Chapter XIII: Part 13

And he called for another. He also went to him, and, after he had sung for him for a while, he pulled him close to himself. He acted like the other. “My child is asleep.”

After he had done this for a while, he got through with eight. Then he called the last one, who had medicine in his mouth. After he had sung to him for a while and pulled him closer to himself, he spit the medicine upon his chest. Something sharp, like glass, fell from him and stuck into the floor planks. Then he brought the back of his cloak round in front. And, after he had sung for him again and pulled him closer to himself, he again spat medicine upon his breast. From that also the needles fell off. [489]

Now he became angry with him, and he was pushing him toward his whetstone, which stood on edge in the rear of the house pointing toward the fire. When he touched it, it ground the skin off of his side. He put the medicine upon his palms and rubbed it upon himself, and it became well. After they had wrestled for a while he threw his father down there. It ground away, and he was ground to pieces. He killed his father quickly.

Then he went to his elder brothers, who were lying about, laid them together, and spit medicine upon them. They all got up. [Each said] “I guess I must have been sleeping here.” All got up, and they continued to live in that house.

Their names are as follows: The eldest was called G̣osg̣aʟ̣ē′kꜝa; [the next] He-whose-skin-is-of-white-rock, the next one, The-left-handed. He was a brave fellow. He who was full of mischief was named Sawałī′xa, and one was called Łg̣añā′ʼo. He who had medicine in his mouth was called ʟā′ga-na′qatî. [490]

Then they asked their mother: “Say! mother, why is this town empty?” “My child, a supernatural being at the south end of the island destroyed your uncles. Since then it has remained this way.” Then they said to each other: “To-morrow we will go and look at it.” And next day they went and looked at it. It lived in a cave. In front of it was a pile of human bones. They looked and went away.

Then they made something with which to kill it. All nine twisted cedar limbs. Afterward they spliced them. And then they twisted them together. They made it long. It was also stout. Next day they went to it. When they arrived they strangled their sister and fastened her on the end of a pole. They used her as bait. They set the snare in front of its den. After they had held their sister in front of it for a while, it came out, and they drew her out before it.

When the snare was even with its middle they pulled it up. They also pulled in their sister quickly and spit medicine upon her. At once their sister seized the end of the rope. After they had pulled against it for a while and began to be pulled down on top of each other the cord broke, and they fell backward in a heap. Then they went home.

And after they had thought for a while what they could use with which to catch it they began digging roots. They traveled around upon the island of Gᴀsqo. [491] Upon it they got roots. And they also twisted those. When the rope was long, they went to it again. They again used their sister as bait. Again they put the snare in front of it. When it put its head through, they slipped the knot down to its middle. Again they pulled their sister in quickly, again they spat medicine upon her, and again she seized the end of the rope. After they had been pulled down many times, as they held this, it broke, and they fell backward in a heap. Then they went away again.

And they took dry strings lying upon the beach. As they went around the island they carried them along. After that they spliced them. At once they twisted them. When it (the rope) became long, they went over there again. Again they used their sister as bait. When that also broke, they gave it up. Nothing was left that they could use.

And, after they had lived there for a while, a wren chirped in the corner of the house. It said “Guda′dixa-i” (“sinews”). [492] Then they felt strange about what it said, and all made blunt-pointed arrows and bows. Then they began traveling about upon the island. Each kept coming in with three or four [wrens]. At once their sister pulled out the sinews, after which they twisted them together. It was slender.

When this was long they went to it again. They set the snare in front of it. Again they used their sister as bait. When he again came out they slipped the knot over him. They pulled their sister away quickly and spit medicine upon her. At once she was pulling along with them. All pulled upon it. It stretched out smaller. But when it touched the face of a rock, that fell over. They were saying: “Think yourself wren sinews.” [493]

After they had pulled at it for a while, something cracked at the bottom of the island, and they pulled it up. They cut its belly open. They cut human bones out. Then they laid the bones together. If one part were missing, they broke off pieces of old limbs of trees and put them in instead. Immediately ʟā′ga-na′qatî spit upon it. And they said to them: “Go to the places where you used to live.” They killed him, and they went home. That was Supernatural-eel, they say.

