MYTHS RECORDED IN ENGLISH AT WRANGELL (continued 5)

The man camped on the rock that night and next morning studied very hard what he should do. At last he fixed upon a plan which he proceeded to carry out. Taking the largest seal he had killed, he skinned it very carefully so as not to cut through the hide anywhere. Late that night he got inside, tied the skin together over himself very tightly so that no water could come in, and set himself adrift. Then he floated along on the ocean, and at times he felt that he was bumping against rocks, but he kept quiet and after he had gone for a long time he felt himself drift ashore upon a beach.

Next morning very early, as he lay there, the man heard an eagle cry and knew that it was flying toward him. Finally it lighted right on top of the seal. The eagle seemed to notice, however, that this seal sounded empty, and instead of trying to eat it, sat still there. By and by the man took out his knife, cut through the skin right where the eagle sat and seized its legs. Then he looked up at it through the hole, and lo! instead of an eagle there was a girl. Then the girl said to him, “Come up to my father’s house with me.” He agreed, and, when she had taken him up, he saw a fine house over every bed in which hung an eagle skin.

After that the young man took the girl for his wife. At that time one of his brothers-in-law stood up and gave him an eagle-skin coat, saying, “I have given you a coat as a present. With this coat you can catch cod easily.” Another brother-in-law got up and said, “I also give you a coat. With this coat you can easily catch salmon.” Another got up and said, “I also give you a coat. With this coat you can catch halibut.” Another got up and said, “I, too, will give you a coat. With this coat you can catch seal. Always sit on a tree top and look down at the water. Then the seal will look to you like a very small fish. It feels like a small fish when you catch it in this coat.” So, all in the house presented him with different coats. The last of them was a young black eagle which said, “I give you this coat, and with this coat you can catch a sea lion.” Then the older eagles made fun of his gift, saying, “With that young skin you need not think you can catch even the smallest trout.”

Meanwhile the people in the town this boy had come from had sent his mother, who was a very old woman, away from the village to starve. He was at that time very near where she was living, but he did not know it.

After this the young man put on the coat he had received first, went out in it and caught a cod which he gave to his wife. He put the next coat on and caught a salmon. When he looked down upon this it appeared to be very small, and it felt very light while he was carrying it, but when he got it home it was a very large fish. With the next coat he caught a very big halibut, and with the next a seal. This seemed very light to him, but, when he got it home to his father-in-law and his brothers-in-law, he was surprised at its size. Lastly, he put on the black eagle skin. He went out and watched, and after a while he saw a sea lion a long distance out. He went after it and brought it ashore easily, but, after he had taken it to his father-in-law, he wondered how he had carried it.

By and by the man felt that his mother was suffering somewhere, and, going along the beach, he found her living in a little house made of branches. He asked her what the matter was, and she told him. Then he said to his mother, “In the morning you will hear some sea gulls. As soon as that happens, get up and go along the beach. You will find a large salmon.” The woman did so. In the morning she got up and looked and a very large salmon lay there. She had to cut it up and carry it to her brush house in pieces. In the evening her son went to her again and said, “To-morrow I will get a seal for you. Look for it very early.” So she awoke very early, found a large seal, and took up its meat.

After that her son went to her again and told her that he had been captured by the eagles and was living very comfortably among them. He said that he had a wife who was very good to him and told her not to worry for he would always look after her. Then he said, “Early next morning go and look again. I will try to get you a sea lion.” She did so, and found a very large sea lion upon the beach. She took off the skin, dried it, preserved the oil, and dried the meat.

Now the man went to his mother once more and said to her, “Next morning I will get a whale and leave it down here on the beach. Don’t touch it. A canoe will come from our village and find it. While they are cutting up the whale don’t go down to them.” It happened just as he had said, and when this canoe had carried back the news everybody came down from the village to cut it up.

As the old woman did not go down to look while they were cutting up this whale, some one said, “Run up to see the old woman.” When they came there, they found her in a very large brush house in which salmon, seal, and sea-lion meat were drying. They were surprised to see how much food she had when they themselves had barely enough. Then everybody ran up to look at her. They had stripped the whale down, but had not taken off the pieces. When they left her house to go down again, the old woman came out and the eagle, which had sat on top of a tree watching, said to her, “Get away. Get away.” After that one of the men took a rock and hit her in the face with it.

When the eagle saw what was done to his mother he flew down, seized the town chief by the top of the head and flew up with him. Then he came down again far enough for a person to seize the town chief’s legs and flew round and round the whale. By and by another man caught hold of the chief and was unable to let go. The eagle flew around a little higher up until another seized the second man, and so he continued to do until he had carried up all of the men. Meanwhile the women were in a great hurry to cut the whale, but the old woman poked it, telling it to go out, and it went away from them right out to sea. Meanwhile the eagle rose higher and higher into the air and flew far out over the ocean, where it dropped all of the men of that place and drowned them.

54. THE BRANT WIFE⁠[117]

A man at G̣onāˊxo in the Łaxaỵîˊk (or Yakutat) country married a brant woman (qên). One day in spring this woman said to her husband, “Let us go outside and watch the flocks of geese passing. My father’s canoe will soon be coming along.” Then they went out and saw a flock of brant coming. The brant seemed to stop over the woman a little while, and she called to them saying, “Have you anything for me?” Immediately some dried tsǃēt fell upon her lap.

Next day she again said to her husband, “I am sure that my father’s canoe will come along to-day. Let us go outside and sit there.” So they did. Then they saw the largest flock of brant they had yet observed, and the woman jumped up, saying, “There is my father’s canoe coming along.” When the flock got over the place where they were sitting, one of them made a great noise directly overhead, and her husband thought that must be his wife’s father. His wife also began making the brant noise in return, so that her husband became very much frightened. As soon as she had finished she flew up among the brant people.

Now her husband started off under the flock, and ran for a very long time until he was thoroughly tired out. Seeing that he was now so far behind that she could barely see him, his wife said to her father, “Father, let us camp here.” So her father had them encamp there on a flat place, and her husband saw it from a high hill. When he came up with them, he stood around on the flats and would not go near. By and by a man came out to him and said, “You better come in. We have a place prepared for you.” So he went in, and found his wife sitting on a mat in the house with room enough for him beside her. The brants looked to him just like human beings. Then they cooked for them, and afterward left the place, taking him with them. When they reached the place where they were to stay all summer, he saw that they worked very hard to get food in order to take it back.

Some time afterward the sand-hill cranes (dūł) and the geese (tǃāwᴀˊk) made war on the brants and killed off many of the latter. At first the man stood and watched them without taking part, and at last his wife’s father, who was chief of the brants, said to his daughter, “Daughter, why is it that your husband will not help us? Doesn’t he see that my people have all been killed? Ask him to help me.” Then the man made war aprons, coats, and hats for the brants and for himself, and he made himself a club. He killed great numbers of sand-hill cranes and geese, while none of the brants were destroyed. After he had killed enough of the enemy to make up for the brants that had been destroyed, his father-in-law told his daughter to say to him that he had killed enough. “If he kills any more,” he said, “they will want to kill more of my people.” So all stopped fighting, and they recommenced collecting food for the return journey. The girl’s father felt very good toward his son-in-law for saving their lives.

When fall came and the brants were ready to start back their chief said, “We will not go back the same way we came. We must go another way.” Then they started. It seemed to the man that they were going in canoes instead of flying. Late the first evening the chief said, “Now we will camp out here.” The place that he referred to was a large rock far out at sea, and they camped upon it. After they had eaten all went to sleep.

Next morning, however, although the man awoke early, he found himself lying out on the rock alone. Then he was very sad, and did not know what he should do. He thought, “How am I to get home from here without any canoe?” He remained out upon that rock for a long time and thought that he should never see his friends again. He remained there, in fact, all winter, living on food that the brants had left him. When spring came he was more anxious than ever to get home, so much so that he did not care to eat anything and went for several days without nourishment.

