Post by blackcrowheart on Sept 20, 2007 14:15:12 GMT -5
The Story Of The Four Brothers[1] - Tlingit
There were four brothers who owned a dog of an Athapascan variety called
dz����.[2] They had one sister. One day the dog began barking at something.
Then KAck!A'Lk!, the eldest brother, put red paint inside of his blanket,
took his rattle, and followed. The other brothers went with him. They
pursued it up, up, up, into the sky. The dog kept on barking, and they did
not know what it was going to do. It was chasing a cloud.
When they got to the other side of the world they came out on the edge of a
very steep cliff. They did not know what to do. The dog, however, went right
down the cliff, and they saw the cloud still going on ahead. Now these
brothers had had nothing to eat and were very hungry. Presently they saw the
dog coming up from far below bringing the tail of a salmon. After a while
they saw it run back.
Then they said to one another, "What shall we do? We might as well go down
also." But, when Lq!ay����'k!, the youngest brother, started he was smashed in
pieces. The two next fared in the same way. KAck!A'Lk!, however, braced his
stick against the wall behind him and reached the bottom in safety. Then he
put the bones of each of his brothers together, rubbed red paint on them,
and shook his rattle over them, and they came to life.
Starting on again around this world, they came to a creek full of salmon.
This was where the dog had been before. When they got down to it they saw a
man coming up the creek. He was a large man with but one leg and had a kind
of spear in his hand with which he was spearing all the salmon. They watched
him from between the limbs of a large, dead tree. When he got through
hooking the salmon, he put all on two strings, one of which hung out of each
corner of his mouth. Then he carried them down.
Then Lq!ay����'k! said to his brothers, "Let us devise some plan for getting
the salmon spear." So he seized a salmon, brought it ashore and skinned it.
First KAck!A'Lk! tried to get inside of it but failed. When Lq!ay����'k! made
the attempt, however, he swam off at once, and, if one of his brothers came
near him, he swam away. Then the other brothers sat up in the dead tree,
KAck!A'Lk! at the top.
When the big man came up again after salmon, Lq!ay����'k! swam close up to him,
and he said, "Oh! my salmon. It is a fine salmon." But, when he made a
motion toward it with his spear, it swam back into deep water. Finally it
swam up close, and the big man speared it easily. Then Lq!ay����'k! went to the
tail of the fish, cut the string which fastened the big man's spear point to
the shaft and swam off with the point. Upon this the big man pulled his
shaft up, looked at it and said, "My spear is gone." Then he went
downstream. In the meantime Lq!ay����'k! came ashore, got out of the fish, came
up to his usual station on the lowest limb of the tree, and sat down there.
They had him sit below because he talked so much, and because he was the
most precipitate.
That night the one-legged man did not sleep at all on account of his lost
spear. He was using it in working for the bear people. When he came up next
morning he had a quill in his hands which would tell him things. He took
this about among the trees, and, when he came to that on which the brothers
were sitting, it bent straight down. Then he cried, "Bring my spear this
way." Although he saw no one, he knew that there were people there who had
it. Then he came to the bottom of the tree, seized Lq!ay����'k! and tore him in
pieces. So he served the next two brothers. But KAck!A'Lk! had his dog,
which he was able to make small, concealed under his coat and, after his
brothers were torn up, he let it go, and it tore the big man all to pieces.
Because he had his red paint, rattle, and dog he cared for nothing. Now he
put the red paint on his brothers' bodies and shook the rattle over them so
that they came to life.
Next morning they got into the same tree again. Then they saw a man with two
heads placed one over another coming up the stream. It was the bear chief.
He hooked a great many salmon and put them, on pieces of string on each side
of his mouth. Next evening a little old man came up. Lq!ay����'k! came down and
asked, "What are you doing here?" He said, "I have come up after salmon."
