More Possibly Earthquake-Themed Stories

p. ix "The stories in the Tillamook literature were classified by the natives as belonging to one or the other of three successive time levels. The earliest is the myth age. The next is the age of transformation, when South Wind made the world over as it is known today. The third is the period of true happenings - or rather the era of relatively recent history from the point of view of the Tillamooks, because all the stories describe what these people believe truly occurred. Stories ascribed to the third era follow the epoch of transformation and usually receive assignment to a time before the nineteenth century. The stories are printed in the sequence of eras indicated. Stories of the third period will be observed to be as mythological in many features as the tales which are dated as of myth-age occurrence. Indeed the boundaries between the three periods appear to be tenuous to us, but very likely they were much less if at all tenuous to a Tillamook. He regarded several actors of the myth age as living on into the third period when things were much as they are today. To be sure, Ice, Rain, and various animal beings who were present in the myth age were not persons during subsequent epochs. But Wild Woman, South Wind, and others, who even in the myth age lacked animal characteristics, were though of as living in the third period which includes the very recent past."

p. 17 (Raven and Ice, 4[7]) ...every other woman in that village he took along with him. He advised them, after they were fish, "You go to the rock and jinx it. Give it a kick. It will almost tip over and then no seal will ever go there any more." Those women did that. They swam to the rock, they gave it a kick. Ice saw them; he asked, "What are those things swimming? Oh, they are blackfish!"

p.59 (Wild Woman, 15, [3])... [dog catches a whale] ...That whale swam like the dickens because it hurt where the dog had grabbed him. The old woman became frightened. The canoe was getting tipsy. She said, "Let go of that whale Kashelweet! We will be tipped over! Turn him loose! Turn him loose!" The dog did not want to let go of that whale. Water came in the canoe and she was so frightened she kept telling the dog to let it go. Finally he did that

p. 176 (The Strange Root, 55)
The following happened in the place called God's Valley by the white people, between Nehalem and Seaside. ... Many people used to live in that valley in the wintertime....[a woman digs up a very large, deep fern root, and prepares it for her husband] ... Presently the other people heard, "Oh, what makes that noise? It sounds as if our house is moving." His wife did not wake up, she was so tired. After a while one fellow in that household arose, obtained some pitchwood, and lit it. The noise had not stopped, it was still going on. The very house was shaking. With his light he saw that husband was crawling about on his hands and knees. The fellow thought, "What is wrong here? This man is crawling!" That husband would not speak. His eyes were as red as blood. Everyone got up out of bed then. They attempted to follow that man, but he was digging his way into the ground. They all watched to see where he was going. He dug deeper and deeper. After a while he disappeared in the ground. He was gone.

The people became very frightened. They ceased digging those fern roots. They moved away from that spot down onto the sand hill. The men would go up there in the wintertime and fish steelhead in the river. Once in a while they would see a human hand sticking up out of the water. Whenever that happened they would go home because all of the fish would disappear when that happened.

That is all. They claim that that big root was perhaps a snake.

p. 167 (Thunder Bird, 51)
[1] A man lived at Tillamook. In the wintertime he went far up small streams to speak steelhead. When he went fishing he wore a waterproof cape. It was fastened at the waist with a belt. He wore a spruce-root rain hat. It was held on tightly by an inner cedar-bark band. One day he put on his cape and rain hat and started out. It was a bad day, hailing, and there was lightning. When the hail stopped he would go along and look for fish. He did not get any. Soon again there was thunder and lightning. He became angry, he said, "Confound it! That Thunder!" He cursed him. "I cannot get any fish," he said. "You [Thunder] might just as well come along and take me with you." Then how it hailed! He stood under a tree for shelter.

[2] Now he saw a main, a huge man. The big man said, "You wanted me to come. I have come to take you home with me." He seized the man, he took off that cape, he hung all of the man's clothing on that fish pole, he put the spruce-root hat on the top, and stood the fish pole there against the tree. Thunder said, "I will take you home now. You will not remain long with me, I will bring you back within two days." The man thought, "Oh, that will not be too bad. Two days are nothing." Thunder told him, "I will keep you under my wings. Do not ever open your eyes. Never try to peek out. I could not help it, if you were to open your eyes, I would drop you, I would be unable to save you." "All right," the man said. He obeyed because he was not just a young man, he was married and had two children.

