Chapter II: Part 2

After this he said to the people, “Make ear pendants because I am going to invite the whole world.” He was going to invite everyone because he had heard that the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt had a Chilkat blanket and a hat, and he wanted to see them. First he invited the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt and afterwards the other chiefs of all the tribes in the world. At the appointed time they began to come in. When the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt came in he had on his hat with many crowns and his blanket but was surrounded by a fog. Inside of the house, however, he appeared in his true form. It is from this feast of Raven’s that people now like to attend feasts. It is also from this that, when a man is going to have a feast, he has a many-crowned hat carved on top of the dead man’s grave post (kūtīˊyᴀ).

Raven made a woman under the earth to have charge of the rise and fall of the tides.[10] One time he wanted to learn about everything under the ocean and had this woman raise the water so that he could go there. He had it rise very slowly so that the people had time to load their canoes and get into them. When the tide had lifted them up between the mountains they could see bears and other wild animals walking around on the still unsubmerged tops. Many of the bears swam out to them, and at that time those who had their dogs had good protection. Some people walled the tops of the mountains about and tied their canoes inside. They could not take much wood up with them. Sometimes hunters see the rocks they piled up there, and at such times it begins to grow foggy. That was a very dangerous time. The people who survived could see trees swept up roots and all by the rush of waters, and large devilfish and other creatures were carried up by it.

When the tide began to fall, all the people followed it down, but the trees were gone and they had nothing to use as firewood, so they were destroyed by the cold. When Raven came back from under the earth, if he saw a fish left on top of a mountain or in a creek, he said, “Stay right there and become a stone.” So it became a stone. If he saw any person coming down, he would say, “Turn to a stone just where you are,” and it did so.

After that the sea went down so far that it was dry everywhere. Then Raven went about picking up the smallest fish, as bull heads and tom cod, which he strung on a stick, while a friend who was with him at this time, named Cᴀkǃᴀˊkᵘ,[11] took large creatures like whales. With the grease he boiled out, Cᴀkǃᴀˊkᵘ filled an entire house, while Raven filled only a small bladder.

Raven stayed with Cᴀkǃᴀˊkᵘ and one night had a dream. He said to his friend, “I dreamed that a great enemy came and attacked us.” Then he had all the fowls assemble and come to fight, so that his dream might be fulfilled. As soon as Raven had told his dream, Cᴀkǃᴀˊkᵘ went down and saw the birds. Then Raven went into the house and began drinking up his grease. But the man came back, saw what Raven was doing, and threw him into a grease box, which he started to tie up with a strong rope. Raven, however, called out, “My brother, do not tie me up with a strong rope, but take a straw such as our forefathers used to employ.” He did so. Then Raven drank up all the grease in the box, and, when the man took him up on a high cliff and kicked him off, he came out easily and flew away crying “G̣ā.”

One time Raven assembled all the birds in preparation for a feast and had the bears in the rear of his house as guests. All the birds had canes and helped him sing. As he sang along Raven would say quietly, “Do you think one of you could fly into the anus of a bear?” Then he would start another song and end it by saying in much the same language, “One of you ought to fly up into that hole” (i. e., anus). He kept taunting the birds with their inability to do this, so, when the bears started out, the wren (wuˊłnᴀxwūˊckᴀq, “bird-that-can-go-through-a-hole”) flew up into the anus of one of them and came out with his intestines. Before it had pulled them far out the bear fell dead. Then Raven chased all of the small birds away, sat down, and began eating.

Raven never got full because he had eaten the black spots off of his own toes. He learned about this after having inquired everywhere for some way of bringing such a state about. Then he wandered through all the world in search of things to eat.

After all the human beings had been destroyed Raven made new ones out of leaves. Because he made this new generation, people know that he must have changed all of the first people who had survived the flood, into stones. Since human beings were made from leaves people always die off rapidly in the fall of the year when flowers and leaves are falling.

At the time when he made this world, Raven made a devilfish digging-stick and went around to all created things (shellfish apparently) saying, “Are you going to hurt human beings? Say now either yes or no.” Those that said “No” he passed by; those that said “Yes” he rooted up. He said to the people, “When the tide goes out, your food will be there. When the tide comes in, your food will be in the woods,” indicating bear and other forest animals.

In Raven’s time the butts of ferns (kǃwᴀłx) were already cooked, but, after some women had brought several of these in, Raven broke a stick over the fern roots. Therefore they became green like this stick. He also broke the roots up into many layers one above another.

Devilfish were very fat then, and the people used to make grease out of them, but, when Raven came to a place where they were making he said, “Give me a piece of that hard thing.” That is why its fatness left it.

[Corvus appellavit saxum, quod erat tectum algis, “Pudenda, ubi crescunt crines.” Nepotes patris eius rogaverunt, “Esne capillatus?” Et ille respondit, “Sane, pudenda mea pilis vestita sunt.” At modo habebat in mente copias algarum, quae protegebant saxum in quo sedebat.]

