Part 33

One day, when the dogs were coming in together, she put hot stones into this mixture. And, when it was boiling, she poured it into the ocean. At once the wind raised big waves. There was no place where the dogs could come ashore. The dogs carried some islands out to sea in trying to scramble up them. One is called Sea-eggs, the other G̣agu′n.

Then they swam southward. He watched them from the shore. They tried to climb ashore on the south side of the entrance of Skidegate channel. [674] But they only made marks with their claws on the rocks instead. They could not do it. Then they swam away. On that account they call this place “Where-dogs-tried-to-crawl-up-and-slid-back.” Then they swam together to the channel.[674] They lie in front of Da′x̣ua. [675] They call them “The Dogs.” [676]

He had many whales. He filled up “Whale-creek.” He bent boxes for them, and he put the whale grease into them. By selling these he became a chief. [677]

Compare “The story of those who were abandoned at Stasqa′os.”

STORIES OF THE PITCH-PEOPLE

[Told by Walter McGregor, of the Sealion-town people]

Some persons went out hunting from Songs-of-victory town. [678] And one of them put on the skin of a hair seal and lay on a reef. Then some went hunting from Food-steamer’s [679] town. One of them speared the hair seal lying on the reef with his bone spear. But a human being screamed.

They used to put on the skin of a hair seal, lie on a reef and make the cry of a hair seal, and, when a hair seal came up, one sitting behind him speared it. They speared him (the man) while he was doing that way. Then they went off in terror.

And then they began fighting with one another. The Songs-of-victory people went out first, and they killed Food-steamer’s wife with arrows. Then they fought continually with one another. At that time they killed each other off.

Falling-tide was a brave man among the people of Songs-of-victory town. One time, when he got back from fighting, he threw his kelp fish line into the fire. Then he occupied a fort. At that time he had nothing to eat. He spoiled himself. [680] After that they also killed him, and only the town of Kaisun was left.

One day they stretched out a black-cod fishing line upon the beach in front of Kaisun with the intention of seeing how far down the house of The-one-in-the-sea was. But, when they went out fishing, they never came back. Then that town was also gone. [681]

They used to go fishing at night, because they said that the black cod came to the surface of the sea during the night.

Before this, when the town people were still there, a child refused to touch some black cod. And, after he had cried for a while, something moving burning coals about called him through the doorway; [682] “Come here, my child; grandmother has some roots mixed with grease which she put away for you.”

Then his parents told him to go out, and he went thither. It stretched its arm in to him into the house, and the child said: “Horrors, [683] something with large, cold hands grasped me.” Then it said: “Grandfather has just come in from fishing. I have been washing gills. That is why he says my hands are cold.”

Then his parents again told him to go out, and he went out to it. It threw him into a basket made of twisted boughs. Then the child cried, and they went out to look at him. He was crying within the earth.

Then they began to dig. They dug after the sound of his crying in the earth. By and by they dug out the tail of the marten he wore as a blanket. There are now ditches in that place.

The chief’s children in the town of Kaisun went on a picnic. They had a picnic behind Narrow-cave. [684] Then all went out of the cave from the town chief’s daughter. Some of them went to drink water. Part of them went after food. Some of them also went to get fallen limbs [for firewood].

Then she thought “I wish these rocks would fall upon me,” and toward her they fell. Then she heard them talking and weeping outside. And, after she had also cried for a while, she started a fire. Then she felt sleepy and slept. She awoke. A man lay back to the fire on the opposite side. That was Narrow-cave, they say.

Then he looked at her, and he asked her: “Say! noble woman, [685] what sort of things have they put into your ears?” And the child said to him: “They drove sharp knots into them and put mountain sheep wool into them.” Then he took sharp knots out of a little box he used as a pillow. Now Narrow-cave laid his head on some planks for her, and she pushed them into his ears. “Wa wa wa wa wa, it hurts too much.” Then she at once stopped. And, when he asked her to do it again, she again had him put his head on the plank. It hurt him, but still she drove it into his ear. His buttocks moved a while, and then he was dead.

Then she again cried for a while. She heard the noise of some teeth at work and presently saw light through a small hole. Then she put some grease around it, and the next day it got larger. Every morning the hole was larger, until she came out. It was Mouse who nibbled through the rock.

Then she was ashamed to come out, and, when it was evening, she came and stood in front of her father’s house. And one of her father’s slaves said she was standing outside. They told him he lied. They whipped him for it.

Then her father’s nephew went out to look for her. She was really standing there. And her father brought out moose hides for her. She came in upon them. They laid down moose hides for her in the rear of the house. She came in and sat there.

Then her father called in the people. She recounted in the house the things that had happened. When she had finished she became as one who falls asleep. They guessed that she had gone into his (Narrow-cave’s) house to live.

