John Reed Swanton

“ 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. ”

“ One time both of the boys made a great quantity of arrows to see which could have the more. Just back of their village was a hill on the top of which was a smooth grassy place claimed by the boys as their playground, and on a certain fine, moonlight night they started thither. As they were going along the lesser chief s son, who was ahead, said, "Look here, friend. Look at that moon. Don't you think that the shape of that moon is the same as that of my mother's labret and that the size is the same, too?" The other answered, "Don't. You must not talk that way of the moon." ”

“ THE POOR MAN WHO CAUGHT WONDERFUL THINGS
There was a long town from which all the people used to go out fishing for halibut and other large fish every day. In those times, before bone was used, they made hooks of two pieces of spruce from young trees, sharpened the point and hardened it in the fire. ”

“ Then others came to him and said, "You did not do the right thing. It is a very valuable thing you let go." He said, "Has it sunk?" So nowadays, when a person has lost a valuable thing, they say to him, "Is it an abalone that has sunk?" ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Then the moon started in pursuit. When the head chief's son discovered this, he threw behind them the devil's club he had received from the old woman, and a patch of devil's club arose which the moon had so much trouble in getting through that they gained rapidly on him. ”

“ I can hear him crying every day. He is in the moon's house."
Then the old woman began to give him food. She would put her hand up to her mouth, and a salmon or whatever she was going to give would make its appearance. After the salmon she gave him berries and then meat, for she knew that he was hungry from his long journey. After that she gave him a spruce cone, a rose bush, a piece of devil's club, and a small piece of whetstone to take along. ”

“ 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 smoothj 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. ”

“ Then he filled his canoe with these fishes, called the other canoes to him and filled them. After that he stood up in his canoe and said, "The abalone has not been drowned from me yet. I still have it." He distributed these fishes all over the town and began to get rich from the property he received. People gave him all kinds of skins—moose, caribou, fox, etc. He had great stores of riches from having caught the abalone and the nest of fishes. ”

“ 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 Kack!a′lk! put on the bearskin, 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. ”

“ When the boy at last brought in a piece of his brother's shirt his mother was convinced, and they sent word into all of the houses, first of all into that of the second boy's parents, but they kept both with them so that his parents could come there and rejoice over him. All of the other people in that village also came to see them. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Suppose we put boards on the canoes, spread the hair all over them, and take it out." They did this, and, when they got to the cliff where their daughter used to be, they saw her sitting on the edge with her hair hanging over. ”

“ 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.
↑ This story was told by Dekina k!". According to some, the story begins with the birth of five children from a dog lather. ”