Chapter VI: Part 6

He taught them how to make the seal spear (kᴀt). It has many barbs, and there are different kinds. One is called tsa-cᴀxîctdzāˊs. It is provided with some attachment that hits the seal (tsa) upon the head whenever it comes to the surface, driving its head under water until it dies, and that is what the name signifies.

Then he showed them how to make a canoe. This he did on the Queen Charlotte islands. At first the people were afraid to get into it, but he said, “The canoe is not dangerous. People will seldom get drowned.”

He taught them how to catch a salmon called îcqēˊn, which requires a different kind of hook from that used for halibut. The place where he taught people how to get different kinds of shellfish is a beach on the Queen Charlotte islands called Raven’s beach to this day.

After he was through teaching the people these things, he went under the ocean, and when he came back, taught them that the sea animals are not what we think they are, but are like human beings. First he went to the halibut people. They have a chief who invited him to eat, and had dried devilfish and other kinds of dried fish brought out. He was well liked everywhere he went under the sea because he was a very smart man. After that he went to see the sculpin people, who were very industrious and had all kinds of things in their houses. The killer-whale people seemed to live on hair-seal meat, fat, and oil. Their head chief was named G̣onaqᴀdēˊt, and even to this day the natives say that the sight of him brings good fortune.

While he was under the ocean he saw some people fishing for halibut, and he tried to tease them by taking hold of their bait. They, however, caught him by the bill and pulled him up as far as the bottom of their canoe, where he braced himself so that they pulled his bill out. They did not know what this bill was and called it g̣onēˊt-łuwuˊ (bill-of-something-unknown). Then Raven went from house to house inquiring for his bill until he came to the house of the chief. Upon asking for it there, they handed it to him wrapped in eagle down. Then he put it back into its place and flew off through the smoke hole.

Raven left that town and came to another. There he saw a king salmon jumping about far out at sea. He got it ashore and killed it. Because he was able to do everything, the natives did all that he told them. He was the one who taught all things to the natives, and some of them still follow his teachings. After that he got all kinds of birds for his servants. It was through these that people found out he was the Raven.

Once he went to a certain place and told the people to go and fight others. He said, “You go there and kill them all, and you will have all the things in that town.” This was the beginning of war.

After having been down among the fish teaching them, Raven went among the birds and land animals. He said to the grouse (nukt), “You are to live in a place where it is wintry, and you will always look out for a place high up so that you can get plenty of breeze.” Then he handed the grouse four white pebbles, telling him to swallow them so that they might become his strength. “You will never starve,” he said, “so long as you have these four pebbles.” He also said, “You know that Sea-lion is your grandchild. You must be generous, get four more pebbles and give them to him.” That is how the sea-lion came to have four large pebbles. It throws these at hunters, and, if one strikes a person, it kills him. From this story it is known that the grouse and the sea-lion can understand each other.

Raven said to the ptarmigan: “You will be the maker of snowshoes. You will know how to travel in snow.” It was from these birds that the Athapascans learned how to make snowshoes, and it was from them that they learned how to put their lacings on.

Next Raven came to the “wild canary” (sǃāsǃ), which is found in the Tlingit country all the year round, and said: “You will be head among the very small birds. You are not to live on what human beings eat. Keep away from them.”

Then he went to the robin and said: “You will make the people happy by letting them hear your whistle. You will be a good whistler.”

Then he said to the flicker (kūn): “You will be the head one among the birds next in size. You will not be found in all places. You will be very seldom seen.”

He said to the ługᴀˊn, a bird that lives far out on the ocean: “You will live far out on the ocean on lonely rocks. You will be very seldom seen near shore.”

Then he came to the snipes and said to them: “You will always go in flocks. You will never go out alone.” Therefore we always see them in flocks.

He said to the āsqǃacāˊtcî, a small bird with greenish-yellow plumage: “You will always go in flocks. You will always be on the tops of the trees. That is where your food is.”

To a very small bird called kotǃaiˊ, about the size of a butterfly, he said: “You will be a very respectable bird. You will be seen only to give good luck. People will hear your voice always but never see you.”

Then Raven came to the blue jay and said: “You will have very fine clothes and be a good talker. People will take patterns (probably “colors”) from your clothes.”

Then he went to a bird called x̣ūnkᴀhāˊ and said: “You will never be seen unless the north wind is going to blow.” That is what its name signifies.

He came to the crows and said: “You will make lots of noise. You will be great talkers.” That is why, when you hear one crow, you hear a lot of others right afterward.

He came to a bird called gusǃyiadūˊł and said to it: “You will be seen only when the warm weather is coming on. Never come near except when warm weather is coming.”

He came to the humming bird and said: “A person will enjoy seeing you. If he sees you once, he will want to see you again.”