One time Raven invited all the tribes of little people and laid down bear skins for them to sit on. After they had come in and reached the bear skins, they shouted to one another, “Here is a swampy, open space.” That was the name they gave to those places on the skins from which the hair had fallen out. By and by Raven seized the bear skins and shook them over the fire, when all the little people flew into the eyes of the human beings. He said, “You shall be pupils in people’s eyes,” and ever since human beings have had them.

Now he went on from this place and camped by himself. There he saw a large sculpin trying to get ashore below him, and he said to it, “My uncle’s son, come ashore here. Come way up. One time, when you and I were going along in our uncle’s canoe we fell into the water. So come up a little farther.” Raven was very hungry, and, when the sculpin came ashore, he seized it by its big, broad tail intending to eat it. But it slipped through his fingers. This happened many times, and each time the sculpin’s tail became smaller. That is why it is so slender to-day. Then Raven said to it, “From now on you shall be named sculpin (wēqǃ).”

Raven had a blanket which kept blowing out from him, so he threw it into the water and let it float away. Then he obtained a wife, and, as he was traveling along with her, he said, “There is going to be a great southwest wind. We better stop here for a little while. I expect my blanket ashore here.” After a while it came in. Then his wife said to him, “Take your blanket ashore and throw it on some branches.” He did so and it became _Rebis bracteosum_ (Tlingit, cāx). When they went on farther the sea became so rough that his wife was frightened, and told him to put ashore some of the fat with which his canoe was loaded. He did this, but was so angry with his wife for having asked him, that he said to her, “You better put ashore your sewing basket,” and so she did.[12]

Then he left his wife and went along by himself. He assembled very many young birds, and, when he camped told them to go after cātǃkǃ, the term he at that time applied to drinking water.

Afterwards he came to a certain place and started to make a salmon creek. He said, “This woman shall be at the head of this creek.” The woman he spoke of had long teats, so he called her Woman-with-long-teats-floating-around (Hīn-cᴀkxēˊnaỵî), saying, “When the salmon come to the creeks, they shall all go up to see her.” That is why salmon run up the creeks.

After this he went into the woods and set out to make the porcupine. For quills he took pieces of yellow cedar bark, which he set all the way up and down its back so that bears would be afraid of it. This is why bears never eat porcupines. He said to the porcupine, “Whenever anyone comes near you, throw your tail about.” This is why people are afraid of it when it does so.

Now Raven went off to a certain place and made the west wind, naming it Qǃāxōˊ. He said to it, “You shall be my son’s daughter. No matter how hard you blow you shall hurt nobody.”

He took up a piece of red salmon and said to it, “If anyone is not strong enough to paddle home he shall take up this fish and blow behind him.”

Raven is a grandchild of the mouse (kułēˊłtᴀǃnî). That is why a mouse can never get enough to eat.

Raven also made the south wind (sāˊnaxet). When the south wind climbs on top of a rock it never ceases to blow.

He made the north wind (x̣ūn), and on top of a mountain he made a house for it with something like ice hanging down on the sides. Then he went in and said to it, “Your buttocks are white.” This is why the mountains are white with snow.

He made all the different races, as the Haida and the Tsimshian. They are human beings like the Tlingit, but he made their languages different.

He also made the dog. It was at first a human being and did everything Raven wanted done, but he was too quick with everything, so Raven took him by the neck and pushed him down, saying, “You are nothing but a dog. You shall have four legs.”

One time Raven came to a certain thing called fat-on-the-sea (ỵīkᴀtāỵîˊ), which stuck out of the ocean. He kept saying to it, “Get down a little,” so it kept going under the surface. But every time it came up he took his paddle and cut part off. It did this seven times, but, when he spoke to it the eighth time, it went down out of sight, and he never saw it again.

As he was traveling along in another place, a wild celery came out, became angry with Raven, and said, “You are always wandering around for things to eat.” Then he named it wild celery (yāˊnaet) and said to it, “You shall stay there, and people shall eat you.”

Once he passed a large tree and saw something up in it called cᴀxdᴀˊq. Raven called out “Cᴀxdᴀˊq,” and it shouted back, “You Raven.” They called back and forth to each other for some time.

[Advenit in alium locum et alligavit aliquid circum caput ostrei, quod protrudebat ex arena. Appellavit idem ʟdas-qēˊt (viri pudenda).]

SUPPLEMENTARY TO STORY 1

Near a bay not far from Kōtsǃēˊʟǃ there used to be a sea-water pond in which lived a beaver. Raven very much wanted to get at this beaver and kill it, so he dug two trenches in order to drain the lake at low tide. After the water had run out through them, and the beaver had become visible at the bottom, he let down a kind of hook and pulled it up.

Raven had tried every sort of thing as a post under this earth. Last of all he caught this beaver and made the post out of the bone of its foreleg [which is very solid]. That is why the world is now standing. Old-woman-underneath (Haỵicāˊnakǃᵘ) attends to this post, but, when she is hungry, the earth shakes. Then people put grease into the fire and it goes to her.

