[Told by Edward of the Food-giving-town people]
The town of Sqē′na [71] was in existence. And
Supernatural-woman-in-whom-is-thunder [72] came to be settled [there],
[along with] the Middle-town people, [73] Sand-town people, [74]
Point-town people, [75] Rear-town people, [76] Witch people, [77]
Food-giving-town people, Mud-town people. [78]
After the town had stood there for some time some boys split pieces of
cedar with their teeth, put the ends into the fire, and made them hard
and sharp. They then fastened small stones to the ends, and went from
house to house, trying to shoot the dogfish roe through holes in the
corners of the houses by means of bows. They burst them in this way and
then laughed.
After they had shot for a while they burst the skins full of dogfish
roe belonging to the mother of the town chief. Then trouble arose, and
the people fought each other with arrows and war spears.
Now, after they had fought for a while they went away on their canoes.
The Middle-town people went; the Point-town people went; the Rear-town
people went; the Witch people went; and only the Food-giving-town
people remained in the place. After they had lived there for a while
they, too, moved off to Lanai′ya. [79]
They continued to live there. They liked the place. And the Witch
people came to have a town, Falling-forward town, on the other side of
them. They were good friends to each other.
After they had lived a while at Lanai′ya the wife of a man of the
Food-giving-town people became sick. When she fell sick she suffered
all night. And she directed her husband as follows: “When I die, have
them put four dogfish on top of me, because I used to like them as
food. Do not put ropes around me. I am afraid to have ropes put around
me.”
And, after she had suffered for four nights, she died at nightfall.
Then they had his wife sit up. When two nights were passed they put her
into the box. Her husband put his head into the fire [for grief] and
some others pulled him out. He then put four dogfish into her box, and
did not put a rope around it. After many nights had passed he went to
see his wife. There were large maggots in the box, and he wept, at the
same time striking his head against the box.
One morning, after he had wept for some time, the fire was out, and he
sent one of his slaves to the town of Falling-forward for live coals.
He then entered the town chief’s house [and discovered] that his
master’s wife, who was supposed to be dead, had married there. She and
the town chief’s son were in love with each other.
He then thought that his eyes deceived him, and he looked toward her
again. After that he took the live coals and went in to his master. He
did not speak plainly [being a foreigner]. And he said: “Stop your
crying. She has married on the other side.” But his master whipped him.
He then went thither again. He saw that they were still playing with
each other. And, when he again reported it to his master, he whipped
him again. After this had happened four times [his master] came to
believe what he said. He then related to his master all he had seen.
Now he (his master) went thither. He looked in. His wife, he saw, had
in truth married some one there. They were playing with each other.
They were laughing at each other.
He then went away. After he had kept watch for a while that evening he
went over. He hid himself inside behind a post. And after they had sat
up for a while they went to bed. When the people in the house snored he
went to [the place where his wife and her lover were]. They were
talking together. And, when they were asleep, he went away.
Very early in the morning he was gone. He was away. He was away. He was
away. Some time after dark he came home. He felt happy. He looked at
the box. Only dogfish were in it.
Next morning he was gone early. He broke knots into pieces. He scraped,
greased, and polished them. That was why he was away. He then brought
them home. He did not let any one see. He alone knew about it. He
ceased to cry. He sat about happy.
And in the evening he went over and hid himself in the house. Then all
fell asleep. He went to the place where they were sleeping. When, after
talking for a while, they slept he stretched his hand to the rectum of
the man and drove a knot sliver into it. The man did not move. And he
did the same thing to the woman. She, however, moved and muttered. He
then went away.
When day broke there was a noise of wailing in the town of
Falling-forward. They said that the chief’s son and his wife lay dead
in the morning. But he felt happy. He at once washed his head in urine,
oiled it, and put on Haida paint. The woman’s love made her sick, and
as soon as her husband put her into the box she went to the one with
whom she was in love.
