[Told by Tom Stevens, chief of Those-born-at-House-point.]
A certain person was a good hunter with dogs. He also knew other kinds
of hunting, but still he could not get anything. They were starving at
the town. And one time, when he went to hunt, he landed below a
mountain. And when he started up some wolves ran away from him out of a
cave near the water. In the place they had left a small wolf rose up.
Then he tried to catch it, and the wolf tried to fight him. Then he
said to it “I adopt you,” and it stopped fighting.
Then he put it into a bag he had and went home with it, and he hid it
in a dry place near the town. After that he dreamed that it talked to
him. It said to him: “Go with me. Put me off under a great mountain
where there are grizzly bears and sit below. Then I will climb up from
you toward the mountain and, when a big grizzly bear rolls down, cut it
up. And, when another one comes down, split it open, but do not touch
it.”
At once he took it away and put it off under a mountain. Then he went
up, and, while he sat beneath, a big grizzly bear came rolling down.
While he was cutting it up another came rolling down, and he split it
open.
Immediately afterward the small, wet wolf came down. It yelped for joy.
It shook itself and went inside the one that was split open. At once it
made a noise chewing it. It ate it, even to the bones. Although it was
so big it consumed it all. Only its skin lay there.
Then he put the parts into the canoe and brought them to the town. And
they bought them of him. When they were gone he took it (the wolf) off
again. They kept buying from him.
When his property was fully sufficient his brother-in-law borrowed it.
Then he gave him directions. “Cut up the one that rolls down first, but
the last one that rolls down only cut open.” Then he gave it to him in
the sack in which he kept it.
Then he started with it and put it off beneath the mountain. Soon after
it had gone up a grizzly bear rolled down, and he cut it up. Afterward
another one rolled down, and he cut that up also. Then the wolf came
down. After it had walked about for a while it began to howl. Then it
started away, so that he was unable to catch it. It went along on a
light fall of snow.
And, when he got home and he (the owner) asked for it, he told him it
got away. He handed him only the empty bag.
At once he bought hide trousers. He also bought moccasins. Immediately
he started off. He put the hides into a sack. Then he landed where he
used to put it (the wolf) off and followed its tracks. He followed its
footprints upon the snow lying on the ground.
Now, as he went, went, went, he spent many nights. He wore out his
moccasins and threw them away. All the while he followed his son’s
footprints upon the snow. He went and went, and, when his moccasins and
trousers were almost used up, he heard many people talking and came to
the end of a town.
Then he hid himself near the creek, and, when one came after water, he
smelt him. Then he saw him and shouted to him: “So-and-so’s father has
come after him.” At once they ran to get him. His son came in the lead.
They were like human beings. Then he called to his father. He led him
into the house in the middle. The son of the chief among the wolf
people had helped him. The house had a house pole.
Then they gave him food. They steamed fresh salmon for him, and, when
they set it before him, his son told him he better eat. Then he ate.
And, after they had fed him for a while, they brought the hind quarter
of a grizzly bear, already cooked, out of a corner. Then they cut off
slices from it and gave them to him to eat.
He kept picking them up, but still they remained there. They set the
whole of it before him with the slices on top. He did not consume it.
It is called: “That-which-is-not-consumed.”
After he had been there for a while they steamed in the ground deer
bones with lichens [697] on them. And next day they began to give them
to him to eat. Then he did not pick them up, but he said to his father:
“Eat them, father.” He was afraid to eat them because they were bones.
Then he picked one up. But, when he touched it to his lips, it was
soft.
Every morning they went after salmon. They put on their skins. Then
they came home and brought three or four salmon on the backs of each.
They shook themselves, took off their skins, and hung them up.
Presently he told his son that he wanted to go away. Then they brought
out a sack and put grizzly-bear fat into it. When the bottom of it was
covered they put in mountain-goat fat. There was a layer of that also.
After that they put in deer fat, as well as moose fat. They put in meat
of all the mainland animals.
After it was filled, and they had laced it up they gave him a cane. It
was so large he did not think he could carry it. And, when he started
to put it on his back, his son said to him: “Push yourself up from the
ground with your cane.” Then he did as directed. He got up easily.
Then he gave other directions to his father. “You will travel four
nights. When you camp for the night stick the cane into the ground and
in the morning go in the direction toward which it points. Stick the
cane into the ground where you come out. After you have taken those
things out of the sack, take that over also and lay it near the cane.
Those things are only lent you.”
At once he set out. And, when evening came, he stuck the cane into the
ground. But the cane pointed in the direction from which he had come,
and he went toward it. And, when evening again came, he stuck the cane
in, and in the morning the cane was again pointing backward; and again
he followed it.
After he had camped four nights he came out. And he stuck in the cane
at the edge of the woods. And, while they were again in a starving
condition, he came home. They were unable to bring out his sack. And,
when a crowd took hold of it, they got it off [the canoe], and, after
they had taken the best parts of all kinds of animals out of it, he
took the sack back to the cane and laid it near by.
Then they also began to buy that. With what he got in exchange he
became a chief. [698] With what he got in exchange he also potlatched.
After two nights had passed he went to see the place where he had left
the sack. He saw that they had taken it away.
Since wolves are not found upon the Queen Charlotte islands, this is
necessarily a mainland story, probably Tsimshian.