[1-5 told by Moses; 6-8, 2a, and 5a told by Philip] 1. There was a town in which a chief and chieftainess were living. The chieftainess had done something bad. She had a lover, but the chief did not know it. The young man loved the chieftainess very much. He often went to the place where she lived with the chief. Then the chieftainess resolved, "I will pretend to die." She pretended to be very sick, because she wanted to marry that man. After a short time she pretended to die. Then all the people cried. Before she died the chieftainess said, "Make a large box in which to bury me when I am dead." The people made a box and put her
One day all the children went into the woods, shooting with bows and arrows at a target. They were not far from this tree when they were shooting. Then Sucking-intestines saw them. He went down and took their arrows. Thus the children lost them again and again. 2. Now he heard that there was a chief's daughter on the other side of the hole where the heavens meet. Sucking-intestines caught a bird and skinned it. He put its skin on and flew. Then he said, "G*ît g*ît g*ît g*însăăăăă!" He came to a town, and there he met a person. Then he shot a wood-pecker. He skinned it, and the other person put it on. They flew on. The one, bird cried, "G*ît g*ît g*ît g*însăăăăă!" The wood-pecker
3. The Giant went on. It remained daylight. The darkness did not return. He wore something tied over his head. He arrived farther up the river. Then he put what he was wearing on his head under a stone in a steep cliff. It is there yet.
6. Now Txä'msEm met his brother Lôgôbolā'. They were going to Nass river. They crossed the mouth of the river, and when they 7. They camped at Graveyard point, intending to eat there. Txä'msEm went to get fuel and to look for water. After they had eaten, Lôgôbolā' said to his brother, What are you going to drink, 8. Then they went up Nass river, each in his own canoe. When they had gone up to the point where the current runs downward, Txä'msEm said, "Let us gamble." Lôgôbolā' agreed, though he did not care. He asked Txä'msEm, "What game shall we play?" Txä'msEm
5a. He came down the river and arrived at its mouth. It was dark there, and he heard the ghosts catching olachen at night. He said, "Give me one of the things you have caught." One man replied, "Who is talking there? That is the great Txä'msEm; ha, ha, tssî!" After a while Txä'msEm said again, "Give me one of the things you caught, or I will tear the sun-box." Then all the ghosts said, "Ha, great slave; you great Scabby-shin! Where did you obtain what you are talking about, great slave, great
12:1 From here on the relater seems to have confounded the stories of the birth of Txä'msEm and of the origin of daylight. See the correct version in Franz Boas, Indianische Sagen von der nord-pacifischen Küste Amerikas, Berlin, 1895, p. 272 et seq.
Footnotes