Łᴀguadjî′na or Łg̣añā′ʻogaña

[Told by Walter McGregor of the Sea-lion-town people]

He and his wife were the only two in the town. An eel had destroyed the town people. A big dog also stayed with them. Her husband went fishing and always stopped at a fishing ground right in front of the town. In his absence his wife went digging spruce roots, and the dog always went with her. When her husband came home she steamed a lot of halibut for him, putting it in a big tray. And he sat above it. And, when he began to eat, his wife looked toward the door. She was afraid to look at him. When her husband went fishing again she did the same thing.

One day, as she bent down to dig roots, something startled her by touching her buttocks. She looked toward it. Lo! he (the dog) came to her, and she cried hard. And, when her husband again came from fishing, she steamed food for him again, set it before him, and turned round toward the door. Shortly she became pregnant.

One day, while her husband was out fishing, she gave birth. She gave birth to a dog. A second one came forth and another. It went on this way until there were nine. The middle one always showed its teeth. That was the one that was going to be brave. The youngest came forth with medicine in its mouth. Last of all a bitch came forth. Counting that one there were ten.

Then her heart was not strong enough to kill them, and she put grass into the cellar and put them into it together. And, when her husband came home, she did not look as if anything had happened. And next day, when her husband went fishing, she again went to dig roots.

As soon as she had gone out from the house, a noise arose inside of it. They were wrestling with each other there. The bitch was talking. Then she went back. She peeped in at the door. Upon a pole in the rear of the house hung their skins. In another place they were playing with one another. And, when she made a noise with the door, they quickly took down their clothing. In a short time they were lying near the fire with their feet drawn together. Then she put them into the cellar again.

And, when her husband came home, he asked her: “My child’s mother, what made the noise in this town?” “The dog was playing. He was running over the floor planks.”

Next day her husband again went fishing. Afterward she went after roots again. No sooner had she got out than a noise arose inside of the house. At that time she did not return so soon. Then she gathered a quantity of dry firewood and looked in again. Again the skins hung upon the pole in the rear of the house. And, when she made a noise with the door again, they went over quickly and pulled their skins down. They lay around the fire. And again she put them into the cellar. When Łᴀguadjî′na came home again he asked her: “My child’s mother, what made the noise in the town?” “The dog was playing with himself and made a noise on the floor planks.”

When he went fishing again, the dog lay on the opposite side of the fire. Then she threw a stone at him and said to him: “Who does not get wood for the mother of his children?” And he got up. He shook himself and went out. Then there was a noise behind the house, and she looked at him between the house planks. One with a big knot of hair which fell below his buttocks and a striped skin rolled the firewood about. After the noise had gone on for a while outside, he came in. He shook himself and lay down again on the opposite side of the fire.

When her husband came home he asked her: “Where did that good firewood come from?” “Why, that is [from a tree] which fell behind us and which I rolled out to an open place.”

Next day her husband went fishing again, and she went after roots. Just before she went out, she put wood on the fire. Soon after she went out a noise arose in the house. Then she crept quietly thither. She had shut the door to easily. When she looked in [she saw that] the skins were again hung in the rear of the house. They were pushing each other about.

After she had looked for a while they pushed each other toward the corner, and she ran in quickly. She gathered the skins together quickly and put them into the fire. At once they burned up. Then they sat in a row on the other side from her. One among them was a woman.

Then she said to them: “My children, when your father comes home and eats, do not look toward him. After he is through eating I will let you eat also. People never look him in the face.”

And he called to his wife: “My child’s mother, bring my cape to me.” Then she brought it to him, and he put it on. Then he called for the eldest: “Come here, my child, while I sing a song for you.” Then he went to him. After he had sung for a while he pulled him closer to his breast. He was as one who has gone to sleep. “My child is asleep. Let me lay him down.”

And he called for another. He also went to him, and, after he had sung for him for a while, he pulled him close to himself. He acted like the other. “My child is asleep.”

