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Grouse was a widower with a lot of children, and he spent most of his time
in the woods building a canoe.
Every trip that the five men made,
they caught five seals, very fat ones; but they gave nothing but the poor,
lean parts to Grouse. Bluejay was at the bottom of this, and kept saying
that fat was too good for Grouse; and he poked fun at him and sneered at
him whenever he was about. Grouse never said a word, but took what was
given him without complaining.
One day Grouse made a wooden seal, carving it out of cedar, and burning it
until it was black. Then he talked to the seal, and told it what it was to
do; and it dived down into the water and went out to sea.
Next day before daylight, the five men started out, and about sunrise came
upon a big seal, and speared it. The seal dived, and swam to the westward,
dragging the canoe after it until they were out of sight of land. The
spearman tried to get rid of it, but could not; and when night came they
were still rushing westward, and when they waked in the morning they were
still going, but not so fast.
Not long afterward the line slackened, and they heard something butting
against the canoe. Bluejay looked over, and saw a wooden seal with the
harpoon sticking into it just behind the flipper. Then his chief began to
scold Bluejay, and said, "I know this is Grouse's work. He is angry
because we gave him no fat, and because you talked to him so much."
Bluejay could only hang his head and say nothing.
They cut the line and began to paddle back, but had no idea where they
were going. Three days and two nights they paddled, and the third night
they all fell asleep from exhaustion. When they waked in the morning, the
canoe was stuck fast and they thought they were ashore, and one of them,
the fifth man, jumped out, but he sank and was drowned; and, then they saw
that they were not ashore, but that the seaweed was so thick that they had
stuck fast in it.
So now there were only four of them, and they paddled on. On the fourth
night they did not feel like sleeping, for they thought they could see the
hills back of Quinault. In the morning they could discern the coast
plainly, and after paddling all day they reached the shore, and landed at
a place quite strange to them. Next morning they went on again in what
they thought was a southerly direction, and suddenly, as they rounded a
point, came upon a village. Several canoes came out through the surf and
helped them ashore, and they were taken up to the village.
In the centre of the village was a tall smooth pole which the people said
was Squirrel's pole, which he used for climbing; and they said that
Squirrel would like to have a climbing-match with Bluejay. Bluejay's
master said to him, "Now don't get frightened, but go in and do your best.
You know you can climb well, and if you are beaten we may all be killed."
Then both Squirrel and Bluejay took sharp bones, so that if one got ahead
he could hit the one behind on the head; and they started to climb.
All the people crowded around to see the contest, for the pole was high
and the two were well matched. At last the people saw them reach the top,
and saw one of them strike the other on the head so that he came tumbling
down; and all the people shouted, for they thought it was Bluejay. But
when he reached the ground, they found it was Squirrel who had lost. So
now, since Bluejay had beaten their best climber, they let him and his
companions go.
They paddled on down the coast, and after some time they rounded a point,
and come upon another village, much like the first. Here Hair-seal
challenged Bluejay to a diving-match, and Bluejay found himself in a
difficult position, for he was no diver at all. But his master turned the
canoe over and washed it out, leaving the brush from the bottom floating
about it on the water. Then he told Bluejay to accept the challenge and
dive, but to come up under the brush and lie there concealed, and not to
show himself.
So both Bluejay and Hair-seal dived; and Bluejay came up immediately under
the brush, and floated there where no one could see him. He waited until
he shivered so with the cold that the brush moved with his shaking, and
his master began to be afraid the people would notice it: so he rocked the
canoe and made waves to conceal the motion of the brush, and no one
suspected that Bluejay was hidden there. Now, they had agreed, that, when
the sun had passed from one tree to another not far off, each was to have
the right to hit the other in the head with a sharp bone. So, when Bluejay
saw that the sun had reached the second tree, he dived down, and found
Hair-seal lying with his head down close to the bottom.