He said to the eagle: “You will be very powerful and above all birds. Your eyesight will be very good. What you want will be very easy for you.” He put talons on the eagle and said that they would be very useful to him.

And so he went on speaking to all the birds.

Then he said to the land otter: “You will live in the water just as well as on land.” He and the land otter were good friends, so they went halibut fishing together. The land otter was a fine fisherman. Finally he said to the land otter: “You will always have your house on a point where there is plenty of breeze from either side. Whenever a canoe capsizes with people in it you will save them and make them your friends.” The land-otter-man (kūˊcta-qā) originated from Raven telling this to the land otter. All Alaskans know about the land-otter-man but very few tell the story of Raven correctly.

If the friends of those who have been taken away by the land otters get them back, they become shamans, therefore it was through the land otters that shamans were first known. Shamans can see one another by means of the land-otter spirits although others can not.

The first man captured (or “saved”) by the land otters was a Kîksᴀˊdî named Kᴀkaˊ. The land otters kept coming to him in large canoes looking like his mother or his sister or other dear relation, and pretending that they had been looking for him for a long time. But they could not control themselves as well as he, and at such times he would discover who they were and that their canoe was nothing but a skate. Finally, when Kᴀkaˊ found that he could not see his friends, he thought that he might as well give himself up to the land otters. Then they named him Qōwułkaˊ, a word in the land-otter language now applied to a kind of fishhook which the halibut are thought to like better than all others. Nowadays, when a figure of Qōwułkaˊ is made, it is covered with a dog skin, because it was by means of a dog skin that he frightened the land otters, and they also hang his apron about with dog bones. The shaman who is possessed by him dresses in the same manner. From Kᴀkaˊ the people learned that the land otters affect the minds of those who have been with them for a long time so as to turn them against their own friends. They also learned from him that there are shamans among the land otters, and that the land otters have a language of their own.

For two years Kᴀkaˊ’s friends hunted for him, fasting at the same time and remaining away from their wives. At the end of this period the land otters went to an island about 50 miles from Sitka and took Kᴀkaˊ with them. The land-otter tribe goes to this place every year. Then an old land-otter-woman called to Kᴀkaˊ: “My nephew, I see that you are worrying about the people at your home. When you get to the place whither we are going place yourself astride of the first log you see lying on the beach and sit there as long as you can.” And her husband said to him: “Keep your head covered over. Do not look around.” They gave him this direction because they thought, “If this human being sees all of our ways and learns all of our habits, we shall die.” On the way across the land-otter-people sang a song, really a kind of prayer, of which the words are, “May we get on the current running to the shore.”

The moment they came to land the land-otter-people disappeared and he did not know what had become of them. They may have run into some den. Then he ran up the sandy beach and sat on the first log he came to, as he had been directed. The instant his body touched it he became unconscious. It was a shaman’s spirit that made him so.

By and by Kᴀkaˊ’s friends, who were at that time hunting for fur seals, an occupation that carries one far out to sea, suddenly heard the noise of a shaman’s drum and people beating for him with batons. They followed the sound seaward until they saw thousands and thousands of sea birds flying about something floating upon the ocean a mile or two ahead of them. Arrived there they saw that it was a log with Kᴀkaˊ lying upon it clothed only in a kelp apron. The people were delighted to find even his body, and took it into their canoe. He looked very wild and strange. He did not open his eyes, yet he seemed to know who had possession of him, and without having his lips stir a voice far down in his chest said, “It is I my masters.” It was a shaman’s spirit that said this, and to the present day a shaman’s spirit will call the shaman’s relations “my masters.”

The old woman that saved him and told him to sit astride of the log was his spirit and so was her husband. The log was the spirit’s canoe. This woman and her husband had been captured by the land otters long before, but Kᴀkaˊ was so strong-minded a fellow that they felt they could do nothing with him, so they let him go and became his spirits. They could not turn him into a land otter because he did not believe that land otters are stronger than human beings.

After the people had brought Kᴀkaˊ to a place just around the point from their village, he said, “Leave me here for a little while.” So most of his relations remained with him, while two went home to tell the people who were there. They were not allowed to keep it from the women. Then they made a house for him out of devil clubs and he was left there for two days while the people of the town fasted. They believed in these spirits as we now believe in God. Before he was brought home the house and the people in it had to be very clean, because he would not go where there was filth. After they got him home they heard the spirit saying far down within him, “It is I, Old-land-otter-spirit (Kūˊcta-kocaˊnqo-yek).” This was the name of the old woman who first told him what to do. The next spirit was The-spirit-that-saves (Qōsîneˊxe-yek). He sang inside of him the same song that the land otters sang. It was his spirit’s song and has many words to it.

