Chapter XV: Part 15

There was a man called Natsîłᴀneˊ (the name of a worm that appears on dried salmon) who was continually quarreling with his wife. He had many brothers-in-law, who became very much ashamed of this discord but had to stay around to protect their sister. One day his brothers-in-law took him to an island far out at sea, named Kᴀtsǃēˊux̣tî, and talked very kindly to him. But, while he was out of sight upon the island, they left him. Then he began thinking, “What can I do for myself?” As he sat there he absent-mindedly whittled killer whales out of cottonwood bark, which works easily. The two he had made he put into the water and, as he did so, he shouted aloud as shamans used to do on such occasions. Then he thought they looked as if they were swimming, but, when they came up again, they were nothing but bark. After a while he made two more whales out of alder. He tried to put his clan’s spirits into them as was often done by shamans, and, as he put them in, he whistled four times like the spirit, “Whu, whu, whu, whu.” But they, too, floated up. Now he tried all kinds of wood—hemlock, red cedar, etc. Finally he tried pieces of yellow cedar, which swam right away in the form of large killer whales. They swam out for a long distance, and, when they came back, again turned into wood. Then he made holes in their dorsal fins, seized one of them with each hand and had the killer whales take him out to sea. He said, “You see my brothers-in-law traveling about in canoes. You are to upset them.” After he had gone out for some distance between the whales they returned to land and became wood once more. He took them up and put them in a certain place.

The next time he saw his brothers-in-law coming along in their canoes he put his spirits into the water again, and they smashed the canoes and killed those in them. Then Natsîłᴀneˊ said to his killer whales, “You are not to injure human beings any more. You must be kind to them.” After that they were the canoes of spirits, and, if shamans are lucky, they get these spirit canoes. It is through this story that the Dᴀqʟǃaweˊdî claim the killer whale. This clan was scattered everywhere in Alaska, as well as among the Athapascans, Haida, and Tsimshian.

FOOTNOTES:

[125] See story 4.

72. STORY OF THE NANỴAĀˊỴÎ CRESTS

At the time of the flood the Nanỵaāˊỵî were climbing a mountain on the Stikine river, called Sēkuˊqłe-ca, and a grizzly bear and a mountain goat went along with them. Whenever the people stopped, these two animals stopped also, and whenever they moved on the animals moved on. Finally they killed the bear and preserved its skin with the claws, teeth, and so forth, intact. They kept it for years after the flood, and, as soon as it went to pieces, they replaced it with another, and that with still another up to the present time. This is why they claim the grizzly bear. During the times when this bear skin has been shown thousands of dollars worth of slaves and furs have been given away. Shakes (Cēks), head chiefs of this clan, would go up to a row of slaves and slap each one, upon which the slave would either have to be killed or sent home. This is why they gave great names to their children. They were very proud of owning this bear and did all kinds of things toward it. That is why all Alaska speaks of the Nanỵaāˊỵî as the chief ones owning the grizzly bear. Very many songs were composed concerning it, with words such as these, “Come here, you bear, the highest bear of all bears.”

They also have the head of the mountain goat, but they do not value it as highly.

73. STORY OF THE FROG CREST OF THE KÎKSAˊDÎ OF WRANGELL[126]

A man belonging to the Stikine Kîksᴀˊdî kicked a frog over on its back, but as soon as he had done so he lay motionless unable to talk, and they carried his body into the house. This happened at Town-of-the-frogs (X̣îx̣tcǃ-xāˊyikᴀ-ān), so named because there are many frogs near by.

The reason why this man lost his senses was because the frogs had taken his soul. They had it tied to a house post, and some of them said, “Let him starve right there where he is tied.” Others said, “No, don’t let him starve there. Feed him and let us see what the chief says.” This chief’s name was Frightful-face (Yᴀkūˊłdî). When he at last came in his canoe, they said, “Frightful-face has come.” Then all went down to his canoe to welcome him, and, when he reached his house, they told him the news. They said, “This man disgraced us terribly. He threw one of our women down and kicked her over.” The woman was called Woman-in-the-road (Deyêxcāˊgᵘ). When the chief looked up, he said, “Untie him and bring him here.” Then he said to the man, “We belong to your clan, and it is a shame that you should treat your own people as you have done. We are Kîksᴀˊdî, and it is a Kîksᴀˊdî youth who has done this. You better go to your own village. You have disgraced yourself as well as us, for this woman belongs to your own clan.”

