Part 27
Then he hung blackly about the head of the Stikine river. Snow fell from him. Then one went out to look. He was lost. Then another went to look, and he, too, was lost. It went on in this way until all of them had disappeared. Only he who had medicine in his mouth was saved. Then he also went to look.
As he went he saw that his elder brothers had been frozen to death. He, too, got stuck on freezing ice but spit medicine upon himself, and the ice fell from him. He made straight for the black place in the sky. And he arrived. Out of his (North’s) anus ice hung. He wet the points of his arrows with medicine and shot the ice. He ran away, and ice fell in the place where he had been. He did the same thing again. Then he went away.
As he went along he spit medicine upon his elder brothers who had been frozen in their tracks. At once they walked along with him. All went along together.
And, after they had gone along for a while, they came to where a certain person lived. He gave them food, as was usual, and they slept there that night. Then Sawałī′xa remained awake. The one to whom they had come in lay in a corner. He got up, tied fine cedar bark upon the end of a stick which hung above him, and let them breathe on it. Then he went out with it, and Sawałī′xa went out after him. Near a rill of water was a piece of cedar full of holes, out of one of which he pulled a plug. Into it he pushed the cedar bark. Sawałī′xa was looking at him. And before him he came in, and he pretended to be asleep. Presently he also came in.
Then he, in turn, put the cedar bark to his breath. And he went out, and Sawałī′xa pulled out the thing that had been stuck in and pushed his in. Then he went to bed. The next day, after he had given them some food, he took a bath. Afterward he became sick. He said that his back and his head were sick. “I must have done it to myself.” Presently he was dead. That was Greatest Wizard, they say. Then they went off. They came to their house.
By and by they started traveling again. They hunted birds. Then one disappeared. It went on that way until all were gone. He who had medicine in his mouth let himself be last. He followed the footprints of his elder brothers. When he saw his elder brothers sitting upon a broad stump he did not feel how he got there, but he was sitting among them.
Then they broke their bows and arrows in pieces on top of it, and they built a fire. And, after they had put them into it, they lay at once on the level ground below. Then they also put themselves into it and stood below. [502] It was North who did this to them. Then they went home. They came to their house.
When they had traveled about a while after that they found a mountain of ground hogs. They built a house there and made dead falls [503] for them. When cold weather began to come on they came out. They made trousers out of ground-hog skins.
And, after they got back there, the next to the youngest could not catch any ground hogs in his dead falls. He did not kill even one. And, when they went home, he refused to go. Each gave him two. He refused them. Each offered to give him five. He also refused those. Then they left him.
After he had lived there for a while a woman came to him one night and lay down, and he married her. Then she asked him why he did not succeed in taking them in dead falls, and he said to her: “I could in no way get them.” “To-morrow make ten” [she said]. And next day he did as he was directed. The day after he went out to look at them. Ten ground hogs were in them.
And, after he had done this for a while, he had many, and early one morning he went to see them. Then a whitish one went in before him. His wife told him not to put a dead fall near it. Then he longed for it and set one in front of it. The very next day it fell on it. And he feared his wife and hung it on the outside of the house.
But, even from where his wife sat, [she said]: “My mother says, ‘Alas! my child.’” At once she started off. He tried to hold his wife. He could not. When she got to the door she said: “Come to life again.” Immediately they began running off in a crowd. He tried to club them, and he tried to stop them at the door. He could not accomplish that, either. Then he went along among them. After he had followed his wife along he went in at the same place where she went in.
Then he stayed with his wife there again. They brought in all kinds of things, among them łkꜝiê′nkunᴀn. [504] And, after it began to snow, they went to bed. After they had lain in bed for a long time day came. He stood at the door outside and shouted “Daylight⁺.” They jumped up without the things they used for blankets. “What is it daylight from? Is it daylight from the łkꜝiê′nkunᴀn?” [505] they asked each other. They looked at the snow and went to bed again. After he had said this twice he gave it up and went to bed also.
By and by, when the snow melted, they put on their skins, and they began bringing in roots. He, also, went with them. Presently one called out “People are coming,” and they went into the house.
Again they (his brothers) set dead falls. The posts for these dead falls had figures of ground hogs upon them. They only saw the shadow of the hands [setting them]. The figures were to call them. One went thither and was caught. They pulled him out. The ground hog looked out of the house. He almost went to it. His wife held him back.
By and by he went thither, and it fell on him. Then they brought him into the house and hung him up. And after they had begun to skin him and had cut his neck open they struck something hard. And. when they looked, lo! it was the copper from around the neck of the younger brother they had left. [506] Then they told each other, and they put his clothing upon him, and, after they had spit the medicine upon him, he got up. He got up, saying: “I must have slept a long time.” His elder brothers were glad to see him. And they started home with him. Anew they began living in their house.
