RELATING TO DANCES AND FEASTS.

p. 202

The Young Man who Threw Himself with the Arrow. ¹

p. 205

At Kintcūwhwikût grew a Kīxûnai. By one side of him grew a son and by the other side grew an arrow. This arrow was to fly with. When he threw it he stuck to it. He delighted in throwing himself to the mountains standing there. The young man watched him and was surprised to see what he did. He picked the arrow up and saw that he too stuck to it. He thought, "I am going to do as he does." When the sun was down he thought, "I wish you would go to sleep quickly." Then the old man went to sleep. The young man picked up the arrow and did as the father had done the day before. He threw it and stuck to it. It came down with him on Tsetitmilakût. There it stood sticking up. Then he thought, "This must be the way he has been doing. "And again he threw it with himself. At Xōwûñkût it came down. Here where it came down was to be the place for the dance. Then he threw it with himself. It came down on the sweat-house door which was made of red obsidian.

Then the father told the son, "There across to the south is hanging a blanket made of rows of woodpecker heads. There is no way to get it for a crane watching near will give warning." "I wish I might go there. What if the crane sitting beside it does see me?" the boy thought. The next day the boy threw himself and came down on Tsetitmilakût. He threw himself again and came down on other mountains. From there he threw again and came down near the place where the blanket was hanging. He took it down. The crane did not see him. Still unseen by the crane he threw himself, carrying along the blanket. When he lit with the

p. 206

arrow on a certain mountain he heard the crane cry out. From there he threw himself to Tsetitmilakût. Then he threw himself and came down at Kintcūwhwikût.

When his father came out in the morning he saw the blanket hanging there. The one who used to live across the ocean to the south heard about it. "Hi," he thought, "that which he has done is good." And the Kīxûnai who used to live there said, "It will be my blanket. "No," he said, "I am the one who will own it," Here from the north across the ocean, Yīmantūwiñyai came and said, "It will be my blanket." "I am the one", he told him, "it will be my blanket." For several days Yīmantūwiñyai watched trying to get it, but in vain.

Footnotes

202:1 Told at Pupa, December 1901, by Senaxon, whose Hupa name is Takilkyū. He has for many years been the priest of the northern division of the Hupa. He has charge of the Spring Dance, the Jumping Dance, the Acorn Feast, and the Tcexōltcwe rocks on the river bank above TakimiLdiñ. He shares the control of the White Deer-skin Dance with the priest of the southern division. Since the death of his only son, in 1899, he has refused to assist in any of these ceremonials, which have been nearly discontinued in consequence.