23. How the Frogs Honored the Dead

23. HOW THE FROGS HONORED THE DEAD

One time, when they were afraid of being attacked, all of the KîksA'dî and Kâ'gwAntân encamped on KAnAsq!ê' (St. Lazaria island). There are two parts to this island separated at high tide, and the KîksA'dî encamped upon one, while the Kâ'gwAntân lived upon the other. On the same island there is also a small salt water pond at the bottom of which was a creature called L!în, and, being pressed for food on account of their fear of the enemy, the allies often tried to bail out this pond when the tide left it, to get at the sea animal.

While the people were there, a chief of the Kâ'gwAntân died, and, after he had been in the house among his friends for eight days, one of his friends said to the KîksA'dî, "Take care of his dead body." All the

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Kâ'gwAntân chiefs marry Kîkca' (KîksA'dî women). But the real frog tribe thought they were the ones who were summoned, because they are also Kîkca'.

Then all the KîksA'dî made ready to go ashore to burn his dead body. They chopped much wood and made a fire, while all of the KîksA'dî and Kâ'gwAntân stood around it, and everyone felt badly. All at once a big frog, as long as the hand and wrist, jumped out from the place where the fire was and began making a noise. All looked at it. It had come out because the frogs were the ones to whom the Kâ'gwAntân had spoken. After that it jumped into the fire and burned up.

Then all the people tied themselves up (gA'xAnî) (i. e., tied their blankets around their waists, as they did when they were engaged in lifting the sun ^a) out of respect to the chief. All felt very badly about the dead man, and one person said, "It will not be like draining out the L!în lake (L!în â'ya). Let us go to war." So they captured slaves and killed them for the dead man, and, when they put food into the fire for him, they also named the frog that it might receive some as well.

Footnotes

55:a See Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 430.