[Told by John Sky of Those-born-at-Skedans]
He was a chief’s son. He was always in the back part of his father’s
house whittling. He did not care to eat anything. [His father] owned
the town of Metlakahtla. [313] He was “town-mother.” [314]
Then someone in the town killed a hair seal. Then they cooked it and
called the people in for it. And the father of the boy who sat up
whittling went thither. All the town people went in for it. There they
ate.
As soon as they had stopped they carried some over to the chief’s wife.
When they brought it in a flipper lay upon the top. Now, he who sat up
whittling looked down. Then he came down and called to his mother:
“Come, give me a wash basin. Let me wash my hands.” Then he said “Come,
push that over to me,” and he ate it. He ate it all and pushed [the
dish] back.
Now he (the chief) came in and said to his wife “My child’s mother,
come let me eat the hair-seal flipper I sent home.” “My child has eaten
that,” she said to her husband. From the high place where he was
whittling he heard what his mother said.
After she had said this to her husband, he did not say a word.
Presently he said “Well, say that I want them to move from this place
to-morrow.” At once a slave went out and said, “To-morrow the chief
says he is going to abandon his son.”
Then evening came and he (the boy) went to the wife of one of his ten
uncles with whom he was in love. As he lay with her, she gave him the
following directions: “When they are ready to start, I will get off to
defecate, and dig around with your feet in the place where I sit. I
will leave something for you there.”
His younger brother was just big enough to sit up. He also had a dog.
When morning came the noise of their departure was heard. Then, when
they were ready to go, he brought out his younger brother. He also took
his dog, which he treated like his child. When they were ready to
start, his uncle’s wife got off to defecate. She sat down behind the
sea-weeds which were drifted ashore. As soon as she got in again, they
started off.
After the crowd of canoes had gone round the point, he went to [the
place where his uncle’s wife had sat]. Only a broken stick lay there.
Then he dug around. He dug up a small box. It had ropes round it. He
laid the box down near his younger brother, gathered planks together,
and made a house. He made it just large enough. When it was finished,
he again sat down near his younger brother and untied the strings of
the box. In it was a grease-box and two mussel-shells fastened together
by a string, which he untied. To his astonishment he found burning
coals within.
He looked into the grease-box. It was half full of grease. Cranberries
were also in it, and ten salmon were on the bottom of the box. He did
not eat one of them. He kept them all winter for his younger brother.
But he whittled continually.
Then only one salmon was left with a small amount of grease and
cranberries. His mind was greatly troubled. There was nothing for his
younger brother to eat. He used to give part to the dog. That is why
his food was nearly gone. The last bits of the salmon, grease, and
cranberries were nearly gone. By and by a small piece [of fish] was
left, and he gave it to his younger brother along with all of the
grease.
In the evening he went to bed and wept, wept, wept. He kept thinking
all night of how nothing was left for his younger brother to eat.
Presently his dog went out. It barked behind the house. From where he
lay by his younger brother he rose quickly and at once seized his bow.
While still in the house he wet the arrows with his mouth, prepared his
bow ready to shoot when outside, and stepped lightly in that direction.
It was barking at something in the space between the roots of a cedar
bent over toward the sea. After he had gone toward it for a while he
saw nothing near it. It was barking at something in the ground. When he
stood over it [he found] that it was barking at something in a pool of
water. To his surprise a salmon lay in it. He speared it with an arrow.
He twisted its neck off.
He took it up, laid it down on a piece of board near the house, cut it
open, and steamed its head, its backbone, its milt, and its heart (?).
[315] He gave its backbone and its head to his younger brother to eat.
To the dog he gave its milt and its heart (?) to eat. He, however, ate
nothing.
They went to bed and at daybreak the dog was barking there again. Again
he went thither with his bow and [found] it barking at something in the
water. Two salmon lay there. Then he speared them with an arrow. And
after he had taken them to the house he steamed the two backbones, the
two heads, the milt of both, and he gave them to his younger brother
and the dog. He, however, again ate nothing.
Next day it was barking there again. Then he got his bow. He wet the
arrows with his lips just outside. He went over and [found] three lying
there. Every morning there was one more. Finally ten lay there, and he
speared them and pulled them out. He dragged them out in a bunch and
cut them open. He threw the gills away. Those he had obtained the day
before he split a second time. This is why it happens that mainland
chiefs cut fish open [instead of letting the women do it]. He was the
one who started [that custom].
