28. The Youthful Warrior

28. THE YOUTHFUL WARRIOR

A man belonging to the Wolf clan went hunting with his brothers-in-law. He wore a black bear-skin coat. They went up a certain creek after grizzly bears, but one time at camp he climbed a tree with his bear skin on and was filled with arrows by his companions who mistook him for an animal. Then he said to them, "I will not say that you filled me with arrows. I will say that I fell from the tree." So, when they got him home, he said, "I fell from a tree." After he was dead, however, and his body burned, they found mussel-shell arrow points lying among his bones.

After this his friends told his sister's son to go up to the place where he had been killed. The name of this place is Creek-with-a-cliff-at-its-mouth (WAtlagê'L), and it is near Port Frederick. When the hunters came into camp with a bear the boy pretended to be asleep, but really he was looking through a hole in his blanket. While they were cooking the bear some of them suggested that they say to this boy, "The bear's soup is very sweet," but others did not wish to. They tried to get the boy to eat some of it, but he would not. Then they started home with him.

After he had reached home he said to his mother, "Let us go down to the beach. I want you to look over my hair for lice." But, when she got down therewith him, he said, "Mother, I want you to tell me truly what my fathers meant. They said, 'Wake this young fellow up and let him drink some of this bear's soup.'" Then his mother became frightened and said to him, "Your uncle went to that creek. They shot him full of arrows there." When he found that out he chased his mother away.

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When he was a few years older he began bathing for strength in winter-time. After people had whipped each other they would go to the shaman to see what he predicted. This had been going on for. some time when four persons went out of the town to carve things for the shaman. They were gone so long that late in the winter it was thought they had been lost, and the shaman was consulted. They laid him in the middle of the house and tested his spirits in every way to find out what the matter was. Finally, the shaman got his spirits to take a certain man up to the sky to see if he could discover the missing men. The man he chose knew that the young man was preparing to kill some one, so, when he awoke, he said to him, "Tell the shaman that they are there (i. e., in the heaven to which those go who are killed)." And the youth said to the people, "The persons who destroyed my uncle are the same who destroyed these. Let us go to war."

Then they made a war hat for the young man all covered with abalone shells, and he went out to fight. Every time he went out he conquered, because he was strong. The missing men, however, got home safely. After some time the youth came against a fort where lived an old sister of his father, and this woman shouted down to him during the fight, "I never thought that that boy would grow into such a powerful man. When I took away the moss ^a from his cradle he never felt how cold it was." So the young man, when he got into the fort, inquired, "Who said that to me?" "It was your father's sister who said it." So he pitied his father's sister, pulled off his war hat, and smashed it on the rocks in front of her, breaking the abalone shells all to pieces. He gave up fighting, and they made peace.

Some time after this, however, he killed one of his own friends belonging to another town, and they came over and killed two of his people in revenge. After that every time the young man ate, he would say, "I will leave this good part for my enemy," meaning that he would feed them on a good war. He always made fun of his enemies because he was brave. So the people at this place, when they had destroyed all of his companions, took him captive because he had talked so much. They would not let him touch the bodies of his friends, and he said to them at last, "Let me have my friends." "Will you do this any more?" they said. "No, I will not set out to war any more. Let me have my friends." Then they lowered a canoe into the water with himself and a few others who had been preserved, and they started home with the bodies. On the way one of his companions said to him, "I wish you would steer this canoe well." "It can not be steered well," he said, "because there are so few to paddle it." Some of the women belonging to his enemies were in the canoe along with them. When they burned their dead, they put these

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women into the fire along with the bodies. Then the man gave up all idea of fighting. He was the last one left in that clan.

After they had made peace on both sides, a man named Qoxtî'tc came there from Prince of Wales island on the way to Chilkat. He went to the man who used to fight so much and said, "How is Chilkat? Is it a town?" He answered, "It is a notable town. A man has to be careful what he does there or he will suffer a great shame." Then he started for Klukwan, which he wanted to see very much. He came in sight of the first village, Yêndê'staq!ê, with many people going around in it, and said to his wife, "Put on your earring [of abalone shell]." The earring was called Earring-that-can-be-seen-clear-across-the-Nass (Nâ'skAnAx-dutî'n). Then the, man also put on his leggings and dressed up finely, for if one were not dressed up just right he would suffer a great shame. Afterward he began dancing in his canoe. When he came away from Chilkat he left his dancing clothes with the people but brought back a great quantity of presents received for dancing.

A very rich man once started from Chilkat to KAq!Anuwû' on a visit with his wife and all of his property. ^a When they approached the town the people heard his wife singing. She had a very powerful voice. Then they were frightened and wondered what man was smart enough to reply to this wealthy visitor. There was a certain poor man who always sat with his head down, and they kept taunting him, saying, "Will you speak to that rich man?"

When the visitor came in front of the houses he did not speak to the men who lived in them but to the dead chiefs who had formerly owned them. No one replied, for they did not know what to say. After a while, however, the poor man seized a spear and rushed down to the rich man's canoe. Then the people shouted, "There goes SAqayê'. He is going to kill this rich man. Stop him." When he got right in front of the canoe they caught him, but he said, "I did not want to kill this rich man, but I heard people talking so much about him that I pretended to." His action had a sarcastic import, because others were so much afraid of the visitor.

The rich man talked from the canoe for such a long time that they made a long noise instead of speaking to him, to let him know that he had talked too long about things that were past. Then they said to him, "Jump into the water." This was formerly said to a visitor when blankets were about to be given away for some dead person, though they always stood ready to catch him. Afterward they took the man up into a house, placed a Chilkat blanket under him, and gave him five slaves and a canoe load of property for his dead friend. When he went home they returned his visit.

Footnotes

70:a A Piece of moss was placed in the cradle for sanitary purposes.

71:a There seems to be no connection between this part of the story and that which goes before except that both happened at KAq!Anuwû'.