part 1

, of the Memoirs of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. On pages 233–238 of the same memoir will be found two sections of the story obtained from two old Kaigani. They probably contain much of the Tlingit Raven story. Finally, it must be stated that Raven is brought forward to explain so many local phenomena that an absolutely complete Raven story is neither practicable nor necessary.

A-SLENDER-ONE-WHO-WAS-GIVEN-AWAY

[Told by John Sky of Those-born-at-Skedans]

Once there was a chief’s child, they say, a girl, for whom they often hung out hawk down on the end of a pole. [279] Her father loved her. She had two brothers; one was large and the other had just begun growing.

Once people came in front of her father’s town in ten canoes, danced while coming and stopped in front of the town. Then one of her father’s slaves inquired: “What are these come for?” “They are come to get the chief’s child.” And when they said “The woman refuses,” they went away weeping.

The next day others came dancing on ten canoes. Then again they asked: “What are these come for?” “They are come to get the chief’s daughter.” And those, too, they refused, and they went weeping away.

Now, the day after a certain one in a hair-seal canoe, [280] wearing a broad hat, stood there early in the morning. He had a surf-bird for a hat. After they had looked at him in his hair-seal canoe for a while, they asked him: “Why does the canoe come?” He said nothing. They did not want him. They said to him: “The woman refuses.” A round white thing was on top of his hat. This was a foamy wave. The foam was turning round and round rapidly. As soon as they had refused him the earth changed. Out of the earth water boiled up. Then, when this island was half covered, the frightened town people thought of giving the woman up. She had ten servants, they say. And they dressed up one of these just like her. And they painted her. And they put red cirrus clouds on her and two clear-sky blankets [281] and sent her down to the chief. Then he absolutely refused her. He would take none but the chief’s child. They dressed up still another [slave] with dark mottled clouds which lie seaward, and they put two marten-skin blankets on her and had her go down. Her, too, he refused. He refused all ten in the same way.

Now, all of the town people with their children had gone into her father’s house. Then they all cried, and, without painting her, let her go. And the ten servants all went with her. When she stood near the salt water the canoe came quickly to her of itself. [Then the stranger gave them his father’s hat covered with surf-birds (tcꜝîgᴀ′ldᴀx̣uañ), which would keep flying out from it and back again.] Now, when she got in, the ten servants got in with her. What caused the canoe to move could not be seen. When the chief’s child had got in they discovered him floating at the place where he had been before.

And they made holes in the front of the whole house by pulling off planks. Through these they were looking to see which way his canoe went. After they had looked for a while [it vanished and] they did not see in which direction. And they did not see that it had sunk. And the direction in which the chief’s daughter had vanished was unknown.

At times her father turned to the wall and cried, cried, cried. And her mother turned to the wall and cried, cried, cried. One day he stopped crying and said to his head slave: [282] “Find out whither my child went.” “Wait, I will find out the proper time to go. I will go to see whither your [child] went.”

One morning, as day began to break and when it was a propitious day for him, he started the fire, and, while the people of the house whom he feared to have see him, slept, he took a bath. Now after his skin became dry he turned toward the wall and brought out the tackle he used for fishing. He untied it, and he took out blue hellebore, and he put it into the fire. And after he had watched it burn a while, he took it out of the fire, and he rubbed it on the stone floor-planks and made a mark with it on his face.

Then he got ready to start. He was going to search for the chief’s child. The chief’s child’s mother was with him.

And he was a good hunter. He had a sea-otter spear. When he pushed off he threw the sea-otter spear into the water, and, throwing its tail about, it went along forming ripples in its passage, and he went with it.

By and by the canoe stuck. The same thing happened to the sea-otter spear, they say. Then he pulled the canoe ashore. The chief’s wife got off, and he turned the canoe over. Long seaweeds were growing on it. These were the things that stopped the canoe. He had been moving along for a whole year. Then he took off his cape and rubbed it on the bottom of the canoe and on the chief’s wife. And he rubbed it on himself as well and became clean.

Again he shoved off the canoe. Then he threw the sea-otter spear into the water again, and it moved on anew. He followed it. After he had gone on, on, on, on for a long while, the canoe again stuck. Then he pulled the canoe ashore still again. And he turned it over again. [A kind of] long seaweed had grown on it, and on the chief’s wife, too, and on himself. Then, as before, he took the cape off. And he rubbed it on the canoe and on the chief’s wife as well. Then he rubbed it also on himself. And after they had become clean he launched the canoe again. Again he threw the sea-otter spear in, and again they followed it. After he had been towed along by it for a while he came to floating charcoal. There was no way for him to pass through this, they say. He had brought along his fishing-tackle box, and he looked into it. And in it he used to keep the [old spruce roots] taken off when he repaired his halibut hooks. When he put these roots into the water, [the charcoal] divided, and he was towed through. Not far away the canoe came to another place where it (the passage) had closed together. And when he put some [roots] into the water, as before, that also parted.

Then he was towed out of it and was brought to the edge of the sky. Now, after it had shut together four times, he braced the spear under it. [283] He went under. Then he pulled his spear out and put it into the canoe. He took the paddle and began paddling.

By and by he could see the smoke of a great town. And he pulled the canoe ashore some distance to one side of the town, they say. After he had turned the canoe over he made the chief’s wife sit under it. Then he walked to the town. When he came to the end of the town it was low tide. A certain woman, with her infant on her back, had come down to the uncovered beach. She held a basket in her hand, and she had a digging stick and moved it before her as if hunting for something. While putting something into the basket she looked up to where he was seated. And, after she had looked for a while, she did the same thing again. And, after she had rolled away the stones, she put sea cucumbers into the basket. That was Property-woman. [284]

When she again fastened her eyes on the place where he sat, she said: “I know you.” And then he stood up. And he went down on the beach and stood near her. Then she said to him: “Do you travel hither expecting to see the chief’s child?” He said “Yes.” “You see this town. He thought grease into his son’s wife’s mind [285] because he gave away his father’s hat as soon as he married the chief’s child. [286] She is lying over there in a cave. When you have entered pass along by the right side of the chief’s house and go behind the screen. There you will hear news.”

Then he started away from Property-woman and went into the cave to the chief’s child. And as she lay there she was winking her eyes. He took his coat off and rubbed it upon her. And he tried to make her sit up. In vain. And he became angry because he was unsuccessful. And, since he could not succeed, he started off.

He put on his two yellow-cedar blankets and walked about among them (the people). And they did not see him. Then he went into the chief’s house and to the right. It had ten tiers of retaining planks. On the upper one, in the middle of the sides, one sat weaving a chief’s dancing-blanket. Then from the blanket she was weaving something said: “To-morrow, too, one of my eyes [will still be] unfinished, unfinished.” [287]

Then, contrary to the expectations of those in the house, he went round behind the screen and a wonderful sight met his eyes, they say. A large lake with several gravel points running into it lay there. The points were red with cranberries. Canoe songs [288] resounded across it. Near the stream which flowed out of this large lake they had a fire for [drinking] salt water. [289]

Then some people came in from picking berries. As she walked past the last one snuffed with her nose. “I smell a human being” [she said]. And he said to her, “Say! it is I you are speaking about.” “It was the yellow cedar-bark blankets of the chief’s child’s ten servants whom they ate, which I am wearing that I smelt.” That was Mink-woman.[289]

And now he turned himself toward the fire which they had made [to warm] salt water. When he got near, one among those sitting there in a group said: “What will happen when they (her family) look for the chief’s daughter?” “Why, what are you saying? When they look for the chief’s child and return his father’s hat which he (the son) gave away, he (the father) will make her sit down (i.e., restore her).”

After he had heard all the news he turned round. He remembered the chief’s wife, ran back to the canoe and turned it over, but only the chief’s wife’s bones lay there. Then he drew his coat off and rubbed it upon her, and she awoke as if from sleep. She had been perspiring. He put his arm into the canoe and pulled it into the water. After he had let the chief’s wife in he came to the village. He tied her into the canoe. He tied himself in the same way as the chief’s wife. He tied himself as Property-woman had told him to do. They were there tied in front of the chief’s house. As they floated there one came out of the chief’s house and said: “Wait; they want the chief’s wife to remain there. They are going to dance near by.” After she had remained there for a while a thunderbolt [appeared to] drop in the house, they say.

By and by feathers came out of the smoke hole in a point. After it rose into the air it broke off. Then it came to them in a point and struck them, and they both forgot themselves.

They came to themselves lying on the retaining timbers. And then he untied himself and the chief’s wife as well. When he could walk he untied her. Her son-in-law sat opposite the door, and they spread out mats for her below. Then they came down and sat in the middle of the side. [290] Then one brought food in a small basket. In it were large clam shells, small clam shells, and two mussel shells. They gave some to the chief’s wife. They let her eat. After different kinds of food had been brought out and eaten and all was gone, they brought a basket to the fire, poured water into it, and put stones into the fire. When these were red-hot they put them into the basket with wooden tongs.

It boiled. Then the chief said something to a youth who was walking around the basket. Then he went into a storeroom in one corner and brought out a whale on the end of a sharpened stick. He put it into the basket. Now, when he had tried it with a stick and it had become soft, he put the whale into a dish the shape of a chiton and laid it down before them.

Now he again said something, and he (the youth) gave her old clam shells to drink the soup out of. She was unable to drink with these. Now she got her own basket and took out two large clam shells and two mussel shells, whereupon the people all stopped in a moment as when something is dropped. [291] And the chief, too, looked at nothing but those mussel shells. When his eyes were fastened upon them she noticed it and stopped.

Then she handed the shells to her husband’s slave and had him give them to her son-in-law. He made a place for them [on his blanket]. Now, after he had looked at them for a while, he said something, whereupon they went to him to get them and put them away behind the screen.

In the evening those in the house went to sleep, and they (the visitors) also went to sleep.

When day broke a young hair seal was crying in the corner of the house, they say. At daylight they started off by canoe.

Now the canoe lay on top of the retaining planks. There he fastened the chief’s wife, and he fastened himself in the stern. The thunderbolt dropped behind the screens which pointed toward each other. When the feathers came out from it in a point toward the fire and struck them they forgot themselves. When they came to themselves they were on the ocean.

Now he untied himself, went to the chief’s wife, and untied her. And when they went off it was the middle of summer when the young hair seal cry. He picked up his paddle and started paddling. After he had made two strokes he reached his master’s town.

The chief’s wife went in and sat down. She related to her husband how his daughter was situated. Then the slave also went to his master and told him what those thought who had had a fire for salt water. He repeated what they said to him word for word.

At once he spoke to the one who had charge of the fire. Two persons went through the town summoning the people. Immediately they entered. The house was full. Then he opened supplies of good food. He fed them. He fed them all. When the food was all gone he told the town people what he had in mind. He told the town people that he was going to look for his daughter. All were well pleased. He told all the chiefs to start in ten canoes. They agreed.

But the next morning his oldest boy had disappeared. When they began to get ready the next day the youngest also was gone.

For the chief and the chief’s wife each they drew the figures of cumulus clouds upon ten clam shells. As many mussel shells were inside of these. He had ten drawn for the elder [son] and he had ten drawn for the younger. The town people who were going away all gathered ten apiece [for the men] and five apiece for the women. And after they had got through gathering them they waited for the two sons who had gone off to marry. They got tired of waiting for them because they wanted to restore their sister. The town people had everything ready and were awaiting them.

The elder got home at midday. His hair was fastened with cedar limbs. “Mother, I have brought a wife to you. She stands outside. Go out and get her.” So he spoke to his mother: “Oh! my child has come.” She looked outside, and a woman stood there having curly hair parted and large eyes. This was Mouse-woman.

After the youngest had been away for a while, he, too, came back at midday. He came in, his hair fastened with a small fern. Hai hi hi hi hi⁺⁺⁺. [292] “Mother, I bring a wife to you. She stands outside. Go out and get her.” A wonderful person stood there. She was too powerful to look at. Something short with curly hair and a copper blanket [stood there]. “Chief-woman, come in.” She did not wish to enter. “She does not wish to come in. She positively refuses, my child; your wife positively refuses.” “Why! she goes by contraries,” he said to her as he stood up. He went out to his wife, came in with her, and sat down.

Next day, very early, they went off. The town people all started out together upon the ocean. The elder son’s wife sat up on one of the seats, and the younger one’s wife concealed herself inside. She (the former) sat up high to look after those who were starting off. She always kept her small wooden box with her wherever she turned. When they were all afloat she hunted in it and took out a bone awl. And she put it into the water. The water rushed aside as it cut through. In behind it they placed the canoe. The bone awl began to tow them along.

After they had been towed along, along, along, along, along for a while, they came in sight of a broad band of smoke from a town. Some distance from the town the elder brother’s wife told them all to land. She talked to them. The elder brother had married Mouse-woman so that they might follow her directions.

They stopped at this place, and she had them cut long sticks. They got two poles at this place. The younger brother’s wife hid herself, but the elder brother’s wife commanded the voyagers. The ten canoes were still, and along the front of the bows and midway of the canoes they put the sticks. They fastened them to thwarts by winding ropes around them. [293] That was finished. Then they started for the front of the town.

They stopped in front of the chief’s house, and one came out of the chief’s house. “Wait, they direct you to remain still. They are going to dance in front of you.” After they had remained there for a while, they forgot themselves. Then they came to themselves lying on top of the retaining planks. In the place where they woke up they untied themselves. They also untied the poles that had been fastened upon the canoes.

On top of the retaining planks they spread out mats. There were crowds of people there on each side on the ten retaining planks. The chief’s child was not there, the one they came after. Only her husband sat there. Then they spread out two mats in front of the place where he sat. In front of him the ten canoe loads of people laid their clam shells. They filled the house up to the very roof. Now they laid the hat on top of all. They gave it back to him.

“Come! send for my father. Tell him to hurry.” Then a youth started on the run. “Is he coming?” “He is close by.” Whiu-u-u-u (sound of wind). The house moved. The earth, too, shook. Of all the visitors who sat in circles not one looked up. But, while they hung their heads, the younger brother’s wife raised hers up. Then she looked toward the rear of the house and toward the door. “Hold up your heads. Have you, also, no power?” she said.

By and by the house shook again, and the ground with it. X̣u-u-u. The people in the house again hung their heads. Now she said again “Hold your heads up. Have you, too, no supernatural power?” At the same time he came in and stood there. Something wonderful came in and stood there. His large eyelids were too powerful to look at. Where he placed his foot he stood for awhile. When he took another step the earth and the house shook. When he took another step and the house and the earth shook, all of the people hung their heads; but she (the youngest’s wife) said to them, “Hold your heads up.” When she said it louder the supernatural power that had entered took hold of his head. “Stop! mighty supernatural woman that you are.” After that he came in. Nothing happened. [294] He sat down near his son.

But when he first came in and sat down he laid his hands at once on his hat.

With his father’s staff he divided the clam shells. He kept the smaller part for himself. He made his father’s part large. “Did you send for your wife, chief, my son?” “No, indeed; I have been waiting for you.” “Send someone for your wife, chief, my son.” Then a youth went to call her. “Is she coming?” “Yes; she approaches.” By and by the one whom they were after came in from the cave where she had lain, and stood there. But she went to her mother first. She did not go down to her husband.

Then his father began to dance. After he had done so for a while, he fell down. At once he broke in two in the middle. Out of his buttocks feathers blew, and out of his trunk as well. One of the servants stood up out of his buttocks, one out of his trunk, another out of his buttocks, another out of his trunk. All ten whom he had eaten he restored. [295] That was why he danced. On account of the hat he had devoured the servants. He had put grease, too, into the mind of the chief’s daughter by thinking. On account of the hat they put her in the cave. By and by he came together. He stopped dancing. He sat down.

Now they put more wood on the fire, made them sit down in a circle, and began to give them something to eat. The feast went on even until midnight, when they stopped. They stopped. They went to bed.

When day began to break the young hair seals cried in the very place where they had cried before. Then they prepared to start from the top of the retaining timbers, where their canoes were lying.

Then her father-in-law called her. “Noble woman, [296] wait until I give you directions.” And he whispered to her. He gave her directions as she sat near him. “Chief-woman, I will come forth from your womb. Do not be afraid of me.” And to her he gave a round plate of copper, to which some strings and a chain were fastened. It was named X̣īłūtꜝā′ła (Property chain (?)). “Have Master Carpenter make my cradle, chief’s daughter. Let lofty cumulus clouds be around the upper edges, chief-woman, and around its lower edges short ones. In those days human servants (i.e., human beings) will gather food through me. When they see me sitting in the morning the surface birds will gather food while I am governing the weather (i.e., while I am in sight).” [297]

Her parents (“fathers”) were waiting for her on top of the retaining timbers, but, below, her father-in-law was giving her directions, to which she was listening. After he had ceased talking, she got into the canoe with her father. They fastened the canoes to each other; they all fastened themselves. After the chief’s child got in, all forgot themselves. When they came to, they were afloat upon the ocean.

At once they started off. In a short time he came to his village. After it had lain still for a long time the chief’s daughter became pregnant. When she began to labor they made a house for her outside. They drove in a stake, had her take hold of it, and went in. Now he came forth, and, when she looked at him, she saw something wonderful. Something flat stuck out from his eyelids. She rose quickly and ran away from him in fright. “Awaiyā′,” she said, and the town was nearly overturned.

Then she quickly turned back toward him, laid her hands upon him, and exclaimed as she picked him up: “Oh! my grandfather, it is I.” The town was as still as when something is suddenly thrown down. She brought him to the house. Her father put hot stones into a urinal he owned, and they washed him. [298]

As soon as they went out for [Master Carpenter], he came on the run. He held in his hand what he had taken off (i.e., cut out) [299] in the woods. As soon as he came in he put the drawing on it, as the chief’s daughter told him. He pictured the clouds upon it. There were two rows of them. He made holes in the cradle for fastening the rope alongside of his legs.

Then they put him in. They brought out two sky blankets and wrapped them round him in the cradle. After that was done they launched the canoe. Five persons and the chief’s daughter went with her son. Then they started seaward. They went, they went, they went. When they found by looking about that they were midway between the Haida country and the mainland they let him down into the water. When they let him go he turned around to the right four times and became like something flat thrown down. Then they went away from him, and settled down at the place where they had been before.

[He was the one who has his place in the middle of the sea. Sometimes when sickness was about to break out they saw him. Nᴀñʟ̣da′ sʟas [300] was a reef.]

[What follows is really a second story, but it was told as part of the same. Its true name is said to be “He-who-had-Panther-woman-for-his-mother.”]

Here on the Nass lay the town of Gu′nwa. Four slaves of the owner of the town came down [the inlet] after wood. They cut the wood at a sandy beach below the town and saw young cedars. They found them for the chief’s wife. They did not believe their eyes [for joy at finding them growing so conveniently to the water]. They finished cutting the wood, loaded it on their canoe, and went up with the tide. At evening they got back. The town people brought in the wood, and he (the chief) called them in.

Then, after they had given away food for a while, he reported that they had seen young cedars. At once the chief’s wife planned to go for the bark. They went to sleep, and early in the morning she had her husband’s canoe brought out. People of the town, the chief’s daughters and young men, all went with her. At once they floated down with the current. Hu hu hu hu hu, much food,—cranberries and salmon,—[they took with them]. Then they went down.

When they landed by the young cedars all the women pulled off and dragged down [the bark] from those [trees] near by. They pulled it off and dragged it out to her. When they had taken all from those near at hand they became scattered.

She (the chief’s wife) sat with her back to the sunshine, pulling cedar bark apart. She was not in the habit of eating much. Her fingers were slender. She did not care for food.

After the sounds of the voices of women and men had died away inland a person wearing a bearskin blanket with the hair side out came and stood near her. He held something like a pole. It had a sharp point. It was half red, half blue. He was looking at the chief’s wife, but she did not even glance toward him. He asked the chief’s wife: “How do you act when your husband calls the people [for a feast]?” “When my husband calls the people, I empty the whole dish placed in front of the one sitting next to me into my mouth.”

She had children. One of the two boys she had could not creep.

“How do you act when your husband calls the people again?” “As soon as my husband calls the people I put food into the dishes and, bending down, eat out of them.” “How do you act when your husband comes in from fishing?” “I go down, pull up my dress, swim out to him, and swallow the two spring salmon which are on top.”

He drove the thing he had in his hand into her forehead, and, when it stuck out at the back of her head and he had raised her arm, all of her flesh dropped off. Then he sat down and entered it (her skin). And he picked up her flesh and buried it in the sand at the foot of the tree. After he had seated herself in the place of the chief’s wife, they came down to her in crowds with the cedar bark.

All of them pulled their cedar bark apart. Among the crowds of people that were there the chief woman did it. “Woman, I am hungry.” “Well, there is a piece of white food in [my box].” “In mine, too.” “In mine, too.” This [they said] because they wanted to have her eat.

The one who was quickest broke up the piece of food and placed it in front of her. She ate all of the little they gave her. While she was doing it, at which they were very much pleased, they started out. Later than the usual time for going to sleep they reached home. They explained that they had started back in the night because the chief’s wife had begun to eat.

The chief commanded wood to be put on the fire. Then he called the people. One of her children had nearly cried itself to death when she reached home. When they handed it to her she pulled her teats out and put one into her child’s mouth, but it ran away from her. It was sucking a man. That is why it ran off crying.

The town people came in and sat down in a circle. After they had roasted the salmon, had broken it up into small pieces, and had placed some in a dish in front of the one sitting next to her she emptied it all [into her mouth]. She did not chew it. When she emptied it into her mouth the town people looked at her instead of eating. They were astonished at the way in which she handled the food. But it was the chief’s wife [they thought].

Next day his wife was again hungry, and again he called the people. While they were in astonishment at her [actions], the elder brother carried his younger brother along in front of the town. Both went crying along. He called the people. Then they let her pour the berries into a dish. To their surprise instead of doing so she bent over the tray. The youths came back in a crowd with the empty trays. They were astonished at what she did. It was not the chief’s wife that they saw.

Next day, very early, he (the elder brother) launched one of his father’s canoes and put his younger brother in the bow. He paddled off aimlessly out of Nass inlet, away from the town of Gu′nwa. After he had gone down with the tide for a while a woman leaned halfway out from a certain house and said: “Come hither.” The house had a front sewed together with cedar limbs. [301] It was painted.

Then he directed his course toward it. After he had landed she said to him: “Stop with me. To-morrow you shall go on.” She spread out mats woven in many colors for them. The chief-woman sat on one side, the elder brother next to her, and the younger lay on the other side of him. Then she said to him: “Let your younger brother sit next to me.” He picked him up and made him sit next to her.

For a long time he had had nothing to eat, since the time when they were astonished at the actions of his mother. He was going to eat for the first time with this woman. She turned round. Then she looked into her box, took a dish out of it with the carving of a mouse on it, and placed before him a single piece of salmon.

He bent down his head and thought: “After I have gone hungry for so long this is very little for me to eat. What part will my brother eat?” She was looking at his face and said to him: “Why, just as it is, the supernatural beings are never able to pick it up and eat it.” He picked it up, and his younger brother also picked it up. Yet it was still there. After they had eaten it for a while they had enough and put [the dish] back.

After the dry fish was finished she put down a cranberry for them as well. As soon as he thought about that, too, she looked into his face again and said to him: “Eat it. The supernatural beings are unable to consume it.” Then he picked it up with a spoon and ate it. When they were filled she put it back.

After it became dark she spread out the mat. There the chief-woman lay down. The elder brother was going to lie next to her, but she said: “Lay your younger brother next me.” He picked him up and laid him next her. As soon as he laid him down he lay as still as one killed by a club. For the first time after he had cried so long he slept.

While he (the elder brother) was asleep he heard a woman laugh, and it awoke him. To his surprise his younger brother was playing with the chief-woman. When his younger brother did a certain thing to the chief woman [she exclaimed]: “Yu-ī′, now see how He-who-came-to-have-Panther-woman-for-his-mother plays with me.” As soon as the elder brother understood this he began to cry [from jealousy]. At the same time day broke.

At daybreak he began to get ready to go somewhere without knowing whither. Then she made him sit down. “Stop! let me tell you something.” She brought her box out to the fire, took something blue out of it, and bit off part for him. “Now, my grandson, if anything has too much power for you, swallow this and spit it upon yourself.” Then she said to him: “Right down the inlet lives the one whom you came to see, the one for whose daughter you came. But your younger brother shall remain with me, and after a while I will marry him.”

Then he went down with the current alone. He was expecting to meet Sqä′g̣ał’s daughter. There lay the large town in which lived the woman he came to marry. After he had walked about in the town for a while it became dark. Then he entered Sqä′g̣ał’s house. He went in and sat down close to the door. The chief’s child sat between the screens at the rear of the house. Around her walked some women with their hair stuck together in bunches. Her father set them to watch her so that she might do nothing foolish. When day began to break, instead of going in to her, he went outside.

He went round the front of the house and followed a narrow trail. At an open place near water holes human bones were piled up, and a bull pine stood there. In the branches of this he sat down. After he had been sitting there for some time red spots from the rising sun appeared on the open ground. Then the chief’s child came thither. The servant who came in advance had a bone stuck in her nose. [302] She had a crooked war club. The one who came behind was dressed in the same way. The leader had a human scalp in her hands. Their hair was stuck together in bunches. She was a Tlingit woman. The one behind was a Bellabella. [303]

She sat down, untied her blanket, and was naked. Then she went into the water, turned round four times, and came out. Then the Tlingit woman rubbed her back. The Bellabella woman, too, rubbed her breast. After they had finished rubbing her she went into the water a second time. After she had turned round to the right she sat down on dry ground and turned her back to the sunshine.

When her skin had begun to dry he came out and seized her. The moment that he seized her he quickly touched noses. [304] One servant picked up her weapons with the scalp, ready to strike him, and the other one, too, was ready to strike him with the bone club. But she stopped them. “Do not kill him. I will marry him.” The human bones lying around belonged to those who, having become fascinated at the sight of her, had seized her, and had presently been killed by the servants.

At the same place, beside the bull pine, they lay with each other. The Tlingit woman sat down at her feet. The Kwakiutl woman sat at her head. There they kept looking at her. When the sun was set all four went home. Then she entered her father’s house. As she went in she concealed her husband under her blankets. Her father had his eyes fixed upon her and [said]: “My child, what makes you lame?” “Father, a shell made my foot sore by cutting into it.” Then they went in together behind the screens.

And in the evening the chief’s child lay behind the screens. Then he lay with her, and he (her father) heard someone talking with his daughter in the night. When day broke the chief commanded them to put wood on the fire, and two slaves put wood on the fire. After it had begun to burn up he said: “Come! look to see who is talking with my child.” Then a young man went thither and said: “Someone is lying here with her.” And her father said: “Alas! I wonder what roaming supernatural being it is! Perhaps it is ‘He-who-had-Panther-woman-for-his-mother,’ whom I wanted my child to marry.” “He says he is the one, father [said his daughter].”

Then he spread out a mat next to himself and said: “My child, come and sit down near the fire with your husband.” Shortly she came down and sat there with him. They put four hard stones into the fire. When they became red-hot he put them into a dish standing near the wall with the tongs. Then he had it set before his son-in-law. A spoon made out of white rock was stuck into it. She was crying. “Hᴀ hᴀ hᴀ!” she wept, “he is going to do again as he always does when I try to get married. That is how he kills them.” Then he said to his wife, “Do not utter a word.”

Now he took the spoon, picked up one of the red-hot stones and swallowed it. His insides were not affected. He handled all four in the same way. He finished with them.

This was because his supernatural power was strong. If his supernatural power had been weak, he would have been killed. Because his supernatural power was strong he let him marry his daughter.

While he was living with this woman he and his younger brother, who had become the husband of Mouse-woman, forgot how their mother had begun to act strangely.

One day he lay abed a long time. He lay until evening. He was there when they went to sleep. Next day he again lay abed. Again he was there till they went to sleep. He lay abed two days. “My child” [said his father-in-law], “why is your husband feeling badly?” She said: “I do not know.” Then she went over to her husband, sat down at the head of his bed, and talked a while to him. Then she said to her father: “He has suddenly become desirous to see his younger brother, whom he left just above here.” “Now, chief-woman, go with your husband to the common canoe I own over there in the woods.”

And they went thither. To their surprise they did not find the canoe. Only the bones of a whale lay there among the salmon-berry bushes. Its tail bones lay [with the rest]. Then they returned and she said to her father: “Father, we could not find it. Only a whale’s head lies there.” Then he said to her: “Chief-woman, my daughter, that was it. Say to it ‘Go seaward, father’s canoe.’”

When she went back to it with her husband she kicked it. “Go seaward, father’s canoe,” she said to it. Now a whale canoe floated upon the water. The lines cut on the edges [305] were pictures of geese, which almost moved their wings. And they carried their stuff down to it. The canoe was all filled with good food, with cranberries, berries in cakes, soapberries, and the fat of all kinds of animals, grizzly-bear fat, mountain-goat fat, deer fat, ground-hog fat, beaver fat—the fat parts of all mainland animals; and he got into the canoe and pressed it down with his feet toward the bow. When the canoe was nearly full those who were loading it went up to the house and laid pieces of whale meat, with most of the grease taken out, in a basket. When it was full they took it down. And they laid it on the top.

When they were ready to start, her father came out; [he said]: “My child, when the creatures seated on both sides call throw cranberries into their mouths. When they become hungry they keep calling.”

As soon as they moved their wings the canoe started. While they did so the canoe went along. By and by, when his brother’s wife’s house came in sight, they shoved off Mouse-woman’s canoe also. They also loaded her’s with good food. When it was filled they pressed it toward the bow with their feet. By and by it was filled, and they started off together.

As soon as the geese along the edges of the elder brother’s canoe began to call he took out cranberries and put them into their mouths. Along the edges of the younger one’s canoe sat rows of small human figures. All had small painted paddles in their hands. With these they paddled. As soon as they began to move their lips as if hungry he fed them.

When they came near to the place where they had gone to get cedar bark, the younger brother’s wife and the elder brother’s wife sat upright. And they said: “Move shoreward.” Now they got off there. They had sticks in their hands, and they hunted in the sand with them from the sea inland. By and by they dug out the bones of a human being in front of a tree at the edges of the grass. The canoes floated on the water in front of them. Their husbands were looking at them.

Mouse-woman took out her box. Sqäg̣ał’s daughter, too, took out her box. Sqäg̣ał’s daughter brought out of her box a mat with edges like clouds. Mouse-woman took out something from her box also and bit off a part. Now they put the mat over her and began to rattle her bones under it. Underneath this Mouse-woman spit many times. Then they (i.e., Mouse-woman) told Sqäg̣ał’s daughter to hurry: “Quick, hasten your mind, noble woman.” Then she, too, said: “It is [for you to do so], noble woman. You had better hurry yourself; it is getting late.” Then she pulled off the mat. Ah! their mother-in-law got up. He looked at his mother; both [boys], in fact, [did so].

They had her get into the canoe of the younger and went up with the tide to Gunwa, their father’s town. The younger brother’s wife hid her mother-in-law. They were anxious to see how their [supposed] mother would act when they arrived. When they got near the town, the wife of the younger ordered the canoes to be brought close together. The town was thrown into commotion. They reported to each other that the chief’s son and his younger brother, who had gone away, had both married. The people who came down to meet them were like warriors going to fight. In front came his mother putting her belt on as she ran to carry up the things. She acted differently from the others.

Then the elder brother’s canoe landed first, and Sqäg̣ał’s daughter stood near the basket. “Come hither, woman. Carry up my basket.” Then she went to it and was going to carry it with the strings around her head. Sqäg̣ał’s daughter prevented her. She wished her to carry it the right way [with the straps around her breast]. When she carried it, the weight made her stagger as she went up. She got into the house with it. How huge it was! Afterward they at once carried up the other things.

After they had pulled up the canoe, the younger one’s canoe also came to the shore. A big basket was in it, the strings on which were just like a knife. Mouse-woman stood near it. Then she called her mother-in-law from the place where she was carrying things up. “Come hither, woman. Carry up my basket.” Then her mother-in-law came to her, and was about to put the basket strings around her head. But [the other] forbade her. And she did as she was told.

When she started to carry it up the strings cut her head off. Her head lay at some distance. At once Mouse-woman took a whetstone out of her box, quickly got ashore, and put it between her head and her trunk, which were drawing together. After she had ground herself to pieces foam was piled up on either side.

Now she let out her mother-in-law. At that time they came down in a crowd and got her. They did it because they were glad to see her. To kill her mother-in-law was the purpose for which Mouse-woman let herself marry the boy. A crowd of people carried the property up. Then she said to her husband: “Leave me. I married you to restore your mother to life.” At once she pushed the canoe off and vanished downstream with the current. There was no trace of her left.

After that the elder brother’s wife lived as a chief’s wife. Then she became pregnant, Sqäg̣ał’s daughter did. She bore a boy. Again she was pregnant. She bore another boy. [She bore seven boys.] There was one girl.

Sqäg̣ał’s children made their town at Qꜝadō′, opposite Metlakahtla. Their mother and their sister lived with them. All eight went out to a beaver pond to hunt. When they had at length come to the lake, and had made a hole in one end of the dam, a stick was carried into the shoulder of the eldest by the force of the current. He died there.

Then they went away. And at midnight they came behind the house. Then they sent out the youngest and gave him the following directions: “Speak to our mother. And also watch your elder brother’s wife. She must be unfaithful to him. She must be going with another man. That is why our brother is [dead].”

He went off, entered his mother’s side of the house, laid his hand on his mother’s head, and said to his mother: “The beaver dam drifted down upon my elder brother. One piece drifted into his neck. He dropped dead without speaking a word.” Then she said: “Alas! my child.” “Stop! we do not want him spoken of before the people. Do not say a word.”

When she had wakened the people in the house by her exclamation, they asked her: “What made you say that?” and she said, “I dreamed of something terrible. I dreamed that a beaver dam floated into my eldest son and he dropped dead without saying a word. That was what made me cry out.”

After he had lain flat on the floor near his mother, and midnight had come, he heard some one talking with his elder brother’s wife. When it was near daylight, they stopped whispering. Then he crept over to them. And as the man slept he cut off his head.

After they had sat there in the woods for a while day came, and they went home. They had a real human head in their hands. The youngest brother put his head above the door. Out of it blood oozed in drops.

The chief’s son [in Metlakahtla] was lost, and they were looking for him everywhere. They stopped inquiring for him. The town of Metlakahtla lay there. By and by a north wind began to blow. The sea surface froze, even to Qꜝadō′. They began to walk to and fro to each other on the ice.

Very early one morning a slave went to the town of Qꜝadō′ for live coals. “Enter the middle house,” they said to him. And when he went in blood dropped upon his feet. When he pushed the charcoal into the fire, he turned his head around from looking at the side opposite the door. Above the door, to his astonishment, he saw the head of the chief’s son who had disappeared. He recognized him by the abalone-shell earrings he wore.

He picked up the live coals and started away with them. When he came to the ice he threw the coals away. Then he returned. Though he had looked right at it, he did not believe himself. And he went in again, and again he put the coals into the fire. After he had looked about the house for a while he fastened his eyes upon it again. It was really the chief’s son. Then he went away with the burning coals.

When he was halfway back he also threw those coals away. He thought: “I must have been mistaken.” Then he went back again. He entered, and he put [fresh charcoal] into the fire. And as soon as he had done so, he looked. It was truly he. He saw with his eyes. Then he started off with the burning coals.

Just outside he threw them away. At once he ran off shouting. “The head of the chief’s son who disappeared forever is stuck up in this house,” he shouted out as he ran. As soon as they heard his voice from the town they did not delay. They put on their armor, shields, helmets. And they ran to fight with war spears and bows and arrows. At once they fought with Sqäg̣ał’s children.

She and her mother were the only ones from among her kindred who were saved. Her brothers, however, they destroyed. They (the two women) came to live in a branch house in front of a hill behind the town. She lived there some time with her daughter. Every evening she cried. They went to bed, and they continued to lie there.

One day she offered her daughter in marriage: “Djīnâ′-â-â, nałgū-ū-ūs Ga′oax (Tsimshian words).” [306] A large creature came running in at the side toward the door. “I will marry your daughter.” “What will you do when you marry my daughter?” “Oh, bother! after I have married your daughter I will come out at one end of the town and eat them all up from the end. I will eat them all.” That was Grizzly-bear.

At once she said the same thing again: “Djīnâ′-â-â, djīnâ′-â-â nałgū-ū-ūs Ga′oax.” Something with crooked legs came in. “I will marry your daughter.” “After you have married my daughter what will you do for us?” “I will tip the town over by digging it up with my teeth.” That was Beaver.

“Djīnâ′-â-â, djīnâ′-â-â nałgū′-ū-ūs Ga′oax.” “What will you do after you have married my daughter?” “I [will] run into the water at the end of the town. Then they [will] take me into some canoe, and I [will] make them quarrel. Then all the townspeople will kill each other.” That was Deer.

Still another time [she cried]: “Djīnâ′-â-â, djīnâ′-â-â nałgū-ū-ūs Ga′oax.” [307] Someone came in and stood there. He had a bow for a staff. Feathers were around it in one place. He held arrows with it in his hand. He had a quiver on his back. He had dancing leggings. He had a gable-crowned hat. He did not say a word. “What are you going to do if you marry my daughter?” He took a heavy step with his right foot. The earth cracked. “Stop! stop! great chief, you are the one.” Then the earth closed again. “Indeed, I thought that you had your daughter for me.”

He took off his hat. He laid aside his quiver. He started off with only two arrows and his bow. He rolled a grizzly bear down from a steep place with his foot. There he also rolled down a deer and a beaver. Again he started off. He brought a post out on his shoulder. He put it into the ground, and without waiting, pulled it out. He went to the other side and did the same thing there, also toward the door, and on the other side. There he let it stay.

Again he went off. He brought out a wall post. In the rear of the house he stuck it in, in the other corner, on the side toward the door, in the corner opposite to that.

