became a messenger. The land-otter people began to take one another up
as deer.
Here is a drum. This (i. e., the drum) is a big lobster. This drum is
very noisy. Then Raven beat it very hard. “This drum is very noisy.”
Then he knocked a hole through it. It was to do this to the drum that
he came among those people.
(91) This is called a “half song,” and was composed by a man named
Sāxaˊ, about a deer.
De ᴀxōˊqǃᵘ nēł ỵagūˊt. Ye ᴀc gux
Now among them into the house he has gone. Thus him will
sanēˊx duyēˊłî.
save his Raven.
He has now gone in among them. His Raven phratry will save him.
(92) Composed by Naotsīˊn when peace was made between the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî
and the Kāˊgwᴀntān.
ʟāk ỵîˊxa yēˊłỵī yaguˊ. Dewēˊdu
Fast pull ahead Raven’s canoe. Not very far from here
ỵᴀkǃēˊỵia Yēł yᴀkᵘdēˊỵî. Ayaỵidêˊ
good place (shelter) for Raven’s canoe. For himself
tūkaˊodînᴀt g̣ōtcỵi anîˊ wustīˊn.
he was very much afraid Wolf’s home to see.
Paddle ahead that Raven’s canoe very fast. A sheltered place for the
Raven’s canoe is not very far from here.
He is very much afraid of seeing the Wolf’s home.
(93) Composed by Going-across-the-road (Deg̣āhēˊtǃ), a rich man who was
paid to compose it, one time when the Kaˊgwᴀntān and the Wuckitāˊn made
peace.
Yēł ỵānᴀqoˊx g̣ōtc ānîˊ kādêˊ. Hāˊdᴀ
Raven is coming [by canoe] Wolf’s town going to. Hurrahǃ
ckedjᴀnaihuˊktc. Wuckitāˊnî ỵᴀˊtqǃî yāguˊ kǃehuˊk.
all shout. Wuckitāˊn’s children canoe shout well for.
Raven is coming by canoe to the Wolf’s town.
All shout “Hurrahǃ” Wuckitāˊn’s children. Shout well for the canoe.
(94) This was composed by a ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî man named Łqenaˊ when he was
the only one of his people saved and his enemies wanted to make peace
with him. He danced as a deer, singing this song, and at the end of it
cut in two the man standing next to him. When used as a deer song in
later times, the last words were of course different.
Detcūˊcta kᴀcuˊ tcǃayēˊ nᴀxdzîgīˊt. Tcᴀ xᴀt guceˊ dē
About myself like this I did. Indeed me said to
ł tcūctūˊt ᴀnᴀˊx datīˊ ᴀxtuwūˊ.
not to myself by I would let pass my conscience.
Nānaỵîˊsgucî ᴀxsîtīˊn ducᴀgīˊnîỵa.
Already before his death I saw his ghost.
[Spoken] ᴀtūˊx gwᴀł aosîguˊ Cādᴀsîˊktc āwadjᴀˊq.
Into him as soon as he stabbed Cādᴀsîˊktc he killed.
I did this way regarding myself. I would not let what my conscience
said to me, pass.
Before his death I saw his ghost.
At once he stabbed and killed Cādᴀsîˊktc.
(95) A peace song composed by a Kāˊgwᴀntān man of Chilkat named Nāʟǃīˊc.
Îkayadeˊ yūˊcᴀ qkwag̣ēˊqǃ Kāˊgwᴀntān ỵᴀˊtqǃî.
Toward you the head I am going to nod, Kāˊgwᴀntān’s children.
Îłīˊ iỵᴀqāỵîˊ. ʟâˊxayî[190]
Not so your words. Good-by
iỵaqaỵîˊ yādiyēˊł.
with your words you Raven.
I am going to nod my head toward you, Kāˊgwᴀntān’s children.
Don’t talk like that. Good-by with your words, you Raven.
FOOTNOTES:
[190] ʟâˊxayî is the Klahowya of the Chinook jargon.