As soon as he had left the frogs’ house, his body lying at home came to. He had thought all the time that his body also was in the house of the frogs. Then he got up and began to talk. He said, “Something strange has happened to me. The frog people captured me on account of that frog that I kicked over in front of the house the other day. They had tied me to the chief’s house-post, and some wanted to kill me at once, while others wanted to starve me, and still others wanted to wait until their chief, Frightful-face, came home. When the latter at length arrived, they said to him, ‘We have a man in here who has been throwing down one of our women. We have been waiting for you to see what shall be done with him.’ I listened to all they said. Then the frog chief said, ‘Untie him,’ and all minded him. As soon as he had heard about it, he said, ‘See here, young man, what is this you have done? Don’t you know that we belong to your clan and that this woman you have done that to is of the same clan. If it were not for that, we would not let you go. As it is you may go.’”

All of the Kîksᴀˊdî were listening to what this man said, and it is because the frog himself said he was a Kîksᴀ’dî that they claim the frog.

FOOTNOTES:

[126] A similar story is told by the G̣ānᴀxᴀˊdî of Tongass.

74. STORY OF THE KĀˊGWANTĀN CRESTS

A man belonging to the Kāˊgwᴀntān was out camping, and saw a wolf coming toward him, showing its teeth as though it were laughing. On looking more closely, he saw that it had a bone stuck between its teeth. Then he took the bone out and said, “Now you must show me what makes you so lucky.” The wolf turned right round and walked away, but next night the man dreamed he had come to a very fine town. It was the wolf town, and the wolf he had befriended came to him and told him something to make him lucky, saying, “I am your friend.” He was grateful for what the man had done to him. Since then the Kāˊgwᴀntān have used the wolf.

Another time when some Kāˊgwᴀntān were getting herring at Town-at-mouth-of-lake (ʟǃuqǃāˊceîk-ān), a bear came to the place where they were, reached down through the smoke hole and took away the herring they were drying. Then the people said, “Who is this thief that is stealing all the fish?” For that he killed all of them. Then the Kāˊgwᴀntān seized their spears and set out to kill the bears in that neighborhood. When they discovered those bears they were lying in holes they had dug for themselves, and the people said to them, “Come out here and let us fight it out.” Then the bears did so, and the people killed them. They took the skins from the heads of the bears and preserved them. The bears so killed were Kātsǃ’s children. This is how the Kāˊgwᴀntān came to use the grizzly bear.

75. MIGRATION OF THE GĀNAXAˊDÎ TO TONGASS

At Klawak was a man of the Gānᴀxᴀˊdî named Dancer (ʟǃēˊxe) who was very fond of gambling but unable to win. Finally his wife said, “If you gamble again we will leave each other. I don’t want to be with you any more. You are gambling too much.” Her husband said that he would stop, and for a little while he did so. One day, however, a great game was in progress far out on the marsh, and his wife missed him. She knew where he was and felt very badly. In the evening, when he came home, she found out that he had lost everything in the house. Then she said to him, “You have been gambling again.” “Yes,” he said. She said nothing more, thinking it was of no use, until late in the evening. Then the men that had won their property came after it, and Dancer got up and showed them where the things were, but his wife did not speak a word. There was nothing left for her except a blanket and pillow. Finally, after they were gone, the woman sat down and began to cry. When she was through she said to him, “The house belonged to you, but you must go out, for you have gambled with all of my things. If you do not go I must. I married against the wishes of my people and they will not take me in if I leave here.” Then her husband said, “Do not feel badly if you should happen to hear of me,” and he went away.

This man had seven sisters, all of them very well off, but they would not have anything to do with him. Very early in the morning he went to their houses and awakened the boys. Without asking the permission of their mothers he told them to get their bows and arrows quickly and come along with him. Next morning, after he had walked with them for some distance, they found a canoe, and he had them all get into it. In the evening, when their uncle camped with them, the children began to feel that something was wrong, and some cried, saying that they wanted to get back to their fathers and mothers. Then he told them that they would soon come to a fine town, and kept on going farther and farther away until they reached a place called Sea-lion’s-face (Tān-yedaˊ) where Tongass now stands. They kept on beyond this until they came to a large rock some distance out at sea on which were sea otters; these they clubbed.

Some of the boys were now quite large. Later they came to a long sandy beach, and their uncle made a house there out of driftwood. He dried the skins and made that place his permanent residence.

During the second night they spent there, Dancer heard the two dogs he had brought along, barking. He told his sisters’ children to get out of bed to see what was the matter. They did so, and, on running out, discovered a large animal coming along, as big as a black bear. At first they thought that it was a bear, but it was of a different color, so they concluded that it was medicine. His nephews shot at it, and the man picked up their arrows and noticed that there was something like clay upon them. Everyone pursued the animal and at last they saw it disappear into a hole in a mountain. Meanwhile Dancer took the clayey substance from all of the arrows, wrapped it in leaves, and put it into the bosom of his shirt, giving the arrows back to the boys.

