A Youth Obtains Whaling Power
A Clayoquot myth
There was a little boy, the chief's son, who every morning went to swim in salt water, and before going in and after coming out he would rub his hands with sand. He became a young man and married, and his father told him to go whaling. But though he tried to get a whale, he could not, and the others could not go ahead of him and kill a whale, because he was the chief. After a while he saw something black just under the water, and said to his steersman, "Turn that way!" When he was close to the object he speared it, and the others - there were sixty canoes - hurried up, thinking he had speared a whale. But when he arrived they saw that it was merely a rock. They all turned back home, and at the beach the young chief left everything in his canoe and went to his house.In the morning the chief saw his son lying with his wife. This no whaler did before the end of the whaling season. The young man did not get up, and late in the morning the chief took a vessel of urine and threw it on him. Still he did not rise, but remained in bed all day, because he had speared an island, and was ashamed. He told his wife then that he was going away, and at night he woke his two slave boys, and the three got into the canoe. That night they reached Bear river, and he sent the slaves home, bidding them set out to find him after twenty days. He was going to travel over the islands near the village to wash ceremonially, he said, in order to find help, for he was ashamed that he had not been able to kill a whale. He warned them not to reveal to anybody what he had told them.
For eight days the young man travelled about, washing morning and evening, and never eating. At night he would stop and try to see a chi'ha (supernatural being), but he could not. On the eleventh day he saw a wolf. He waited for it to give him power, but it did not see him. From midday until nightfall he remained there, watching the wolf, but it did nothing. In the morning it was not to be seen, and the man started home. He made a deadfall, and on the following morning he found in it a black bear. This showed him that he had done well in washing, and the spirits favored him. On the twenty-fifth day he came out of the woods, and he began to cry because he had not seen a chi'ha, and had obtained no supernatural power.
While he sat there in the moonlight waiting for his slaves, he heard sounds like a woman in childbirth. He looked down on the beach and saw that they came from behind a large stone. He knew it was a chi'ha. He went down, and behind the stone he saw a baby in a cradle. At a short distance was the mother, making the sounds that soothe a baby to sleep. The young man took the baby and ran away, and she came after, begging him: "Give me my baby! In the cradle are four charms good for whaling, and you shall have them!" He removed the child from the board and threw it behind him without looking at the woman, lest he die from seeing her. In the cradle he found the four charms.
Now he felt happy. He waited four days for his slaves, who came crying because they had already looked thrice for him, and now they thought he must be dead. He called to them before they saw him and sent them back, to return in five days. For one who had seen a spirit had to be careful about coming in the presence of people too soon, lest those who looked on him should die. He told them to inform his father and wife that he was living and had found power for killing whales. Five days later they returned, and in the evening he started home with them; and sea creatures swam up to the canoe.
They reached the village at night, and the next day he prepared to go whaling. Many whales were in sight. He placed his charms outside the house, took six men in his canoe, and ordered all other canoes to remain ashore. A little way from the shore he speared a whale, and the people hurried out to tow it in. Then he invited all the people to his house and distributed whale meat among them, and told them he had taken the name Yatsma (yatsuq, walking). During that summer he killed ten whales, and he became a good hunter of all sea animals.
The North American Indian, Edward Curtis
The Nootka, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
Vol 11, p 103
North American Indian online original books from Northwestern University