A woman is devoured by the blue-haired Adada while gathering berries at Nek’ehudja’, prompting two men to craft hemlock spears and—with their village’s help—lure and fatally wound the giant in its whirlpool lair. Later parties discover the monster’s corpse and witness its eerie remains, and finally a father and son glimpse the living Adada, forcing them to hide as it retreats beneath the cliff.
Source:
Traditions of the Ts’ets’a’ut
by Franz Boas
The American Folklore Society
Journal of American Folklore
Vol.9, No.35, pp. 257-268
October-December, 1896
Vol.10, No.36, pp. 35-48
January-March, 1897
► Themes of the story
Good vs. Evil: The villagers band together to confront and destroy a malevolent monster threatening their community.
Supernatural Beings: Central to the tale is the monstrous Adada, a giant with blue hair and human-like skin.
Trials and Tribulations: The protagonists face danger, devise weapons, and endure suspense as they battle the whirlpool-dwelling creature.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Tsetsaut people
Two men and one woman went in their canoe to Nek’ehudja’ (Boca de Quadra?) to dry salmon. One day the woman crossed the lake to gather berries. When she did not return in the evening, the men thought she might have been captured by the Haida. But in the evening, when passing a steep rock, they saw an Adada’ coming out, and knew at once that he had devoured the woman when she was crossing the lake. He looked like a giant. They resolved to kill the monster. They called the other men of the village to help them, and they cut a number of young hemlock-trees and sharpened both ends. Thus they made three boat-loads of sharp poles. They carried their canoe up to the top of the rock under which the monster lived. Then they let it down to the water by means of two stout cedar-bark ropes. After a while the water began to swell and to form a deep whirlpool.
► Continue reading…
The Adada’ was drinking. Then they dropped the sharp poles into the whirlpool, in which they disappeared. After a while the water began to grow calmer, and finally the whirlpool disappeared. The Adada’ came up and drifted on the water. The poles had pierced his stomach and his intestines. His hair was blue, and his skin like that of a man. The men let the canoe down to the lake, paddled up to the body, which they chopped up with their hatchets. It was as large as a house. In its stomach they found the canoe in which the woman had gone out. The woman was still in it, but she was dead.
Above Atxaye is a lake, Nugufega’. A steep precipice falls down toward the water. Below it lived the monster Adada’. Once upon a time in winter, many men went up to the lake. On the ice they saw an animal that looked like a huge porcupine; but when they came nearer they saw that its skin was smooth, and that it had a mouth like that of a mouse. They approached it cautiously, and found that it was dead. Its skin was quite blue. The people were afraid of it, and left the place. After a few days another party of men passed the lake. They also saw the animal.
Later on, a man and his son passed the lake on their way up the mountains. They were going to hunt marmots. They set their traps on a steep mountain near the lake. It was a hot, sunny day. All of a sudden they saw the waters rising, and a huge monster emerged from the waters. It looked like a man. It rose up to its waist. Its head was as large as a hut. Its hair was blue and drifted on the surface of the water. It was more than three fathoms long. The men kept hidden behind a rock. When the sun set, the monster dived and disappeared under the rock, where it lived in a cave.
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