Now, Dancer made the place his town, and continued to live there with his nephews who were grown up. The stuff he had taken from their arrows he put behind the barbs of others so that they could use them in hunting. He also put some of it on their eyebrows, their hair, and around their mouths. He said it was to make the hair thick in those places, and sure enough they came to have fine eyebrows, hair, and mustaches. They became fine-looking men.

When they went out hunting with the medicine arrows he had made, and shot at a seal, even if the arrow merely came close to the seal without touching it, the seal would die. That was also a great place for sea lions, and whenever they saw one of those animals, their uncle would go out with a fan made from the tail of an eagle, anointed with this medicine, and wave it toward the sea lion. Then the animal came right up on the beach, and they clubbed it to death. They had all kinds of food in their house and were continually drying meat and skins. The house became so full, in fact, that they had to build a larger one.

By and by their uncle said that he wanted some eagles, and the boys, of whom there were eleven, went out with their bows and arrows, and each brought one in. Then each of them had an eagle’s tail fan for himself such as were formerly used in dancing. They also killed all kinds of birds and secured plenty of marten skins and weasel skins. Of these latter the uncle sewed together a marten-skin robe and a weasel-skin shirt for each boy as well as one for himself.

One time Dancer and his nephews went a long distance beyond their village and found a box, beautifully carved and painted, lying upon the beach. They said to one another, “There must be people living over this way.” At that time they did not know anything about the Tsimshian. Keeping on farther, they saw still more signs of people, and finally they came to a Tsimshian town.

Then they returned to their own place, and afterward the uncle felt that some people whom they knew were coming to see them. These people were his brothers-in-law, who had been hunting for him continually and had just started out once more. When their canoe came in sight, Dancer said, “There is a canoe coming right along there in the direction we came from.” He had composed some songs while he was there, so he said, “You boys must dress yourselves to dance for the people in that canoe.” When the canoe got closer he went outside and shouted, “That canoe must stay out there. Don’t come in right away.” So the canoe stopped, and after a while the boys came out and danced for the canoe people while he sang. The men in the canoe recognized Dancer but not the boys, who had grown up very quickly into fine-looking men. After that they invited the canoe people up to the house. They entered, and all the time they were there kept looking at one another and whispering, wondering what Dancer had done with their children. But, though they camped there one night, they did not ask for them.

Next morning, however, just before they got into their canoe, Dancer said to each man in turn, “This is your boy. This is your boy.”

Upon that his brothers-in-law said to him, “We will be right back to see you again. We will come and live with you.” Then they went back to their village, and told the news, and the mothers, who had been mourning for their children, felt very happy to know that they were alive. Dancer’s sisters, their husbands, and all their people came over to him. Dancer and his nephews had been watching for them and counting the days until they should return. Dancer’s wife had not married again and was very anxious to see her husband, but he did not look for her. The boys had drums made out of deer hide, and, as soon as the canoes arrived, they told them to come close to the beach and they would dance for them. So the canoes stopped, and they came out and danced for the canoe people. Dancer’s wife had thought that he would take her in at once, but he would not have anything to do with her.

Then the people were asked to come in and eat, and they were all fed by the boys and their uncle. Afterward they built their houses all about him and made the place their permanent village.

76. THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED THE FROG[127]

A certain girl once said something very bad to a frog. Some time afterward she went up to the woods with her little sister, and suddenly her little sister lost her. She had met a fine-looking man and had walked on with him for a long time until they were far off from the village. When her little sister got home they asked her, “Where is your sister?” and she said, “I thought that she had gotten back home.” They searched for the girl everywhere but could not find her. They did not see her for a long, long time.

The man that this girl had met was really a frog, which she had married, and she now had two children. To her, however, the frogs looked like human beings. One day this girl said to her children, “Run down and see your grandfather and grandmother. Their house is just in the middle of the village, and you will know it as soon as you see it.” So the children went down to the house, but, when they entered it, some one called out, “Look at those little frogs coming into the house.” Then their grandmother said, “Put them out.” So they were thrown out of doors.

When the children got back to their mother she said, “Did you see your grandmother?” and one answered, “I think it was she. We went into a house,” which they described so that their mother knew at once that it was the right one, “and some one called out, saying, ‘Look at these frogs.’ Then some one else said, ‘Throw them out,’ and they did so.”

