Haida texts and myths

by Unknown

He then left the canoe. He came to a shore opposite some people who were fishing with fish rakes in Nass. And he said: “Hallo, [[118]]throw one over to me. I will give you light.” But they said: “Hᴀ hā′-ā-ā, he who is speaking is the one who is always playing tricks.” He then let a small part shine and put it away again. They forthwith emptied their canoe in front of him several times.

He then called a dog and said to it: “Shall I make (or ordain) four moons?” The dog said that would not do. The dog wanted six. He (Raven) then said to him: “What will you do when it is spring?” “When I am hungry I will move my feet in front of my face.” And he made it as he (the dog) told him to do, they say.

He then bit off a part of the moon. After he had chewed it for a while he threw it up [into the sky]. “Future people are going to see you there in fragments forever.” He then broke the moon into halves by throwing it down hard and threw [half of] it up hard into the air, the sun as well.

Thence he traveled northward. The smoke of House-point was near him. He then pulled off his hair ribbon and threw one end of it over here. He at once ran across on it. And he walked about the town, peering in [through the cracks]. The wife of the town chief of House-point had given birth to a child. And he waited until evening. Then, at the time when they went to bed, he entered [the child’s] skin and himself became newly born.

Every morning they washed him, and his father held him on his knee. After a while his aunt came down to the fire. They handed him to his aunt. After she had held him for a while he pinched her teats. “Ha′oia,” she said. “Why do you say that, ʟ̣a?”[27] “Why, he nearly fell from me.” The town chief was named “Hole-in-his-fin,” and his nephew was named “Fin-turned-back.”

After a while he thought: “I wish the village children would go picnicking.” And on the next day the children of the town went picnicking. They brought along all sorts of good food. And his aunt brought him to the same place. When they had played for a while they went away. After they had all gone his aunt sat there alone. He looked about, entered his own skin quickly, and seized his aunt. And his aunt said: “Do not take hold of me. I am single because your father is going to eat my gifts.”[28]

Then, as soon as she started off, he became a baby again. His aunt was crying and as she went had it on her mind to tell what had happened. He wished his aunt would forget it when she went in. And she went in. After her brother had looked at her a while he asked: “What is the cause of those tear marks?” “Why, I discovered him eating sand. That is why I am crying.”

He then started along by the sea and, having punched holes in the shells brought up by the tide, he made two dancing rattles. And he ran toward the woods. He took grave mats, frayed out the ends, and fastened shells upon these. He made them into a dancing skirt. And [[119]]he said to the ghost: “Are you awake?” It got up for him, and he tied the dancing skirt upon it. He also put the rattle into its hand. And he said to it: “Walk in front of the town. When you reach the middle wave the rattle in front of you toward the houses. A deep sleep will fall then upon them.”

Now it began to dance, they say. When it waved the rattle toward the town, just as he had told it to do, they began to mumble in their sleep. They had nightmares. He then went into the first house and, roughly pulling out a good-looking woman, lay there with her. And he entered the next one. There, too, he lay with somebody. As he went along doing this he entered his father’s house, went to where his aunt slept, and lay with her.

And a certain old woman living in the house corner did not have a nightmare. She had been observing the chief’s son in the cradle come out of himself. Then he went out again. After he had been away for a while he came in and lay down to sleep in the cradle. He made the ghost lie down again.