Now he became angry with him, and he was pushing him toward his whetstone, which stood on edge in the rear of the house pointing toward the fire. When he touched it, it ground the skin off of his side. He put the medicine upon his palms and rubbed it upon himself, and it became well. After they had wrestled for a while he threw his father down there. It ground away, and he was ground to pieces. He killed his father quickly.

Then he went to his elder brothers, who were lying about, laid them together, and spit medicine upon them. They all got up. [Each said] “I guess I must have been sleeping here.” All got up, and they continued to live in that house.

Then they asked their mother: “Say! mother, why is this town empty?” “My child, a supernatural being at the south end of the island destroyed your uncles. Since then it has remained this way.” Then they said to each other: “To-morrow we will go and look at it.” And next day they went and looked at it. It lived in a cave. In front of it was a pile of human bones. They looked and went away.

Then they made something with which to kill it. All nine twisted cedar limbs. Afterward they spliced them. And then they twisted them together. They made it long. It was also stout. Next day they went to it. When they arrived they strangled their sister and fastened her on the end of a pole. They used her as bait. They set the snare in front of its den. After they had held their sister in front of it for a while, it came out, and they drew her out before it.

When the snare was even with its middle they pulled it up. They also pulled in their sister quickly and spit medicine upon her. At once their sister seized the end of the rope. After they had pulled against it for a while and began to be pulled down on top of each other the cord broke, and they fell backward in a heap. Then they went home.

And they took dry strings lying upon the beach. As they went around the island they carried them along. After that they spliced them. At once they twisted them. When it (the rope) became long, they went over there again. Again they used their sister as bait. When that also broke, they gave it up. Nothing was left that they could use.

After they had pulled at it for a while, something cracked at the bottom of the island, and they pulled it up. They cut its belly open. They cut human bones out. Then they laid the bones together. If one part were missing, they broke off pieces of old limbs of trees and put them in instead. Immediately ʟā′ga-na′qatî spit upon it. And they said to them: “Go to the places where you used to live.” They killed him, and they went home. That was Supernatural-eel, they say.

Then they also borrowed Jellyfish’s canoe. It had a stern at each end. They could pull it either way. It was not good looking. But they borrowed it. He said: “I will go along with you.” They burned the bottom of it. Then they put it into the water. One stood in the middle and he (the jellyfish) stuck in his tentacles far off. When they used their paddles he shot an arrow. It fell far back in their wake.

Then they pulled it up and prepared to go in it. Presently, when it was smooth at sea, they went to the old man. He was Heron, they say. “It is a fine day” [they said]. And he said to them: “No, brave men, it is a bad day.”

By and by there was a foggy morning. The mist was falling on the water. Then he went to them. He sat outside. “Launch your canoe. It is a fine day. At noon the mist will melt away under the sunshine.” Then he gave them directions. “When it sleeps phosphorescent light shines in its eyes. Then go to it. When there is no phosphorescent light in its eyes do not go to it.”

Then they started off. After they had gone along for a while [they] saw the phosphorescent light in its eyes. They had blue hellebore and urine, which they had let rot, in their canoe. They took its hair into their canoe noiselessly. Presently they cut off its head and put it in.

Jellyfish stuck his tentacles into the land. Their paddles they also plied together. Under their bow the current flowed so fast as to make cracks [in the sea]. Into it they poured the blue hellebore and urine. On the other side the current also cracked itself by its passage. They treated that in the same way. At once they were in front of the town. In a short time they had hung its head up in front of their sister. Long hair hung down from it.

Next day he again came singing some songs. After him came a crowd of red things. Those were fleas, they say. Then they went quickly to the old man and asked him: “What shall we do?” “Steam urine and pour it out toward them.” Then they did as he said. “Give me my son’s head.” Then the fleas came toward the house, and they poured urine around upon them. After they had killed half of them he again started seaward. He disappeared into the ocean.

