ARE \\ \ \ o \\ \ \ tip a ey YMA IERNUVVKMRWN HQ v0» WV VII Vy SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLO(C BULLETIN 39 TLINGIT MYTHS AND RECORDED BY JOHN KR. SWANTON WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1909 rY TEXTS ai LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY, Washington, D. C., May 20, 1908. Sir: I have the honor to submit herewith for your consideration the manuscript of Tlingit Myths and Texts, by Dr. John R. Swan- ton, with the recommendation that it be published in this Bureau’s series of Bulletins. Yours, respectfully, W.H. Hoitmes, Chief. The SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, Washington, D. C. Ill CONTENTS EUIGRe LT Coma gees SSeS et ie Noes Sey aoe See Sere yee ERE De slainats LTH ERBYS HOT CUT Aad lect oop ee Ue Sai el Machovecordedun Wnplish at Sitka; 22 socenssoteee oan. 2 Yee Se wl eee ibs MMC ALS TOPO Lhe nen et te ee) Sine Oe Sore Sones epee. ae aacive 2 . English Version of the Story of the Four Brothers...................-- mOriginvoiune- Kallen Wihallenio: <2. so sseen 1 ee horas ae hoe eke OOIA KAW el NOOR WNH OS Doe SPH Nonwnwhv wo bw bw bv COON DD oer W bd 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. TRAE Sexe ee eRe ae eee ey ee ens Gendt Om ge le ae ge EONS 6: RS ge Ae RB 8 SO Re iseaWOlHCHIEL S SOM acres. oe ene eee ee Pe aia ee he Se Sas MeV OW CLING-Ma Nise oct eee Serene a een yn oe se oes oe ELS Mepeionh ali uteecoplesas= sae Sie eee ae AA ee Sn cates eae . Stories of the Monster Devilfish and the C TV et Dive oes ere a ee . The Woman who was Killed bya Clam.................-.-.--+--:+2-+5 5 LRNOUGLRSLAUE Gy OS aa egg eet ePIC ee OER ot se a ge aes a met eeerOsrAGled: WALD... c7oce, nei See ee oe cae Ge oa ie Se RelnecaverandueOrcupIn Gs a2 aoe 182 ASUS Nie Selt=burmin ovine see eet ee ee oe er ee 186 e44.c The Giantor, Tasman cocci elas ee oe ee ret 187 452 The Woman who Marriedtaisand Otterss-.-522 2s eee ee eee ee 187 4G. The Mand-otters: Capthyesss. o>. oace Ne. cere eee ee 188 Ave she Manvled fromthe! S Koyeeeer ee sre ee sar er inet 189 Agathe Salmon Sacks. see seer ee re ete eee eee 192 71 TOV BY 010) k= (ee aa OR ras Che Rejected "Lovensesee sneer ee So. ‘The:Haithless Wilestaene sean = .c2 tae oe oe ee 245 86. ‘The Woman who Marned the Dead:Man=---42- 2) eee eee 247 87. “Che Returneddrom spirit band soos, 2 ee 249 SS: The Sky Coumiry=.4 soe she ae 5 ori See ete ticiee Sra ee ee 250 MR Oxte Asoc 3 ste Ser ce wit toe ee eee aye = eee eee 252 Soc Phe Origin Gt Coppers. 25k senisseem cer ie - rere, cee 252 90.7.Ehe Man-who was Abandoned -ts.ace. ss tte oon ees ee eee 262 91. The Shaman who Went into the Fire, and the Heron’s Son............- 267 922 Mountarm Dweller sees aera sree ere 280 CONTENTS VII Texts—Continued. Page OB. IRAE ainahys) Slingo ved WY hot se conc coal slSGo6 Hae Ge ere eee 289 Grey lope MA xox (CAGE 2.'c «ac. be eee rane Wie hates Soe ee 292 95. Orivin ol the Hrog Crest among the Kiksa‘dt... 22.2 -..2.-2-----2--- 294 Soe eowstierkaksasdt, Came toss ui kane mate eet oo ewe se ae 295 7 bhe hour brothers, 2.25---<¢='soaeteee ete eS S- ene ee 297 98. The Kiksa’di Woman who was Turned into an Owl ........-...-.----- 299 IBN SECON Sel acoyt case crag re ae eR te BE che Sp taney peace tral 301 iia Noldyeend (Wrangell version)... 22-52 Ses ke Seen e 311 TDD, QURG LOST W Gre Vid eM earn ASR ay er Get skye a ih eee ear fe 321 ime Sea WOnMcEMUNG 22. oe. che. on era ne een ie on eee 324 HDs malWeAViariacthe:S pruce Canoe sain e eee eran see nase te gas is 325 Hae SLOIVOmUne Mare WANA ct: ons octane eee. -eyee ee cie Gen ie Ce leree sales 326 HOSS LON or bhetsaClcle GOaMh 155 =< so cette repeal 347 1Obmm@nisimolalow-Caste Names sa.u< = 25 Fee ae see nays ee ecie Secs 369 see LeCO TH GASt oY soe ete, ise Cintas ae chen Sse Soe age ace 372 Speeches Delivered at a Feast when a Pole was Erected for the Dead... .-.-.-. 374 Words of Songs Taken in connection with Graphophone Records... ..----- 390 PLS Sis URE OLIV Leb LASS ye ee pare ae) casas i ee er Nato coe Se ee 416 Meiaserecorded am Knelish at Sitkas.. 22222 2220-25-c224- 2222-0 ae eee 416 Myths recorded im English at Wrangell... -....-....2-+---.-2--2-- 222-5. 429 Bete On eb p> Di D> : ° ae ® ° PHONETIC KEY longer and shorter forms of the Continental a, like a in far as in fall as in final; a close approximation to wu in cut longer and shorter forms of the Continental e, like a in fate as in bell longer and shorter forms of the Continental 7, like ee in street as in hit longer and shorter forms of English 0, as in flow as in rule as in put barely formed o and u sounds; rather qualities of the preceding consonant sounds than independent vowels the velar k, not found in-English the velar g corresponding to the preceding, not found in English a sound similar to but deeper than the preceding, pronounced by the younger Indians almost like English y the velar spirant, pronounced like Spanish j or German ch the palatal spirant, often mistaken for h like English sh in short as in