29. Sucking Intestines

There was a great town at Metlakahtla, the town of the G-i-spa-xlâ’°ts, called the Red-Bear Village (Lax-mᴇs-ô’l) in which a great chief and chieftainess and the chief’s nephew were living. The young man fell in love with the chieftainess. She loved him very much, and the young man loved her, but the chief did not know about it. The young man often went to her while the chief was away.

After a while she was with child, and the chieftainess resolved that she would pretend to die on behalf of her lover. So they agreed on this plan; and on the following day the chieftainess pretended to be very sick, because she loved the young man better than her husband, and she wanted to marry that young man.

She had not been sick many days when she said to her husband, “When I die, bury me in a large box. Do not burn my body, but put my horn spoon in my coffin, and my marten blanket, and my fish-knife.”

After a short time she pretended to die. Then the whole tribe of the chief assembled and cried for her. The people made a large box to bury her. They put her into it, with two marten blankets and one sea-otter garment, and also many dozens of beautiful horn spoons, and with her fish-knife. They put the coffin on the tree on the little island in front of the village. Now she pretended to be dead.

For two nights the chief went to the little island, and sat rightunder the coffin in which the chieftainess was lying, and wept. While he was there, he saw grubs falling down from the coffin. Then the chief thought, “Her body is full of grubs,” and this made him cry bitterly: but actually the chieftainess in the coffin was scraping her horn spoon with her fish-knife, and the scrapings of the horn spoon looked just like maggots.

As soon as the chieftainess was in the coffin, the young man went to her every night while the village people were all asleep. He went over to the little island, climbed the tree, and kicked the cover off the coffin, saying, ‘Let me in, ghost!’ Then the chieftainess would laugh in her coffin-bed, “Ha, ha! in your behalf I am pretending to make grubs out of myself.’ Then she opened the cover of the coffin, The man went in and lay down with her. The young man always went up to her every night, but the great chief did not know about it. He was still weeping, and no one could comfort him.

One night another young man went to the little island where the chieftainess was, and was sitting with his sweetheart under the chieftainess’s coffin. Then they saw a young man coming to the place where they were. They recognized the chief’s nephew, who climbed up to the chieftainess’s coffin, kicked the cover, and said, “Let me in, ghost!” and they heard the chieftainess laugh in her coffin. They heard her reply, “Ha, ha! I am pretending to make grubs out of myself.’ Then they saw the young man going into the coffin, and they heard them talking in the coffin. Before daylight the chief’s nephew came out of the coffin.

Then they told the chief what they had seen; and he sent over his two attendants to watch the chieftainess’s coffin, and he gave them this command: “If it is true, throw down the coffin.” Therefore the two attendants went to the island and watched the coffin; and while the people of the village were asleep, they saw a man coming over. They recognized the chief’s nephew. He climbed the tree to where the chieftainess lay; and as soon as he reached the top of the tree, he kicked the coffin, saving, “Let me in, ghost!” and they heard the chieftainess laugh, and reply, “Ha, ha! I am pretending to make grubs out of myself on your behalf.’ The attendants heard them talking in the coffin; and at midnight, when everything was quiet and they knew that they were asleep, they climbed the tree, threw down the large coflin, and the body of the chieftainess burst, and the chief’s nephew also was killed.

When the men came down, they saw a baby boy among the intestines of his mother. They went back to the chief’s house and told him that it was true, and they also told him that the child was alive.

Then the chief ordered them to bring the child to him, so they brought the child to him. It was sucking the intestines of its mother; therefore its name was Sucking Intestines. Then the chief took a good female slave to be its nurse. The child grew up in the chief’s house, and the chief loved the little boy very much. When he was able to walk, he would go very often to the little island to get chewing-gum from the spruce trees, for he liked chewing-gum very much. He got it from the same spruce tree on which his mother’s coffin had been placed when she pretended to make maggots out of herself,

The chief took him over to the island, and burned some gum for him to let the child have the chewing-guin. He did so many times, going with his slaves.

One day the boy walked over to the island alone to take gum from the same spruce tree on which his mother’s coflin had been. He liked best to be on the little island where he was born, and played around there almost every day, and the slaves would take him over to the island. He became a beautiful boy, and the chief loved him more and more every day.

One day the boy said to his father, ‘Let us go to the little island and burn some gum!” So the chief went with him, together with some of his slaves. Then the chief ordered his slaves to burn off the gum, and they did so. The chief was sitting near the spruce tree, while the boy stood in front of him. Then a flame of fire, like a tongue, took the boy away from the chief, and the boy was burned to death. The chief mourned again, for the fire had swallowed up the boy. His is the end of Sucking Intestines. Nowadays we still call the little island Where She Pretended To Make Grubs Out Of Herself.