31. Raven, Part XVIII

After this the people went out hunting and encamped in a place called Tayuk!nAxe. A man went out from here with his brother and little son one day, and, when they returned, saw that every one had disappeared. They felt very badly and said, "What is wrong with our village?" Then they saw that the whole town was covered with devilfish slime and said, "It is that monster devilfish that has done all this." People say that he had seen the red glow of the salmon on the drying frames outside. Then the two men said to the boy with them,

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[paragraph continues] "You must stay here. We are going off." So they made a mat house over him and let him have their blankets. 'They were wild at the thought of having lost all their friends. Then they killed a number of porpoises and seals, went to the devilfish's place and threw them into the water above him. After a while they saw that the water was getting frothy around them with ascending bubbles and presently saw the devilfish coming up. It looked very white. One of these men was making a noise like the raven; the other was acting like a dog salmon. All that went on was observed by the little boy. As soon as the devilfish reached the surface they jumped upon it with their knives and began slashing it. They cut its ink bag and all the water became black. The devilfish and the men died.

Soon after this had happened a canoe from another camp came there, saw this object floating on the sea some distance out from the village, and thought that it was yet alive; so they hurried to get past it. When they came ashore the boy told them all that had happened, and they cried very much at seeing him there alone, for he was their relative. After this they returned with him to their camp, which was situated upon an island near by, and told the story there, on which two canoe loads of people left to look for the devilfish. After they had found it and had cut it open with their stone axes, they saw the two men still inside, knife in hand. All the village people that the devilfish had eaten were also there. Then they took the bodies back to town and had a death feast. a

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Footnotes

150:a Story 93 is another version of this tale.