55. Great Shaman

In olden times there were in this country a great many shamans who were like supernatural beings among the people, and who, through their magic, worked wonders among them. Everybody was afraid of their supernatural powers. They could heal the sick and punish those who did not believe in them. They would help those who paid them much, and kill those who were against them.

Now, there were three men in one tribe. They lived at K-lax-g·īls River, on the south side of the Skeena River. They talked day by day of the power of the shamans and how they obtained their power

One of these men said to his friends, “I heard of a deep pit down on this side of Skeena River, where some people went down and obtained their power from the supernatural being in the hole.” Therefore they all decided one day to go down and see the pit.

One day they took a canoe, and the three went aboard. They started from K-lax-g·īls by canoe, and before dark they reached the deep pit. There they waited until the following day, and in the night they offered food to the supernatural being in the pit. Early the following day they all went up to where the great pit was. When they arrived there, they found a deep pit at the foot of a steep rock in a cave. They called the cave Cave Of Fear. Nobody except great shamans can enter it.

Now, these men did not know what to do. Therefore one of them said, “Let us take a cedar-bark rope, and we will climb down!” So they took a long cedar-bark line. They tied one man to the end of it, and two let him down gently. As they were letting him down, and when he was halfway down, the man who was tied to the end of the line shouted, “Haul me up again, haul me up again, lest I die!”

The two men who were standing at the mouth of the pit pulled as hard as they could; and when the man came up again, his body was red from the stings of insects, and he told them that when he was halfway down the pit a great swarm of insects came and stung him.

Then the second man tied a rope around his body, and they let him down the pit. When he was halfway down, the swarm of buzzing insects attacked him. They stung his body so that he cried out louder and louder, and those who were standing at the mouth of the pit hauled him up again: and when he reached the surface, behold! his body was bleeding.

Then the third man, the steersman of the canoe, tied the end of the cedar-bark line around his body. They let him down gently, and he went right down to the bottom of the dark pit. He did not feel the stings of the insects. There was thick darkness down below, and he groped along the bottom. The line was still tied to his body. While he was groping about there, he heard a noise like the rolling of thunder in’ the bottom of the great pit. It resounded again and again. Then a great door opened on the east side of the bottom of the pit, and, behold! a hairy young man stood there, who inquired of him why he had come to the pit. The man replied that he had come because they were in need of a great shaman. So the hairy man invited him in. The door which had opened looked like the sun shining through “a window. The steersman went in there. Inside there were not many people, only a great chief sitting in front of a large fire. He wore his crown of grizzly-bear claws filled with eagle down. Two live rattles were on the ground on each side, and he wore his dancing-apron.

When the man came into the house, the chief did not look at him. The man went in and sat down by the side of the great fire. No one spoke to him. After a while another door opened on the east side of the house, and a young shaman came in with his crown of grizzly-bear claws on his head, his apron tied around his waist, and a rattle in his right hand, an eagle tail in his left. Then the boards for beating time ran in through the door like serpents, and each laid itself on one side of the large fire. Then weasel batons ran along behind the boards.

The young shaman began to sing his own song; and as he shook his rattle, the weasel batons began to beat of themselves, and a skin drum ran ahead and beat of itself. Then a great many shamans came out, and each took his own supernatural power out of his mouth, and put it into the mouth of the visitor. When they had all done so, the great chief who had been sitting by the fire stood up and stepped up to the man, put his hands on him, and rubbed his eyes four times. Then he went back to his place and sat down, and all the shamans were gone. The man did not see where they had gone to, but they all vanished from his sight.

Suddenly he was again in complete darkness, and he felt that the line was still tied around his body. He shook it, and shouted, and they pulled him up. Then the men went back to their own town: and when they had gone halfway, the man in the bow of the canoe fell back in a faint, but the two others poled up the river. Before they arrived at home, the man in the middle of the canoe fell back in a faint, and the man in the stern poled the canoe up to their home.

