THE INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. 323 



to ascertain the cause, but when they reached the shore they discovered, to their sur- 

 prise, that it was a large canoe, and not the Skana that was on the beach, and that a 

 man was on shore cooking some food. He asked them why they threw stones at his 

 canoe. "You have broken it," said he, "and now go into the woods and get some 

 cedar withes and mend it." They did so, and when they had finished the man said, 

 " Turn your backs to the water and cover your heads with your skiu blankets, and 

 don't you look till I call you." They did so, and heard the canoe grate on the beach 

 as it was hauled down into the surf. Then the man said, "Look, now." They looked, 

 and saw the canoe just going over the first breaker and the man sitting in the stern; 

 but when it came to the second breaker it went under and presently came up outside 

 of the breakers a killer and not a canoe, and the man or demon was in its belly. 

 This allegory is common among all the tribes on the northwest coast, and even with 

 the interior tribes with whom the salmon takes the place of the orca, which never 

 ascends the fresh-water rivers. The Chilkat and other tribes of Alaska carve figures 

 of salmon, inside of which is the full length figure of a nude Indian. * * » 

 Casual observers, without inquiry, will at once pronounce it to be Jonah in the fish's 

 belly, but the allegory is of ancient origin, far antedating the advent of the white 

 man or the teachings of the missionary." 



Fig. 281 represents the raven and the fisherman. The same authority 

 Bays : 



Hooyeh, the raven, had the mischieyious propensity of descending into the ocean 

 and investigating the fishing-lines of Houskana, the fisherman, and stealing both 

 bait and fish. At last Houskana, tired of this work, put on a magic hook to ascertain 

 who his enemy was at the bottom of the sea. The raven was caught, and when the 

 fisherman hauled in his line the rayen resisted by pressing his feet and wings against 

 the bottom of the fisherman's canoe. But Houskana was the stronger and pulled the 

 raven's beak entirely off, and, seizing the raven, took him ashore to fin^ out who he 

 was, for, as soon as his beak was pulled oft" he changed to a man, covering his head 

 with his skin mantle so that nothing but his eyes could be seen. The fisherman tried 

 in vain to make him uncover his face. At last one of the young men took a handful 

 of filth and rubbed it in the raven's eyes. This made him throw off his mantle, and 

 then they saw that it was the Hooyeh. This made the raven so angry that, in re- 

 venge for this indignity, the raven and his friends, the crows {Kaltzda), have ever 

 since annoyed the Indians by soiling their canoes and eating all their fish." 



Fig. 282 represents the " Man in the Moon." According to Judge 

 Swan: 



Koong, the moon, discovered Eethlinga, the man, about to dip his bucket in the 

 brook for water, so it sent down its arms or rays and grabbed the man, who, to save 

 himself, seized hold of a big solal bush (Gaultheria shallon), but the moon being 

 more powerful took man, bucket, and bush up to itself, where they have ever since 

 lived and can be seen every full moon when the weather is clear. The man is a 

 friend of T'kul, the spirit of the winds, and at the proper signal empties his bucket, 

 causing rain upon the earth. 



Fig. 283 represents the raven {Hooyeh) in the belly of the whale 

 {Koone). Judge Swan explains it as follows : 



The Haidahs are not whalemen, like the Makahs of Cape Flattery, and I never 

 knew of their killing a whale: but occasionally a dead one drifts ashore, having been 

 killed by whalemen, or sword-fish, or orcae (killers). The Haidahs do not care to 

 look for natural causes, but adopt the mythological dogma that the raven goes into 

 the whale's belly, which, frantic with pain, rushes ashore, while the invisible Hooyeh 

 ■walks cj.uietly out and is ready for another adventure. 



