[Told by Jimmy Sterling of the Stᴀstas]
A married woman consorted with a man. She grew to be very much in love
with him. Her child was rather a large boy. When he (her lover) went to
visit her she said to him: “I will let myself fall sick, and I will let
myself die. I will tell them to place me on a tree top. On the night
when they place me there go quickly and get me. When you get ready to
come up for me get some wet, rotten wood, out of which the water will
run and which will just fit the box.”
After she had gone with him for a while she let herself fall sick. She
then gave her husband directions: “When I die place me on the top of a
tree. I do not want to be on the ground.” As soon as she died they put
her into the box and put a strong cord around it. They then put her
between the two tops of a tree.
He who was in love with her went at once to her in the night. As soon
as he had found some wet wood he untied the ropes which were around her
and let her out. He then put the wet, rotten wood in her place. She had
told him to do this in order that the water might drip out of the wood
and they might think that it was the grease from her body.
He then told the woman where to wait for him the next day. And he let
her go before him. On the next day he went after her. He told his
friends that he was going to get furs.
They at once set out to go far inland; and, after they had traveled
about for a while, he built a house for them far inland, and they began
to live there.
Her husband constantly came weeping with her child to the place where
she had been placed on high. By and by [what he supposed was] the
grease from her body began to run down. That was the liquid running out
of the rotten wood. The man who went for furs disappeared moreover. His
friends thought that a grizzly bear had killed him.
Where they stayed, far inland, there was plenty of all kinds of
animals, which he killed for them. They had plenty of all kinds of
berries and salmon. And they wore hides sewed together. They became
like Wood Indians. [725]
Moreover, they began there to sing songs. The woman danced the whole
time. She also made up new words. During all that time she taught her
husband. She made up new words in order that when she went back they
should not know her. After they had stayed there many years they went
away. They carried on their backs skins of all kinds of animals
prepared in unusual ways. Furthermore, the woman dressed herself
differently. She wore things such as the Wood Indians wear. But the man
did not dress himself so. They now came back to the town.
The man said that he had come to a town while he was hunting far
inland, had there married the woman, and had remained there. One night
he said that his wife would dance. All the while she spoke the words
that she had composed for her husband. But her husband said that it was
her language.
All the people of the town then went into the house where she was, and
she began to dance before them. Her dances and her songs were strange.
Nevertheless she made them desire to come in and look at her.
Whenever she danced her former husband and her child came and looked on
with them. When she ceased her dancing she pointed her finger at her
child and said something. Her husband then explained her words. She
said, [he explained], that she had a child like him in her own country.
She then called her child, and she cried.
When she first danced her former husband recognized the motions that
she used to make, and her voice. Although he recalled the one who was
dead, he did not believe that it was she. That was why he continually
went to look. Because she kept them up all night to see her dance they
were all asleep in the morning. They learned her songs.
After a while, having positively identified his wife, he climbed up to
where she had been put and untied the box cover. Only rotten wood was
there. Some time after he had seen this, very early one morning after
she had danced, while they still slept, he went thither. Then, after he
had pulled from her face the thing that she wore as a hat as she slept,
he saw it was his wife. And while they slept he killed them both.
Then they discovered it, but the woman’s friends were ashamed. The
man’s friends were also ashamed. Nothing happened. [726]
A similar story from the Alaskan Haida will be found in Memoirs of the
Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Volume V, part 1, page 263.