by the man said to his wife, “Do you know that your father lives a short distance from here? Do you want to go to see your father and mother?” She was very glad to hear that, and they started off at once, after loading the canoe down with food, for this being was rich and had all kinds of things. His canoe was a brown bear, which traveled of itself but had to be fed at short intervals.[89] Just before they reached her father’s town, they landed, carried their canoe up and placed all of the food under a large tree where it would keep dry. Then the man stayed with it and told his wife to go over to her father’s house. Her father and mother had thought that she was dead, so they were very happy to see her. She said to her father, “There is a lot of food close by here. I have brought it to you.” At that time she looked very filthy to them and her clothing ragged, though to herself she appeared beautiful. So her father was very much ashamed of her and gave her some good clothing. She also smelt to them very strongly of the beach. Then they went over and brought in all the food, but her husband did not come with them.[90]

* * * * *

At that time the woman was pregnant, and presently she gave birth to a boy. He was very smart like his father, though they did not let him know who his father was. When he grew larger, he was a fine shot with bow and arrows, bringing in all sorts of small animals, and the other boys were jealous of him.

One time, when he was out in a canoe with other boys, hunting, he began shooting at a cormorant (yūq), which kept going farther and farther out. All of a sudden it became foggy and they could not see their way, so they fastened their canoe to the end of a drifting log which was sticking out of the water, and waited. Then some one came to them and said to the boy, “I am after you. Your father wants you.” At once the boy lost consciousness, and, when he came to, found himself in a very fine house on the mainland. The chief living there said, “Do you know that you are my son?” He also gave him a name, Cᴀmgigêˊtk, and he thought a great deal of him, but the boy thought it strange that he never inquired for his mother. Then he gave his son abalone shells and sharks’ teeth (cᴀxdᴀˊq) as presents. He also made him a club and said to him, “Whenever you are among wild animals and find there are too many, put this club down and it will fight for you. When you see seals or sea lions sitting on the rocks, put it down and it will kill them.” After this it seemed to the boy as if a door were opened for him, and he saw the canoe he had left with the boys in it. They said, “What happened to you? Where have you been?” But he only answered, “Did not you see me sitting on the very top of this log?” He was so smart that they believed him. Then they reached home safe and the grandparents were very glad to see him, but only his mother knew what had happened. Like his father, the boy was a great hunter and fisherman. Before he came the people of that town had been starving, but now, especially since he had obtained the club, they had plenty to eat. His grandfather’s house was always full of halibut, seal, and sea-lion meat.

Then his grandmother said to him, “Grandson, do not go over in that direction. None of the village people go there, and those who have done so never returned.” This, however, only made the boy anxious to see what was the trouble, so he went there and, killing some seals and halibut, put them into the water to entice the creature up. Finally he saw a gigantic crab (sǃa-u) coming up in the sea, so he put his club into the ocean, and it broke the crab’s shell and killed it. Then he and his slave pulled the big crab ashore, and he took a load of its flesh home to his grandparents. His grandparents had worried all the time he was away, but his mother knew that her son had power over all kinds of fish, because his father is chief of the sea. Everything in the sea is under him.

Another time his grandmother said to him, “There is a place over in this direction where lives a big mussel (yīsǃ). No canoe can pass it without being chewed up.” So he went to the mussel and killed that. He took all of its shell home, and the people throughout the village bought it of him for spears, arrow points, and knives.

At the same time he also brought home a load of cockles, clams, and other shellfish. In the Tsimshian country the shellfish are fine, and the mussels are not poisonous as they are here. In April the Alaskans do not dare to eat shellfish, especially mussels, claiming that they are poisonous. It is because he killed the big mussel that they are all poisonous here. Since his time, too, boys and girls have done whatever their fathers used to do.

After that the boy married and had a son who was very unlike him. His name was Man-that-eats-the-leavings (Qǃa-īˊtê-cūka-qā), and, when he grew up, he was worthless. He seemed to see the shellfish, however, and understood the shellfish language.

* * * * *

At the same time the daughter of the chief in a certain village not far away went out of doors and slipped on slime which had dropped from a devilfish hung up in front. She said, “Oh! the dirty thing.” About the middle of the following night a fine-looking young man came to her, and she disappeared with him; and the people wondered where she had gone. This young man was the devilfish, whom she married, and she had several children by him. Meanwhile, as she was their only child, her parents were mourning for her continually. After some time had passed, her parents saw two small devilfishes on the steps of the chief’s house early in the morning, and the people said to the chief, “What devilfishes are these here on the steps?” He said, “Throw them down on the beach.” They did so, but the little devilfishes came right back. They threw them down again, but the chief said, “If they come up the third time, leave them alone. Let them do what they will, but watch them closely.” Then they came right into the chief’s house, and one climbed into the chief’s lap while the other got into that of his wife. He said, “My daughter must have gone to live among the devilfishes.” To see what they would do, he said, “My grandchildren, is this you?” Upon which they put their tentacles around his neck and began moving about. Then he gave them some food on long platters, and they acted as though they were eating from these. Afterward he said, “Take those platters and follow them along to see where they go.” They did so and saw them disappear under a large rock just in front of the town. So the people came back and said to the chief, “They went under that large rock down there. Your daughter must be under there also.” When the people got up next morning they saw on the steps the platters they had taken down, wiped very clean.

Now the chief felt very badly, for he knew what had happened to his daughter, so he said to the people in his house, “Go down and invite my daughter, and say, ‘Your father wants you to come to dinner.’” So they went down and said, “Your father has sent us to invite you, your children, and your husband to come to dinner at his house.” “We are coming,” said the woman from under the beach, “so go back. We will be there soon.” She knew the voices of all of her father’s servants. When these came back to the chief, he said, “Did you ask her? Did you go there?” “Yes, we were there.” “What did you say to her?” “We told her just what you wanted us to say to her. She said that her husband, her children, and herself would be here soon.”

So the people watched for her, and by and by she came up along with her devilfish husband and with the two little devilfishes right behind her. Her marten-skin robe was rotten, all sorts of sea weeds were in her hair, and she looked badly, although she had formerly been very pretty. Her father and mother were very sorry. Then they set out food for them and afterward took the trays down to the place where the little ones had gone under the rock.

Now the chief invited all of the people into his house, gave them tobacco to chew, and told them how badly he felt. After they had talked the matter over for a while they said to him, “You might as well have all the devilfishes killed. When those small ones are grown up you do not know what they will do to your house.” So they invited the devilfishes again, killed the big one, threw the little ones down on the beach, and kept the girl. By and by, however, the girl said to her father, “There is going to be a terrible war. All of the devilfish are assembling. Don’t allow any of the people of your town to sleep at night. Let them watch.” So, when night came on, they could see large and small devilfishes coming in through every little crack until the house got quite full of them, and some people were suffocated by having the devilfishes cover their mouths. The devilfish that they had killed was chief among them.

Just then Man-that-eats-the-leavings came to that town, and they told him what a hard time they were having every night with the devilfish, so he stayed with them until evening. When they came in this time he seemed to have control over them, and they ceased bothering the people. The large devilfishes are called dᴀg̣asāˊ. The small ones, which they threw down on the beach, are those that the Alaskan Indians see, but these do not injure anyone now because their grandfather was a human being.

* * * * *

Afterward they bathed the girl to take all the devilfish off of her, and put fine clothing on her. Her face was very pretty, so that all the neighboring chiefs wanted to marry her. In olden times a good looking woman was considered high-caste, for they knew she would marry well, and a good looking woman among the high-caste people was considered very high.

Among those who wanted to marry this girl was Man-that-eats-the-leavings. He lived in a brush house at a place where garbage was thrown out. He was a fine shot, however, and one day he went to a lake behind the town where a loon was swimming about and shot it. When the arrow struck it gave forth a sound like a bell and swam right up to the shore. Then he went down to it and found, instead of a loon, a canoe made out of copper. This was, in fact, the grizzly-bear canoe that had belonged to his grandfather. It had long since been forgotten. Next he found a piece of a painted house front (qǃēn) and shook it, upon which a grand house stood there with four horizontal house timbers, and he lined the inside of this house with copper plates made out of the copper canoe. Then he married the chief’s daughter without her father’s consent and took her to his house.

By and by the chief’s daughter was missed, and they hunted for her through all of the houses, but they did not look into the old brush house, for they thought she would never go there. They thought that she might have gone back to the rocks again, and they dug up all of the large rocks to look underneath them. Finally, however, they saw her going into the brush house and told her parents, and her parents felt very badly on her account. All got out spears to kill her husband, but her mother said, “I am going there to see her first.” So she went down in great anger, but found the door already open for her, and, when she went in, each side of the house shone so brightly that she could hardly keep her eyes open. She saw that the house was full of very nice things, so she said to her daughter, “Daughter, are you married?” “Yes, mother, I am married.” Her mother had intended to take her home and have her husband killed, but instead she put the fire out and sat in the ashes, as was customary in the case of a woman whose daughter married without her consent. It meant that she wanted property. And before she had sat there very long, her new son-in-law handed out eight bright copper plates and sent her home, and she told her husband all that she had seen. Then they laid their spears aside, and the following morning they saw a beautifully painted house standing where the brush house had been. Now the chief invited his daughter and her husband to a feast. The servants that were sent with the invitation were finely dressed. When they got there, they said to the girl, “We are sent after you by your father; he wants you to come to a feast, you and your husband.” They did so, and, after food had been served, he gave his son-in-law eight slaves, one for every copper plate his wife had received. And to this day, when a girl runs off with some one, and her people find he is all right, they do all they can for her.[91]

* * * * *

By and by this chief’s daughter had a little boy who proved to be very smart and became a great hunter. He used to hunt far up on the mountains for mountain goats and other animals. One time he fell from the top of a mountain and lost consciousness, and, when he came to, he saw many men standing about him in a circle. They had cedar-bark rings around their heads and necks. Then they said to him, “What kind of spirit do you want, the Raven Spirit or the Wolf Spirit?” and he said “The Wolf Spirit.” So they held white rocks over his head, and he became unconscious. That is how he got the spirit. Then he ran around screaming, naked except for an apron, while all of the Cliff Spirits and all of the Forest Spirits sang and pounded on sticks for him. They also tied up his hair like a wolf’s ears. This is the origin of the Łuqᴀnaˊ, or secret societies, and the one this man first started is said to have been the Dog-eaters’ society. He sang a song, too, only employed nowadays by a high-caste person when he is initiated. It is called Cīnāˊxłkǃ, and goes this way, “I am above the world. I walk in high places. There is nobody else after me. I am alone.” Those who became łuqᴀnaˊs after this were not like him, because he said, “I am alone. There is nobody after me.” They only imitate him.

There are many kinds of łuqᴀnaˊs. Some are dog-eaters and some pretend to eat the arms of people. It is previously arranged between the łuqᴀnaˊ and his father what he is to do and whom he is to injure, and, after the spirit has come out, the father has to pay a great deal of money for damages. The łuqᴀnaˊs are always found at feasts, and high-caste people stand around them. The people who learned from this boy first are those in the direction of Victoria, and there they think that a person who has performed many times is very high. It is only very lately that we Alaskans have had łuqᴀnaˊs. Łuqᴀnaˊ is a Tsimshian word meaning yēk.[92] When they perform up here, the southern Tlingit dance Tsimshian dances and the northern Tlingit Athapascan dances.

After this youth had come back to his people from the woods and had shown them all about the łuqᴀnaˊ, he went to the Queen Charlotte islands and came to the greatest chief there. Then the people at that place said to him, “It is terrible the way things have been going on. We have wizards (nuksǃāˊtî), who kill men in a sly way. There is one very high-caste person here who has taught himself to be a wizard.” And they told him this man’s story.

He and his friend were very dissolute young men who wanted very much to be wizards, and the former begged his slave to tell him what to do. “If you want to become one very much,” said he, “go down there and sleep among the driftwood left by the tide. Then you will see what it is.” They did this, and a very nice looking woman came to them and taught them witchcraft. This was the mouse (kǃutsǃīˊn). They thought that it was a fine thing. After a while the woman again appeared to them in a dream and said, “Would you like to be among the geese and brants?” They answered “Yes,” one saying, “I will be a goose;” the other, “I will be a brant.” At once they flew off in those forms. They thought that it was a fine thing to be wizards, and would spend all their nights going about that way, never coming in till morning. For that reason the town people began to suspect that something was wrong with them. Nowadays a person among the natives who sleeps much is said to be of no account, for it was through sleep that witchcraft started. They also say that a wizard has no respect for anything and never speaks to his neighbors.

Finally a certain man began to drink salt water and fast in order to discover the wizards. He also made a medicine. Then he dreamt about them, and went to them, telling them everything he knew. The two young men replied, “Don’t tell about us. If you keep it to yourself we will pay you ten slaves. We will let you win ten slaves from us in gambling.” And they did so.

This is the story that the łuqᴀnaˊ man told to his friends when he came home, and wherever he told it there began to be wizards. Therefore witchcraft came to Alaska through the sons of ᴀyāˊyî[93] and through the Haida. They also learned from the Haida that witchcraft may be imparted by means of berries. When women are gathering these, they do not pick up the ones that are dropped accidentally, no matter how many they may be, because that is what witches do.

The shamans say it is this way: A man claims that he sees a large creek. It is witchcraft. A smaller creek flows into this. It is the lying creek. Another creek comes into it. It is the stealing creek. Still another creek comes into it. It is the profligates’ creek. All these are in witchcraft.

* * * * *

One time Raven came to a place called Cold-town and said to the boys there, “Let us go shooting with bow and arrows.” He took down his own canoe and they started out, but presently the canoe upset and the boys were all drowned. Then he said to them, “You will stay here.” They are the īkᴀg̣āˊxe, sea birds whose voices can be heard at a long distance.

* * * * *

Next Raven went to Tān-łutūˊ (the southern end of Prince of Wales island) and saw a man there named Qonᴀłgīˊc.[94] Raven said to him, “What are you doing here?” “I am a great gambler,” he said. “I love to gamble.” Said Raven, “You are a gambler but you can not win a thing. If you eat forty devil’s clubs and fast many days you will become a great gambler. You will win everything you wish. But why do you want to learn gambling?” The man said, “I have been gambling steadily and I can not win anything. A person won from me my wife’s clothing and all of my food and property. Since I have so disgraced myself, I have left my town and have come here to die.” Said Raven, “Gambling is not very good. There will always be hard feelings between gamblers, yet I will show you how. One of the sticks has a red mark around it. It will be named nāq (devilfish). You will see the smoke of nāq. When you get the devilfish, you are lucky. As long as it keeps away from you, you are unlucky.” Then he said to the man, “Make a house for yourself out of devil’s clubs first and stay inside while you are fasting. After you have fasted four days, Greatest Gambler (ᴀłqāˊ-sǃāˊtî) will appear to you.”

When the man had fasted for three days, living on nothing but devil’s clubs, he started to look for more. Then he found a devil’s club, as big around as a large tree, covered with scars, and he took the bark off in eight different spots. Then he went to sleep and dreamed that a man came to him. He said, “Do you know that I am Greatest Gambler? You took the bark off from me in eight spots. It was I standing there.” Then Greatest Gambler said to him, “When you leave this place, look around down on the beach and you will find something. When you reach your own village do the same thing again, and you will find something else.”

Next morning a real person came to him and said, “I want to see your gambling sticks.” So he showed them to him, and he gave them their names. He gave all of them their names at that time. Each stick had a certain mark. One was named devilfish and the others were called after other kinds of animals and fish. They are the same to-day among both Tsimshian and Tlingit.[95] The two principal sticks besides the devilfish are tuq (a small bright fish found in the sand along shore) and āncāˊdjî (a small gregarious bird which seems to feed on the tops of trees).

After Greatest Gambler had showed him how to gamble he prepared to return to his people. When he was getting ready he looked about upon the beach and found a sea otter lying there. When he reached the first place where he had camped on coming away he camped there again and on looking around as directed found a fur seal. He took off the two skins there and dried them. It took him a whole day.

When he at last entered the village everybody made fun of him, saying, “AyâˊoQonᴀłgīˊc” (said to be Haida words meaning “Come and let us gamble, Qonᴀłgīˊc”). He had made a shirt out of the sea otter and a blanket out of the fur seal, so they were anxious to gamble in order to win those things. When they first heard him speak of gambling they made fun of him, thinking to beat him as before, and the same one who had before won all of his goods sat down opposite. He was a fine gambler and therefore very rich. When they started to play, the poor man began to go through all kinds of performances, jumping up, running about, and saying funny things to his opponent, so that the latter became confused and could not do anything. The poor man began winning his goods, and, when he got tobacco, he would treat the crowd about him with it. Finally the poor man said, “That is enough. I am through,” but the rich man answered, “Stay and let us gamble more,” thinking that he would get all of his goods back. The poor man, however, said he was through but would be willing to gamble with him the next day, and he left his opponent sitting there feeling very badly. The same day, however, his opponent went over to him again and again asked him to gamble. “Oh! let us wait until to-morrow,” he said, and he spoke kindly to him. Finally they began again. Whatever words the poor man used toward his opponent at this time, people use at this day. By and by he said to the chief, “Let us gamble for food next. I want to feed my people.” Then the rich man was angry, sat down, and began gambling with him for food. Again his opponent won everything and said, “That is enough. We have plenty of time to gamble. We will gamble some other day.” So they stopped, although the chief would have persevered, and the poor man invited all of his friends in order to give them the food he had won.

Next day the chief again brought over his gambling sticks, and they recommenced. Whenever the poor man saw that his luck was turning, he would jump up, run around the circle of people, who were watching him closely, run to a little creek near by, wash his hands very clean and return to gamble. He did that over and over again while he was gambling. Sometimes he would run off and chew upon a piece of dried salmon. Then he could see the devilfish smoke much better. This time they staked slaves, and he won quite a number, after which he jumped up, saying that he had gambled enough. The chief begged him to continue, but he said, “No, we have gambled long enough. I will gamble every day with you if you desire, but this is enough for to-day.”

Next morning they gambled again. A big crowd always followed him to the gambling place because the way he acted was new to them. He would jump up, call certain of his lucky sticks by name and say, “Now you come out.” Before he began gambling he mixed his sticks well together and said, “The āsqǃancāˊdjî sticks will come out.” So they came out, flew around and around his head and settled among the other sticks again. He was the only one who could see them.

By this time the chief opposing him had become fairly crazy. He had nothing left but his house, his sisters’ children, his wife, and himself. He wanted to stake his sisters’ children, but his opponent said that he would not gamble for people. Then the chief caught hold of him and begged him, and his own friends came to him and said, “Why don’t you gamble and win those friends of his? You are very foolish not to.” “I do not want to gamble unless I can win something,” he said. “What good will those people be to me? I can not do anything with them after I win them.” “You will have the name of having won them. Remember what he did to you. He did not have pity on you. When he won your wife’s clothes did he give them back?” Then the poor man moved a piece of painted moose hide, called ckǃutǃêˊ, around in front of the chief. It made him very angry, but he dared not say anything. The chief lost his nephews, his house, and his wife’s clothes and offered to stake his wife, but his opponent refused until his cousin said, “Go on and get everything he has. If you do not want them you can give them back.” So he won his wife also. Then he put his gambling sticks away, refusing to gamble for the chief himself, because he knew that there is always trouble at the bottom of gambling. But his friends said, “If he is foolish enough to stake himself and his wife, go on and gamble. After a while he will feel it in his face (i. e., be ashamed).” So he played once more and won his opponent also.

Then he said, “Since you have staked everything and I have won, I suppose that this is all. Do you remember how you won everything from me? You were very hard on me. You even won my wife’s clothing, and you did not give me anything back. You left me in such a condition that I could not do a thing to help myself and my wife. You know that I have won you. You belong to me. You might be my slave, but I will not be that hard upon you. I have won you and your wife, but I don’t want to claim you. Take your wife also. She is yours and I don’t want to claim her either.”

High-caste people did not become gamblers, because they always remembered this saying. They always told their children that gambling belonged to lower people and was not work for an honest person. On account of what happened at that time a gambler will now get crazy over the game, and think, when he is using the last money in his purse, “I am going to win it back. I may win it back with the last cent I have.” So he keeps on and on until he goes through with everything. The whole town knows that he is going crazy over gambling, but he thinks that he is doing the right thing. When a gambler wins a lot of things from anyone nowadays, he remembers Qonᴀłgīˊc and gives some of them back. He is not as hard on him as the chief was to the poor man.[96]

It is from Qonᴀłgīˊc also that the gambling sticks have different names and that there are different kinds of nāqs and different sorts of cīcts. These cīcts are lucky gambling sticks, but the lucky medicine that a gambler obtains is also called cīct. In order to get it he has to fast, remain away from his wife, and keep what he is doing secret. At that time he wishes for whatever he desires. This medicine also makes a person brave and is used when preparing for some important action. The name cīct is said to have come from a wolf which had something stuck between its teeth. When a certain man got this out, the wolf said, “I will show you my cīct. I will tell you what it is.”

People who cheat have gambling sticks like birds that are able to fly away, and they keep the names of these sticks to themselves.

It is since the time of this first gambler, too, that people have had the custom of saying to a gambler, “Why don’t you give a feast with the food you have won?”

Gamblers claim that when the sticks move in a certain way while they are gambling, it means death in the family. If they keep the rules of their cīct it will tell them what animal they are going to kill when they are out hunting.

* * * * *

After the rich opponent of Qonᴀłgīˊc had lost all of his property, his wife left him, and he went away from that town. He made a bow and arrows and wandered about in the forest like a wild animal. Coming down to the beach at a certain place, he found a fine bay and built his house upon it. There he began to collect clams and fish which he dried for himself. He was gone all winter, but in those times the Indians did not care for foolish people, viewing them as though they were dead, so his friends did not look for him.

