big crab in advance of them. Its body was under water, but its legs
stuck out, and the water seemed to boil as it swam forward. Then the
hīn-taỵīˊcî came out and said to the shaman, “They will get me this
time. It is my own fault. I am sure that I can not kill that big person
with the shell.” Then the hīn-taỵīˊcî went back into its hole, and the
crab ran up against the opening so it was unable to get out. So the
hīn-taỵīˊcî said, “How is it that you do not allow me to come out when
you have come here to fight me? Let me come out so that you can get me.
I have killed enough of you deep-water people to come out now. Stand
away a little and let me come.”
The hīn-taỵīˊcî wanted to see where the joints on the crab’s claws were
situated, and, as soon as the crab moved to one side, it went against
one of them and cut it off. With its remaining claw, however, the crab
seized it, lifted it into the air, and killed it in sight of everyone.
After that it placed the body on the back of the chief killer whale,
and the crab and the killer whales sang together as they went away with
its body. As they went they kept close to the surface of the water.
61. THE EAST AND NORTH WINDS
A high-caste man married the daughter of East-wind (Sāˊnᴀxet). After
a time he heard of a very pretty high-caste girl, the daughter of
North-wind (X̣ūn), so he left his first wife, came north, and married
her. Then he took her back to the village where his first wife lived.
Now the people said to his first wife, “There is a very pretty woman
here. Her clothes are very valuable and sparkle all over. They make a
noise like bells.” East-wind’s daughter was at once jealous and said,
“I will soon be able to fix that pretty girl you boys are talking
about.” Quite a while afterward it began to grow cloudy and warm,
and sure enough the daughter of North-wind lost all of her beautiful
clothing. It was icicles and frost that were so pretty, and when she
lost these she lost her beauty with them.
62. THE BIG BEAVER
At a certain place far back in the forest was a large lake in which
were many beaver houses. One time some people found this lake and dug a
trench out of it in order to drain it. Then they broke up the beavers’
houses so that the beavers began to swim down through the trench. As
they floated along the people killed them, all except one very large
beaver, which they knew must have been there on account of its fresh
tracks. They looked into all of the beaver houses they had broken up,
but could not find it. It must have gotten out at the very start and
made its escape into the woods.
Quite a while after this had been done, the people who had killed the
beavers walked up to the place where the lake had been. When they got
close to the place where they had let it out they heard a woman singing
in a beautiful voice: “Why didn’t you ask one another to stop, my
brothers? You begged yourselves to go off, my brothers.” She sang thus
because all of those who had destroyed the beavers were to die. She
was sitting on a part of the broken dam. So, on the way back to their
village, all of these people were drowned and only a few bodies were
recovered. Those whose bodies were not found had been captured by the
big beaver.
63. BEAVER AND PORCUPINE[119]
The beaver and the porcupine (łᴀkǃᴀˊtc) were great friends and went
about everywhere together. The porcupine often visited the beaver’s
house, but the latter did not like to have him come because he left
quills there. One time, when the porcupine said that he wanted to go
out to the beaver’s house, the beaver said, “All right, I will take you
out on my back.” He started, but instead of going to his house he took
him to a stump in the very middle of the lake. Then he said to him,
“This is my house,” left him there, and went ashore.
While the porcupine was upon this stump he began singing a song,
“Let it become frozen. Let it become frozen so that I can cross to
Wolverine-man’s place.” He meant that he wanted to walk ashore on the
ice. So the surface of the lake froze, and he walked home.
Some time after this, when the two friends were again playing together,
the porcupine said, “You come now. It is my turn to carry you on my
back.” Then the beaver got on the porcupine’s back, and the porcupine
took him to the top of a very high tree, after which he came down and
left him. For a long time the beaver did not know how to get down,
but finally he climbed down, and they say that this is what gives the
broken appearance to tree bark.
FOOTNOTES:
[119] See story 15.
64. THE MAN WHO ENTERTAINED THE BEARS[120]
A man belonging to the Raven clan living in a very large town had lost
all of his friends, and he felt sad to think that he was left alone.
