Killer Whale, continued
Muxqueum knew from the teachings of his mother Naidah that the Tsonox obtained power from the trickster spirits who had rebelled in the beginning. When Kaw-Seth braves go on a quest, we listen for the voice of Sky Ghost. The Kaw-Seth are not fooled by crafty animals spirits – such as Lightening Snake, Raven Ghost or Old Crooked Beak. Instead, the Great Spirit of the Skies moves among us in prayer and song while we walk in solitude through the forests of the mountains or islands.
The mother of Muxqueum said that the Changer is preparing to make things right. One day he will drive away the spiritual darkness and make all things new. That day will be signaled when we see a white bird burning in the sky.
Muxqueum desired to go on a quest to one of the many small islands along the coast in search of the white bird spirit or even -- if possible -- to meet the Changer himself. The chief’s son N’ha-itk urged him to go on a quest with him to the Lair of Babakawquit as they had planned on many fishing and hunting trips.
But, Muxqueum’s heart was drawn to the far off islands beyond the coastal straights. The old whalers told him to sail north by northwest through a thick fog and past strong currents to find the lost islands of winter stories – believed inhabited only by gentle animals and good spirits. He made up his mind to find the lost islands and began to prepare for the quest.
That night Chief Namquaw woke from a troubling dream. The next day he asked the young slave to interpret it.
In the dream the chief paddled his canoe into dark and misty waters. Then he realized that the canoe was actually the back of a giant two-headed snake. But, he was afraid to get off the snake for fear that one of the heads would eat him, so he continued to paddle up a river where the snake took him to an ice cold pool with a waterfall at the base of a rocky cliff. In the pool he saw the dead corpses of all the men lost at sea, including his uncle who drowned on a whale hunt when Namquaw was a child.
The skin of the corpses were hairless and white and glazed by a clear film and their eyes were empty sockets. The uncle rose from the pool and grabbed him by each forearms and said, “It is never too late.”
Then the waterfall stopped flowing and the water dried up and all of the corpses became dry bones and so did the snake and the chief looked at his own hands still held by the cold hands of the uncle and he realized that he was nothing but dry bones too and just as he began to fall into a black void he awoke.
Before giving his interpretation, Muxqueum went away to pray in the power of the Great Spirit for half a day.
Then he returned and said, “Oh great chief, the message from the dream world is a warning that you must abide. The two-headed snake is the murder and terror of war that you order against the tribes, the misty water is the blood of the innocent killed by the Tsonox. The ice cold pool is a place for ritual purification, but it is filled by the lost dead who come to warn you that unless you turn to the way of the Most High Wonderful Doer and have your intestines purified by the power of his spokesman the Changer, you and your people will drown forever in the underworld when you die.
"You must bring an end to the raids, sing songs to Wonderful Doer alone and stop honoring the monsters of Icy Mountain. Not only this, wise chief, but you must host a peace potlatch for all the tribes and give the gift of freedom to all of the slaves -- letting them go home freely with the guests if they choose.”
Namquaw was silent at the astonishing interpretation, his face turned white, then red with sweat and he burst in anger.
“It is the dog blood in you that lies to a chief who raised you from the lowest place to sit by my side, eat my food and accompany my son as a brother for so many seasons. Now you show that you are a traitor by offending me in the presence of my people when I came to you for help. Our spirit ghosts are the source of my power and the slaves are the source of my wealth. What you say is an unthinkable insult to my chiefly family and the whole Tsonox way. You are cursed by my word and spirit. May Babakawquit rip you to pieces in his jaws.”
Then one of the Chief’s braves came up to Muxqueum and hit him on the side of the head with his fist so hard that the he fell over bleeding on the cedar floor planks.
N’ha-itk begged his father not to kill his friend and so did the chief’s favorite wife. So instead of tying up Muxqueum on the beach for drowning, Namquaw banish him from Raven’s Harbor and the three other Tsonox villages forever.
“Take your skin boat and go alone in the morning. Speak to no one. If your shadow ever touches our beaches again you and all of the Kaw-Seth slaves will be cut up like butchered meat and fed to our dogs,” said the chief’s spokesman.
Secretly, Namquaw planned to send some of his braves to follow Muxqueum and kill him.
That night Muxqueum gathered his belonging and prepared for his banishment. The time of year was early fall and he knew that this was a dangerous season for a long sea voyage. Women brought him dried foodstuffs. He took his fishing gear along with a hunting tunic, sleeping mat, cedar bark rain hat and a spruce root basket lamp. He packed his best quartz knife and his war bow and arrows.
As he worked packing what he needed into a large rawhide sack, his mother Naidah -- who had heard of the banishment -- came from her lodge in the clam village to say goodbye and give him some final advise. She gave him an amulet carved from a whale bone in the shape of the thunderbird and decorated with the images of an eagle, a lion and a frog.
