under the arrow chain, he went to sleep. After a while he awoke, found
himself sleeping on that hill, remembered the arrows he had shot away,
and looked up. Instead of the arrows there was a long ladder reaching
right down to him. He arose and looked so as to make sure. Then he
determined to ascend. First, however, he took various kinds of bushes
and stuck them into the knot of hair he wore on his head. He climbed
up his ladder all day and camped at nightfall upon it, resuming his
journey the following morning. When he awoke early on the second
morning his head felt very heavy. Then he seized the salmon berry bush
that was in his hair, pulled it out, and found it was loaded with
berries. After he had eaten the berries off, he stuck the branch back
into his hair and felt very much strengthened. About noon of the same
day he again felt hungry, and again his head was heavy, so he pulled
out a bush from the other side of his head and it was loaded with blue
huckleberries. It was already summer there in the sky. That was why he
was getting berries. When he resumed his journey next morning his head
did not feel heavy until noon. At that time he pulled out the bush at
the back of his head and found it loaded with red huckleberries.
By the time he had reached the top the boy was very tired. He looked
round and saw a large lake. Then he gathered some soft brush and some
moss and lay down to sleep. But, while he slept, some person came to
him and shook him saying, “Get up. I am after you.” He awoke and looked
around but saw no one. Then he rolled over and pretended to go to sleep
again but looked out through his eyelashes. By and by he saw a very
small but handsome girl coming along. Her skin clothes were very clean
and neat, and her leggings were ornamented with porcupine quills. Just
as she reached out to shake him he said, “I have seen you already.”
Now the girl stood still and said, “I have come after you. My
grandmother has sent me to bring you to her house.” So he went with
her, and they came to a very small house in which was an old woman. The
old woman said, “What is it you came way up here after, my grandson?”
and the boy answered, “On account of my playmate who was taken up
hither.” “Oh!” answered the old woman, “he is next door, only a short
distance away. I can hear him crying every day. He is in the moon’s
house.”
Then the old woman began to give him food. She would put her hand up to
her mouth, and a salmon or whatever she was going to give would make
its appearance. After the salmon she gave him berries and then meat,
for she knew that he was hungry from his long journey. After that she
gave him a spruce cone, a rose bush, a piece of devil’s club, and a
small piece of whetstone to take along.
As the boy was going toward the moon’s house with all of these things
he heard his playmate screaming with pain. He had been put up on a high
place near the smoke hole, so, when his rescuer came to it, he climbed
on top, and, reaching down through the smoke hole, pulled him out. He
said, “My friend, come. I am here to help you.” Putting the spruce cone
down where the boy had been, he told it to imitate his cries, and he
and his chum ran away.
After a while, however, the cone dropped from the place where it had
been put, and the people discovered that their captive had escaped.
Then the moon started in pursuit. When the head chief’s son discovered
this, he threw behind them the devil’s club he had received from the
old woman, and a patch of devil’s club arose which the moon had so much
trouble in getting through that they gained rapidly on him. When the
moon again approached, the head chief’s son threw back the rose bushes,
and such a thicket of roses grew there that the moon was again delayed.
When he approached them once more, they threw back the grindstone,
and it became a high cliff from which the moon kept rolling back. It
is on account of this cliff that people can say things about the moon
nowadays with impunity. When the boys reached the old woman’s house
they were very glad to see each other, for before this they had not had
time to speak.
The old woman gave them something to eat, and, when they were through,
she said to the rescuer, “Go and lie down at the place where you lay
when you first came up. Don’t think of anything but the playground you
used to have.” They went there and lay down, but after some time the
boy who had first been captured thought of the old woman’s house and
immediately they found themselves there. Then the old woman said, “Go
back and do not think of me any more. Lie there and think of nothing
but the place where you used to play.” They did so, and, when they
awoke, they were lying on their playground at the foot of the ladder.
As the boys lay in that place they heard a drum beating in the head
chief’s house, where a death feast was being held for them, and the
head chief’s son said, “Let us go,” but the other answered, “No, let
us wait here until that feast is over.” Afterward the boys went down
and watched the people come out with their faces all blackened. They
stood at a corner, but, as this dance is always given in the evening,
they were not seen.
