Chapter IX: Part 9

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

It was barking at something in the same pool of water, and he looked into it. He saw not a sign of anything. But it dug for something near the water. After it had done so for a while its teeth stuck fast in the roots, and after it had yelped a while they slipped off. Then [the boy] helped dig behind it. The dog dug along ahead of him. Ah! they dug into the marks of salt water, and a salmon creek came to be there. [316] At that time a great shoal of salmon came up. He stood near them. Then he went away, collected the town people’s planks, and split them up. He planed them. He made notches for ropes. All that time the salmon were coming steadily up. He made this for them.

He stretched his arms on these. Each [of these horizontal pieces] was two fathoms long. Some were one fathom long [for uprights]. There were twenty poles of each sort. All had notches on the ends. Toward the top, which he worked down small, he placed a design. He put figures of salmon there. These parts were the łg̣aiyî′ñgadadjî. [317]

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

He went back of the house, cut piles, sharpened them, and put rings of bark around them [to keep them from splitting when they were driven into the stream bed]. Now he went into the water and drove piles into the place where the fish trap was to stand. Then he put the fish trap into the water. He fastened the horizontal pieces with twisted cedar limbs. He treated the gīgwᴀ′ñgīda in the same way. Now he stood up the łg̣aiyî′ñgadadjî in place. Out of it all he made something roundish. [318]

After he had put the fish trap in place he gathered planks together. Then he split them in two. He also split some planks into poles. Then he enlarged the house. He set the drying frames for salmon over each other. He also put up the large poles (qꜝa′idagilai). They had notches [to prevent the smaller kꜝia′sᴀnai from slipping off]. The taxasgā′gida lay beneath the ridgepole of the house (djansgā′gida), itself supported front and back by the crossed house-timbers. [319]

Although he used to eat, he was so busy working that he stopped doing so. Still he never forgot his younger brother and the dog. He fed them all the time. As soon as the fish trap and all things were finished, and day came, he went to the fish trap. He kept taking them (the salmon) out. As soon as he had done so he strung them together. He finished ten strings and laid them in the water. Then he roasted some for his younger brother for that evening, and that night he remained awake. Again he kept taking them out. He strung up the same number as on the day before and let them lie in the water. All that time they never ceased to run, hu hu hu hu hu. Where had their hunger gone to?

One day, when the house was filled and he had fully enough and had cut them up for more than ten nights, before he went out to remain awake, he roasted some for his younger brother by the fire. He took out more and more salmon. He came back, and the two rows of roasted fish which had been there were gone. Then he went over to his younger brother, cried near him, and went out to cut up the fish.

When it was evening he again roasted some. Again he had more and again he stayed up to watch. He took some out. He did it repeatedly. When he went home what he had roasted had again disappeared. Then he again wept near his younger brother and went out to cut up his fish. He cut up the fish and again remained awake. Now he had three rows of roasted fish.

He took out still more salmon. He came in, and lo! all was gone. Part of those above were also gone. Then he called his younger brother, and said: “Say! brother, [320] did you eat all the things I roasted?” “No; shortly after you went out someone came in, gathered them up in his hands, with those above, and put them into his mouth.” “I thought it was you.”

Now, he did not care about the salmon. Nor did he go out to cut up the fish. He felt badly. He sat waiting. He was going to watch. He wanted to see who this person was. In the evening he brought out his bow, spanned it, brought out two arrow-boxes, put one on the left side near the door, and sat over the right-hand one with his bow.

After he had sat there in the dark for a while he saw two pieces of burning pitchwood side of the house. When they came around to the front of the house something wonderful entered and stood there. Something with fire burning in its eyes came in and stood there. After it had stood there for a while it gathered the roasted salmon together and swallowed all. After he had stood looking at those above for a while he gathered them also together and swallowed them. As he turned away from this he (the boy) shot him under the armpit and from the other side as well. That was Ga′ogila. [321]

When he turned about he shot him repeatedly. He shot him repeatedly. When one arrow-box was exhausted, as the animal turned around, he went to the other also, and after he had shot from it for a while midnight came and he went out.

At once he pursued him. He stuck the arrows into his quiver, and kept shooting him through his back and his breast. After some time had passed, lo! he had passed to the other side of a mountain as quickly as if it had been thrown back from him. Then he returned.

He entered and took his younger brother on his knee. He also called the dog to him, and the latter licked his lips. Then he turned over the drum that had belonged to his father and placed it over his younger brother and the dog. And he went away.