Then their mother said, “Go back and try to see her again even if they do throw you out.” So the little frogs went down and entered their grandmother’s house once more. Again some one called out, “Those little frogs are in here again.” But this time their grandfather said, “Bring them here to me. My daughter is missing. These might be her little ones.” So he held out his fox robe and they laid the little frogs upon it. The frogs crawled all over his breast and shoulders. Then the frogs were seated in front of their grandfather and were given cranberries. They picked them up one by one with the fore foot and put them into their mouths.

Afterward the frogs started to hop out, and a man followed them with the dishes of food. They hopped straight up to a lake back of the village and jumped in. Then, as the chief had already directed them, the men set the dishes down at the edge and stood watching. Presently the dishes moved out into the lake and sank. All at once they came up again and moved back to the same place.

Then these men returned to the chief and reported everything that they had seen, whereupon he sent them back, saying, “Go back and say, ‘Your father has invited you to the house.’” They did so. Then they heard a voice replying, “I can not come.” They reported this to her father, and he told them to take up her marten-skin robes and her other clothing and lay them by the lake. After that she came down and along with her the two high-caste frogs whom she had married. When they had finished eating, all went back.

Now the girl’s father thought often and deeply how he should get her back, for he did not know what to do. Finally he said to the village people, “Make a place where the lake can flow out.” So all of the people went to work to drain the lake, and the water began flowing out. When the lake was nearly dry they saw this girl, all covered with frogs with the exception of her face, start to flow along with them. They picked her out from the very midst of the frogs and carried her home, but the frogs followed right after her. The house was quite filled with them. Then they killed all of the frogs that were upon her body, but as they did so more climbed up. When they began killing them with human bones, however, they went away. Afterward the girl remained with her father, and the frogs did not bother her any more.

FOOTNOTES:

[127] See story 22.

77. THE GIRL WHO MARRIED THE LǃALǃ

There was a certain Chilkat chief belonging to the G̣ānᴀxteˊdî whose house stood in the middle of the village. One morning his daughter, a very lively girl, went out of doors and stepped upon something slimy. “Ugh,” she said, “those dirty people throw their slops out right where a person may step into them.” What she stepped on was the skin of a fish called ʟǃᴀʟǃ, which is taken in Chilkat river.

The girl thought no more about this, but toward midnight a young fellow appeared to her as if in a dream and said, “I am in love with you,” whereupon he sat down at the head of her bed. Although the girl had rejected many suitors, she took a liking to this youth at once and married him. This was against the will of her father, but she was his only girl and was very wilful, so he let her have her own way.

The youth was very industrious, working at all times and hauling down wood for them. From him they learned how to haul wood. It was well on toward spring, but it was dry, and the ground was frozen hard. Every day the young fellows in that village played ball, and the girl’s husband, who was a very powerful fellow, kept throwing the ball farther and farther up river every time they played. At last they became so angry that they caught him and tore his clothes off. Then they saw that his skin was covered with blotches. He was really the ʟǃᴀʟǃ who had appeared to the girl like a young man. Then they said, “Look at his body all in blotches. The idea of that girl having such a fellow after she had refused high-caste people like herself.”

Now the youth continued to sit day after day where his clothes had been torn off, and although people went to call him every day, saying that his wife wanted him to come back, he would not answer a word. Finally his wife went out herself and said, “You better come home,” but he answered, “Tell your father to tie your house down very firmly and block up every aperture even to the smoke hole.”

That night the ʟǃᴀʟǃ started off up Chilkat river, and a long time afterward they noticed that the river was going dry. They wondered what was causing it, but it was really due to the ʟǃᴀʟǃ, who had grown to be a monster and was lying right across the stream higher up. Very early one morning, however, they heard a terrible roar, for the ʟǃᴀʟǃ had left the place where he had been lying and the ponded water was coming down. It washed away the entire village except the house belonging to his wife’s father.

78. THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED A TREE

An old spruce tree stood at the end of a certain village. In this same village a high-caste girl dreamed for several nights in succession that she was married to a fine-looking man, and by and by she gave birth to a boy baby. As she was a very virtuous girl, people wondered how she had come by it.

The child grew very fast, and soon began to talk. One day it began calling for its father. It would not stop, although they tried to humor it in every way. Then people wondered whom it was calling, so the boy’s grandfather invited all the men of that village and of the surrounding villages to come to his house to see if the child would be able to recognize its father. When this proved fruitless he invited the people who inhabit trees to come in, and as soon as they entered and sat down, the child stopped crying and began crawling around the circle, looking at each person. Then the people said, “We will see where that fatherless child is going.”