He went off. He brought out a stringer. He put it up and, after he had moved it backward and forward a while, he took it over to the other side. He put it up on the wall posts, too, and on the opposite side. There he let it stay.

Again he went off. He brought a plank out on his shoulder. He set it up on edge above the side opposite the door, and he rolled it over. By doing this again and again he completed half [of the roof]. He did the same to the other half of the roof. He filled up that, too.

Again he went away. He brought out a wall plank. He stood it up, shoved it along, and one side of the front was filled. He treated the other side and the side opposite the door in the same way. He treated both sides of the house in the same way. [308]

The house was finished. He went away. He brought two white rocks. He rubbed them against each other and laid them down under the smoke hole. The fire burned continually. It was never extinguished.

After that his mother-in-law kept cutting up and bringing in mountain goats and grizzly bears. Afterward she cooked them. He took his quiver and his bow. He put on his hat, took up his wife, and went away with her. He was the son of One-who-goes-along-above (i.e., the moon).

After he had lived with her in his father’s house for a while he had a child by her. She bore a boy. Again she gave birth to a boy. [She gave birth to eight.] Again she gave birth. She gave birth to [two] girls. The eldest son was called “Puncher” (X̣ᴀtagī′a). [309] The youngest girl was called “One-who-sucks-arrow-points-from-wounds.” The next one he named “One-who-heals-the-place-where-the-arrows-strike.” His grandfather called the eldest boy to him, took out his bones, and put stones in in place of them. He filled up all parts of his body with stones.

One day he gave ten slaves to the eldest. To the next he also gave ten slaves. He gave ten apiece to all eight. He made a row of houses for them, all sewed together with cedar limbs. On the house front of the eldest he put the figure of a thunder-bird. On that of the next one he put the figure of a sculpin. On that of the next he put the figure of a rainbow. On that of the next he put the figure of a killer whale. On that of the next he put the figure of a human being. On that of the next one he figured stars. On that of the next he put the figure of a cormorant. On that of the next he put the figure of a sea gull. To the eldest brother he gave a spear box. Along with it he gave an arrow box. He gave to all eight of them in the same way. Then he put two marten-skin blankets around each of their two sisters.

He sat in front of his grandchildren’s town and called for them. Then they picked up their weapons and practised fighting each other. By and by one was shot. Then the elder sister went out and sucked the arrow out of him. The younger sister went thither, spit on her palms, and rubbed them on him. Immediately he was fighting among the ten. Both [of the women] walked about among them. They tried particularly to shoot them. Instead of penetrating, the weapons rebounded from the blankets. That was why he gave the blankets to them. Thus they turned out good [warriors], and he had them cease fighting.

One day he began to let his grandchildren’s town down. He pulled apart the heavy floor planks, looked down, and saw the houses of Metlakahtla and [the site of] Qꜝadō′ among human beings. At midnight he let down the house of the eldest. When it struck the ground there was a sound of rattling planks. From the town of Metlakahtla one cried “Wā-ā-ā-ā-ā, ghosts are settling down”. So he heard some one cry. He let down two of them. He let down three.

The youngest received the following directions from his grandfather: “When you run away because they are too much for you put a wooden wedge having a drawing on it into the fire for me. Say to it ‘Tell my grandfather.’”

All that time the Metlakahtla people shouted “Wā-ā-ā-ā-ā, ghosts are coming down.” Eight had come down. It was wonderful to see smoke rolling from them in the daylight. In front of the town people walked about in crowds. They wore feathers in their hair. They longed much to see them. Then they sent a slave across in a canoe for live coals. They told him to go into the middle house, which had the figure of a thunder-bird on it.

He landed in front and shoved his coals into the fire. To his surprise he recognized Ga′oax there cooking parts of an animal. It was she whose sons they had killed. From rear to front gambling was in progress. Those watching the gambling stood about in crowds. He looked on. She (i.e., Ga′oax) threw a fat piece of meat to him [saying]: “Here is some ghosts’ food for you to taste.”

He went out. Then he threw away the burning coals and paddled across. He reached home, but instead of eating the fat he carried it up. He entered his master’s house and said: “Say! did you kill Ga′oax?” At once they called all the town people, and they questioned one another: “Did you kill Ga′oax?” Some said “Yes;” some, “No.” Some thought that she had got safely into the woods.

While they were still in the house one, full of mischief, [310] bit off some of the mountain goat meat. They looked to see him drop dead where he stood. Presently he said: “Why, it passed into me all right. All of you taste it. Swallow it. This is human beings’ food.”

One among them said: “Well! let us gamble with them. Then you can see whether Ga′oax got safely into the woods.” With that intention they went to bed, and next day, early in the morning, the town chief launched his canoe. The town, the chiefs and the middle-aged, all went. They went across.

After they had landed there they went into the middle house, and those who were gambling put away their gambling sticks. At once they began gambling with these instead. The town chief started to gamble with the elder brother. But Ga′oax spread out grizzly bear skins around the inside of the house. She and the young people began to give them food.

The elder brother was left-handed. He had laid the gambling-sticks down on that side. On the same side lay his bone club. After gambling had gone on for some time he stopped the town chief, who was handling the sticks. “You are cheating me” [he said]. And he replied: “No, indeed; I am not cheating you.” In spite of that he insisted upon it for a long time. After they had disputed for some time, the town chief threw fine cedar bark into his face. Then he struck him on the head with his war club. He killed him.

The house was in an uproar. They picked up their weapons, and the Metlakahtla people as well. They began to fight. While the fighting went on the two sisters walked about among them. Although they were struck with the spears, the latter always broke upon them. After the fight had gone on for a while one had an arrow point break off in him. He was wounded badly. When he was about to lie down the elder sister sucked his wound and sucked it out. Then the other sucked it, spit upon her hand, and rubbed on the wound. Then he got up again and fought with them.

The fight went on until the dawn of the next day, and continued then and the day after. Now they began to drive the people of Qꜝadō′ back. When that happened the youngest brother ran over to the house, drew something upon a partly used wooden wedge, said to it: “Carry the news to my grandfather,” and threw it into the fire. [311]

Then it at once came into the front part of the house and said: “Your grandchildren are beginning to be hard pressed.” Now he looked down between the floor planks. To his surprise his grandchildren, who were fighting for revenge, were being driven back. The eldest brother was naked. He fought among them with his fists. When he struck one, he did not get up again. He looked down upon all this. He turned around, went to get his small, square box and, when he had opened five boxes, one within the other, he took from the last something [shaped like skeins of yarn], covered with the sky and tied up with rope. After he had looked down for a while, he threw it down upon the people of Metlakahtla. Then their legs only were visible. At these they struck, and they killed all. These were called Clouds-of-the-Killer. [312]

Although this is the second story of the Skedans series, it was the first of them that I took down, my informant choosing to tell the Raven story last, and it is the second Haida story recorded by me. In consequence, the form in which it appears is rougher than that of most of the others, and certain points will seem obscure at the first reading. As noted in the text and translation, there are really two stories combined under one head. To the first the name properly belongs, and this may be a real Haida story, but the second, “He-who-had-Panther-woman-for-his-mother,” is a well-known Tsimshian tale. Nevertheless, my informant stoutly maintained that the story was always told in this combined form. Probably, the common episode of the marriage of two chiefs’ sons to women having supernatural power was the occasion for placing them together. The name given for Panther-woman, Sîmn’â′sᴀm, is Tsimshian.

THE ONE ABANDONED FOR EATING THE FLIPPER OF A HAIR SEAL

[Told by John Sky of Those-born-at-Skedans]

He was a chief’s son. He was always in the back part of his father’s house whittling. He did not care to eat anything. [His father] owned the town of Metlakahtla. [313] He was “town-mother.” [314]

Then someone in the town killed a hair seal. Then they cooked it and called the people in for it. And the father of the boy who sat up whittling went thither. All the town people went in for it. There they ate.

As soon as they had stopped they carried some over to the chief’s wife. When they brought it in a flipper lay upon the top. Now, he who sat up whittling looked down. Then he came down and called to his mother: “Come, give me a wash basin. Let me wash my hands.” Then he said “Come, push that over to me,” and he ate it. He ate it all and pushed [the dish] back.

Now he (the chief) came in and said to his wife “My child’s mother, come let me eat the hair-seal flipper I sent home.” “My child has eaten that,” she said to her husband. From the high place where he was whittling he heard what his mother said.

After she had said this to her husband, he did not say a word. Presently he said “Well, say that I want them to move from this place to-morrow.” At once a slave went out and said, “To-morrow the chief says he is going to abandon his son.”

Then evening came and he (the boy) went to the wife of one of his ten uncles with whom he was in love. As he lay with her, she gave him the following directions: “When they are ready to start, I will get off to defecate, and dig around with your feet in the place where I sit. I will leave something for you there.”

His younger brother was just big enough to sit up. He also had a dog.

When morning came the noise of their departure was heard. Then, when they were ready to go, he brought out his younger brother. He also took his dog, which he treated like his child. When they were ready to start, his uncle’s wife got off to defecate. She sat down behind the sea-weeds which were drifted ashore. As soon as she got in again, they started off.

After the crowd of canoes had gone round the point, he went to [the place where his uncle’s wife had sat]. Only a broken stick lay there. Then he dug around. He dug up a small box. It had ropes round it. He laid the box down near his younger brother, gathered planks together, and made a house. He made it just large enough. When it was finished, he again sat down near his younger brother and untied the strings of the box. In it was a grease-box and two mussel-shells fastened together by a string, which he untied. To his astonishment he found burning coals within.

He looked into the grease-box. It was half full of grease. Cranberries were also in it, and ten salmon were on the bottom of the box. He did not eat one of them. He kept them all winter for his younger brother. But he whittled continually.

Then only one salmon was left with a small amount of grease and cranberries. His mind was greatly troubled. There was nothing for his younger brother to eat. He used to give part to the dog. That is why his food was nearly gone. The last bits of the salmon, grease, and cranberries were nearly gone. By and by a small piece [of fish] was left, and he gave it to his younger brother along with all of the grease.

In the evening he went to bed and wept, wept, wept. He kept thinking all night of how nothing was left for his younger brother to eat. Presently his dog went out. It barked behind the house. From where he lay by his younger brother he rose quickly and at once seized his bow. While still in the house he wet the arrows with his mouth, prepared his bow ready to shoot when outside, and stepped lightly in that direction.

It was barking at something in the space between the roots of a cedar bent over toward the sea. After he had gone toward it for a while he saw nothing near it. It was barking at something in the ground. When he stood over it [he found] that it was barking at something in a pool of water. To his surprise a salmon lay in it. He speared it with an arrow. He twisted its neck off.

He took it up, laid it down on a piece of board near the house, cut it open, and steamed its head, its backbone, its milt, and its heart (?). [315] He gave its backbone and its head to his younger brother to eat. To the dog he gave its milt and its heart (?) to eat. He, however, ate nothing.

They went to bed and at daybreak the dog was barking there again. Again he went thither with his bow and [found] it barking at something in the water. Two salmon lay there. Then he speared them with an arrow. And after he had taken them to the house he steamed the two backbones, the two heads, the milt of both, and he gave them to his younger brother and the dog. He, however, again ate nothing.

Next day it was barking there again. Then he got his bow. He wet the arrows with his lips just outside. He went over and [found] three lying there. Every morning there was one more. Finally ten lay there, and he speared them and pulled them out. He dragged them out in a bunch and cut them open. He threw the gills away. Those he had obtained the day before he split a second time. This is why it happens that mainland chiefs cut fish open [instead of letting the women do it]. He was the one who started [that custom].

When it barked there the next day he stopped taking his bow. He only took the arrows. Again there was one more. Next day there was also one more. In this way the number reached twenty. Those he had cut open for the first time the day before he cut open farther. Then he split planks and hung them up there. He fixed a place overhead. Some food entered his belly for the first time since they left him, for his younger brother now had enough to eat.

The next day the dog barked there again. He went thither. There was one more than before. The day after one more was added. In that way the number reached thirty.

Next day the dog barked there. He went thither, and again there was one added. The day after one more was added, and the number increased to forty.

He and his younger brother again went to bed, and when day broke he heard the dog go out. After he had listened to its barking for a while [he found] that it was barking differently from the way in which it used to bark. After it had barked for a while it yelped differently. Then he picked up his bow and two arrows and just outside wet them with his lips. Having his bow in readiness he walked slowly toward [the sound].

It was barking at something in the same pool of water, and he looked into it. He saw not a sign of anything. But it dug for something near the water. After it had done so for a while its teeth stuck fast in the roots, and after it had yelped a while they slipped off. Then [the boy] helped dig behind it. The dog dug along ahead of him. Ah! they dug into the marks of salt water, and a salmon creek came to be there. [316] At that time a great shoal of salmon came up. He stood near them. Then he went away, collected the town people’s planks, and split them up. He planed them. He made notches for ropes. All that time the salmon were coming steadily up. He made this for them.

He stretched his arms on these. Each [of these horizontal pieces] was two fathoms long. Some were one fathom long [for uprights]. There were twenty poles of each sort. All had notches on the ends. Toward the top, which he worked down small, he placed a design. He put figures of salmon there. These parts were the łg̣aiyî′ñgadadjî. [317]

While he was making this thing he never forgot his younger brother and the dog, they say. He cooked for them continually, and they ate. When he had those things all together he went away and dug some roots. Then he came back, made a large fire of dead branches, and put them in. After it he split [twigs] with his teeth. After he had finished doing this, he shaped young and slender hemlocks so that they should be flat on one side and rounded on the other. When he had finished he fastened these together. He had four horizontal crosspieces on each half of the gī′g̣awai. On each half of the gīgwᴀ′ñgīda, too, he had three crosspieces. On each of the łg̣aiyî′ñgadadjî he had three crosspieces. He also split up pieces for the “wings” (weir). After that he put them together and finished all the same day.

He went back of the house, cut piles, sharpened them, and put rings of bark around them [to keep them from splitting when they were driven into the stream bed]. Now he went into the water and drove piles into the place where the fish trap was to stand. Then he put the fish trap into the water. He fastened the horizontal pieces with twisted cedar limbs. He treated the gīgwᴀ′ñgīda in the same way. Now he stood up the łg̣aiyî′ñgadadjî in place. Out of it all he made something roundish. [318]

After he had put the fish trap in place he gathered planks together. Then he split them in two. He also split some planks into poles. Then he enlarged the house. He set the drying frames for salmon over each other. He also put up the large poles (qꜝa′idagilai). They had notches [to prevent the smaller kꜝia′sᴀnai from slipping off]. The taxasgā′gida lay beneath the ridgepole of the house (djansgā′gida), itself supported front and back by the crossed house-timbers. [319]

Although he used to eat, he was so busy working that he stopped doing so. Still he never forgot his younger brother and the dog. He fed them all the time. As soon as the fish trap and all things were finished, and day came, he went to the fish trap. He kept taking them (the salmon) out. As soon as he had done so he strung them together. He finished ten strings and laid them in the water. Then he roasted some for his younger brother for that evening, and that night he remained awake. Again he kept taking them out. He strung up the same number as on the day before and let them lie in the water. All that time they never ceased to run, hu hu hu hu hu. Where had their hunger gone to?

One day, when the house was filled and he had fully enough and had cut them up for more than ten nights, before he went out to remain awake, he roasted some for his younger brother by the fire. He took out more and more salmon. He came back, and the two rows of roasted fish which had been there were gone. Then he went over to his younger brother, cried near him, and went out to cut up the fish.

When it was evening he again roasted some. Again he had more and again he stayed up to watch. He took some out. He did it repeatedly. When he went home what he had roasted had again disappeared. Then he again wept near his younger brother and went out to cut up his fish. He cut up the fish and again remained awake. Now he had three rows of roasted fish.

He took out still more salmon. He came in, and lo! all was gone. Part of those above were also gone. Then he called his younger brother, and said: “Say! brother, [320] did you eat all the things I roasted?” “No; shortly after you went out someone came in, gathered them up in his hands, with those above, and put them into his mouth.” “I thought it was you.”

Now, he did not care about the salmon. Nor did he go out to cut up the fish. He felt badly. He sat waiting. He was going to watch. He wanted to see who this person was. In the evening he brought out his bow, spanned it, brought out two arrow-boxes, put one on the left side near the door, and sat over the right-hand one with his bow.

After he had sat there in the dark for a while he saw two pieces of burning pitchwood side of the house. When they came around to the front of the house something wonderful entered and stood there. Something with fire burning in its eyes came in and stood there. After it had stood there for a while it gathered the roasted salmon together and swallowed all. After he had stood looking at those above for a while he gathered them also together and swallowed them. As he turned away from this he (the boy) shot him under the armpit and from the other side as well. That was Ga′ogila. [321]

When he turned about he shot him repeatedly. He shot him repeatedly. When one arrow-box was exhausted, as the animal turned around, he went to the other also, and after he had shot from it for a while midnight came and he went out.

At once he pursued him. He stuck the arrows into his quiver, and kept shooting him through his back and his breast. After some time had passed, lo! he had passed to the other side of a mountain as quickly as if it had been thrown back from him. Then he returned.

He entered and took his younger brother on his knee. He also called the dog to him, and the latter licked his lips. Then he turned over the drum that had belonged to his father and placed it over his younger brother and the dog. And he went away.

As he went he picked up the shafts of his arrows [which had fallen from the heads]. After he had run along for a while he heard a noise. Then he stood still. After he had listened for a while he heard a sound like that of a hammer. Now, he went in that direction. Lo! some one was working out the inside of a canoe. Only the top of his head was visible. He looked at it fixedly.

He walked slowly in that direction. His head entirely disappeared within the canoe while his hammer lay outside of the canoe. Then he reached for it and took it with him under a bunch of ferns near by. After he (the boy) had looked at him for a while he stood up in the midst of his work and looked about for something. He cleared away the chips. [The boy] was looking at him stealthily.

He sat still and put his finger-nails between his teeth. By and by he said: “My grandson, come to me. News of you has come. News has come, grandson, that they abandoned you because you ate the hair seal’s flipper, which your father sent home from the feast. If it is you, come to me.”

He went out quickly and stood there. And he handed his hammer to him. At once he stepped out to take it. That was Master Carpenter [322] making a canoe.

“Say! go and get four bent wooden wedges. Put two rings of cedar bark in the front part of the canoe and two in the stern. Then your canoes will come apart.” He was unable to make two canoes as he was trying to do, one inside the other, because his wedges were too straight.

He went to get the wedges, and while he was away the other had already put rings on the canoe. He brought them (the wedges) along. Then he told him to put them in the bow and the stern. Then he began hammering on them. After he had busied himself going back and forth from one to another for a while, lo! they started to separate. After doing so for a while, he hammered them apart. He thought: “I wonder where the salmon are for which he wants these.” He did not think about his younger brother. Then [the man] said to him: “Now, grandson, come with me. You shall marry my daughter.”

Now he went with him. Wā, the smoke they came in sight of was like a comb. That was his town. He went with him into the middle house, which belonged to Master Carpenter. Between the screens, in the rear of the house, sat a wonderful creature, as beautiful as a daughter of one of the supernatural beings. Then her father said to her, “Chief-woman, [323] my daughter, come and sit near your husband.” At once she arose and sat down near him.

After his father-in-law had given him something to eat repeatedly, evening came and she said to him, “Let us go out [to defecate].” “I do not know where they go out.” Then she said to him, “Why! do you not know where they go out?” She said to him, “I will go with you.” It was evening, and she went out with him. She went seaward with him, and they defecated. They came in and sat down. Straight across from the town a drum sounded.

His father-in-law treated him well. Every evening he went out with his wife, and the drum kept sounding there. He became tired of hearing it and once, after he had gone out and was seated with his wife, he questioned his wife, “Say! why is that drum always beating?” “They are trying to cure the town chief.” Then he said to his wife, “Come! let us go over and look.”

Then they came in, and she asked her father: “Father, do you own a small canoe?” “Yes, chief-woman, my daughter, one is lying down on the beach.” Then two youths carried the canoe down on their shoulders, but they (the man and his wife) walked. They got into it, and only the youths paddled, while he and his wife sat in the middle.

They landed and pulled up the canoe. Then he and his wife went up and, when they saw him, the crowd of spectators standing in front of the house before the door opened up a passage for him, and he and his wife looked in.

To his surprise the one he had shot sat doubled up over wooden bars which were fastened between ropes hung from the ridge-pole, touching the lower one with his feet and holding the upper one in his hands. [324] The arrows stuck out of him all over. He was suffering greatly.

After he had looked at him for a while, he thought: “I wonder why the shaman does not see what is sticking out of him.” Then one standing near him looked at his face and said: “I wish you could hear what the person standing here says, ‘I wonder why the shaman trying to cure him does not see what is sticking out of him.’” The one who announced his thought was mind-reader among the Land-otter people. And a shaman from among the Land-otter people was trying to cure him. He did not see what was sticking out of him.

By and by some one rose and spoke to him who offered the blankets in return for the cure. Then he went away with his wife, came home, and told her to ask something of her mother. “Mother, have you any cedar-bark?” “Yes, chief-woman, my daughter.” Then she gave him some. They dried it around the fire, went to work upon it, and pounded it up for cedar-bark rings. These were finished.

Then they intended to bring him over. While yet in the house he bound himself [with the bark]. He bound his arms, the front of his body and his legs. Then they came and offered him ten moose-skins. Then they had him brought over. When he entered, the sick man was still hanging in the rear of the house.

And, after he had gone around him for a while, he pulled the arrows out of his buttocks. As soon as he had done so he stuck them into the bands around his own arms. He suffered ceaselessly where he hung. Then he pulled them out from the other side of him and from his legs. He stuck them into the rings around his body and back. Then he picked him up and seated him on the floor-planks. So he who had been unable to sit up now did sit up. Then he asked for a pillow and laid him on it. Ah! he lay there comfortably.

But, when he looked up, he beheld his (Ga′ogila’s) daughter, who was wonderful to look upon. He beheld her. Then, picking the sick man up again, he made him lay his feet upon the lower cross stick and seize the upper one with both hands. Then he put the arrows back into his buttocks and his side, so that he again suffered severely. Then he started away. He ceased looking at him, and they took him away on the canoe.

After he came in and sat down two more persons came in and stood there. They offered him twenty moose-skins and two coppers. He refused them. Then they came to offer him all the things in the town one after another. But he kept refusing them. Now he saw that his mind had become fixed. His future father-in-law wanted to keep his daughter by means of the many things he owned. And, after he had refused the property, he offered his daughter in marriage.

Immediately he turned around and started off. Then he again bound [bark] around himself. And they took him across. He entered and went round the man who was hung doubled up. By and by, while he was doing it, he pulled the arrows out of his buttocks, and he also pulled the arrow points out from the left side of his body. Then he took hold of him and made him sit up. He sat there; and, when he had finished pulling the arrow points out of his sides, back, and breast, not one was left in him. He sat up.

Then he said to his daughter: “Chief-woman, my daughter, come hither and sit down near your husband.” He married the chief’s daughter. At once Master Carpenter’s daughter came over. Now he had two wives.

After he had lived with his wives for a while, one day he lay abed. When the people went to bed again he was still there. Next day he did the same thing. His two wives said not a word to him. As he lay abed he wept.

Then he (his father-in-law) asked his daughter: [325] “Chief-woman, my daughter, why does your husband lie abed?” Then she went to her husband and talked with him a while. And she said to her father: “He lies abed because he is homesick for his younger brother whom he left.” “Now, chief-woman, my daughter, go away at once with your husband. You and your husband go and look for the canoe I own which lies at the end of the town.”

Then they went there together. They arrived. Only a whale’s head lay there. Then they went home. She said to her father: “Father, there is only a whale’s head there.” “That is it. Go and say to it ‘Seaward, father’s canoe.’”

Lo! it floated on the water. Hu hu hu hu hu, it was a big canoe. Its edges were broad. They had cross lines. Then they put good food into it, launched another for Master Carpenter’s daughter, and into it put good food. They filled it with cranberries, berry cakes, mountain-goat fat, all kinds of berries. Then they pulled the canoes alongside and started off. Both wives accompanied him.

When they got near the town site he spanned his bow. He held two arrows in readiness. Then he jumped out of his canoe at a rocky point near the town, and he ran to his own house. When he entered he pushed off the drum which he had placed over his younger brother. The bones of his younger brother and the dog lay under it, held together only by their joints.

And, when the canoes landed, he went down to them. He held his bow ready to shoot the daughter of Ga′ogila. Then she said to him, “Do not kill us. We are going to look at your younger brother.” Then he stopped.

They went up together and sat over his younger brother, Ga′ogila’s daughter took something out of her box and bit off the end of it. It was blue. Then Master Carpenter’s daughter brought out a mat with edges like cumulus clouds, and they laid his younger brother upon it. Ga′ogila’s daughter spit under it many times.

Then she told Ga′ogila’s daughter to hurry. Her copartner in marriage [326] said to her: “Do so yourself, woman. Hurry your own mind.” Then she pulled off the mat. He rose out of the place [where he had been lying]. The dog, too, was glad to see him.

Then they unloaded both canoes. There were plenty of canoe men. There were a crowd of those whom his fathers-in-law had given to him. And next day they enlarged the house. They finished a large house for him. The front was sewn together [in the old style].

In his house they ate nothing but good food day after day. When they were through eating deer fat, mountain-goat fat was brought out, cut up, and distributed. They held this by the fire to roast. They ate it.

One day they said to their husband: “Go and get digging sticks for us.” Then he was glad. And he climbed a tree. He cut off limbs. He made them, and they were finished. The digging sticks he made while still in the woods were partly bloody looking [where the inside bark was reached]. When he came in with them, instead of being pleased, they laughed at him and said, “Get a real digging stick like father’s.” He went away again and used cedar limbs. Those the women also rejected. He got all sorts of sticks. He was unsuccessful. Then he got the side shoot of a yellow cedar. He finished it roughly on the spot. Then he brought it home and worked it up. The women said to him: “Make the lower part red; make the upper part blue.” They were hung in the rear of the house. The upper ends were made like round knobs.

Next morning they ate. The crowd of people was like stirred up salmon eggs. The young people played with his wives. But he said nothing. Then the two women put the digging sticks on their shoulders, but they did not take baskets.

Then he also went with them. The clams were shooting water. And he said, “Dig right here.” When the women went there, he heard them laughing, and they made him ashamed. But, after they had moved about for a while, they separated and started inland. Then they stood still opposite each other at the ends of the town. They ran their digging sticks into the ground. When they pried up they made the town larger than it was before. They brought up his father-in-law’s village.

Lo and behold! people walked about in front of the town in great numbers. He was “town mother” in his father-in-law’s town. His wives were two. Next day they again went down on the beach. When he spoke to them as before they laughed at him. They made him ashamed again.

After they had gone along for a while they struck their digging sticks into the ground. They dug out two whales, and the town people went down and cut them up. Next day they went down again. Again they dug two out. They went down for five days in succession and dug out ten. On each side they dug out five.

He wore ornaments of twisted copper wire coiled round his legs.

The chief’s son gave five whales to the town people. Next day they cut them up. But he left five. They were all fastened to his house with ropes. The sea-gulls eating the whale meat lying around looked like smoke.

Then he took his bow and arrows, and after he had looked at them for a while, he shot a small sea-gull. He shot it through the head. Now he brought it in, split it open at the tail, and skinned it. He dried the skin. When it was partly dried, he got into it. He walked about on the floor-planks with it. Then he stretched his wings to fly. He flew out. He left the town behind. His wives, too, did not have a trace of him.

He flew up into Nass inlet, they say. Then he looked about for the place where his father’s town was located. They were vainly trying to catch eulachon with fish-rakes. In the canoe belonging to his father’s slaves was only one fish. Then he took it up with his beak; one of them saw him and said: “Alas! he has carried off my eulachon.” They looked up at him. They saw around his leg the thing that used to be around the leg of the chief’s son whom they abandoned.

Then they paddled off and landed bow first [in their haste]. [327] The chief’s son whom they had abandoned had become a sea-gull. He had flown about among them. This is what they said. Then his father and his mother turned around from the fire, and, when they had stopped crying, he (the father) said to the slaves: “To-morrow go to dig for the bones of my child.”

Now the slaves went away, and, after they had gone down with the current for a while, they found decayed pieces of whales floating about upon the water. When they had gone on farther, they found two whales. After they had looked along a while for a place to hide this, they left it there. In Nass inlet they were starving in the period before the eulachon become thick. They left it until later. [328]

They went away from it and came in sight of their master’s town. The town had become larger. In front of the houses were crowds of people. They were boneless with astonishment. Only the man in the stern paddled along.

He (the chief) came out. Lo! four of his father’s slaves were coming. Then he went in and spanned his bow. He also took four arrows. He came out in a rough manner. He was prepared to shoot at them, but the daughters of Ga′ogila and Master Carpenter seized him by the shoulders. “Stop! let them land. Let them come into your house. It is also well for you to let them go again.” Then his two wives took his bow from him. He remained standing in the same place.

When they landed he went down to them and said: “All four of you come ashore. After you have taken off your clothing, come up with me.” So they stripped there and went up with him. And he had them sit down at one side of the house and gave them food. When the food was almost consumed he gave them some whale to eat. They ate it ravenously. He had them strip because he was afraid they would take some [food] home.

When they started off, one of them was so bent over as nearly to touch the ground. Then he went over to him and asked him, “Say! why do you walk so bent over?” and he replied, “Chief, I act that way because I am too full.” And when he (the head slave) was ready to start, he gave him the following directions: “Say! do not touch the rotten whale which is floating about. I shall watch it.” Then he said to them: “Say that you could not find my bones.”

Then they started off and landed in the night. And they said: “We could not find the bones.” Then his parents wept. When they stopped, they went to sleep. [That night] to their surprise the child of the head slave began to cry. He cried as people do when things are lodged in their throats. Then the chief’s wife asked to have him handed to her, and she held him on her knee. She put her finger into his mouth and found something. Then they looked at it. They did not know what sort of thing it was.

[The head slave] said: “I wish you could see what kind of house he lives in. What used to be your town has become larger. His two wives brought out the town. They dug it up, and they also dug out ten whales. Five are still floating there where they were fastened.”

Then, although it was midnight, the chief told them to put wood on the fire, and they went out and called in the people. Immediately they came in. Then, after they had consumed one salmon with the few last cranberries, [he said]: “I wish you to hear what I think. I think you should go toward your son whom I left and to whom I will give this town.” And all the town chiefs thought it good.

Then his ten uncles planned like this: they would offer their daughters to him in marriage. Their fathers were going to make marriage-gifts to them. Next day the town was broken up. Hu, hu, hu, hu, hu! the canoes that they launched were large. They painted up his uncles’ daughters. They paddled the canoes along together with planks laid across the tops of them, on top of which they had their daughters sit.

After they had gone along with the tide for a while they came to where the decayed whale-meat was floating. They landed, steamed some, and ate it. Then they gave some to their daughters, who sat in the canoes. But the daughter of the youngest uncle had not had her face painted. Because she was [considered] good for nothing, he left her so. Then he gave her a small piece of the inner layer of the bark of the hemlock. He told her to chew part, and she did.

Then they went on and came in sight of the town. It was most wonderful to behold. The whales floated about it. But as soon as the chief discovered them he got his bow. Then his two wives spoke to him, and he stopped.

They stopped in front of him, and a good looking woman went shoreward first. He told her to open her mouth. Her mouth smelt strong and he refused to have her. He refused all nine in the same way. Now the youngest got off. She opened her mouth. It smelt clean, and he smiled, and let her come in with him.

When they landed [his father] gave the town people to his son, and they made their homes on each side of those who were already there. Now he gave five whales to those who had just come in. The next day they went down and cut them up. They ate these ravenously.

After some time had passed one started out from the town to hunt with dogs. After he had been hunting for some time his dog barked at something. Then he went near it, and lo! his dog was barking at a grizzly bear.

Then he went to him. He threw him into his den. His wife sat at home. He was thrown against her breast. Then she dug up the earth for him, and put him in the hole, leaving only his cape outside.

Now he (her husband) came in and asked her: “Where is the human being I threw in to you?” “Here is the only thing you threw in to me, which I tore in pieces.” Then he again went after him and could not find him. And again he asked her, but she [said she] did not know.

Now, at daybreak, he went hunting. He carried a big basket, and his wife let out his thread of life. [329] It ran out irregularly. Then she let him (the man) out and gave him something to eat, and they lay down together. When it began to jerk again, she pulled up a plank, put him under, and sat on top.

He entered. There were a few crabs in the bottom of the basket. He used to fill it, but now it was different. He came in and sat down, but he did not know why he came home empty. [330] Next day she again fastened the thread upon him, and he started off. But, while it was unrolling, she cut it. Then she let the man out and married him. And she showed him the trail upon which her husband used to hunt, explaining everything.

Next day he took the basket and went inland. After he had gone up for a while, he came upon a lake in an open space. In the middle of this was a shoal. Now he swam over to it and put crabs into the basket. When his basket was full he went away. His wife was very glad to see him, because his basket was full. He lived with her a while. All that time he continued hunting in the same way.

By and by she became pregnant. She gave birth to a boy. She became pregnant again and bore another boy. She had two. Now he worked harder. By and by he stopped getting crabs and hunted hair seal.

One time he gathered them for four nights so that there were many and prepared to go away. Then she gave him the following directions: “When you hunt, leave some for my children. I will sit waiting at the upper end of the inlet.” And she said to him: “Do not talk with another woman.” She gave him a small water-tight basket in which was some water. A hawk feather also floated in it. Then she said to him: “Do not trifle with other women. In this I shall see it. When you have finished eating, drink from it.” So she directed him. [331]

Then he went away from her and came to his father’s town. And, after he had sat near a water hole behind it for a while, his mother came thither. Then he told her who he was. His mother went home crying. Then his father spread out a Gī′na-g̣ā′da-skin [332] he owned for him, and he walked [into the house] upon it.

Then they made a bed for him and he lay down there. They kept trying to get him to eat something. He did not eat. By and by two went with him, and he hunted. He speared hair seal. When the canoe was full he started for the inlet. Instead of objecting, those with him looked on in silence.

When he came to the end of the inlet there sat a grizzly bear. Then those who were with him turned their backs to the bear (paddling in the opposite direction), but, after he had paddled for a while facing her, he got off. Then he went to the grizzly bear and sat down near her. The two young grizzly bears were glad to see him. They licked him.

He went down to the canoe and threw off a hair seal. Then he went away. And after many nights had passed he went hunting again. The same ones were with him who had been with him before. And he speared hair seal. When the canoe was full they made a camp fire, and he steamed the hair seal there. Then they put it into the canoe and went into the inlet again. When they had almost come to land those with him again paddled in the opposite direction.

Again he got off and sat near the grizzly bear. The young ones licked him. Their mother, however, did not look toward him. After he had sat near her for a while, he stood up, threw off a hair seal, and went off by canoe.

But one time he went for water for himself. At that time he went with the one he used to be in love with. Then he went home.

After some space of time had passed he went hunting again, cooked some hair seal, and went into the inlet. Now, differently from the way she used to act, the hair on the back of her neck stood straight up. Then his companions said to him: “Let us go back. The hair on the back part of her neck stands up, differently from the way in which it used to be.” Still he paddled on. He landed and sat near her. She did not look toward him. His children, however, were glad to see him.

After he had sat there a while, she went to him and threw him about. As she did so she tore his limbs off. Then the cubs quickly went at their mother and tore her to pieces. Then they felt sorry on account of their mother. They acted as dogs do when one puts medicine into their noses. Then they went away.

Now, just as some people were starting a camp fire, [the cubs] came and killed them. They went away again, and they killed some others. And, while they were continuing to do this and were traveling about, they came and sat behind some people who had lighted a fire, and a woman’s child cried. Then she said to it: “Do not cry. Your uncle’s children might come and destroy us.” Upon hearing those things they went away.

This island was once all covered with grass, they say. Woodpecker was traveling about upon it. He had no feathers. And in the middle of the islands stood a large tree without bark, on which he began hammering. Now, after he had done this for a while, something said to him: “Your powerful grandfather says he wants you to come in.” He looked in the direction of the sound. There was nothing to be seen.

And when something said the same thing to him again, he looked into a hole at the foot of the tree and [saw] an old man sitting far back, white as a sea gull. Then he entered.

The old man looked into his small box. After he had pulled one box from another four times he took out a wing-feather. Wā-ā-ā-ā. [333] And he also stuck his tail into him and dressed him up. He made him red above, and he said to him: “Now, grandson, go out and start life anew. This is what you came in to me for.” Then he went out and flew. And, as he was going to do in the future, he took hold of the tree with his claws and hammered on it. [334]

[Another version of the third section of this story, told to Professor Boas to explain the carvings on the pole of “Nasʟᴇʟzu′s’s house” in Masset.]

There was a man of the Eagle clan, a great hunter. For a whole year he was unsuccessful. His name was Gāts. [335] He had two dogs. One day he saw a bear. He took his bow to shoot it. Then the bear turned back and took hold of the man and carried him to his den. After they reached there he gave the man to his wife, who hid him between her legs.

The bear went hunting again. When he returned he asked his wife, “What became of the man whom I caught?” She replied, “I think you did not bring a man; you only brought his belt. Here it is.”

Every time when the he-bear went hunting she took the man out of his hiding place, and he became her lover. The two dogs had returned to the village. The people followed them, discovered the bear, and killed him. Then the she-bear married the man. They had a child.

One day Gāts recalled his friends, and he asked his wife to let him return to his own village. She agreed and said: “I am going hunting all the time, I will go and give food to my child.” Then Gāts returned to his own village, where he had left a wife. But before he returned the bear told him not to look at his former wife, else she would kill him.

One day the man went hunting with his two sons. On the hills he met the bear. He went to meet her, and gave her some food. The people were afraid to accompany him on his visit to the bear. When she saw him approaching she raised her ears and was glad to see him.

One day he went to a pond to fetch some water. While doing so he met his former wife and smiled at her. Then he went hunting and caught many seals. In the evening he went up the hill to meet the she-bear. Then her ears were turned forward like those of an angry bear. She jumped into the water before the man had reached the shore, attacked him, and killed him and his two sons.