While he lived in that place the chief heard a drum sounding from some distant place, but he did not take the trouble to see what it was. Finally he discovered that the noise was caused by a grouse and said to it, “I see you now. I have been wondering what it was that I heard so much.” Then he said to the grouse, “You are a great dancer, are you not?” “Yes, I dance once in a while when I am lonely.” “Come along and let us have a dance. I am pretty lonely myself.” So that evening he saw all kinds of birds, which were the grouse’s friends, and they had a dance. They danced so much that this man forgot all that he had been grieving about and felt very happy. Therefore people always dance for one who is mourning, to make him forget it. This is where the first dance came from.

Then the chief said to the grouse, “How came you to know about dancing?” “There is a person out on that island who knows a lot about medicine. He knows how to make medicine for dancing and fighting.” “You must let me see him,” said the man. The bird answered, “If you want to see this great medicine-man you must fast to-morrow. This is the great person who knows all about medicines.” Now, after the chief had fasted, he went to sleep and dreamed that a man came to him, showed him a certain leaf on the marsh and said, “Take that leaf and put it into this sack. Then go down toward the beach. As soon as you get down you will see an eagle lying there. Take off its claws and feathers, and, after you have put the leaf in them, draw the cords so as to pull its talons tight around it. After that go down to where the waves are coming in, and at the place the tide has left, stoop down, pretend to pick up something and put it into your sack. That will be the wave. Then take a feather from the back of the head of an ayahīˊya (a solitary bird that continually flies about on the beach) and put it with the rest. You will become a great dancer like that bird. Finally take this medicine to a point running far out into the ocean where the wind blows continually. Tie it there to the top of a tree, where it will always be blowing back and forth.”

The man did as he had been directed, and the day after began to think of composing a song. On account of the medicine this was not hard for him. He also felt that he could dance, and began dancing the same evening. While doing so he was very light upon his feet. He was as if in a trance, not knowing exactly what he was doing. Then he thought to himself, “I am going to the next town.” So he went there and began singing, and it was soon noised about, “A man has come here who is a great singer. He is going to dance to-night.” Then all the people went to that house where he was to dance. He danced and taught the women his songs, which were very sad. He sang about the different clans [among the Haida], picking out only good clans. So the young women of those families began to bring him presents, and each thought, “I will give the most.” They gave him all kinds of things, robes, fur shirts, blankets, leggings. He was becoming very rich through dancing.

In the same town was the young son of a chief who wanted very much to learn to dance and said to him, “How did you come to learn to dance?” He answered, “I have medicine for dancing.” “You must show me how. I will pay you well. I want very much to learn.” Then he showed him how to make the medicine. He said, “You have to fast. If you do that you will learn. Fast to-morrow, and the next day I will take you up to the woods.” When they went up he said, “After you have learned how to do this, you must think of composing a song, and you will see that you will be able to do so at once. You will be so happy over it that you will feel as though you were making a great fire.” In the morning the young man sang and found he could compose songs. Then he went up to the woods and danced all alone by himself. Like the other, he felt light as if he were in a dream. By and by it was reported all over town, “This chief’s son can compose fine songs.” He danced for them, and, because he was a younger person than the other, he danced far better. At this the youth’s boy friends said to him, “What makes you do such a thing? It doesn’t look right for you to do it.” They tried to make him believe he was above dancing, because they were jealous of him. So he went to the man who had instructed him, and the latter said, “People will do this (i. e., dance) all over the world. You will soon hear of it. You and I will not be the only ones doing it. They say this because they are jealous of you.” The youth had composed so many beautiful songs that all the girls had fallen in love with him. That was why the other youths were jealous of him. The first dancer also said to him, “It is not high-caste people like yourself merely who will compose songs. Everybody will learn these and compose others. Anybody that composes songs like this after having made medicine will have his name become great in the world.”

When this youth had told his father all he had learned, his father asked all the people of that town to come to his house and repeated it to them. Then he said, “I do not think it is well for a high-caste person to compose songs and be a dancer. They say that a person’s name will become very high and be known everywhere if he composes songs and becomes a dancer, but a chief’s son’s name is already high, and a chief’s name is known everywhere. Why should he compose songs and dance to make it so? It is better that the poorer people should do this and make their names known in the world.” If the chief had not said this, people that compose songs and dance would be very scarce among us. It is because the chief said, “Let it be among the poorer people so that their names may be known,” that there are so many composers and dancers among us. For no chief composes or dances without giving away a great deal of property.

Thus it happens that there are two kinds of dances, a dance for the chief and his sons and this common or Haida dance (Dekīˊna ᴀʟǃēˊx). In the latter, women always accompany it with songs, and, if the composer sings about some good family, members of the latter give him presents. When the chief is going to dance, he has to be very careful not to say anything out of the way. He dances wearing a head dress with weasel skins, a Chilkat blanket, and leggings and carrying a raven rattle. He is the only one whose voice is heard, and he speaks very quietly. Meanwhile, until it is time for them to start singing for him, the people are very quiet and then only high-caste people sing. The Haida dance, however, is always accompanied by noise. It is rather a dance for pleasure, while the chief’s dance is more of a ceremony. Although most of the people who witness it are high-caste, anyone is welcome. All watch the chief’s actions and listen to his words very closely. If he makes the least mistake, showing that he has not studied his words beforehand very well, they have too much respect for him to say anything to him at that time. Next day, however, after he has found it out, if he does not take his words back, the people that had heard will disgrace him by giving away a great deal of property. The Haida dance was done away with years ago, while the chief’s dance has been given up only in very recent times.

After this the man that first taught dancing married in that town and forgot all about the wealth he had lost. This shows that he was not smart, for a smart man, when he loses a very little of his property, thinks of it and next time tries to do better. One time he and his wife went away in a canoe and upset. His wife was drowned, but he was captured by the land otters who named him Tūtsǃīdîgūˊʟ, and he has strength like that of a shaman among them. When anyone is drowned by the upsetting of his canoe, they say “Tūtsǃīdîgūˊʟ has him.”

* * * * *

One time four boys went out hunting from Klawak with bow and arrows. They saw some black ducks and shot at them, but the ducks kept swimming out to sea, drawing them on. Far out the canoe upset. They hunted for the boys for days and days, but could not find them. Then some property was given to a shaman named Tuxstāˊ, who sent his spirit after them to the point on the beach from which they had set out. Then the shaman said, “The spirits of the boys seem to have taken the road to the land-otters’ dens.” Therefore they kept on until they saw the boys upon a point of land, but, as soon as the latter saw them, they ran into the dens of the land otter. Then the town chief said, “Let the whole town gather pitchwood and burn up the land-otter dens.” So all of the people went thither in their canoes, made fires at the mouths of the dens and killed the land otters as soon as they came out. All perished but a few, who said, “It is Tūtsǃīdîgūˊʟ’s fault that they have burned up our houses and our food.” Then Tūtsǃīdîgūˊʟ jumped into the sea from the other side of the point with the boys all around him, so that they could not be found.

After this the shaman said, “The land otters are going to make war upon the people here,” and soon after they did so. The people attacked them in return and they warred for some time. Many people fell down suddenly and were taken sick, while others were injured by having limbs of trees fall upon their heads. The shaman said that these mishaps were really effects of the land-otters’ arrows, made of the shells of the spider crab. The people were also suffering from boils and pimples all over their bodies, and he said that these were produced by the poisonous shells. So many were dying that all became frightened. Whenever anyone went out hunting or fishing he would be troubled with boils and itching places and have to return. The shaman’s spirits, which the land otters could see, were the only things they feared.

Finally the shaman saw that there were two white land otters, and he said, “If you can get hold of those you will be all right.” Then a canoe with four men started off, and the shaman sang with them telling them that his spirits were going along also to look after them. He said, “You will be lucky. You will get them. As soon as you get them put feathers on their heads.” So they went away and camped for the night. They were unable to sleep, however, on account of the strange noises about their camp as if people were talking in very low tones. Still they could not see anything. They would say to one another, “Do you hear that?” “Yes,” they answered. It was caused by the two high-caste white land otters who were talking to Tuxstāˊ’s spirits.

Next morning the men arose very early, and the eldest said to the one next in years, “Get up. I have had a queer dream. I dreamt that we had a deer and that we were taking our deer to the land-otter den.” Then one of them answered, “You have had a lucky dream. Let us start right away.” So they took the canoe down and set out. Going along on the opposite side of the point on which they had camped, they saw the two white otters swimming in the water. The shaman’s spirits had been holding them. Then the men said to them, “Stay there. We have had you for a long time now.” So the otters remained where they were, and they caught them and put feathers upon their heads. They were making deer of them. They took them home to the fort in which they dwelt and carried them in. All the people danced for them. And that night, after they had retired, the people dreamt that the land otters were dancing the peace-making dance. Some of the people said, “They really danct,” but others replied, “No, they did not dance. We only dreamt it.” Still they dressed up to dance in return. All were fasting, as was customary when peace is about to be made. They also fed the land otters and waited upon them very carefully.

By and by the shaman said that the land otters were coming, so the people made ready for them. They soaked a very bitter root, called sǃîkc, in water for a long time. Some said, “They are not coming. The shaman has made that up,” but others believed him and got ready. Finally the shaman said, “To-morrow they will be here.” The next morning it was very foggy and they could not see far out, but they heard a drum beating. At length the land-otter-people came ashore, and they helped them carry their things up to the houses. One of these land otters had two heads, one under the other. It was Tūtsǃīdîgūˊʟ. All said, “We depend on Tūtsǃīdîgūˊʟ.” Then numbers of land otters came into the house, but, as soon as Tūtsǃīdîgūˊʟ appeared at the door, everybody there but the shaman fell down as if dead. The shaman in turn filled his mouth with the poisonous water they had prepared and spit it about upon the otters, rendering unconscious all that it touched. The land otters, however, shouted, “Keep away from Tūtsǃīdîgūˊʟ. Let him do his work.” So Tūtsǃīdîgūˊʟ danced, saying, “Ha, ha, ha.” When they started a song, the land otters mentioned Tūtsǃīdîgūˊʟ’s name in the manner of the Indians. When they were through with their dance, all of the people woke up, and the land otters also came to. But, when the human beings got up on their feet, all had vanished including the two white ones.

Then the village people said to one another, “Did you see the dances?” “Yes,” they answered. They knew something had happened and did not want to admit having missed it. “Did you see this Tūtsǃīdîgūˊʟ?” “Yes.” “How was he dressed?” “He had two heads and wore a dancing apron. He carried two large round rattles. As soon as he moved around sideways we all went to sleep.”

* * * * *

Now all the people were very happy because the salmon were running, but before they had left the town Raven came to them and said, “Don’t leave the town. Stay right here. Don’t go to any of the salmon creeks.” They were very hungry for salmon, however, and said to four boys, “Go to the salmon creek close by and get some salmon for the village.” So they went there and filled their canoe.

This salmon stream runs down into a sort of lake, and, while they were upon this paddling homeward, they heard some one calling to them. Presently a man came down through the woods and shouted, “Stay where you are, and I will tell you something.” Looking at this man, they saw that he was naked and painted red all over. He said, “When you have gone a short distance, the fellow sitting in the bow will fall over. When you have gone a little farther, the next will do the same. A little farther still the next one will fall over. You fellow in the stern will reach home and tell the news. It is through the shaman’s own spirits that he is killed.”

They could not understand this last saying for the shaman had been alive when they left, but all things happened just as the man had predicted. After they had gone a short distance the man in the bow fell over with blood pouring out of his mouth. The same thing happened to the next two. When the steersman reached town with the three bodies they asked him what was the matter, but he said, “Do not ask me any questions. Give me something to eat quickly.” So they gave him some food, and, after he had finished eating, he said, “As we were paddling along from the creek with our salmon, a man came out of the woods saying, ‘Stay where you are and I will tell you something.’ So we stopped, and he went on, ‘When you get a short distance from here, the man in the bow will drop over, a little farther the next one and a little farther the next one. There will be three. It is what the shaman sees that kills him.’ It has happened just as he said. And he said to me, ‘The fellow in the stern will get home and have something to eat. Just as soon as he has eaten he will drop over.’” And so it happened. Just as soon as he had told the story he dropped over dead. Then the shaman asked for his apron, hat, and necklace as if he were going to doctor some one. As soon as he had dressed, he turned himself around three or four times, as the shamans used to do when they were dying. Afterward blood began to flow from his mouth, and he died.

* * * * *

Now the people of that town were very much frightened, and none of them went away. They had heard before that the land otters have death and all kinds of sickness for their bows and arrows, but until then they had not believed it. Afterward the people began to starve, and the children especially suffered very much. One child, who must have been very poor, would cry at night with hunger. After he had been crying for several nights in this manner the people saw a torch coming toward the house and heard the bearer of it say, “Come here, grandchild, and I will feed you on qǃołkᴀdᴀkêˊx̣.” The child did so. This man was named Man-with-a-burning-hand (Djînakax̣ᴀˊdza), because his hand was always on fire and what he called qǃołkᴀdᴀkêˊx̣ were ants (wᴀnᴀtuˊx). This happened at Tᴀˊqdjîk-ān, the old town of the Klawak people.

Now the father and mother of this child looked about for it, weeping continually. As they were passing a certain cliff, they heard a child crying there, and, raising a flat rock which appeared to cover an opening, they saw it lying inside. Then they saw that ants were crawling out of its nose, eyes, and ears. After that many other children were brought thither, and their parents said to them, “Look at this. Man-with-a-burning-hand did this because the child cried so much. You are always crying too. This will happen to you some day if you do not stop.” Back of the site of Tᴀˊqdjîk-ān there is a cliff still called Man-with-a-burning-hand. This story was mostly for children, and, when a child cried too much, they would say, “Do not cry so much or Man-with-a-burning-hand will get you.” The story was known all over Alaska, and the children were very much afraid of Man-with-a-burning-hand.[97]

* * * * *

In the same town, Tᴀˊqdjîk-ān, lived a chief named G̣ᴀłwēˊtǃ belonging to the Takᵘaneˊdî family. He was bathing in the sea for strength every day, and the people of his village bathed with him. In the cold mornings he would rise, run down to the sea, and rush in. Then he would run up to a good-sized tree and try to pull a limb out of it. He would afterward go to another and try to twist it from top to bottom. He wanted to do these things because he was trying to become a killer of sea lions.

The same chief had a nephew who was thought to be very weak and a great coward. He would not go into the water, and the people teased him by pushing him over, when he would not do a thing in return. He was very slow. The man’s real name was Duktǃūˊʟǃ (Black-skin), but they nicknamed him ᴀtqahāˊsǃî. His real name may also have been a nickname originally, applied to him because he was ugly.

At the same time Black-skin was merely feigning weakness, and, though he continued to lie in bed when the others bathed, at night after all were asleep, he would steal off and do the same thing himself for hours and hours. He remained in so long that he had to float to rest his feet. On coming out he would throw water on the ashes of the fire so as to make it steam and lay his mat on top. That was the only bed he had. The people thought that he was a low, dirty fellow, but in reality he kept himself very pure and would not lie or steal. He did not say a word when they made fun of him, though he was strong enough to have done almost anything to them if he had so desired. When they sent him after big pieces of firewood he acted as if they were very hard to lift, and they thought he was so lazy that they gave him very little to eat.

The people went on in this way, bathing every day with their chief, while Black-skin bathed at night. After they were through, the village people would make a big fire, take breakfast and then go after wood. As soon as the people came up, Black-skin moved into a corner and slept there. One night, while Black-skin was bathing, he heard a whistle that sounded to him like that of a loon. He thought, “Now that I am seen I better let myself go.” So he went toward the place where he had heard it and saw a short, thick-set man standing on the beach clothed in a bear skin. This man ran down toward him, picked him up, and threw him down upon the beach. Then he said, “You can’t do it yet. Don’t tell anyone about me. I am Strength (Łatsīˊn). I have come to help you.”

Toward morning Black-skin came in feeling very happy, for he thought that he had seen something great. He kept thinking of Strength all the time. He could not forget him, but he was quieter than ever in his demeanor. When they were playing in the house he would never pay any attention, and, if they said mean things to him, he let them go on unnoticed, although he belonged to the family of the chief. Anything they wanted they asked him to get, and he got it. In olden times the boys used to wrestle in the chief’s house while their elders looked on, and they would try to get him to wrestle also. Sometimes the little boys would wrestle with him, and he pretended that they pushed him down. Then they would make fun of him saying, “The idea of a great man like you being thrown by a child.”

When he went in bathing again, this man felt very happy for he knew that he had strength. Anything hard to do, when he looked at it, appeared easy to him. That night he heard the whistle once more. He looked round and saw the same man, and the man said, “Come over this way. Come over to me.” Then they seized one another, and as soon as the short man felt his grip, he said, “Don’t throw me down. Now you have strength. You are not to go into the water again. Go from here right to that tree and try to pull the limb out.” So he went to the tree and pulled it right out. Then he put it back again. After he had done so, the man told him to go to the other tree. “Twist it right down to the roots,” he said. So he did. Afterward he untwisted it and made it look as before.

Just after he got to bed the people started in bathing. As they passed him the boys would pull his hair saying, “Come on and go in bathing, too;” but he paid no attention. After they had bathed they went up to this limb as usual, and G̣ᴀłwēˊtǃ pulled it out with ease. Black-skin lay in bed, listening to the shouting they made. Then G̣ᴀłwēˊtǃ ran to the other tree and twisted it to the very root. When they came home, they told the story to one another, saying, “G̣ᴀłwēˊtǃ pulled out that limb.” The chief himself felt very proud, and the people of the village were very happy that he had done so, especially his two wives. Then they tried to get Black-skin out of bed. They laughed at him, saying, “Your chief has pulled out the limb. Why couldn’t you? He has also twisted that tree. You sleep like a chief and let your chief go bathing in the morning.” They laughed at him, saying, “He is sleeping in the morning because he has pulled out that limb and twisted that tree.”

They had been bathing in order to hunt sea lions, so the young men said, “To-morrow we are going after sea lions. I wonder which part of the canoe Black-skin will sleep in. He is such a powerful fellow.” And one boy said, “Why this Black-skin will sit in the bow of the canoe so that he can land first. He will tear the sea lions in two.” Black-skin listened to all this, but he paid no attention to them. The whole town was going all day long to see the place where the limb had been pulled off and the tree twisted down to the root. Those people almost lived on this sea-lion meat, but it was very scarce and only powerful people could get it. For this reason they picked out only the strongest fellows from among those who had been bathing with the chief, to go after them to the sea-lion island. This island was very slippery because the sea lions stayed there all of the time and very few could get up to the place where they were. That is why they went through such hardships to get at them.

The elder of the chief’s two wives had had pity on Black-skin, and would do little favors for him on the sly. So Black-skin, after he had bathed secretly, came to his uncle’s wife and said, “Will you give me a clean shirt; it doesn’t matter much what it is so long as it is clean, and something for my hair?” “Are you asked to go?” she said. He replied, “I am not asked, but I am going.” So she prepared food for him and put it in as small a package as she could. All prepared and got into the canoe. Last of all came down Black-skin, and, when they saw him, they said, “Don’t let him come. Don’t let him come.” Seeing that he was determined to get in they began pushing the canoe out as fast as they could. Black-skin then seized the canoe, and they struck his fingers to make him let go. It sounded like beating upon a board. And, although all of them were shoving it out, he exerted a very little of his strength, pulled the canoe back, and jumped in. Then the people talked very meanly to him, but the chief said, “Oh! let him be. He will bail out the canoe for us on the way over.” So he sat in the place where one bails. The uncle might have suspected something after his nephew had pulled back the canoe, but he did not appear to. As they went rapidly out they said, “Black-skin came along to tear the sea lions in two.” They asked him, “How many sea lions shall I skin for you?” But Black-skin said nothing.

The sea-lion island had very precipitous sides against which great waves came, so G̣ᴀłwēˊtǃ waited until the canoe was lifted upon the crest of a wave and then jumped ashore. He was a powerful fellow, and seizing a small sea lion by the tail smashed its head to pieces on the rocks. Then he thought he would do the same thing to a large one. These large sea lions are called qǃᴀtǃ-cu-qāˊwu (men-of-the-islands). He went to the very largest of these and sat astride of its tail, intending to tear it in two, but the sea lion threw him up into the air, and, when he came down, he was smashed to pieces on the rocks.

Now, when Black-skin saw what had happened to his uncle, he felt badly. Then he put his hand into his bundle of clothes, took out and put on his hair ornament and his shirt, while all watched him, and said, “I am the man that pulled out that limb, and I am the man that twisted that tree.” He spoke as high-caste Indians did in those days, and all listened to him. He said to them, “Take the canoe closer to shore.” Then he walked forward in the canoe, stepping on the seats which broke under his weight, precipitating their occupants to the bottom of the canoe. The young men that were sitting in his way he threw back as if they had been small birds. Then the people were all frightened, thinking that he would revenge himself on them for their meanness, but he jumped ashore where his uncle had gone and walked straight up the cliff. The small sea lions in his way he killed simply by hitting them on the head and by stepping on them. He looked only at the big one that had killed his uncle, for he did not want it to get away. When he came to it, he seized it and tore it in two. A few of the sea lions escaped, but he killed most of them and loaded the canoe down. While he was doing this, however, his companions, who were very much ashamed of themselves and very much frightened, paddled away and left him. They said to the people in the town, “It was Black-skin who pulled out the limb and twisted the tree.” Then the town people were troubled and said, “Why did you leave him out there? Why didn’t you bring him in?”

