Read Online Kolymsky Heights by Lionel Davidson - Free Book Online Page A

or some other male relative of his mother’s. The society was exogamous – sexual relationships were prohibited between members of a clan. The tabu was incest-based and prevented an individual from sleeping with his mother or his sisters. For the society was also matrilineal: descent came through the mother.
    This meant that the children of a marriage became members not of the father’s clan (which necessarily had to be different) but the mother’s. The mother and her children were all members of the same clan. They could marry into other tribes but not into their own clan within the tribes. This was of the first importance and in matters of personal status clan came before tribe.

    There were four clans: Eagle, Wolf, Raven and Fireweed. Porter’s mother was Raven, so he was Raven. At thirteen he went to stay with a Raven uncle. The uncle threw him out.
    The disagreement arose over the boy’s rebelliousness and his duplicity. (All Ravens are duplicitous. Raven is Trickster. He is very resourceful. He stole the sun and brought light to the world. He does good, but only by accident. He is very cautious. He takes nothing on trust. He is not to be trusted.)
    Porter’s uncle didn’t trust him. Apart from not doing what he was told, the boy lied about what he did do.
    Because of his facility with languages the uncle took him along whenever he had dealings with the Tsimshean or the Nass. He told him to keep quiet but to let him know privately what they said among themselves. The boy disliked this job and told him so, but was made to do it anyway. After being worsted in several deals the uncle knew that he had been lied to, and he beat the boy. This didn’t make any difference and he went on lying.
    The situation was difficult. He could not go on beating the boy, for he was growing too fast. (His father was a Fireweed and Fireweeds grow fast. Fireweeds grow from forest fires; they are phoenix; their ancestress married a Sky Being, and they have a natural inclination towards the sky.) On the other hand he couldn’t keep a defiant boy in his house. Also he couldn’t send him home. And it would dent his authority to ditch him on another relative.
    He ditched him on Brother Eustace.
    Brother Eustace was at that time the head of a mission school at Prince Rupert. He acquired boys mainly from the major tribes and would not often take a Gitksan. Discipline at the school was strict and the boys were strapped if found speaking a tribal language. The aim was to detach them from tribalism; and it was hoped to achieve it more thoroughly when the school moved that year (for reasons of a financial trust) to Vancouver.
    For the uncle the idea of having his nephew as far away as Vancouver was like a light in the darkness. But there weredifficulties. Because of the removal no new entries were being accepted to the school. As a Raven he laid his plans with care. He went to see Brother Eustace. He asked him for religious tracts he could give to some weak people he had observed sliding into wickedness.
    Brother Eustace was touched by his concern and gave him the tracts. The uncle thanked him, at the same time expressing the thanks of all progressive Indians for the mission’s work in educating their young and removing them from temptation – in particular the removal to Vancouver, and all the extra work it would entail.
    Brother Eustace sighed, and said it was a cross that had to be borne.
    The uncle sighed too, and he said the hardest job would be to stop the lads talking their native language. They would do it even more, far from home and feeling nervous. And Vancouver would be particularly dangerous.
    Why would it be? Brother Eustace asked him. Why would Vancouver be dangerous?
    Not Vancouver itself, the uncle said. Vancouver as a large sinful city. And not the language itself, but the foolish myths embodied in the language; which as a matter of fact did not sound foolish in the language. He explained this. He said that in K’san the