_Haida_
The Earth World is flat and has a circular out-line, and above it is
a solid sky like a great bowl. Upon the top of the sky is the Sky
Country. The sky rises and falls regularly, and so the clouds strike
against the mountains and make a noise.
The Earth World floats, but it rests upon
Sacred-One-standing-and-moving, and he rests upon a copper box. Upon
his breast rests a pole which reaches up to the sky. When
Sacred-One-standing-and-moving is about to move, a marten runs up
the pole making the thundering noise which is always heard just
before an earthquake. Because when this Sacred-One moves, it causes
an earthquake.
In the Sky Country, the greatest power is held by
Power-of-the-Shining-Heavens. He gives power to all things. The
clouds are his blankets. Thunderclouds are the “dressing up” of the
Thunder Bird. Thunder Bird produces a very loud noise by rustling
his feathers.
Southeast Wind lives under the sea. Northeast Wind abides along the
northern mountains.
There are many tribes of Ocean People. Now in Haida Land, that is,
the Queen Charlotte Islands, the land and sea are entangled in an
extraordinary way.
Just so it is with the lands of the Ocean People—the Devilfish
People, the Porpoise People, the Killer-Whale People, and the
Black-Whale People. Of all the Ocean People the Killer-Whale People
are the most powerful. They have towns scattered along the shore
beneath the water, just as the Indians have their towns along the
shore above the water.
When a man dies in Haida Land, he follows a trail until he reaches
the shore of a bay. On the other side of the bay lies the Ghost
Land. Then he calls across, and soon a person appears who pushes a
raft from the farther side. This raft is made of fine cedar bark,
such as is used in the rings of the secret society. Then the raft
comes of itself to where the man is standing, and ferries him over.
Now in Ghost Land there are many towns, and many houses in each
town. So if a man is looking for his wife there, it may take him a
long time. These towns lie in numberless inlets, near the water,
just as the Haida towns on earth do.
When food or grease is put into the fire in the family of a man who
has just died, it comes to him at once; therefore he is not hungry.
And if his family sing songs loudly when he dies, then he enters
Ghost Land proudly, with his head up. It gives him a good name in
that country. But if they do not, then he enters Ghost Land with his
head hanging down, and people do not think so much of him. When a
man enters Ghost Land there is always a dance given in his honor.
People who are drowned go to Killer-Whale Country. But first they go
to The-One-in-the-Sea who gives them their fins and then they go
into the houses of the other Killer Whales. When killer whales
gather in front of a town, it is thought they are human beings who
have been drowned and take this way of informing the people.
One man who went to the Ghost Land, after he had been there for some
time, put all his property in his canoe and went to Xada, which is
the second Ghost Land. Then he went on to a third one, and later to
a fourth, and then came back to earth as a blue fly. Therefore when
a blue fly bumps into a man on earth, he says, “This is my friend,
who thus shows me that he recognizes me.”
At a place beyond the Ghost Land, and just visible from it, lives a
chief called Great Moving Cloud. He owns all the dog salmon. Once
when a gambler died, he went there and gambled with him. The stakes
were the dog salmon, and ghosts. When Great Moving Cloud won, many
ghosts came into Ghost Land. When the gambler won, there was a great
run of salmon.