After he had traveled farther [he came to where] two persons were fishing from a canoe at the Cumshewa inlet fishing ground, in front of Ta′og̣ał bay. The bow man was making guesses as follows: “I wonder whether he who they say has been traveling around the west coast has passed this point.” Then the one in the stern said: “Horrors! what terrible thing will happen for what you have said. Let us go home.” And he himself cut the anchor line, and they went off in fright. Then he bit off half of their canoe and pushed the man in the [[200]]stern along toward the shore. Near Ta′og̣ał he threw [the other] up from his mouth. He was changed into a rock there.
Then he went away. He stood up at Skedans bay, and inland, near the trees, he turned his back to the sunshine. Lo! he felt sleepy and lost consciousness. While he was in that condition [he heard] a noise like x̣ū. He looked toward it. Lo! he (an eagle) had his skin in his claws. Then he put on his copper coat and went after it.
The eagle flew inland and perched there. [A supernatural being] stood waiting for him. He had a war spear. He had a war helmet. Then he (Stone-ribs) passed behind him on the run. When he was at some distance he grasped him. His head was in his hand. Then he threw it toward the head of the creek.[34]
There lay the town of Skedans.[35] And the town chief there owned Sand-reef.[35] One day he went thither for hair seal and called the people in [to eat them]. They kept taking them over by canoe. All that time they called in the people for them. The town chief was named Upward.[36]
One day he went thither. At the landward end of Gwai-djātc[35] in front of Qî′ñgiłu some people in a canoe sang something. They used the edges of their canoe as a drum. He went to them. He [arrived] there, and lo! the song was about him. The song they composed was: “Upward’s wife is always fooling with somebody.”[37]
Then he pulled them in. He asked them why they clubbed seals on his reef. Hair seals were in their canoe. Then he fastened them to two canoe seats. And he started homeward with them. When they got even with Mallard-grease-in-hand on the north side of Island-that-wheels-around-with-the-current[35] one said to his younger brother: “Younger brother, take him, take him.” Then both seized him at once. They fastened him to the canoe. Then they took in his hair seal and went back.
Now they took him into their father’s house. Those that he pulled in were Farthest-one-out’s sons.[35] They laid him down in the middle of the side of their father’s house[38] and told their adventures to their father. And they said: “Father, he spoke to us about what you gave to us as a chief’s children. He pulled us into his canoe. He fastened us in the canoe.” And their father said: “My child, chief, my son, it is not as your slave father has said, but as common surface birds shall say.”[39] He spoke like this, as if speaking to a slave.
Then they brought him in. And they brought in a large, water-tight basket, put stones into the fire, and, when they became red hot, put them into the water in the basket with tongs. When it boiled, they put him in, canoe and all. Then they shook up the basket with him in it, and, when it began to swell up, he held fast to the cross-seats. Then they went to him. They laughed at him because he was afraid. [[201]]
After they had laughed at him for a while, his wife sat down hard upon the top of the house. She was crying aloud. At the same time she made holes in the top of the house with her fingers. Water dropped into it. She asked what they were doing to her husband. But just then he began to think of a copper drum he owned, [and it came to him]. When he began drumming on it with the tips of his fingers, the chief said: “Take him and throw him out, chiefs, my children.” Then they took him, and they threw him out along with the canoe. Immediately she took her husband and went away with him.