35. The Story of Asdi-wā’l

36. Waux, the Son of Asdi-wā’l

In the story of Asdi-wā’l we did not tell about his only son. Now we will take it up again, at the time when Asdi-wā’l was living among his brothers-in-law.

His wife loved him very much because she thought he was a supernatural being. Not many days after they had married, the young woman bore him a son; and his father, Asdi-wā’l, called his son Waux. That means “very light.” His son would fly away like a spark.

The child grew up and became strong in his mind. He went everywhere with his father. [He went hunting in the woods or on the slippery rocks above the mountains; and he knew well how to hunt, because his father taught him how to hunt wild animals. When he went up the mountains with his father, his father would give him a spear and his dogs, and also his large hunting-hat, his little basket, and mat blanket, and his pole, to take care of while he crept up to the animals. He himself only took his bow and arrows and his snowshoes.

The boy loved his father very much. When he moved to Nass River with his father and his uncles, they stopped halfway, and the young man went up the mountains with his father Asdi-wā’l. There they killed some bears in their dens. When they came home late in the evening, the boy told his uncles how many black bears his father had slain, and the young man took care of all the weapons which his father had given him.

When his uncles left his father at Ksᴇ-ma’ksᴇn, the boy did not want to go with them, but they compelled him to do so. Therefore he wept bitterly with his mother all the way while they were going up to Nass River.

Not many days after they arrived at Nass River, the mother and her son took a canoe by night and came down from Nass River, trying to find Asdi-wā’]. When they reached the place on the following day, he had disappeared, and his wife and son were full of sorrow. They searched Ksᴇ-ma’ksᴇn, and thought that some wild animal had come and devoured him. Then they went right down to their home on Skeena River.

The young man was a very skillful hunter. He knew his father’s hunting-ground, and he knew also how to use his father’s weapons. He would kill all kinds of animals, and he became very rich in property. He had meat and tallow of all kinds of animals, fat, and skins of all kinds; and he made black horn spoons of mountain-goat horn, and spoons of elk antler, and dippers of elk antler.

Before his mother died she wanted her son to marry one of her cousins, and he did what his mother wanted him to do, Not many days after he had married, his mother died, and the young couple were happy. He always went alone to hunt on his father’s hunting-ground. He slew many animals. Sometimes his wife would go with him. There was a great mountain on which his father used to hunt mountain goats in the fall, when they were very fat. He went there, and camped in the hut that his father had built at the foot of the high mountain.

His wife was with child, and the children struggled in her womb: and when the time came, behold! she gave birth to twins. In the fall they moved from the village and went to the foot of the high mountain to live in the hunting-hut. They camped there, as they had often done before. He killed the mountain goats, and they filled the hut with meat and tallow and fat. In the winter he went home, and gave a great feast to all the tribes of the Tsimshian, and he proclaimed his new name which his father Asdi-wā‘l had given to him as soon as he was born. His name was Waux; and he was a great hunter in those days, and his fame spread among all the tribes of the Tsimshian, and the animals of the woods knew him also.

His two children followed him wherever he went. One time he went up a newly discovered mountain, and there he lost his two children. They slipped on one side of that new mountain, and both died there in the Valley Of Supernatural Beings. Waux, however,

was going to die there too. They mourned for the two children whom he had lost there. So they moved to the old hut at the foot of the high mountain, and Waux went every day to hunt mountain sheep. He enlarged the old hut which his late father had built. and filled it with dried meat and fat.

Late in the fall, when the leaves were falling, he went up the same mountain for fresh meat. He forgot to take his spear along. He took only his hunting-pole and his dog, his mat blanket, his little root basket, and his hunting-hat. He saw great flocks of mountain sheep, and he pursued them, and the mountain sheep had no way to escape. There was only a narrow cleft on one side of the high mountain. Then all the sheep went into the cleft; and at the end of the cleft there was only bare rock like glass, and all the sheep slipped there. One large sheep was the last; and before the large. sheep jumped off the slippery rock, it kicked the side of the mountain, and leaned its head against the rock to show that the mountain was angry with the hunter.

After the sheep had done so, it leaped down the slippery rock. Then the high mountain shook for a while. Therefore Waux struck his hunting-pole through the hard rock. He took hold of it. and called his dog to his side. When the mountain shook again, he looked down to his hut and shouted down to his wife, saying, ‘Sacrifice fat to the supernatural powers, for I can neither go on nor turn back!” The woman replied, “I can not hear what you say! What is it /” “Oh, sacrifice fat to a supernatural being!’ She cried out and answered, ‘Shall I eat fat’? Waux answered still louder, “Offer to a supernatural being!’ She replied again, “Shall I eat fat?” Waux repeated the same words over and over again, but his wife repeated her own wish.

Finally Waux shouted, and said, “Go and eat all the fat you can! Melt it all and eat it; and after you have eaten the melted fat, drink cold water and le down across an old log!” Then she heard her husband’s words distinctly. She hastened into the hut, made a large fire, and melted much fat, and ate it all. Then she felt satisfied and drank much water. She went toward an old log, lay down across it, and her body broke apart. She was transformed into flint, which is still lying there at the foot of the high mountain. There is flint all over it, and a white stone like white marble is inside.

Waux himself was transformed into stone, with his hunting-hat and his mat blanket and his pole, and his dog also was transformed into stone. He is standing there up to this day. The reason is that he forgot to take his spear. He had used the spear often before when some mountains were shaking. He just put the spear across the chasms between rocks after they had shaken, and a way opened for him; but this time he had no way, and his wife misunderstood his request to offer to a supernatural being.