Like the preceding, this story is compound, there being in reality three distinct tales. The first and longest is that to which the title properly belongs, and the main theme, the story of the person abandoned to die who was supernaturally helped and became a great chief. It is popular from Yakutat bay to the Columbia river. The second part, the story of the man who married a grizzly bear, was appended because the hero is said to have belonged to the same town as the principal character in the first part. It is a favorite Tsimshian story, and is referred to for the origin of the secret societies. Another version, obtained by Professor Boas from Charlie Edenshaw, chief of the Stᴀ′stas, is appended. The concluding section, telling how the woodpecker obtained its brilliant plumage, seems to be altogether out of place here, but my informant asserted that it was always told in this connection at Skedans. It is the only part of the story manifestly Haida.

SACRED-ONE-STANDING-AND-MOVING, STONE-RIBS, AND UPWARD

[Told by John Sky of Those-born-at-Skedans]

In Sealion-town [336] one began to bathe for supernatural power. All sorts of weak things came through him [making him worthless]. He stayed with his eight younger brothers and his mother.

By and by his younger brothers disappeared. It was not known whither they had gone. Morning came and his mother wept. Again when day broke she wept. One day, when she stopped crying, she said: “My eldest boy is as if he did not exist. When morning comes my mind is always the same” (i.e., without gladness).

After she had said this to him for some time he got tired of hearing it and said to his sister: “Sister, pour salt water into the box my mother owns so that I may bathe in it.” Then she put on her belt. She laid her mother’s stone box down near the door and poured water into it.

Then her brother crept over to it and just managed to crawl into it. After he had stayed in it for a while he could not keep his buttocks under water. Then his sister pressed down on his back with the poker which lay near the fire. After she had pressed down upon him for a while she took away the stick. There was a small depth of water over his back. Now she pressed him down again, and, when she removed it from him, his back was well under the water. Then he broke the sides of the box by stretching.

And again he called to his sister: “Sister, pour some water into another of your mother’s boxes.” Then she again poured some into one. He got into it and stretched his knees out in it. He broke that, too, at the joints.

And again he called to his sister: “Sister, pour some water into another.” Then he broke that also at the joints. He did the same thing to another one. He broke four with his knees.

Then he went into the sea. After he had remained there for a while something just touched him. He reached for it. He seized the tail of a flounder. Now he called to his sister: “Sister, roast and eat this.”

And after he had been in the water a while longer something again touched him. He reached for it. He seized half a halibut and threw it over to his sister. Then he said to his sister: “Roast that. Do not steam it.”

He seized a porpoise tail and a white porpoise [337] tail. After he had taken all kinds of sea animals he also threw up a whale’s tail. And he said to his sister: “Steam that one however.”

After he had been in the water a while longer something touched him. He reached for it. He felt nothing. And, when the same thing happened again, he grasped farther away. Then his hand nearly slipped off from [the something], and he seized it in both hands. When the something had pulled him out of Skidegate inlet he tried to stop at Łg̣a′-ixa, [338] but then something cracked at the bottom of the island. He held something nice which was almost transparent, and put it around his head. That was Łg̣o′tg̣o-g̣ao [339] (the hair of him who tries the supernatural powers of men).

After he had put it around his head he swam up the inlet. He swam in front of Gū′łga [340] and passed over to Xā′na. [341] The water was shallow and broad like a lake, and he traced a channel in it with his hand and remained at its mouth.

After he had remained in the water for a while something came walking toward him, making a booming sound as it advanced. Some one stood on the shore opposite him. On the right side he held a knot and a branch of g̣ōdañxō′sgî. [342] On the other side he carried a piece of common seaweed and some kwē′aogia′g̣adañ. [343]

“Come hither, grandson.” At once he went to him. Then he said to him: “Now, grandson, turn your breast (or ‘face’) to me.” Immediately he turned his breast to him. He struck him with the knot. It was as when something is rubbed into fine pieces. And he struck him with the g̣ōdañxō′sgî. It became like the other. Then he said to him: “Now, grandson, turn your back to me.” And so he did. He struck him with the kwē′aogia′g̣adañ. He did not feel it. Then he struck him with the seaweed. He nearly knocked him over. Far off he recovered his balance.

“Wait a while, grandson. We will wrestle with (lit., “feel”) each other,” he said to him. “Now, grandson, let us try each other.” And they laid hold of each other. After he (the man) had shoved him about he almost threw him down. Then he turned away smiling. “Grandson, yours has more strength. Swim down the inlet.”

He went along; he went along and presently swam ashore at Sealion-town. Then he dried himself by the fire and went to bed. After he had been in bed for a while, and day had begun to break, he went out.

Then he followed an indistinct trail. After he had gone along for a while, he saw a shrew [344] trying vainly to cross an old log. Then he put her across and kept his eyes upon her. She entered a bunch of ferns lying some distance away.

Now he went to it. He moved it aside with his hand. To his astonishment there was a painted house front there with the planks sewed together. And she said to him, “Come in to me, grandson. News has come that you want to borrow something of me.”

Then she hunted in her box. She bit off part of something for him. “Now, my son, here it is.” And she said to him: “When you get home and go up to Gū′łga lake, take along your bow. There you will shoot a mallard. Blow up its stomach and put its grease into it. I know that what destroyed your younger brothers lives there. You are going to restore your younger brothers. Eat some [of the grease].”

He went home and entered the house. After he had remained seated there for a while, he went to bed. And next day early in the morning he went up to Gū′łga lake. [345] Male and female mallards [346] were there. They were pretty. He prepared his bow and shot just over the head of one of them. It fell as when something is dropped. Then he got it ashore, made a fire for it, plucked and steamed it. He saved its entrails.

Then he went down upon the beach and picked up a big clam shell. Then he steamed the duck and put the duck grease into the clam shell. He took out the duck meat to eat. Then he put a [hot] stone into the duck grease. At that time the duck grease boiled over. All the things that live in the forest said: “Be careful! the duck grease might spill.” Thus they made him ashamed. He did not eat the duck meat. When the duck grease settled down, he put it into the entrails.

This is why, when the earth quakes, the Raven people tell [him] to be careful of the duck grease. They say so because Sacred-one-standing-and-moving was a Raven.

Then he went away. He saved the feathers and the duck grease. And he came home. Then he went to bed.

When next morning tore itself, he went to Gū′łga, took two children thence, and went into the woods at the end of Sealion-town. When he came to the lake, he looked about, pulled up two cedars entire, fastened them at the butt end with twisted cedar limbs, did the same at the top, and held the two trunks apart by means of a stick. He laid it in the lake, bound the legs of the two children, and placed them between. [347]

When they moved, a wā′sg̣o [348] came out on the surface in the space between. Then he knocked out the stick and his head was caught, but he pulled [his trap] under. The cedar came to the surface broken as when something is thrown upward.

Then he went home and stood up the dead children with the pole in front of the house. He kept them for the next day. And again he went thither and took the two children. After he had looked around for a while, he pulled out a large two-headed cedar, stump and all. After he had split it, a wren jumped around him chirping: “Tcꜝê tcꜝê, my sinews.”

Then he went to get it, pulled out its sinews, spliced them together, and fastened the butt end and the top with them. And he put it all into the water. After the children had been again suspended above it for a while, the wā′sg̣o came up and got them. Then he knocked out the cross stick and he (the wā′sg̣o) carried it down. After he had carried it down, he floated up dead with it. Then he went to him and pulled him out.

He pulled him up on the shore and was going to cut him on the top of his head when it thundered. It also lightened. And the same thing happened when he started upon his back. But, when he started at the lower part of his back, nothing happened, and he cut him open along the belly. His younger brothers’ bones burst out from it.

Then he fitted together his younger brothers’ bones and spit the medicine Mouse-woman [349] had given him upon them. Immediately they got up. And then he said: “Sit down where you used to.” They were glad to see each other.

After they had been there for a long time one disappeared. The next day another disappeared. All eight of them disappeared in the same manner, and he felt sad.

Then he went to Gū′łga, passed along to the point on the side toward the upper end of the inlet, and to his surprise heard the buzzing of distant conversation on the other side. Then he pulled off the ribbon with which he used to tie his hair and threw [one end of] it across. Upon this he walked over and [found] a crowd of spectators at the door of the middle house, in which people were talking. Then he passed through them and looked in.

In the rear of the house a certain thing hung, under which one lay face up. Out of it flames played at intervals. It was sizzling there. While he looked on the person was driven out by the fire. The supernatural beings filled the whole space in the rear of the house.

After he had sat there for a while, one stood up. He said: “Get Stone-ribs, and settle him under it (the earth) forever.” He heard what they said. By and by one went out. After a while he came back, and they asked him: “Is he coming?” And he said: “He is near.”

Presently he came in. Like a son of one of the supernatural beings, he wore a copper coat. He also had on a marten-skin coat. And as soon as he had entered he lay under [the fire]. It was burning upon his breast. Out from it sparks went.

A certain one stood near the door and another on the other side. In the rear of the house sat his mother, Djila′qons. The one standing on the side toward the door said: “They are talking about it. They are talking about it.” [350] The one on the opposite side also said: “The supernatural beings who talk about the places which they are going to inhabit in the future also talk about this.”

She called for one of the servants who sat among them. “One-who-moves-heaven-by-the-rapidity-of-his-motion, go and call Swimming-russet-backed-thrush. I want to ask whether I went with him.” He said that he went with the chieftainess. She asked to have him called so that she might cross-question him about it.

There was no one to have his seat under this island. Then one day passed for Stone-ribs. Another day was about to pass for him. The supernatural beings acted as if shivering. They were afraid. They feared that he, belonging to the wrong side, was going to settle beneath them. [351]

Again those standing near the door spoke. They spoke as they had done before. And One-who-moves-heaven-by-the-rapidity-of-his-motion went to call Swimming-russet-backed-thrush. By and by he came back. Then she asked him if he were coming, and he said: “He is coming.” “Perhaps I went with him at Goose creek, where I dug out wild-clover roots, or perhaps I went with him at Łg̣ē′djîs.” At that instant he came in. He was good-looking. He had been gambling. He held his hand to his face with fine cedar bark in it. He wiped part of his face clean. As soon as he went over to the chief woman he pushed himself into her blanket. She was looking at him. She looked longer than was necessary. [352]

Another day dawned for Stone-ribs. It was broad daylight for him, and the supernatural beings were as if shivering with fear at the prospect of having him settle down beneath them. Just before daylight he was driven out by the burning.

Now, after they had thought for a while, one stood up, saying: “Let them send for Sacred-one-standing-and-moving. They say that he bathed in the ocean so much in order to settle down under it.”

Then he went out of the house, threw his ribbon across again, and ran over upon it. And he said to his mother: “They are setting out to get me. You will go with me. She-upon-whose-feet-property-makes-a-noise will also go with me.” As soon as he had finished saying this, they came for him. And he said he would come by canoe by himself.

Then he went to get his wā′sg̣o skin, which he kept between the two heads of a cedar, and he put it on while he was still in the house. He walked about, too pretty to be looked at by anyone. Then they started across. His mother steered, and his sister was in the bow. He stood in the middle as they went. And his sister got off, then his mother, last himself.

They went up. His sister went ahead. She held the [duck] entrails in her hands. His mother had the feathers inside of her blanket. When he entered, the supernatural beings held their heads down to him. He looked grand. He entered wearing the wā′sg̣o skin.

And as soon as he entered he lay down underneath. He was sizzling from the fire. Again it burned at intervals. When it stopped burning, his sister greased [his skin] with the duck grease. His mother put feathers upon it.

By and by one night was counted for him. Then the supernatural beings fastened their eyes upon him. Lo, another night was about to be counted for him. At this time the supernatural beings talked about the places where they were going to settle. They divided themselves up. At that time one among them stood up. He said: “Where is the sister of the supernatural beings, Woman-people-want-to-have, going to have her place?” “I do not know. I do not know. I shall have my place with my children a little way behind the chiefs among the trees.” [353]

By and by, when day began to break, they were looking on. Presently the Raven called. It was daylight. But then they discovered him enter and lie down under it. [354] Then he came to have his place under it (the island).

Then they went for Fast-rainbow-trout [355] and Marten. And they put a string on him (Fast-rainbow-trout) and sent him up with it. Then it was not long enough. He spliced hemlock roots to it. Marten went down with the lower end. [356]

Now the supernatural beings separated, leaving the town of X̣ᴀ′i­na [357] for the various places they had already talked about settling in.

Now Stone-ribs traveled about upon this island. After he had traveled for some time he entered the house and said to his mother: “Mother, toward Cape G̣ᴀ′ñxet [358] some one calls for me, weeping.” And next day he went about upon this island hunting birds. He went about upon it as one does upon something small.

And again he said to his mother: “Mother, she calls, wailing for me as if she would never cease.” Then he said to her: “I will go and help her.” And she said to her son: “Don’t, chief, don’t; they might call you skᴀ′mdal.” [359] “That is all right, mother; I am going to help her.” [360]

Then, very early next day, he started off again, passed Qꜝā′dᴀsg̣o, [361] went around Skedans point, and came to Broken-shells-of-the-supernatural-beings. At that time he took quicker steps. Then he ran over to Village-that-stretches-itself-out. And he went along down the inlet. Then he came near some white shells. Seaward, to his surprise, an eagle was trying to catch something and almost succeeded several times.

Then he looked at it. Again it almost caught it in its flight. And after he had thought about it he went down to it. And, when he got there, a halibut was swimming about in the standing water. There were stripes of copper along its edges. Out of its nose hung a weasel. Now he caught the halibut in his hands. He was very glad to have it. And when he was going to split it around the edges with his finger nails it thundered; and when he was about to do the same thing along the under side it again thundered; and when he was about to split it along its upper surface it again thundered and lightning shot about. Then he [split] it along its tail; and when he had finished skinning it he put it on.

Then he went into the pond before him. Bullheads shot away from him. When he opened his mouth, lo! the bullheads all went into it. And he opened his mouth. From his mouth they came strongly and quickly. They floated about dead. He got out of it and put it in his armpit.

He had two coats. He had a copper coat and he had a marten-skin coat. Before he started off, he practiced before his mother with them on, and, when he nearly burst his mother’s house by swelling up, she cried to him to stop.

He started and came to Łg̣adᴀ′n village. [362] Then he skinned the woman’s child, and lo! he was born instead. He grew up as rapidly as a dog. Immediately he began to walk. One day, as soon as he came in from out of doors, he wept so hard that they could not stop him. She tried to stop him in every way. He would not be satisfied.

After he had cried for a while, he said: “Ha, bow-shaped object; ha, bow-shaped object.” At that time she tried to stop him all the harder. As he wept he made the motion of handling a bow. By and by his mother pounded up some copper ornament she wore and she also finished arrows for him.

He was hunting birds. He did not sleep. And, one day when it was fine weather, they went for shellfish. They did not take his mother with them. Then, after it had been stormy for a while, it was again calm, and they went for shellfish.

Then he asked his mother if she owned a canoe. And, when his mother said that she did own one, he went along with them and his mother to get shellfish. While they were still going along the leading canoes had already landed. He landed his mother among the canoes which were floating about and remained floating back of them.

Now, when the baskets of those who had gone first were full, he lay down in his canoe, and, using the canoe as a drum, beat upon it with his bow. Then they made motions toward his face from the shore. They spoke in low voices. And they loaded their canoes and went off in terror. Before they had reached the village he told his mother to hurry up. Then she put the mussels in the bow. His mother seated him at the very stern, and they went landward from Qꜝā′g̣awa-i.

As they went along in fright, he (Qꜝā′g̣awa-i) [363] came after them. And, when he came near, he opened his mouth for them. But, as he was carrying them into his mouth in a current, [the boy] took his bow, pushed his lips together, and shoved him back, and he went under the water. They went on.

When they came to her, his mother said she was saved by blowing through her labret hole and putting her feet into the water. He listened.

After they had lived there for a while, it became stormy weather again. It was bad weather. When the mussels became spoiled for food, it was again calm, and they again went out after mussels. Some time after, he and his mother went out. After the baskets of those ahead had been filled, he struck upon the edges of the canoe. And again they opened and closed their hands to him for him to stop. After he had watched them for a while, they went away in fright, and he too went after them.

After they had gone on for a while, [Qꜝā′g̣awa-i] again pursued. He had five fins. Again, as soon as the current flowed into his mouth, they floated inward. Then he (the boy) closed his lips with his hands and shoved him back.

And, when they landed, they came down to meet her. They asked whether he came to the surface, and she said that she blew through her labret and put her foot into the sea. That was how she was saved, she said.

And again it was bad weather. After bad weather had lasted for some time, he went to a point toward the end of the town, entered his halibut skin, and went into the water. Presently he came to a broad trail, and, having traveled upon it for a while, arrived at the town of Qꜝā′g̣awa-i.

After he had peered into the houses, he looked into his (Qꜝā′g̣awa-i’s). In the rear of the house between the screens, which pointed toward each other, sat his daughter. He fell in love with her, so that he shook with desire.

Then, after he had gone around the town for a while, evening came, and he entered his house. He sat down in the rear of his house. His skin clothing had five fins upon it. He looked at it. Then they went to bed. And, as soon as he went to her, they lay together.

Then day broke and the town people went fishing. After the sounds had lasted for some time, he rose. To his surprise they were fishing right in front of the town. Then he went into his halibut skin. And, after he had swum around the edges of the canoes for a while, he opened his mouth for them and closed it quickly. They went quickly into his mouth. And, after he had kept his lips closed around them for a while, he opened his mouth.

Now he went up and went toward the place he started from. Then he went in. After he had sat there for a while, it was again evening, and he again went to meet the woman. He was very fond of her. He went to her and came back often. And as he lay with [Qꜝā′g̣awa-i’s] daughter, he listened to them talking about himself and nothing else.

When they were out fishing, he entered his skin. He opened his mouth for two [canoes] and spit them out shoreward.

And again he went away, and, after he had sat in the house for a while, evening came, and he went down to her. And he lay with [the chief’s] daughter.

He (the chief) was preparing to go out fishing with the others. They brought out his skin clothing, and they brought out his war spear and his arrow box. They put pitch on the points of these [arrows] in case he (Stone-ribs) had too much power for him. And he heard him say he was going to break his head with his teeth.

Presently day came, and he heard the sound they made as they went out fishing. When it stopped, he arose, swam off again, and came out on the surface near two canoes at one end. Then one waved a paddle. They did this for Qꜝā′g̣awa-i. He had not let out fishing lines. Instead his canoe floated quietly among them.

He went thither, and those who were there pointed into the water with their paddles. “It is lying right there,” they said to him. Then he seized his spear. He looked at it. It was too small, however, and he picked up an arrow instead. Then he speared it. He struck it in the side and pulled it up. Then he said: “Is this the thing that destroyed you?” and they said to him: “Do not speak like that. That is it.”

Now he told them to begin fishing, and they pulled halibut in and clubbed them. He was lying in the canoe. The skin of the Qꜝā′g̣awa-i had already been lying there for some time. After he had swelled up so as to fill this, they found it out. Then [Qꜝā′g̣awa-i] took his spear and speared him. Instead of being harmed he stretched it more and the canoe became covered with water. Immediately the salt water boiled. He captured his skin. He opened his mouth for them. As many as were fishing came fast into his mouth, but for some purpose he let two persons go home. Then he came away with the rest. He let them out toward the shore at a bay at one end of the town. From the very shore they fell over landward like a pile of wood. They lay near the shore without skins. Fins were on them. [364] Then he went in to his mother.

Next day he said to his mother: “Mother, I intend to go away from you. I am not really your son. I came and helped you because you called for me as you wept. My mother’s place is in the middle of this island.”

At once his mother sang crying songs. And on account of her crying he thought he would stay a day more, and he stayed near her one night, but next day he went away.

As soon as he went out he put on his copper coat. Over this he put his marten-skin coat. Over both he put his Qꜝā′g̣awa-i skin and started around the west coast wearing them. The supernatural beings living there opened their doors for him. After he had traveled about for some time [he came to] one living in the middle of the island whose door was shut, and, as he passed by, reaching out sidewise he took hold of him, and his house fell flat toward the sea.

And after he had traveled on he came to one fishing for black cod. When he came opposite to him he said to him: “Now, great chief, Stone-ribs, that you are, going along carefully, let me have the head. For that I am waiting here.” [365]

Then he turned back toward him. He pushed his arm into a rocky cave there, moved his arm about to make it larger, and gathered black cod together in his arms. When there were many in his arms he threw them into the cave. And he pushed him into the cave afterward. He (the man put into the cave) strung the fishing line with them, put some also into his canoe, and went away. He towed the string of black cod behind him.

Thence he wandered on for a while and entered Tcꜝā′ał inlet. [366] Where the inlet almost closes together, lo! something lay face up waiting for him. Its arms were half copper. It lay in wait for him. Then he lay still in front of it for a while and looked at it. It had five fins.

By and by, however, he let himself go on over its belly, and it seized him. Even his insides it squeezed. Its claws even went through his copper coat. He tried to swell up. In vain. Then he entered the halibut skin and escaped between its claws. It got its skin back because it belonged to the same clan [as Qꜝā′g̣awa-i].

Then he passed through the strait. When he came to Spit-point he (the point) let himself dry up on account of him. Then he remained still for a while. After he had stood still for a time he jumped up and flopped his way across it. After he had done so he entered the water on the other side. That is the Qꜝoas. [367]

After he had traveled on a while he came to where Rock-point’s house stood. Swim-far-off [368] placed himself half out of the door. He was afraid at the sight of his spines. He was looking at him, and he said to him: “Go around far from me, chief. I shall kill you.” On account of what he said he went around close to the island on the other side from him.

After he had traveled farther [he came to where] two persons were fishing from a canoe at the Cumshewa inlet fishing ground, in front of Ta′og̣ał bay. The bow man was making guesses as follows: “I wonder whether he who they say has been traveling around the west coast has passed this point.” Then the one in the stern said: “Horrors! what terrible thing will happen for what you have said. Let us go home.” And he himself cut the anchor line, and they went off in fright. Then he bit off half of their canoe and pushed the man in the stern along toward the shore. Near Ta′og̣ał he threw [the other] up from his mouth. He was changed into a rock there.

Then he went away. He stood up at Skedans bay, and inland, near the trees, he turned his back to the sunshine. Lo! he felt sleepy and lost consciousness. While he was in that condition [he heard] a noise like x̣ū. He looked toward it. Lo! he (an eagle) had his skin in his claws. Then he put on his copper coat and went after it.

The eagle flew inland and perched there. [A supernatural being] stood waiting for him. He had a war spear. He had a war helmet. Then he (Stone-ribs) passed behind him on the run. When he was at some distance he grasped him. His head was in his hand. Then he threw it toward the head of the creek. [369]

There lay the town of Skedans. [370] And the town chief there owned Sand-reef.[370] One day he went thither for hair seal and called the people in [to eat them]. They kept taking them over by canoe. All that time they called in the people for them. The town chief was named Upward. [371]

One day he went thither. At the landward end of Gwai-djātc[370] in front of Qî′ñgiłu some people in a canoe sang something. They used the edges of their canoe as a drum. He went to them. He [arrived] there, and lo! the song was about him. The song they composed was: “Upward’s wife is always fooling with somebody.” [372]

Then he pulled them in. He asked them why they clubbed seals on his reef. Hair seals were in their canoe. Then he fastened them to two canoe seats. And he started homeward with them. When they got even with Mallard-grease-in-hand on the north side of Island-that-wheels-around-with-the-current[370] one said to his younger brother: “Younger brother, take him, take him.” Then both seized him at once. They fastened him to the canoe. Then they took in his hair seal and went back.

Now they took him into their father’s house. Those that he pulled in were Farthest-one-out’s sons.[370] They laid him down in the middle of the side of their father’s house [373] and told their adventures to their father. And they said: “Father, he spoke to us about what you gave to us as a chief’s children. He pulled us into his canoe. He fastened us in the canoe.” And their father said: “My child, chief, my son, it is not as your slave father has said, but as common surface birds shall say.” [374] He spoke like this, as if speaking to a slave.

Then they brought him in. And they brought in a large, water-tight basket, put stones into the fire, and, when they became red hot, put them into the water in the basket with tongs. When it boiled, they put him in, canoe and all. Then they shook up the basket with him in it, and, when it began to swell up, he held fast to the cross-seats. Then they went to him. They laughed at him because he was afraid.

After they had laughed at him for a while, his wife sat down hard upon the top of the house. She was crying aloud. At the same time she made holes in the top of the house with her fingers. Water dropped into it. She asked what they were doing to her husband. But just then he began to think of a copper drum he owned, [and it came to him]. When he began drumming on it with the tips of his fingers, the chief said: “Take him and throw him out, chiefs, my children.” Then they took him, and they threw him out along with the canoe. Immediately she took her husband and went away with him.

And, after he had stayed with his wife a while, he thought of the words that Farthest-one-out’s sons put into [their songs] about him. Then he slept apart from his wife. After he had done this for some time, he woke up one night. Lo! he heard his wife talking with some one. But he did not disturb himself, and, when day broke, he sharpened a mussel shell knife he owned. And, when they went to bed, he remained awake. The moon rose. When it became light, the end of a rainbow came through the smoke-hole. He looked at it. It extended to his wife’s [room]. Then the rainbow again drew itself out through the smoke-hole.

After some time had elapsed, he heard some one talking to his wife. When the talking ceased, he crept over thither. He seized the man’s hair and cut his head off. Then he went out and fastened his head over the door.

After many nights had passed, a woman came by canoe and stopped in front of him. After she had remained there for a while, she said: “Come, chief, throw down your nephew’s head to me.” He paid no attention to her. It was Djila′qons’ son, who had been in love with his wife, whose head he had cut off.

Again she said landward: “Come, chief, put your nephew’s head into my canoe.” He absolutely refused. Then she became angry and almost struck the town with something that was half red, half blue. [375] And the town of Skedans almost tipped over. Then he went out and pushed it back again as he walked along.

The woman said the same thing again, and again he refused her. When she almost struck the town with her stick, it almost turned over again. And again he straightened it with his feet. Then he took the head and threw it out. And the hair-seal canoe [376] in which she came started off of itself, while he stood still there and looked on.

Then he went along upon Trail-inland [377] and entered the water at [point] Lying-seaward. [378] And he got his arms ready for her in the salt water. Her servants were doing the paddling. When they got above him, he laid hold of [the canoe]. Then they paddled backward. They were unsuccessful.

Then the chief-woman said, “Come in, chief, if it is you. Things shall not be different from the way you want them.” And lo! Upward rolled in through the bailing-hole. At once he went to the middle where the chief-woman sat. He stretched his arm across, and they lay there with each other. [379]

When they got home, she put her son’s head in its place, and he was restored. After he had had her as his wife for some time, and it was toward the end of autumn, the chief-woman began digging roots with the servants. One day, after they had come home, they appeared happy. He listened to them. He did not know why they acted that way. He got firewood in readiness for their return from digging roots. They came home together, and every time they were happy.

By and by, when they started off again, he went behind them. As they went along in a line, they beat upon thin boards held in their hands. They sang as they went. It sounded nice and sharp. The chief woman went in advance. He observed them stealthily.

Then they sat down at a certain point down the inlet, and sang there. The chief woman sat near the water. This he saw. By and by something having thick eyebrows came flying from above and sat near her. He was good looking. They lay with each other.

Then he went home, and, when they came home, he said to his wife, “Say! to-morrow you better not go. I will go. I will get a great quantity of roots of all kinds.” And next day he borrowed her belt and dress, and had his hair parted while still in the house. Now they sang as they walked. He went ahead of them.

He went to the edge of the water. He rolled away a rock with his hands and picked a sea-cucumber from the place where it had rested. Then he sat in the place where the chief woman used to sit. Shoreward the servants were also singing. By and by the person came flying down from above, sat near him, and lay down. And he cut off his penis. He put the sea-cucumber in its place. He went up from him making a noise.

Then he was happy, and he came home. He gave back the chief woman’s labret to her. Next day very early the servants rose, and, after they had eaten, they went outside. Just outside they sang the song. Again they went off in a crowd singing.

Now he again went along behind them. After the chief woman had seated herself, he came flying down again. They lay down. When the chief woman turned toward him, lo! a sea cucumber had been put into him. Then she wept. The servants also wept.

Then he went home and cut up firewood. And in the evening, when they came home, instead of being happy, the servants had tear marks on their faces. Then he asked them, “Why are you all sad? I guess you have become witches.” That was Snowy-owl with which the chief woman lay. For that reason he used these words.

After he had lived with his wife a while longer, some one said “The chief is coming.” Immediately they sent Marten into the woods. Then he pulled up a bunch of fern by the roots. He tied the stalks together and sat down by the edge of the fire toward the door. Five Land-otter-women sat in the corner of the house and one of them had Upward inside of her blanket.

Presently [the strangers] came in and sat in a circle. Then Raven [380] called for one of the young boys who moved in a crowd on the side of the house toward the door. And, after he had whispered into his ear, [the boy] went out. [381] And, after he had been away for a while, they spread out a mat in the middle of the side of the house, and five persons with matted hair sat upon it. After they had sat there for a while, one of them began acting as a shaman, and they sang a song for him as he acted. After he had done this for a while, he pointed at the one who held Upward hidden. When they all went to her, he (Marten) pushed the ferns on the fire. Immediately it became dark, and he was handed to another. After they had pulled her up straight, they found nothing at all upon her.

Then another acted as shaman and pointed at the one who was hiding him. Then they started for her. Again Marten shoved the ferns into the fire. While it was dark they passed him to another one. She, too, they had stand up. There was nothing whatever upon her.

Again one acted as shaman. Again he pointed at one of them. There was not a sign of a thing upon her. Still another acted as shaman. When he pointed at the one who held him, they went for her. Then Upward changed himself into a cinder and hid himself at the edge of the smoke-hole.

Then the one who sat at the end of those who came by canoe with Raven acted as shaman. And, after they had sung a song for him for a while, he pointed up at him, and they went to get him. [He floated up] and after he had kept coming down for a while, lo! they brought Upward in.

Then they brought him before Wī′gît, and he pulled his arm off. And, after he had pulled his other arm off, he gave them to the one (shaman) who sat next to him. Now he pulled out both of his legs and gave them to the shamans. And his body, too, he cut in pieces and gave to them. Then they ate it. They consumed it all. And, after they had sat there for a while, they became sick in the stomach. They died. Their bodies were pulled away and thrown outside.

[The story of Stone-ribs as told by Tom Price of Those-born-in-the-Ninstints-country]

From the town of Łg̣adᴀ′n they began to go out fishing for black cod. Then a creature having five fins at an island lying seaward called Qꜝā′g̣awa-i pursued them. And canoes were rapidly carried into his mouth by a current of water. But still they feared that they were going to starve to death and went out fishing. Many escaped. Mussels grew upon that island only. That is why they went to it. And they would not touch their paddles to the edges of their canoes [for fear of making a noise].

When he had nearly destroyed them all, Djila′qons’ son said: “I will go to the south country. I will kill Qꜝā′g̣awa-i.” Then his mother said to him: “Do not do it, chief; they will say Łᴀ′ndal to you.” [382] After she had said so for some time, she told him he might go.

And, after he had gone along for a while, [when he reached] point Skwai he became tired of walking and lay with his back against a rock. Then a sound like the rushing of wind came to his ears, and he looked in the direction of it. [An eagle] was almost touching a salt water pool in front of him in its flight.

Then he went thither, and, when he looked into the pool, [he saw] a small halibut floating there. Now he took it out. And, when he tried to cut it open along the side, all the supernatural beings protested. It also thundered. In whatever way he tried it, he was unsuccessful until he cut it open from its tail when nothing happened. Now he skinned it and dried the skin in the sunshine. He was glad to have it. And he went away with it.

By and by he came to the town of Łg̣adᴀ′n. It was evening and he looked about among the houses. He looked for a place where a child had just been born. By and by he saw a child lying in the cradle. When they were asleep, he destroyed it. But he became born in its place. His [new] mother was named Gwā′g̣anat.

And, after he had grown somewhat, he asked to have a copper bow and copper arrows made for him. All the time he was growing up they went out fishing and he (Qꜝā′g̣awa-i) swallowed them. And, when they came in from fishing, Supernatural-sparrow [383] living in front of the town ate all of their uncut halibut.

Then he began to shoot birds. He shot robins, the feathers of which along with those of the flicker were on his cradle. After he had become quite strong he killed geese and wild swans. His mother asked him whence he got them, and he said: “I am [getting them] from ʟdas.” [384] After that he also killed the big sparrow that lived there.

After he had shot birds for some time longer he said he had lost a black bird which he attempted to kill. He was sad about it. The next time he went out he brought it in skinned. That was the raven. Again he went out and flew around the island with its skin on. He flew down from above. He shot it in the country he called ʟdas.

After he was able to fly to some height he said: “I am going to kill Qꜝā′g̣awa-i.” Then his uncle said to his mother: “Put charcoal on the lips of that boy who is talking.” At once his mother did so to him. They were afraid to mention the name of Qꜝā′g̣awa-i near the fire. They were afraid that “Woman-under-the-fire” would take over to him the boy’s words. He sat around with charcoal upon his lips. [385]

After that the town people went to Qꜝā′g̣awa-i to get shell-fish, and his mother was with them. Then he cried after them. He was faint from crying. Now he told them plainly that he was going to kill Qꜝā′g̣awa-i. Then they took him with them. They fastened a weasel skin in his hair, and he took his copper bow and arrows.

After they had gathered mussels at the island for a while, they went off home from him. In that place he sang songs, and he beat upon the edges of his canoe with his bow, in lieu of a drum. They were unable to stop him. And when they went off from him he again sang the song.

At that time Qꜝā′g̣awa-i came after them. Then the canoe went into its mouth. And he came to himself in its belly, put on his halibut skin, and swelled up in its stomach. He killed it.

All of its five fins had the figures of human beings at the base. At that time he showed himself to be Stone-ribs. He told them that he was the son of Djila′qons. At that time he told them the crests they would use.

Then he traveled around the west coast, wearing the halibut skin. Now a big mountain called “Looking-at-his-own-shadow” called him in. He entered his house, and he was glad to meet him. After he had given him some dried food he gave him half of a whale to eat. When he had finished eating and was about to go out Looking-at-his-own-shadow laughed at him. Then he said: “Door, shut yourself.” And the stone hanging door fell. Now there was no way for him to go out.

Then, right in the house, he put on his halibut skin. And, after he had flopped around for a while, he got his fins under the edges of the hanging door and threw it up with his tail. When it fell back it broke. He shut all sorts of supernatural beings in, and they were entirely unable to get out. Only he (Stone-ribs) did it.

After that he entered the house of “Sunshine-on-his-breast.” He, however, treated him well. After he had been given something to eat, he went out of his house.

After that he entered Tcꜝī′da’s house. [386] He, too, was good to him. Then he had on the Qꜝā′g̣awa-i skin and let himself be seen by the town people. That is why those born at Kaisun wear the Qꜝā′g̣awa-i as a crest.

When he started to leave that place, they told him that Greatest-crab lived in the channel between the two islands. Still he went thither. Just as he had heard, it opened its claws for him. And, when he passed over it, it cut through the fins along the edges of his halibut skin with its teeth. Then Stone-ribs was sorry for this and went back to it. He swallowed the crab.

After that he let himself be seen upon this island. The supernatural beings were glad to see him because he saved the people from the thing that made the south end of the island empty. Only two treated him differently.

He went into Nastō′’s house, [387] also. After the latter had given him food, he let him go feeling happy. After that he let out the crab in Naden harbor. That is why there are so many crabs there.

After that Na-iku′n let himself dry up before him. [388] Then he entered his halibut skin and flopped his way across overland. That is the inside passage used by canoes. And, after he had gone on farther, Spit-point also dried itself up in front of him. Then he entered his halibut skin and passed it in the same way. That is the place through which they pass by canoe.

Then he entered the house of Many-ledges. After he, too, had given him something to eat, he went on. [Many-ledges] was pleased to see him. Afterward Qî′ñgi [389] asked him to come in. The supernatural beings invited him in because they wanted to see Qꜝā′g̣awa-i’s skin. All that time he let them see his skin.

After that he went inland and sat down at point Skwai. After he had sat there for some time something occurred like the quick passage of a strong wind. When he looked toward it an eagle had his halibut skin. But when he said “Alas!” all the forest beings told him not to go after it. “It was not yours. Your mighty grandfather, ‘Chief,’ [390] let you have his skin. It was he who took his own back.” It was an islet lying in front of point Skwai that lent him his clothing so that he might use it to kill Qꜝā′g̣awa-i.

And after that he again arrived at the town of Łg̣adᴀ′n. Now he left his Qꜝā′g̣awa-i skin there. He took his copper bow and four arrows, but the weasel skin he tied in his hair. He wanted to show them to his mother so that she would be pleased. [Because he wore them] Those-born-at-Skedans have them as crests.

Then he went to his mother. And his mother was pleased with him. Now he showed the copper arrows and the [skin of] Qꜝā′g̣awa-i he had killed to his mother and said that future generations coming out from her should wear them as crests, besides possessing the songs.

And his mother asked him: “Did they call you lakꜝî′l?”[382] And he said they did. Then he explained to her. “When I was of some height, and had been killing all sorts of birds, I said I would kill Qꜝā′g̣awa-i,” whereupon they used to say of me: “Put coals on the lips of that common person.” Instead [of being angry] his mother laughed at him. His mother foretold what they would say to him when he set out to help them.