When it barked there the next day he stopped taking his bow. He only
took the arrows. Again there was one more. Next day there was also one
more. In this way the number reached twenty. Those he had cut open for
the first time the day before he cut open farther. Then he split planks
and hung them up there. He fixed a place overhead. Some food entered
his belly for the first time since they left him, for his younger
brother now had enough to eat.
The next day the dog barked there again. He went thither. There was one
more than before. The day after one more was added. In that way the
number reached thirty.
Next day the dog barked there. He went thither, and again there was one
added. The day after one more was added, and the number increased to
forty.
He and his younger brother again went to bed, and when day broke he
heard the dog go out. After he had listened to its barking for a while
[he found] that it was barking differently from the way in which it
used to bark. After it had barked for a while it yelped differently.
Then he picked up his bow and two arrows and just outside wet them with
his lips. Having his bow in readiness he walked slowly toward [the
sound].
It was barking at something in the same pool of water, and he looked
into it. He saw not a sign of anything. But it dug for something near
the water. After it had done so for a while its teeth stuck fast in the
roots, and after it had yelped a while they slipped off. Then [the boy]
helped dig behind it. The dog dug along ahead of him. Ah! they dug into
the marks of salt water, and a salmon creek came to be there. [316] At
that time a great shoal of salmon came up. He stood near them. Then he
went away, collected the town people’s planks, and split them up. He
planed them. He made notches for ropes. All that time the salmon were
coming steadily up. He made this for them.
He stretched his arms on these. Each [of these horizontal pieces] was
two fathoms long. Some were one fathom long [for uprights]. There were
twenty poles of each sort. All had notches on the ends. Toward the top,
which he worked down small, he placed a design. He put figures of
salmon there. These parts were the łg̣aiyî′ñgadadjî. [317]
While he was making this thing he never forgot his younger brother and
the dog, they say. He cooked for them continually, and they ate. When
he had those things all together he went away and dug some roots. Then
he came back, made a large fire of dead branches, and put them in.
After it he split [twigs] with his teeth. After he had finished doing
this, he shaped young and slender hemlocks so that they should be flat
on one side and rounded on the other. When he had finished he fastened
these together. He had four horizontal crosspieces on each half of the
gī′g̣awai. On each half of the gīgwᴀ′ñgīda, too, he had three
crosspieces. On each of the łg̣aiyî′ñgadadjî he had three crosspieces.
He also split up pieces for the “wings” (weir). After that he put them
together and finished all the same day.
He went back of the house, cut piles, sharpened them, and put rings of
bark around them [to keep them from splitting when they were driven
into the stream bed]. Now he went into the water and drove piles into
the place where the fish trap was to stand. Then he put the fish trap
into the water. He fastened the horizontal pieces with twisted cedar
limbs. He treated the gīgwᴀ′ñgīda in the same way. Now he stood up the
łg̣aiyî′ñgadadjî in place. Out of it all he made something roundish.
[318]
After he had put the fish trap in place he gathered planks together.
Then he split them in two. He also split some planks into poles. Then
he enlarged the house. He set the drying frames for salmon over each
other. He also put up the large poles (qꜝa′idagilai). They had notches
[to prevent the smaller kꜝia′sᴀnai from slipping off]. The taxasgā′gida
lay beneath the ridgepole of the house (djansgā′gida), itself supported
front and back by the crossed house-timbers. [319]
Although he used to eat, he was so busy working that he stopped doing
so. Still he never forgot his younger brother and the dog. He fed them
all the time. As soon as the fish trap and all things were finished,
and day came, he went to the fish trap. He kept taking them (the
salmon) out. As soon as he had done so he strung them together. He
finished ten strings and laid them in the water. Then he roasted some
for his younger brother for that evening, and that night he remained
awake. Again he kept taking them out. He strung up the same number as
on the day before and let them lie in the water. All that time they
never ceased to run, hu hu hu hu hu. Where had their hunger gone to?
One day, when the house was filled and he had fully enough and had cut
them up for more than ten nights, before he went out to remain awake,
he roasted some for his younger brother by the fire. He took out more
and more salmon. He came back, and the two rows of roasted fish which
had been there were gone. Then he went over to his younger brother,
cried near him, and went out to cut up the fish.
