the wolf said, “Some strange being walks around here. Don’t run after
him or he will take your life.” It was Dry-cloud that he meant. “Don’t
mind me,” said Fire-drill’s son, “I know what he is. I only play with
him. I know that this fellow can’t be killed, and I know that he can
not kill anybody else, but I have to follow him. That was my father’s
advice to me.” So they kept on after Dry-cloud and the wolf had to run
with all his might, but it did not seem to Fire-drill’s son that he was
going rapidly at all. Whenever the wolf got his tail wet in crossing
a stream he was too much tired out to shake it, so he simply yelped
and Fire-drill’s son shook it for him. By and by they saw smoke far
ahead of them and presently came to where an old woman lived alone by
herself. They stayed with her for some time, and could see Dry-cloud
as long as they were there, for he lived in the neighborhood of her
house. Then they helped the old woman and collected a quantity of wood
for her. After that she said to the boy, “Grandson, there is a big fish
over yonder. It killed all of my friends in this town. That is why I
am all alone here.” He went to the place where she said the monster
lived and found a red cod. He said to her, “Grandmother, that is not
a monster fish. It is good to eat.” So he took his bow and arrows and
told his friend to watch him. Then he went to the red cod and killed
it, and, seeing that there were numbers of sharp spines upon it, he
took off its skin and dried it. He said to the wolf: “My friend, do
you know this woman? She is really Daughter-of-the-calm (Kayeˊʟǃî-sī).
She is a very nice, pretty girl.” Afterward Fire-drill’s son married
Daughter-of-the-calm and had a child by her named Łᴀkîtcîneˊ. He gave
this boy his dog and put the red-cod skin upon him as a shirt. Then he
said to his wife: “This is going to be a very bad boy.”[64]
* * * * *
Łᴀkîtcîneˊ lived at Sitka.[65] He had a wife from among human beings,
and every day, while he went out halibut fishing, she dug clams. The
dog, G̣ᴀnt, that his father had given him he renamed Cᴀqǃ. Łᴀkîtcîneˊ
had several children, but he killed all of them. He would take a child
up, pet it, and sing cradle songs to it, and at the same time make
his red-cod spines stick into it so that it died. He also used the
“Blarney stone”[66] as a grindstone, and killed some of his children by
rubbing their faces upon it.
His wife mourned very much for her children, and finally thought of a
way of being revenged upon him. She had a litter of puppies by the dog.
There were originally twelve, but seven died, leaving four male puppies
and one female. These puppies grew up very fast. While the man and his
wife were away fishing and digging clams the puppies played about the
house, and the noise they made sounded just like that of children.
But the female always watched at the door, and when their mother ran
up to stop them all would be lying about on the floor asleep. They
kept getting noisier and noisier, and sounded more and more like
human beings. Finally Łᴀkîtcîneˊ heard it and said to his wife: “Who
are these making so much noise here?” “It is those dogs.” Then she
thought very seriously what she should do with the puppies. The next
time Łᴀkîtcîneˊ was out he heard them still more plainly, and now he
thought that he heard human voices. He came ashore in great anger and
said to his wife: “It is not those dogs that I hear talking.” He was so
dangerous a man that his wife was very much frightened.
After that she formed a plan. So, when her husband went out halibut
fishing the next time, she stuck her digging stick into the ground,
put her blanket around it, and her hat upon the end. Then she ran up
through the woods and hid herself, while the little dog was watching
Łᴀkîtcîneˊ. After that she crept back to the house, which was made
of brush, and in which they were again making a great deal of noise.
Looking inside, she found that the boys were all playing about in human
forms, their dog skins lying a short distance away from them. Then she
quickly ran in upon them, exclaiming, “You must like to be dogs since
you wear dog skins,” grabbed the skins and threw them into the fire.
The little dog that sat outside was the only one that remained in its
original form.
Now, when Łᴀkîtcîneˊ came ashore, and saw the children, he was angry
and felt very much ashamed at having been outwitted. He did not know
how to kill them, for he thought they had more power than he. One,
named Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ, was a shaman. He had his grandfather and the one-eyed
man and his wife that his grandfather had killed as his spirits.
Łᴀkîtcîneˊ thought that he would first quarrel with his wife, and, when
he came into the house, he began to throw and kick things about. But,
when he began to beat his wife, the children jumped upon him and fought
with him. They also asked the dog to help them. Together they killed
him.