As he went he picked up the shafts of his arrows [which had fallen from the heads]. After he had run along for a while he heard a noise. Then he stood still. After he had listened for a while he heard a sound like that of a hammer. Now, he went in that direction. Lo! some one was working out the inside of a canoe. Only the top of his head was visible. He looked at it fixedly.

He walked slowly in that direction. His head entirely disappeared within the canoe while his hammer lay outside of the canoe. Then he reached for it and took it with him under a bunch of ferns near by. After he (the boy) had looked at him for a while he stood up in the midst of his work and looked about for something. He cleared away the chips. [The boy] was looking at him stealthily.

He sat still and put his finger-nails between his teeth. By and by he said: “My grandson, come to me. News of you has come. News has come, grandson, that they abandoned you because you ate the hair seal’s flipper, which your father sent home from the feast. If it is you, come to me.”

He went out quickly and stood there. And he handed his hammer to him. At once he stepped out to take it. That was Master Carpenter [322] making a canoe.

“Say! go and get four bent wooden wedges. Put two rings of cedar bark in the front part of the canoe and two in the stern. Then your canoes will come apart.” He was unable to make two canoes as he was trying to do, one inside the other, because his wedges were too straight.

He went to get the wedges, and while he was away the other had already put rings on the canoe. He brought them (the wedges) along. Then he told him to put them in the bow and the stern. Then he began hammering on them. After he had busied himself going back and forth from one to another for a while, lo! they started to separate. After doing so for a while, he hammered them apart. He thought: “I wonder where the salmon are for which he wants these.” He did not think about his younger brother. Then [the man] said to him: “Now, grandson, come with me. You shall marry my daughter.”

Now he went with him. Wā, the smoke they came in sight of was like a comb. That was his town. He went with him into the middle house, which belonged to Master Carpenter. Between the screens, in the rear of the house, sat a wonderful creature, as beautiful as a daughter of one of the supernatural beings. Then her father said to her, “Chief-woman, [323] my daughter, come and sit near your husband.” At once she arose and sat down near him.

After his father-in-law had given him something to eat repeatedly, evening came and she said to him, “Let us go out [to defecate].” “I do not know where they go out.” Then she said to him, “Why! do you not know where they go out?” She said to him, “I will go with you.” It was evening, and she went out with him. She went seaward with him, and they defecated. They came in and sat down. Straight across from the town a drum sounded.

His father-in-law treated him well. Every evening he went out with his wife, and the drum kept sounding there. He became tired of hearing it and once, after he had gone out and was seated with his wife, he questioned his wife, “Say! why is that drum always beating?” “They are trying to cure the town chief.” Then he said to his wife, “Come! let us go over and look.”

Then they came in, and she asked her father: “Father, do you own a small canoe?” “Yes, chief-woman, my daughter, one is lying down on the beach.” Then two youths carried the canoe down on their shoulders, but they (the man and his wife) walked. They got into it, and only the youths paddled, while he and his wife sat in the middle.

They landed and pulled up the canoe. Then he and his wife went up and, when they saw him, the crowd of spectators standing in front of the house before the door opened up a passage for him, and he and his wife looked in.

To his surprise the one he had shot sat doubled up over wooden bars which were fastened between ropes hung from the ridge-pole, touching the lower one with his feet and holding the upper one in his hands. [324] The arrows stuck out of him all over. He was suffering greatly.

After he had looked at him for a while, he thought: “I wonder why the shaman does not see what is sticking out of him.” Then one standing near him looked at his face and said: “I wish you could hear what the person standing here says, ‘I wonder why the shaman trying to cure him does not see what is sticking out of him.’” The one who announced his thought was mind-reader among the Land-otter people. And a shaman from among the Land-otter people was trying to cure him. He did not see what was sticking out of him.

By and by some one rose and spoke to him who offered the blankets in return for the cure. Then he went away with his wife, came home, and told her to ask something of her mother. “Mother, have you any cedar-bark?” “Yes, chief-woman, my daughter.” Then she gave him some. They dried it around the fire, went to work upon it, and pounded it up for cedar-bark rings. These were finished.

Then they intended to bring him over. While yet in the house he bound himself [with the bark]. He bound his arms, the front of his body and his legs. Then they came and offered him ten moose-skins. Then they had him brought over. When he entered, the sick man was still hanging in the rear of the house.

And, after he had gone around him for a while, he pulled the arrows out of his buttocks. As soon as he had done so he stuck them into the bands around his own arms. He suffered ceaselessly where he hung. Then he pulled them out from the other side of him and from his legs. He stuck them into the rings around his body and back. Then he picked him up and seated him on the floor-planks. So he who had been unable to sit up now did sit up. Then he asked for a pillow and laid him on it. Ah! he lay there comfortably.