Meanwhile Black-skin took out the sea-lion intestines and dried them. He had nothing to make a fire with and did not know what he should do. So he lay down and went to sleep, his head covered with his blanket. Then he heard something that sounded like the beating of sticks. Suddenly he was awakened by hearing someone say, “I have come after you.” He looked around, but could not see anything except a black duck which was swimming about in front of him. Then he saw the black duck coming toward him and said to it, “I have seen you already.” It answered, “I am sent after you. Get on my back but keep your eyes closed tight.” So he did. Then the duck said again, “Now open your eyes.” He opened them and saw that he was in a fine house. It was the house of the sea lions. It is through this story that the natives to the present day say that everything is like a human being. Each has its “way of living.” Why do fish die on coming out of the water? It is because they have a “way of living” of their own down there.

Meanwhile the elder wife of the chief, who had helped Black-skin, was mourning for her husband and nephew. Her husband’s body was still on that island. The older people were also saying to the people who had left him, “Why did you do it? A powerful fellow like that is scarce. We want such a fellow among us.” Then the widow begged the young men to go back to the island and bring home her nephew and her husband’s body but the younger wife did not care. Finally some other people did go out. They saw the body there, but Black-skin was gone. Then they took aboard the body, loaded the canoe with the bodies of sea lions, and went home. When they heard of it the wise people all said that something was wrong. The shamans said that he was not dead and that they would see him again. They said that he was off with some wild animal. This troubled the village people a great deal. They felt very badly to think that he had kept himself so very lowly before the low-caste people, and they feared that he was suffering somewhere again when he might just as well have occupied his uncle’s place.

Black-skin, however, continued to stay among the sea lions. They looked to him like human beings, but he knew who they really were. In the same house there was a boy crying all the time with pain. The sea-lion people could not see what ailed him. Black-skin, however, could see that he had a barbed spear point in his side. Then one of the sea lions spoke up saying, “That shaman there knows what is the matter. He is saying, ‘How is it that they can not see the bone in the side of that child?’” Then Black-skin said, “I am not a shaman, but I can take it out.” So he cut it out and blood and matter came out with it. Then they gave him warm water to wash the wound, and, since the young sea lion belonged to high-caste people, they said to him, “Anything that you want among us you can have.” So he asked for a box that always hung overhead. This box was a kind of medicine to bring any kind of wind wanted. The sea lions would push the box up and down on the water, calling the wind to it like a dog, whistling and saying, “Come to this box. Come to this box.” So the natives now whistle for the winds and call them. Then the sea-lion people told Black-skin to get into it, and, as soon as he did so, he saw that he was very far out at sea. He began to call for the wind that blows shoreward, and it carried him ashore. Then he got out of the box and hung it out on the limb of a tree in a sheltered place. He did this because the sea-lion people had told him to take very good care of that box and not go near anything unclean with it.

Black-skin had now landed only a short distance from his own town, so he walked home, and his uncle’s wife was very glad to see him, feeling as if his uncle had come back. The dried sea-lion entrails he wore around his head. Then he asked all of the town people to come together, and the people who had been cruel to him were very much ashamed, for they thought that he had gone for good. He, however, looked very fine. He eyed his enemies angrily but thought thus, “If I had not made myself so humble, they might not have treated me that way.” So he overlooked it. Some of the people that had left him on the sea-lion island were so frightened that they ran away into the woods. Some of the old people and the good-hearted people were very glad that he was back, but he could see that others hung their heads as if they were ashamed. Then he said, “Some of you know how cruel you were to me. You know well that you are ashamed of yourselves. But I can see that some of you feel good because you know that you felt kindly toward me. It will always be the case that people who are cruel to poor people will be ashamed of it afterward.” They had thought that he would avenge himself on them, but he talked to them in a very kindly manner saying, “Do not make fun of poor people as you did when my uncle was alive.”[98]

* * * * *

After this the people went out hunting and encamped in a place called Tayuˊkǃnᴀxe. A man went out from here with his brother and little son one day, and, when they returned, saw that every one had disappeared. They felt very badly and said, “What is wrong with our village?” Then they saw that the whole town was covered with devilfish slime and said, “It is that monster devilfish that has done all this.” People say that he had seen the red glow of the salmon on the drying frames outside. Then the two men said to the boy with them, “You must stay here. We are going off.” So they made a mat house over him and let him have their blankets. They were wild at the thought of having lost all their friends. Then they killed a number of porpoises and seals, went to the devilfish’s place and threw them into the water above him. After a while they saw that the water was getting frothy around them with ascending bubbles and presently saw the devilfish coming up. It looked very white. One of these men was making a noise like the raven; the other was acting like a dog salmon. All that went on was observed by the little boy. As soon as the devilfish reached the surface they jumped upon it with their knives and began slashing it. They cut its ink bag and all the water became black. The devilfish and the men died.

Soon after this had happened a canoe from another camp came there, saw this object floating on the sea some distance out from the village, and thought that it was yet alive; so they hurried to get past it. When they came ashore the boy told them all that had happened, and they cried very much at seeing him there alone, for he was their relative. After this they returned with him to their camp, which was situated upon an island near by, and told the story there, on which two canoe loads of people left to look for the devilfish. After they had found it and had cut it open with their stone axes, they saw the two men still inside, knife in hand. All the village people that the devilfish had eaten were also there. Then they took the bodies back to town and had a death feast.[99]

* * * * *

Later on a chief’s daughter at the place named Qǃᴀqᴀˊx-duūˊ obtained a wood worm (ʟǃuqǃuˊx) as a pet and fed it on different kinds of oil. It grew very fast until it reached the length of a fathom. Then she composed a cradle song for it: “It has a face already. Sit right here. Sit right here (Kǃesi-yaˊkǃᵘ ᴀˊsgî. Tcǃayāˊkǃ ᴀˊnu).” She sang again, “It has a mouth already. Sit right here. Sit right here.” They would hear her singing these words day after day, and she would come out from her room only to eat. Then her mother said to her, “Stay out here once in a while. Do not sit back there always.” They wondered what was wrong with her that she always stayed inside, and at last her mother thought that she would spy upon her daughter. She looked inside, therefore, and saw something very large between the boxes. She thought it an awful monster, but left it alone, because her daughter was fond of it.

Meanwhile the people of the town had been missing oil from their boxes for some time, for this worm was stealing it. The mother kept saying to her daughter, “Why don’t you have something else for a pet? That is a horrible thing to have for a pet.” But her daughter only cried.

Now, the people got ready to kill this thing, and they tried in every way to induce the girl to come away from her house. Her mother told her that her uncle’s wife wanted her help, but, although she was very fond of her, that was not sufficient to get her out. Next morning she said to the big worm, “Son, I have had a very bad dream.” After they had begged her to come out day after day she finally came. “Mother,” she said, “get me my new marten robe.” Then she tied a rope around her waist as a belt and came out singing a song she had been composing ever since they first began to beg her: “I have come out at last. You have begged me to come out. I have come out at last, you have begged me so hard, but it is just like begging me to die. My coming out from my pet is going to cause death.” As she sang she cried, and the song made the people feel very badly. Then she heard a great uproar and said to her uncle’s wife, “They are killing my son at last.” “No,” said her uncle’s wife, “it is a dog fight.” “No, they are killing him.” They had quite a time killing the worm, and when she heard that it was dead she sang, “They got me away from you, my son. It isn’t my fault. I had to leave you. They have killed you at last. They have killed you. But you will be heard of all over the world. Although I am blamed for bringing you up, you will be claimed by a great clan and be looked up to as something great.” And to this day, when that clan is feasting, they start her four songs. This clan is the G̣ānᴀxteˊdî. Then she went to her father and said, “Let that pet of mine be burned like the body of a human being. Let the whole town cut wood for it.” So they did, and it burned just like coal oil.

Another of this woman’s songs was, “You will be a story for the time coming. You will be told of.” This is where the G̣ānᴀxteˊdî come from. No one outside of them can use this worm. What causes so many wars is the fact that there are very many people having nothing who claim something. The G̣ānᴀxteˊdî also own Black-skin. They represent him on poles with the sea-lions’ intestines around his head.

The girl’s father felt very badly that she should care for so ugly a creature, but to please her and make her feel better, he gave a feast along with tobacco and said, “If my daughter had had anything else for a pet, I would have taken good care of it, too, but I feared that it would injure the village later on, so I had to have it killed.”

* * * * *

In the town where this occurred a man named Sǃāwᴀˊn became a shaman. He told the people to leave and go somewhere else because spirits were saying in him, “If you stay in this village, you will all die.” There was so much respect for shamans in those days that people obeyed everything that they told them to do. By and by his spirit said to the shaman, “You will be asked to go somewhere, my master. My masters, the people of the village, do you go away with me?” And the village people kept saying to him, “Yes, we are going along with you.” Then the spirit said, “The persons that are going to invite me from here are not human beings. They are already getting ready to come.”

By and by the canoe came after him. He seemed to know that there was something about to happen, and said, “Somehow or other you people look strange.” He put all of his things into small boxes ready to depart. Then he got in and they covered him with a mat until they reached their village, when he got up and saw some fine houses. The fronts were beautifully painted. Among these houses was one with a crowd of people in front which they tried to make him believe was that where the sick person lay. His rattle and belt, however, ran up on the shore ahead of him and entered the proper house, which was in another part of the town. These people were land otters, and they called him by name, “Sǃāwᴀˊn, Sǃāwᴀˊn.” They said to him, “All the shamans among us have been doctoring him, and they can not do a thing. They can not see what is killing him. That is why we have asked you to come.”

Then the shaman thought within himself, “Who will sing my songs for me?” but the land otters spoke out, saying, “We can sing your songs. Don’t be worried.” Inside of this house there hung a breastplate made out of carved bones, such as a shaman used in his spiritual combats. The land otters saw that he wanted it and said, “We will pay you that for curing him.” Then the shaman began to perform. He could see that the land otter was made sick by an arrow point sticking in its side, but this was invisible to the land otters. After he had pulled it out, the sick otter, who belonged to the high-caste people, sat up immediately and asked for something to eat. The shaman kept the arrow point, however, because it was made of copper, and copper was very expensive in those days.

Then one of the land-otter shamans said to him, “I will show you something about my spirits.” And so he did. He saw some very strange things. When he was shown one kind of spirit, the land otter said, “You see that. That is Sickness (Nīkǃ).” What he called Sickness was the spirit of a clam. These clams look to the spirits like human beings. That is why the spirits are so strong. He also showed him the Spirit of the Sea (Dekīˊna yēk), the Spirit of the Land (Dāˊqna-yēk), the Spirit from Above (Kīyēˊgî), and the Spirit from Below (Hāỵīˊnᴀq-yēk). All these became the man’s spirits afterward.

Nowadays, when a man wants to become a shaman, he has to cut the tongue of a land otter and fast for eight days. You can tell a shaman who has been fasting a great deal because his eyes become very sharp.

After he had shown all of the spirits, they said, “We will take you to your town any time you want to go.” Then they took him to his own town. They had to cover him up again.

The people of Sǃāwᴀˊn’s village were always looking for him, and one day four men in a canoe saw something far out on the shore which looked very strange. A number of sea gulls were flying around it. Going closer, they saw the shaman lying there on a long sandy beach, the gulls around him. They did not know of any sandy bay at that point, and said that it was the shaman that brought it up there. They then took him into the canoe and brought him over. He was so thin that he appeared to have fasted a long time. After they got him home the spirits began mentioning their names, saying, “I am Spirit of the Sea; I am Spirit of the Land,” etc. Every time a spirit mentioned his name, the people would start its songs.

* * * * *

This is the last thing that happened in the Raven story. From this time on everything is about spirits (yēk) over and over again. Very few people believed in Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł. Most believed in the spirits. From the time that these come into the story you hear little about Raven because people had so much more faith in spirits. You notice that in every Tlingit town in Alaska there are shamans, and years ago, when a shaman died, there was always one right after him, and he was always of the same family. It is through these that the Raven story has been getting less and less.

FOOTNOTES:

[50] See story 1. Into this story, as will be seen, the writer’s informant has woven a large portion of the sacred myths of his people.

[51] In another place the writer’s informant admitted that he had concluded this must be the case, because there were no bad stories about Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł.

[52] See Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 454.

[53] See Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, pp. 460 to 463.

[54] See story 5.

[55] This is an error, Łᴀxaỵîˊk being a general term for the Yakutat country and people.

[56] The writer’s informant added, “In our days when a person is making a living dishonestly by lying and stealing he is not told so directly, but this story is brought up to him and everyone knows what it means.”

[57] “When older people were giving their children advice they would bring up this part of the story and tell them not to be greedy and selfish, but honest. They would say they did not want them to be like Raven, who ate up all his playmates’ fat. When people went about trading they would also bring up this story to a person who wanted to make all the profit himself. They would tell him he was like Raven, who wanted to enjoy everything himself.” (From the writer’s informant.)

[58] “This episode is brought up to a child people desire to make honest. They say that just as these goods were taken back from Raven, and he was made to feel shame at having been discovered, a thief will always be found out. If the child becomes a thief when he grows up, they tell him that he will be classed among the very lowest no matter how well born he was. They also tell the little ones that there is a Creator watching them all the time, just as these ghosts watched. The Raven could not see them, but they saw him. They say that a person who does evil things is like a crippled or deformed person, for he has disgraced his family. They tell them that a person who gets that low is nobody and that the Creator despises him.” (From the writer’s informant.)

[59] What immediately follows was probably considered by my informant too indecent to relate.

[60] “This episode is referred to when a person takes after a bad father. They say to him, ‘Why do you take after your father? Everybody knows that you are his child. Can’t you take another road and do better than he did?’” (From the writer’s informant.)

[61] According to some people this house was drawn ashore at the Dᴀqʟǃaweˊdî village.

[62] See story 3.

[63] “This story is referred to in drawing the moral that one should never do anything spiteful or try to get ahead of one who knows better. If he does he will always get the worst of it. This is why in olden times the Indians looked up to the chiefs and those of high caste, knowing that they had been brought up and instructed better than themselves, and never tried to get ahead of them.

“It is also brought up to the people how Fire-drill’s son fed the young hawks instead of killing them. If a young person is very cruel they say to him, ‘If the hawk can be made a friend of mankind, why can not you make friends with your enemies? If you want to be respected do not make enemies, but friends always.’

“They tell the young people that a bad fellow is always like the one-eyed man, trying to get advantage of a good person. He is quick to say whatever comes into his mind, while the good man always thinks first. Therefore whatever the latter says people know is right. They ask their children to choose which of the two they would rather resemble.

“Because the one-eyed man said, ‘I did not kill your uncles or your mother’s friends,’ a murderer nowadays will never come out and say, ‘I am the one who killed that man.’ He always tries to make an innocent person suffer. As the one-eyed man’s wife invited this boy to have something to eat in Footnote: order to kill him, so a bad person says whatever he chooses to a good one. But they tell their children, ‘This will not kill you. They are doing themselves injury instead of you. So turn and walk away from them.’

“If a poor person has self-respect, he will have good fortune some time, just as in the case of the two old women to whom Raven brought fortune.

“The example of Fire-drill’s son is commended because he did not use his power meanly. He knew that he was very powerful, but when all the animals tried his power he did not do them any harm. He did not want to show his strength at once. If he had been a mean man he might have killed the old woman that lived back in the woods instead of helping her and getting her food.” (From the writer’s informant.)

[64] Katishan added that once while Fire-drill’s son was chasing Dry-cloud he was pulled into a village in the sky for some offense and punished there. Since then people have believed that the stars are inhabited. They were thought to be towns and the light the reflection of the sea.

[65] Near the site of the Presbyterian School.

[66] A conspicuous bowlder with flat, smooth top nearly in front of the Presbyterian Indian School.

[67] In another place, however, Katishan suggested that it might have been named from łēqǃ, his red-cod blanket. The word cᴀqǃ must be an old term for dog or some variety of dog.

[68] Probably the wren.

[69] See stories 3 and 97.

[70] “The disobedience of the young woman in looking up contrary to the directions of her brothers is brought up to girls at that period in life. This is why they do whatever their mothers tell them at that time, and do not displease their brothers. They always think of Łqǃayāˊkǃ’s sister. So this part of the story always taught them to be obedient.

Anciently we were taught commandments similar to those of the whites. Don’t look down on a person because he is proud. Don’t look down on a low-caste person. Don’t steal. Don’t lie.” (From the writer’s informant.)

[71] “So nowadays, when a person wants people to think he knows a great deal and says, ‘I am very old,’ they will answer, ‘If Sculpin could not make Raven believe he was so old and knew so much, neither can you make us believe it of you. An older person will come along and show you to the world as the sculpin is seen now.’ So, to-day, when children go out in the evening, they will say, ‘There is that sculpin up there.’”

[72] “When a child was lazy and disobedient, they told him how the halibut fishermen got up into the sky for their laziness. Therefore the children were afraid of being lazy.” (From the writer’s informant.)

[73] “This is brought up to a child to prevent him from being a murderer in secret, or a coward.” (From the writer’s informant.)

[74] “This episode is brought up when one who was the enemy of a dead man is seen to act as if he were very sad in the house where his body lies. People say to one another, ‘He is acting as Raven did when he killed his friend the deer.’ It is also applied to a person who is jealous of one who is well brought up and in good circumstances. When such a person dies he will act like Raven.” (From the writer’s informant.)

[75] “This episode used to be brought up to girls of 14 or 15 who wanted to run about to feasts and other festivities without their mothers or grandmothers. Such girls were told that they were like Raven when he was imprisoned in the ground-hog hole and wanted to get out. Those who stayed indoors were respected by everybody. They also likened Raven to a foolish girl who tries to lead a good girl, Ground-hog, astray. They told the latter that some injury would result, as happened to Ground-hog in losing his toes. When a mother saw that her daughter was willing to listen to a foolish girl, she would say to her, ‘Whatever that foolish girl leads you to will be seen on you as long as you live.’” (From the writer’s informant.)

[76] “When a young man was about to marry, people would bring this story up to him and tell him that if he did not take care of his wife and once forgot himself, he might lose her. If his wife were a good woman and he treated her right, he would have money and property, but if he were mean to her, he would lose it. And if he lost his wife and had been good to her, he could get another easily.” (From the writer’s informant.)

[77] “As Tsᴀgwâˊn was a mischief maker and followed Raven to tell what he had done to his wife, so some man will always follow one up if he doesn’t tell the truth. Formerly, when a man left his wife, a settlement of property was made and, if a man married again before this took place, his first wife made trouble for his second. Since no one wants trouble of this kind, a woman always found out what a man was like before she married him, just as this woman found out about Raven.

“Since Dᴀmnāˊdjî married a woman of higher family than himself and was taunted by the town people, nowadays they tell a young man that, if he marries a girl of higher rank than himself, they will not remain together long, because she will feel above him and want him to please her continually, while she does nothing to please him. As Dᴀmnāˊdjî from being poor became rich suddenly and was very hard on his people till all of his riches were again taken away from him, they say, ‘When you become wealthy after having been poor, don’t be proud or your money will all leave you.’ When a man has had plenty of money all his life and wastes it foolishly, they say of him, ‘He has fallen from the hands of the brant. So a young man nowadays saves up a considerable sum of money before he marries that he may not be made fun of. Perhaps if we had not had this story among the natives of Alaska we would have had nothing to go by.

“The fact that Dᴀmnāˊdjî’s wife’s relations did not insult or maltreat him after they learned how poor he was, shows that they were really high caste. Had they but recently acquired their wealth they would have done so. Therefore people say to a person who speaks before he thinks, ‘Why can’t you be like Dᴀmnāˊdjî’s brothers-in-law? Think before you speak.’ When the village people were making fun of their brother-in-law, his wife’s relations might have done anything to them, for they had wealth in furs and slaves, but they kept quiet because they had too much respect for their sister to disgrace her husband’s village people. It was also out of respect for their sister that, when they found out that all that the poor man had for them to drink was water, they drank it willingly without saying a word, where a low-caste person would have grumbled. Therefore people tell a man who has no respect for his brother-in-law because he is low-caste that he ought to be like these brothers-in-law of Dᴀmnāˊdjî. Because Dᴀmnāˊdjî was lucky twice, the people in olden times used to pray for luck continually. If he wanted to be lucky a poor man lived a very pure life. Those who do not do what is right never will have luck.” (From the writer’s informant.)

[78] “This part of the story was referred to when one wished to imply that a person was trying to make people believe that he was better than he really was. So nowadays, when a high-caste man wants to marry an orphan, people find out who her father is, because Raven made believe her own father was a chief. Some women will go off to a strange place and say falsely, ‘I am so-and-so’s daughter,’ making people think that she belongs to a very high family. The same sort of woman will assume mourning for her husband, and make people believe she is mourning when she is really thinking what she is going to do and where she is going. If she finds out she can get her living falsely, she will keep on being false. That is why Raven told so many stories about her husband’s death. When a mother sees that her girl is very foolish, she will say to her, ‘When you marry and become a widow, you will eat up your husband’s body,’ meaning that, if her husband leaves her any property, she will use it up foolishly. She also says to her, ‘You are so foolish now, I believe you will steal after you are married,’ meaning that she will be foolish with what her husband earns. Then, she says, ‘They will find you out by finding something of yours in the place where you have been, and it will be a disgrace to your brothers and your father.’” (From the writer’s informant.)

[79] “This is the way nowadays with persons who have no respect for themselves. They go from house to house to be fed by others, and such persons are greedy, great eaters, and lazy. The people tell their children that those who lead this kind of life are not respected. A person who tells the truth is always known because he keeps his word. When Katishan was a boy, they used to say to him when they could not make him do anything, ‘You are so lazy that you will be left in some village alone.’ [It is said that Raven comes along and helps one abandoned in a village.] This is why the Tlingit tried hard to earn their living and make things comfortable for themselves.” (From the writer’s informant.)