All the birds that assembled around him when he was floating upon the sea were also his spirits. Even the wind and waves that first upset him were his spirits. Everything strange that he had seen at the time when the land otters got possession of him were his spirits. There are always sea birds sitting on a floating log, and from Kᴀkaˊ people learned that these are shamans’ spirits. It is from his experience that all Alaskans—Tlingit, Haida, even Eskimo and Athapascans—believe in the land-otter-men (kūˊcta-qa). By means of his spirits Kᴀkaˊ was able to stand going naked for two years. This story of Kᴀkaˊ is a true story, and it is from him that the Tlingit believe in shamans’ spirits (yēk).[54]

After leaving the land otters Raven appeared at Taku. There is a cliff at the mouth of that inlet called Wᴀsǃᴀsǃeˊ where the North Wind used to live, and Raven stayed there with him. The North Wind was very proud and shone all over with what the Indians thought were icicles. So the Indians never say anything against the North Wind, however long it blows, because it has spirits (i. e., power). Years ago people thought that there were spirits in all the large cliffs upon the islands, and they would pray to those cliffs. They had this feeling toward them because Raven once lived in this cliff with the North Wind.

Raven observed certain regulations very strictly when he was among the rivers he had created. He told people never to mention anything that lives in the sea by its right name while they were there, but to call a seal a rabbit, for instance, and so with the other animals. This was to keep them from meeting with misfortune among the rapids. Formerly the Indians were very strict with their children when they went up the rivers, but nowadays all that has been forgotten.

After this Raven went to Chilkat and entered a sweat house along with the chief of the killer whales who tried to roast him. Raven, however, had a piece of ice near him and every now and then put part of it into his mouth. Then he would tell the killer whale that he felt chilly and make him feel ashamed. “If I did not belong to the G̣ānᴀxteˊdî family,” said Raven, “I could not have stood that sweat house.” For this reason the G̣ānᴀxteˊdî now claim the raven as an emblem and think they have more right to it than anybody else.

It was from Raven that people found out there are Athapascan Indians. He went back into their country. So the Chilkat people to this day make their money by going thither. He also showed the Chilkat people how to make tcîł, secret storehouses maintained some distance out of town, and he taught them how to put salmon into these and keep them frozen there over winter. So the Chilkat people got their name from tcîł, “storehouse,” and xāt, “salmon.”

Raven also showed the Chilkat people the first seeds of the Indian tobacco and taught them how to plant it. After it was grown up, he dried it, gathered clam shells, roasted them until they were very soft, and pounded them up with the tobacco. They used to chew this, and it was so good that it is surprising they gave it up. They made a great deal of money at Chilkat by trading with this among the interior Indians, but nowadays it is no longer planted.

* * * * *

Then Raven went to a river beyond Copper river called Łᴀxaỵîˊk[55] and told the people that they were to make canoes out of skins. There he found a chief named ᴀyāˊỵî, who had married the daughter of another chief by whom he had five children, four boys and a girl. His wife was always making baskets, while ᴀyāˊỵî himself went out camping or to other villages. He had a long box that he took about everywhere he went and always had hung overhead. In those days each family tattooed the hands in some special way. One time, when the chief’s wife was sitting under this box a drop of blood fell out of it upon her hand. Her husband was away, so she took the box down and looked into it. It was full of severed hands, and by the tattoo marks she knew that they belonged to her uncles. She was very fond of her uncles and cried continually for them.

After her husband had found her weeping several times he asked, “What are you always crying about?” and she said, “I am getting tired of living here. I want to go back to my father and mother.” Then he said, “We will start back to your father’s place to-morrow.” So next day he carried her and her children to a place not far from her father’s town and let them off there telling them to walk across. Then he paddled home.

Even before she started across, his wife noticed that there was a heavy fog over her father’s village, and when she got there she found it vacant. There was nothing in it but dead bodies, and she went from house to house weeping. Now after her children had thought over this matter for a while, they skinned some of the bodies and made a canoe out of them. It was the first of the skin canoes. It was all on account of ᴀyāˊỵî having murdered the people of that town. They tied those places on the canoe that had to be made tight, with human hair. Afterward they took it down to the water and put it in, making a kind of singing noise as they went. Nowadays these canoes are made of all kinds of skins, but the hair used is always human hair and they sing in the same manner when they put them into the water. They also made a drum out of human skin.

After that all got into the canoe, and they started for their father’s town, singing as they went, while their mother steered. When they came in front of it the people said, “There is a canoe coming. We can hear singing in it, and in the song they are mentioning ᴀyāˊỵî’s name.” That was all they could hear. The whole town came out to look at the canoe. Then the eldest son arose in the canoe, mentioned his father’s name, and said, “Give me my uncle’s hands. If you do not give them to me I will turn this town of yours upside down.” When he started this song again he began drumming and the town began to sink. It shook as if there were an earthquake. Now the people of the town became frightened. They went to ᴀyāˊỵî and told him he would be killed if he did not let the hands go. So he gave them up. When the children got these hands they went away singing the same song. At that the town again began to sink and carried down all of the people with it. Afterward it resumed its former position, but it is said that you can see shells all over the place to this day.