Then the head chief’s son thought, “I wish my younger brother would
come out,” and sure enough, after all of the other people had gone, his
younger brother came out. He called to his brother saying, “Come here.
It is I,” but the child was afraid and ran into the house instead.
Then the child said to his mother, “My brother and his friend are out
here.” “Why do you talk like that?” asked his mother. “Don’t you know
that your brother died some time ago?” And she became very angry. The
child, however, persisted, saying, “I know his voice, and I know him.”
His mother was now very much disturbed, so the boy said, “I am going
to go out and bring in a piece of his shirt.” “Go and do so,” said his
mother. “Then I will believe you.”
When the boy at last brought in a piece of his brother’s shirt his
mother was convinced, and they sent word into all of the houses, first
of all into that of the second boy’s parents, but they kept both with
them so that his parents could come there and rejoice over him. All of
the other people in that village also came to see them.
57. THE BOY AND THE GIANT
At a certain place in the interior lived a manly little boy who was
very fond of hunting. He would take his lunch and go off hunting very
early in the morning and stay all day, bringing home two or three
porcupines in the evening. One morning he started earlier than usual
and came upon a giant as tall as the trees. He was very much frightened
and ran away with the big man in pursuit. As the giant was not a very
fast runner, the boy kept ahead of him until he came to a sort of cave
like a house at the foot of a hill and entered it. When the big man saw
this, he said, “Come here, my grandson.” The boy refused, and the giant
continued his entreaties for a long time. At last the boy consented to
go with him, so the giant said, “Get inside of my shirt. I will carry
you that way.” Then the boy vaulted in there, and they started off.
After they had gone along in this manner for some time, the boy, who
had his head out, saw a very small bird called old-person (ʟᴀgᵘ-qāˊkǃᵘ)
and said, “Grandpa, there is a bird I would like to have.” Then the big
man stopped and let him down, and he shot the bird with an arrow and
put it into his bosom, after which he crawled back into the big man’s
shirt. But now this bird had increased the boy’s weight so much that
the giant could scarcely move along. At every step he took he sank deep
into the moss. When the boy noticed this, he said to himself, “How is
it that, since I picked up this small bird, I have gotten very heavy,
and it is hard for him to walk?” Then he threw the bird away and the
giant walked on again as lightly as before. The boy enjoyed so much
being with this giant that he had forgotten all about his father and
mother. After that they traveled on together until they came to a very
large lake. In it the boy saw beaver houses, and the beaver dam ran
right across it. He thought, “This is a beaver lake. This is the kind
of place my father has told me about.” Then the big man tore a hole
through the top of a beaver house, took all of the beavers out, and
made a fire right back of the lake at which to cook them. They camped
there for several days, living on beaver meat and drying the skins. But
the first evening the giant said, “Keep a look out. If you hear any
noise during the night, wake me up. There is a bigger man than I of
whom I am much afraid.” He also said to the boy, “Sleep some distance
away from me, or I might move against you or throw my leg on you so as
to kill you.”
The second night they encamped there the boy heard the bushes breaking,
and sure enough the second giant came along. He was so tall that his
head was far up above the trees, and they could not see it. This second
giant had been looking for the other for a long time unsuccessfully,
so he rushed upon him, threw him down, and lay on top of him. Then the
boy’s friend cried, “Grandson, take that club of mine out and throw it
at him.” The boy ran to the big man’s bed, took his club, which was
made from the entire skeleton of a beaver, out from under it, and threw
it at the intruder. As soon as he let it go out of his hands it began
chewing at the second giant’s leg, and, as he was unable to feel it,
the club chewed off both his legs. Then the other, who had been almost
smothered, killed him and threw his body into the lake.
After this the boy’s companion had nothing to fear, and wandered from
lake to lake, and the boy was so fond of hunting that he forgot all
about his father and mother. It was now winter time, and that winter
was very severe. From the time the second giant had been killed he had
been doing nothing but killing beaver.
