[Version obtained by Prof. Franz Boas.]
Ten men intended to catch fish near Q’a′daso near ʟō [New Kloo]. They
went there in their canoe and caught the fish by means of snares which
were attached to the points of poles. One of these men wore a hat
showing a design of a cormorant (k·ʼā′lo) belonging to the Eagle clan.
Whenever he caught a fish his hat fell down into the water, so that he
did not catch any thing more. Finally he grew angry and scolded the
water. He took his hat and said: “I strike your vulva with this hat,
Djila′qons.” Finally the people went ashore, where they made a large
fire, intending to eat the fish. [The name of the fish was Tā′ʟat, the
charr (or rainbow-trout)]. They roasted them. After a little while a
large frog came up to the fire. They took it and threw it into the
flames, and laughed when they saw it burn. After a short while there
was a clap of thunder, and the frog burst. After a little while the
same frog came back. They put more wood upon the fire, and threw the
frog into it; but when it was red-hot it jumped out of the fire.
Now they returned to their village. They saw a man walking along the
beach, following them. He shouted: “When your canoe reaches yonder
point of land, one of you shall die. At the next point of land the
second one of the number shall die, until you are all dead. Only the
steersman shall reach your village, where he shall tell what has
befallen you, and then he, too, shall die.”
After a little while they heard a large man coming, who struck his
abdomen, and the sound was like that of a drum. Then they laughed at
him. They struck his abdomen with sticks in order to hear the noise. He
said: “I wish to help you,” but they did not listen to him. He said: “A
fire is coming. It is going to burn everything.” After a while they saw
an animal coming, with a beak like that of a mosquito.
Another day a few men went out hunting seals. They met a seal which
looked up at the sky and said: “This cloud looks as though all the
people were going to die. The same thing happened long ago.” [All these
were prophesies of the general destruction of the tribe.] Then the man
returned without killing the seal.
Now the whole town was burned. The fire came from the water, burning
everything. All the people were killed. Only a young girl who had just
reached maturity hid in a cellar near the doorway where the people used
to urinate. She alone was saved. Her name was Yēʟʼukx·īna′ng. Then
Djila′qons came from out of the water. She took her staff, beat time
with it, and sang a mourning song. She found the young girl, who became
the mother of the Djʼēguaʟlānas.
This is one of the most important Haida family stories, Djila′qons
being considered the ancestress, or at all events special patroness, of
all those of the Eagle clan, while from Sounding-property, the sole
survivor of the town of Djī′gua, were descended the following four
great groups of Eagles: Those-born-at-Skedans and the
Town-of-Djī′gua-people of Old Kloo, the Witch people of Cumshewa, and
the Sealion town people of Kaisun. Besides these several claim to have
branched off from the above, and the Lā′na tcꜝā′adᴀs claim her as their
ancestress because a man of their family took her over to the
Tsimshian. They are not, of course, regularly entitled to the
distinction.
A version of this story obtained by myself was printed in the Memoirs
of the American Museum of Natural History, Jesup North Pacific
Expedition, V, part I, pages 94–96, and another was printed by
Professor Boas in his Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Küste
Amerikas, Berlin, 1895, pp. 310, 311. My story-teller gave the
following as one of the crying songs used by Djila′qons at this time:
Wâ â hâ â g̣adā′g̣a-łîña′-i⁺hēyē, etc., the whole being accompanied by
weeping, sobbing, and the labored breathing that accompanies. The two
words mean “those who were going to have property,” the thought being
“Oh! those that would have had property if I had let them alone!”