[3] Then they started. He heard the rushing sound Thunder made going. Presently Thunder said,"Be careful now, we are on a bad spot here, this is a windy spot." After a while Thunder arrived home with him. He told the man, "We are home now." The man looked. Thunder's home was on the ground just like any other place. He went in the house. There was a very big old woman. She was his wife, Thunder Bird's wife. They called the man, "Our grandchild." He looked like a child to them because they were so many times his size.

[4]Every day Thunder Bird would say, "I am going out fishing." When he returned home he brought a whale. That was his fish. They had a big board in the house. Thunder would lay the whale on that and cut in into what was supposed to be small pieces. "There, grandchild, you go ahead and eat." The man could not even lift that knife, it was so big and heavy. So he made himself a knife that he could handle. Thunder said, "Bring it here. Bring me that little knife that you made." Thunder held it. "Oh, how can you see to make that little thing?" he asked. The knife slipped under Thunder's fingernail. He had to get a stick and dig it out from there. "Ah, you make very fine things!" he told the man. Those pieces of whale which were just a mouthful for Thunder or his wife made a whole meal for the man. He could cut it up with the knife he had made himself. "Ah, our grandchild is such a small eater," Thunder and his wife would say. They watched him carefully as if he were really a child. "Do not run around near the bank, you might fall over." "Do not go far away, you might become lost." The were always warning him in that manner.

[5] After a while the man became sick of having nothing but whale meat.He thought, "I wonder what may be in this water over here? I am going to sneak away." He went over by the bank. He saw quantities of fish. (Thunder had never bothered with them because they were too small to interest him.) The man mad a fish pole for himself. From whale bones he made a spear. Old Woman Thunder asked him, "What are you making?" He answered, "I am making a fish pole and I am making a spear. I am going to spear fish." She said, "Bring that thing you are making here." He took it to her. "Oh, you are so cute! How can you manage to make things so tiny? My goodness! You who are so little know so much about building things." (Nevertheless he was almost an old man.)

[6] Already his two days were past. Thunder was out fishing. The man thought, "My!, It is past two days already. Thunder said I would stay only two days. Oh! I would like to get home." The old woman said to him, "Why grandchild! Have you become homesick? You have not remained very long with us." Then the old woman told him, "Your grandpa will take you home inside of two days. That is two of your years." He answered, "Oh! That is a long time." "No, that is not very long, grandchild. For just two days we would like to have you with us." He went out then to spear fish. He was tired of whale meat.

[7] He speared a great many fish, perhaps twenty. "My, that is a lot!" he said to himself. He fixed a string, he strung those fish on it, he dragged them home. He called out, "Oh!, Grandma! I speared all these fish out here." She came outside. "Why, how can you hit those little fish?" Then she took out her big clam shell in which she drank her soup. She put those twenty fish in that soup shell, she was going to boil them for him. After a while that water was boiling. She would take a stick and stir those fish around, so they all would be cooked. They were cooked. Then she took a small board. She asked him, "How many do you want?" "One," he told her. "Oh, that grandchild! My! How can you be satisfied with one? It's not a mouthful!" Then she brought the clam shell, she put one fish on the board. "There you are," she said, "go ahead and eat." She put that clam shell to her mouth and with a stick she lifted those fish into her mouth, one at a time. They were just a taste for her, each fish was barely a taste. That one fish that the man had, lasted him all day however. "Well, they are good!" she admitted. "but Thunder would never bother with such little ones."

[8] They thought he was so cute. He was so small and yet he did all sorts of entertaining things, he built so many objects. One mouthful of whale meat lasted him for so many meals. How did he live on so little?

