Wars between the towns of Kloo and Kitkatla and between the Kloo families
[Told by Abraham of Those-born-at-Qꜝā′dᴀsg̣o]
Once South-east[1] and the people of his town went trading. He came to I′nūł.[2] And, after they had given them food for a while, berries were dropped upon the face of South-east, and Alder[3] did not like it. Then they began to fight at the fort. And they destroyed the men and enslaved the women.
They then discovered Axłua′ls swimming from the fort. Some youths pursued him. And, when they got near him, one held a spear over his shoulder ready for him. He said to him: “Spare me brother-in-law,” but still he speared him. He broke his back.
They towed the body of Axłua′ls ashore. Those taken as slaves then sang the same song for his body that had been sung for him when he acted in the secret societies and got power from the sea otter and when he performed sleight-of-hand feats.
Lawē′⁺ huwā′⁺hō⁺ hō⁺ lawē′⁺ī iä′⁺ la⁺wē′⁺ huyä′ u ō⁺ lawē′⁺ hu wä⁺
ō⁺ lawē′⁺ hē⁺ iyä′⁺ ō⁺ ōō⁺ lawē′⁺ī⁺ iyä′⁺ō⁺
ō⁺ lawē′⁺ yē⁺ huwä′⁺ ō⁺ hō⁺ lawē′ēē⁺ hēhē⁺ iyä′⁺ ō⁺ ō⁺ lawē′⁺ hē hē iyä′wâ wâ⁺.
At that time they took forty slaves for South-east. All together, they took seventy at that time. When they came home they started to fortify themselves at Thin-fort.[4]
And, after they had been there for a while, Djē′basa[5] came with many canoes. They stopped in front of the fort and bought them (the slaves) for grease, hides, and slaves. And, after he had bought all and had started off, a woman whose lip around her labret was broken through, the only one left, came out and stood there, and said: “Djē′basa, chief Djē′basa, are you going to let your property rot at such-and-such a place where it is stowed?[6] Are you going to let it rot at such-and-such another place where it is stowed?”[6]
Then the canoe was backed toward her, and he gathered the boxes of grease which were in the canoe together and landed them in exchange for her. Then she also got in, and they went away.
When they first arrived there Djē′basa ate dry fish and grease in the canoe. They saw that his mind was good. And South-east began to speak of building a house with what he had obtained in exchange for the slaves. And they were glad, and the Town-of-Djī′gua people sang a song outside.
Wai⁺ aiyā′⁺ aiyā′⁺ aiyā′⁺aiyā′ uyâ⁺ uyâ⁺ ayā⁺ ayā⁺ wâ
ai′ya⁺ aiyā′ha⁺ aiyā′ha aiyā′ha haiyā′haho haiyā′hahē, etc. [[426]]
At the time they sang they made a forward motion, and when they moved much the platform fell. No one was injured. Then one of them asked his child: “Hî′ndju, is your brother there?” They then sang another song: “Hî′ndju, is your brother there?”
They removed then from the fort to Chicken-hawk town.[7] But there they built houses. After this a long time elapsed before there was another fight. South-east was dead, and Ginᴀ′skilas[8] was also dead, and Qā′-idjît[9] succeeded to his place. Then they cleared the town of Sea-grass.[10] He built Cave-house[11] there.
And while Qā′-idjît was sitting idle in front of his house with a Pebble-town woman,[12] whom he had married, Those-born-at-Skedans[13] came from Skedans[14] to fight with him. They shot at him, and his wife fell dead without uttering a word. But he got in safe. Then he kept sending food through the fire to his wife.[15] That made him soon forget about his wife.
And when summer came he married a woman of Those-born-at-Qꜝā′dᴀsg̣o.[16] The brother of the one that was killed also stayed there. His name was Lū′g̣ot.[17]
One day Qā′-idjît painted himself and tied weasel skins in his hair, in order to set out to eat berries. He started off. Lū′g̣ot had made a canoe and was smoothing it there. When his brother-in-law was on the point of starting off he ran down toward his brother-in-law. And he threw sand into Qā′-idjît’s face.[18]
And he asked for two guns which were in the bow. They were afraid to hand them to him then. By and by they handed him one, and he shot his brother-in-law. He shot true and killed him.
Those-born-at-Qꜝā′dᴀsg̣o bestirred themselves at once and fired at him. They shot him in the elbow. Then he lay there. That day three were killed. Qā′-idjît was made to sit on the sand. But still Qā′-idjît escaped into the house. And he lay in the back part of Cave-house. He had two large blankets over him. Over these he also had a cotton canoe sail.
