148 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 39 



him and put it in as small a ])ackage as she could. All ]n"e])ared and 

 got into the canoe. Last of all came down Black-skin, and, when 

 they saw him, they said, ''Don't let him come. Don't let him come." 

 Seeing that he was determined to get in they began pushing the canoe 

 out as fast as they could. Black-skin then seized the canoe, and they 

 struck his fingers to make him let go. It sounded like beating upon a 

 board. And, although all of them were shoving it out, he exerted a 

 very little of his strength, pulled the canoe back, and jumped in. 

 Then the people talked very meanly to him, but the chief said, "Oh! 

 let him be. He will bail out the canoe for us on the way over." So 

 he sat in the place where one l^ails. The uncle might have sus])ected 

 something after his nephew had pulled back the canoe, but he did not 

 aji]:)ear to. As they went rapidly out they said, "Black-skin came 

 along to tear the sea lions in two." They asked him, ''How many 

 sea lions shall I skin for you?" But Black-skin said nothing. 



The sea-lion island had very ]ireci])itous sides against which great 

 waves came, so GAlwe/t ! waited until the canoe was lifted upon the 

 crest of a wave and then jumped ashore. He was a powerful fellow, 

 and seizing a small sea lion by the tail smashed its head to pieces on 

 the rocks. Then he thought he would do the same thing to a large 

 one. These large sea lions are called q!At!-cu-qa'wu (men-of-the- 

 islands). He went to the very largest of these and sat astride of its 

 tail, intending to tear it in two, but the sea lion threw him up into the 

 air, and, when he came down, he was smashed to pieces on the rocks. 



Now, when Black-skin saw what had happened to his imcle, he felt 

 badly. Then he put his hand into his bundle ol" clothes, took out and 

 put on his hair ornament and his shirt, while all watched him, and said, 

 "I am the man that pulled out that limb, and I am the man that 

 twisted that tree." He spoke as high-caste Indians did in those days, 

 and all listened to him. He said to them, "Take the canoe closer to 

 shore." Then he walked forward in the canoe, stepping on the seats 

 which broke under his weight, precipitating their occupants to the 

 bottom of the canoe. The young men that were sitting in his way he 

 threw Ijack as if they had been small birds. Then the people were all 

 frightenetl, thinking that he woidd revenge himself on them for their 

 meanness, but he jumped ashore where his uncle had gone and walked 

 straight up the cliff. The small sea lions in his way he killed simply 

 by hitting them on the head and by stepping on them. He looked 

 only at the big one that had killed his uncle, for he did not want it to 

 get away. \Vlien he came to it, he seized it and tore it in two. A 

 few of the sea lions escaped, but he killed most of them and loaded 

 the canoe down. Wliile he was doing this, however, his companions, 

 who were very much ashamed of themselves and very much fright- 

 ened, paddled away and left him. They said to the people in the 

 town, "It was Black-skin who pulled out the limb and twisted the 