But, when he looked up, he beheld his (Ga′ogila’s) daughter, who was wonderful to look upon. He beheld her. Then, picking the sick man up again, he made him lay his feet upon the lower cross stick and seize the upper one with both hands. Then he put the arrows back into his buttocks and his side, so that he again suffered severely. Then he started away. He ceased looking at him, and they took him away on the canoe.

After he came in and sat down two more persons came in and stood there. They offered him twenty moose-skins and two coppers. He refused them. Then they came to offer him all the things in the town one after another. But he kept refusing them. Now he saw that his mind had become fixed. His future father-in-law wanted to keep his daughter by means of the many things he owned. And, after he had refused the property, he offered his daughter in marriage.

Immediately he turned around and started off. Then he again bound [bark] around himself. And they took him across. He entered and went round the man who was hung doubled up. By and by, while he was doing it, he pulled the arrows out of his buttocks, and he also pulled the arrow points out from the left side of his body. Then he took hold of him and made him sit up. He sat there; and, when he had finished pulling the arrow points out of his sides, back, and breast, not one was left in him. He sat up.

Then he said to his daughter: “Chief-woman, my daughter, come hither and sit down near your husband.” He married the chief’s daughter. At once Master Carpenter’s daughter came over. Now he had two wives.

After he had lived with his wives for a while, one day he lay abed. When the people went to bed again he was still there. Next day he did the same thing. His two wives said not a word to him. As he lay abed he wept.

Then he (his father-in-law) asked his daughter: [325] “Chief-woman, my daughter, why does your husband lie abed?” Then she went to her husband and talked with him a while. And she said to her father: “He lies abed because he is homesick for his younger brother whom he left.” “Now, chief-woman, my daughter, go away at once with your husband. You and your husband go and look for the canoe I own which lies at the end of the town.”

Then they went there together. They arrived. Only a whale’s head lay there. Then they went home. She said to her father: “Father, there is only a whale’s head there.” “That is it. Go and say to it ‘Seaward, father’s canoe.’”

Lo! it floated on the water. Hu hu hu hu hu, it was a big canoe. Its edges were broad. They had cross lines. Then they put good food into it, launched another for Master Carpenter’s daughter, and into it put good food. They filled it with cranberries, berry cakes, mountain-goat fat, all kinds of berries. Then they pulled the canoes alongside and started off. Both wives accompanied him.

When they got near the town site he spanned his bow. He held two arrows in readiness. Then he jumped out of his canoe at a rocky point near the town, and he ran to his own house. When he entered he pushed off the drum which he had placed over his younger brother. The bones of his younger brother and the dog lay under it, held together only by their joints.

And, when the canoes landed, he went down to them. He held his bow ready to shoot the daughter of Ga′ogila. Then she said to him, “Do not kill us. We are going to look at your younger brother.” Then he stopped.

They went up together and sat over his younger brother, Ga′ogila’s daughter took something out of her box and bit off the end of it. It was blue. Then Master Carpenter’s daughter brought out a mat with edges like cumulus clouds, and they laid his younger brother upon it. Ga′ogila’s daughter spit under it many times.

Then she told Ga′ogila’s daughter to hurry. Her copartner in marriage [326] said to her: “Do so yourself, woman. Hurry your own mind.” Then she pulled off the mat. He rose out of the place [where he had been lying]. The dog, too, was glad to see him.

Then they unloaded both canoes. There were plenty of canoe men. There were a crowd of those whom his fathers-in-law had given to him. And next day they enlarged the house. They finished a large house for him. The front was sewn together [in the old style].

In his house they ate nothing but good food day after day. When they were through eating deer fat, mountain-goat fat was brought out, cut up, and distributed. They held this by the fire to roast. They ate it.

One day they said to their husband: “Go and get digging sticks for us.” Then he was glad. And he climbed a tree. He cut off limbs. He made them, and they were finished. The digging sticks he made while still in the woods were partly bloody looking [where the inside bark was reached]. When he came in with them, instead of being pleased, they laughed at him and said, “Get a real digging stick like father’s.” He went away again and used cedar limbs. Those the women also rejected. He got all sorts of sticks. He was unsuccessful. Then he got the side shoot of a yellow cedar. He finished it roughly on the spot. Then he brought it home and worked it up. The women said to him: “Make the lower part red; make the upper part blue.” They were hung in the rear of the house. The upper ends were made like round knobs.

Next morning they ate. The crowd of people was like stirred up salmon eggs. The young people played with his wives. But he said nothing. Then the two women put the digging sticks on their shoulders, but they did not take baskets.