When it was evening he again roasted some. Again he had more and again
he stayed up to watch. He took some out. He did it repeatedly. When he
went home what he had roasted had again disappeared. Then he again wept
near his younger brother and went out to cut up his fish. He cut up the
fish and again remained awake. Now he had three rows of roasted fish.
He took out still more salmon. He came in, and lo! all was gone. Part
of those above were also gone. Then he called his younger brother, and
said: “Say! brother, [320] did you eat all the things I roasted?” “No;
shortly after you went out someone came in, gathered them up in his
hands, with those above, and put them into his mouth.” “I thought it
was you.”
Now, he did not care about the salmon. Nor did he go out to cut up the
fish. He felt badly. He sat waiting. He was going to watch. He wanted
to see who this person was. In the evening he brought out his bow,
spanned it, brought out two arrow-boxes, put one on the left side near
the door, and sat over the right-hand one with his bow.
After he had sat there in the dark for a while he saw two pieces of
burning pitchwood side of the house. When they came around to the front
of the house something wonderful entered and stood there. Something
with fire burning in its eyes came in and stood there. After it had
stood there for a while it gathered the roasted salmon together and
swallowed all. After he had stood looking at those above for a while he
gathered them also together and swallowed them. As he turned away from
this he (the boy) shot him under the armpit and from the other side as
well. That was Ga′ogila. [321]
When he turned about he shot him repeatedly. He shot him repeatedly.
When one arrow-box was exhausted, as the animal turned around, he went
to the other also, and after he had shot from it for a while midnight
came and he went out.
At once he pursued him. He stuck the arrows into his quiver, and kept
shooting him through his back and his breast. After some time had
passed, lo! he had passed to the other side of a mountain as quickly as
if it had been thrown back from him. Then he returned.
He entered and took his younger brother on his knee. He also called the
dog to him, and the latter licked his lips. Then he turned over the
drum that had belonged to his father and placed it over his younger
brother and the dog. And he went away.
As he went he picked up the shafts of his arrows [which had fallen from
the heads]. After he had run along for a while he heard a noise. Then
he stood still. After he had listened for a while he heard a sound like
that of a hammer. Now, he went in that direction. Lo! some one was
working out the inside of a canoe. Only the top of his head was
visible. He looked at it fixedly.
He walked slowly in that direction. His head entirely disappeared
within the canoe while his hammer lay outside of the canoe. Then he
reached for it and took it with him under a bunch of ferns near by.
After he (the boy) had looked at him for a while he stood up in the
midst of his work and looked about for something. He cleared away the
chips. [The boy] was looking at him stealthily.
He sat still and put his finger-nails between his teeth. By and by he
said: “My grandson, come to me. News of you has come. News has come,
grandson, that they abandoned you because you ate the hair seal’s
flipper, which your father sent home from the feast. If it is you, come
to me.”
He went out quickly and stood there. And he handed his hammer to him.
At once he stepped out to take it. That was Master Carpenter [322]
making a canoe.
“Say! go and get four bent wooden wedges. Put two rings of cedar bark
in the front part of the canoe and two in the stern. Then your canoes
will come apart.” He was unable to make two canoes as he was trying to
do, one inside the other, because his wedges were too straight.
He went to get the wedges, and while he was away the other had already
put rings on the canoe. He brought them (the wedges) along. Then he
told him to put them in the bow and the stern. Then he began hammering
on them. After he had busied himself going back and forth from one to
another for a while, lo! they started to separate. After doing so for a
while, he hammered them apart. He thought: “I wonder where the salmon
are for which he wants these.” He did not think about his younger
brother. Then [the man] said to him: “Now, grandson, come with me. You
shall marry my daughter.”
Now he went with him. Wā, the smoke they came in sight of was like a
comb. That was his town. He went with him into the middle house, which
belonged to Master Carpenter. Between the screens, in the rear of the
house, sat a wonderful creature, as beautiful as a daughter of one of
the supernatural beings. Then her father said to her, “Chief-woman,
[323] my daughter, come and sit near your husband.” At once she arose
and sat down near him.