One evening, however, the boy began thinking of his father and his
mother, and was very quiet. Then the big man said, “Why is it that you
are so quiet this evening?” The boy answered, “I have just thought of
my father and mother. I feel lonely (i. e., homesick) for them.” Then
his companion said, “Would you like to go to them?” “I can’t go to them
because I don’t know where they are. I don’t know which way to go to
get to them.” Then the big man said, “All right, you can go,” but the
boy did not know what he meant. Now the big man went to a small tree,
broke it off, trimmed it well for the boy, and said to him, “Take this
along and as soon as you feel that you are lost, let it stand straight
up and fall over. Go in the direction in which it falls. Keep on doing
this until you get to your father’s place.”
At first the boy was afraid to start off alone, but finally he did so.
Whenever he was in doubt about the direction he let the tree fall, and
it led him at last right down to his father’s village, where all were
exceedingly glad to see him.
58. THE BOY WITH ARROWS ON HIS HEAD
A chief’s daughter married her father’s nephew and had a child by him
who was named Wᴀtsǃîhîˊtcî. He was not exactly a human being, for he
had sharp arrow points on his head. When his mother began petting him
and using endearing terms to him, he said to her, “Don’t pet me. I am
no baby.” And he ran the arrow points on his head into his mother’s
breast and killed her. Afterward he ran off into the woods and became a
very bad person, killing everybody who went off hunting or after wood.
At that time his mother’s brother was out on the mountains hunting
along with his children. He knew that his nephew was killing people,
so he made his house very strong to keep him out. He also set around
bundles of dry straw shaped like human beings, and he even prepared a
hole in the mountains as a place of refuge.
How his nephew found out where he lived is not known, but one day he
suddenly walked right in. His uncle was sitting behind a bundle of
straw in the rear of the house, while his wife and children were in
the hole he had made in the mountain. The boy always had his arrows
and spears, the points of which were obsidian (în), ready to use, but
instead of aiming at his uncle he pointed his arrow at a bundle of
straw opposite. While he was doing so his uncle shot him under the left
arm, and he was so badly hurt that he left his spear and ran out.
As his assisting spirit this boy had a bird called gusǃiadūˊłi of about
the size of a robin. This spirit now doctored him and took out of him
all of the poison his uncle had put on the end of his arrow. But, while
he was doing this, his uncle tracked him by the marks of blood until he
came to the place where the boy lived. When he entered that place his
nephew said, “Don’t kill me, uncle. I have made a hole in the ground
over there and have filled it with goods. You may have them if you do
not kill me. If you let me go now I will never kill another person.”
In spite of all his protestations, however, his uncle killed him for
having destroyed so many of the town people and for having forced him
to live back among the mountains. Then he burned his nephew’s body and
went home with all of his family, leaving the ashes where they lay.
These ashes were driven about by the wind and became the minute gnats
that torment people.
59. GAMNĀˊTCKǃÎ[118]
Gᴀmnāˊtckǃî killed a seal, skinned it, and threw the skin and meat to
his wife to wash. While she was washing them in the sea she saw some
killer whales coming landward. By and by the meat she was washing
drifted out from her and she waded after it. She went out until the
water reached her hips. Then she suddenly felt some one pull her and
she disappeared under water. It was the killer-whale people who thus
took her into their canoe.
After that Gᴀmnāˊtckǃî felt very badly and thought to himself, “How can
I get my wife back? How can I look for her under the water?” He could
not sleep all night, and early in the morning he thought, “I wonder
if I couldn’t raise this water so as to go under it.” In the morning,
therefore, before he had eaten he took his red and black paints, went
down to the water, raised the edge of it just as if he were raising a
blanket, and walked under. He walked on farther and farther. It was
just like walking on land.
By and by he came to a village full of very pale people who went about
with their heads down. He found out that they were the red-cod people.
He wanted to make friends of them, so, thinking that they looked very
white, he painted them all red—men, women, and children. That is how
these fishes got their color. After that he asked them if they had
seen his wife, but they said that they had seen no one, so he went on.
Presently he came to another village and asked the people there the
same question to which he received the very same answer. Those were the
halibut people. In each village they gave him something to eat.
