[Told by Abraham of Those-born-at-Qꜝā′dᴀsg̣o, to whom it was related by
an old man of Ninstints]
At Middle-town [599] Łᴀ′gua spoke through a certain one. After he had
acted as shaman for a time, while they sang for him, he began to whip
something. At once he began to fast. All that time he whipped it. The
town people wanted to see it. They wanted to see the thing he spoke
about. [600]
After a while he sang that he held his supernatural power, Łᴀ′gua, in
his teeth at the end of the town. His supernatural power also made the
water smooth for some time. All that time they fished for black cod.
Every time they came in from fishing those who handled the lines gave
him two black cod. His wife had a great quantity.
By and by Łᴀ′gua told him to go out fishing with them. He went with
them at once. After they had fished for black cod for a while and had
started away, they came to a point of iron sticking out of the water.
Then the shaman sat upon it. [601] And he gave them directions. “Go in,
and then come out to meet me,” he said to him.
As soon as they had unloaded their black cod, they went out to meet
him. It was evening. They called out to one another. Then they
approached each other. When they called out after it had become dark he
answered them. At once they went to him. Immediately all the canoes
began to tow it ashore. They used a black-cod fish-line for the
purpose.
After they had paddled for a while, it became broad daylight, and they
towed it in at the end of the town. It was only for
Those-born-at-Sa′ki.[599]
After they were through eating they began to split off iron wedges.
When they got through with that they began to hammer out the iron. They
made spears and knives of it. The news of this iron passed over the
island. At once people started to come for the iron. They exchanged a
slave for one piece of iron. They kept selling it. They worked this
into war spears throughout all of the villages.
After they had traded with this iron for a while, Inlet people [602]
came in ten canoes. After they had been there for a while, news came
from the towns up the inlet that they would try to make trouble for
them during the gambling. Then the Middle-town people said they would
not let them do it at their town. They were on the side of the Inlet
people. Secretly they made different arrangements. They deceived [their
visitors] by saying they were on their side.
One morning they came to gamble. As soon as they landed they spread out
their gambling mats. They formed a line on the side toward the sea. The
Middle-town people told the Inlet people not to be afraid. At once they
began to gamble. And after the town people had put on their weapons
they stood behind them. They held their spears, and they held their
knives.
After they had talked for a while over the betting and had begun to
gamble they stood with their spear points upward. Then they turned
around at once and speared all. They killed all. The others did not
scratch a skin in return. All their wives and their children who were
in the houses they enslaved. Not one escaped.
Then the news that they had destroyed them went over this island and
the news also reached the Inlet.[602]
After that one for whom they were going to get a grave post slept
alone. His mother-in-law, who was a widow, stayed with him. When winter
came he told them to make a pole in the shape of a killer whale’s
dorsal fin, the lower part with the carving of a grizzly bear upon it.
He belonged to the Slaves. [603]
At once they went out to get it. They came to tell him. They pulled it
ashore, and, after they had carved it for a while, it was finished. And
the day before the one on which they were to raise the grave post he
pounded up tobacco and gave it to a shaman there.
Then his supernatural power entered him. They sang for him. Very soon
he got through. Then he said: “There are many eyes of strangers upon
me. Over there, too, lies my trunk.”
Now it was night. In the night the Inlet people came to the town and
killed all the people. They enslaved all the women and the children.
All the time that he who got the grave post was supposed to be sleeping
alone he was in love with his mother-in-law. His name was
“Sealion’s-neck.”
Łᴀ′gua was a Tlingit spirit, and there were several stories told about
him. The following was taken down by me in English:
Łᴀ′gua once “came through” a Tlingit. He was a poor man, but his Power
told him that some day he would be rich. By and by enemies came and
carried him off as a slave. While he was still a slave, his Power came
to him again, and told him that he would be a chief. He said: “No, how
can I be a chief, when I am a slave sitting near the door? You better
stop talking to me.” “No, by and by you shall be a chief.” He was a
slave for five or six years, and during all of that time his Power kept
promising him that he should be a chief. One night, when he was acting
as a shaman, his Power threw something called Lā′nas ya′mᴀg̣a, which
makes people love each other, on the whole village, and everyone fell
into a deep sleep. Then he and some of his fellow slaves filled two
canoes with children whom they were going to enslave, and the canoes
went off without a paddle being used. Long after day came the parents
awoke and pursued, but, when the pursuers came near them, the slaves’
canoes became islands covered with trees, and they were passed by. When
the pursuers passed on their way back, the same thing happened again.
Finally he reached his own town and, from the sale of the children he
had taken off and from the property received from the relatives of the
slaves he had liberated, he became a great chief.