[9] One day while Thunder was gone, the old woman asked her grandchild, "Would you mind looking around in my head to see if you find any head lice? I feel rather lousy." When she sat down, it was all the man could do by standing on his tiptoes to look up into her head. "Oh, my goodness! She has water dogs in her hair. Maybe they are her head lice," he thought. He said, "Yes, you do have something on you head." He did not want to handle them, he was afraid of them. Indeed they were her head lice. She told him, "You pick them off and lay them in my hand." He picked them up by the tail, he laid them in her hand. She said "My! You can pick up tiny things, I can scarcely see them." As he laid them in her hand, she would put her hand to her mouth and crack those water dogs with her teeth. "Ah! My head lice! They are extremely small," she said.

[10] One day the man was observing Thunder's wife. He thought, "Oh! Is she not a huge woman? And my grandpa, is he not a large man? My goodness! How high they must reach when grandpa gets on top of her! When they copulate, oh! It must be extremely high up." Presently she looked at him. "Yes, yes, grandchild!" she said. "We are very large indeed. When we copulate, when grandpa lies on me, we reach quite high. We must have big, wide covers to cover ourselves." Then he was ashamed. "After this," he promised himself, "I will not think any such foolish things." (She knew what was in his mind with his saying anything.)

[11] Then at last his two years were past. His grandfather came home. Thunder said, "Well, your two days are up now. I will take you home." He was so pleased. Thunder told him, "I brought one fish for you to take home with you, so you can have it to eat when you get home. You cannot have it right at your house. I will just let it lie on the beach and you can tell all your friends to go and pack some home. It will belong to you, but you may let your friends have some of it." Then the man went and kissed his grandmother goodbye, and Thunder was ready to take him home. Again he told him, "You must not look around. Just keep your eyes closed and hang on." He brought him back to the same place where he had picked him up. He set him down by that tree. He told him, "Your whale will be there. Go get it immediately when you reach home. It is on the beach. That is for you."

[12] The man began to wonder, "I wonder if I will find my wife. Perhaps she has forgotten me already. Maybe she has married again." He went towards home. He hated to walk into the house. He saw his little children,they were almost grown up. Those two children had their hair cut short in the mourning style. He called them, "Come here, I want to talk to you." They came to him. "Is your mother home?" "Yes", they answered, "she is at the house." "Who is living there?" "Oh, uncle and aunt, they are living with us." He asked, "Anyone besides them?" "No, just them and mother and us." "Has she a husband, your mother?" "No, our father was killed. He went out fishing and never came back. He is dead." He told them, "That was I. I was not dead. Tell your mother to come out and meet me." The children ran into the house. The older one said, "Mother, we saw father out there, outdoors." "How can you talk that way? Father has been dead two years." She reproved them. "He wants you to come out and meet him. HE is out there," they insisted. She just knew that could not be true, but she went. She went out. Well! There he was indeed. She went to him, she said, "Why! We thought you were dead." "No," he explained, "but I could not return when I wanted to. Something took me and kept me and has just now brought me home. I will tell you about it later on." Then he advised his wife, "You go into the house and I will follow later. Clean that house." "That house is clean," she answered. She went in and fixed her bed for him. Then he came in and went to bed.

[13] He was going to sing. His brother ran and told all the people, "He has come back. He is going to sing now. He says everyone shall go down on the beach tomorrow for a whale. He says that whale is from him, he brought it with him." It was summertime and whale had never before drifted ashore in summertime. Only in winter had they ever come to the beach. For that reason people disbelieved. They thought when they saw it, "He must be more than just a common person. He is more powerful. He can do almost anything because he has been up above." When they were getting their pieces of whale he told all the people, "Do not ever eat that back fin. That is the best part, the big, fat part. You bring that back fin home and burn it in the fire. Give all the people portions of the rest of the whale. Whenever I want another I can ask for it." His brother did all that he told him. Then that man sang for seven or eight days and people came from all over to see him, to see that he was indeed alive.

That is a real happening.