“If you are ever in danger or lost at sea, take out this amulet and sing the song of each animal carved here. Eagle leads the lost to safety. Mountain lion roars a lasting victory call. And the eyes of undying frog see forever. The thunderbird amulet will give you courage when you face trouble so that on the day that you reach the happy hunting grounds the Great Spirit may present you with pride before the fires of our ancestors.”
She said that each day upon seeing the light of dawn or dusk, she would knell to chant the protection song on his behalf. Muxqueum promised his mother that he would return to rescue her. They embraced and she left him to finish the final preparations.
Muxqueum did not sleep that night. At dawn he made his way to the beach, packed his canoe, and pushed off from shore. A crowd of friends and admirers, both Tsonox and Kaw-Seth, including N’ha-itk and Naidah, gathered to see him off. Many wept as they sang the goodbye song:
“Now that you leave us take our farewell. Leave your smile for us to keep until we meet again one day.”
The chief’s spokesman also watched among the crowd and rebuked the people.
“Why do you honor the insulter of our chief?”
These words caused the crowd to part in fear.
When his skin boat was at the mouth of the harbor, he entered the surf of the ocean and passed out of the sight of the villagers. Namquaw commanded that two canoes of warriors wait to cut him off and drown him. The six Tsonox warriors pursued, but Muxqueum increased the pace of his paddling and out ran his enemies. It was then that five large black fins could be seen approaching and a pod of killer whales began to race with the humans, getting very close to the war canoes and leaping and diving in their wake.
One of the Whales shot a tower of breath into the wind that smelled of aged fish. The warriors became afraid that a sea spirit had sent the whales to guard Muxqueum and take them down to their underwater village. The enemy canoes quickly broke off the chase and turned back to Raven’s Harbor.
When Muxqueum saw what had happened, he knew that the Great Spirit was his guide and protector. He cupped some sea water in his hands and spit it back in the direction of the killer Whales and began to sing the whale song as he paddled upon huge ocean swells while the mainland disappeared behind him.
He thought of past days swimming at the creek with friends as a child. It was as if his skin boat was a tiny fir needle floating on the surface of the stream where the children splashed and played.
Only the whale hunters ventured this far out from the familiar coastal waterways. Soon, he was in unknown seas headed for the empty horizon. The sun set orange and pink into the far waters and he moved throughout the night trying to keep warm in the cold wind, sometimes pausing to drift in order to sleep. Black killer whales and white proposes leaped in dreams.
He awoke to repeat his pattern of three strokes and a rest over and over as he slipped across the surface throughout the next day and into the next night. He was determined to find the lost islands.
Next chapter
The mother of Muxqueum said that the Changer is preparing to make things right. One day he will drive away the spiritual darkness and make all things new. That day will be signaled when we see a white bird burning in the sky.
Muxqueum desired to go on a quest to one of the many small islands along the coast in search of the white bird spirit or even -- if possible -- to meet the Changer himself. The chief’s son N’ha-itk urged him to go on a quest with him to the Lair of Babakawquit as they had planned on many fishing and hunting trips.
But, Muxqueum’s heart was drawn to the far off islands beyond the coastal straights. The old whalers told him to sail north by northwest through a thick fog and past strong currents to find the lost islands of winter stories – believed inhabited only by gentle animals and good spirits. He made up his mind to find the lost islands and began to prepare for the quest.
That night Chief Namquaw woke from a troubling dream. The next day he asked the young slave to interpret it.
In the dream the chief paddled his canoe into dark and misty waters. Then he realized that the canoe was actually the back of a giant two-headed snake. But, he was afraid to get off the snake for fear that one of the heads would eat him, so he continued to paddle up a river where the snake took him to an ice cold pool with a waterfall at the base of a rocky cliff. In the pool he saw the dead corpses of all the men lost at sea, including his uncle who drowned on a whale hunt when Namquaw was a child.
The skin of the corpses were hairless and white and glazed by a clear film and their eyes were empty sockets. The uncle rose from the pool and grabbed him by each forearms and said, “It is never too late.”
Then the waterfall stopped flowing and the water dried up and all of the corpses became dry bones and so did the snake and the chief looked at his own hands still held by the cold hands of the uncle and he realized that he was nothing but dry bones too and just as he began to fall into a black void he awoke.
Before giving his interpretation, Muxqueum went away to pray in the power of the Great Spirit for half a day.
Then he returned and said, “Oh great chief, the message from the dream world is a warning that you must abide. The two-headed snake is the murder and terror of war that you order against the tribes, the misty water is the blood of the innocent killed by the Tsonox. The ice cold pool is a place for ritual purification, but it is filled by the lost dead who come to warn you that unless you turn to the way of the Most High Wonderful Doer and have your intestines purified by the power of his spokesman the Changer, you and your people will drown forever in the underworld when you die.