And, after they had again traveled about for a while, the eldest again disappeared. Next day another was gone. One went after him, and he, too, vanished. By and by he who had medicine in his mouth was the only one left. Then he took his bow and followed his elder brothers’ footprints from the side of the house.
After he had gone up the trail for a while [he came to where] a feather hung. He found himself in a snare. Suddenly he was hung up in the air. When he got tired he rubbed medicine upon his neck.
Very early next day one with vertical lines of paint upon his face came to him upon the trail inland. “My snare is always lucky” [he said]. Then he pulled him down. He heard him talk to the snare.
“Do not let anything pass by you,” he said to it. Then he thought: “I wish he would carry me face up.” And he seized him by both legs and carried him face up. And, when he stepped under a fallen tree with him, he took hold of it. After he had tried to pull him away for a while he let go. By and by he came to his house with him. He came in and took him off. His elder brothers were cut up and hung in the rear of the house.
When they were in bed he gathered together his elder brothers and went away with them. After he had traveled on for a while he did not see a sign of them. He had forgotten the medicine he had in his mouth. Then he went back and spit medicine upon them, and they became alive and started home with him. And next day they came to their town.
Then they again started off. After they had traveled for a while they disappeared from the one who had medicine in his mouth. And, after he had hunted for them a while, he came to some one who was using his head as a drum. Then he asked him: “Did my elder brothers pass by here?” “Did my elder brothers pass here?” he also said. “I have a notion to kill you.” He, too, said the same thing. “I have a notion to cut off your head.” He, also, said the same thing. That was Greatest Echo, they say.
In whatever way he spoke he could get no answer. By and by, when he said he would break wind at him, he became afraid. “Don’t do it, chief; don’t do it.” When he broke wind at him he disappeared. He killed him, they say.
After that, when he hunted for his elder brothers again, [he came to] a large, round stone with a slippery top on which a feather was stuck, and on the side of which lay the bones of his elder brothers. They died while they were trying to pull off the feather. Then he again spit medicine upon his elder brothers, and they got up. Then they went away with him.
After they had gone along for a while they came to where a woman lived. She gave them all kinds of good food in the usual way. Her dish had the figure of a mouse upon it. Then they went to bed in her house. There were scratchings in her house all night. They could not sleep. And, while it was still night, they went away. They came to the house where their mother and their sister always stayed.
Then they started off again, and they gave their mother directions. “Settle yourself in this house. We shall see you no more.” And they took their sister away with them.
Then they went toward the head of the Stikine river. And, when they started to swim across, although ten years had passed since their sister had begun to menstruate, they told her not to look at them. Then they took each other by the arm and swam across. He who had medicine in his mouth was the last to enter the water. At that time their sister looked toward them and all [except the eldest] became rocks.
And their elder brother sang some songs and looked at them. He put the following words into the song: “Even ʟā′ga-na′qatî did not swim across.” [507] They settled in this place. [508]
The names of the heroes of this story, together with the localities in which the actions are said to have occurred, mark it plainly as Tlingit. At the same time it is well known and very popular among the Haida. I have a Masset version of the story as yet unpublished. Łᴀguadjî′na is a Tlingit name (Łᴀ′ki-tcine′); Łg̣añā′ʻogaña is from the name of one of the brothers, Łg̣añā′ʻo, and means “Łg̣añā′ʻo’s people” or “Łg̣añā′ʻo and his brothers.” One episode, telling how a gigantic mouse was killed, has been omitted.
HE WHO HUNTED BIRDS IN HIS FATHER’S VILLAGE
[Told by Walter McGregor of the Sealion-town people]
He was a chief’s son. He wore two marten-skin blankets, one over the other. [509] After he had shot birds for some time he went along among some bull pines, which stood in an open space behind the town and presently heard geese [510] calling. Then he went thither. Two women were bathing in a lake. On the shore opposite two goose skins hung over a stick. The roots of their tails were spotted with white.
After he had looked a while he ran quickly [to them]. He sat down on the two skins. Then they asked him for their [skins]. He asked the best looking to marry him. The other said to him: “Do not marry my younger sister. I am smarter. Marry me.” “No; I am going to marry your younger sister.” Now she agreed. “Even so, marry my younger sister. You caught us swimming in the lake our father owns. Come, give me my skin.” Then he gave it to her. She put her head into it as she swam in the lake. Lo, a goose swam about in the lake. It swam about in it making a noise.
Then she flew. She was unwilling to fly away from her younger sister. After she had flown about above her for a while, she flew up. She vanished through the sky. Then he gave her (the other) one marten-skin blanket and went home with her. He put his wife’s skin between the two heads of a cedar standing at one end of the town. He entered his father’s house with her.
The chief’s son had a wife. So his father called the people together for the marriage feast. They gave her food. Instead [of eating it] she merely smelled it. She ate no kind of human food.