(96) Composed by one of the Kāˊgwᴀntān named Kêtłcīˊkǃê, and used in
making peace and at feasts. When the dancers have reached the door,
some one says, “Where is the man?” and they reply, “Up in the woods,”
because the man who is to start the song hides himself just before it
begins.
Łîł ug̣aˊ qetīˊsǃîk iyēˊłî dig̣ōˊtc.
Never after it you look, you Raven your Wolf [phratry].
Tcǃa ʟēx yêˊnᴀx dāq uwaguˊt yᴀdiyēˊł.
Already from there up it has gone, you Raven.
Do not look after your Wolf phratry any more, you Raven. It has already
gone into the woods, you Raven.
(97)[191] Composed by Qāˊuctê, a Kāˊgwᴀntān man, about men who never
keep their word—those who talk much after they have been drinking and
later do not remember what they have said. The Teˊqoedî are referred to
because he married a woman of that family, and they always came to him
when they got drunk.
Ag̣ōˊtdê naˊokᴀt tcuc dadêˊ ctuwūˊk danīˊk,
After you have been drinking whisky you better put away talking
of how well you were brought up,
Teˊqoedî ỵᴀˊtqǃî. Ādutūˊqǃsᴀs yē nᴀtīˊtc
Teˊqoedî’s children. In whose mind thus is it
qāˊdᴀ ᴀn g̣adᴀˊqên?
when you are sober?
After you have been drinking you better stop talking about how well you
were brought up, Teˊqoedî’s children. What one of you thinks about it
when he is sober?
FOOTNOTES:
[191] Songs 97 to 102 were given the writer by his interpreter, Don
Cameron. The rest were obtained from a Sitka Indian of the Box-house
people named Dekināˊkǃᵘ.
(98) Song composed by a man who had been brought up in court before
Judge Tuttle.
Heˊdaho djᴀtc dā îłīˊ îtuwuˊ waᴀˊqwe. Kîksᴀˊdî
About this, Judge, about never your mind disturb. Kîksᴀˊdî’s
ỵᴀˊtqǃî îˊsîte îdjiỵīˊt qǃᴀx dugāˊqǃ.
children you are of you one should be afraid.
Never mind about this, Judge. You are not a child of the Kîksᴀˊdî that
people should be afraid of you.
(99) A love song originally obtained from a Tāgish woman.
Dāt sᴀkᵘ sayuˊ Dayeˊ cāk dᴀx îxᴀˊndî xâgudiỵeˊqǃ.
What for was it Dyea far up from to you I have gone to.
Tsǃᴀs ᴀxnᴀˊq yāx igūˊt g̣ōtʟǃᴀˊtkî qādêˊ.
Only from me on something. you went some other [town] to.
Īitīˊt xodzîg̣āˊx.
For you I am crying.
Why have I come to you to Dyea from far inland only to find that you
have gone away to another town [on a steamer]? Here I am, crying for
you.
(100) A very modern love song.
Djîłdakᴀˊt-ᴀt ʟēxkoˊctu yêx kātīˊỵî my dear boy xᴀt
Everything indifferent to me as if is me
djiwᴀnᴀˊq,
has gone from,
my dear Tommy.
I don’t care about anything since even my dear boy, my dear Tommy, has
gone from me.
(101) A love song composed by a dancer named Sīqǃoēˊt, who belonged to
the Raven phratry. His sweetheart was away when the 4th of July came.
Wâˊsᴀ kᵘcîs xᴀt qogwatiˊ yadjulaiˊa ỵaqēˊg̣a-ēˊnî.
How I wonder I will be this July morning is coming.
ᴀxāˊt-hᴀs ʟēł qoqâtiˊn ʟᴀx yēˊxa gugēˊkǃ ᴀxtūwuˊ.
My aunts not I can see very a weak about it my thoughts.
I wonder what this coming July morning will be like. My mind is very
weak thinking that I shall be unable to see my aunts (i. e., my
sweetheart).[192]
FOOTNOTES:
[192] The term translated “aunts” is used generally for those women of
the opposite clan with whom it was allowable to marry.
