The one abandoned for eating the flipper of a hair seal
[Told by John Sky of Those-born-at-Skedans]
He was a chief’s son. He was always in the back part of his father’s house whittling. He did not care to eat anything. [His father] owned the town of Metlakahtla.[1] He was “town-mother.”[2]
Then someone in the town killed a hair seal. Then they cooked it and called the people in for it. And the father of the boy who sat up whittling went thither. All the town people went in for it. There they ate.
As soon as they had stopped they carried some over to the chief’s wife. When they brought it in a flipper lay upon the top. Now, he who sat up whittling looked down. Then he came down and called to his mother: “Come, give me a wash basin. Let me wash my hands.” Then he said “Come, push that over to me,” and he ate it. He ate it all and pushed [the dish] back.
Now he (the chief) came in and said to his wife “My child’s mother, come let me eat the hair-seal flipper I sent home.” “My child has eaten that,” she said to her husband. From the high place where he was whittling he heard what his mother said.
After she had said this to her husband, he did not say a word. Presently he said “Well, say that I want them to move from this place to-morrow.” At once a slave went out and said, “To-morrow the chief says he is going to abandon his son.”
Then evening came and he (the boy) went to the wife of one of his ten uncles with whom he was in love. As he lay with her, she gave him the following directions: “When they are ready to start, I will get off to defecate, and dig around with your feet in the place where I sit. I will leave something for you there.”
His younger brother was just big enough to sit up. He also had a dog.
When morning came the noise of their departure was heard. Then, when they were ready to go, he brought out his younger brother. He also took his dog, which he treated like his child. When they were ready to start, his uncle’s wife got off to defecate. She sat down behind the sea-weeds which were drifted ashore. As soon as she got in again, they started off.
After the crowd of canoes had gone round the point, he went to [the place where his uncle’s wife had sat]. Only a broken stick lay there. Then he dug around. He dug up a small box. It had ropes round it. He laid the box down near his younger brother, gathered [[174]]planks together, and made a house. He made it just large enough. When it was finished, he again sat down near his younger brother and untied the strings of the box. In it was a grease-box and two mussel-shells fastened together by a string, which he untied. To his astonishment he found burning coals within.
He looked into the grease-box. It was half full of grease. Cranberries were also in it, and ten salmon were on the bottom of the box. He did not eat one of them. He kept them all winter for his younger brother. But he whittled continually.
Then only one salmon was left with a small amount of grease and cranberries. His mind was greatly troubled. There was nothing for his younger brother to eat. He used to give part to the dog. That is why his food was nearly gone. The last bits of the salmon, grease, and cranberries were nearly gone. By and by a small piece [of fish] was left, and he gave it to his younger brother along with all of the grease.
In the evening he went to bed and wept, wept, wept. He kept thinking all night of how nothing was left for his younger brother to eat. Presently his dog went out. It barked behind the house. From where he lay by his younger brother he rose quickly and at once seized his bow. While still in the house he wet the arrows with his mouth, prepared his bow ready to shoot when outside, and stepped lightly in that direction.
It was barking at something in the space between the roots of a cedar bent over toward the sea. After he had gone toward it for a while he saw nothing near it. It was barking at something in the ground. When he stood over it [he found] that it was barking at something in a pool of water. To his surprise a salmon lay in it. He speared it with an arrow. He twisted its neck off.
He took it up, laid it down on a piece of board near the house, cut it open, and steamed its head, its backbone, its milt, and its heart (?).[3] He gave its backbone and its head to his younger brother to eat. To the dog he gave its milt and its heart (?) to eat. He, however, ate nothing.
They went to bed and at daybreak the dog was barking there again. Again he went thither with his bow and [found] it barking at something in the water. Two salmon lay there. Then he speared them with an arrow. And after he had taken them to the house he steamed the two backbones, the two heads, the milt of both, and he gave them to his younger brother and the dog. He, however, again ate nothing.
Next day it was barking there again. Then he got his bow. He wet the arrows with his lips just outside. He went over and [found] three lying there. Every morning there was one more. Finally ten lay there, and he speared them and pulled them out. He dragged them out in a bunch and cut them open. He threw the gills away. [[175]]Those he had obtained the day before he split a second time. This is why it happens that mainland chiefs cut fish open [instead of letting the women do it]. He was the one who started [that custom].
When it barked there the next day he stopped taking his bow. He only took the arrows. Again there was one more. Next day there was also one more. In this way the number reached twenty. Those he had cut open for the first time the day before he cut open farther. Then he split planks and hung them up there. He fixed a place overhead. Some food entered his belly for the first time since they left him, for his younger brother now had enough to eat.
