Tradition of the ?nê'?nêlk*!ênoxu, a clan of ?nEmgês. (Dictated by ?nEmô'gwis, 1900.) Ô'mala The one on whose account he was host was to be isolated. ["Don't feel badly," he was told, being struck. "Sleep on, you are good, holding your own, and taking care of yourself."] "You ought to feel bad," he was told while he was being struck. "Don't sleep all the time. You ought to hold on to the knowledge of your supernatural power." Then the child cried. For eight days he staid in the house hanging his head. Then in the night he started. They tried to search for him, and it was said that he was dead. Then his father was struck by the people, and his mother was struck. But he was not dead. Then their house was torn down, and he built a small house. Then closet-sticks were thrown on his house, and he was not invited in with others. Only dirt was thrown on his house by his tribe. "Haanä', haanä', anä'. "Behold! that is the way of the one whom we like, whom we imitate, because I am a real dancer, yêwâ, yêwâ. Because I am a real shaman, Then Mâ'dEm arrived in the house. He did not walk on the floor of the house. Then three persons went in a canoe on the river. They capsized and sank. Then they went to the lower world. Then he (Mâ'dEm) entered the house in the lower world. Those in the lowest world, the place where he had gone, beat time. Then he took a wife there. He looked among their children, and he married the youngest sister. Those in the lower world had a winter dance. "Let him have a wish," was said to him. Then the large red cedar-bark was brought out in the house. "He does not yet desire this cedar-bark," was said. His wishes were known by a [another] person. "He does not want this." Then water was poured into a bucket. The water was sacred: it was treated by a shaman. Then the water became bird's-down, and the house became filled with the down. "Will he not take this? Does he not desire this?" Thus was said. "He does not want it," said the one who knew his mind. Then what is named White-Feather came up in the house. Then the feathers went about on the floor of the house, meeting and passing each other,--the magic treasure of the one who desired the magic treasure. "Go on, and take this," he was told. "He does not want this." Then ten dancing-boards stood up on the floor in the rear of the house. "Does he not take this? Does he not desire this?"--"That is what he wants. He will take this," he said. "Does not our friend wish to go home now? Does not this Ë'x*?ik*ilag*ê? desire to go home?" was said. "He shall have for one name Ë'x*?ik*ilag*ê?.lEmê? and Unattainable [Made-so-that-he-can-not-be-climbed-up-to] were men in the beginning, in the far past. They did not meet any one, and they built their house at Up-River. That is the name of the Up-River tribe. They had slaves. They were walking after elk, and went across to the other side. Then they arrived at the village of those of the other side, the Foreigners. That is the first time they were met. They did not know them. They were the Mâ'ts!adEx. After that they went there, sometimes carrying sea-otters on their backs. They were now the friends of those whom they had met when they were walking. The ones whom they had met in walking were archers. The name (of their chief) was Wâ'tsowik*a. Then the chief began to give a winter dance.
I went and stood at the foot of the land-slide named Quartz-on-Back.
Hanä', hanä', hanâ', hayê'.
I was taken along flying, and reached the Daybreak, the house of the child of Mâ'dEm on the back of the world.
Hanä', hanä', hanâ', hayê'.
I was made to soar, and they soared with me to the north end of the world.
Hanä', hanä', hanâ', hayê'.