ABSTRACTS OF MYTHS

MYTHS RECORDED IN ENGLISH AT SITKA

1. Raven

Raven was the son of a man named Kit-kaˊositiyi-qā, who gave him strength to make the world. After he had made it he obtained the stars, moon, and daylight from their keeper at the head of Nass by letting himself be swallowed by the keeper’s daughter and be born of her. He obtained fresh water by tricking its owner, Petrel. As he was flying out through the smoke hole, however, Petrel made his smoke-hole spirits catch him and lighted a fire under him, turning him from white to black. Raven scattered the fresh water out of his mouth to make rivers and streams. Because some people who were fishing for eulachon would not take him across a river, he let the sun forth, and they fled into the woods or ocean, becoming such animals as the skins they wore had belonged to. Next Raven stole fat from some boys who were throwing it back and forth. He found a piece of jade bearing some design, stuck it into the ground, and pretended to a spring salmon that the object was calling it names. The salmon came ashore, and Raven killed it. Then he got the birds to procure him skunk cabbage so that they might eat the fish, but instead of feeding them, he sent them away a second time and ate it himself, burying the bones in the ashes. After that the birds dressed and painted themselves up. Raven came to the Bear, and the latter fed him on some of his own flesh, a proceeding which Raven tried to imitate in vain a little later. Then Raven went out fishing with Bear and Cormorant, killed the former by cutting off a piece of flesh, and pulled out Cormorant’s tongue so that he could not tell anybody. Afterward he killed Bear’s wife by inducing her to eat halibut bladders which he had filled with hot stones. He came to some fishermen and stole the bait from their hooks, but was finally hooked in the nose and had to recover his nose disguised as another person. Now he came to some deer with fat hanging out of their nostrils, pretended that it was mucus, and obtained it. He started along by canoe, and all of the animals wanted to accompany him, but he accepted only Deer. Coming to a deep valley, he laid some dried celery stalks across, covered them with moss, and induced Deer to try to walk across. Deer did so and was precipitated to the bottom where he was devoured by Raven. Afterward Raven began mourning for him. Now he met the old woman who controls the tide, and forced her to let the tide fall and rise as it does to-day. At the same time he told Mink to live on sea urchins. Then he went on crying, “My wife, my wife,” and, when he saw some gum on a tree, thought that the tree also was mourning. Coming to Petrel again, he contended with him as to which was the older, but finally Petrel put on his fog-hat so that Raven was unable to find his way out and had to admit Petrel was older than he. He induced Petrel to let his hat “go into the world,” so that when people see fog coming out of an opening in the woods and going right back, they know it will be good weather. He obtained fire with the help of a chicken hawk whose bill was burned off in getting it, and he put the fire into red cedar and some white stones. Coming to the great house containing all fish, he brought it ashore by means of a cane carved to resemble the tentacle of a devilfish, and gave a feast for his dead mother out of part of its contents. The other fish spread throughout the world. He invited the killer whales, pretended that he was going to show them how to stick canes into their necks, and stuck sharp pointed sticks in instead, thus killing all but one. (When Raven and another person were boiling down the grease from these killer whales, he stole all from the other man. Then this man shut him up in a grease box and kicked it off a high cliff, but Raven had induced him to fasten it with a piece of straw instead of rope, and immediately flew out.⁠[193]) He flew inside of a whale, and lived on what it swallowed and its insides. At last he cut out its heart and killed it. After he had floated ashore the people cut a hole through and he flew away. Returning to the same place, he persuaded them that this was a bad portent, so they left the town, and Raven consumed what they had abandoned. Once Raven went to a calm place just outside of Sitka and made many waves by rocking his canoe, since which time it has always been very rough there. Next he set the heron and sea gull to quarreling in order to obtain a herring which the former had swallowed. Having stolen a salmon from some people when they were asleep, they in turn discovered him asleep and wrenched off his gizzard. He went after it, found them using it as a polo ball, and recovered it, but ever since the Raven’s gizzard has been big and dirty. Next he married the daughter of Fog-on-the-salmon, and they put up many salmon eggs and dried salmon. When it became stormy the salmon eggs helped him paddle. Afterward he carried up the dried salmon and dumped the salmon eggs overboard, so that people do not care much for salmon eggs nowadays. He met a man whose club would go out to sea and kill seal of itself, stole this club, and tried to make it do the same thing for him, but it would not, and he broke it in pieces on the rocks. He tried to make a certain place like Nass, but the clams shooting upward drowned his voice and he was unsuccessful. He turned to stone two brothers who had started to cross the Stikine. Coming to the ground-hog people, he tried to make them believe that the spring snowslides had begun so that they would throw their surplus food out of doors, but in vain. He had to wait until spring, when they threw it all out, and he gave a feast for his mother with it. Before this took place, however, he obtained the female genital organs from a certain island and put them in their places. Then he invited everybody in the world to his feast because he wanted to see a dance hat and Chilkat blanket which were owned by the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt. Since then people have liked to attend feasts.

Raven put a woman under the world to attend to the rising and falling of the tides. Once he wanted to go under the ocean, so he had this woman raise the waters, and they went up to the tops of the mountains. They went up slowly, however, so that people had time to load their canoes. The bears which were walking around on the tops of the mountains tried to swim out to them, and those who had dogs were then well protected. Some people walled about the mountain tops and kept their canoes inside. All who survived were without firewood, however, and died of cold, except some who were turned to stone by Raven along with many animals and fishes. Then the sea went down so far that it was dry everywhere. Raven and another bird-man went about picking up fishes to boil the grease out of them, but Raven took only small fishes like sculpins while the other took whales, etc. Raven scared his companion away and began drinking his grease, but he came back, put Raven into a grease box, and kicked him off from a high cliff as had happened before. Raven also escaped in the same manner.⁠[194] One time Raven invited the bears to a feast, and induced the wren to pull out the entrails of one of them through his anus and thus kill him. Raven had become so great an eater from having eaten the black spots off his toes. After everybody had been destroyed at the time of the flood, Raven made a new generation out of leaves, and so it happens that at the time when leaves fall there are many deaths. He made a devilfish digging-stick and went around to all things on the beaches, asking them if they were going to hurt human beings. If they said “No,” he left them; if “Yes,” he rooted them up. In his time fern roots were already cooked, but he made them green; while devilfish, which were fat, he made hard. On one occasion he invited all the tribes of little people, and, when they were seated upon mats, he shook them and the little people flew into people’s eyes, becoming their pupils. He tried to capture a sculpin in order to eat it, but it slipped between his fingers, and its tail became slender as it is to-day. He threw his blanket upon the sea, let it float ashore, and threw it upon a bush where it became Rebis bracteosum (cāx). Drinking water he called cātǃkǃ. He placed a woman at the head of a creek and said that the salmon should go up to see her. He made the quills of the porcupine out of yellow cedar bark. He made the west wind, which he placed in a house on top of a mountain, and decreed that it should hurt nobody. He also told a person how to obtain strength enough to paddle home by taking up a piece of red salmon and blowing behind him. Raven made also the south wind and the north wind. He made all the other native races of people. The dog was at first a human being, but Raven altered him because he was too quick. One time Raven came to a thing called fat-on-the-sea. He made it go under water and come up again, and every time it came up he cut some of it off with his paddle. The eighth time it went under for good. At one place a person came out and spoke angrily to Raven, whereupon he turned him into a wild celery plant. He tied something around the head of a clam and gave it the same name as a man’s privates.

After having tried every sort of contrivance for supporting the earth, Raven drained a sea-water pond when the tide was out, killed a beaver living at the bottom of it, and used its foreleg. Old-woman-under-the-earth has charge of it. Afterward Raven killed a big whale and tried to have it towed into the pond where the beaver had been. Finally he got tired out and turned it into stone along with the four canoes that were towing it. He gave names to several other places in this neighborhood.

2. The Big Clam

In Tenakee inlet is a place named after a person who was swallowed by a halibut in attempting to wade over to some girls picking berries at a strawberry patch on the other side. In the same neighborhood is a big clam which used to swallow canoes. Raven, however, directed a little mink to call to it to stick its head out, and after it had done so the people plunged sticks into it and cut in two the ligament for closing its valves.

