384 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bill. 29 



Fights between the Tsimshian and Haida and among the 



NORTHERN HaIDA 



[Told by Richard of the Middle-giti'ns.] 



The Skideoate people went once to trade at Port Simpson' in sixty 

 canoes. The Pebble-town people^ also went there. And they traded 

 with dry halibut. They liyed outside. There a Tsimshian, who was 

 with a white man, came to them. Sticks were giyen around to them 

 (the Haida). And afterward he took the sticks back ajj^ain. They 

 planned to destroy them during the winter. That was why they 

 counted them. 



A woman of the Giti'ns'-seryants^ named Butflehead* sold dry 

 halibut to the wife of Loiiix.'' Siie said it was too small and she 

 wanted to exchange it for more. ButHehead then refused to giye her 

 more in exchange. And they threw the dry halibut at Biifflehead. 

 She then threw the dry halibut in the face of Lgiiix's daughter, and 

 she went home crying. 



Some one shouted, and I went out. They were throwing stones at 

 each other. They gaye each other a thorough stoning. By and by 

 the}^ stopped. And some time afterward a gun went ofl'. Some one 

 shouted: "They killed so-and-so." Some time after that another gun 

 went off. Another was shot. Then it stopped for a while. When 

 eyening came they began to shoot at us. All through the night they 

 shot at the Skidegate people. During all that time they shouted out 

 [the name of the person shot]. 1 was then without a gun, and 1 bor- 

 rowed one. I held it and two cartridge lioxes. They shot at the sail 

 houses on the beach in which we liyed. There was nothing behind 

 which we could shelter ourselyes. Then I dug a hole for m3^self in 

 tlie sand and lay in it. 



1 then shot at some one who lay behind a log and was shooting, back 

 from the sea. 1 shot off his hat. When I shot at him again I shot his 

 gun awa}' from him. He then ran away. 



A hill lay behind us, from which they were shooting at us. 1 also 

 began to shoot at those. They also ran away. After they had shot 

 at us for fiye nights they stopped for a while. 



Then the Tsimshian came to dance. The}' Nyanted to make peace 

 because we had killed Lgiiix's nephew. We also enslayed two women 

 who were walking seaward from the town. B3' and by they started 

 to dance. We then gaye them some, property. After this had gone 

 on for a while they made the following arrangements. The}' said that 



