The GiLâ'unaLX

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The grandmother of a GiLâ'unaLX boy was deserted at Tongue point. After six days the boy was told: "Walk [to Tongue point

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and I look after your grandmother." He walked downstream and saw two fish ducks. He took his arrows but thought: "I will not shoot them, else they will carry my arrows away from the land." He took a stone. When the ducks dived he ran to the water and when they emerged he threw his stone. He hit the head of one. Then he took off his blanket [and went into the water]. He reached them. The water reached to his armpits; then the ducks fluttered and flew away. He went ashore. Then they drifted again, the belly upward. Again he went into the water and swam. When he nearly reached them they fluttered again. He went ashore. Five times he swam to get them. Then he reached them. He turned round and fainted. Now he saw a supernatural being; he saw Iqamiâ'itx [the helper of the fishermen]. When he awoke he was on the shore and held the ducks in his hands. He left them and went on. Now he reached Tongue point. When he came near his grandmother he saw smoke rising where she was deserted. He reached her and said: "Behold! you are alive!" She said to him: "I am alive." She was going to give him food, but he said: "I am not hungry." He slept there. On the next day he gathered fuel for his grandmother. He gathered many sticks and went home. He left his grandmother. In the evening he came home. Then the people said to him: "Are you hungry?" He replied: "No, I am tired." He lay down. Early the next morning he arose and went a long distance. He went to play. In the evening he came home. After he had been there a short while he lay down. For three nights and three days he did not eat. Then on the fourth day he ate. He grew up.

Now he had a friend, a youth. They grew up. One day they went out in a canoe. When they were in the middle of the river he said to his friend: "Who is your guardian spirit?" He replied: "Iqamiâ'itx is my guardian spirit, and who is yours?" The other one said: "My guardian spirit is also Iqamiâ'itx." The one said: "What are you going to do when our relatives shall be hungry" "The other replied: "I shall let smelts come;" and he asked his friend: "And what are you going to do?" He said: "I shall let salmon come when our relatives get hungry. Put your arm under water; I shall put mine also under water." They put their arms under water. The one who had the guardian spirit helping him to obtain smelts lifted his hand first. Now a smelt hung at his hand. After some time the other one lifted his hand. A small salmon hung at it. Then he said to his friend: "Indeed! Iqamiâ'itx is your guardian spirit."

The youths went home. The one who had a guardian spirit helping him to obtain smelts married first. Now the GiLâ'unaLX were starving. They had only skunk-cabbage to eat. Then the young man whose guardian spirit helped him to obtain smelts became rich.

One day his wife went to gather skunk-cabbage. In the evening when she came home she heated stones and warmed herself. The winter was cold. When she was warm she dozed away and fell down at the

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fire. She fell asleep sitting there and burned her arms. Then all the GiLâ'unaLX said: "Our chief's wife is starving. Your relative's wife will die, she fell asleep sitting. She is starving." Thus spoke the people. The woman said: "I fell asleep, and my husband says he has Iqamiâ'itx [for his guardian spirit]." Now her husband was ashamed because both her arms were burned. He did not sleep, while all the other people slept. He said to his younger brother: "Rise!" His younger brother arose. [He continued:] "Take this basket." Now he took his dipnet and they went to the water. It was winter. They came to a willow and he took its leaves. When the basket was full they went to the water. He stood in the water up to his waist. He said to his younger brother: "It is ebb tide. Pour these leaves into the river above me. Then take this dipnet and say: 'Êhê', I broke my dipnet.' Lift it and pour it out again above me. Then say once more: 'Êhê', I broke my dipnet.'" Three times he poured it out and said: "I broke my dipnet." He lifted the dipnet. Then the elder brother said to the younger one: "Now look at them." The youth looked at them, now they were leaves at the tails and smelts at the heads. He poured them out the fifth time. They jumped into the water. He dipped them up the sixth time and poured them out again. Now smelts swam on the surface of the water. He said to his younger brother: "Let us launch our fishing canoe." They launched it and took a rake. Now they fished with the rake and the canoe was half full. He said: "It is enough." Then they went ashore. "Bring five large mats." The youth brought them. The people were asleep. They carried the smelts ashore and carried them all up to the house. He said to his younger brother: "Rise early, make a fire and go to bathe. Open the smoke hole of our house. Stand up there and shout. Say: 'Ah, GiLâ'unaLX! are you dead'? News has come.' Thus speak twice." The younger brother did so. He arose early, made a tire and went to bathe. He went up, opened the smoke-hole of their house and shouted: "Ah, GiLâ'unaLX, are you dead? News has come." He shouted twice. Now the people arose. They took their arrows, their bone clubs, and their lances. Now they went to the house of their chief. The people said: "What is it? Where did news come from?" The youth said: "There, in these five baskets is the news." Now the smelts stood there. One of the men wore all elkskin armor; he carried some away in a fold of the skin. Another wore a ground-hog blanket; he wrapped them up in his blanket. Still another wore a raccoon blanket, he wanted to wrap them up in it, but they fell through it. All the people did thus. Now they ate. Now one young spruce tree was placed downstream and one upstream. Only the GiLâ'unaLX caught smelts. Their houses became full and they dried them. All the people caught them.