At the very end of the line toward the door sat an old man, and the child crawled right past the high-caste tree people toward him. As it did so, the others nudged one another, saying, “Look at Kᴀsᴀˊʟǃ.” They said this because the girl had had nothing to do with the high-caste tree people, but with this poor old man. The child, however, crawled right up to him, climbed into his lap and said, “Papa.” At once the old man married the girl.

79. THE GIRL WHO MARRIED THE FIRE SPIRIT

There was a chief’s daughter whom all of the high-caste men wanted to marry. One day, as she sat close to the fire, a spark came out on her clothing and she said something bad to the fire, pointing her hand at it with fingers extended.

That night the girl was missing and could not be found anywhere. They searched all of the villages and all of the houses in all of the villages where those people lived who had wanted to marry her, but in vain. Then they employed shamans from their own and all the surrounding towns to tell where she was. Finally the chief was told of a shaman in a village a very long way off, and he went to consult him. The shaman said to him, “How is it that my spirits talk of nothing but your fire? Your daughter might have said something to the fire that displeased the spirits of the fire. Let your fire go out as soon as you are through preparing food and have the rest of your village people extinguish theirs. Do so for a long time.” All of this time the parents were mourning for their daughter.

Then the chief sent through all the village to ask his people to let their fires go out, and they obeyed him. This went on for some time without result, but one day the girl came up from the fireplace from between the rocks on which the logs were placed. The Fire Spirit (Gᴀˊntu yēˊgî) had taken her as his wife. Then the girl told her parents that her husband had pitied them, and after that she stayed with them most of the time. Every now and then she would be missing, for she was very fond of her spirit husband, but she would not stay long. She went into the fire to eat, and before she went directed them to let the fire go out after a time in order to bring her back.

One day, when she had not been away for a long time, she was eating in her father’s house. For the last dish they gave her soapberries. Her father’s nephew, who was in love with her and who was encouraged by her mother in hopes that she might be kept from going away again, was stirring them. When she put her spoon into the dish he seized it. At the same moment the firewood began to whistle, as it does when the fire spirit is talking, and the girl understood what it meant. Then she seemed frightened, and said to her mother and the boy, “He wants me at once.” All that the girl had to do when she wanted to see her husband was to think of him and she would immediately be at his side. They never saw her going into the fire. Therefore, as soon as she said this she disappeared, and they did not know what had happened. Then, however, her spirit husband hurt her in some way so as to make her scream, though the people could not guess the cause, and next day she appeared in her father’s house once more, looking very sad, for she had left her husband; and now she stayed with her father all the time.

After that her father’s nephew kept trying to get her to marry him, but she would have nothing to do with him. Before she had liked him, but after she had been abused by the Fire Spirit on account of what he had done, she did not care for him and remained single all the rest of her life.

80. ORPHAN

An orphan girl in the Tlingit country named Sᴀhāˊn (Orphan) was adopted by some high-caste people so that she might be a companion to their only daughter. She was very fond of going to the creek to get water, and the chief’s daughter always accompanied her. Every time they went the chief’s daughter would drink water from this creek against the protests of her foster sister, and it made her very unlucky. When she married into another high-caste family her husband became very poor on account of her and finally abandoned her. Then he married Orphan, who was very bright and knew how to take care of things, and she made him rich. She was quiet and paid a great deal of attention to her husband. The village people were also very much pleased with her, for after her husband married her, they lived off of him.

Everything that this girl had was good, her dishes and spoons being all set with abalone shell. She had four adopted brothers, of whom the older two were rich but the younger two very poor and unlucky. The former she would always treat well because she knew that they were bright and able to take care of things, and she always gave them food in her fine dishes. When she invited her poor brothers her husband would say, “Go and get your dishes now and let your brothers eat off of them,” but she always answered, “No, I don’t want to let them use my good dishes. They might leave the marks of poverty on them.”

After Orphan had lived some time in luxury, however, her husband died, and, as was customary, her husband’s relations took the property all away from her. She became as poor as she had been before. Luck went against her because she had treated her poor brothers so meanly. That is why, nowadays, when a rich person has a poor brother he always treats him just as well as the rich one.

81. THE DEAD BASKET-MAKER

A woman at Klawak was just finishing a basket when she died. She had not yet cut off the tops. Then her husband took the basket and put it up under the roof over his bed. He thought a great deal of it because it was his wife’s last work. Sometimes he would take it down, press it against his heart and weep as he held it there. He wept all the time.