This story, which practically includes three, is one of the most important and interesting of all Haida stories, for, while two of the preceding are largely Tsimshian and the Raven story is by no means confined to the Queen Charlotte islands, here we have heroes and places dealt with which are strictly insular, forming true Haida “hero tales.” The first two sections are of particular importance and were especially well known. The second version of the story of Stone-ribs is of peculiar interest as coming from a man of the town of Ninstints, where the descendants of the people of Łg̣adᴀ′n afterward lived, and where this particular myth appears to have been especially treasured. Sī′xa, the word which I have translated “Upward,” means more strictly “About-in-the-air,” referring perhaps to the escape of this hero from his house in the form of a cinder. “Stone-ribs” was the translation given me for G̣odᴀñxē′wat by my interpreter, but g̣ō′dᴀñ is also applied to one who discovers hidden things. The word for rib is xē′wī.

SUPERNATURAL-BEING-WHO-WENT-NAKED

[Told by John Sky of Those-born-at-Skedans]

Including their mother and their sister there were ten of them. Bad things came through the eldest. [391] His younger brothers were like the supernatural beings. One day one of his younger brothers went out and shouted “Hū-ū-ū-ū-ī.” [392] Then a cloud came out of the ocean. It came down in front of Gū′łg̣a. [393] One stood in the place [which it touched] and they wrestled with each other. After they had wrestled for a while the younger brother of Supernatural-being-who-went-naked was pushed down, and he bewitched him. “Go to the flint point which sticks out in the rear of my father’s house,” [he said], and he went thither with noise (i.e., quickly).

By and by the one who was born next to him also went out and shouted. He called in the same way as the other had done, and again the cloud came into the inlet. Again a person stood in the place [which it touched] and wrestled with him. After they had wrestled together for a while, he again knocked him down and said as before: “Go to the flint point which sticks out in the rear of my father’s house.” Then he went up into the air with noise.

Now he treated all seven in the same way. Afterward their mother wept. When she was through weeping, she blew her nose out (i.e., cleared her throat) and said: “My eldest son is nothing. My mind is so (i.e., sad) all of the time.”

Her daughter always took care of the fire. Every time they went to bed Supernatural-being-who-went-naked slept in the place where the fire had been. He was weak. He was unable to sit up.

Now he heard what his mother kept saying about him. Then he called to his sister: “Sister, come and bring out one of your mother’s stone boxes.” His sister poured some [water] into one, and, as he crept thither, he fell on his side and almost fainted. After he had lain there for a while he started to creep to it again, and he crept into it.

Then his buttocks were floating, and his sister picked up a poker and pressed on his buttocks. After his sister had pressed upon him for a while, she took away the stick from him. Lo, his buttocks were covered with water. And, after he had been in the water for a while, he stretched himself in it. He burst it.

Then his sister poured some water into another one, and he got into it. After he had been in it a short time (lit., the length of a hand), he burst it by stretching. Then he got into another. That, too, he burst with his knees.

Now his sister poured some water into the remaining one. As soon as he had got into it he stretched himself. He burst that also.

Then he went into the sea in front of Gū′łg̣a. And after he had been in the water for a while something touched him lightly. When he grasped for it he pulled off the tail of a flounder and threw it ashore. After he had been in the sea a while longer he seized the tail of a halibut. He also seized the tail of a porpoise and the tail of a white porpoise. [394] And after he had been in the sea a while longer he seized a whale’s tail. “But steam those,” said he to his sister.

After he had been in the sea a very much longer time something touched him. He grasped for it. He felt nothing. After he had been in the sea for another space of time something again touched him, and he reached quickly ahead of it. Something slender was in his hand. Then his hand began to slip off, and he seized it with both hands. Now something pulled him away. At Łg̣a′-ixa [395] he got a new foothold. After some time the bottom of the island cracked. Then he fastened it around his head and came back up the inlet. He passed close in front of Gū′łg̣a and lay still at the mouth of Xā′nᴀ. [396]

After he had been in the water there for a while something came down from the head of the creek, making a noise as it descended, and he listened as he stood there. Then the sound came near to him. Now he looked in that direction. Fallen trees came down toward him, striking against each other as they came. They came near him. They came straight toward him. Then he ran ashore from them.

Upon this all the vegetation in the forest and all kinds of birds in the woods called him a coward. “Is this the one who is trying to obtain power for himself? His power is weak.” Then he jumped into the water again, and they came upon him, striking together. When they struck him he felt nothing. What had become old rotten trees floated away from him.

And after he had been in the sea a while longer ice came down, striking together on the way. And again he ran away from it, and they said he was a coward. Then he again jumped into the water to meet them. After they had struck on each side of him they floated away, transformed into some soft substance.

After he had been in the water for another space of time rocks came floating down, striking together, and he ran away from them. They again told him he was a coward, and he again went into the water. And they struck upon him. They became brittle rock and floated away from him.

After he had been in the sea still longer he heard some one walking toward him. He looked in that direction. Someone short and broad with red skin was coming toward him. He held a knot in one hand and some g̣ōdañxō′sgî boughs. [397] On the other side he held some kwē′aogia′gadañ twigs [398] and some seaweed.

And he said to him: “Come, let me whip you, grandson.” He went to him and faced him. Then he struck him with the knot. He did not feel it. Instead, it broke in pieces. And he struck him also with the g̣ōdañxō′sgî. He did not feel it. And he also struck him on his back with the kwē′aogia′gadañ. He did not feel it. Then he struck him with the seaweed. He almost touched the earth with his head.

Then they seized each other. He pushed Greatest-strong-man down. Then he smiled at him, and went toward the woods upon the ice. Landward stood a dead tree on the sea side of which a dead limb stood out which he tried to pull off. He could not do it. But he (the human being) went over to it and pulled it out. And he said to him: “Now, grandson, go home, for your things are there.” And he went down the inlet.

After he had swum along for a while, he stood up at Gū′łg̣a. And, after he had stood near the door for a while, he entered and dried himself near the fire. He asked of his mother, who was weaving near the wall: “Mother, have you any?” “Yes, chief, my son; when something made you and shut you in the womb I had some made for you. They are here.” Then his mother hunted in a box, brought out two sky blankets, [399] and gave them to him.

Then he sat down on one of the bedsteads belonging to his younger brothers. He broke it by sitting. And he broke another by sitting on it. After he had broken all by sitting on them he made one for himself. And he also broke that by sitting on it. And, after a stronger one with yellow cedar corner posts was finished, that, too, broke down. And he gave it up. Then he fastened the pokers lying near the fire together in the shape of a cross, laid dead salmon-berry bushes across them, laid the planks on top of these, and sat down upon them. That, however, was strong. Then he went to bed.

Very early next day he went out toward the woods. After he had traveled along for a while upon a faint trail, [he came to] a dead fallen tree lying across the trail. There a shrew [400] with cranberries in her mouth was vainly endeavoring to climb over it. Then he put her over and passed by her.

He came to a mountain covered with devil’s-club and began eating it. And when he was half through evening came upon him, and he stayed there over night. And next day he again began eating. When evening came he had eaten all.

And the last he ate he spit out and said: “Perhaps I shall become a wā′sg̣o if I swim about so much.” Then something up the inlet said to him: “Ah! Red-backed-grouse [401] hears your voice.” From down the inlet something else said: “Ah! ʟꜝuqaᴀ′ndas [402] hears your voice.” Then he went home.

Next day he again went toward the woods. There the mouse[400] was trying to climb over. Again he put her across. And, after he had traveled for a while, he came to a mountain covered with x̣î′lg̣oga. [403] Then he ate it, stayed there all night, and continued eating next day. When he swallowed the last of it, he spit out part. He spoke the same words as before. And beings spoke to him as they had done before. Then he went home and went to bed.

Very early next day he went out to challenge some one to a wrestling match. When he started to wrestle with the thing which had destroyed his younger brothers, he said: “Now, when you throw me down, stand awaiting me.” Immediately they seized each other. Then he was thrown down. As soon as that happened, he (the opponent) pronounced the words.

And after he had gone through the air for a while, he came to the flint. At once he rubbed a medicine Mouse-woman had given him upon himself. Now, when he struck on it, he pulled it down. At that time his younger brothers’ bones burst out of it. Then he spit medicine upon them. And as soon as he got down [he found] the other still standing there waiting for him. Then he threw him down. “Future people will see you.” He became a kind of brittle rock. [404]

After that his younger brothers again disappeared.

After he had lain in bed awhile day broke, and he began to think of the animal he had put over [the log]. Then he went thither. Lo, she was again trying to climb over. He put her across. And he watched to see which way she went. Then she went in at the butt end of a clump of ferns. And a house stood there.

Then she said to him: “Come in, my son; news has come that you are going to borrow something from me.” Then he entered to her, and she let him sit down next to her. Then she turned to the wall. She took a tray out of one of her boxes. On both sides of it sat [carved] mice. She placed a piece of dried salmon which was in it before him. And he thought: “I have been fasting a long time. What a small thing I am going to eat.” Then she said to him: “Eat it. However small it looks, it can never be consumed.” He took it. While doing so he looked. It was still there. And he again picked it up. He was unable to consume it, and she put [the tray] back.

Then she again turned round toward the wall. She put a single cranberry in front of him. Then he picked it up with a spoon. That, too, he was unable to consume.

Then she turned round again. And she took something blue out of the box. [405] Then she bit off part for him. “Here is something for you when you think of eating medicine, Go up to Gū′łg̣a lake. There lives Among-the-hemlock-boughs, who destroyed your younger brothers. When you come to the shore opposite him where the ground is trodden down by many feet, whistle for him, and when he comes out to you and has nearly reached you drop on the ground quickly. Then you will come to yourself sitting in his belly. Put medicine upon yourself. Then you will restore your younger brothers. And when your younger brothers are gone again run quickly to Sealion-town. Then climb into the tree which lies seaward at the end of the trail running inland. When [a creature] comes to you from the sea push the thing you are going to make into his ear, and when he staggers about wounded climb into the tree again. At that place you will restore your younger brothers again. After all have disappeared again and you start after them you will keep on going forever as one with supernatural power.”

Then he went away. After he had been in bed for a while, day began to break, and he went up to the woods and reached his destination. There was a place there trodden bare by many feet. The footprints of human beings were in it.

Then, just as day began to break, he whistled. After he had done this for a while something like a person with his hair floating upon the water came along. When it got near him, he dropped flat, and, after some space of time had elapsed, lo, he came to himself in its belly. Then he put the medicine upon himself and stretched himself in its belly. His younger brothers’ bones poured out. He, too, was thrown out on top of them.

Then the hemlock was moving there. And he went to get it. He struck it. It was as when something is split up fine. Then he laid aside two branches and took two short ones. Then he threw one [of the latter] so that it went into a tree. And he threw another one. It stuck endwise into a hemlock. He spit after it. And he said: “Future people will use these as fishhooks in getting food.” [406]

Then he spit the medicine upon his younger brothers. They arose. And he said: “Go together to the place where you used to sit.” Then he, too, followed them, and, after they had enjoyed seeing each other for a while, again one was gone. One after the other all seven disappeared.

Then he whittled the hemlock limbs. He sharpened the ends and put them over the fire. Then he took these at midnight and went to Sealion-town. And he climbed up into a tree which stood at the end of the trail.

After he had sat there for a while two pieces of pitchwood came burning out of the ocean like lanterns. They came below him like lanterns. Wonderful to see, a wā′sg̣o [407] came and stood there. At the tree lying seaward it sat. It was coming to him. It had a whale in its mouth. It had another one in the curl of its tail.

And, when it got just under him, he sat down between its ears. And he pushed the hemlock limbs into its ears. Then he again pulled himself up into the tree. It staggered around underneath. At daybreak, when the raven called, it fell as if thrown down. [408]

Then he pushed it about [preparing to skin it] and was going to cut it open. But it thundered and lightened. Then he skinned it and cut it open. He caused his younger brothers’ bones to burst out and spit medicine upon them. They rose, and he said: “Go to the place where you used to sit.” The next day one was again missing and the day after another. It went on in this way until all seven were again gone.

And, after he had sat around for a while, he started off aimlessly. After he had gone along for a while he heard something in the middle of the island which sounded like a drum. Then he went to it. Lo! he came to a trail. It had been recently trodden upon. After he had traveled on this for a while he came to a house. The door was on one side of the front. Inside of the house something made a noise like a drum.

Then he looked in. A woman, wearing a brownish red cedar-bark blanket, twisted threads. The doing of that caused the noise like a drum. He sat outside of the door which was much trodden about. Then he went along and looked down. There was a salmon-berry bush newly broken off. And he took it up. He punched her buttocks with it as she sat working turned toward the wall. Then she turned round and smiled upon him, and he talked with her for a while.

While he was still talking he heard a voice [saying]: “Huk, huk, huk, huk, huk, huk, huk, huk.” Then he looked toward it. Lo! his younger brothers were trying to run apart from each other. Then he went to them and spit medicine upon them. He put some on himself as well and tried to pull them away. He was unable to do it. Then he tried it again. Again he was unable to do it. That was Gā′gix̣it-woman, they say.” [409]

Being unsuccessful he went home. Then he came to Gū′łg̣a. He was going to enter his mother’s house, yet in spite of himself he passed by in front. Then he turned toward it again and, when he was near the door, he seized a pole which was in front of the house. But it came away in his hand.

When he could not succeed in entering he wandered off aimlessly. Soon he arrived at the middle of the top of the island. After he had traveled about a while he came to an open space. Then he sat down there. After he had sat there for a while he looked at himself. Lo! he sat there naked, deprived of both his blankets. Some thick bushes were there.

Then he turned his back to the sunshine. He held his head down with his forehead in his hands. While he was sitting thus something touched him. He looked for it but saw nothing. Then he got ready for it, and, when this happened again, he grasped in front of it. It was in his hand. It was soft. It felt like fur. It was like something phosphorescent.

Then he skinned it and used salmon-berry bushes on which to stretch it. But lo! it was slack in the middle. Then he put it on a larger one. And he laid it out in the sunshine. He was going to make blankets out of it. It became nearly dry. He was glad. And, when it was nearly dry, things from the north end of the island and the south end of the island shouted “Wā-ā-ā-ā-ā, Supernatural-being-who-went-naked is stretching his sky blankets.” They laughed at him. Then he bent down his head. After he had sat there ashamed for a while he left his blankets.[409]

Now he started on. He traveled around and around this island. One time, after he had traveled for a while, he heard some one sobbing bitterly. He went thither. A house stood there. He ran to it so fast that he kept falling. Then he looked in. In the rear of the house stood one with tears running down and pitch on his face. His earrings were long. From the ends of them small human beings hung. Their throats hung downward. Their arms were moving as they hung.

He struck the ground with his baton and cried hard. “Thinking to restore his younger brothers again as he had twice revived them, the supernatural being started after them. While he was going, the supernatural being went on forever.” So he heard him put words into the song about himself as he wept.

And his boxes all had their ends toward the fire. There were four tiers of them. Then he wanted to look into them. And he ran about. After he had run around looking for something for a while he found a big rock, long and narrow, and he put it on his shoulder. Then he threw it up on top of the house. He pulled himself up after it. Now he made a hole above him and let the stone fall in. It struck his head. He dropped dead without moving.

Then he jumped down. He entered the door. He opened the box lying nearest to him. It was all full of moose hides. [410] Then he went to the rear of the house also. There, too, he opened some. Then he put five [hides] upon his back and went away. After he had run along for a while, lo! he heard his baton sound. Then he came near him and took one of his hides back. He put it on his shoulder. He did the same to all five and went away from him. And he looked in the place where he had been. He had vanished.

Then he went after him. Lo! he was crying out the same words as before. Then he turned back quickly and picked up a larger stone than the one he had before taken upon his shoulders. Now he put it on top of the house and pulled himself up after it. Then he made a hole right above him. He dropped the stone in. He fell down.

At once he jumped in, piled five blankets one over the other, and went away with them. Before he had gone far, however, he took these also from him. He remained in the same place looking at him. Now he was unable to kill him. That was Master Weeper.

And, after he had traveled about for a while, he came to a swampy place where skunk cabbage grew and jumped across it. [411] Then, after he had gone on for a while, he came to a deserted town. A little smoke came out of the house in the middle. He went to it and entered. And an old man lay there, back to the fire. [412] He looked at him. Then he arose and gave him something to eat. But he did not give him anything to drink.

By and by he said: “Hū; I am thirsty. I will go after some water for myself.” “Don’t do it, chief; those that destroyed my village live there. Go over to the corner and drink there like me, your mighty grandfather, who am doing without anything else.”

Then he went thither. It was a swampy place, full of skunk cabbage. And he turned around and defecated into it. And, after he had defecated into it, he said to him: “Manure is floating about here in it.” Then he said: “Alas! I wonder what I shall do.”

Then he said to him: “Hū; I am thirsty.” And he said to him: “Don’t go, chief; the things that destroyed my village are there.” But, without heeding him, he took the bucket and went for some. And, after the water had flowed down four times, he took some.

He did not know what happened to him. To his astonishment he came to himself sitting in its belly. Then he stretched himself in its belly. He burst it, and bones burst out of its belly. He put the bones together. If one leg was lost he repaired it with salmon-berry bushes. He spit medicine upon them. At once they got up. He revived the right side of the town.

Immediately after that the water flowed down continuously. Then he got some in the bucket, went in, and said: “Grandfather, drink.” Then he stretched his hand toward it. After he had looked at it for a while, he turned away from it. He did not drink.

After [Supernatural-being-who-went-naked] had sat there for a while, he said: “Hū, everywhere people eat things found at low tide. I want some devilfish. I am going to get some devilfish.” “Do not do it, chief; the thing that destroyed my village lives there.” But, without listening to what was said, he started off.

In the corner of the house on the side toward the door were two sticks for hunting devilfish. Then he took both. And he gave him the following directions: “After he has shot water from his mouth four times, punch in at him. That is the way to endeavor to kill him.”

Then he went. Something wonderful lived there. The supernatural devilfish shot water at him, and it went right to the sky. After it had shot out water four times, he punched it with a stick. But he found himself in its belly. Then he spit medicine upon himself and stretched out in its belly. He burst it. The mother of outbursts of human bones took place. Then he put the bones together, and part were missing. And he repaired them with any common material. Then he repaired their eyes in the same way and spit medicine upon them. At once all went away. And he said: “When you get home, walk about there.”

Then he dragged [the devilfish] along with the devilfish stick and threw it inside the door. When he came in and sat down, Nᴀñkî′lsʟas looked at him. As he was looking at him, Supernatural-being-who-went-naked said: “Now, grandfather, look about upon your town.”

Now he took his cane and went out with it. He looked to the right. To his great surprise something wonderful had happened. People decorated with feathers and having their faces painted walked about in rows. Then he also looked to the left. There things were in the same condition. Then he entered.

When he came in he brought out a urinal. And he threw some white, hard rock from a box on which his head rested into the fire. After he had looked at it a while, and it had become red-hot, he put it into the urinal. Then he put the end of a sharp-pointed thing, half blue, half red,[405] into this and held part of the clothing he wore over his nose.

Then he called for him. “This way, my son; come and sit near me.” Then he went to him, and he pressed on his nose with the stick and pressed it down. Now he took off the sea-bass, bullhead, and tomcod spines from him. After he had finished doing it he fixed him up. Then he brought out a comb and combed him from the top of his head. And he looked down. Lo! land-otter fur was piled up below. He did the same thing on the other side of him. Nᴀñkî′lsʟas pressed something upon his nose with his fingers because Supernatural-being-who-went-naked had the gā′gix̣īt smell.

Then he combed his hair. He made it long, and he made two knots of hair at his neck. He fastened them with a ribbon. He fixed him up with the blue part [of his stick]. After he had been at it for a while he poured water into a wash basin he owned and said to Supernatural-being-who-went-naked: “Now, grandson, look at yourself.” [413]

Then he looked at himself. He had put on [a painting of] red mottled [clouds] spotted with black, such as lie out on the sea. [414] He looked at it and said “This is bad.” Then he wiped it off and put it into his armpit. And, after he had put paint upon him for a while, he looked at himself again. He had put on his face a red, striped [cloud], such as lie toward the north.[414] And he did not like that. Now he put more paint on him. He put broad stripes upon his face, like those on the breast of a mallard. But he said that was good. He fixed him up, because he had restored his town to life. And he gave him two sky blankets.

Then Nᴀñkî′lsʟas said to Supernatural-being-who-went-naked: “Now you better go. The one your mind is troubled about lives near by. When the servants come for water throw yourself into the water and make yourself appear like one through whom worthless things come. The ones coming first will not want to touch you; the last one will take good care of you.”

Then he started and sat down by a water hole near Kaisun, [415] on the west coast. After he had sat there a while they came after water. Then they landed. They picked up the bucket. They came near him. And, when they got near him, he made himself like those into whom worthless things come and threw himself into the water. And he lay floating about in it.

Then the one who came first threw herself backward. “Yuwai′yᴀ, something is floating about in her water (i.e., the chief-woman’s).” Then the middle one said: “Throw him out with a stick.” Now the last one, who was lame, said: “Handle him carefully. After he has drunk whale soup he will become stronger.”

Then they broke off the stalk of a salmon-berry bush and took him out carefully. Now they got the water, and, after they had taken it down to the canoe, they remembered him. The lame one brought him in with a stick and put him in the bailing hole.

And after they had landed they carried up the water. They steamed the whale. Again they forgot about him. Then she who was lame thought of him and said: “We have forgotten about a crooked thing which floated about in the chief-woman’s drinking water.”

Then the daughter of The-one-in-the-sea said: “Hurry and get him.” And the lame one went and got him. She brought him up with a stick. He was bent across the salmon-berry stalk. Then they had him sit on the side toward the door. He warmed his hands at the fire. Then they handed him whale soup, but, while he was reaching for it and was moving it toward his mouth, he spilled it all. Then they all laughed at him and gave him some more. The same thing happened to that.

The chief-woman lived at Tcꜝī′da. [416] And next day they went fishing with a net. They pulled in a whale. And they cut it up.

While they were away he warmed himself on the side of the house toward the door a while and said: “Chief-woman, you [let me get something].” Then she said to him: “Go and get what you are talking about.” But he crept over to her. He touched the chief-woman. Then she seized him on each side of his head near his ears and knocked him against the floor planks, holding him by the hair. And she said to him: “Go and sit on the side toward the door, you common thing.” And he crept over there. Again he sat near the door.

After he had sat there for a while the chief-woman said to him, making the sound of throwing out saliva between her teeth: “Gîtgît, [417] the slave they say I am without, go and get firewood.” Then he crept out and came out of his skin outside. Then he seized with both hands a spruce, good for burning and covered with dead limbs mingled with green ones, which stood upon a knoll, and he pulled it up, roots and all. Then he threw it down from the knoll. It was broken in pieces below. Then he collected the pieces. And he carried up the bark, crept in, and put it into the fire. He piled [the wood] there, end up [in the usual way].

The servants had pulled in a whale. They were happy. Then, after he had tried to communicate with the lame one for a while, he told her about himself. “I have firewood for you back here. Go and get it. I am Supernatural-being-who-went-naked. Do not tell any one about me.”

Then the slaves were told to get firewood, and they brought it in. And [the chief-woman] again made a noise with her lips. “I guess it must have been Gîtgît who chopped down this firewood,” she [418] said to him.

One day he crept out. He got out of his skin. Then he stopped making himself old. He determined to marry the chief-woman.

Then he put upon his face the painting that Nᴀñkî′lsʟas had placed there first. He put on his two sky blankets. And, after he had stood there for a while, one of the servants came out. As soon as she had looked at him, although still at a distance, she came toward him with her arms stretched out. “No, no, no,” he said to her, and she went in from him crying.

Then she said: “Come! look at Supernatural-being-who-went-naked who stands just outside.” And another went out to him. He also refused her. He refused ten. Then she who was lame went to him. But he put his arm around her, and they stood there together.

By and by he entered and married the chief-woman. He stayed with her for some time. Every evening there was a star at the rear of the house. He thought nothing about it. One day something passing under his pillow said: “Supernatural-being-who-went-naked, does the eating of black cod stick you here?” [419] After some time had passed without his having thought anything about this, it said the same thing again.

One morning, as he still lay in bed with his wife, he asked to set a net. And his wife said to him: “Wait until I explain to you. You have not strength enough to let it out farther. They never let out more than one.” [420]

Then he took the net which was hung in a corner and went to the point. Whales swam about in the water. He let out two [meshes]. Two were in it. And he could not pull it in. The other [meshes] were also pulled into the water. All five were pulled in. Then he went away. And where he lay he breathed hard [from the exertion].

Then his wife asked him: “Were the meshes of the net pulled out?” “Yes,” said he. Instead [of being angry] his wife laughed at him. “That is all right, for I will go to my father and get it.” [421]

The day after she went to her father by canoe. All of the servants went along with the chief-woman. Supernatural-being-who-went-naked also went. They started. After they had gone along for a while, they came in sight of the town. Then they landed, and her father came down to meet her. And he asked his daughter: “Why do you come, chief-woman, my daughter?” “Why, father, we came after the net.” “It is there in the house, chief-woman, my daughter.”

And he was glad to see Supernatural-being-who-went-naked. Then they went in, and four hard white stones were put into the fire. When they became red hot, they brought a tray made of white rock out from the corner. They put them into it and placed it in front of him.

Then his wife cried, “Hᴀn! hᴀn! every time I try to be happy (i.e., to be married) you use this sort of weapon.” Then he told his wife not to say a word. And, after he had swallowed his medicine, he picked up one with a spoon and swallowed it. It even went through the floor planks. He did the same with all four.

Then they gave him a wash basin. After his wife had also washed her hands, they brought out five black cod. And she told her husband not to eat them. “It is something different,” she said to him. Then they put these in front of him, and, after he had sat there for a while, she said: “He says that is not what it is.” Then [the servant] put it back and they threw them out.

Then they put some more in front of him. Those, too, he did not eat. And she said: “He says that that is also something different, father.” Then they threw away the steaming box and brought another out, and they brought out five more black cod. Then she said to her husband: “They are black cod.” They cut them crosswise and steamed them. When they were cooked, they put them into a dish. And before they had taken these, she picked one up. “Take care of the head and bones of this.” And she gave him another. She gave him those parts of all five black cod.

And she said to her husband: “Do not let them go. He will take them out from inside your clothing so that you will not feel it.” And she asked him many times: “Have you the heads still?” “Yes, here they are.” Next day they started off. Again she asked her husband: “Have you the heads?” “Yes, here they are.” “Have you the black-cod heads?” “Yes, here they are.” “Have you the black-cod heads?” “No-o-o I wonder why He-who-has-spines-for-earrings turned round smiling.” [422]

Hu hu hu hu hu, great quantities of black cod were put into the canoe. Then they landed and unloaded the black cod. And it was evening, and they went to bed.

After many nights had passed, the something which had spoken under his pillow before he again heard going along and saying: “Supernatural-being-who-went-naked, does the black cod stick you here? Because you made Nᴀñkî′lsʟas’ town alive, he restored your younger brothers to life by letting himself be born from your mother. He sat early in the morning between rocks with white and black bands. [423] Being in love with part of you, he has also come to you.” And he looked out. Lo! he saw the tail of a marten pass in through the star. [424]

Then he went thither. To his surprise there lay a woman asleep with Nᴀñkî′lsʟas with the upper part of her blanket fallen away leaving her uncovered. Then he pressed upon her with his hands and she said to him: “I used to want you, but lo! you got around late.”

And after that he sat down near the fire feeling unhappy. Then his wife asked him: “Why are you so sad?” “I am sad because I left my mother not far from here,” he said, deceiving her. Then he started. He put black cod into his canoe and started off. Then he came into Skidegate channel and reached his [younger] brothers’ town. Lo! his eight younger brothers came down to meet him.

Then they went in. And his younger brothers only cared to have Nᴀñkî′lsʟas for an elder brother. They did not care about Supernatural-being-who-went-naked. Before they even gave food, Supernatural-being-who-went-naked began to give them something to eat.

Nᴀñkî′lsʟas had a bedstead in the rear of the house. Clouds were over his head. They could not see his face. She (the wife of Supernatural-being-who-went-naked) cut the black cod crosswise and steamed them. Then they told Nᴀñkî′lsʟas to sit near the fire and put down a wash basin for him. And the cloud upon his face crossed [the room]. He sat there washing his hands. Then they set black cod before him. They saw only his hands.

His younger brothers ate with him, but Supernatural-being-who-went-naked sat with his wife on the side of the house toward the door. Nᴀñkî′lsʟas did not walk down. The clouds rose. He was fastened to them. Then the clouds rested with him behind the place where the wash basin was.

Now, when they were through, the cloud rose with him, and his body was again to be seen on the bedstead. Then he (Nᴀñkî′lsʟas) called to his sister. After she had gone to him and he had talked with her for a while, she went out. She brought in cranberries. The tray had the figure of a gā′gix̣īt upon it. After he had sat eating for a while he stopped, and his younger brothers ate the rest.

Then she again put stones into the fire. Then they laid the wash basin down again, and the clouds again rose with him. Again he came down there and sat down, and they put black cod in front of him. Then he ate with his younger brothers. At that time they did not see his face. Then the wife of Supernatural-being-who-went-naked was sad.

They say that Nᴀñkî′lsʟas was in love with Gā′gix̣īt woman in order to restore the brothers of Supernatural-being-who-went-naked. In order to restore the town of Supernatural-being-who-went-naked to life he had let himself be born from the mother of Supernatural-being-who-went-naked. Then the clouds rose. Again he sat up high.

Again [Nᴀñkî′lsʟas] called to his sister: “Sister, come to me,” and his sister said: “Hū hū, always, when you send me after a thing, you are going to give me something. By and by you take it away from me again.”

Upon that he threw something down to her. It fell with a noise like that of a drum. At once she went to get it. She covered it up with her blanket. Then the wife of Supernatural-being-who-went-naked recognized the thing she used to let her daughter have. [425]

Then she cried: “Han-a han-a, I thought that I let only my daughter have that.” Then her mother-in-law said to her: “Stop, chief-woman; wherever the supernatural beings are settled they always wear it as a crest. Chief-woman, it belonged to your husband’s sister and her brother (Nᴀñkî′lsʟas). He is simply fooling her with the thing you are talking about.” At once she stopped crying. She really saw it. But still she believed what her mother-in-law said.

On the next day his brother’s wife again gave them black cod to eat. When he sat up again he called to his sister. After he had talked to her for a while she came down and sat near Supernatural-being-who-went-naked, who sat with his wife. And she said: “He wants something that he says your husband owns.” Then he did not know what [Nᴀñkî′lsʟas] referred to.

By and by he thought of the skin of the wā′sg̣o he had killed. Then he ran toward the mouth of the inlet. And he pulled himself up to the two cedar tops, between which he kept it, and pulled off the wā′sg̣o’s tail. Then he started back with it. He returned at once.

Then he said to his wife: “This must be the thing they speak about.” Then she called her sister-in-law and gave the wā′sg̣o tail to Nᴀñkî′lsʟas. After he had looked at it for a while he put it on top of his hat. It looked nice there. [426]

At that time they again steamed black cod. And lo! the clouds again arose. Then his younger brothers ate the black cod. Then his mind was sick. Now she turned around and began weaving. After she had done this for a while, lo! her brother-in-law had put himself around her. He looked out at her from her clothing. She looked toward the rear of the house for her brother-in-law. The form of Nᴀñkî′lsʟas still sat up there. Then they lay there together. [427]

But still she told her husband, Supernatural-being-who-went-naked, not to be in love with anyone. “Do not go with anyone, or I will go down to my father.”

Then her husband began getting water in a water-tight basket in which floated a hawk feather. Every time he came back she pulled out the feather. Globular drops of water fell off, and she drank. One time he lay with one he was in love with. And, when he came home, his wife pulled out the feather. The water adhered to it.

Immediately she became angry. Her labret moved as if some one had shaken it. Then she hunted in her box. At the same time her tears fell as if something were poured out. Taking something out of it she put it into her mouth. It was a white powder. She spit it upon her hands and rubbed it on the soles of her feet. Then her husband, who sat near her, took some that fell about. He at once rubbed it upon the soles of his feet. She did this because she was going to leave him.

Then she went down to the beach, and he followed her and went away with her on the surface of the sea. She did not look at him. Then she said to Supernatural-being-who-went-naked: “You better go back from me before I look at you.” And he said: “What kind of look is this dangerous look?” Then she looked toward him, and he went right under water. There was not a sign of him. And she entered her father’s house.

Then she said to her father: “Father, I made him fall in by looking. I looked toward him. Come! try to fish him out.” Then her father pulled apart the stone floor planks. He fished for him between them. Then he pulled him out, with nothing but his joints holding together. Then he spit medicine upon him, and he got up and went toward his place.

And, after he arrived there, they sent for Master Carpenter. Then he had a mountain placed upon ten canoes. And his younger brothers were settled there one after the other. Then he put a sky blanket upon his sister and seated her on the mainland. And he seated his mother on the Haida country. [428]

Now, he put on a dancing blanket and dancing leggings and started along on land near his younger brothers [who were going along in their canoe]. He bent over as he ran, and farther off he stood up straight. In that way Supernatural-being-who-went-naked became the Swamp-robin. [429] And his younger brothers lay still on the water out at sea. People sometimes become shamans [by getting power] out of that canoe.

Like the preceding this seems to be a strictly Haida story, although the gā′gix̣īt idea was also popular among the Tlingit of Alaska. This fact, together with its length and complication and the insight it gives into the mythology of the Haida people, render it one of the most interesting of all. One of the myths obtained by me at Masset bore this same name, but resembled it only in the concluding portion, the first part being like that of He-who-got-supernatural-power-from-his-little-finger.

HE-WHO-WAS-BORN-FROM-HIS-MOTHER’S-SIDE

[Told by John Sky of Those-born-at-Skedans]

She was a chief’s child. She was a woman. [430] When she went out, they braced the hanging door open for her, and she went out frequently. [431] One day, when she came in, the stick slipped off, and the edge of the door touched her upon the side and made her sore there. By and by a hole appeared there, and, when the town people came to know that, her father gave orders to abandon her. Next day they left her.

Then she went down to the saltwater and washed her [sore]. There she put medicine upon it. One day, when she was washing, some bloody looking matter stuck out. And she was unable to pull it out. Then she again put medicine upon it and crept up to the house.

Next day she crept down to the water again, and, while she was washing it, she again pulled at it with her finger nails. Lo, she pulled it out. Then she laid it upon a stone, and, after she had put medicine on herself, picked it up and moved toward the house. Then she bent pieces of cedar bark, placed it in them, and put it side of the house outside.

Now she went to bed. While her back was turned to the fire a child cried. Then she rose quickly and, without standing up, ran out. And something inside the thing she had bent together was crying. She looked. A child lay in it. And, after she had taken it out, she washed it. Then she reared it. She had it as a companion.

And very soon he began to creep. Before he had eaten anything he began to walk. One day he started to cry. He said: “Ha ʟ̣” [432] Then she made a bow for him. She used a young hemlock limb. When it was finished, she gave it to him. After he had looked at it he put it into the fire. She made them for him out of all kinds of wood. Each time he did the same thing.

By and by she made one for him out of real yew. Wā-ā-ā-ā-ā′, it looked red. It was pretty. After he had looked at that, too, for a while he threw it into the fire, and the blunt-pointed arrows along with it.

Then she pounded out copper for him. She hammered a string on so that it could not be removed. She also hammered out two arrows. One had the figure of a weasel. The other had the figure of a mouse on it. When she handed these to him he did not look at them. He at once went off.

After he had been gone for some time, he brought in some wrens [433] and said to his mother: “Pick and eat them.” Then his mother picked them and steamed them. When they were cooked she ate them. His mother tried to have him eat some. But he shook his head. He absolutely refused.

Then he again went off. He came back. He brought many song sparrows, [434] and his mother steamed them and ate. But he did not eat. Next day he went off again. He brought in a number of mallard, [435] and his mother plucked and singed them. She pulled them apart and ate one.

And next day he started off again. He brought in a number of geese. [436] He went off the next day. He brought a white porpoise, [437] and he brought a hair seal. [438] The day after he brought a whale. [439] He had stopped hunting birds.

Then he started off again. He stayed away longer than usual and brought in many flickers. [440] Then he said to his mother: “After you have skinned these, lay the sinews on one side.” Then his mother skinned them and laid the sinews on one side. And, after she had finished, she placed them together. She made five rows, and she sewed them together with their own sinews. After she had finished he shook it. The flickers upon it went flying back and forth.

Then he stretched his mother’s house. He set up two planks in the rear of the house. Between them he hung the blanket.

Next day he went out and brought home woodpeckers. [441] Then she treated those in the same way in order to make a blanket. After she had finished he went to it and shook it. Upon that, too, the birds flew about in a flock. Then he went to bed. He ate nothing all that time. All that time he fasted.

Then he again set out. After he had stayed away longer than before he brought in a bunch of tanagers. [442] Those, too, his mother made [into a blanket]. When it was finished, he also went to that. He shook it. Those also flew about upon it. He laid that, too, on top of [the planks] in the rear of the house.

Next day he started off again and brought home a bunch of sixᴀsʟdᴀ′lgaña. [443] Those his mother also sewed into a blanket. And, when it was finished, he shook it. They flew about upon it. He laid that upon [the planks] also.

The next day he went out again. [He got] blue jays, [444] and his mother sewed those together.

After that he again started off. After he had been absent for some time he returned with the daughter of He-who-travels-behind-us, [445] whom he had married.

After he had lived with her a while, one morning he continued to lie abed. While he was still in bed, something went along under his pillow talking. “He-who-was-born-from-his-mother’s-side, are you awake? Do you not feel that the supernatural beings, whom people are afraid even to think of, are gathering together against you?”

Then he ran out. He saw nothing. And he went out again. He pulled along an old man and made him sit at the end of the town. That was Heron, [446] they say.

One day he was again lying in bed. Then something passed under his pillow saying the same words as before. Then he seized his bow and went out. After he had looked about on the surface of the salt water he glanced upward. A thunderbird flew about above the town. It carried [his grandfather’s] town in its claws.

Then he went to the old man and said to him: “Grandfather, they are coming after me.” “What is the bow of the canoe like?” “A thunderbird is flying about above the town. He carries a town in his talons.” And the old man said to him: “Now, brave man, shoot it with arrows.”

