[Told by Richard of the Middle-gîtî′ns]
They lived together in the town of Masset. In the fall they went up the
inlet to dry salmon. They camped then on both sides of A′-în. [838]
After they had dried salmon for a while some of the Eggs-of-Skî′tg̣ao
went off in the night to hunt hair seal.
He (the leader) remained then during the night on one side of an islet.
There, while he was trying to get a chance to shoot hair seal, a gun
sounded from across the point. Then a boy who was in his canoe shouted
like one who is shot. “Wa′nanî, wa′nanî; they shot me.”
One who was with him jumped off then. Then he asked: “Who did it? Who
did it?” Instead of answering, they pulled away from him, and he shot
toward them in the darkness. He shot the man in the bow, so that he
fell into the water. He [839] then went home and told his friends.
Some time after that, during the night, the child came home crying. He
told his friends what had happened. The Eggs-of-Skî′tg̣ao and the
Inlet-rear-town people at once began fighting. They shot at each other
through all the fall. Their wives being between the families (i.e., of
different families), their sons got dog salmon for them. [840]
By and by they went away. After the men of both families had got into
two canoes they fought in their canoes all the way down. But the women
came behind in canoes. [841] And when they landed they fought each
other again on land. They shot at each other there all night. There
many of the Inlet-rear-town people were killed.
On the next morning they fought each other again. And, since the
Eggs-of-Skî′tg̣ao landed at White-slope [842] first, the Inlet-rear-town
people passed by in front. At that time they began to settle at Yan.
[843] And they had a fort on an islet there.
After that they again began to fight each other. Then many were killed
on both sides. They fought through the winter and through the summer
around it. By and by, after they had settled at Yan, one of the
Eggs-of-Skî′tg̣ao went over to them. Thereupon they stabbed him in front
of the town. [844] Then they again went across to fight. They killed
four of the Inlet-rear-town people.
Some time afterward a whale floated into the inlet. They went then to
get it, and with the Inlet-rear-town people they jointly cut it up. One
of the Inlet-rear-town people was killed there with a war spear. They
started at once to fight again. They then again killed each other. At
that time all the sharpshooters among the Inlet-rear-town people were
destroyed.
Some time afterward a chief of the Inlet-rear-town people destroyed a
whole canoe load of the Eggs-of-Skî′tg̣ao. The war began again at once.
While they were still trying to kill one another, when I was yet a boy,
there came a great pestilence, [845] and, when the people on the Haida
islands were being destroyed, they stopped fighting. Then there was
peace.
The first of these families was spoken of in “Story of the House-point
families” notes; the second was one of several divisions of the
Rear-town people referred to in note 6 to “Story of the
Food-giving-town people.” My informant’s father belonged to the
Eggs-of-Skî′tg̣ao or to a related family, hence his sympathies were
rather on their side.