3. English Version of the Story of the Four Brothers

Four brothers owned a dog which pursued a cloud up into the sky, and they followed it, coming out at the edge of a very steep place on the other side of the world. Descending this with difficulty they came upon a one-legged man spearing salmon, and one of them stole his spear point by concealing himself in a salmon and cutting it off. Next day the man discovered them and killed three, but the fourth, who had red paint and a rattle, assisted by his dog, killed him and restored his brothers to life. After that they killed the bear chief, whose slave they had already destroyed, and went down to his house, where the most powerful of them took his place. That evening the people outside played with a hoop, and the three younger brothers were killed by it. Then the other brother sent the dog after it, and he threw it far up into the mountains where it made their curved outlines. The next time he threw, it went around the sun and made the ring of light seen there. After that the three brothers were restored to life and all started off. They came to Athapascan people, who had holes in their faces in place of mouths, and who fed themselves with worms through these. There the youngest brother, Łqǃayāˊkǃ, obtained bows and arrows. By and by they came to some people who were bathing for strength in the sea, and joined them. At this time they suspected that Łqǃayāˊkǃ was going with his sister, so they put spruce gum around the place where she slept and discovered it was true, for which they called him all sorts of names, and told him to go away from them and become a “thunder.” He did so, and their sister was so ashamed that she went down into Mount Edgecumbe. When the thunder is heard nowadays people call upon it to drive away sickness. The other brothers started across the Stikine and became rocks there.

4. Origin of the Killer Whale

The killer whales were made out of yellow cedar by a man of the Tsagueˊdî after he had tried every other kind of wood in vain.

One time a man and his wife discovered some killer whales camping, and scared them away. When the man began to take away their provisions, however, they came back and carried off his wife. The husband followed, and when he saw them go down into the ocean he jumped in after them. First he came to a town occupied by the shark people, where he met a hook he had formerly lost, now become their slave. Directed by the shark chief, he met the killer-whale chief’s slave chopping wood behind the town, caused him to break his ax, and mended it for him. Then the slave stationed him at the door, and as he carried some water into the house pretended to spill it into the fire. While the house was full of steam the man seized his wife and ran off. Then the killer whales and sharks had a great fight and many killer whales were destroyed. When the killer whales start north the seals say, “Here come the warriors!” There are several kinds of killer whales. In former times the killer whales dug through a cliff in the bay Kotsǃēˊʟǃ and carried their canoes across to the other side on skids. They still cross at this place every year.

5. Kᴀkaˊ

Kᴀkaˊ was taken south from Sitka by the land otters and sent back again by the husbands of a woman who had been carried off like himself. What they used as a canoe was a skate, and they kept him covered all the way. After a time one of his friends heard him singing in the midst of a fog, but they could not get near him until they had fasted for two days. Then they found him lying upon a log with blood running out of his nose and mouth. They brought him home, and he became a great shaman.

6. The Land-Otter Sister

A man’s sister had been taken away by the land otters and was married among them. One time, when he was camping by himself making a canoe, she began bringing him food. Afterward she sent her three children to help him get bait, catch halibut, and launch his new canoe.

7. The Land-Otter Son

During a famine at Sitka a man’s son, who had been taken by the land otters, brought him bait and put halibut on his hook when they went fishing together. On the way back he speared a seal, and afterward they brought home loads of halibut, seal, etc. At first he went back into the forest during the day, but after a while he began to stay with them and day by day his body became plainer. By and by they started back to town, and as they neared it, their son’s form began to grow indistinct. When his mother moved forward to look at him he was gone.

8. The Wolf-Chief’s Son

A boy found a little wolf, which killed all kinds of animals for him. One day he loaned it to his brother-in-law, and the latter did not treat it right, so it ran away. The boy followed it, and finally came to a big lake over which he was helped by an old woman, who told him that his wolf was the son of the town chief in the village opposite. When he got there he was given a quill that would kill any animal it was pointed at, and a blanket which healed on one side and killed on the other. The people in that village were rolling something about which the chief told him was the rainbow. When he reached home again he found all dead, but he restored them to life by means of his blanket. With his two gifts he became wealthy.

9. Wolverine-man

A man out hunting saw a wolverine killing a herd of mountain sheep, and presently he came to Wolverine-man’s house, which was full of game. Wolverine-man taught him various hunting tabus for that region, and showed him how to make a ground-hog trap. The man also learned that a small bushy tree called sǃᴀx is Wolverine-man’s wife. When he got home he explained the trap to his people, and then started off trapping again with another man who thought he understood how to do it. He who had been with Wolverine-man soon discovered, however, that this person thought he had said that the ground hogs were caught by whittling up sticks in front of their holes.

10. The Halibut People

A chief’s daughter stepped on halibut slime and said something that made the halibut people angry. They came by canoe to get her in marriage, but as soon as they were out of sight of the town they fastened her to a rock by means of some pitch, and she died there. By and by her brothers found her body. Then one of them, disguised as their sister, went down to the halibut chief and killed him. On their way home after this one of the brothers shot a duck and said something offensive to it. For this the killer whale, the duck’s grandfather, took them down to his house, burned them badly before the fire, and turned them into a certain species of duck.

11. Stories of the Monster Devilfish and the Cry-baby

A big devilfish swept all of the occupants of a certain camp into the sea except three brothers who were out hunting. Then the two elder brothers killed it with sharpened sticks, although they were themselves dragged down by it, while their youngest brother traveled to another place and reported what had happened.

In the same town was a little boy who cried so constantly that his father called upon a land-otter-man to carry him off. The land-otter people fed him on what looked like blackberries, but were really spiders. Two days later his people found him, but when they had expelled the spiders from his body, nothing was left but his skin.

12. The Woman who was Killed by a Clam

A woman reached under a rock for clams, and a large bivalve closed upon her hand and held her. When the tide rose she was drowned.

13. Root-stump

The people of a certain village were carried up into the sky out of sight by seizing something which dropped down among them. Those who were making canoes also disappeared mysteriously. Only a woman and her daughter were left. Then the daughter swallowed some root sap and gave birth to a boy called Root-stump. This boy pulled down the thing that had carried off his people, by running his roots into the earth, and he killed the man who had destroyed the canoe makers. Afterward he became a great hunter.

14. The Protracted Winter

For treating a piece of seaweed disrespectfully a certain town was buried deep in snow at the very beginning of summer. The people were in want until informed by a bird that berries were ripe in a neighboring town. So they repaired thither and found it midsummer.

15. Beaver and Porcupine

Porcupine stayed with Beaver to protect him from Bear. By and by Porcupine went home and Beaver with him, and when Bear approached, Porcupine carried Beaver up to the very top of the tree and left him. Finally Squirrel came and helped Beaver down. Then Beaver carried Porcupine out to an island, from which he escaped only by calling on Wolverine, who caused the surface of the lake to freeze over. After that happened, Porcupine went to live with Ground hog. A man caught a ground hog, but, as he was about to cook its head, the head spoke. He was scared, stopped trapping ground hogs, and went up to see his bear dead falls, when one of these fell upon him and killed him.

16. The Poor Man who Caught Wonderful Things

A poor man could catch no halibut, although others were very successful. One day he pulled up a huge abalone, but he became so tired at what people said to him about it that he let it go again. By and by he baited his hook with a sponge saturated with blood from his nose and pulled up a nest in which were multitudes of fishes called îcqēˊn. From these he became very rich.

17. The Finding of the Blue Paint, and How a Certain Creek Received its Name

Four brothers were forced by a storm to take refuge at a place near Mount Edgecumbe, and one of them discovered a blue substance out of which they made paint. When they started back with some of this the weather became stormy, and one of them suggested it might be best to throw the blue substance overboard, but the eldest held on and they reached home safe.

One day some women were gathering shellfish at a place not far from Sitka. While they were down on the beach the baby belonging to one of them began crying, and its mother shouted to an older child to give it something to eat. Misunderstanding her words, the child rolled the baby into the fire and burned it up. Thereafter the stream at that place was named Creek-where-a-person-was-burned (Kᴀˊxsîgᴀnîhīn).

18. Various Adventures near Cross Sound

A man collecting cedar bark slipped from his tree climber and was strangled by it. Afterward the board he had slipped from was always exhibited at potlatches. Two men belonging to the same place had their canoe swallowed by a devilfish, and the people of the town sank a great piece of half-burned wood in the sea over the devilfish hole. It was never seen afterward [and probably killed the devilfish].

Some hunters killed a land otter, cooked and ate it. They were followed home by a land-otter-man, who began throwing rocks at them from a tree. After they said something to it, it threw cones instead. Toward morning they lighted a fire under the tree and made the land-otter-man fall into it.

A woman had disappeared from the town these men came from, so everybody hunted for her. At last they came upon the house of those who had killed her, which they overthrew and set on fire over the heads of its occupants. A shaman who belonged to the people they had destroyed learned from his spirits where there was flint and broke some off by their help.

