TWILIGHT TALES AND TOTEMS
"ONCE a small girl child went by night to bring water. In the skies
above she saw the Moon shining brightly, pale and placid, and she put
forth her tongue at it, which was an evil thing, for the Moon is old,
and a Thlinkit child should show respect for age. So the Moon would not
endure so rude a thing from a girl child, and it came down from the sky
and took her thither. She cried out in fear and caught at the long grass
to keep herself from going up, but the Moon was strong and took her with
her water-bucket and her bunch of grass, and she never came back. Her
mother wept for her, but her father said: 'Cease. We have other girl
children; she is now wedded to the Moon; to him we need not give a
potlatch.'
"You may see her still, if you will look at the Moon, there, grass in
one hand, bucket in the other, and when the new Moon tips to one side
and the water spills from the clouds and it is the months of rain, it is
the bad Moon maiden tipping over her water-bucket upon the earth. No
Thlinkit child would dare ever to put her tongue forth at the Moon, for
fear of a like fate to that of Squi-ance, the Moon maiden."
Tanana's voice was soft and low, and she looked very pretty as she sat
in the moonlight at the door of the hut and told Kalitan and Ted quaint
old stories. Ted was delighted with her tales, and begged for another
and yet another, and Tanana told the quaint story of Kagamil.
"A mighty _toyon_[9] dwelt on the island of Kagamil. By name he was
Kat-haya-koochat, and he was of great strength and much to be feared. He
had long had a death feud with people of the next totem, but the bold
warrior Yakaga, chieftain of the tribe, married the toyon's daughter,
and there was no more feud. Zampa was the son of Kat-haya-koochat, and
his pride. He built for this son a fine _bidarka_,[10] and the boy
launched it on the sea. His father watched him sail and called him to
return, lest evil befall. But Zampa heard not his father's voice and
pursued diving birds,[11] and, lo! he was far from land and the dark
fell. He sailed to the nearest shore and beheld the village of Yakaga,
where the people of his sister's husband made him welcome, though Yakaga
was not within his hut. There was feasting and merry-making, and,
according to their custom, he, the stranger, was given a chieftain's
daughter to wife, and her name was Kitt-a-youx; and Zampa loved her and
she him, and he returned not home. But Kitt-a-youx's father liked him
not, and treated him with rudeness because of the old enmity with his
Tyee father, so Zampa said to Kitt-a-youx: 'Let us go hence. We cannot
be happy here. Let us go from your father, who is unfriendly to me, and
seek the _barrabora_ of my father, the mighty chief, that happiness may
come upon us,' and Kitt-a-youx said: 'What my lord says is well.'
"Then Zampa placed her in his canoe, and alone beneath the stars they
sailed and it was well, and Zampa's arm was strong at his paddle. But,
lo! they heard another paddle, and one came after them, and soon arrows
flew about them, arrows swift and cruel, and one struck his paddle from
his hand and his canoe was overturned. The pursuer came and placed
Kitt-a-youx in his canoe, seeking, too, for Zampa, but, alas! Zampa was
drowned. And when his pursuer dragged his body to the surface, he gave
a mighty cry, for, lo! it was his brother-in-law whom he had pursued,
for he was Yakaga. Then fearing the terrible rage of Zampa's father, he
dared not return with the body, so he left it with the overturned canoe
in the kelp and weeds. Kitt-a-youx he bore with him to his own island.
There she was sad as the sea-gull's scream, for the lord she loved was
dead. And her father gave her to another _toyon_, who was cruel to her,
and her life was as a slave's, and she loathed her life until Zampa's
child was born to her, and for it she lived. Alas, it was a girl child
and her husband hated it, and Kitt-a-youx saw nothing for it but to be
sold as a slave as was she herself. And she looked by day and by night
at the sea, and its cold, cold waves seemed warmer to her than the arms
of men. 'With my girl child I shall go hence,' she whispered to herself,
'and the Great Unknown Spirit will be kind.'
"So by night she stole away in a canoe and steered to sea, ere she knew
where she was, reaching the seaweeds where she had journeyed with her
young husband. The morning broke, and she saw the weeds and the kelp
where her lover had gone from her sight, and, with a glad sigh, she
clasped Zampa's child to her breast and sank down among the weeds where
he had died. So her tired spirit was at rest, for a woman is happier who
dies with him she loves.
"Now Zampa's father had found his boy's body and mourned over it, and
buried it in a mighty cave, the which he had once made for his furs and
stores. With it he placed bows and arrows and many valuables in respect
for the dead. And Zampa's sister, going to his funeral feast, fell upon
a stone with her child, so that both were killed. Then broke the old
chief's heart. Beside her brother he laid her in the cave, and gave
orders that he himself should be placed there as well, when grief
should have made way with him. Then he died of sorrow for his children,
and his people interred him in his burial cave, and with him they put
much wealth and blankets and weapons.
"When, therefore, the people of his tribe found the bodies of
Kitt-a-youx and her child among the kelp, having heard of her love for
Zampa, they bore them to the same cave, and, wrapping them in furs, they
placed Kitt-a-youx beside her beloved husband, and in her burial she
found her home and felt the kindness of the Great Spirit. This, then, is
the story of the burial cave of Kagamil, and since that day no man dwelt
upon the island, and it is known as the 'island of the dead.'"
"I'd like to see it, I can tell you," said Ted. "Are there any burial
caves around here?"
"The Thlinkits do not bury in caves," said Tanana. "We used to burn our
dead, but often we place them in totem-poles."
"I thought those great poles by your doors were totems," said Ted,
puzzled.
"Yes," said the girl. "They are caste totems, and all who are of any
rank have them. As we belong to the Raven, or Bear, or Eagle clan, we
have the carved poles to show our rank, but the totem of the dead is
quite different. It does not stand beside the door, but far away. It is
alone, as the soul of the dead in whose honour it is made. It is but
little carved. A square hole is cut at the back of the pole, and the
body of the dead, wrapped in a matting of cedar bark, is placed within,
a board being nailed so that the body will not fall to the ground. A
potlatch is given, and food from the feast is put in the fire for the
dead person."
"It seems queer to put weapons and blankets and things to eat on
people's graves," said Ted. "Why do they do it?"
"Of the dead we know nothing," said Tanana. "Perhaps the warrior spirit
wishes his arrows in the Land of the Great Unknown."
"Yes, but he can't come back for them," persisted Ted.
"At Wrangel, Boston man put flowers on his girl's grave," said Kalitan,
drily. "She come back and smell posy?"
Having no answer ready, Ted changed the subject and asked:
"Why do you have the raven at the top of your totem pole?"
"Indian cannot marry same totem," said Kalitan. "My father was eagle
totem, my mother was raven totem. He carve her totem at the top of the
pole, then his totem and those of the family are carved below. The
greater the family the taller the totem."
"How do you get these totems?" demanded Ted.
"Clan totems we take from our parents, but a man may choose his own
totem. Before he becomes a man he must go alone into the forest to
fast, and there he chooses his totem, and he is brother to that animal
all his life, and may not kill it. When he comes forth, he may take part
in all the ceremonies of his tribe."
"Why, it is something like knighthood and the vigil at arms and
escutcheons, and all those Round-Table things," exclaimed Ted, in
delight, for he dearly loved the stirring tales of King Arthur and his
knights and the doughty deeds of Camelot.
"Tell us about that," said Kalitan, so Ted told them many tales in the
moonlight, as they sat beneath the shadows of the quaint and curious
totem-poles of Kalitan's tribe.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] Chieftain.
[10] Canoe.
[11] Ducks.