The two men who had fainted vomited blood as a sign that they had obtained supernatural power, and they became shamans. Only one of them had not obtained supernatural power, and no dream had come to him. He was still waiting. After a long while these two men went about and healed the sick.

Now, at the end of the summer the supernatural powers took the man away from home. Nobody knew where he had gone. At the end of four days he was found lying on the floor of his house, and around him terrible whistling was heard. No one went near him. He was alone in his house singing and ready to work.

Therefore he called all the people into his house, and he told them how he had entered the house of the supernatural power in the pit; and he said, ‘They have given me great powers to do what nobody else can do. I will bring back to life the dead.” The supernatural power had given him the name Only One.

He did wonderful work among the people, healing them, reviving the dead; and his fame spread through all the villages round about, and many sick people were anxious to see him.

Other shamans tried to kill him with their powers, but he destroyed them all; and not many people died in his time, because the diseases were afraid of him. Every day he was called into another village by rich and poor, and he came to be very wealthy. Some shamans, however, were jealous of him because his supernatural power was stronger than theirs, so they sought how they might kill him. He did all his duty among the sick people, and those who were sick loved him.

One day a canoe came in front of his house. It was sent by a chief in another village to call him, for the chief’s son was very sick. Only One’s supernatural power told him that the prince was not sick, but that they wanted to kill him and his supernatural power. Then the great shaman called all his attendants. They took a large canoe and went down the river; and when they arrived, all the people of the village went into the chief’s house. Only One had on his crown of grizzly-bear claws and his apron; he had his live rattle in his right hand and the white eagle tail in his left. He put around his neck the ring set with bones representing various kinds of animals. He went up to the house with his attendants; and as soon as he came in, he stood over the sick one, and asked him, “How long have you been sick?” He replied, “Not many days.”—“You pretended to be sick. Therefore from this time on you shall never be well again your whole life long.” The chief ordered his attendants to give them to eat. Therefore they spread the mats on one side of the large fire, and they served them with food. Then the chief ordered his attendants to bring water. They were to bring water from an old rotten canoe. The young men went; and before they came in, Only One’s supernatural power told him that they were bringing water mixed with urine. When the young men came in, the chief asked them to give water to the shaman first. They did as they were ordered; and when the shaman took up the bucket, he stood up and said to the young man who brought it to him, “Drink this water yourself or you will die right here. Go and drink your own urine! Then this young man was very much ashamed, and he died right there. Then the shaman went back to his home by canoe.

They were not very far from the village they had left when Only One said, “I will take that spring of water with me to my own house.” So they went ashore to where the spring of water was—the spring of the rotten old canoe. He carried it in his grizzly-bear garment. He went down to his canoe, and the spring was dried up. He took it along up river. Before they arrived at their own town, they camped. He went up and opened his grizzly-bear garment and put the new spring there. It is still there.

Not many days passed before a large canoe came from another village, from G·it-qxā’la. They were sent by another shaman who was very sick. Only One went there with his attendants; and when they arrived, the G·it-qxā’la men tried to kill him; but they could not do it, for Only One’s supernatural power foretold him what they were going to do to him. When they had gone up to the house of the shaman who said that he was ill, he entered, and saw a man who was very sick. The sick person was very thin. He was almost only bones. Then Only One knew what made him sick, for one of his supernatural powers had been placed in the bone of a corpse. Only One took it out from there, and the sick man’s supernatural power recovered, and the sick shaman also revived. Therefore the sick shaman paid him well.

Before Only One left the village, the cannibal dancer invited him and all his attendants, and they cooked seal for them. They cut up the seal skin and blubber in a long line from the foot to the head of the seal, and they cooked it; and three cannibals took care of one box in which the seal was being cooked, but the box of which the three men took care contained the meat of dead people. They thought that when the great shaman should eat flesh of the dead people, he would also die, and all his supernatural power would flee from him. Before they brought the boiled seal to them, Only One’s supernatural power came to him and told him that they were ready to give him the flesh of dead people. He said, “You shall eat it, and I will help you and take it out of your left side; and after you have eaten it, give each of them a piece.”