One morning he said to himself, “What is the use of getting up?” And he lay down again with his blankets over his head. After some time had passed, he heard something say to him very loudly, “Why are you lying here? What are you doing out here on this rock?” He threw his blanket off and looked around but saw nothing except a bird called gusǃyadūˊłî sitting near by. He lay down again, and again he heard the voice. He heard it for the third time. Every time the bird was sitting in the same place. When he again lay down he thought he must be crazy, but on keeping a lookout he saw the gusǃyadūˊłî run up toward him very fast, so he said to it quietly, “I have seen you.” Then the bird replied, “I have come to bring you luck. Get on my back and keep your face buried in the feathers on the back of my neck.” When he had done this, the bird started to fly off with him. It said, “Don’t look up. I do not want you to look up.” The farther it went the more it repeated this warning, so he tried hard to keep his face concealed. Finally the bird stopped, and he wondered where they were. “You can open your eyes now,” said the bird, and when he did so he saw that they were on a big pile of seaweed drifting around far out at sea. Then the bird told him to close his eyes again, and by the time it stopped with him once more he was very tired. Then the bird said again, “Now open your eyes.” He opened his eyes and recognized the place well as being close to his own village.

55. THE DUCK HELPER

All the people in a village called Tāˊsna, “just south of the mouth of the Yukon,” once died of smallpox with the exception of one woman and her son. The boy was just old enough to realize what had happened. His mother kept weeping day after day, and it so distressed her son that he went off hunting with bow and arrows and did not return until he thought she was through.

One day he went farther than he realized and on turning about was puzzled to know where the village lay. He walked for a long time in different directions trying to find it but in vain. He was lost and had to camp that night. Next morning he began looking again, and he looked all day with no better success. On the third morning, after he had looked about until he was very tired, he caught sight of water through the trees and, thinking it was the ocean, ran quickly toward it. When he came up to it, however, he found it was only a lake. He remained there for some time, living on roots, and afterward continued his journey. Again he traveled all day and on the following morning he again saw water through the woods. Now he felt happy once more, but when he came down to it and looked around, lo! it was the same lake he had left.

By this time the boy was too tired to walk any more, so he thought, “Well! I might as well stay right here.” He covered himself up with moss and went to sleep. Suddenly, however, he was awakened by a voice saying, “Who is this boy?” He looked around but saw no one. He was entirely alone. Then he fell asleep again, and again something said, “Who is this boy?” He thought that he was dreaming, for, when he looked around, he saw only a black duck far out on the water.

After this the boy said to himself, “Now I am going to sit up and watch.” So he seated himself against a large bush and, although he became so sleepy there that his eyes kept closing, he would open them resolutely and keep on the watch. Finally he got up and went behind the bush. While his eyes were closed, the boy heard the same voice again, but he was not quite asleep, so he opened them quickly and saw the black duck (gāx̣ᵘ) on the beach. Immediately it turned into a man, who stood looking at him. “What are you doing here?” said the man. Then the boy told him how he had gotten lost. “All of our village people died, and my mother cried so that I wanted to get away from her, so I traveled in the woods alone and became lost. Since that day I have not been home to see my mother.” Then the man took off his coat, gave it to the boy, and said, “Put on this coat. As soon as you have done so, stretch out your arms and keep going like that. Don’t think of me and don’t think of this lake. Think of your uncle’s house.”

The boy did as he had been told, and it seemed to him that he was flying along very rapidly far above the trees. For a long time he thought of nothing else than his uncle’s house and his uncle’s village, but at length he remembered the lake and lo! he was there once more with the man standing before him in the same place. Then the man said, “Didn’t I tell you not to think of me or the lake? Start over again. Think of nothing but your uncle’s house and the village you are bound for.” So this time the boy tried very hard, and all at once he came out back of his uncle’s house, where his mother was waiting and calling for him. When she recognized him she was very happy.

56. THE BOY WHO SHOT THE STAR

Two very high-caste boys were chums. The father of one was town chief and had his house in the middle of the village, but the house of the other boy’s father stood at one end. These boys would go alternately to each other’s houses and make great quantities of arrows which they would play with until all were broken up.

One time both of the boys made a great quantity of arrows to see which could have the more. Just back of their village was a hill on the top of which was a smooth grassy place claimed by the boys as their playground, and on a certain fine, moonlight night they started thither. As they were going along the lesser chief’s son, who was ahead, said, “Look here, friend. Look at that moon. Don’t you think that the shape of that moon is the same as that of my mother’s labret and that the size is the same, too?” The other answered, “Don’t. You must not talk that way of the moon.” Then suddenly it became very dark about them and presently the head chief’s son saw a ring about them just like a rainbow. When it disappeared his companion was gone. He called and called to him but did not get any answer and did not see him. He thought, “He must have run up the hill to get away from that rainbow.” He looked up and saw the moon in the sky. Then he climbed the hill, and looked about, but his friend was not there. Now he thought, “Well! the moon must have gone up with him. That circular rainbow must have been the moon.”

The boy thus left alone sat down and cried, after which he began to try the bows. He put strings on them one after the other and tried them, but every one broke. He broke all of his own bows and all of his chum’s except one which was made of very hard wood. He thought, “Now I am going to shoot that star next to the moon.” In that spot was a large and very bright one. He shot an arrow at this star and sat down to watch, when, sure enough, the star darkened. Now he began shooting at that star from the big piles of arrows he and his chum had made, and he was encouraged by seeing that the arrows did not come back. After he had shot for some time he saw something hanging down very near him, and, when he shot up another arrow, it stuck to this. The next did likewise, and at last the chain of arrows reached him. He put a last one on to complete it.

Now the youth felt badly for the loss of his friend and, lying down under the arrow chain, he went to sleep. After a while he awoke, found himself sleeping on that hill, remembered the arrows he had shot away, and looked up. Instead of the arrows there was a long ladder reaching right down to him. He arose and looked so as to make sure. Then he determined to ascend. First, however, he took various kinds of bushes and stuck them into the knot of hair he wore on his head. He climbed up his ladder all day and camped at nightfall upon it, resuming his journey the following morning. When he awoke early on the second morning his head felt very heavy. Then he seized the salmon berry bush that was in his hair, pulled it out, and found it was loaded with berries. After he had eaten the berries off, he stuck the branch back into his hair and felt very much strengthened. About noon of the same day he again felt hungry, and again his head was heavy, so he pulled out a bush from the other side of his head and it was loaded with blue huckleberries. It was already summer there in the sky. That was why he was getting berries. When he resumed his journey next morning his head did not feel heavy until noon. At that time he pulled out the bush at the back of his head and found it loaded with red huckleberries.

By the time he had reached the top the boy was very tired. He looked round and saw a large lake. Then he gathered some soft brush and some moss and lay down to sleep. But, while he slept, some person came to him and shook him saying, “Get up. I am after you.” He awoke and looked around but saw no one. Then he rolled over and pretended to go to sleep again but looked out through his eyelashes. By and by he saw a very small but handsome girl coming along. Her skin clothes were very clean and neat, and her leggings were ornamented with porcupine quills. Just as she reached out to shake him he said, “I have seen you already.”

Now the girl stood still and said, “I have come after you. My grandmother has sent me to bring you to her house.” So he went with her, and they came to a very small house in which was an old woman. The old woman said, “What is it you came way up here after, my grandson?” and the boy answered, “On account of my playmate who was taken up hither.” “Oh!” answered the old woman, “he is next door, only a short distance away. I can hear him crying every day. He is in the moon’s house.”

Then the old woman began to give him food. She would put her hand up to her mouth, and a salmon or whatever she was going to give would make its appearance. After the salmon she gave him berries and then meat, for she knew that he was hungry from his long journey. After that she gave him a spruce cone, a rose bush, a piece of devil’s club, and a small piece of whetstone to take along.

As the boy was going toward the moon’s house with all of these things he heard his playmate screaming with pain. He had been put up on a high place near the smoke hole, so, when his rescuer came to it, he climbed on top, and, reaching down through the smoke hole, pulled him out. He said, “My friend, come. I am here to help you.” Putting the spruce cone down where the boy had been, he told it to imitate his cries, and he and his chum ran away.

After a while, however, the cone dropped from the place where it had been put, and the people discovered that their captive had escaped. Then the moon started in pursuit. When the head chief’s son discovered this, he threw behind them the devil’s club he had received from the old woman, and a patch of devil’s club arose which the moon had so much trouble in getting through that they gained rapidly on him. When the moon again approached, the head chief’s son threw back the rose bushes, and such a thicket of roses grew there that the moon was again delayed. When he approached them once more, they threw back the grindstone, and it became a high cliff from which the moon kept rolling back. It is on account of this cliff that people can say things about the moon nowadays with impunity. When the boys reached the old woman’s house they were very glad to see each other, for before this they had not had time to speak.