After these boys were grown up, their mother told them many times of a
certain monster at a place called Kᴀg̣ēˊtǃ, that had been killing many
people. Finally they set out to see it, anchored off the mouth of the
bay, and killed it with spears and arrows. They took the skin from its
head. Then they went throughout Alaska, killing off the monsters of the
sea and land that had troubled people and making others less harmful.
The natives say, if it had not been for those boys, they would be there
yet. They made some of these monsters promise that they would not kill
people. The wolves, which were very destructive in those days, became
less harmful through them. Although people in Alaska are afraid of
wolves, you have not heard of anyone being killed by them.
There was one person called Tcākǃîˊsǃ resembling an eagle, who flew
around and was very powerful. He would say to the bears and other game
animals, “You are going to be killed.” Because he kept warning the
animals, human beings were starving, so the brothers came to him and
made him promise not to injure people or forewarn the other animals.
Afterward the brothers left their mother at that place and went
up to Łāxaỵîˊk, where they had heard of a bad person called
One-legged-man (ʟē-łaqǃocîˊ). His proper name, however, is
Man-that-dries-fish-for-the-eagle (Tcākǃ-qǃēˊdî-ᴀt-qǃᴀn-qā), and he
is very fond of spearing salmon. First the boys came to the prints of
his one foot going up beside the river, and after a while they saw him
coming down toward them spearing salmon. His shirt was the skin of a
brown bear and had strength as well as he.
Afterward Łqǃayāˊkǃ caught a salmon, took all of the meat out, and got
into its skin. Next day, at the time when they knew One-legged-man
was about to come up, Łqǃayāˊkǃ put it on again and laid himself in a
salmon hole in the creek. The big man, who was just coming along, saw a
fine salmon go into the hole and said, “What a fine-looking salmon.” He
thought that he could not get it, but, after he had stood watching it
for a while, it swam up toward him, and he speared it. Just as he was
dragging it ashore, however, Łqǃayāˊkǃ cut the cord to his spear point
with a knife he had taken along and swam back into the water hole. Then
the big man looked at his spear and said to himself, “My fine spear is
gone;” but after he had observed closer he said, “This is not broken.
It is cut. I suppose it is Łqǃayāˊkǃ’s doing.” After that he went on up
the stream while the brothers cooked salmon for their meal.
By a by they saw One-legged-man coming down again carrying a feather
tied on the end of a long stick. He would point this feather at
different trees and then smell of it. Finally he pointed it at the
tree in which Łqǃayāˊkǃ and his brothers were then sitting and said,
“Łqǃayāˊkǃ is in that tree.” Then he spoke out saying, “Give me my
spear.” Łqǃayāˊkǃ kept saying to his brothers, “Shall I go out and
fight him?” But they answered, “No, no, don’t go yet.” He was so
determined, however, that he finally went out and was killed. Then the
other brothers and the dog fell upon this man. After they had set their
dog on him, they killed him. They took his bear-skin shirt off and
burned his body. Łqǃayāˊkǃ had been torn all to pieces, but Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ
put the pieces together, acted around him like a shaman, and brought
him back to life.
Then Łqǃayāˊkǃ went along up to the head of that stream dressed in
One-legged-man’s shirt and acting like him. When he got there he
found the largest two bears that ever lived. These were the wife and
father-in-law of the man they had killed. Łqǃayāˊkǃ threw down one
salmon before the woman and another very bright one before her father
just as One-legged-man had been in the habit of doing. The woman found
out right away that Łqǃayāˊkǃ was not her husband, but she made love
to him and he took her as his wife. His father-in-law also thought a
great deal of him. Every morning Łqǃayāˊkǃ would go off down stream
after salmon just as One-legged-man had done. On these expeditions he
was always accompanied by his dog, which kept chewing on something
continually. He was really chewing those wild peoples’ minds away to
make them tame so that they would not hurt Łqǃayāˊkǃ’s brothers. His
brothers all came to him.
After that they began pursuing Dry-cloud like Fire-drill’s son. Like
him they chased it from one kind of animal to another. They chased it
for months and months until they had followed it far up into the sky
where you can see the tracks of Łqǃayāˊkǃ to this very day (the milky
way). Finally they reached a very cold region in the sky and wanted
to get back, but the clouds gathered so thickly about them that they
could not pass through. Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ, therefore, called his spirits to
open a passage. After they had done so his brothers fell through and
were smashed to pieces on the earth. Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ, however, had his
spirits make him enter a ptarmigan (qǃēsǃawaˊ), and reached the earth
in safety. Then he shook his rattle over his brothers and brought them
to life.