After they had reached their own village Raven said to the eldest boy, “Get some eagle feathers and put them on the mouths of your uncles and all the other town people. After you have placed them there blow them away again. Put their hands in their proper places, and put feathers over the cuts. As soon as you have blown the feathers away from their mouths, they will return to life.” He did so, and all the dead people came to life.

* * * * *

One day Raven saw a whale far out at sea and sat down on the beach to study how he should bring it ashore. Then he got some pitchwood and rocks of the kind that was formerly used in making fire, flew out to the place where he thought the whale would come up, and went into its open mouth. He made a fire inside of the whale and cooked everything there. Only he would not touch the heart. When the whale took in many fish he ate them. Finally he did cut the whale’s heart out and killed it, after which it began drifting about from place to place. Then he sang: “Let the one who wants to be high-born like me cut the whale open and let me out, and he will be as high as I am.” He also sang: “Let the whale go ashore. Let the whale go ashore on a long sandy beach.” Finally he heard waves breaking on a sandy beach, and he said again: “Let the one who wants to be high-born like me cut the whale open and let me out, and he will be as high as I am.” Suddenly he heard the voices of children. These children heard his voice, went home and informed their parents. Then the people all came there and cut the whale open, and Raven flew off into the woods crying “Qǃoneˊ, qǃoneˊ, qǃoneˊ.”

Raven stayed up in the woods a long time in order to get the grease and smell off of his feathers, and, when he came down again, he saw boxes and boxes of whale grease. Then he made believe he was surprised and asked the people where they got all of it. They said: “We found a whale that had come right in here where we could get it easily. So we are making oil out of it.” Said he: “Did you hear anything inside when it first came ashore.” “Yes! there was some strange sound in there, and something flew out calling itself qǃoneˊ.” Then Raven answered, “Years ago just such a thing as this happened, and all of the people of that town that heard the noise died. It brings bad luck to hear such a noise in a whale. You people must leave this right away. Don’t eat any of it. Leave it here.” Then all of the people believed him and left their oil there. It became his.[56]

Next Raven went to a place where many sea lions, seals, and porpoises were lying about. Among these there were a number of children, who cut pieces of fat from the animals and threw them back and forth. So he made himself look like a child and, when they threw him a piece of fat, he ate it. Finally the children missed their fat and said, “What is becoming of all the fat we were playing with? It is all disappearing.”[57]

Then Raven came to a large town where everyone appeared to have died. He entered the largest house, and saw no one inside, yet he could feel a person continually pushing against him. It was a ghost house, and the town was called the Town of Ghosts (Qaỵahāỵîˊ ānîˊ). Afterward Raven loaded a canoe with provisions from the ghosts’ houses and started to paddle away, but he did not notice that a very long line was fastened to the stern of the canoe and secured at the other end round a tree. When he reached the end of this rope the canoe was pulled right back to the beach, and the goods were all carried up to the house by invisible hands. One of the ghosts also dropped a very large rock upon his foot, making him lame.[58]

Next Raven went among the Athapascan Indians of the interior beyond the place he had reached before. There he saw a giant cannibal called Cannibal-man. Knowing that this cannibal was very smart he tried to get the better of him, so he won his confidence and learned that he was married to the black pine (łᴀł).[59] In the morning the cannibal bathed. After that the two became very good friends, and the cannibal said to Raven, “I am going hunting, and I am going to get four animals, two mountain goats and two ground hogs.” So the cannibal took a hide rope such as the interior Indians used to make and started. On the way Raven said to the cannibal, “Where is that man called Tsᴀˊmaya?” He was another very powerful man. And the cannibal showed him where Tsᴀˊmaya lived.

Then Raven stayed with Tsᴀˊmaya, and they became good friends also. The latter lived all by himself at that time, all of his friends having been killed by Wolverine-man (Nūsgᴀ-qāˊ). So he said to Raven, “I do not know what to do with him. I would like to kill him.” And Raven said to him, “Do you see this spear? Go and get a bear skin and put it around yourself. Put the spear in such a position as to make him believe he has killed a bear.” Tsᴀˊmaya did so, and by and by Wolverine-man came along. He was very glad when he saw the bear and said, “I have another.” Then he picked the bear up, took out the spear and carried it home. After that he went to gather wood. While he was gone Raven made himself appear like a common blackbird and in that form said to Tsᴀˊmaya, “Wolverine-man’s heart is in his foot.” Then he took the little spear he had concealed in his long hair and gave it to Tsᴀˊmaya, who speared Wolverine-man in the foot as soon as he came in. He was hurt badly but ran away from them. When they caught up with him and told him they were going to kill him, he said, “All right.” But every time they killed him he came to life again until finally they burned him. Then, when they were about to pulverize his bones, the bones spoke up and said to them, “Pulverize my bones and blow them away. They will always be a bother to you and everybody else. I shall always remain in the world.” That is where the mosquitoes and gnats come from.[60]