[80] “So it is always said, ‘A lazy man will be known wherever he goes.’ Such a person will go from place to place living on others and perhaps bringing in a few pails of water or some wood for his food, but however high-caste he is, he will be looked down upon. Therefore the little ones were taught to stay in their native place and make their living there, instead of wandering from town to town. To this day the high-caste Indians do so and visit in other towns only for a short time. Then people say ‘Look at so-and-so. He stays in his own village.’” (From the writer’s informant.)

[81] “Nowadays it is said that although a wicked man may appear very nice he will soon be found out. Some little act will betray him.” (From the writer’s informant.)

[82] “So nowadays a man that has invited people previously is paid first, receiving more than he had given. If he thinks that he has received more than he ought he gives another feast. When we now look back at this it looks as though these people were fighting to see which family was highest.

“When a man has invited people and they are coming in toward the town he himself remains in the house. Then some of his relations come and pound on the door and say to him, ‘Why are you staying in the house? You are acting like a coward. Your enemies are coming.’ So the host comes out with his bow and arrows, or nowadays his gun, and says, ‘Where are those enemies you were telling me about?’ ‘There they are out there in that canoe.’ ‘Those are not my enemies. That is a crowd of women in that canoe. Years ago my relations invited them.’ He calls them women when his people had invited them twice without a return invitation. The people that are going to give the feast study what they are to say before they have it, and they never let outsiders know what it is. As the visitors’ canoe approached shore they might say, ‘What is that I see out there?’ Then one would look and reply, ‘That is a G̣onaqᴀdēˊt.’ They call it a G̣onaqᴀdēˊt because they know that that party will give a feast and invite them in return.[83] They also have songs ready to sing at the very beginning of the feast, and, when such a song is started it shows that the feast will be a big one.” (From the writer’s informant.)

[83] To see a G̣onaqᴀdēˊt brought wealth to the beholder.

[84] “Some people call this woman Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł’s wife and some his daughter, but I have always heard that she was his daughter.” (From the writer’s informant.)

[85] A short version of this part of the story was related to me by my Sitka interpreter who had obtained it from his wife. According to this, a man had a wife of whom he was very jealous. People wanted to get to her and marry her, but he guarded her very closely. Finally a man reached her and pulled aside her arms, letting free all of the land animals and sea creatures she had been keeping there. That was why her husband was so jealous about her. Afterward the husband raised a flood, but one man heard of it and made a big canoe to which others attached theirs, and all went up together. He also took two animals of each species into his canoe. This last is evidently a Christian addition. By some the jealous husband is said to have been Loon.

[86] Cf. story 96.

[87] Said to be the Tsimshian word for G̣onaqᴀdēˊt.

[88] “Eagle feathers are often referred to nowadays in speeches. Thus people will say to one who is mourning, ‘You have been cold. Therefore I bring you these feathers that have been handed down from generation to generation.’ When peace is about to be made one man is selected called the ‘deer’ (Qōwakāˊn) because the deer is a very gentle animal. When a man is so taken he is supposed to be like the deer, and he has to be very careful what he says. Eagle feathers are put upon his head because they are highly valued. The songs he starts while dancing are those sung when the people were preserved from some danger, or at the time of the flood. He does not sing anything composed in time of war. They also called the ‘deer’ the ‘sun deer’ (g̣ᴀgāˊn qōwakāˊn), because the sun is very pleasant to see and never does anybody any harm. Some called him ‘fort deer’ (Nu qōwakāˊn), because people are safe in a fort. For this office a high-caste person was always selected.” (From the writer’s informant.) Cf. Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 451.

[89] “I have always wondered what this part of the story means but was never told. It must have been because we were going to have steamboats. Every now and then at the present time something happens like things in the stories. The poor people always had luck in those days, and I have always wondered what it meant. Years ago, too, we used to hear the old people say, ‘There will be no slaves. Those that have been slaves are going to feel themselves above the real high-caste Indians.’ And sure enough nowadays the people that have come from slaves are very proud, while the race of nobles is dying out. They are protected by law and know that nothing harmful can be said to them. We heard of this years ago.” (From the writer’s informant.)

[90] “Some people are like this nowadays. They are very poor but are so used to the life that they can not see it, and so used to filth that they do not notice it.” (From the writer’s informant.)

[91] For another version of this part, see story 89.

[92] Actually it is from the Kwakiutl word ʟūˊkoala. Katishan calls it Tsimshian because the Tlingit received their secret societies through them.

[93] See pp. 90–91.

[94] Said to be a Haida name.

[95] It appears from examples that no such uniformity really exists.

[96] In this paragraph are seen the effects of missionary teachings.

[97] See story 11.

[98] Story 93 is another version of this tale.

[99] See story 11 and story 29 (first part).

32. KAKĒˊQǃᵘTÊ[100]

A Huna man named Kakēˊqǃᵘtê and his wife were paddling along in a canoe about midnight in search of seals, and he kept hearing a noise around his head like that made by a bird. Finally he hit the creature with his hand and knocked it into the canoe. It was shaped like a bird, only with eyelids hanging far over, and its name is Sleep (Tᴀ). He gave this to his wife saying, “Here, you can keep this for your own.” So she gave it to her relatives, who built a house called Sleep house (Tᴀ hît). All the poles in it were carved to resemble this bird.

The man got very tired after that without being able to sleep, until at last he ran away into the forest. He walked along there, came to a big glacier, and walked along upon that. After he had traveled for some time he came across a small creek in which he discovered eulachon. He roasted some on sticks before the fire. After he had thought over the problem for a while, he made a small fish trap with a hole in it for the fish to enter. The trap was soon filled with a multitude of fishes. Then he took all out, dug a hole in the ground, and placed the fish there. He was glad to think that he could get something to eat, so he remained in that place.

One day, while he was roasting fish, he saw eight Athapascans (G̣oˊnana), and knew from that that he was in the interior. These men wore nice fur clothing and had their faces painted. Kakēˊqǃᵘtê became frightened and ran into the woods, leaving his fish roasting by the fire. Afterward the eight men acted as though they were calling him, so he climbed up into a tree and watched them. They did not know where he had gone. Then the men sat down and ate his fish, after which they stuck a copper-pointed arrow into the ground where each roasting stick had been. This was the first time a Tlingit had seen copper.

Next day the same men came back. They were dressed much better, and two nice-looking women were with them. Then they called to him saying, “You have brought us good luck, so we want you to be our friend. If you will come and stay with us you can have either of these sisters of ours.” So he came down from the tree where he had been hiding, went with them, and married both of their sisters.

Now they took him to the place from which they got their fish and showed him how they did it. It was by making deadfalls in the water, in which they caught only one small fish at a time. Kakēˊqǃᵘtê was surprised to see how hard they worked to get a fish. If a man were lucky he would get perhaps forty or fifty very small fishes.

Now, Kakēˊqǃᵘtê ordered all in the village to procure young trees that were very limber and to split them into long pieces. He told them to whittle these down very smooth, and sat in the middle to show them how. Then he got some roots and tied the sticks together. The name of this trap is tǃītx̣. It is shaped like a barrel with the inner entrance just small enough for the fish to pass through. At the mouth of this trap a weir is run across the stream.

The whole village worked with him fixing the traps. Finally they cut posts to fasten them to and placed them at that point in the river which the tide reaches. When the tide went down they went to look at them and found them full of eulachon. Before they could never get enough of these fishes but now there were plenty for the poor, who formerly could obtain none. Even the old people were cutting and drying some to put in holes and make oil out of. Some filled twenty boxes with oil, some thirty. Some boxes of this kind weigh 150 pounds, some 100, some 50, some 20. Before his time the people of that village could not sleep, because they had to run down to their traps very often to look at their deadfalls, but after he came they had a very easy time. Therefore the whole village was pleased with him, looked upon him as a very high-caste person, and would do as he told them.

By and by the salmon season came. The people there had copper-pointed salmon spears (kᴀt) with handles of fine, thin wood, but the water was so muddy that they could spear only by means of the ripple marks, and often got but one or two a day. The most that any man obtained was three.

Kakēˊqǃᵘtê watched and knew that he could help them. He always traveled around with his wives’ brothers, and wherever they went the people followed, for they thought that he knew how to get salmon. He inquired if this were the only way they knew of to catch salmon, and they said, “Yes, this is the only way except that when they get in a shallow place we can club them.” One of his brothers-in-law also said to him, “The only time we can obtain salmon is when they are very old and their flesh is turning white. Then the water is low, and they go near the shore where we can see them. We can also get them at that time from the little creeks that come into the river.” Now Kakēˊqǃᵘtê took the spear from his brother-in-law and taught him how to feel along the river for salmon and catch them on the barbs as soon as they were felt. In half an hour he had six salmon. All the people of the village were looking on. Then he said to his brother-in-law, “You can feel them very easily. They are slippery. When you feel anything slippery, do not be in too great hurry and be careful not to go under the salmon. When you first put your spear into the water you will feel the ground and you will raise it up from the ground and move it along. I know how to make a salmon trap, too. I will show you that to-morrow. To-day we can not do it.”

Next day the whole village went to work making salmon traps. Again he asked them to get young trees and split them. All did as he told them. They made eighteen traps that day. They got roots and split them, and all worked taking the bark off. The whole village imitated Kakēˊqǃᵘtê, watching his every movement. Next day they put the traps into the water, and all were very anxious about them, even the women sitting along the shore watching. Some of the poor people, who knew that they would result similarly to the first traps he had made, were so anxious to see them that they could not sleep. The day before all of the women sat down to make ropes in the manner he showed them, and each went to the traps next morning provided with one. When they got there they found every one of them loaded with salmon. All the people in the town, old and young, went to see these traps. While they were emptying the traps and stringing some of the salmon, others would be coming in, and it made the whole village happy. Then Kakēˊqǃᵘtê distributed the salmon, for everyone thought that it belonged to him. He gave to the poor people, who had never before tasted salmon, and he said to the wealthy, “Don’t feel offended that I give them as much as you for they need it as much. To-morrow and the day after we will have it.”

At this time of the year they never got any salmon to dry. If one got a salmon he ate it at once. Only when the salmon was old did they dry it. Each man had a place where he speared salmon, and no one dared go there. Those spots were all named. When they got salmon from the traps they were all rich, and they were glad to have a supply so early in the season. Before they had these traps they ate every part of the salmon, all the insides, the heart, etc., but after they had had the traps for a few days you could see along the beach various parts of the fish, as the heads, and even some good parts, where they had been thrown away. After they were through drying their salmon they had enough for a year, and they stored them all away in boxes.

That fall the Athapascans went up among the valleys for ground hogs, each man having his own place, where no one else was allowed to intrude. That day only one came from the very best spots and in the whole village there were but three. Kakēˊqǃᵘtê watched how they got them. Ground hogs were valued even by the coast people on account of the blankets made of their skins. Then he asked them, “Is this the only way you get your ground-hog meat?” “Yes,” they said, “this is the only way.” Then he sat right down and began carving some pieces of wood, while everybody watched him, believing that whatever he did would succeed. He asked the women to make hide thongs. All sat down to do it, and with them he made slip-nooses to be placed at the mouths of the ground-hog burrows. Then he said, “I don’t want anyone to go over there. Keep away from the traps.” So they did, and the morning after he went out among his traps accompanied by all of the people. In each trap was a ground hog, and he gave every man in the village five. Even when they had killed three, the meat was distributed so that all had at least a taste of the broth. They remained in this place just three days, and he killed them off so in that time they had to move to another. Each valley was claimed by some man, who had a special tree there on which his dried meat was hung, and every time they moved to a new valley they left the meat hanging on the limbs of the tree in the place abandoned.

Then the people started for home, carrying their meat along with them. They would carry part of it a certain distance and go back for more, and repeat the process until all was down on the beach. After that he told them how to prepare their food to keep it over winter. He told them to get their cooking baskets and cook their meat well. After it was cooked, he told them to put it on sticks high up in the house and dry it in the smoke. When it was dried, he asked them to take it down and put it in oil for the winter. One family would have from four to six boxes of such dried meat. Before this man came they did not know how to do that. They ate everything as soon as it was procured, and it was very hard for them to get enough. Kakēˊqǃᵘtê also saw the women going after berries and eating them at once. If they kept any very long they would spoil on their hands. Then he said, “Don’t you know how to preserve berries for winter?” “No,” they replied. So he showed them how to dry these and how to cook the different kinds of berries and preserve them in grease.

Before his time the Athapascans did not know how to put up their winter food. They would stay on the spot where they had killed a moose until it was eaten up. That was why they were always in want. The Athapascans were very wild and did not seem to have any sense. Before Kakēˊqǃᵘtê came among them these people were always hunting, but now they stayed in one place and had an easy time. A person went hunting only for amusement in case he got tired of staying in doors. Before this, too, they did not have a taste of berries after the berry season. They ate them on the bushes like the birds. Now, however, they have plenty all the year round. They used to live in winter on dried salmon and what meat they could get. If they could get nothing while hunting, many died of starvation.

When spring came on, Kakēˊqǃᵘtê also showed them a certain tree and said, “Don’t you know how to take off the bark of this tree and use it?” They replied that they never knew it could be eaten. So he took a limb from a hemlock, sharpened it, and showed them how to take off the hemlock bark. After that he took big mussel shells (yīsǃ) from his sack and said, “Do you see these. This is the way to take it off.” After he had obtained quite a pile of bark, he showed them how to eat it, and they thought that it was very nice, because it was so sweet. Then he sharpened some large bear bones on a rough rock, gave one to each woman and said, “Use it as I have used the shell.” Each woman’s husband or son stripped the bark off of the tree, and the women sat down with their daughters to help them and separated the good part. He was teaching the people there to live as do those down on the ocean.

Next Kakēˊqǃᵘtê collected a lot of skunk cabbage, dug a hole in the ground, and lined it with flints, while all stood about watching him. Then he made a fire on top of these rocks to heat them, and afterwards threw a little water upon them, filling up the remainder of the pit with successive layers of skunk cabbage and hemlock bark. Over all he spread earth and made a fire above. He left just so much fire on it all night. All the village people were looking on and getting wood for him.

Now the people felt very happy to see how well they had gotten through the winter and that they were learning to put up more food. The younger people would dance all day. In the morning they were asked to go out and uncover the hole. He uncovered his own first. It was so savory that the whole village was scented with it. Then he tasted it, found it sweet, and asked the rest of the village to taste it. The rumor of its excellence spread all over town, and so many came to try it that before he knew it half of his bark was gone. All the people of the village were burying bark as he had done.

After he had taken the bark out a quantity of water was left, which they poured into their dishes. Then he put the cooked bark into a dish and pounded it with a masher. After that he pressed the cakes very hard and made a hole in one corner of each in order to hang it up. The cakes dried very quickly. Some cakes they put away dry, and some that were dried very hard they put into oil. After they had been in oil for several months he took them out and ate them. They tasted very good. He also showed how to use those that had been put away dry. He took them out and boiled some water for them, after which he soaked some in it. They tasted altogether different from those that had been in the oil.

Next Kakēˊqǃᵘtê showed the people how to put up a certain root (tsǃēt) found on sand flats and taken before tops come upon it. Geese also live upon this root. He collected a lot of this and brought it to his wives, asking them whether they ate it. They said they did not, and when they had tasted it they found it very sweet. This root tastes like sweet potatoes. Then the people took their canoes and went to get these roots for their winter’s food. Each carried a hardwood stick with sharpened ends. He said, “This is women’s work or for boys and girls. It is easy. Where I come from the women do that.” After they had dug many roots he showed them how to dry these. He tied up a bunch of them and on top another until he had made a long string. Then he hung them up where they could dry quickly. He cooked them in pots. After the water is poured off from them they move around as if alive, and for that reason Tlingit widows do not eat them, fearing that they will make them nervous. After being cooked in pots they taste just as if fresh.

He also showed them how to put up a root called sǃîn, which he pounded up and pressed into cakes like the bark. They are soaked like the others and also eaten with oil. He showed them as well how to kill seals and prepare their flesh. For the next winter they prepared more than for the winter preceding. That fall, after the food was all put away, they went into the interior after furs. He showed them how to catch animals by means of deadfalls with fat as bait. Before his time the only way they had gotten their furs was with bow and arrow. They used to chase bears with dogs and shoot them after hours spent in pursuit. Now they obtained very many furs and made numbers of blankets out of them.

After he had shown the Athapascans all these things Kakēˊqǃᵘtê said, “Now I want to go to my native town.” At first they were not willing to have him leave, but he asked so persistently that they finally consented. Before they sent him away, however, they took him away and obtained some small coppers for him. After that they got everything ready and set out the following winter. As they paddled on they could see the places where he had camped during the hard time he had had after he left his own village. He asked the people to go up with him along the same trail he had taken through the woods. By that route they came to Grass Creek (Tcūˊkᴀn-hīn), to the place he had left, but, when they came down, the people of that village were afraid of them. These were the Tcūkᴀneˊdî, Kāˊgwᴀntān, Wuckitāˊn, Koskǃēˊdî, Tǃᴀˊqǃdentān, ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî, and Qǃᴀtǃkaāˊỵî.

By and by one of the Tcūkᴀneˊdî came out right opposite them and said, “What are you coming here for, you land-otter people? We are not the people who have been making medicine for you.” When they saw that those people did not care to receive them they went back through the woods to the town of the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî. The ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî saw that they had coppers, and took them away. Then the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî said, “You are going to be our people.” Each man took a man out of the canoe and said, “You will be my friend.” That was the way they used to do. They would take away a person’s goods and then give him just what they wanted to. The Athapascans were foolish enough to allow it. Afterward the Tcūkᴀneˊdî felt that they were unlucky in not having taken the visitors in themselves. Therefore, when a person is unlucky nowadays, they say of him, “He sent the Athapascans away.” Because they did this the Tcūkᴀneˊdî are below all other Tlingit families. That was what brought them bad luck, and that is also how the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî became very rich. They got a claim on the place where the copper plates come from.

Next spring the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî went right to the mouth of Copper river. They made a village there at once and called it Kosǃēˊxka. One of the mountains there they called Tsᴀłxāˊn and another Masǃīˊca. All along where they went they gave names. A certain creek was called Nᴀˊgᴀkᵘ-hīn, and they came to a lake which they named Łtūˊa. Then they went to a river called Ałsēˊx, at the mouth of which they established a town and named it Kosǃēˊx. Afterward they went to the river from which the copper came and called it Îq hīˊnî (Copper river). At Kosǃēˊx they built a house called Tᴀ hît (Sleep house). Then all of them were ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî, but some, from the fact that they camped on an island, came to be called Qǃᴀtǃkaāˊỵî (Island people). The Koskǃēˊdî, originally a part of the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî, used to encamp at a certain place where they dug the root sǃîn. This root pressed is known as tǃᴀganîskǃêx, and the Koskǃēˊdî receive their name from this word.[101] The Koskǃēˊdî built a house and roofed it with moose hide. So they came to own the Moose house (X̣āsǃ hît).

The wives of the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî were Kāˊgwᴀntān. They (the Kāˊgwᴀntān) were invited to Chilkat by a chief named Tailless-Raven (Ckūˊwu-yēł). In the same town they were about to fell a tree to make a totem pole out of it, and just before they did so Cqēʟ̣aqāˊ, a shaman, interviewed his spirits. When they struck the tree with an ax he said, “The chip went toward Huna. How is it that it went toward Huna?” And, when the tree fell, he said, “It fell toward Huna. How is it that it fell toward Huna?” This spirit’s name was Ānkᴀx̣wāˊî, and the pole was carved to resemble him. When it was brought in he said, “How is it that there is something wrong with these people we have invited? My spirit sees that there is something wrong with them.” Then they made a raven hat, and the spirit in the shaman said, “The raven you made has been shot with an arrow. Many arrows are sticking into its body and blood is coming from its mouth.”

The people giving the feast gave a great deal of property away to the Kāˊgwᴀntān. Each man in the family would give so many slaves and so much in goods. On their way home from this feast the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî also made a raven, and some time later they went to a feast at the Kāˊgwᴀntān village of Kᴀqǃᴀnuwūˊ. Close to that place Qǃonēˊ, chief of the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî, put on the raven hat. Its tail and beak were made of copper, and the wings were copper plates. It had a copper plate lying in front of it at which it pecked. ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî also lived among the Kāˊgwᴀntān in that town, and they said, “Where has that raven been?” The canoe people answered, “Why! this raven has been at Chilkat.” “What did it eat at Chilkat?” “All that it ate at Chilkat was salmon skins.” By salmon skins they meant the furs and hides that had been given away. Then they took the wings from this raven and the copper he had been pecking at and threw them ashore for the Kāˊgwᴀntān. They said, “Those are worth forty slaves.” Before, when the G̣ānᴀxteˊdî (of Chilkat) had feasted and used their own raven hat, they spoke so highly of it that the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî had become jealous.

By and by news of what the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî had done reached Chilkat, and the G̣ānᴀxteˊdî were very angry. They began to build Whale house (Yāˊî hît). Then they began to buy slaves in all quarters. They bought some Dēˊcitān, some Tcūˊkᴀnedî, and some ʟǃenēˊdî, and, when they invited people to the feast for these houses, they first gave away the slaves they had been buying. The ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî felt very badly at this, because—Flathead slaves not being esteemed very highly—this amounted to more than they had given away. Then war broke out between the two families, and the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî were badly defeated, losing many people. After that the people whose friends had been enslaved, purchased, and given away felt so badly that they also made war on the G̣ānᴀxteˊdî with no better result.