After his father-in-law had given him something to eat repeatedly,
evening came and she said to him, “Let us go out [to defecate].” “I do
not know where they go out.” Then she said to him, “Why! do you not
know where they go out?” She said to him, “I will go with you.” It was
evening, and she went out with him. She went seaward with him, and they
defecated. They came in and sat down. Straight across from the town a
drum sounded.
His father-in-law treated him well. Every evening he went out with his
wife, and the drum kept sounding there. He became tired of hearing it
and once, after he had gone out and was seated with his wife, he
questioned his wife, “Say! why is that drum always beating?” “They are
trying to cure the town chief.” Then he said to his wife, “Come! let us
go over and look.”
Then they came in, and she asked her father: “Father, do you own a
small canoe?” “Yes, chief-woman, my daughter, one is lying down on the
beach.” Then two youths carried the canoe down on their shoulders, but
they (the man and his wife) walked. They got into it, and only the
youths paddled, while he and his wife sat in the middle.
They landed and pulled up the canoe. Then he and his wife went up and,
when they saw him, the crowd of spectators standing in front of the
house before the door opened up a passage for him, and he and his wife
looked in.
To his surprise the one he had shot sat doubled up over wooden bars
which were fastened between ropes hung from the ridge-pole, touching
the lower one with his feet and holding the upper one in his hands.
[324] The arrows stuck out of him all over. He was suffering greatly.
After he had looked at him for a while, he thought: “I wonder why the
shaman does not see what is sticking out of him.” Then one standing
near him looked at his face and said: “I wish you could hear what the
person standing here says, ‘I wonder why the shaman trying to cure him
does not see what is sticking out of him.’” The one who announced his
thought was mind-reader among the Land-otter people. And a shaman from
among the Land-otter people was trying to cure him. He did not see what
was sticking out of him.
By and by some one rose and spoke to him who offered the blankets in
return for the cure. Then he went away with his wife, came home, and
told her to ask something of her mother. “Mother, have you any
cedar-bark?” “Yes, chief-woman, my daughter.” Then she gave him some.
They dried it around the fire, went to work upon it, and pounded it up
for cedar-bark rings. These were finished.
Then they intended to bring him over. While yet in the house he bound
himself [with the bark]. He bound his arms, the front of his body and
his legs. Then they came and offered him ten moose-skins. Then they had
him brought over. When he entered, the sick man was still hanging in
the rear of the house.
And, after he had gone around him for a while, he pulled the arrows out
of his buttocks. As soon as he had done so he stuck them into the bands
around his own arms. He suffered ceaselessly where he hung. Then he
pulled them out from the other side of him and from his legs. He stuck
them into the rings around his body and back. Then he picked him up and
seated him on the floor-planks. So he who had been unable to sit up now
did sit up. Then he asked for a pillow and laid him on it. Ah! he lay
there comfortably.
But, when he looked up, he beheld his (Ga′ogila’s) daughter, who was
wonderful to look upon. He beheld her. Then, picking the sick man up
again, he made him lay his feet upon the lower cross stick and seize
the upper one with both hands. Then he put the arrows back into his
buttocks and his side, so that he again suffered severely. Then he
started away. He ceased looking at him, and they took him away on the
canoe.
After he came in and sat down two more persons came in and stood there.
They offered him twenty moose-skins and two coppers. He refused them.
Then they came to offer him all the things in the town one after
another. But he kept refusing them. Now he saw that his mind had become
fixed. His future father-in-law wanted to keep his daughter by means of
the many things he owned. And, after he had refused the property, he
offered his daughter in marriage.
Immediately he turned around and started off. Then he again bound
[bark] around himself. And they took him across. He entered and went
round the man who was hung doubled up. By and by, while he was doing
it, he pulled the arrows out of his buttocks, and he also pulled the
arrow points out from the left side of his body. Then he took hold of
him and made him sit up. He sat there; and, when he had finished
pulling the arrow points out of his sides, back, and breast, not one
was left in him. He sat up.
Then he said to his daughter: “Chief-woman, my daughter, come hither
and sit down near your husband.” He married the chief’s daughter. At
once Master Carpenter’s daughter came over. Now he had two wives.
After he had lived with his wives for a while, one day he lay abed.
When the people went to bed again he was still there. Next day he did
the same thing. His two wives said not a word to him. As he lay abed he
wept.
