away from their wives so as to find him, but in vain. They could see
his tracks in the snow, but they could not discover where they led to.
They suspected the truth, because other hunters had also been captured
there by animals, and the shamans told them that this had happened
to him. As soon as they left the town with their dogs, however, the
she-bear could feel it and made them pass by.
But the youngest boy had not searched. Finally he started off too, and
the bear felt that he was coming, but she found that she could not make
him turn aside and said to her husband, “Well! we are caught.” The dogs
scented him, and, when he looked out, there was his own dog barking. He
called to it by its name, Man-for-the-mountains (Cāˊyīsǃ-x̣wa). Then
his brother knew what was the matter and came to the mouth of the den
with his spears, determined to bring back his brother alive or dead.
When the man saw his youngest brother outside he said, “Stand right
there. Don’t do any harm. I am here. Although I am with this wild
animal, I am living well. Don’t worry about me any more.”
When he was first taken into this den it looked like a den and nothing
more, but that night he thought that he was in a fine house with people
all about eating supper, and his wife looked to him like a human being.
In May, when the bears were about to leave their dens, his wife said,
“Now you can go to your village. Take good care of your little ones.
Don’t go near your wife. Don’t look toward her even.” So he went to
the place where his brothers were living and said, “Tell my wife not
to come near me for a while. She must have pity on me. Ask her to stay
away.” Then he began to go off hunting. He had luck from his bear wife,
and killing seals was nothing to him. One day, while he was out, he saw
some bear cubs coming toward him and presently found that they were
his little ones. Then he gave them all the seals he had killed. He fed
them every day. When his younger brother went hunting with him and the
cubs came running toward the canoe, he would say, “Don’t be frightened.
Those are your children” (meaning “your brother’s children”).
By and by his human wife came to him. She was angry with him and said,
“Why do your children starve on my hands? What are you doing feeding
cubs instead of my little ones?” After that, though he did not dare to
say a word to his wife, he began feeding her children. He thought, “I
wonder what will happen to me now for feeding the little ones.”
Presently he went hunting again and again took some seals to his cubs.
As he was going toward them he noticed that they did not act the same
as usual. They lay flat on the ground with their ears erect. Then he
landed, but, when he got near them, they killed him. It is on account
of this story that the Teˊqoedî claim the grizzly bear.
FOOTNOTES:
[124] See story 19.
70. STORY OF THE EAGLE CREST OF THE NEXAˊDÎ
There was a very poor Nexᴀˊdî man who did not know how to provide
himself with food, so he lived off of others. He was always cruising
around in a small canoe, getting small bullheads and flounders. One
time he went out just for the day. He did not take any food along and
therefore became very hungry. Early next morning something said to
him, “I have come after you.” He heard the voice but could not see
anything. Finally, however, he stepped out from the place where he
had been sitting and saw a young eagle perched upon a branch. The man
was wearing an old ground-hog blanket full of holes, so he lay down
again and put his eye to one of these. Then the eagle came very close
to him and, taking the blanket down, he said to it, “I have seen you
now.” Immediately the eagle looked like a human being and said, “My
grandfather has sent me for you.”
The poor man followed this eagle right up to the woods and they came
upon a large trail there over which the eagle led him. By and by
they came to some steps which led up to a house situated high up. He
followed his guide inside of this and found it very clean and nice
there. Everything was just like the houses of human beings, and mats
were strewn round upon the floor. Then they gave him all kinds of fine
fish and game to eat, and he wanted to stay among them forever. He was
very poor among his own people, but these eagles treated him well. He
married one of the eagle women and remained there for a long time.
After he married, this man’s brothers-in-law gave him a coat and
named it, as they put it on him, Camping-under-water-for-two-days
(Dēx-hīn-tāˊdê-uxeˊ). Before they put it on they warmed it. This coat
was so named because, when an eagle gets hold of a seal, the seal is
so strong that it will swim around with the eagle attached to it, and
the longest time the eagle can stand this is two days. Now the poor man
was an eagle himself, and he learned from the eagles how to catch fish.
He thought all the time that he was spearing them, but in reality he
was catching them in his talons. He became a great fisher and hunter.