(102) Composed by a man named Raven-skin (Yēł-dūguˊ) when his
sweetheart abandoned him.
Yūk doqēˊqǃūc g̣og̣ᴀnaˊ qā g̣odjîˊ
If one had charge of death person (woman) a Wolf
tîn qongᴀnᴀˊ. ʟēx cēł gux sagūˊgîs.
with it would be easy to die. It would be very pleasant.
If one had control of death, it would be very easy to die with a Wolf
woman. It would be very pleasant.
(103) A mourning song belonging to the Kāˊgwᴀntān.
Tcǃa hu dūtuwuˊ ᴀcīˊt ūsîteˊ yadeg̣oˊtc.
Right his mind to him was this man of Wolf [people].
Łîł qǃwᴀn ctu yeˊdaqǃēq.
Never (imp.) blame others.
It is his own fault that this Wolf man got into that condition (i. e.,
died). Do not lay the blame on anybody else.
ABSTRACTS OF MYTHS
MYTHS RECORDED IN ENGLISH AT SITKA
1. RAVEN
Raven was the son of a man named Kit-kaˊositiyi-qā, who gave him
strength to make the world. After he had made it he obtained the stars,
moon, and daylight from their keeper at the head of Nass by letting
himself be swallowed by the keeper’s daughter and be born of her. He
obtained fresh water by tricking its owner, Petrel. As he was flying
out through the smoke hole, however, Petrel made his smoke-hole spirits
catch him and lighted a fire under him, turning him from white to
black. Raven scattered the fresh water out of his mouth to make rivers
and streams. Because some people who were fishing for eulachon would
not take him across a river, he let the sun forth, and they fled into
the woods or ocean, becoming such animals as the skins they wore had
belonged to. Next Raven stole fat from some boys who were throwing it
back and forth. He found a piece of jade bearing some design, stuck it
into the ground, and pretended to a spring salmon that the object was
calling it names. The salmon came ashore, and Raven killed it. Then he
got the birds to procure him skunk cabbage so that they might eat the
fish, but instead of feeding them, he sent them away a second time and
ate it himself, burying the bones in the ashes. After that the birds
dressed and painted themselves up. Raven came to the Bear, and the
latter fed him on some of his own flesh, a proceeding which Raven tried
to imitate in vain a little later. Then Raven went out fishing with
Bear and Cormorant, killed the former by cutting off a piece of flesh,
and pulled out Cormorant’s tongue so that he could not tell anybody.
Afterward he killed Bear’s wife by inducing her to eat halibut bladders
which he had filled with hot stones. He came to some fishermen and
stole the bait from their hooks, but was finally hooked in the nose
and had to recover his nose disguised as another person. Now he came
to some deer with fat hanging out of their nostrils, pretended that it
was mucus, and obtained it. He started along by canoe, and all of the
animals wanted to accompany him, but he accepted only Deer. Coming to
a deep valley, he laid some dried celery stalks across, covered them
with moss, and induced Deer to try to walk across. Deer did so and was
precipitated to the bottom where he was devoured by Raven. Afterward
Raven began mourning for him. Now he met the old woman who controls
the tide, and forced her to let the tide fall and rise as it does
to-day. At the same time he told Mink to live on sea urchins. Then he
went on crying, “My wife, my wife,” and, when he saw some gum on a
tree, thought that the tree also was mourning. Coming to Petrel again,
he contended with him as to which was the older, but finally Petrel
put on his fog-hat so that Raven was unable to find his way out and
had to admit Petrel was older than he. He induced Petrel to let his
hat “go into the world,” so that when people see fog coming out of an
opening in the woods and going right back, they know it will be good
weather. He obtained fire with the help of a chicken hawk whose bill
was burned off in getting it, and he put the fire into red cedar and
some white stones. Coming to the great house containing all fish, he
brought it ashore by means of a cane carved to resemble the tentacle of
a devilfish, and gave a feast for his dead mother out of part of its
contents. The other fish spread throughout the world. He invited the
killer whales, pretended that he was going to show them how to stick
canes into their necks, and stuck sharp pointed sticks in instead, thus
killing all but one. (When Raven and another person were boiling down
the grease from these killer whales, he stole all from the other man.