One of the G̣ānᴀxteˊdî chiefs was named Yēł-x̣āk. In those times people were afraid of a high-caste person who was rich, strong, and brave and did not want to have anything to do with him. This man’s father-in-law was a ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî chief at Łaxaỵîˊk named Big Raven (Yēł-Lēn). Then Yēł-x̣āk told his slaves to take food and tobacco to his father-in-law through the interior by Alsek river, and he did so. When he arrived, the chief said to him, “What did you come for?” “Your daughter has sent me with some tobacco.” Big Raven was very fond of tobacco. Before the slave started on this errand his master had said to him, “Be sure to notice every word he says when you give him the tobacco.” Then the slave took away from the tobacco the cottonwood leaves and a fine piece of moose hide in which it was wrapped. As soon as he saw the leaves Big Raven said, “I feel as though I had seen Chilkat now that I have seen these cottonwood leaves. Chilkat is a respectable place. A lot of respectable people live there. They are so good that they give food even to the people that were going to fight them.” This Big Raven was a shaman and a very rich one.

When the slave returned to Chilkat and told his master what Big Raven had said, they held a council the same evening in Ckūˊwu-yēł’s house, Whale house, and Yēł-x̣āk said to his slave, “Now you tell these people what that father-in-law of mine has said to you.” And the slave said, “As soon as he saw me, he said, ‘What are you doing here?’ and I told him that his daughter had sent me to him with tobacco. After he had uncovered the tobacco and had seen the leaves he said, ‘They are such respectable people in Chilkat that they feed even the people who had come to fight them.’ That was what Big Raven said.” Then Yēł-x̣āk said, “I wonder if he thinks he has gotten even with me for the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî I killed on Land-otter point. I wonder whether he thinks he has gotten even with me for having killed all those at Ānᴀkǃ-nū.” He thought that Big Raven was a coward and was going to make peace. Then he moved about very proudly, while the visitors from other places watched him closely, and everything that he said or did was reported to Big Raven.

A man among the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî, named Cādisîˊktc, was bathing in order to acquire strength to kill the G̣ānᴀxteˊdî. Then the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî pounded on Big Raven’s house to have his spirits come out. Big Raven said, “Łᴀˊkua has gotten up already. Łᴀˊkua has looked out now. My masters, which way is this Łᴀˊkua going to go?” The people said, “What are you saying, Big Raven? Go wherever you think best.” Then he told them to pound away on the sticks, and he shouted, “Here, here is the camping place.” After the spirit had been all over their course it said, “Hō, hē, the Raven swinging back and forth.”

For Cādisîˊktc’s war hat they made a carving of a monster rat which is said to live under the mountain Wasǃīˊcā. His spear points they made out of iron—taken probably from some wreck. They considered themselves very lucky when they found this iron. They thought that it grew in the timber and not that it belonged to a ship. This they called G̣ayēˊsǃ hāˊwu (Log of Iron). G̣ayēˊsǃ was originally the name given to black mud along the beaches to which people likened iron rust.

Now the war canoes started from Kosǃēˊx for Chilkat, drilling as they went. When people do this they take out their drums and drill wherever possible. There are certain songs called “drilling songs.” When the shaman said, “This is the place where Łᴀˊkua camped,” they camped there. They thought that it would bring bad luck to go any farther than to the place where he had camped. When on an expedition the war chief never looked back in the direction in which they had come. At Kᴀqǃᴀnuwūˊ they stopped long enough to get the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî there. Those were the people of which so many had been killed by the Chilkat before. The Kîksᴀˊdî, Tǃᴀˊqǃdentān, and other families also started with them, and they paid these for their help with copper plates. All this time the shaman’s spirit sang the same song about “the raven swinging back and forth.”

At last the warriors reached Chilkat and stood in a row fronting the river back of the Chilkat fort. Behind all stood Cādisîˊktc. Then Yēł-x̣āk came out on top of the fort and said, “Where is that Cādisîˊktc?” So Cādisîˊktc stepped out in front of his party with the mouse war hat on his head, saying, “Here I am.” Then Yēł-x̣āk said, “Where has that mouse (kutsǃīˊn) been? What has he been doing?” He answered, “I have been in that great mountain that belonged to my mother’s uncle, and I have come out after you.” After this they heard a drum in the fort, which meant that those people were about to come out. Then they came out in files, and Yēł-x̣āk and Cādisîˊktc went to meet each other with their spears. But the Chilkat still had their spears pointed with bone and mountain-goat horn, and when Yēł-x̣āk speared Cādisîˊktc he did not seem to hurt him. Cādisîˊktc, however, speared Yēł-x̣āk through the heart, and his body floated down the river on which they fought until it struck against a log running out from the bank. The end of this log moved up and down with the current and Yēł-x̣āk’s body moved up and down along with it. Then the shaman said, “Now you see what my spirit has been singing about. That is the raven moving back and forth. Now you people are going to eat them all up. Don’t be frightened any more, for you have them all now that you have gotten him.” At once they began to wade across, while the Chilkat people, when they saw that their head man was dead, ran past their fort up into the mountains. At that time the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî took the totem pole ānkᴀx̣wāˊî. That is what the Chilkat shaman had meant by the chip flying toward Huna and the tree falling toward it. And this is also why they had so great faith in spirits at that time.

Ckūˊwu-yēł felt badly for the loss of his totem, so he took the copper raven he had captured from the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî before and started toward Kᴀqǃᴀnuwūˊ to make peace. His wife’s father was head chief of the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî. At this time the war had lasted for a long time, perhaps five years. Ckūˊwu-yēł composed and sang a song as he went along, as follows, “Why did you leave the Chilkat river as it flows, you raven? Why didn’t you take it all into your mouth?” He meant to say, “If you are so strong, why didn’t you make the river go entirely dry?” The ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî had gathered many families against him, but the river was as large as ever.

Just as Ckūˊwu-yēł came to the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî town, a man ran down toward the canoe, making believe that he was going to kill him, but one of the Kāˊgwᴀntān caught him and said, “Why do you want to kill that chief? You are not as high as he.” He said, “It isn’t because I am anxious to kill him, but because I was always so afraid of him when he was warring.”[102]

Then they seized Ckūˊwu-yēł to make him a deer and took him into Sleep house, the house of his father-in-law. When she saw him going in there, his wife came out of the canoe, carrying the raven hat he had captured. Eagle down was upon it. So they, in turn, brought out the ānkᴀx̣wāˊî with eagle down upon it. They also painted the face of the deer and the face on the corner post representing Sleep. This was because they had so much respect for this post. The painting of its face was the end of their troubles.

It was against the deer’s rules to eat devilfish or any kind of fresh fish, but they thought, “If he still feels badly toward us, he will refuse to eat it.” So he said to them, “Bring that devilfish here. I will eat that devilfish.” They did not want him to eat it, but they wanted to see what he would say. As soon as he asked for it, therefore, all shouted and put it back from him. They said, “It is so. He has come to make peace.” Then they danced for him.

After this all of the G̣ānᴀxteˊdî came over and carried away his father-in-law to be deer on the other side.

They said to Ckūˊwu-yēł, “Have you your canoe ashore with all of your people in it?” He said, “I have it ashore.” This was their way of asking whether there would be any more war. Then they would say to the deer again, “My deer, we are going to camp in a nice sunny place, are we not; and we are going to come in in a sheltered place where there are no waves, are we not?” He would say, “Yes, we are going to camp in a good place.” Then they would say to him, “You are going to sleep well hereafter, are you not?” And he answered, “Yes.” When they were moving about, warring people could never sleep well. That is why they said this to him. By the waves and wind they meant the troubles they had had, and by saying that they were going to camp in a calm place they meant that they were not going to war any more.

The opposite deer, taken from Sleep house, was asked similar questions. If the deer did not have his mind fixed on making peace people knew it by his songs, therefore they noticed every word he uttered. A high-caste person was always selected as deer, because through him there would be a certain peace. The man that came to another village to be taken up as deer brought food with him on which to feast the people there. The other side gave a feast in return.

After they had made peace Ckūˊwu-yēł danced on the beach just before he set out. Łdahīˊn, the owner of Sleep house, danced on the other side. This is the only way in which people made up with each other after having been enemies for years. It happened years and years ago, and to this day those people are friends.

FOOTNOTES:

[100] According to Katishan, he belonged to the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî. But see story 104.

[101] Probably erroneous. Cf. story 104.

[102] See p. 71.

33. ORIGIN OF THE G̣ONAQADĒˊT

In a village somewhere to the northward a high-caste person had married a high-caste girl from a neighboring village. His mother-in-law lived with them, and she disliked her son-in-law very much because he was a lazy fellow, fond only of gambling. As soon as they were through with their meal she would say to the slaves, “Let that fire go out at once.” She did not want her son-in-law to have anything to eat there. Long after dark the man would come in, and they would hear him eating. Then his mother-in-law would say, “I suppose my son-in-law has been felling a tree for me.” Next morning he would go out again very early. His wife thought it was useless to say anything. The same thing happened every evening.

When summer came all the people went after salmon, and the gambler accompanied them. After he had hung up quite a lot of this salmon and dried it, he took it up into the woods beside a lake and made a house there out of dry wood. Then he began chopping with his stone ax upon a big tree which stood a little distance back. It took him a very long time to bring it down. After he had felled it into the lake he made wedges out of very hard wood and tied their thick ends with roots to make them strong. He tried to split the tree along its whole length. When he had accomplished this he put crosspieces between to hold the two sections apart. Then he baited his line with salmon, with the bright part turned out, and let it down between. He had been told that there was a monster in that lake, and he was going to find out. By and by he felt his line move, but when he pulled up quickly it broke. The next time, however, he pulled it up still more rapidly and the creature followed it to the surface between the two halves of the tree. Then he pushed the crosspieces out so that the halves of the tree sprang together and caught its head while he jumped ashore. He stood on a grassy spot near by to watch. Then the monster struggled hard to get away, and it was so strong that it kept dragging the tree clear under water, but at last it died. Now the man spread the cedar apart by means of his crosspieces, dragged out the monster’s body and examined it. He saw that it had very sharp, strong teeth and that its claws looked like copper. Then he skinned it with the claws, etc., entire, dried it very carefully, got inside, and went into the water. It began to swim away with him, and it swam down to the monster’s house under the lake, which was very beautiful.

After this man had come up again, he left his skin in a hole in a dry tree near by and went home, but did not say a word to anybody about what he had discovered. When winter came all went back to their village, and the following spring there was a famine.

One morning the man said to his wife, “I am going away. I will be here every morning just before the ravens are awake. If you hear a raven before I get back don’t look for me any more.” Then he again got into the monster’s skin and swam to his house. He found that from there he could go out into the sea, so he swam along in the sea, found a king salmon and brought it back. He took off his skin and left it where he had put it before. The salmon he carried to town and left on the beach close to the houses.

Next morning this man’s mother-in-law got up early, went out, and came upon a salmon. She thought that it had drifted there, so she took it home. Then she came in and said to her husband, “I have found a fine big salmon.” They cooked it for all the people in the village and distributed the food, as was formerly the custom. Next evening her son-in-law did the very same thing, only he caught two salmon. Then he went to bed. He told his wife that it was he who was getting these salmon, but she must not say a word about it.

The third time he brought salmon in and his mother-in-law found them she considered the matter very deeply. Her son-in-law would sleep all day, not getting up to eat until it was almost evening. Before this he had been in the habit of rising very early in order to gamble. When he got up next day, the old woman said to him, “The idea of starving people who are sleeping all day. If I did not go around picking up dead salmon the whole village would be starving.” He listened to what she said, and afterward he and his wife laughed about it.

Next evening he went out again and caught a very large halibut, which he also put in front of his mother-in-law’s house. By this time the woman thought, “I wonder what this is that is bringing me luck. It must be a spirit. I believe I am going to become the richest person in the world. That is why this is happening to me.” When she went out this morning, as was now her custom, and saw the large halibut, she called to her husband and her slaves to bring it up. She felt very proud. Then the chief sent word all through the village, “No one is to go out early in the morning. My wife has had a bad dream.” She had not really had such a dream, but she told her husband so because she did not want anybody to get ahead of her. In those days everyone listened to what the chief said and obeyed him. Next morning the young man got a seal and laid it down before the houses.

Meanwhile his mother-in-law treated him worse and worse. She said, “I will never go out again in the morning to find anything. I know that the people in this village would starve if I did not find things.” After that she found the seal. Then they singed the hair off, scraped it in water to make the skin white, and cooked it in the skin. The chief invited everyone in the village to his house to eat it. He made speeches and listened to speeches in return which told how his wife had saved all of them. Her son-in-law lay in bed taking everything in. Also when a canoe landed in front of the town his mother-in-law would say, “I suppose my son-in-law has brought in a load of seal,” and he listened to her as he lay there.

In the middle of that night the old woman pretended that she had spirits. The spirit in her said, “I am the spirit that finds all this food for you.” Then she said to her husband, as she lay in bed, “Have a mask made for me, and let them name it Food-finding-spirit. Have a claw hat[103] made.” So her husband sent for the best carver in town, and he made all of the things she had asked for. Her husband had an apron made for her with puffin beaks all around it.

After that spirits came to her and mentioned what she was going to find. She rattled her rattle, and her spirits would say that she was rattling it over the whole village. Her son-in-law lay abed listening. The whole village believed in her and thought that she was a wonderful shaman.

The first time the woman went out she found one salmon, the next time two salmon, the third time a halibut, the fourth time two halibut, and after that a seal. Now she said her spirits told her that she was going to find two seals, so, her son-in-law who had heard it, went out the following night and found the two seals. His wife felt very badly for him because her mother nagged him continually. She talked more and more of her spirits all the time, and the high-caste people invited to their feasts spoke very highly of them. She would sing how high her spirits were, and the village paid her a great deal of attention. But she called her son-in-law Sleeping-man. She gave him to eat only a few scraps left over, and would say to the people, “Leave some scraps there for Sleeping-man.”

Next morning she found a sea lion which her son-in-law had caught that night, and again she felt very proud. Her son-in-law kept saying to his wife, “Always listen for the ravens. If you hear the ravens before I come you may know that something has happened to me. If you hear one before I come get right out of bed.” When his mother-in-law invited all the people for this sea lion the people would say, “It has been this way from olden times. The chiefs in a village are always lucky.” Then the woman acted like a shaman and said, “The people of the village are not to go over that way for wood, but over back of the village.” Although she had not a single spirit she made the people believe she had them.

Next morning the son-in-law went out again, caught a whale, and left it in the usual place. The village people were very much surprised when the chief’s wife found it, and she was very proud. She filled a large number of boxes with oil from what was left over after the feast. She had boxes full of all kinds of food, which the town people were buying. They looked up to her as to a great lord.

But her son-in-law said to his wife, “Don’t help yourself to any of that food. Whatever she gives us we will take.” She was treating him worse every day. The son-in-law also said to his wife, “If you see that I am dead in the skin I have, which has been bringing us good luck, do not take me out of it but put me along with the skin in the place where I used to hide it, and you will get help.”

This went on for a long time, but he thought he would not get another whale because he had had such a time with the first. Meanwhile his mother-in-law continued to say spiteful things about him, things to make the village people laugh at him, and now that she had spirits she was worse than ever. Quite a long time after this, however, he did catch two whales and tried to swim ashore with them. He worked all night over them, and, when he got near the place where he used to leave things on the beach, the raven called and he died.

When his wife heard the raven’s cry she remembered what he had said, and began dressing herself, crying as she did so. Still she remained in doors, knowing that the whole village would go down to see the monster. Then her mother walked out as usual and saw two whales lying there with a monster between them. It had two fins on its back, long ears, and a very long tail. All of the people went down to look at it and said to one another, “There is a terrible monster there. Come down to look at it. It is something very strange.” They did not know what it was, but supposed that it was the old woman’s spirit.

At last, when she heard all this racket going on, the chief’s daughter started down the steps from the high foundation such as they used to build on in those days, and she wept very loudly as she descended so that all the people could hear her. They looked at her and wondered what was wrong with her, thinking, “What does that high-caste girl mean by calling the monster her husband?” Nobody would go near, for they were afraid of the chief, of the chief’s daughter, and of the monster. But, when the girl had come down, she said to her mother, who was still looking at the monster, “Where are your spirits now? You are a story teller. You say that you have spirits when you have not. That is why this happened to my husband.” Now the interest was so intense that people had crawled up on the roofs of the houses and on other high places to look at the monster. As the girl also stood there looking, she said, “Mother, is this your Food-finding spirit? How is it that your spirit should die? Spirits all over the world never die. If this is your spirit make it come to life again.”

Then the girl went close to the monster and said to the village people, “Some of you that are very clean come and help me.” Her husband had died in the act of holding the jaws of the monster apart to come out, one hand on each. When the people saw this they were very much surprised and said, “He must have been captured by that monster.” From that time on this monster has been known as the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt.

The people helped to take the woman’s husband and the monster’s skin up to the edge of the lake and put them into the hollow in the tree. There they saw the log, broken hammers, and wedges lying about where he had killed it, and reported to the rest of the people so that everyone went there to look. But the old woman was so ashamed that she remained in doors and died. When they found her body blood was coming out of the mouth.

Every evening after this the dead man’s wife went to the foot of the tree which contained his body and wept. One evening, however, she perceived a ripple on the water, and looking up, saw the monster flopping around in the lake. Then the creature said to her, “Come here.” It was the voice of her husband. “Get on my back,” it said, “and hold tight.” She did so, and he swam down to the monster’s former house. This monster is the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt that brings good luck to those that see him. His wife also brings good luck to those who see her, and so do their children, “the Daughters of the Creek,” who live at the head of every stream.

FOOTNOTES:

[103] A hat imitating the claws of some animal.

34. A STORY OF THE G̣ONAQADĒˊT

The head chief of the people living at the head of Nass river once came down to the ocean and on his way back tied his canoe to a dead tree hanging from a cliff. At midnight he felt the canoe shaking very hard. He jumped up and was terrified to see foam breaking almost over his canoe. Then he thought of a sea monster, and climbed up to the cliff by means of the dead tree. His nephews, however, went down with the canoe. A G̣onaqᴀdēˊt had swallowed them.

Along with this canoe had come down another, which stopped for the night at a sandy beach right opposite. They had seen the chief’s canoe there the night before, and, observing next morning that it was gone, supposed the chief had started on ahead and continued their journey. They had also felt the motion of the sea, although it was previously very calm. When they reached home the canoe chief asked whether the head chief had returned, and they said, “No.” Then he told them how strangely the sea had acted and how he missed the chief’s canoe and thought that it had gone on ahead.

After he had remained in the village for five days the canoe chief began to think seriously about the chief’s absence. Then he got into a large canoe along with very many people and set out to look for him. Four men stood up in the canoe continually, one at the bow, one at the stern, and two in the middle, looking always for the chief from the time that they left their village. They camped very early that night and arrived next morning at the dead tree where the chief’s canoe had been tied. As they passed this place they heard somebody shout, and the man in the stern, looking up, saw the missing chief standing on the very top of the cliff. They saw also signs of the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt and knew what had happened. Then they took him in, but he would say nothing until they had gotten back to the village. There he spoke, saying, “I did not have time to awaken my sisters’ children. I could not have saved myself if I had done so. That is why they are gone.” He felt badly about them.

Then all the people in the village began bathing for strength, sitting in the water and whipping each other, so that they might kill the monster. The chief, however, was very quiet, and, when they asked him what they should do, he told them to do as they pleased. They were surprised at this. When he saw that they really meant business he was very silent, and they could see that he was thinking deeply. Finally he said, “Boys, you better not punish yourselves so much. You are injuring yourselves, and you are all that I have left now. Let us treat this monster kindly. Instead of having destroyed my sisters’ children, he may have taken them to live with him, and, if we were to kill him, we might kill my sisters’ children as well. Instead I will give a feast and invite this G̣onaqᴀdēˊt to it.” They all told him to do so if he thought he could get his nephews back thereby.

Then they talked this whole matter over in the chief’s house, and the chief said, “Who will go to invite this G̣onaqᴀdēˊt?” And many of the brave young men answered, “I will; I will,” so that he got a canoe load very quickly. After that the chief said, “Which one of my brothers-in-law will go to invite him?” “I will,” answered one of them who was also brave. Then all got into the canoe, traveled that night and encamped just before dawn on a sandy beach close to the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt’s cliff. About noon they put on their best dancing clothes and paddled to the cliff. Then the chief’s brother-in-law arose in the canoe and shouted out as loudly as he could, “The great chief has invited the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt to a feast.” He repeated these words four times, and the fourth time he did so the water began to act as on the night when the chief’s nephews had been lost. The foam became very thick finally, and the cliff opened, revealing at some distance a very long town. They were invited to come nearer, and, although they thought that the cliff would close upon them, they did so. There were many men about this town, and out of one large house came the chief (the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt), who said, “Our song leader is out after wood. Therefore, my father’s people, you will have to stay out there quite a while. We must wait for our song leader.” Then the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt said, “A long time since I heard that I was going to be invited to a feast by that great chief.” While he was so speaking there came people into the town with a load of wood, and they knew that it was the song leader himself. The G̣onaqᴀdēˊt’s people were now so impatient that all rushed down to the song leader’s canoe and carried it up bodily. Then the streets became empty, because everyone had gone in to dress, and in a little while they came down on the beach again and danced for the people in the canoes.

As soon as this was over the visitors asked to come ashore, and immediately their canoe with everyone inside was carried up to the house of the chief. One of the visitors was sent to all the houses in the town to invite them to the chief’s house, and there they gave them Indian tobacco and watched very closely to see what they would do with it. They seemed very fond of it.

After this tobacco feast was over the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt said, “Let us have a dance for these people who have come to invite us. Let us make them happy.” They went away and dressed, and that evening they had a dance for their visitors. Then the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt said, “These people that come to invite me have to fast.”[104] Early next morning, therefore, the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt sat up in bed and said to the people in the house, “Make a fire and let us feed these people who have come so far to invite me.” He sent one of his men through the village to announce that he was going to have a feast for the people who had come after him. When this was over, he said to his visitors, “You will stay here with us for four days.”

