30 ■ BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 29 



woodpecker iiiul said: •■ Mother, look at nie/' Then she went out 

 after him. Me sat o\'er tiie sea, the upper part of him being red. 

 She smiled at her son, and when he came in he said: " Mother, did I 

 look well?"" '* Yes, chief, my son, the supernatural beings will not 

 tire of looking at 3'OU." 



Then he said: ""Mother, I shall see 3^ou no more. I am going away 

 from 3^ou. When 1 sit in front of QIanA'fi'" in the morning, there 

 will be no breeze. No one can touch me." When the sky looks like 

 my face as my father painted it there will be no wind. In nie (i. e., in 

 my days) people will get their food."" '' " Now, chief, my son, when 

 you sit there in the morning 1 will send out feathers for you." 



Then he started off from his mother. His father also went off from 

 her, and said: " I also am going away from you. Settle yourself at 

 the head of the creek. I shall see 3^ou sometimes and I shall also see 

 my son." Then he, too, went off. 



And at evening she called for her youngest uncle. She said to 

 him: "When you go fishing to-morrow wear a new hat and have a 

 new paddle." And early next day they went fishing. Then she sat 

 down at the end of the town with her knees together, xind when she 

 pulled up her dress the wind blew out of the inlet. Every time she 

 raised it higher more wind came. When she had raised it to a level 

 with her knees a very strong wind blew. And she stretched her arm 

 to the thread of life ^^ of him only who wore the new hat, and she saved 

 him, because his wife left something for her. That was Fine- weather 

 woman, ^^ they say. 



Then she took her mat and property and started into the woods up 

 the bed of the creek. And she fixed herself there. And a trail ran 

 over her. She said that they tickled her by walking upon it, and 

 she moved farther up. There she settled for good. When her son 

 sits [over the ocean] in the morning, she lets small flakes of snow fall 

 for [him]. Those are the feathers. 



This is one of the most important of all Haida stories, telling as it does of the 

 incarnation of the sky god, the highest deity anciently recognized by them. Sin, 

 the name by which he is known, is the ordinary word for day as distinguished from 

 night and from an entire period of twenty-four hours, which also is called " night; " 

 but it seems to be more strictly applied to the sky above as it is illuminated by sun- 

 shine. Hence 1 have chosen to translate the word "Shining-heavens." A similar 

 conception is found among the Tsimshian of the neighboring mainland, where the 

 sky god is known as Laxha'. It would be interesting to learn whether it also obtains 

 among the related Tlingit of Alaska. 



' A stream flowing into the Pacific about Ij mile east of Kaisun. 

 ^ I have not identified this bird with certainty, although the name is very much 

 like that given me for the red-winged blackbird ( Agelaius phceniceus Linn.)- 

 ^ A common expression to indicate the excellence of carvings. 



* Yen xagi^t are long, narrow clouds, probably stratus, said to indicate that there 

 will be fair weather next day. 



* Devilfishes were usually employed to bait the hooks for halibut. To catch a 

 halibut of supernatural character they secure a devilfish oi the same kind. 



