A man discovers a woman, the le’naxi’daq, floating in a lake with her children. He brings one child home, but during the night, it removes the eyes of the villagers. A woman, after giving birth, encounters this child and kills it with her cane. She then declares herself the new le’naxi’daq, wandering the beach while nursing her child and consuming mussels.
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 le’naxi’daq is a mysterious entity with malevolent powers, interacting with humans in a supernatural manner.
Transformation: The woman who kills the le’naxi’daq’s child undergoes a transformation, assuming the identity and role of the le’naxi’daq herself.
Loss and Renewal: The community experiences loss through the actions of the le’naxi’daq’s child, but there is a sense of renewal as the woman takes on a new role.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Tlingit people
See story “Origin of le’naxi’daq“. This is the equivalent of Skil dja’adai, or “Property Woman,” among the Haida.
This story was obtained at Sitka.
A man at Auk went out on the lake after firewood. On the way round it be saw a woman floating about. Her hair was long. Looking at her for some time, he saw that her little ones were with her. He took one of the children home. When it became dark they went to sleep. It was the child of the le’naxi’daq, and that night it went through the town picking out people’s eyes. Toward morning a certain woman bore a child. In the morning, when she was getting up, this [the le’naxi’daq’s child] came into her into the house. The small boy had a big belly full of eyes. He had taken out the eyes of all the people. That woman to whom the small boy came had a cane. He kept pointing at her eyes. Then she pushed him away with the cane. When he had done it twice, she pushed it into him. He was all full of eyes. After she had killed him the woman went through the houses. Then she began to dress herself up. She took her child up on her back to start wandering. She said, “I am going to be the le’naxi’daq.” When she came down on the beach she kept eating mussels. She put the shells inside of one another. As she walks along she nurses her little child.
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