Haida Texts and Myths (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 edition. Excerpt: ...canoe slaves went back. They took along the three boxes of berries and grease which were left for the canoe. Then his wife sat among the things, and he went up to the house and told his mother to call her up. Immediately his mother went down. She saw nothing there. There was only a cloud among the boxes. Then she went up and said to her son: "I saw nothing there. Only a cloud was there resting upon the things." He said to his mother: "That is she." Again she went down, and she called her up. The cloud came up after her. The cloud went near the place where her husband sat. They wanted to see her. A great crowd awaited her. By and by he said to his wife: "Take off your hat." Then she told her husband to take it off, and he took it off. He put it behind himself. There the cloud lay. A wonderful creature sat where it had been. She was pretty, like a daughter of the supernatural beings. The ones they had wanted him to marry looked in at her and wept as they did so. And, after he had had his wife for a while, a whitish sea otter came swimming in front of the town. After they had shot at it for a while he also launched his canoe. He shot at it with his arrows. He shot it in the end of the tail.1 After it had flopped about there for some time he got it into his canoe. He came home. Then he skinned it. There were spots of blood upon it. On account of these his wife washed it. After she had done this for a while she slipped seaward upon it. When the water was as high as her knees a killer whale went away with her blowing. She was stuck between its fins. Killer whales went out to sea with her in a crowd. He got into a canoe and went after his wife. They disappeared under the water in front of him. Then he came back and...