He began to consider how he could leave that place without undergoing
hardships. First he thought of paddling away, but he said to himself,
“If I paddle away to another village and the people there see that I
am alone, they may think that I have run away from my own village,
from having been accused of witchcraft or on account of some other
disgraceful thing.” He did not feel like killing himself, so he thought
that he would go off into the forest.
While this man was traveling along in the woods the thought occurred
to him to go to the bears and let the bears kill him. The village was
at the mouth of a large salmon creek, so he went over to that early in
the morning until he found a bear trail and lay down across the end of
it. He thought that when the bears came out along this trail they would
find and kill him.
By and by, as he lay there, he heard the bushes breaking and saw a
large number of grizzly bears coming along. The largest bear led, and
the tips of his hairs were white. Then the man became frightened. He
did not want to die a hard death and imagined himself being torn to
pieces among the bears. So, when the leading bear came up to him, he
said to it, “I have come to invite you to a feast.” At that the bear’s
fur stood straight up, and the man thought that it was all over with
him, but he spoke again saying, “I have come to invite you to a feast,
but, if you are going to kill me, I am willing to die. I am alone. I
have lost all of my property, my children, and my wife.”
As soon as he had said this the leading bear turned about and whined
to the bears that were following. Then he started back and the rest
followed him. Afterward the man got up and walked toward his village
very fast. He imagined that the biggest bear had told his people to go
back because they were invited to a feast.
When he got home he began to clean up. The old sand around the
fireplace he took away and replaced with clean sand. Then he went for a
load of wood. When he told the other people in that village, however,
they were all very much frightened, and said to him, “What made you
do such a thing?” After that the man took off his shirt, and painted
himself up, putting stripes of red across his upper arm muscles, a
stripe over his heart, and another across the upper part of his chest.
Very early in the morning, after he had thus prepared, he stood outside
of the door looking for them. Finally he saw them at the mouth of the
creek, coming along with the same big bear in front. When the other
village people saw them, however, they were so terrified that they shut
themselves in their houses, but he stood still to receive them. Then he
brought them into the house and gave them seats, placing the chief in
the middle at the rear of the house and the rest around him. First he
served them large trays of cranberries preserved in grease. The large
bear seemed to say something to his companions, and as soon as he began
to eat the rest started. They watched him and did whatever he did. The
host followed that up with other kinds of food, and, after they were
through, the large bear seemed to talk to him for a very long time. The
man thought that he was delivering a speech, for he would look up at
the smoke hole every now and then and act as though talking. When he
finished he started out and the rest followed. As they went out each in
turn licked the paint from their host’s arm and breast.
The day after all this happened the smallest bear came back, as it
appeared to the man, in human form, and spoke to him in Tlingit. He
had been a human being who was captured and adopted by the bears.
This person asked the man if he understood their chief, and he said,
“No.” “He was telling you,” the bear replied, “that he is in the same
condition as you. He has lost all of his friends. He had heard of you
before he saw you. He told you to think of him when you are mourning
for your lost ones.”
When the man asked this person why he had not told him what was said
the day before, he replied that he was not allowed to speak his
native language while the chief was around. It was on account of this
adventure that the old people, when they killed a grizzly bear, would
paint a cross on its skin. Also, when they gave a feast, no matter if a
person were their enemy, they would invite him and become friends just
as this man did to the bears, which are yet great foes to man.
FOOTNOTES:
[120] Cf. story 21.
65. MOUNTAIN DWELLER[121]
Years ago young women were not allowed to eat between meals. Two
sisters belonging to a high family once did this, and, when their
mother found it out, she was very angry. She pulled the elder girl
toward her, abused her shamefully, and scratched the inside of her
mouth all over in pulling out the tallow she had eaten. She said,
“What do you mean, especially you, you big girl? It is not right that
you should eat anything between meals. What do you mean?” The younger
sister was still quite little, therefore nothing was done to her,
but she was offended at the treatment her elder sister had received.
Finally the mother said, “You are so fond of eating you better marry
Mountain Dweller (Cāqᴀnaỵîˊ).” This being lived upon the mountains and
was a great hunter. That evening the sisters ran off into the woods.
Next morning, when her daughters did not appear, their mother thought
that they had stayed in bed and called to them, “Isn’t it time you were
getting out of bed?” By and by, however, she found that they were gone,
and the people began searching for them. Their mother would go from one
place to another where they had been playing, but nobody saw anything
of them for seven days.