Afterward Raven came to where a house was floating far out at sea, called Kǃuˊdatᴀn kahîˊtî. Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł had been keeping it there, and in it were all kinds of fishes, but Raven did not know how to get at them. At the same place he also met a monster, called Qǃāˊnᴀxg̣ādaỵiỵê (which seems to mean “a thing that is in the way”), who had spear like the arm of a devilfish called, “devilfish-arm spear.” Raven wanted this, and obtained it by marrying the monster’s daughter. Then he got into a canoe, paddled out near the house, and speared it. Inside he heard all kinds of songs sung by different voices. These were the songs people were to sing in the fishing season. When Raven threw his spear, it became very long and wrapped itself around the house so firmly that he was enabled to take his canoe ashore. He had great difficulty, however, for as he did so he had to sing continually, “I think so, I think so,” a song known to all of the Raven people. Whenever he stopped singing, the house went back to the place where it had been at first. This happened three times and the fourth time he got it in.

After that the door of the house opened, and all kinds of fish came out of it. He sang, “Some go to Stikine river. Some go to Chilkat river,” which they immediately did. Then he sang again, “Some go to the small creeks to provide the poor people.” That is how fish came to be all over the world.[61]

* * * * *

Now Raven went farther and came to a woman and a little girl all alone. She was crying and Raven asked her, “What are you crying about?” “I have lost all of my friends. I am all alone here with my little girl. The people kept going off hunting or fishing and never come back. What has happened to them I do not know.” Then Raven said to the girl, “Do you know the thing with which they make fire?” She said “No,” for they had kept their fires all night since the other people were gone. Then Raven showed her how to make fire with the fire drill. He said, “Drill away until you get a lot of this fine stuff. Then take some and eat it.”

After the girl had done this she became pregnant and gave birth to a male child whom they called Fire-drill’s son (Tūˊłî-ỵᴀˊdî). Then Raven said to her, “There is a cold spring back here. Bathe your little one in it every day, and he will grow up very fast.” To this day they call that spring Water-that-makes-one-grow. The woman bathed him as directed and he soon grew up into a man very skilful at work of all kinds. Finally he asked his mother: “Mother, is this the way you have always been? Didn’t you have a father, mother, and friends?” But she said, “We have always been this way.” He was so bright that she would not tell him. Then the child went on asking, “Whose houses are those? I think that you had friends who have all died off, and you will not tell me.” So his grandmother finally told him what had happened.

This boy was a good shot with arrows, but he said, “What can I do? All the canoes lying here are old and broken.” In the night, however, his father, Fire-drill, appeared to him in a dream and said, “Take one of those old canoes up into the woods and cover it with brush. No matter how old it is. Do it.” The morning after he had done this, he went there and found a very pretty little canoe with all things in it that he needed. Then his father appeared to him again, pulled the root of a burned tree out of the ground and made it into a little dog for him. He called it G̣ᴀnt (Burnt), and it could scent things from a great distance. Although small it was as powerful as a bear. He also gave his son a bow, and arrows pointed with obsidian(?). Finally he gave him a very powerful club called Qōtᴀcāˊỵî-qǃus.

Now he thought of what his grandmother had told him, took his canoe down, and prepared to go away. He told his mother that he might be gone for two days and said, “Take care of this fire drill. Hang it in a safe place overhead, and, if I am killed, it will fall.” He went along on the water shooting at birds and suddenly saw a canoe coming toward him. “There is the thing that has killed all of my mother’s friends,” he thought. Then he began talking to his dog, his club, and his bow and arrows, all of which could understand him.

The man coming toward him had only one eye, placed in the middle of his face and from this fact was called ʟēcᴀwāˊg̣î (Man-with-one-eye). He was a very big man whose home was in a cliff. Then he said to the boy, “Is this you, my nephew?” He answered, “It is I.” “Where did you come from?” “From my uncle’s village.” “Yes, I know you.” The one-eyed man could read the boy’s thoughts and said to him, “It was not I who killed your uncles and your mother’s friends. It was the East wind and the North wind.” He mentioned all of the winds. But the boy knew that this big man was after him, and he knew what he meant by talking to him so kindly. Then the big man said, “Let us trade arrows.” “Oh! no, my arrows are better than yours. They cost a great deal.” One of the boy’s arrows was named Heart-stopper (Tēqǃ-g̣ōts), because a person’s heart stopped beating the instant it touched his body. Another was pointed with porcupine quills, and a third with bark. The big man made the boy believe that his arrow points were sea-urchin spines, but in reality they were only the seed vessels of fireweed. This man was a bad shaman. He held his arrow points up, and said, “Do you see these arrows?” He could see that the points were all moving. Then the boy said, “It is wonderful, but my arrows are not like that. They are only good for shooting birds.” Now the shaman’s object was to get Heart-stopper. Finally the boy said to the shaman, “Look here, you call yourself my uncle. That is how you did away with my uncles and my mother’s friends, is it? You will never make away with me so.” That angered the big man, and before they knew it both had their arrows in hand, but the boy was the quicker and killed his antagonist; the dog helped him. Then the boy took the big man’s tongue out and burned his body. All this time his mother was worrying about him.

