S’BEOW AND HIS GRANDMOTHER
The wonders of the course of nature have ever challenged human attention.
In savagery, in barbarism, and in civilization alike, the mind of man has
sought the explanation of things. The Indians around Puget Sound have
not been less curious than the other races. Like the rest, they have a
strong yearning to understand the causes of all natural phenomena, such
as the movement of the heavenly bodies, the change of the seasons, the
succession of the night and day, the powers of air and water, the growth
of trees, the overflowing of rivers, the curious forms of storm-carved
rocks, the mysteries of life and death, the origin of the institutions of
society all demand explanation. While the desire of the savage to know
is as strong as it is with the civilized man, his curiosity is much more
easily satisfied. The sense of the savage is dull compared with that
of the civilized man; some people think that the barbarian has highly
developed perceptive faculties. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
For he sees few sights, hears few sounds, tastes of but few flavors,
smells of but few odors, so by reason of the extreme narrowness of his
experiences his whole sensible organization is coarse and blunt and his
powers of penetration are limited. He experiences some things difficult
to account for with his crude understanding. But he attempts to explain
it nevertheless. To his understanding supernatural power is necessary to
the performance of the acts which he describes, so he invents a story
which explains the phenomena to his satisfaction. He repeats it to
others and in their hands it grows and changes, becoming more refined
and reasonable as the race advances. Thus are the mythologies, the
philosophies, the religions, and the explanations of natural phenomena
of the savage man evolved; and just in proportion as he advances in the
scale of civilization the less he believes in these old traditions; the
more difficult the phenomena of nature for him to explain, the more
skeptical he becomes; in short, the more he knows, the less he thinks he
knows.
Their folklore explains all of the phenomena of nature to the
satisfaction of the savage, however foolish and simple it may seem to us.
Our Indians have not advanced far enough yet for their myths to contain
any of those lofty ideals and refined sentiments which crept into the
poetic legends of Greece, neither have they any conception of infinite
power. But nevertheless the performances of their Demi-gods, with that
queer mixture of power and weakness, and our “stick-siwashes” bear a
striking resemblance. The myths of the origin of the world and of man,
the fire-stealing, the romantic adventures of gods and heroes, and of the
sun and moon, have much in common, one with the other.
The most remarkable character in lore of the Puget Sound Indian was
old S’Beow. As the stories go, he is supposed to have been originally
an Arctic or white fox; but changed himself into a man. Ki-ki, or the
bluejay, was his grandmother. He had great power over his enemies
although he was often misled and even killed by them. He could change
himself into the form of any animal or thing he wished to; could cut
himself to pieces and put himself together again, and do many other
wonderful things. He is described as having cut himself in pieces and
poking the pieces out through a small hole in an ice house in which he
had been imprisoned and securing his liberty. There is also a story of
S’Beow playing ball with his own eyes.
Eldridge Morse, who has studied these legends systematically describes
the Indians’ conception of S’Beow as follows: He was a very short, pussy,
big-bellied man who looked a little like Santa Claus, with a long, heavy
white beard reaching to his waist; short white hair, sharp black eyes,
sharp pointed ears like those of an Arctic fox, and small hands and feet.
From either side of his mouth protruded an ugly cougar’s tusk. He wore a
short coat of mountain goat’s wool and had four live bluejays for buttons.
An old Indian up on the Stillaguamish river believes that his father saw
S’Beow once. He relates the experience as follows: At the southern point
of Camano island there is an old land slide.
Many years ago there was a band of Indians camped at that point on the
beach. His father and family were in a canoe paddling toward the camp.
It was just dusk and the ruby rays of a summer sun-set had not yet
disappeared. As if by magic or ta-mahn-a-wis, a man stood out on the
bluff above them. He swelled himself up and again he swelled himself up
until he was recognized as the form of old S’Beow, standing there as tall
as the big fir trees. Presently S’Beow kicked the bluff over onto the
Indians camped on the beach and buried them all, then stepped across onto
Hat island and disappeared.
Indians riding by the spot mourn and wail and cry for them to this day.
This fact together with the existence of the old slide at that place
proves the truth of the whole story to the entire satisfaction of the
savage.
It is very difficult to gather legends from the Puget Sound Indians,
however. Rev. Myron Eels, the venerable missionary of the Skokomish
reservation, Judge James G. Swan of Port Townsend, and Eldridge Morse, of
Snohomish, have met with some success. The latter gentleman is the only
one who has gathered them systematically and he has published nothing.
The Indians manifest much embarrassment when approached by a collector
of traditions until they learn that he is already familiar with them,
then his sailing is clear if he does not make fun of them. After all the
investigator is not sure at the present day how much of the story is an
Indian tradition and how much of it has been mixed with a story that some
missionary has told.