SW ANTON 



HAIDA TEXTS AND MYTHS 159 



As soon as thcT went out for [Master Carpenter], he came on the 

 run. He held in his hand what he had taiven ott" (i. e., cut out)*^^ in 

 the woods. As soon as he came in he put the di-awino- on it, as the 

 chiefs daug-hter tokl him. He pictured the clouds upon it. There 

 were two rows of them. He made holes in the cradle for fastening 

 the rope alongside of his legs. 



Then they put him in. They brought out two sky blankets and 

 wrapped them round him in the cradle. After that was done they 

 launched the canoe. Five persons and the chiefs daughter went with 

 her son. Then they started seaward. They went, they went, they 

 went. When the}^ found by looking about that they were midway 

 between the Haida country and the mainland the}^ let him down into 

 the water. When the^' lot him go he turned around to the right four 

 times and became like something flat thrown down. Then they went 

 away from him, and settled down at the place where they had been 

 ()efore. 



[He was the one who has his place in the middle of the sea. Some- 

 times when sickness was about to break out they saw him. NAilL.da' 

 sLas^^ was a reef.] 



[What follows is really a second story, but it was told as part of the same. Its true name is said to 

 be " He-wlio-had-Panther-woman-for-his-mother."] 



Here on the Nass lay the town of Gu'nwa. Four slaves of the owner 

 of the town came down [the inlet] after wood. They cut the wood at 

 a sandy beach below the town and saw 3^oung cedars. They found 

 them for the chiefs wife. They did not believe their eyes [for joy 

 at finding them growing so conveniently to the water]. They finished 

 cutting the wood, loaded it on their canoe, and went up with the tide. 

 At evening they got back. The town people brought in the wood, 

 and he (the chief) called them in. 



Then, after the}^ had given away food for a while, he reported that 

 the}' had seen young cedars. At once the chiefs wife planned to go 

 for the bark. They went to sleep, and early in the morning she had 

 her husband's canoe brought out. People of the town, the chiefs' 

 daughters and young men, all went with her. At once they floated 

 down with the current. Hu hu hu hu hu, much food, — cranberries 

 and salmon, — [they took with them]. Then they went down. 



When they landed b}^ the young cedars all the women pulled off and 

 dragged down [the bark] from those [trees] near by. They pulled it 

 off and dragged it out to her. When they had taken all from those 

 near at hand they became scattered. 



She (the chief's wife) sat with her back to the sunshine, pulling 

 cedar bark apart. She was not in the habit of eating much. Her 

 fingers were slender. She did not care for food. 



After the sounds of the voices of women and men had died away 

 inland a person wearing a bearskin blanket with the hair side out 