Then this man shut him up in a grease box and kicked it off a high
cliff, but Raven had induced him to fasten it with a piece of straw
instead of rope, and immediately flew out.[193]) He flew inside of a
whale, and lived on what it swallowed and its insides. At last he cut
out its heart and killed it. After he had floated ashore the people
cut a hole through and he flew away. Returning to the same place, he
persuaded them that this was a bad portent, so they left the town,
and Raven consumed what they had abandoned. Once Raven went to a calm
place just outside of Sitka and made many waves by rocking his canoe,
since which time it has always been very rough there. Next he set the
heron and sea gull to quarreling in order to obtain a herring which
the former had swallowed. Having stolen a salmon from some people when
they were asleep, they in turn discovered him asleep and wrenched off
his gizzard. He went after it, found them using it as a polo ball,
and recovered it, but ever since the Raven’s gizzard has been big and
dirty. Next he married the daughter of Fog-on-the-salmon, and they
put up many salmon eggs and dried salmon. When it became stormy the
salmon eggs helped him paddle. Afterward he carried up the dried salmon
and dumped the salmon eggs overboard, so that people do not care much
for salmon eggs nowadays. He met a man whose club would go out to sea
and kill seal of itself, stole this club, and tried to make it do the
same thing for him, but it would not, and he broke it in pieces on
the rocks. He tried to make a certain place like Nass, but the clams
shooting upward drowned his voice and he was unsuccessful. He turned
to stone two brothers who had started to cross the Stikine. Coming to
the ground-hog people, he tried to make them believe that the spring
snowslides had begun so that they would throw their surplus food out
of doors, but in vain. He had to wait until spring, when they threw it
all out, and he gave a feast for his mother with it. Before this took
place, however, he obtained the female genital organs from a certain
island and put them in their places. Then he invited everybody in the
world to his feast because he wanted to see a dance hat and Chilkat
blanket which were owned by the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt. Since then people have
liked to attend feasts.
Raven put a woman under the world to attend to the rising and falling
of the tides. Once he wanted to go under the ocean, so he had this
woman raise the waters, and they went up to the tops of the mountains.
They went up slowly, however, so that people had time to load their
canoes. The bears which were walking around on the tops of the
mountains tried to swim out to them, and those who had dogs were then
well protected. Some people walled about the mountain tops and kept
their canoes inside. All who survived were without firewood, however,
and died of cold, except some who were turned to stone by Raven along
with many animals and fishes. Then the sea went down so far that it
was dry everywhere. Raven and another bird-man went about picking
up fishes to boil the grease out of them, but Raven took only small
fishes like sculpins while the other took whales, etc. Raven scared
his companion away and began drinking his grease, but he came back,
put Raven into a grease box, and kicked him off from a high cliff as
had happened before. Raven also escaped in the same manner.[194] One
time Raven invited the bears to a feast, and induced the wren to pull
out the entrails of one of them through his anus and thus kill him.
Raven had become so great an eater from having eaten the black spots
off his toes. After everybody had been destroyed at the time of the
flood, Raven made a new generation out of leaves, and so it happens
that at the time when leaves fall there are many deaths. He made a
devilfish digging-stick and went around to all things on the beaches,
asking them if they were going to hurt human beings. If they said “No,”
he left them; if “Yes,” he rooted them up. In his time fern roots were
already cooked, but he made them green; while devilfish, which were
fat, he made hard. On one occasion he invited all the tribes of little
people, and, when they were seated upon mats, he shook them and the
little people flew into people’s eyes, becoming their pupils. He tried
to capture a sculpin in order to eat it, but it slipped between his
fingers, and its tail became slender as it is to-day. He threw his
blanket upon the sea, let it float ashore, and threw it upon a bush
where it became _Rebis bracteosum_ (cāx). Drinking water he called
cātǃkǃ. He placed a woman at the head of a creek and said that the
salmon should go up to see her. He made the quills of the porcupine out
of yellow cedar bark. He made the west wind, which he placed in a house
on top of a mountain, and decreed that it should hurt nobody. He also
told a person how to obtain strength enough to paddle home by taking up
a piece of red salmon and blowing behind him. Raven made also the south
wind and the north wind. He made all the other native races of people.