But he could hook none at all, so Lq!ay����'k! caught a lot for him. Then
Lq!ay����'k! asked him: "What does that double-head that came up here do?" The
old man said, "I will tell you about it." So they said to him: "Now we want
you to tell the truth about this? What does he really do when he gets home
with his salmon? We will get you more salmon if you tell us truly." And the
old man answered: "When he gets home with a load of salmon, he leaves it
down by the river. Then he takes off his skin coat and hangs it up." This is
what he told them.
The next time the two-heads came up and began to throw salmon ashore, it
said all at once, "I feel people's looks."[3] As soon as he came opposite
the place where they were sitting, KAck!A'Lk! threw his dog right upon him.
It caught this big bear by the neck and killed him. Every time thereafter,
when the little old man came up, they questioned him about the people in the
place he came from.
At last they caught a lot of salmon and prepared to descend. Then KAck!A'Lk!
put on the bearskin, placed his brothers under his arms inside of it, took
strings of salmon as the bear had done, and started on. When he came in
front of the houses he acted just like the two-headed man. First he entered
the two-headed man's house and shook his skin, whereupon his brothers and
the dog passed behind the screens in the rear of the house and hid
themselves. After that he began fixing his salmon, and, when he was through,
took off his coat, and hung it up in the manner that had been described to
him.
Toward evening a great deal of noise was heard outside, made over some
object. Lq!ay����'k! very much wanted to go out and look, but they tried to
prevent him. Finally he did go out and began to play with the object,
whereupon the players rolled it on him and cut him in two. After that the
two brothers next older went out and were cut in two in the same manner.
After this KAck!A'Lk! sent his dog out. He seized the object, shook it and
made it fly to the tops of the mountains, where it made the curved shapes
the mountains have to-day. Then it rolled right back again. When it rolled
back, the dog became very angry, seized it a second time, shook it hard, and
threw it so high that it went clear around the sun. It made the halo of
light seen there. Then KAck!A'Lk! took his brothers' bodies, pieced them
together, put red paint upon them and shook his rattle over them. They came
to life again. Then he took the dog, made it small, and put it under his
arm; and they started off. Since that time people have had the kind of spear
(d����na') above referred to. The brothers started on with it, and, whenever
they were hungry, they got food with it. They always kept together.
After a while they came across some Athapascan Indians called Worm-eating
people (W����n-xa qoan). These were so named because, when they killed game,
they let worms feed upon it, and, when the worms had become big enough, they
ate them through holes in the middle of their foreheads which served them as
mouths. Lq!ay����'k! wanted to be among these Athapascans, because they had
bows and arrows and wore quills attached to their hair. They used their bows
and arrows to shoot caribou, and, when they were pursuing this animal, they
used to eat snow.
After Lq!ay����'k! had obtained his bow and arrows they came out at a certain
place, probably the Stikine river, and stayed among some people who were
whipping one another for strength, in the sea. Every morning they went into
the water with them.
At that time they thought that Lq!ay����'k! was going with his sister, and they
put some spruce gum around the place where she slept. Then they found the
spruce gum on him and called him all sorts of names when they came from
bathing. They called him Messenger-with-pitch-on-his-thigh (Naq����'n����
q!Acg����q!o), the messenger being a brother-in-law of the people of the clan
giving a feast. They named him so because they were very much ashamed. This
is why people have ever since been very watchful about their sisters.
Because he had been fooling with his sister, when Lq!ay����'k! went out, his
brothers said to him, "You do not behave yourself. Go somewhere else. You
can be a thunder (h����L!)." They said to him, "H����'agun k����d����'."
This is why, when thunder is heard, people always say, "You gummy thigh." It
is because Lq!ay����'k! became a thunder. Their sister was ashamed. She went
down into Mount Edgecumbe (L!ux) through the crater.
Because the thunder is a man, when the thunder is heard far out at sea,
people blow up into the air through their hands and say, "Let it drive the
sickness away," or "Let it go far northward." The other brothers started
across the Stikine and became rocks there.