Now he shot it with the one that had the figure of a mouse upon it, and it dropped the town. Lo and behold! he (the thunderbird) burst. [447] He put together their bones. If any of them was wanting, he repaired it with salmon-berry bushes. Then he went home. He had restored his grandfather’s town.

Again he lay in bed in the morning. Again something, passing beneath his pillow, said: “He-who-was-born-from-his-mother’s-side, are you awake? Do you not feel that the supernatural beings, whom people are afraid even to think of, are coming together against you?” Then he seized his bow quickly and ran out. And around a point at one end of the town came ten canoes with red bows.

Then he went over to his grandfather. “Grandfather, they are coming to fight with me by sea.” And his grandfather asked him what the bows of the canoes looked like. He told him that the bows of the canoes were red. “Now, brave man, have the town people pull î′nłîñ [448] out of the ground and spread it before them.” And he did as he had said. In a short time they rolled their eyes upward. Those were the silver salmon, [449] they say.

Still another time, while he was lying down, something passing under his pillow spoke the same words as before. Then he picked up his bow and ran out. And he looked at those who were coming. The bows of their canoes had vertical stripes.

Then he again went to his grandfather. “They are coming by sea to fight with me.” And he said: “Stop! brave man, what are the bows of their canoes like?” “The bows of their canoes have vertical stripes on them.” “Now, brave man, have the town pull up î′nłîñ and throw it about before them.” And so he had it done. At once their eyes were rolled upward. They were the dog salmon, [450] they say. He-who-was-born-from-his-mother’s-side made them cowards by putting î′nłîñ-teeth[448] into their mouths.

After another space of time had elapsed, something again said as it had said before: “He-who-was-born-from-his-mother’s-side, are you awake? Do you not feel that the supernatural beings, whom people are afraid even to think of, are coming together against you?” Then he picked up his bow and ran out. Again there were ten canoes with red paintings on their bows.

Then he went to his grandfather. “They are coming after me by sea, grandfather.” “Stop! brave man, what are the bows of their canoes like?” “They have red paintings upon them.” Then he said to him: “Have the urine in this town gathered together and hot stones put into it. Then have it spilled about in front of them.” And so he did. Those were the sand fleas, [451] they say.

By and by, something went along under his pillow, saying the same thing it had said before, and he again laid hold of his bow. Again ten canoes with their bows painted red were coming along.

Then he started off to his grandfather. “They are coming against me by sea.” “What, brave man, what do the bows of their canoes look like?” “The canoe bows have red paintings on them.” “Do the same way you did when you destroyed the others.” Then he again spilled urine around in front of them. Again their dead bodies lay around thickly. These were the fleas,[451] they say.

And he again lay in bed. Something passed hurriedly under his pillow. “He-who-was-born-from-his-mother’s-side, are you awake? Do you not feel that the supernatural beings, whom people do not even like to think of, are assembled against you?” He quickly took his bow. He looked in the direction from whence they had always come. Nothing was to be seen. Then he also looked upward. There was nothing in sight. Then he looked toward the edges of the sky. Lo! a great fire came toward him upon the surface of the ocean. [452]

Then he went to the old man. “Grandfather, they are coming to me by sea.” “What do the canoe bows look like?” “The edges of the sky come burning.” “Alas! Alas! I wonder what will happen. Now, brave man, scatter the bones of the town people about in front of the town and stand the sides and ends of the grave boxes on their edges in front of the houses. People always endeavor to stop it that way, brave man.”

And, after it had come along burning for a while, it came to the human bones. After some time had passed it burned through. It burned through in another place. By and by it came landward faster, without having been stopped. When it reached the sides and ends of the grave boxes it stopped there also.

He put on his five blankets and put his mother in his armpit. His wife he put in the knot in his hair. Then he walked about behind [the boxes]. After some time those were also thrown down by the fire. Immediately he started off.

After he had gone toward the middle of this island for a while, something said to him: “This way, grandson; my house is strong.” At once he turned thither. He entered the house and sat down. While he sat there the noise of burning sounded on top of his house. After a while a red hole was burned through the roof of his house. Then they pulled him up. They struck him from behind with their fists. When he bent over to go out one of his blankets was burned off. That was Fallen-tree-lying-with-one-end-in-the-water whose house he was in.

After he had gone on for a while [something said]: “This way, grandson; my house is strong.” Then he entered and sat down. The roof of that was also burned through. Then they pushed him out. When he was burned another blanket was burned off. That was Yellow-cedar’s house, they say.

After he had run for some time longer something else called to him, “This way, grandson; my house is strong.” He entered and sat down. After it had burned on the roof of the house for a while there was again a red hole there. Then they pushed him out. Another one was lost. That was Yew’s house, they say.

After he had run about something else called him in. “Come in, grandson; my house is strong.” And he went in and sat down. After he had sat there a while there was again a red hole in the house. Then they pushed him out. Another blanket was burned off. This was Spruce’s [453] house, they say.

And, after he had gone some time longer, something called him in. “This way, grandson; my house is strong.” He entered and sat down. After he had sat there for a while there was another red hole in the roof of the house. Then they drove him out with their fists. When he bent down to go out, a blanket was burned off. His mother was also burned away. That was Rock’s house, they say.

And, after he had gone on a while longer, something else called him in, “This way, grandson; my house is very strong.” Then he went in and sat down. The noise of fire was heard on the roof for a while, and, when it stopped, he went out. That was Swamp’s house, they say.

After he had wandered about upon this island for a while he heard the sound of a hammer. He went thither. Lo! an old man was repairing a canoe with cedar limbs. Where it had not had a crack he split it with his wedge. He made holes about this with his gimlet and sewed the place together again.

After he had looked at him a while, he stole his gimlet and went under a clump of ferns with it. Then the old man hunted for his gimlet. Then he put his finger nails into his mouth. Presently he said: “Grandson, if it is you, come to me. News has come about you that Burning-sky pursued you for your five blankets.”

Then he went to him. He gave him his gimlet. It was old and rotten, they say. Then he made one for him. He also gave him a whetstone. Then he picked up two creeks near the town and told him to look on attentively. “Now, grandfather, act as you are going to when common surface birds [454] get food for themselves.” Then he made him a beak out of the creeks. He also gave him some feather clothing. And he said to him: “Now, grandfather, practice.” [455]

So [Heron] flew away. He sat on a kelp floating about in front of the burned town. After he had sat watching for a while he speared something with his beak. An eel was moving in his mouth. He swallowed it. Then he flew away again and sat near the canoe.

Then he said to him: “Now, grandson, come with me. Go out and look for your blankets again. Those on the other side are not chiefs. Now, grandson, go and get the canoe. You are going to see your blankets.” The old man got into the stern also, and they went oceanward.

They went, went, went a while and came to his town, to Burning-sky’s town. Then they came down to meet him. Part of them also filled the house as if something had poured into it. And they said to one another: “They say he has brought his nephew, Sandhill-crane, [456] to dance.”

And he gave him these directions: “When I go in look toward the rear of the house. After your poor nephew has danced go over and get your blankets. And you will also get your mother neatly.”

Then he landed. He went up. And he had a little box in his hand. He had a baton. When he got inside, he stretched himself. Lo! his blankets were hung in the rear of the house. His mother also sat in front of them. He sat down in the middle of the side of the house. The house had ten rows of retaining timbers.

Then he hunted in his small box. He took his nephew out of it, wā-ā-ā-ā-ā. And he stood him up. He began dancing. He took the end of his wing in his mouth. After he had moved backward a while, the people in the house [said] “S-s-s-s-s-s” [with pleasure]. Those on the top step went to sleep at the sight.

After he had danced a while, he stuck his baton up, took [his nephew] and threw him at it. At once he was a weasel [457] climbing up on it. Again they said “S-s-s-s-s-s.” The next row went to sleep.

And he again picked him up and threw him at the baton. He became a woodpecker[441] and climbed up it. Again those in the house said, “S-s-s-s-s-s.” The next row below went to sleep.

By and by he picked him up again. He threw him at it. He climbed up as a California creeper. [458] Again [they said], “S-s-s-s-s-s.” Again [a row] went to sleep.

Then he took his baton and put it back into the box. “Enough. I think he has danced a long time.” He put him away. Then He-who-was-born-from-his-mother’s-side went to the rear of the house, put on his blankets, and took his mother. Then the old man went out quickly. They got into the canoe and went off.

When they were halfway home it came burning after them again. When it got near, he breathed toward it, and it stopped. Then they came home, and he went up.

Again his five blankets were burned off, and his mother as well. He reached for his wife. She, too, was gone. They took her away from him to marry her, they say.

Then he wandered on aimlessly. After he had gone along a while he let himself fall to the ground and wept. He looked toward the forest. All the trees wept with him. Then he looked seaward. All the fishes beneath its surface wept with him. Now he had his fill of crying and went on again.

After he had wandered on for a while [he heard] some people laughing and talking. And he went thither. They were trying to shoot leaves off of a big tree. As soon as they had shot one down they ate it. When he got there they moved back from it. “He-who-was-born-from-his-mother’s-side is going to shoot,” they said.

Then he shot at it. He shot it near the base. It began to fall. He made the supernatural beings rejoice by his shot. And he said, “Take care of its eggs (seeds). I will let my cousin, Cloud-woman, take off the head [of seeds].” [459] That was tobacco, they say.

Then they sent for her, and she came by canoe. She took all of its eggs. These she began to plant. They were spread all over this island.

This short story is given as if it were a purely Haida myth, but from an abstract of another version obtained in 1878 by Dr. G. M. Dawson it would seem possible that it came originally from the mainland. The abstract referred to runs as follows:

“Long ago the Indians (first people or ancient people—thlin-thloo-hait) had no tobacco, and one plant only existed, growing somewhere far inland in the interior of the Stickeen country. This plant was caused to grow by the deity, and was like a tree, very large and tall. With a bow and arrows a man shot at its summit, where the seed was, and at last brought down one or two seeds, which he carried away, carefully preserved, and sowed in the following spring. From the plants thus procured all the tobacco afterward cultivated sprung.” (Dawson’s Report on the Queen Charlotte Islands, Montreal, 1880.)

HE-WHO-TRAVELS-BEHIND-US (OR QONĀ′TS)

[Told by the Chief of Kloo of Those-born-at-Skedans]

There lay Pebble-town. [460] At times the town people fished for herring with nets. Sometimes they got a porpoise in their nets. And, when they reached home, the town chief sent a slave into the house of him who had killed it and had him say: “The chief says you are not to spill the blood of the porpoise upon the ground.” [461] In this way the porpoises were often taken away. The chief treated the town people as if they were his slaves.

And his nephew was a child. He saw that his uncles were treated like slaves. He saw that, although they had been nearly starved for some time, the chief took away the porpoises in the town from them. One day he and his grandmother went away. After they had gone on for some time they arrived at Telel. [462]

Then they built a house there. And there he began to bathe for strength. After he had bathed for some time he became strong. Then he made a bow for himself. And he shot a goose with his arrows. Then he skinned it and cut a hole on its under surface. He put it on his head, and it fitted well. Then he dried it.

The geese being plentiful on the water, he put his head into [the skin] and swam to them. From beneath he pulled them under water. At once he twisted off their necks. He did the same thing to their wings. Then he carried them to his grandmother, and his grandmother plucked them. He at once dried them.

And one time he punched his nose with broken pieces of basket work and let [the blood] run upon these. He used them to bait his halibut hooks, and he took along wooden floats, laid his halibut hooks upon them, and pushed them out into the sea. When they were some distance out to sea, he jerked, the halibut hooks fell into the water, and he pulled in halibut. He kept giving them to his grandmother. [463]

And one day he went down the inlet in search of something. After he had gone on for a while some creature wearing a broad, blue hat came to him. Then he asked him: “Where did you come from?” He paid no attention to him. And again he asked him: “Where did you come from?” Then he said to him: “[I came] From Qꜝᴀ′kun.” [464]

And he had two duck skins [465] on his back, one of which had the top of its head spotted with white. He seized one of them. He did not know what happened to him. Lo! he came to himself lying upon the edges of the retaining timbers in some house.

Then some one in the house said concerning him: “Throw him out. Throw the thing he wants out along with him.” Then he again lost consciousness. When he came to himself he was lying near the ocean. A whale lay near him.

Then he cut it open, twisted a young tree, and fastened it to it. And he dragged it along and brought it before his grandmother’s house, and his grandmother cut it up. After she had cut it all up she steamed it. After she had got through hanging it up he had his grandmother make a big basket. She finished it.

Then she put the food into it. She put in all kinds of berries, salmon, roots, [466] and kinnikinic berries. And it was finished. Then he and his grandmother went up the inlet. And he hid the basket near the town. Then he entered his uncles’ house.

And, after his uncles had fished for herring for some time, they killed another porpoise. Then a slave again came in and commanded that they should spill none of the blood. Then [the chief] came in and seized it, and he carried it off. As he was going out with it, he took it away. He became so angry where he sat in the rear of the house that the floor planks were as if split into slivers by the finger nails.

Then he pulled it away from him again. And, when he picked it up again, he let him go outside with it. Then he twisted [the chief’s] neck round outside. And he said: “Wā-ā-ā, wā-ā-ā.” When he came near the end of the town [he said]: “Wā-ā-ā, he has killed me.” Then his voice was lost in the woods.

Now he had a crowd of people go over for the basket. And they could not lift it. Then he went to get it. And he brought it in. Then he began to call the people. Next day he called the people again, and the day after.

And he became town mother [instead of the old chief]. The one he sent off killed is He-who-travels-behind-us. [467]

[Sequel to the above, told by Edward of the Food-giving-town people]

Her brother (i.e., the old town-chief) was killed. Then she started from the town. And she put the two bracelets she wore into the middle of ʟgidō′ [468]. And she said: “Through you future people shall see a portent.” When something terrible was going to happen, they saw them. Broad seaweeds lay upon them. They paddled off in terror. Although they (the people) had before been living quietly, they moved from that place at once. And she went up into the woods opposite. She became a mountain there. They call it Sea-otter-woman.

This is also one of the most esteemed Haida myths. The version here presented was obtained from the present chief of Kloo with the exception of the portion about Sea-otter-woman, which was contributed by an old man of the nearly extinct Daiyū′­ał-lā′nas or People of Skidegate creek. Qonā′ts, the hero of the story, was one of the Sea-otters (Qogā′ñas), and, were any of those people still living, a much longer version might perhaps have been secured.

HE-WHO-GOT-SUPERNATURAL-POWER-FROM-HIS-LITTLE-FINGER

[Told by Walter McGregor of the Sealion-town people]

At White-slope [469] a certain person and his mother were disliked. They made a house out of branches at one end of the town in which they lived. When it was low tide he went down and brought up something for his mother to eat.

After he had done this for some time he came to a heron with a broken bill. Then he sharpened it. And it said to him: “Grandson, you helped [470] me nicely. I will also help[470] you. Keep this medicine in your mouth.” Then it also gave him the feather on the tip of its wing, and it said to him: “Blow this under the armpit of the son of the town chief. Even the supernatural beings will not know it.”

The child often played at having supernatural power. He had a mat as a dancing skirt. He fastened shells upon it. Others he used as a rattle. He had feathers he found as a dancing hat. He used old cedar bark as a drum. One evening he went around the town. He looked into some of the houses. A chief’s son sat in one of them. Then he pushed the feather in between the side planks. When the point was turned toward his armpit, he blew it in. As soon as it went into the chief’s son’s armpit, he had a pain.

Then he went home. They got a shaman for [the chief’s son]. He went over to see him practice. Some persons with black skins on the side toward the door held burning pitchwood. Then he thought: “I wonder why they do not see the thing sticking out of him.” They dropped their torches and ran out after him. He ran from them. Those were The-ones-who-have-spines-for-earrings. [471]

The day after he went again. He wanted to see the shaman. When he thought the same thing as he had thought before they ran out after him again. At that time they discovered that it was the boy.

Then they set out to get him. He spit medicine upon the things he had been playing with. [472] The dancing skirt had a drawing on it. The drum had the picture of a wā′sg̣o. The dancing hat, too, was finished.

They hung up five moose skins for him. He went thither, and the beating plank beat itself as it came in. They had opened the door for him. While they were looking through it for him, his dancing hat came out back of the fire. [473] It did the same thing on the other side, on the side toward the door, and on the opposite side. After it had come up in all four corners he stood up. He took his feather. When he pulled it out the pain ceased, and the sickness was gone. Just before he went out he blew it in again. He did not think he had received enough. Then he went away.

Next day they made the number of his moose skins ten, and he again went there. Again the drum and the beating board went in of themselves. After he had entered as before he stood up. After he had danced around for a while he pulled his feather out for good. The chief’s child slept.

He had many uncles. They kept their daughters for him. Among these one was short on one side. That was the youngest’s daughter. One time, when they were going on a picnic, he started. And he changed himself into a salmon-berry bush near the trail and waited there.

When the lame one came along behind he tangled himself up in her hair. While she was trying to untie it, all left her. Instead, he came and stood near her. Then he said to her: “I will marry you. Go with me.” Then she went with him. After he had entered the house with her he spit medicine on her. He stretched her leg out. It became well. He married her.

Then he threw away the house of branches and built a regular house for himself. He made a bedstead which he and his wife always used. One night, while he slept, the house moved with him, and he awoke. He heard some one talking with his mother. When day broke he opened his eyes. Something wonderful lay there into which he awoke. The carvings inside of the house winked their eyes. The carvings on the corner posts of the bedstead moved their tongues at each other. In a rear corner of the house something stood making a noise. That was Greatest Hopper, [474] they say. Master Carpenter [475] had become his father, they say.

When he arose [the latter] said: “Come! my child, let me fix you up.” Then he went to him. He combed his hair. It hung down broad and glossy even beyond his buttocks. He painted his face. He was very handsome.

After he had lived a while with his father in that house he set out to marry the daughter of Many-ledges. Then his father told him that he destroyed the sons of the supernatural beings. And he let him take his arrows. “They fly around,” [476] he said to him. One bore the figure of a weasel. The other bore the figure of a mouse. He also gave him some knots. “In his town driftwood never floats ashore,” he said to him.

He had Greatest Hopper take him over. After he had gone along for a while with him the capes before him were burning. Then he spit medicine upon them, and he hopped quickly over with him. When he got close in front of Mā′g̣ᴀn [477] he felt extremely sweet. There were very many stick-potatoes there. That made him so, they say. After he had brought him to the end of Many-ledges’ town, Greatest Hopper went back.

Then he changed himself into knots and at evening floated ashore in front of the town, awaiting until his children came down to defecate. By and by they came down. “See the driftwood which has floated ashore. It is wonderful, because driftwood never floats ashore in father’s village.” Then they picked it up and laid it down near the door. Then they forgot it.

And, when they were going to bed, they thought of it and brought it in. He (Many-ledges) started to cut it up with one of his five stone adzes. It broke. Then he took another. He struck it with that, too. That, too, broke. After the same thing had happened to four, he split it in pieces with the last one. Then he was glad. And he put it into the fire.

When the daughters went to bed he shot in as a spark. Then he sat at the head of the bed and laid his hands on them. “Who are you?” [they said]. And he said, “It is I.” “Who is I?” “I am He-who-got-supernatural-power-from-his-little-finger.” When he was a boy and was whittling, something stuck into his little finger. [478] That is why he was so called. Then the woman [479] said: “For him alone my father has kept me.”

And, when she replied to him, he married her. When day broke her father said: “I wonder what supernatural being was talking to my daughter last night. I had her for He-who-got-supernatural-power-from-his-little-finger.” Then she said to her father: “Father, he is the one, he says.”

“Now, my child, come down and sit by the fire with your husband.” And they came down and sat there. They spread out a mat for him, and he gave him food. They brought out berries and grease. Flames came out of them. They put some into a tray and set it before him. The woman told him not to eat it. After he had swallowed medicine four times he took some. When he had taken two mouthfuls he stopped. It passed quickly through his insides burning. He stood up and, where he had sat, smoke rose.

Next day he said to his daughter: “Let your husband go and get an alder for me which stands behind the house.” And he got up quickly. Then she clung to her husband crying. “Alas! the supernatural beings think they can do everything. They have me marry their sons. By and by he begins to do this way.” Then he said to his wife: “Let me go. I will see what he is going to do to me.” And she said to her husband: “Go to it after it has come together and lightning has flashed in it four times.”

Then his father-in-law gave him a stone wedge, and he went along a trail running inland side of the house. After he had gone in some distance [he saw] it standing far off. After it had come together and lightning had shot in it four times he spit medicine before him and went to it. After he had chopped at it a while and it had fallen, he found himself inside of its mouth (lit.). There was no way to get out. Something held him tight.

Then his father’s supernatural powers came to him. Four having their hair tied in bunches with cedar limbs came quickly to him. Two had wedges in their hands. Two had big hammers. Then they worked at the alder, and they split it. They pulled him out. He rubbed medicine upon himself and became as he had been before.

When he pulled it apart human bones burst out of it. Some of these were like whole human bodies; some were just held together by the ligaments. Then he trod the alder into bits and threw them around. “Those will be useful to the very last people.” Then he carried half of it off on his shoulder, let one end down on the ground in front of the house, and struck the house front hard. Then his father-in-law said: “Alas! he has killed my supernatural helper.” Then he went in and lay by his wife behind the screens. His father-in-law had the fire quenched, they say. [480]

Next day he again said to his daughter, “Come, my child, let your husband go for a small devilfish of mine which lives toward the point.” Then he again got up quickly. Again his wife clung to him. And his wife said: “They let me marry the sons of the supernatural beings who think themselves powerful. By and by he begins to do this way.” Then he said to his wife: “Let me go. I will see the thing he uses against me.” Then she gave her husband directions. “After it has spit upward and it has lightened four times go to it.”

Then he went to it. He shot it twice with the arrows his father had given to him. After it had shot up water four times he spit medicine in front of himself and went to it. After he had struck it with a stick [481] he was in its mouth.

When he was almost drowned in its slime he thought of his father’s supernatural helpers. Again the four came to him. They had clubs in their hands, and they clubbed it in the eyes. They pulled him out. He was covered with slime. Then he spit medicine upon himself. He became as he had been before. The bones in it were also many.

He pulled it apart and tore half of it in pieces and threw them around. “These will be useful to all future people.” And he carried half of it off with a stick. He threw it in on the side toward the door. Then his father-in-law said: “Alas! he has killed my supernatural helper.” Then he entered and lay behind the screens with his wife.

Next day he again said to his daughter: “Come! my child, let your husband go after my little sea lion yonder.” At once he got up. Again she clung to her husband while she cried. “He always lets them marry the sons of the supernatural beings who think they are strong. By and by he begins to do this way.” Then he again said to his wife: “Let me go. I will see the thing with which he is going to do [harm] to me.” And his wife gave him directions. “After it has looked at you and growled four times go to it.”

Then he started for it. He was going to kill it with a club which his father-in-law gave him. After he had gone toward it for a while he saw it lying there. After it had looked at him and growled four times he went to it. When he came near it it breathed in. He went into its mouth.

And again he thought of his father’s supernatural helpers. Again they came to him bearing bone clubs. They clubbed the sea lion on the head. They killed it. When he (the youth) was almost dead they pulled him out of its mouth. Then he put medicine upon himself and was restored.

Then he pulled the sea lion apart. The bones of three persons fell out of it. Then he tore half of it in pieces and threw them around. “You will be useful to all future people.” And he carried off half of the sea lion and threw it in through the doorway. His father-in-law said: “Alas! he has killed my supernatural helper.” Then he lay behind the screen again with his wife.

Next day he again said to his daughter: “Come! my child, let your husband go for my little hair seal yonder.” And at once he arose. Again his wife clung weeping to him. “He always lets me marry the sons of the supernatural beings who think themselves powerful. By and by he begins to treat them this way.” And he said to his wife: “Let me go. I will see the thing with which he does it.” “After it growls and looks toward you four times go to it,” she said to him.

Then his father-in-law gave him a bone club, and he set out to it. After he reached it, and the hair seal had looked at him and growled four times he went thither, and it breathed in. He was in its mouth.

Again he thought of his father’s supernatural helpers, and again they came to him bearing bone clubs. They struck the hair seal on the head and killed it. Then they pulled him out, and he rubbed medicine upon himself.

Then he pulled the hair seal apart. Half of the hair seal he pulled in pieces and scattered around. “This will be useful to all future people.” Out of this, also, poured the bones of two persons. Then he carried off half of the hair seal upon his shoulder and threw it down in the house. His father-in-law said: “Alas! he has killed my supernatural helper.” Again he lay with his wife behind the screens.

The day after that he said to his daughter: “Come! let your husband go and get my little eagle sitting yonder.” Again she did not want her husband to go, and he said to his wife: “Let me go as before. I will see the thing with which he is going to do it to me.” Then she said to her husband: “Go to it after its eye mucus has dropped four times.”

Then he took his arrows. His father-in-law said that they pushed the eagle down with a pole. Then he went thither. After its eye mucus had dropped four times he shot it up through the belly. He went to the other side also and shot it from that side as well. But it did not do anything, they say.

Then he scattered half of it around. “All future people will make use of you.” And he carried half of it off on his shoulders. The bones of two persons came out. Then he threw it into the house. His father-in-law said: “Alas! he has killed my supernatural helper.” And again he lay with his wife.

Next day he said to his daughter as before: “Come! my child, let your husband go and get my little clam on the point.” And again she went to her husband. Still he started thither. And she gave her husband directions: “Go to it after it has spit out water four times.” And his father-in-law said: “They get it by means of a stick.”

Then he gave him a digging stick, and he went thither. After it had spit up water four times, he went to it and started to get it with a stick; he suddenly found himself in its mouth.

When he thought of his father’s supernatural helpers, they came to him holding flat, broad clubs. They struck on its ligaments (lit., “eyes”), [482] and they pulled him out. Then he scattered half of it around. “All future people will make use of these,” he said. He took half of it, went home with it, and threw it down in the house. “Alas! he has killed my supernatural helper.” Again he lay with his wife.

The day after that he had a fire lighted. They rubbed hard, white stones together, and it burned. [483] He told them to put stones into it. At once they did so. When they became hot they put them into a stone box lying near the door. Then his father-in-law told him to get in. At once he stood up and, after he had spit medicine upon himself four times, he sat in it. It was cold.

Then they put the box cover over it. After he had sat there for a while he tapped upon the side of it. Then he (his father-in-law) made a noise at him with his lips. He said: “I guess I have killed him.”

By and by he stood up, throwing his hair back out of it. And he kicked the box to pieces and threw the pieces around the side of the house toward the door. His father-in-law became ashamed. He had destroyed his ten supernatural helpers. After that his mind became good toward him. [484]

The devilfish he killed was in the cave at Skedans point, they say. And his father-in-law, Many-ledges, was a cliff behind the town of Skedans.

His mind had become changed toward him. After he had stayed with his wife for a while he told his wife he wanted to return home. Then she told her father, and her father said: “Now, my child, go with your husband. Just outside is a canoe.” Then her husband went out. There lay an old canoe out from between the cracks of which grass was growing.

Then he went in and told his wife, and she said to her father: “Father, he hunted in vain for the canoe. He says there is only an old one there.” “That is it.” Then she went to it with her husband. She kicked it on the edges and [said]: “Go seaward, father’s canoe.” At once it was floating there. It went of itself either way. The carving on the bow paddled. Then he told it to come near. It came before him.

And he had his daughter take along all kinds of food. There was a great quantity of it. He sent five slaves to take care of the canoe. He had five boxes of berries and grease put in for the canoe. And he said to his daughter: “My child, when it is hungry it will point its bow backward. Then let your husband throw one box at its face.”

Then they started. He sat high in the bow with his wife, and the bow carving paddled the canoe. After it had gone along for some time the canoe turned its bow back. Then they pulled out one of the boxes of grease and berries, and he threw it at its face. Again it went on. After it had gone along for a while the canoe turned its bow back again, and again he threw the grease and berries at its face with a spoon. Then the canoe again went on. [485]

After they had gone on a while longer they saw the town. The whole town was alight with fires. They wanted to see the daughter of Many-ledges. They asked: “Who is it?” “It is He-who-got-supernatural-power-from-his-little-finger coming with his wife.”

And they came down in a great crowd to the shore opposite. He came ashore, and they took the food off. Then the five canoe slaves went back. They took along the three boxes of berries and grease which were left for the canoe.

Then his wife sat among the things, and he went up to the house and told his mother to call her up. Immediately his mother went down. She saw nothing there. There was only a cloud among the boxes. Then she went up and said to her son: “I saw nothing there. Only a cloud was there resting upon the things.” He said to his mother: “That is she.”

Again she went down, and she called her up. The cloud came up after her. The cloud went near the place where her husband sat. They wanted to see her. A great crowd awaited her. By and by he said to his wife: “Take off your hat.” Then she told her husband to take it off, and he took it off. He put it behind himself. There the cloud lay. A wonderful creature sat where it had been. She was pretty, like a daughter of the supernatural beings. The ones they had wanted him to marry looked in at her and wept as they did so.

And, after he had had his wife for a while, a whitish sea otter came swimming in front of the town. After they had shot at it for a while he also launched his canoe. He shot at it with his arrows. He shot it in the end of the tail. [486] After it had flopped about there for some time he got it into his canoe. He came home. Then he skinned it.

There were spots of blood upon it. On account of these his wife washed it. After she had done this for a while she slipped seaward upon it. When the water was as high as her knees a killer whale went away with her blowing. She was stuck between its fins. Killer whales went out to sea with her in a crowd.

He got into a canoe and went after his wife. They disappeared under the water in front of him. Then he came back and went crying around the town. By and by he questioned an old man who lived at one end of the town. “What supernatural being is it that took away my wife?” he asked of him. “Supernatural-being-always-in-the-cradle took your wife away.”

Then he gave him all sorts of things. He gave him all kinds of things that would be useful to him. “Now, chief, I will let you have my canoe. I will go with you. I will stand at the end of the trail, and you shall get your wife,” he said to him.

He lent him his short canoe which lay outside. “Raise it, chief. Burn the bottom of it. Take twisted cedar limbs, Indian tobacco, and tallow.” Then he did as directed.

When it was a fine day he went to him, but he said it was a bad day. One day, when it was cloudy, he went to him not expecting anything. He sat outside with his mat over his shoulder. He also had on his hat. “It is a good day, chief. When we come to the middle of the sea the sunshine will be upon us only.” Then he launched the canoe. He got in the stern of his canoe. Immediately they set off.

After they had gone on for a while the sunshine came out, as he had said. Then the old man said to him: “Look for a kelp with two heads.” And they came to one. “Now fasten [the canoe and leave] me right here. This is his trail.”

Then he gave him directions. “Right in the trail at the end of the town Heron always repairs a canoe. He never lets a strange supernatural being pass in. When he shouts, quickly put Indian tobacco into his mouth. Also give him twisted cedar limbs. Then he will conceal you.”

And he went down upon the kelp. He went along for a while upon a trail in which were footprints and heard the sound of a hammer. And he came to him. After he had looked at him for a while he shouted. Then he put tobacco into his mouth. He also gave him twisted cedar branches. Now he put him into his mouth.

Then the town people came to him in a crowd. “Why did you shout like that?” “I cried out because my awl slipped.” Then they said to him: “No; you smell of human beings.” They hunted about him. They did not find him. They went home from him.

Then he took him out and gave him directions. “Supernatural-being-always-in-the-cradle took your wife. His three-headed house pole [487] is always on the watch. Hide yourself from it. Did you bring tallow?” And he said to him “Yes.” “Two persons covered with sores will come to get wood. Make their skins well. Rub the tallow on them.”

He went back of the houses. After he had sat there for a while they came to him. They called out to him. “Do not tickle us by looking at us,” said they to him, and they told him to come out to them. Then he went to them. And he rubbed the tallow upon them and healed their scabs.

Then they said to him: “To-day they are going to put fins upon your wife. That is why we came after firewood. When it is evening, and we go after water we will cause the strings of our buckets to break. We will let the water run into the fire. Go and get your wife quickly in the midst of the steam.” So they spoke to him.

As soon as evening came they came after water with two large buckets. He met them there, and they said to him: “Prepare yourself.” And, when they went in, he looked through the doorway and saw that his wife had tears on her cheeks. They had Supernatural-being-always-in-a-cradle, the one who married her, hung up as if in a cradle.

When they got in near the fire, and on each side of it, with the water the bucket strings were broken. While the house was filled with steam, he went in quickly and got his wife. Then he put her under his arm and ran away with her. The house pole heads shouted: “He-who-got-supernatural-power-from-his-little-finger has taken his wife back.”

At once they pursued him. They ran after him in a great crowd. Supernatural-being-always-in-the-cradle ran after them crying. He came with his wife to the old man. Then he again put them into his mouth. When the crowd came to him they asked him: “Old man, did not He-who-got-supernatural-power-from-his-little-finger pass by upon this trail? He has taken his wife back.” Then he said: “I felt nothing.” And they hunted about a little farther. When they found nothing they asked him again: “Did not you feel anything upon it?” “No,” he said. Then they said to him: “You smell of a human being.” And they pushed him down. They felt all over him. Then he said: “You make me tired by your handling. You better stop searching me.” Then they went home from him.

And afterward he took them out. And he said: “Go along carefully with your wife upon this trail.” Then they went along the trail. After they had gone along for a while they came to the place where the old man was. They got in with him and started off. After they had gone on a while longer he came with her to the town. He had got his wife back, and he stayed there with her always.

[The following excellent version of this story was obtained by Professor Boas from Charlie Edenshaw, chief of the Stᴀ′stas, a Masset family.]

In the village T’ī [on the west coast of Graham island] there was a boy who lived with his grandmother. His parents were dead. While he was still living in his little house with his grandmother, he used to make wands with a little shell knife. While doing so he ran a splint under his finger nail, which made his finger swell to an enormous size. Therefore he received the name Sʟᴇg̣otsg̣ā′noē.

One day the boy met a crane whose beak was broken. He carved a new beak for him out of wood. They were living in the last house of the village. He had ten uncles who were all chiefs. One of his uncles had a boy who was sick all the time. Now, the boy who had healed the crane, took a small mat, which he tied round his waist like a shaman’s apron. He made a rattle of cockleshell and carved a shaman’s wand for his own use. He tried to imitate the shamans who were trying to heal his cousin. One day the youth went to his uncle’s house, which was full of people. He looked into it and saw a bone sticking in his sick cousin’s side. A black man was standing on each side of the door. They were the porpoises. The boy thought: “If I am able to remove that bone my cousin will recover.” The two black men said at once: “This boy says a bone is in the sick boy’s side, and that he is able to pull it out.” Then the people laughed at him, but they allowed him to try. The crane had given him a shaman’s powers, although he did not know it. Then he pulled out the bone, and his cousin arose, healed and well. Then he put it back again, and he was sick again. Now the boy returned to his house. He said to his grandmother: “I am able to save my cousin.” She struck him, saying: “Don’t say so, else they will punish you.” But he was able to see the bone in his cousin’s side, although nobody else was able to discover it.

Now the chief sent for his nephew. One of his slaves went to call him. Then his grandmother said: “Surely, the chief is going to kill us.” Then the boy took his mat apron, his rattle, and his wand and went to his uncle’s house. There were many shamans inside. He went around the fire, keeping the fireplace to his left. Then he pulled the bone out of his cousin’s body, blew upon him, while the people were beating time, and the sick boy recovered. Then he put it in again, and he felt sick again. The sick boy said that he had felt better for a little while, but that he was sick again. The other shamans tried again to cure him, but they were unable to do so. Then the sick boy asked them to send once more for his cousin. They sent for him, and, when he came, they offered him all kinds of property, but he refused it. But the two porpoises knew his thoughts, and said: “Lk·anqēosʼg̣a′noe (= Jumping-on-one-leg, name of the poor boy) wishes to have the paraphernalia which his father wore when dancing.” His uncle promised to give them to him. Then he pulled out the bone and healed his cousin.

Now he wore a beautiful apron instead of his mat apron; he used a wooden rattle instead of his shell rattle, and a bone wand instead of his wooden wand. Now he was a great shaman.

After some time he heard about a great chief whose name was T’êckoa′nayē. He wished to visit him. He had a beautiful daughter whom all the chiefs desired to marry, but he did not accept them. He killed all her suitors. He invited them to a meal and made them sit down near the fire. Then he put four stones into his fire, and, when they were red-hot, he put them into a dish. Then he made them swallow the stones.

Now, Sʟᴇg̣otsg̣ā′noē intended to marry this girl. Before he went there the crane visited him. He gave him a medicine which caused water to gather in his mouth so that it cooled the stones. When he reached the chief’s house he chewed this medicine and was able to swallow the stones without any injury.

He came to a place where there were rock slides all the time. Then he chewed a medicine called xu′ntsd’ala, and he came to a place near Skidegate. Then he took his strap of mountain-goat wool. He threw it over Skidegate straits and stepped across it, using it as a bridge. Then he threw it down once more, and thus reached her house. He thought: “I wish the girl would come outside to-night.”

Then she went out of the house and sat down on the beach to defecate. The boy assumed the shape of a burl, which lay on the beach in front of the house. The girl said to her slave: “Carry the burl into the house,” because she wished her father to make a hook from it. The slave carried it home and told the chief that his daughter wished him to make a hook out of the wood. Then the chief asked for his ax, intending to split the wood. When he hit it his ax broke. Then the chief was sad. He took another ax, but it broke also. Then he threw the wood into the fire.

