Her Creative Writing

“Long ago, in the land of the Haida of the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia, a girl, before her maturity, went through a time of initiation. Sometimes the hut where she spent days of grueling preparation was close to the family home, sometimes she was given just a partition of it. She had her own entrance and built her own fire. When she saw a man, she had to hide her face, but in this instance, the Suitor had seen her bathing by the side of the river.”

THE ARROW-MAKER’S DAUGHTER

GIRL

Ah st . . . Ah st! You know me,

Long have you watched me by the river,

You have met the Arrow-Maker’s Daughter.

You have seen me lighting my own fire,

Hidden behind the partition,

Only a stone for a pillow,

Rubbed with soft cedar bark by my mother.

I have fasted four days. Ai!

I am dreaming of life in the village,

Twisting the fallen hair from my head,

Winding it in smooth cords at my ankles.

From all men I have hidden my face,

But you – You have found me.

Go! Go quickly to your mother,

Tell her I still wear the Ky-xe—

She will know that conical head-dress,

The woven bark tight under the breast.

Tell her my face is newly painted.

I am too young – but wait- wait!

Some day we may rest on one mat – together!

SUITOR

I know you, daughter of a noble family –

I will come when the waiting is ended –

I will come!

GIRL

Did you see when they raised the black curtain?

My back was turned to the rocks . . . to the noisy people.

I was dressed in soft furs of sea otter,

Wearing my necklace of shark teeth,

Wearing my apron of puffin beaks.

Was I good enough for you then?

Was I the woman you wanted?

SUITOR

You were good enough for me then,

You were the woman I wanted.

GIRL

They will not let you have me.

Did you not see the clecha darran,

Those circles worn by the skaggy,

The beaks hitting together as I walk?

They would make me a female magician.

I have the power to heal – I a ska-gillda!

They will never let you have me!

Ah st . . . Ah st! The old woman chants . . .

For you I am singing, am singing,

For you my arms move in this joy dance,

For you I am dancing this Ska-ga . . .

Now you are watching, have seen me.

Ask for me then in the village!

* * * * * * * * * * * *

SUITOR

I have been to my mother

To speak about the Arrow-Maker’s Daughter,

The girl I have seen by the river.

My mother has gone to her mother,

My friends come with me to her house

To sit with her friends by the fire

To speak to her father in my favour.

But why do you not rise from the fireside?

Why do you not reach for my hand?

Between us the cold clecha darran,

The horrible cries of the skaggy, the drums . . . !

Come, my friends, come away from the ashes!

The fire is gone from my spirit,

Now I must go to the sandbank

To look at the swift-flowing river,

I will forget that I met her, I will forget that I heard.

The cruel song of the Arrow-Maker’s daughter,

She who bewitched me, the false Haida Skã-ga!

But the flesh under her Ky-xe was warm 

To my touch and I loved her!

CHORUS

Ah ah ah, he he he . . . andante

Ah ah ah, he he he . . . crescendo

Ah ah ah, he he he . . . fading

SUITOR

They carry her up from the water,

The red paint streaked on her forehead,

The wood of the labret stained,

Her long hair unbound and dripping . . .

Is this my beloved?

Is this the girl I met by the river?

CHORUS

(Chants while villagers do Ska rut dance with only one or two arm movements, while masked man does Death Dance. A dog is killed and flesh torn apart.)

Ah ah ah, he he he (repeat)

GIRL

(Her voice, she is not seen)

How well speak the dead, knowing nothing,

Again paint my face, oh my mother,

But not with soft cedar bark,

With black gum and grease you must paint me

For my journey is long, is long.

Draw my limp knees under my chin,

Bind me fast, oh my mother!

Toss me behind the partition,

Drive stakes in the ground all around me.

My sisters have cut off their hair,

They trouble my rest with their wailing,

Paint their faces with spruce gum,

Let them learn the slow steps of mourning,

Toss the fish and the fruit in the fire . . .

CHORUS (at back)

Ya Ya Ya Yo!

GIRL

Once I met by the fast-flowing river,

Do you remember our meeting?

Would you believe the condition I am in?

GUTTURAL VOICES (In distance)

Ho ho ho ho, hargh hargh!

We are the legge derche,

We are the cull stum gay,

With legs of a goat we are walking,

Hiding our greedy eyes,

Longing to steal this girl’s body,

Longing to take this dead skaggy

Back to our evil abode.

There we would change her completely.

Evil becomes you – be evil!

Ho ho ho ho, hargh, hargh!

MOTHER

Bitter the sound of their laughter,

We must put a dummy in place of our daughter,

A false body to deceive the cull stum gay.

GUTTURAL VOICES

Ho ho ho ho, hargh, hargh! (Fade)

SUITOR

Ah st . . . Ah st! You know me,

You that I met by the river,

Steal away from your home by the headland,

Lie close to me under the reeds of the river,

Let water drip down on your forehead.

Di k! õg! Di k! õg! My heart, my heart!

This is the water trail, don’t miss it.

Together we face the Hai de Lana dure,

The dread Killer Whale,

Together the fate of the skaggy.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

MOTHER

The sun sends his light deep in the water,

I am raising my hands to the sun,

I close them away from the sun.

How long rest the dead, knowing nothing!

SKAGGY (Looks in river)

He is still there deep in the water.

How can he have her when she is fast in the tomb

Guarded by two strong cull stum gay?

How can this foolish man have her?

The spirits of those who die in Battle

Return to Sun ĩ tlai dus,

The spirits of those who die from disease

Are sent back to the world five times –

Five times and the living is finished,

The earth and the longing are ended.

But these two are owned by st! ao.

These two are held by the wizard.