By and by her mother-in-law steamed some tcꜝāl. [511] But she liked that. While her mother-in-law was yet cooking them she told her husband to tell her to hurry. They put some before her. She ate it all. Then they began giving her that only to eat.
One day, when he was asleep, he was surprised to find that his wife’s skin, after she came in and lay down, was cold. And, when the same thing happened again, he began watching her. He lay as if asleep. He felt her get up quietly. Then she went out, and he also went out just after her. She passed in front of the town. She went to the place where her skin was kept. Thence she flew away. She alighted on the farther side of a point at one end of the town.
Then he went thither quickly. She was eating the stalks of the sea grass which grew there. As the waves broke in they moved her shoreward. He saw it. Then she flew up to the place where her [feather] skin had been kept. And he entered the house before her. Then he lay down where they had their bed, after which his wife lay down cold beside him.
They became nearly starved in the town. One day the woman said to him from the place where she was sitting: “Now my father has sent down food to me.” Behind the town geese were coming down making a great noise, and she went thither. They went with her. All kinds of good food lay there, such as tcꜝāl[511] and wild clover roots. They brought them away. For this her father-in-law called in the people.
When this was gone she said the same thing again: “Now my father is bringing food down to me.” Geese again made a great noise coming down behind the town, and she went thither. Again heaps of food of all kinds lay around, and they carried that also out. For that, too, her father-in-law called together the people.
At that time some one in the town said: “They think a great deal of goose food.” The woman heard it. Immediately she went off. Her husband in vain tried to stop her. She went off as one of a strange family would. In the same way he tried to stop her in front of the town. She went to the place where her skin was. She flew up. She flew around above the town for a while. Her heart was not strong to fly away from her husband. By and by she vanished through the sky.
Then her husband began to walk about the town wailing. By and by he entered the house of an old man at one end of the town and asked him: “Do you not know the trail that leads to my wife?” “Why, brave man, you married the daughter of a supernatural being too great for people even to think of.” At once he began bringing over all sorts of things to him. After he had given him twisted cedar limbs, a gimlet, and bones, [512] he said to him: “Now, brave man, take oil. Take two wooden wedges also. Take, as well, a comb, thongs, boxes of salmon eggs, the skin of a silver salmon, the point of a salmon spear.” After he had got all these he came to him. “Old man, here are all the things you told me to take.” “Now, brave man, go on. The trail runs inland behind my house.”
Then he started in on it. After he had gone on for a while he came to some one who was looking upon himself for lice. Every time he turned around the lice fell off from him. After he had looked at him unobserved for a while he said to him: “Now, brave man, do not tickle me by looking at me. [513] It was in my mind that you were coming.” Then he came out to him and combed his head. He also put oil on it. He cleared him of lice. He gave the comb and the hair oil to him. Then he said to him: “This trail leads to the place where your wife is.”
He again started along the trail. After he had gone on for a while [he saw] a mouse with cranberries in its mouth going along before him. She came to a fallen tree. She could not get over it. Then he took her by the back with his fingers and put her across. Her tail was bent up between her ears [for joy], and she went on before him. Presently she went among the stalks of a clump of ferns.
Now he rested himself there. Something said to him: “The chief-woman asks you to come in.” Then he raised the ferns. He stood in front of a big house. He entered. The chief-woman was steaming cranberries. She talked as she did so. Her voice sounded sharp. And, after she had given him something to eat, Mouse-woman said to him: “You helped me when I went to get some poor cranberries from a patch I own. I will lend you what I wore when I went hunting when I was young.”
Then she brought out a box. After she had opened a nest of five boxes, she took out of the inmost a mouse skin with small, bent claws. And she said to him: “Practice wearing this.” And, although it was so small, he entered it. It went on easily. Then he climbed around upon the roof of the house inside. And Mouse-woman said to him again: “You know how to use it. Now go on.”
Again he set out upon the trail. After he had gone along for a while he heard some one grunting under a heavy burden. Then he came to the place. A woman was trying to carry off a pile of large, flat stones upon her back. The twisted cedar limbs she had kept breaking. After he had looked at her for a while he went out to her. “Say, what are you doing?” Then the woman said: “They got me to carry the mountains of the Haida island. I am doing it.”
Then he took out his thongs and said to her: “Let me fix it.” And he bound the thongs around it. He said to her “Now carry it on your back,” and she carried it. It did not break. Then the woman said to him: “Now, brave man, thank you for helping me. The trail to your wife’s place runs here.”
Then he set out upon it. After he had gone on for a while he came to a hill in an open place on top of which rose something red. [514] Then he went to it. Around the bottom of this something lay human bones. There was no way in which one could go up. Then he entered the mouse skin and rubbed salmon eggs before him [on the pole]. He went up after it. When he stood on top of this he clambered up on the sky.