After he had killed the beaver Raven killed also a big whale and got his people to tow it to the place where the beaver had formerly lived. He got four large canoes full of people to tow it up the rapids in one of the canals he had then made. After they had labored for many days, they became tired, and he said to them, “Take it easy.” Finally he himself became tired and said, “Turn into stone.” All did so, and to this day you can see a large island there shaped like a whale and a string of four smaller islands extending out from one end of it.

Raven named several places in this neighborhood. One was Qāgᵘᴀntoqaˊ, (A-hidden-person); another Tsētkǃ (Little Ladder). He named an island outside, Łatǃᴀˊn. Still another was called Łᴀqoˊx̣ᴀsǃ, after the name of a small canoe, because one of these was passing at the time.

Between two mountain peaks just eastward of Sitka is a hollow filled with trees supposed to resemble boys, so the place is called Kǃêsāˊnî-āˊỵaodihaỵiỵa, Where-is-a-big-crowd-of-boys. Raven appointed this as the place from which the sun would turn back north. A point on the coast just north of Sitka was called by him Kǃoˊłacᴀtqǃaˊ, Point-holding-things-back, because when a canoe passes it coming toward Sitka it can not go fast (i. e., it does not seem to get by this rapidly). Just north of this is a kind of bay which Raven called Kᴀˊdᴀłᴀtc-x̣ᴀkᵘ, Noisy-beach.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Cf. story 31.

[2] Perhaps the anal opening.

[3] See _Twenty-sixth Annual Report of Bureau of American Ethnology_, p. 455.

[4] Perhaps Mount St Elias.

[5] A song goes with this.

[6] A song goes with this also.

[7] This paragraph is perhaps misplaced, the incident being confounded with another on page 17.

[8] This name does not occur in the list given by this same man (_Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, p. 426.) He said it was the eighth month and according to his list the eighth month is March, which he calls Hīn taˊnᴀx kayāˊnî dīˊsî, “Month when things under the sea begin to grow.”

[9] Possibly the heroes of story 3. See also story 31.

[10] This appears to be retrospective. Cf. p. 9.

[11] Said to be a kind of bird. Kǃᴀkᵘ alone would mean “chicken hawk.”

[12] This is evidently told to account for certain peculiarly shaped rocks.

2. THE BIG CLAM

At the farther end of Tenakee inlet (Tǃīˊnag̣e) is a little bay called Where-sweetness-killed-a-person (Gᴀtłqōˊwag̣eya). One summer there were many people encamped there drying salmon, and among them many lively young people. One day some girls took a canoe and crossed the bay to a strawberry patch on the other side. Afterwards a man named Tsǃēʟǃ went down into the water to wade over to them but was swallowed by a halibut. So they named the place Kotsǃēˊʟǃ after this man.

Near this inlet is a high cliff in front of which a big clam formerly lived. It used to stick its head (lit. penis) high up out of the water. It always had its valves open, and if a canoe passed that way, it would close them on it (lit. shut its mouth on it), and the canoe was gone.

Raven heard of this clam, and he instructed a little mink to call to it, “Stick out your head and let us see you,” (īłiˊł-ᴀnᴀxdāˊx tsǃᴀg̣āˊx dustīˊn), while the people stood ready above with sharpened sticks. But, instead of speaking as it was told, the mink said, “Raven made clam” (Yēł djeˊaosîniỵî g̣āʟǃ). Finally the mink said plainly as he had been directed, “Stick your head out of the water and let us see you,” and it began to put out its head. He said, “A little more.” When it was well out, all the people seized their sticks and plunged them into it, cutting the ligament which held the valves together so that they sprang apart. Then the whole bay began to smell badly from it. On the rock slide back of the place where this clans used to run out its head all sorts of things now grow. It is called Clam-slide (Yēs-kādêˊ).

3. ENGLISH VERSION OF THE STORY OF THE FOUR BROTHERS[13]

There were four brothers who owned a dog of an Athapascan variety called dzī.[14] They had one sister. One day the dog began barking at something. Then Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ, the eldest brother, put red paint inside of his blanket, took his rattle, and followed. The other brothers went with him. They pursued it up, up, up, into the sky. The dog kept on barking, and they did not know what it was going to do. It was chasing a cloud.

When they got to the other side of the world they came out on the edge of a very steep cliff. They did not know what to do. The dog, however, went right down the cliff, and they saw the cloud still going on ahead. Now these brothers had had nothing to eat and were very hungry. Presently they saw the dog coming up from far below bringing the tail of a salmon. After a while they saw it run back.

Then they said to one another, “What shall we do? We might as well go down also.” But, when Łqǃayāˊkǃ, the youngest brother, started he was smashed in pieces. The two next fared in the same way. Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ, however, braced his stick against the wall behind him and reached the bottom in safety. Then he put the bones of each of his brothers together, rubbed red paint on them, and shook his rattle over them, and they came to life.