19. Kātsǃ

A Sitka man named Kātsǃ hunted bear, was taken into a bear’s den, and married a female grizzly bear by which he had several children. When he went back to his own people his bear wife told him to have nothing to do with his human wife and children. He went hunting every day, but took everything to his bear wife and children. One time, however, he disobeyed her injunctions and was killed by his bear family. Kātsǃ’s bear children afterward spread over the world and were killed in various places, the last by the Sitka people in White Stone Narrows. Before they killed him the bear destroyed an entire camp in which a girl had said something bad to him.

20. The Unsuccessful Hunters

A sea-lion hunter speared the sea-lion chief’s son and was drowned, but his companion reached a rock in safety. He was taken into the sea-lion chief’s house, cured the chief’s son by pulling out the spear point, and was sent home inside of a sea-lion stomach.

Two other hunters, along with their canoe, were taken into the house of the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt because one of them had struck his slave, the skate. When he learned that they were Kᴀtᴀgwᴀˊdî, however, he sent them home, and told them to use his emblem, Rock House.

21. Origin of Iceberg House

A man whose friends had all died took some pieces of ice up into the house and treated them as if he were feasting them, in order to show respect to his dead friends. Since that time the Grass people have owned Iceberg House. Afterward he went outside and called aloud as if he were inviting people to a feast, upon which a multitude of bears came down, and he feasted them. As they went out they showed their respect for him by licking him.

22. The Woman Taken Away by the Frog People

A woman in the Yakutat country said something which displeased the frogs, and she was taken away by them. Next spring a man saw her among the frogs. So the people drained the pond and recovered her. She had been living on black mud like the frogs, and after her people got all of this out of her, she died. From this, according to some, the Kîksᴀˊdî claim the frog crest and names.

23. How the Frogs Honored the Dead

A Kāˊgwᴀntān chief having died, one of his friends called upon the Kîksᴀˊdî to take care of his body. The frog people, hearing this, thought that they were meant, and when the corpse was being burnt a big frog jumped out from the place, made a noise, and then jumped into the flames. Afterward they captured slaves for the dead man, and, when they put food into the fire for him, they named the frog as well.

24. The Brant Wives

A Kîksᴀˊdî found two women swimming in a pond, seized their coats, and compelled them to marry him. They were really brants. When the brants came north in the spring his wives obtained food from their people, but when they returned south the wives went with them. The man went after them, and, although they were at first afraid of his bow and arrows, they finally let him live with them. When they went north once more, war broke out between the heron people and the brant people, and the man killed so many of the former that they made peace.

25. Story of the Puffin

A woman used to wish that she might live among the birds on a certain island. One time, as she and some other women were endeavoring to land there, they were capsized and all her companions drowned. Some time afterward her father happened to pass the place and saw his daughter sitting among the birds. He tried to induce the birds in every way to give her up, but succeeded only by offering them some white hair that had belonged to his wife’s grandfather. Each bird put one of these hairs on its head, and they let the woman go. Because the women who were drowned there were Tǃᴀˊqǃdentān the Tǃᴀˊqǃdentān claim that island.

26. Story of the Wain-house People

A youth who had been trained to hunt mountain sheep was carried away by them, and liberated only after his people had made war on the mountain sheep. Then he taught the people mountain-sheep tabus, and he became a great shaman. Afterward his people went to Little-lake-fort and built a big house for him. When the shaman fasted for this, he saw the Wain, so they carved the posts to represent the Wain and named it Wain House. Once, after he had had a possession, he sent his friends out for a grizzly bear. They destroyed it, but it killed the first man who attacked it, and the shaman restored him to life. Later he performed about a dead raven to make his people successful in war, and, when they went out, they destroyed their enemies’ fort completely.

One time some women went to a reef near this town, lost their canoe, and were drowned in the rising tide.

Another time a wealthy man from Yakutat visited Auk. While he was there the son of the town chief threw the stern piece of his canoe, which was covered with abalone shell, into the fire. A property contest followed between the two chiefs in which the man from Yakutat was worsted.

In the same fort a woman gave birth to the greatest liar among those people. When his mother died he started for Chilkat to give the people a death feast, and on his return related the following adventures. He said that on his way Indian rice hailed down into the canoe, and he obtained sirup to put on it from a waterfall of sirup. They got up to Klukwan by blowing on the sail, and when he began crying he put a piece of bark in front of his face and the tears ran down on it in streams.

27. The Alsek River People

Two shamans at Alsek river began singing, the one to bring up eulachon, the other to bring bears and other forest animals. The first succeeded in starting a run of fish by going down under the river in a little canoe. After that the land otters tried to carry off two women who were menstruant, but, with the assistance of the shaman, the people finally made them desist. Some people in a neighboring town who heard of it spoke contemptuously of the land otters, and their whole town with the exception of two men was destroyed by a flood of water from the lake above them. After this one of the shamans set out for another place. On the way he hooked an enormous devilfish which swept all the forest trees in his vicinity into the ocean. When he performed blindfolded at that town, the people ran out their feet to trip him up, but he jumped over them. He also stabbed a man and restored him to life. Presently he predicted an eclipse, and when it came on, the people all danced to dance the moon out and held out their property to it so that it would not feel poor.

Meanwhile the other shaman brought an enormous salmon into Alsek river, and his spirits were so powerful that a small boy sufficed to kill it. There is a hole in the neighborhood of that place out of which quantities of rocks used to come when there was to be a great run of eulachon or other fish. A glacier crosses Alsek in one place, and he who speaks while passing under it is overwhelmed. When it was asked for food, it would rush into the water and raise a wave, carrying numbers of salmon ashore. An Athapascan shaman living far up the river was visited by several canoe loads of people from below and prophesied that one canoe load would be lost under the glacier. The down-river shaman then fought with the Athapascan by means of his spirits and killed him. There is a rock just south of Alsek river inhabited by the spirits of a certain shaman, and it is used as a crest by the Tǃᴀˊqǃdentān.

The Alsek River people once killed a rich man belonging to some people who lived on a stream farther north. The next time they went up there the enemy forced them to enter their fort through a narrow passage and killed a large number. On their third expedition, however, they destroyed the fort and all within it. Another time some Alsek people visited at a place beyond, where they were invited to take sweat baths, and were killed. Then the Alsek people made their shaman fight the shaman of the northern people, undertook another raid, and killed a number equal to those that had been lost.

28. The Youthful Warrior

A man wearing a bear skin climbed a tree, and was accidentally killed by his brothers-in-law. Some time later his young nephew heard of it and bathed for strength. Four men went out to carve things for a shaman, and the young man was deceived into thinking that they had been killed by the same persons who had shot his uncle, so he started out to war. After he had killed a great many people he was induced to give up fighting by some words uttered by his father’s sister. After a time he killed one of his own clan from another town and lost some of his immediate friends in return, so he decided to go to war, but he was captured and many of his people were killed. Then he promised not to fight again, so they let him take the bodies of his people home. Some time afterward a man from Prince of Wales island, on the way to Chilkat, visited him to inquire about that place. Then his visitor continued up to Chilkat and brought home great quantities of presents in payment for dancing.

A rich man started from Chilkat for Kᴀqǃᴀnuwūˊ to obtain property for a dead friend. He was so high that no one dared speak to him until a poor man rushed down with a war spear as if he were going to kill him. This was to shame them for their delay, and they immediately brought the visitor ashore and paid him for his dead friend.

29. The First War in the World

A man named Xakuˊtcǃ killed a large devilfish with his spear, but perished in doing so. Afterward his spirit came to a man of his clan who was very powerful. Having tested his spirits, the people started to war. Just before they reached the fort a brave man there was killed by a little boy held captive among them. Then they came upon the fort and destroyed it. Now the southern people started north. On the way they came to a great climber whom they tried to test by seeing if he could climb a very steep cliff near Huna. He went up and got away. Afterward he came down to the place where they were camping and liberated his steersman to whom they had tied their canoes. The enemy then attacked a fort and killed all of the people except one woman who was pregnant. Her they carried south, and she gave birth to a boy, who became a wealthy shaman, purchased his mother’s freedom, and went north with her. Then he performed for his own people, and they set out to war and destroyed many towns, but spared that in which he had formerly lived. Now the southern people made a great raid, capturing fort after fort. At the second fort two canoes attempted to pass down through a tideway at half tide and were destroyed. From another they were driven off by means of clam shells. In one fort a man was living alone because he was very jealous of his wife, and while the warriors were talking to him one of their canoes ran against a rock and split in two, so they left him. When they had no more space for slaves, the southern people destroyed the canoes at every fort so that the northern people could not retaliate. The bulk of the northern people, however, had been encamped along the coast to the westward. When they heard what had happened they cut down an enormous spruce, hollowed it out, and started to war the following spring. The southern people thought that the northern people could not do anything to them. They were scattered about in various camps and fell an easy prey to their enemies.

