luq’uthut ee’!— Stay even!

nuts’a’ kwus ts’ulqun, teemuthaam, “ts’ulqun! ts’ulqun! ”
When it comes to the turning point, and they would holler at you, “Turn! Turn!”

suw’ wetth’ut tthun’ sq’umul’.
So you would have to pry the canoe with the paddle.

’akw’ut tthun’ sq’umul’!
Hook your paddle!

wetth’ut ni’ ’u tthu q’lhan, q’lhanmun, wetth’ut.
So you would have to pry the canoe with the paddle. And that would be the one at the front, the bowman, that would be doing the prying.

ts’uhwle’ ’i’ ’uw’ nuts’a’ ’ul’ t’eluw’ hakwushus ’i’ ’akw’ wetth’utus.
Sometimes it would only be one person that would do the prying and making the canoe turn.

suw’ lhxilush, tl’lim’ ’uw’ lhxilush, tl’lim’ nuw’ se’ tthu q’lhan.
It would really make that person stand, and the front of the canoe would lift up from the water.

suw’ yukwukwtsem’s thu s’eluhwulh,
And there was this old person that was screaming,

“nem’ tseep ’uw’ luq’uthut! luq’uthut! thuythut tseep! luq’uthut tseep!
“Stay even! Stay even! Fix up! Stay even!

’uwu ch mi’muluts’uhw!
Don’t get your strokes mixed!

’uwu ch qutqutts’ala’ehw! ”
You are not a spider!”

[When a spider walks, the legs move at different times. So this is like a canoe team when they are not paddlinng in synch.]

Willie Seymour — Sxweltun
Stz’uminus