In the evening the chief’s daughter retired to her room, which was separated from the main room by a large plank. When the wood was burned the boy in the shape of ashes flew into the girl’s room. There he assumed his human shape. She asked him: “Who are you? I want to marry no one but Sʟᴇg̣otsg̣ā′noē.” Then he replied: “I am Sʟᴇg̣otsg̣ā′noē.” Then she was glad and allowed him to lie down with her. They talked all night. Early the next morning the chief rose. He spat and he thought: “Who is talking to my daughter? I don’t want anyone to become my son-in-law except Sʟᴇg̣otsg̣ā′noē.” Then his daughter shouted: “He has arrived!” Then the old chief was glad. He spread mats on the floor of the house and put four stones into the fire. When the stones were hot he took a dish and ordered his slaves to put the stones into the dish. They placed it before the young man, who sat down on the mat. Then the girl said: “You always try to kill my suitors by means of the red-hot stones.” The youth chewed the medicine which he had received from the crane and rubbed his body with it. Then he took the stones up in a ladle and swallowed them one after the other. They fell right through his body. The floor of the house was made of stone, and the stones broke it. The young man was not dead. Then they fed him with salmon and berries.

On the following day the chief said to his daughter: “There is a devilfish at the point of land just beyond our village. I have tried often to kill it, but I can not do so. Tell your husband to try to kill it.” The young man started in his canoe, and reached the place where the devilfish was living. Four times he chewed his medicine and rubbed it over his body. Then he threw his harpoon at the eye of the devilfish. As soon as he had done so he fainted, and the monster swallowed him. But he was not dead. He merely thought: “I wish your stomach would burst,” and at once the stomach of the devilfish burst, and it was dead. The bones of many people were inside. They dropped to the ground when the monster died. Those who had been killed recently were still partly covered with flesh, while those who had been killed long ago were only bones. He chewed some of his medicine and spat on the remains. Thus he resuscitated them. He took the devilfish and carried it to his father-in-law. He threw it down in front of the house. It was so heavy that the house almost fell down.

On the following morning the chief said to his daughter: “There is a tree not far from here. Let your husband go and fetch its bark.” The young man took his stone ax and went to the tree. Then he saw that the bark was sliding up and down all the time. Again he chewed his medicine. Then he spat at the tree three times. Now he struck it with his ax. He fainted right away. When he recovered his senses he found that he was inside the tree. Then he only thought: “I wish the tree would break.” At once the tree burst, and with him the bones of many people which the tree had killed fell to the ground. He resuscitated them. Then he took the bark and carried it to the house. He threw it down in front of the house and almost destroyed it.

Then his father-in-law was very sad because he could not overcome his son-in-law. He did not speak a word. On the following day he said: “Go and cut some alder wood for my fire.” He gave him an ax, and the young man went. As soon as he struck the alder he fainted. When he recovered his senses he found that he was inside the tree. Again he thought: “I wish the tree would burst,” and he himself and many people whom it had killed came out of it. He resuscitated them. Then he took one-half of the tree on his shoulder and carried it home.

On the following morning the chief said to his daughter: “Let your husband catch the sea otter which lives not far from here.” He gave him a harpoon. Then the young man went out. Soon he reached a cave in which the sea otter was living. He chewed the medicine and rubbed his body four times. Then he threw his harpoon. He fainted right away. When he recovered his senses he found that he was in the stomach of the sea otter, and he only thought: “I wish it would burst,” and the sea otter’s stomach burst, and with him the bones of many people dropped out, whom he resuscitated.

The old chief had not been able to overcome Sʟᴇg̣otsg̣ā′noē. After a while the latter became homesick. He lay down and did not say a word. Then the old chief asked his daughter: “Why is your husband sad?” She replied: “He is homesick. He wishes to return to Tʼī.” “Hm!” replied the chief. After a while he continued: “Take my large canoe and accompany him to his home.” The young man went out to look for the canoe, but he could not find it. He only saw an old rotten tree with long roots. When he returned to the house, the old man asked: “Did you find my canoe?” “No,” the young man replied, “we have only seen an old rotten tree.” “That’s it, that’s it!” said the old man. They returned, but when they reached the place they could not find the canoe. They saw nothing but an old rotten tree. They returned to the house; and, when they informed the old chief that they had not been able to find the canoe, he told them: “When you reach the tree again, say, ‘Go into the water.’” They turned back, and, on reaching the tree, said: “Go into the water, canoe of my father.” At once it was transformed into a large canoe. It was full of geese (x·īt) which were crying all the time. They were the oarsmen. The old chief gave them vast quantities of provisions, and they started, the geese paddling the canoe.

During all this time the youth’s finger was very thick and sore. In the evening they camped. While they were asleep a great many spirits which the crane had held captive in his finger by means of sorcery escaped, killed his wife, and scattered over the whole world. From that time the whole country of the Haida has been filled with spirits. Then the boy said: “Future generations shall always see the spirits which were living in my finger.” Sʟᴇg̣otsg̣ā′noē traveled on, and nobody knew what became of him. If he had not visited the old chief, he (the latter) would still continue to kill people.

This is a popular story known both at Skidegate and Masset. A version obtained by Professor Boas from Charlie Edenshaw at Masset is appended to the story I myself obtained. It differs from that in several interesting particulars. That two such distant points as Masset and Skedans should be combined in one myth seems rather singular. The Haida equivalent of He-who-got-supernatural-power-from-his-little-finger is Sʟō′g̣ot-sg̣ā′nag̣wa-i.

ŁAGUADJÎ′NA OR ŁG̣AÑĀ′ʻOGAÑA

[Told by Walter McGregor of the Sea-lion-town people]

He and his wife were the only two in the town. An eel had destroyed the town people. A big dog also stayed with them. Her husband went fishing and always stopped at a fishing ground right in front of the town. In his absence his wife went digging spruce roots, and the dog always went with her. When her husband came home she steamed a lot of halibut for him, putting it in a big tray. And he sat above it. And, when he began to eat, his wife looked toward the door. She was afraid to look at him. When her husband went fishing again she did the same thing.

One day, as she bent down to dig roots, something startled her by touching her buttocks. She looked toward it. Lo! he (the dog) came to her, and she cried hard. And, when her husband again came from fishing, she steamed food for him again, set it before him, and turned round toward the door. Shortly she became pregnant.

One day, while her husband was out fishing, she gave birth. She gave birth to a dog. A second one came forth and another. It went on this way until there were nine. The middle one always showed its teeth. That was the one that was going to be brave. The youngest came forth with medicine in its mouth. Last of all a bitch came forth. Counting that one there were ten.

Then her heart was not strong enough to kill them, and she put grass into the cellar and put them into it together. And, when her husband came home, she did not look as if anything had happened. And next day, when her husband went fishing, she again went to dig roots.

As soon as she had gone out from the house, a noise arose inside of it. They were wrestling with each other there. The bitch was talking. Then she went back. She peeped in at the door. Upon a pole in the rear of the house hung their skins. In another place they were playing with one another. And, when she made a noise with the door, they quickly took down their clothing. In a short time they were lying near the fire with their feet drawn together. Then she put them into the cellar again.

And, when her husband came home, he asked her: “My child’s mother, what made the noise in this town?” “The dog was playing. He was running over the floor planks.”

Next day her husband again went fishing. Afterward she went after roots again. No sooner had she got out than a noise arose inside of the house. At that time she did not return so soon. Then she gathered a quantity of dry firewood and looked in again. Again the skins hung upon the pole in the rear of the house. And, when she made a noise with the door again, they went over quickly and pulled their skins down. They lay around the fire. And again she put them into the cellar. When Łᴀguadjî′na came home again he asked her: “My child’s mother, what made the noise in the town?” “The dog was playing with himself and made a noise on the floor planks.”

When he went fishing again, the dog lay on the opposite side of the fire. Then she threw a stone at him and said to him: “Who does not get wood for the mother of his children?” And he got up. He shook himself and went out. Then there was a noise behind the house, and she looked at him between the house planks. One with a big knot of hair which fell below his buttocks and a striped skin rolled the firewood about. After the noise had gone on for a while outside, he came in. He shook himself and lay down again on the opposite side of the fire.

When her husband came home he asked her: “Where did that good firewood come from?” “Why, that is [from a tree] which fell behind us and which I rolled out to an open place.”

Next day her husband went fishing again, and she went after roots. Just before she went out, she put wood on the fire. Soon after she went out a noise arose in the house. Then she crept quietly thither. She had shut the door to easily. When she looked in [she saw that] the skins were again hung in the rear of the house. They were pushing each other about.

After she had looked for a while they pushed each other toward the corner, and she ran in quickly. She gathered the skins together quickly and put them into the fire. At once they burned up. Then they sat in a row on the other side from her. One among them was a woman.

Then she said to them: “My children, when your father comes home and eats, do not look toward him. After he is through eating I will let you eat also. People never look him in the face.”

Then Sawałī′xa ran out. His father was fishing seaward. He said, “Hō hū′-u-u-u hū. [488]” The more his mother tried to stop him, the more he shouted. When he (her husband) came home she again steamed food for him. After she had laid it before him she turned her face from him toward the door. Before he had eaten Sawałī′xa arose, picked up a fat piece from the edge of a split fish, and stood around eating it. After he had finished it, he picked up another. When he had finished that as well he pushed away the tray.

And he called to his wife: “My child’s mother, bring my cape to me.” Then she brought it to him, and he put it on. Then he called for the eldest: “Come here, my child, while I sing a song for you.” Then he went to him. After he had sung for a while he pulled him closer to his breast. He was as one who has gone to sleep. “My child is asleep. Let me lay him down.”

And he called for another. He also went to him, and, after he had sung for him for a while, he pulled him close to himself. He acted like the other. “My child is asleep.”

After he had done this for a while, he got through with eight. Then he called the last one, who had medicine in his mouth. After he had sung to him for a while and pulled him closer to himself, he spit the medicine upon his chest. Something sharp, like glass, fell from him and stuck into the floor planks. Then he brought the back of his cloak round in front. And, after he had sung for him again and pulled him closer to himself, he again spat medicine upon his breast. From that also the needles fell off. [489]

Now he became angry with him, and he was pushing him toward his whetstone, which stood on edge in the rear of the house pointing toward the fire. When he touched it, it ground the skin off of his side. He put the medicine upon his palms and rubbed it upon himself, and it became well. After they had wrestled for a while he threw his father down there. It ground away, and he was ground to pieces. He killed his father quickly.

Then he went to his elder brothers, who were lying about, laid them together, and spit medicine upon them. They all got up. [Each said] “I guess I must have been sleeping here.” All got up, and they continued to live in that house.

Their names are as follows: The eldest was called G̣osg̣aʟ̣ē′kꜝa; [the next] He-whose-skin-is-of-white-rock, the next one, The-left-handed. He was a brave fellow. He who was full of mischief was named Sawałī′xa, and one was called Łg̣añā′ʼo. He who had medicine in his mouth was called ʟā′ga-na′qatî. [490]

Then they asked their mother: “Say! mother, why is this town empty?” “My child, a supernatural being at the south end of the island destroyed your uncles. Since then it has remained this way.” Then they said to each other: “To-morrow we will go and look at it.” And next day they went and looked at it. It lived in a cave. In front of it was a pile of human bones. They looked and went away.

Then they made something with which to kill it. All nine twisted cedar limbs. Afterward they spliced them. And then they twisted them together. They made it long. It was also stout. Next day they went to it. When they arrived they strangled their sister and fastened her on the end of a pole. They used her as bait. They set the snare in front of its den. After they had held their sister in front of it for a while, it came out, and they drew her out before it.

When the snare was even with its middle they pulled it up. They also pulled in their sister quickly and spit medicine upon her. At once their sister seized the end of the rope. After they had pulled against it for a while and began to be pulled down on top of each other the cord broke, and they fell backward in a heap. Then they went home.

And after they had thought for a while what they could use with which to catch it they began digging roots. They traveled around upon the island of Gᴀsqo. [491] Upon it they got roots. And they also twisted those. When the rope was long, they went to it again. They again used their sister as bait. Again they put the snare in front of it. When it put its head through, they slipped the knot down to its middle. Again they pulled their sister in quickly, again they spat medicine upon her, and again she seized the end of the rope. After they had been pulled down many times, as they held this, it broke, and they fell backward in a heap. Then they went away again.

And they took dry strings lying upon the beach. As they went around the island they carried them along. After that they spliced them. At once they twisted them. When it (the rope) became long, they went over there again. Again they used their sister as bait. When that also broke, they gave it up. Nothing was left that they could use.

And, after they had lived there for a while, a wren chirped in the corner of the house. It said “Guda′dixa-i” (“sinews”). [492] Then they felt strange about what it said, and all made blunt-pointed arrows and bows. Then they began traveling about upon the island. Each kept coming in with three or four [wrens]. At once their sister pulled out the sinews, after which they twisted them together. It was slender.

When this was long they went to it again. They set the snare in front of it. Again they used their sister as bait. When he again came out they slipped the knot over him. They pulled their sister away quickly and spit medicine upon her. At once she was pulling along with them. All pulled upon it. It stretched out smaller. But when it touched the face of a rock, that fell over. They were saying: “Think yourself wren sinews.” [493]

After they had pulled at it for a while, something cracked at the bottom of the island, and they pulled it up. They cut its belly open. They cut human bones out. Then they laid the bones together. If one part were missing, they broke off pieces of old limbs of trees and put them in instead. Immediately ʟā′ga-na′qatî spit upon it. And they said to them: “Go to the places where you used to live.” They killed him, and they went home. That was Supernatural-eel, they say.

And, after they had lived there for a while, their sister became menstruant for the first time. By and by [they heard] some one talking to their sister. They did not know who it was that talked. And again some one talked to their sister. Then they put pitch on the mat. And again some one was talking with their sister. In the morning they bathed in the sea. [494] When they came in from it, there were spots of pitch on the side of him who was mischievous. Then they pushed him from one to another. They laughed at him. [495]

Then their mother said to them: “I guess they are laughing because the Djugî′tg̣a’s head is going to be hung up in front of their menstruant sister.” [496] At once they inquired of an old man who lived at one end of the town. They asked about the thing their mother spoke of. And they gave him twisted cedar limbs. They also gave him strong bones to make gimlets out of and Indian tobacco. He told them where its place was. He told them that it slept there, and he said it was easy to approach it.

Immediately they borrowed a fast canoe. They borrowed Fast-rainbow-trout’s [497] canoe. Then he stood in the middle, and, when they paddled all together, he shot an arrow [forward]. It fell into the water abreast of the middle of the canoe. Then they also borrowed Steel-head’s canoe, and, as he shot an arrow, they paddled. It fell near the stern of the canoe. But still they did not think it was fast enough.

Then they also borrowed Jellyfish’s canoe. It had a stern at each end. They could pull it either way. It was not good looking. But they borrowed it. He said: “I will go along with you.” They burned the bottom of it. Then they put it into the water. One stood in the middle and he (the jellyfish) stuck in his tentacles far off. When they used their paddles he shot an arrow. It fell far back in their wake.

Then they pulled it up and prepared to go in it. Presently, when it was smooth at sea, they went to the old man. He was Heron, they say. “It is a fine day” [they said]. And he said to them: “No, brave men, it is a bad day.”

By and by there was a foggy morning. The mist was falling on the water. Then he went to them. He sat outside. “Launch your canoe. It is a fine day. At noon the mist will melt away under the sunshine.” Then he gave them directions. “When it sleeps phosphorescent light shines in its eyes. Then go to it. When there is no phosphorescent light in its eyes do not go to it.”

Then they started off. After they had gone along for a while [they] saw the phosphorescent light in its eyes. They had blue hellebore and urine, which they had let rot, in their canoe. They took its hair into their canoe noiselessly. Presently they cut off its head and put it in.

Jellyfish stuck his tentacles into the land. Their paddles they also plied together. Under their bow the current flowed so fast as to make cracks [in the sea]. Into it they poured the blue hellebore and urine. On the other side the current also cracked itself by its passage. They treated that in the same way. At once they were in front of the town. In a short time they had hung its head up in front of their sister. Long hair hung down from it.

Next day some one came singing out of the ocean. [498] He had a cane. It was red. He came in front of the town and stood there. “Give me my son’s head or I will tip over your town,” he said. [499] Then two ran quickly over to the old man. “Old man, what shall we do? He says he will upset the town.” “After you have gone to the end of the town, cover it with hard white stones. Cover it from bottom to top.” Immediately they ran over and did so. And again he said: “Give me my son’s head or I will upset the town.” Then Sawałī′xa said: “Tip it over.” He struck the end of the town with the red thing he held. Instead of falling it sounded like a drum. He struck it in front and from above. But it only sounded like a drum. Then he gave it up and went out to sea. He vanished into the ocean.

Next day he again came singing some songs. After him came a crowd of red things. Those were fleas, they say. Then they went quickly to the old man and asked him: “What shall we do?” “Steam urine and pour it out toward them.” Then they did as he said. “Give me my son’s head.” Then the fleas came toward the house, and they poured urine around upon them. After they had killed half of them he again started seaward. He disappeared into the ocean.

Next day he came again. He carried his staff. Some objects flew in a crowd after him. Those were sīxasʟtꜝᴀ′lgaña, [500] they say. Again they inquired of the old man, and he told them to make blunt arrows. And they did as directed. When he had said “Give me my son’s head,” they came quickly to the houses. Then they went out to them and shot them. After they had destroyed half of those also he went off.

The day after this he again sang some songs. Behind him the surface of the ocean came burning. At this time they again ran over to the old man. He said to them (lit. “him”): “Now, brave men, nothing at all can be done. Save yourselves by flight.” At once they fled away with his head. The land burned after them. When one of them was burned up, he threw it to another. This went on until only he who had medicine in his mouth was left. When his side was partly burned he rubbed the medicine upon it, and it became as it had been before. By and by he threw it (the head) into the fire. It stopped there and went back.

Afterward he started along. He hunted where his brothers had been burned. There was not a sign of their bones there. After he had gone on for a while he called to the one who was mischievous “Sawałī′hū′⁺.” “Here.” And where it sounded he went. Their bones lay there all together. Then he spit medicine upon them. They got up. Each said: “I guess I must have slept a long time.” Then they went seaward toward the open ground again.

And they rebuilt their house, which was all burned. They restored their mother and their sister, and again they began living there.

One time [they heard] some one talking to their sister. He was lying with her in the morning. That was North, they say. When he warmed himself before the fire he warmed only his side. And the one who was full of mischief was surprised at it and began making shavings. He dried them. He whittled up pitchwood among them. He put it with the rest.

One day, very early, his brother-in-law warmed himself. He stretched his blanket over the fire. Then he also reached over the fire and threw the shavings into it. When it blazed up, he threw himself backward. Lo! his penis struck upon his belly. Then they laughed at him. And he said to them: “You are laughing at me. You will indeed stand against me.” [501] And next day he went off.

Then he hung blackly about the head of the Stikine river. Snow fell from him. Then one went out to look. He was lost. Then another went to look, and he, too, was lost. It went on in this way until all of them had disappeared. Only he who had medicine in his mouth was saved. Then he also went to look.

As he went he saw that his elder brothers had been frozen to death. He, too, got stuck on freezing ice but spit medicine upon himself, and the ice fell from him. He made straight for the black place in the sky. And he arrived. Out of his (North’s) anus ice hung. He wet the points of his arrows with medicine and shot the ice. He ran away, and ice fell in the place where he had been. He did the same thing again. Then he went away.

As he went along he spit medicine upon his elder brothers who had been frozen in their tracks. At once they walked along with him. All went along together.

And, after they had gone along for a while, they came to where a certain person lived. He gave them food, as was usual, and they slept there that night. Then Sawałī′xa remained awake. The one to whom they had come in lay in a corner. He got up, tied fine cedar bark upon the end of a stick which hung above him, and let them breathe on it. Then he went out with it, and Sawałī′xa went out after him. Near a rill of water was a piece of cedar full of holes, out of one of which he pulled a plug. Into it he pushed the cedar bark. Sawałī′xa was looking at him. And before him he came in, and he pretended to be asleep. Presently he also came in.

Then he, in turn, put the cedar bark to his breath. And he went out, and Sawałī′xa pulled out the thing that had been stuck in and pushed his in. Then he went to bed. The next day, after he had given them some food, he took a bath. Afterward he became sick. He said that his back and his head were sick. “I must have done it to myself.” Presently he was dead. That was Greatest Wizard, they say. Then they went off. They came to their house.

By and by they started traveling again. They hunted birds. Then one disappeared. It went on that way until all were gone. He who had medicine in his mouth let himself be last. He followed the footprints of his elder brothers. When he saw his elder brothers sitting upon a broad stump he did not feel how he got there, but he was sitting among them.

Then they broke their bows and arrows in pieces on top of it, and they built a fire. And, after they had put them into it, they lay at once on the level ground below. Then they also put themselves into it and stood below. [502] It was North who did this to them. Then they went home. They came to their house.

When they had traveled about a while after that they found a mountain of ground hogs. They built a house there and made dead falls [503] for them. When cold weather began to come on they came out. They made trousers out of ground-hog skins.

And, after they got back there, the next to the youngest could not catch any ground hogs in his dead falls. He did not kill even one. And, when they went home, he refused to go. Each gave him two. He refused them. Each offered to give him five. He also refused those. Then they left him.

After he had lived there for a while a woman came to him one night and lay down, and he married her. Then she asked him why he did not succeed in taking them in dead falls, and he said to her: “I could in no way get them.” “To-morrow make ten” [she said]. And next day he did as he was directed. The day after he went out to look at them. Ten ground hogs were in them.

And, after he had done this for a while, he had many, and early one morning he went to see them. Then a whitish one went in before him. His wife told him not to put a dead fall near it. Then he longed for it and set one in front of it. The very next day it fell on it. And he feared his wife and hung it on the outside of the house.

But, even from where his wife sat, [she said]: “My mother says, ‘Alas! my child.’” At once she started off. He tried to hold his wife. He could not. When she got to the door she said: “Come to life again.” Immediately they began running off in a crowd. He tried to club them, and he tried to stop them at the door. He could not accomplish that, either. Then he went along among them. After he had followed his wife along he went in at the same place where she went in.

Then he stayed with his wife there again. They brought in all kinds of things, among them łkꜝiê′nkunᴀn. [504] And, after it began to snow, they went to bed. After they had lain in bed for a long time day came. He stood at the door outside and shouted “Daylight⁺.” They jumped up without the things they used for blankets. “What is it daylight from? Is it daylight from the łkꜝiê′nkunᴀn?” [505] they asked each other. They looked at the snow and went to bed again. After he had said this twice he gave it up and went to bed also.

By and by, when the snow melted, they put on their skins, and they began bringing in roots. He, also, went with them. Presently one called out “People are coming,” and they went into the house.

Again they (his brothers) set dead falls. The posts for these dead falls had figures of ground hogs upon them. They only saw the shadow of the hands [setting them]. The figures were to call them. One went thither and was caught. They pulled him out. The ground hog looked out of the house. He almost went to it. His wife held him back.

By and by he went thither, and it fell on him. Then they brought him into the house and hung him up. And after they had begun to skin him and had cut his neck open they struck something hard. And. when they looked, lo! it was the copper from around the neck of the younger brother they had left. [506] Then they told each other, and they put his clothing upon him, and, after they had spit the medicine upon him, he got up. He got up, saying: “I must have slept a long time.” His elder brothers were glad to see him. And they started home with him. Anew they began living in their house.

And, after they had again traveled about for a while, the eldest again disappeared. Next day another was gone. One went after him, and he, too, vanished. By and by he who had medicine in his mouth was the only one left. Then he took his bow and followed his elder brothers’ footprints from the side of the house.

After he had gone up the trail for a while [he came to where] a feather hung. He found himself in a snare. Suddenly he was hung up in the air. When he got tired he rubbed medicine upon his neck.

Very early next day one with vertical lines of paint upon his face came to him upon the trail inland. “My snare is always lucky” [he said]. Then he pulled him down. He heard him talk to the snare.

“Do not let anything pass by you,” he said to it. Then he thought: “I wish he would carry me face up.” And he seized him by both legs and carried him face up. And, when he stepped under a fallen tree with him, he took hold of it. After he had tried to pull him away for a while he let go. By and by he came to his house with him. He came in and took him off. His elder brothers were cut up and hung in the rear of the house.

When they were in bed he gathered together his elder brothers and went away with them. After he had traveled on for a while he did not see a sign of them. He had forgotten the medicine he had in his mouth. Then he went back and spit medicine upon them, and they became alive and started home with him. And next day they came to their town.

Then they again started off. After they had traveled for a while they disappeared from the one who had medicine in his mouth. And, after he had hunted for them a while, he came to some one who was using his head as a drum. Then he asked him: “Did my elder brothers pass by here?” “Did my elder brothers pass here?” he also said. “I have a notion to kill you.” He, too, said the same thing. “I have a notion to cut off your head.” He, also, said the same thing. That was Greatest Echo, they say.

In whatever way he spoke he could get no answer. By and by, when he said he would break wind at him, he became afraid. “Don’t do it, chief; don’t do it.” When he broke wind at him he disappeared. He killed him, they say.

After that, when he hunted for his elder brothers again, [he came to] a large, round stone with a slippery top on which a feather was stuck, and on the side of which lay the bones of his elder brothers. They died while they were trying to pull off the feather. Then he again spit medicine upon his elder brothers, and they got up. Then they went away with him.

After they had gone along for a while they came to where a woman lived. She gave them all kinds of good food in the usual way. Her dish had the figure of a mouse upon it. Then they went to bed in her house. There were scratchings in her house all night. They could not sleep. And, while it was still night, they went away. They came to the house where their mother and their sister always stayed.

Then they started off again, and they gave their mother directions. “Settle yourself in this house. We shall see you no more.” And they took their sister away with them.

Then they went toward the head of the Stikine river. And, when they started to swim across, although ten years had passed since their sister had begun to menstruate, they told her not to look at them. Then they took each other by the arm and swam across. He who had medicine in his mouth was the last to enter the water. At that time their sister looked toward them and all [except the eldest] became rocks.

And their elder brother sang some songs and looked at them. He put the following words into the song: “Even ʟā′ga-na′qatî did not swim across.” [507] They settled in this place. [508]

The names of the heroes of this story, together with the localities in which the actions are said to have occurred, mark it plainly as Tlingit. At the same time it is well known and very popular among the Haida. I have a Masset version of the story as yet unpublished. Łᴀguadjî′na is a Tlingit name (Łᴀ′ki-tcine′); Łg̣añā′ʻogaña is from the name of one of the brothers, Łg̣añā′ʻo, and means “Łg̣añā′ʻo’s people” or “Łg̣añā′ʻo and his brothers.” One episode, telling how a gigantic mouse was killed, has been omitted.

HE WHO HUNTED BIRDS IN HIS FATHER’S VILLAGE

[Told by Walter McGregor of the Sealion-town people]

He was a chief’s son. He wore two marten-skin blankets, one over the other. [509] After he had shot birds for some time he went along among some bull pines, which stood in an open space behind the town and presently heard geese [510] calling. Then he went thither. Two women were bathing in a lake. On the shore opposite two goose skins hung over a stick. The roots of their tails were spotted with white.

After he had looked a while he ran quickly [to them]. He sat down on the two skins. Then they asked him for their [skins]. He asked the best looking to marry him. The other said to him: “Do not marry my younger sister. I am smarter. Marry me.” “No; I am going to marry your younger sister.” Now she agreed. “Even so, marry my younger sister. You caught us swimming in the lake our father owns. Come, give me my skin.” Then he gave it to her. She put her head into it as she swam in the lake. Lo, a goose swam about in the lake. It swam about in it making a noise.

Then she flew. She was unwilling to fly away from her younger sister. After she had flown about above her for a while, she flew up. She vanished through the sky. Then he gave her (the other) one marten-skin blanket and went home with her. He put his wife’s skin between the two heads of a cedar standing at one end of the town. He entered his father’s house with her.

The chief’s son had a wife. So his father called the people together for the marriage feast. They gave her food. Instead [of eating it] she merely smelled it. She ate no kind of human food.

By and by her mother-in-law steamed some tcꜝāl. [511] But she liked that. While her mother-in-law was yet cooking them she told her husband to tell her to hurry. They put some before her. She ate it all. Then they began giving her that only to eat.

One day, when he was asleep, he was surprised to find that his wife’s skin, after she came in and lay down, was cold. And, when the same thing happened again, he began watching her. He lay as if asleep. He felt her get up quietly. Then she went out, and he also went out just after her. She passed in front of the town. She went to the place where her skin was kept. Thence she flew away. She alighted on the farther side of a point at one end of the town.

Then he went thither quickly. She was eating the stalks of the sea grass which grew there. As the waves broke in they moved her shoreward. He saw it. Then she flew up to the place where her [feather] skin had been kept. And he entered the house before her. Then he lay down where they had their bed, after which his wife lay down cold beside him.

They became nearly starved in the town. One day the woman said to him from the place where she was sitting: “Now my father has sent down food to me.” Behind the town geese were coming down making a great noise, and she went thither. They went with her. All kinds of good food lay there, such as tcꜝāl[511] and wild clover roots. They brought them away. For this her father-in-law called in the people.

When this was gone she said the same thing again: “Now my father is bringing food down to me.” Geese again made a great noise coming down behind the town, and she went thither. Again heaps of food of all kinds lay around, and they carried that also out. For that, too, her father-in-law called together the people.

At that time some one in the town said: “They think a great deal of goose food.” The woman heard it. Immediately she went off. Her husband in vain tried to stop her. She went off as one of a strange family would. In the same way he tried to stop her in front of the town. She went to the place where her skin was. She flew up. She flew around above the town for a while. Her heart was not strong to fly away from her husband. By and by she vanished through the sky.

Then her husband began to walk about the town wailing. By and by he entered the house of an old man at one end of the town and asked him: “Do you not know the trail that leads to my wife?” “Why, brave man, you married the daughter of a supernatural being too great for people even to think of.” At once he began bringing over all sorts of things to him. After he had given him twisted cedar limbs, a gimlet, and bones, [512] he said to him: “Now, brave man, take oil. Take two wooden wedges also. Take, as well, a comb, thongs, boxes of salmon eggs, the skin of a silver salmon, the point of a salmon spear.” After he had got all these he came to him. “Old man, here are all the things you told me to take.” “Now, brave man, go on. The trail runs inland behind my house.”

Then he started in on it. After he had gone on for a while he came to some one who was looking upon himself for lice. Every time he turned around the lice fell off from him. After he had looked at him unobserved for a while he said to him: “Now, brave man, do not tickle me by looking at me. [513] It was in my mind that you were coming.” Then he came out to him and combed his head. He also put oil on it. He cleared him of lice. He gave the comb and the hair oil to him. Then he said to him: “This trail leads to the place where your wife is.”

He again started along the trail. After he had gone on for a while [he saw] a mouse with cranberries in its mouth going along before him. She came to a fallen tree. She could not get over it. Then he took her by the back with his fingers and put her across. Her tail was bent up between her ears [for joy], and she went on before him. Presently she went among the stalks of a clump of ferns.

Now he rested himself there. Something said to him: “The chief-woman asks you to come in.” Then he raised the ferns. He stood in front of a big house. He entered. The chief-woman was steaming cranberries. She talked as she did so. Her voice sounded sharp. And, after she had given him something to eat, Mouse-woman said to him: “You helped me when I went to get some poor cranberries from a patch I own. I will lend you what I wore when I went hunting when I was young.”

Then she brought out a box. After she had opened a nest of five boxes, she took out of the inmost a mouse skin with small, bent claws. And she said to him: “Practice wearing this.” And, although it was so small, he entered it. It went on easily. Then he climbed around upon the roof of the house inside. And Mouse-woman said to him again: “You know how to use it. Now go on.”

Again he set out upon the trail. After he had gone along for a while he heard some one grunting under a heavy burden. Then he came to the place. A woman was trying to carry off a pile of large, flat stones upon her back. The twisted cedar limbs she had kept breaking. After he had looked at her for a while he went out to her. “Say, what are you doing?” Then the woman said: “They got me to carry the mountains of the Haida island. I am doing it.”

Then he took out his thongs and said to her: “Let me fix it.” And he bound the thongs around it. He said to her “Now carry it on your back,” and she carried it. It did not break. Then the woman said to him: “Now, brave man, thank you for helping me. The trail to your wife’s place runs here.”

Then he set out upon it. After he had gone on for a while he came to a hill in an open place on top of which rose something red. [514] Then he went to it. Around the bottom of this something lay human bones. There was no way in which one could go up. Then he entered the mouse skin and rubbed salmon eggs before him [on the pole]. He went up after it. When he stood on top of this he clambered up on the sky.

There, too, there ran a trail, and he started off upon it. After he had gone on for a while he heard the noise of laughter and singing. After he had gone on a while longer [he came to where] a big stream flowed down. Near it sat Eagle. On the other side also sat Heron. Above sat Kingfisher. On the other side sat Black Bear. He (black bear) had no claws. He said to Eagle: “Grandfather, lend me some claws.” Then he lent him some. At that time he came to have claws.

After he had sat there for a while a half man came vaulting along. [515] He had only one leg and one arm. He had but half a head. He speared silver salmon in the river and pulled them in. Then he entered his silver salmon skin and swam up to meet him. When he speared him he could not pull him down. Then he cut his string. And the half man said: “What did it is like a human being.”

Now he came to him. “Say, did something pull off your spear point?” “Yes,” he said to him. Then he gave him the one he had. That was Master Hopper, they say. After he had gone up [he came upon] two large old men who had come after firewood. They were cutting at the trunks of rotten trees and throwing the chips into the water, when silver salmon went down in a shoal.

He went behind and put stones in from behind, and their wedges were broken off. Then he (one) said: “Alas, they will make trouble for us.” Then he went to them and gave them his two wedges. They were glad and said to him: “This house is your wife’s.”

Then he went out [to it]. He went and stood in front of the house. His wife came out to him. Then he went in with her. She was glad to see her husband. She was the town chief’s daughter. He remained in the town as her husband. And all the things they gathered he, too, gathered along with them.

After he had been there for some time he came to dislike the place. And his wife told her father. Then his father-in-law called the people. In the house he asked them: “Who will take my son-in-law down?” And Loon said: “I will take down your son-in-law.” And he said to him: “How will you do it?” And he said: “I will put him near my tail, dive into the water right in front with him, come up at the end of his father’s village, and let him off.” Then they thought he was not strong enough for it.

Then he asked again. Grebe said the same thing. Him, too, they thought not strong enough to do it. Then Raven said that he would take him down. And they asked him: “How are you going to do it?” “I will put him into my armpit and fly down with him from the end of the town. When I get tired I will fall over and over with him.” Then they thought he could do it.

They stood in a crowd at the end of the town looking at him. He did with him as he had said. When he became very tired and was nearly down he threw him off upon a reef which lay there. “Yu­waiyā′, what a heavy thing I am taking down.” Shortly he (the man) was making a noise there as a sea gull. [516]

The interest of this story lies in the fact that it resembles well-known Eskimo myths in certain details. The episode with which it opens is told all the way round the world.

THE STORY OF HIM WHOSE SISTER BROUGHT HIM FOOD FROM THE LAND OTTERS

[Told by Abraham of Those-born-at-Qꜝā′dᴀsg̣o, as related to him by an old Ninstints man]

He went out from the town to make a canoe. He had two children. His wife was also with him. When he came in from making the canoe he said: “Would that I had a sister to bring in food to me.”

One time at evening burning pitchwood came toward him. [517] His sister, who had long ago been carried away by something [518] in the woods, came in to him with good food. She talked to him as she used to. Then she said to him: “Your brother-in-law is going to watch your canoe [to see when it is time to move it]. When you are ready to turn it over do not go to it for some time after daybreak.” So she spoke to her brother.

When he was ready to turn it over he did not go to it for some time. When he did go to it his canoe had been turned over. Then he worked the bottom of it.

After that his sister again brought him food. Then his wife wanted to give her something. She refused it. And they saw her put one of the arms of a crab [519] they had eaten which was lying near the fire inside of her blanket. Then they gathered some for her, and, when she again brought food, they gave them to her. She even took their hands along with them [for joy]. Every evening his sister came in to him with food.

Then she said to her brother: “When you are going to launch the canoe your brother-in-law says that you had better not go out to it for some time after daybreak. [520] Your brother-in-law says he and his friends will bring it out. When he has brought it out, your brother-in-law says he wants you to bring it to him.” She also told him whither he should go.

As soon as he had it ready for launching he did not go to it. When some time had passed after daybreak he saw it sticking half out of the woods near him. Immediately he and his wife launched it. Then he went to the place whither his sister had directed him.

Soon he came to a town. They landed in front of those who had come out of the houses to meet him. They placed his canoe where he was going to finish it, and his sister led them into the house.

After she had given them food they went to bed. When he awoke in the night [he found] he was pressed in by something. He could in no way stretch out. Those were the roots of a large tree. When it was day, a good house again stood there.

Now, he lived there for a long time. All the while he worked on his canoe. Every night the earth changed for him. In the morning the house stood there just as it ought to appear.

By and by four persons went out by canoe to hunt coots. They called bullheads coots. After they had been gone for a while only three came back. He (the fourth) was killed because he forgot the mat to cover his knees. When they forgot this they never escaped. [521]

When his canoe was finished he steamed and spread it. At that time his brothers-in-law helped him. After that he started to go out in it. All that time she (his sister) made the child dance. Already it began to have a tail. Then she gave them directions. She said that when they went outward they should not look back. She said that the child, who was just able to talk, must not speak about that country. And she also gave the same directions to him.

One time, after that, they started off. When they were some distance away the child remembered the town. And, when he said “How [well] we lived among them,” they were back again in front of the town. When they again started and had passed beyond the place where the boy first spoke he repeated the same thing, and again they were back in front of the town. When they went away again they kept straight on. Then they came to [their own] town.

Here it draws to an end. [522]

This is one of the numerous and popular land-otter stories and the only type of story in which that animal appears in a rôle at all benevolent. Usually he is represented as trying to steal away some human being and make a slave of him, to deprive one of his senses or turn him into a gā′gix̣īt (see story of Supernatural-being-who-went-naked, note 19). Nevertheless, his peculiar nature brought him into intimate relations with the shamans, especially among the Tlingit.

