20. The Unsuccessful Hunters

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20. THE UNSUCCESSFUL HUNTERS

Two persons very fond of hunting were in the habit of washing in urine, as was usual in old times when one wanted something very much. Then they went to a sea-lion rock, and one of them threw his spear at a sea lion but the point broke off the handle. The animal was the sea-lion-chief's son. Afterwards the man who had done it was drowned, but his companion reached the sea-lion rock in safety. He looked about for his friend, but could not see him, so he went up on top of the rock, lay down, and, pulling the grass over himself, fell asleep. While he was asleep and dreaming, some one came to him and said, "I come to help you." He awoke, but there was nothing visible except nesting birds flying about the island. Then he again fell asleep, and again he heard some one come to him and say, "I come to help you. The place you have drifted upon is a house. When you hear the noise of a shaman's beating sticks, go straight to the door of the place from which it comes."

Soon he heard the noise of the sticks, as the man had forewarned him, just a little below the place where he was lying. He stepped forward quietly, and lo! he came to the door of a fine, large house. Inside of this he saw those who were beating the sticks and a man lying sick "with pneumonia," out of whom the string of the spear hung. Then he crept in quietly, hiding behind the people, and said within himself, "If it were I, I would push that spear in a little farther, twist it to one side and pull it out." Upon this everybody said, "Make way for him. This shaman says he can take the spear out by twisting it and then pulling out." He said to himself, "I guess I can do it," so he let them have their way. Then he came out in the middle of the house, pulled his blanket about himself, used his hand like a rattle and ran around the fire just like a shaman. When he went to the spear and moved it a little, the sick man cried out. After that he let it alone for a while. He wished very much that they would give him in payment a large animal stomach which was hanging on a post. So the man's father said, "Pay it to him."

Now he tied his blanket tightly about himself and said, "Bring in some water." Then he ran around the sick man again, and, when he came to where the spear was, he summoned all his strength, pushed it in a little, turned it round slightly and pulled it out. At once he pushed it into the water in the customary manner and blew eagle down upon it, when all of the white matter came out of the wound and the sick man got his breath. After that he hid the spear quickly from the eyes of the people.

When he went out, the man who had first come to his assistance came again. This was the puffin (xîk). It said, "Take that big stomach, get inside, and go home in it. After you get inside do not think of this place again." He did as the puffin had directed, but, when

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he was within a short distance of the shore, he thought of the place where he had been and immediately floated back to the island. The second time the skin carried him right ashore. Then he got out, went home to his friends and reported everything that had happened.

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Another canoe also set out to hunt in much the same way. After the people had gone on for a very long time unsuccessfully, they came upon a great seal standing out of the water, and one of the hunters speared it. It was nothing but an old log drifting about which had appeared to him like a seal. That night they anchored their canoe in front of a steep cliff not far from this place and prepared to spend the night there. By and by they heard a skate flopping along on the water near by, whereupon the steersman took his spear and struck it on one side of the belly. Then the skate swam right down into the ocean.

This skate was a slave of the GonaqAdê't who lived under that same cliff, and when the GonaqAdê't heard him groaning under the house,steps where he always stayed, he said to one of his other slaves, "Get up and find what he is groaning about." Then the skate said, "There is a canoe outside here. The people in that canoe have done something to me."

Then the GonaqAdê't awoke all his slaves' nephews and said, "Bring that canoe in here."

Presently the man in the bow of the canoe awoke and looked about. Their canoe was on top of the inside partitions of a house. He took something and poked his steersman quietly to awaken him, for he saw that something was wrong.

Early in the morning the GonaqAdê't awoke and said to his nephews, "Make a big fire." Then he exclaimed angrily, "It is of no use to bother poor slaves. Why did they want to kill that slave?"

Meanwhile the friends of these people were searching for them everywhere.

Then the chief told them to come forward, saying to them, "You will now be judged." One could not see the part of the house near the door, it was so crowded with the nephews and friends of the GonaqAdê't (i. e., all kinds of fishes and marine animals) dressed in every style. They said to them, "To what tribe do you belong?" and the bowman replied, "We are of the KAtagwA'dî family." Then the chief said, "If one is going to visit a person, he should enter his house in a polite manner and not destroy anybody. Let them wash their hands. Give them food and dress them up well. I am a KAtagwA'dî myself, so you are my friends." Then they fixed them up well, dressing them and combing their hair. But at home the people were beating drums, because they thought these men were dead.

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Then the chief said to them, "When you build a house, name it Rock House (TA hît). It is a good thing that we use each other's emblems." Afterward the GonaqAdê't people loaded their canoe, combed their hair with cottonwood boughs so that it smelt good, and let them go home.

And when they first reached home they were dressed so finely that the people did not know them. The chief said to his friends, "A great living thing saved us. He gave us a thing to go by which shall be our emblem, namely, that whenever we build a house we shall call it Rock House."