THE MAGIC BLANKET
One of the best stories known to the Indians around Puget Sound is the
legend of the Ta-mahn-a-wis, or magic blanket.
Once upon a time there lived a boy with his parents on the shores of
Puget Sound, who was just budding into young manhood. He had reached that
point in life where boys prepare to fight life’s battles for themselves,
and where the Indians in former times sought to discover their totem,
or guardian spirit. This boy went alone with his bow and arrow into the
woods to hunt the little birds and little squirrels, and had good success
in killing the little birds and little squirrels. He took the skins of
the little squirrels and the feathers of the little birds and wove them
into a blanket. Many days this little boy hunted in the woods for bird
feathers and squirrel skins with which to make his blanket, until his
parents, friends and all the rest of the people became suspicious of him
and began to think that he was possessed of evil spirits.
Still the boy continued to work on his blanket day after day, from early
dawn until nightfall, and all the while his friends knew not what he was
doing. At length they became so much alarmed at the evil spirits of this
young man that they picked up all their effects, and got in their canoes
and sailed a long way across the waters, and left the boy alone in the
woods without fire, food or shelter.
The boy went home at night after having completed his blanket, upon
which he had been at work so long. When he found the home deserted he
exclaimed, according to the rendering in classic Chinook:
“Halo piah, pe halo muck-a-muck, pe halo stick, pe halo ictas, pe halo
tillicums. Nika de-late sick-tum tum.”
If he had spoken in English he would have said:
“There is no fire, and no food, and no house, and no pots, pans, kettles,
no friends; in short, nothing. It makes me sick at heart.” He looked all
round for his people, but could find no trace of them. They had taken all
of the canoes with them so that he could not follow them. He then thought
of his blanket. He went and got it and walked down the beach to the
edge of the salt water. He dipped one corner of the blanket in the salt
“chuck” and shook it, and out fell wood, and he shook it again and there
was fire. Again he dipped the blanket in the water, and when he shook it
out there were many little Siwashes to keep him company, and shaking it
again, they became big Siwashes. Again he dipped his blanket in the water
and shook it, and there were thousands of beautiful smelt. Just then a
big bird came along and gobbled up all of the fish that it could carry
and flew a long way over the waters with them to where the boy’s people
had gone.
The boy’s old mother was on the beach looking across the waters and
bewailing his sad fate, and thinking how she loved him and how sorry she
was that she had left him, and how she wished she had not left him to
perish there alone.
She thought she would see the rest of the people and see if she could not
prevail on them to go back to her son, for she could not believe that he
was possessed of demons. The woman looked up and saw a great bird flying
from the direction where her boy was living. The bird flew directly into
her canoe and began to spew up smelt. Between the pumping Kuhl-kulli,
for that was the bird’s name, would exclaim: “I-bro-ught-these-from-your
boy! I-bro-ught-these-from-your-boy!” The great bird continued to spew up
fish until the canoe was half filled with smelt, all the while saying: “I
brought these from your boy!” As the mother looked across the waters in
the direction in which the bird came her heart leaped high with joy, for
in the dim distance she beheld a smoke rising heavenward, which informed
her that her boy was all right, for she knew that her boy could not
starve with so many fish and a fire to cook them. She was sure that he
was possessed of a good, and not an evil, spirit.
The mother told her friends all about what had happened, and persuaded
them to go with her back to where her son was living, and the boy and his
parents, his old friends and his new friends all lived happily together
for many years afterwards.