He saw eagles sitting upon something like a pole in front of the town. They were looking into the sea for something.[2] Then he began to live with them. With the feather on the very tip of his wing one of them wiped something common out of his eyes. And in the evening they said they were going fishing. Then they killed a whale. Every evening they killed one whale.
By and by he started out fishing with a net. Then they told him not to put the whole net into the sea. And, when he fished with them, he let out two meshes. When he got something in it that time, it carried it away. He did not worry about it. Some time after this he descended to his home. Then he again began gambling. At that time he won. At once he paid all his debts.
Originally this story must have been considerably longer. [[282]]
[1] Or “friends;” Haida, łta′x̣ulᴀñ. [↑]
[2] The story-teller also said that there was a great pile of bones here from the animals the eagles had killed and eaten. [↑]
The one they abandoned because he was the first to spear sea lions
[Told by Walter McGregor of the Sealion-town people.]
A good carpenter had two children. People went to a reef to hunt, and he made spears for this. And he fastened them with cords. He used any sort of strong thing for this purpose. He fastened a point on the spear. Then they drove the sea lions into a pool of water on top of the reef. He speared the sea lions. And he pulled in the spear handle and put another point into it. He killed the sea lions in this way.