Then he also went with them. The clams were shooting water. And he said, “Dig right here.” When the women went there, he heard them laughing, and they made him ashamed. But, after they had moved about for a while, they separated and started inland. Then they stood still opposite each other at the ends of the town. They ran their digging sticks into the ground. When they pried up they made the town larger than it was before. They brought up his father-in-law’s village.

Lo and behold! people walked about in front of the town in great numbers. He was “town mother” in his father-in-law’s town. His wives were two. Next day they again went down on the beach. When he spoke to them as before they laughed at him. They made him ashamed again.

After they had gone along for a while they struck their digging sticks into the ground. They dug out two whales, and the town people went down and cut them up. Next day they went down again. Again they dug two out. They went down for five days in succession and dug out ten. On each side they dug out five.

He wore ornaments of twisted copper wire coiled round his legs.

The chief’s son gave five whales to the town people. Next day they cut them up. But he left five. They were all fastened to his house with ropes. The sea-gulls eating the whale meat lying around looked like smoke.

Then he took his bow and arrows, and after he had looked at them for a while, he shot a small sea-gull. He shot it through the head. Now he brought it in, split it open at the tail, and skinned it. He dried the skin. When it was partly dried, he got into it. He walked about on the floor-planks with it. Then he stretched his wings to fly. He flew out. He left the town behind. His wives, too, did not have a trace of him.

He flew up into Nass inlet, they say. Then he looked about for the place where his father’s town was located. They were vainly trying to catch eulachon with fish-rakes. In the canoe belonging to his father’s slaves was only one fish. Then he took it up with his beak; one of them saw him and said: “Alas! he has carried off my eulachon.” They looked up at him. They saw around his leg the thing that used to be around the leg of the chief’s son whom they abandoned.

Then they paddled off and landed bow first [in their haste]. [327] The chief’s son whom they had abandoned had become a sea-gull. He had flown about among them. This is what they said. Then his father and his mother turned around from the fire, and, when they had stopped crying, he (the father) said to the slaves: “To-morrow go to dig for the bones of my child.”

Now the slaves went away, and, after they had gone down with the current for a while, they found decayed pieces of whales floating about upon the water. When they had gone on farther, they found two whales. After they had looked along a while for a place to hide this, they left it there. In Nass inlet they were starving in the period before the eulachon become thick. They left it until later. [328]

They went away from it and came in sight of their master’s town. The town had become larger. In front of the houses were crowds of people. They were boneless with astonishment. Only the man in the stern paddled along.

He (the chief) came out. Lo! four of his father’s slaves were coming. Then he went in and spanned his bow. He also took four arrows. He came out in a rough manner. He was prepared to shoot at them, but the daughters of Ga′ogila and Master Carpenter seized him by the shoulders. “Stop! let them land. Let them come into your house. It is also well for you to let them go again.” Then his two wives took his bow from him. He remained standing in the same place.

When they landed he went down to them and said: “All four of you come ashore. After you have taken off your clothing, come up with me.” So they stripped there and went up with him. And he had them sit down at one side of the house and gave them food. When the food was almost consumed he gave them some whale to eat. They ate it ravenously. He had them strip because he was afraid they would take some [food] home.

When they started off, one of them was so bent over as nearly to touch the ground. Then he went over to him and asked him, “Say! why do you walk so bent over?” and he replied, “Chief, I act that way because I am too full.” And when he (the head slave) was ready to start, he gave him the following directions: “Say! do not touch the rotten whale which is floating about. I shall watch it.” Then he said to them: “Say that you could not find my bones.”

Then they started off and landed in the night. And they said: “We could not find the bones.” Then his parents wept. When they stopped, they went to sleep. [That night] to their surprise the child of the head slave began to cry. He cried as people do when things are lodged in their throats. Then the chief’s wife asked to have him handed to her, and she held him on her knee. She put her finger into his mouth and found something. Then they looked at it. They did not know what sort of thing it was.

[The head slave] said: “I wish you could see what kind of house he lives in. What used to be your town has become larger. His two wives brought out the town. They dug it up, and they also dug out ten whales. Five are still floating there where they were fastened.”

Then, although it was midnight, the chief told them to put wood on the fire, and they went out and called in the people. Immediately they came in. Then, after they had consumed one salmon with the few last cranberries, [he said]: “I wish you to hear what I think. I think you should go toward your son whom I left and to whom I will give this town.” And all the town chiefs thought it good.

Then his ten uncles planned like this: they would offer their daughters to him in marriage. Their fathers were going to make marriage-gifts to them. Next day the town was broken up. Hu, hu, hu, hu, hu! the canoes that they launched were large. They painted up his uncles’ daughters. They paddled the canoes along together with planks laid across the tops of them, on top of which they had their daughters sit.

