The story of him through whom Łᴀ′gua spoke
Reading edition
[Told by Abraham of Those-born-at-Qꜝā′dᴀsg̣o, to whom it was related by an old man of Ninstints]
After a while he sang that he held his supernatural power, Łᴀ′gua, in his teeth at the end of the town. His supernatural power also made the water smooth for some time. All that time they fished for black cod. Every time they came in from fishing those who handled the lines gave him two black cod. His wife had a great quantity.
As soon as they had unloaded their black cod, they went out to meet him. It was evening. They called out to one another. Then they approached each other. When they called out after it had become dark he answered them. At once they went to him. Immediately all the canoes began to tow it ashore. They used a black-cod fish-line for the purpose.
After they were through eating they began to split off iron wedges. When they got through with that they began to hammer out the iron. They made spears and knives of it. The news of this iron passed over the island. At once people started to come for the iron. They exchanged a slave for one piece of iron. They kept selling it. They worked this into war spears throughout all of the villages.
One morning they came to gamble. As soon as they landed they spread out their gambling mats. They formed a line on the side toward the sea. The Middle-town people told the Inlet people not to be afraid. At once they began to gamble. And after the town people had put on their weapons they stood behind them. They held their spears, and they held their knives.
After they had talked for a while over the betting and had begun to gamble they stood with their spear points upward. Then they turned around at once and speared all. They killed all. The others did not scratch a skin in return. All their wives and their children who were in the houses they enslaved. Not one escaped.
At once they went out to get it. They came to tell him. They pulled it ashore, and, after they had carved it for a while, it was finished. And the day before the one on which they were to raise the grave post he pounded up tobacco and gave it to a shaman there.
Then his supernatural power entered him. They sang for him. Very soon he got through. Then he said: “There are many eyes of strangers upon me. Over there, too, lies my trunk.”
Now it was night. In the night the Inlet people came to the town and killed all the people. They enslaved all the women and the children. All the time that he who got the grave post was supposed to be sleeping alone he was in love with his mother-in-law. His name was “Sealion’s-neck.”
Łᴀ′gua was a Tlingit spirit, and there were several stories told about him. The following was taken down by me in English:
Łᴀ′gua once “came through” a Tlingit. He was a poor man, but his Power told him that some day he would be rich. By and by enemies came and carried him off as a slave. While he was still a slave, his Power came to him again, and told him that he would be a chief. He said: “No, how can I be a chief, when I am a slave sitting near the door? You better stop talking to me.” “No, by and by you shall be a chief.” He was a slave for five or six years, and during all of that time his Power kept promising him that he should be a chief. One night, when he was acting as a shaman, his Power threw something called Lā′nas ya′mᴀg̣a, which makes people love each other, on the whole village, and everyone fell into a deep sleep. Then he and some of his fellow slaves filled two canoes with children whom they were going to enslave, and the canoes went off without a paddle being used. Long after day came the parents awoke and pursued, but, when the pursuers came near them, the slaves’ canoes became islands covered with trees, and they were passed by. When the pursuers passed on their way back, the same thing happened again. Finally he reached his own town and, from the sale of the children he had taken off and from the property received from the relatives of the slaves he had liberated, he became a great chief.
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