The story recounts Watsihi’tci, a child with arrow points on his head, who killed his mother and became a malevolent figure, terrorizing hunters and villagers. His uncle, prepared for his attacks, finally wounded him fatally. Though Watsihi’tci begged for mercy, his uncle killed him, avenging countless victims. The ashes of his burned body became the gnats that now torment humanity.
Source:
Tlingit Myths and Texts
by John R. Swanton
[Smithsonian Institution]
Bureau of American Ethnology
Bulletin 39
Washington, 1909
► Themes of the story
Supernatural Beings: The protagonist, Watsihi’tci, possesses supernatural characteristics, notably the sharp arrow points on his head, distinguishing him from ordinary humans.
Revenge and Justice: After Watsihi’tci kills numerous villagers, his uncle seeks retribution, ultimately killing him to avenge the victims and restore peace.
Transformation: Following his death, Watsihi’tci’s ashes transform into gnats, symbolizing a change from a malevolent being to a persistent nuisance in the natural world.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Tlingit people
Myth recorded in English at Wrangell, Alaska, in January-April 1904
A chief’s daughter married her father’s nephew and had a child by him who was named Watsihi’tci. He was not exactly a human being, for he had sharp arrow points on his head. When his mother began petting him and using endearing terms to him, he said to her, “Don’t pet me. I am no baby.” And he ran the arrow points on his head into his mother’s breast and killed her. Afterward he ran off into the woods and became a very bad person, killing everybody who went off hunting or after wood.
At that time his mother’s brother was out on the mountains hunting along with his children. He knew that his nephew was killing people, so he made his house very strong to keep him out. He also set around bundles of dry straw shaped like human beings, and he even prepared a hole in the mountains as a place of refuge.
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How his nephew found out where he lived is not known, but one day he suddenly walked right in. His uncle was sitting behind a bundle of straw in the rear of the house, while his wife and children were in the hole he had made in the mountain. The boy always had his arrows and spears, the points of which were obsidian (in), ready to use, but instead of aiming at his uncle he pointed his arrow at a bundle of straw opposite. While he was doing so his uncle shot him under the left arm, and he was so badly hurt that he left his spear and ran out.
As his assisting spirit this boy had a bird called gusiadu’li of about the size of a robin. This spirit now doctored him and took out of him all of the poison his uncle had put on the end of his arrow. But, while he was doing this, his uncle tracked him by the marks of blood until he came to the place where the boy lived. When he entered that place his nephew said, “Don’t kill me, uncle. I have made a hole in the ground over there and have filled it with goods. You may have them if you do not kill me. If you let me go now I will never kill another person.” In spite of all his protestations, however, his uncle killed him for having destroyed so many of the town people and for having forced him to live back among the mountains. Then he burned his nephew’s body and went home with all of his family, leaving the ashes where they lay. These ashes were driven about by the wind and became the minute gnats that torment people.
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