The next day the dog barked there again. He went thither. There was one more than before. The day after one more was added. In that way the number reached thirty.
Next day the dog barked there. He went thither, and again there was one added. The day after one more was added, and the number increased to forty.
He and his younger brother again went to bed, and when day broke he heard the dog go out. After he had listened to its barking for a while [he found] that it was barking differently from the way in which it used to bark. After it had barked for a while it yelped differently. Then he picked up his bow and two arrows and just outside wet them with his lips. Having his bow in readiness he walked slowly toward [the sound].
It was barking at something in the same pool of water, and he looked into it. He saw not a sign of anything. But it dug for something near the water. After it had done so for a while its teeth stuck fast in the roots, and after it had yelped a while they slipped off. Then [the boy] helped dig behind it. The dog dug along ahead of him. Ah! they dug into the marks of salt water, and a salmon creek came to be there.[4] At that time a great shoal of salmon came up. He stood near them. Then he went away, collected the town people’s planks, and split them up. He planed them. He made notches for ropes. All that time the salmon were coming steadily up. He made this for them.
He stretched his arms on these. Each [of these horizontal pieces] was two fathoms long. Some were one fathom long [for uprights]. There were twenty poles of each sort. All had notches on the ends. Toward the top, which he worked down small, he placed a design. He put figures of salmon there. These parts were the łg̣aiyî′ñgadadjî.[5]
While he was making this thing he never forgot his younger brother and the dog, they say. He cooked for them continually, and they ate. When he had those things all together he went away and dug some roots. Then he came back, made a large fire of dead branches, and put them in. After it he split [twigs] with his teeth. After he had finished doing this, he shaped young and slender hemlocks so that they [[176]]should be flat on one side and rounded on the other. When he had finished he fastened these together. He had four horizontal crosspieces on each half of the gī′g̣awai. On each half of the gīgwᴀ′ñgīda, too, he had three crosspieces. On each of the łg̣aiyî′ñgadadjî he had three crosspieces. He also split up pieces for the “wings” (weir). After that he put them together and finished all the same day.
He went back of the house, cut piles, sharpened them, and put rings of bark around them [to keep them from splitting when they were driven into the stream bed]. Now he went into the water and drove piles into the place where the fish trap was to stand. Then he put the fish trap into the water. He fastened the horizontal pieces with twisted cedar limbs. He treated the gīgwᴀ′ñgīda in the same way. Now he stood up the łg̣aiyî′ñgadadjî in place. Out of it all he made something roundish.[6]
After he had put the fish trap in place he gathered planks together. Then he split them in two. He also split some planks into poles. Then he enlarged the house. He set the drying frames for salmon over each other. He also put up the large poles (qꜝa′idagilai). They had notches [to prevent the smaller kꜝia′sᴀnai from slipping off]. The taxasgā′gida lay beneath the ridgepole of the house (djansgā′gida), itself supported front and back by the crossed house-timbers.[7]
Although he used to eat, he was so busy working that he stopped doing so. Still he never forgot his younger brother and the dog. He fed them all the time. As soon as the fish trap and all things were finished, and day came, he went to the fish trap. He kept taking them (the salmon) out. As soon as he had done so he strung them together. He finished ten strings and laid them in the water. Then he roasted some for his younger brother for that evening, and that night he remained awake. Again he kept taking them out. He strung up the same number as on the day before and let them lie in the water. All that time they never ceased to run, hu hu hu hu hu. Where had their hunger gone to?
One day, when the house was filled and he had fully enough and had cut them up for more than ten nights, before he went out to remain awake, he roasted some for his younger brother by the fire. He took out more and more salmon. He came back, and the two rows of roasted fish which had been there were gone. Then he went over to his younger brother, cried near him, and went out to cut up the fish.
When it was evening he again roasted some. Again he had more and again he stayed up to watch. He took some out. He did it repeatedly. When he went home what he had roasted had again disappeared. Then he again wept near his younger brother and went out to cut up his fish. He cut up the fish and again remained awake. Now he had three rows of roasted fish.
He took out still more salmon. He came in, and lo! all was gone. Part of those above were also gone. Then he called his younger brother, [[177]]and said: “Say! brother,[8] did you eat all the things I roasted?” “No; shortly after you went out someone came in, gathered them up in his hands, with those above, and put them into his mouth.” “I thought it was you.”
Now, he did not care about the salmon. Nor did he go out to cut up the fish. He felt badly. He sat waiting. He was going to watch. He wanted to see who this person was. In the evening he brought out his bow, spanned it, brought out two arrow-boxes, put one on the left side near the door, and sat over the right-hand one with his bow.