1. The Thunderbird, p 23-27

p.33, 3. The Six Travellers
Once upon a time there lived six men who wanted to travel in their canoe all over the world. They reached the lightning-door, which opened and closed with great rapidity and force. They went ashore and one of them tried to pass through the door. He succeeded in jumping through it without being hurt. HE found himself in a house, where he saw two blind women, who had a plentiful supply of whale meat. He took some of it and threw it out of the door. The first piece he threw passed through it but the second was caught by the closing door. Then he watched his opportunity and jumped out of the house, when the door opened. It closed so rapidly that it cut off half of his back. He did not know what to do. But when he came to the canoe one of his companions said, "Let us put some mud on, which will heal it." They did so, and travelled on across the ocean.

...The six men launched their canoe, and continued their travels. After a while they saw a house. They landed, and went to see who lived in it. They found no one there, and were about to continue their travels, when one of the men remembered having seen a large supply of fish in the house. The returned and sat down near the fire. All of a sudden the basket filled with fish fell down from the loft. The chief said, "Put it back; maybe the people will return very soon, and they certainly would pursue us if they should find that we had stolen their fish." Then they put them back. After a while another basketful of fish fell down close to their feet. The chief said, "Let us eat of the fish, for we are hungry." After they had eaten, the men intended to carry baskets of fish down to their canoe. The chief took one basket and said, "I will take these fish; they are very good." At once he felt his hair pulled by invisible hands, and he was thrown down and his basket taken from him. He thought his people had done so, but on looking back he saw them still seated near the fire. Then he thought he had stumbled and fallen, the basket being very heavy. He took it up again, but as soon as he had turned towards the door he was thrown down once more and thoroughly beaten. His people had now finished eating. Each of them took a basket and turned toward the door. There they were thrown down at once and beaten by invisible hands. The baskets were taken away from them. Then they knew that the house was the abode of the shadows.

... Then the men wished to return home; they turned their canoe, and began their homeward journey. After a while they arrived at a huge rock, on which they found a large amount of driftwood. They made a fire on the beach and fell asleep. When they were fast asleep the rock began to shake, and they discovered that they were camping on the house of the Killer Whale. After a short time the monster came forth from under the rock and began to devour the travellers. The chief jumped into a fissure of the rock, where the monster was unable to reach him, and stayed there until it had returned to its house. When it entered its abode, the rock was shaking violently. In the daytime a great many sea lions came to the rock to back on the beach and on the driftwood. As the chief was very skillful in hunting sea-lions, having learned that craft from his father, he killed two sea-lions and one seal with his arrows. HE put them into his canoe, made a sail out of his blankets, and started home. He had hardly gone when the monster came out of his house. It saw the remains of its subjects, and intended to kill the man who had murdered them. It chased him, but he began to sing and to conjure the wind. When the monster had almost reached him, the wind began to blow stronger and stronger, and drove the canoe forward, so that the chief was able to escape the Killer Whale. When he reached land near his village, and was crossing the bar, his people saw him coming. He was obliged to lower his sail, as the wind was blowing a gale. His people perceived that he had some difficulty in crossing the bar, and one of their largest canoes went out to assist him. When they approached him the Killer Whale had almost reached the chief's canoe; therefore, in order to escape the monster, he hoisted his sail and succeeded in entering the river. The large canoe, which was managed by twenty people, was unable to escape, and they were devoured by the monster. The canoe was upset. The women were standing on the beach, and saw the canoe being upset and the monster returning to its home. The chief was very sad at having lost so many of his people and thought of revenge.

He went to Salmon River and hired a powerful shaman, whom he asked to break the rock under which the Killer Whale lived. All the people who lived on his river accompanied him when he went out to the rock.

They had four canoes lashed together and covered with a platform of planks, on which the shaman was dancing. When they approached the rock, the shaman ordered the people to hide their faces and to turn backward. They turned their canoes, and the shaman began his incantations, singing, "Throw up! throw up! throw up!" The rock began to shake, and finally jumped out of the water, and falling, killed the monster. The latter, however, had two young ones, which stayed at the bottom of the sea and were not hurt by the falling masses. After the rock had settled down, they returned to it and continued to live there.