Footnotes:
[1] This story was told by Dekin����'k!u. According to some, the story begins
with the birth of five children from a dog father. See stories 97 and 31
(pp. 106).
[2] LAk����tcAne', the father of these boys, is said to have lived near the
site of the Presbyterian school at Sitka and to have used the "blarney
stone," so called, as a grindstone.
[3] Meaning "I feel that people's looks are on me."
Abstract:
The Story Of The Four Brothers
Four brothers owned a dog which pursued a cloud up into the sky, and they
followed it, coming out at the edge of a very steep place on the other side
of the world. Descending this with difficulty they came upon a one-legged
man spearing salmon, and one of them stole his spear point by concealing
himself in a salmon and cutting it off. Next day the man discovered them and
killed three, but the fourth, who had red paint and a rattle, assisted by
his dog, killed him and restored his brothers to life. After that they
killed the bear chief, whose slave they had already destroyed, and went down
to his house, where the most powerful of them took his place. That evening
the people outside played with a hoop, and the three younger brothers were
killed by it. Then the other brother sent the dog after it, and he threw it
far up into the mountains where it made their curved outlines. The next time
he threw, it went around the sun and made the ring of light seen there.
After that the three brothers were restored to life and all started off.
They came to Athapascan people, who had holes in their faces in place of
mouths, and. who fed themselves with worms through these. There the youngest
brother., Lq!ay����'k!, obtained bows and arrows. By and by they came to some
people who were bathing for strength in the sea, and joined them. At this
time they suspected that Lq!ay����'k! was going with his sister, so they put
spruce gum around the place where she slept and discovered it was true, for
which they called him all sorts of names, and told him to go away from them
and become a "thunder." He did so, and their sister was so ashamed that she
went down into Mount Edgecumbe. When the thunder is beard nowadays people
call upon it to drive away sickness. The other brothers started across the
Stikine and became rocks there.
Tlingit Myths and Texts, by John R. Swanton; Smithsonian Institution; Bureau
of American Ethnology Bulletin 39; Washington, Government Printing Office;
[1909] and is now in the public domain.
There were four brothers who owned a dog of an Athapascan variety called
dz����.[2] They had one sister. One day the dog began barking at something.
Then KAck!A'Lk!, the eldest brother, put red paint inside of his blanket,
took his rattle, and followed. The other brothers went with him. They
pursued it up, up, up, into the sky. The dog kept on barking, and they did
not know what it was going to do. It was chasing a cloud.
When they got to the other side of the world they came out on the edge of a
very steep cliff. They did not know what to do. The dog, however, went right
down the cliff, and they saw the cloud still going on ahead. Now these
brothers had had nothing to eat and were very hungry. Presently they saw the
dog coming up from far below bringing the tail of a salmon. After a while
they saw it run back.
Then they said to one another, "What shall we do? We might as well go down
also." But, when Lq!ay����'k!, the youngest brother, started he was smashed in
pieces. The two next fared in the same way. KAck!A'Lk!, however, braced his
stick against the wall behind him and reached the bottom in safety. Then he
put the bones of each of his brothers together, rubbed red paint on them,
and shook his rattle over them, and they came to life.
Starting on again around this world, they came to a creek full of salmon.
This was where the dog had been before. When they got down to it they saw a
man coming up the creek. He was a large man with but one leg and had a kind
of spear in his hand with which he was spearing all the salmon. They watched
him from between the limbs of a large, dead tree. When he got through
hooking the salmon, he put all on two strings, one of which hung out of each
corner of his mouth. Then he carried them down.
Then Lq!ay����'k! said to his brothers, "Let us devise some plan for getting
the salmon spear." So he seized a salmon, brought it ashore and skinned it.
First KAck!A'Lk! tried to get inside of it but failed. When Lq!ay����'k! made
the attempt, however, he swam off at once, and, if one of his brothers came
near him, he swam away. Then the other brothers sat up in the dead tree,
KAck!A'Lk! at the top.
