swANTON] HAIDA TEXTS AND MYTHS 363 



Then lie took his g-randniother's uiinal and went up to the top of the 

 house with it. And he used his grandniotlier's urinal as a drum. He 

 l)eoan then to sing: ''Ila'haha he'eee, grandniotlier ate her cut-otf 

 vulva. In the place fl put] grease. In the place [I putj feathers." 

 His grandmother then used hard words toward him: ""He was born 

 at the roots of the salmon-berry l)ushes.'' He is a wizard. He was 

 born at the roots of the ferns. '^ He is a wizard." 



[Till' following version of the latter was obtained by I'rof. Franz Boas] 



Once upon a time a ])oy and his grandmother li\-(>d in a hut made of 

 twigs. The boy was always going out to shoot birds. One day he 

 saw a large l)ear, which he tried to kill with his arrows. Then the 

 bear snufl'ed him in. The old woman waited in vain for her grand- 

 son, and tinally thought he had died. The boy Svas not dead. 



While he was in the bear's stomach, he thought: "I wish grand- 

 mother's tire drill would come to me!" It came at once. He made a fire 

 in the b(>!ir's stomach, which killed him. He then carved the carcass and 

 carried the meat to his grandmotlu^-'s house, which he tilled entirely. 

 The old woman had no tire: therefore she sent her grandson to the 

 town to ask for some tire. Befoi'e he left he cut otf a piece of the 

 meat and took it into his mouth. He then went to the door of one of 

 the houses. He put down a piece of skin near the fire, chewed the 

 meat which he had taken along, and spit the fat into the fire, so that 

 it l)lazed up. The people asked him: "'What are you holding in your 

 mouth?" He then showed them the bears meat. Then they all went 

 to his gi-andinother's house, and they received presents of meat and of 

 fat. They distributed almost- all of it. 



He then said to his giandmothei": '"(irather some fuel." She did so, 

 and started a fir(\ TIumi the old woman fell asleep sitting near the 

 fire. While she was asleep the boy cut ofi' a piece of her \ulva and 

 put down ui)on the wound. When sh(». woke the next morning he 

 sent her again to gather fuel: and, while she was away, he roasted at 

 the fire the piece that hi^ liad cut from her body. When his grand- 

 mother returned he said to her: " 1 roasted a little of the l)ear meat 

 for you." She entered, and he gave her her own Ht^sh to eat. As 

 soon as she had eaten it he ran out, singing: "Grandmother ate her 

 own \iil\al" 



' Repeated over and over to a crying baby. The point is in a play upon two Haida 

 wordfj. 



^ The word nsed liere, Tc!a'tc!agus<^a-i, is tlie story name of this sparrow; the com- 

 mon name is tcla'tcla. See the story of He-who-was-born-from-liis-mother's-side, 

 note 5. 



•'The grizzly bear api)ears in this story because it was a great bugaboo to children. 

 To quiet a crying child they said to it: "The grizzly bear might get after you." 



^The meaning of these words, if they have any, is unknown. 



^ These birds always lay their eggs among the salmon-berry bushes and the ferns. 