After the town had continued there for some time a certain person left
it and went up the inlet. After he had traveled for a while he came to
a narrow creek running amid water grasses. [80] His name was Ḷ′xakuns.
Near the creek a person was walking about. He laid down something he
held in his hand and stretched it out. He threw wooden floats over the
creek. They became sawbill ducks. [81] They flapped across with it.
When they got across they became wood once more. They floated about.
Then the man pulled it toward himself. One saw him take two bright
salmon out of it. He then laid the net to dry on two alders standing
there, took the two salmon, and went toward the woods with them.
Now he (the on-looker) went down to the net. He counted its meshes.
[82] There were seventeen (ten and seven), and he repeated the number:
“Fifteen and two.” Then he started away. “Fifteen and two,” he said. He
kept falling down; so he went back and counted them again each time and
started off anew. “Fifteen and two,” he said. Then he fell down and
went back again. Again he counted them, and he started off. He fell
down. Then he forgot. That is why, when one goes along over ground with
which he is not familiar, he always falls there.
At last he came away with the information, and the Food-giving-town
people came to own the net.
After this the people moved back to the town of Sqē′na. And they made
forms around which the meshes are twined. They made them in preparation
for making nets. And they also took the bark of the ʟᴀl. [83] When they
had finished gathering these the Food-giving-town women began to make
nets.
At Gwī′gwᴀnsʟꜝî′ñ, [84] near the town of Sqē′na, spring salmon ran into
a certain creek at that time. A man of the Food-giving-town people
owned the creek, but he gave it to his son. For that reason his sisters
began to put dirty things into the creek. [85] The supernatural being
of the creek then put on his clothing and his black-bear hat. [86] He
had four dorsal fins. He started seaward along the bed of the creek.
And he became a rock close in front of it, and remained there, and the
creek was gone. The supernatural being of this creek was named
“Supernatural-being-of-the-four-days.”
After that they moved to Tcꜝig̣ogī′ga. [87] Then, when spring came, they
began to fish for flounders. One day they killed one of these. They
roasted it. When some persons quarreled in the town, and all ran to
see, a boy remained sitting by the flounder. [88] Lo, something ran out
of it. It came out quickly. The boy cried, saying that the food had
flown away.
And after they had fished for another space of time, one day, when they
were out fishing, something pulled hard against them. Then they pulled
it up. They did not know what it was. They came home, and they carried
the flounders on their backs. Then they handed the thing they had
pulled up back and forth. And a certain person came to them. He looked.
He said, “A-a-a aidja′si kꜝūda′-i gua īdjā′.” [89]
They moved back again to the town of Sqē′na. After they had lived there
for a while a woman of the Food-giving-town people became pregnant. She
gave birth to a girl. And when spring returned some supernatural being
came out of the ground and swallowed [the people] together with their
canoes. That was Cave-supernatural-being, [90] they say.
Then she, too, went to Skidegate creek. While they were going along by
canoe it came after them. When it got near she threw her child, which
had just begun to creep about, into its mouth. It then went under
water, and they landed there. That is why the place is named
“Landing-of-many-canoes.”
Then she and her husband went about crying. By and by, when day began
to break, they fell asleep. Very early in the morning they heard a
child cry. Then they looked where it cried. The child was creeping
about on top of a whale floating in a woodland lake and crying. He then
took away his child. She did right when she threw her child into the
mouth of the supernatural being.
The child grew up as rapidly as a dog. Now they went over to Skidegate
creek, and the girls walked along on shore. As she walked along she
sang. They tried to stop her. She did not listen. After she had gone
along for a time the supernatural being came after them out of the
woods with open mouth. She did not run away from it.
When it came near her, she seized it. The children found out that her
finger nails were made of copper. She then tore it in pieces and threw
it round about. “Even future people will see you lying about,” she
said. She threw its head down. It is the one (rock) that they call
“Chief.” The Food-giving-town people were then glad because she had
killed it.