After he had sat there in the dark for a while he saw two pieces of burning pitchwood side of the house. When they came around to the front of the house something wonderful entered and stood there. Something with fire burning in its eyes came in and stood there. After it had stood there for a while it gathered the roasted salmon together and swallowed all. After he had stood looking at those above for a while he gathered them also together and swallowed them. As he turned away from this he (the boy) shot him under the armpit and from the other side as well. That was Ga′ogila.[9]
When he turned about he shot him repeatedly. He shot him repeatedly. When one arrow-box was exhausted, as the animal turned around, he went to the other also, and after he had shot from it for a while midnight came and he went out.
At once he pursued him. He stuck the arrows into his quiver, and kept shooting him through his back and his breast. After some time had passed, lo! he had passed to the other side of a mountain as quickly as if it had been thrown back from him. Then he returned.
He entered and took his younger brother on his knee. He also called the dog to him, and the latter licked his lips. Then he turned over the drum that had belonged to his father and placed it over his younger brother and the dog. And he went away.
As he went he picked up the shafts of his arrows [which had fallen from the heads]. After he had run along for a while he heard a noise. Then he stood still. After he had listened for a while he heard a sound like that of a hammer. Now, he went in that direction. Lo! some one was working out the inside of a canoe. Only the top of his head was visible. He looked at it fixedly.
He walked slowly in that direction. His head entirely disappeared within the canoe while his hammer lay outside of the canoe. Then he reached for it and took it with him under a bunch of ferns near by. After he (the boy) had looked at him for a while he stood up in the midst of his work and looked about for something. He cleared away the chips. [The boy] was looking at him stealthily.
He sat still and put his finger-nails between his teeth. By and by he said: “My grandson, come to me. News of you has come. News [[178]]has come, grandson, that they abandoned you because you ate the hair seal’s flipper, which your father sent home from the feast. If it is you, come to me.”
He went out quickly and stood there. And he handed his hammer to him. At once he stepped out to take it. That was Master Carpenter[10] making a canoe.
“Say! go and get four bent wooden wedges. Put two rings of cedar bark in the front part of the canoe and two in the stern. Then your canoes will come apart.” He was unable to make two canoes as he was trying to do, one inside the other, because his wedges were too straight.
He went to get the wedges, and while he was away the other had already put rings on the canoe. He brought them (the wedges) along. Then he told him to put them in the bow and the stern. Then he began hammering on them. After he had busied himself going back and forth from one to another for a while, lo! they started to separate. After doing so for a while, he hammered them apart. He thought: “I wonder where the salmon are for which he wants these.” He did not think about his younger brother. Then [the man] said to him: “Now, grandson, come with me. You shall marry my daughter.”
Now he went with him. Wā, the smoke they came in sight of was like a comb. That was his town. He went with him into the middle house, which belonged to Master Carpenter. Between the screens, in the rear of the house, sat a wonderful creature, as beautiful as a daughter of one of the supernatural beings. Then her father said to her, “Chief-woman,[11] my daughter, come and sit near your husband.” At once she arose and sat down near him.
After his father-in-law had given him something to eat repeatedly, evening came and she said to him, “Let us go out [to defecate].” “I do not know where they go out.” Then she said to him, “Why! do you not know where they go out?” She said to him, “I will go with you.” It was evening, and she went out with him. She went seaward with him, and they defecated. They came in and sat down. Straight across from the town a drum sounded.
His father-in-law treated him well. Every evening he went out with his wife, and the drum kept sounding there. He became tired of hearing it and once, after he had gone out and was seated with his wife, he questioned his wife, “Say! why is that drum always beating?” “They are trying to cure the town chief.” Then he said to his wife, “Come! let us go over and look.”
Then they came in, and she asked her father: “Father, do you own a small canoe?” “Yes, chief-woman, my daughter, one is lying down on the beach.” Then two youths carried the canoe down on their shoulders, but they (the man and his wife) walked. They got into it, and only the youths paddled, while he and his wife sat in the middle. [[179]]
They landed and pulled up the canoe. Then he and his wife went up and, when they saw him, the crowd of spectators standing in front of the house before the door opened up a passage for him, and he and his wife looked in.
To his surprise the one he had shot sat doubled up over wooden bars which were fastened between ropes hung from the ridge-pole, touching the lower one with his feet and holding the upper one in his hands.[12] The arrows stuck out of him all over. He was suffering greatly.
After he had looked at him for a while, he thought: “I wonder why the shaman does not see what is sticking out of him.” Then one standing near him looked at his face and said: “I wish you could hear what the person standing here says, ‘I wonder why the shaman trying to cure him does not see what is sticking out of him.’ ” The one who announced his thought was mind-reader among the Land-otter people. And a shaman from among the Land-otter people was trying to cure him. He did not see what was sticking out of him.