And, after they had lived there for a while, their sister became menstruant for the first time. By and by [they heard] some one talking to their sister. They did not know who it was that talked. And again some one talked to their sister. Then they put pitch on the mat. And again some one was talking with their sister. In the morning they bathed in the sea. [494] When they came in from it, there were spots of pitch on the side of him who was mischievous. Then they pushed him from one to another. They laughed at him. [495]

Then their mother said to them: “I guess they are laughing because the Djugî′tg̣a’s head is going to be hung up in front of their menstruant sister.” [496] At once they inquired of an old man who lived at one end of the town. They asked about the thing their mother spoke of. And they gave him twisted cedar limbs. They also gave him strong bones to make gimlets out of and Indian tobacco. He told them where its place was. He told them that it slept there, and he said it was easy to approach it.

Immediately they borrowed a fast canoe. They borrowed Fast-rainbow-trout’s [497] canoe. Then he stood in the middle, and, when they paddled all together, he shot an arrow [forward]. It fell into the water abreast of the middle of the canoe. Then they also borrowed Steel-head’s canoe, and, as he shot an arrow, they paddled. It fell near the stern of the canoe. But still they did not think it was fast enough.

Then they also borrowed Jellyfish’s canoe. It had a stern at each end. They could pull it either way. It was not good looking. But they borrowed it. He said: “I will go along with you.” They burned the bottom of it. Then they put it into the water. One stood in the middle and he (the jellyfish) stuck in his tentacles far off. When they used their paddles he shot an arrow. It fell far back in their wake.

Then they pulled it up and prepared to go in it. Presently, when it was smooth at sea, they went to the old man. He was Heron, they say. “It is a fine day” [they said]. And he said to them: “No, brave men, it is a bad day.”

By and by there was a foggy morning. The mist was falling on the water. Then he went to them. He sat outside. “Launch your canoe. It is a fine day. At noon the mist will melt away under the sunshine.” Then he gave them directions. “When it sleeps phosphorescent light shines in its eyes. Then go to it. When there is no phosphorescent light in its eyes do not go to it.”

Then they started off. After they had gone along for a while [they] saw the phosphorescent light in its eyes. They had blue hellebore and urine, which they had let rot, in their canoe. They took its hair into their canoe noiselessly. Presently they cut off its head and put it in.

Jellyfish stuck his tentacles into the land. Their paddles they also plied together. Under their bow the current flowed so fast as to make cracks [in the sea]. Into it they poured the blue hellebore and urine. On the other side the current also cracked itself by its passage. They treated that in the same way. At once they were in front of the town. In a short time they had hung its head up in front of their sister. Long hair hung down from it.

Next day some one came singing out of the ocean. [498] He had a cane. It was red. He came in front of the town and stood there. “Give me my son’s head or I will tip over your town,” he said. [499] Then two ran quickly over to the old man. “Old man, what shall we do? He says he will upset the town.” “After you have gone to the end of the town, cover it with hard white stones. Cover it from bottom to top.” Immediately they ran over and did so. And again he said: “Give me my son’s head or I will upset the town.” Then Sawałī′xa said: “Tip it over.” He struck the end of the town with the red thing he held. Instead of falling it sounded like a drum. He struck it in front and from above. But it only sounded like a drum. Then he gave it up and went out to sea. He vanished into the ocean.

Next day he again came singing some songs. After him came a crowd of red things. Those were fleas, they say. Then they went quickly to the old man and asked him: “What shall we do?” “Steam urine and pour it out toward them.” Then they did as he said. “Give me my son’s head.” Then the fleas came toward the house, and they poured urine around upon them. After they had killed half of them he again started seaward. He disappeared into the ocean.

Next day he came again. He carried his staff. Some objects flew in a crowd after him. Those were sīxasʟtꜝᴀ′lgaña, [500] they say. Again they inquired of the old man, and he told them to make blunt arrows. And they did as directed. When he had said “Give me my son’s head,” they came quickly to the houses. Then they went out to them and shot them. After they had destroyed half of those also he went off.

The day after this he again sang some songs. Behind him the surface of the ocean came burning. At this time they again ran over to the old man. He said to them (lit. “him”): “Now, brave men, nothing at all can be done. Save yourselves by flight.” At once they fled away with his head. The land burned after them. When one of them was burned up, he threw it to another. This went on until only he who had medicine in his mouth was left. When his side was partly burned he rubbed the medicine upon it, and it became as it had been before. By and by he threw it (the head) into the fire. It stopped there and went back.

Afterward he started along. He hunted where his brothers had been burned. There was not a sign of their bones there. After he had gone on for a while he called to the one who was mischievous “Sawałī′hū′⁺.” “Here.” And where it sounded he went. Their bones lay there all together. Then he spit medicine upon them. They got up. Each said: “I guess I must have slept a long time.” Then they went seaward toward the open ground again.

