Haida texts and myths

by Unknown

Then he went thither quickly. She was eating the stalks of the sea grass which grew there. As the waves broke in they moved her shoreward. [[265]]He saw it. Then she flew up to the place where her [feather] skin had been kept. And he entered the house before her. Then he lay down where they had their bed, after which his wife lay down cold beside him.

They became nearly starved in the town. One day the woman said to him from the place where she was sitting: “Now my father has sent down food to me.” Behind the town geese were coming down making a great noise, and she went thither. They went with her. All kinds of good food lay there, such as tcꜝāl[3] and wild clover roots. They brought them away. For this her father-in-law called in the people.

When this was gone she said the same thing again: “Now my father is bringing food down to me.” Geese again made a great noise coming down behind the town, and she went thither. Again heaps of food of all kinds lay around, and they carried that also out. For that, too, her father-in-law called together the people.

At that time some one in the town said: “They think a great deal of goose food.” The woman heard it. Immediately she went off. Her husband in vain tried to stop her. She went off as one of a strange family would. In the same way he tried to stop her in front of the town. She went to the place where her skin was. She flew up. She flew around above the town for a while. Her heart was not strong to fly away from her husband. By and by she vanished through the sky.

Then her husband began to walk about the town wailing. By and by he entered the house of an old man at one end of the town and asked him: “Do you not know the trail that leads to my wife?” “Why, brave man, you married the daughter of a supernatural being too great for people even to think of.” At once he began bringing over all sorts of things to him. After he had given him twisted cedar limbs, a gimlet, and bones,[4] he said to him: “Now, brave man, take oil. Take two wooden wedges also. Take, as well, a comb, thongs, boxes of salmon eggs, the skin of a silver salmon, the point of a salmon spear.” After he had got all these he came to him. “Old man, here are all the things you told me to take.” “Now, brave man, go on. The trail runs inland behind my house.”

Then he started in on it. After he had gone on for a while he came to some one who was looking upon himself for lice. Every time he turned around the lice fell off from him. After he had looked at him unobserved for a while he said to him: “Now, brave man, do not tickle me by looking at me.[5] It was in my mind that you were coming.” Then he came out to him and combed his head. He also put oil on it. He cleared him of lice. He gave the comb and the hair oil to him. Then he said to him: “This trail leads to the place where your wife is.” [[266]]

He again started along the trail. After he had gone on for a while [he saw] a mouse with cranberries in its mouth going along before him. She came to a fallen tree. She could not get over it. Then he took her by the back with his fingers and put her across. Her tail was bent up between her ears [for joy], and she went on before him. Presently she went among the stalks of a clump of ferns.

Now he rested himself there. Something said to him: “The chief-woman asks you to come in.” Then he raised the ferns. He stood in front of a big house. He entered. The chief-woman was steaming cranberries. She talked as she did so. Her voice sounded sharp. And, after she had given him something to eat, Mouse-woman said to him: “You helped me when I went to get some poor cranberries from a patch I own. I will lend you what I wore when I went hunting when I was young.”

Then she brought out a box. After she had opened a nest of five boxes, she took out of the inmost a mouse skin with small, bent claws. And she said to him: “Practice wearing this.” And, although it was so small, he entered it. It went on easily. Then he climbed around upon the roof of the house inside. And Mouse-woman said to him again: “You know how to use it. Now go on.”

Again he set out upon the trail. After he had gone along for a while he heard some one grunting under a heavy burden. Then he came to the place. A woman was trying to carry off a pile of large, flat stones upon her back. The twisted cedar limbs she had kept breaking. After he had looked at her for a while he went out to her. “Say, what are you doing?” Then the woman said: “They got me to carry the mountains of the Haida island. I am doing it.”