31. Hak!ulâ’q[1]

There was a village way out at sea near the great ocean. In front of the village were two islands. The first one was large, the second one smaller than the first. The first island was the town of the sea otters. The sea otters lived at the foot of the trees on the large island, and so it was on the next smaller island. There were many sea otters on the two islands.

Between the two islands a child was floating. So it happened that if any one tried to go to these islands, he saw a beautiful child floating on the water. The canoe went toward it, and they took the child aboard; and whenever they camped on the large island, a monster (Hak!ulâ’q) would come out of the water and ask for her child. She would say, “Who stole my child?” Then a storm and high waves would strike against the high rocks on that island, and the island would become covered with foam, and the people would die there. The same thing happened for many years, and many people died there generation after generation. The people had no power to kill the monster. The whole village was in mourning, for their young men had almost disappeared. Only old men now remained in the village. Two or three canoes were lost every day, of those who tried to kill the child and the woman but could not do it.

Therefore the whole village assembled to talk about the monster that was destroying all their young men, and they agreed to make war against it. So one day they prepared their weapons, and made ready to go out against the monster and its child. On the following day they went. Part of the people went to battle against the monster, and the rest remained in the village.

When the party arrived at the place where the child was floating, they did not find it. So they came to the large island, and there they saw sea otters running about. They hunted them and clubbed a great number. They nearly forgot their grief. because they had slain so many sea otters. It was very calm that day, and before evening they loaded the canoes with the sea otters; and while on their way back home, between the two islands they saw the child floating on the surface of the water.

Then a violent man said, “I will kill the child to revenge the blood of my relatives! and they all agreed. He took up his spear and thrust his spear right through the heart of the floating child; and when he took the spear from the body, the monster came up from the water, and asked, “Who killed my only child?” The man who had killed it said, “I killed your child, for you destroyed all my family.” Then the monster shouted and cried aloud. A great whirlpool opened and swallowed the canoes. The first canoe went along very fast, so that the whirlpool could not catch it. The crew brought the sad news to the people who remained in the village.

Then that part of the people who had remained in the village made ready to fight the monster. On the following day they went; and when they arrived at the same place (that is, between the two islands), they did not see anything on the surface. They went right ahead until they arrived at the large island; and they saw that the land was full of sea otters, but they did not pay any attention to them. They came back soon. On their way back they saw a child floating there. Then the two canoes went on (?), and the two harpooneers took up their spears and thrust them through the body of the child. The monster came up and cried for her child, whose body was torn by the spears. She said in a low voice, “Why did you kill my child “and the harpooneers of the two canoes said, “Why are vou killing all our people: You have killed the greater part of our tribe.” Then she shouted as loud as the rolling thunder. A whirlpool opened and drew in the canoes, but the two canoes the harpooneers of which had the child’s body at the end of their spears could not be swallowed by the whirlpool. Then the monster seized the bow of each canoe and took them down to the bottom of the sea and destroyed them all.

Now only one young chief remained in the village, with his two nephews and his niece and the mother of these two young people. The young chief thought how he could overcome the monster of the sea. One day he said to his two nephews, ‘Let us build a good swift canoe, and let us try all kinds of trees!” and when he was cutting down the tree, two young men, who were also his nephews, came to him. Now there were four young men, two women, and the chief. They made a good-sized canoe; and when it was finished, they steamed it, and it was very good. Therefore they took it down, and went in it against the rolling waves. They were paddling hard, and the canoe was broken by the waves. They went home, broke it all to pieces, and threw the pieces into the fire.

Then they made another canoe of a spruce tree. It was better than the one they had built before. When it was finished, the chief went to test it on the sea. They went out; and while they were on the sea, they went against the rolling waves made by a great storm. The waves struck the canoe, and soon it broke. They went home and broke it all to pieces.

Then they made a new canoe of yellow cedar, better than the one they had built before. When they had finished it, they took it down, and went again against strong winds which raised mountainous waves. They struck it and broke it. Then they went home, broke it to pieces, and threw the pieces into the fire.

The chief tried all kinds of trees. Lāst of all he tried the yew tree, whose wood is very strong and hard. They built a better canoe than any of those before; and when they had finished it, they tested it on the stormy sea. Then they came back home safely.

Then the young chief ordered his four nephews to gather all kinds of food. On the following day he loaded his strong canoe with all kinds of provisions, and they started. The young women were with them. Their yew canoe was faster than a flying bird. They went along between the two islands, and soon they arrived at the place where the floating child was. Then the young chief said, “hist pass close by the floating child!’ They did as the chief had ordered them; and when they were passing near by, the chief took the child’s foot into the canoe, and said to his companions, ‘Pull hard!’ and they paddled as hard as they could, and reached the first island. Then they hauled up their canoe right in the woods, with the child and everything in it.

As soon as they had carried up their canoe, the monster came out of the water in front of them, and said, “Give me my child!” The chief replied, “Where are all my people whom you destroyed? I will not let your child go.” The monster woman said, “Give my child back to me, or [ I will overturn the island on which you camp.” The young chief replied, “Where are all my people whom you have destroyed?”

In the night the island rolled over and over slowly; but they all went aboard their canoe, and the canoe floated above the island. On the following morning, when the rolling of the island ceased, the canoe rested on top of it; but all the trees of the island were swept away, and nothing but bare reck remained. There was no way to escape from the island.

The monster was still pleading for her child, but the young chief continued to ask for his people. Not many days passed before the child died. Then the monster woman stopped asking for her child. The young chief was still on the island, and he was there for a long time with his companions. The chief still counted the days of his work,

One night about midnight the eldest one of the young men compelled his sister to have intercourse with him. The next morning she asked him to go with her to the beach. There the young woman took the skin of a white weasel and tied it on the back of the head of her brother. She said to him, “Go on and fly out to sea, that all the people may see you For that reason the male sawbill duck is white on the back of its head.

When the days that the young chief had counted were at an end, he said to his nephews, “Let us try to go to our empty village!” Therefore they let their canoe slide down on the side of the rock; and as soon as they reached the water, they paddled away hard. Soon they saw the monster sound asleep floating on the sea at the same place where the child had been floating. Therefore the harpooneer said to his companions, *‘I will take her into my canoe.” They went toward her, and the chief took her by the tail and threw her into the canoe. Then they pulled away as hard as they could; and when they had gone a short distance, the great whirlpool opened behind their swift canoe, but they paddled away to the shore. Soon they came to their old village. As soon as they arrived there, the monster woman died. They took her ashore, and the dead child. They took her into the house with her child and hung them up inside, one on each post. On the following day they all went aboard again and went to their village.

Then the whole village was astir, and the chief invited them into his house; and when they were all in, the chief of the village let the people dance and served his guests with food. After they had eaten, the eldest nephew of the chief said that his uncle wanted to marry one of the village chief’s relatives. The latter invited his people to tell them what the young chief said. Then the old people of the village chose one of the old chief’s nieces, a good-looking young princess. They gave her to the young chief to be his wife, and the whole village gave him all kinds of food, costly coppers. and elk skins. Then they went home to their own village.

The three nephews of the young chief wanted to take wives in the same village; and one day they went to the same village where the uncle had married, and they presented to the uncle of the young chief’s wife and to all her relatives the skin (4) of the child of the sea monster, and he gave his wife’s uncle the yew-wood canoe, and he gave to her father many costly coppers. He also gave presents to all the relatives of his wife. Then all his nephews married there, too, and his niece married the old chief’s son, and thus the empty village was peopled again. The young chief took the monster woman for his crest. He killed the two monsters, and the island was free to those who wanted to hunt sea otters. Therefore the young chief became great among his people.