Now those who had done that to him went to a lonely camping place. And afterward they were afraid he was alive. They came to kill him. It was moonlight. A boy who was sleeping with him woke him. He then pulled himself out from under the blankets. And, while he moved back from the fire, one was moving a pistol[19] about in the smoke hole. He tried to shoot him. Twice his pistol failed to go off. Then two guns were pointed through the smoke hole. When they went off there were large holes in the blankets.
One day, some time afterward, he went out in front of the house and sat idle. After he had sat there for a while they stepped toward him. He heard the sound of running feet. And, after he had aimed his gun in that direction for some time, Naskiä′ł[20] stuck out his head, and he shot at his face. He fell there on his face. [[427]]
Of those who came to attack him from the camp Naskiä′ł was killed. And the one who was with him went away. And another family looked after the body. Afterward Qā′-idjît went to Gᴀ′nx̣oat, who was living in Big-house.[21] There he died. And his grandfather put him into a big box.
Then the people who had shot him and were holding a fort in Lake inlet[22] brought over a peace offering.[23] They brought over one slave. And the next year they also held a fort up the inlet from Sea-grass town. Thither Two-in-one came from Daog̣ā′iłgᴀłgîñ, which lies seaward from Skedans, and got him. They came and got Naskiä′ł[24] to go to war with the Gîtā′mat.[25] He went at once.
They then set out. There, at Gîtā′mat, they took many slaves for him. Two-in-one,[26] however, had three. And, when they returned, they built two large houses at Atā′na.[27] Presently they came to him to ask for blood money. They gave then five slaves. And Those-born-at-Skedans named their island “Sunny-fort.”[28] By selling the slaves that remained Naskiä′ł built a house. There they say he began to potlatch. Now they went from Sea-grass town to get his house timbers. And they built his house at Sea-grass town. This is how they got back to Sea-grass town.
After that time they procured more expensive seats [at the feasts and potlatches].[29] They now ceased to have trouble at Sea-grass town.
Here this ends.
Kitkatla was an important town and tribe belonging to the Tsimshian stock. The town was on Dolphin island. [[429]]
[1] Chief of Sea-grass town. The whites’ name for this place, Kloo, is a corruption of his own name, Xeu. [↑]
[2] A fort of the Kitkatla people. [↑]
[3] The one who appears in “War between the people of Kloo and the people of Ninstints.” [↑]
[4] Situated at the northeast angle of Lyell island. [↑]
[6] Referring to his storehouses; see “[Wars with the Niska and Tsimshian and conflicts between Haida families],” note [6]. ↑ [a] [b]
[7] See the [preceding story], note [26]. The house that South-east built at that time was so large that he named each half of it separately. The house pole was covered with abalone shells. [↑]
[8] See “[War between the people of Kloo and the people of Ninstints],” note [14]. [↑]
[9] See the preceding story. [↑]
[10] See note [1] and the [preceding story], note [33]. [↑]
[11] A house was sometimes so named because it had a very deep house hole, making it dark inside. [↑]
[12] See “[Fight at the town of Da′x̣ua],” note [2]. [↑]
[13] It is curious that this was the very family to which the town chief of Kloo himself belonged. The section living at Skedans comes to make war upon the chief of the one living at Kloo. [↑]
[14] See the story of “[Sacred-one-standing-and-moving, Stone-ribs, and Upward],” note [35]. [↑]
[15] See the story of [Moldy-forehead], note [2]. [↑]
[16] See “[Story of Those-born-at-Skedans],” note [19]. [↑]
[17] Also one of the names of the chief of the Seaward-sqoā′ładas. [↑]
[18] Because he did not think that Qā′-idjît had honored his sister enough. [↑]
[20] A shaman, who was also chief of Those-born-at-Qꜝā′dᴀsg̣o. This was the name of his supernatural helper. [↑]
[21] This house was probably named after the original one which gave its name to the ruling branch of the Gîtî′ns of Skidegate. [↑]
[22] The usual name given to Skincuttle inlet. Skincuttle is said to be a corruption of the Haida sqꜝên-g̣atł (“Sea-gull-went-up”), a name used by some of the Skidegate people. [↑]
[23] A peace offering sent over as a sign that they would make proper reparation for the death of the chief. [↑]
[24] Another chief of Those-born-at-Qꜝā′dᴀsg̣o, of the same name as the one who was killed. [↑]
[25] The northernmost tribe of the Wakashan stock; called by whites Kitamat. [↑]
[26] A man of Those-born-at-Skedans. The chief of Ninstints was also so called; in fact, that is the meaning of the word Ninstints. [↑]
[28] This was near Hot Spring island. [↑]
[29] The placing of chiefs at potlatches and feasts was regulated in accordance with their wealth, the richer sitting nearer the inside house pole, in the back part of the house. [↑]