The old woman gave them something to eat, and, when they were through, she said to the rescuer, “Go and lie down at the place where you lay when you first came up. Don’t think of anything but the playground you used to have.” They went there and lay down, but after some time the boy who had first been captured thought of the old woman’s house and immediately they found themselves there. Then the old woman said, “Go back and do not think of me any more. Lie there and think of nothing but the place where you used to play.” They did so, and, when they awoke, they were lying on their playground at the foot of the ladder.

As the boys lay in that place they heard a drum beating in the head chief’s house, where a death feast was being held for them, and the head chief’s son said, “Let us go,” but the other answered, “No, let us wait here until that feast is over.” Afterward the boys went down and watched the people come out with their faces all blackened. They stood at a corner, but, as this dance is always given in the evening, they were not seen.

Then the head chief’s son thought, “I wish my younger brother would come out,” and sure enough, after all of the other people had gone, his younger brother came out. He called to his brother saying, “Come here. It is I,” but the child was afraid and ran into the house instead. Then the child said to his mother, “My brother and his friend are out here.” “Why do you talk like that?” asked his mother. “Don’t you know that your brother died some time ago?” And she became very angry. The child, however, persisted, saying, “I know his voice, and I know him.” His mother was now very much disturbed, so the boy said, “I am going to go out and bring in a piece of his shirt.” “Go and do so,” said his mother. “Then I will believe you.”

When the boy at last brought in a piece of his brother’s shirt his mother was convinced, and they sent word into all of the houses, first of all into that of the second boy’s parents, but they kept both with them so that his parents could come there and rejoice over him. All of the other people in that village also came to see them.

57. THE BOY AND THE GIANT

At a certain place in the interior lived a manly little boy who was very fond of hunting. He would take his lunch and go off hunting very early in the morning and stay all day, bringing home two or three porcupines in the evening. One morning he started earlier than usual and came upon a giant as tall as the trees. He was very much frightened and ran away with the big man in pursuit. As the giant was not a very fast runner, the boy kept ahead of him until he came to a sort of cave like a house at the foot of a hill and entered it. When the big man saw this, he said, “Come here, my grandson.” The boy refused, and the giant continued his entreaties for a long time. At last the boy consented to go with him, so the giant said, “Get inside of my shirt. I will carry you that way.” Then the boy vaulted in there, and they started off.

After they had gone along in this manner for some time, the boy, who had his head out, saw a very small bird called old-person (ʟᴀgᵘ-qāˊkǃᵘ) and said, “Grandpa, there is a bird I would like to have.” Then the big man stopped and let him down, and he shot the bird with an arrow and put it into his bosom, after which he crawled back into the big man’s shirt. But now this bird had increased the boy’s weight so much that the giant could scarcely move along. At every step he took he sank deep into the moss. When the boy noticed this, he said to himself, “How is it that, since I picked up this small bird, I have gotten very heavy, and it is hard for him to walk?” Then he threw the bird away and the giant walked on again as lightly as before. The boy enjoyed so much being with this giant that he had forgotten all about his father and mother. After that they traveled on together until they came to a very large lake. In it the boy saw beaver houses, and the beaver dam ran right across it. He thought, “This is a beaver lake. This is the kind of place my father has told me about.” Then the big man tore a hole through the top of a beaver house, took all of the beavers out, and made a fire right back of the lake at which to cook them. They camped there for several days, living on beaver meat and drying the skins. But the first evening the giant said, “Keep a look out. If you hear any noise during the night, wake me up. There is a bigger man than I of whom I am much afraid.” He also said to the boy, “Sleep some distance away from me, or I might move against you or throw my leg on you so as to kill you.”

The second night they encamped there the boy heard the bushes breaking, and sure enough the second giant came along. He was so tall that his head was far up above the trees, and they could not see it. This second giant had been looking for the other for a long time unsuccessfully, so he rushed upon him, threw him down, and lay on top of him. Then the boy’s friend cried, “Grandson, take that club of mine out and throw it at him.” The boy ran to the big man’s bed, took his club, which was made from the entire skeleton of a beaver, out from under it, and threw it at the intruder. As soon as he let it go out of his hands it began chewing at the second giant’s leg, and, as he was unable to feel it, the club chewed off both his legs. Then the other, who had been almost smothered, killed him and threw his body into the lake.

After this the boy’s companion had nothing to fear, and wandered from lake to lake, and the boy was so fond of hunting that he forgot all about his father and mother. It was now winter time, and that winter was very severe. From the time the second giant had been killed he had been doing nothing but killing beaver.

One evening, however, the boy began thinking of his father and his mother, and was very quiet. Then the big man said, “Why is it that you are so quiet this evening?” The boy answered, “I have just thought of my father and mother. I feel lonely (i. e., homesick) for them.” Then his companion said, “Would you like to go to them?” “I can’t go to them because I don’t know where they are. I don’t know which way to go to get to them.” Then the big man said, “All right, you can go,” but the boy did not know what he meant. Now the big man went to a small tree, broke it off, trimmed it well for the boy, and said to him, “Take this along and as soon as you feel that you are lost, let it stand straight up and fall over. Go in the direction in which it falls. Keep on doing this until you get to your father’s place.”

At first the boy was afraid to start off alone, but finally he did so. Whenever he was in doubt about the direction he let the tree fall, and it led him at last right down to his father’s village, where all were exceedingly glad to see him.

58. THE BOY WITH ARROWS ON HIS HEAD

A chief’s daughter married her father’s nephew and had a child by him who was named Wᴀtsǃîhîˊtcî. He was not exactly a human being, for he had sharp arrow points on his head. When his mother began petting him and using endearing terms to him, he said to her, “Don’t pet me. I am no baby.” And he ran the arrow points on his head into his mother’s breast and killed her. Afterward he ran off into the woods and became a very bad person, killing everybody who went off hunting or after wood.

At that time his mother’s brother was out on the mountains hunting along with his children. He knew that his nephew was killing people, so he made his house very strong to keep him out. He also set around bundles of dry straw shaped like human beings, and he even prepared a hole in the mountains as a place of refuge.

How his nephew found out where he lived is not known, but one day he suddenly walked right in. His uncle was sitting behind a bundle of straw in the rear of the house, while his wife and children were in the hole he had made in the mountain. The boy always had his arrows and spears, the points of which were obsidian (în), ready to use, but instead of aiming at his uncle he pointed his arrow at a bundle of straw opposite. While he was doing so his uncle shot him under the left arm, and he was so badly hurt that he left his spear and ran out.

As his assisting spirit this boy had a bird called gusǃiadūˊłi of about the size of a robin. This spirit now doctored him and took out of him all of the poison his uncle had put on the end of his arrow. But, while he was doing this, his uncle tracked him by the marks of blood until he came to the place where the boy lived. When he entered that place his nephew said, “Don’t kill me, uncle. I have made a hole in the ground over there and have filled it with goods. You may have them if you do not kill me. If you let me go now I will never kill another person.” In spite of all his protestations, however, his uncle killed him for having destroyed so many of the town people and for having forced him to live back among the mountains. Then he burned his nephew’s body and went home with all of his family, leaving the ashes where they lay. These ashes were driven about by the wind and became the minute gnats that torment people.

59. GAMNĀˊTCKǃÎ⁠[118]

Gᴀmnāˊtckǃî killed a seal, skinned it, and threw the skin and meat to his wife to wash. While she was washing them in the sea she saw some killer whales coming landward. By and by the meat she was washing drifted out from her and she waded after it. She went out until the water reached her hips. Then she suddenly felt some one pull her and she disappeared under water. It was the killer-whale people who thus took her into their canoe.

After that Gᴀmnāˊtckǃî felt very badly and thought to himself, “How can I get my wife back? How can I look for her under the water?” He could not sleep all night, and early in the morning he thought, “I wonder if I couldn’t raise this water so as to go under it.” In the morning, therefore, before he had eaten he took his red and black paints, went down to the water, raised the edge of it just as if he were raising a blanket, and walked under. He walked on farther and farther. It was just like walking on land.

