TWANA THUNDERBIRD
The Rev. Myron Eells, who for a score of years has been a missionary
among the Indians of Puget Sound, has made investigations into the myths
and traditions of the people among whom he has labored, and has stored up
many an interesting story of the Thunderbird superstition. He says:
The general idea among the Indians is that thunder is caused by an
immense bird, whose size darkens the heavens, whose body is the thunder
cloud, the flapping of whose wings causes the thunder, and the bolts of
fire, which it sends out of its mouth to kill the whale for its food,
are the lightning. The Makahs and some other tribes, however, invest the
animal with a twofold character, human and bird-like. According to them
the being is supposed to be a gigantic Indian, named in the dialects of
the various coast tribes Kakaitch, T’hlu-kluts, and Tu-tutsh, the latter
being the Nootkan name. He lives in the highest mountains and his food
consists of whales. When he goes after food he puts on a great garment,
which is made of a bird’s head, a pair of very large wings, and a feather
covering for his body, and around his waist he ties the lightning fish,
which slightly resembles the sea horse. This animal has a head as sharp
as a knife, and when he sees a whale he darts the lightning fish into
its body, which he then seizes and carries to his home. Occasionally,
however, he strikes a tree, and more seldom a man.
The origin of the bird, according to Mr. Swan, as given by the Chehalis
and Chinook Indians, is as follows: “Ages ago an old man named Too-lux,
or the south wind, while traveling north, met an old woman named
Quoots-hooi, who was an ogress or giantess. He asked her for food, when
she gave him a net, telling him that she had nothing to eat, and he
must go and try to catch some fish. He accordingly dragged the net and
succeeded in catching the grampus, or, as the Indians called it, a little
whale. This he was about to cut with his knife, when an old woman cried
out to him to take a sharp shell and not to cut the fish crossways, but
split it down the back. Without giving heed to what she said he cut the
fish across the side and was about to take off a piece of blubber, but
the fish immediately changed into an immense bird, that, when flying,
completely obscured the sun, and the noise made by its wings shook the
earth.” They also add that this Thunderbird flew to the north and lit
on the top of the Saddleback mountain, near the Columbia river, where
it laid a nest full of eggs. It was followed by the giantess, who found
the eggs; whereupon she began to break and eat them, and from these
mankind, or at least the Chehalis and Chinook tribes, were produced. The
Thunderbird, called Hahness by those Indians, came back, and, finding
its nest destroyed, went to Too-lux, the south wind, for redress, but
neither of them could ever find the ogress, although they regularly went
north every year.
[Illustration: THE THUNDERBIRD MASK—TWANAS]
As to the cause of thunder among these tribes Mr. Swan says that when
a young girl reaches womanhood she has to go through a process of
purification, which lasts a month. Among other customs at this time, if
there is a southwest wind, with signs of rain, she must on no account go
out of doors, else the southwest wind is so offended that he will send
the Thunderbird, who then, by shaking his wings, causes the thunder, and
from whose eyes go forth the flashes of lightning. As far as Mr. Swan
knew, every thunder storm which occurred while he lived at Shoalwater Bay
(three years) was attributed by the Indians to this cause—that is, to
some girl disobeying this law.
The Indians are very superstitious in regard to this bird, believing that
if they possess any feather, bone or other part of it, or bone of the
lightning fish, it will be of supernatural advantage to them. A Makah,
who had been very sick, was reduced to a skeleton, and it was believed
could not recover, yet he managed to crawl one day, says Mr. Swan, to a
brook near by, and while there he heard a rustling which so frightened
him that he covered his face with his blanket. Peeping out he saw a raven
near him, apparently trying to throw up something, and, according to the
Indian, it did throw up a piece of bone about three inches long. The
Indian secured this, believing it to be a bone of the Thunderbird, and he
was told by the Indian doctors that it was a medicine sent to him by his
Ta-mahn-a-wis, or guardian spirit, to cure him. It was a fact that he did
recover very quickly, perhaps through the effect of his imagining it to
be such a bone and a strong medicine. It may also have been dropped by
the raven.
On one occasion, at a display of fireworks in Port Townsend, a number
of rockets bursting showed fiery serpents. These the Indians believed
belonged to the Thunderbird, and offered large sums for pieces of the
animal. They told Mr. Swan they would give two hundred dollars for a
backbone of one.
A Quiniault Indian once professed to have obtained a feather of one of
these birds. He said he saw one of them light, and, creeping up softly,
tied a buckskin string to one of its feathers and fastened the other
end to a stump. When the bird flew away it left the feather, which was
forty fathoms long. No other Indian saw it, for he was careful to keep
it hid, but possession of it was not questioned by the rest, as he was
very successful in catching sea otter. According to the Makahs, one of
the principal homes of the bird is on a mountain back of Clayoquot, on
Vancouver island, where is a lake, and around it the Indians say are many
bones of whales which the bird has killed.
Many of the northwestern Indians have a performance in honor of this
Thunderbird, which is called the thunderbird performance or “black
ta-mahn-a-wis.” It is said to have originated with the Nittinat Indians,
according to the following legend, as recorded by Mr. Swan: Two men had
fallen in love with the same woman, but she would not give either the
preference, whereupon they began to quarrel. But one of them, of more
sense than the other, said: “Do not let us fight about that squaw. I
will go and see the chief of the wolves and he will tell me what is to
be done, but I cannot get to his house except by stratagem. Now, they
will know we are at variance; so do you take me by the hair and drag me
over these sharp rocks, which are covered with barnacles, and I shall
bleed and pretend to be dead, and the wolves will come and carry me away
to their house.” This was done, but when the wolves were ready to eat
him he jumped up and astonished them by his boldness. The chief wolf was
so much pleased with his bravery that he taught the man the mysteries
of the Thunderbird performance. This, the most savage of all the Indian
ceremonies, spread among all the Indians on Puget Sound, as well as to
the north, the latter being the most savage in the performance of the
ceremonies. Among other things, the performers hoot like owls, howl like
wolves, paint their bodies black, especially the face, from which fact,
in whole or in part, comes the English name “black tamahnawis;” scarify
their arms, legs and sometimes the body, so as to bleed profusely, in
remembrance of its origin; they make much noise by firing guns, pound
on drums to represent thunder flash torches of pitchwood about as a
representation of lightning, and whistle sharply in imitation of the
wind. The ceremonies, however, vary in different tribes, being much more
savage and bloody in some than in others. Among the Makahs five days are
usually occupied in secret ceremonies, such as initiating candidates and
other performances, before any public outdoor ceremonies take place.
Among the Clallams the candidate for initiation is put into a kind of
mesmeric sleep, which does not appear to be the case with the Makahs.
Among the Clallams, however, the secret ceremonies are not always as long
as among the Makahs.
[Illustration]