94. The L!ê'nAx<U>x</U>î'dAq

p. 292

94. THE L!Ê'NAXXÎ'DAQ ^a

A man at Auk went out on the lake after firewood. On the way round it be saw a woman floating about. Her hair was long. Looking at her for some time, he saw that her little ones were with her. He took one of the children home. When it became dark they went to sleep. It was the child of the L!ê'nAxxî'dAq, and that night it went through the town picking out people's eyes. Toward morning a certain woman bore a child. In the morning, when she was getting up, this [the L!ê'nAxxî'dAq's child] came into her into the house. The small boy had a big belly full of eyes. He had taken out the eyes of all the people. That woman to whom the small boy came had a cane. He kept pointing at her eyes. Then she pushed him away with the cane. When he had done it twice, she pushed it into him. He was all full of eyes. After she had killed him the woman went through the

p. 293

houses. Then she began to dress herself up. She took her child up on her back to start wandering., She said, "I am going to be the L!ê'nAxxî'dAq." When she came down on the beach she kept eating mussels. She put the shells inside of one another. As she walks along she nurses her little child.

Footnotes

292:a See story 35 and cf. close of story 105. This is the equivalent of Skîl djâ'adai, or "Property Woman," among the Haida.