Then he (his father-in-law) asked his daughter: [325] “Chief-woman, my
daughter, why does your husband lie abed?” Then she went to her husband
and talked with him a while. And she said to her father: “He lies abed
because he is homesick for his younger brother whom he left.” “Now,
chief-woman, my daughter, go away at once with your husband. You and
your husband go and look for the canoe I own which lies at the end of
the town.”
Then they went there together. They arrived. Only a whale’s head lay
there. Then they went home. She said to her father: “Father, there is
only a whale’s head there.” “That is it. Go and say to it ‘Seaward,
father’s canoe.’”
Lo! it floated on the water. Hu hu hu hu hu, it was a big canoe. Its
edges were broad. They had cross lines. Then they put good food into
it, launched another for Master Carpenter’s daughter, and into it put
good food. They filled it with cranberries, berry cakes, mountain-goat
fat, all kinds of berries. Then they pulled the canoes alongside and
started off. Both wives accompanied him.
When they got near the town site he spanned his bow. He held two arrows
in readiness. Then he jumped out of his canoe at a rocky point near the
town, and he ran to his own house. When he entered he pushed off the
drum which he had placed over his younger brother. The bones of his
younger brother and the dog lay under it, held together only by their
joints.
And, when the canoes landed, he went down to them. He held his bow
ready to shoot the daughter of Ga′ogila. Then she said to him, “Do not
kill us. We are going to look at your younger brother.” Then he
stopped.
They went up together and sat over his younger brother, Ga′ogila’s
daughter took something out of her box and bit off the end of it. It
was blue. Then Master Carpenter’s daughter brought out a mat with edges
like cumulus clouds, and they laid his younger brother upon it.
Ga′ogila’s daughter spit under it many times.
Then she told Ga′ogila’s daughter to hurry. Her copartner in marriage
[326] said to her: “Do so yourself, woman. Hurry your own mind.” Then
she pulled off the mat. He rose out of the place [where he had been
lying]. The dog, too, was glad to see him.
Then they unloaded both canoes. There were plenty of canoe men. There
were a crowd of those whom his fathers-in-law had given to him. And
next day they enlarged the house. They finished a large house for him.
The front was sewn together [in the old style].
In his house they ate nothing but good food day after day. When they
were through eating deer fat, mountain-goat fat was brought out, cut
up, and distributed. They held this by the fire to roast. They ate it.
One day they said to their husband: “Go and get digging sticks for us.”
Then he was glad. And he climbed a tree. He cut off limbs. He made
them, and they were finished. The digging sticks he made while still in
the woods were partly bloody looking [where the inside bark was
reached]. When he came in with them, instead of being pleased, they
laughed at him and said, “Get a real digging stick like father’s.” He
went away again and used cedar limbs. Those the women also rejected. He
got all sorts of sticks. He was unsuccessful. Then he got the side
shoot of a yellow cedar. He finished it roughly on the spot. Then he
brought it home and worked it up. The women said to him: “Make the
lower part red; make the upper part blue.” They were hung in the rear
of the house. The upper ends were made like round knobs.
Next morning they ate. The crowd of people was like stirred up salmon
eggs. The young people played with his wives. But he said nothing. Then
the two women put the digging sticks on their shoulders, but they did
not take baskets.
Then he also went with them. The clams were shooting water. And he
said, “Dig right here.” When the women went there, he heard them
laughing, and they made him ashamed. But, after they had moved about
for a while, they separated and started inland. Then they stood still
opposite each other at the ends of the town. They ran their digging
sticks into the ground. When they pried up they made the town larger
than it was before. They brought up his father-in-law’s village.
Lo and behold! people walked about in front of the town in great
numbers. He was “town mother” in his father-in-law’s town. His wives
were two. Next day they again went down on the beach. When he spoke to
them as before they laughed at him. They made him ashamed again.
After they had gone along for a while they struck their digging sticks
into the ground. They dug out two whales, and the town people went down
and cut them up. Next day they went down again. Again they dug two out.
They went down for five days in succession and dug out ten. On each
side they dug out five.
He wore ornaments of twisted copper wire coiled round his legs.
The chief’s son gave five whales to the town people. Next day they cut
them up. But he left five. They were all fastened to his house with
ropes. The sea-gulls eating the whale meat lying around looked like
smoke.