After he had left the halibut people Gᴀmnāˊtckǃî traveled for several
days before he came to another town. By and by, however, he perceived
smoke far ahead of him, and, going toward it, he saw that it was from
a fort. Inside of this fort was a large house which he immediately
entered, but the people there did not seem to care to see strangers and
would not talk to him. These were also very pale people, so to please
them he took out his black paint and painted all of them with it. Then
they felt well disposed toward him and were willing to talk. “Can you
tell me what clan has my wife?” he said. At first they said that they
did not know, but afterward one replied, “There is a strange woman in
that town across there.” Then this person pointed the village out, and
Gᴀmnāˊtckǃî felt pleased to know where his wife was. The people he had
come among were the sharks, and those whose village they showed him
were the killer whales.
Then the shark chief said, “Every time we have had a fight we have
beaten them.” The shark people also said to him, “The killer-whale
chief has a slave. Every morning the slave goes out after water. Go to
the creek and tell him what to do when he comes in. Tell him to bring
the water in and hand it to the chief over the fire. As he does so he
must drop it, and, while the house is full of steam, pick up your wife
and run out with her. The chief has married her. Then come over here
with her. They will run after you, but, if you can get away, come right
across.” The shark people had always been jealous of the killer whales
because they had this woman.
While the shark people were telling him what to do, a strange,
bony-looking person kept jumping up from behind the boxes. He wondered
what made him act so queerly and began to feel uneasy about it, but,
when the bony person saw him looking at him in a strange manner, he
said, “Why! don’t you know me? I am that halibut hook (nᴀx̣ᵘ) that the
sharks once took away from you. My name is Łgudjîˊ (the name of an
island).”
Just after that the man started for the killer-whale town and sat down
by the creek. When the slave came out after water, he asked him to help
him, saying, “I hear that my wife is with this chief.” “Yes,” the slave
answered, “if she were a man, they would have kept her for a slave like
myself. Since she is a woman, the chief has married her, and she is
living very well. I will help you as much as I can. She wants to return
to you. Now watch and I will do what you tell me to do. I will spill
this water on the fire.”
After that he took Gᴀmnāˊtckǃî to the door and showed him where his
wife sat. Then the slave walked in with the water while he stood
outside watching. He watched his wife through a crack and saw that she
appeared very much cast down. As soon as the fire was put out and the
house filled with steam he ran in, seized his wife, and started off
with her.
Then, when the slave thought that he had gotten a long distance away,
he shouted, “Some one has taken the woman away.” The chief looked
around, and sure enough his wife was gone. Going outside, they saw that
this man had almost reached the shark fort, and they saw him enter it.
As soon as he got there, the shark people began to dress themselves for
war. They were noisy and acted as though they were very hungry, so that
Gᴀmnāˊtckǃî became frightened. The halibut hook came to him, however,
and told him not to be frightened, because the killer whales were
coming over. All at once the fort began moving up and down. Whenever
the killer whales tried to enter, the fort killed them by moving up and
down and cutting off their heads. The slaughter was so great that the
few survivors were frightened and went back. Two or three days later
the killer whales came again with like result.
After this the shark people said to Gᴀmnāˊtckǃî, “You better not start
out right away. Stay here a while with us. They might be lying in
wait for you. Since we have fought for you so much, it is better that
you should get to your home safely.” Gᴀmnāˊtckǃî did so, and some time
later they said, “Go straight along by the way you came, and you will
find your way out easily.” He did this and reached his home in safety.
FOOTNOTES:
[118] Evidently a version of the Tsimshian story of Gunaxnaxsîmgyêt.
See story 4.
60. THE HĪN-TAỴĪˊCÎ
There is a fish, called hīn-taỵīˊcî, which is shaped like a halibut but
has very many “legs.”
