Haida

A LONG time ago, a canoe-load of Indians were out seal-hunting. The weather was calm and the sea was smooth. Then a killer whale kept near the canoe and the young men threw stones at it. They hit the fin of the killer whale with several stones. Then the whale went to the beach. Soon the men in the canoe saw a smoke rising from the beach. They went to see who was there. When they reached the shore, there was not the Skana, the killer whale, but a man cooking some food.

The man said, “Why did you throw stones at my canoe? You have broken it. Now go get cedar withes in the woods and mend it.”

So the men mended the broken canoe. When they had finished, the man said, “Turn your backs to the water. Cover your heads with your fur robes. Don’t look until I call you.” They all did as he told them. They heard the canoe grate on the beach as it was hauled down into the water. Then the man said, “Look now.” They looked and there was the canoe in the water. But when the canoe came to the second breaker, it went under. When it came to the surface, behold!—there was no canoe. There was a Skana—a killer whale. The man-spirit was inside the Skana.