Many people had volunteered to go on this expedition, because they thought that if they were swallowed they would see those who had been lost before, and they looked for them all of that time, but in vain. At the close of the fourth day the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt said, “We will start off very early in the morning.” When they got close to the host’s village, however, it rained hard, and they thought they would not be able to dance in it. Seeing that it did not let up, they said to the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt, “Haven’t you a shaman among you! Now is the time to get help from your shaman. He ought to make it stop raining.” They employed him, and he made the rain stop by summoning his spirits. All this time the people who had invited the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt were very silent, and only he knew what was the matter with them. As they were now very close to the town, they sent one canoe thither to make it known that the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt’s people were encamped close by, ready to come to the village. The chief told his people to get a quantity of wood and take it to those he had invited, because they were to stay there another day. All in the village were anxious to do this, because they thought that they would see the chief’s nephews. As they went along they said to one another that they would look for the chief’s eldest nephew, whom they expected to see dressed in his dancing clothes. But, when they arrived at the camp, they were disappointed.

Next morning all of the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt’s people started for the village, and, when they arrived, they were asked to stop their canoes a few feet off so that the village people could dance for them. Then the village people came down close to their canoes and danced. Afterward the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt’s people danced. The G̣onaqᴀdēˊt himself always led, wearing the same hat with jointed crown.

Next day the village people danced again, and, after they were through, the chief said that his guests would have to fast. So they fasted all that day, and very early in the morning the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt got up and told his people that they must sit up in bed and sing before the raven called. This they had to be very particular about. Then the village chief sent to the different houses to announce that the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt and his people were to eat, and he gave them food that day. They danced for three days and feasted for the same length of time. The fourth day the village chief invited the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt’s people in order to give them property. He gave more to the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt than to all the rest. That was his last feast. The evening he finished it he felt sad, and he and all of his people were very quiet because they had not yet seen his nephews. He said to himself, “I wonder why this G̣onaqᴀdēˊt did not bring my sisters’ children. That is just what I invited him to the feast for.”

Soon after this thought had passed through the chief’s mind the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt called loudly to one of his men, “Bring me my box from over yonder.” This box was beautifully carved and painted, and it was from it that the Tsimshian came to know how to carve and paint boxes. Then he took out a chief’s dancing hat with sea lion bristles and a rattle, and just as soon as he had done so the chief’s eldest nephew stood beside him. He put the headdress upon him and gave him the rattle, and the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt’s people sang songs for him. They sang four songs, and the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt said, “This hat, this rattle, and these songs are yours.” The village chief was happy when he saw his nephew.

Then the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt went through the same actions as before. There had been twenty youths in the chief’s large canoe, and he gave each a hat, a rattle, and four songs, making them all stand on one side of the house. Now the village chief felt very happy and was glad that he had invited the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt to him instead of doing as the village people had planned.

Next morning, when the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt was preparing to start, it was very foggy. He and his people left the village singing, and their canoes went along side by side until they passed out of sight in the fog. They returned to their own home.

It is from this story that people do not want to hear the raven before their guests get up. The chief’s headdress with sea lion bristles also came from the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt, and so it happened that the Nass people wore it first.

FOOTNOTES:

[104] See Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 440.

35. ORIGIN OF THE LǃÊˊNAXX̣ĪˊDAQ[105]

A boy at Auk (Ākǃᵘ) heard that a woman lived in the lake back of his village. He heard this so often that he was very anxious to see her. One day, therefore, he went up to the lake and watched there all day, but he did not see anything. Next day he did the same thing again, and late in the afternoon he thought that he would sit down in the high grass. The sun was shining on the lake, making it look very pretty.

After some time the youth noticed ripples on the water, and, jumping up to look, saw a beautiful woman come up and begin playing around in it. After her came up her two babies. Then the man waded out into the lake, caught one of the babies, rolled it up in his skin coat, and carried it home.

All that night he had to watch the child very closely, for she kept trying to get away, but at last he became so sleepy that he rolled the child up once more and fell asleep.

Now the child got up, dug out the eyes of everybody in that house, beginning with the man who had captured her, and went from house to house throughout the entire village doing the same thing.

There was a sick woman in that place for whom they had made a small house back of her own, and, when this child came in to her, she tried to make out whose it was. She said to herself that she thought she knew every child in the village, yet she did not recognize this one. The child had the people’s eyes rolled up in some leaves. As it sat close to the fire eating them the woman thought, “What is that child eating?” She would throw them into the fire and then take them out and eat them. Finally the woman sat up, looked to see what the child was devouring, and discovered they were human eyes. After she was through with what she had the child would go out again after more. The woman watched her closely.

Now the sick woman felt very sleepy but she did not dare to sleep for, every time she began to doze off, she felt the child coming toward her face. She had a little child beside her. Finally the sick woman determined that she would stay awake, so she placed her walking stick very close to her, and, as soon as the child came too close, she would strike it and make it run away. This continued until daylight when the child disappeared.

Now the woman was surprised to hear no noises about the town and wondered what was wrong. She thought she would go out to look. First she went to her own house and saw that all the people there were dead, with their eyes gouged out, and she saw the same thing in all the other houses. Then the woman felt very sad. She threw her marten-skin robes about herself, took a copper plate on each side, placed her baby on her back and started off. She is the ʟǃêˊnᴀxx̣īˊdᴀq, which a person sees when he is going to become very wealthy. (The ʟǃêˊnᴀxx̣īˊdᴀq is therefore one of the ʟǃenēdî.)

One time after this a man of the Wolf clan named Heavy Wings (Kîtcîłdᴀˊłqǃ) was out hunting and heard a child cry somewhere in the woods. He ran toward the sound very rapidly, but, although the child’s voice seemed to be very close to him, he could not see what caused it. Then he stopped by the side of a creek, tore his clothes off, and bathed in the cold water, rubbing himself down with sand. Afterward he felt very light and, although the voice had gotten some distance away, he reached it, and saw a woman with an infant on her back. He pulled the child off and started to run away with it, but he did not escape before the woman had given him a severe scratch upon his back with her long copper finger nails. By and by he came to a tree that hung out over the edge of a high cliff and ran out to the end of it with the child in his arms. Then the woman begged very hard for her baby saying, “Give me my baby.” As she spoke she put her hand inside of her blanket and handed him a copper. When he still refused to give her the child she handed him another. Then he gave the child back, and she said, “That scratch I made on your back will be a long time in healing. If you give a scab from it to any one of your people who is poor, he will become very rich. Do not give it to anybody but your very near relations.”

And so in fact it turned out. The sore did not heal for a long time, not even after he had become very rich. Everything that he put his hand to prospered, and the relations to whom he had given scabs became the richest ones next to him.

FOOTNOTES:

[105] See story 94 and close of story 105.

36. THE THUNDERS

A high-caste girl who had four brothers went out of the house one morning and stepped on a snail. Then she said “Oh! this nasty thing. There isn’t a time when I go out but that snail is around this house.” The evening after a youth of about her own age came to the girl, and she went off with him.

When the people found that she had disappeared they searched for her everywhere. They did not know what had become of her. Her brothers also hunted everywhere, but for a long time without result. Some distance behind the village was a high, perpendicular cliff without a tree or a bush on it, and half way up they at last saw their sister with a very large snail coiled around her. They ran about underneath and called to her to throw herself down, but she could not. She was stuck there.

After this the four brothers tried to find some way of flying. They tried one kind of wood after another and also bone for wings but in vain. After they had flown for a short distance they always dropped down again. Finally they employed yellow cedar. The first time they used it they got half way up to the place where their sister was, but the second time they reached her and dragged her down, leaving the snail still there.

But the four brothers now left their own village, because they said that their sister had disgraced them, and they became the Thunders. When they move their wings you hear the thunder, and, when they wink, you see the lightning.

At the time when these brothers first went away the people at their father’s village were starving, so they flew out over the ocean, caught a whale and brought it to the town that it might be found next morning. So nowadays people claim that the Thunder is powerful and can get anything, because they know that it was powerful at that time. After the famine was over they left the world below, went to the sky to live, and have never been seen since.

The Taqêstînaˊ claim the Thunder, because those brothers belonged to that family.

37. ORIGIN OF THE SCREECH OWL[106]

There was a certain woman at Sitka living with her husband and her husband’s mother. One evening she got hemlock branches, made strings out of red-cedar bark, tied them together, and put them around herself. Then she went out to a flat rock, still called Herring rock, where herring are very abundant, just as the tide was coming over it, and, when the fish collected in the branches, she threw them up on the beach. Every day during the herring season she did the same thing, and after she reached the house she put her apron carefully away until next time.

One day her old mother-in-law heard her cooking the herring and said, “What is that you are cooking, my son’s wife?” “Oh!” she answered, “a few clams that I have collected.” “Will you give me some?” said the old woman, for she was hungry, but, when she reached out her hand for it, her daughter-in-law dropped a hot rock into it and burnt her.

When her son came home that evening the old woman told him what had happened. She said, “She was cooking something. I know that it did not smell like clams. When I asked her for some she gave me a hot rock and burnt my hand. I wonder where she got that fish, for I am sure that it was some sort of fish. Immediately after you leave she is off. I don’t know what she does.”

When the man heard that, he and his brother who had been hunting with him started out at once before his wife saw them. They pretended that they were again going hunting, but they returned immediately to a place where they could watch the village. From there they saw the woman put on her apron of hemlock boughs, go out to the rock, and come home with the herring. As soon as she had gone in they went out themselves and got a canoe load of the fish. Then the woman’s husband went up to the house and said to his wife, “I have a load of herring down there.” So she ran down to the canoe and saw that it was loaded with them. She began shouting up to them, “Bring me down my basket,” for she wanted to carry up the fish in it. The people heard her, but they felt ill-disposed toward her on account of the way she had treated her mother-in-law, so they paid no attention. She kept on shouting louder and louder, and presently her voice became strange. She shouted, “Hadeˊ wudîkāˊt, wudîkāˊt, wudîkāˊt.”[107] She also began hooting like an owl.

As she kept on making this noise her voice seemed to go farther away from the village. The people noticed it, but paid no attention. After she had asked for the basket right behind the village, she sounded still more like an owl, and finally she ceased to ask for the basket, and merely hooted (hm, hm). She had become the screech owl. She left them altogether.

Nowadays, when a young girl is very selfish, people say to her, “Ah! when you get married, you will put a hot rock into your mother-in-law’s hand, and for punishment you will become an owl.”

FOOTNOTES:

[106] Story 98 is another version.

[107] This way with the basket (kāt).

38. LITTLE FELON

A certain man had a felon (kwêq) on his finger and suffered terribly, so that he could get no sleep. He did not know what to do for it. One day somebody said to him, “Hold it under the smoke hole of the house and get some one to poke it with something very sharp through the smoke hole. You will find that it will get well.” He did so, and the two eyes of the felon came right out. Then he wrapped them up and put them away. Late in the evening he looked at it and saw a little man there about an inch long. It was the disease from his finger. He took very good care of this little man and he grew rapidly, soon becoming large enough to run about. He called the little man Little Felon (Kwêqkǃᵘ).

Little Felon was a very industrious little fellow, always at work, and he knew how to carve, make canoes, paint, and do other similar things. When he was working his master could not keep from working himself. He simply had to work. They thought it was because he had come from the hand. Little Felon was also a good shot with bow and arrows, and he was a very fast runner, running races with all the different animals. Finally he started to run a race with the heron, and everybody said the heron would prove too much for him. They raced all the way round Prince of Wales island, and, when they were through, Little Felon said to the heron, “I have been way back among the mountains of this island, and there are thirty-three lakes.” The heron answered, “I have been all along the creeks, and there are fifty creeks.”

By and by a youth said to Little Felon, “There is a girl living with a certain old woman. She is a very pretty girl and wants to marry, but she hasn’t seen anybody she likes. Her grandmother has the dried skin of an animal and she has been making all the young fellows guess the name of it. Those that guess wrong are put to death. You ought to try for her.” But Little Felon said to the boy, “I don’t care to marry, and I don’t want to guess, because I know. You tell her that it is the skin of a louse. It was crawling upon the woman, and she put it into a box and fed it until it grew large. Then she killed and skinned it. You will get her if you tell her. But be careful. That old woman knows a lot about medicines. When you are going toward her, go with the wind. Don’t let the wind come from her. Don’t go toward her when the south wind is blowing. Go toward her when the north wind is blowing. Nobody goes directly to her. People talk to her from quite a distance. A person goes to her house only to be put to death. Those persons who guess stand a great way off to do it. When they don’t guess right they go to that house and are put to death. She has a large square dish in which she cooks their bodies.”

After that the boy went toward the old woman’s camp and remained at some distance from her for a very long time, for the south wind was blowing continually. She seemed to know that he was there, and said to her granddaughter, “There is a fellow coming who has been around here for a very long time. He is the one who is going to marry you.” The little man had said to the youth he was helping, “Don’t tell about me. That old woman has all kinds of dangerous things with which to kill people.”

As soon as the north wind began to blow, Little Felon told him to go on, so he approached the old woman unnoticed and stood looking at her for a long time. Finally she looked up, saw him, and said, “Oh! my grandson, from how far away have you come?” He told her, and she invited him in to have something to eat. She gave him all kinds of food. Then, when they were through, she showed him the skin and said, “What kind of skin is this?” He answered, “That is a louse skin, grandma.” She looked at him then for some time without speaking. Finally she said, “Where are you wise from, from your father?” “Oh!” he said, “from all around.” Then she said “All right, you can marry my granddaughter. But do you see that place over there? A very large devilfish lives there. I want you to kill it.”

The youth went back to Little Felon and told him what she had said. “Oh!” he answered, “there is a monster there. That is the way she gets rid of boys, is it?” So Little Felon made a hook, went to the place where the devilfish lived, made it small, and pulled it right out. He put the stick over his companion’s shoulder and said to him, “Carry it this way.” The youth did so and, coming to the old woman’s house, he said, “Is this the devilfish you were talking about?” He threw it down, and it grew until it became a monster again that filled the entire house. The old woman felt very badly, and said, “Take it out of this house and lay it down outside.” He did so, and the moment he picked it up it grew small again.

Then the old woman said, “Do you see that cliff that goes right down into the water? A monster rat lives there. If you kill it, you shall have my granddaughter.” The youth went away again and told Little Felon about it, who said, “I told you so. I knew that she would give you a lot of things to do.” So they got their bows and arrows ready, went to the hole of the monster, and looked in. It was asleep. They began shooting it. They blinded it first by shooting into its eyes and then they shot it through the heart. They ran in to it to shoot, but, as soon as they had wounded it fatally, they rushed out again, and it followed them. It ran right into the ocean, and they could hear it splashing the water about it with its tail. It sounded like thunder. Finally the rat died and drifted ashore.

Then Little Felon told the young man to take it up and carry it to the old woman, and, as soon as he had grasped it, it was very small and light. He carried it in to her and said, “Is this the rat you were talking about?” Then he threw it down, and it filled the house. So she said, “Take it up and put it outside.”

Now the old woman spoke again. “Way out there in the middle of the ocean is a sculpin. Go out and fish for it, and you shall get my granddaughter.” So he and Little Felon went out there and caught the sculpin, which Little Felon made very small. He threw it into the bottom of the canoe and left it there. When they reached land the youth took it up to the old woman and threw it down inside. Lo! it was an awful monster with great spines.

Now the old woman did not know what to do. She thought, “What kind of boy is this?” Then she said, “Do you see that point? A very large crab lives out there. Go and kill it.” When they got out there they saw the crab floating about on its back. It looked very dangerous. Little Felon, however, told the crab to get small, and it did so. He killed it, put it into the canoe, and carried it to the old woman, who exclaimed, “Oh! he has killed everything that belongs to me.”

Then the old woman said, “Go far out to sea beyond the place where you got that sculpin. I dropped my bracelet overboard there. Go and get it.” So he and Little Felon set out. But first they dug a quantity of clams and removed the shells. They took these out to that place and threw them around in the water, when all kinds of fish began to come up. Then Little Felon saw a dogfish coming up and said to it, “A bracelet was lost over there. Go and get it for me.” He did so, and the youth took it to the old woman.

Then the old woman was very much surprised and said, “Well! that is the last.” So she said to her granddaughter, “Come out. Here is your husband. You must have respect for him always.” So he married her. After that he went over to Little Felon and asked how much he owed him. “You don’t owe me anything,” said Little Felon. “You remember that at the time I was suffering so badly you pricked me through the smoke hole.” And the youth answered, “Oh! yes, this is the fellow.” Little Felon (Kwêqkǃᵘ) is a slender fish that swims close to the beach.

After that the young man and his wife always traveled about together, for he thought a great deal of her. By and by, however, they had a quarrel and he was cruel to her. So she went away and sat down on a point, after which she disappeared and he did not know what had happened to her. He went out on the point and hunted everywhere. He is a lonely beach snipe, called ayᴀhīỵiỵaˊ, which is often seen hunting about on the points to-day, and when they see him the Tlingit say, “There he is looking for his wife.”

39. ORIGIN OF THE FERN ROOT AND THE GROUND HOG[108]

The girls of a certain place were playing house under a cliff back of their village, and each of them took some kind of food there. Among them were two very poor little orphans who had no food to bring, so the elder went home and brought up the bony part of a dry salmon and the younger a fern root named kǃwᴀłx. Then the older girls took these from them and threw them away, so that they began to cry very hard.

While the girls were crying, the cliff behind them fell over in front and imprisoned them all. They began to cry from fright. After that they began to rub on the cliff the tallow and salmon they had with them, and the little birds that had also been imprisoned began to peck it off, so that at length they began to make a hollow in the rock. In course of time the birds pecked a hole entirely through, and, when it was large enough, the girls began to crawl out. Finally all of the girls were taken out except one poor little girl who got stuck half way. The walls had in reality closed in on her, and they continued to do so until they had cut her quite in two. Her head became the fern root (kǃwᴀłx) and her body became a ground hog.

FOOTNOTES:

[108] Evidently fragmentary.

40. THE HALIBUT THAT DIVIDED THE QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS

Formerly there was but one village on the Queen Charlotte islands (Dekīˊ qoan āˊnî, Town-far-out). Every day the people used to go out from this village to fish for halibut, and all were successful except one man. Though the people all about his canoe were pulling in fish he caught nothing day after day, and he became angry.

One calm day, however, he had a bite. Pulling at his line he found that something very strong was attached to it. After he had pulled it up a short distance it would pull the line away from him, and each time he let it go for fear of losing it. When he at last got it up, however, it was only a little halibut about as big as a flounder. He could not catch anything else.

In the evening, after this man had brought his halibut ashore and had entered his house, he said, “I have a very small halibut. It might bring me luck.” His wife took up her knife and went down to it, but when she saw that diminutive fish she took it by the tail and threw it up on the beach. Then the halibut, which was still alive, began to flop up and down faster and faster. Presently the woman saw a larger halibut lying there. Everybody now watched it, and it kept flopping and increasing in size until it became as large as a paddle. By and by it grew to the size of a large piece of red-cedar bark prepared for roofing, and at length it covered the entire beach. Toward evening it was a veritable monster, which smashed the whole town in pieces by its motions. Before that the Queen Charlotte group formed one large solid body of land, but the halibut broke it into the various portions that exist to-day. At that same time the people of this single village were scattered all over the group.

41. THE IMAGE THAT CAME TO LIFE

A young chief on the Queen Charlotte islands married, and soon afterwards his wife fell ill. Then he sent around everywhere for the very best shamans. If there were a very fine shaman at a certain village he would send a canoe there to bring him. None of them could help her, however, and after she had been sick for a very long time she died.

Now the young chief felt very badly over the loss of his wife. He went from place to place after the best carvers in order to have them carve an image of his wife, but no one could make anything to look like her. All this time there was a carver in his own village who could carve much better than all the others. This man met him one day and said, “You are going from village to village to have wood carved like your wife’s face, and you can not find anyone to do it, can you? I have seen your wife a great deal walking along with you. I have never studied her face with the idea that you might want some one to carve it, but I am going to try if you will allow me.”

Then the carver went after a piece of red cedar and began working upon it. When he was through, he went to the young chief and said, “Now you can come along and look at it.” He had dressed it just as he used to see the young woman dressed. So the chief went with him, and, when he got inside, he saw his dead wife sitting there just as she used to look. This made him very happy, and he took it home. Then he asked the carver, “What do I owe you for making this?” and he replied, “Do as you please about it.” The carver had felt sorry to see how this chief was mourning for his wife, so he said, “It is because I felt badly for you that I made that. So don’t pay me too much for it.” He paid the carver very well, however, both in slaves and in goods.

Now the chief dressed this image in his wife’s clothes and her marten-skin robe. He felt that his wife had come back to him and treated the image just like her. One day, while he sat mourning very close to the image, he felt it move. His wife had also been very fond of him. At first he thought that the movement was only his imagination, yet he examined it every day, for he thought that at some time it would come to life. When he ate he always had the image close to him.

After a while the whole village learned that he had this image and all came in to see it. Many could not believe that it was not the woman herself until they had examined it closely.

One day, after the chief had had it for a long, long time, he examined the body and found it just like that of a human being. Still, although it was alive, it could not move or speak. Some time later, however, the image gave forth a sound from its chest like that of crackling wood, and the man knew that it was ill. When he had some one move it away from the place where it had been sitting they found a small red-cedar tree growing there on top of the flooring. They left it until it grew to be very large, and it is because of this that cedars on the Queen Charlotte islands are so good. When people up this way look for red cedars and find a good one they say, “This looks like the baby of the chief’s wife.”