One moonlight night they (the children) went to Tcꜝixodᴀ′ñqꜝēt [686] to play. And two persons came to a boy who was walking far behind, took him off with them, and led him to a fine house.

Then they asked each other: “What shall we give him to eat?” “Give him the fat of bullheads’ heads.” And they gave him food. In the night he awoke. He was lying upon some large roots. And in the morning he heard them say: “There are fine [weather] clouds.” Then they went fishing, and, when it was evening, they built a large fire. He saw them put their tails into the fire, and it was quenched. And next day, after they had gone out fishing, he ran away.

Then they came after him. And he climbed up into a tree standing by a pond in the open ground. They hunted for him. Then he moved on the tree, and they jumped into the pond after his shadow.

Then they saw him sitting up there, and they called to him to come down. “Probably, [687] drop down upon my knees.” And they could not get him. They left him.

Then he started off. He came in to his parents. He came in after having been lost, and his mother gave him a ground-hog blanket to wear.

Then he went out to play with the others one day, and something said to him from among the woods: “Probably is proud of his ground-hog blanket. He does not care for me as he moves about.” He did not act differently on account of this. [688] Those who took him away were the Land-otter people.

The Pitch-people (Qꜝās lā′nas) occupied much of the northwestern coast of Moresby island between Tas-oo harbor and Kaisun, but, when the Sealion-town people moved to the west coast, they seem to have driven the Pitch-people out of their northern towns. They were always looked upon as an uncultivated branch of Haida, and are said not to have possessed any crests. Later they intermarried with the Cumshewa people. Some of the Cumshewa people claim descent from them, but none of the true Pitch-people are in existence. The relationship of their culture to that of the other Haida would be an interesting problem for archeologists. The following stories regarding these people were obtained from a man of the Sealion-town people who supplanted them.

HOW A RED FEATHER PULLED UP SOME PEOPLE IN THE TOWN OF GU′NWA

[Told by Walter McGregor of the Sealion-town people]

The town children were knocking a woody excrescence [689] back and forth. After they had played for a while they began saying “Haskwä′.” [690] The niece of the town chief was menstruant for the first time. She sat behind the screens. [691]

After they had played for a while a red feather floated along in the air above them. By and by a child seized the feather. His hand stuck to it. Something pulled him up. And one seized him by the feet. When he was also pulled up another grasped his feet in turn. After this had gone on for a while all the people in the town were pulled up.

Then the one who was menstruant did not hear them talking in the house. She was surprised, and looked toward the door. There was no one in the house. Then she went outside. There were no people about the town. Then she went into the houses. She saw that they were all empty.

Then she began to walk about weeping. She put her belt on. Then she blew her nose and wiped it on her shoulder. And she put shavings her brothers had been playing with inside of her blanket. Feathers and wild crab apple wood, pieces of cedar bark, [692] and mud from her brothers’ footprints she put into her blanket.

By and by, without having been married, she became pregnant. Soon she gave birth. Again she became pregnant. Again she bore a boy. After this had gone on for some time, the youngest came out with medicine in his mouth. He had a blue hole in his cheek. With a girl they were ten.

And she started to rear them. She brought home all kinds of food that was in the town. She gave this to her children to eat. Very soon they grew up. They began playing about the house.

By and by one of them asked their mother: “Say! mother, what town lies here empty?” And his mother said to him: “Why! my child, your uncles’ town lies here empty.” Then she began telling the story. “The children of this town used to go out playing skîtqꜝ′ā′-ig̣adañ. Then a red feather floated around above them. I sat behind the planks. There I discovered that the town lay empty, and I was the only one left. There I bore you.” Like this she spoke to them.

Then they asked their mother what was called “skîtqꜝā′-ig̣adᴀñ.” Then she said to them: “They smoothed the surface of a woody excrescence, and they played with it here.”

Then they went to get one. They worked it, and, after they had finished it, they played about on the floor planks of the house with it. While they were still playing daylight came. And next day they also played outside. The feather again floated about above them. Their mother told them not to take hold of the feather.

After they had played for a while the eldest, who was heedless, seized the feather. His hand stuck to it. When he was pulled up he turned into mucus. After it had been stretched out five times the end was pulled up. Another one seized it. He became a shaving. After he had been stretched out five times he, too, was pulled away.

Another one grasped it. He became a feather. After something had pulled him up five times he also left the ground. Another one seized it. He became a strip of cedar bark. After something had pulled him up five times he also left the ground. And again one seized it. He became mud. After he had been stretched out five times he left the ground. And another seized it. The same thing happened to him; and after this had gone on for a while they were nearly all gone.

Then again one seized it. He became a wild crab-apple tree. He was strong. And, while he was being stretched up, his sister went around him. She sharpened her hands. “Make yourself strong; [be] a man,” she said to her brother. When he had but one root left his sister climbed quickly up upon him. After she had reached the feather, and had cut at it for a while, she cut it down. A string of them fell down.