By and by he came to a village full of very pale people who went about with their heads down. He found out that they were the red-cod people. He wanted to make friends of them, so, thinking that they looked very white, he painted them all red—men, women, and children. That is how these fishes got their color. After that he asked them if they had seen his wife, but they said that they had seen no one, so he went on. Presently he came to another village and asked the people there the same question to which he received the very same answer. Those were the halibut people. In each village they gave him something to eat.

After he had left the halibut people Gᴀmnāˊtckǃî traveled for several days before he came to another town. By and by, however, he perceived smoke far ahead of him, and, going toward it, he saw that it was from a fort. Inside of this fort was a large house which he immediately entered, but the people there did not seem to care to see strangers and would not talk to him. These were also very pale people, so to please them he took out his black paint and painted all of them with it. Then they felt well disposed toward him and were willing to talk. “Can you tell me what clan has my wife?” he said. At first they said that they did not know, but afterward one replied, “There is a strange woman in that town across there.” Then this person pointed the village out, and Gᴀmnāˊtckǃî felt pleased to know where his wife was. The people he had come among were the sharks, and those whose village they showed him were the killer whales.

Then the shark chief said, “Every time we have had a fight we have beaten them.” The shark people also said to him, “The killer-whale chief has a slave. Every morning the slave goes out after water. Go to the creek and tell him what to do when he comes in. Tell him to bring the water in and hand it to the chief over the fire. As he does so he must drop it, and, while the house is full of steam, pick up your wife and run out with her. The chief has married her. Then come over here with her. They will run after you, but, if you can get away, come right across.” The shark people had always been jealous of the killer whales because they had this woman.

While the shark people were telling him what to do, a strange, bony-looking person kept jumping up from behind the boxes. He wondered what made him act so queerly and began to feel uneasy about it, but, when the bony person saw him looking at him in a strange manner, he said, “Why! don’t you know me? I am that halibut hook (nᴀx̣ᵘ) that the sharks once took away from you. My name is Łgudjîˊ (the name of an island).”

Just after that the man started for the killer-whale town and sat down by the creek. When the slave came out after water, he asked him to help him, saying, “I hear that my wife is with this chief.” “Yes,” the slave answered, “if she were a man, they would have kept her for a slave like myself. Since she is a woman, the chief has married her, and she is living very well. I will help you as much as I can. She wants to return to you. Now watch and I will do what you tell me to do. I will spill this water on the fire.”

After that he took Gᴀmnāˊtckǃî to the door and showed him where his wife sat. Then the slave walked in with the water while he stood outside watching. He watched his wife through a crack and saw that she appeared very much cast down. As soon as the fire was put out and the house filled with steam he ran in, seized his wife, and started off with her.

Then, when the slave thought that he had gotten a long distance away, he shouted, “Some one has taken the woman away.” The chief looked around, and sure enough his wife was gone. Going outside, they saw that this man had almost reached the shark fort, and they saw him enter it.

As soon as he got there, the shark people began to dress themselves for war. They were noisy and acted as though they were very hungry, so that Gᴀmnāˊtckǃî became frightened. The halibut hook came to him, however, and told him not to be frightened, because the killer whales were coming over. All at once the fort began moving up and down. Whenever the killer whales tried to enter, the fort killed them by moving up and down and cutting off their heads. The slaughter was so great that the few survivors were frightened and went back. Two or three days later the killer whales came again with like result.

After this the shark people said to Gᴀmnāˊtckǃî, “You better not start out right away. Stay here a while with us. They might be lying in wait for you. Since we have fought for you so much, it is better that you should get to your home safely.” Gᴀmnāˊtckǃî did so, and some time later they said, “Go straight along by the way you came, and you will find your way out easily.” He did this and reached his home in safety.

60. THE HĪN-TAỴĪˊCÎ

There is a fish, called hīn-taỵīˊcî, which is shaped like a halibut but has very many “legs.”

Early one spring a Kîksᴀˊdî shaman at Sitka named Face-of-mountain (Cāˊdāq) began singing, and the people did not know why. Another morning he got up very early and began to sing again, while the spirits talked to him. Then all of the Kîksᴀˊdî also rose. When his possession was over the shaman said to them, “Take the canoe down and let us start off.” They did so, placing the shaman in the bow under a mat, and, as they went along, his spirits talked under it. Finally they came to a deep bay in front of Sitka and the spirits said, “This is the place,” so they started shoreward. When they came to a spot just beyond a steep cliff which runs down precipitously into the sea, the spirits said, “Here is the place where we are to land.” Then the shaman went up from the canoe and sat in a hollow on top of a rock, while all watched him. By and by his spirit said that the people must do likewise, so they found similar places and seated themselves there.

Now the shaman seemed to be watching for something, so all of the people looked in the same direction, and suddenly they saw a school of killer whales coming along, making noises like yelping dogs. The people wondered what was the matter and looked closely. Finally right out from the cliff they saw something very black and shiny. It was the hīn-taỵīˊcî, and, when a killer whale ran up against it, he would be cut in two. The killer whales fought very hard, but, when they were through, only three remained, who went off barking like dogs. After that the hīn-taỵīˊcî came up in front of the place where the men were sitting and made a great noise. They wondered at this and were frightened, but the shaman understood it and said to them, “It is saying ‘Don’t feel badly for me if I should get killed. I should not have fought those people, but I had to do it, for they were coming here to eat all of my food.’”

Now the people went home, but, after some time had passed, the shaman asked them to take the canoe down once more and go out again. They did so willingly, for they were anxious to see what more would happen. The shaman had learned that all the killer-whale people were going against the hīn-taỵīˊcî and that the sculpin (wēqǃ) had come to him saying, “The people are coming after you again.” So the people went to their former station, and presently the hīn-taỵīˊcî came out of his hole and began jumping about on top of the water like a salmon. It was very quick and very large. When it saw the great crowd of killer whales coming on, it went out to meet them and killed all except the killer-whale chief and two others, which it allowed to escape. Then it again jumped up and down in front of the people, making a great noise, and the shaman told them it said, “I am tired. If they come right back with the same number of people, I shall be killed. It will be my fault. I should not have killed them.”

Then the people went home and remained there quite a time. At length, however, the shaman’s spirits told him that the sculpin had again come to the hīn-taỵīˊcî to say that people were coming to kill him. So he told his friends about it, and they went to the same place. As they sat there watching, they saw a smoke arising far in the distance. It was the killer whales blowing. There were still more of them this time, but, as before, the hīn-taỵīˊcî destroyed all except three. Again it told the people that it expected to be killed next time.

Now the shaman was very anxious to know what would be the outcome of all this, so he went back to his village and waited impatiently for another fight to take place. Finally the sculpin went to the hīn-taỵīˊcî once more and said, “They are gathering more men for you, stronger men this time. They are getting the devilfish people to fight you.” When the shaman learned of it through his spirits he told his people, and they went out to the cliff. Again they saw something coming from a distance very rapidly, making the water boil. Just as the devilfishes reached the hole of the hīn-taỵīˊcî, the latter jumped through the largest of them, after which it killed all of the others and all of the killer whales but three. It was easier for him this time because there were fewer killer whales.

Next time the sculpin came to the hīn-taỵīˊcî it said “All of the monster halibut are being gathered to fight with you.” So the people went over once more and sat in their accustomed places. They saw the largest halibut go up toward the hīn-taỵīˊcî’s hole with open mouth ready to swallow it, but, as before, the hīn-taỵīˊcî jumped through and through it, and killed all of its antagonists except three killer whales. Where they fought the water was covered with blood, and after every battle the hīn-taỵīˊcî would come out and say that next time it expected to be killed.

Now, however, a very long time passed before the shaman heard anything, and he began to think that they had given up fighting. But finally his spirit came to him once more to say that the sculpin had been to the hīn-taỵīˊcî. The sculpin had said to it, “They are coming after you again. They have gathered all of the big crabs to kill you.” Then the hīn-taỵīˊcî answered, “Those are the ones that are going to get me.” So the shaman went out with his friends and watched from their former stations.