There, too, there ran a trail, and he started off upon it. After he had gone on for a while he heard the noise of laughter and singing. After he had gone on a while longer [he came to where] a big stream flowed down. Near it sat Eagle. On the other side also sat Heron. Above sat Kingfisher. On the other side sat Black Bear. He (black bear) had no claws. He said to Eagle: “Grandfather, lend me some claws.” Then he lent him some. At that time he came to have claws.
After he had sat there for a while a half man came vaulting along. [515] He had only one leg and one arm. He had but half a head. He speared silver salmon in the river and pulled them in. Then he entered his silver salmon skin and swam up to meet him. When he speared him he could not pull him down. Then he cut his string. And the half man said: “What did it is like a human being.”
Now he came to him. “Say, did something pull off your spear point?” “Yes,” he said to him. Then he gave him the one he had. That was Master Hopper, they say. After he had gone up [he came upon] two large old men who had come after firewood. They were cutting at the trunks of rotten trees and throwing the chips into the water, when silver salmon went down in a shoal.
He went behind and put stones in from behind, and their wedges were broken off. Then he (one) said: “Alas, they will make trouble for us.” Then he went to them and gave them his two wedges. They were glad and said to him: “This house is your wife’s.”
Then he went out [to it]. He went and stood in front of the house. His wife came out to him. Then he went in with her. She was glad to see her husband. She was the town chief’s daughter. He remained in the town as her husband. And all the things they gathered he, too, gathered along with them.
After he had been there for some time he came to dislike the place. And his wife told her father. Then his father-in-law called the people. In the house he asked them: “Who will take my son-in-law down?” And Loon said: “I will take down your son-in-law.” And he said to him: “How will you do it?” And he said: “I will put him near my tail, dive into the water right in front with him, come up at the end of his father’s village, and let him off.” Then they thought he was not strong enough for it.
Then he asked again. Grebe said the same thing. Him, too, they thought not strong enough to do it. Then Raven said that he would take him down. And they asked him: “How are you going to do it?” “I will put him into my armpit and fly down with him from the end of the town. When I get tired I will fall over and over with him.” Then they thought he could do it.
They stood in a crowd at the end of the town looking at him. He did with him as he had said. When he became very tired and was nearly down he threw him off upon a reef which lay there. “Yuwaiyā′, what a heavy thing I am taking down.” Shortly he (the man) was making a noise there as a sea gull. [516]
The interest of this story lies in the fact that it resembles well-known Eskimo myths in certain details. The episode with which it opens is told all the way round the world.
THE STORY OF HIM WHOSE SISTER BROUGHT HIM FOOD FROM THE LAND OTTERS
[Told by Abraham of Those-born-at-Qꜝā′dᴀsg̣o, as related to him by an old Ninstints man]
He went out from the town to make a canoe. He had two children. His wife was also with him. When he came in from making the canoe he said: “Would that I had a sister to bring in food to me.”
One time at evening burning pitchwood came toward him. [517] His sister, who had long ago been carried away by something [518] in the woods, came in to him with good food. She talked to him as she used to. Then she said to him: “Your brother-in-law is going to watch your canoe [to see when it is time to move it]. When you are ready to turn it over do not go to it for some time after daybreak.” So she spoke to her brother.
When he was ready to turn it over he did not go to it for some time. When he did go to it his canoe had been turned over. Then he worked the bottom of it.
After that his sister again brought him food. Then his wife wanted to give her something. She refused it. And they saw her put one of the arms of a crab [519] they had eaten which was lying near the fire inside of her blanket. Then they gathered some for her, and, when she again brought food, they gave them to her. She even took their hands along with them [for joy]. Every evening his sister came in to him with food.
Then she said to her brother: “When you are going to launch the canoe your brother-in-law says that you had better not go out to it for some time after daybreak. [520] Your brother-in-law says he and his friends will bring it out. When he has brought it out, your brother-in-law says he wants you to bring it to him.” She also told him whither he should go.
As soon as he had it ready for launching he did not go to it. When some time had passed after daybreak he saw it sticking half out of the woods near him. Immediately he and his wife launched it. Then he went to the place whither his sister had directed him.
Soon he came to a town. They landed in front of those who had come out of the houses to meet him. They placed his canoe where he was going to finish it, and his sister led them into the house.
After she had given them food they went to bed. When he awoke in the night [he found] he was pressed in by something. He could in no way stretch out. Those were the roots of a large tree. When it was day, a good house again stood there.
Now, he lived there for a long time. All the while he worked on his canoe. Every night the earth changed for him. In the morning the house stood there just as it ought to appear.
By and by four persons went out by canoe to hunt coots. They called bullheads coots. After they had been gone for a while only three came back. He (the fourth) was killed because he forgot the mat to cover his knees. When they forgot this they never escaped. [521]