At that time his uncle said to him: “Some time ago one came down through me. And he lived in this town. Now he lives far inland. They fear to mention his name.” His uncle talked with him for a while. Again he said to him: “Do not let his name be mentioned again below. You can not mention his name [for it is too great]. If a child mentions his name tell him to stop.”[23]
Then he went down again with him in the thing with wheels. At that time he awoke in the sail house. Not a long time afterward he died.
This is the end of it.
This story is of exceptional interest, both from the insight it gives into native beliefs generally and for the picture presented of the influence exerted on those beliefs and over the external life of the people also by the coming of white men. G̣ᴀ′ndox was evidently this shaman’s daughter, and the name appears to be Tsimshian. After he became a shaman, however, he was known, as was customary, by the name of the spirit who was speaking through him at the time. He belonged, like two of the shamans in the preceding story, to the Town-of-Djī′gua-People of Old Kloo.
I was fortunate in having obtained information regarding this shaman from one who knew him intimately, and to whom, it appears, he confided some of his spiritual experiences. The shaman is well known to all Skidegate Haida, and many other stories are told regarding his predictions. For some of these, see Memoirs of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, volume V, part I, page 39. [[316]]
[1] See [preceding story], note [4]. [↑]
[2] Really he only fell in a faint or a fit. [↑]
[3] A shaman among the Land-otter people. The word is evidently Tlingit. [↑]
[4] See story of [Raven traveling]. [↑]