Then he took his bow and arrows, and after he had looked at them for a
while, he shot a small sea-gull. He shot it through the head. Now he
brought it in, split it open at the tail, and skinned it. He dried the
skin. When it was partly dried, he got into it. He walked about on the
floor-planks with it. Then he stretched his wings to fly. He flew out.
He left the town behind. His wives, too, did not have a trace of him.
He flew up into Nass inlet, they say. Then he looked about for the
place where his father’s town was located. They were vainly trying to
catch eulachon with fish-rakes. In the canoe belonging to his father’s
slaves was only one fish. Then he took it up with his beak; one of them
saw him and said: “Alas! he has carried off my eulachon.” They looked
up at him. They saw around his leg the thing that used to be around the
leg of the chief’s son whom they abandoned.
Then they paddled off and landed bow first [in their haste]. [327] The
chief’s son whom they had abandoned had become a sea-gull. He had flown
about among them. This is what they said. Then his father and his
mother turned around from the fire, and, when they had stopped crying,
he (the father) said to the slaves: “To-morrow go to dig for the bones
of my child.”
Now the slaves went away, and, after they had gone down with the
current for a while, they found decayed pieces of whales floating about
upon the water. When they had gone on farther, they found two whales.
After they had looked along a while for a place to hide this, they left
it there. In Nass inlet they were starving in the period before the
eulachon become thick. They left it until later. [328]
They went away from it and came in sight of their master’s town. The
town had become larger. In front of the houses were crowds of people.
They were boneless with astonishment. Only the man in the stern paddled
along.
He (the chief) came out. Lo! four of his father’s slaves were coming.
Then he went in and spanned his bow. He also took four arrows. He came
out in a rough manner. He was prepared to shoot at them, but the
daughters of Ga′ogila and Master Carpenter seized him by the shoulders.
“Stop! let them land. Let them come into your house. It is also well
for you to let them go again.” Then his two wives took his bow from
him. He remained standing in the same place.
When they landed he went down to them and said: “All four of you come
ashore. After you have taken off your clothing, come up with me.” So
they stripped there and went up with him. And he had them sit down at
one side of the house and gave them food. When the food was almost
consumed he gave them some whale to eat. They ate it ravenously. He had
them strip because he was afraid they would take some [food] home.
When they started off, one of them was so bent over as nearly to touch
the ground. Then he went over to him and asked him, “Say! why do you
walk so bent over?” and he replied, “Chief, I act that way because I am
too full.” And when he (the head slave) was ready to start, he gave him
the following directions: “Say! do not touch the rotten whale which is
floating about. I shall watch it.” Then he said to them: “Say that you
could not find my bones.”
Then they started off and landed in the night. And they said: “We could
not find the bones.” Then his parents wept. When they stopped, they
went to sleep. [That night] to their surprise the child of the head
slave began to cry. He cried as people do when things are lodged in
their throats. Then the chief’s wife asked to have him handed to her,
and she held him on her knee. She put her finger into his mouth and
found something. Then they looked at it. They did not know what sort of
thing it was.
[The head slave] said: “I wish you could see what kind of house he
lives in. What used to be your town has become larger. His two wives
brought out the town. They dug it up, and they also dug out ten whales.
Five are still floating there where they were fastened.”
Then, although it was midnight, the chief told them to put wood on the
fire, and they went out and called in the people. Immediately they came
in. Then, after they had consumed one salmon with the few last
cranberries, [he said]: “I wish you to hear what I think. I think you
should go toward your son whom I left and to whom I will give this
town.” And all the town chiefs thought it good.
Then his ten uncles planned like this: they would offer their daughters
to him in marriage. Their fathers were going to make marriage-gifts to
them. Next day the town was broken up. Hu, hu, hu, hu, hu! the canoes
that they launched were large. They painted up his uncles’ daughters.
They paddled the canoes along together with planks laid across the tops
of them, on top of which they had their daughters sit.
After they had gone along with the tide for a while they came to where
the decayed whale-meat was floating. They landed, steamed some, and ate
it. Then they gave some to their daughters, who sat in the canoes. But
the daughter of the youngest uncle had not had her face painted.