Before they ascended into the sky the brothers had killed all of
the monsters on Prince of Wales island and elsewhere in Alaska
except one at Wrangell called Kᴀxqoyêˊnduᴀ. When they heard about
this one, they went to He-who-knows-everything-that-happens
(Łiuˊwᴀt-uwadjīˊgî-canᴀˊkᵘ) and said to him, “Grandfather, we want
your canoe. Will you lend it to us?” Its name was Arrow-canoe
(Tcūˊnet-yākᵘ). Then the old man said, “What do you want the canoe for,
grandchildren?” So they told him, and he said, “There is a very bad
thing living there. No one can get to him. Several different kinds of
spirits are to be met before you reach him. They are very dangerous.”
Then he gave them directions, saying, “When the monster is sleeping, he
has his eyes open, but when he is awake he has his eyes closed, and he
is then watching everything. When you see that his eyes are closed, do
not try to kill him. Approach him when his eyes are open. The canoe,”
he said, “is right round there back of my house.” They went to look
for it but saw nothing at that place except an old log covered with
moss. They said to him, “Where is the canoe you were talking about?”
Then the old man came out and threw the moss off, revealing a fine
painted canoe. Another name for this was Canoe-that-travels-in-the-air
(Qᴀxỵīˊxdoxoa), referring to its swiftness. All of the paddles that he
brought out to them were beautifully painted. Then they got into the
canoe and tested it.
Next day they set out and soon came to a point named
Point-that-moves-up-and-down (Yên-yułuˊ-sǃîtᴀˊngî-qǃa). Whenever a
canoe approached it this point would rise, and, as soon as the canoe
attempted to pass under, would fall and smash it. They, however, passed
right underneath, and it did not fall upon them. They killed it by
doing so, theirs being the first canoe that had passed under.
Beyond this they saw a patch of kelp called
Kelps-washed-up-against-one-another-by-the-waves (Wūcxkᴀdutīˊt-gīc),
which closed on those trying to pass, but they shot through as soon as
the kelp parted. Thus they killed the kelp patch, and the kelp piled up
in one place, becoming a kelp-covered rock which may still be seen.
Next they reached Fire-coming-up-out-of-the-sea (Hīnᴀx-qeg̣ᴀˊntc),
which rose out of the ocean quickly and fell back again. When it fell
back they passed over it and killed it.
After that they came to Dogs-of-the-sea (Wūcłᴀdᴀgūˊq-cᴀqǃ), after whom
Łᴀkîtcîneˊ’s dog is said to have been named.[67] These drew to each
side and then ran together upon anyone who tried to pass between.
Arrow-canoe was too quick for them, however, and killed them by running
through in safety. Then they became rocks.
Before the monster’s dwelling were two mountains, called
Mountains-that-divide (Wūˊcqᴀdag̣ᴀt-ca), which formed his doors. These
would separate and come together again. Arrow-canoe passed between when
they were separated and killed them. You can see them now, one on each
side of a salt-water pond, looking as though they had been cut apart.
As soon as they had passed between these they saw the monster, a very
bad shaman called also Shaman-of-the-sea (Hīn-tǃᴀq-îˊxtǃî). He looked
as though his eyes were open, so they threw a rope made of whale
sinew about his neck. Immediately he shook himself and broke it. They
made ropes out of the sinews of all the different monsters they had
killed, but he broke them. All the time they were doing this a little
bird called Old-person (ʟaguqāˊwu),[68] kept coming to their camp and
saying, “My sinews only, my sinews.” So they finally killed this bird,
took out its sinews, and worked them into a very small thread. As soon
as they threw this around the monster’s head it came off. Then they
took off its scalp, which had long hair like that of other shamans, and
the rest of its head turned into a rock at that place. They now had two
principal scalps from the two big monsters they had killed.
When the brothers now returned to the old man and related what had
happened, he felt very good and said, “There would have been no person
living. This monster would have killed them all, if you had not
destroyed it.” Everybody who heard that the monster was dead, was glad,
and did not fear to go to that place any more.
After this they returned to their mother and sister. At that time their
sister had just reached puberty and was shut up in the house with a
mat curtain hung in front of her. So they hung the shaman’s scalp up
in front of the curtain. They also made her drink water through the
leg bones of geese and swans so that she should not touch the drinking
cups. Her mother put a large hat upon her so that she should not look
at anything she was forbidden to see. If one shouted that a canoe
was coming, or that anything else was taking place that she wanted
to witness, she did not dare to look out. Since her time these same
regulations have been observed.