After this man had been a widower a long time he married again. One evening, when he was sitting on the bed playing with his new wife, the basket fell right over his head. He tried to pull it off, and his wife laughed, not knowing why it had been up there. When he was unable to pull it away his wife also tried, but it stuck tight around his neck. He became frightened and worked very hard at it. Suddenly the basket said to him, “Yes, pull me off of your head. Why don’t you press me against your heart again?” At last if they had not cut the strings the basket would have choked him to death. Then he put it farther back and in the morning threw it into the fire.

82. THE CRYING-FOR MEDICINE

One of the Kāsqǃagueˊdî named Floating (Nᴀłx̣āˊc), living at Wrangell, had a wife called ᴀxtcîˊkǃ who kept running away from him. He was a great hunter and hunted continually among the mountains of Bradfield canal accompanied by his slave. One day, as they were pulling along in a canoe while the dogs ran on shore, they heard the dogs barking at a certain place. They landed and ran thither. Then they saw the dogs lying on the ground with saliva dropping from their mouths, while a small bear ran along some distance off. The hunter saw this bear climb up the side of a cliff and was about to pursue it when he suddenly lost all of his strength and lay there just like his dogs. He watched the bear, however, and saw it go into a hole in the very middle of the cliff. Then he said, “That is not a bear. It could not have climbed up there and have gone into that cliff had it been one. It must be something else.”

Floating thought a great deal of his wife and was suffering much because she had now been gone from him for eight months.

When he saw this bear go into the inaccessible hole in the cliff, he went back to town and made a very large, strong rope out of roots and a cedar-bark basket large enough to hold one person. With these he went back again to the cliff and climbed to a position above the hole the bear had entered. Then he tied a rope around his slave’s waist, and another to the basket and put the slave inside. He was going to lower him down to the hole.

Now the man said to his slave, “When I get you to the mouth of the hole, shake this basket very hard so that I may know it.” He gave him a little wooden dipper and said, “Dip that into the hole and see what you get out.” Then he lowered the slave. When the latter put his dipper into the hole it came out filled with ants. Then the slave screamed, but his master said, “I will let you drop if you don’t hold up. Put that dipper in again and see what you bring out.” The slave did so and brought out little frogs. All these were to be used with the medicine he was to get out last. The third time he put the dipper in he got blue flies. Then he put it in the fourth time to get the medicine, and sure enough on the end of it, when it came out, there was some stuff that looked like tallow and had a pleasant odor.

After that Floating pulled up his slave, and when he reached the top he had fainted and looked as though he were dead, but he soon came to. Then Floating took one of each kind of creature, mashed them up along with the white stuff, and put all into the shaft of an eagle feather. The medicine he thus made is called Crying-for medicine. When Floating wanted to kill any bear, mountain goat, or other animal, all he had to do was to shake it in the air and whatever he wanted would come down to him.

After this Floating went back to his village, where his wife also was, and the news of his return spread everywhere. It was early in winter. Then his wife was entirely unable to stay away from him, and ran to his door very early in the morning. They let her inside, but her husband would not allow her to come any nearer to him. She begged very hard to be allowed to come back, but he had already suffered so much on her account that he was determined that she should suffer in her turn. The harder she begged the more determined he was that she should not come back. He never took her back, and she suffered a great deal, especially when she found that he had become very rich and could have any woman in the village that he wanted. It was because of this medicine that she was so anxious to get back to him, and it was because he wanted to make her suffer that he was so anxious to get it. None except people of the Raven clan use this medicine. Even now, when a girl is so much in love as to be crazy over it, it is said, “They must have used the Crying-for medicine on her.”

83. THE RUNAWAY WIFE

A high-caste youth among the Haida was determined to marry his uncle’s daughter, because his uncle was a very old man and he wanted to take his place. But, after he had given a great deal of property for the girl and taken her, she ran away. He followed her and induced her to come back, but before long she ran away again, and she kept on acting this way for a long time.

Finally the young man heard of a very large woman who knew of medicines to get anybody with whom one was in love. When he came to her village her people treated him very kindly, asking him to come up and eat with them. After they had fed him and his companions they made a large fire on top of the retaining timbers for the woman to take her purifying bath. She had a little girl to wait upon her when she bathed, and she was so large that this girl could bathe only one leg at a time.

After she had finished bathing, the large woman came out and gave the youth an eagle’s tail across which ran a single streak of red paint. Then she said, “Right around the point from your father’s village you will see land otters running up from the water. As soon as the white one among them steps up on the beach, raise your eagle’s tail and see whether she will stand still. If she stands still and does not run away go right past without touching her. Then you may know that you will get your wife and that she will never leave you again; otherwise she will never come back. When you get to the village, that woman you are having a hard time with will come directly to you.”