By and by some one rose and spoke to him who offered the blankets in return for the cure. Then he went away with his wife, came home, and told her to ask something of her mother. “Mother, have you any cedar-bark?” “Yes, chief-woman, my daughter.” Then she gave him some. They dried it around the fire, went to work upon it, and pounded it up for cedar-bark rings. These were finished.
Then they intended to bring him over. While yet in the house he bound himself [with the bark]. He bound his arms, the front of his body and his legs. Then they came and offered him ten moose-skins. Then they had him brought over. When he entered, the sick man was still hanging in the rear of the house.
And, after he had gone around him for a while, he pulled the arrows out of his buttocks. As soon as he had done so he stuck them into the bands around his own arms. He suffered ceaselessly where he hung. Then he pulled them out from the other side of him and from his legs. He stuck them into the rings around his body and back. Then he picked him up and seated him on the floor-planks. So he who had been unable to sit up now did sit up. Then he asked for a pillow and laid him on it. Ah! he lay there comfortably.
But, when he looked up, he beheld his (Ga′ogila’s) daughter, who was wonderful to look upon. He beheld her. Then, picking the sick man up again, he made him lay his feet upon the lower cross stick and seize the upper one with both hands. Then he put the arrows back into his buttocks and his side, so that he again suffered severely. Then he started away. He ceased looking at him, and they took him away on the canoe.
After he came in and sat down two more persons came in and stood there. They offered him twenty moose-skins and two coppers. He refused them. Then they came to offer him all the things in the [[180]]town one after another. But he kept refusing them. Now he saw that his mind had become fixed. His future father-in-law wanted to keep his daughter by means of the many things he owned. And, after he had refused the property, he offered his daughter in marriage.
Immediately he turned around and started off. Then he again bound [bark] around himself. And they took him across. He entered and went round the man who was hung doubled up. By and by, while he was doing it, he pulled the arrows out of his buttocks, and he also pulled the arrow points out from the left side of his body. Then he took hold of him and made him sit up. He sat there; and, when he had finished pulling the arrow points out of his sides, back, and breast, not one was left in him. He sat up.
Then he said to his daughter: “Chief-woman, my daughter, come hither and sit down near your husband.” He married the chief’s daughter. At once Master Carpenter’s daughter came over. Now he had two wives.
After he had lived with his wives for a while, one day he lay abed. When the people went to bed again he was still there. Next day he did the same thing. His two wives said not a word to him. As he lay abed he wept.
Then he (his father-in-law) asked his daughter:[13] “Chief-woman, my daughter, why does your husband lie abed?” Then she went to her husband and talked with him a while. And she said to her father: “He lies abed because he is homesick for his younger brother whom he left.” “Now, chief-woman, my daughter, go away at once with your husband. You and your husband go and look for the canoe I own which lies at the end of the town.”
Then they went there together. They arrived. Only a whale’s head lay there. Then they went home. She said to her father: “Father, there is only a whale’s head there.” “That is it. Go and say to it ‘Seaward, father’s canoe.’ ”
Lo! it floated on the water. Hu hu hu hu hu, it was a big canoe. Its edges were broad. They had cross lines. Then they put good food into it, launched another for Master Carpenter’s daughter, and into it put good food. They filled it with cranberries, berry cakes, mountain-goat fat, all kinds of berries. Then they pulled the canoes alongside and started off. Both wives accompanied him.
When they got near the town site he spanned his bow. He held two arrows in readiness. Then he jumped out of his canoe at a rocky point near the town, and he ran to his own house. When he entered he pushed off the drum which he had placed over his younger brother. The bones of his younger brother and the dog lay under it, held together only by their joints.
And, when the canoes landed, he went down to them. He held his bow ready to shoot the daughter of Ga′ogila. Then she said to him, [[181]]“Do not kill us. We are going to look at your younger brother.” Then he stopped.
They went up together and sat over his younger brother, Ga′ogila’s daughter took something out of her box and bit off the end of it. It was blue. Then Master Carpenter’s daughter brought out a mat with edges like cumulus clouds, and they laid his younger brother upon it. Ga′ogila’s daughter spit under it many times.
Then she told Ga′ogila’s daughter to hurry. Her copartner in marriage[14] said to her: “Do so yourself, woman. Hurry your own mind.” Then she pulled off the mat. He rose out of the place [where he had been lying]. The dog, too, was glad to see him.
Then they unloaded both canoes. There were plenty of canoe men. There were a crowd of those whom his fathers-in-law had given to him. And next day they enlarged the house. They finished a large house for him. The front was sewn together [in the old style].
