62. The Cannibal

(His is a great story of which the people were much afraid. They had four dances, which were very curious and important,—the Cannibal, who ate dead persons; the Dog Eater, who ate live dogs; the Destroyers, who broke up houses, canoes, and boxes: and those who threw hot ashes over the heads of the people. They say that the great supernatural beings from the mountains took some one and taught him how to act.)

There was a young prince in a village of the G·it-q!ā’°da whose name was Gather On The Water. One winter, when the time had come for his dance, his father called the companies of Cannibals to let his son join them. Therefore one day these people took the young man, took him around the village, knocked at every house, and, after they had been to every house, all the men shouted, and said that this young man had gone up into the air or that the supernatural power had taken him away to his home in the mountains. They deceived many common people. These dancers were chiefs and princesses, and all the head men, old and young.

They took this young man and placed him in the trunk of a large tree secretly. They put a long ladder against the tree and sent the young man up. He went up the tree and entered a small hut. Then they took the ladder away from the tree, intending to come back at the end of ten days.

The young man staid on the tree; and the first night when he was there, some one came up to his hut, and asked him, “What are you doing in there, young man?” He replied, “I am a dancer.” Then the visitor laughed at him, and said, ‘That is not the way of your dance for the dancer to stay on a tree. Wait until I come again! I will show you the ways of a true dancer.’ So he went away. After he had been away a short time, he came back with a dead child; and he said to the young man who lived in the hut on the tree, “Now open your mouth and eat this dead child!’ The young man was afraid. The person who held the dead child in his arms said again, “If you don’t do it, I will eat you right here!” Therefore the young man opened his mouth and swallowed the dead child’s body whole. The supernatural being asked him, “Do you feel satisfied now?’ The young man replied, ‘No, I do not feel that I ate anything.”—Now come with me,” said the supernatural being. They flew down to the village, and the supernatural being said to him, “Now shout and catch one of the people!” Then he shouted, “Hop, hop!” caught one of the young men, and ate him as a cat eats a mouse. Thus he did to the young men; and he acted like the supernatural being, which was glad to see that he had eaten a whole man. Then they went back to the tree; and the supernatural being said to him, “Whenever you feel hungry, take a person and eat him in front of the village.” Then the being went away.

The people in the village always heard a terrible whistle on the tree behind the village, and everybody noticed that before he came down he shouted twice, and then he would fly down and kill some one in front of the village, and everybody was afraid of him. His fame spread all over the different villages, and all the Cannibals gathered and tried to kill him.

All these companies of dancers gathered in one house; and they prepared a mixture of poisonous herbs, urine, and other bad things, and they began to sing. While they were singing, they heard a cry from the tree. Then they heard a noise on the roof of the house in which they were. He was coming right. down into the house where they were assembled, and caught a person in the house. Then they threw the mixture over him and caught him. They were pouring the mixture into his mouth, and they made a heavy ring of red-cedar bark mixed with white for him, and they gave him a large grizzly-bear skin to be his garment, and they put a red band of red-cedar bark on each leg, and rings of red-cedar bark on each hand; and everybody was glad because they had tied him hand and foot.

While he was sleeping, a terrible whistling was heard in his hair, although there was nobody with him. They watched over him for four nights. Then they did not give him any more medicine, and they all went. to sleep. Now the great Cannibal threw off all his cedar-bark ties around his neck, and the large grizzly-bear skin, and the cedar-bark bands that were on his feet and on his hands. Then he shouted and caught one of the men who was holding his footbands of red-cedar bark, and he ate him right there. Then he flew up to his house on the tree, and the noise of the whistles struck terror to those in the houses.

He came down twice every day to catch people, and he ate them, and he went everywhere to devour people.

Then the chief said, “Let all the people of the village move tomorrow!” On the following morning they moved, leaving the young man behind; and he flew to every place, caught people, and devoured them, Once he flew away, and alighted on a very high mountain on Nass River. Then he ran down, and saw a fish lying on a sandbar at low water. He started a little fire at the foot of a large tree, gathered some fuel, and roasted the fish by the fire. Then a supernatural being came to him, and asked him, “What are you doing here?” He replied, “I am roasting fish.” The supernatural being said, “His fish is not fit for you to eat. Are you not ashamed of yourself? Is that the way of dancers? Fly away to yonder place on the large tree!” Then he flew back to his own place.

He continued to eat live people as well as the bodies of the dead, and all the villages were in great distress on account of him.

They held a council in order to determine how to catch him. They made a large trap of wood: and in the night, after they had finished the trap, the companies of dancers assembled. They sang and beat time on their wooden drums, and beat with sticks on planks. He came down from the roof right into the house, and the trap shut and he was caught there. Then they all went to him, caught him, and threw the medicine over him, and they invited all the companies of their village and all the various companies assembled at the appointed time. They brought slaves to feed the dancers: and as they all came there, the dancer came forth and they gave slaves to him. He ate them all. Now his stomach was full of the flesh of many slaves, and he was satisfied. Then they put a large grizzly-bear skin on him, and a large ring of red-cedar bark on his neck and one on his head, and red-cedar bark rings on his hands and on his feet; and at the end of four days, in the morning, they beat a wooden drum and beat their sticks on the planks with thundering noise to drive away his supernatural power; and he went out alone, walking down to the beach: and at low water he sat down on a large round rock, his face toward the village, and everybody came out to see him. Then the tide rose, and the rock on which he was seated was floating on the water; and when the tide went out, the rock grounded at the same place where it had been before. When the sun set, he walked up to the house where all the people were assembled. As soon as he came in, they all ran up to him. They took a heavy pole, threw him on the ground, and put his neck under the pole, trying to kill him; but the supernatural power came and helped him and delivered him from thew hands. He escaped, and he would always come down to the village; but he did not take so many people as he had done before. He just killed some one, but did not eat him. Many years passed, and he still lived on the tree. After two generations had passed, his voice ceased. That is the end.