The young man did as this woman had told him, and, sure enough, when he reached the village his wife was very anxious to see him. She tried to fight against the inclination, but finally she had to go. When she entered, however, her husband, refused to take her back. Instead he went to another village along with his father and married somebody else. His first wife took all this hardly, and, when they returned, came to him to demand property. Then the young man gave her some of his own and some of his father’s property and some slaves so that she would not bother his new wife. At the same time the girl felt very badly. Not a day passed but she cried to think that the husband who had formerly thought so much of her now had another wife.

84. THE REJECTED LOVER

Somewhere to the north lived a chief who had a daughter and a nephew who was in love with this daughter. In olden times when a man married a woman with a marriageable daughter he married the daughter as well, so the youth wanted to marry this chief’s wife in order to get her daughter. The boy’s father was chief of a certain clan. When he found that he could not get this woman by himself the young man told his mother, and his mother worked hard for him. They carried in slaves and goods of all kinds to the chief. Still the chief would not consent, for he wanted his daughter to marry some great chief from outside. He would not let anyone in the village have her. It was really the girl, however, that had induced her father not to give his consent. She must have been in love with somebody else or her father would not have spoken in that way.

The boy’s father had him ornamented with abalone shell, in his ears and all over his shirt, but, just as soon as he came in decorated in this way, along with his mother, the girl would jump up, raise her marten robe in front of her face, run to meet them before they sat down and say to him, “You may be decorated with all kinds of valuable shells, but I will not have you.” The boy and her mother were hurt at this. At first the girl liked her cousin well enough, but, when she found that he had made hard feelings between her parents, she began to feel unkindly toward him. Probably her father hated the boy because his wife was willing to marry him.

One day the girl felt lonely and asked her cousin to go up with her to get spruce bark to eat. The girl took along her little servant girl and the boy his little servant boy. So they went up back of the town until they came to a place where there were only spruces with open grassy spots between. The girl sat down on one of these latter and her cousin took the bark off for her. He was very good to her, and tried to humor her in every way, but by and by she said to him, “Pull off your marten robe and put it into that pond close by.” The boy did so, saying, “Did you think I could not do that? I have plenty of marten robes.” Then the girl spoke again saying, “Pull off all of your hair.” He began to do so, and, when it was all pulled out, she said, “All right.” Then she said, “Take all those shells from your ears and face and throw them away.” The boy began to feel disturbed (lit. strange) about what she was saying to him, but he did so. As soon as he had finished, however, the girl and her servant ran home.

Now the boy did not dare to return, because he had nothing to wear, his marten robe being wet and his shells lost in the grass. So he took some moss wide enough to cover his shoulders and body and lay down upon a point at the edge of the woods. He felt very badly and cried hard as he lay there. When he looked up he saw a loon swimming about in the sea. By and by he looked up again and he again saw the loon in the same place. Every now and then it uttered a cry. Finally, as he was lying with his head down, he heard some one say to him, “I have come after you.” He looked up again but saw nothing except that loon. The fourth time this happened he kept watch, for he thought that it was the loon, and he saw a man coming to him. Before this person, who was in fact the loon, could say anything the boy exclaimed, “I have seen you.” Then the loon said, “Come along with me. Get on my back and shut your eyes tight.”

Then the man did as this loon directed, and the latter dived down into the sea with him and came up quite a distance out. “Look up,” it said. The youth did so and found himself some distance out on the water. The hair was growing again upon his head. Then the loon told him to close his eyes a second time, went out still farther, and told him to reopen them. He was out a very long distance. Then the boy thought, “What is he taking me out here for?” When he opened his eyes for the third time he could see a village, and the loon said to him, “You see that village. The chief there has a lovely daughter whom you are to marry.” After he had come up to the shore with him he showed him this chief’s house and said, “You are to marry the daughter of the chief who owns that house.” Then the loon handed him the shells for his ears and his marten robe, which looked as nice as ever.

At night the youth went to the chief’s house, passed in to where his daughter was, and said, “Chief’s daughter, I have been told that I am not good enough to marry you.” But the girl liked him very much and married him at once.

When news came to this girl’s father, who was the Calm, that his child was married, he did not say anything, for she had been brought up very well, and she was to marry whomsoever she pleased.