After they had gone along with the tide for a while they came to where the decayed whale-meat was floating. They landed, steamed some, and ate it. Then they gave some to their daughters, who sat in the canoes. But the daughter of the youngest uncle had not had her face painted. Because she was [considered] good for nothing, he left her so. Then he gave her a small piece of the inner layer of the bark of the hemlock. He told her to chew part, and she did.

Then they went on and came in sight of the town. It was most wonderful to behold. The whales floated about it. But as soon as the chief discovered them he got his bow. Then his two wives spoke to him, and he stopped.

They stopped in front of him, and a good looking woman went shoreward first. He told her to open her mouth. Her mouth smelt strong and he refused to have her. He refused all nine in the same way. Now the youngest got off. She opened her mouth. It smelt clean, and he smiled, and let her come in with him.

When they landed [his father] gave the town people to his son, and they made their homes on each side of those who were already there. Now he gave five whales to those who had just come in. The next day they went down and cut them up. They ate these ravenously.

After some time had passed one started out from the town to hunt with dogs. After he had been hunting for some time his dog barked at something. Then he went near it, and lo! his dog was barking at a grizzly bear.

Then he went to him. He threw him into his den. His wife sat at home. He was thrown against her breast. Then she dug up the earth for him, and put him in the hole, leaving only his cape outside.

Now he (her husband) came in and asked her: “Where is the human being I threw in to you?” “Here is the only thing you threw in to me, which I tore in pieces.” Then he again went after him and could not find him. And again he asked her, but she [said she] did not know.

Now, at daybreak, he went hunting. He carried a big basket, and his wife let out his thread of life. [329] It ran out irregularly. Then she let him (the man) out and gave him something to eat, and they lay down together. When it began to jerk again, she pulled up a plank, put him under, and sat on top.

He entered. There were a few crabs in the bottom of the basket. He used to fill it, but now it was different. He came in and sat down, but he did not know why he came home empty. [330] Next day she again fastened the thread upon him, and he started off. But, while it was unrolling, she cut it. Then she let the man out and married him. And she showed him the trail upon which her husband used to hunt, explaining everything.

Next day he took the basket and went inland. After he had gone up for a while, he came upon a lake in an open space. In the middle of this was a shoal. Now he swam over to it and put crabs into the basket. When his basket was full he went away. His wife was very glad to see him, because his basket was full. He lived with her a while. All that time he continued hunting in the same way.

By and by she became pregnant. She gave birth to a boy. She became pregnant again and bore another boy. She had two. Now he worked harder. By and by he stopped getting crabs and hunted hair seal.

One time he gathered them for four nights so that there were many and prepared to go away. Then she gave him the following directions: “When you hunt, leave some for my children. I will sit waiting at the upper end of the inlet.” And she said to him: “Do not talk with another woman.” She gave him a small water-tight basket in which was some water. A hawk feather also floated in it. Then she said to him: “Do not trifle with other women. In this I shall see it. When you have finished eating, drink from it.” So she directed him. [331]

Then he went away from her and came to his father’s town. And, after he had sat near a water hole behind it for a while, his mother came thither. Then he told her who he was. His mother went home crying. Then his father spread out a Gī′na-g̣ā′da-skin [332] he owned for him, and he walked [into the house] upon it.

Then they made a bed for him and he lay down there. They kept trying to get him to eat something. He did not eat. By and by two went with him, and he hunted. He speared hair seal. When the canoe was full he started for the inlet. Instead of objecting, those with him looked on in silence.

When he came to the end of the inlet there sat a grizzly bear. Then those who were with him turned their backs to the bear (paddling in the opposite direction), but, after he had paddled for a while facing her, he got off. Then he went to the grizzly bear and sat down near her. The two young grizzly bears were glad to see him. They licked him.

He went down to the canoe and threw off a hair seal. Then he went away. And after many nights had passed he went hunting again. The same ones were with him who had been with him before. And he speared hair seal. When the canoe was full they made a camp fire, and he steamed the hair seal there. Then they put it into the canoe and went into the inlet again. When they had almost come to land those with him again paddled in the opposite direction.

Again he got off and sat near the grizzly bear. The young ones licked him. Their mother, however, did not look toward him. After he had sat near her for a while, he stood up, threw off a hair seal, and went off by canoe.

But one time he went for water for himself. At that time he went with the one he used to be in love with. Then he went home.