And they rebuilt their house, which was all burned. They restored their mother and their sister, and again they began living there.

One time [they heard] some one talking to their sister. He was lying with her in the morning. That was North, they say. When he warmed himself before the fire he warmed only his side. And the one who was full of mischief was surprised at it and began making shavings. He dried them. He whittled up pitchwood among them. He put it with the rest.

One day, very early, his brother-in-law warmed himself. He stretched his blanket over the fire. Then he also reached over the fire and threw the shavings into it. When it blazed up, he threw himself backward. Lo! his penis struck upon his belly. Then they laughed at him. And he said to them: “You are laughing at me. You will indeed stand against me.” [501] And next day he went off.

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]

When his canoe was finished he steamed and spread it. At that time his brothers-in-law helped him. After that he started to go out in it. All that time she (his sister) made the child dance. Already it began to have a tail. Then she gave them directions. She said that when they went outward they should not look back. She said that the child, who was just able to talk, must not speak about that country. And she also gave the same directions to him.

One time, after that, they started off. When they were some distance away the child remembered the town. And, when he said “How [well] we lived among them,” they were back again in front of the town. When they again started and had passed beyond the place where the boy first spoke he repeated the same thing, and again they were back in front of the town. When they went away again they kept straight on. Then they came to [their own] town.

Here it draws to an end. [522]

This is one of the numerous and popular land-otter stories and the only type of story in which that animal appears in a rôle at all benevolent. Usually he is represented as trying to steal away some human being and make a slave of him, to deprive one of his senses or turn him into a gā′gix̣īt (see story of Supernatural-being-who-went-naked, note 19). Nevertheless, his peculiar nature brought him into intimate relations with the shamans, especially among the Tlingit.

HOW SOMETHING PULLED A ROW OF EAGLES INTO THE WATER

[Told by the chief of Kloo, of Those-born-at-Skedans]

There lay the town of Skedans. The nephew of the town chief there sat around whittling. He came to have many boxes of arrows. And one day he put shavings into the fire in front of his uncle’s wife. Then he saw her genitals.

Then he looked on as they were gambling. His uncle also sat there. By and by a flicker came flying about. It showed red when it spread its wings. Then he said “Just now I saw something in the house exactly like that,” whereupon his uncle became ashamed.

Then his uncle had a block of cedar cut out, and they shaped it like a canoe. Then they scraped off some pitch, put it into the cedar, warmed it, and made him sit on it. Then they went out with him to the open sea and put him in it. He was crying. He cried himself to sleep.

By and by the wind blew from the ocean. After he had floated for a time he floated ashore at Broken-shells-of-the-supernatural-beings. [523] Then he put his back to the sunshine, and the heat melted him off.

Now he rose and came to a town. And at evening he peered into the houses. After he had looked about for a while he looked into the chief’s house and [saw] a woman sitting between the screens which pointed toward each other. She was pretty. He looked in at her.

And, when they all were gone to bed, he went in to her. And the woman asked him: “Who are you? My father keeps me for him alone whom his uncle had taken toward the open sea.” And he said to her: “I am he.” Then she let him lie with her. While he was lying with her her father overheard.

Next day her father said: “Come! let us see who was talking with my child.” Then he said: “I wonder what supernatural being got in that way. I was keeping my daughter for him whom they said his uncle had carried toward the open sea.” “It is he, father, he says.” “Come down to the fire with your husband, child.” Then she went down with him, and his father-in-law gave him food.

And, after he had stayed with her for a while, he told his wife that he wanted to see his uncle’s town. Then his wife told her father. And he told his son-in-law to bring him a box which was near the wall. And, when he brought it over to him, he took four out of it in succession, and began pulling from the inmost the feather clothing of an eagle. Then he gave him one among them in which fine black feathers were mixed with white.

Then he went outside, put it on (lit., went into it), and flew up to a high frame in front of the house. He flew easily. Then he flew down. Soon he looked down upon his uncle’s town. Then he sat at Skedans point. He looked from where he sat at his uncle’s town.

By and by some children came to him. And the children shot up at him with blunt arrows. But every time they shot at him he sat lower down. In the inside of [the skin] he made himself small. He changed himself many times in a way his father-in-law had given him directions. [524] For that purpose he had given him one all of fine feathers.