A year had elapsed; the people did not know that the young ones were still alive. One day they went out hunting seals and sea-lions. When they came to the rock, the two Killer Whales came out and devoured all the people; only the chief's son escaped by hiding under the bailer of one of the canoes. Peeping out from it, he saw one of the monsters swallow his father. He cried for fear, and pushed his canoe out into the sea, hoping to make his escape. He had no paddles, and drifted about helplessly. After a while, some people who had remained in the village saw the canoe drifting by, and went out to secure it. They found their chief's son, who was so badly frightened that he was hardly able to speak. When he was recovered he told them what had happened.

p.140, 9. The Crow and the Thunderbird
In the beginning of the world the crow had the voice of the thunderbird, and the thunderbird had the voice of the crow. The latter proposed to the former to exchange their voices. The crow agreed, but demanded that the thunderbird should give her the low water into the bargain, because his voice was so much stronger than that of the thunderbird. He needed the low water in order to catch crabs and mussels on the beach. The thunderbird agreed and made the waters of the sea recede a long distance. Then the crow saw all the monsters of the deep, which frightened him. He asked the thunderbird not to let the waters recede so far. For that reason the waters do not recede very far during the ebb tide. If the crow had not been frightened, they would recede very much farther.

Comparatively little is on record concerning the Oregon coast tribes, and since the rapid disintegration of their culture there remains little hope of much information about them being secured. They are, however, the principal link between the Indians of northern California and those of lower Columbia river and Puget Sound. It seems desirable, therefore, to make available the data obtained. ...

p.13, Tales #3
A married man was going to catch salmon in a small brook. He went up the river, and when he was near the source of the brook, he heard the voice of a bird, which cried, "Ho!" He thought, "What bird may that be? Certainly it must be very large, because its voice is so loud." He went on, and after a while he heard again the voice of the bird -- "Ho!" He looked upward, and thought he would discover it, but did not see anything. He was wearing a grass blanket, tied together under his arms and reaching to his knees. He went on and looked around, trying to find the bird. Suddenly he saw a man approaching. He was afraid. When they met, the man asked him, "Why are you afraid? I am the one whose voice you heard; you wanted to see me, and here I am. Look at the bearskin I wear. When I shake it, it thunders." Then he assumed the shape of a bird. The young man took off his blanket and leaned his spear against a tree. The bird put the man in his armpit and told him to shut his eyes; only when they arrived at the bird's home was he to open them. The bird told him that if he should open his eyes while they were flying, they would fall down and die. While they were flying, the man became exceedingly warm in the armpit of the thunder bird, but he did not open his eyes. They flew for a long time. Finally they arrived, and the bird told the man to open his eyes. Only sand was to be seen; and there was no vegetation at all. They had reached the country on the other side of the ocean. Then the thunder bird took the visitor to his house, which was built of whale skin. The entrance was the mouth(?) of the whale. He stayed there.

One day, when the young man went to the water, he saw many salmon. He thought, "I wish I could eat them." He made a salmon harpoon, and the next day began to catch salmon, and carried them back home. The thunder bird took his spoon and put the salmon into it. He placed them by the side of the fire and gave one of the salmon to the young man. The others he ate himself. In the evening the young man went out and saw people fishing with torches made of pitch wood. He did not know what they were doing. The thunder bird knew at once what the young man was thinking, and said, "They are catching salmon," meaning, however, that they were catching whales. The next morning when the young man went out again, he saw that each of the canoes had caught a number of whales. After he had stayed there for a year, the thunder bird asked him, "Do you wish to return home?" The young man expressed his desire to return, and the thunder bird carried him back to Nestucka, and took along two large whales. The man was found by his people, who carried him back home. In the evening they made him sing. On the following day he sang, "Go to the beach where you found me." He sent two people, who found the two whales, lying a short distance apart on the beach. The messengers went home and reported that they had found two whales, and the people went down, but the young man told them not to carve them. Then he went down and carved the whales. He saw the thunder bird sitting on a rock not far from the beach. Its tail reached from the rock to the water. Then the people came from all parts of the country to buy whale oil from the Nestucka and they gave in exchange dentalia and other valuable shells.