[Told by Abraham of Those-born-at-Qꜝā′dᴀsgo]
When they (the Kloo people) lived at People’s-fort [908] South-east
[909] had two wives. One was a woman of the Sand-town people, [910] and
one was a woman of the Pebble-town people. [911] He loved the Ninstints
woman, because she was pretty. For that reason the Pebble-town woman
wanted her to do something wrong.
Then she began helping her to do it and told her husband that she was
receiving a man of the Town-of-Djī′gua people. [912] He then took her
outside naked and whipped her. The-elder-Sqaa′n [913] loved her. And
she said of the Pebble-town woman, too: “I know also about her lover.”
Then South-east heard it, and he began whipping her also.
The next day both had disappeared. They did not know then whither the
two women had gone. The news reached Tcꜝā′ał. [914] News also reached
the other mother in the Ninstints country. One morning both mothers
appeared together in front of People’s-fort. Both sang crying songs for
their daughters. The Pebble-town woman and the Sand-town woman both
sang one [as follows]:
“On account of this my child moved about. On account of this, when my
child moved about, they ought to have heard the thunder, when my child
moved about on the way home.” [915]
He then let them come into the fort, and he gave them blood
compensation. He gave a slave to each of them, and he also gave a great
deal of property to each of them. Then the canoes parted. The women
went away satisfied.
When it was near summer he went to ask in marriage the younger sister
of the Sand-town woman whom he had married. And he came to Many-chiefs
at Sqā′djigît·awa′-i. And, after he had stayed a while with his
brother-in-law, he went away.
Before he had gone far the mother of Many-chiefs said to him:
“Many-chiefs, are you a man?” [916] He then became angry and took his
gun and his paddle. Then they pursued South-east. And while they
pursued him Many-chiefs was left behind. He did not have enough canoe
men.
Then South-east got off. As he fled into the woods he stepped under a
fallen tree, a small limb scratched his forehead, and a small stream of
blood flowed out down over his cheeks. Then the Ninstints people all
came to him. They encircled him. They waited for Many-chiefs.
One who was out of his senses said: “Why do you let him sit there? Even
for the blood that is running down his face you will be in a
predicament.” [917] He then shot him. The name of him who shot him was
Skᴀ′ndal. And they did not kill those who were with him. Those they let
go.
Half of the Town-of-Djī′gua people were at Łtā′na. The news had not yet
reached them. And there there lived a man of
Those-born-in-the-Ninstints-country [918] who was unmarried. He had
just won in gambling three sea-otter skins owned by a man of the
Town-of-Djī′gua people. His (the latter’s) name was Alder.
Then he (Alder) went out on Sg̣aalū′tꜝx̣ᴀs and ate medicine. There he
spent the night with the medicine on his stomach. He came home the next
day, and the day after that he began eating and drinking. His sister,
West-coast-clouds, gave him birds’ eggs to eat.
He had just picked up one and was shelling it when some one came crying
from a point at the end of the town. He then laid the egg down directly
and stopped all of them, for they had started the cry.
Then Alder, with his younger brother, went out to a ship [to which the
Ninstints man had gone]. [919] And he said to his younger brother: “I
will kill him even if he has gone up on deck.” He was still on the
water below, and he held his canoe against it on the starboard side.
They then went thither. They looked at him (Alder) while he was still
far away, and they asked them: “Why are they weeping on shore?” Then he
replied: “I do not know. After we got away from land, they wailed
behind us. They mentioned something about a child falling into the
water.” He deceived him in that way. And the Ninstints man was yet
below them on the water, and he put the canoe alongside of his. His sea
otters lay behind where he was sitting.
After he had remained beside him for a while he stabbed him. And he
said: “The chief has been killed. They are bringing home his body.” He
then took back his four sea-otter skins.
And, as soon as he had killed the Ninstints man, he went at once to
Strait-where-no-waves-come-ashore. [920] He went for gunpowder and
bullets which South-east had stored behind it. He also brought the news
to Strait-where-no-waves-come-ashore.
Then Ginᴀ′skilas [921] set a Sand-town woman outside to kill her. And
Alder stopped him. “Do not do that, chief, my nephew. You are of the
same skin dirt.” [922] And he let her in.
He then went over to the storehouse, crossing to it on a trail. When he
came out there Ninstints people were going away. And, when he came down
on the shore and stood opposite them, they said to him: “Alder, do you
not see that your leg has been cut off? [923] I wonder what you are
going to use as weapons.” And he replied: “Yes, you have cut off my
leg. I shall not have a single thing as a weapon. Yet two nights from
now I shall have procured weapons by selling you as slaves.”
