CHAPTER XXVII.
HOW THE RICH TRIED TO BE A TALTH.
I will give the history of one Indian that was very wealthy, who belonged to the He-na’s. (Smith Rivers) This Indian while yet a very young man, had by inheritance, been left so much wealth that he felt there was no part or place, but what he had the right and power to go, and being closely related to some of the wealthy families of the lower Klamath, and among the rest to a family of one of the Talths, which lived at Wah-tec village, close to where the White Deer-Skin Dance is held. When it came time for this dance, he took with him a great many of his most valuable articles to use in the dance. He went up to Reck-woy, the mouth of the Klamath, and on up to Wah-tec to visit with his relatives, and take part in the dance, by putting his valuables in. Everything went along merrily to his satisfaction until the dance was finished at Wah-tec village. The day all was in readiness to move down to the place where they all make a stop, and only those that have a high birth are allowed to travel on the lower trail and go to the place that is held sacred ground, and here, when he was told not to go, he said, “why I am richer than any one here, I can go any place,” then when some of his relatives told him to stay back, that he could go on the upper trail with the others that were rich, he protested strongly and still persisted in going, but was told plainly that his riches counted for nothing at this time and place. That with all his riches, he was of low birth, that his mother and father were married in the low marriage, and that he was of the He-na tribe, and that he could give his riches to one that was born right, to take there for him if he wished to do so, or he could take his riches withhim on the upper road, to be used on up the hill, and at the finishing place. At this he cowed down like a child and wept, leaving all of his wealth and started back into the mountains, back to the very highest mountains where the bear, panther and wolves were plentiful. All alone he went to where there is a large rock which we call Hah-i-o-claw, and he remained there for three days singing and praying, then with nothing to eat he wandered on through the wild timber and brushy country, back to Crescent City, (Caw-pay) and proclaimed himself a doctor, and always was known afterward as Caw-pay or Crescent City Doctor and lived to be old, and all of the old time white inhabitants of Crescent City well remember this Indian that went by the name of Crescent City or Caw-pay Doctor. He was an oddity and many are the jokes that the old time white men, and some of the white women played on him. I am related to him and knew him well, and the place where he claimed he went to the large rock, and I will say that it is a wild country, in which there are plenty of wild animals. I have been on this mountain often and seen the land marks that were left there by the white race on going north.