After some space of time had passed he went hunting again, cooked some hair seal, and went into the inlet. Now, differently from the way she used to act, the hair on the back of her neck stood straight up. Then his companions said to him: “Let us go back. The hair on the back part of her neck stands up, differently from the way in which it used to be.” Still he paddled on. He landed and sat near her. She did not look toward him. His children, however, were glad to see him.

After he had sat there a while, she went to him and threw him about. As she did so she tore his limbs off. Then the cubs quickly went at their mother and tore her to pieces. Then they felt sorry on account of their mother. They acted as dogs do when one puts medicine into their noses. Then they went away.

Now, just as some people were starting a camp fire, [the cubs] came and killed them. They went away again, and they killed some others. And, while they were continuing to do this and were traveling about, they came and sat behind some people who had lighted a fire, and a woman’s child cried. Then she said to it: “Do not cry. Your uncle’s children might come and destroy us.” Upon hearing those things they went away.

This island was once all covered with grass, they say. Woodpecker was traveling about upon it. He had no feathers. And in the middle of the islands stood a large tree without bark, on which he began hammering. Now, after he had done this for a while, something said to him: “Your powerful grandfather says he wants you to come in.” He looked in the direction of the sound. There was nothing to be seen.

And when something said the same thing to him again, he looked into a hole at the foot of the tree and [saw] an old man sitting far back, white as a sea gull. Then he entered.

The old man looked into his small box. After he had pulled one box from another four times he took out a wing-feather. Wā-ā-ā-ā. [333] And he also stuck his tail into him and dressed him up. He made him red above, and he said to him: “Now, grandson, go out and start life anew. This is what you came in to me for.” Then he went out and flew. And, as he was going to do in the future, he took hold of the tree with his claws and hammered on it. [334]

[Another version of the third section of this story, told to Professor Boas to explain the carvings on the pole of “Nasʟᴇʟzu′s’s house” in Masset.]

There was a man of the Eagle clan, a great hunter. For a whole year he was unsuccessful. His name was Gāts. [335] He had two dogs. One day he saw a bear. He took his bow to shoot it. Then the bear turned back and took hold of the man and carried him to his den. After they reached there he gave the man to his wife, who hid him between her legs.

The bear went hunting again. When he returned he asked his wife, “What became of the man whom I caught?” She replied, “I think you did not bring a man; you only brought his belt. Here it is.”

Every time when the he-bear went hunting she took the man out of his hiding place, and he became her lover. The two dogs had returned to the village. The people followed them, discovered the bear, and killed him. Then the she-bear married the man. They had a child.

One day Gāts recalled his friends, and he asked his wife to let him return to his own village. She agreed and said: “I am going hunting all the time, I will go and give food to my child.” Then Gāts returned to his own village, where he had left a wife. But before he returned the bear told him not to look at his former wife, else she would kill him.

One day the man went hunting with his two sons. On the hills he met the bear. He went to meet her, and gave her some food. The people were afraid to accompany him on his visit to the bear. When she saw him approaching she raised her ears and was glad to see him.

One day he went to a pond to fetch some water. While doing so he met his former wife and smiled at her. Then he went hunting and caught many seals. In the evening he went up the hill to meet the she-bear. Then her ears were turned forward like those of an angry bear. She jumped into the water before the man had reached the shore, attacked him, and killed him and his two sons.

Like the preceding, this story is compound, there being in reality three distinct tales. The first and longest is that to which the title properly belongs, and the main theme, the story of the person abandoned to die who was supernaturally helped and became a great chief. It is popular from Yakutat bay to the Columbia river. The second part, the story of the man who married a grizzly bear, was appended because the hero is said to have belonged to the same town as the principal character in the first part. It is a favorite Tsimshian story, and is referred to for the origin of the secret societies. Another version, obtained by Professor Boas from Charlie Edenshaw, chief of the Stᴀ′stas, is appended. The concluding section, telling how the woodpecker obtained its brilliant plumage, seems to be altogether out of place here, but my informant asserted that it was always told in this connection at Skedans. It is the only part of the story manifestly Haida.

SACRED-ONE-STANDING-AND-MOVING, STONE-RIBS, AND UPWARD

[Told by John Sky of Those-born-at-Skedans]

In Sealion-town [336] one began to bathe for supernatural power. All sorts of weak things came through him [making him worthless]. He stayed with his eight younger brothers and his mother.

By and by his younger brothers disappeared. It was not known whither they had gone. Morning came and his mother wept. Again when day broke she wept. One day, when she stopped crying, she said: “My eldest boy is as if he did not exist. When morning comes my mind is always the same” (i.e., without gladness).

After she had said this to him for some time he got tired of hearing it and said to his sister: “Sister, pour salt water into the box my mother owns so that I may bathe in it.” Then she put on her belt. She laid her mother’s stone box down near the door and poured water into it.

