War between the Pebble-town people and the Slaves
Reading edition
[Told by Abraham of Those-born-at-Qꜝā′dᴀsg̣o]
They then landed, and the town people carried up the things. With the rest of the property they brought up a big, heavy box. And, after food had been given to them to eat and evening was come, Sg̣agᴀ′ño’s companions went to a flat rock lying in front of the town and sat there. Then Sg̣agᴀ′ño, with two youths, went toward the upper end of the town.
They (the town people) then untied the heavy box. A dead man lay in it. Then all of the town people reached for their war spears. They ran down to the others, who were lying idly about, and killed all.
Always-ready then came out of the smoke hole, and he walked about on the roof wearing his armor. They shot at him then with arrows. They did not pierce him. He then went back and shot at them in turn. The next time they went to war they climbed up to the top of the cliff. They tried to roll down stones upon them. These did not come near the houses. The stones all skipped over the houses. And they again went home.
And, after they had held them besieged for a while, they were straitened for food. Then Always-ready told his brother-in-law to make ten bows for himself. And, after he had worked upon them for a while, he finished them. Fine feathers were fastened near the tips. And his brother-in-law gave them to him. He was glad to have them. Then he gave up the big cedar bow he always used in favor of these new ones.
The people of the town began to dislike him. His sisters and his brothers-in-law were affected with the same feeling, because, on account of him, they were always hungry.
One day his brothers-in-law came in from fishing. His sister gave him the white part of the belly of the halibut they had caught. On account of that he went out fishing with three persons. He took his ten bows with him, and he took his two arrow boxes. But he left his cedar bow behind.
And on the day after he went fishing, very early, they again came to fight. And, as he used to do, one came out on the top of the house and said “Ha-ha.” And when they shot up at him he went in. When they again shot down from the fort, one of the floating arrows stood on end in the water. They brought it in. From it hung a small stone. Then they handed it to an old man among them, and, after he had thought about it for a while, he said they did that as a sign that he (Always-ready) was out fishing. The ten canoes then started seaward.
He then threw the broken pieces of the bows and the two arrow boxes into the sea. He did not scratch anyone’s skin. They were afraid of him. When he threw his arrows away they went to him. And they killed the three who were fishing with him, but him they captured.
And, after they had looked at him for a while, they wanted to see how well he could shoot. They then stood up a stick on the beach, and Sg̣agᴀ′ño had something white hung upon it. They then gave him a bow and arrows. He did not like the arrows. They handed him then one with an iron point. And, when he had set the arrow on the bow, he turned around quickly to where Sg̣agᴀ′ño’s nephew sat behind him and shot him. He fell backward from the box on which he was sitting.
He was gone from among the families. The trouble then stopped. And they also put the chief’s son into a box and started sorrowfully away.
When he (Sg̣agᴀ′ño) ran into the woods at Songs-of-victory town, and after he reached Tcꜝā′ał, a woman of the family composed a crying song for him:
The first of these families was the noted Raven family that owned Tcꜝā′ał, on the west coast of Moresby island; the latter, one of the most noted Raven families among the people in the Ninstints territory.
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