"You must bring an end to the raids, sing songs to Wonderful Doer alone and stop honoring the monsters of Icy Mountain. Not only this, wise chief, but you must host a peace potlatch for all the tribes and give the gift of freedom to all of the slaves -- letting them go home freely with the guests if they choose.”
Namquaw was silent at the astonishing interpretation, his face turned white, then red with sweat and he burst in anger.
“It is the dog blood in you that lies to a chief who raised you from the lowest place to sit by my side, eat my food and accompany my son as a brother for so many seasons. Now you show that you are a traitor by offending me in the presence of my people when I came to you for help. Our spirit ghosts are the source of my power and the slaves are the source of my wealth. What you say is an unthinkable insult to my chiefly family and the whole Tsonox way. You are cursed by my word and spirit. May Babakawquit rip you to pieces in his jaws.”
Then one of the Chief’s braves came up to Muxqueum and hit him on the side of the head with his fist so hard that the he fell over bleeding on the cedar floor planks.
N’ha-itk begged his father not to kill his friend and so did the chief’s favorite wife. So instead of tying up Muxqueum on the beach for drowning, Namquaw banish him from Raven’s Harbor and the three other Tsonox villages forever.
“Take your skin boat and go alone in the morning. Speak to no one. If your shadow ever touches our beaches again you and all of the Kaw-Seth slaves will be cut up like butchered meat and fed to our dogs,” said the chief’s spokesman.
Secretly, Namquaw planned to send some of his braves to follow Muxqueum and kill him.
That night Muxqueum gathered his belonging and prepared for his banishment. The time of year was early fall and he knew that this was a dangerous season for a long sea voyage. Women brought him dried foodstuffs. He took his fishing gear along with a hunting tunic, sleeping mat, cedar bark rain hat and a spruce root basket lamp. He packed his best quartz knife and his war bow and arrows.
As he worked packing what he needed into a large rawhide sack, his mother Naidah -- who had heard of the banishment -- came from her lodge in the clam village to say goodbye and give him some final advise. She gave him an amulet carved from a whale bone in the shape of the thunderbird and decorated with the images of an eagle, a lion and a frog.
“If you are ever in danger or lost at sea, take out this amulet and sing the song of each animal carved here. Eagle leads the lost to safety. Mountain lion roars a lasting victory call. And the eyes of undying frog see forever. The thunderbird amulet will give you courage when you face trouble so that on the day that you reach the happy hunting grounds the Great Spirit may present you with pride before the fires of our ancestors.”
She said that each day upon seeing the light of dawn or dusk, she would knell to chant the protection song on his behalf. Muxqueum promised his mother that he would return to rescue her. They embraced and she left him to finish the final preparations.
Muxqueum did not sleep that night. At dawn he made his way to the beach, packed his canoe, and pushed off from shore. A crowd of friends and admirers, both Tsonox and Kaw-Seth, including N’ha-itk and Naidah, gathered to see him off. Many wept as they sang the goodbye song:
“Now that you leave us take our farewell. Leave your smile for us to keep until we meet again one day.”
The chief’s spokesman also watched among the crowd and rebuked the people.
“Why do you honor the insulter of our chief?”
These words caused the crowd to part in fear.
When his skin boat was at the mouth of the harbor, he entered the surf of the ocean and passed out of the sight of the villagers. Namquaw commanded that two canoes of warriors wait to cut him off and drown him. The six Tsonox warriors pursued, but Muxqueum increased the pace of his paddling and out ran his enemies. It was then that five large black fins could be seen approaching and a pod of killer whales began to race with the humans, getting very close to the war canoes and leaping and diving in their wake.
One of the Whales shot a tower of breath into the wind that smelled of aged fish. The warriors became afraid that a sea spirit had sent the whales to guard Muxqueum and take them down to their underwater village. The enemy canoes quickly broke off the chase and turned back to Raven’s Harbor.
When Muxqueum saw what had happened, he knew that the Great Spirit was his guide and protector. He cupped some sea water in his hands and spit it back in the direction of the killer Whales and began to sing the whale song as he paddled upon huge ocean swells while the mainland disappeared behind him.
He thought of past days swimming at the creek with friends as a child. It was as if his skin boat was a tiny fir needle floating on the surface of the stream where the children splashed and played.
Only the whale hunters ventured this far out from the familiar coastal waterways. Soon, he was in unknown seas headed for the empty horizon. The sun set orange and pink into the far waters and he moved throughout the night trying to keep warm in the cold wind, sometimes pausing to drift in order to sleep. Black killer whales and white proposes leaped in dreams.
He awoke to repeat his pattern of three strokes and a rest over and over as he slipped across the surface throughout the next day and into the next night. He was determined to find the lost islands.
Next chapter
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