The dog was at first a human being, but Raven altered him because he
was too quick. One time Raven came to a thing called fat-on-the-sea.
He made it go under water and come up again, and every time it came up
he cut some of it off with his paddle. The eighth time it went under
for good. At one place a person came out and spoke angrily to Raven,
whereupon he turned him into a wild celery plant. He tied something
around the head of a clam and gave it the same name as a man’s privates.
After having tried every sort of contrivance for supporting the
earth, Raven drained a sea-water pond when the tide was out,
killed a beaver living at the bottom of it, and used its foreleg.
Old-woman-under-the-earth has charge of it. Afterward Raven killed a
big whale and tried to have it towed into the pond where the beaver had
been. Finally he got tired out and turned it into stone along with the
four canoes that were towing it. He gave names to several other places
in this neighborhood.
FOOTNOTES:
[193] An episode which is perhaps misplaced. See p. 418.
[194] See above, p. 417.
2. THE BIG CLAM
In Tenakee inlet is a place named after a person who was swallowed by a
halibut in attempting to wade over to some girls picking berries at a
strawberry patch on the other side. In the same neighborhood is a big
clam which used to swallow canoes. Raven, however, directed a little
mink to call to it to stick its head out, and after it had done so the
people plunged sticks into it and cut in two the ligament for closing
its valves.
3. ENGLISH VERSION OF THE STORY OF THE FOUR BROTHERS
Four brothers owned a dog which pursued a cloud up into the sky, and
they followed it, coming out at the edge of a very steep place on the
other side of the world. Descending this with difficulty they came
upon a one-legged man spearing salmon, and one of them stole his spear
point by concealing himself in a salmon and cutting it off. Next day
the man discovered them and killed three, but the fourth, who had red
paint and a rattle, assisted by his dog, killed him and restored his
brothers to life. After that they killed the bear chief, whose slave
they had already destroyed, and went down to his house, where the most
powerful of them took his place. That evening the people outside played
with a hoop, and the three younger brothers were killed by it. Then
the other brother sent the dog after it, and he threw it far up into
the mountains where it made their curved outlines. The next time he
threw, it went around the sun and made the ring of light seen there.
After that the three brothers were restored to life and all started
off. They came to Athapascan people, who had holes in their faces in
place of mouths, and who fed themselves with worms through these. There
the youngest brother, Łqǃayāˊkǃ, obtained bows and arrows. By and by
they came to some people who were bathing for strength in the sea, and
joined them. At this time they suspected that Łqǃayāˊkǃ was going with
his sister, so they put spruce gum around the place where she slept
and discovered it was true, for which they called him all sorts of
names, and told him to go away from them and become a “thunder.” He
did so, and their sister was so ashamed that she went down into Mount
Edgecumbe. When the thunder is heard nowadays people call upon it to
drive away sickness. The other brothers started across the Stikine and
became rocks there.
4. ORIGIN OF THE KILLER WHALE
The killer whales were made out of yellow cedar by a man of the
Tsagueˊdî after he had tried every other kind of wood in vain.
One time a man and his wife discovered some killer whales camping, and
scared them away. When the man began to take away their provisions,
however, they came back and carried off his wife. The husband followed,
and when he saw them go down into the ocean he jumped in after them.
First he came to a town occupied by the shark people, where he met a
hook he had formerly lost, now become their slave. Directed by the
shark chief, he met the killer-whale chief’s slave chopping wood behind
the town, caused him to break his ax, and mended it for him. Then the
slave stationed him at the door, and as he carried some water into the
house pretended to spill it into the fire. While the house was full of
steam the man seized his wife and ran off. Then the killer whales and
sharks had a great fight and many killer whales were destroyed. When
the killer whales start north the seals say, “Here come the warriors!”