Now they were ready. The three great men took a long pointed staff, and each had a piece of meat at the end of the staff. They placed this before Only One, and the great shaman opened his mouth and swallowed a piece at a time; and after he had eaten the three pieces, he stood up quickly, opened his left side, and rubbed it, and the end of the piece of meat of a corpse which he had eaten came out. He took the end and pulled it out. Then he went to the three men who had each given him a piece. He stood before the first one, and said, ‘Now, great shaman, open your mouth and eat this!’ The man opened his mouth and ate slowly. Only One pulled out the other piece and gave to the second man, saying, “Now, great shaman, eat this!” Then he pulled out the last piece and gave to the last one, and he said, “Now, great shaman, open your mouth and eat this meat of a corpse!” and after he had done so, the three men died right there. Then all the people were afraid of him.

Only One’s fame was spread over all the villages. Many years passed, and he was always wandering about doing his work. One winter while he was seated in his house, one of his supernatural powers came to him and foretold that three messengers would come in the evening from another chief, Bagus,[1] whose son had been sick for a long time. ‘There is not a shaman who can cure him. You shall go with them, and I shall be with you and help you, but do not leave your chamber-vessel. Take it along when you go; and as often as you feel that you are almost unconscious, take some of the urine in your mouth and blow it into the air above your head, until you arrive in the house of the chief Bagus.”

Late in the evening the great shaman called all his nephews, and asked them, “Who will go with me tonight when the messengers come to take me away from here?” One of the young men said, ‘I will go with you, uncle.” When all the people of the village were asleep, about midnight, the messengers came in. Only One awoke when they came. They called him, and he went down with them. Only One saw a new canoe on the beach. They all went aboard, and Only One was ready. He wore his crown of grizzly-bear claws, and he held his live rattle in his right hand, and his root-basket chamber-vessel in his left. He also wore his apron. Then the three messengers said, ‘Lie down in the canoe!” but he did not do so, because his supernatural power told him to keep awake, lest he die, because these messengers were dangerous animals. Before daylight they reached the front of Chief Bagus’s town. While they were on their way, and before they reached the town, Only One felt that he was losing consciousness. Then he took the urine out of the basket and blew it into the air, as his supernatural power had ordered him, and his heart became strong again; but the three men put their hands to their noses because they could not endure the smell. Twice these three men tried to make Only One unconscious, but on account of the smell they were in great fear of him. They were afraid they would die before they reached home. As soon as the canoe touched the shore, the shaman jumped ashore and walked up to the house of Chief Bagus, led by the three messengers. He entered there, and the sick prince of Bagus lay there; and an old shaman was seated by the foot of the prince, holding his rattle in his hand.

Only One stood by the sick prince’s head, and he saw an arrow right between his ribs. Chief Bagus, sitting in the rear of his house, said to him, “My dear Only One, [ I ask you to cure my sick son.” Only One went toward the sick person, took the end of the broken arrow, and pulled it out, and he rubbed the wounded side of the prince Bagus, and the prince was cured and arose.

The great chief was glad to see that his son was cured. Only One wanted to go back home in the evening. and the chief promised to send him home in the night. Only One went to the old shaman and asked him how long he had been in there. He told him that Chief Bagus had invited him when he was young, but that now he was very old, and that also part of his body had become stone, and that therefore he could not go back home. He told him that many shamans had tried to heal the prince, and that they had all failed, and that the chief had thrown them into a lake of blood, and that they were still there.

In the evening Only One went out with the Prince of Bagus; and the prince caught one child that was playing outside, and gave it to Only One to be his supernatural power. So he took it, and placed it in his long hah-. He went down to the beach and boarded the same new canoe, and the same three men paddled away toward his home. As soon as the canoe touched the shore, the sun rose, and the canoe and the three men who took him home were transformed into a log of driftwood. Only One lived many years after this; and it is said that he never died, but that he was taken by the supernatural powers into their home in the deep pit.