Meanwhile, although they were suffering with hunger, the girls went
farther and farther into the woods. When they got very far up among the
mountains they heard somebody chopping wood, and the elder sister said
to herself, “I wonder if that isn’t the man mother was talking about?”
Coming closer, they discovered a man with his face painted red. He
looked up, saw the girls, and said, “What are you poor girls doing way
back here?” Then the elder answered, “Mother abused us. That is why we
left our home. She abused us because we ate some tallow. She said, ‘You
are so fond of eating tallow you better go and marry Mountain Dweller.’”
Then Mountain Dweller, for it was he, invited them into his house, and
they found it very grand. Another house near by was full of all kinds
of meat drying. Seeing that they looked hungry, he gave them some food.
Next morning early, when he was getting ready to hunt, he said to them,
“Do you see that curtain over there?” In one part of the house a large
skin curtain was hanging. “A very bad woman lives behind that. Don’t
peep at her.”
At their father’s village all the people were now mourning for them,
and all of their relations had their hair cut and their faces painted
black.
The elder sister was now married to Mountain Dweller, the younger being
still a little girl. After a while the former became curious to see the
bad woman her husband had told her not to look at, so she peeped at
her through a hole. At once the bad woman seemed to feel that some one
was looking at her, threw up her hands, and screamed. Then both of the
girls fell over dead.
By and by Mountain Dweller came home from the hunt, saw them, and knew
what had happened. Then he went over to the bad woman and killed her.
After that he put eagle down upon the girls’ bodies and walked around
them several times, shaking his rattle. In that way they were restored
to life.
After the girls had lived there for a long time, Mountain Dweller
said, “Don’t you wish you might see your father and mother again?” The
younger said, “Yes,” and the elder also wished it. After that Mountain
Dweller hunted a great deal to prepare a quantity of meat for his
father-in-law. He said to his wife, “Make a little basket, just big
enough to put your finger into.” When it was done, he shook it and made
it very large. Then he put all kinds of meat and tallow and sacks of
grease into this basket. He shook it again and made it small with all
of the meat inside.
When the girls came to their father’s house their little brother ran
out, saw them, and went in again crying, “Mother, my sisters are out
there.” But his mother became angry and said, “Why do you say that?
Your sisters have been dead a long time, and yet you say that they are
out there.” But the boy screamed, “Those are my sisters. Don’t I know
them?” “Well! let me see the hair from their marten-skin robes.” In
those times none but high-caste people such as these wore marten skins,
so when he came in again bringing pieces from their robes she and
her husband and all her relations went out. There she saw both of her
daughters. “My daughters,” she cried, and wept with happiness. All in
the village ran to see them and were very happy.
Next day the elder girl said to her mother, “Mother, there is a basket
a little way back there in the woods. Send after it and have it brought
down.” All the people went out to it, but returned saying, “It is such
a large basket that all the people in the village can’t bring it in.”
Then the girl went up herself, and it became small so that she brought
it home easily. As soon as she had gotten it into the house and had
set it down, it became large once more. Then she began to unpack it,
and the house was filled with all sorts of meats. They feasted on
these, and the village people were satisfied and felt very happy. Their
mother, however, took too much grease on top of everything else. On
going to bed, she drank some very cold water which hardened the grease
so that her stomach broke in two.
Nowadays it is a fortunate man that hears Mountain Dweller’s ax or sees
where he has been chopping. The basket obtained from him at this time
is called Mother-basket (Kᴀkᵘʟa), and is used by the G̣ānᴀxteˊdî as an
emblem.
FOOTNOTES:
[121] For another version see story 92.
66. HOW THE SITKA KÎKSAˊDÎ OBTAINED THE FROG[122]
A man and his wife were crossing the mouth of a big bay named ʟǃēˊyāq,
when it became so foggy that they could not even see the water around
their canoe and stopped where they were. Then, quite a distance away in
the thick fog, they heard singing, and it continued for so long a time
that they learned the song by heart. The words of this song are (first
verse), “We picked up a man; you picked up a man;” (second verse),
“They captured a man; they captured a man; you’ve captured a man.” The
voice was so powerful that they could hear it reecho among all the
mountains.