There are several kinds of killer whales. In former times the killer
whales dug through a cliff in the bay Kotsǃēˊʟǃ and carried their
canoes across to the other side on skids. They still cross at this
place every year.
5. KᴀKAˊ
Kᴀkaˊ was taken south from Sitka by the land otters and sent back again
by the husbands of a woman who had been carried off like himself. What
they used as a canoe was a skate, and they kept him covered all the
way. After a time one of his friends heard him singing in the midst of
a fog, but they could not get near him until they had fasted for two
days. Then they found him lying upon a log with blood running out of
his nose and mouth. They brought him home, and he became a great shaman.
6. THE LAND-OTTER SISTER
A man’s sister had been taken away by the land otters and was married
among them. One time, when he was camping by himself making a canoe,
she began bringing him food. Afterward she sent her three children to
help him get bait, catch halibut, and launch his new canoe.
7. THE LAND-OTTER SON
During a famine at Sitka a man’s son, who had been taken by the land
otters, brought him bait and put halibut on his hook when they went
fishing together. On the way back he speared a seal, and afterward they
brought home loads of halibut, seal, etc. At first he went back into
the forest during the day, but after a while he began to stay with them
and day by day his body became plainer. By and by they started back to
town, and as they neared it, their son’s form began to grow indistinct.
When his mother moved forward to look at him he was gone.
8. THE WOLF-CHIEF’S SON
A boy found a little wolf, which killed all kinds of animals for him.
One day he loaned it to his brother-in-law, and the latter did not
treat it right, so it ran away. The boy followed it, and finally came
to a big lake over which he was helped by an old woman, who told him
that his wolf was the son of the town chief in the village opposite.
When he got there he was given a quill that would kill any animal it
was pointed at, and a blanket which healed on one side and killed on
the other. The people in that village were rolling something about
which the chief told him was the rainbow. When he reached home again he
found all dead, but he restored them to life by means of his blanket.
With his two gifts he became wealthy.
9. WOLVERINE-MAN
A man out hunting saw a wolverine killing a herd of mountain sheep, and
presently he came to Wolverine-man’s house, which was full of game.
Wolverine-man taught him various hunting tabus for that region, and
showed him how to make a ground-hog trap. The man also learned that a
small bushy tree called sǃᴀx is Wolverine-man’s wife. When he got home
he explained the trap to his people, and then started off trapping
again with another man who thought he understood how to do it. He who
had been with Wolverine-man soon discovered, however, that this person
thought he had said that the ground hogs were caught by whittling up
sticks in front of their holes.
10. THE HALIBUT PEOPLE
A chief’s daughter stepped on halibut slime and said something that
made the halibut people angry. They came by canoe to get her in
marriage, but as soon as they were out of sight of the town they
fastened her to a rock by means of some pitch, and she died there. By
and by her brothers found her body. Then one of them, disguised as
their sister, went down to the halibut chief and killed him. On their
way home after this one of the brothers shot a duck and said something
offensive to it. For this the killer whale, the duck’s grandfather,
took them down to his house, burned them badly before the fire, and
turned them into a certain species of duck.
11. STORIES OF THE MONSTER DEVILFISH AND THE CRY-BABY
A big devilfish swept all of the occupants of a certain camp into the
sea except three brothers who were out hunting. Then the two elder
brothers killed it with sharpened sticks, although they were themselves
dragged down by it, while their youngest brother traveled to another
place and reported what had happened.
In the same town was a little boy who cried so constantly that his
father called upon a land-otter-man to carry him off. The land-otter
people fed him on what looked like blackberries, but were really
spiders. Two days later his people found him, but when they had
expelled the spiders from his body, nothing was left but his skin.
12. THE WOMAN WHO WAS KILLED BY A CLAM
A woman reached under a rock for clams, and a large bivalve closed upon
her hand and held her. When the tide rose she was drowned.
13. ROOT-STUMP