Every day the image of the young woman grew more like a human being, and, when they heard the story, people from villages far and near came in to look at it and at the young cedar tree growing there, at which they were very much astonished. The woman moved around very little and never got to talk, but her husband dreamed what she wanted to tell him. It was through his dreams that he knew she was talking to him.

42. DJĪYĪˊN[109]

While the Tlingit were still living at Klinkwan (Łînqᵒ-ān) a famine broke out. There was an orphan girl there named Djīyīˊn who was taking care of herself. Once in a while her father’s sister would help her, but all were starving, her father’s sister also being poor.

One day some women were going off to dig tsǃēt roots, and this orphan very much wished to accompany them, but they would not take her. They said she was dirty and would bring them bad luck. When she laid hold of the canoe they struck her fingers to make her let go, but she was very hungry and very persistent, so that her father’s sister finally took her in. When they encamped that night she did not come back, and they did not know what she was living on. The women who were angry with her said, “What is the matter with her? Why doesn’t she come back to eat?” When they got ready to start home the orphan had not returned, and they left her there alone. They also threw water on the fire.

The girl’s aunt, however, procured a coal and threw it into the brush house where they had camped, along with a piece of dried salmon. She was careful not to let the others see what she was doing. Then she went back and said to the girl, “Are you coming?” “No,” she replied, “since they don’t want to take me, I better stay.” Then her aunt said, “I have put a live coal in that brush house along with a piece of dried salmon.”

As soon as the others had gone away the orphan made a big fire and cooked her roots and salmon, but she did not feel like eating. Therefore, instead of doing so, she went away and dug some more roots. In the evening she went back to her brush house, thinking she could eat now, but found that she had no appetite. So she lay down and went to sleep. Early in the morning she was awakened by a great noise which she found on looking out was made by a flock of brants (qên). She felt so tired that she lay down again and went to sleep, and, when she awoke once more, she thought she would set out after more roots. Going down to the flat where these roots grew, she found it covered with brants feeding upon them. When they saw her they flew away. Then she began removing the dead grass from the place where she was going to dig, and to her surprise came upon several big canoes looking as if they had been buried there, which were loaded with eulachon oil, dried eulachon, dried halibut, and dried salmon. She felt very happy. She thought how lucky it was that she had remained there when all of the village people were starving.

Now the orphan thought that she would eat something, so she took some salmon and a bundle of halibut home with her. On roasting a piece of salmon, however, she found that she could not eat it. She did not know what had gotten into her that she could not force herself to eat. She wished that her aunt were with her. Next morning she discovered that the spirits were keeping food away from her because she was becoming a shaman. The brants had become her spirits. The brant spirits always come to Raven people like her. So she became a great shaman and was possessed by spirits every day, while sea gulls, crows, and all kinds of sea and woodland birds sang for her. This happened every day. Two or three times a day she would go to see the buried canoes, but she could not eat anything, and she gave up digging roots because she had no way of sharpening her sticks. Meanwhile everyone in the village thought that she had starved to death.

After some time had passed, the girl wished that some one would come to her from the village, and the day after a canoe appeared in sight. This made her very happy, especially when it got close and she found it contained some people of her acquaintance from the village. She called them up to her brush house and gave them some food from the canoes, and they remained there two or three days. They were out hunting for food. After a while she told them it was time for them to go, and, when they were on the point of starting, she said, “Do not take a bit of the food I have given you. Leave it all here. Tell the people of our village that Djīyīˊn is still living and is doing well. Tell my aunt that she must try to get here as soon as she can.”

When these people got back to the village and told what had happened to the orphan, how much food she had and how lucky she had been, all the town people who had been dying of starvation started off immediately for the place where she was living. When they came in sight of her brush house they saw that from the sky right down to it the air was filled with birds. There were so many that one could not see through them. They could also hear men and women singing and the shaman performing, but, when they came close, all of the birds flew away.

As soon as the shaman heard that her people were coming she walked out to meet them and asked, “Which canoe is my aunt in? Let her land here.” All of the food in one of her canoes she gave to her aunt. Then she said, “I want two women to come ashore to help me with my singing.” The high-caste women in the canoes, who were all painted up, would rise one after the other, but she would not have them, and finally called two who were orphans like herself and had been treated very badly by their own people. All the others then started to come ashore, and she told them where to camp. She had room enough in her own house only for the two girls and her aunt.

These high-caste people had brought their slaves with them when they came to her, and she got them herself in exchange for food. She had three brush houses built to hold them. She also dressed up the two little orphans so that they looked very pretty. After a long time the people left her to return to their own village, and, when another long period had elapsed, her spirit made the town chief sick, and they hired her to come and treat him.

This shaman had belonged to a very high-caste family, but they had died off and left her very poor, and nothing remained of her uncle’s house except the posts. Grass grew all about inside of it, and when the shaman was entering the village she saw the posts of her uncle’s house and felt very sad. She told them to land near by. Then she looked up, raised an eagle’s tail in one hand, blew upon it, and waved it back and forth in front of them. The fourth time a fine house stood there. Then they carried all of her things into this, and she had the slaves she had procured work for her, while the two orphans she had taken were now considered high caste.

At that time the sick chief’s daughter also fell sick. Then the spirits turned all the minds of the chief’s people away from her, and they paid other shamans in the village. The sick ones, however, continued to get worse and worse, until they finally remembered that she also was a shaman and sent for her. When the messenger came one of the orphans asked, “How much will they pay the shaman?” “Two slaves,” they said. She thought that this was not enough, and the messenger went back. When he came again, she again asked, “How much are they going to pay the shaman?” “Two slaves and some goods.” Then she agreed, and, as soon as the messenger had left, Djīyīˊn said to the two girls, “Come on. Let us go.”

As soon as she had arrived at the house she sat down between the two sick people and worked very hard to cure them. Her spirits could see immediately what the matter was. This house was crowded with people except around the fire where the shaman was performing. Then Djīyīˊn walked around and said, “The witch that is killing you two has not come.” They sent to all the houses in the village and assembled those who were there in the house in place of the previous occupants. Djīyīˊn examined all of them again, and again said, “The witch is not yet here.” Finally the spirits in her began to say, “The road of the witch is very clear now. The road of the witch is straight for this house.” Again they said, “The witch is coming.” By and by they began to hear a bird whistling in the woods back of the house, and she said, “Yes, hear her. She is coming.” And when the sound came near the door she said, “Open the door and let her come in.” So they opened the door, and there sat a wild canary (sǃāsǃ). Then the shaman told her to sit between the two sick persons, and she did so. She was making a great deal of noise, and the shaman said, “Tie her wings back.” Not long afterward the people heard a great noise like thunder which seemed a great distance off. Then the shaman said, “Here are her children. They are offended and are coming in. Stop up all of the holes so that they may not enter.” The noise grew louder and louder, however, and presently birds began to fly in right through the boards. At last the house became so full of them as to be well nigh suffocating, and very many of the people were injured. Whoever the birds flew against would have a cut or bruise. All at once the house again became empty, not a bird being left inside except the one that was tied.

By this time it was morning, the people having sat in that house all night, and the bird made still more noise. “She is already telling about it,” said the shaman. “She wants to go to the place where she has the food and the pieces of hair with which she is bewitching you.” Finally she left the house, but although they had untied her wings she walked along ahead of four men instead of flying. She went up the way she had come down and began scratching at the roots of some bushes some distance up in the woods. There she came upon the top of a skull in which were some hair, food, and pieces of clothing arranged in a certain manner along with different kinds of leaves. She took these down to the beach and threw them out on the sea in different directions. Afterward she went back to the house with the four men still following her.

By and by the bird began making noises again, and the shaman, who alone could understand her, said that she wanted to leave the place. She hated to go back to her own place among the other birds because she knew that they would be ashamed of her, so she asked them to take her to a town called Close-along-the-beach (Yênqǃasēˊsîtciyî-ān). When they took down a canoe to carry her off she flew right into it. Then the shaman said, “When you get her to the place whither she wants to go, go ashore and put her there, and turn right back.” Then they started on with her, and after a time she made so much noise that they said, “Let us put her ashore here. This must be the place.” They did so, and, as soon as they got close in, the bird flew out upon the beach and started up it very fast. One man followed her to see where she would go and saw her pass under a tree with protruding roots. This was the town she had been talking about.

As soon as the witch put the skull and other things into the water the chief and his daughter recovered. Before the events narrated in this story people did not know anything about witchcraft, and the ancients used to say that it was from this bird that they learned it years ago.

FOOTNOTES:

[109] Or better Djūn. Haida versions of the same will be found in Memoirs Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., VIII, 226, 247. Aqāˊnîqǃēs is said to be in all probability Kayāˊnîqǃēs (For-the-leaves).

43. THE SELF-BURNING FIRE

One winter the people at a certain place on Copper river were left with nothing to eat and began dying off. About the middle of that winter all of the children and some of the adults were dead, and only about half of the former population remained. When only eight men were left they said to one another, “Let us leave. Let us walk down this side of the river.” So they started off down the bank, and, after a long time, one of them died of cold. They buried[110] him and went on. By and by another froze to death and was also buried. This kept on until there were only four. One day three of the remainder succumbed in succession, the last at evening, leaving but one man from all that village. This man was very sickly looking, but he felt strong, and when his last companion fell, he left him lying there and went on rapidly. He thought he would drop with grief, however, at the loss of his last comrade.

As he was going on quite late in the evening he suddenly heard some one shout right ahead of him. He followed the voice, which kept on calling continually. Finally he came to a great fire and stood near it to warm himself. It was that that had been calling him.

When the man had become thoroughly warmed he was about to start on again. Suddenly, however, he heard the bushes breaking behind him, and, looking back, he saw all the men who had frozen to death and all of the village people standing around the fire. This fire is called Self-burning Fire (Wᴀyîˊkǃ gᴀˊnî), and it was that that had brought all of those people to life. From that time on they were able to get their food very easily at the mouth of the river.

FOOTNOTES:

[110] The words of the narrator, but corpses were usually burned.

44. THE GIANT OF TĀˊSNA

At Tāˊsna, near the mouth of the Yukon (?), was a large village in which everybody had died except one small boy. His mother was the last to perish. This boy was very independent, however, remaining in his mother’s house all the time instead of going around to the other houses in the place. Every day he went out with his bow and arrows and shot small birds and squirrels for his sustenance.

On one of these hunting trips, however, he met a very large man with bushes growing on one side of his face. The big man chased him, and, being very quick, the boy tried to climb up a tree, but the big man reached right up after him and pulled him down. Then the big man said, “I am not going to hurt you. Stand right here.” So he put the boy on a high place, went some distance away and said, “Take your bow and arrows and shoot me right here,” pointing at the same time to a spot between his eyebrows. At first the boy was afraid to do so, and the big man begged him all that day. Finally, when it was getting dark, he thought, “Well! I will shoot him. He may kill me if I don’t, and he will kill me if I do.” The moment he shot the man, however, he saw his mother and all the village people that had been lost. All had been going to this big man. That was why the man wanted the boy to shoot him. It brought all the people back.

[This story is used in potlatch speeches.]

45. THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED A LAND OTTER[111]

A man at Sitka had three little children who were crying with hunger because he had nothing to give them. His sister had been captured by the land otters after having been nearly drowned. Then he said to the little ones, “You poor children, I wish your aunt were living.” Some time afterward that same evening he heard a load set down outside, and going out to look, he saw a very large basket filled with all kinds of dried meat and fish, and oil. The sister he had been wishing for had brought it. Then this woman herself came in and said, “I have brought that for the little ones. I will be right back again. I live only a short distance from here. We have a village there named Transparent-village (Kānᴀˊxᴀ-dak-ān). You must come and stay with us.” The man said that he was making a canoe and had to finish it, but she replied, “Your nephews are coming over, and they will finish your canoe for you.”

After the food that his sister had brought him had given out she came to him again with more and said, “I have come after you now. Bring your little ones and come along. I see that you are having a hard time with them.”

So her brother prepared to go. Before he started he got some blue hellebore (sǃîkc), which he soaked in water to make it very strong and bitter, and finally his sister’s boys came, fine-looking young men who were peculiar only in having very long braids of hair hanging down their backs. In reality these were their tails. He showed them where his canoe was so that they could go to work on it, and, after they had completed it roughly, they pulled it down for him.

Then the man started off with his family, and, sure enough, when he rounded the point what appeared to him like a fine village lay there. The people came to meet them, but his sister said, “Don’t stay right in the village. Stay here, a little distance away.”

The people of that place were very good to him and gave him all the halibut he wanted, but he always had the blue hellebore by him to keep from being injuriously affected. They were also in the habit of singing a cradle song for his youngest child which went this way, “The tail is growing. The tail is growing.” Then he examined the child, and in fact a tail was really growing upon it, so he chopped it off.

Finally the man’s sister told him that he was staying there a little too long, and he started back toward his village. As he went he looked back, and there was nothing to be seen but land-otter holes. Before they had appeared like painted houses. Then he returned to his own place with all kinds of food given him by the land otters.

FOOTNOTES:

[111] See story 6.

46. THE LAND-OTTERS’ CAPTIVE

Several persons once went out from Sitka together, when their canoe upset and all were drowned except a man of the Kîksᴀˊdî. A canoe came to this man, and he thought that it contained his friends, but they were really land otters. They started southward with him and kept going farther and farther, until they had passed clear round the Queen Charlotte islands. At every place where they stopped they took in a female land otter. All this time they kept a mat made out of the broad part of a piece of kelp, over the man they had captured until at length they arrived at a place they called Rainy-village (Sīˊwu-āˊnî).

At this place the man met an aunt who had been drowned years before and had become the wife of two land otters. She was dressed in a ground-hog robe. Then she said to him, “Your aunt’s husbands will save you. You must come to see me this evening.” When he came his aunt said, “I can’t leave these people, for I have learned to think a great deal of them.”

Afterward his aunt’s husbands started back with him. They did not camp until midnight. Their canoe was a skate, and, as soon as they came ashore, they would turn it over on top of him so that, no matter how hard he tried to get out, he could not. In making the passage across to Cape Ommaney they worked very hard, and shortly after they landed they heard the raven.[112] They could go only a short distance for food.

When they first started back the woman had said to her husbands, “Don’t leave him where he can be captured again. Take him to a good place.” So they left him close to Sitka. Then he walked around in the neighborhood of the town and made the people suffer so much every night that they could not sleep, and determined to capture him. They fixed a rope in such a way as to ensnare him, but at first they were unsuccessful. Finally, however, they placed dog bones in the rope so that they would stick into his hands, dog bones being the greatest enemies of the land otters.

Late that night the land-otter-man tore his hands so with these bones that he sat down and began to scream, and, while he was doing this, they got the rope around him and captured him. When they got him home he was at first very wild, but they restored his reason by cutting his head with dog bones. He was probably not so far gone as most victims. Then they learned what had happened to him.

After this time, however, he would always eat his meat and fish raw. Once, when he was among the halibut fishers, they wanted very much to have him eat some cooked halibut. He was a good halibut fisher, probably having learned the art from the land otters, though he did not say so. For a long time the man refused to take any, but at last consented and the food killed him.

FOOTNOTES:

[112] Supernatural beings who heard the raven call before they came to land, died.

47. THE MAN FED FROM THE SKY

Dātg̣āˊs, the nephew of a chief at Chilkoot, used to lie all the time bundled up in a corner made by the retaining timbers. When everybody else was in bed he would rise and go to the fire. Then he would gather the coals into a heap in order to warm his blanket over them. The people of that town were starving, so Dātg̣āˊs would say, as he held his blanket over the coals, “Would that a piece of dried salmon fell upon this from the smoke hole.” He did this every night.

One time, as he was standing over the fire without holding his blanket out, some one called to him, “Dātg̣āˊs, stretch out your blanket once more.” So he stretched it out and held it there for some time thinking, “Who is that calling me?” By and by he heard the voice again, “Dātg̣āˊs, stretch it out farther.” So, though he could not see who was speaking, he stretched it far out. Then half of a salmon fell upon his blanket. He took this, cut it into small pieces, and distributed them among a number of empty boxes that were in the house. At once all of those boxes were full of salmon.

The uncle of Dātg̣āˊs had two wives, the younger of whom was very good to him. Although they had to be sparing with their food, when they were eating salmon she always put a little piece aside for him. The next evening, after he had eaten his morsel of food and was lying down, he was called once more by the voice, “Stretch your blanket out again.” He ran quickly to the smoke hole and spread out his blanket under it, but nothing came down, so he said, “I think I will wish for something. I wish that some grease would come down to eat with the salmon.” And suddenly a sack of grease fell upon his blanket, knocked it away, and dropped upon the fireplace. He ran with this to the empty grease boxes and put a spoonful in each, upon which all were immediately filled with grease. Once more the voice called him, “Dātg̣āˊs, stretch your blanket out again.” He did so, wishing for a sack of berries, and an animal stomach filled with them dropped down at once. This time he held his blanket very firmly so that it would not be carried out of his fingers. He put a spoonful of berries into each empty berry box, and they were all filled.

After this he sat down thinking that he would not be summoned again, but once more the voice came, this time very loudly, “Dātg̣āˊs, stretch out your blanket.” So he stretched it out, and there came down upon it a sack of cranberries preserved in grease. He put a spoonful into each empty box as before and filled them.

Again came the voice, “Dātg̣āˊs, stretch out your blanket.” Then there came down a piece of venison dried with the fat on. When he had cut it into many small pieces and distributed these among the boxes they were at once filled. It was now very late, but the voice called him once more, “Dātg̣āˊs, stretch out your blanket again.” Then there came down a cake of dried soapberries which he broke into little pieces, distributed among the boxes and made those full also.

Next morning the chief’s house was crowded with hungry people begging for food, and all that the chief could give them was a little tobacco to chew. He had nothing even for himself. Seeing this, the people began to go out. Now, Dātg̣āˊs said to his uncle, “Why are all going out without having had anything to eat?” He was a very quiet fellow who seldom said anything, and, when he broke out in this manner, his uncle became very angry with him. “Why do you want those people to stay?” he said. “What will you give them to eat? If you have so much to say why don’t you feed them?” “Well,” answered Dātg̣āˊs, “I will feed them.” His uncle looked at him in surprise. He had seen him acting strangely at night, and had wondered what he was doing. While they were talking, the younger wife of his uncle kept looking at him and shaking her head, because she was afraid that her husband would become angry with him.

His uncle thought that the boy was only talking, so he said, “Feed them, then.” The boy said, “Call them all in and I will feed them.” Half of the people had already gone out, but some stood listening to him as he talked with his uncle, and one of these who stood near the door called those that had gone out, to return.

When the people were all in, Dātg̣āˊs went to the place where the salmon used to be packed away, and his uncle thought to himself, “That fellow is going back there to those empty boxes.” When he returned with one of them, however, it looked very heavy, and presently he handed out a salmon to every boy in the room, telling him to roast it at the fire. So his uncle had nothing more to say.

Next Dātg̣āˊs told some of the boys to get trays, and, after he had filled them, he set them before the people. Telling them to keep quiet, he went back again to the place where the boxes were and called for help. Two more boys went back there and brought forward a box of oil to eat with their salmon.

After they had eaten these things, he called the boys to go back with him again and they brought out a box of venison. His uncle kept very quiet while this was going on, and his younger wife felt very proud. Next Dātg̣āˊs had them bring out a box of berries[113] preserved in grease, which he passed around in large dishes. The chief began to think that his nephew was giving too much at a time of famine, but he could say nothing. Then preserved high-bush cranberries were served to the people in large dishes and finally soapberries, which all the boys stirred.

After this feast everyone left the house, but they soon came back one by one to buy food, for they had plenty of other property. People that were dying of starvation were strengthened by the food he gave them. For one large moose hide he would give two salmon. He asked his uncle’s younger wife to receive the goods that he was getting in exchange. But, after he had obtained a great deal of property more than half of the food was still left.

The chief, his uncle, was quite old at that time, both of his wives being much younger. He felt very well disposed toward his nephew to think that he had been so liberal and had kept up his uncle’s name, so he said to him, “You have done well to me and to my village people. Had it been another young fellow he would have hidden the food, but instead you have brought my village people and myself to life. Now take your choice between my wives. Take whichever you want.”

The young man did not answer at once, but the younger wife knew that he would choose her, because the elder wife hated him. Finally he said, “I will take the young woman, for she has been good to me.” Then his uncle moved to one side and let his nephew take his place. He became exceedingly wealthy, and was very good to the people of his village and to his uncle.

FOOTNOTES:

[113] These were the berries called tînx̣.

48. THE SALMON SACK

A small boy whose father was dead lived with his mother at the town of Āsnᴀˊxkǃ on the Queen Charlotte islands. The other town people were continually bringing in halibut and a salmon called îcqēˊn, but he and his mother could not get one piece and were very hungry. One day he begged to accompany some people who were going out, and they consented. When he got to the fishing ground he had a bite and began to pull up his line very rapidly. As he did so numbers of salmon tails began coming up for some distance around, and the people started to put them into the canoe. They did not know what it meant. When he got it up they found that it was a very large sack full of salmon with just their tails sticking out, and they completely filled their canoes, for the salmon extended all about them. Then they carried these ashore and had so many that they began making oil out of some. With this oil and the dried salmon the people of that village had plenty to eat.

Years ago it always happened that the poor people to whom others were unkind brought luck to the village. They were so unkind to this boy that they did not give him any halibut, and that is why it was through him that they had plenty to eat.

49. ROOTS[114]

A boy was walking along in front of the houses of a very populous village early one morning when a quill fell right in front of him. The boy picked it up and started to run away, but it lifted him up into the air out of sight. After that several other people were missed, and no one knew what had become of them. Finally, however, they saw another going up very rapidly, and so discovered what was the matter. Now, the people watched very closely, and, when another was seen to be taken up, a man seized him by the legs. He, however, was also lifted into the air. Then another grasped him, and all of the people of the village kept on doing this, thinking to break the string, until no one was left in that town except a woman and her daughter. These two lived at one end and refused to touch the others.

