[Told by Tom Stevens, chief of Those-born-at-House-point]
One whose father was a chief made gambling sticks. And one day he sent
out his father’s slave to call any one who might choose to gamble.
“Hū⁺” [he shouted]. [57] He did the same thing every day.
One morning some one spread out gambling sticks. Only his hands were
visible. The upper part of him was enveloped in clouds. And he (the
chief’s son) came and sat opposite him. After they had talked about
what property they would stake they began gambling together, and he
lost. Afterward he staked more. He continued to lose until he lost all
of his father’s property. Then he lost the slaves, and when those were
all gone he staked the rear row of the town. That, too, went. And [he
staked] the next row. That, too, was lost. There were five rows of
houses in his father’s town. And again he wagered a row. That was also
lost. He lost all five rows of the town. Then he staked his father,
mother, and sisters. And they were lost.
The people immediately made ready their canoes and got on board. It was
foggy. Then they went off, and after a while the voices of the crowd
became lost in the distance. [58]
And after he had gone about in the town for a while he began to push
along with a pole a cedar beam owned by his father, and he got it down
to the water. [59] Then he used his gambling-stick bag for a pillow,
put on his marten-skin blanket, and lay down upon it.
Now he floated about. Many nights passed over him. During all that time
it was calm weather. By and by something said to him: “Your powerful
grandfather asks you to come in.” He looked in the direction of the
sound. Nothing was to be seen. He saw only the ripples where it had
gone down. He was floating against a two-headed kelp.
Then he again covered his face, and something spoke to him as before.
Now he looked through the eyeholes in his marten-skin blanket. After he
had looked for a while toward the place whence the voice proceeded a
grebe’s [60] beak came out and [the bird said] at the same time: “Your
powerful grandfather asks you to come in.”
Then he took his gambling-stick bag, grasped the kelp head, and went
down on it. It was a two-headed house pole on which he started down. He
saw it when he passed into the water.
When he stood in front of the house his grandfather invited him inside:
“Come in, grandchild. I have news, grandson, that you came floating
about in search of me as soon as you had lost your father’s town.” Then
he entered, and he gave him food. He had fasted ever since he lost his
father’s town in gambling.
And when he was full [the man] said to him: “Break off a bunch of
gambling-stick wood for me which [you will find] at a corner outside.”
He went out to it and broke some pieces off a bunch of sîn. [61] Then
he sent him to get something else, and he broke off yew wood. He also
refused that. Then he said to him: “A bunch of it is by that corner.”
And after he had taken all sorts of sticks, he broke some limbs from a
bunch of Raven’s-berry bushes [62] and handed them to him, and he said:
“That is it.” Then [the man] made it into gambling sticks, and when he
had finished them he touched two with coals. He put the figure of a sea
otter on one and he put the figure of a young sea otter on the other.
Then he had designs made on five large clam shells. They had figures of
cumulus clouds. And he had five mats woven for him. He had these made
for him to stake.
He then said to him: “I will let you float away from here. When one
night has passed you will be in front of the town, and you will go to
the front of the town and sit there, ready to gamble with the one who
won your property.” And he also gave him tobacco seeds. “When you begin
to gamble, put the stick that has the figure of a sea otter upon your
right shoulder. Put the one that has the figure of a young sea otter
upon the left shoulder. Divide the tobacco seeds equally among those
who come and sit on both sides of you to watch you. They might say that
you do not play fair, but the tobacco seeds are so sweet that they will
not say it.”
When he had finished giving him directions he brought out a small box,
and he opened successively five boxes that were one inside of another.
Then from the innermost one he brought out a hawk feather, put it into
the corner of [the chief’s son’s] eye, and turned it round. And when he
pulled it out, it was full of blood. Then he squeezed this off, washed
it, and pushed it in again. After he had done the thing again it was
clean, and he did the same thing to the one on the other side. And when
that had also become clean he put it also into his mouth. Thence he
pulled out dead lice that he had eaten. He pulled them out stuck to the
hawk feather. His eyes had become full of blood from seeing his
sister’s bloody heel. That was why he lost.
And he again gave him directions: “When you gamble with him pick up the
pile that has the longest smoke, and when you have almost lost pick up
the one that has short smoke.”
He did so. When the man was opposite he took the one with the long
smoke. During all that time he lost. After they had almost beaten him
he took the pile with the light smoke. He took the djîl. [63]
At the time when he missed one of his father’s slaves laughed at him.
“Hi hi hi hi hi, Sounding-gambling-sticks is beginning to lose his clam
shells also. He is also beginning to lose his mats.” At this time he
discovered his name, they say.
Then he handled the gambling sticks, and the stick on his right
shoulder pulled out his djîl. [64] And the tobacco was too sweet for
those watching him on either side who saw it to tell.
So [his opponent] missed, and when he had finished the counts ten
points remained to him. They then again talked about what property they
should stake. He staked both the clam shells and the mats, after which
his opponent handled the sticks. Then he picked out the one with fine
smoke first. He picked the djîl. Now he handled them in turn, and when
he pulled the cedar bark apart he handed it to the stick with the
figure of a young sea otter on it, which pulled out the djîl. He missed
again. He was again left with ten points.
Then they again talked about what they should stake. When that was
arranged, his opponent handled the sticks, and he again chose the pile
with fine smoke. Again, he picked the djîl. And when he had again got
through shuffling the sticks and pulling them apart he presented them
to the stick on the right side, which pulled out his djîl. That also
made ten counts for him.
Then he tried to win back the people of his father’s town. He won the
five towns. And after those were all rewon, and he had won his mother,
his sister, and his father, they started home. He won them back from
Great-moving-cloud’s son, who had won them from him. This was the son
of the one who owns the dog salmon, they say. [65]
This is the end.
This is related as having taken place at the Ninstints town of
Sʟîndagwa-i, which was on the southwest coast of Moresby Island.