Then they left that place and moved south through the interior. Having
killed off the ocean monsters, they were now going to kill those in
the forest. Besides that, they hunted all of this time, killing bear,
ground hogs, and other animals; but their sister was not allowed to
look at any of them. Among other wild animals they told the wolverine
and wolf that they must not kill human beings but be friendly with
them. They killed ground hogs, mountain sheep, and other animals for
them and told them that that was what they were to live upon.
At one place they saw a smoke far off in the woods and, advancing
toward it, came to the house of a man named He-whose-hands-see
(Djīnqotīˊn). He was so called because he was blind and had his wife
aim his arrows for him. He said to Łqǃayāˊkǃ, “My wife saw a grizzly
bear and told me where it was. She aimed my arrow and I shot at it. I
felt that I had killed it, but she said I had not. My wife has left me
on account of this, and I don’t know where she is or what I am living
on or how I am living without her.” Then Łqǃayāˊkǃ and his brothers
gave him ground-hog skins filled with grease and fat such as the
interior people used to make, also dried meat.
While they were in the interior the brothers also made needles out of
animal bones and threads out of sinew for their sister to use behind
the screen. She worked with porcupine quills and dyed sinews, and it
is through her that the interior women are such fine workers with the
needle.
After they met this man the girl’s brothers asked her to make a small
net for them. This net was patterned after a spider’s web which
Spider-spirit (Qasîstǃaˊn yēk) showed to Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ, saying, “You are
to take this as a pattern.” Then they took the old man to the creek and
said, “Do you feel this creek along here?” Putting a long handle on
the net, they said to him again, “Dip this net into the water here. It
is easy. You can feel when a fish gets into it.” They gave him also a
basket their sister had made and said, “When you want to cook the fish,
put it in here together with many hot rocks.” After showing him how to
cook his fish they left him and came to another camp. There another old
man lived who said to them, “Do you see that mountain?” There were two
mountains close together. “A very bad person lives over there named
Long-haired-person (Cᴀkułyᴀˊtǃ).” So, after the brothers had gotten a
great deal of food together for the old man, they left their mother
and sister with him and went out to look for Long-haired-person. After
a while they came upon good, hard trails made by him along which he
had set spears with obsidian points, and presently they saw him coming
along one of these with his long hair dragging on the ground. He had a
bone in his nose and swan’s down around his head and wrists. Then he
said, “Come to my house. I invite you home to eat something. I know
you are there.” He said this although he could not see them. Then the
boys came out to him and called him “brother-in-law,” and he said,
“It is four days since I saw you, my brothers-in-law. Your story is
known everywhere.” This Athapascan shaman’s spirits were telling him
all these things. So he took them home and gave them all the different
kinds of food to which they were accustomed, not treating them as a
wild man would. Then they said to him, “You see the old person that
lives near by. Do not do any harm to him. He is our grandfather. If you
see that old blind fellow down yonder, give him food also. Treat him
like the other.” Presently the shaman said to the brothers, “Let us
make a sweat house.” In olden times people used to talk to each other
in the sweat houses, and the shamans learned a great deal from their
spirits inside of them. That was why the shaman wanted them to go in.
But, when they were inside, and he and Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ had showed each other
their spirits, it was found that Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ’s spirits were the stronger.
Now they returned to their mother and sister and took them to the head
of the Taku river, where they spent some time in hunting. Then they
crossed to this side and, moving along slowly on account of their
sister, they came to a place on the Stikine called in Athapascan
Hᴀkǃîˊts, where they also hunted. Their destination was the Nass.
Coming down along the north bank of the Stikine to find a good place
for their sister to cross, they started to make the passage between
Telegraph and the narrows, one of them taking the dog on his back.