So the man stayed there very many years, but at last he wanted to return to his father’s people. The chief took down his own canoe for his daughter and son-in-law, and they put all kinds of food into it. The people disliked to see them go, and the chief told his daughter to be good to her husband. The canoe that they had was a bear canoe, and everywhere they camped they had to take very good care of it. Before they set out the chief said to his daughter, “Don’t let anybody whatever give you water. Let your husband always bring it and give it to you.” He gave her a quill to drink water out of and a very small basket for her cup. Then the girl said to her husband, “You must let alone those girls you used to go with and those you were in love with. You are not to speak to them.”

When they came to his father’s town all were glad to see the youth, for they had been looking for him everywhere. While they were there he always brought the water for his wife to drink as he had been told. One day, however, as he was going for water, his former sweetheart, who was angry with him because he would follow his wife around and pay no attention to her, ran through the woods to him, seized him and spoke to him. He, however, pulled himself away and would not answer her. When the girl put her quill into the water this time, however, the water was slimy. Before it had been pure and would drip like raindrops. At once she said, “I must leave you,” and, although he begged her hard to stay, she got up and walked out. He tried to stop her but in vain. Every time he seized her his hands passed right through her. Then she began walking right out on the surface of the sea and he followed her. She said “Go back,” but he kept on until they were a long distance out. Then she said, “Go back or I will look at you.” So she turned around and looked at him, and he went straight down into the ocean.

85. THE FAITHLESS WIFE

A man of the Anqǃaˊkitān at Killisnoo lost his wife. When she was dying she said to her husband, “When I die, don’t bury me. Keep me out of the ground.” Bodies of common people used to be put into the ground for a little while before they were burned, those of high-caste persons being put into a house. So, when she died, instead of burying her, he placed her body up on a high place. This woman knew, however, that she was not going to die. She spoke as she did because she was in love with the son of the chief. The chief’s son was also in love with her, and, when he knew that she was put away, he went there at midnight when her husband was asleep, took her out, and carried her to his own house where he kept her in the bedroom at the rear. The chief was so fond of his son that he did everything the latter asked of him. This was the only house in that town that had a fire in it at midnight, and the people wondered what was the matter. The chief had his slaves get breakfast for the young couple before others were up.

The man whose wife had left him had a little girl whom he would humor very much, and she was in the habit of roaming from house to house throughout the village. One morning very early he said to the little girl, “Run out and get some fire.” As the chief’s house was the only one in which she could see smoke, she ran there after some, and, as soon as she entered, saw her mother sitting with the chief’s son. As soon as her mother saw her she hid her face, but the girl watched her closely. She walked directly out with the fire, however, without speaking.

When the little girl reached home with it she said, “Father, my mother is at that chief’s house.” “Which chief’s house?” said her father. “The chief that lives up on the hill.” Then her father said, “What makes you say that, child? Your mother has been dead for some time.” Then he took her hand and said pityingly, “Poor child, your mother is dead.” He began to cry as he held the child’s hand and then said, “I will go and see the place where I put her.” So he got another to accompany him, and they brought the box down. It felt very light. When he opened it it was empty. Then he thought to himself, “I am going to make certain of this.” About midnight he saw a fire at the chief’s house. Then he climbed up on top of it, looked down through the smoke hole, and saw his wife sitting there playing with the chief’s son. She looked very happy.

When the man got home he said to himself, “What can I do?” He thought, “How can I become a wizard?” So he did everything to turn himself into a wizard. He went among the graves, and played with the bodies and bones, but could not become a wizard. Then he went out to an island in front of the village and played with the bones of the dead people that were there. Finally he got hold of two shoulder blades with which he fanned and rubbed himself and all at once he fainted. Then he thought he would try working them like wings, and sure enough he began flying along very rapidly. Now he determined to go to the place where his wife was living.

First the man went up into the woods, procured very hard limbs and began to split them. He made the points very sharp. Then he stuck them into grease and burned it off in order to harden them. He took these along with him and crawled up on top of the house. Then he flew down through the smoke hole. He bewitched everyone in the house so that all slept soundly, passed into the rear bedroom, and stuck the sticks into the hearts of his wife and her lover so that they died.

Early next morning, when the slaves got up as usual to wait upon the young people, they were kept waiting so long that they were surprised. They thought that they were sleeping very late. Finally they went to see what was the matter and saw them lying in each others’ arms with the blood flowing from their mouths. The news was soon all over the village.

Early that same morning the woman’s former husband took his gambling sticks and came out to gamble. He pretended that he knew nothing about what had happened. When persons came to gamble with him he shouted out as people do when they are gambling, “These are the sharp sticks. These are the sharp sticks.” People wondered why he said it, and much whispering went on while they gambled. The man looked very happy.

86. THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED THE DEAD MAN