After that they lived at Skidegate creek. They did not know that she
had power within herself disproportionate to her size. She played for a
while and brought in a salmon. She came in from playing on a board. All
that time she looked at it. By and by the youngest of her brothers, who
was full of mischief, ate her fish. And he laid a bright humpback in
its place.
When she came in from playing she looked in the place. “My child,
Taxē′t,” [91] she said. She was sad on account of her salmon. She
started it, that future people would be stingy. [92]
After they had lived there for a while her eldest [brother] lay dead in
the morning. On the next morning the next to the eldest lay dead. On
the day after that another one was dead. This went on until seven had
been found dead.
One night, while the youngest was in bed, his sister came and sat at
his feet. He drew himself together. His sister felt for his buttocks.
He was astonished. He then drew in his belly closer, and when his
sister [tried to] shove something into his anus it passed up along the
surface of his belly. She then pulled it out and smelt of it. She did
the same thing again. Again he drew in, and when she had pulled it out
she looked at it.
And when she pulled it out the last time he rose quickly, took his
quiver, and ran out from his sister. His sister went after him. She
chased her brother about this island. After she had chased him about
for a while he ran from his sister into the house of Many-ledges. [93]
She stretched in her arm and drove him out again.
And after she had pursued him for another space of time he came to Tree
island. [94] He then shot an arrow into the sky, and shot again into
the notch of that arrow. After he had done this for a while [the chain]
almost reached the ground, and he laid his bow upon [the end of] it. It
became a ladder upon which he climbed up. The ladder drew itself up
after him, and she only touched him.
Where he escaped in fright they call Tā′xet’s trail. [95] She had the
first tā′xet. That is why they so name it. “Thunder in your own dress
as you sit” [she sang]. “Thunder in your own dress as you sit.”
She then returned to Skidegate creek. And she began to tell [the
people] their names: “Thundering-in-his-ascent,”
“Supernatural-woman-upon-whom-property-burst-down,”
“Supernatural-woman-upon-whose-house-screen-a-hawk-sits,”
“Into-her-house-the-tide-comes,”
“Her-house-is-kept-up-to-heaven-by-the-wind.” [96] She called her
sister “Supernatural-woman-the-edges-of-whose-skirts-thunder.” She
called herself “Supernatural-woman-in-whom-is-thunder.”
She then took one of the Gîtî′ns’-servants [97] with her. Her younger
sister started seaward from her. She is the one over whom the water
breaks in front of Skidegate creek. Then she herself settled down at
the head of the creek. She is the one who owns the tā′xet. One who does
not handle them carefully (i.e., in accordance with the tabus) is
killed. The salmon are also found with cuts.
After the woman went up they began to fish with nets. The women of the
Food-giving-town people made nets. And, after they had fished with them
for a while, one night they saw Supernatural-woman-in-whom-is-thunder.
Underneath she wore a rainbow blanket. Over it she wore a flicker
blanket. They saw it. While they fished they put words into a song
about this: “Going up grandfather’s creek, moving about, and going up
it to land as the tide comes in [she appeared].”
A cedar stood behind the town of Tcꜝig̣ogī′g̣a, called
“Young-cedar-woman.” Above that [on the creek] lived a certain woman.
She was unable to twist twine for a net because her skin was covered
with hair. Then she found a surf scoter [98] which had floated ashore,
and she skinned it. She fitted it to her head. Its neck and head were
both intact. She put it on and swam about in it where they were
fishing. There she took salmon out of the net, strung them up, and cut
them open.
She did the same thing again. The owners of the net picked up gravel
and threw it seaward at the net [exclaiming:] “Sand-fleas’ insides.”
[99] One night when she swam out some one threw a stone at her. [The
scoter] gave forth a dull sound and disappeared from sight. On the next
day a woman lay there with a string of salmon.
After that some time passed. There was a certain man who had many elder
brothers, all of whom were married. They fished at night. One after the
other came home, and they roasted the salmon. They ate with their
wives. He wanted to do the same thing, and he also married.