The mother of this girl was very fond of making spruce-root baskets, and, when she went after roots, the girl always accompanied her. When her mother cut off the ends of the roots out in the forest her daughter would chew them because they were sweet, and swallow the juice, after which she would spit them out and take more. Finally she got so used to chewing them that she would chew up fine the roots themselves and swallow them.

Now, after this had gone on for some time, the girl saw that she was growing large, and presently she gave birth to a boy baby. While this child was still very small she bathed him in cold water to make him strong, and he grew very fast.

When he was partially grown he one day saw the quill which had carried away the people, picked it up and pulled on it very hard. Then he noticed that someone was pulling it up. This invisible person tried to pull him up also, but he was very strong and ran out roots into the ground in every direction so that he could not be moved. All that he could see was the quill. He tried hard to find a line fastened to it, but there was nothing visible except the quill pulling up and down. He determined to hold on, however, to see what would happen, and at last he felt something break and the quill come away in his hands.

While Roots continued sitting in the same place a boy came to him saying, “Where is that quill of mine? Give it to me.” Then Roots answered, “Well! where are my village people? Give them to me.” “Give me the quill first,” said the boy. “No, give me back my village people first, and I will give you the quill.” Then he begged very hard for his village people, and the boy begged very hard for the quill, until at last Roots heard the noise of people coming. At that he handed back the quill and the boy vanished.

The people did not come that day, however, and Roots was uneasy, feeling that he had been very foolish to give the quill back before his friends had returned. Next morning early, however, he heard a great noise as of people moving about, and he jumped out of bed to look. The houses throughout the village were filled with their former occupants, who had come back during the night. All were very glad to get back after their long absence, for where they had been they seemed to have suffered. All complained of the mean master that they had had, but they could not tell whether they had been made slaves or not. All were very good to Roots for having restored them.

Afterward Roots, the full form of whose name is Root-ends (Xᴀt cugūˊʟkǃî), was known everywhere, and all of the strong people would go to his village to test him. Among them went a strong rock, called Itcǃ, who felt that he was very powerful. When they began to contend, Roots jumped upon Itcǃ first but could not move him. Then Roots looked at his antagonist and saw that he was half buried in the ground although a human being. This made Roots angry and he stooped down, picked Itcǃ up, and threw him down headlong. After he had done so he looked and lo! there lay only a rock. If it had not been for the numbers of roots that Roots sent out, however, Itcǃ would have beaten him.

FOOTNOTES:

[114] See story 13.

50. THE MUCUS CHILD

From a certain village the men began to disappear. They would go up into the woods behind after firewood and never come back. Finally all the rest of the men went up there together, intending to kill whatever had been destroying their friends, but they, too, never came back. Then the women and children began disappearing in the same manner until not one person remained except a woman and her daughter who refused to go out.

After that the younger woman walked back and forth in front of the houses, crying and calling to each of the former house owners. One day she cried very hard until the mucus ran down from her nose, and, wiping this off, she threw it down near one of the doors. After a while she noticed from the corner of her eye that it moved. She looked at it closely and saw that it was like a bubble. Then she stooped down to examine it and saw in it a little man. Before the bubble had disappeared she picked it up and swallowed it and soon discovered that she was pregnant. In a short time she gave birth to a boy.

This mucus child grew up very fast, and, when he was old enough to shoot, his mother made him a bow and arrows with which to practise. When he became somewhat larger he asked his mother, “Mother, why are these houses empty? Where have the people that occupied them gone?” And his mother answered, “We had many friends in this village. They would go after wood and never return. The women and children did the same thing. They followed their husbands and parents and never returned.” This boy grew up very fast, and meanwhile he kept thinking to himself, “I wonder what happened to those people who went up after wood and did not come back.” After he had become still larger he made himself a bow and arrow points, and his mother made him a quiver. With these he ventured a short distance up into the woods. He was afraid to go far.

Finally he thought, “I am going a long distance up into the woods, but I am not going to say a word about it to my mother.” And so, early in the morning, he went straight up from the house and, after traveling for some time, reached a creek of black water which ran out from under a glacier. There he met a large man who said to him, “Grandson, take off all of your clothes, get into this creek until the water is up to your neck, and sit there no matter how cold it is.” The boy did so, and, after a long time, the big man saw the water shake around him and thought, “The water is shaking because he has sat in it so long that he is beginning to get cold.” Then the big man told him to come out, and, after he had done so, he said, “Go and try to pull up that tree.” This tree was a short one, and he pulled it up easily by the roots. Then the big man told him to strike a large round white rock near by to see if he could smash it, and he did so. The rock was broken in pieces. But this rock was only a friable one put there on purpose for the boy to break. Then the big man said to him, “Put on your clothes now and go home. To-morrow come up again.”

The next day the big man told him to get into the creek again, and, when he saw him shivering, told him to come out and pull up a still larger tree. He pulled it up easily. Then he took him to a still larger rock that looked shiny and hard and told him to strike it. When he did so the tree went into slivers, but the rock was intact. So he told the boy to dress, run down home, and come up again very early. This time he was told to pull up a big crab-apple tree. He succeeded, but, although it looked easy to him to break the rock, only the tree was shattered.

The fourth time the boy came up very early before daylight. After he had been in the stream long enough to shiver the big man said, “Run to that tree standing over there. Try to break that.” It was a wild maple, but he broke it more easily than the crab apple. The big man was surprised.

Now the boy knew that he had great strength, and when the big man told him to try to smash the rock again, the rock flew all about. Then the big man took off his leggings, his shirt, and his moccasins, which were beautifully worked with porcupine quills, and put them on the boy. The moccasins were made to tie to the leggings and the sole of one of them was a whetstone. Then the man told him that he was Strength and had come to help him. He showed him a valley and said, “Go right up that valley, making sure to walk in the middle of it. On one side is the glacier. As soon as you reach the top of the mountain you will hear some one calling. You will see a large town there. This village is where your people went when they disappeared and those are the wolf people that took them. As soon as they get within your reach hit them with your club, and if it touches one of them it will kill him. Run up the hill. If you run down the hill you will be caught. If you become tired, think of me and you will become stronger.”

Now the boy went up the hill as he had been directed until he reached the end of the valley, where he heard some one call. He looked down and saw a very large town. At once people came running toward him, and he clubbed them. He could see them fall but did not feel his club strike. He kept on running up the hill, clubbing his pursuers as he went until he had destroyed all of them. Then he returned to his benefactor.

When Strength heard what had happened, he said, “Go back, for there is another village on the other side. Go there and call to them. They will not see you as quickly as these first. Call to them, ‘Give me my uncle’s life, my village people’s life.’ If they refuse, tell them that you are going to strike their village with your club. If they allow you to have it they will hand you a box.” He gave the boy strict orders not to strike unless they refused to give him the box of lives.

When the boy came to the first house in this village, he asked for the lives of his town people, but they said, “We don’t know where they are. They might be in the next house.” He went to that, and they said the same thing there. They answered him in the same manner at all of the houses. By the time he reached the last he was discouraged, thinking that he had undertaken all of that labor for nothing. He went in there, however, and said, “Give me my village people’s lives. If you don’t give them to me, I will strike your village.” This was the town chief’s house, however, and he said, “Don’t strike our village. I will give you the lives of your village people.” These people were also wolf people. Then the wolf chief handed him the box of lives and said, “Take it back to your village and leave it in each house for four days. At the end of four days go into the house and see what has happened.”

After this the boy returned to his native village and left the box of lives four days in the house of his uncle, the chief. Early on the morning of the day following he heard noises there, jumped up and went over to it. There were all of his people walking about and looking very happy. He left the box in every house in town for the prescribed period until all the absent ones had come to life, and all of their houses were filled as before. All the time this boy was away among the wolves his mother and grandmother were worrying about him, but after the people had been restored they were very happy.

51. THE SALMON CHIEF

A certain fisherman fished for salmon and nothing else. One day, after he had fished for a long time, he was walking upon the beach and came upon a salmon left by the tide. He was very glad for he had not been getting any fish for some time and saw that this was nice and fresh. He said to himself, “Oh! what a nice meal I shall have.” He had been very hungry for salmon. But, as he reached down to pick it up, it spoke to him saying, “No, no, don’t eat me. I am chief of all the salmon. Put me into the water and let me go out again. You will get lots of salmon if you let me go.” The man felt very badly to lose it, but he thought that since it talked to him in this way he would let it go, and he did so.

Before this happened it had been very stormy, so that the fisherman had been unable to get anything, but now it became calm, and he went out fishing and caught many salmon. Next day he went for more, but it was so stormy at sea that he could not catch any. Then he thought that he would walk along shore again. He did so, and when he came to the place where he had found the first salmon he saw another large, fine salmon. He thought, “Oh! what a fine-looking salmon, and I have to let it go again.” But the salmon spoke up at once saying, “No, don’t let me go. Take me home, and you shall have me for your supper. After you have cooked me do not break any of my bones. Take care of all of them. Take the bones out of my head and place them in a dish. Then put them under your pillow and sleep on them to-night.”

This man lived alone with his wife, and they had no children but were very anxious for them. About midnight the man awoke and, looking under his pillow, saw two fine-looking boy babies.

The children grew up quite fast, and one of them was very brave, but the other was a coward and always stayed at home. One day the former asked his father, “Are you two the only ones who live here?” “That is all; that is all,” said his father, for he did not want his son to leave them. After that the boy begged hard to go away, and asked his father to put up some food for him to take, but at first his father refused. He begged so hard, however, that after a while his parents consented and prepared it.

So the boy finally went away, and presently he came to where an old woman lived. This woman said to him, “My grandson.” “Oh! my grandmother,” said he. Then she gave him something to eat. She put something into a very small kettle, and, after it was cooked, she gave it to him and it tasted very good. Then she looked up at him and said, “I suppose you thought ‘That old woman who lives back there is starving.’ I don’t suppose you thought I had anything to eat.” Afterward the boy said, “Grandmother, why is it that this village looks so black?” She answered, “There is a monster there which is a human being and yet not a human being. It has seven heads. It is to be fed with the chief’s daughter. Otherwise he will murder every one in the village.” Finally they heard a drum and saw people going along dancing. They were taking the chief’s daughter to this monster. Then the boy saw them return without her.[115]

At once the boy started on a run toward the place whither they had taken this girl and presently came upon her walking toward the monster very slowly. When she heard some one walking up to her she turned round and saw the boy. She said, “Where are you going?” Said he, “Where are you going?” “Oh! my father has given me to this seven-headed monster, and that is where I am going.” Then the boy said, “Don’t go there. You better go back with me.” She kept going along closer and closer to the monster’s place and seemed to go slower and slower.

By and by they saw the man with his seven heads sticking out of the den. He began to laugh when he saw them and said, “I thought I was going to have only one girl to eat, but I am also going to have a fat, plump boy.” The boy answered, “You are going to have me to eat, are you? You and I will fight first.” Then the monster laughed again and said to him, “Do you see all of those bones around there?” Human bones lay all around. “And you think you can fight me.”

After that they began fighting. The boy had a knife made of obsidian (în). He was very quick and could walk all over his opponent because the latter was slow and clumsy, so he finally cut off three of the monster’s heads. Then the boy said, “Let us sit down for a minute and rest.” They did so, and, after a while the monster said, “I am strong now, stronger than I have ever been.” But the boy answered, “You had seven heads and I cut off three, leaving you but four, yet you say that you are stronger than before. You may be stronger, but you are too slow.” The girl stood near by looking on. Then they started fighting once more, and the boy cut off the monster’s four remaining heads for he was slower than ever.

Now they went home to the boy’s father, and, when he told him what had happened, his father felt very proud of him. The boy wanted to marry the chief’s daughter, and, although his people were poor, the chief consented willingly.

FOOTNOTES:

[115] This portion of the story and that which follows look like a garbled European myth, such as the story of Perseus and Andromeda, or that of Hercules and the Hydra.

52. THE JEALOUS UNCLE[116]

A high-caste man had a beautiful wife of whom he was very jealous. He had also four sisters well married in different villages, all with sons. One morning the eldest of these sisters said to her husband, “I want to go to see my brother. I believe he would like to see our son.” Her husband was willing, because he wanted to see the man himself. When they arrived there, the woman’s brother pretended that he thought a great deal of his nephew, but really he did not want to see him for fear his wife would take a liking to him because he was handsome. He told the young man, however, that he was going to take him everywhere with him. His mother felt very happy to think that her brother thought so much of him and left him there with his uncle.

Immediately after his mother had gone, however, the uncle determined to make away with him, because his wife seemed to like him. So next morning he said, “We are going down right away to get some devilfish to eat. The tide will soon be low enough.” Then the boy prepared himself, for he was very anxious to go, and they set out. His uncle said, “Walk right along there,” pointing to a high ridge parallel with the beach. “Walk ahead, and I will follow you.”

The boy did as he was directed and soon saw something large on the beach, that kept opening and closing. It was a very large clam. His uncle told him to get right on top of the ridge to watch it, for it was the first time he had seen anything of the kind. As the boy was very anxious to examine it, he got up there and leaned far over. When he did so, however, the clam opened and remained open, and his uncle pushed him right down into it. Then the clam closed upon him and killed him. The boy’s parents soon found out what had happened to their son, and, although his uncle declared that it was an accident, they knew that he was jealous and did not believe him.

Some time after this the uncle turned his thoughts to his second sister’s son who was still handsomer. His wife had seen this youth, and had told her husband how fine he was. This made him very jealous, and he sent to this sister, saying that it was about time she sent one of her sons to help him, for he had no children and needed help. He knew that the oldest child would be sent, because the next was a girl. So the boy came, and he threw him down into the big clam like the other. The uncle was very jealous of his wife because he knew that everyone fell in love with her on account of her beauty.

After this the uncle sent for the third sister’s child who was older than the last he had killed, but he would not go for a long time, and his parents did not ask him to. He was a flighty youth, however, and, after his uncle had sent for him several times, he thought of his uncle’s handsome wife and made up his mind to visit them.

All of the time this boy was with him the uncle watched him and his wife very closely and would not leave the house for a minute. His wife was very anxious to give him warning, but her husband feared it and watched her too closely. She made signs to the boy, but he did not understand them. When his uncle took him down to the beach, he said, “I must go back to the house after a drink of water.” He thought that his uncle would wait for him, but instead he followed him right back to the house. Then the boy said to his uncle’s wife, “Where is the water?” She pointed it out, but, as her husband stood close by, she could not say anything more. So they went down to the beach, but, when the youth saw this clam moving in the distance, he ran by it very quickly, and his uncle was disappointed. Then they went on farther, and the uncle said to him, “Do you see that hole down there?” He could see plainly a very large hole. Then his uncle said, “The devilfish that we want to get for our supper is in that.” He handed him the stick for getting devilfish and said, “Hook it. You can get it very easily.” The boy put the end of his stick into the hole, felt that the fish was there, and hooked it. Immediately he tried to run off, but his uncle was right behind him, and pushed him forward so that the devilfish seized him and dragged him under the rock.

All the time this man was killing his nephews, the youngest, who looked very much like the first one killed, had been practising. His father showed him how to make himself look like a very small ball of feathers. He had the shaman of that village make a bracelet of eagle down for him inclosing a piece of devil’s club carved by the shaman. Then the shaman said, “Just as soon as you find that you are in danger turn this bracelet around on your wrist four times as quickly as you can.” Then the shaman told him to climb a very high tree, and climbed right after him, while his father stood watching. The shaman said, “Now turn that around on your wrist four times as quickly as you can.” He did so, and just as he finished the shaman pushed him down. Then his father saw nothing but a ball of eagle down rolling down the tree. As soon as it reached the ground there stood the boy, and the shaman knew that everything was all right. He also gave the boy a knife having a handle carved like devil’s clubs, which he kept in the bosom of his shirt, tied around his neck.

After this the boy’s friends took him to his uncle and remained with him for three days. On the fourth day they returned. Then the uncle’s wife cried continually to think that a boy not fully grown should be left there to be killed, and his uncle said to her angrily, “What is it you are always crying about? You are in love again aren’t you?” Then the boy said aloud so that his uncle could hear, “You are in love with the right one this time.” At that his uncle became angry and told him he talked too much. Right away he said, “Come on with me. We will get a devilfish for our supper.” So the boy prepared himself, and they started off, while his uncle’s wife came out and watched them, thinking that he was the last.

As they went along the boy saw the clam, and, before his uncle told him it was there, he stood still just above it. For a moment he forgot about his bracelet, but, just as he saw his uncle raise his hands, he remembered and turned his bracelet about once. When he reached the clam he turned it for the fourth time and fell into the clam as a ball of feathers, while his uncle went home, thinking he had disposed of him. The ball of feathers inside, however, turned back into a boy, and he cut both sides of the clam and came out.

Then he saw the devilfish-stick his uncle had given him lying there and thought he would go on and see the devilfish they were to have had for their supper. When he reached the place and saw the devilfish sitting outside of its hole he became frightened, yet he thought that he would try to kill it. Now he went up to the creature and turned his bracelet around twelve times, wishing that it become small. It did grow small, and he killed it easily and dragged it home on his stick. Reaching the house, he pushed the door open and threw it right in front of his uncle, where it reassumed enormous proportions. Then his uncle was astonished to see him and began screaming loudly, begging the boy to take the devilfish out at once. So he took it out and threw it down upon the beach. Afterward he looked back at it, and it had become the same big devilfish again.

Now the boy remained with his uncle for a very long time, and his uncle’s wife thought a great deal of him, while his uncle seemed to do so too. One day, however, he saw his wife talking to the boy and again determined to kill him. Then he put something sharp pointed on the ground, took the nephew up to the top of a very high tree and crawled up after him. The boy, who knew what was going to happen, began singing and turning his bracelet round slowly at the same time. Just as he had turned it for the fourth time his uncle reached him and pushed him over. When he landed upon the ground, however, there was nothing to be seen but a ball of eagle down.

His uncle saw this, and, feeling that he could not kill his nephew, treated him well for a very long time, but watched him closely. His wife said to the boy, “Your uncle is thinking a great deal because he can’t kill you.” But all that the boy would answer every time she said this was, “Only a ball of eagle down.” She did not know what he meant.

One day the uncle thought that he would deceive his wife and nephew, so he told the latter that he was going back into the woods and started off. Instead of going away, however, he went back of the house, looked through a hole at them and listened. Then the boy came to his wife and sat down close to her, and she said, “Let us run away. I am afraid of your uncle.” He answered that he would if he could get a canoe, and she told him of a place where there was a canoe, some distance from the town. Then the uncle came right in and wanted to kill his wife on the spot but was so fond of her that he could not. The boy sat perfectly still, moving his bracelet.

That night the uncle treated his nephew very kindly and began telling him all kinds of stories, until at last the boy fell asleep. This was just what he wanted. Then he tied the boy to a board, thinking, “I am going to get rid of him this time. The feathers will get wet, and he will be drowned.” So he took him quite a distance out to sea and set him adrift there. It was very stormy.

The boy, however, floated along for some time and finally came ashore in safety on a nice sandy beach. The tide was very low. Then he heard the laughter of some girls who were out digging clams. There were three of them, and they were sisters. Now the eldest of the girls saw something moving on the beach and went thither, thinking it was some dying animal. Instead she saw a handsome youth, who looked right up at her but said nothing. Said she, “What has happened to you?” But he would not speak. She called to her sisters, and they ran up. Then the second sister immediately fell in love with him, but the youngest had nothing to say. The eldest had formerly been in love with the youth that was first destroyed, so she said to her second sister, “How much like my dead lover he looks.” She saw him smile because he knew her, but he did not know the others, and immediately the eldest began to cry, saying that that was her lover’s smile only that he was a larger man. Then the second sister laughed, saying that she was going to untie him and have him for her husband. The youngest, however, said, “Well! you two can have him, for I am not going to have a man that can not talk.” “If he comes out all right after we have untied him,” said the eldest, “we will both be his wives.” So, the two older girls untied him and started to raise his head while the youngest ran off to dig clams. They asked him if he could talk, and he said, “Yes.” As he walked between the girls, one of them said, “You shall go to my father’s house with me.” At the time they untied him the eagles were gathering around to devour him.

Then they took him into their father’s house and their father said, “Who is that fellow?” “We found him,” said the second, “and we are going to marry him.” This one was very quick to speak, while the eldest was slow and quiet. Their father consented, and he married both of the girls. Then the eldest spoke to her father of how much he resembled her dead lover, although the boy had not told anything about himself.

Those girls used to go off to hunt and spear salmon just like boys, so the younger said next morning, “I am going out to spear salmon.” She brought a salmon home. The day following both girls asked him to go with them, and he did so. They tried to teach him how to hunt, for he belonged to such a very high family that he had never learned.

On the way the younger wife acted sulkily toward her elder sister because she would never leave their husband’s side. So she started off alone, and her husband was afraid she would go away for good, for he liked her very much on account of her liveliness. In the evening, however, she came back with a salmon and said to her sister, “You can live on love. You stick by your husband and do not go to get anything to eat.” Then their husband carried the salmon back, and his elder wife came home slowly. The younger sister cooked the salmon and put it between herself and her husband. He pulled it along toward his elder wife, but the other said, “She shall not have any. She is going to live on love.” Then her husband said that if she would let her sister have some salmon he would go out and try to get another himself. It was early in the spring and the salmon were scarce. The younger wife now felt jealous of her sister because she thought that their husband thought more of her than of herself, though really the reverse was the case. He pitied the elder, however, because she had done so much for him.

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