Then he paddled along by the shore and heard some one calling to him. He thought, “There is another bad man.” So he went to the place and discovered on a very steep cliff falling sheer into the water an aperture with red paint around it and devil clubs tied into a ring hanging close by. Some one inside of this invited him in, and, as he was very brave and cared for nothing, he went up to the entrance. The person who lived there was the wife of the man he had killed. She had seen his canoe passing and thought, “He must have killed my husband.” So she said, “Your aunt’s husband went across that way.” And the boy said, “I have seen your husband.” This woman’s name was Knife-hand (Djîwᴀn-yīsǃ), because she had a knife on each hand. She said to the boy, “You better come in here and let me give you food before you go on.” “All right,” he said. So he entered and found her cooking the parts of a human being. She called the ends of its fingers, “crab apples,” its eyes, “berries,” etc. When he told her that he did not eat that sort of food, she at once said, “Well! let us have a fight then. We will kill each other.” He agreed and she went to a large rock where he could hear her drawing both hands back and forth to sharpen them. As soon as she had finished, she threw her hand at him, but he jumped aside so quickly that it stuck in the spot where he had been sitting, and, when she drew her hand away, the knife remained there. Then the boy jumped forward, seized it, and threw it back with such good aim that it killed her. He also cut her tongue out. He had no more than finished with her, however, than he noticed that the entrance hole was growing smaller and smaller. So he made himself small also, crept into one of the ermine skins he had tied in his hair, and ran out. When he came home again with his canoe loaded down with seal and deer, his mother and grandmother were very glad to see him, for they had been weeping for him and worrying about him ever since he left. Now he told them not to worry any longer because he had killed the bad people who destroyed their friends.

Next he said to his mother, “Mother, do not be afraid to tell me. What was it that killed my uncles when they went back here hunting?” By and by he went back into the woods to hunt and saw smoke rising a long distance off. He came to a house and entered. There he saw a very old woman called Old-mole-woman (Kǃᴀgᴀˊkqōcāˊ-nᴀkᵘ). As soon as she saw the boy this woman said, “My grandson what is it that you are after?” The boy felt that she was an honest old woman and said, “I am looking for the person that killed my uncles and all of my mother’s friends.” Then she told him to come in and eat. She picked a small piece of salmon out from between her teeth which at once turned into a whole salmon. That was the way she got anything she wanted, and it was the only way she got her food. Then she said to the boy, “Grandson, it is pretty hard to get at the beings that murdered your uncles. They are the hawks (kîdjūˊk). You must find their nests, which are very high up, and watch until the old birds go away, leaving their two young ones.” When he came to the nest, however, he saw that the old birds were away, so he went up to the young ones and said to them, “What do you live on?” The birds showed him numbers of human skulls and other human bones lying about the base of the tree and said, “That is what we live on.” They also said, “Our father and our mother always come just at daybreak. You can not see them because they come in clouds. Our mother comes over the mountain in a yellow cloud and our father comes in a black cloud.” Then he said to the birds, “Do not tell about me or I will kill you,” and they believed he would do it.

Suddenly the boy saw the yellow cloud coming. He distinguished the mother bird bringing a human body for her children to eat. Then he killed her and threw her down to the foot of the tree along with the body she was carrying. After that he saw the black cloud coming and presently distinguished the father bird. The father bird said to the young ones, “Where is your mother?” and they answered, “Our mother dropped the dead body she was bringing and went down after it.” As he was sitting there talking the boy killed him also and threw his body down. Then he said to the little birds, “You must never kill people any more or live on human flesh. I will go and get something for you to eat until you are strong enough.” So he went out hunting and brought them a lot of ground hogs, saying to them, “This is what you are to live upon.” So these birds now live only on ground-hog meat. They do not live on human flesh any more. They kill their victims with rocks, and a person who is about to become rich will see them throw one of these. Then he picks it up and it brings him good luck.

After that he went back to the old woman and told her what he had done, and she was very happy to learn that these dangerous birds were killed. He said to her, “I am going back to my mother and grandmother. I and my dog have obtained a great deal of food for them.” He also gave a quantity of food to the old woman who had helped him. His mother and grandmother were very glad when they saw him come back with the skins of those birds and a quantity of provisions.