The mother and brothers of this poor man were just as poor as he had
been, and, when he saw his brother out fishing, he would leave some
fish where he could find it. His brother thought that he was very
lucky. Finally his mother dreamed that some one said, “It is I, mother,
who provides for you all of this fish and meat,” and afterward they
would dream that he said to them, “I have left a fish (or seal) on such
and such a point. Go there and get it.” When they did so, sure enough
it was there. Sometimes he would say in his mother’s dream, “We are
going off camping. You must go there and camp near by.” They did so and
dried a lot of fish which he had gotten for them.
In another dream he said, “I have married one of the eagle women. I can
not come among you any more.”
One time, when they were out camping, they saw an eagle working very
hard to bring ashore a load of fish. After it had done so, the eagle
sat up on a branch and said, “It is I.” It told them its name, which
was the name of the missing man. It is because a friend of theirs was
once among the eagle people that the Nexᴀˊdî claim the eagle. This clan
is now scattered everywhere.
71. STORY OF THE KILLER-WHALE CREST OF THE DAQLǃAWEˊDÎ[125]
There was a man called Natsîłᴀneˊ (the name of a worm that appears on
dried salmon) who was continually quarreling with his wife. He had many
brothers-in-law, who became very much ashamed of this discord but had
to stay around to protect their sister. One day his brothers-in-law
took him to an island far out at sea, named Kᴀtsǃēˊux̣tî, and talked
very kindly to him. But, while he was out of sight upon the island,
they left him. Then he began thinking, “What can I do for myself?”
As he sat there he absent-mindedly whittled killer whales out of
cottonwood bark, which works easily. The two he had made he put into
the water and, as he did so, he shouted aloud as shamans used to do on
such occasions. Then he thought they looked as if they were swimming,
but, when they came up again, they were nothing but bark. After a
while he made two more whales out of alder. He tried to put his clan’s
spirits into them as was often done by shamans, and, as he put them
in, he whistled four times like the spirit, “Whu, whu, whu, whu.” But
they, too, floated up. Now he tried all kinds of wood—hemlock, red
cedar, etc. Finally he tried pieces of yellow cedar, which swam right
away in the form of large killer whales. They swam out for a long
distance, and, when they came back, again turned into wood. Then he
made holes in their dorsal fins, seized one of them with each hand
and had the killer whales take him out to sea. He said, “You see my
brothers-in-law traveling about in canoes. You are to upset them.”
After he had gone out for some distance between the whales they
returned to land and became wood once more. He took them up and put
them in a certain place.
The next time he saw his brothers-in-law coming along in their canoes
he put his spirits into the water again, and they smashed the canoes
and killed those in them. Then Natsîłᴀneˊ said to his killer whales,
“You are not to injure human beings any more. You must be kind to
them.” After that they were the canoes of spirits, and, if shamans are
lucky, they get these spirit canoes. It is through this story that the
Dᴀqʟǃaweˊdî claim the killer whale. This clan was scattered everywhere
in Alaska, as well as among the Athapascans, Haida, and Tsimshian.
FOOTNOTES:
[125] See story 4.
72. STORY OF THE NANỴAĀˊỴÎ CRESTS
At the time of the flood the Nanỵaāˊỵî were climbing a mountain on the
Stikine river, called Sēkuˊqłe-ca, and a grizzly bear and a mountain
goat went along with them. Whenever the people stopped, these two
animals stopped also, and whenever they moved on the animals moved on.
Finally they killed the bear and preserved its skin with the claws,
teeth, and so forth, intact. They kept it for years after the flood,
and, as soon as it went to pieces, they replaced it with another, and
that with still another up to the present time. This is why they claim
the grizzly bear. During the times when this bear skin has been shown
thousands of dollars worth of slaves and furs have been given away.
Shakes (Cēks), head chiefs of this clan, would go up to a row of slaves
and slap each one, upon which the slave would either have to be killed
or sent home. This is why they gave great names to their children. They
were very proud of owning this bear and did all kinds of things toward
it. That is why all Alaska speaks of the Nanỵaāˊỵî as the chief ones
owning the grizzly bear. Very many songs were composed concerning it,
with words such as these, “Come here, you bear, the highest bear of all
bears.”