In his house they ate nothing but good food day after day. When they were through eating deer fat, mountain-goat fat was brought out, cut up, and distributed. They held this by the fire to roast. They ate it.
One day they said to their husband: “Go and get digging sticks for us.” Then he was glad. And he climbed a tree. He cut off limbs. He made them, and they were finished. The digging sticks he made while still in the woods were partly bloody looking [where the inside bark was reached]. When he came in with them, instead of being pleased, they laughed at him and said, “Get a real digging stick like father’s.” He went away again and used cedar limbs. Those the women also rejected. He got all sorts of sticks. He was unsuccessful. Then he got the side shoot of a yellow cedar. He finished it roughly on the spot. Then he brought it home and worked it up. The women said to him: “Make the lower part red; make the upper part blue.” They were hung in the rear of the house. The upper ends were made like round knobs.
Next morning they ate. The crowd of people was like stirred up salmon eggs. The young people played with his wives. But he said nothing. Then the two women put the digging sticks on their shoulders, but they did not take baskets.
Then he also went with them. The clams were shooting water. And he said, “Dig right here.” When the women went there, he heard them laughing, and they made him ashamed. But, after they had moved about for a while, they separated and started inland. Then they stood still opposite each other at the ends of the town. They ran their digging sticks into the ground. When they pried up they made the town larger than it was before. They brought up his father-in-law’s village. [[182]]
Lo and behold! people walked about in front of the town in great numbers. He was “town mother” in his father-in-law’s town. His wives were two. Next day they again went down on the beach. When he spoke to them as before they laughed at him. They made him ashamed again.
After they had gone along for a while they struck their digging sticks into the ground. They dug out two whales, and the town people went down and cut them up. Next day they went down again. Again they dug two out. They went down for five days in succession and dug out ten. On each side they dug out five.
He wore ornaments of twisted copper wire coiled round his legs.
The chief’s son gave five whales to the town people. Next day they cut them up. But he left five. They were all fastened to his house with ropes. The sea-gulls eating the whale meat lying around looked like smoke.
Then he took his bow and arrows, and after he had looked at them for a while, he shot a small sea-gull. He shot it through the head. Now he brought it in, split it open at the tail, and skinned it. He dried the skin. When it was partly dried, he got into it. He walked about on the floor-planks with it. Then he stretched his wings to fly. He flew out. He left the town behind. His wives, too, did not have a trace of him.
He flew up into Nass inlet, they say. Then he looked about for the place where his father’s town was located. They were vainly trying to catch eulachon with fish-rakes. In the canoe belonging to his father’s slaves was only one fish. Then he took it up with his beak; one of them saw him and said: “Alas! he has carried off my eulachon.” They looked up at him. They saw around his leg the thing that used to be around the leg of the chief’s son whom they abandoned.
Then they paddled off and landed bow first [in their haste].[15] The chief’s son whom they had abandoned had become a sea-gull. He had flown about among them. This is what they said. Then his father and his mother turned around from the fire, and, when they had stopped crying, he (the father) said to the slaves: “To-morrow go to dig for the bones of my child.”
Now the slaves went away, and, after they had gone down with the current for a while, they found decayed pieces of whales floating about upon the water. When they had gone on farther, they found two whales. After they had looked along a while for a place to hide this, they left it there. In Nass inlet they were starving in the period before the eulachon become thick. They left it until later.[16]
They went away from it and came in sight of their master’s town. The town had become larger. In front of the houses were crowds of people. They were boneless with astonishment. Only the man in the stern paddled along. [[183]]
He (the chief) came out. Lo! four of his father’s slaves were coming. Then he went in and spanned his bow. He also took four arrows. He came out in a rough manner. He was prepared to shoot at them, but the daughters of Ga′ogila and Master Carpenter seized him by the shoulders. “Stop! let them land. Let them come into your house. It is also well for you to let them go again.” Then his two wives took his bow from him. He remained standing in the same place.
When they landed he went down to them and said: “All four of you come ashore. After you have taken off your clothing, come up with me.” So they stripped there and went up with him. And he had them sit down at one side of the house and gave them food. When the food was almost consumed he gave them some whale to eat. They ate it ravenously. He had them strip because he was afraid they would take some [food] home.
When they started off, one of them was so bent over as nearly to touch the ground. Then he went over to him and asked him, “Say! why do you walk so bent over?” and he replied, “Chief, I act that way because I am too full.” And when he (the head slave) was ready to start, he gave him the following directions: “Say! do not touch the rotten whale which is floating about. I shall watch it.” Then he said to them: “Say that you could not find my bones.”