Because she was [considered] good for nothing, he left her so. Then he
gave her a small piece of the inner layer of the bark of the hemlock.
He told her to chew part, and she did.
Then they went on and came in sight of the town. It was most wonderful
to behold. The whales floated about it. But as soon as the chief
discovered them he got his bow. Then his two wives spoke to him, and he
stopped.
They stopped in front of him, and a good looking woman went shoreward
first. He told her to open her mouth. Her mouth smelt strong and he
refused to have her. He refused all nine in the same way. Now the
youngest got off. She opened her mouth. It smelt clean, and he smiled,
and let her come in with him.
When they landed [his father] gave the town people to his son, and they
made their homes on each side of those who were already there. Now he
gave five whales to those who had just come in. The next day they went
down and cut them up. They ate these ravenously.
After some time had passed one started out from the town to hunt with
dogs. After he had been hunting for some time his dog barked at
something. Then he went near it, and lo! his dog was barking at a
grizzly bear.
Then he went to him. He threw him into his den. His wife sat at home.
He was thrown against her breast. Then she dug up the earth for him,
and put him in the hole, leaving only his cape outside.
Now he (her husband) came in and asked her: “Where is the human being I
threw in to you?” “Here is the only thing you threw in to me, which I
tore in pieces.” Then he again went after him and could not find him.
And again he asked her, but she [said she] did not know.
Now, at daybreak, he went hunting. He carried a big basket, and his
wife let out his thread of life. [329] It ran out irregularly. Then she
let him (the man) out and gave him something to eat, and they lay down
together. When it began to jerk again, she pulled up a plank, put him
under, and sat on top.
He entered. There were a few crabs in the bottom of the basket. He used
to fill it, but now it was different. He came in and sat down, but he
did not know why he came home empty. [330] Next day she again fastened
the thread upon him, and he started off. But, while it was unrolling,
she cut it. Then she let the man out and married him. And she showed
him the trail upon which her husband used to hunt, explaining
everything.
Next day he took the basket and went inland. After he had gone up for a
while, he came upon a lake in an open space. In the middle of this was
a shoal. Now he swam over to it and put crabs into the basket. When his
basket was full he went away. His wife was very glad to see him,
because his basket was full. He lived with her a while. All that time
he continued hunting in the same way.
By and by she became pregnant. She gave birth to a boy. She became
pregnant again and bore another boy. She had two. Now he worked harder.
By and by he stopped getting crabs and hunted hair seal.
One time he gathered them for four nights so that there were many and
prepared to go away. Then she gave him the following directions: “When
you hunt, leave some for my children. I will sit waiting at the upper
end of the inlet.” And she said to him: “Do not talk with another
woman.” She gave him a small water-tight basket in which was some
water. A hawk feather also floated in it. Then she said to him: “Do not
trifle with other women. In this I shall see it. When you have finished
eating, drink from it.” So she directed him. [331]
Then he went away from her and came to his father’s town. And, after he
had sat near a water hole behind it for a while, his mother came
thither. Then he told her who he was. His mother went home crying. Then
his father spread out a Gī′na-g̣ā′da-skin [332] he owned for him, and he
walked [into the house] upon it.
Then they made a bed for him and he lay down there. They kept trying to
get him to eat something. He did not eat. By and by two went with him,
and he hunted. He speared hair seal. When the canoe was full he started
for the inlet. Instead of objecting, those with him looked on in
silence.
When he came to the end of the inlet there sat a grizzly bear. Then
those who were with him turned their backs to the bear (paddling in the
opposite direction), but, after he had paddled for a while facing her,
he got off. Then he went to the grizzly bear and sat down near her. The
two young grizzly bears were glad to see him. They licked him.
He went down to the canoe and threw off a hair seal. Then he went away.
And after many nights had passed he went hunting again. The same ones
were with him who had been with him before. And he speared hair seal.
When the canoe was full they made a camp fire, and he steamed the hair
seal there. Then they put it into the canoe and went into the inlet
again. When they had almost come to land those with him again paddled
in the opposite direction.
Again he got off and sat near the grizzly bear. The young ones licked
him. Their mother, however, did not look toward him. After he had sat
near her for a while, he stood up, threw off a hair seal, and went off
by canoe.
But one time he went for water for himself. At that time he went with
the one he used to be in love with. Then he went home.