When the fog began to rise so that they could look under it a little
they heard the song coming nearer and nearer. They looked about and
finally saw that it came from a very little frog. To make sure of it
they paddled along for some time in the direction it was taking. Then
the man said, “This frog is going to be mine. I am going to claim it,”
and his wife answered, “No, it is going to be mine. I am going to claim
it.” But, after they had disputed for some time, the man finally let it
go to his wife.
Then the woman took it ashore, treating it like a child, carried it up
to the woods, put it down by a lake and left it there. From that time
on, her people have been Kîksᴀˊdî. That is how the Sitka Kîksᴀˊdî came
to claim the frog.
FOOTNOTES:
[122] For the Sitka version, see story 95.
67. QĀQǃATCGŪˊK[123]
One of the Sitka Kîksᴀˊdî, a man named Qāqǃᴀtcgūˊk, was very fond of
hunting and could use his spear very accurately. He had two wives and
several children, to whom he always brought home a fur seal.
One time he heard a little fur seal crying continually, and he heard
one of the others say to it, “Take care of that baby. Feed it.
Qāqǃᴀtcgūˊk comes here hunting.” Then Qāqǃᴀtcgūˊk was frightened and
said to his companions, “Let us go back.” So they went back and told
the people in town what had happened. Then Qāqǃᴀtcgūˊk broke up his
canoe, his paddles, and his spears, and burnt them, saying, “I will
never go out hunting again.” So he remained at home for a long time.
One day, however, when a crowd of people were eating fur-seal meat,
his little ones looked on hungrily. He pitied them so much that he did
not know what to do. Then he said to his wife, “Go to your brother and
ask him to loan me his canoe and spears.” Then he started off again,
but, although there were many seals about, he could not get one. A
young seal in particular he tried very hard to get. He kept chasing it
farther and farther out to sea. At last he said to his men, “Let us go
back. I can not get anything.” When they started paddling, however,
a light breeze was blowing out from Sitka, and, although they worked
vigorously the shore seemed to get more and more distant. Finally all
became tired, threw their paddles into the canoe, and lay down to
sleep, letting themselves drift farther and farther out.
After a very long time they came to a rock crowded with sea lions, fur
seals, and sea otters, which seemed very tame. They clubbed numbers of
them. Fresh water they obtained from a wild celery (kūqǃ) which has
hollow stalks full of water. They built a house out of dry bushes,
cooked the flesh of the sea animals and lived thus until August.
At last they wanted to start home again, so they made ropes of sea-lion
hide, dried four sea-lion stomachs to carry along as floats, and filled
a fifth with water. In the bottom of their canoe they put numbers of
sea-lion bristles and loaded the rest of it down with valuable furs.
They also cooked a lot of dried and fresh meat for the journey. Then
they started off, guiding themselves by the sun, which they knew came
up right behind Sitka in summer. When the sun set, they anchored by
means of their hide lines and put the four sea-lion stomachs around
their canoe to float it in case of storms. They did this every day.
Finally, after many days were past, they saw what they thought was
a sea gull, but it always stayed in one place, and at last they
discovered that it was a mountain. Then they felt brave and worked
harder, and it became bigger and bigger. They did not know what
mountain it was but said, “If we get to that place we can reach the
village.” After a while they saw another mountain farther back and
then knew that the first was Mount Edgecumbe (ʟǃūx) and the second
Verstovaia (Qanēˊsdî-ca). By and by they reached the mountain and
drew their canoe up in a little bay under it, which they named
Place-where-canoe-rested (Yᴀkᵘ-kusēˊgᴀkᵘ). After two days they started
on again. Then they said, “Everyone has now gone to the salmon creeks.”
By and by they came to Sitka village and had no more than done so
before the wind began to blow very hard. They must have been on the
rock seven months. As they had anticipated, they found Sitka empty, and
started for the salmon creek, Dax̣ēˊt.
All of the village people were then at Dax̣ēˊt drying salmon, and
both of Qāqǃᴀtcgūˊk’s wives were with them. The younger had already
remarried, but the elder sat near the point every day and cried for
him. They had held a death feast for him and had set up a post. They
were burning food and clothing for him.