Then they started off and landed in the night. And they said: “We could not find the bones.” Then his parents wept. When they stopped, they went to sleep. [That night] to their surprise the child of the head slave began to cry. He cried as people do when things are lodged in their throats. Then the chief’s wife asked to have him handed to her, and she held him on her knee. She put her finger into his mouth and found something. Then they looked at it. They did not know what sort of thing it was.
[The head slave] said: “I wish you could see what kind of house he lives in. What used to be your town has become larger. His two wives brought out the town. They dug it up, and they also dug out ten whales. Five are still floating there where they were fastened.”
Then, although it was midnight, the chief told them to put wood on the fire, and they went out and called in the people. Immediately they came in. Then, after they had consumed one salmon with the few last cranberries, [he said]: “I wish you to hear what I think. I think you should go toward your son whom I left and to whom I will give this town.” And all the town chiefs thought it good.
Then his ten uncles planned like this: they would offer their daughters to him in marriage. Their fathers were going to make marriage-gifts to them. Next day the town was broken up. Hu, hu, hu, hu, hu! the canoes that they launched were large. They painted up his uncles’ daughters. They paddled the canoes along together with planks laid across the tops of them, on top of which they had their daughters sit. [[184]]
After they had gone along with the tide for a while they came to where the decayed whale-meat was floating. They landed, steamed some, and ate it. Then they gave some to their daughters, who sat in the canoes. But the daughter of the youngest uncle had not had her face painted. Because she was [considered] good for nothing, he left her so. Then he gave her a small piece of the inner layer of the bark of the hemlock. He told her to chew part, and she did.
Then they went on and came in sight of the town. It was most wonderful to behold. The whales floated about it. But as soon as the chief discovered them he got his bow. Then his two wives spoke to him, and he stopped.
They stopped in front of him, and a good looking woman went shoreward first. He told her to open her mouth. Her mouth smelt strong and he refused to have her. He refused all nine in the same way. Now the youngest got off. She opened her mouth. It smelt clean, and he smiled, and let her come in with him.
When they landed [his father] gave the town people to his son, and they made their homes on each side of those who were already there. Now he gave five whales to those who had just come in. The next day they went down and cut them up. They ate these ravenously.
After some time had passed one started out from the town to hunt with dogs. After he had been hunting for some time his dog barked at something. Then he went near it, and lo! his dog was barking at a grizzly bear.
Then he went to him. He threw him into his den. His wife sat at home. He was thrown against her breast. Then she dug up the earth for him, and put him in the hole, leaving only his cape outside.
Now he (her husband) came in and asked her: “Where is the human being I threw in to you?” “Here is the only thing you threw in to me, which I tore in pieces.” Then he again went after him and could not find him. And again he asked her, but she [said she] did not know.
Now, at daybreak, he went hunting. He carried a big basket, and his wife let out his thread of life.[17] It ran out irregularly. Then she let him (the man) out and gave him something to eat, and they lay down together. When it began to jerk again, she pulled up a plank, put him under, and sat on top.
He entered. There were a few crabs in the bottom of the basket. He used to fill it, but now it was different. He came in and sat down, but he did not know why he came home empty.[18] Next day she again fastened the thread upon him, and he started off. But, while it was unrolling, she cut it. Then she let the man out and married him. And she showed him the trail upon which her husband used to hunt, explaining everything. [[185]]
Next day he took the basket and went inland. After he had gone up for a while, he came upon a lake in an open space. In the middle of this was a shoal. Now he swam over to it and put crabs into the basket. When his basket was full he went away. His wife was very glad to see him, because his basket was full. He lived with her a while. All that time he continued hunting in the same way.
By and by she became pregnant. She gave birth to a boy. She became pregnant again and bore another boy. She had two. Now he worked harder. By and by he stopped getting crabs and hunted hair seal.
One time he gathered them for four nights so that there were many and prepared to go away. Then she gave him the following directions: “When you hunt, leave some for my children. I will sit waiting at the upper end of the inlet.” And she said to him: “Do not talk with another woman.” She gave him a small water-tight basket in which was some water. A hawk feather also floated in it. Then she said to him: “Do not trifle with other women. In this I shall see it. When you have finished eating, drink from it.” So she directed him.[19]
Then he went away from her and came to his father’s town. And, after he had sat near a water hole behind it for a while, his mother came thither. Then he told her who he was. His mother went home crying. Then his father spread out a Gī′na-g̣ā′da-skin[20] he owned for him, and he walked [into the house] upon it.
Then they made a bed for him and he lay down there. They kept trying to get him to eat something. He did not eat. By and by two went with him, and he hunted. He speared hair seal. When the canoe was full he started for the inlet. Instead of objecting, those with him looked on in silence.
