And, when he started off from there, he took one from among some children who were playing about and started inland with him. After he had gone on for some time he came to where a big lake lay. Then he cut on the lakeward side of a large cedar standing near it. And, after he had cut it on the back side, it fell across the lake. Then he split it from the butt end, and, as soon as he had split it, he put a crosspiece in.
Then he twisted cedar limbs. He spliced them together. When the rope became long he fastened the child to it. Then he let it down between. After it struck the bottom, and he had held it for a while it began jerking, and he pulled it toward himself. The lake was also boiling. Its hands came out first. And when its head followed them to the surface, he knocked out the brace quickly. It struggled in it. After he had struck it several times it died.
Then he pulled it out. He was going to cut it open in front. Lightning shot about. So he cut it open, beginning at the lower part of its back. Then he skinned it. Its tail was nice. It was bent over. Then he lighted a fire and dried it. That was a Wā′sg̣o, they say. When it was dry he rolled it up and brought it out.
Then he hid it in a forked cedar tree at the end of the town. He put moss over it. Then he started for the end of the town and made killer whales out of cedar. He put fins on them and kicked them into [[284]]the water. But they only blew bubbles close to the kelps. Then he said: “Go where you are to be settled.” Those were the porpoises, they say. And he also worked hemlock into killer whales. When ten of those were also finished he kicked them into water. After they had been gone for some time bubbles like steam arose seaward. And he thought they were unable to do anything. And he said: “Go where your place is to be.” Those were the white porpoises,[2] they say.
Fine weather continued. All that time the people were fishing.
And the next day, after he had thought what he would use, he made ten killer whales out of yew wood. The surfaces were variegated, striped with white. Their bellies were white. The corners of their mouths were also striped with white. The fin of one of them had a hole in it, and one fin was bent over toward the tail. While he was making them they moved. For them he laid a log down [horizontally]. There he placed them, and he kicked them about. Presently bubbles of air rose far out at sea. Then he told them to come in, and he pulled them up again. They had red cod, spring salmon, and halibut in their mouths.
And in the evening he went to his wife. He looked in again. He tapped opposite his wife, and his wife came out to him. And he said to her: “When they go out fishing again to-morrow tell your youngest brother to fasten a feather in his hair.”
The next day they went fishing, and he gave directions to the killer whales. “Destroy all the people out fishing. Break up their canoes with your fins. Save only the one who has a feather in his hair.” Then he kicked them off. After they had been gone for a while bubbles rose beyond the place where the canoes were anchored. Then the killer whales came back to the canoes. Bubbles of air rose among them. The killer whales broke up the canoes with their fins. They chewed up the bodies of the people. Only the one who had a feather in his hair was left swimming about. And, when they were destroyed, he got into the broken canoe, and the killer whales came landward with him in a school. Then he got off in front of the town.
And he again called the killer whales. Then he gave them directions. And he said to the one that had a hole in its fin: “You shall be called: ‘Hole-in-his-fin.’ ” And he said to the one with the fin bent back: “You shall be called: ‘Fin-turned-back.’ ” Then he said: “Go to Na-iku′n. Settle down there. That land is good. You shall be called ‘Strait people.’ ”[3]
And he went to his wife with the things the killer whales had caught in their mouths. His two children were glad to see him.