That day, after the old wife had sat crying for some time, she looked
up and saw a canoe with three men in it coming toward her. As she wept
she looked up at it every now and then. When it got very close she
suddenly stopped crying and thought to herself, “There is a fellow in
that canoe that paddles just like my husband.” It made her feel sad.
But, when it was still nearer, she said, “That is he and his brothers
who went with him. Nobody ever paddled so much like him.” Then she got
up and walked toward the house.
Then her husband, who thought a great deal of her, stood up and said,
“That is my wife.” He looked again and was certain of it. Then he said
to his brothers, “That is my wife. She must have been sitting there,
crying.”
When the woman reached her house she said, “There is a canoe coming and
I am sure that one of the men in it is my husband. Go out and look.”
Then all went out, and saw that it was indeed he, and began to shout
his name, announcing that he had come back. When he at length landed,
he asked first for his wives, and they said, “The younger is married
again, but the elder has been grieving her life away.” He asked whether
his children were all alive and they said they were. Then they brought
up his furs and other property from the canoe, and he began telling
how he had happened to stay away so long. He told them how hard they
had tried to get back, and how he had thought of his wife and children
worrying at home, how they lived upon the large rock, how they provided
themselves with water and meat, and how many valuable furs they could
have gotten had they had bigger canoes. He told them how the seals, fur
seals, sea otter, and sea lions were so tame that they looked at them
like human beings, and how numerous they were. He also told them what a
dreadful thing it is to be out at sea without knowing where one is or
which way to go home, that it is like being in the inside of a bucket.
When it was cloudy they did not know where the sun rose or set. He said
that that was a valuable rock out there, and that wherever one looked
or stepped lay sea-lion bristles. He also told the people how much
surprised they were at having fine weather out at sea and at having
it become stormy as soon as they got to the village. He told how they
camped in their canoe, how they fixed it for the night, and everything
else connected with their journey. He said that he dreamed all the time
of being with his people, and that he used to wake up and tell his
brothers that his old wife and all of his children were well. He always
had had bad dreams about the younger wife, however, probably because
she was married again. He had also composed a song about his dreams,
which he sang to them. In this song he said, “Here I am lost and yet I
dream I am at home with my people. I have no hope of seeing them, and
yet I see them in my dreams.”
When he heard that the people had had a feast for him, he said, “Which
of you gave a feast for me?” Then they pointed to a certain man and
answered, “There is the principal one who gave a feast for you.” They
pointed to others and said, “That one gave so much for you and that one
so much.” He gave all of them valuable skins for what they had done.
FOOTNOTES:
[123] Story 101 is a Sitka version.
68. THE BEAVER OF KILLISNOO
Some people belonging to the Dēˊcitān family captured a small beaver,
and, as it was cunning and very clean, they kept it as a pet. By
and by, however, although it was well cared for, it took offense at
something and began to compose songs. Afterward one of the beaver’s
masters went through the woods to a certain salmon creek and found two
salmon-spear handles, beautifully worked, standing at the foot of a big
tree. He carried these home, and, as soon as they were brought into
the house, the beaver said, “That is my make.” Then something was said
that offended it again. Upon this the beaver began to sing just like a
human being and surprised the people very much. While it was doing this
it seized a spear and threw it straight through its master’s chest,
killing him instantly. Then it threw its tail down upon the ground
and the earth on which that house stood dropped in. They found out
afterward that the beaver had been digging out the earth under the camp
so as to make a great hollow. It is from this story that the Dēˊcitān
claim the beaver and have the beaver hat. They also have songs composed
by the beaver.
69. STORY OF THE GRIZZLY-BEAR CREST OF THE TEˊQOEDÎ[124]
A man belonging to the Teˊqoedî went hunting on Unuk (Djūˊnᴀx) river,
and came to a bear’s den. While he was examining it the male bear threw
him inside. Then the bear’s wife dug a hole in the ground and concealed
him there. When the male bear came in he said, “Where is that man that
I threw in here?” “I haven’t seen anyone. You haven’t thrown anybody in
here.” “I did. I threw a man in here.” The male bear became angry at
her denials and left her, upon which the man married this bear and had
children by her, although he had a family at home.