Now Fire-drill’s son collected enough food and grease in boxes to last his mother and grandmother all their lives and said, “Mother, I am going to leave you forever. I was not put here to be with you always. I have done what I wanted to do. If what you have hanging overhead falls, you may know that you will never see me again. But do not worry, for it is my duty to leave you.” Then he went away.

As he was traveling along from that place, Fire-drill’s son saw some one ahead of him called Dry-cloud (Gusǃ-x̣ūk). He was able to travel very fast, and he chased it. As he was running along he came to the mink people. He ran along again and came to the marten people. Both kept saying to him, “We want you to be our friend,” but he paid no attention to them and kept on pursuing Dry-cloud. Then he came to the wolf people and stayed there.

One of the wolf chiefs thought a great deal of Fire-drill’s son. One time the wolves began talking about all those things that can run very fast, and finally they spoke about the mountain goats, how they can travel about easily among the cliffs, and said that they were going out to hunt them. When they set out, all ran hard to see who could kill the first one, but Fire-drill’s son’s dog killed a great number before anyone could get near them, so many, in fact, that Fire-drill’s son took only the leaf lard home to show how many he had gotten. Then the wolves all went up and brought down the dead goats, and they felt very much ashamed that they, who were noted runners and hunters, had gotten nothing. They wondered what they could do to get even with Fire-drill’s son. Then they took a quantity of long stringy vines called mountain-eel (cayałīˊtǃî), made them into rings and began playing with them. They would let these roll down the sides of the mountains and jump through them when they were at full speed. Anyone who got caught in one of these would be cut in two.

Fire-drill’s son’s wolf friend said to him, however, “My friend, don’t go near those people that are playing. You do not know anything about the things they are using. They will kill you.” He answered, “No, I will not play with them, but let us watch them.” So they went out and watched them. Then Fire-drill’s son said to his dog, “Now, you play there and throw it as high as you can.” So the dog played with it and threw it as high as he could. It was a fine moonlight night, and the ring rolled right up to the moon, where it became the ring you see there whenever there is going to be a change in weather.[62] After that his friend, the wolf chief, said to the rest of the wolves, “You know that this son of Fire-drill is a wonderful fellow. He can do anything. Do not try to injure him in any way, but treat him as a friend.”[63]

After that Fire-drill’s son and his wolf friend went off together, and the wolf said, “Some strange being walks around here. Don’t run after him or he will take your life.” It was Dry-cloud that he meant. “Don’t mind me,” said Fire-drill’s son, “I know what he is. I only play with him. I know that this fellow can’t be killed, and I know that he can not kill anybody else, but I have to follow him. That was my father’s advice to me.” So they kept on after Dry-cloud and the wolf had to run with all his might, but it did not seem to Fire-drill’s son that he was going rapidly at all. Whenever the wolf got his tail wet in crossing a stream he was too much tired out to shake it, so he simply yelped and Fire-drill’s son shook it for him. By and by they saw smoke far ahead of them and presently came to where an old woman lived alone by herself. They stayed with her for some time, and could see Dry-cloud as long as they were there, for he lived in the neighborhood of her house. Then they helped the old woman and collected a quantity of wood for her. After that she said to the boy, “Grandson, there is a big fish over yonder. It killed all of my friends in this town. That is why I am all alone here.” He went to the place where she said the monster lived and found a red cod. He said to her, “Grandmother, that is not a monster fish. It is good to eat.” So he took his bow and arrows and told his friend to watch him. Then he went to the red cod and killed it, and, seeing that there were numbers of sharp spines upon it, he took off its skin and dried it. He said to the wolf: “My friend, do you know this woman? She is really Daughter-of-the-calm (Kayeˊʟǃî-sī). She is a very nice, pretty girl.” Afterward Fire-drill’s son married Daughter-of-the-calm and had a child by her named Łᴀkîtcîneˊ. He gave this boy his dog and put the red-cod skin upon him as a shirt. Then he said to his wife: “This is going to be a very bad boy.”[64]

* * * * *

Łᴀkîtcîneˊ lived at Sitka.[65] He had a wife from among human beings, and every day, while he went out halibut fishing, she dug clams. The dog, G̣ᴀnt, that his father had given him he renamed Cᴀqǃ. Łᴀkîtcîneˊ had several children, but he killed all of them. He would take a child up, pet it, and sing cradle songs to it, and at the same time make his red-cod spines stick into it so that it died. He also used the “Blarney stone”[66] as a grindstone, and killed some of his children by rubbing their faces upon it.