Starting on again around this world, they came to a creek full of salmon. This was where the dog had been before. When they got down to it they saw a man coming up the creek. He was a large man with but one leg and had a kind of spear in his hand with which he was spearing all the salmon. They watched him from between the limbs of a large, dead tree. When he got through hooking the salmon, he put all on two strings, one of which hung out of each corner of his mouth. Then he carried them down.

Then Łqǃayāˊkǃ said to his brothers, “Let us devise some plan for getting the salmon spear.” So he seized a salmon, brought it ashore and skinned it. First Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ tried to get inside of it but failed. When Łqǃayāˊkǃ made the attempt, however, he swam off at once, and, if one of his brothers came near him, he swam away. Then the other brothers sat up in the dead tree, Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ at the top.

When the big man came up again after salmon, Łqǃayāˊkǃ swam close up to him, and he said, “Oh! my salmon. It is a fine salmon.” But, when he made a motion toward it with his spear, it swam back into deep water. Finally it swam up close, and the big man speared it easily. Then Łqǃayāˊkǃ went to the tail of the fish, cut the string which fastened the big man’s spear point to the shaft and swam off with the point. Upon this the big man pulled his shaft up, looked at it and said, “My spear is gone.” Then he went downstream. In the meantime Łqǃayāˊkǃ came ashore, got out of the fish, came up to his usual station on the lowest limb of the tree, and sat down there. They had him sit below because he talked so much, and because he was the most precipitate.

That night the one-legged man did not sleep at all on account of his lost spear. He was using it in working for the bear people. When he came up next morning he had a quill in his hands which would tell him things. He took this about among the trees, and, when he came to that on which the brothers were sitting, it bent straight down. Then he cried, “Bring my spear this way.” Although he saw no one, he knew that there were people there who had it. Then he came to the bottom of the tree, seized Łqǃayāˊkǃ and tore him in pieces. So he served the next two brothers. But Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ had his dog, which he was able to make small, concealed under his coat and, after his brothers were torn up, he let it go, and it tore the big man all to pieces. Because he had his red paint, rattle, and dog he cared for nothing. Now he put the red paint on his brothers’ bodies and shook the rattle over them so that they came to life.

Next morning they got into the same tree again. Then they saw a man with two heads placed one over another coming up the stream. It was the bear chief. He hooked a great many salmon and put them on pieces of string on each side of his mouth. Next evening a little old man came up. Łqǃayāˊkǃ came down and asked, “What are you doing here?” He said, “I have come up after salmon.” But he could hook none at all, so Łqǃayāˊkǃ caught a lot for him. Then Łqǃayāˊkǃ asked him: “What does that double-head that came up here do?” The old man said, “I will tell you about it.” So they said to him: “Now we want you to tell the truth about this? What does he really do when he gets home with his salmon? We will get you more salmon if you tell us truly.” And the old man answered: “When he gets home with a load of salmon, he leaves it down by the river. Then he takes off his skin coat and hangs it up.” This is what he told them.

The next time the two heads came up and began to throw salmon ashore, it said all at once, “I feel people’s looks.”[15] As soon as he came opposite the place where they were sitting, Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ threw his dog right upon him. It caught this big bear by the neck and killed him. Every time thereafter, when the little old man came up, they questioned him about the people in the place he came from.

At last they caught a lot of salmon and prepared to descend. Then Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ put on the bear skin, placed his brothers under his arms inside of it, took strings of salmon as the bear had done, and started on. When he came in front of the houses he acted just like the two-headed man. First he entered the two-headed man’s house and shook his skin, whereupon his brothers and the dog passed behind the screens in the rear of the house and hid themselves. After that he began fixing his salmon, and, when he was through, took off his coat and hung it up in the manner that had been described to him.

Toward evening a great deal of noise was heard outside, made over some object. Łqǃayāˊkǃ very much wanted to go out and look, but they tried to prevent him. Finally he did go out and began to play with the object, whereupon the players rolled it on him and cut him in two. After that the two brothers next older went out and were cut in two in the same manner. After this Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ sent his dog out. He seized the object, shook it and made it fly to the tops of the mountains, where it made the curved shapes the mountains have to-day. Then it rolled right back again. When it rolled back, the dog became very angry, seized it a second time, shook it hard, and threw it so high that it went clear around the sun. It made the halo of light seen there. Then Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ took his brothers’ bodies, pieced them together, put red paint upon them and shook his rattle over them. They came to life again. Then he took the dog, made it small, and put it under his arm; and they started off. Since that time people have had the kind of spear (dīnaˊ) above referred to. The brothers started on with it, and, whenever they were hungry, they got food with it. They always kept together.

After a while they came across some Athapascan Indians called Worm-eating people (Wūn-xa qoan). These were so named because, when they killed game, they let worms feed upon it, and, when the worms had become big enough, they ate them through holes in the middle of their foreheads which served them as mouths. Łqǃayāˊkǃ wanted to be among these Athapascans, because they had bows and arrows and wore quills attached to their hair. They used their bows and arrows to shoot caribou, and, when they were pursuing this animal, they used to eat snow.