Presently the watching people saw the killer whales approach with a big crab in advance of them. Its body was under water, but its legs stuck out, and the water seemed to boil as it swam forward. Then the hīn-taỵīˊcî came out and said to the shaman, “They will get me this time. It is my own fault. I am sure that I can not kill that big person with the shell.” Then the hīn-taỵīˊcî went back into its hole, and the crab ran up against the opening so it was unable to get out. So the hīn-taỵīˊcî said, “How is it that you do not allow me to come out when you have come here to fight me? Let me come out so that you can get me. I have killed enough of you deep-water people to come out now. Stand away a little and let me come.”

The hīn-taỵīˊcî wanted to see where the joints on the crab’s claws were situated, and, as soon as the crab moved to one side, it went against one of them and cut it off. With its remaining claw, however, the crab seized it, lifted it into the air, and killed it in sight of everyone. After that it placed the body on the back of the chief killer whale, and the crab and the killer whales sang together as they went away with its body. As they went they kept close to the surface of the water.

61. THE EAST AND NORTH WINDS

A high-caste man married the daughter of East-wind (Sāˊnᴀxet). After a time he heard of a very pretty high-caste girl, the daughter of North-wind (X̣ūn), so he left his first wife, came north, and married her. Then he took her back to the village where his first wife lived.

Now the people said to his first wife, “There is a very pretty woman here. Her clothes are very valuable and sparkle all over. They make a noise like bells.” East-wind’s daughter was at once jealous and said, “I will soon be able to fix that pretty girl you boys are talking about.” Quite a while afterward it began to grow cloudy and warm, and sure enough the daughter of North-wind lost all of her beautiful clothing. It was icicles and frost that were so pretty, and when she lost these she lost her beauty with them.

62. THE BIG BEAVER

At a certain place far back in the forest was a large lake in which were many beaver houses. One time some people found this lake and dug a trench out of it in order to drain it. Then they broke up the beavers’ houses so that the beavers began to swim down through the trench. As they floated along the people killed them, all except one very large beaver, which they knew must have been there on account of its fresh tracks. They looked into all of the beaver houses they had broken up, but could not find it. It must have gotten out at the very start and made its escape into the woods.

Quite a while after this had been done, the people who had killed the beavers walked up to the place where the lake had been. When they got close to the place where they had let it out they heard a woman singing in a beautiful voice: “Why didn’t you ask one another to stop, my brothers? You begged yourselves to go off, my brothers.” She sang thus because all of those who had destroyed the beavers were to die. She was sitting on a part of the broken dam. So, on the way back to their village, all of these people were drowned and only a few bodies were recovered. Those whose bodies were not found had been captured by the big beaver.

63. BEAVER AND PORCUPINE⁠[119]

The beaver and the porcupine (łᴀkǃᴀˊtc) were great friends and went about everywhere together. The porcupine often visited the beaver’s house, but the latter did not like to have him come because he left quills there. One time, when the porcupine said that he wanted to go out to the beaver’s house, the beaver said, “All right, I will take you out on my back.” He started, but instead of going to his house he took him to a stump in the very middle of the lake. Then he said to him, “This is my house,” left him there, and went ashore.

While the porcupine was upon this stump he began singing a song, “Let it become frozen. Let it become frozen so that I can cross to Wolverine-man’s place.” He meant that he wanted to walk ashore on the ice. So the surface of the lake froze, and he walked home.

Some time after this, when the two friends were again playing together, the porcupine said, “You come now. It is my turn to carry you on my back.” Then the beaver got on the porcupine’s back, and the porcupine took him to the top of a very high tree, after which he came down and left him. For a long time the beaver did not know how to get down, but finally he climbed down, and they say that this is what gives the broken appearance to tree bark.

64. THE MAN WHO ENTERTAINED THE BEARS⁠[120]

A man belonging to the Raven clan living in a very large town had lost all of his friends, and he felt sad to think that he was left alone. He began to consider how he could leave that place without undergoing hardships. First he thought of paddling away, but he said to himself, “If I paddle away to another village and the people there see that I am alone, they may think that I have run away from my own village, from having been accused of witchcraft or on account of some other disgraceful thing.” He did not feel like killing himself, so he thought that he would go off into the forest.

While this man was traveling along in the woods the thought occurred to him to go to the bears and let the bears kill him. The village was at the mouth of a large salmon creek, so he went over to that early in the morning until he found a bear trail and lay down across the end of it. He thought that when the bears came out along this trail they would find and kill him.

By and by, as he lay there, he heard the bushes breaking and saw a large number of grizzly bears coming along. The largest bear led, and the tips of his hairs were white. Then the man became frightened. He did not want to die a hard death and imagined himself being torn to pieces among the bears. So, when the leading bear came up to him, he said to it, “I have come to invite you to a feast.” At that the bear’s fur stood straight up, and the man thought that it was all over with him, but he spoke again saying, “I have come to invite you to a feast, but, if you are going to kill me, I am willing to die. I am alone. I have lost all of my property, my children, and my wife.”

As soon as he had said this the leading bear turned about and whined to the bears that were following. Then he started back and the rest followed him. Afterward the man got up and walked toward his village very fast. He imagined that the biggest bear had told his people to go back because they were invited to a feast.

When he got home he began to clean up. The old sand around the fireplace he took away and replaced with clean sand. Then he went for a load of wood. When he told the other people in that village, however, they were all very much frightened, and said to him, “What made you do such a thing?” After that the man took off his shirt, and painted himself up, putting stripes of red across his upper arm muscles, a stripe over his heart, and another across the upper part of his chest.

Very early in the morning, after he had thus prepared, he stood outside of the door looking for them. Finally he saw them at the mouth of the creek, coming along with the same big bear in front. When the other village people saw them, however, they were so terrified that they shut themselves in their houses, but he stood still to receive them. Then he brought them into the house and gave them seats, placing the chief in the middle at the rear of the house and the rest around him. First he served them large trays of cranberries preserved in grease. The large bear seemed to say something to his companions, and as soon as he began to eat the rest started. They watched him and did whatever he did. The host followed that up with other kinds of food, and, after they were through, the large bear seemed to talk to him for a very long time. The man thought that he was delivering a speech, for he would look up at the smoke hole every now and then and act as though talking. When he finished he started out and the rest followed. As they went out each in turn licked the paint from their host’s arm and breast.

The day after all this happened the smallest bear came back, as it appeared to the man, in human form, and spoke to him in Tlingit. He had been a human being who was captured and adopted by the bears. This person asked the man if he understood their chief, and he said, “No.” “He was telling you,” the bear replied, “that he is in the same condition as you. He has lost all of his friends. He had heard of you before he saw you. He told you to think of him when you are mourning for your lost ones.”

When the man asked this person why he had not told him what was said the day before, he replied that he was not allowed to speak his native language while the chief was around. It was on account of this adventure that the old people, when they killed a grizzly bear, would paint a cross on its skin. Also, when they gave a feast, no matter if a person were their enemy, they would invite him and become friends just as this man did to the bears, which are yet great foes to man.

65. MOUNTAIN DWELLER⁠[121]

Years ago young women were not allowed to eat between meals. Two sisters belonging to a high family once did this, and, when their mother found it out, she was very angry. She pulled the elder girl toward her, abused her shamefully, and scratched the inside of her mouth all over in pulling out the tallow she had eaten. She said, “What do you mean, especially you, you big girl? It is not right that you should eat anything between meals. What do you mean?” The younger sister was still quite little, therefore nothing was done to her, but she was offended at the treatment her elder sister had received. Finally the mother said, “You are so fond of eating you better marry Mountain Dweller (Cāqᴀnaỵîˊ).” This being lived upon the mountains and was a great hunter. That evening the sisters ran off into the woods.

Next morning, when her daughters did not appear, their mother thought that they had stayed in bed and called to them, “Isn’t it time you were getting out of bed?” By and by, however, she found that they were gone, and the people began searching for them. Their mother would go from one place to another where they had been playing, but nobody saw anything of them for seven days.

Meanwhile, although they were suffering with hunger, the girls went farther and farther into the woods. When they got very far up among the mountains they heard somebody chopping wood, and the elder sister said to herself, “I wonder if that isn’t the man mother was talking about?” Coming closer, they discovered a man with his face painted red. He looked up, saw the girls, and said, “What are you poor girls doing way back here?” Then the elder answered, “Mother abused us. That is why we left our home. She abused us because we ate some tallow. She said, ‘You are so fond of eating tallow you better go and marry Mountain Dweller.’”