30. How Protestant Christianity was First Heard of at Sitka

A man returning to Sitka from the south told his people that Dekīˊanqāˊwo (God) had come down from Heaven to help them, and the women dressed up and began dancing. They danced an entire year.

MYTHS RECORDED IN ENGLISH AT WRANGELL

31. Raven

[This version of the Raven story contains, besides frequent minor variations, many episodes not found in the Sitka version, and a number of stories usually given independently are incorporated into it. Only the sections that do not occur in the Sitka version are noted at length.]

Raven’s mother kept losing her children, until Heron told her to swallow a red-hot pebble. She did so and gave birth to Raven, who was called from that circumstance Hammer-father. Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł tried to make human beings out of rock and leaf, but the latter was quicker and man came from it, so there is death. Then he told them that if they lived right there would be a good place for them afterward. One time Raven sent a woman into the other world to convince her that it existed; so she went along the spirit trail and was ferried across a river at the end of it to the ghosts’ country. The ghosts told her that they were hungry, thirsty, and cold, so, when she got back she told people to send the dead food and to burn their bodies. Raven taught people to have slaves and shamans, also to make all kinds of hooks, spears, traps, and canoes. He went under the sea and visited all of the fish people, teaching men afterward that fish are really human beings. Then Raven instituted war. Afterward he told the birds what they were to be like. He told what the land otter would do, especially how it would capture men. [Here follows the account of Kᴀkaˊ, story 5.] After this, Raven lived in a cliff near Taku with North Wind, and that is why people believe that cliffs are inhabited by spirits. He also taught them the tabus to be used when paddling on the rivers. The killer-whale chief took him into a sweat house and tried to roast him, but Raven outwitted him by concealing a piece of ice near by. He taught the people that there were Athapascans, and he taught the Chilkat people how to keep salmon frozen in storehouses all winter. He taught them also about Indian tobacco.

Now Raven went to Łaxaỵîˊk and taught the people there to make skin canoes. A man in that country killed all of his wife’s people and kept their hands in a basket in his house. When she found it out the woman asked to be taken to her own town. Her husband left her there with her children, and they found everyone dead. Then her children made a canoe out of skins taken from the bodies, went to their father’s town and made him give up their uncles’ hands. Afterward they made his town sink under the sea with everybody in it. Raven instructed the boys how to restore their uncles to life.

One time Raven came to a town inhabited by ghosts and tried to carry off their property, but it was taken back by invisible hands. He went into the interior and lived with two giants successively. He told the second giant how he might kill Wolverine-man by pretending that he had been caught in Wolverine-man’s trap. After Wolverine-man had carried him home Raven continued to instruct the giant, and helped him burn Wolverine-man’s body, which turned into mosquitoes and gnats.

Coming to another place, Raven found a woman and her daughter living alone, and he told the latter how to make fire with the fire drill, and then told her to eat some of the powder that comes from it. She gave birth to a boy, who was called Fire-drill’s-son. When he grew up his father, Fire-drill, gave him a dog, a bow and arrows, and a club, with which he killed Man-with-one-eye, a shaman who had destroyed the people of his village. Then he came to the wife of this man, who killed people by throwing her hand, which had a knife fastened to it, at them, and he destroyed her also. Starting inland, he came to Old-mole-woman, who fed him with food taken from between her teeth, and told him where the hawk lived that had carried away his people. When he reached the place he made the young birds tell him about their father and mother, who came in clouds, and killed them, after which he got ground hogs for the young ones and told them not to eat human beings any more. After that he left enough food with his mother and grandmother to last them all their lives, and went away from them. Pursuing something called Dry-cloud, he came among the mink and the marten people successively, but did not stop until he reached the wolf people. These became jealous of him and tried to destroy him by getting him to jump through a hoop which cut a person in two if he failed. His dog, however, seized it and threw it up to the moon, where it became the ring that indicates change of weather. Now the man and his friend among the wolves kept on after Dry-cloud and came to an old woman who told them that there was a monster fish near by. On looking at it, they found only a red cod, which Fire-drill’s-son killed. He skinned it and dried the skin. After that he married Daughter-of-the-calm, and they had a son named Łᴀkîtcîneˊ, and this man married a woman who had a litter of puppies by the dog. Afterward she found that they were able to take off their dog skins and appear in human form, so she surprised them, gathered together the skins, and burnt them. When Łᴀkîtcîneˊ saw these children he began to maltreat his wife, and her children jumped upon him and killed him. Then they went through Alaska, killing off harmful monsters. One of these, which was like an eagle, used to forewarn other animals, until they made him promise not to do so. [Here follows the adventure with the one-legged man told in story 3.] Afterward Łqǃayāˊkǃ chased Dry-cloud across the sky and made the Milky Way. Coming to a very cold region in the sky, he wanted to get down, but the clouds prevented until his eldest brother, Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ, opened a passage. After that they wanted to kill a monster near Wrangell, so they borrowed the canoe of He-who-knows-everything-that-happens, and passed many obstacles in it, thereby rendering them harmless, until they came to the monster and tried to catch its head in a noose. All of their nooses broke, however, until they tried one made out of the sinews of a little bird called old-person. After that they returned to their mother and sister and went southward with them through the forest, destroying the forest monsters. Coming to an old blind man whose wife had left him, they taught him how to catch fish in a net and how to cook it. They also met an Athapascan shaman with long hair, and he and Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ compared the relative strengths of their spirits in the sweat house, Kᴀckǃᴀˊʟkǃ’s proving to be the stronger. So they told the Athapascan not to harm the people in his neighborhood. Then they moved south and tried to cross the Stikine, but their sister, who was menstruant, looked out at them, and they were turned to stone.

One time while Raven was traveling along he came to a sculpin who claimed to be older than he, so he placed it in the sky where it still is (the Pleiades). He also sent a canoe load of halibut fishermen thither. He invited the seal people to a feast, smeared their foreheads with pitch which ran down over their eyes, and then clubbed them. He married the daughter of a chief named Fog-over-the-salmon, who obtained a quantity of salmon for him by simply washing her hands in a basket filled with water. One time he hit her with a piece of dried salmon, and she went away, taking all of the salmon with her. He wanted to marry another high-caste woman, but a bird named tsᴀgwâˊn told the people how he had treated his first wife and they rejected him. Going on from there, he turned an old man named Dᴀmnāˊdjî into a handsome youth, and told him to marry the girl. This man did so, but on the way home resumed his proper shape. When his wife’s people came to visit him, he had to receive them in his miserable hovel because no one else would have anything to do with him. When he went out after water, however, he came to an old woman at the head of the stream who made him young again, and gave him a basket full of dentalia through which he became rich. Some time afterward his wife wished to marry among the bird people, and at last the brants carried her off, finally dropping her naked. She came to an old woman and obtained some fox skins. She was now really a fox, and let herself be killed by her father. On cutting the fox open, however, they discovered her copper ornaments, and laid her on top of the house, when she revived and became a great shaman.

After this Raven changed himself into a woman, and married the killer-whale chief’s son. She stole their food at night, and when her labret was discovered in a box of grease, pretended that it had gone there of its own accord. By and by she killed her husband, and pretended to mourn over his body while in reality eating him. Raven pretended he was going to make all of the killer whales white, but instead of doing so killed and ate them. Then he came to the fish-hawk and began living upon its food, saying that he was going to bring it food in return later on. He tried to live with another bird, also, but the bird left him. He married among the goose people, but they discovered him eating a goose, so they left him. After this Raven was invited to a feast, but did not come at once, and they went on without him. When he did come they paid him no attention, and he had nothing but leavings. Then Raven gave a feast himself, and instituted the feast customs.

Now Raven returned to the house of his grandfather, Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł, and liberated the flickers which had been kept under his mother’s arms. For this his grandfather tried to kill him by having a tree fall upon him, and a canoe close in on him, and by putting him into a kettle full of water over the fire, successively, but in vain, so finally he raised a great flood. Raven and his mother climbed from one retaining timber to another in Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł’s house, which was really the world itself, and finally flew to the highest cloud in the sky and hung there, while his mother floated on the water in the skin of a diver. Then he let go and fell upon a kelp. Next he obtained sea urchins from the bottom of the sea and deceived the woman who controls the tide, so as to make it go down. He and another person tried out grease, and the other for a deceit Raven practised put him inside of a box of grease and kicked him off of a cliff.

