Haida texts and myths

by Unknown

Next day it was barking there again. Then he got his bow. He wet the arrows with his lips just outside. He went over and [found] three lying there. Every morning there was one more. Finally ten lay there, and he speared them and pulled them out. He dragged them out in a bunch and cut them open. He threw the gills away. [[175]]Those he had obtained the day before he split a second time. This is why it happens that mainland chiefs cut fish open [instead of letting the women do it]. He was the one who started [that custom].

When it barked there the next day he stopped taking his bow. He only took the arrows. Again there was one more. Next day there was also one more. In this way the number reached twenty. Those he had cut open for the first time the day before he cut open farther. Then he split planks and hung them up there. He fixed a place overhead. Some food entered his belly for the first time since they left him, for his younger brother now had enough to eat.

The next day the dog barked there again. He went thither. There was one more than before. The day after one more was added. In that way the number reached thirty.

Next day the dog barked there. He went thither, and again there was one added. The day after one more was added, and the number increased to forty.

He and his younger brother again went to bed, and when day broke he heard the dog go out. After he had listened to its barking for a while [he found] that it was barking differently from the way in which it used to bark. After it had barked for a while it yelped differently. Then he picked up his bow and two arrows and just outside wet them with his lips. Having his bow in readiness he walked slowly toward [the sound].

It was barking at something in the same pool of water, and he looked into it. He saw not a sign of anything. But it dug for something near the water. After it had done so for a while its teeth stuck fast in the roots, and after it had yelped a while they slipped off. Then [the boy] helped dig behind it. The dog dug along ahead of him. Ah! they dug into the marks of salt water, and a salmon creek came to be there.[4] At that time a great shoal of salmon came up. He stood near them. Then he went away, collected the town people’s planks, and split them up. He planed them. He made notches for ropes. All that time the salmon were coming steadily up. He made this for them.

He stretched his arms on these. Each [of these horizontal pieces] was two fathoms long. Some were one fathom long [for uprights]. There were twenty poles of each sort. All had notches on the ends. Toward the top, which he worked down small, he placed a design. He put figures of salmon there. These parts were the łg̣aiyî′ñgadadjî.[5]

While he was making this thing he never forgot his younger brother and the dog, they say. He cooked for them continually, and they ate. When he had those things all together he went away and dug some roots. Then he came back, made a large fire of dead branches, and put them in. After it he split [twigs] with his teeth. After he had finished doing this, he shaped young and slender hemlocks so that they [[176]]should be flat on one side and rounded on the other. When he had finished he fastened these together. He had four horizontal crosspieces on each half of the gī′g̣awai. On each half of the gīgwᴀ′ñgīda, too, he had three crosspieces. On each of the łg̣aiyî′ñgadadjî he had three crosspieces. He also split up pieces for the “wings” (weir). After that he put them together and finished all the same day.

He went back of the house, cut piles, sharpened them, and put rings of bark around them [to keep them from splitting when they were driven into the stream bed]. Now he went into the water and drove piles into the place where the fish trap was to stand. Then he put the fish trap into the water. He fastened the horizontal pieces with twisted cedar limbs. He treated the gīgwᴀ′ñgīda in the same way. Now he stood up the łg̣aiyî′ñgadadjî in place. Out of it all he made something roundish.[6]

After he had put the fish trap in place he gathered planks together. Then he split them in two. He also split some planks into poles. Then he enlarged the house. He set the drying frames for salmon over each other. He also put up the large poles (qꜝa′idagilai). They had notches [to prevent the smaller kꜝia′sᴀnai from slipping off]. The taxasgā′gida lay beneath the ridgepole of the house (djansgā′gida), itself supported front and back by the crossed house-timbers.[7]