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[[Contents]]

The Punishment of the Stingy

A BLUEJAY STORY

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At Sea Side lived many people—a big village. Their houses were on the bank, and, below, the wide beach sloped down to the salt water. Under the bank the canoes rested on the beach above high-water mark. Beyond was the sea.

One day the Chief of the village died. He had one son, a big boy just growing up to be a man. It was winter, and the people had hardly anything to eat. They looked along the beach for food cast up by the sea, but they could find nothing. They were hungry, and did not know what they should do. Mussels and roots were their only food.

One day a hunter said to the men: “Everybody get ready; let us go out to sea. Perhaps there we may find something to eat; even if we kill nothing, we can at least gather mussels.” [[4]]

So all the men got ready, and they started out to sea in two canoes. After they had gone some distance they came to a small island, and saw there some sea-lions, and the hunter speared one, and it jumped out to the water and swam strongly, and then it died and floated on the water. They dragged it up on the shore near by, and Bluejay said, “We will boil it here.” So they made a fire there and singed it and cut it up and boiled it. Then Bluejay said: “Let us eat it here. Let us eat all of it, and not take any of it home with us.” So these people ate there. The Raven wished to take home some of the meat to give to persons who were hungry, and hid a piece in his mat and carried it to the canoe, but Bluejay ran down and took the meat and threw it into the fire and burned it. After they had eaten all they wanted, they made ready to go home. They gathered mussels, large and small. In the evening they came to the village, and Bluejay called out to his wife, “Stikuá, come and get your mussels.” There was a noise of many feet as Stikuá and the other women came running down to get their mussels, and carried them up to the houses. [[5]]

The Raven took care of the Chief’s son. That night the boy said to him, “To-morrow I want to go with you.” Bluejay said: “What are you going to do? The waves will carry you away. You will be washed away. I was almost washed away.”