All of the people of a Nass town named Gîtǃîˊkc were killed except a chief, his sister, and his sister’s daughter. Then the chief got Old-man-who-foresees-all-troubles-in-the-world to help him. This old man gave him an arrow which enabled him to kill many of his enemies, but finally he disobeyed instructions and was himself killed, while his sister and her daughter fled to the woods. Having offered her daughter in marriage and refused all of the animals, this woman finally accepted the sun’s son. Then he put his mother-in-law into a tree where she became the echo, and took his wife up to the sky. There she had eight children, who were let down to earth on the town site of Gîtǃîˊkc and were helped by the sun to destroy all of their enemies.

One time a woman of the same town stepped upon some grizzly-bear excrement and was carried away by the bear people. Finally she was helped by an old woman, and ran away. As she went she threw various articles behind her which obstructed her pursuers, and at last she was taken into the canoe of a man named Ginᴀxcᴀmgêˊtk who married her and took her home. Her husband had also for wife a big clam, which killed the new wife, but was in turn destroyed by her husband, who also restored her to life. Finally she went back to her father, but she had really been living under ground all this time and was very filthy. After a time she gave birth to a boy who was very smart. When he was out fishing he was taken into his father’s house and received a magic club which killed of itself. With this he destroyed a giant crab and a giant mussel which used to kill people. By and by this boy had a son, who was very different from him and was called Man-that-eats-the-leavings. At that time the daughter of a chief in a neighboring village said something about the devilfish for which she was carried off by them and married to a devilfish man. Presently her two children came up to visit their grandfather and he learned what had become of her. Then he invited her and her husband and children, and killed the husband, keeping her with them. For this the devilfish made war upon them and suffocated several people, but Man-that-eats-the-leavings happened along and stopped them. Then Man-that-eats-the-leavings lived in a brush house on the beach, and the rest of his story is similar to that of Garbage-man in story 89.

Man-that-eats-the-leavings had a son who was a great hunter. One time, when he was out hunting, he lost consciousness and, coming to, found himself surrounded by several men who taught him the secret-society dances. After a time he went to the Queen Charlotte islands and was told about two youths who had become wizards by sleeping on the beach among driftwood. They would be out all night, flying around among the brants and geese. Finally a man found it out by fasting and drinking sea water, but they paid him not to tell about them. When he got back to Alaska the secret-society man told this story, and wherever it was repeated there began to be wizards.

One time Raven went shooting with some boys, when the canoe was upset and they were drowned, and he changed them into sea birds.

At the southern end of Prince of Wales island he met a man called Qonᴀłgīˊc, who had lost everything by gambling, and he enabled him to meet Greatest Gambler and win. So Qonᴀłgīˊc renewed the game and got back everything he had lost besides all that his antagonist had owned. Then his opponent’s wife left him, and he went away and lived by himself. From a grouse this latter learned of a great medicine-man, who in turn taught him a medicine which would make him a great dancer. He went to another town and pleased people so much by his dances and the songs that he composed that they paid him a great deal of property, and he became wealthy. After a while he taught a chief’s son, so that he became a still better dancer, but the boy’s father determined that it was best to leave this sort of dancing to low-caste people, reserving the chief’s dance for those of high caste.

The man that first learned about dancing was upset in a canoe and became a land-otter-man called Tūtsǃīdîgūˊʟ, who has very great power. Some time afterward four boys were drawn out to sea after some black ducks, upset there, and taken into the land-otters’ dens. A shaman told the people where they were, and they burned out the dens, killing many otters, but Tūtsǃīdîgūˊʟ escaped with the boys. Now the land otters made war on human beings, and the bodies of the latter broke out in pimples and sores which were really caused by the spider-crab-shell arrows. At last some people came upon two white land otters, which they carried home and treated as if they were deer (peace ambassadors). Then the land otters came to the town and danced to make peace.

The people of that place were now very happy, but before they could leave it Raven came to them and told them not to go away. When four boys were at last sent, a man came down from the woods and told them that three would die successively, while the fourth would reach home, announce that the shaman was to die, and then perish. Everything happened as he foretold, so that the people were very much frightened and no longer dared to leave town. A child which cried very much was carried away by Man-with-a-burning-hand, and when its parents found it, was lying in a hole in the cliff, and ants were crawling out of its nose, eyes, and ears. Now follows a much longer version of story 93, below. Instead of being brought home at once from the sea-lion rock, according to this version the hero was abandoned there and taken into the house of the sea lions, where he cured a wounded sea lion and received a box in return which controlled the winds. Inside of this he drifted ashore. Next follows the story of the monster devilfish (story 11). At Tuxican a girl began to nurse a woodworm, which grew so large that the people became afraid, induced her to come away from it, and killed it. Since then her people, the G̣ānᴀxteˊdî, have used it as a crest. A shaman there named Sǃāwᴀˊn was sent for by the land otters to cure one of their number, who was carried along concealed under a mat. When they reached their town they tried to make him think that the sick person was in another house, but his rattle and belt ran ashore ahead of him to the right place. Then he cured the sick otter by drawing an arrow point out of its side; soon afterward the shaman was found lying upon a sandy beach not far from his own town with gulls flying about him.

32. Kakēˊqǃᵘtê

This story is partially identical with story 104. A man named Kakēˊqǃᵘtê went up among the Athapascans and taught them all sorts of ways of collecting and preserving food. Then he brought them down to the Grass people, who sent them away, so they came to the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî. After that the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî settled along the coast above Cross sound. One time the G̣ānᴀxteˊdî of Chilkat gave a feast and made a raven hat. The ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî also made a raven out of coppers, and took it to the Kāˊgwᴀntān when they went to feast them. War followed with the Chilkat, and at first the ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî were defeated, but, when they had obtained new spear heads made of iron that had been washed ashore on some wreckage, they renewed the fight, killed Chief Yēł-x̣āk, and carried off his carved pole. Then the Chilkat went to Kᴀqǃᴀnuwūˊ, and they made peace.

33. Origin of the G̣onaqadēˊt

A certain woman disliked her son-in-law very much because he was lazy and fond of gambling. When the people went to camp he split a tree in two, spread it apart, and caught a lake monster. He put on its skin and then began catching fish and sea animals, which he left where his mother-in-law could find them. She thought she was a shaman, and began prophesying what animal would be left next. One time the Raven called just as her son-in-law was coming out of the monster’s skin in front of the village, and he died, and, when she found who had been bringing in the animals, his mother-in-law died of shame. After that the man’s wife had his body and the skin carried back to the edge of the lake. There he came to life and carried her down into his house at the bottom. He became the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt, and their children are the women at the head of the creeks.

34. A Story of the G̣onaqadēˊt

A chief accompanied by his nephews anchored in front of a cliff near the mouth of Nass. During the night all were carried away by the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt except the chief, who was discovered there and brought home. At first the people prepared to wage war in retaliation, but the chief induced them to invite the G̣onaqᴀdēˊt to a feast instead. The latter came, restored the chief’s nephews, and gave each of them a headdress, rattle, and songs.

35. Origin of the lǃeˊnaxx̣īˊdaq

The first part of this is another version of story 94, while the latter part is a version of the last episode in story 105.

36. The Thunders

A girl offended a snail and was found next morning on the side of a high cliff with a big snail coiled about her. Then her brothers made wings, flew up to her, and brought her down. Afterward they brought food to the people of that town, and finally they became the Thunders.

37. Origin of the Screech Owl

A woman at Sitka refused to give her mother-in-law herring, and when she held out her hand for some, dropped the hot milt of a male herring into her hand and burned it. When her son came home the old woman told him. Then the son went out in his canoe, brought in a load of herring, and told his wife to go down and bring it up. She went down without her basket, and began calling to them to bring it to her. As they paid no attention, she kept on calling, and she called all night. Finally her voice changed to the hooting of an owl, and she also changed into an owl.

38. Little Felon

A little person came out of the felon on a man’s finger. He was a hard worker and a fast runner. One time he raced Heron all the way around Prince of Wales island. A certain woman would give her daughter only to the person who should guess to what animal a louse skin she had, belonged. Little Felon helped a young man to guess it and afterward assisted him to overcome various monster animals the woman sent him after. Finally he helped him bring up the old woman’s bracelet from under the ocean. By and by this young man and his wife had a quarrel and she disappeared. He went hunting for her and became a beach snipe.