Presently the boys were forbidden to shoot, and the grown people began shooting at him. Every time they shot at him he came lower. When a big crowd was about him, he seized one person by the top of his head. And, when he flew up with him, some one else seized his feet. When he also went up another seized his feet. In the same way they all seized one another’s feet until he flew up with the whole town. Then he flew seaward with them and let them fall there. They became islands. [525] The town of Skedans became empty. Then he flew up.

And all the time he was at this town they entered their feather clothing just before daybreak and sat in line upon a kind of pole, which was in front of the town. After they had discussed the place they should go to they flew away. In the evening they flew back. They returned with all kinds of things. They took whale tails, white porpoises, porpoises; and halibut, red cod, spring salmon—everything one can think of.

One time he told his wife he wanted to go out for food with them. He wanted to go for the things they brought in. Then his father-in-law again gave him a [skin]. He gave him one that belonged to a young person. Then he put it on, flew seaward with them, and caught spring salmon. His father-in-law was pleased with him.

And at daybreak his father-in-law warned him. He told him not to touch a thing which stuck out of the water at Skedans point. And one day, when he flew out with them, he looked at a whale, thought it easy, and seized it in his talons. He did not feel it. At that time his father-in-law was still more pleased with him.

And when day broke he told him all the places upon this island where they get things. Then he sat with them in front of the house, and even to the south end of the island the things under the waters, fish and sea mammals, [526] were plainly visible to him.

One day he flew downward and nearly touched the thing sticking out. And, when he did the same thing again, he seized it. He flapped his wings to pull it up. It acted like a solid object and nearly carried him under the water. Another took hold of the end of his wing. He, too, was drawn under, and another seized his wing. As soon as they saw him they flew toward him from the south end of the island and from the north end of the island. All flew about above him. They also saw him from the town. The first were drawn in. They were nearly all pulled in one after the other, holding each other’s wings, when the town people, too, came flying thither. Those, too, were at once drawn in.

Then his father-in-law and his wife dressed themselves. And, when those also were almost drawn under, and his wife was nearly drawn under with them, his wife’s grandmother also dressed herself. She sharpened her claws which were dull. At the same time she said: “Ha-i ha-i, what things happen by means of the claws of my child’s husband, ha-i ha-i.” She was very old, they say.

By and by she flew out and seized her. After she had flapped her wings for a while she saw one coming up. As she saw another one come up something cracked at the bottom of the island. Then she pulled them out. The thing came up with them. That was Greatest-clam (stᴀn), [527] they say.

Then the town was restored. And he again began getting food for his father-in-law as formerly. But Skedans continued to lie empty. That is why the same thing keeps happening to it, they say. [528]

[Another version of this story, obtained by Prof. Franz Boas from Charlie Edenshaw, chief of the Stᴀ′stas, a prominent Masset family.]

At Lāltg·iwas, [529] near Skidā′ns, lived a chief and his sister, who had a son. This young man loved the chief’s wife. When the chief discovered this he became jealous and thought of killing his nephew. He sent his slaves to fetch gum. The slaves went and bought a canoe load of gum, which the chief boiled. Then he covered the board which covers the bow of the canoe with the gum. After this was done he sent his slaves to shoot eagles, and he spread the down over the gum so as to make it invisible. After he had thus prepared his canoe he called his nephew. His slaves went into his house to call him. He obeyed their summons, and went to his uncle’s house, who requested him to go out to sea, hunting. The young man took his quiver, which contained two bows and many arrows. The young man asked his uncle: “What kind of a blanket shall I wear when I go hunting?” Then the chief gave him two marten blankets. He continued: “What kind of ear ornament shall I wear when I go hunting?” His uncle gave him ear ornaments made of caribou skin (tsʼᴇnʟqal = caribou).

When the weather was clear and calm he started hunting seals (xōt). Before they started the chief said to his slaves: “When he harpoons a seal push him so that he will fall on the board in the bow of the canoe. He will stick to it, and then throw him overboard.” They went out to sea, and, when the young man was about to harpoon a seal, the slave pushed him so that he fell down on the board. He was unable to free himself because the gum was holding him. Then the slaves took the board, threw it overboard, and returned home. They said that the young man had fallen overboard and that they had been unable to save him. Then all the people were sad.

The young man drifted about on the sea, and the wind drifted the board ashore near a town. He crawled up toward the houses, but, when the sun was shining warmly, the gum softened, and he was able to free himself. He dried his blankets in the warm sunshine.