After Łqǃayāˊkǃ had obtained his bow and arrows they came out at a certain place, probably the Stikine river, and stayed among some people who were whipping one another for strength, in the sea. Every morning they went into the water with them.

At that time they thought that Łqǃayāˊkǃ was going with his sister, and they put some spruce gum around the place where she slept. Then they found the spruce gum on him and called him all sorts of names when they came from bathing. They called him Messenger-with-pitch-on-his-thigh (Naqāˊnî qǃᴀcgūˊqǃo), the messenger being a brother-in-law of the people of the clan giving a feast. They named him so because they were very much ashamed. This is why people have ever since been very watchful about their sisters. Because he had been fooling with his sister, when Łqǃayāˊkǃ went out, his brothers said to him, “You do not behave yourself. Go somewhere else. You can be a thunder (hēʟǃ).” They said to him, “Hāˊagun kādîˊ.”[16]

This is why, when thunder is heard, people always say, “You gummy thigh.” It is because Łqǃayāˊkǃ became a thunder. Their sister was ashamed. She went down into Mount Edgecumbe (ʟǃux̣) through the crater.

Because the thunder is a man, when the thunder is heard far out at sea, people blow up into the air through their hands and say, “Let it drive the sickness away,” or “Let it go far northward.” The other brothers started across the Stikine and became rocks there.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] This story was told by Dekināˊkǃᵘ. According to some, the story begins with the birth of five children from a dog father. See stories 97 and 31 (pp. 99–106).

[14] Łᴀkîtcᴀneˊ, the father of these boys, is said to have lived near the site of the Presbyterian school at Sitka and to have used the “blarney stone,” so called, as a grindstone.

[15] Meaning “I feel that people’s looks are on me.”

[16] It is said that no one knows what these words mean.

4. ORIGIN OF THE KILLER WHALE[17]

A man named Nātsᴀłᴀneˊ, belonging to the Tsagueˊdî (Seal people), made killer whales. He first tried to carve them out of red cedar, then out of hemlock, then out of all other kinds of wood in succession. He took each set of figures to the beach and tried to make them swim out, but instead they floated up on the surface. Last of all he tried yellow cedar, and was successful.

He made these of different sorts. On one he marked white lines with Indian chalk from the corners of its mouth back to its head. He said, “This is going to be the white-mouthed killer whale.” When he first put them into the water he headed them up the inlet, telling them that whenever they went up to the heads of the bays they were to hunt for seal, halibut, and all other things under the sea; but he told them not to hurt a human being. When you are going up the bay, people will say to you, “Give us something to eat.” Before this people did not know what the killer whale is.

* * * * *

Another thing people did not know was that the killer whale could go ashore and camp. One time a man married a high-caste woman and went up to the head of a certain bay with her, because he knew that the killer whales always went there. On the way they saw a camp fire blazing upon the shore. There were killer whales encamped here, but he thought they were human beings and landed to see them. When they got close in, he jumped into the water to urinate. All at once the killer-whale chief said, “I feel people’s looks. Go outside and look on the beach.” But, when they saw him urinating, they started off, leaving their camp just as it was, jumped into the water, and swam away.

Then he went up to the camp with his wife, and they saw all kinds of food there. His wife said, “It is lucky that we came across this;” and after a while the man said, “Let us cook some, my wife.” Then the woman took her cooking basket and put some water into it. Presently she said, “Way out there is a canoe coming.” It was a black canoe. She said, “We better leave this alone until the canoe comes so that we can invite them to eat with us.” Her husband said, “All right.” By and by his wife said, “What is the matter? To my eyes it does not appear like a canoe. It is too black.” It was really a young killer whale, under which the other killer whales were swimming to make it appear like a canoe. When the supposed canoe reached land, the whales rushed ashore, seized the woman, who had concealed herself behind her husband, and carried her down to the sea. They took her away because her husband had taken their provisions. This time, when the killer whales rose again, instead of appearing like only one canoe, they came up out of the water thick everywhere and began to swim down the bay very fast. Meanwhile the husband went down to his canoe, got in, and paddled after them along the shore. But, when they came to a high cliff where the water went down deep, all the whales suddenly dived out of sight.

Now the man climbed to the top of this cliff, fastened a bough to his head and another slim spruce bough around his waist, filled the space inside of his shirt with rocks, and jumped into the ocean at the spot where his wife had disappeared, falling upon a smooth, mossy place on the bottom. When he awoke, he arose, looked about, and saw a long town near by. He entered the last house, which proved to belong to the chief of the shark people.

In this house he saw a man with a crooked mouth peeping out at him from behind a post. A long time before, when he had been fishing, a shark had cut his line and carried off the hook, and it was this hook that now peeped out at him. It said, “Master, it is I. When your line broke, they took me down here and have made me a slave.”