39. Origin of the Fern Root and the Ground Hog

A cliff fell over on some girls, imprisoning all of them. They rubbed grease on the rocks, and the birds inclosed with them pecked at it and pecked a hole through. As the last girl was trying to get out through this aperture the rock closed on her, and her head and breast became the fern root, but her hinder portion the ground hog.

40. The Halibut that Divided the Queen Charlotte Islands

An unsuccessful fisherman on the Queen Charlotte islands finally caught a small halibut which flopped about on the beach, and at last increased so in size that it smashed that town to pieces and the Queen Charlotte islands themselves into numerous fragments.

41. The Image that Came to Life

A young Haida lost his wife, of whom he was so fond that he had an image carved to resemble her. He cherished this for a long time, until it finally came to life, but it neither moved nor spoke much. It gave birth to a flourishing red cedar, and that is why cedars are so fine on the Queen Charlotte group.

42. Djīyīˊn

An orphan girl named Djīyīˊn was very badly treated. One time she determined to stay on an island by herself, and while there she became a shaman and discovered a great quantity of food which made her rich. By and by the town chief’s daughter fell sick and all kinds of shamans were summoned to no purpose. Finally they called Djīyīˊn, who found that the wild canary (sǃāsǃ) had bewitched her. She made this bird find the charm and throw it into the sea. Then the bird was taken at its own request to a place some distance from the village, where it disappeared.

43. The Self-burning Fire

All of the people of a certain town on Copper river died of starvation except eight men. These started to walk down to the sea, but fell by the way one at a time. Then the last man came to a self-burning fire which warmed him, and all of his friends came to life and assembled around it.

44. The Giant of Tāˊsna

A boy whose people had died off met a giant and shot him in the mouth, bringing them all back.

45. The Woman who Married a Land Otter

Another version of story 6, which differs principally in making the man visit the land-otter town.

46. The Land-otters’ Captive

A Sitka man was captured and carried south by the land otters. There he met an aunt who had been captured long before, and her husbands brought him back again. He was now a land-otter-man, and annoyed the people so much that they captured him and restored him by harsh treatment to his senses.

47. The Man Fed from the Sky

During a period of scarcity a chief’s nephew received food through the smoke hole, with which he filled the empty food boxes and feasted all of his uncle’s people. Then his uncle gave him his younger wife, who had been kind to him.

48. The Salmon Sack

A poor boy went fishing and pulled up a sack filled with multitudes of salmon.

49. Roots

A version of story 13.

50. The Mucus Child

All of the people of a certain village disappeared except a woman and her daughter. The latter swallowed some mucus and gave birth to a boy who grew rapidly. By and by he met a being called Strength, who made him bathe every day, pull up trees, and break rocks, till he was very strong. After that he climbed to the top of a mountain, found a town occupied by wolves, and killed all. He came to another wolf town and obtained the box of his uncles’ lives. After he had left this in each house for four days, his people all came to life again.

51. The Salmon Chief

A man came upon a salmon lying on the beach and was about to take it home, when the salmon spoke to him, telling him to put it into the sea. He did so and afterward caught many salmon. Another time he met a salmon in the same place, which told him to eat it and put the bones of its head under his pillow. In the morning he saw two fine baby boys there. One always stayed at home, but the other was very energetic and started away. He came to an old woman who told him about a seven-headed monster to which they were about to give the chief’s daughter. The boy killed this monster and married the girl.

52. The Jealous Uncle

A man was so jealous of his wife that he killed all of his nephews but one by pushing them inside of the shell of a big clam or into the hole of a devilfish. The last of the nephews obtained an eagle-down bracelet which enabled him to turn into a ball of feathers, and with its assistance destroyed both of the creatures. He also escaped in this manner when his uncle pushed him off a high tree. Finally his uncle fastened him on a plank, which he set adrift, but the plank went ashore where two girls lived, and he married them. One of these had been in love with the first boy that was killed. By and by the man returned to his uncle and killed him.

53. The Man who Married the Eagle

The wife of a Haida youth went with the son of the town chief, and when her husband discovered it he shot him. The slayer, escaping by canoe, was abandoned by his slave on a small reef. He got inside of a sea-lion skin, floated ashore, and was found by a girl among the eagle people, whom he married. All his brothers-in-law gave him eagle skins, in which he went hunting. After a while he learned that his mother had been driven out of town, so he carried all kinds of animals to her. One time he killed a whale and left it in front of her house. The people of the town he had come from found this and began cutting it up, but he seized the town chief and carried him, along with the other men in that village, who were holding on to one another, far out to sea, where he drowned them.

54. The Brant Wife

This is a version of story 24. It differs mainly in the concluding portion, according to which the hero was left on a rock far out at sea and was carried ashore by a sea bird.

55. The Duck Helper

All the people of a certain village died except a woman and her son. One time the boy went far inland and got lost. He came to a lake and found a black duck there, which lent him its coat in which to fly home.

56. The Boy who Shot the Star

Two boys were great playmates, but one of them said something that displeased the moon, and the moon carried him off. Then the other boy shot an arrow into a star in the sky and kept shooting until he had made a chain reaching down to the earth. This turned into a ladder on which he mounted, living on berries borne on branches stuck into his hair. Arrived in the sky country, he met an old woman who told him where to go for his friend and how to get him. Then he went to the moon’s house, pulled his friend out from a place near the smoke hole where he had been kept, and placed a cone there to imitate his cries. When the people discovered that their captive was gone, they pursued, but the boys threw behind them some things that the old woman had provided, which turned into great obstacles, and escaped to her house. Afterward, by her direction, they lay down where the second boy had lain, went to sleep there, and, when they woke up, found themselves on the earth below.

57. The Boy and the Giant

A little boy went hunting and came upon a giant with whom he lived for a long time. As the giant was carrying him along they came upon a very small bird, which the boy shot and put into the bosom of his shirt. This bird was so heavy for the giant that he had to throw it away. By and by another giant attacked the first, and would have killed him, but the boy threw his friend’s club, made out of a beaver skeleton, at the intruder, and it chewed off his legs, so that he was easily destroyed.

58. The Boy with Arrows on his Head

A boy was born with sharp arrow points on his head. He was of so evil a disposition that he killed his own mother and afterward ran about in the forest, destroying all he met. At last an uncle of his killed him and burned his body, the ashes of which became minute gnats.

59. Gamnāˊtckǃî

A somewhat extreme variant of part of story 4. The hero obtains the favor of the red-cod people by painting them red and of the shark people by painting them black.

60. The Hīn-taỵīˊcî

A shaman took his friends to a place near Sitka and seated them there facing the sea. Then a large number of killer whales came near and fought a flat fish with sharp edges, called hīn-taỵīˊcî, which killed all of them except three. Some time later the shaman took them out again and the same thing recurred. The killer whales got devilfishes and a big halibut to assist them successively with like result, but finally they brought a big crab by which the hīn-taỵīˊcî was destroyed.

61. The East and North Winds

A man married the daughter of East Wind, and afterward he married the daughter of North Wind. Everyone thought the latter was very pretty on account of her sparkling clothing, but when the east wind began to blow it disappeared, for it was only frost and icicles.

62. The Big Beaver

Some people drained a beaver lake and killed all of the beaver there except one very large one. Some time afterward they went up to that place and heard a woman singing, and on their way down they were all drowned. Most of them were taken captive by the big beaver.

63. Beaver and Porcupine

A short version of story 15.

64. The Man who Entertained the Bears

A man who had lost all of his friends did not care to live, so he lay down across a grizzly-bear trail. When the bears came down, however, he invited them to his house to a feast, upon which they went straight back into the forest. Early next day they came down, and he fed them, after which they licked the paint from his breast and arm. Next day the smallest bear came back, told their host that he was a human being who had been carried off by the bears, and interpreted what the bear chief had said in his speech the day before.

65. Mountain Dweller

Two girls ate between meals, contrary to the tabus, and their mother scratched the inside of the mouth of the elder and scolded them both. Among other things she told them that they could not marry Mountain Dweller. Then the girls ran away, and after wandering for some time, came to Mountain Dweller, who married them. While they were there their mother-in-law killed them because they looked at her while she was eating, but Mountain Dweller killed her in turn and restored them to life. After that they went to their father’s town, and their husband accompanied them, carrying a magic basket which contained an enormous amount of food, and yet was made small enough to be carried on his thumb. Afterward they killed their mother in revenge.

66. How the Sitka Kîksaˊdî Obtained the Frog

A man and his wife hunting near Sitka heard a frog singing. Both claimed it at first, but finally the man let his wife have it, and her people, the Kîksᴀˊdî, have used it ever since.