Then Mountain Dweller, for it was he, invited them into his house, and they found it very grand. Another house near by was full of all kinds of meat drying. Seeing that they looked hungry, he gave them some food. Next morning early, when he was getting ready to hunt, he said to them, “Do you see that curtain over there?” In one part of the house a large skin curtain was hanging. “A very bad woman lives behind that. Don’t peep at her.”

At their father’s village all the people were now mourning for them, and all of their relations had their hair cut and their faces painted black.

The elder sister was now married to Mountain Dweller, the younger being still a little girl. After a while the former became curious to see the bad woman her husband had told her not to look at, so she peeped at her through a hole. At once the bad woman seemed to feel that some one was looking at her, threw up her hands, and screamed. Then both of the girls fell over dead.

By and by Mountain Dweller came home from the hunt, saw them, and knew what had happened. Then he went over to the bad woman and killed her. After that he put eagle down upon the girls’ bodies and walked around them several times, shaking his rattle. In that way they were restored to life.

After the girls had lived there for a long time, Mountain Dweller said, “Don’t you wish you might see your father and mother again?” The younger said, “Yes,” and the elder also wished it. After that Mountain Dweller hunted a great deal to prepare a quantity of meat for his father-in-law. He said to his wife, “Make a little basket, just big enough to put your finger into.” When it was done, he shook it and made it very large. Then he put all kinds of meat and tallow and sacks of grease into this basket. He shook it again and made it small with all of the meat inside.

When the girls came to their father’s house their little brother ran out, saw them, and went in again crying, “Mother, my sisters are out there.” But his mother became angry and said, “Why do you say that? Your sisters have been dead a long time, and yet you say that they are out there.” But the boy screamed, “Those are my sisters. Don’t I know them?” “Well! let me see the hair from their marten-skin robes.” In those times none but high-caste people such as these wore marten skins, so when he came in again bringing pieces from their robes she and her husband and all her relations went out. There she saw both of her daughters. “My daughters,” she cried, and wept with happiness. All in the village ran to see them and were very happy.

Next day the elder girl said to her mother, “Mother, there is a basket a little way back there in the woods. Send after it and have it brought down.” All the people went out to it, but returned saying, “It is such a large basket that all the people in the village can’t bring it in.” Then the girl went up herself, and it became small so that she brought it home easily. As soon as she had gotten it into the house and had set it down, it became large once more. Then she began to unpack it, and the house was filled with all sorts of meats. They feasted on these, and the village people were satisfied and felt very happy. Their mother, however, took too much grease on top of everything else. On going to bed, she drank some very cold water which hardened the grease so that her stomach broke in two.

Nowadays it is a fortunate man that hears Mountain Dweller’s ax or sees where he has been chopping. The basket obtained from him at this time is called Mother-basket (Kᴀkᵘʟa), and is used by the G̣ānᴀxteˊdî as an emblem.

66. HOW THE SITKA KÎKSAˊDÎ OBTAINED THE FROG⁠[122]

A man and his wife were crossing the mouth of a big bay named ʟǃēˊyāq, when it became so foggy that they could not even see the water around their canoe and stopped where they were. Then, quite a distance away in the thick fog, they heard singing, and it continued for so long a time that they learned the song by heart. The words of this song are (first verse), “We picked up a man; you picked up a man;” (second verse), “They captured a man; they captured a man; you’ve captured a man.” The voice was so powerful that they could hear it reecho among all the mountains.

When the fog began to rise so that they could look under it a little they heard the song coming nearer and nearer. They looked about and finally saw that it came from a very little frog. To make sure of it they paddled along for some time in the direction it was taking. Then the man said, “This frog is going to be mine. I am going to claim it,” and his wife answered, “No, it is going to be mine. I am going to claim it.” But, after they had disputed for some time, the man finally let it go to his wife.

Then the woman took it ashore, treating it like a child, carried it up to the woods, put it down by a lake and left it there. From that time on, her people have been Kîksᴀˊdî. That is how the Sitka Kîksᴀˊdî came to claim the frog.

67. QĀQǃATCGŪˊK⁠[123]

One of the Sitka Kîksᴀˊdî, a man named Qāqǃᴀtcgūˊk, was very fond of hunting and could use his spear very accurately. He had two wives and several children, to whom he always brought home a fur seal.

One time he heard a little fur seal crying continually, and he heard one of the others say to it, “Take care of that baby. Feed it. Qāqǃᴀtcgūˊk comes here hunting.” Then Qāqǃᴀtcgūˊk was frightened and said to his companions, “Let us go back.” So they went back and told the people in town what had happened. Then Qāqǃᴀtcgūˊk broke up his canoe, his paddles, and his spears, and burnt them, saying, “I will never go out hunting again.” So he remained at home for a long time.

One day, however, when a crowd of people were eating fur-seal meat, his little ones looked on hungrily. He pitied them so much that he did not know what to do. Then he said to his wife, “Go to your brother and ask him to loan me his canoe and spears.” Then he started off again, but, although there were many seals about, he could not get one. A young seal in particular he tried very hard to get. He kept chasing it farther and farther out to sea. At last he said to his men, “Let us go back. I can not get anything.” When they started paddling, however, a light breeze was blowing out from Sitka, and, although they worked vigorously the shore seemed to get more and more distant. Finally all became tired, threw their paddles into the canoe, and lay down to sleep, letting themselves drift farther and farther out.

After a very long time they came to a rock crowded with sea lions, fur seals, and sea otters, which seemed very tame. They clubbed numbers of them. Fresh water they obtained from a wild celery (kūqǃ) which has hollow stalks full of water. They built a house out of dry bushes, cooked the flesh of the sea animals and lived thus until August.

At last they wanted to start home again, so they made ropes of sea-lion hide, dried four sea-lion stomachs to carry along as floats, and filled a fifth with water. In the bottom of their canoe they put numbers of sea-lion bristles and loaded the rest of it down with valuable furs. They also cooked a lot of dried and fresh meat for the journey. Then they started off, guiding themselves by the sun, which they knew came up right behind Sitka in summer. When the sun set, they anchored by means of their hide lines and put the four sea-lion stomachs around their canoe to float it in case of storms. They did this every day.

Finally, after many days were past, they saw what they thought was a sea gull, but it always stayed in one place, and at last they discovered that it was a mountain. Then they felt brave and worked harder, and it became bigger and bigger. They did not know what mountain it was but said, “If we get to that place we can reach the village.” After a while they saw another mountain farther back and then knew that the first was Mount Edgecumbe (ʟǃūx) and the second Verstovaia (Qanēˊsdî-ca). By and by they reached the mountain and drew their canoe up in a little bay under it, which they named Place-where-canoe-rested (Yᴀkᵘ-kusēˊgᴀkᵘ). After two days they started on again. Then they said, “Everyone has now gone to the salmon creeks.” By and by they came to Sitka village and had no more than done so before the wind began to blow very hard. They must have been on the rock seven months. As they had anticipated, they found Sitka empty, and started for the salmon creek, Dax̣ēˊt.

All of the village people were then at Dax̣ēˊt drying salmon, and both of Qāqǃᴀtcgūˊk’s wives were with them. The younger had already remarried, but the elder sat near the point every day and cried for him. They had held a death feast for him and had set up a post. They were burning food and clothing for him.

That day, after the old wife had sat crying for some time, she looked up and saw a canoe with three men in it coming toward her. As she wept she looked up at it every now and then. When it got very close she suddenly stopped crying and thought to herself, “There is a fellow in that canoe that paddles just like my husband.” It made her feel sad. But, when it was still nearer, she said, “That is he and his brothers who went with him. Nobody ever paddled so much like him.” Then she got up and walked toward the house.

Then her husband, who thought a great deal of her, stood up and said, “That is my wife.” He looked again and was certain of it. Then he said to his brothers, “That is my wife. She must have been sitting there, crying.”

