Northern Coast Salish Narrative
Once Ka’iq went out to catch herring with a huge herring rake. But at the same time a whale was out to catch herring, driving away all the herring from Ka’iq’s boat. He grew angry at this. When the whale surfaced one time in order to blow, Ka’iq called, “Fie! Whale, how you stink!”. He repeated this four times, whereupon the Whale got angry and swallowed Ka’iq along with his boat. Each time when the Whale surfaced Ka’iq shouted inside, “Oh know, you people, that the Whale has swallowed me!”. The fishermen heard it and then told each other that Ka’iq had been swallowed by the Whale. The Whale continued to catch herring. So mink lit himself a small fire inside the stomach and dried the herring on a rack. Every time the Whale surfaced, the fish fell off the rack. This angered him. In addition it was very hot in the stomach. Ka’iq felt sick and pondered how he could get into the open again. He decided to kill the Whale and cut its throat. So the Whale died and soon washed ashore close to a village. As soon as the inhabitants saw it they cut it up and lo, when they opened the stomach, out jumped Mink! But he has lost all his hair in the Whales stomach.
Source: British Columbia Indian Language Project, Victoria BC, TITLE: Indian Legends of the North Pacific Coast of America Collected by Franz Boas, Special Offprint from Verhandlunger der Berliner Gesellschaft fur Anthropologie, Ethnologie and Urgeschichte 1981-1895 Berlin , A. Asher & Co. 1895; Translated 1974-75 for the British Columbia Indian Language Project by Deitrich Bertz p.122