When the big man came up again after salmon, Lq!ay����'k! swam close up to him,
and he said, "Oh! my salmon. It is a fine salmon." But, when he made a
motion toward it with his spear, it swam back into deep water. Finally it
swam up close, and the big man speared it easily. Then Lq!ay����'k! went to the
tail of the fish, cut the string which fastened the big man's spear point to
the shaft and swam off with the point. Upon this the big man pulled his
shaft up, looked at it and said, "My spear is gone." Then he went
downstream. In the meantime Lq!ay����'k! came ashore, got out of the fish, came
up to his usual station on the lowest limb of the tree, and sat down there.
They had him sit below because he talked so much, and because he was the
most precipitate.
That night the one-legged man did not sleep at all on account of his lost
spear. He was using it in working for the bear people. When he came up next
morning he had a quill in his hands which would tell him things. He took
this about among the trees, and, when he came to that on which the brothers
were sitting, it bent straight down. Then he cried, "Bring my spear this
way." Although he saw no one, he knew that there were people there who had
it. Then he came to the bottom of the tree, seized Lq!ay����'k! and tore him in
pieces. So he served the next two brothers. But KAck!A'Lk! had his dog,
which he was able to make small, concealed under his coat and, after his
brothers were torn up, he let it go, and it tore the big man all to pieces.
Because he had his red paint, rattle, and dog he cared for nothing. Now he
put the red paint on his brothers' bodies and shook the rattle over them so
that they came to life.
Next morning they got into the same tree again. Then they saw a man with two
heads placed one over another coming up the stream. It was the bear chief.
He hooked a great many salmon and put them, on pieces of string on each side
of his mouth. Next evening a little old man came up. Lq!ay����'k! came down and
asked, "What are you doing here?" He said, "I have come up after salmon."
But he could hook none at all, so Lq!ay����'k! caught a lot for him. Then
Lq!ay����'k! asked him: "What does that double-head that came up here do?" The
old man said, "I will tell you about it." So they said to him: "Now we want
you to tell the truth about this? What does he really do when he gets home
with his salmon? We will get you more salmon if you tell us truly." And the
old man answered: "When he gets home with a load of salmon, he leaves it
down by the river. Then he takes off his skin coat and hangs it up." This is
what he told them.
The next time the two-heads came up and began to throw salmon ashore, it
said all at once, "I feel people's looks."[3] As soon as he came opposite
the place where they were sitting, KAck!A'Lk! threw his dog right upon him.
It caught this big bear by the neck and killed him. Every time thereafter,
when the little old man came up, they questioned him about the people in the
place he came from.
At last they caught a lot of salmon and prepared to descend. Then KAck!A'Lk!
put on the bearskin, placed his brothers under his arms inside of it, took
strings of salmon as the bear had done, and started on. When he came in
front of the houses he acted just like the two-headed man. First he entered
the two-headed man's house and shook his skin, whereupon his brothers and
the dog passed behind the screens in the rear of the house and hid
themselves. After that he began fixing his salmon, and, when he was through,
took off his coat, and hung it up in the manner that had been described to
him.
Toward evening a great deal of noise was heard outside, made over some
object. Lq!ay����'k! very much wanted to go out and look, but they tried to
prevent him. Finally he did go out and began to play with the object,
whereupon the players rolled it on him and cut him in two. After that the
two brothers next older went out and were cut in two in the same manner.
After this KAck!A'Lk! sent his dog out. He seized the object, shook it and
made it fly to the tops of the mountains, where it made the curved shapes
the mountains have to-day. Then it rolled right back again. When it rolled
back, the dog became very angry, seized it a second time, shook it hard, and
threw it so high that it went clear around the sun. It made the halo of
light seen there. Then KAck!A'Lk! took his brothers' bodies, pieced them
together, put red paint upon them and shook his rattle over them. They came
to life again. Then he took the dog, made it small, and put it under his
arm; and they started off. Since that time people have had the kind of spear
(d����na') above referred to. The brothers started on with it, and, whenever
they were hungry, they got food with it. They always kept together.