When the woman reached her house she said, “There is a canoe coming and I am sure that one of the men in it is my husband. Go out and look.” Then all went out, and saw that it was indeed he, and began to shout his name, announcing that he had come back. When he at length landed, he asked first for his wives, and they said, “The younger is married again, but the elder has been grieving her life away.” He asked whether his children were all alive and they said they were. Then they brought up his furs and other property from the canoe, and he began telling how he had happened to stay away so long. He told them how hard they had tried to get back, and how he had thought of his wife and children worrying at home, how they lived upon the large rock, how they provided themselves with water and meat, and how many valuable furs they could have gotten had they had bigger canoes. He told them how the seals, fur seals, sea otter, and sea lions were so tame that they looked at them like human beings, and how numerous they were. He also told them what a dreadful thing it is to be out at sea without knowing where one is or which way to go home, that it is like being in the inside of a bucket. When it was cloudy they did not know where the sun rose or set. He said that that was a valuable rock out there, and that wherever one looked or stepped lay sea-lion bristles. He also told the people how much surprised they were at having fine weather out at sea and at having it become stormy as soon as they got to the village. He told how they camped in their canoe, how they fixed it for the night, and everything else connected with their journey. He said that he dreamed all the time of being with his people, and that he used to wake up and tell his brothers that his old wife and all of his children were well. He always had had bad dreams about the younger wife, however, probably because she was married again. He had also composed a song about his dreams, which he sang to them. In this song he said, “Here I am lost and yet I dream I am at home with my people. I have no hope of seeing them, and yet I see them in my dreams.”

When he heard that the people had had a feast for him, he said, “Which of you gave a feast for me?” Then they pointed to a certain man and answered, “There is the principal one who gave a feast for you.” They pointed to others and said, “That one gave so much for you and that one so much.” He gave all of them valuable skins for what they had done.

68. THE BEAVER OF KILLISNOO

Some people belonging to the Dēˊcitān family captured a small beaver, and, as it was cunning and very clean, they kept it as a pet. By and by, however, although it was well cared for, it took offense at something and began to compose songs. Afterward one of the beaver’s masters went through the woods to a certain salmon creek and found two salmon-spear handles, beautifully worked, standing at the foot of a big tree. He carried these home, and, as soon as they were brought into the house, the beaver said, “That is my make.” Then something was said that offended it again. Upon this the beaver began to sing just like a human being and surprised the people very much. While it was doing this it seized a spear and threw it straight through its master’s chest, killing him instantly. Then it threw its tail down upon the ground and the earth on which that house stood dropped in. They found out afterward that the beaver had been digging out the earth under the camp so as to make a great hollow. It is from this story that the Dēˊcitān claim the beaver and have the beaver hat. They also have songs composed by the beaver.

69. STORY OF THE GRIZZLY-BEAR CREST OF THE TEˊQOEDÎ⁠[124]

A man belonging to the Teˊqoedî went hunting on Unuk (Djūˊnᴀx) river, and came to a bear’s den. While he was examining it the male bear threw him inside. Then the bear’s wife dug a hole in the ground and concealed him there. When the male bear came in he said, “Where is that man that I threw in here?” “I haven’t seen anyone. You haven’t thrown anybody in here.” “I did. I threw a man in here.” The male bear became angry at her denials and left her, upon which the man married this bear and had children by her, although he had a family at home.

Meanwhile the man’s four brothers looked for him continually, keeping away from their wives so as to find him, but in vain. They could see his tracks in the snow, but they could not discover where they led to. They suspected the truth, because other hunters had also been captured there by animals, and the shamans told them that this had happened to him. As soon as they left the town with their dogs, however, the she-bear could feel it and made them pass by.

But the youngest boy had not searched. Finally he started off too, and the bear felt that he was coming, but she found that she could not make him turn aside and said to her husband, “Well! we are caught.” The dogs scented him, and, when he looked out, there was his own dog barking. He called to it by its name, Man-for-the-mountains (Cāˊyīsǃ-x̣wa). Then his brother knew what was the matter and came to the mouth of the den with his spears, determined to bring back his brother alive or dead. When the man saw his youngest brother outside he said, “Stand right there. Don’t do any harm. I am here. Although I am with this wild animal, I am living well. Don’t worry about me any more.”

When he was first taken into this den it looked like a den and nothing more, but that night he thought that he was in a fine house with people all about eating supper, and his wife looked to him like a human being.

In May, when the bears were about to leave their dens, his wife said, “Now you can go to your village. Take good care of your little ones. Don’t go near your wife. Don’t look toward her even.” So he went to the place where his brothers were living and said, “Tell my wife not to come near me for a while. She must have pity on me. Ask her to stay away.” Then he began to go off hunting. He had luck from his bear wife, and killing seals was nothing to him. One day, while he was out, he saw some bear cubs coming toward him and presently found that they were his little ones. Then he gave them all the seals he had killed. He fed them every day. When his younger brother went hunting with him and the cubs came running toward the canoe, he would say, “Don’t be frightened. Those are your children” (meaning “your brother’s children”).

By and by his human wife came to him. She was angry with him and said, “Why do your children starve on my hands? What are you doing feeding cubs instead of my little ones?” After that, though he did not dare to say a word to his wife, he began feeding her children. He thought, “I wonder what will happen to me now for feeding the little ones.”

Presently he went hunting again and again took some seals to his cubs. As he was going toward them he noticed that they did not act the same as usual. They lay flat on the ground with their ears erect. Then he landed, but, when he got near them, they killed him. It is on account of this story that the Teˊqoedî claim the grizzly bear.

70. STORY OF THE EAGLE CREST OF THE NEXAˊDÎ

There was a very poor Nexᴀˊdî man who did not know how to provide himself with food, so he lived off of others. He was always cruising around in a small canoe, getting small bullheads and flounders. One time he went out just for the day. He did not take any food along and therefore became very hungry. Early next morning something said to him, “I have come after you.” He heard the voice but could not see anything. Finally, however, he stepped out from the place where he had been sitting and saw a young eagle perched upon a branch. The man was wearing an old ground-hog blanket full of holes, so he lay down again and put his eye to one of these. Then the eagle came very close to him and, taking the blanket down, he said to it, “I have seen you now.” Immediately the eagle looked like a human being and said, “My grandfather has sent me for you.”

The poor man followed this eagle right up to the woods and they came upon a large trail there over which the eagle led him. By and by they came to some steps which led up to a house situated high up. He followed his guide inside of this and found it very clean and nice there. Everything was just like the houses of human beings, and mats were strewn round upon the floor. Then they gave him all kinds of fine fish and game to eat, and he wanted to stay among them forever. He was very poor among his own people, but these eagles treated him well. He married one of the eagle women and remained there for a long time.

After he married, this man’s brothers-in-law gave him a coat and named it, as they put it on him, Camping-under-water-for-two-days (Dēx-hīn-tāˊdê-uxeˊ). Before they put it on they warmed it. This coat was so named because, when an eagle gets hold of a seal, the seal is so strong that it will swim around with the eagle attached to it, and the longest time the eagle can stand this is two days. Now the poor man was an eagle himself, and he learned from the eagles how to catch fish. He thought all the time that he was spearing them, but in reality he was catching them in his talons. He became a great fisher and hunter.

The mother and brothers of this poor man were just as poor as he had been, and, when he saw his brother out fishing, he would leave some fish where he could find it. His brother thought that he was very lucky. Finally his mother dreamed that some one said, “It is I, mother, who provides for you all of this fish and meat,” and afterward they would dream that he said to them, “I have left a fish (or seal) on such and such a point. Go there and get it.” When they did so, sure enough it was there. Sometimes he would say in his mother’s dream, “We are going off camping. You must go there and camp near by.” They did so and dried a lot of fish which he had gotten for them.

In another dream he said, “I have married one of the eagle women. I can not come among you any more.”

One time, when they were out camping, they saw an eagle working very hard to bring ashore a load of fish. After it had done so, the eagle sat up on a branch and said, “It is I.” It told them its name, which was the name of the missing man. It is because a friend of theirs was once among the eagle people that the Nexᴀˊdî claim the eagle. This clan is now scattered everywhere.

