K52B. A broken axe. 41.-.43.
The hero comes to get the daughter of a supernatural creature. He sees a slave breaking an ax (teslo, wedge). The hero repairs the ax, for which the slave helps him. See motive K52.
Subarctic. Upper tanana; taltan.
NW Coast. Eyak [the wife is angry with her husband, who goes to marry the daughter of Calm Weather's daughter; marries the youngest; the eldest buys it from her sister for herself in exchange for dentium shells; with this new wife, the man returns to the first; violates the ban on talking to her, the new wife returns to her father; the husband follows her, drowns; the father sends the slave to find the drowned; he rips open bellies to several fish, finds human bones in Dog Fish's stomach; the kneecap is missing, the father-in-law cannot revive it; then he puts his slave's kneecap on him, and he makes a kneecap out shells; lively marries Good Weather's youngest daughter]: Birket-Smith, Laguna 1938, No. 17:300-304 (=Johnson 1978:44-46; translated into Romanova 1938, No. 12:54-56); haida [two Geese take off their feathers, turn into women, bathe in the lake; the chief's son hides their clothes; the eldest offers to marry her, he returns her feathers, takes the youngest; she does not eat people's food, puts on hidden feathers at night, stings grass; when hungry, her father sends geese with edible roots; someone calls a woman a goose, she gets offended, flies away; an old man, a mouse, a woman help her husband; in the form of a mouse, he climbs up to a pole to the sky; a half man (Master-Hopper with one arm, one leg, etc.) harpoons salmon; a young man, turning into a salmon, steals his harpoon; when he returns, he shows the way; man comes to two people who cut wood; chips are thrown into the water, they turn into coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch, Coho salmon, Silver salmon); he makes their wedges split, gives brought with them in return; for this they tell us where his wife is; his wife and father-in-law welcome him warmly; the wife accepts her husband; he begins to miss home; the raven carries him, gets tired, throws him off, he turns into a seagull]: Swanton 1905a: 264-268 (brief retelling in 1905b, No. 13:192-193); Tlingit; Haida; Tsimshian [Chief Gulaxnisem hunted sea otters, and their herd also included whales {probably killer whales: so on}; for this, killer whales kidnapped G.'s wife; he went in search; salmon showed the way after G. painted his cheeks red and gave him a root that had narcotic effect; the following were ducks, at that time all the ducks were blind; they showed the way after G. cut through their eyes, although he did it badly in a hurry {which is bad, not so bad I see}; the bridge guard, who sounded the signal to the killer whales, hid G. under his cape; in the killer whale house, the slave Salzan, who was kidnapped by them; he was hurriedly cutting firewood: killer whales were going to fry G.'s wife to turn it into a killer whale too; he broke his stone ax, G. gave him a lot of narcotic root and he did not notice how G. passed; spat on the axe and it became whole again; S. has two wives, both minks; they they sensed G., but S. told them to go about their business; G.'s wife was already fried on one side and washed on the other; brought water, S. poured it into the hearth, G. grabbed his wife and took him away, no one noticed it in the clouds couple; S. lay down in the doorway, blocking the way for his pursuers, he was beaten to death; G. had a knife that brought him to the ground and further to the upper world; there he killed two grizzlies and a snake, married two grizzly daughters; wanted to take them to the ground, but he was allowed to go down with only his old wife]: Barbeau, Beynon 1987, No. 54:175-176; bellacula; heiltzuk; quakiutl.
The coast is the Plateau. Quarry; chalkomel; sechelt.