238 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 29 



He- W I lO-GOT-SUrERNATURAL-POWER-FROM-HIS-LITTLE-FINGER 



[Told by Walter McGregor of the Sealion-town people] 



At White-slope^ a certain person and his mother were disliked. 

 They made a house out of branches at one end of the town in which 

 they lived. When it was low tide he went down and brought up 

 something for his mother to eat. 



After he had done this for some time he came to a heron with a 

 broken bill. Then he sharpened it. And it said to him: "Grandson, 

 you helped " me nicely. I will also help ^ you. Keep this medicine 

 in your mouth." Then it also gave him the feather on the tip of its 

 wing, and it said to him: "Blow this under the armpit of the son of 

 the town chief. Even the supernatural beings will not know it." 



The child often played at having supernatural power. He had a 

 mat as a dancing skirt. He fastened shells upon it. Others he used 

 as a rattle. He had feathers he found as a dancing hat. He used 

 old cedar bark as a drum. One evening he went around the town. 

 He looked into some of the houses. A chief's son sat in one of them. 

 Then he pushed the feather in between the side planks. When the 

 point was turned toward his armpit, he blew it in. As soon as it went 

 into the chief's son's armpit, he had a pain. 



Then he went home. They got a shaman for [the chiefs son]. He 

 went over to see him practice. Some persons with black skins on the 

 side toward the door held burning pitchwood. Then he thought: "I 

 wonder why the}^ do not see the thing sticking out of him." They 

 dropped their torches and ran out after him. He ran from them. 

 Those were The-ones-who-have-spines-for-earrings.'' 



The day after he went again. He wanted to see the shaman. When 

 he thought the same thing as he had thought before the}^ ran out after 

 him again. At that time they discovered that it was the boy. 



Then they set out to get him. He spit medicine upon the things he 

 had been playing with.* The dancing skirt had a drawing on it. The 

 drum had the picture of a wa'sg.o. The dancing hat, too, was finished. 



They hung up five moose skins for him. He went thither, and the 

 beating plank beat itself as it-came in. They had opened the door for 

 him. While they were looking through it for him, his dancing hat 

 came out back of the fire.^ It did the same thing on the other side, on 

 the side toward the door, and on the opposite side. After it had come 

 up in all four corners he stood up. He took his feather. When he 

 pulled it out the pain ceased, and the sickness was gone. Just before 