He who had medicine in his mouth stood over his elder brothers. Upon his elder brothers he spit medicine. Then they got up. And the bones of those in the town who had been first pulled up lay around in a heap. He also spit medicine upon them. They also got up, and the town became inhabited.

They played with the feather. They went around the town with it. By and by it began to snow. Then they rubbed the feather on the fronts of the houses of the town, and the snow was gone. [693] After they had done so for a while the snow surmounted the house.

After some time a blue jay dropped a ripe elderberry through the smoke hole. By and by they went out through the smoke hole. They went to see Bill-of-heaven. [694]

After they had gone along for a while, they came to a djo′lgi [695] walking around. Then he who was full of mischief tore the animal in pieces and threw them about. After they had gone on some distance from there, they came to a woman living in a big house. Her labret was large. When she began to give them something to eat the woman asked them: “Was my child playing over there when you passed?” And one said to her: “No, only a djo′lgi played there. We tore it in pieces, and we threw it around.” “Alas! my child,” said the woman. “Door, shut yourself.” Xō-ō, it sounded.

Then he who knew the medicine became a cinder, and he let himself go through the smoke hole. When he got outside, “Smoke hole, shut yourself” [she said]. That also sounded Xō-ō. Then he ran quickly to the place where they had torn up the djo′lgi and, gathering up the pieces, put them together and spit medicine upon them. The djo′lgi shook itself, and started for the house with him.

The djo′lgi tapped upon the door. “Grandmother, here I am.” And when she had said “Door, unlock yourself; smoke hole, open yourself,” so it happened. Then she began giving them food. She gave them all kinds of good food to eat. That was Cliff’s house, they say. She is the djo′lgi’s grandmother.

And they stayed all night in her house, and next day she again gave them something to eat. Then they started off. After they had traveled for a while, they came to where another woman lived. And, after she had given them food, they stayed in her house all night as well.

And, after he who was full of mischief saw that the woman was asleep, he went to her daughter who lay behind the screen. And he put her belt around himself. After he had lain for a while with her her mother saw him. Then she took out the man’s heart and swallowed it. [696] Then he put her belt around her, went from her, and lay down.

Next morning, after she had given them something to eat there, she called her daughter. She paid no attention to her, and she went to her. She lay dead. Then she began to weep. She composed a crying song, “My daughter I mistook.” Then they left her.

After they had gone on for a while they came to where a big thing stood. When they pushed it down it fell upon two of them. Seven escaped and went off.

After they had gone on for a long space of time they came to a small dog lying in the trail. One jumped over it. Right above it it seized him with its teeth. Another jumped over it. He was treated in the same way. It killed three and four escaped.

After they had gone on for a while longer they came to the edge of the sky. It shut down many times. Then they ran under. Two of them were cut in two and two escaped. They, however, saw Bill-of-heaven.

Gunwa being one of the Nass towns, this story would appear to be an importation. It is paralleled, however, by a Masset myth, the scene of which is laid in a Haida town.

HOW ONE WAS HELPED BY A LITTLE WOLF

[Told by Tom Stevens, chief of Those-born-at-House-point.]

A certain person was a good hunter with dogs. He also knew other kinds of hunting, but still he could not get anything. They were starving at the town. And one time, when he went to hunt, he landed below a mountain. And when he started up some wolves ran away from him out of a cave near the water. In the place they had left a small wolf rose up. Then he tried to catch it, and the wolf tried to fight him. Then he said to it “I adopt you,” and it stopped fighting.

Then he put it into a bag he had and went home with it, and he hid it in a dry place near the town. After that he dreamed that it talked to him. It said to him: “Go with me. Put me off under a great mountain where there are grizzly bears and sit below. Then I will climb up from you toward the mountain and, when a big grizzly bear rolls down, cut it up. And, when another one comes down, split it open, but do not touch it.”

At once he took it away and put it off under a mountain. Then he went up, and, while he sat beneath, a big grizzly bear came rolling down. While he was cutting it up another came rolling down, and he split it open.

Immediately afterward the small, wet wolf came down. It yelped for joy. It shook itself and went inside the one that was split open. At once it made a noise chewing it. It ate it, even to the bones. Although it was so big it consumed it all. Only its skin lay there.

Then he put the parts into the canoe and brought them to the town. And they bought them of him. When they were gone he took it (the wolf) off again. They kept buying from him.

When his property was fully sufficient his brother-in-law borrowed it. Then he gave him directions. “Cut up the one that rolls down first, but the last one that rolls down only cut open.” Then he gave it to him in the sack in which he kept it.