After he had brought home his wife he went fishing with them, and he
came back in the night and roasted a salmon. When it was cooked he
awoke their wives. “Come and eat,” he said to her (his own wife). “Land
otters eat at night” [she said], and she made her husband ashamed.
The next night he went to fish with them again. And when they came home
they roasted another. When it was cooked, she kicked her husband in the
back with her feet, but he said to his wife: “Land otters eat in the
night.” He made her ashamed also.
They then built a house in the town. They had the front of it covered
with feathers. When it was finished they called it Feather-house.
Afterward, although it stood back from the shore, the tide rose to it.
When it got even with it it began to fall. They told each other that on
account of that house they had almost had a flood. [100]
One day, after they had been fishing, they came in. The wife of one of
them lay with her back to the fire. A man had his arms around her. Then
he cut his hand off. But it was his wife who got up crying. He did it
by accident to her. [101]
One autumn a person went to Falling-forward to fish for silver salmon.
And at night his daughter fell asleep in the bow. He was afraid then to
awaken his child and ran the bow into the clay. He, too, fell asleep.
When he awoke in the morning he called to his child. His child was
gone. He then saw the tracks of a black bear leading inland from the
canoe.
At that time the town people became angry with the Black-bear people.
They reared a large number of dogs, and they made many deadfalls. [102]
There was not a trail without its deadfall. Immediately they began to
kill them.
After they had killed them in this way for a while the dogs started
after the bears. One day the dogs started right from the houses after
something. The people followed them. The bear climbed a tree standing
near. Her two young ones were with her.
They then spanned their bows. When they were ready to shoot her she
made a motion outward from herself and from side to side across her
nose. [103] They then tied the mouths of their dogs.
Then they called them to come down from the tree. And, when they came
down, the bear licked her friends. They then led them home, and they
liked the house. They gave them something raw to eat. They did not
speak. But after the cubs had played about for a while the dogs killed
them. And the sorrow of their mother for their death killed her.
After they had killed bears for some time one of them went to see his
deadfall. It had fallen upon some creature like a human being, and he
had copper on his back. He brought it home.
After that a certain person went from the town. He entered
Salmon-point’s house. When the supernatural beings went past they let
themselves float into the house and ate all his food. Because he was
old they were not afraid of him.
Then his nephew [104] found a bullhead, skinned it, and dried the skin.
And one day, when the supernatural beings came by, he called to them to
come. On account of it his uncle became angry with him. All the more he
called them. By and by some turned thither. He placed himself in the
doorway. He made his needles stand up and, when the supernatural beings
floated in, he cut them. When they went out he did the same thing
again. The supernatural beings were afraid of him.
One day he went to the house of Heaven-holder. [105] And
[Heaven-holder] said to him: “Human beings will ask me for pleasant
weather.”
Now the Head-of-creek woman of Skidegate creek had spoken as follows:
“I will remember you. After the Food-giving-town people are all gone
they shall become numerous again,” she said.
There they cut down a cedar. They split it up and carried it out of the
woods. Then they began to make a fish trap. And when they had finished
it they named it “Small-hole-in-the-ground fish trap.” [The maker of
this] gave the fish trap to his son. His wife belonged to the Gîtî′ns
and he (the son) was the first of the Big-house people.
The people of the Raven clan own the thunder. [106] Therefore, when one
of the Raven clan is about to die, it thunders.
This is the end.
This story consists of a number of mythic or half mythic episodes
detailing supposed early doings of a Haida family which used to occupy
the east shore of Moresby island, between Skidegate inlet and Cumshewa
point. Skidegate creek runs through the middle of their territory and
was their most important stream. This fact accounts for the prominence
of the Creek-woman of Skidegate creek in the legends. Food-giving-town
(Daiyū′) was on Shingle bay, on the south side of Skidegate inlet. In
1901 there were said to be but four survivors of the family, although
the Haida declared they had formerly been a large and prominent
division, and they themselves claim that their chief was town chief of
Sqē′na.