HOW SOMETHING PULLED A ROW OF EAGLES INTO THE WATER

[Told by the chief of Kloo, of Those-born-at-Skedans]

There lay the town of Skedans. The nephew of the town chief there sat around whittling. He came to have many boxes of arrows. And one day he put shavings into the fire in front of his uncle’s wife. Then he saw her genitals.

Then he looked on as they were gambling. His uncle also sat there. By and by a flicker came flying about. It showed red when it spread its wings. Then he said “Just now I saw something in the house exactly like that,” whereupon his uncle became ashamed.

Then his uncle had a block of cedar cut out, and they shaped it like a canoe. Then they scraped off some pitch, put it into the cedar, warmed it, and made him sit on it. Then they went out with him to the open sea and put him in it. He was crying. He cried himself to sleep.

By and by the wind blew from the ocean. After he had floated for a time he floated ashore at Broken-shells-of-the-supernatural-beings. [523] Then he put his back to the sunshine, and the heat melted him off.

Now he rose and came to a town. And at evening he peered into the houses. After he had looked about for a while he looked into the chief’s house and [saw] a woman sitting between the screens which pointed toward each other. She was pretty. He looked in at her.

And, when they all were gone to bed, he went in to her. And the woman asked him: “Who are you? My father keeps me for him alone whom his uncle had taken toward the open sea.” And he said to her: “I am he.” Then she let him lie with her. While he was lying with her her father overheard.

Next day her father said: “Come! let us see who was talking with my child.” Then he said: “I wonder what supernatural being got in that way. I was keeping my daughter for him whom they said his uncle had carried toward the open sea.” “It is he, father, he says.” “Come down to the fire with your husband, child.” Then she went down with him, and his father-in-law gave him food.

And, after he had stayed with her for a while, he told his wife that he wanted to see his uncle’s town. Then his wife told her father. And he told his son-in-law to bring him a box which was near the wall. And, when he brought it over to him, he took four out of it in succession, and began pulling from the inmost the feather clothing of an eagle. Then he gave him one among them in which fine black feathers were mixed with white.

Then he went outside, put it on (lit., went into it), and flew up to a high frame in front of the house. He flew easily. Then he flew down. Soon he looked down upon his uncle’s town. Then he sat at Skedans point. He looked from where he sat at his uncle’s town.

By and by some children came to him. And the children shot up at him with blunt arrows. But every time they shot at him he sat lower down. In the inside of [the skin] he made himself small. He changed himself many times in a way his father-in-law had given him directions. [524] For that purpose he had given him one all of fine feathers.

Presently the boys were forbidden to shoot, and the grown people began shooting at him. Every time they shot at him he came lower. When a big crowd was about him, he seized one person by the top of his head. And, when he flew up with him, some one else seized his feet. When he also went up another seized his feet. In the same way they all seized one another’s feet until he flew up with the whole town. Then he flew seaward with them and let them fall there. They became islands. [525] The town of Skedans became empty. Then he flew up.

And all the time he was at this town they entered their feather clothing just before daybreak and sat in line upon a kind of pole, which was in front of the town. After they had discussed the place they should go to they flew away. In the evening they flew back. They returned with all kinds of things. They took whale tails, white porpoises, porpoises; and halibut, red cod, spring salmon—everything one can think of.

One time he told his wife he wanted to go out for food with them. He wanted to go for the things they brought in. Then his father-in-law again gave him a [skin]. He gave him one that belonged to a young person. Then he put it on, flew seaward with them, and caught spring salmon. His father-in-law was pleased with him.

And at daybreak his father-in-law warned him. He told him not to touch a thing which stuck out of the water at Skedans point. And one day, when he flew out with them, he looked at a whale, thought it easy, and seized it in his talons. He did not feel it. At that time his father-in-law was still more pleased with him.

And when day broke he told him all the places upon this island where they get things. Then he sat with them in front of the house, and even to the south end of the island the things under the waters, fish and sea mammals, [526] were plainly visible to him.

One day he flew downward and nearly touched the thing sticking out. And, when he did the same thing again, he seized it. He flapped his wings to pull it up. It acted like a solid object and nearly carried him under the water. Another took hold of the end of his wing. He, too, was drawn under, and another seized his wing. As soon as they saw him they flew toward him from the south end of the island and from the north end of the island. All flew about above him. They also saw him from the town. The first were drawn in. They were nearly all pulled in one after the other, holding each other’s wings, when the town people, too, came flying thither. Those, too, were at once drawn in.

Then his father-in-law and his wife dressed themselves. And, when those also were almost drawn under, and his wife was nearly drawn under with them, his wife’s grandmother also dressed herself. She sharpened her claws which were dull. At the same time she said: “Ha-i ha-i, what things happen by means of the claws of my child’s husband, ha-i ha-i.” She was very old, they say.

By and by she flew out and seized her. After she had flapped her wings for a while she saw one coming up. As she saw another one come up something cracked at the bottom of the island. Then she pulled them out. The thing came up with them. That was Greatest-clam (stᴀn), [527] they say.

Then the town was restored. And he again began getting food for his father-in-law as formerly. But Skedans continued to lie empty. That is why the same thing keeps happening to it, they say. [528]

[Another version of this story, obtained by Prof. Franz Boas from Charlie Edenshaw, chief of the Stᴀ′stas, a prominent Masset family.]

At Lāltg·iwas, [529] near Skidā′ns, lived a chief and his sister, who had a son. This young man loved the chief’s wife. When the chief discovered this he became jealous and thought of killing his nephew. He sent his slaves to fetch gum. The slaves went and bought a canoe load of gum, which the chief boiled. Then he covered the board which covers the bow of the canoe with the gum. After this was done he sent his slaves to shoot eagles, and he spread the down over the gum so as to make it invisible. After he had thus prepared his canoe he called his nephew. His slaves went into his house to call him. He obeyed their summons, and went to his uncle’s house, who requested him to go out to sea, hunting. The young man took his quiver, which contained two bows and many arrows. The young man asked his uncle: “What kind of a blanket shall I wear when I go hunting?” Then the chief gave him two marten blankets. He continued: “What kind of ear ornament shall I wear when I go hunting?” His uncle gave him ear ornaments made of caribou skin (tsʼᴇnʟqal = caribou).

When the weather was clear and calm he started hunting seals (xōt). Before they started the chief said to his slaves: “When he harpoons a seal push him so that he will fall on the board in the bow of the canoe. He will stick to it, and then throw him overboard.” They went out to sea, and, when the young man was about to harpoon a seal, the slave pushed him so that he fell down on the board. He was unable to free himself because the gum was holding him. Then the slaves took the board, threw it overboard, and returned home. They said that the young man had fallen overboard and that they had been unable to save him. Then all the people were sad.

The young man drifted about on the sea, and the wind drifted the board ashore near a town. He crawled up toward the houses, but, when the sun was shining warmly, the gum softened, and he was able to free himself. He dried his blankets in the warm sunshine.

Now he heard two women singing. Their voices were very beautiful. After a while they approached him. They were very beautiful. They addressed him, saying: “We know that your uncle is jealous of you, and therefore he ordered his slaves to throw you into the sea. Accompany us to our father’s country. It is not far from here. We will look after you.” Then he accompanied them, and soon they arrived at a large town. One of the girls was the chief’s daughter, while the other one was her slave. She was the daughter of the Eagle.

Now they entered the chief’s house. He was offered a seat and was given to eat. The chief was glad to see him. The girl’s mother, whose name was G̣ōtsō′na, was very old. She was quite bald. Early every morning the Eagles went out hunting whales. When they returned they gave the whales to the old woman. One day the youth desired to accompany the hunters. He said to his wife: “Tell your father that I wish to see how he hunts whales.” The young woman told her father, who replied: “Here is an eagle skin. Give it to your husband.” He put it on and flew out with the Eagles. Before he started, the old woman warned him, saying: “Don’t try to catch a clam. Its head looks just like that of a sea otter. A long time ago one of our hunters tried to catch it, and it drowned him. For this reason we are afraid of it.”

They went out to sea and saw many whales. The young man caught one. He did not find it difficult to lift it. The eagle skin which he had on was one the chief had used when he was a young man. For that reason it made him very strong. In the evening they returned, and he gave his whale to the old woman. He was so eager to go out again whaling that he was unable to sleep. Early next morning he started and continued to catch whales. Thus he continued to do for many years. The old woman warned him frequently, saying: “Don’t try to catch that small black animal whose head looks like that of a sea otter.”

One morning, when he started, he thought: “To-day I shall try to catch two whales, one in each hand.” When he saw two whales he swooped down and took one in each talon. He did not find them too heavy and carried them home. He gave them to the old woman. When he found that he was strong enough to lift two whales, he thought he would be able to conquer the animal of which the old woman had warned him. He started early in the morning, and, as soon as he saw the clam, he swooped down on it and succeeded in lifting it. But soon he felt his strength leaving him, and he began to sink down lower and lower. Now the clam had dragged him down to the surface of the water. Then one of the Eagles came to his assistance. He took hold of his wings and tried to pull him up, but in vain. The clam pulled him down. Another Eagle came to their help, but they were unable to overcome the clam. All the whale hunters came to their assistance, but all of them were dragged down under the water.

Now only one of the Eagles was left. He returned home and told the old woman what had happened. Then she said: “Ngai, ngai, ngai!” She sharpened her nails and put on her skin, which looked very old and ragged. Now she was an old Eagle, who had lost many feathers. She flew out to sea, and sang: “Why did my son-in-law disobey me? Ngai, ngai, ngai!” When she came to the place where the clam had drowned the Eagles, she saw the wings of one Eagle only above the surface of the water. She took hold of them and tried to lift them. She was almost dragged under water; but gradually she began to rise. She tried three times. The fourth time she succeeded in raising the Eagle. Again she sang: “Why did my son-in-law disobey me? Ngai, ngai, ngai!” Then she heard a noise under water, “Ox!” Then she lifted all the Eagles, and took them back home.

Now the young man resolved to take revenge on the people who had killed him. He put on his eagle skin and flew to his uncle’s village. There he alighted on the top of a tree. When the people saw him they attempted to shoot him, because they were desirous of obtaining the Eagle’s feathers for winging their arrows; but they were unable to hit him. Now his uncle’s son attempted to shoot him. At once he swooped down, grasped him, and carried him upward. One of the men of the village tried to hold the boy, but he also was lifted upward; and thus he raised all the men of the village. He carried them out to sea and dropped them into the water, where they were drowned.

The young man continued to live there for many years, but finally he became homesick. He did not laugh and stayed at home all the time. Then the old woman asked her daughter: “Why is your husband sad?” His wife replied: “He wishes to return to his uncle’s village.” Then the old woman gave him the skin of the bird tʼᴇn. [It has a red throat, and is eaten by the whites]. [530] He put it on and flew back. The village was entirely deserted, because he had killed all the people. Only his two younger sisters remained, who had been hidden at the time of his former visit. They were crying all the time. When they saw the bird they made a noose of their own hair, and he allowed himself to be caught.

THE STORY ABOUT HIM WHO DESTROYED HIS NINE NEPHEWS

[Told by Walter McGregor of the Sea-lion-town people.]

A town chief began letting his nephews have his wife. [531] Every time he led one away, and he never came back. He had them go and get an old dead tree which he said he owned, and they never came back from it. He let them [go after] bark and set a net for a cormorant which he said he owned, and they never came back. After he had done this way for a while, nine were destroyed.

And their younger brother came to know it. Then he began bathing in the sea. After he had bathed for a while he became strong. He smashed anything he took hold of. He also twisted and pulled out spruce limbs. When he had become truly strong he began to make various things. He finished two wedges. And he also took a sg̣u′nskaxaua shell. [532] He sharpened it. And he took a weasel skin and feathers. And he pressed mud taken from the woods hard together in his hands and made a hole within it. He made it large enough to get into.

Then he put paint upon his face and sat on top of the house. After he had sat there for a while his uncle came out. When he saw him he went back. His uncle was always jealous. One came out to call him in to his uncle. Then he went thither.

When he entered a mat was spread out for him. And, after he had given him some food, he said to him: “Nephew, you shall marry my wife.” Then he lay with her.

Next day he said to him: “Nephew, go and get a rotten tree I own behind the town.” He had his two wedges hidden about him. His uncle went ahead of him. He followed. He opened a crack where it lay. Something braced it apart. Then his uncle dropped a wedge in and asked him to get it. Then he went in and got it. He knocked out the brace. The crack came close together. Then he heard his uncle rejoice [saying]: “Look at him whom I killed because he wanted to marry my wife.” Then his uncle started off.

Then he began to cut it from the place where he was. And he cut a hole and came out. Then he split it open. He took his elder brothers out. Then he broke half of [the log] by jumping on it and threw it around. And half of it he carried home on his shoulder and threw it down hard in front of the house. That was his uncle’s supernatural power, they say. Again he slept with his [uncle’s] wife.

Next day his uncle said to him: “Come! nephew, go with me to get the cormorant I own which is sitting over yonder.” Then he took his weasel and feather and went with him to get it. His uncle set a net where some sticks stuck out on top of a very high cliff. A cormorant got into it. Then he said to him: “Now, nephew, get it.” And, when he started down upon the pole, he pushed his nephew over. Then he put himself into the feather and dropped easily. He heard his uncle rejoice. “Look at the one whom I killed because he wanted to marry my wife.” Then he started off.

Now he entered his weasel skin and climbed up the cliff. And he stretched the net across. In it he caught a number of cormorants. After he had taken them out he tore his uncle’s net to pieces and threw the pieces about. Then he took the cormorants on his back and brought them into the house. They were his uncle’s supernatural helpers.

The day after that his uncle went with him to get bark. He concealed the thing he had made. He followed his uncle. By and by [they came to] the bark which was burning, and his uncle took some of it. Then he told him to get some also. When he did so he pushed him into it. And he got inside of the mud he had pressed together. He did not feel the burning. Then his uncle said he was glad. His uncle said: “Look at the man whom I killed because he wanted to marry my wife. He will try it no longer.”

When his uncle started away from him, he went to the place, pushed the bark down, and threw it around. Then he carried some home on his shoulder and threw it down inside. That was his uncle’s supernatural helper, they say. And again he slept with his [uncle’s] wife.

Next day he again said to his nephew: “Come! nephew and go with me for a small cockle I own, which is just over yonder.” Then he started thither with him. He took his knife. The cockle opened its mouth. Then his uncle told him to get it and, when he went to get it, he pushed him into its mouth. Again his uncle rejoiced. “Look at the one whom I killed because he wanted to marry my wife.”

When his uncle started off he cut the ligaments [533] with the knife and pushed it open. Then he threw half of it around and carried half of it off on his shoulders and threw it down in the house. He had destroyed all of his supernatural helpers, they say.

Then he spread out a bearskin for them and had them lie there. While he slept his uncle and his friends took him up and put him into a box. Then his uncle put cords around it. And they took him far out to sea toward the middle of the ocean. And there they threw him into the water. Again he rejoiced and went home.

After he had floated about for some time he felt himself float ashore upon the sand. When he was about to burst the cover by stretching he heard two women talking together, saying as follows: “Cloud-watcher, [534] a box has floated ashore.” And, when he heard it, he did not burst the box.

The two women removed the lid and pulled him up. Then Cloud-watcher’s elder sister said as follows: “I will marry him because I saw him first.” Then they led him home, and they led him into their father’s house. They were glad to see him.

After they had given him something to eat he went out. And, after he had walked about in the town for a while, he entered the middle house. Numbers of eagle skins were hung there, and he entered one made of fine feathers. He flapped his wings. He almost went through the doorway. He seized the boards along the side of the door. Then he came out of it quickly. And he entered his father’s house. His father-in-law said: “I wonder why my skin tickles as if they were playing with my feather clothing.” He was town mother, they say.

Next day, very early, he heard eagles making a noise. Then he went out to look. The eagles sat in rows upon something raised high up in front of the house. [535] On it they made a noise. After they had spent some time sharpening their talons they went hunting. After they had been gone for a while and evening was come they returned with spring salmon in their talons. Some of them had red cod and pieces of whale.

Next day he heard them scream again in front of the house, and he told his wife he wanted to learn to hunt. Then she also told her father. And his father-in-law said: “Now, my child, I will lend your husband the one I used to go out fishing in when I was a youth.” Then he brought out a box. He picked one out of it covered with small, fine feathers. And, when he gave it to her, he said to her: “Tell your husband not to go toward something small which sticks out near by.”

Then he flew seaward with them and got a whale jaw. He came in before them. They caught all kinds of things. His father-in-law was pleased with him. Then they cooked the whale. When they began to eat it they pulled an old woman shaking with age out and said to her: “Drink whale broth, old woman.” And she did as they told her.

The day after that he flew out again with them. And he felt different (i.e., powerful). And he took a whale jaw. On the other side he took a spring salmon. He flew home before all. They got all sorts of things. And, when they again began to eat the whale, they led in the old woman, and she drank whale broth.

When he went to hunt with them the day after he nearly touched the thing which stuck out of the water with his claws and finally seized it. After he had flapped his wings, as he held it, for a while he vanished under the water. Then another seized his wings. He, too, was nearly dragged under. And one brought news to the town that he had seized the wrong thing.

Then the old woman sharpened her claws which were dull, saying meanwhile: “Ha-i ha-i, what wrong thing did my child’s (i.e., grandchild’s) husband get hold of?” Her wings had lost feathers [from age]. She flew down. She was unable to fly in a straight line. She flew hither and thither. When about five were left she got there, and, when those were nearly covered, she seized them with her claws. After she had flapped her wings for a while, tugging at them, she drew one of them to the surface. She was at the end of them. Something cracked at the bottom where the thing was. She pulled it out.

Then they said: “Put it far from the place where human beings are going to get food.” And they dropped it far out at sea. Then he seized the jaw of a whale and a spring salmon. He flew home with them. He killed the thing they were afraid of. That was Supernatural-clam, [536] they say.

And, after he had lived with his wife for some time, he went to see his uncle’s town. He flew to the town wearing his eagle skin. And, after he had sat at the end of the town for a while, he saw his uncle come out. Then he flew away.

And early next day he flew seaward, picked up a whale, and dropped it in front of his uncle’s house while they slept. Then he sat on a dead tree that stood at one end of the town. After he had sat there for a while some one came out. He called them to the whale, and they went to it. His uncle said he would keep it for himself. He stood on top of the whale.

Then he flew. He flew about above the place where his uncle was walking about. And they laughed at him. They said “He wants the whale meat.” And again he sat on the tree. After he had sat there for a while his uncle said he wanted all of the whale for himself. He said that as he stood around. Presently he flew over to him. He seized him by the knot in his hair and flew away with him.

After he had flown along for a while he discovered that it was his nephew, and he said: “Nephew, carry me back. You shall marry my wife. I will give the town to you.” After he had flown on with him a while longer he said the same thing to his nephew again. After he had flown on still farther with him he dropped him in the open sea. [537]

Then he flew landward, reached his uncle’s village, married his uncle’s wife, and came to own the town. His uncle became a supernatural being in the open sea.

THE STORY OF ONE WHO SAW AN EAGLE TOWN

[Told by Abraham, of Those-born-at-Qꜝā′dᴀsg̣o, to whom it was related by an old man of Ninstints.]

He began gambling. After he had lost for some time he lost all of his property. Then he began to bid the property of his clansmen. [538] When he had lost a great deal of that as well he was ashamed to enter the house.

By and by he went to the end of the town. It occurred to him to go into the woods. Then he did so. Then he thought of climbing a mountain. At once he went thither. Before him eagles wheeled about upon the mountain. Presently he came to a big town.

He saw eagles sitting upon something like a pole in front of the town. They were looking into the sea for something. [539] Then he began to live with them. With the feather on the very tip of his wing one of them wiped something common out of his eyes. And in the evening they said they were going fishing. Then they killed a whale. Every evening they killed one whale.

By and by he started out fishing with a net. Then they told him not to put the whole net into the sea. And, when he fished with them, he let out two meshes. When he got something in it that time, it carried it away. He did not worry about it. Some time after this he descended to his home. Then he again began gambling. At that time he won. At once he paid all his debts.

Originally this story must have been considerably longer.

THE ONE THEY ABANDONED BECAUSE HE WAS THE FIRST TO SPEAR SEA LIONS

[Told by Walter McGregor of the Sealion-town people.]

A good carpenter had two children. People went to a reef to hunt, and he made spears for this. And he fastened them with cords. He used any sort of strong thing for this purpose. He fastened a point on the spear. Then they drove the sea lions into a pool of water on top of the reef. He speared the sea lions. And he pulled in the spear handle and put another point into it. He killed the sea lions in this way.

And, after he had done this for a while, one day they went thither, let him off first, and abandoned him. But his youngest brother-in-law paddled toward him. When he was far off he (the youngest brother-in-law) tried to take away their paddles. He was fighting to do so. He saw it. He called after them. They paid no attention to him. They were unable to kill the sea lions. He only could kill them. That is why they left him.

Then he cried for his children on top of the island. After he had cried for a time he lay down near the pond. As he slept there something said to him: “The chief asks you to come in.” He looked for the cause of it. He saw not a sign of a thing. He saw something dive into the lake. And, after he had lain a while longer, something spoke to him as before. Then he looked through the eyeholes in his marten-skin blanket. He saw a grebe [540] come to the surface of the pond. After it had swum about for a while it said: “The chief asks you to come in.” Then it dove.

Then he took a whetstone he had and jumped into the pond. He stood in front of a big house, and they asked him to come in. He entered, and they inquired of him: “Why did you kill my servants?” And he said: “I did it to feed my two children.”

And he saw two small killer whales blowing about in a pool of water in the corner of the house. Those were the chief’s two children at play. He saw killer-whale fins hung up in bunches in the four corners.

Then they gave him something to eat. They dragged a sea lion sitting on the side toward the door to the fire and put hot stones that were in the fire into its mouth. And they also put halibut into its mouth. When [the latter] was cooked they gave it to him to eat.

And after he was through eating they brought one of the fins which were in the corner. And they warmed the lower end of it. And, after they had bent him over, he put a whetstone on his back. When they struck it on it fell off. On top of the stone floor planks the fin lay shaking. They went to get another. After they had warmed that in the same way at the fire they had him bend over. And he placed the whetstone on his back. When they struck it upon him that also slipped off. That, too, fell upon the stone floor planks.

And they got another one. When the same thing happened to that they got a long one. After they had warmed that, also, for a while they bent him over. He again placed the whetstone on his back. When they struck that one on, it also fell to the stone floor planks. After four attempts they gave it up.

Then the chief said: “Let him out. He refuses the fins. Put him into a sea lion’s stomach.” And the chief said to him: “After you have floated about and have struck against land four times, get out. You will have floated ashore on good ground.” At once they put him into a sea lion’s stomach, and he tied it together from inside. They threw him out.

And, after he had floated shoreward and had floated against the land four times, he got out. He had floated ashore upon a nice beach. Then he again tied up the sea lion’s stomach air-tight and threw it out. The stomach vanished seaward against the wind.

Then he started toward the town and stayed at the end of it until evening. And in the evening he looked in at his wife. He saw that his wife’s hair was burnt short and pitch was upon her face. He also saw his two children sitting there. Then he tapped on the wall opposite his wife, and his wife went out. Then he said to his wife: “Bring me my tools.” Then she gave them to him. And he said: “Do not let anyone know about me. Conceal it even from my children.”

And, when he started off from there, he took one from among some children who were playing about and started inland with him. After he had gone on for some time he came to where a big lake lay. Then he cut on the lakeward side of a large cedar standing near it. And, after he had cut it on the back side, it fell across the lake. Then he split it from the butt end, and, as soon as he had split it, he put a crosspiece in.

Then he twisted cedar limbs. He spliced them together. When the rope became long he fastened the child to it. Then he let it down between. After it struck the bottom, and he had held it for a while it began jerking, and he pulled it toward himself. The lake was also boiling. Its hands came out first. And when its head followed them to the surface, he knocked out the brace quickly. It struggled in it. After he had struck it several times it died.

Then he pulled it out. He was going to cut it open in front. Lightning shot about. So he cut it open, beginning at the lower part of its back. Then he skinned it. Its tail was nice. It was bent over. Then he lighted a fire and dried it. That was a Wā′sg̣o, they say. When it was dry he rolled it up and brought it out.

Then he hid it in a forked cedar tree at the end of the town. He put moss over it. Then he started for the end of the town and made killer whales out of cedar. He put fins on them and kicked them into the water. But they only blew bubbles close to the kelps. Then he said: “Go where you are to be settled.” Those were the porpoises, they say. And he also worked hemlock into killer whales. When ten of those were also finished he kicked them into water. After they had been gone for some time bubbles like steam arose seaward. And he thought they were unable to do anything. And he said: “Go where your place is to be.” Those were the white porpoises, [541] they say.

Fine weather continued. All that time the people were fishing.

And the next day, after he had thought what he would use, he made ten killer whales out of yew wood. The surfaces were variegated, striped with white. Their bellies were white. The corners of their mouths were also striped with white. The fin of one of them had a hole in it, and one fin was bent over toward the tail. While he was making them they moved. For them he laid a log down [horizontally]. There he placed them, and he kicked them about. Presently bubbles of air rose far out at sea. Then he told them to come in, and he pulled them up again. They had red cod, spring salmon, and halibut in their mouths.

And in the evening he went to his wife. He looked in again. He tapped opposite his wife, and his wife came out to him. And he said to her: “When they go out fishing again to-morrow tell your youngest brother to fasten a feather in his hair.”

The next day they went fishing, and he gave directions to the killer whales. “Destroy all the people out fishing. Break up their canoes with your fins. Save only the one who has a feather in his hair.” Then he kicked them off. After they had been gone for a while bubbles rose beyond the place where the canoes were anchored. Then the killer whales came back to the canoes. Bubbles of air rose among them. The killer whales broke up the canoes with their fins. They chewed up the bodies of the people. Only the one who had a feather in his hair was left swimming about. And, when they were destroyed, he got into the broken canoe, and the killer whales came landward with him in a school. Then he got off in front of the town.

And he again called the killer whales. Then he gave them directions. And he said to the one that had a hole in its fin: “You shall be called: ‘Hole-in-his-fin.’” And he said to the one with the fin bent back: “You shall be called: ‘Fin-turned-back.’” Then he said: “Go to Na-iku′n. Settle down there. That land is good. You shall be called ‘Strait people.’” [542]

And he went to his wife with the things the killer whales had caught in their mouths. His two children were glad to see him.

And, after he had stayed at the town for a while, he went out while they slept and put on his wā′sg̣o skin. Then with his hands he merely reached for something at the end of the town. He got half a spring salmon.

And his mother-in-law always hated him. She always got up very early. He laid it down for her in front of the house. Then his mother-in-law went out very early. She found half a spring salmon. She was glad to have it.

The same night he put on his wā′sg̣o skin. He let the water come up even with his elbow. He took out half a halibut. Then he laid it down for his mother-in-law, and in the morning she found it. The town people had become hungry.

And in the night he again entered his wā′sg̣o skin and plunged his whole arm into the water. He seized a whole spring salmon. Then he again left it for the woman, and she found it in the morning.

That night he again entered his wā′sg̣o skin. And he let the water come up as far as his shoulders. Then he took a whale jaw and put it down for his mother-in-law. And she found that also.

Then his mother-in-law began acting like a shaman. And they fasted with her for four nights. He was with them. His mother-in-law was going to get power from him.

In the night he put on the wā′sg̣o skin. He swam seaward. He killed a whale. A spear stuck out of the nostrils of the wā′sg̣o. [543] He killed the whale with that. Then he put it between his ears and swam landward with it. And he laid it in front of the house, because she said a whale would float ashore.

And again, while they slept, he swam out in the wā′sg̣o skin. And he took two whales. He swam landward with them. He put one between his ears, and he also put one near his tail. Swimming landward, he placed those also in front of the house.

The next night he swam far out to sea with the wā′sg̣o skin on, and he took ten whales. He had them on each side of his head between his ears. He also had some lying crosswise near his tail. And he piled them upon himself and had one in his mouth. Then he came shoreward.

While he was still out at sea daylight came. When he reached shore his mother-in-law came down to him wearing a dancing hat. Then he stood up out of the wā′sg̣o skin and said to her: “Why is your face hard? Does some supernatural power come through you by my help?” And he made her die of shame. The wā′sg̣o skin went off of itself. Then he gathered his ten whales and told no one to cut them. What he received from the sale of the whales made him rich. He potlatched ten times for his youngest brother-in-law. He kept him like a chief’s son.

THE MAN WHO MARRIED A KILLER-WHALE WOMAN

[Told by Abraham of Those-born-at-Qꜝā′dᴀsgo, who learned it from an old Ninstints man.]

A man and his wife were abandoned at the town of Sqa-i [544]. After they had lived there together for a while, his wife began getting mussels at Stasqa′os[544]. Every day she went there for mussels.

After a while he became suspicious of her. And one time, when she went after mussels, he followed her stealthily. When she got near the place where she was going to get mussels she went along singing. She beat upon her mat with her digging stick in lieu of a drum. When she got near the place where the mussels were a whale jumped ashore sideways just in front of her. Then she went to it, and she lay with it. And the whale went off blowing. He saw it.

Then he knew, and he went away. Then he began to sharpen a mussel-shell at some place where she could not see him. It became sharp, and one day, when it was low tide, he sent his wife to get spruce roots for him.

Then he made clothing for himself like his wife’s, took the basket, and wore the mat as a blanket. Then he went along the beach of Stasqa′os. And, when he approached the place where his wife was in the habit of getting mussels, he used his mat as a drum. When he sang the same words, the black whale came ashore on its side in front of him. Then he went to it and cut off its penis. Then it got up quickly and went into the water making a noise. Its cries died away into the ocean.

Then he came home and built a fire. And he put stones into the fire. Then he sliced it up, and, when the stones were hot, he steamed it. After it was cooked his wife came home.

Then she asked her husband: “What things are you steaming?” “I found some things which had floated ashore. I am steaming them for you. They are cooked. Take the covers off.” Then they took the covers off. Before they had even put them into the tray she took the piece off of the top and ate it.

After she had taken one bite he said to her: “Is your husband’s penis sweet?” She dropped it at once. Immediately she turned toward the door. Right where she sat she shook. Even the ground shook.

And, when his wife started off, he tried to hold her. He could not. Then she went out, and he went out after her. And, after he had followed her closely for a while, she went up in the bed of a creek at the end of Stasqa′os. All that time he kept looking at her. And, when she got up toward the mountain, she again recalled her husband’s words.

Now she sat on top of the mountain, and she again remembered what her husband had said. And, while sitting there, she became ashamed. Then she played in the earth with the tip of her finger. She made a hole with her finger far into the island. She did not feel how she did it. When she stood up she picked up some dirt and threw it into it. “All future people will do this way to you.” [545]

Then she went away and came to the west coast. And she went out on one side of Elderberry point. Then she jumped into the water in front of her. He did not know that he had married a female killer whale that had been born of a woman. [546] Then she settled herself down before him. She became a reef. It is called “Woman.” When people get off from a canoe upon it, it shakes with them, they say. [547]

And there she again recalled her husband’s words, and she went away from there also. Where she again settled down on the west coast as a reef, they also call it “Woman.”

Stories of this type are told throughout the Haida country.

HE WHO WAS ABANDONED BY HIS UNCLES

[Told by Abraham, of Those-born-at-Qꜝā′dᴀsg̣o, to whom it was related by an old Ninstints man.]

A man, along with his sister, was abandoned by his nine uncles. They built a small house under a tree. He lived in this with his sister. After they had lived there for a while two ravens came flying from the west coast. Then they sat on a branch of the tree below which they lived and wiped their bills. Afterward they flew back in the direction from which they had come. They disappeared over the mountain.

After this had happened many times while they were living there they began to be suspicious. Then they conferred with each other. He asked his sister to go with him in the direction the ravens always took when they flew over. Immediately they started up in the bed of Stasqa′os creek.

When they got far up they came to the end of a trail. And they went up upon it. When they got to the top of the mountain [they found] a hole there. The bottom could not be seen. And when they started to leave it they came back to it again. They kept doing so all day. A short time after they had started from it they came back to it.

Then the man became angry, took dirt in his hand and threw it in. “Yawaiyā′⁺, it makes people come back who try to go away from it,” said he. [548] Then, when they started away, they came to the town-site of Ku′ndi. [549]

Three rows of whales had floated ashore there. Those in the row nearest land were rotten. Those in the next row were a little rotten. Those next the sea were fresh. Killer whales came out to sleep on a reef which ran out into the strait. They made a noise, touching each other.

Then he and his sister constructed a house. When it was finished he cut up some fresh whales. At the same time he steamed them.

And one night he heard something whispering to his sister. He did not ask her about it. The night after that he again heard something talking to his sister. Then in the morning he asked his sister: “What talked to you in the night?” “Brother, [550] they tell me a strange thing. Kꜝū′dᴀña-point will marry me. If you agree, they say they will give you much food. If you agree, they direct you to make a strong club. When the house is full they direct you to stand outside the door. Then they direct you to break their heads with your club.” He agreed. Evening came again, and his sister was gone in the morning.

He finished his club. Then good-looking people came in to him. Some had curly hair. When there was a great crowd in the house he stood outside. And, as soon as they went out, he struck them on their heads. Right there they fell dead. They became sea otters and hair seals. They say that Kꜝū′dᴀña-point owns the west coast sea otters.

After some time had passed away, two of his uncles’ slaves hunted for him. They came to him. Then, after he had given them food, he told them that they should not say how he was situated. He did not give them food to take home, but one slave concealed a small piece under his tongue for his child. Then they went home.

After some time had passed, his uncles came around Sqa-i-point. The slaves had told about him. That is why they were there. When they abandoned him at Sqa-i his youngest uncle’s wife, although they were watching each other, left him food enough in a neat way to last him for some time.

As they came along his uncles’ daughters were dressed up and sat high in the canoes. Near them coppers were raised upon poles. Then he called in the youngest. But he refused the others. And they started back.

Then he married the daughter of the youngest. And after that a town arose there. They bought food from him. He became a chief there.

See notes to preceding story.

THE STORY OF THOSE WHO WERE ABANDONED AT STASQA′OS

[Told by Abraham of Those-born-at-Qꜝā′dᴀsgo, to whom it was related by an old Ninstints man]

Some people were abandoned at Stasqa′os, including a man, his wife, and his mother-in-law. The latter owned some salmon eggs. When it became cold and he was very hungry he wished his mother-in-law would cut them open, and he brought in firewood. After he had built a large fire he thought he would get something from his mother-in-law. He was unsuccessful. He was hungry many mornings and brought firewood to his mother-in-law, all the time expecting to get the salmon eggs.

By and by, when the snow was gone, he sent his wife out to get spruce roots for himself. While his wife was digging spruce roots she heard a puppy bark within the earth. Then she started to dig it out. She dug out a little puppy. And she went home with it. Then they reared it. It grew up very fast.

One morning, when they got up, two large fish lay outside. They ate them. Next morning some lay there again. The number increased. After the fish had been found there in this way for a while half a halibut lay there. Another time a whole halibut lay there. After there had been halibut for some time porpoises began lying there. After that had happened for a while hair seal began lying there. After they had been found lying there for a time a whale’s tail lay there. Again half of a whale lay there. The dog also became large.

After this, when they became tired of eating grease, she cut open the salmon eggs. His mother-in-law gave some to him. He did not look at them.

When his mother-in-law had become tired of eating grease she went after things found at low tide. Then he covered all the chitons with rotten whale. Instead of eating them his mother-in-law went in and sat down. There came to be whole whales [lying on the beach]. Stasqa′os beach was all covered with whales.

Then, unbeknown to her son-in-law, she collected urine. She put hot stones into it, and, while the dog was out at sea and her son-in-law was sleeping with his wife, she poured it into the sea. At once a great east wind arose. When daylight came the wind increased.

Then he saw the dog’s ears show at intervals above the water in front of Stasqa′os. [551] After he had looked for a while they disappeared around Gᴀ′ñxet-point. [552] After that the waves carried it along the west coast out to sea. Presently it tried to climb ashore at a steep place near Qꜝā′łgwa-i. [553] Its claws scratched great marks upon the rocks. They call that place “Dog-slipping-back.” The waves carried it away from that also. After it had become very tired, The-one-in-the-sea [554] called it in. [555] It settled down in his house.

See notes to two preceding stories. Compare story of How one of the Stasa′os-lā′nas became wealthy.

HE WHO MARRIED THE DAUGHTER OF THE DEVILFISH CHIEF

[Told by Walter McGregor of the Sea-lion-town people]

He was going along in his canoe with his two children and his wife. It was low tide. After he had gone along for a while [he came to a place] where devilfish stones lay. A great quantity of leavings from its (the devilfish’s) food were piled up there. He got off to kill it. Then, while he was punching it with a stick the devilfish came out. Immediately it wound itself around him and pulled him into its hole.

And, after his wife and children had remained there for a while, the rocks were covered with water, and they went away from him. Then the woman went home. She expected never to get him back.

The [devilfish] woman took him to her father’s town. At that time he heard them use bad words [556] to the hair seals. When day broke he hunted about for food among the waves below the capes, they used to say. He remained with her in her father’s town.

After many years had passed he remained in bed two mornings. At that time the chief asked his daughter: “Why does your husband feel badly?” Then she said to her father: “He says he is homesick for his mother and his sister.” Then he was going to let him go home with his daughter.

Now he said: “Two canoes are lying at the end of the town. Have them launched for yourselves.” At once they launched two canoes in front of the house, and they began to put things, with which the inside of the house was full, into them. Before they had taken even a little the canoes were filled. Then she went in one and her husband in the other. Although there were no paddlers the canoes went along.

He came to his father’s town long after they had ceased to think of him. Hu hu hu hu hu, his father’s town moved at once. Then they carried the things up into his father’s house. And then they sliced up the things he brought in sacks. He traded with this property. He became a great chief. It consisted in food of all kinds such as is found at low tide.