Then he started with it and put it off beneath the mountain. Soon after it had gone up a grizzly bear rolled down, and he cut it up. Afterward another one rolled down, and he cut that up also. Then the wolf came down. After it had walked about for a while it began to howl. Then it started away, so that he was unable to catch it. It went along on a light fall of snow.

And, when he got home and he (the owner) asked for it, he told him it got away. He handed him only the empty bag.

At once he bought hide trousers. He also bought moccasins. Immediately he started off. He put the hides into a sack. Then he landed where he used to put it (the wolf) off and followed its tracks. He followed its footprints upon the snow lying on the ground.

Now, as he went, went, went, he spent many nights. He wore out his moccasins and threw them away. All the while he followed his son’s footprints upon the snow. He went and went, and, when his moccasins and trousers were almost used up, he heard many people talking and came to the end of a town.

Then he hid himself near the creek, and, when one came after water, he smelt him. Then he saw him and shouted to him: “So-and-so’s father has come after him.” At once they ran to get him. His son came in the lead. They were like human beings. Then he called to his father. He led him into the house in the middle. The son of the chief among the wolf people had helped him. The house had a house pole.

Then they gave him food. They steamed fresh salmon for him, and, when they set it before him, his son told him he better eat. Then he ate. And, after they had fed him for a while, they brought the hind quarter of a grizzly bear, already cooked, out of a corner. Then they cut off slices from it and gave them to him to eat.

He kept picking them up, but still they remained there. They set the whole of it before him with the slices on top. He did not consume it. It is called: “That-which-is-not-consumed.”

After he had been there for a while they steamed in the ground deer bones with lichens [697] on them. And next day they began to give them to him to eat. Then he did not pick them up, but he said to his father: “Eat them, father.” He was afraid to eat them because they were bones. Then he picked one up. But, when he touched it to his lips, it was soft.

Every morning they went after salmon. They put on their skins. Then they came home and brought three or four salmon on the backs of each. They shook themselves, took off their skins, and hung them up.

Presently he told his son that he wanted to go away. Then they brought out a sack and put grizzly-bear fat into it. When the bottom of it was covered they put in mountain-goat fat. There was a layer of that also. After that they put in deer fat, as well as moose fat. They put in meat of all the mainland animals.

After it was filled, and they had laced it up they gave him a cane. It was so large he did not think he could carry it. And, when he started to put it on his back, his son said to him: “Push yourself up from the ground with your cane.” Then he did as directed. He got up easily.

Then he gave other directions to his father. “You will travel four nights. When you camp for the night stick the cane into the ground and in the morning go in the direction toward which it points. Stick the cane into the ground where you come out. After you have taken those things out of the sack, take that over also and lay it near the cane. Those things are only lent you.”

At once he set out. And, when evening came, he stuck the cane into the ground. But the cane pointed in the direction from which he had come, and he went toward it. And, when evening again came, he stuck the cane in, and in the morning the cane was again pointing backward; and again he followed it.

After he had camped four nights he came out. And he stuck in the cane at the edge of the woods. And, while they were again in a starving condition, he came home. They were unable to bring out his sack. And, when a crowd took hold of it, they got it off [the canoe], and, after they had taken the best parts of all kinds of animals out of it, he took the sack back to the cane and laid it near by.

Then they also began to buy that. With what he got in exchange he became a chief. [698] With what he got in exchange he also potlatched. After two nights had passed he went to see the place where he had left the sack. He saw that they had taken it away.

Since wolves are not found upon the Queen Charlotte islands, this is necessarily a mainland story, probably Tsimshian.

GUNANASÎ′MGÎT

[Told by Jackson, late chief of Skidegate.]

A certain woman of the upper class, whose father was a chief, was squeamish about stepping on the dung of grizzly bears. They went with her to pick berries, and then she started back. At that time her basket strap broke. Now her basket upset. It upset four times.

In the evening, when her basket upset for the last time, two good-looking fellows came to her and asked her to go with them. The two persons begged her to go, and they said to her: “A little way inland are berries.”

Then she went back with them. And she said: “Where are they?” They said to the woman: “A little farther inland.” Now it was evening. And they led her into a big town. Now they led her into a big house in the middle of the town which had a painting on the front. A woman who was half rock sat in the corner of the house.

When they gave her something to eat [this woman said]: “When you eat it, eat only the shadow. [699] Only eat the cranberries they give you to eat. Drink nothing but water. Do not eat the black, round things they give you to eat. I have been eating them. That is why I am here. I am half rock. When you go to defecate dig deeply into the ground. Cover it over.”

Now she went to defecate as directed. And, when she went to defecate, she laid copper bracelets on top and copper wire. She finished. Now, after she was gone, a man went and looked at the place. He saw copper wire and bracelets. Then the man shouted. A crowd of people looked at it. Truly that was why she did not want to step on dung. Now she became used to [her surroundings].