67. Qāqǃatcgūˊk

A very successful fur-seal hunter was driven to a rock far out at sea where there was a great abundance of sea animals. After some months he and his companions set out on their return, guiding themselves by the sun. At length they came in sight of the summit of Mount Edgecumbe and later of Verstovaia. They rested on Kruzof island, and then came to Dax̣ēˊt, where the people were camping, and were received joyfully. The elder of his two wives had grieved for him all this time and was the first to catch sight of him, but the younger had married again and now felt very much ashamed.

68. The Beaver of Killisnoo

A beaver was captured by some of the Dēˊcitān, who afterward found two spears that it had made. Becoming offended, it killed its master with one of these and then caused the earth on which his house stood to fall in. It had previously made a great excavation underneath.

69. Story of the Grizzly-bear Crest of the Teˊqoedî

Almost the same as story 19.

70. Story of the Eagle Crest of the Nexaˊdî

A poor man out hunting was guided by an eagle to a great house up in the woods. This was occupied by eagles, and the man was so happy among them that he married there and remained with them forever. Then his brothers-in-law gave him an eagle skin with which he caught all kinds of fish. Some of these he left where his mother and brothers could find them, and he told them in a dream what had become of him, and that it was he that was providing them with food. One day they saw him bringing in some fish, and heard him say, “It is I.”

71. Story of the Killer-whale Crest of the Daqlǃaweˊdî

A man quarreled so much with his wife that his brothers became ashamed of it and left him on an island out at sea. There he whittled out from various kinds of wood killer whales, to which he endeavored to give life, and was finally successful with yellow cedar. He sent these out to upset his brothers-in-law’s canoes and destroy them.

72. Story of the Nanỵaāˊỵî Crests

At the time of the flood a grizzly bear and a mountain goat accompanied the Nanỵaāˊỵî as they were climbing a mountain. Since then they have used those animals as crests.

73. Story of the Frog Crest of the Kîksaˊdî of Wrangell

A youth kicked a frog over on its back and lost his senses. His body was taken home, but his soul had been captured by the frogs. He was tied to a post by them until the chief came home, who upbraided him for having treated one of his own people, also a Kîksᴀˊdî, in this manner. Then he let him go, and immediately his body revived. He told his friends all that had happened to him.

74. Story of the Kāˊgwantān Crests

A man removed a bone from the mouth of a wolf and next night dreamed that he had come to a fine town where the wolf told him something that would make him lucky.

While members of this clan were out camping, a bear stole some fish by reaching down through the smoke hole. Then they called it a thief, and it became so angry that it destroyed all of them. Afterward the people made war on all of those bears—who were Kātsǃ’s children (see story 19)—and destroyed them.

75. Migration of the G̣ānaxaˊdî to Tongass

A man at Klawak lost all of his property in gambling, and his wife left him. Then he took the sons of his seven sisters and started away by canoe. Finally they settled at Tongass. While there they saw an animal that looked like a bear and shot at it, but it was medicine, and a clayey substance came off on their arrow points, which enabled them to get plenty of game, and which also caused them to become handsome men. One time they went farther on and came to a Tsimshian town. After that a canoe came to them from their friends, and when these found what had happened to them, all joined them.

76. The Woman who Married the Frog

A version of story 22.

77. The Girl who Married the ʟǃᴀʟǃ

A girl said something about a fish called ʟǃᴀʟǃ, and afterward the fish married her. He was a very good polo player, and one time the boys became so jealous of him that they knocked him down and made fun of him. Then the ʟǃᴀʟǃ told his father-in-law to tie down his house firmly, and went off up stream. There he grew large, lay down across Chilkat river for a while, and then got up, letting the stream sweep all of the houses away except that of his father-in-law.

78. The Woman who Married a Tree

The spirit of a spruce tree at one end of a village came to a girl and married her, and they had a son. One day the child began calling for its father, and after all the other people had been called in, the tree people were summoned, and the child recognized an old man near the door as its parent.

79. The Girl who Married the Fire Spirit

A girl said something to the fire which offended it, so that it carried her away and married her. After her people had hunted everywhere for her they kept the fires extinguished as much as possible, and she was sent back. For some time she kept going back and forth from her husband to her father and mother, but once her nephew, who was in love with her, seized a spoon that she was holding and her fire husband treated her badly on account of it. She never went back to him.

80. Orphan

A poor girl was so smart and painstaking that she married a wealthy man. She became proud, however, and treated her poor adopted brothers ungenerously. By and by her husband died and his relatives took all of his property, leaving her as poor as before.

81. The Dead Basket-maker

A man used to cry over his dead wife’s incompleted basket. By and by he married again, and one time, when he was playing with his new wife, the basket fell from above over his head and almost strangled him, so that the people were obliged to cut it loose.

82. The Crying-for Medicine

The wife of a certain man kept running away from him. One time when he was out hunting, he pursued what he thought was a bear and saw it go into a hole in the side of a cliff. He knew that it was medicine, so he took his slave up to the top of the cliff and let him down in front of it, telling him to reach a dipper in and take whatever came out. With the things so obtained the man compounded a medicine which made his wife want to come back to him, but he refused to take her. It would also bring down any animal he wanted, so that he became very wealthy.

83. The Runaway Wife

The wife of a Haida youth kept leaving him until he learned from a certain woman how to make her love him. When she tried to come back, however, he refused to take her, and married somebody else.

84. The Rejected Lover

A youth was in love with his cousin, but she would have nothing to do with him. Finally, in order to please her she made him throw away his clothing and ornaments and pull out all of his hair, after which she left him. Then a loon came to him and restored his hair by diving under water with him. It also gave back his clothing and landed him at another town where he married the daughter of Calm. A long time afterward they went back to his people. Every day while they were there he brought his wife water, and she put a quill into it before drinking to see whether he had been faithful to her. One day the girl he had formerly been in love with seized his hand, and when his wife tried her quill the water was slimy. Then she left him and started to walk home on the surface of the sea. He followed her, but presently she looked round on him and he went down out of sight.

85. The Faithless Wife

The wife of a certain man pretended to die and was put into the grave box. Then the son of the town chief, with whom she was in love, took her to his father’s house and married her. One time her little girl came to that house for fire, saw her, and told her father. Then her father went to the grave box and saw it was empty, and through the smoke hole of the chief’s house he saw her playing with the chief’s son. Then he made himself a wizard by playing with dead men’s bones, flew to the chief’s house, and ran two sharp-pointed sticks into the hearts of his wife and her new husband. Next morning he went out gambling.

86. The Woman who Married the Dead Man

A girl kicked aside the skull of a dead person, and the following night two boys came to her and she married one of them. This was the man who had owned the skull. The two youths stayed there for a long time. When they hunted they went all through the actions of paddling, spearing, and camping without ever leaving the house. When they pretended to get back, however, their canoe would be found on the beach loaded with fish and seals. They were slowly becoming materialized when another girl became jealous of them and destroyed them by marking the places where they sat with human blood.

87. The Returned from Spirit Land

After the death of a certain woman her husband, who was very fond of her, started off aimlessly and came by the spirit road to a lake. He shouted to the people on the other side to come over and get him, but they did not hear him until he spoke in a whisper. After he reached the other side he found his wife and started back with her. At first nothing could be seen of her but a shadow, but gradually she became more and more distinct. She was about to resume her proper shape, when a young man who had been in love with her lifted the curtain which was stretched around her and her husband, and both went back to ghost land.

88. The Sky Country

A man whose wife had died felt so lonely that he set out after her along the beach. He soon found himself in a wide trail, and met a woman tanning a skin, who directed him to his wife. The people in the town where she was staying wanted to burn him, but he made them think he was more afraid of being thrown into the water, so he saved himself. They were really in the sky. By and by a spider woman let them down, and they returned home.

89. The Origin of Copper

A woman was carried away by the grizzly-bear people, escaped, and impeded her pursuers by throwing small objects behind her which changed into great obstructions. Finally she was taken up into the sun in a canoe and married the sun’s sons, who made way for her by killing their former cannibal wife above a Tsimshian town. Therefore there are many cannibals among the Tsimshian. At last the woman returned to her parents in a canoe which was like a live grizzly bear. By and by her husbands became angry with her and left her. Then she and her child lived in a brush house covered with filth, at one end of the town. When he got larger her boy shot something in the lake which proved to be his fathers’ canoe, and pounded out all kinds of copper objects from the metal of which it was composed. Then he married the daughter of the town chief and became a great man.

