The Story of Th’owxeya

This sxwōxwiyám origin story of Th’owxeya is directly from Amelia Douglas, relayed by Sonny McHalsie.

She places this sxwōxwiyám at Peqwchό:lthel (up river from Sq’ewá:lxw). So she tells a story about how the kids knew about Th’owxeya. They knew what she did. They knew that once the sun went down, that she would come out and because children weren’t allowed to be outside after the sun went down. And some families still do that. Some families actually don’t allow the children out after the sun goes down. And so they thought they were smart. And so they asked one of the young boys to watch for her, watch for her when she’s coming down, coming down river, because she lived up in Yale, there’s caves up there. You can see the caves. I’m not sure which cave because the elders that shared stories about her told me about those caves being her home, I asked them which cave and they said oh, just one of those caves. So it seemed like it was pretty clear that it didn’t really matter which one just long as you knew that one of those caves was her home.

But anyways so the young boy was watching. All the other kids are swimming. Some of them were sunbathing. Some of them were just waiting in the water. And he saw Th’owxeya come around the corner. So he hollered Th’owxeya! Th’owxeya! Until the kids all jumped up and start running back home. But Th’owxeya instantly, she was right there. And she had a big basket on her back and she grabbed all the kids and put them into her basket on her back. And she started making her way backup river to her home. And in the basket was a young girl that had a sharp shell, a seashell. And also there was a young boy deformed, he had a hump on his back. And so the young girl used her shell to start cutting a hole in the bottom of the basket so that they could escape. And so she cut the hole so some of the kids are able to escape, but each time they escaped they, when they slipped out the hole, they would step on a rock or something and the rock would make a noise. And Th’owxeya had her hand by her walking stick as she’s walking, and she heard the noise and said “Oh, what’s that?” And all the kids would say, oh, grandmother, you just stepped on a rock. Okay, and then she’d keep going. And then another kid would escape and step on a little twig and a twig would snap and make a noise and Th’owxeya would stop again. Oh, what’s that? Oh grandmother, you just stepped on the twig. Okay, so she keep on going. So they were able to trick her each time one of the kids were able to escape, but then after a few of them escaped.

The young boy that had a hump on his back tried to get through the hole. But he got stuck, they couldn’t pull him back out. They couldn’t push him through. So he blocked the way so the rest of kids are stuck in the basket. So they had to come up with another plan. So the older ones knew what was gonna happen once she got them up to her home. They knew that she was gonna pitch their eyes so that they couldn’t run away. So the older ones told the younger ones, close your eyes really tight like this. So if she puts pitch on your eyes, you can take the pitch off when you can open your eyes and see then we can run away. But the younger kids didn’t listen, only the older ones did so when she came and pitched their eyes, the younger ones ended up having their eyes pitch shut so they couldn’t see so they couldn’t run away. So the kids had to come up with another plan.

But Th’owxeya had brought this big log over to them. Because in the old days, we never had skin drums, skin drums didn’t appear until around the 1930s or so. We used to use hollowed out or carved out logs with sticks. And that’s why if you ever see old photographs of people playing Slahal in the hop yards they’ll have a two-by-four with sticks, right? Because that’s what we drummed on was on wood rather than skin drums.

Anyway, so she brought this log over and brought some sticks to the kids. And she told them that when I start doing my song, because that’s what she did, that she’d sing her song and dance around the fire. And she said, when I start doing my song and dance, I want you kids to sing for me and drum for me. And then she left a log and the sticks and she went back over. So one of the older kids came up with another plan. They said, okay, she’s going to start singing and dancing around the fire. Third time around, the fire will jump up, grab this log and use it to push her into the fire. When she heard them talking and she hollered over there “what are you kids talking about?” one of the older kids said “oh grandmother, were just saying that when you start singing and dancing, we’re gonna sing really loud, and we’re gonna drum really hard, for you.” and she goes “Oh, good, good, good.” She was pretty happy about that. And then sure enough, she started a fire, she started doing her song and dance going around the fire. Third time around the fire, the kids grabbed the log and used it and pushed her into the fire and she fell into this fire and burned in the fire. So that’s how the kids were able to escape.

But the story carries on from there from Tillie Gutierrez saying that these two men approached the fire. They’re both cold and hungry and say the fire was just about out, just smoldering. And so they wanted to get the fire going. So the first one went up to the fire and blew and the fire flared up and burned him on the front of the chest and became the Black Bear with a white spot on his chest but the fire kind of went back, back down again. Second one approached the fire and he blew really hard and the fire just flared right up, burnt him in the front of his chest and he became the Red Robin. That’s why the Red Robin has that orange chest. But anyways when the fire flared up all the little cinders that came out of the fire were transformed into mosquito. And just like Th’owxeya, because she only came out after the sun went down. That’s why the mosquito only comes out after the sun goes down. And just like Th’owxeya because she was the cannibal woman that’s why the mosquito comes and sucks your blood. And just like Th’owxeya because she was singing her songs just before she got pushed into the fire. You can hear her singing her song, when you hear the mosquito just before they come in and bite you. So that’s the origin story.