28. The Descendants of Surpassing.

Tradition of the Gwa?sî'la.

(Recorded by George Hunt.)

Now I will tell another story about those who followed next to Surpassing, about his children,--Shelter, and his younger brother Great-Body,--the ancestors of the North people. They were their first ancestors. I do not know why they lived on the island in the mouth of the bay. There were two of them,--Shelter, and his younger brother Great-Body. They had been staying there a long time when they saw many gulls that had laid eggs. Then Shelter requested Great-Body to go and gather the eggs. Great-Body went at once and gathered many eggs. Then he saw many kinds of shells; and he picked them up, and he carried them on his back to their house. As soon as Shelter saw the many eggs and the many kinds of shells, he spoke to his younger brother, and said, "O brother! let us alone have enough of this on this island. Now I will work so that they shall be our tribe." Thus he said, while he transformed the many eggs into men, and he transformed the many kinds of shells into women. Now they were the numerous tribe of the brothers. Then Shelter again sent his younger brother to go and search for bull-heads on the beach. In vain he searched for bull-heads. Then he saw something like quartz, and he

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went back and looked at it; but the quartz that had been seen just disappeared. It was just like the shadow of a man, what was seen by him. Now he saw really clearly that it turned into a man. Then the man, who was standing on the beach, spoke, and said, "Oh, my dear! what are you trying to get on the beach Great-Body? I am the Tide-Maker, the chief of the tides of the sea that are running to and fro." Then Great-Body became afraid. Therefore he jumped on a drift-log lying on the beach.

Then he saw something like a woman standing on the water at the edge of the sea. He tried to see her clearly. Then the woman spoke, and said, "I am the one who is named Swell-Woman. (I am) the woman (who controls) the swell." Then the woman said, "Come and take this for your supernatural power." Thus she said. Immediately Great-Body went to the woman. Then the woman gave him a large crab. Then the woman said, "Oh, my dear! your dance will be the war dance, and you will have for your supernatural treasure this large crab," thus she said; "and you will have this Tide-Maker for your dance in the winter dance." Thus she said. Then Swell-Woman disappeared, and Great-Body went home to his house.

Immediately he reported about the two things that he had met,--the Tide-Maker and Swell-Woman. Then he gave the large crab to Shelter. Then he told about what Swell-Woman had said when she gave him the large crab. It is said that the crab was alive . It was the crab of the door of the house of Wealthy. Then Shelter felt glad on account of the report of his younger brother, and Shelter said that he would give a winter dance when the winter should come; for then was the time when the

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salmon-berry bushes were Just sprouting: therefore the ancestors of the North people had no winter dance at that time.

Shelter just kept it secret. Shelter and his tribe were all sitting in their summer seats. They had not been long in their summer seats when many young sawbill ducks were seen swimming along. Then Shelter requested his tribe to launch their canoes and to paddle after the young sawbill ducks. Shelter knew that the sawbill ducks lay their eggs in the rivers; and therefore they paddled after the young sawbill ducks, because they knew that they would go back to the place where they had come from. Now all the canoes of the North people were on the water. Then the young sawbill ducks turned towards the lake, As soon as they arrived at the lake, the ancestors of the North tribe steered again for the river whose name is Narrow-Channel; and as soon as they approached it, Shelter saw smoke. Then they left the young sawbill ducks and steered for the smoke that was seen. As soon as they got near it, they saw a man sitting on the bank of a river. Immediately they spoke to him, and questioned him (as to) why the man was sitting on the bank of the river. The man replied to them at once, and a silver salmon stood alongside the fire roasting, and that is what the man had in mind. The man said, "Oh, my dear! how do you roast salmon, and what goes up this river'" Shelter replied at once, and said, "Oh, my dear! this way you roast salmon is not the way I roast salmon, for we put the salmon across the roasting-tongs."

Then Shelter guessed that the silver salmon was going up the river, and he said, "Oh, my dear! silver salmon go up my river." Thus he said to him. Then he asked

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for the name of the man who was sitting on the bank of the river, and where he came from. Then the one who was sitting by the fire replied to Shelter, and said, "I am Worker (Sô'sEgulä  ¹), and I live in my house on the bank of my river here, and I come from Cherry, and I am Nâ'k!wax*da?x^u." Thus he said to him. Then Shelter questioned him, and said, "But where is your house?" Thus he said to him. Then Worker was just impressed on account of this. Shelter went ashore from the river and speared some salmon; and as soon as he had four salmon, Shelter at once requested his young men to cut them. Then one of the young men took along roasting-tongs and put the four salmon across the one roasting-tong, and placed it by the side of the fire; and as soon as he had finished the work of roasting, Shelter spoke to Worker, and said, "Oh, my dear! now look at this. That is the way [how] we North people roast this." Then Worker spoke to Shelter. "That is the way of our roasting salmon at Cherry." Thus he said to him. Then one of the attendants of Shelter hurriedly battered a stone, and thus he had a pile-driver for his salmon-weir for (catching) silver salmon. Then they made a salmon-weir,--many salmon-weirs for salmon. That was the first stone pile-driver. Then the ancestors of the North people moved to T!ô'xsê. Therefore the Nâ'k!wax*da?x^u and the ancestors of the North tribe always fight about T!ô'xsê; but the North tribe say that they obtained it, and Shelter also obtained the war dance and the crab, and also Tide-Maker and the stone pile-driver. That is the end.

Footnotes

381:1 When the first French missionaries taught the Indians the name of Jesus Christ, the Indians pronounced it as Sô'sEgulä.