Haida texts and myths

by Unknown

Now he went home with his canoe full of hair seal. He came to his wife, who was in front of the house. And his wife came to meet him. His wife was glad that he had married another wife. The woman’s name (i.e., his first wife’s name) was Ła′g̣ał-djat. Now he brought her to the house.

He went to hunt again next day, and he gave the following directions to his [new] wife: “When she eats do not steal a look at her. One always makes her choke by doing so.” But still she stole a look at her when she ate. And she saw her swallow a whole hair seal. She saw her spit out the bones toward the door. Then she caused her to [[338]]choke by looking at her. For that she killed the woman. Ła′g̣ał-djat did it.

While her corpse was still lying in the house, Sag̣adila′ʻo came home. Sag̣adila′ʻo saw his wife’s dead body. Now Sag̣adila′ʻo also killed his older wife. He cut her in two. Then he put a whetstone between the two parts. They ground themselves into nothing. Then he awoke the woman. He married her again.

Now she had a child by him. It was a boy. He kept putting his feet on his (the boy’s) feet. By pulling he made him grow up. Now he came to maturity. He made him a small canoe like his own, and he also made a club for him like his own. When he played with it in the salt-water ponds it picked up small bull-heads with its teeth.

Then the woman came to dislike the place. And she went to her own place with her boy. So he came to his own country. And her son married his uncle’s daughter. Then he began to hunt. The name of the town was Qꜝadō′.[3]

Now, after he had been hunting for some time, a white sea otter came swimming about in front of the town. And he launched his canoe. He shot it in the tip of the tail. Then his wife skinned it, and he told her not to let any blood get on it. So she did not leave any blood on it.

Now his wife asked for it. He gave it to his wife. The woman washed it in the sea water. She put it into the sea. Then it slipped off seaward from her. She took a step after it. It again slipped down from her. She took another step after it.

Now she got stuck between the two dorsal fins of a killer whale. It swam away with her. Then her husband launched his canoe. He went after the killer whale. He paddled hard after it. Now he went far off into the Nass after it. Then his wife disappeared under the water in front of Killer-whale-always-blowing.[4]

Then he went back. And he came to Qꜝadō′. He kept blue hellebore until it had rotted. He also saved urine. And he also saved the blood of those menstruating for the first time. And he saved the blood of [any] menstruant women. He put them into a box.

Then he started off. He [came to the place] where his wife had passed in. Then he took twisted cedar limbs, a gimlet, and a whetstone. Where his wife had passed in he came to a kelp with two heads. He went into the water there upon the kelp. Marten remained upon the water behind him.