After they had taken all into the house he went to the neighboring town for some live coals. When he came through the doorway they asked him: “What do you come for, Song-sparrow?” And he said: “I come for live coals, skia′ldjîgut skā′ldjigut skētcꜝē′gut.”[4] After he had said this he spat out the blood of a piece of the grizzly bear that he had in his mouth.
They were surprised at this, and the townspeople ran toward his house. They took away at once all of the grizzly bear. As he also ran toward it he said to his grandmother: “Grandmother, keep hold of the biggest piece.” And, while he was running, they took all of his meat away.
After he and his grandmother had cried for a while his grandmother went to sleep. Then, while his grandmother slept, he cut off his grandmother’s vulva. And he put grease and feathers upon the place. He then cooked this. And when it was cooked his grandmother woke up. “Grandmother, get up. I found a small thing in the dirt of the trail where they have been walking. I cooked it for you.” His grandmother got up at once and ate it. [[363]]
Then he took his grandmother’s urinal and went up to the top of the house with it. And he used his grandmother’s urinal as a drum. He began then to sing: “Ha′haha hē′eee, grandmother ate her cut-off vulva. In the place [I put] grease. In the place [I put] feathers.” His grandmother then used hard words toward him: “He was born at the roots of the salmon-berry bushes.[5] He is a wizard. He was born at the roots of the ferns.[5] He is a wizard.”
[The following version of the latter was obtained by Prof. Franz Boas]
Once upon a time a boy and his grandmother lived in a hut made of twigs. The boy was always going out to shoot birds. One day he saw a large bear, which he tried to kill with his arrows. Then the bear snuffed him in. The old woman waited in vain for her grandson, and finally thought he had died. The boy was not dead.
While he was in the bear’s stomach, he thought: “I wish grandmother’s fire drill would come to me!” It came at once. He made a fire in the bear’s stomach, which killed him. He then carved the carcass and carried the meat to his grandmother’s house, which he filled entirely. The old woman had no fire; therefore she sent her grandson to the town to ask for some fire. Before he left he cut off a piece of the meat and took it into his mouth. He then went to the door of one of the houses. He put down a piece of skin near the fire, chewed the meat which he had taken along, and spit the fat into the fire, so that it blazed up. The people asked him: “What are you holding in your mouth?” He then showed them the bear’s meat. Then they all went to his grandmother’s house, and they received presents of meat and of fat. They distributed almost all of it.
He then said to his grandmother: “Gather some fuel.” She did so, and started a fire. Then the old woman fell asleep sitting near the fire. While she was asleep the boy cut off a piece of her vulva and put down upon the wound. When she woke the next morning he sent her again to gather fuel; and, while she was away, he roasted at the fire the piece that he had cut from her body. When his grandmother returned he said to her: “I roasted a little of the bear meat for you.” She entered, and he gave her her own flesh to eat. As soon as she had eaten it he ran out, singing: “Grandmother ate her own vulva!” [[364]]
[1] Repeated over and over to a crying baby. The point is in a play upon two Haida words. [↑]