They also have the head of the mountain goat, but they do not value it
as highly.
73. STORY OF THE FROG CREST OF THE KÎKSAˊDÎ OF WRANGELL[126]
A man belonging to the Stikine Kîksᴀˊdî kicked a frog over on its
back, but as soon as he had done so he lay motionless unable to
talk, and they carried his body into the house. This happened at
Town-of-the-frogs (X̣îx̣tcǃ-xāˊyikᴀ-ān), so named because there are
many frogs near by.
The reason why this man lost his senses was because the frogs had taken
his soul. They had it tied to a house post, and some of them said, “Let
him starve right there where he is tied.” Others said, “No, don’t let
him starve there. Feed him and let us see what the chief says.” This
chief’s name was Frightful-face (Yᴀkūˊłdî). When he at last came in his
canoe, they said, “Frightful-face has come.” Then all went down to his
canoe to welcome him, and, when he reached his house, they told him the
news. They said, “This man disgraced us terribly. He threw one of our
women down and kicked her over.” The woman was called Woman-in-the-road
(Deyêxcāˊgᵘ). When the chief looked up, he said, “Untie him and bring
him here.” Then he said to the man, “We belong to your clan, and it is
a shame that you should treat your own people as you have done. We are
Kîksᴀˊdî, and it is a Kîksᴀˊdî youth who has done this. You better go
to your own village. You have disgraced yourself as well as us, for
this woman belongs to your own clan.”
As soon as he had left the frogs’ house, his body lying at home came
to. He had thought all the time that his body also was in the house
of the frogs. Then he got up and began to talk. He said, “Something
strange has happened to me. The frog people captured me on account of
that frog that I kicked over in front of the house the other day. They
had tied me to the chief’s house-post, and some wanted to kill me at
once, while others wanted to starve me, and still others wanted to wait
until their chief, Frightful-face, came home. When the latter at length
arrived, they said to him, ‘We have a man in here who has been throwing
down one of our women. We have been waiting for you to see what shall
be done with him.’ I listened to all they said. Then the frog chief
said, ‘Untie him,’ and all minded him. As soon as he had heard about
it, he said, ‘See here, young man, what is this you have done? Don’t
you know that we belong to your clan and that this woman you have done
that to is of the same clan. If it were not for that, we would not let
you go. As it is you may go.’”
All of the Kîksᴀˊdî were listening to what this man said, and it is
because the frog himself said he was a Kîksᴀ’dî that they claim the
frog.
FOOTNOTES:
[126] A similar story is told by the G̣ānᴀxᴀˊdî of Tongass.
74. STORY OF THE KĀˊGWANTĀN CRESTS
A man belonging to the Kāˊgwᴀntān was out camping, and saw a wolf
coming toward him, showing its teeth as though it were laughing. On
looking more closely, he saw that it had a bone stuck between its
teeth. Then he took the bone out and said, “Now you must show me what
makes you so lucky.” The wolf turned right round and walked away, but
next night the man dreamed he had come to a very fine town. It was
the wolf town, and the wolf he had befriended came to him and told
him something to make him lucky, saying, “I am your friend.” He was
grateful for what the man had done to him. Since then the Kāˊgwᴀntān
have used the wolf.
Another time when some Kāˊgwᴀntān were getting herring at
Town-at-mouth-of-lake (ʟǃuqǃāˊceîk-ān), a bear came to the place where
they were, reached down through the smoke hole and took away the
herring they were drying. Then the people said, “Who is this thief
that is stealing all the fish?” For that he killed all of them. Then
the Kāˊgwᴀntān seized their spears and set out to kill the bears in
that neighborhood. When they discovered those bears they were lying in
holes they had dug for themselves, and the people said to them, “Come
out here and let us fight it out.” Then the bears did so, and the
people killed them. They took the skins from the heads of the bears and
preserved them. The bears so killed were Kātsǃ’s children. This is how
the Kāˊgwᴀntān came to use the grizzly bear.