When he came to the end of the inlet there sat a grizzly bear. Then those who were with him turned their backs to the bear (paddling in the opposite direction), but, after he had paddled for a while facing her, he got off. Then he went to the grizzly bear and sat down near her. The two young grizzly bears were glad to see him. They licked him.
He went down to the canoe and threw off a hair seal. Then he went away. And after many nights had passed he went hunting again. The same ones were with him who had been with him before. And he speared hair seal. When the canoe was full they made a camp fire, and he steamed the hair seal there. Then they put it into the canoe and went into the inlet again. When they had almost come to land those with him again paddled in the opposite direction.
Again he got off and sat near the grizzly bear. The young ones licked him. Their mother, however, did not look toward him. After he had sat near her for a while, he stood up, threw off a hair seal, and went off by canoe. [[186]]
But one time he went for water for himself. At that time he went with the one he used to be in love with. Then he went home.
After some space of time had passed he went hunting again, cooked some hair seal, and went into the inlet. Now, differently from the way she used to act, the hair on the back of her neck stood straight up. Then his companions said to him: “Let us go back. The hair on the back part of her neck stands up, differently from the way in which it used to be.” Still he paddled on. He landed and sat near her. She did not look toward him. His children, however, were glad to see him.
After he had sat there a while, she went to him and threw him about. As she did so she tore his limbs off. Then the cubs quickly went at their mother and tore her to pieces. Then they felt sorry on account of their mother. They acted as dogs do when one puts medicine into their noses. Then they went away.
Now, just as some people were starting a camp fire, [the cubs] came and killed them. They went away again, and they killed some others. And, while they were continuing to do this and were traveling about, they came and sat behind some people who had lighted a fire, and a woman’s child cried. Then she said to it: “Do not cry. Your uncle’s children might come and destroy us.” Upon hearing those things they went away.
This island was once all covered with grass, they say. Woodpecker was traveling about upon it. He had no feathers. And in the middle of the islands stood a large tree without bark, on which he began hammering. Now, after he had done this for a while, something said to him: “Your powerful grandfather says he wants you to come in.” He looked in the direction of the sound. There was nothing to be seen.
And when something said the same thing to him again, he looked into a hole at the foot of the tree and [saw] an old man sitting far back, white as a sea gull. Then he entered.
The old man looked into his small box. After he had pulled one box from another four times he took out a wing-feather. Wā-ā-ā-ā.[21] And he also stuck his tail into him and dressed him up. He made him red above, and he said to him: “Now, grandson, go out and start life anew. This is what you came in to me for.” Then he went out and flew. And, as he was going to do in the future, he took hold of the tree with his claws and hammered on it.[22]
[Another version of the third section of this story, told to Professor Boas to explain the carvings on the pole of “Nasʟᴇʟzu′s’s house” in Masset.]
There was a man of the Eagle clan, a great hunter. For a whole year he was unsuccessful. His name was Gāts.[23] He had two dogs. One day he saw a bear. He took his bow to shoot it. Then the bear turned back and took hold of the man and carried him to his den. [[187]]After they reached there he gave the man to his wife, who hid him between her legs.
The bear went hunting again. When he returned he asked his wife, “What became of the man whom I caught?” She replied, “I think you did not bring a man; you only brought his belt. Here it is.”
Every time when the he-bear went hunting she took the man out of his hiding place, and he became her lover. The two dogs had returned to the village. The people followed them, discovered the bear, and killed him. Then the she-bear married the man. They had a child.
One day Gāts recalled his friends, and he asked his wife to let him return to his own village. She agreed and said: “I am going hunting all the time, I will go and give food to my child.” Then Gāts returned to his own village, where he had left a wife. But before he returned the bear told him not to look at his former wife, else she would kill him.
One day the man went hunting with his two sons. On the hills he met the bear. He went to meet her, and gave her some food. The people were afraid to accompany him on his visit to the bear. When she saw him approaching she raised her ears and was glad to see him.
One day he went to a pond to fetch some water. While doing so he met his former wife and smiled at her. Then he went hunting and caught many seals. In the evening he went up the hill to meet the she-bear. Then her ears were turned forward like those of an angry bear. She jumped into the water before the man had reached the shore, attacked him, and killed him and his two sons.
