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Kwakiutl Tales: 11. The Dzô'noq!wa

11. The Dzô'noq!wa.

(Dictated by Yâ'gôLas, a ?nE'mgês, 1900.)

A child was crying. Then it was [sent] told, "Go to sleep, else the Dzô'noq!wa will pick you up in her arms." Thus was said. Its grandmother tried to frighten it. Then the child arose in the house and went out at night. Then it screamed when the one came who took it. (The

"They only tried to frighten you. Go!` she said. Then the child arose and went Out. As soon as (the child) showed its face, it screamed, and it was picked up by the Dzô'noq!wa in her arms. It was taken down (underground). Then her (the child's) grandmothers and her father and her mother went out and tried to dig after their child. It cried aloud underground. Sometimes it would come nearer, and sometimes it would move. Then they gave it up. Then the child was taken upward, and was taken inland. It was taken to the house of the Dzô'noq!wa. Then the child broke off hemlock-branches and threw them down, that it might know the trail if it should escape. Then they, arrived at the house of the Dzô'noq!wa. Immediately the child was given tallow to eat. There were many crab-apples and dried berries and dried meat, and many skins.

Then (the Dzô'noq!wa saw) the child. "Oh, oh!" she said, "how was it done? Your ear-ornaments are nice. Please lend me your ear-ornaments."--"Have you holes in your ears?" said the child to the Dzô'noq!wa. "Not I, master."--"Then don't say so in vain."--"Go on, make holes in my ears."--"But you are not at all able to bear the way in which punches were driven through my ears."--"What were they driven with?"--"With these branches. It was done by my father." Then the child took a branch. "Lie down on your back. Where is your hammer, that I may drive them in?" Then (the child) put them on top and drove in (the branches). Then the Dzô'noq!wa, screamed. "Don't do this in vain (you don't need to do it)," said the child. "Go on, master," said the Dzô'noq!wa. Then (the child) struck with the hammer again, and the branches went right through the

The child went out and went straight on the trail. It saw the hemlock-branches which it had broken and thrown on the ground. Then it arrived behind the house, and it heard its tribe, singing the mourning-song on account of their child. Then the child started; and when the whole tribe had gone into the house, it arose and jumped in. Then it was stared at. Its father and mother dropped clown. Then one man arose and took it in his arms and questioned it. "Tell us what has happened to you. What was it that took you?"--"Indeed, the Dzô'noq!wa carried me away."--"How did you save yourself? How did you come back?"--"Did she not wish for my ear-ornaments? I said, 'Only you cannot bear what was done to me. My ears were punched by my father.' That is the way I did it: I punched branches through the ears of the Dzô'noq!wa. Now she is dead," said the child. 'Let us go and carry on our backs all kinds of things,--cranberries, dried berries, dried meats, mountain-goat, and many skins." Then day came, and the many tribes started. They carried everything on their backs, and arrived in the house. There was only the head in the house. Then strong men carried (the goods) on their backs. They carried cranberries and crabapples and dried berries and many skins, and they arrived at the house of the child's father. Then they went to the child's father, and the child's father gave a feast to the tribe. Then he distributed the skins among the tribes, and he became a chief