At that time his children, who had grown large, came in to him. Then he took a slice of food, cut it in two, and handed it to them, and they went out with it, the woman also. Her husband lived more years among human beings than he had among the devilfish people. With what he got by trading with the food her husband potlatched five times.

After he had lived there for some time he one day came to feel badly over something. Right where he sat, in the back part of his father’s house, with his wife he began to melt. She stretched her arms down between the planks. She pulled her head in after them. Her husband was left sitting there. Afterward her husband also went in between the planks. She went back to her father’s town. And they never saw them again.

The hero of this story was a shaman.

THOSE WHO WERE FASTING TO BECOME SHAMANS

[Told by Tom Stevens, chief of Those-born-at-House-point.]

At the town of Skedans two own brothers fasted to become shamans. After they had fasted for many years, the elder went out when the time came for them to go to bed. And, when he entered, he said he had come in from lying with a woman. He was telling a lie. He let him feel between his legs. It was wet [as if washed]. That was how he fooled him. Then his younger brother also went out, but he really lay with a woman. When day came, he lay dead.

Then they put him into a box, and they placed him on a point, [557] and he (the second) kept crying near his younger brother. After he had sat there for a while he heard the sound of a drum proceeding from the ocean. Presently it got nearer. The canoe came in sight and landed bow [558] first in front of Skedans.

Then two paddling in the bow wearing shamans’ hats [559] jumped off. And they went toward the light coming from the doorway of the house they used to inhabit. They ran inside. They came back. When they got into their canoe they turned around. “They are not in the house,” they said.

And, when they started off, one saw where the body was laid. He said: “One of those we spoke through lies there dead.” Then the two with shamans’ hats got off quickly and took off the cover. He really lay there. His elder brother did not see that they pulled off his skin.

Then they went down to the canoe, and he got in with them. When they got in he got into the stern. They did not see him. And with him they started seaward. Something round hung from the armpit of the one who sat next to him. He saw that all had the same.

Then he squeezed that belonging to the one nearest to him strongly. He almost died and acted as shaman for himself. When he blew [560] on himself he let it go. At once he sat up in the canoe. There was not the least thing the matter with him.

Then he moved slowly to the one in the middle and squeezed his also. Then he, too, was about to die and acted as his own shaman. After he had blown on himself for a while, he also let his go. The chief had his nest [561] in the middle. He sat in it.

After he had done this to all in the canoe he also seized the chief’s. He, too, began to die. His canoe companions acted as shamans for him. They blew upon him. But he did not let his go. They tried to hurry each other. “Quick, paddle away with the chief to get a shaman for him.”

Then they landed, and they got shamans for him. And they acted around him, but he squeezed it all the more. All the shamans could not heal him. Instead he squeezed it tighter. Then he began to die, and they said “Quick, go and get the chief,” and they went for him.

Then they went to get him, and they landed. But he was a great shaman, and, as soon as he put his head in, he saw the one who had seized him. And he said to him: “Look out for yourself, grandson. Those on the other side are not chiefs.” [562] He was chief among the shamans, they say. His name was Sîndjā′ña-i.

And, when he began to perform around him, he slackened his hold. But, when another shaman began to act around him he squeezed it harder, and he was dying. And, when still another acted around him he squeezed it more again, and again he almost died.

And, when the chief shaman again performed, he let go his hold. Then he got strong. All the time he said the same thing to him: “Take care, grandson. They are not chiefs on the other side.”[562] And, when a different one performed around him he squeezed it harder, and he began to die.

Then he acted around him again, and they said to each other: “Give the chief whatever he wants.” Then they brought a box from near the wall and took his younger brother’s skin out of it. Not a part of it was lost. His finger-nails and toe-nails were all there.

Then they put it before the big shaman and turned over to him all kinds of property. These and the human being he put inside of his blanket and went out. Immediately he took him over to Skedans, and he gave him directions: “I will cause sickness at Skedans. When one first falls sick and they do not get you, do not pay any attention to him. He will die. And, when another is sick and they take property to you, save him. And, when another is sick and they do not take you, pay no attention to him. He, too, will die. When one again falls sick, you will receive two pieces of property. When another falls sick, yours will become three, then four. It will increase until you receive ten pieces. When there are many sick, every time one falls sick they will go for you alone. On the other side they are not chiefs.”

Then they landed, and he put his younger brother’s skin on him. He became alive. And what he told him happened. When many fell sick they employed him only. In exchange for what he got he became a chief. With it he potlatched.

I also obtained versions of this story at Masset and in Alaska.

BIG-TAIL.

[Told by Job Moody of the Witch people.]

Mouse-woman adopted him. [563] Presently, after she had lived at Skidegate for a while, supernatural powers began to try him. After some time he began to be a shaman. By and by he became a real shaman.

Then he prepared to dance upon the surface of the ocean. He was going out after whales. Then they began to observe the regulations. [564] [They did so for] five nights. The old people were afraid to let it become ten nights. If the number of nights were even, they said his supernatural power would be spoiled. For that reason they said they wanted it uneven. When some said there were ten nights, and some, too, said there were nine, the supernatural power came through him.

Then he asked them for his name. “What kind of supernatural being am I?” he said. Then they guessed at his name. By and by an old man said: “Great shaman, you are Supernatural-being-at-whose-voice-the-ravens-sit-on-the-sea.” [565] Then he jumped up and ran around the fire four times. And he named himself as follows: “I am he, grandson. I am he.”

While he was speaking through him he said to him: “How many whales are there going to be?” He said to him: “One floats at Point-tꜝā′łᴀs.” [566] And he said to him, “One is floating below Ku′nga-i.” [567] Then he (the shaman) looked there and the whale floated there. Then he sent a person thither. He saw nothing. Only coots floated there. And, since he did not find it there, he (the shaman) again looked, and it was still floating there. Then he became angry, because he (the spirit) kept fooling him.

Now he put tobacco into his mouth. After it he put in calcined shells. Then he went down to the house of Supernatural-being-at-whose-voice-the-ravens-sit-on-the-sea. And he entered his house. And Supernatural-being-at-whose-voice-the-ravens-sit-on-the-sea said to him: “Big-tail, bring that box of mine to me.” Then he put his box before him. They sat at either end.

Then he took out a dancing hat with sea gulls carved upon it. And at the very edges of the box Big-tail stopped him as he held it. And he asked Supernatural-being-at-whose-voice-the-ravens-sit-on-the-sea: “What will happen when one sings for it?” [568] And he said to him: “There will be two whales.” Then he absolutely refused it.

And he reached his hand into the box for another one. When he took that out he also seized that. “What will happen when you sing for it?” “There will be two whales.” That, too, he refused.

Then Supernatural-being-at-whose-voice-the-ravens-sit-on-the-sea became angry. Now he said to him: “This he also refuses. What can you do, Big-tail? I will destroy you with a strong current of water.” And he said to him: “Let it flow at me. Human beings will laugh at you.”

And, when they talked well to each other again, he took another out. While they yet held this one between them, he saw it was a chief’s dancing headdress with the carving of a hawk upon it. [569] And he reached right into the box for it. And they held it between them in the box.

Then he again asked him: “What will happen when one sings for it?” And he said to him: “There will be ten whales.” He also refused that. While they held the dancing hat between them, some handsome persons with curly hair over their foreheads and large eyes kept coming out from behind the screens and going back again. He wanted them and pointed at them. “Let those persons sing.” And he refused to give them away. All that time he also held the dance hat. By and by he let him have [these along with] the headdress. Then they struck the two persons on the nose and pushed them out.

In that house he learned how to tie on the strings of the headdress. When he had finished learning how the flicker feathers were going to be placed upon it, he went away from him again.

Then he imitated the headdress. And, when it was finished, he danced with it on. And he began to say: “The sea otter will come floating.” And he said: “One is floating on the seaward side of Sqai′­yas.” [570] Then they went to get it. It was really floating there. As he had seen already, blood was running out of its nose. After that, as he sat in the house, he told them where another one was floating. And when they went there it was really so.

Afterward they kept on being found in this way. When one was out in a good place where currents met, he did not count whether there were fifteen, twenty, or ten. [571] Then he said if they would give him and his mother some of them, he would always have them found floating in this way.

Then they began finding whales in the place where he had told them there were whales, although they had not found them. They now found them, although he did not say [again] that they were there. [572] They ceased getting sea otter.

Afterward, when he had acted as a shaman does for a while, he said: “I wonder what is going on in the house of Supernatural-being-at-whose-voice-the-ravens-sit-on-the-sea. I wonder why a drum sounds.” Then he chewed tobacco and said he would go down and see. And he fell asleep. After he had slept for a while, tcōxō′xō (noise of waking up) [was heard], [573] and he called to his wife. He had married a woman he owned (i.e., a slave). “Middle, [574] help me to sit up.” Then she pulled him up.

And, after he had sat there looking unhappy for a while, he said: “Supernatural-being-at-whose-voice-the-ravens-sit-on-the-sea is going to give a feast. The drum sounded because they are practicing songs. He is going to invite all the supernatural beings. I will go down again and look on.”

Some time after that his drum sounded again, he said, and he went down to him again. Then he entered his door, and Supernatural-being-at-whose-voice-the-ravens-sit-on-the-sea said to him, “Big-tail, I am going to invite the supernatural beings to a feast. Come and sit near me so that we may both look on.” Invitation had already been sent out.

After some time had passed, they began to come in. At that time he put Big-tail in his armpit. The killer whales came in through the doorway. The ends of their dorsal fins touched the roof of the house. And, where they were to sit, they came out of their skins and sat.

After they had continued to come in in this way for a while, a certain one who had to cramp his fins to enter came in and sat down.

After that the house creaked. A strong current flowed in through the doorway. In it a great amount of seaweed was mingled. Through the doorway there also came a black cloud. Rain blew on their faces. All the supernatural beings held their heads down. Some time afterward a small being stood up where it had been. He wore a four-crowned dancing hat. And he began to ask them: “What will you do with human beings? Are you going to save the human beings?” Then there were again black showers. Snow also fell about the house. And he again stood in his place. And he again asked them what was going to be done with the human beings. Then there were again black clouds. Hailstones also flew about the house and into their faces. Again the supernatural beings held their heads down. And he stood up in place of these and went in where he was to sit. Nothing happened. That was South-east, they say. [575]

During that time Supernatural-being-at-whose-voice-the-ravens-sit-on-the-sea held him in his armpit. He let him look at the supernatural beings. But the supernatural beings did not know it.

As before the house began to shake. Presently the feet of someone appeared coming in through the doorway. After some time had passed he stepped in, and the house shook. Then the supernatural beings said: “A”. He took a step with the other foot. Something with large, broad eyelids entered. Nothing happened.

Some time after that something came along making a rattling noise. By and by she came in with a crowd of female servants. Djila′qons [576] it was who came in among them. She had her eyebrows painted with red paint. They entered. Something about her sounded like a rattle. Big-tail kept his eyes upon her all the time.

But Woman-sitting-and-smelling [577] walked in before her. After having sat there for a while she raised herself up. She began to talk to Djila′qons. She asked her why she had painted her eyebrows red, and Djila′qons answered: “I had it done on your account.” Then she turned toward the wall and wiped it off. And she turned toward the fire and sat down.

Some time after they say that Pestilence [578] came in. His canoe was like a white man’s vessel. Sparks flew out of it. They went through the house. For that reason the supernatural beings were afraid. The things that came out of it are what cause sickness. The supernatural beings feared they would strike them. He refused to enter. He went back.

Then the nephew of Supernatural-being-at-whose-voice-the-ravens-sit-on-the-sea went out and said: “You are not the only one who has supernatural power. I have supernatural power. My uncle also has supernatural power. So you better not come in.” Then he (the nephew) entered, and, when he untied a little something against the roof of the house, which was like a hollow tube closed with knots at both ends, Pestilence’s canoe was quickly turned about. Then he said he would enter. “I will go in.” Presently he entered. Nothing happened. [They say it was Tidal-wave [579] who owned that.] All that time a space was left vacant in the rear of the house. No one sat there. By and by the one who came in first sang. And, after he had finished singing, he acted with a mask on from behind the screen they had stretched across. After he had acted with the mask on for a while, it split crosswise [580] on his face, and snow came out of it in a broad sheet. Then it fell first by the vacant seat. After that it fell in front of the chief’s house. And after that his face also split vertically.[580] Out of the split the same substance fell. That was property, they say.

Big-tail was guessing. “I guess it is he on whom we live [for whom the vacant space is left]. It is for The-one-below.” [581]

The next one who came in also started to sing. Afterward he also came out from behind the screen wearing a mask. After they had sung a “Power-song” for him a while and put words into it, his face also split open. Something white and broad fell down around the house in front of the chiefs. Again it fell first by the vacant seat. When they put words into it again it split vertically. Then it again fell first by the vacant seat. After that it fell in front of the chiefs.

All the supernatural beings did the same thing. Sometimes one stood up with his fins on. In that way the sleight-of-hand performances went on.

After some time had passed Supernatural-being-at-whose-voice-the-ravens-sit-on-the-sea also began to dance. Then he made a good speech to the supernatural beings, after which he also sang. When he had got through singing he, too, came out wearing a big mask. He also wore a big fin. When they put words into the power song his mask also split. Out of that, too, something white fell. Some fell first by the vacant seat. Then they stopped singing the power song.

There was a great pile of property for those in the house. Before they entered their provisions came rolling in before them through the door. They had two [boxes] or, if chiefs, four. Now they began to eat. It was a whale. And they cut it around and around right from its head and stretched it around in front of the supernatural beings. They spliced another to that also, and then they all began to eat. [582] After all had eaten for some time they stopped. All the big beings went off.

Then Big-tail also went to Skidegate. After he had performed for a time in the same way as formerly, and, when they were starving, all began giving him the food they had saved up. Cranberries, wild crabapples, sīg̣ā′n, [583] roots put up in cakes, [584] berries put up in cakes, and grease, they gave him. They gave these quietly to him while he slept. There was also a quantity of Indian tobacco with them.

And, after he had slept for a while, he spoke again in the same way as formerly, “Tcōxō′.”[573] Then he got up carefully and gave away all off of the top into the fire. [585] Then he also spilled out fresh water around the fire. He gave these to Supernatural-being-at-whose-voice-the-ravens-sit-on-the-sea. After that he ate all of it. That night he performed.

And next day he said: “Go out to hunt.” Then they found a whale floated ashore near by. And on account of that the Skidegate people ceased being hungry.

Some time later Supernatural-being-people-always-go-to begged him to accompany him. “Big-tail, go with me to see my elder brother.” And he did not know where he wanted him to go. Then he went with him as he requested. Then he launched a square canoe, he put Big-tail inside of his clothing, and they started off.

They went, went, went for a while, after which they came in sight of something white in the ocean like a mountain, and he let him look out at it. He said to him: “Big-tail, there is the house of my elder brother,” whereupon a strong wind arose, and they returned. They barely got home safe.

Then they dried themselves around the fire in the house of Supernatural-being-people-always-go-to. They talked with one another about it. He was among them. Then he said to him: “Big-tail, when another good day comes, come to go with me again.”

Some time afterward he went to his town again. And, when he entered, he asked him: “Big-tail, will you go with me again?” “Yes,” he said to him. At once they started off again. After they had paddled seaward for a while he said his house had again come in sight. He let him look out. In truth his great white house appeared at intervals over the waves. And again a strong wind arose from the house. It drove them back again.

And, when they again got into the house, he called to him: “Big-tail, do not go with me again. My elder brother refuses to let you see the inside of his house. That is why the wind is high for us. Do not go with me again.” That was the only one among the supernatural beings whose house he was unable to see. His name was “Chief.” [586]

Some time after he got back Yä′yū [587] spoke through him. He made things happen by speaking through him. Four whales floated about. He did the same thing to him as the neighboring supernatural being had done. “Let me go, for I want to see why a drum sounds in the house of Supernatural-being-looking-landward (another name for Yä′yū).”

Then he lay down. He lay there for a while and entered his house. Then some persons, with their fins together, stirred up soapberries in something made of great boards painted on the outside, they used to say.[587] They looked like Peninsula-point [588] soapberries, yet they were different. Now he came home.

He spoke through him for a while longer. Then he became lame. And, after he had sat in the house for a while, he said: “Let me go down to see why a drum is sounding in the house of Supernatural-being-looking-landward.” Then he chewed tobacco, lay down, and continued there for a while.

Now, when he entered his house, Supernatural-being-looking-landward said to him: “I am glad to see you, Big-tail.” In those words he said he was glad to see him. At this time they raised up the stuff they were stirring up with a stick, and it stuck to it. Before he had eaten of that he went up, and, when he awoke, he said: “Why did I come away so soon? I ought to have eaten whale tongue with them.”

After he had sat there for another space of time, he said: “I wonder why a drum has been sounding in the house of Supernatural-being-looking-landward. Let me go down again.”

Then he chewed tobacco, and, while he lay there, he got into his house. Even while he was in the doorway he called to him: “Wait, Big-tail, you better not go up from me. I will invite the supernatural beings.”

Immediately he invited the people. They came in at once. When all got in he began to dance before them. They who came in wore fins. He dressed himself up and came in, and lay down in the rear of the house, wearing a full killer-whale suit. His fins touched the roof of the house. Then he came out of it, and, as he held it in his hands, he said: “Real dorsal fin. Real dorsal fin. What human beings call in a common way a dorsal fin (łg̣ᴀn). Real dorsal fin.” After he had stood around a while, he said: “Human beings keep saying this about me. They keep saying that I used to be a human being.” [589] All in the house laughed at him. It was as if things moved the house.

Now they began eating what they had stirred up. They say they were whales’ tongues. Now, when this was over, the coast between Skidegate inlet and House-point [590] was strewn with whale jaws which had floated ashore. The things they ate in the house of Supernatural-being-looking-landward really floated ashore.

A long time after that they again began to starve. And there was nothing to eat at Skidegate. Then they took him to Da′x̣ua [591], and they lived there with him. And they were starving there. Then they gathered edible fern stumps right behind them. Those they ate. They hunted outward and inward. [592] Sometimes one found the body of a coot. They ate all these things.

One time he performed all night. Then Supernatural-being-looking-landward said to him: “Big-tail, have them stop making the little supernatural women living along the shore cry. [593] Say that I will give the human beings something.”

And next day he repeated it to the people. “Let no one go anywhere. Supernatural-being-looking-landward says he will give some food to the human beings.” But still they all went out to look for food again up and down the inlet.

That night he again sang a song for himself. In the night the wind blew in from the sea. At daybreak he stopped singing. The day after that one went out very early. Astonishing! He came in and he said, “Get up quickly. It lies near Eagle-rock. [594] Astonishing!” All moved at once. He did not eat of it because he was a shaman. Now they were saved. They stopped starving.

At that time the slaves at Skidegate starved to death. Then a man of the Seaward-sqoā′ładas set snares at ʟā′stᴀlañ [595] for cormorants. His slaves alone did not die. Then one tried to set snares near him, and he refused to have him there. He obeyed and went off. He was named Gū′stas. He killed people by means of witchcraft. That is why they did what he told them to.

After another long space of time had elapsed, Welcome-point’s[567] son spoke through him. He put words into his song inside of his father’s house. He sang to get his father’s things he had promised. He was unsuccessful. He sang for the spring salmon his father owns. He was unable to get them. His father was stingy.

Now an old man in the house said: “The chief’s son would do it if he could. Even I will put out a few sea-eggs.” The first time he promised not the least thing happened. Because the old man said he would put out a little, they had more sea-eggs than they needed in Skidegate inlet.

Some time after this people went to Skedans, and he wanted to go with them; and he went. And he arrived there with them. And the day after they went to ʟi′nsū, [596] and he went with them. Then they landed at Kꜝū′dᴀsʟꜝxa, [597] and he crept ashore. Then he lay in the sunshine.

Then they said to him: “Hurry, Big-tail, and come.” And he entered the house of Ku′ndjîgit. [598] “Is it you, Big-tail?” And he said it was, and he was glad to see him. And now he saw the inside of his house. He saw whale tails lying piled one over another in all four corners. He was proud of the inside of his house. He had the most whales of all the supernatural beings. That is why he showed it to him. He did not speak through him.

This story is one of the most important for an understanding of shamanism among the Haida. The word used for “tail” here is applied to the tail of a fish or whale, and the word for “big,” qō′na, also involves the idea of great power.

THE STORY OF HIM THROUGH WHOM Łᴀ′GUA SPOKE

[Told by Abraham of Those-born-at-Qꜝā′dᴀsg̣o, to whom it was related by an old man of Ninstints]

At Middle-town [599] Łᴀ′gua spoke through a certain one. After he had acted as shaman for a time, while they sang for him, he began to whip something. At once he began to fast. All that time he whipped it. The town people wanted to see it. They wanted to see the thing he spoke about. [600]

After a while he sang that he held his supernatural power, Łᴀ′gua, in his teeth at the end of the town. His supernatural power also made the water smooth for some time. All that time they fished for black cod. Every time they came in from fishing those who handled the lines gave him two black cod. His wife had a great quantity.

By and by Łᴀ′gua told him to go out fishing with them. He went with them at once. After they had fished for black cod for a while and had started away, they came to a point of iron sticking out of the water. Then the shaman sat upon it. [601] And he gave them directions. “Go in, and then come out to meet me,” he said to him.

As soon as they had unloaded their black cod, they went out to meet him. It was evening. They called out to one another. Then they approached each other. When they called out after it had become dark he answered them. At once they went to him. Immediately all the canoes began to tow it ashore. They used a black-cod fish-line for the purpose.

After they had paddled for a while, it became broad daylight, and they towed it in at the end of the town. It was only for Those-born-at-Sa′ki.[599]

After they were through eating they began to split off iron wedges. When they got through with that they began to hammer out the iron. They made spears and knives of it. The news of this iron passed over the island. At once people started to come for the iron. They exchanged a slave for one piece of iron. They kept selling it. They worked this into war spears throughout all of the villages.

After they had traded with this iron for a while, Inlet people [602] came in ten canoes. After they had been there for a while, news came from the towns up the inlet that they would try to make trouble for them during the gambling. Then the Middle-town people said they would not let them do it at their town. They were on the side of the Inlet people. Secretly they made different arrangements. They deceived [their visitors] by saying they were on their side.

One morning they came to gamble. As soon as they landed they spread out their gambling mats. They formed a line on the side toward the sea. The Middle-town people told the Inlet people not to be afraid. At once they began to gamble. And after the town people had put on their weapons they stood behind them. They held their spears, and they held their knives.

After they had talked for a while over the betting and had begun to gamble they stood with their spear points upward. Then they turned around at once and speared all. They killed all. The others did not scratch a skin in return. All their wives and their children who were in the houses they enslaved. Not one escaped.

Then the news that they had destroyed them went over this island and the news also reached the Inlet.[602]

After that one for whom they were going to get a grave post slept alone. His mother-in-law, who was a widow, stayed with him. When winter came he told them to make a pole in the shape of a killer whale’s dorsal fin, the lower part with the carving of a grizzly bear upon it. He belonged to the Slaves. [603]

At once they went out to get it. They came to tell him. They pulled it ashore, and, after they had carved it for a while, it was finished. And the day before the one on which they were to raise the grave post he pounded up tobacco and gave it to a shaman there.

Then his supernatural power entered him. They sang for him. Very soon he got through. Then he said: “There are many eyes of strangers upon me. Over there, too, lies my trunk.”

Now it was night. In the night the Inlet people came to the town and killed all the people. They enslaved all the women and the children. All the time that he who got the grave post was supposed to be sleeping alone he was in love with his mother-in-law. His name was “Sealion’s-neck.”

Łᴀ′gua was a Tlingit spirit, and there were several stories told about him. The following was taken down by me in English:

Łᴀ′gua once “came through” a Tlingit. He was a poor man, but his Power told him that some day he would be rich. By and by enemies came and carried him off as a slave. While he was still a slave, his Power came to him again, and told him that he would be a chief. He said: “No, how can I be a chief, when I am a slave sitting near the door? You better stop talking to me.” “No, by and by you shall be a chief.” He was a slave for five or six years, and during all of that time his Power kept promising him that he should be a chief. One night, when he was acting as a shaman, his Power threw something called Lā′nas ya′mᴀg̣a, which makes people love each other, on the whole village, and everyone fell into a deep sleep. Then he and some of his fellow slaves filled two canoes with children whom they were going to enslave, and the canoes went off without a paddle being used. Long after day came the parents awoke and pursued, but, when the pursuers came near them, the slaves’ canoes became islands covered with trees, and they were passed by. When the pursuers passed on their way back, the same thing happened again. Finally he reached his own town and, from the sale of the children he had taken off and from the property received from the relatives of the slaves he had liberated, he became a great chief.

CLOUD-WATCHER

[Told by Abraham of Those-born-at-Qꜝā′dᴀsgo]

A Tlingit supernatural power spoke through him. After he had acted as shaman for a while, and, when all were at Tꜝā′łdi, the son of the chief of the salmon spoke through him. At that time there were no salmon on this island. Then the salmon came like a strong wind.

At that time he used to go into a deep place. His moose-skin blankets had pictures of salmon on them. He also wore a dance hat. He had a dancing skirt. He had rattles of puffin beaks.

At that time the chiefs refused to allow him [to go down]. They told him he would swim away forever. Then he became disgusted, so they said the salmon would be lost, and they let him go down. They let one who was always truthful go with him.

Then they sang for him in the way he told them. “When I go down, do not stop singing the spirit song until I get back.” Just at evening he prepared to go, and, after he had danced around the fire for a while, he went down. Immediately Lā′ma [604] went after him. After he had gone they sang for him, and he went into a deep place.

Then he lay still in the creek like a dog salmon. Lā′ma thought he would swim away, and he held the lower edge of his moose-skin blanket in his hand. After he had stayed in the water for a while, he jerked like a dog salmon sending out eggs. After he had done this four times he stood up. He was not wet in a single spot. All that time they sang for him in the house.

Then there were great numbers of dog salmon in the creek. When he stood up in the house all looked at him. He was not wet in the least. Then dog salmon nearly surrounded the coasts of this island. Before that there were few salmon, but a strong man dried three dog salmon during a season. The strongest man got five. They put two away, and, taking one along as provisions, they spent the winter in the neighborhood of mussels.

He had them get a large drum off of the east side of a big cedar. They used to hang that up.

After that Sᴀqaiyū′ł [605] spoke through Cloud-watcher at Łg̣ō′gi. When his voice came through him he ran into the sea. Then he started around the town begging. He came into a house and held out his blanket. “Djū x̣undâ′-î.” [606] They did not understand his words. By and by in one house he entered Djat-gitcꜝî′ñgaga guessed what he meant and put five plugs [of tobacco] into his blanket. At once all in the town gave to him. They each gave him five plugs.

Some time after this they were all at Sea-grass town. [607] Then there was much sickness. And an old woman went to the end of Sea-grass Town. Then she held her hands up. She wanted Power-of-the-shining-heavens [608] to look upon her. From above they saw what she did.

After that, when autumn came, three towns were gathered together at ʟgakîtsgalā′ña. [609] They were there on account of A′nkustᴀ. [610]

After that, when they went to get provisions, a Town-of-Djī′gua [611] man named Waters became a shaman at Łg̣ā′g̣a. [612] At once they built a large house for dancing. All the time they were dancing there he did not mention his name. He was left-handed. He held a club on the left side. On his right side he held a war knife, wearing it point outward. They sang for him. He also had a grizzly bear head.

After they had sung a while for him he ceased to use these things and wore different ones. At once he again stood up for the dance. After this dance had gone on for a while there, they came to Sea-grass town.

After the dance had gone on at Sea-grass town for a while, he told them where an eagle was sitting. He foretold that there would be two blue feathers on either side of its tail. At once they went to get it, and, when they had got it, although they did not speak to him, where he lay in the house he struck the roof in his joy. Then he mentioned his two names. “I am Wu′ltcꜝixaiya. I am Ūdagiā′g̣ᴀñ.” That was the Moon’s youngest grandchild. [613]

When they went to Metlakahtla to gamble he became angry with one opposite him, and, when he stood up, he became ten. For that reason his elder brothers were afraid of him.

Because they had mercy upon the one who held up her hands, he (the Moon’s son) came down to Sea-grass town. He still had the eagle in his possession and used the bone club and the knife. At that time He-with-only-one-fin [614] talked to him. “Chief, I know you. You are Ha′ostī. The people are afraid of the things you use. The chiefs’ sons among the people, when they dance, use good rattles.” At that time he stopped using the knife and the club. His words pleased him. He held a puffin-beak rattle and a large rattle in his hands. On the left side he also held a chief’s rattle. He began to act in two different ways.

When he first started to perform they sang a spirit song for him: 𝄆 Gilâ′dᴀm ga′dani gia â gīlâ 𝄇 𝄆 âmaiyâ ga wīnâxnôx nâ gaa 𝄇. [615] Before they sang he sang alone. “Who is the great supernatural power?” This is the spirit song that they used to sing for him. At this time, after he had acted as shaman for a while, he stopped using those articles.

And he also used to wear fine cedar bark hanging from around his neck. He held one end of these hanging in a bunch over the fire and then acted as a shaman. Then burning coals flew round upon them. At once they began to dance. All wore fine cedar bark hanging down from their necks. They had two strings of it around their arms. They also had some around their heads. On top of this [small] trees were stuck in. They used to dance with these. 𝄆 “Yâ hô ē ahēhaiya 𝄇 come hither great power.”[615] They all danced, singing this.

They came in dancing. Then, when they came in, he looked at them from where he stood in the rear of the house. He looked to see if anyone were sick. If one smiled a little, he said: “The people have untroubled minds.”

While that was still going on, summer came. When they were going off to the lonely places (i.e., camps) he started to sing another song. [616] This was the song. When he got through singing he stood up, and he said: “People, you are safe. Wherever you go in your canoes, sing this song. You are safe.” He came down and helped them. While he (the spirit) was still speaking in him (the man), he died.

Here is all of this.

The name Cloud-watcher occurs in one other place, in “The story about Him who destroyed his nine nephews.” He belonged to the Town-of-Djī′gua people, an important Eagle family at the old town of Kloo.

STORY OF THE SHAMAN, G̣A′NDOX’S-FATHER

[Told by Abraham of Those-born-at-Qꜝā′dᴀsgo.]

G̣ᴀ′ndox’s father was making a canoe inland from one end of Sea-grass town. [617] One evening, when he came home, he dropped dead [618] on the sand at the end of the town. Then they ran to him, and carried him over to his house.

Qołdai′yêk [619] spoke through him first. Whenever his uncles became shamans, he always made a hole in their minds first. He did not tell his name. Instead he turned about around the house. After they had taken him in and came to know that it was Qołdai′yêk, they began to sing a song for him. After they had carried him around the fire four times he began turning around.

Afterward Hū′dᴀgiag̣ᴀñ also spoke through him. He acted like the former one. When he had ceased to act Sᴀqaiyū′ł [620] spoke through him. When they sang for him he walked about entirely on the ends of his toes.

After he had spoken through him for a while, a certain person fell sick. When he was almost dead they got him. Then he fasted four nights. At the end of that time, just before daybreak, he went out to look for his soul. Two other persons went with him. He went round the town on both sides of the houses. By and by he seized his soul. He made a noise like that of a young sea otter.

At once his companions seized him and carried him toward the house. When they carried them (shamans) so, they were very careful, because the shaman had the soul between his hands.

While they were carrying him along the trail, a Smaller-part-of-village’s-stomach [621] came out of the ground. Then Sᴀqaiyū′ł said to him: “Get it, master. Throw the man’s soul away.” “No, I am afraid they would laugh at me. I am also afraid of being put to shame.” Then Sᴀqaiyū′ł said to him: “You will not sit among the chiefs in the rear of the house. You will sit among the slaves near the door.”

All that time they were singing for him in the house he had left. Presently, after they had carried him into the house, they put a mat over him and the sick man. There he put his soul into his mouth. Immediately he was saved.

Pestilence [622] married one of the daughters [623] of the Moon. When he heard the news about his sister in some way, Wu′ltcꜝixaiya [624] went to get his sister. He put on a steel coat and launched his canoe. His canoe was covered with boards. Then he knocked down the rock front of the house of Pestilence with a bone club. Afterward he went in and got his sister. For that reason there was much sickness.

Then Wu′ltcꜝixaiya had mercy on Sea-grass town and went down there along with Dilᴀgiâ′. [625] When many people were dying he (Dilᴀgiâ′) went in to dance before Pestilence. He held a long cane the surface of which was painted red. He stuck it up slantwise, stood upon it, and danced. Then he made him feel good, and the sickness ceased. He spoke through Gᴀ′ndox’s father. Then he told him these things. Sᴀqaiyū′ł stopped speaking through him.

After he had spoken through him for a while, he wanted some turnips, and all in the town gave him some. Through these he became more of a chief in the country of the supernatural beings. When his (Dilᴀgiâ′’s) voice first struck him, he sang in all the houses of the town for himself. After that he went into his own house. He was also always dancing there. “Yâ â â yâ â′aiya nagun dâ â hai i ya Dīlagiâ ahai i yâ.” [626] This is what they sang when he danced. It is a spirit song.

After that one of the Pebble-town people [627] came to invite them. Then one through whom Property-woman [628] spoke came by himself in a canoe. At that time Dilᴀgiâ′ told him he had stretched some bad thing (or spirit) over the town. Then he danced before him. [629] And he made him feel good.

Some time after this, after they had gone to the mainland, a different one spoke through him. His name was Bᴀlê′la. [630] Then they returned to Sea-grass town with him. Then they sang for Gᴀ′ndox’s father in the canoe. He danced as they came. And when they landed he asked for a plank in the Tsimshian language. Then they had one rest on the edges of the canoe. He came down upon it to the shore. [631]

And, when he got into the house, the house cover only was open (i.e., it was crowded with people). He danced the way Wu′ltcꜝixaiya used to. When he began to dance he was proud, and he had himself pulled upright. After that was done he began to dance.

After he had danced for a while he would say: “Stop and throw away the cedar-bark roofing. Destroy also the indoor latrine. Use cedar planks for your houses. When you go to bed leave your smoke holes open. Boxes of property will soon fall upon you. Iron people [632] will come among you.” He said that. He said there would be plenty of property for them.

Then all in the town danced very much again. The Kitkatla people also brought over Bī′ni’s[630] songs to Skedans. They sang his also very much as they danced. At this time a schooner was wrecked [in Cumshewa inlet]. Then blankets were gradually distributed in quantities. This went on for a long time. Then, according to his word, they used cedar planks for house roofs. They also stopped using indoor latrines.

Then he wanted fire drills. Now all the town people gave fire drills to him. When they came in with them he let them all drill together. Then he looked on. After all had done the same thing they put them into the fire. That was why he had them give them to himself.

When they stopped dancing they waved their hats. He sang a song. When all stopped he whistled. Then they stopped singing his [song, which sounded like this]: “Tcô′lōhô′ldīdôlgîts.” [633]

Afterward Sᴀqaiyū′ł again spoke through him. And, after the dancing had gone on a while longer, he wanted to sleep. At that time the Sea-grass town chiefs would not let him. By and by, since they feared the supernatural beings might say something different from what they wanted if they refused, they let him sleep.

When they agreed they made a sail house [634] for him in the corner. And just at evening he went in and lay down. Next day, very early, before the raven cried he awoke (lit., departed). After that they again came in dancing. When they stopped dancing he had me sit near him. Then he began to tell me quietly [what had happened].

At that time he (Sᴀqaiyū′ł) stood on top of the mountain on Qꜝᴀ′ñga with him. Then he took a handkerchief [635] out of his pocket, put it over his face, and wept. His clothes were all white. But he had no coat. Something with wheels [636] stood near him, and presently he put him into his pocket on the right side. Then he got into this, and he struck it. It went right along. After he had gone along slowly he came to a city with him and took him out of his pocket. And he stood up.

A big being with a black skin stood there. He also had a big gun. He stood pointing it downward at the earth. Sᴀqaiyū′ł handed something to him out of his pocket. After a while he took it without looking at him and put it into his mouth. He did not know what it was. He thought it was Indian tobacco.

Then Sᴀqaiyū′ł said to him: “Do not be afraid, master. Even the supernatural beings die. Where my three sets of clothing hang up, I have lived a long time. I died three times, but my body never dies.”

When he went thither with him, he saw a large kettle boiling out of doors. He said he did not see what made it boil. Near it was a long thing, the lower end of which was square, on which the Kwakiutl who had killed a certain one along with a Haida were nailed. [637] They had put them into the kettle. There they remained.

There he saw his uncle. Then his uncle asked him: “Did you see the one standing there with a black skin? He shoots down on those people below who treat each other badly. Then the land below is also full of smoke, and there is sickness everywhere.”

Then his uncle [638] spoke to him through the doorway. “Why are you here?” “Sᴀqaiyū′ł brought me around in that thing.” “Be watchful. If one always watches, he, too, will live here. The black man always keeps watch on those who are foolish.”

At that time his uncle said to him: “Some time ago one came down through me. And he lived in this town. Now he lives far inland. They fear to mention his name.” His uncle talked with him for a while. Again he said to him: “Do not let his name be mentioned again below. You can not mention his name [for it is too great]. If a child mentions his name tell him to stop.” [639]

Then he went down again with him in the thing with wheels. At that time he awoke in the sail house. Not a long time afterward he died.

This is the end of it.

This story is of exceptional interest, both from the insight it gives into native beliefs generally and for the picture presented of the influence exerted on those beliefs and over the external life of the people also by the coming of white men. G̣ᴀ′ndox was evidently this shaman’s daughter, and the name appears to be Tsimshian. After he became a shaman, however, he was known, as was customary, by the name of the spirit who was speaking through him at the time. He belonged, like two of the shamans in the preceding story, to the Town-of-Djī′gua-People of Old Kloo.

I was fortunate in having obtained information regarding this shaman from one who knew him intimately, and to whom, it appears, he confided some of his spiritual experiences. The shaman is well known to all Skidegate Haida, and many other stories are told regarding his predictions. For some of these, see Memoirs of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, volume V,