Then he said to the shark chief, “Is there any news in this town?” and he replied, “Nothing especial in our town, but right across from us is the killer-whales’ town, and recently we heard that a woman had been captured there and is now married to the killer-whale chief.” Then the shark chief continued: “The killer-whale chief has a slave who is always chopping wood back in the forest with a stone ax. When you come to him, say within yourself, ‘I wish your stone ax would break.’ Wish it continually.” So the shark instructed him.

Then he went over to the killer-whale town, and, when the slave’s ax did break, he went up to him and said, “I will help you to fix that stone ax if you will tell me where my wife is.” So he began to fix it in place for him. It was the only stone ax in the killer-whale tribe. Then the slave said, “I always bring wood down and make a fire in the evening, after which my master sends me for water. When you see me going after water, come to the door and wait there for me. As soon as I come in I am going to push over the fire. At the same time I am going to empty the water into it so as to make a quantity of steam. Then rush in and carry out your wife.”

The man followed these directions and started away with his wife. Then his halibut hook shouted, “This way, my master, this way.” So he ran toward the shark people’s town, and they pursued him. Now the killer whales attacked the shark people because they said that the sharks had instructed him what to do, and they killed many sharks.

In return the sharks began to make themselves strong. They were going out again to fight the killer whales. They went to some rocks and began sharpening their teeth. Then they began the battle, and whenever the killer whales approached, the sharks would run against their bellies and rip them open, letting out their entrails. The whole bay was full of killer whales and sharks. What happened to the woman is not told.

* * * * *

When the killer-whale tribe start north the seals say, “Here comes another battle. Here come the warriors.” They say this because the killer whales are always after seals. Killer whales are of different kinds, and the one that always swims ahead is the red killer whale, called “killer-whale-spear” (Kīt-wusāˊnî). It was so named by the man who made these animals because he shaped it long and slender. The Tsagueˊdî, to which this man belonged, are a branch of the Dᴀqʟǃaweˊdî; therefore the Dᴀqʟǃaweˊdî are the only people who make the killer whale their emblem.[18]

On their way to us the first killer whales came into a bay called Kotsǃēˊʟǃ, after Tsǃēʟǃ, the first man who came to that bay. They encamped at its head and the day after began digging into the cliff. The land there is not very high, so they were soon through, laid skids down, and carried their canoes across. Some people watched them. The killer whales always used to cross at the place where they laid down these skids, and now people cross there. It is called Killer-whale-crossing place (Kītgūˊnî), but is now overgrown with trees and underbrush.

[This place is said to be on the north arm of Tenakee bay, where a canal has been projected to enable boats to reach Huna more easily.]

FOOTNOTES:

[17] See stories 59 and 71.

[18] The Wūˊckitan must, however, be added.

5. KAKAˊ[19]

When Kᴀkaˊ was taken south, either to Cape Ommaney or farther, a woman came to him and said, “I am in the same fix as you. We are both saved[20] by the land otters.” That is how he found out what had happened to him. The woman also said, “I am your friend, and I have two land-otter husbands who will take you to your home.” Then she called him to her and began to look over his hair. Finally she said, “Your wife has put the sinew from a land-otter’s tail through your ear. That is what has caused you to become a land otter.”

Then they took down what looked to him like a canoe, but really it was a skate. The skate is the land-otter’s canoe. When they set out, they put him into the canoe, laid a woven mat over him and said, “You must not look up again.” He did look up, however, after a time and found himself tangled among the kelp stems. These land otters were going to become his spirits.

On their journey they started to cross a bay called Kēn to an island called Tēłnuˊ, and, as daylight was coming on, they began to be afraid that the raven would call and kill them before they reached the other side. It was almost daylight when they came to land, so they ran off at once among the bushes and rocks, leaving Kᴀkaˊ to pull up the canoe. This was hard work, and while he was at it the skin was all worn from his lower arm, so he knew that it was a skate.

Some people traveling in a canoe saw his shadow there and tried hard to make him out clearly, but in vain. They did not want to have him turn into a land otter, so they said, “Kᴀkaˊ, you have already turned into a ground hog.”

By and by one of his friends heard him singing in the midst of a thick fog at a place near the southern end of Baranoff island on the outside. Each time he ended his song with the words, “Let the log drift landward with me.” Then it would drift shoreward with him. Meanwhile he was lying on the log head down with blood running out of his nose and mouth and all kinds of sea birds were feeding on him. It was his spirits that made him that way. The real land otters had left him, but they had come to him again as spirits.

Now the people sang a song on shore that could be heard where Kᴀkaˊ was floating, but, although they heard the noise of a shaman’s beating sticks, they could not get at him. Then the friend who had first found him went ashore and fasted two days, after which he went out and saw Kᴀkaˊ lying on his back on the log. He was as well as when he had left Sitka. Then his friend brought him ashore, but the land-otter spirits remained with him, and he became a great shaman.

FOOTNOTES:

[19] See story 31, pp. 87–88.

