Ditidaht Textual Database

This database of Ditidaht texts is based on the fieldwork of Morris Swadesh and Mary Haas conducted on Vancouver Island in 1931. The texts are arranged according to theme.

One of the texts, number 34, was previously published, in part, in IJAL as "A Vist to the Other World"; the text presented here is the complete text. The material presented here has been substantially revised to provide interlinear analysis of all the materials, as well as normalization of the orthography and correction of typos and other errors.

In the following index to the texts, the first column provides the number assigned to the texts by Sapir and Swadesh in their original plan. The second column provides an English title for the text, and the third column provides the name of the narrator of the text, as provided by Sapir. The fourth column indicates the source of the text: texts indicated by a Roman numeral followed by a colon and page range come from Swadesh and Haas's original field notebooks (Swadesh numbered I to VIII, Haas numbered V to IX).

For a sample of the texts, see number 34 below.

Index of Texts

No.	Text Name	Narrator	Source

Mythology
1.	How Crane got thin legs		II:45-53
2.	Raven kills Deer, then loses in duel with Skate		II:55-75
3.	Mink kills Wolf Chief		II:91-
4.	How Mink killed three of the Thunderbirds		III:11-57
5.	Raven steals Hairseal from Crow		III:59-75
6.	Raven doctors Shark		III:77-87
7.	Mink kills Shiishiitlukdaq		III:101-115
8.	The crow girls go berrypicking		IV:1-15
9.	Mink's penis begets him a child		IV:39-49
10.	Mink conquers the South Wind		IV: 55-80
11.	Man follows his wife to the spirit world		IV: 87-101
12.	Woodpecker and Mink move away		IV: 103-111
13.	Mink potlatches the Ducks		V: 1-9
14.	How Ant is sent out to look at the weather		V:11-13
15.	Makah story, girl marries		V:15-35
16.	The Transformer visits the world		V:37-57
17.	Raven tries to steal from the Shadow People		V: 101-111
18.	Woodpecker makes an amorous visit		V:113-
19.	Mink burns Pitch Woman		VI: 1-7
20.	Nantlkxs kills Pitch Woman		VI: 9-15
21.	Raven and ???		VI: 17-35
22.	Raven and his Brother		VI: 37-63
23.	Mink gives birth to a child		VI: 51-63
24.	Mink creates the spits		VI: 65-67
25.	Boy saved from Pitchwoman by a mouse		VI: 69- 93
26.	Adventures of Snot Boy		VI: 95- , VII: 1-21
27.	Rhubarb steals his fibres		VII: 25-27
28.	Mink's mother becomes a bluejay		VII: 29-37
29.	The Makah boy who climbed Mink's rock to get seagull eggs		VII: 39-45
30.	Raven and Beaver trade penises		VII: 47-53
31.	Deer kills Wolf Chief		VII: 55-65
32.	Mink fears he has lost his Chief		VII: 67-83
33.	Sea-gull marries the Daughter of Mink's Chief		VII: 85-101
34.	Boy follows his pal to the other world		VII: 103-
35.	Mink turns I'ishinmit into an island		VIII: 1-5
36.	Adventures of Xaxackwi, the Tsimshian		VIII: 7-61
37.	The man who dreamed of mice		VIII: 63-79
38.	The U'uwapak man		VIII: 81-87
39.	Man spears Supernatural Hairseal		VIII: 89-95
40.	The World destroyed		VIII: 97-129
41.	Louse tells a story		VIII: 135-143

Historical Narratives
42.	How the Tsimshian first saw the White People	Peter Batlisqawa	I:27-43
43.	How Peter went sealing in the Bering Sea		I:45-53
44.	Nitinat fight the Saanitch		I:63-71
45.	How three men went sealing (in the Bering Sea)		I:79-101
46.	How the Nitinat came to Nitinat		IV: 23-37
47.	The Nitinat defeat the Saanitch and the Cowitchan		V: 59-65
48.	Fugitive slave girl captured by Chaadaa'atx		V:69-79
49.	Defeated Huiath flee to Chaadaa'atx		V:81-99
50.	Pachenas attack a Schooner		VIII: 131-133

Ethnographic Narratives
51.	On the Marriage Ceremony		I:73-77
52.	Pachena once spoke Salish		II:1-5
53	How they lived long ago		I:105-117
54.	A dream		IV:51-53
55.	Tsimshian dies and is born again		IV: 113-
56.	Smallpox epidemic		II: 7-43