After some space of time had passed he went hunting again, cooked some
hair seal, and went into the inlet. Now, differently from the way she
used to act, the hair on the back of her neck stood straight up. Then
his companions said to him: “Let us go back. The hair on the back part
of her neck stands up, differently from the way in which it used to
be.” Still he paddled on. He landed and sat near her. She did not look
toward him. His children, however, were glad to see him.
After he had sat there a while, she went to him and threw him about. As
she did so she tore his limbs off. Then the cubs quickly went at their
mother and tore her to pieces. Then they felt sorry on account of their
mother. They acted as dogs do when one puts medicine into their noses.
Then they went away.
Now, just as some people were starting a camp fire, [the cubs] came and
killed them. They went away again, and they killed some others. And,
while they were continuing to do this and were traveling about, they
came and sat behind some people who had lighted a fire, and a woman’s
child cried. Then she said to it: “Do not cry. Your uncle’s children
might come and destroy us.” Upon hearing those things they went away.
This island was once all covered with grass, they say. Woodpecker was
traveling about upon it. He had no feathers. And in the middle of the
islands stood a large tree without bark, on which he began hammering.
Now, after he had done this for a while, something said to him: “Your
powerful grandfather says he wants you to come in.” He looked in the
direction of the sound. There was nothing to be seen.
And when something said the same thing to him again, he looked into a
hole at the foot of the tree and [saw] an old man sitting far back,
white as a sea gull. Then he entered.
The old man looked into his small box. After he had pulled one box from
another four times he took out a wing-feather. Wā-ā-ā-ā. [333] And he
also stuck his tail into him and dressed him up. He made him red above,
and he said to him: “Now, grandson, go out and start life anew. This is
what you came in to me for.” Then he went out and flew. And, as he was
going to do in the future, he took hold of the tree with his claws and
hammered on it. [334]
[Another version of the third section of this story, told to Professor
Boas to explain the carvings on the pole of “Nasʟᴇʟzu′s’s house” in
Masset.]
There was a man of the Eagle clan, a great hunter. For a whole year he
was unsuccessful. His name was Gāts. [335] He had two dogs. One day he
saw a bear. He took his bow to shoot it. Then the bear turned back and
took hold of the man and carried him to his den. After they reached
there he gave the man to his wife, who hid him between her legs.
The bear went hunting again. When he returned he asked his wife, “What
became of the man whom I caught?” She replied, “I think you did not
bring a man; you only brought his belt. Here it is.”
Every time when the he-bear went hunting she took the man out of his
hiding place, and he became her lover. The two dogs had returned to the
village. The people followed them, discovered the bear, and killed him.
Then the she-bear married the man. They had a child.
One day Gāts recalled his friends, and he asked his wife to let him
return to his own village. She agreed and said: “I am going hunting all
the time, I will go and give food to my child.” Then Gāts returned to
his own village, where he had left a wife. But before he returned the
bear told him not to look at his former wife, else she would kill him.
One day the man went hunting with his two sons. On the hills he met the
bear. He went to meet her, and gave her some food. The people were
afraid to accompany him on his visit to the bear. When she saw him
approaching she raised her ears and was glad to see him.
One day he went to a pond to fetch some water. While doing so he met
his former wife and smiled at her. Then he went hunting and caught many
seals. In the evening he went up the hill to meet the she-bear. Then
her ears were turned forward like those of an angry bear. She jumped
into the water before the man had reached the shore, attacked him, and
killed him and his two sons.
Like the preceding, this story is compound, there being in reality
three distinct tales. The first and longest is that to which the title
properly belongs, and the main theme, the story of the person abandoned
to die who was supernaturally helped and became a great chief. It is
popular from Yakutat bay to the Columbia river. The second part, the
story of the man who married a grizzly bear, was appended because the
hero is said to have belonged to the same town as the principal
character in the first part. It is a favorite Tsimshian story, and is
referred to for the origin of the secret societies. Another version,
obtained by Professor Boas from Charlie Edenshaw, chief of the
Stᴀ′stas, is appended. The concluding section, telling how the
woodpecker obtained its brilliant plumage, seems to be altogether out
of place here, but my informant asserted that it was always told in
this connection at Skedans. It is the only part of the story manifestly
Haida.