[20] So interpreters persist in speaking of the capture of a human being by anthropomorphic animals or other supernatural beings.

6. THE LAND-OTTER SISTER[21]

A man set out from Sitka to a certain camp with his children in order to dry halibut, for in those days that was how they had to get their food. It was spring time. Then, too, they had stone axes and used small half baskets for pots in which to do cooking. His wife and children spent all of their time digging clams, cockles, and other shellfish down on the beach and in laying them aside for future use. The man, meantime, was hewing out a canoe with his stone ax. They had a hard time, for they had nothing to live on except the things picked up at low tide.

Many years before this man’s sister had been drowned, but so long a time had passed that he had forgotten her. She, however, had been taken by the land otters and was married among them, having many children. From around a neighboring point she was watching him. Her children were all working to collect a quantity of food.

After this the woman’s husband told her to take a lot of food to her brother. All the land-otter-people are called “Point people” (Qǃātkwedîˊ); they have plenty of halibut, seal, etc. So she began packing these things up to take them to her brother. In front of his dwelling house her brother had a house made of branches, and one evening he heard someone come in front of his house and seem to lay down a heavy pack there. Then the person said, “The place where you are stopping is wonderfully far from us.” He went out and saw a woman but did not know who she was because her arms were grown to her breast and her mouth was thrown open with her upper lip drawn up under her nose. But the woman could see how he felt, so she said to him, “It is I. I am your sister who lives a short distance away around this point.” Then she brought the basket into her brother’s house and said to him, “Take the things out of the basket, for I have to return before the raven calls.”

Next evening she came back with another full basket. This time she said, “You have three nephews who will come over and help you get halibut and other things.” So the little otters came to their uncle. From their waist up they looked like human beings; below they were otters, and they had tails. Their mother came with them and began to take her brother’s children on her lap saying, “Little tail (ʟǃīt kǃᴀtskǃuˊ), little tail growing down.” As she sang tails began to grow down from them. Then their father looked at them, became angry, and said, “What are you doing to my children anyway?” Immediately she slapped them on the buttocks and said, “Up goes the little tail, up into the buttocks (tūˊdenᴀtsî yēq),” and the tails went up into their buttocks.

After his nephews had stayed with him for some time the man said within himself, “I have no devilfish for bait,” and the same evening the young fellows were gone after it. Although it was high tide many devilfish were found in front of his house. The young otters called good weather bad and bad weather good.

One day they went out with their uncle to fish, and, when he put his line down with the buoy on it, the little otters all jumped into the water. They went down on the line and put on the hook the biggest halibut they could find. After they had brought in the canoe loaded twice their uncle had an abundance of provisions.

In the evening the otters had worked so hard that they fell asleep on the opposite side of the fire with their tails close to the blaze. Then their uncle said to them, “Your handy little tails are beginning to burn.” On account of those words all became angry and left him, going back to their father. Then the man’s sister came to him and asked what he had said to his nephews. He said, “I simply told them that their clothes were beginning to burn on them.” So the otters’ father tried to explain it, saying to them: “Your uncle did not mean anything when he said your clothes were beginning to burn. He wanted only to save your clothes. Now go back and stay with him.” So they got over their displeasure and went back.

All that time the man was working upon his canoe. He said within himself, “I wonder how my canoe can be gotten down.” Next morning his nephews went up, put their tails under it, and pulled it down. When they got it to their uncle’s house, he loaded the canoe and started home with them, but quite near his town he missed them out of the canoe. Then all the people there wondered where he could have gotten a canoe load of such things as he had. He gave everything to his friends. Then his wife said to the people, “Something came to help us. We have seen my husband’s sister who was drowned long ago, and that is the way we got help.”

Afterward he went back to the place where he had received assistance but saw nothing of those who had helped him. He hunted all about the place from which his sister used to come but found nothing except land-otter holes. He became discouraged and gave up searching.

FOOTNOTES:

[21] See story 45.

7. THE LAND-OTTER SON

There was a great famine at Sitka, and all the people went halibut fishing. Then a certain man went with his wife to the mouth of Redoubt bay. He had prepared barks some time before, and, when they got to this place, they made a house out of them. They fished there for a long time, but caught no more than one or two halibut a week. By the end of two months they had little to live on except shellfish and other things picked up at low tide.

One evening they caught a small halibut at their fishing ground. They cooked a piece of it and put the rest on the drying frame in the brush house the man had constructed outside.

Next day they heard a noise there as if something were being thrown down and moved about. The woman said, “What can that be?” Then her husband went out and was astonished to see two medium-sized devilfish lying there. He wondered how they had gotten up from the beach. Then he went in and said, “Wife (dja), I am in luck. There are two large devilfish out there. I do not know who brought them. To-morrow morning we will take them and see if we can not catch some halibut. The person who brought them here is very kind, for I have been hunting everywhere vainly for bait.” The woman sat down and considered. She said, “Do you know who brought them here?” He said, “No.” Then she said, “I will tell you who brought them here. Don’t you remember that my son was drowned a year ago, and no one has seen anything of him since? It must be he, who has taken pity on us because he sees how poor we are. I will call his name if I hear anyone whistle to-morrow or any other night, for I know it is my son.” So the woman spoke.

