The Kaska man who made whales

A boy on board, who was his brother-in-law, was sorry, and paddled the opposite way to the other paddlers, for he did not want to desert him.

The Kaska man felt very sad when he saw that he was deserted, and finally lay down on the ice and fell asleep. It seemed as if he dreamed, but it was reality. Some one spoke to him, and asked him to come down underneath. He went down into a house which was the Seal people’s house, and saw many people there. They asked him how he had come to be asleep overhead, and he told them. One of the Seal men was sick. He had been speared by a Tlingit, and the harpoon head was in his flesh. The shamans of the Seal people did not know what was the matter with him nor how to relieve him. They had tried all kinds of treatment. Some of them proposed that they ask the stranger to try and cure him. The Kaska man knew at once what was the matter. He blew on the wound, and then pulled out the harpoon head without any difficulty. All the people were glad. They asked the Kaska if he wanted to go home, and he said, “Yes,” They put him in a distended seal-bladder, the neck of which they tied securely, and then set him afloat in the sea. They told him he must think only of his home. If he thought of anything else, he would immediately return. When he hit the sand and heard the noise of the waves on the shore, he would know he was at home, and might then open the bladder and get out. When he had reached half way to his destination, he thought of the place he had left, and immediately went back. The people warned him again, and sent him forward. Several times this happened. At last he managed to concentrate his thoughts long enough on his home, which he now reached very quickly. He sent back the bladder to the Seal people as soon as he got out of it. He told his wife of his experiences, and asked her not to tell any one.

Now he went in the bush near the seashore and carved a number of pieces of wood in the shape of whales, and threw them into the water end first. All of them were too light, and bounced up too quickly. He tried all kinds of wood. At last he made them of a hard heavy wood. When he threw them into the water, they went down a long way, and rose to the surface afar off. He transformed them into whales and sent them to catch seals. When they accomplished this, he called them back. He said to them, “Now, you must go to meet the large canoe with the seal-hunters, overturn it, and smash it; but you must spare the boy, and leave him a piece of canoe to float on.” The Whales did as directed, and all the seal-hunters were drowned excepting the boy. He called the Whales back, and said to them, “Now you shall be real whales, and go in the ocean as you will. You shall overturn canoes sometimes, and shall also eat seals. You shall be the largest and strongest animals of the ocean.” This is why the Tlingit say it was a Kaska man who created the whales.

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