CHORUS

Eyo, eyo, eyo ha ho!

They are bound by the power of the Skaggy.

MOTHER

Shine on them, Sun high above me,

Shine on him, locked in the river,

Shine on the tomb of his beloved.

Give him the Arrow-Maker’s Daughter!

Draw them soon into your country, Sun ska nak wai!

Let them be born again, oh daylight supernatural power!

CHORUS (Heads bowed, hands upraised, praying to sun)

Ágida! Ágida! Ágida!

Notes:

Ky-xe: Her face and shoulders were almost covered by this woven, conical hood she must wear until she emerged from her seclusion.

Clecha darran: A word with a Druid sound, was the name for the round circles worn by the medicine men. These were suspended from the waist and rustled and hit together as the wearer walked. Puffin beaks ornamented the edges of the flat circles.

Ski Gillda: A female with supernatural powers. The villagers believed the girl was a healer and the skaggy, the medicine man might have encouraged the notion since he wanted her for himself. Having much power in the village he might have frightened the father and mother into forbidding the marriage. The girl, frightened, she could have leapt into the water to escape him. The Suitor watches as her body is recovered.

Ska rut: Usually done by one masked man in a slouching manner. Here the chorus of braves merely imitate the movements of his hands as they stand watching him.

Cull stum gay: The harsh, goatlike beings, half man, half beast who haunt the tomb of the skaggy. They go with the pipes of Pan, the reed-like music that might accompany the tom-tom.

St!ao: A state of enchantment.

Sun ĩ a tlai dus: Shining spirit of good, by another name Sha-la-na. The opposite, the spirit of evil, was Hai de lãn a dure, or Het-gwau-la-nã.

Sun ska nak wai: The daylight supernatural power.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The Arrow-Maker’s daughter no doubt had used some old remedies and this gave her the reputation of healer and ska gillda, or female medicine man. She would use charred roots for sore throat, the boiled branches of the Juniper tree for headache, jack pine for cuts and smoke from burning roots for rheumatism, for paralysis, nettles, sweet parsley for pneumonia and cow parsnip for neuralgia. The tribal leaders would think her too valuable to be wasted on an ordinary brave like the Suitor.

ALLA COOFCH, Alla Coofch!

House of Nan̂kî’-Islas,¹

Owl birds in the rafters

See the bold thief enter,

See the woven baskets lying on the shelf.

Sun in the basket, you are too small

To send light to a big world.

Moon, who would see you if I let you out?

Stars have threads of gold slipping from the lining.

Is there a basket strong enough to hold the stars?

Is there a basket strong enough

To hold a wife sewn up and tied with yellow rushes?

Yelt will find you, Yelt the Raven,

Wi-git, waiting for his drink of water,

Tricking a young daughter.

Is there no safety in a man’s own home?

Up, up he flies, out through the hole in the roof

Straight to the sky . . . the rip is made . . .soon

Sun shines big enough to burn your feathers . . .

Big enough to burn the world . . .bigger . . .more

worlds . . .

Sun, will you ever stop growing?

Now those two are in place . . . the stars slip out

By themselves, so young, so eager.

How will he see them when the waters rise?

How will he escape when all the earth is flooded?

There he goes, the last one living, Yelt the Raven,

Spilling rivers and lakes from his wicker basket . . .

Alla Coofch, Alla Coofch, ho ho ho!

¹Nan̂kî’-Islas, the one who accomplished by his word.

Listen to the story of the First Town People,

Listen to the story of the Town of Sque-na.

First there was the ocean, then a row of houses

Where the Sand People live beside the water.

Back of them another row of little houses.

These the Middle Town People.

By the cliff were houses.

These the Point Town people.

Soon the mud was deeper where the low earth-eaters,

Where the Mud-town People built their row of houses.

At the back were others called the Rear-Town People.

Happily lived these dwellers.

This the first town, Sque-na,

Then the sadness happened.

Little boys shot arrows into shining windows,

Shot at strings of herring drying in the rafters,

Then this fighting happened.

From the rows of houses rushed the angry tribesmen,

Bringing grief and ruin,

Till the town of Sque-na lay beneath the ocean.

Now the town of Sque-na has no rows of hous 

Were-bear, why are you not in hell?

Are you too evil for Het-gwau-la-na?

On my neck is this amulet—See it well!

A great bear’s tooth to charm you away,

Ai! If you follow my faithful squaw,

Twins she may have, if she sees you now;

In this Laughing Goose Month she must hide away

In the Newborn hut by the willow bough.

I shall paint my face with a red bear paw

And dance in the light of the flowing flame,

If thou art but sent by High Sha-la-na—

Morning and night I shall call thy name!

“Notes: A prospective father, guarding a hut of the Newborn, wore charms and a mask to drive away the Were-Bear, whose presence might cause the mother to have twins. But if twins did arrive, the father, trying to appear delighted, danced and sang. This would please the Grizzly Spirit, who then became guardian and nursemaid to the little ones. The Laughing Goose Month was the month of March. The Haida had charming names for months. The Chae Kung-as was November, literally, when bears paw ground for roots.” 

Indeed, indeed,

Is the pride of the coast tribes going!

News has reached us,

News of the Indian pride going!

We have fought a battle

With the Whites,

We have lost a great battle

At Cape Mudge with the Whites.

News has reached us

That the Tanta people

Have wiped out the Tcatcheenie people

News has reached us

Of the battle at Kowkan,

Where the Haida-gai

Slew the Tlingits,

Where they have encircled

The great Slaken village.

When the red man slays the red man,

Indeed, indeed,

Then we grow much weaker,

From the thousands live a dozen.

Waw, the sick pride of the red men!

Who shall help the stricken Raven?