MOSQUITO AND HUMMINGBIRD

References:
Plate 7, Figure 2, Mosquito. Haida.
Plate 7, Figure 5. Hummingbird. Haida.
Plate 6, Figure 1. D'sonoqua. Kwakiutl.

The origin of the mosquito is traced by the Haida to one
among the many adventures of a mythical tribal ancestor called
upon to destroy a giant spider which was a mortal enemy to
mankind. This man succeeded in killing the spider and threw
the body into a large fire; but instead of ‘being burned to
ashes the body of the monster merely shrivelled up and presently
escaped from the flames in the form of a tiny mosquito carrying
a small coal of fire in his proboscis. Since that date, in-
Stead of killing men the former giant spider can now only suck
a little blood; in revenge, however, he leaves a particle of
fiery ash in every bite.

But the nomadic Tsetsaut Tribe of the Interior (traditional
enemies of the Tsimsyan Gitksans) had another tradition on the
origin of this pest. It told of the transgression of a taboo by
a young unmarried woman belonging to their tribe, with the result
that she and her brothers who sheltered her were pursued by a
monstrous being who slew two or three of these brothers by stab-
bing them with his long, sharp-pointed, glass-like nose. After
a stern chase the survivors contrived to escape from and finally
destroy this creature, but were then pursued by a female of the
same kind. Her, also they eventually killed; but before she
died she declared: "The people will always suffer from my sharp-
pointed cutting nose!" Sure enough from her remains were born
al] the mosquitos and kindred pests which have ever since tor-
mented the world!

Among the emblems of certain of the Wolf families on the
Upper Skeena River some connection apparently existed between
the hummingbird, the mosquito and the dragonfly. .Dr. Barbeau
points out that all these kinship symbols undoubtedly go back
to the same remote prototypes, becoming differentiated as they
gradually travelled farther apart. (Barbeau, 1929, pp. 118 and
eye

A Squamish legend associates the hummingbird with the bumble-
bee and wren, who are credited with expediting the ripening of
salmon-berries after these had been produced by magic. It has
also been said that the Wild Woman, D'sonoqua, was in the habit
of wearing a live hummingbird in her hair, a custom adopted by
girls of her tribe, who tied the bird to their hair by its
slender legs.

—= Age =