Then her brother crept over to it and just managed to crawl into it. After he had stayed in it for a while he could not keep his buttocks under water. Then his sister pressed down on his back with the poker which lay near the fire. After she had pressed down upon him for a while she took away the stick. There was a small depth of water over his back. Now she pressed him down again, and, when she removed it from him, his back was well under the water. Then he broke the sides of the box by stretching.

And again he called to his sister: “Sister, pour some water into another of your mother’s boxes.” Then she again poured some into one. He got into it and stretched his knees out in it. He broke that, too, at the joints.

And again he called to his sister: “Sister, pour some water into another.” Then he broke that also at the joints. He did the same thing to another one. He broke four with his knees.

Then he went into the sea. After he had remained there for a while something just touched him. He reached for it. He seized the tail of a flounder. Now he called to his sister: “Sister, roast and eat this.”

And after he had been in the water a while longer something again touched him. He reached for it. He seized half a halibut and threw it over to his sister. Then he said to his sister: “Roast that. Do not steam it.”

He seized a porpoise tail and a white porpoise [337] tail. After he had taken all kinds of sea animals he also threw up a whale’s tail. And he said to his sister: “Steam that one however.”

After he had been in the water a while longer something touched him. He reached for it. He felt nothing. And, when the same thing happened again, he grasped farther away. Then his hand nearly slipped off from [the something], and he seized it in both hands. When the something had pulled him out of Skidegate inlet he tried to stop at Łg̣a′-ixa, [338] but then something cracked at the bottom of the island. He held something nice which was almost transparent, and put it around his head. That was Łg̣o′tg̣o-g̣ao [339] (the hair of him who tries the supernatural powers of men).

After he had put it around his head he swam up the inlet. He swam in front of Gū′łga [340] and passed over to Xā′na. [341] The water was shallow and broad like a lake, and he traced a channel in it with his hand and remained at its mouth.

After he had remained in the water for a while something came walking toward him, making a booming sound as it advanced. Some one stood on the shore opposite him. On the right side he held a knot and a branch of g̣ōdañxō′sgî. [342] On the other side he carried a piece of common seaweed and some kwē′aogia′g̣adañ. [343]

“Come hither, grandson.” At once he went to him. Then he said to him: “Now, grandson, turn your breast (or ‘face’) to me.” Immediately he turned his breast to him. He struck him with the knot. It was as when something is rubbed into fine pieces. And he struck him with the g̣ōdañxō′sgî. It became like the other. Then he said to him: “Now, grandson, turn your back to me.” And so he did. He struck him with the kwē′aogia′g̣adañ. He did not feel it. Then he struck him with the seaweed. He nearly knocked him over. Far off he recovered his balance.

“Wait a while, grandson. We will wrestle with (lit., “feel”) each other,” he said to him. “Now, grandson, let us try each other.” And they laid hold of each other. After he (the man) had shoved him about he almost threw him down. Then he turned away smiling. “Grandson, yours has more strength. Swim down the inlet.”

He went along; he went along and presently swam ashore at Sealion-town. Then he dried himself by the fire and went to bed. After he had been in bed for a while, and day had begun to break, he went out.

Then he followed an indistinct trail. After he had gone along for a while, he saw a shrew [344] trying vainly to cross an old log. Then he put her across and kept his eyes upon her. She entered a bunch of ferns lying some distance away.

Now he went to it. He moved it aside with his hand. To his astonishment there was a painted house front there with the planks sewed together. And she said to him, “Come in to me, grandson. News has come that you want to borrow something of me.”

Then she hunted in her box. She bit off part of something for him. “Now, my son, here it is.” And she said to him: “When you get home and go up to Gū′łga lake, take along your bow. There you will shoot a mallard. Blow up its stomach and put its grease into it. I know that what destroyed your younger brothers lives there. You are going to restore your younger brothers. Eat some [of the grease].”

He went home and entered the house. After he had remained seated there for a while, he went to bed. And next day early in the morning he went up to Gū′łga lake. [345] Male and female mallards [346] were there. They were pretty. He prepared his bow and shot just over the head of one of them. It fell as when something is dropped. Then he got it ashore, made a fire for it, plucked and steamed it. He saved its entrails.

Then he went down upon the beach and picked up a big clam shell. Then he steamed the duck and put the duck grease into the clam shell. He took out the duck meat to eat. Then he put a [hot] stone into the duck grease. At that time the duck grease boiled over. All the things that live in the forest said: “Be careful! the duck grease might spill.” Thus they made him ashamed. He did not eat the duck meat. When the duck grease settled down, he put it into the entrails.

