Texts of the North American Indian

Writings of E.S. Curtis
Excerpts from "The North American Indian" Set #254, Vol. 8

THE CHINOOKAN TRIBES (cont'd)

MYTHOLOGY (cont'd)

The Transformers (cont'd)

The two brothers travelled on until after a long time they came to a man, of whom Mus'p inquired, "What are you doing?" The man answered: "I am making a knife. I have heard that two men are coming, and I am going to kill them." "Let me see that knife," said Mus'p. He took it and began to examine it, and said: "Are you going to kill those two men who are comming? You will never kill them. Your name is Beaver. Turn around!" He touched the knife to the man and it remained there like a tail, and Mus'p commanded him, "now go and dive!" Beaver dived, and came up, and Mus'p said, "Now slap the water with your tail!" Beaver slaped the water as beavers have done ever since. "Now sing!" He began to sing in the way beavers do now in the mating season.

The two went on and found another man working on two knifes. Mus'p got up on his back. "What are you doing?" he asked. "I am making knifes with which to kill those two men who are coming," was the answer. "Let me see your knives," said the boy. He took the two knives, and said, "Come here, closer." He put the two knives on the man's head and said, "Now jump!" He jumped.
"Turn around and look at me!" The man did so. "Now run!" The man ran. "You will never be a man again and kill people; you will be a Deer," said Mus'p; "people forever will kill you and eat you!" The man became a deer, and the two knives his horns.

Again they went on, and came to a town, a large town. At one end of it Mus'p called out, "All you people, get your nets!" The people brought out their dip-nets. He directed them to get sticks to make a weir, and they began to build the trap in a creek where the tide came in. Then Mus'p showed them how to catch herring with a net held between two canoes and raised by ropes when full of fish. These people were Yuhlúyuhlu.

The two came to another villagem and Mus'p clled out: "Come and see this whale in the river! Get your spear poles. Take five canoes and spear this whale" So they did as he directed, and killed the whale. These were Qúnítsa'th (Makah) at Neah bay. They put some buys on the whale and the five canoes towed it ashore, and the head-man distrivuted the flesh and blubber.

They arived at another large town, and Mus'p called out, "Come and catch these Blue-back salmon!" He then showed these Tqinaiyúhlkhl (Quinault) how to make the trap and take the salmon.

At Damon pont they showed the Tqiyanúhliks how to use a stick in digging razzor claims.

Next day they crossed the bay (Grays harbor) and found a large cillage at the mouth of a stream (Chehalis River). When Mus'p told the people to get their nets, they ran into the houses and brought out their dip-netsm and he cried: "Your are mistaken, I did not say dip-nets! But keep them, and you shall always be herring catchers."

At the mouth of Nemah river, where the people slept in hanging baskets because the beds were infested by fleas, the two brothers showed them how to sweep out their houses ans this rid themselves of vermin.

They crossed the river in a canoe and came to a small village, Wínúpu, where they heard a man in a house, shouting. It was raining. They entered, and beheld a man shooting at the roof, and yelling. Wherever the water dripped through and fell on any one, that person died. So Jaybird was shooting at the rain, "What are you doing?" asked Mus'p. "I am killing those people who come to fight us," answered Jaybird. Mus'p looked up at the roof and said: "That is not the way to make a roof. I will fix it." Then he showed them how to repair the leaky roof.

The two crossed the bay to Tiápsuyi, and there on the beach was Jaybird spearing cockle clams. As they left the canoe, Jaybird said to himself, "These must be great chiefs, for they wear sea-otter robes." He prepared to give them food, and roasted the cockles in the ashes. Mus'p opened one, ate the meat, and then drank the juice. Jaybird thought it odd that this great chief drank the "cockle oil." They remained there that night, and the next day at ebb-tide the people all went out with their spears for cockles. Mus'p and his brother walked out over the flats, and each time they felt a cockle uner foot they picked it up and put it in a basket. They told the people that was the way to gather cockles, and Jaybird said: "I was thinking along time ago of doing it that way." They went upon the sand, made a fire and heathed stones, dug a pit, and showed the poeple how to pack the cockles in it. They tought them also how to hang cockles on a string to dry. "Have you any whale oil?" asked Mus'p. They brought some oil and he showed them how to eat fresh cockles with whale oil. Said Jaybird, "I thought of that a long time ago."