In the morning they went out with these devilfish and caught two halibut. Evening came on. After they had reached home and it was dark, they began to cook some halibut. Just as the woman was putting some into the pot a person whistled behind the house. Then she said, “We have longed for you, my dear son. Come in. Don’t whistle around us. We have been wishing for you for the last year, so do not be afraid. It is only your father and I. Come in.” Then it whistled again. The man went to the door, opened it, and said, “Come in, my son, I think you have come to help us because we are very poorly off here. The door is open. Come right in.” So the father said. And without their seeing him enter, all of a sudden he was seated opposite them with his hands over his face. Then they spoke to him, saying, “Is it you, my son?” He only whistled [by drawing in his breath]. That was the way he spoke to them. Toward midnight he began to speak. The father said, “Is it you, my son?” The land-otter-man (kūˊcta-qa) said, “Yes.” He motioned to them that there was something outside which he had brought for them. It was some more devilfish. He said, “In the morning we will go out.” The woman gave him a pillow and two blankets for the night, and he slept on the other side of the fire.

So early in the morning that it was yet dark he took his father by the feet and shook him, saying, “Get up. We will go out.” He told him to take his fishing line, and they carried down the canoe. Then the land-otter-man stepped in and his father followed. His father gave him a paddle. The canoe went flying out to the halibut ground. It was his son’s strength that took them there so quickly. Then the land-otter-man suddenly stopped the canoe. He took the line and baited a hook with one devilfish tentacle. He baited all of the hooks and lowered them. Then he tied the end of the line to the seat. He said to his father, “Put the blanket over you. Do not watch me.” His father did so but observed him through a hole in the blanket. The land-otter-man, without causing any motion in the canoe, jumped overboard, went down the line, and put the largest halibut that he could find on their hooks. When he came in he shook the canoe and his father pretended to wake up. He gave the line to his father who began to pull up. Very many big halibut began to come up, which he clubbed and threw into the canoe as fast as he could. Then he turned the canoe around and started for home. The canoe was full.

On the way the land-otter-man was in the bow holding a spear. After he had held it there for a long time he threw it. His father could not see that he had thrown it at a large seal. He brought it close to the canoe, gave it one blow to kill it and threw it into the canoe. When they came ashore it was almost daybreak. Then, motioning to his father that the raven might call before he reached shelter, he ran straight up into the woods.

Now the man’s wife came down and began cutting up the halibut. By the time they had it all into the house it was dark. The same evening, before they knew it, he was with them again. Then the man took some pieces of raw halibut, cut them into bits and placed them before him. He turned his back on them and ate very fast. He could eat only raw food.

About a week later they told their son not to go into the woods at night but to stay with them. So he did. When he wanted to go fishing he would awaken his father while it was still dark, and they would start off. Each time they brought in a load of seal, halibut, and all sorts of things. They began to have great quantities of provisions.

After that they began to see his body plainly. His mouth was round, and long hair had grown down over his back to his buttocks. He took nothing from his father and mother but raw food.

Some time after they began to pack up to come to Sitka. He now talked to them like a human being and always stayed with them. He helped load their canoe, and his father gave him a paddle. Then they set out, the land-otter-man in the bow, his father in the stern, and his mother between. When they came to Poverotni point (Kaodjîxîtî-qǃa), the woman saw the shadow of her son’s arms moving, his hands which held the paddle being invisible. She said to her husband, “What is the matter with my son? He does not seem to be paddling. I can see only his shadow now.” So she moved forward to see whether he was asleep or had fallen into the water. Her son was not there. The blanket he had had around his knees was there, but he was gone. She said to her husband, “Your son is gone again,” and he replied, “I can not do anything more. He is gone. How can I bring him back?” So they went on to Sitka.

When they came to Sitka, they reported all that had happened. The father said, “My son helped us. Just as we got around the point he disappeared out of the canoe.” So his friends gave a feast for him. His father’s name was Sᴀkīˊ, and the place where they fished for halibut is now called Sᴀkīˊ-īˊdî.

8. THE WOLF-CHIEF’S SON

Famine visited a certain town, and many people died of starvation. There was a young boy there who always went around with bow and arrows. One day, as he was hunting about, he came across a little animal that looked like a dog and put it under his blanket. He brought it to his mother, and his mother washed it for him. Then he took the red paint left by his dead uncles, spit upon the dog and threw paint on so that it would stick to its hair and face. When he took the dog into the woods, it would bring him all kinds of birds, such as grouse, which he carried home to his family. They cooked these in a basket pot. Afterward he brought the animal down, washed it, and put more paint upon its legs and head. This enabled him to trace it when he was out hunting.