After a while they came across some Athapascan Indians called Worm-eating
people (W����n-xa qoan). These were so named because, when they killed game,
they let worms feed upon it, and, when the worms had become big enough, they
ate them through holes in the middle of their foreheads which served them as
mouths. Lq!ay����'k! wanted to be among these Athapascans, because they had
bows and arrows and wore quills attached to their hair. They used their bows
and arrows to shoot caribou, and, when they were pursuing this animal, they
used to eat snow.
After Lq!ay����'k! had obtained his bow and arrows they came out at a certain
place, probably the Stikine river, and stayed among some people who were
whipping one another for strength, in the sea. Every morning they went into
the water with them.
At that time they thought that Lq!ay����'k! was going with his sister, and they
put some spruce gum around the place where she slept. Then they found the
spruce gum on him and called him all sorts of names when they came from
bathing. They called him Messenger-with-pitch-on-his-thigh (Naq����'n����
q!Acg����q!o), the messenger being a brother-in-law of the people of the clan
giving a feast. They named him so because they were very much ashamed. This
is why people have ever since been very watchful about their sisters.
Because he had been fooling with his sister, when Lq!ay����'k! went out, his
brothers said to him, "You do not behave yourself. Go somewhere else. You
can be a thunder (h����L!)." They said to him, "H����'agun k����d����'."
This is why, when thunder is heard, people always say, "You gummy thigh." It
is because Lq!ay����'k! became a thunder. Their sister was ashamed. She went
down into Mount Edgecumbe (L!ux) through the crater.
Because the thunder is a man, when the thunder is heard far out at sea,
people blow up into the air through their hands and say, "Let it drive the
sickness away," or "Let it go far northward." The other brothers started
across the Stikine and became rocks there.
Footnotes:
[1] This story was told by Dekin����'k!u. According to some, the story begins
with the birth of five children from a dog father. See stories 97 and 31
(pp. 106).
[2] LAk����tcAne', the father of these boys, is said to have lived near the
site of the Presbyterian school at Sitka and to have used the "blarney
stone," so called, as a grindstone.
[3] Meaning "I feel that people's looks are on me."
Abstract:
The Story Of The Four Brothers
Four brothers owned a dog which pursued a cloud up into the sky, and they
followed it, coming out at the edge of a very steep place on the other side
of the world. Descending this with difficulty they came upon a one-legged
man spearing salmon, and one of them stole his spear point by concealing
himself in a salmon and cutting it off. Next day the man discovered them and
killed three, but the fourth, who had red paint and a rattle, assisted by
his dog, killed him and restored his brothers to life. After that they
killed the bear chief, whose slave they had already destroyed, and went down
to his house, where the most powerful of them took his place. That evening
the people outside played with a hoop, and the three younger brothers were
killed by it. Then the other brother sent the dog after it, and he threw it
far up into the mountains where it made their curved outlines. The next time
he threw, it went around the sun and made the ring of light seen there.
After that the three brothers were restored to life and all started off.
They came to Athapascan people, who had holes in their faces in place of
mouths, and. who fed themselves with worms through these. There the youngest
brother., Lq!ay����'k!, obtained bows and arrows. By and by they came to some
people who were bathing for strength in the sea, and joined them. At this
time they suspected that Lq!ay����'k! was going with his sister, so they put
spruce gum around the place where she slept and discovered it was true, for
which they called him all sorts of names, and told him to go away from them
and become a "thunder." He did so, and their sister was so ashamed that she
went down into Mount Edgecumbe. When the thunder is beard nowadays people
call upon it to drive away sickness. The other brothers started across the
Stikine and became rocks there.
Tlingit Myths and Texts, by John R. Swanton; Smithsonian Institution; Bureau
of American Ethnology Bulletin 39; Washington, Government Printing Office;
[1909] and is now in the public domain.