Early one spring a Kîksᴀˊdî shaman at Sitka named Face-of-mountain
(Cāˊdāq) began singing, and the people did not know why. Another
morning he got up very early and began to sing again, while the spirits
talked to him. Then all of the Kîksᴀˊdî also rose. When his possession
was over the shaman said to them, “Take the canoe down and let us start
off.” They did so, placing the shaman in the bow under a mat, and, as
they went along, his spirits talked under it. Finally they came to a
deep bay in front of Sitka and the spirits said, “This is the place,”
so they started shoreward. When they came to a spot just beyond a steep
cliff which runs down precipitously into the sea, the spirits said,
“Here is the place where we are to land.” Then the shaman went up from
the canoe and sat in a hollow on top of a rock, while all watched him.
By and by his spirit said that the people must do likewise, so they
found similar places and seated themselves there.
Now the shaman seemed to be watching for something, so all of the
people looked in the same direction, and suddenly they saw a school
of killer whales coming along, making noises like yelping dogs. The
people wondered what was the matter and looked closely. Finally right
out from the cliff they saw something very black and shiny. It was
the hīn-taỵīˊcî, and, when a killer whale ran up against it, he would
be cut in two. The killer whales fought very hard, but, when they
were through, only three remained, who went off barking like dogs.
After that the hīn-taỵīˊcî came up in front of the place where the
men were sitting and made a great noise. They wondered at this and
were frightened, but the shaman understood it and said to them, “It is
saying ‘Don’t feel badly for me if I should get killed. I should not
have fought those people, but I had to do it, for they were coming here
to eat all of my food.’”
Now the people went home, but, after some time had passed, the shaman
asked them to take the canoe down once more and go out again. They did
so willingly, for they were anxious to see what more would happen.
The shaman had learned that all the killer-whale people were going
against the hīn-taỵīˊcî and that the sculpin (wēqǃ) had come to him
saying, “The people are coming after you again.” So the people went
to their former station, and presently the hīn-taỵīˊcî came out of his
hole and began jumping about on top of the water like a salmon. It
was very quick and very large. When it saw the great crowd of killer
whales coming on, it went out to meet them and killed all except the
killer-whale chief and two others, which it allowed to escape. Then it
again jumped up and down in front of the people, making a great noise,
and the shaman told them it said, “I am tired. If they come right back
with the same number of people, I shall be killed. It will be my fault.
I should not have killed them.”
Then the people went home and remained there quite a time. At length,
however, the shaman’s spirits told him that the sculpin had again come
to the hīn-taỵīˊcî to say that people were coming to kill him. So he
told his friends about it, and they went to the same place. As they sat
there watching, they saw a smoke arising far in the distance. It was
the killer whales blowing. There were still more of them this time,
but, as before, the hīn-taỵīˊcî destroyed all except three. Again it
told the people that it expected to be killed next time.
Now the shaman was very anxious to know what would be the outcome
of all this, so he went back to his village and waited impatiently
for another fight to take place. Finally the sculpin went to the
hīn-taỵīˊcî once more and said, “They are gathering more men for you,
stronger men this time. They are getting the devilfish people to
fight you.” When the shaman learned of it through his spirits he told
his people, and they went out to the cliff. Again they saw something
coming from a distance very rapidly, making the water boil. Just as
the devilfishes reached the hole of the hīn-taỵīˊcî, the latter jumped
through the largest of them, after which it killed all of the others
and all of the killer whales but three. It was easier for him this time
because there were fewer killer whales.
Next time the sculpin came to the hīn-taỵīˊcî it said “All of the
monster halibut are being gathered to fight with you.” So the people
went over once more and sat in their accustomed places. They saw the
largest halibut go up toward the hīn-taỵīˊcî’s hole with open mouth
ready to swallow it, but, as before, the hīn-taỵīˊcî jumped through
and through it, and killed all of its antagonists except three killer
whales. Where they fought the water was covered with blood, and after
every battle the hīn-taỵīˊcî would come out and say that next time it
expected to be killed.
Now, however, a very long time passed before the shaman heard anything,
and he began to think that they had given up fighting. But finally his
spirit came to him once more to say that the sculpin had been to the
hīn-taỵīˊcî. The sculpin had said to it, “They are coming after you
again. They have gathered all of the big crabs to kill you.” Then the
hīn-taỵīˊcî answered, “Those are the ones that are going to get me.”
So the shaman went out with his friends and watched from their former
stations.