Another year the GiLâ'unaLX were again starving. They had only skunk-cabbage and rush roots to eat. Their chief heard that the houses of the people at Rainier were full. They caught smelts. Then he carved

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ten pieces of cedar. He made five fish-ducks and five shags. He said to his relatives: "Make yourselves ready. We will go upstream to get food." They went in a large canoe. They went up until they arrived at Tongue point. He sang his conjurer's song while they went. He said to his companions: "If they should give us food, do not eat!" They arrived at Liâ'êcaLxê. They landed at the town and went up to the houses. He said: "Where are those smelts caught?" "Ah, they are caught below Rainier." They were going to roast the smelts and when they were nearly done he said to his companions: "Let us go up the river." The people said to them: "These smelts are nearly done." But he said: "We will go at once. To-morrow we shall stay for a while." They went upstream. Now they came to the people who caught smelts. They were near them. One person said: "My dipnet is full. It will soon burst. Ha! The GiLâ'unaLX are starving." The one whose guardian spirit was Iqamiâ'itx said to his companions: "Paddle slowly." When they had passed all the canoes he said to them: "Paddle toward the middle of the river." They paddled from the land. He put five of those birds into the water on each side of the canoe. Each five were tied to a long rope. Then he said to his relatives: "Paddle." Now his companions paddled. These wooden birds swam just like birds. When it was nearly day they came home. Gulls were seaward from them. When it grew dark he said: "Go to the water. See if I did not bring the smelts." The people went to the, water and launched their canoes. After a short time they were full. The GiLâ'unaLX dried the smelts and their houses were full. The people upstream searched as far as Cowlitz, but the smelts had disappeared; there were none. The people heard: "Ah, the houses of the GiLâ'unaLX are full. That one whose guardian spirit is Iqamiâ'itx carried the smelts away." Now they scolded that person: "Ha! this person said: 'Ah, the GiLâ'unaLX are starving, although one of them says that he has Iqamiâ'itx for his guardian spirit.'" Now the people upstream were starving. The smelt had disappeared. Only the GiLâ'unaLX caught smelt.

Now the other man who had Iqamiâ'itx for his guardian spirit married. In spring the GiLâ'unaLX were again starving. They tried to catch salmon in the dipnet, but they did not kill anything. They carried fern (Pteris) roots and rush roots to Clatsop and exchanged them. Then they received a little dry salmon and salmon skins. They went often to exchange it. Then a person said: "When the GiLâ'unaLX come again to exchange we will cohabit with [their women]." Thus said a Clatsop man. Now the GiLâ'unaLX went again to exchange [roots for salmon]. They received dry salmon and salmon skins. They went to the water and went home. That person said again: "Quick, let us follow them. We will follow them and cohabit with the women." The GiLâ'unaLX women heard it. The wife of the man who had Iqamiâ'itx for his guardian spirit was with them. They came home and

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declared: "We were insulted; they told us they would cohabit with us." Then the one whose guardian spirit helped him to obtain salmon lay down. He was ashamed. For five days he remained in bed, and did not eat. Then his younger brother killed a salmon. He said: "Heat stones." Then his wife heated stones. They called the old people and they came. They thought: "We shall eat that salmon." When the stones were hot that GiLâ'unaLX sang his conjurer's song. They took a kettle and placed it in the middle of the house. When the stones were hot they put them into that kettle. Then they put the salmon into the kettle whole; they did not cut it. Two old men were standing close together. The one nudged the other and said: "Why do they treat the salmon in that way?" The other said: "Be quiet, do not disturb our young men. You will learn in due time what they are going to do with this salmon." Now the salmon had been covered a long time. Then the mat was taken off, and he said to the people: "We shall not eat this salmon. It will be taken out into the water." Then the one old man who was standing close to the other one said: "Now you hear it. You said before, why do they treat the salmon in this manner." Two youths took the kettle and carried it to the water. A fishing canoe was launched and the kettle was placed in it. Five men were in the canoe--four youths and the one whose guardian spirit helped him to obtain salmon. Now they went seaward, and he sang his conjurer's song as they went. They arrived in the middle of the water. Then they took the kettle and poured the salmon and the stones into the water. They went ashore. He said to the youths: "Take young spruce trees." They took them and peeled off the bark. Then that GiLâ'unaLX said: "Place one above and one below this place." The youths did so. When it grew dark the GiLâ'unaLX set their dipnets. When it grew day their canoes were full of salmon and the fish swam toward the shore. They filled their canoes quickly. Then he said to the youths: "Let us go to Clatsop!" They arrived at Nayâ'qctaowê. He rubbed some green paint in his hands and mixed it with water. He said to his companions: "Let us paddle toward the middle of the water." They paddled away from the shore. Then he poured his green paint into the water. He said to his companions: "Let us go." They came home. The houses of the GiLâ'unaLX were full of dry salmon and of dry salmon skins. Thus the man who had Iqamiâ'itx for his guardian spirit obtained salmon.