90. The Man who was Abandoned

A lazy man was abandoned by his townspeople, who left him nothing except a piece of dried fish which one of his uncle’s wives dropped into a post hole. After that a small animal killed all kinds of game for him, and he became wealthy, while the other people were starving. By and by some slaves were sent to burn his body and were feasted by him. They were told not to say anything about him, but one of them concealed a piece of fat for her child and the cries of the infant over this food let the truth be discovered. Then they went to him and he became a great chief. He married the woman who had been good to him, but killed his uncle’s other wife and her husband.

91. The Shaman who Went into the Fire, and the Heron’s Son

A little boy was so badly treated by his uncle’s wife that he went off into the woods, made eight nests, like those of the salmon, along the edge of a stream, and spent as many nights in them. So he became a shaman and could bring to himself and destroy all kinds of animals by means of his songs. By and by his uncle searched for him and found him. A spirit called Nix̣âˊ came to him and took him into the fire, and he burned down to a very small size, but his uncle, obeying his directions, took him out, put him into a basket, and so restored him. Afterward he had his uncle send for his wife, but he took the bottom part of her away so that what she ate did her no good. By and by a spirit showed itself in the form of a bear, after the shaman had been carried into the fire, scaring his uncle’s wife so that she died, while the uncle forgot to take his nephew out of the fire and let him burn up. At once all of the animals that had been killed came to life and ran away.

All the people of the town to which this shaman had belonged disappeared except a woman and her daughter. The woman called for something to marry her daughter and was answered by the heron, by whom the daughter had a son very fond of hunting. One time he found a fish called hīn-taỵīˊcî swimming in a pool, reared it, and, when it became as large as himself, killed it and made use of its skin. After a while he went up on one of the two trails on which his uncles had disappeared, saw a finger sticking up there, pulled up the being to which it belonged, and killed it. Then he went along in the other trail, saw a head, and killed the being to which it belonged. Next he went along the beach, came upon a monster devilfish, and killed it by means of his hīn-taỵīˊcî coat. He killed an enormous rat in the same manner. Then he came to a cannibal woman who offered him human flesh to eat. When he refused it she threw a mussel shell at him to kill him, but he jumped aside, threw the shell back, and destroyed her. He put her body into the fire and the ashes became mosquitoes. Then he met and killed her cannibal husband.

92. Mountain Dweller

Another version of story 65.

93. Kāhāˊsǃî, the Strong Man

In a certain town two persons were bathing for strength in order to kill sea lions. One of these, the town chief, bathed in public accompanied by all of the town people, while his nephew bathed during the night only, and lay in bed all day, pretending that he was a weakling. Finally a being called Strength came to the latter and made him so powerful that he was able to accomplish the feats the chief had set himself, namely, to pull the stump of a branch out of a tree and twist another tree down to the base. Having done so, however, he put them into their original positions, and when the chief tried them next he thought that he had become strong. When they started out for the sea-lion islands, they let Kāhāˊsǃî go along also, and, while the chief was killed, Kāhāˊsǃî destroyed two big sea lions, one with each hand.

94. The lǃêˊnaxx̣īˊdaq

A man saw a woman and two children floating in Auk lake, and he captured one of the children and brought it home. During the night the child gouged out the eyes of all the people living in the village except one woman, and ate them. This woman killed the child, and taking on her back her own child, to which she had just given birth, she went up into the woods and became the ʟǃêˊnᴀxx̣īˊdᴀq. As she went along she ate mussels and fitted the shells together.

95. Origin of the Frog Crest among the Kîksaˊdî

Another version of story 66.

96. How the Kîksaˊdî Came to Sitka

When the Kîksᴀˊdî first reached Sitka some people, called Sky-people, killed all of them except one woman who concealed herself in a cave. She called for some one to marry her, and, after having refused all the animals, married the sun’s son. By him she had four boys and a girl, and their grandfather placed them inside of a fort which he let down on the site of their former village. Then the enemy came upon them, and when they were in danger, their grandfather heated the land so hot that the enemy ran down into the sea. They found that boiling hot also and were destroyed.

97. The Four Brothers

In order to destroy a malevolent shaman four brothers let their sister marry him, took her back, and got her to tell them the location of her husband’s heart. They killed him outside of Ring island, Sitka sound, and took away his red-snapper coat. One of these brothers, named Łqǃayāˊkǃ, then put this on and used it in the pursuit of large animals. By and by he pursued an animal up into the sky and his footprints formed the Milky Way.⁠[195]

98. The Kîksaˊdî Woman who was Turned into an Owl

Another version of story 37.

99. Moldy-end

A small boy made an angry remark about a piece of moldy salmon and was carried off by the salmon people to their town. When he became hungry he began eating the salmon eggs lying upon the beach, but was told that they were salmon dung. Finding that he was homesick, his salmon father diverted him by sending him to Amusement creek and placing his arms around two sand-hill cranes. By and by they started back with him, and passed through something called sīt which opens and closes, and scars those salmon which are caught in it. When they camped they made other scars by throwing hot rocks upon one another, as if cooking. Then they met the herring tribe, with which they had a verbal contest, and finally announced what creeks they would enter. The boy’s father went to Dax̣ēˊt, where the boy let his human father spear him. When his mother began to cut him open she discovered his copper necklace, and concluded it was her son. His father put him into a basket and placed it upon the roof, where his spirit began to work in him, and he turned back into a man. Then he became a great shaman and told the people what had happened to him. By and by he tested his spirits by sending a raft load of his people over a waterfall under the sea. The next morning it came up with all the people safe. He sent his clothes man to spear land otter, and, although he had him throw his spear across a point at an invisible animal, it struck the land otter on the tip of the tail and killed it. He lived to be more than a hundred.

100. Moldy-end

Wrangell version of the above story, more detailed in the main portion but without the last episode.

101. QāQǃatcgūˊk

Another version of story 67.

102. The Sea-lion Hunt

Some hunters killed a large number of sea lions by pushing sharpened sticks into their noses.

103. The War in the Spruce Canoe

The Chilkat people once warred against the Stikine in a spruce canoe and killed numbers of people. (This probably refers to story 29.)

104. Story of the Kāˊgwantān

A noted hunter named Qakēˊqǃᵘtê killed the sleep bird, and along with it all his own people. Being unable to sleep himself, he wandered north to the mouth of Alsek river where he tried to trap a ground hog, but found a frog in his trap instead. He thought he saw some people but found they were stones. Then he went up the river and came among the Athapascans, whose good will he obtained by teaching them how to catch eulachon, thus preserving them from starvation. In spring they accompanied him back to his own people, bringing loads of furs with them. They came first to the Grass people, but these were afraid and sent them away, so they went to the Kāˊgwᴀntān who opened trade with them and became rich. The Athapascans traded particularly for a kind of seaweed.

From the wealth thus obtained the Kāˊgwᴀntān built Shadow house, and had a great feast. By and by the chief’s daughter, who was menstruant, said something to anger the glacier, and it extended itself over the town, driving the people to Kᴀqǃᴀnuwūˊ, while the Tǃᴀˊqǃdentān settled opposite. Later on the people warred with the Łuqāˊxᴀdî of Alsek river and captured the Wolf post from them. A Łuqāˊxᴀdî shaman was attacked by some warriors and flew away. He flew around for some time until a menstruant woman looked at him, making him fall into a pond. The warriors who had attacked him began to tamper with his spirit paraphernalia, and all but one of them were destroyed. Then the Kāˊgwᴀntān erected another house, which they named Wolf house, and carved its posts like the Wolf post they had captured. They invited people to the feast from Chilkat, Sitka, and Killisnoo. Slave’s valley then received its name from some slaves who came to life after having been killed and thrown down into it, supposedly dead. Afterward two parties of young people contended with each other going after firewood, and later on pushed the house fire over on each other until the great beams caught. As a result of this fight the family scattered, and some moved to Sitka. From that time, too, they came to be known as Burnt-house people (Kāˊgwᴀntān).

105. Story of the Kâˊckǃe qoan

After the death of an Athapascan chief on Copper river the people of his house began fighting over the possession of a dish, and those who lost it determined to emigrate. They set out, and, after losing some of their people in the mist, crossed the mountains near Mount St. Elias and came to the sea. While they were living at the mouth of a large river a little girl reared a sea gull which attained enormous proportions. When it got large her brothers wanted to kill it, but it disappeared together with the girl. By and by the chief sent six brothers alongshore to hunt for other people. They encountered head winds at one place and lost one of their number, but finally reached Yakutat. When they got back they heard that the name of the girl who had reared the sea gull had been given to another. This girl dug up some thing long and red in the forest out of which a dish was carved like the one that had been taken away from them. Presently they called in some Burnt-house people who were coming south from the mouth of Copper river and entertained them.