75. MIGRATION OF THE GĀNAXAˊDÎ TO TONGASS
At Klawak was a man of the Gānᴀxᴀˊdî named Dancer (ʟǃēˊxe) who was very
fond of gambling but unable to win. Finally his wife said, “If you
gamble again we will leave each other. I don’t want to be with you any
more. You are gambling too much.” Her husband said that he would stop,
and for a little while he did so. One day, however, a great game was in
progress far out on the marsh, and his wife missed him. She knew where
he was and felt very badly. In the evening, when he came home, she
found out that he had lost everything in the house. Then she said to
him, “You have been gambling again.” “Yes,” he said. She said nothing
more, thinking it was of no use, until late in the evening. Then the
men that had won their property came after it, and Dancer got up and
showed them where the things were, but his wife did not speak a word.
There was nothing left for her except a blanket and pillow. Finally,
after they were gone, the woman sat down and began to cry. When she
was through she said to him, “The house belonged to you, but you must
go out, for you have gambled with all of my things. If you do not go I
must. I married against the wishes of my people and they will not take
me in if I leave here.” Then her husband said, “Do not feel badly if
you should happen to hear of me,” and he went away.
This man had seven sisters, all of them very well off, but they would
not have anything to do with him. Very early in the morning he went to
their houses and awakened the boys. Without asking the permission of
their mothers he told them to get their bows and arrows quickly and
come along with him. Next morning, after he had walked with them for
some distance, they found a canoe, and he had them all get into it. In
the evening, when their uncle camped with them, the children began to
feel that something was wrong, and some cried, saying that they wanted
to get back to their fathers and mothers. Then he told them that they
would soon come to a fine town, and kept on going farther and farther
away until they reached a place called Sea-lion’s-face (Tān-yedaˊ)
where Tongass now stands. They kept on beyond this until they came to
a large rock some distance out at sea on which were sea otters; these
they clubbed.
Some of the boys were now quite large. Later they came to a long sandy
beach, and their uncle made a house there out of driftwood. He dried
the skins and made that place his permanent residence.
During the second night they spent there, Dancer heard the two dogs he
had brought along, barking. He told his sisters’ children to get out
of bed to see what was the matter. They did so, and, on running out,
discovered a large animal coming along, as big as a black bear. At
first they thought that it was a bear, but it was of a different color,
so they concluded that it was medicine. His nephews shot at it, and the
man picked up their arrows and noticed that there was something like
clay upon them. Everyone pursued the animal and at last they saw it
disappear into a hole in a mountain. Meanwhile Dancer took the clayey
substance from all of the arrows, wrapped it in leaves, and put it into
the bosom of his shirt, giving the arrows back to the boys.
Now, Dancer made the place his town, and continued to live there with
his nephews who were grown up. The stuff he had taken from their
arrows he put behind the barbs of others so that they could use them
in hunting. He also put some of it on their eyebrows, their hair, and
around their mouths. He said it was to make the hair thick in those
places, and sure enough they came to have fine eyebrows, hair, and
mustaches. They became fine-looking men.
When they went out hunting with the medicine arrows he had made, and
shot at a seal, even if the arrow merely came close to the seal without
touching it, the seal would die. That was also a great place for sea
lions, and whenever they saw one of those animals, their uncle would
go out with a fan made from the tail of an eagle, anointed with this
medicine, and wave it toward the sea lion. Then the animal came right
up on the beach, and they clubbed it to death. They had all kinds of
food in their house and were continually drying meat and skins. The
house became so full, in fact, that they had to build a larger one.
By and by their uncle said that he wanted some eagles, and the boys, of
whom there were eleven, went out with their bows and arrows, and each
brought one in. Then each of them had an eagle’s tail fan for himself
such as were formerly used in dancing. They also killed all kinds of
birds and secured plenty of marten skins and weasel skins. Of these
latter the uncle sewed together a marten-skin robe and a weasel-skin
shirt for each boy as well as one for himself.
One time Dancer and his nephews went a long distance beyond their
village and found a box, beautifully carved and painted, lying upon
the beach. They said to one another, “There must be people living over
this way.” At that time they did not know anything about the Tsimshian.
Keeping on farther, they saw still more signs of people, and finally
they came to a Tsimshian town.