The day after this he again sang some songs. Behind him the surface of the ocean came burning. At this time they again ran over to the old man. He said to them (lit. “him”): “Now, brave men, nothing at all can be done. Save yourselves by flight.” At once they fled away with his head. The land burned after them. When one of them was burned up, he threw it to another. This went on until only he who had medicine in his mouth was left. When his side was partly burned he rubbed the medicine upon it, and it became as it had been before. By and by he threw it (the head) into the fire. It stopped there and went back.

Afterward he started along. He hunted where his brothers had been burned. There was not a sign of their bones there. After he had gone on for a while he called to the one who was mischievous “Sawałī′hū′⁺.” “Here.” And where it sounded he went. Their bones lay there all together. Then he spit medicine upon them. They got up. Each said: “I guess I must have slept a long time.” Then they went seaward toward the open ground again.

And they rebuilt their house, which was all burned. They restored their mother and their sister, and again they began living there.

One time [they heard] some one talking to their sister. He was lying with her in the morning. That was North, they say. When he warmed himself before the fire he warmed only his side. And the one who was full of mischief was surprised at it and began making shavings. He dried them. He whittled up pitchwood among them. He put it with the rest.

Then he hung blackly about the head of the Stikine river. Snow fell from him. Then one went out to look. He was lost. Then another went to look, and he, too, was lost. It went on in this way until all of them had disappeared. Only he who had medicine in his mouth was saved. Then he also went to look.

As he went he saw that his elder brothers had been frozen to death. He, too, got stuck on freezing ice but spit medicine upon himself, and the ice fell from him. He made straight for the black place in the sky. And he arrived. Out of his (North’s) anus ice hung. He wet the points of his arrows with medicine and shot the ice. He ran away, and ice fell in the place where he had been. He did the same thing again. Then he went away.

As he went along he spit medicine upon his elder brothers who had been frozen in their tracks. At once they walked along with him. All went along together.

And, after they had gone along for a while, they came to where a certain person lived. He gave them food, as was usual, and they slept there that night. Then Sawałī′xa remained awake. The one to whom they had come in lay in a corner. He got up, tied fine cedar bark upon the end of a stick which hung above him, and let them breathe on it. Then he went out with it, and Sawałī′xa went out after him. Near a rill of water was a piece of cedar full of holes, out of one of which he pulled a plug. Into it he pushed the cedar bark. Sawałī′xa was looking at him. And before him he came in, and he pretended to be asleep. Presently he also came in.

Then he, in turn, put the cedar bark to his breath. And he went out, and Sawałī′xa pulled out the thing that had been stuck in and pushed his in. Then he went to bed. The next day, after he had given them some food, he took a bath. Afterward he became sick. He said that his back and his head were sick. “I must have done it to myself.” Presently he was dead. That was Greatest Wizard, they say. Then they went off. They came to their house.

By and by they started traveling again. They hunted birds. Then one disappeared. It went on that way until all were gone. He who had medicine in his mouth let himself be last. He followed the footprints of his elder brothers. When he saw his elder brothers sitting upon a broad stump he did not feel how he got there, but he was sitting among them.

And, after they got back there, the next to the youngest could not catch any ground hogs in his dead falls. He did not kill even one. And, when they went home, he refused to go. Each gave him two. He refused them. Each offered to give him five. He also refused those. Then they left him.

After he had lived there for a while a woman came to him one night and lay down, and he married her. Then she asked him why he did not succeed in taking them in dead falls, and he said to her: “I could in no way get them.” “To-morrow make ten” [she said]. And next day he did as he was directed. The day after he went out to look at them. Ten ground hogs were in them.

And, after he had done this for a while, he had many, and early one morning he went to see them. Then a whitish one went in before him. His wife told him not to put a dead fall near it. Then he longed for it and set one in front of it. The very next day it fell on it. And he feared his wife and hung it on the outside of the house.