This is why, when the earth quakes, the Raven people tell [him] to be careful of the duck grease. They say so because Sacred-one-standing-and-moving was a Raven.

Then he went away. He saved the feathers and the duck grease. And he came home. Then he went to bed.

When next morning tore itself, he went to Gū′łga, took two children thence, and went into the woods at the end of Sealion-town. When he came to the lake, he looked about, pulled up two cedars entire, fastened them at the butt end with twisted cedar limbs, did the same at the top, and held the two trunks apart by means of a stick. He laid it in the lake, bound the legs of the two children, and placed them between. [347]

When they moved, a wā′sg̣o [348] came out on the surface in the space between. Then he knocked out the stick and his head was caught, but he pulled [his trap] under. The cedar came to the surface broken as when something is thrown upward.

Then he went home and stood up the dead children with the pole in front of the house. He kept them for the next day. And again he went thither and took the two children. After he had looked around for a while, he pulled out a large two-headed cedar, stump and all. After he had split it, a wren jumped around him chirping: “Tcꜝê tcꜝê, my sinews.”

Then he went to get it, pulled out its sinews, spliced them together, and fastened the butt end and the top with them. And he put it all into the water. After the children had been again suspended above it for a while, the wā′sg̣o came up and got them. Then he knocked out the cross stick and he (the wā′sg̣o) carried it down. After he had carried it down, he floated up dead with it. Then he went to him and pulled him out.

He pulled him up on the shore and was going to cut him on the top of his head when it thundered. It also lightened. And the same thing happened when he started upon his back. But, when he started at the lower part of his back, nothing happened, and he cut him open along the belly. His younger brothers’ bones burst out from it.

Then he fitted together his younger brothers’ bones and spit the medicine Mouse-woman [349] had given him upon them. Immediately they got up. And then he said: “Sit down where you used to.” They were glad to see each other.

After they had been there for a long time one disappeared. The next day another disappeared. All eight of them disappeared in the same manner, and he felt sad.

Then he went to Gū′łga, passed along to the point on the side toward the upper end of the inlet, and to his surprise heard the buzzing of distant conversation on the other side. Then he pulled off the ribbon with which he used to tie his hair and threw [one end of] it across. Upon this he walked over and [found] a crowd of spectators at the door of the middle house, in which people were talking. Then he passed through them and looked in.

In the rear of the house a certain thing hung, under which one lay face up. Out of it flames played at intervals. It was sizzling there. While he looked on the person was driven out by the fire. The supernatural beings filled the whole space in the rear of the house.

After he had sat there for a while, one stood up. He said: “Get Stone-ribs, and settle him under it (the earth) forever.” He heard what they said. By and by one went out. After a while he came back, and they asked him: “Is he coming?” And he said: “He is near.”

Presently he came in. Like a son of one of the supernatural beings, he wore a copper coat. He also had on a marten-skin coat. And as soon as he had entered he lay under [the fire]. It was burning upon his breast. Out from it sparks went.

A certain one stood near the door and another on the other side. In the rear of the house sat his mother, Djila′qons. The one standing on the side toward the door said: “They are talking about it. They are talking about it.” [350] The one on the opposite side also said: “The supernatural beings who talk about the places which they are going to inhabit in the future also talk about this.”

She called for one of the servants who sat among them. “One-who-moves-heaven-by-the-rapidity-of-his-motion, go and call Swimming-russet-backed-thrush. I want to ask whether I went with him.” He said that he went with the chieftainess. She asked to have him called so that she might cross-question him about it.

There was no one to have his seat under this island. Then one day passed for Stone-ribs. Another day was about to pass for him. The supernatural beings acted as if shivering. They were afraid. They feared that he, belonging to the wrong side, was going to settle beneath them. [351]

Again those standing near the door spoke. They spoke as they had done before. And One-who-moves-heaven-by-the-rapidity-of-his-motion went to call Swimming-russet-backed-thrush. By and by he came back. Then she asked him if he were coming, and he said: “He is coming.” “Perhaps I went with him at Goose creek, where I dug out wild-clover roots, or perhaps I went with him at Łg̣ē′djîs.” At that instant he came in. He was good-looking. He had been gambling. He held his hand to his face with fine cedar bark in it. He wiped part of his face clean. As soon as he went over to the chief woman he pushed himself into her blanket. She was looking at him. She looked longer than was necessary. [352]

Another day dawned for Stone-ribs. It was broad daylight for him, and the supernatural beings were as if shivering with fear at the prospect of having him settle down beneath them. Just before daylight he was driven out by the burning.