Bluejay jabbed him with the bone before Hair-seal knew what was happening,
and Hair-seal came floating up to the surface. All the people shouted,
"Bluejay's up!" But it turned out to be Hair-seal, while Bluejay went back
under the brush without showing himself There he waited about half an hour
longer, and then came out shouting and laughing, and saying that he felt
splendidly and not tired at all. In that way Hair-seal was beaten, and the
people let Bluejay and his party go on again.
They paddled on as before until they came to another village, and there
the people challenged the four wanderers to go into a sweat-house with
four of their people and see which could stand the most heat. So four of
the village people went into one corner of the sweat-house, and the four
travelers into the other. Then the door was closed so that it was pitch
dark, and soon it became very hot. But Beaver and Land Otter began
to dig, and in a very short time they had tunneled to the river. Then all
four got into the water and were as comfortable as could be, while the
four men from the village were nearly baked.
When the time was up, Bluejay and his friends came back into the
sweat-house, and when the door was opened they all jumped out. Bluejay and
his friends were as fresh as possible, while the four men from the village
were nearly cooked, and their eyes were all white from the heat. So,
having beaten the people at their own game, they were allowed to go on,
and, paddling as hard as they could, before they knew it they had rounded
another point, and come upon a village as before. They ran the canoe clear
up on the beach and tied it, and, taking their paddles, went into one of
the houses.
The people immediately challenged the new arrivals to sit up five days and
five nights without sleeping, against four of their own number. The
friends were afraid not to accept, so they started the match. One party
sat on one side of the house and the other on the other. The men from the
village had spears, and when any one of them was falling asleep, they
would prod him with a spear and wake him. They kept calling out to each
other all night, "Are you awake_ Are you still awake_" And they reviled
each other constantly.
Bluejay did all the talking for his side, and was hardly quiet a minute.
All the next day they jeered at each other, and so they did the next
night. Bluejay and the spokesman of the other side kept talking back and
forth the whole time. The next day they did the same thing, and so on the
third night; and the fourth day and the fourth night it was still the
same. On that night the men from the village nearly went to sleep; but
Bluejay's men were all right as yet. Bluejay himself was almost done up;
but his master would pull his ears and kept him awake, for Bluejay's
master was the best man of them all.
The fifth night the men of the village went to sleep, and Bluejay's master
told Land Otter and Beaver to dig so that they could get out. They did so,
and fetched four pieces of old wood with phosphorescent spots on them; and
they placed the pieces where they had been sitting, one piece for each
man; and the spots looked like eyes.
Then, while the other crowd was still sleeping, they got out, and, taking
everything they could lay their hands on, they stole away in the canoe.
Just before daylight one of the other four waked, and called Bluejay
several times, but got no answer. So he waked the others, and, taking
their spears, they speared what they thought were their rivals. But when
daylight came, they saw that they had been fooled, and that their spears
were sticking into wood.
There was great excitement, and the people decided to give chase, and,
making ready their canoes, they started after the fugitives. Along in the
afternoon, Bluejay's master said, "I feel sure some one is following us,"
and, looking back, they saw a lot of canoes in pursuit. Then they paddled
with all their might; and Bluejay's master paddled so hard that at every
stroke he broke a paddle, until he had broken all they had, and they
floated helpless.
Then the others turned to Bluejay and said, "You are always talking about
your tamanous. Make use of him now, if you have one, for we are in a bad
fix." But Bluejay could only hang his head, for he had no tamanous.
Then Land Otter called on his tamanous, and a little wind arose. Then
Beaver called upon his, and the wind became a little stronger; but all the
time the other canoes were drawing closer. Then Bluejay's master called
upon his tamanous, and there swept down a great storm and a fog.
The storm lasted only a short time, and when it had passed, they looked
about them and saw hundreds of capsized canoes, but not a man living; for
all the people had been drowned. They went around and gathered up all the
paddles they wanted, and went on, and at last reached the Quinault
country, and were among good people. The people who had pursued them were
probably Makahs, for they are a bad lot.
Finally they reached their home near Damon's Point, and after that,
whenever they came in from sealing, they were careful to give Grouse the
biggest and fattest seal.
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