But, even from where his wife sat, [she said]: “My mother says, ‘Alas! my child.’ ” At once she started off. He tried to hold his wife. He could not. When she got to the door she said: “Come to life again.” Immediately they began running off in a crowd. He tried to club them, and he tried to stop them at the door. He could not accomplish that, either. Then he went along among them. After he had followed his wife along he went in at the same place where she went in.

By and by, when the snow melted, they put on their skins, and they began bringing in roots. He, also, went with them. Presently one called out “People are coming,” and they went into the house.

Again they (his brothers) set dead falls. The posts for these dead falls had figures of ground hogs upon them. They only saw the shadow of the hands [setting them]. The figures were to call them. One went thither and was caught. They pulled him out. The ground hog looked out of the house. He almost went to it. His wife held him back.

And, after they had again traveled about for a while, the eldest again disappeared. Next day another was gone. One went after him, and he, too, vanished. By and by he who had medicine in his mouth was the only one left. Then he took his bow and followed his elder brothers’ footprints from the side of the house.

After he had gone up the trail for a while [he came to where] a feather hung. He found himself in a snare. Suddenly he was hung up in the air. When he got tired he rubbed medicine upon his neck.

Very early next day one with vertical lines of paint upon his face came to him upon the trail inland. “My snare is always lucky” [he said]. Then he pulled him down. He heard him talk to the snare.

“Do not let anything pass by you,” he said to it. Then he thought: “I wish he would carry me face up.” And he seized him by both legs and carried him face up. And, when he stepped under a fallen tree with him, he took hold of it. After he had tried to pull him away for a while he let go. By and by he came to his house with him. He came in and took him off. His elder brothers were cut up and hung in the rear of the house.

When they were in bed he gathered together his elder brothers and went away with them. After he had traveled on for a while he did not see a sign of them. He had forgotten the medicine he had in his mouth. Then he went back and spit medicine upon them, and they became alive and started home with him. And next day they came to their town.

Then they again started off. After they had traveled for a while they disappeared from the one who had medicine in his mouth. And, after he had hunted for them a while, he came to some one who was using his head as a drum. Then he asked him: “Did my elder brothers pass by here?” “Did my elder brothers pass here?” he also said. “I have a notion to kill you.” He, too, said the same thing. “I have a notion to cut off your head.” He, also, said the same thing. That was Greatest Echo, they say.

In whatever way he spoke he could get no answer. By and by, when he said he would break wind at him, he became afraid. “Don’t do it, chief; don’t do it.” When he broke wind at him he disappeared. He killed him, they say.

After that, when he hunted for his elder brothers again, [he came to] a large, round stone with a slippery top on which a feather was stuck, and on the side of which lay the bones of his elder brothers. They died while they were trying to pull off the feather. Then he again spit medicine upon his elder brothers, and they got up. Then they went away with him.

After they had gone along for a while they came to where a woman lived. She gave them all kinds of good food in the usual way. Her dish had the figure of a mouse upon it. Then they went to bed in her house. There were scratchings in her house all night. They could not sleep. And, while it was still night, they went away. They came to the house where their mother and their sister always stayed.

Then they started off again, and they gave their mother directions. “Settle yourself in this house. We shall see you no more.” And they took their sister away with them.

Then they went toward the head of the Stikine river. And, when they started to swim across, although ten years had passed since their sister had begun to menstruate, they told her not to look at them. Then they took each other by the arm and swam across. He who had medicine in his mouth was the last to enter the water. At that time their sister looked toward them and all [except the eldest] became rocks.

The names of the heroes of this story, together with the localities in which the actions are said to have occurred, mark it plainly as Tlingit. At the same time it is well known and very popular among the Haida. I have a Masset version of the story as yet unpublished. Łᴀguadjî′na is a Tlingit name (Łᴀ′ki-tcine′); Łg̣añā′ʻogaña is from the name of one of the brothers, Łg̣añā′ʻo, and means “Łg̣añā′ʻo’s people” or “Łg̣añā′ʻo and his brothers.” One episode, telling how a gigantic mouse was killed, has been omitted.

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