Before the brothers set out, however, their mother covered their sister
up so that she would not look at them until they got over. But when
they were half way across, they started back and it looked to the
mother as if they were drifting downstream. She said to her daughter,
“Daughter, it looks as if your brothers were going to be drowned. They
are already drifting down the river.” Upon that, the girl raised her
covering a little and looked out at them, and immediately they turned
into stone. The pack that one of them was carrying fell off and floated
down a short distance before petrifying, and it may still be seen
there. The dog also turned to rock on its master’s head and the mother
and sister on shore. One of the boys had green and red paints with
him, such as they used to paint their bows and arrows and their faces,
and nowadays you can go there and get it. Years ago people passing
these rocks prayed to them, stuffed pieces of their clothing into the
crevices, and asked the rocks for long life.[69]
Raven was then living just below this place. His smoke may still
be seen there, and they call it Raven’s smoke (Yēł sǃēˊg̣e). When
Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ turned into a rock, Raven said, “Where is that shaman that
was going to come to after he had died?” He meant that, while he used
to restore his brothers to life by shaking his rattle over them, he
could not now restore himself; and people now apply these remarks to a
shaman who has not succeeded in saving a person after he has been paid
a great deal for his services. They will say, “Where is that shaman
that could save anybody, but could not save the very person we wanted
saved?” If a shaman were not truthful, they would say, “He is trying
to have Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ’s spirits but will never get them because he is not
truthful like Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ.”[70]
* * * * *
As Raven was traveling along after his encounter with the mother of
Fire-drill’s son, he saw a sculpin on the beach looking at him and hid
from it to see what it would do. Then he saw it swim out on the surface
of the ocean and go down out of sight some distance off. After that he
opened the door of the sea, went to the house of the sculpin, which was
under a large rock, and said to it, “My younger brother, this is you,
is it?” “I am not your younger brother.” “Oh! yes, you are my younger
brother. We were once coming down Nass river in a canoe with our
father and had just reached its mouth when you fell overboard and sank
forever.” Then the sculpin said, “I can not be your younger brother
for I am a very old person.” Said Raven, “I want you to be next to me.
There will be many sculpins, but you shall be the principal one.” So he
placed the sculpin (wēqǃ) in the sky where it may still be seen [as the
Pleiades].[71]
Raven saw a canoe out after halibut and said, “Come ashore and take me
across,” but they paid no attention to him. Then he said, “If you do
not I will put you up in the sky also. I will make an example of you,
too.” Then he held his walking stick out toward the canoe and they
found themselves going up into the sky. That is what you can see in the
sky now. It is called The-halibut-fishers (Dᴀnᴀˊqᵘsǃîkê).[72]
Raven went to another place and determined to invite some people to a
feast, so he invited all the seal people. When each seal came in he
smeared its forehead with pitch, and, as soon as it got warm, the pitch
ran down over the seal’s eyes and blinded it. Then he clubbed it to
death.[73]
He went along again, saw a nice fat deer, and said to it, “My friend
this is you is it?” There was a deep, narrow canyon near by and Raven
laid a rotten stick across it saying, “Let us go across to the other
side upon this,” but the deer said, “No, I can not. It will break with
me and I shall get hurt.” “No, you shall see how I cross it.” So Raven
went over and Deer tried to follow him but fell to the bottom of the
canyon and was crushed to death. Then Raven went down and ate him,
stuffing himself so full that he could scarcely move. He then acted as
though he were very sad and pretended to cry, saying, “My friend, my
friend, he is gone.” He pretended that the wild animals had devoured
him.[74]
After this Raven went to ground-hog’s house for the winter. The ground
hogs go into their holes in September. At home they live like human
beings and to them we are animals just as much. So Raven spent the
winter with one of them and became very sick of it, but he could not
get out. The ground hog enjoyed himself very much, but Raven acted as
if he were in prison and kept shouting to his companion, “Winter comes
on, Winter comes on,” thinking that the ground hog had power to make
the winter pass rapidly. The ground hog had to stay in his hole for
six months, and at that time he had six toes, one for each, but Raven
pulled one of his toes out of each foot in order to shorten the winter.
That is why he has but five nowadays.[75]
Next Raven married the daughter of a chief named Fog-over-the-salmon
(Xāt-ka-qog̣āˊsǃî). It was winter, and they were without food, so Raven
wanted salmon very much. His wife made a large basket and next morning
washed her hands in it. When she got through there was a salmon there.
Both were very glad, and cooked and ate it. Every day afterward she did
the same thing until their house was full of drying salmon. After that,
however, Raven and his wife quarreled, and he hit her on the shoulder
with a piece of dried salmon. Then she ran away from him, but, when he
ran after her and seized her, his hands passed right through her body.
Then she went into the water and disappeared forever, while all of the
salmon she had dried followed her. He could not catch her because she
was the fog (gūsǃ). After that he kept going to his father-in-law to
beg him to have his wife come back, but his father-in-law said, “You
promised me that you would have respect for her and take care of her.
You did not do it, therefore you can not have her back.”[76]
* * * * *