His wife mourned very much for her children, and finally thought of a way of being revenged upon him. She had a litter of puppies by the dog. There were originally twelve, but seven died, leaving four male puppies and one female. These puppies grew up very fast. While the man and his wife were away fishing and digging clams the puppies played about the house, and the noise they made sounded just like that of children. But the female always watched at the door, and when their mother ran up to stop them all would be lying about on the floor asleep. They kept getting noisier and noisier, and sounded more and more like human beings. Finally Łᴀkîtcîneˊ heard it and said to his wife: “Who are these making so much noise here?” “It is those dogs.” Then she thought very seriously what she should do with the puppies. The next time Łᴀkîtcîneˊ was out he heard them still more plainly, and now he thought that he heard human voices. He came ashore in great anger and said to his wife: “It is not those dogs that I hear talking.” He was so dangerous a man that his wife was very much frightened.

After that she formed a plan. So, when her husband went out halibut fishing the next time, she stuck her digging stick into the ground, put her blanket around it, and her hat upon the end. Then she ran up through the woods and hid herself, while the little dog was watching Łᴀkîtcîneˊ. After that she crept back to the house, which was made of brush, and in which they were again making a great deal of noise. Looking inside, she found that the boys were all playing about in human forms, their dog skins lying a short distance away from them. Then she quickly ran in upon them, exclaiming, “You must like to be dogs since you wear dog skins,” grabbed the skins and threw them into the fire. The little dog that sat outside was the only one that remained in its original form.

Now, when Łᴀkîtcîneˊ came ashore, and saw the children, he was angry and felt very much ashamed at having been outwitted. He did not know how to kill them, for he thought they had more power than he. One, named Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ, was a shaman. He had his grandfather and the one-eyed man and his wife that his grandfather had killed as his spirits. Łᴀkîtcîneˊ thought that he would first quarrel with his wife, and, when he came into the house, he began to throw and kick things about. But, when he began to beat his wife, the children jumped upon him and fought with him. They also asked the dog to help them. Together they killed him.

After these boys were grown up, their mother told them many times of a certain monster at a place called Kᴀg̣ēˊtǃ, that had been killing many people. Finally they set out to see it, anchored off the mouth of the bay, and killed it with spears and arrows. They took the skin from its head. Then they went throughout Alaska, killing off the monsters of the sea and land that had troubled people and making others less harmful. The natives say, if it had not been for those boys, they would be there yet. They made some of these monsters promise that they would not kill people. The wolves, which were very destructive in those days, became less harmful through them. Although people in Alaska are afraid of wolves, you have not heard of anyone being killed by them.

There was one person called Tcākǃîˊsǃ resembling an eagle, who flew around and was very powerful. He would say to the bears and other game animals, “You are going to be killed.” Because he kept warning the animals, human beings were starving, so the brothers came to him and made him promise not to injure people or forewarn the other animals.

Afterward the brothers left their mother at that place and went up to Łāxaỵîˊk, where they had heard of a bad person called One-legged-man (ʟē-łaqǃocîˊ). His proper name, however, is Man-that-dries-fish-for-the-eagle (Tcākǃ-qǃēˊdî-ᴀt-qǃᴀn-qā), and he is very fond of spearing salmon. First the boys came to the prints of his one foot going up beside the river, and after a while they saw him coming down toward them spearing salmon. His shirt was the skin of a brown bear and had strength as well as he.

Afterward Łqǃayāˊkǃ caught a salmon, took all of the meat out, and got into its skin. Next day, at the time when they knew One-legged-man was about to come up, Łqǃayāˊkǃ put it on again and laid himself in a salmon hole in the creek. The big man, who was just coming along, saw a fine salmon go into the hole and said, “What a fine-looking salmon.” He thought that he could not get it, but, after he had stood watching it for a while, it swam up toward him, and he speared it. Just as he was dragging it ashore, however, Łqǃayāˊkǃ cut the cord to his spear point with a knife he had taken along and swam back into the water hole. Then the big man looked at his spear and said to himself, “My fine spear is gone;” but after he had observed closer he said, “This is not broken. It is cut. I suppose it is Łqǃayāˊkǃ’s doing.” After that he went on up the stream while the brothers cooked salmon for their meal.

By a by they saw One-legged-man coming down again carrying a feather tied on the end of a long stick. He would point this feather at different trees and then smell of it. Finally he pointed it at the tree in which Łqǃayāˊkǃ and his brothers were then sitting and said, “Łqǃayāˊkǃ is in that tree.” Then he spoke out saying, “Give me my spear.” Łqǃayāˊkǃ kept saying to his brothers, “Shall I go out and fight him?” But they answered, “No, no, don’t go yet.” He was so determined, however, that he finally went out and was killed. Then the other brothers and the dog fell upon this man. After they had set their dog on him, they killed him. They took his bear-skin shirt off and burned his body. Łqǃayāˊkǃ had been torn all to pieces, but Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ put the pieces together, acted around him like a shaman, and brought him back to life.