Haida texts and myths

by Unknown

Next day he again came singing some songs. After him came a crowd of red things. Those were fleas, they say. Then they went quickly to the old man and asked him: “What shall we do?” “Steam urine and pour it out toward them.” Then they did as he said. “Give me my son’s head.” Then the fleas came toward the house, and they poured urine around upon them. After they had killed half of them he again started seaward. He disappeared into the ocean.

Next day he came again. He carried his staff. Some objects flew in a crowd after him. Those were sīxasʟtꜝᴀ′lgaña,[13] they say. Again they inquired of the old man, and he told them to make blunt arrows. And they did as directed. When he had said “Give me my son’s head,” they came quickly to the houses. Then they went out to them and shot them. After they had destroyed half of those also he went off.

The day after this he again sang some songs. Behind him the surface of the ocean came burning. At this time they again ran over to the old man. He said to them (lit. “him”): “Now, brave men, nothing at all can be done. Save yourselves by flight.” At once they fled away with his head. The land burned after them. When one of them was burned up, he threw it to another. This went on until only he who had medicine in his mouth was left. When his side was partly burned he rubbed the medicine upon it, and it became as it had been before. By and by he threw it (the head) into the fire. It stopped there and went back.

Afterward he started along. He hunted where his brothers had been burned. There was not a sign of their bones there. After he [[258]]had gone on for a while he called to the one who was mischievous “Sawałī′hū′⁺.” “Here.” And where it sounded he went. Their bones lay there all together. Then he spit medicine upon them. They got up. Each said: “I guess I must have slept a long time.” Then they went seaward toward the open ground again.

And they rebuilt their house, which was all burned. They restored their mother and their sister, and again they began living there.

One time [they heard] some one talking to their sister. He was lying with her in the morning. That was North, they say. When he warmed himself before the fire he warmed only his side. And the one who was full of mischief was surprised at it and began making shavings. He dried them. He whittled up pitchwood among them. He put it with the rest.

One day, very early, his brother-in-law warmed himself. He stretched his blanket over the fire. Then he also reached over the fire and threw the shavings into it. When it blazed up, he threw himself backward. Lo! his penis struck upon his belly. Then they laughed at him. And he said to them: “You are laughing at me. You will indeed stand against me.”[14] And next day he went off.

Then he hung blackly about the head of the Stikine river. Snow fell from him. Then one went out to look. He was lost. Then another went to look, and he, too, was lost. It went on in this way until all of them had disappeared. Only he who had medicine in his mouth was saved. Then he also went to look.

As he went he saw that his elder brothers had been frozen to death. He, too, got stuck on freezing ice but spit medicine upon himself, and the ice fell from him. He made straight for the black place in the sky. And he arrived. Out of his (North’s) anus ice hung. He wet the points of his arrows with medicine and shot the ice. He ran away, and ice fell in the place where he had been. He did the same thing again. Then he went away.

As he went along he spit medicine upon his elder brothers who had been frozen in their tracks. At once they walked along with him. All went along together.