Again the two went on, this time to Nakáhuti (Cape Disappointment), where they found a woman at play, a monster of the kind called okóhl. She was killing children. On the beach was a great rock over which she threw them, crying, "Go forever!" and they fell on the sand beyond, dead. The two brothers looked on from a distance, then went down close. "Where is your mother?" asked the womn. "She is comming," said Mus'p. The little dog was still following them, and it was her power that enabled them to do what they did. The women then said, "I am glad you have come; we, will have play." Said Mus'p: "You and I will play; my brother is always sick and never plays. You throw me over that rock first." So she took him by the hair, swung him, and threw him over the rock. He landed on his feet unhurt. The ground there was covered with children, some dead, some yet alive. He quickly made them well. Then he came around the rock, and the woman cried, "Oh, my nephew, I thought you were dead!" He said, "Now I will throw you over the rock." She was not pleased, but he assured her, "It did not hurt me." He had made the stones o the other side sharo flints, and had told the children that if the woman fell over there half dead they must cut her up. So he cought her by the hair and flung her over the rock, crying, "Go forever!" and the children fell upon her with the flnts and cut her into pieces. Then Mus'p sent them back tward the east to the homes from which the women had stolen them.

The two brothers now walked across the point to Walúmlúm (Fort Canby). Entering the first house of the village, they beheld two old women, who said, "Oh, young men, whence do you come?" "We have come a long distance," awnsered Mus'p, "and have been telling people how to live." They said: "We have a great chief here. We watch all kinds of fish and hunt all kinds of game." But in fact they ate only the cheif's excreta, for he devoured all the food. When the tide came in, the poeple went down to the beach. Skomó'hl said to Mus'p, "Do nothing until we see what that man is going to do." Just then the chief came to a canoe, and took out a sturgeon, which he raised, about to swallow it, but it slpped past his mouth and fell on his shoulder. This mishap was caused by Mus'p watching him. Lightning began to flash from the chiefs eyes, and Jaybird cried, "Now we shall all die!" Mus'p and his brither went out from thehouse of the two old women toward the place where the chief was, and as he turne about and saw them, the lightning began again. Mus'p went tword him and stamped on the beach, and the chief sank to his ankles, Again he stamped, and the chief sank over his knees. Then Mus'p said: "In no otherplace do the people eat the excreta of thier chief. They ger fish and game, and give him some of it. You will remain here, and you will be a rock." The chief name was Iékálúhsitk, and this is what that rock is now called. The two old women were turned into mice, and Jaybird became as he is now. The others remained people.

The brothers next came to Hlákhahl. Where they saw a person walking on his hands and carrying a stick between his legs. "Stand up!" commanded Mus'p; and he showed the man to make a bundle of sticks and carry it on his shoudlder. They went on to Tsínuk, where Mus'p told the people to get there nets, and he showed them how use the seine for salmon. He told them: "When you catch the salmon, do not eat them at once, but lay them in the house. Then at the next flood-tide cook and eat them. Call in the people and have a feast, and if any fish remain, throw them into the fire and burn them. Do not attempt to keep them, Do this five days, and after that you may eat them at any time, and keep what you do not eat." In the last house of this place Mus'p found an old woman cooking. He asked her what she was preparing, and she said she was cooking iékshthéhlo. "If you eat this you will die," she said. "I am hungry," he answered; "give me that!" She filled a large wooden bowl with the soup and he ate five spoonfuls. Feeling a pain in the stomach, Mus'p went outside, and the two brothers, followed by the dog, went up a hill (Scarborough hill). This soup had been made of human bones, and Mus'p began to vomit; and each time a hill was formed, until there were five. He said to his brother, "We will turn into rocks and remain here forever." So they became stone - Mus'p, his brother, and the dog.

EDWARD S. CURTIS