Like the preceding, this story is compound, there being in reality three distinct tales. The first and longest is that to which the title properly belongs, and the main theme, the story of the person abandoned to die who was supernaturally helped and became a great chief. It is popular from Yakutat bay to the Columbia river. The second part, the story of the man who married a grizzly bear, was appended because the hero is said to have belonged to the same town as the principal character in the first part. It is a favorite Tsimshian story, and is referred to for the origin of the secret societies. Another version, obtained by Professor Boas from Charlie Edenshaw, chief of the Stᴀ′stas, is appended. The concluding section, telling how the woodpecker obtained its brilliant plumage, seems to be altogether out of place here, but my informant asserted that it was always told in this connection at Skedans. It is the only part of the story manifestly Haida. [[190]]
[1] There were many towns in Metlakahtla narrows, but this is Qā′łoqā′łi, said to have been the name given to Metlakahtla proper, where the modern town stands. [↑]
[2] That is, the town chief. [↑]
[3] Milt is probably what the word qꜝā′dji refers to. It was said to be “white stuff found in some salmon instead of roe.” The translation of kꜝō′sgul as “heart” is somewhat doubtful. [↑]
[4] The dog dug up a salmon creek. [↑]
[5] It is difficult to follow the old man’s descriptions, but the accompanying diagram shows how my interpreter illustrated the construction of this fish trap to me.
The trap is seen to be triangular with the apex pointing upstream. The two sides of the triangle next this apex form the trap proper or gī′g·awai (a). The [[188]]third side is flush with a weir running to the bank of the stream on either side, the two parts of which are called the x̣ia′-i (b) or “wings.” Entrance to the trap is given between two slanting sections called the gīgwᴀ′ñgīda (c), which are far apart at the lower end, but almost come together at the upper. The remaining sections on either side of the gīgwᴀ′ñgīda which close the trap are called łg̣aiyî′ñgadadji (d), were made one fathom higher than the other parts, and were painted on the upper section on the side downstream. In construction, posts were driven into the stream bed along these lines and horizontal pieces laid between and secured with cedar limbs. The salmon in their course upstream were led along by the “wings” to the opening between the łg̣aiyî′ñgadadji, forced their way through the apex into the space above, and were unable to get farther or to return.
Fig. 2.—Plan of large salmon trap.
[6] The łg̣aiyî′ñgadadji looked roundish. [↑]
[7] The drying frames were constructed as illustrated in the diagrams on p. 189, the first of which represents the frame looking from above, and the second, one end. There were two such frames in each smokehouse, each occupying one side. The slant of the upper poles accompanies the slant of the roof. The position of the fires is also marked. Smokehouses in town were without any smoke holes, as they were not occupied as dwelling places, while the smoke holes at camp were covered when they began to dry fish. Boards were also placed above the fire in order to spread the heat out and facilitate drying. The Kꜝia′sᴀnai actually extended over all three sections.
Fig. 3.—Drying frame for fish, horizontal and vertical plans.
[8] ʟ̣a, the word used here, can not be literally translated for want of an equivalent. It is only used when addressing a brother, sister, or very near relation. [↑]
[9] I learned nothing more about this supernatural being than what is contained in this story, except that it was said to be like a bear. The word is Bellabella. [↑]
[10] See story of [Raven traveling], note [55]. [↑]
[11] Qꜝol-djat is somewhat difficult to render. It is the feminine of one word for chief, qꜝol, but “chieftainess” would convey a false impression, because it is associated with the idea of the exercise of a chief’s power by a woman. A qꜝol-djat was not one who exercised the power of a chief, but a woman who belonged to the ranks of the chiefs, whether she were a chief’s wife or a chief’s daughter. [↑]
[12] Supported by ropes, because he was too full of arrows to rest upon the ground. [↑]
[13] A man always communicated with his father-in-law and his mother-in-law through his wife. [↑]
[14] The Haida word used here is the same as that for “one,” and appears to mean “oneness in clan,” since to marry the same man both had to belong to the opposite clan. One of my interpreters said that this term might also be applied by a man to the husband of his wife’s sister. [↑]
[15] Canoes were brought to land stern first unless the occupants were in great haste. Among the many things the supernatural beings were supposed to do in an opposite manner from men was to land bow first. [↑]
[16] The Haida at this point is somewhat obscure. [↑]
[17] Every animal and every human being is supposed to be provided with a “thread of life,” an idea not found elsewhere in America so far as I am aware. Līs, the word used here, is also applied to threads of mountain sheep wool. Another name, wa′nwa-i, is given in the story of [How shining-heavens caused himself to be born]. [↑]
[18] A person’s luck in hunting would be destroyed by his wife’s unfaithfulness. [↑]
[19] See the story of [Supernatural-being-who-went-naked]. [↑]
[20] “Something-white,” name given to the skin of some mainland animal obtained in trade by the Haida. [↑]
[21] Meaning “How pretty it was!” [↑]
[22] In the Masset version of the Raven story, Raven tells Woodpecker to go to the dead tree which is to be his grandfather. [↑]