He then went away by canoe. He started at once with his younger
brothers toward the south. And they concealed their canoe some distance
down the inlet from the fort. They then went up into the woods. After
they had gone along for a while Alder led them across a point covered
with trees.
After he had gone inland he came to a storehouse. And, having thrown
aside some skins and hides [924] stored there, [he came to] a box of
sea-otter tails that was among them. They afterward went away.
They started to watch by the fresh water opposite the fort. When the
tide rose high some people came singing from the fort. There were three
young women and a man of goodly size.
They then began to shoot at them. They killed the man and one woman and
enslaved the two others, and they went off in their canoe.
From the fort they heard his gun go off. They were in canoes in lines,
awaiting him. He then went into the midst [of them]. And, when he came
near, they moved apart for him. He passed through. He sang a fleeing
song: [925] “Wahō-ō-ō hē-ōōō wahō-ō-ō hē-ō-ō-ō⁺.”
And after he had fled for a time one of the Ninstints men held his hand
toward him with fingers outspread. [926] And he said: “I wonder to what
place of safety Alder is paddling.” Then he answered: “Slave,
Hemlock-bark-scraping-knife, chase me as fast as you can. Kill me as
soon as you can.”
And, when they came up to the place where they had killed the chief,
they talked one to another. They became frightened. “He is leading us
to enemies near by; he is leading us to enemies.” They then went back
away from him. And he easily escaped them.
He reached home and set ashore the two slaves for Ginᴀ′skilas. They
took the two slaves to Skedans [927] to sell them, and traded them for
guns and ammunition only. They gathered ammunition for war as one
collects food.
Now for a long time the war went along slowly. By and by the war
expedition started. After they had paddled along for a while they came
near the fort in the night. There was no noise of talking at the fort,
and they felt strange about it. And they let morning dawn upon them
opposite the fort. And when it dawned they saw that the fort was empty,
and they went to it. Nearly all of the property lay in the houses. They
then burned down the fort. They burned the houses. They had no idea why
the people had gone.
And, after they had started out of the inlet, they stopped at a large
bed of kelp. All made themselves fast to the kelp with their paddles.
Then Qꜝā′siêk [928] began to perform in a canoe as a shaman does. After
he had performed for a while he began to whip the souls of the enemy.
And when he pulled toward himself something he had seized in the air
all the kelp broke.
Then all went on. After they had gone along for a while they saw smoke.
And Alder landed in front of Songs-of-victory town. He went quickly
then to the other side. When he had come to the other side he came out
behind a man who was carrying along driftwood at the end of the trail.
He shot him from behind.
The Ninstints people discovered their enemies at once. Many-chiefs held
a new gun. Those left to care for the canoes then came round the point.
After they had anchored their canoes one came running out from them
(the Ninstints people). He had no gun. He held a spear. “The
Town-of-Djī′gua people are always like that (i.e., cowards). Shall I
stop before I get there?”
They at once ran together, shooting. The Ninstints people were driven
back. The first time he fired the flintlock on Many-chiefs’ gun broke
in two. Nothing could help him. When they went back Many-chiefs was
wounded. He escaped with them into the woods. Very many Ninstints
people were killed then. Not one was killed on the other side.
After they had gone into the woods after them for a while they came
back. Then Ginᴀ′skilas stood in the place where they had encamped near
a whale. If one had two slaves, he gave him one. If one had three, he
gave him two. If one had one, he did not give it to him. At that time
he became still more of a chief. In exchange for those slaves he had a
house built. [929]
And, after the Ninstints people had gone along for a while in the
woods, they lived in the mountains. Their kettles and all of their
property had been captured. They steamed whale in things that they
hollowed out.
While they lived there, before Many-chiefs’ wound was healed, he
practiced how he was going to fight. He opened again his unhealed
wound. He died there. They then started away and came out opposite
Red-cod island. [930]
And those who had gone to fight went out again the next year to fight
on account of South-east. At that time they did not know where they
(the Ninstints people) lived. After they had gone along for a while
they came to a reef lying out from the mouth of a strait.
There Smoke got off. When he looked seaward he dropped to the ground.
He did so, because he saw fishing canoes.
On that day they had given to Kiä′nskina-i [931] the white part of a
halibut. That was why he was out fishing. They at once went out from
Kꜝîl [932] toward them, and they destroyed the people. Among others
they killed the chief. They then seized Hemlock-bark-scraping-knife on
the water. “Hemlock-bark-scraping-knife, when the chief was chased,
did you not stop them?” “No,” he said. And they struck him on the lips
with the short sinker strings that they held. They killed him with
them.
They then skinned Kiä′nskina-i’s head, and were happy to have it, [933]
and they returned home with it. They ceased to think about Southeast.
They stopped warring.