Then they returned to their own place, and afterward the uncle felt
that some people whom they knew were coming to see them. These people
were his brothers-in-law, who had been hunting for him continually and
had just started out once more. When their canoe came in sight, Dancer
said, “There is a canoe coming right along there in the direction we
came from.” He had composed some songs while he was there, so he said,
“You boys must dress yourselves to dance for the people in that canoe.”
When the canoe got closer he went outside and shouted, “That canoe
must stay out there. Don’t come in right away.” So the canoe stopped,
and after a while the boys came out and danced for the canoe people
while he sang. The men in the canoe recognized Dancer but not the
boys, who had grown up very quickly into fine-looking men. After that
they invited the canoe people up to the house. They entered, and all
the time they were there kept looking at one another and whispering,
wondering what Dancer had done with their children. But, though they
camped there one night, they did not ask for them.
Next morning, however, just before they got into their canoe, Dancer
said to each man in turn, “This is your boy. This is your boy.”
Upon that his brothers-in-law said to him, “We will be right back to
see you again. We will come and live with you.” Then they went back
to their village, and told the news, and the mothers, who had been
mourning for their children, felt very happy to know that they were
alive. Dancer’s sisters, their husbands, and all their people came over
to him. Dancer and his nephews had been watching for them and counting
the days until they should return. Dancer’s wife had not married again
and was very anxious to see her husband, but he did not look for her.
The boys had drums made out of deer hide, and, as soon as the canoes
arrived, they told them to come close to the beach and they would dance
for them. So the canoes stopped, and they came out and danced for the
canoe people. Dancer’s wife had thought that he would take her in at
once, but he would not have anything to do with her.
Then the people were asked to come in and eat, and they were all fed by
the boys and their uncle. Afterward they built their houses all about
him and made the place their permanent village.
76. THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED THE FROG[127]
A certain girl once said something very bad to a frog. Some time
afterward she went up to the woods with her little sister, and suddenly
her little sister lost her. She had met a fine-looking man and had
walked on with him for a long time until they were far off from the
village. When her little sister got home they asked her, “Where is your
sister?” and she said, “I thought that she had gotten back home.” They
searched for the girl everywhere but could not find her. They did not
see her for a long, long time.
The man that this girl had met was really a frog, which she had
married, and she now had two children. To her, however, the frogs
looked like human beings. One day this girl said to her children, “Run
down and see your grandfather and grandmother. Their house is just in
the middle of the village, and you will know it as soon as you see it.”
So the children went down to the house, but, when they entered it, some
one called out, “Look at those little frogs coming into the house.”
Then their grandmother said, “Put them out.” So they were thrown out of
doors.
When the children got back to their mother she said, “Did you see your
grandmother?” and one answered, “I think it was she. We went into a
house,” which they described so that their mother knew at once that it
was the right one, “and some one called out, saying, ‘Look at these
frogs.’ Then some one else said, ‘Throw them out,’ and they did so.”
Then their mother said, “Go back and try to see her again even if they
do throw you out.” So the little frogs went down and entered their
grandmother’s house once more. Again some one called out, “Those little
frogs are in here again.” But this time their grandfather said, “Bring
them here to me. My daughter is missing. These might be her little
ones.” So he held out his fox robe and they laid the little frogs upon
it. The frogs crawled all over his breast and shoulders. Then the frogs
were seated in front of their grandfather and were given cranberries.
They picked them up one by one with the fore foot and put them into
their mouths.
Afterward the frogs started to hop out, and a man followed them with
the dishes of food. They hopped straight up to a lake back of the
village and jumped in. Then, as the chief had already directed them,
the men set the dishes down at the edge and stood watching. Presently
the dishes moved out into the lake and sank. All at once they came up
again and moved back to the same place.
Then these men returned to the chief and reported everything that they
had seen, whereupon he sent them back, saying, “Go back and say, ‘Your
father has invited you to the house.’” They did so. Then they heard a
voice replying, “I can not come.” They reported this to her father, and
he told them to take up her marten-skin robes and her other clothing
and lay them by the lake. After that she came down and along with her
the two high-caste frogs whom she had married. When they had finished
eating, all went back.