71. STORY OF THE KILLER-WHALE CREST OF THE DAQLǃAWEˊDÎ⁠[125]

There was a man called Natsîłᴀneˊ (the name of a worm that appears on dried salmon) who was continually quarreling with his wife. He had many brothers-in-law, who became very much ashamed of this discord but had to stay around to protect their sister. One day his brothers-in-law took him to an island far out at sea, named Kᴀtsǃēˊux̣tî, and talked very kindly to him. But, while he was out of sight upon the island, they left him. Then he began thinking, “What can I do for myself?” As he sat there he absent-mindedly whittled killer whales out of cottonwood bark, which works easily. The two he had made he put into the water and, as he did so, he shouted aloud as shamans used to do on such occasions. Then he thought they looked as if they were swimming, but, when they came up again, they were nothing but bark. After a while he made two more whales out of alder. He tried to put his clan’s spirits into them as was often done by shamans, and, as he put them in, he whistled four times like the spirit, “Whu, whu, whu, whu.” But they, too, floated up. Now he tried all kinds of wood—hemlock, red cedar, etc. Finally he tried pieces of yellow cedar, which swam right away in the form of large killer whales. They swam out for a long distance, and, when they came back, again turned into wood. Then he made holes in their dorsal fins, seized one of them with each hand and had the killer whales take him out to sea. He said, “You see my brothers-in-law traveling about in canoes. You are to upset them.” After he had gone out for some distance between the whales they returned to land and became wood once more. He took them up and put them in a certain place.

The next time he saw his brothers-in-law coming along in their canoes he put his spirits into the water again, and they smashed the canoes and killed those in them. Then Natsîłᴀneˊ said to his killer whales, “You are not to injure human beings any more. You must be kind to them.” After that they were the canoes of spirits, and, if shamans are lucky, they get these spirit canoes. It is through this story that the Dᴀqʟǃaweˊdî claim the killer whale. This clan was scattered everywhere in Alaska, as well as among the Athapascans, Haida, and Tsimshian.

72. STORY OF THE NANỴAĀˊỴÎ CRESTS

At the time of the flood the Nanỵaāˊỵî were climbing a mountain on the Stikine river, called Sēkuˊqłe-ca, and a grizzly bear and a mountain goat went along with them. Whenever the people stopped, these two animals stopped also, and whenever they moved on the animals moved on. Finally they killed the bear and preserved its skin with the claws, teeth, and so forth, intact. They kept it for years after the flood, and, as soon as it went to pieces, they replaced it with another, and that with still another up to the present time. This is why they claim the grizzly bear. During the times when this bear skin has been shown thousands of dollars worth of slaves and furs have been given away. Shakes (Cēks), head chiefs of this clan, would go up to a row of slaves and slap each one, upon which the slave would either have to be killed or sent home. This is why they gave great names to their children. They were very proud of owning this bear and did all kinds of things toward it. That is why all Alaska speaks of the Nanỵaāˊỵî as the chief ones owning the grizzly bear. Very many songs were composed concerning it, with words such as these, “Come here, you bear, the highest bear of all bears.”

They also have the head of the mountain goat, but they do not value it as highly.

73. STORY OF THE FROG CREST OF THE KÎKSAˊDÎ OF WRANGELL⁠[126]

A man belonging to the Stikine Kîksᴀˊdî kicked a frog over on its back, but as soon as he had done so he lay motionless unable to talk, and they carried his body into the house. This happened at Town-of-the-frogs (X̣îx̣tcǃ-xāˊyikᴀ-ān), so named because there are many frogs near by.

The reason why this man lost his senses was because the frogs had taken his soul. They had it tied to a house post, and some of them said, “Let him starve right there where he is tied.” Others said, “No, don’t let him starve there. Feed him and let us see what the chief says.” This chief’s name was Frightful-face (Yᴀkūˊłdî). When he at last came in his canoe, they said, “Frightful-face has come.” Then all went down to his canoe to welcome him, and, when he reached his house, they told him the news. They said, “This man disgraced us terribly. He threw one of our women down and kicked her over.” The woman was called Woman-in-the-road (Deyêxcāˊgᵘ). When the chief looked up, he said, “Untie him and bring him here.” Then he said to the man, “We belong to your clan, and it is a shame that you should treat your own people as you have done. We are Kîksᴀˊdî, and it is a Kîksᴀˊdî youth who has done this. You better go to your own village. You have disgraced yourself as well as us, for this woman belongs to your own clan.”

As soon as he had left the frogs’ house, his body lying at home came to. He had thought all the time that his body also was in the house of the frogs. Then he got up and began to talk. He said, “Something strange has happened to me. The frog people captured me on account of that frog that I kicked over in front of the house the other day. They had tied me to the chief’s house-post, and some wanted to kill me at once, while others wanted to starve me, and still others wanted to wait until their chief, Frightful-face, came home. When the latter at length arrived, they said to him, ‘We have a man in here who has been throwing down one of our women. We have been waiting for you to see what shall be done with him.’ I listened to all they said. Then the frog chief said, ‘Untie him,’ and all minded him. As soon as he had heard about it, he said, ‘See here, young man, what is this you have done? Don’t you know that we belong to your clan and that this woman you have done that to is of the same clan. If it were not for that, we would not let you go. As it is you may go.’”

All of the Kîksᴀˊdî were listening to what this man said, and it is because the frog himself said he was a Kîksᴀˊdî that they claim the frog.

74. STORY OF THE KĀˊGWANTĀN CRESTS

A man belonging to the Kāˊgwᴀntān was out camping, and saw a wolf coming toward him, showing its teeth as though it were laughing. On looking more closely, he saw that it had a bone stuck between its teeth. Then he took the bone out and said, “Now you must show me what makes you so lucky.” The wolf turned right round and walked away, but next night the man dreamed he had come to a very fine town. It was the wolf town, and the wolf he had befriended came to him and told him something to make him lucky, saying, “I am your friend.” He was grateful for what the man had done to him. Since then the Kāˊgwᴀntān have used the wolf.

Another time when some Kāˊgwᴀntān were getting herring at Town-at-mouth-of-lake (ʟǃuqǃāˊceîk-ān), a bear came to the place where they were, reached down through the smoke hole and took away the herring they were drying. Then the people said, “Who is this thief that is stealing all the fish?” For that he killed all of them. Then the Kāˊgwᴀntān seized their spears and set out to kill the bears in that neighborhood. When they discovered those bears they were lying in holes they had dug for themselves, and the people said to them, “Come out here and let us fight it out.” Then the bears did so, and the people killed them. They took the skins from the heads of the bears and preserved them. The bears so killed were Kātsǃ’s children. This is how the Kāˊgwᴀntān came to use the grizzly bear.

75. MIGRATION OF THE GĀNAXAˊDÎ TO TONGASS

At Klawak was a man of the Gānᴀxᴀˊdî named Dancer (ʟǃēˊxe) who was very fond of gambling but unable to win. Finally his wife said, “If you gamble again we will leave each other. I don’t want to be with you any more. You are gambling too much.” Her husband said that he would stop, and for a little while he did so. One day, however, a great game was in progress far out on the marsh, and his wife missed him. She knew where he was and felt very badly. In the evening, when he came home, she found out that he had lost everything in the house. Then she said to him, “You have been gambling again.” “Yes,” he said. She said nothing more, thinking it was of no use, until late in the evening. Then the men that had won their property came after it, and Dancer got up and showed them where the things were, but his wife did not speak a word. There was nothing left for her except a blanket and pillow. Finally, after they were gone, the woman sat down and began to cry. When she was through she said to him, “The house belonged to you, but you must go out, for you have gambled with all of my things. If you do not go I must. I married against the wishes of my people and they will not take me in if I leave here.” Then her husband said, “Do not feel badly if you should happen to hear of me,” and he went away.

This man had seven sisters, all of them very well off, but they would not have anything to do with him. Very early in the morning he went to their houses and awakened the boys. Without asking the permission of their mothers he told them to get their bows and arrows quickly and come along with him. Next morning, after he had walked with them for some distance, they found a canoe, and he had them all get into it. In the evening, when their uncle camped with them, the children began to feel that something was wrong, and some cried, saying that they wanted to get back to their fathers and mothers. Then he told them that they would soon come to a fine town, and kept on going farther and farther away until they reached a place called Sea-lion’s-face (Tān-yedaˊ) where Tongass now stands. They kept on beyond this until they came to a large rock some distance out at sea on which were sea otters; these they clubbed.