adze as In sits like English j and dg in judge like English ch in church , not found in Enehsh, but resembling a rapid pronunciation of tand 7, or of hand / not found in English, but resembling a rapid pronunciation of d and 1 aspirant belonging to the same series as the preceding; not found in English though often represented by thl or hl _d,n,s,k, gh, w, y approximate the sounds for which they stand in English though the agreement is by no means absolute t!, s!, ts!, tc!, u!, k!, q! are similar to ¢, s, ts, tc, z, k, g, but are accompanied by a catch in the breath which sometimes gives the impression of a pause, and sometimes sounds like a sharp click when k/ is pronounced very far forward in the mouth it is sometimes set off in this way, but the distinction between the two sounds is by no means clear Labials are found only in a few words of foreign origin Vill PeENGlE MYTHS AND THXTS Recorded by JOHN R. SWANTON INTRODUCTION The following myths and texts were collected at Sitka and Wran- gell, Alaska, in January, February, March, and April, 1904, at the same time as the material contained in the writer’s paper on the Social Condition, Beliefs, and Linguistic Relationship of the Tlingit Indians published in the Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau. For further information regarding these people the reader is referred to that paper, to Krause’s Tlinkit Indianer (Jena, 1885), Emmons’ Basketry of the Tlingit Indians, Niblack’s Coast Indians of Southern Alaska and Northern British Columbia, Dall’s Alaska and its Resources, Boas’s Indianische Sagen von der Nord Pacifischen Kiiste Amerikas (Berlin, 1895), and the same writer in the Fifth Report of the Com- mittee Appointed by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, to Investigate the Northwestern Tribes of Canada, and the two special reports on Alaska for the censuses of 1880 and 1890. Most of the ethnologic information contained in the works of Venia- minoff and other early writers is incorporated into the work of Krause. Stories 7,19, 94, 101, 102, and 103 were related by the writer’s Sitka interpreter, DonCameron, of the Chilkat Ka’gwantan; stories 96 and 97 by Katlian, chief of the Kiksa’di; story 105 by a Yakutat.man, Q!a’dastin; and all the other Sitka stories, including the texts num- bered 89-93, 95, 98, 99, and 104—by an old man of the Box-house people, named Dekina’k!". From Katishan, chief of the Kasq!ague’di of Wrangell, were obtained stories 31, 32, 33, 38, 65, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 100, 106, and the potlatch speeches. Stories 34, 35, 42, 50, 52, 53, 54, 57, 64, and 75 were related by an old Kake man named Kasa’nk!, and the remaining Wrangell tales by Katishan’s mother. Thelast-mentioned haslived fora considerable time among the whites at Victoria, but with one exception her stories appear to have been influenced little by the fact. Her son has been a church mem- ber and shows a moralizing tendency; at the same time he was con- sidered the best speaker at feasts in past times, and is supposed to have a better knowledge of the myths than anyone else in Wrangell. Dekina’k!" of Sitka is also a church member but his stories appear to be entirely after the ancient patterns. 49438—Bull. 39—09——1 as ee MYTHS RECORDED IN ENGLISH AT SITKA 1. RAVEN? No one knows just how the story of Raven really begins, so each starts from the point where he does know it. Here it was always begun in this way. Raven was first called Kit-Ka’ositiyi-qa-yit (‘Son of Kit-ka’ositiyi-qa”). When his son was born, Kit-ka/ositiy1- qa tried to instruct him and train him in every way and, after he grew up, told him he would give him strength to make a world. After trying in all sorts of ways Raven finally succeeded. Then there was no light in this world, but it was told him that far up the Nass was a large house in which some one kept light just for himself. Raven thought over all kinds of plans for getting this light into the world and finally he hit on a good one. The rich man living there had a daughter, and he thought, ‘‘I will make myself very small and drop into the water in the form of a small piece of dirt.” The girl swallowed this dirt and became pregnant. When her time was com- pleted, they made a hole for her, as was customary, in which she was to bring forth, and lined it with rich furs of all sorts. But the child did not wish to be born on those fine things. Then its grandfather felt sad and said, ‘“‘What do you think it would be best to put into that hole? Shall we put in moss?” So they put moss inside and the baby was born on it. Its eyes were very bright and moved around rapidly. Round bundles of varying shapes and sizes hung about on the walls of the house. When the child became a little larger it crawled around back of the people weeping continually, and as it cried it pointed to the bundles. This lasted many days. Then its grandfather said, “Give my grandchild what he is crying for. Give him that one hang- ing on the end. That is the bag of stars.’’ So the child played with this, rolling it about on the floor back of the people, until suddenly he let it go up through the smoke hole. It went straight up into the sky and the stars scattered out of it, arranging themselves as you now see them. That was what he went there for. Some time after this he began crying again, and he cried so much that it was thought he would die. Then his grandfather said, ‘‘ Untie the next one and give it to him.” He played and played with it around behind his mother. After a while he let that go up through the smoke hole also, and there was the big moon. a Cf, story 31. 4 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 Now just one thing more remained, the box that held the daylight, and he cried for that. His eyes turned around and showed different colors, and the people began thinking that he must be something other than an ordinary baby. But it always happens that a grand- father loves his grandchild just as he does his own daughter, so the grandfather said, ‘‘Untie the last thing and give it to him.” His grandfather felt very sad when he gave this to him. When the child had this in his hands, he uttered the raven cry, “‘Ga,” and flew out with it through the smoke hole. Then the person from whom he had stolen it said, ‘‘That old manuring raven has gotten all of my things.” Journeying on, Raven was told of another place, where a man had an everlasting spring of water. This man was named Petrel (Gant’k). Raven wanted this water because there was none to drink in this world, but Petrel always slept by his spring, and he had a cover over it so as to keep it all to himself. Then Raven came in and said to him, ‘‘My brother-in-law, I have just come to see you. How are you?” He told Petrel of all kinds of things that were happening outside, trying to induce him to go out to look at them, but Petrel was too smart for him and refused. When night came, Raven said, ‘‘I am going to sleep with you, brother-in-law.”’ So they went to bed, and toward morning Raven heard Petrel sleeping very soundly. Then he went outside, took some dog manure and put it around Petrel’s buttocks. When it was beginning to grow light, he said, ‘‘ Wake up, wake up, wake up, brother- in-law, you have defecated all over your clothes.’ Petrel got up, looked at himself, and thought it was true, so he took his blankets and went outside. Then Raven went over to Petrel’s spring, took off the cover and began drinking. After he had drunk up almost all of the water, Petrel came in and saw him. Then Raven flew straight up, eryine Ga,’ Before he got through the smoke hole, however, Petrel said,‘‘ My spirits up the smoke hole, catch him.’ So Raven stuck there, and Petrel put pitchwood on the fire under him so as to make a quantity of smoke. Raven was white before that time, but the smoke made him of the color you find him to-day. Still he did not drop the water. When the smoke-hole spirits let him go, he flew around the nearest point and rubbed hinself all over so as to clear off as much of the soot as possible. This happened somewhere about the Nass, and afterwards he started up this way. First he let some water fall from his mouth and made the Nass. By and by he spit more out and made the Stikine. Next he spit out Taku river, then Chilkat, then Alsek, and all the other large rivers. The small drops that came out of his mouth made the small salmon creeks, swaNTon] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 5 After this Raven went on again and came to a large town where were people who had never seen daylight. They were out catching eulachon in the darkness when he came to the bank opposite, and he asked them to take him across but they would not. Then he said to them, “‘If you don’t come over I will have daylight break on you.” But they answered, ‘‘Where are you from? Do you come from far up the Nass where lives the man who has daylight?” At this Raven opened his box just a little and shed so great a light on them that they were nearly thrown down. He shut it quickly, but they quarreled with him so much across the creek that he became angry and opened the box completely, when the sun flew up into the sky. Then those people who had sea-otter or fur-seal skins, or the skins of any other sea animals, went into the ocean, while those who had land-otter, bear, or marten skins, or the skins of any other land animals, went into the woods [becoming the animals whose skins they wore|. Raven came to another place where a crowd of boys were throwing fat at one another. When they hit him with a piece he swallowed it. After a while he took dog’s manure and threw at the boys who became scared, ran away, and threw more fat at him. He consumed all in this way, and started on again. After a while he came to an abandoned camp where lay a piece of jade (s!a) half buried in the ground, on which some design had been pecked. This he dug up. Far out in the bay he saw a large spring salmon jumping about and wanted to get it but did not know how. Then he stuck his stone into the ground and put eagle down upon the head designed thereon. The next time the salmon jumped, he said, “See here, spring salmon jumping out there, do you know what this green stone is saying to you? It is saying, ‘You thing with dirty, filthy back, you thing with dirty, filthy gills, come ashore here.’”’ Raven suddenly wanted to defecate and started off. Just then the big spring salmon also started to come ashore, so Raven said, “Just wait, my friend, don’t come ashore yet for I have some business to attend to.” So the salmon went out again. Afterward Raven took a piece of wild celery (ya’naet), and, when the salmon did come ashore, he struck it with this and killed it. Because Raven made this jade talk to the salmon, people have since made stone axes, picks, and spears out of it. Then Raven, carrying along the spring salmon, got all kinds of birds, little and big, as his servants. When he came to a good place to cook his fish he said to all of them, ‘Here, you young fellows, go after skunk cabbage. We will bury this in the ground and roast it.”’ After they had brought it down, however, he said, ‘‘I don’t want any of that. My wife has defecated all over that, and I will not use it. Go back and pass over two mountains.’’ While they were gone, 6 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 3 Raven put all of the salmon except one fat piece cut from around the ‘navel’ which is usually cooked separately, into the skunk cabbage and buried it in the fire. Before they returned, he dug this up and ate it, after which he put the bones back into the fire and covered them up. When the birds at last came back he said to them, ‘‘I have been across two mountains myself. Now it is time to dig it up. Dig it out.’ Then all crowded around the fire and dug, but, when they got it up, there was nothing there but bones. By and by the birds dressed one another in different ways so that they might be named from their dress. They tied the hair of the blue jay up high with a string, and they added a long tail to the ts!égéni’, another crested bird. Then they named one another. Raven let out the ts!égéni’ and told him that when the salmon comes he must call its slime unclean and stay high up until the salmon are all gone.? Now Raven started off with the piece of salmon belly and came to a place where Bear and his wife lived. He entered and said, ‘My aunt’s son, is this you? The piece of salmon he had buried behind a little point. Then Bear told him to sit down and said, ‘‘T will roast some dry salmon for you.’ So he began to roast it. After it was done, he set a dish close to the fire and slit the back of his hands with a knife so as to let grease run out for Raven to eat on his salmon. After he had fixed the salmon, he cut a piece of flesh out from in front of his thighs and put it into the dish. That is why bears are not fat in that place. Now Raven wanted to give a dinner to Bear in return, so he, too, took out a piece of fish, roasted it, set out the dish Bear had used, close to the fire and slit up the back of his hand, thinking that grease would run out of it. But instead nothing but white bubbles came forth. Although he knew he could not do it, he tried in every way. Then Raven asked Bear, ‘“Do you know of any halibut fishing ground out here?’ He said “‘No.”” Raven said, “ Why! what is the use of staying here by this salt water, if you do not know of any fishing eround? 1 know a good fishing ground right out here called Just- on-the-edge-of-kelp (Gi’ck!icuwanyi’). There are always halibut swimming there, mouth up, ready for the hook.” By and by Raven got the piece of fish he had hidden behind the point and went out to the bank in company with Bear and Cormorant. Cormorant sat in the bow, Bear in the middle, and, because he knew where the fishing ground was, Raven steered. When they arrived Raven stopped the canoe all at once. He said to them, *‘Do you see c¢ Perhaps the anal opening. bSee Twenty-sixth Annual Report of Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 455. sWaNToN] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS | that mountain, Was!eé’ti-ca?* When you sight that mountain, that is where you want to fish.” After this Raven began to fill the canoe with halibut. So Bear asked him, ‘‘What do you use for bait anyhow, my friend?’ [Corvus respondit, ‘“‘Testium cute ad escam praeparandam utor.’’ Ursus alebat corvo, “‘ Licetne uti meis quoque 2?” Sed corvus dixit, ‘‘ Noli id facere, ne forte sint graviter attriti.”’ Paulo post ursus aegre ferens alebat, ‘‘Abscide eos.” Tum corvus cultellum acuens alebat, ‘‘Pone eos extrema in sede.’’ Postea corvus eos praecidit, at ursus gemens proripuit circum scapham et moriens incidit in undas extremo cum gemitu.] After a while Raven said to Cormorant, ‘‘There is a louse coming down on the side of your head. Come here. Let me take it off.” When he came close to him, he picked it off. Then he said, ‘‘Open your mouth so that I can put it on your tongue.”’ When he did open his mouth, however, Raven reached far back and pulled his tongue out. He did this because he did not want Cormorant to tell about what he had done. He told Cormorant to speak, but Cormorant made only a gabbling noise. ‘That is how young fellows ought to speak,’’ said Raven. Then Raven towed the dead bod of the bear behind the point and carried it ashore there. Afterwards he went to Bear’s wife and began to take out his halibut. He said to the female bear, “‘My father’s sister, cut out all the stomachs of the halibut and roast them.’’ So she went down on the beach to cut them out. While she was working on the rest of the halibut, he cooked the stomachs and filled them with hot rocks. Then he went down and said to her, “You better come up. I have cooked all those stomachs for you. You better wash your hands, come up, and eat.”’ After that Cormo- rant came in and tried to tell what had happened but made only gabbling sound. Raven said to the bear, ‘‘Do you know what that fellow is talking about? He is saying that there were lots of halibut out where we fished. Every time we tried to get a canoe load they almost turned us over.’’ When she was about to eat he said, ‘‘ People never chew what I get. They always swallow it whole.’ Before she began she asked Raven where her husband was, and Raven said, “Somehow or other he caught nothing, so we landed him behind the point. He is cutting alders to make alder hooks. He is sitting there yet.”’ After the bear had swallowed all of the food she began to feel uneasy in her stomach, and Raven said to Cormorant, ‘‘ Run outside quickly and get her some water.’’ Then she drank a great quantity of water, and the things in her stomach began to boil harder and harder. Said Raven, ‘‘ Run out Cormorant.” He did so, and Raven ran after him. .Then the female bear ran about inside the house grabbing at everything and finally fell dead. Then Raven skinned the @ Perhaps Mount St Elias. 8 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 female bear, after which he went around the point and did the same thing to the male. While he was busy there Cormorant came near him, but he said, ‘‘Keep away, you small Cormorant,’ and struck him on the buttocks with his hand saying, ‘‘Go out and stay on those rocks.”’ Ever since then the cormorants have been there. Raven stayed in that place until he had consumed both of the bears. Starting on again, Raven came to a place where many people were encamped fishing. They used nothing but fat for bait. He entered a house and askcd what they used for bait. They said ‘ Fat.” Then he said, ‘‘ Let me see you put enough on your hooks for bait,” and he noticed carefully how they baited and handled their hooks. The next time they went out, he walked off behind a point and went under water to get this bait. Now they got bites and pulled up quickly, but there was nothing on their hooks. This continued for a long time. The next time they went out they felt the thing again, but one man among them who knew just how fish bite, jerked at the right moment and felt that he had caught something. The line went around in the water very fast. They pulled away, however, until they got Raven under the canoe, and he kicked against it very hard. All at once his nose came off, and they pulled it up. When they landed, they took it to the chief’s house and said, ‘“‘We have caught a wonderful thing. It must be the nose of the Gonaqadé’t.’’ So they took it, put eagle down on it, and hung it up on the wall. After that, Raven came ashore at the place where he had been in the habit of going down, got a lot of spruce gum and made a new nose out of it. Then he drew a root hat down over his face and went to the town. Beginning at the nearer end he went through the houses saying ‘“‘I wonder in what house are the people who caught that Gonaqade’t’s nose.’ After he had gone halfway, he entered the chief's house and inquired, ‘‘Do you know where are the people who caught that Gonaqadé’t’s nose ?”’ They answered, ‘‘ There it is on the wall.”’ Then he said, ‘“‘ Bring it here. Let meexamineit.’’ So they gave it to him. ‘This is great,” he said, and he put up his hat to examine it. “Why,” said he, “this house is dark. You ought to take off the smoke-hole cover. Let some one run up and take it off so that I can see.” But, as soon as they removed it, he put the nose in its place, cried ‘Ga,’ and flew away. They did not find out who he was. Going thence, Raven saw a number of deer walking around on the beach, with a great deal of fat hanging out through their noses. As he passed one of these, he said, “Brother, you better blow your nose. Lots of dirt is hanging out of it.” When the deer wouid not do this, Raven came close to him, wiped his nose and threw the fat by his own side. Calling out, ‘Just for the Raven,” he swallowed it. SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 9 Now Raven formed a certain plan. He got a small canoe and began paddling along the beach saying, ‘‘I wonder who is able to go along with me.’’ Mink came down and said, ‘““How am I?” and Raven said, ‘‘What with?” (i. e., What can you do’). Said Mink, “When I go to camp with my friends, I make a bad smell in their noses. With that.’ But Raven said, “I guess not. You might make a hole in my canoe,” so he went along farther. The various animals and birds would come down and say, “How am I[?”’ but he did not even listen. After some time Deer ran down to him, saying, “HowamI?’’ Then he answered, ‘Come this way, axkwa’.!i, come this way axkwa’v!i.”” He called |im axkwa’L!i because le never got angry. Finally Raven came ashore and said to Deer, ‘* Don’t hurt yourself, axkwa/u!i.”” By and by Raven said “‘ Not very far from here my father has been making a canoe. Let us go there and look at it.” Then Raven brought him to a large valley. He took very many pieces of dried wild celery and laid them across the valley, covering them with moss. Said Raven, ‘ axkwa’L!i, watch me, axkwa’c!i, watch me.” Repeating this over and over he went straight across on it, for he is hight. Afterwards he said to Deer, ‘ axkwa’L!i, now you come and try it. It will not break,” and he crossed once more. “You better try it now,” he said. ‘‘Come on over.’ Deer did so, but, as he was on the way, he broke through the bridge andsmashed his head to pieces at the bottom. Then Raven went down, walked all over him, and said to himself, ‘‘I wonder where I better start, at the root of his tail, at the eyes, or at the heart.’’ Finally he began at his anus, skinning as he went along. He ate very fast. When he started on from this place, he began crying, ‘ axkwa’L!i-i-1, Axkwa’tii-i-1,” and the fowls asked him, ‘‘ What has become of your friend, axkwa’Lli?’ ‘Some one has taken him and pounded him on the rocks, and I have been walking around and hopping around since he died.”’ By and by he came to a certain cliff and saw a door in it swing open. He got behind a point quickly, for he knew that here lived the woman who has charge of the falling and rising of the tide. Far out Raven saw some kelp, and, going out to this, he climbed down on it to the bottom of the sea and gathered up a number of small sea urchins (nis!) which were lying about there. He brought these ashore and began eating, making a grcut gulping noise as he did so. Meanwhile the woman inside of the cliff kept mocking him saying, “‘ During what tide did he get those things ?”’ While Raven was eating Mink came along, and Raven said, ‘‘Come here. Come here.’ Then he went on eating. And the woman’ again said, ‘‘On what tide did you get those sea urchins you are making so much noise about?” “That is not your business,” answered Raven. “Keep quiet or I will stick them all over your 10 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [RULL. 29 buttocks.” Finally Raven became angry, seized the knife he was cutting up the sea urchins with and slit up the front of the cliff out of which she spoke. Then he ran in, knocked her down and began sticking the spines into her buttocks. “Stop, Raven, stop,” she cried, “the tide will begin to go down.”’ So he said to his servant, Mink, ‘‘ Run outside and see how far down the tide has gone.” Mink ran out and said, ‘‘It is just beginning to go down.’”’ The next time he came in he said, ‘‘The tide is still farther down.” The third time he said, ‘The tide is lower yet. It has uncovered everything on the beach.’ Then Raven said to the old woman, ‘‘Are you going to let the tide rise and fall again regularly through the months and years?”’ She answered “ Yes.’’ Because Raven did this while he was making the world, nowadays, when a woman gets old and can not do much more work, there are spots all over her buttocks. After the tide had gone down very far he and his servant went out. He said to Mink, ‘‘ The thing that will be your food from now on is the sea urchin (nis!). You will live on it.” The tide now goes up and down because he treated this woman so. Now Raven started on from this place crying, ‘“‘ My wife, my wife!”’ Coming to some trees, he saw a lot of gum on one of them and said to it, “Why! you are just like me. You are in the same state.” For he thought the tree was crying. After this he got a canoe and began paddling along. By and by Petrel met him in another canoe. So he brought his canoe alongside and said, “Is this you, my brother-in-law? Where are you from?” He answered, ‘I am from over there.’ Then Raven began to ques- tion him about the events in this world, asking him how long ago they happened, etc. He said, “When were you born? How long have you been living?’’? And Petrel answered, “I have been living ever since the great liver came up from under the earth. I have been living that long.’”” So said Petrel. “Why! that is but a few minutes ago,’ said Raven. Then Petrel began to get angry and said to Raven, ‘When were you born?”’ ‘I was born before this world was known.” “That is just a little while back.” They talked back and forth until they became very angry. Then Petrel pushed Raven’s canoe away from him and put on his hat called fog-hat (qoga’s! s!ax") so that Raven could not see where he was. The world was round for him [in the fog]. At last he shouted, “My brother-in-law, Petrel, you are older than I am. You have lived longer than I.” Petrel also took water from the sea and sprinkled it in the air so that it fell through the fog as very fine rain. Said Raven, “I, i.’ He did not like it at all. After Petrel had fooled him for some time, he took off Fog-hat and found Raven close beside him, pulling about in all directions. Then Raven said to Petrel, ‘“ Brother-in-law, you better let that hat go into this world.” SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS lal So he let it go. That is why we always know, when we see fog coming out of an open space in the woods and going right back again, that there will be good weather. Leaving this place, Raven came to another where he saw some- thing floating not far from shore, though it never came any nearer. He assembled all kinds of fowl. Toward evening he looked at the object and saw that it resembled fire. So he told a chicken hawk (ka!k") which had a very long bill to fly out to it, saying , ‘‘Be very brave. If you get some of that fire, do not let go of it.” The chicken hawk reached the place, seized some fire and started back as fast as it could fly, but by the time it got the fire to Raven its bill was burned off. That is why its bill is short. Then Raven took some red cedar, and some white stones called néq! which are found on the beach, and he put fire into them so that it could be found ever afterward all over the world. After he had finished distributing the fire he started on again and came to a town where there were many people. He saw what looked like a large animal far off on the ocean with fowl all over the top of it. He wondered very much what it was and at last thought of a way of finding out. He said to one of his friends, ‘“‘Go up and cut a cane for me.” Then he carved this cane so as to resemble two tentacles of a devil fish. He said, ‘‘No matter how far off a thing is, this cane will always reach it.” Afterward he went to the middle of the town and said, ““I am going to give a feast. My mother is dead, and I am going to beat the drums this evening. I want all of the people to come in and see me.” In the evening he assembled all of the people, and they began to beat drums. Then he held the cane in his hands and moved it around horizontally, testing it. He kept saying “‘Up, up, up.’* He said, ‘‘I have never given any feast for my mother, and it is time I did it, but I have nothing with which to give a feast. Therefore I made this cane, and I am going to give a feast for my mother with this wonderful thing.”’ . Then he got the people all down on the beach and extended his cane toward the mysterious object until it reached it. And he began to draw it in little by little, saying to the people, “Sing stronger all the time.”’’ When it struck land, a wave burst it open. It was an everlasting house, containing everything that was to be in the waters of the world. He told the people to carry up fish and they did so. If one had a canoe, he filled it; if he had a box, he filled that; and those that had canoes also boiled eulachon in them. Since then they have known how to boil them. With all of these things Raven gave the feast for his mother. a A song goes with this. 6 A song goes with this also. iL?) BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [pun 39 After this was over he thought up a plot against the killer whales and sent an invitation to them. Then he told each of his people to make a cane that would reach very much above his head. So, when the killer whales came in and inquired, ‘“‘ What do the people use those canes for that extend up over their heads?’’, he replied, “They stick them down into their heads.” They asked him several times, and he replied each time in the same way. After a while one of the whales said, ‘“‘Suppose we try it.” Raven was glad to hear that and said, “All right, we will try it with you people, but the people I have invited must not look when I put a cane into anyone’s head.’’ Then he went away and whittled a number of sticks until they were very sharp. After that he laid all of the killer whales on the beach at short distances apart, and again he told them not to look up while he was showing one how it was done. Then he took a hammer or maul and drove his sticks into the necks of these whales one after the other so that they died. But the last one happened to look up, saw what was being done, and jumped into the ocean. «(Now Raven and another person started to boil out the killer- whales’ grease, and the other man had more than he. So Raven dreamed a dream which informed him that a lot of people were coming to fight with him, and, when such people really did make their appearance, he told his companion to run out. After he had done so, Raven quickly drank all the latter’s grease. By and by, however, the man returned, threw Raven into a grease box, and shut him in, and started to tie it up with a strong rope. Then Raven called out, ‘‘ My brother, do not tie the box up very strongly. Tie it with a piece of straw such as our forefathers used to use.’ The man did so, after which he took the box up on a high cliff and kicked it over. Then Raven, breaking the straw, flew out, crying ‘‘Ga.” When he got to the other side of the point, he alighted and began wiping himself.] Next he came to a large whale blowing along out at sea, and noticed that every time it came up, its mouth was wide open. Then Raven took a knife and something with which to make fire. When the whale came up again he flew into its mouth and sat down at the farther end of its stomach. Near the place where he had entered he saw something that looked like an old woman. It was the whale’s uvula (And’t!ayi). When the whale came up, it made a big noise, the uvula went to one side and the herring and other fish it lived on poured right in. Then Raven began eating all these things that the whale had swallowed, and, presently, he made a fire to cook the fat of the whale itself that hung inside. Last of all he ate the heart. As soon as he cut out this, the whale threw itself about in the water and soon floated up dead. Raven felt this and said, “‘I wish it a This paragraph is perhaps misplaced, the incident being confounded with another on page 17. SWANTON ] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 13) would float up on a good sandy beach.” After he had wished this many times, the whale began to drift along, and it finally floated ashore on a long sandy beach. After a while some young fellows who were always shooting about in this neighborhood with their bows and arrows, heard a voice on the beach say, ‘I wonder who will make a hole on the top so that he can be my friend.’”’ The boys ran home to the town and reported, “We heard a queer noise. Something floated ashore not far from this place, and a person inside said, ‘I wish that somebody would make a hole above me so that he can be my friend.’’’ Then the people assembled around the whale and heard Raven’s words very clearly. They began to cut a hole just over the place these came from and presently they heard some one inside say, ‘‘ Xoné’-é.”’ When the hole was large enough, Raven flew straight up out of it until he was lost to sight. And they said to him, ‘Fly to any place where you would like to go.” After that they cut the whale up and in course of time came to the spot where Raven had lighted his fire to make oil. Meanwhile Raven flew back of their camp to a large dead tree that had crumbled into fine pieces and began rubbing on it to dry himself. When he thought that the people were through making oil, he dressed himself up well and repaired to the town. There he said to the people,‘ Wes anything heard in that te!an (his word for whale)?” and one answered, ‘‘ Yes, a queer noise was heard inside of the whale.” ‘‘I wonder what it was,’ said Raven. After their food was all prepared Raven said to the people, ‘‘ Long ago, when a sound was heard inside of a te!an, all the people moved out of their town so as not to be killed. All who remained were destroyed. So you better move from this town.’ Then all of the people said, ‘‘ All of us better move from this town rather than be destroyed.” So they went off leaving all of their things, and Raven promptly took possession of them. Raven once went to a certain place outside of here (Sitka) in his canoe. It was calm there, but he began rocking the canoe up and down with his feet until he had made a great many waves. There- fore there are many waves there now even when it is calm outside, and a canoe going in thither always gets lost. By and by Raven came to a sea gull standing at the mouth of a creek and said to it, ‘‘What are you sitting in this way for? How do you call your new month?’ ‘‘Yadaq!o’l,”” replied the sea gull. Raven was questioning him in this way because he saw many her- ring out at sea. So he said, ‘“‘I don’t believe at all what you say. Fly out and see if you can bring in a herring.’ This is why, until a This name does not occur in the list given by this same man (T'wenty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethno'ogy, p. 426.) He said it was the eighth month and according to his list the eighth month is March, which he calls lin ta’/nax kaya/ni di’si, ‘‘Month when things under the sea begin to grow,” 14 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 the present time, people have differed in their opinions concerning the months and have disputed with one another. After they had quarreled over it for a long time, the gull became angry, flew out to sea, and brought back a big herring. He lighted near Raven and laid the herring beside him, but, when Raven tried to get it, he gulped it down. In another direction from the sea gull Raven saw a large heron and went over to it. He said to the heron, “Sea gull is calling you Big-long-legs-always-walking-upon-the beach.” Then, although the heron did not reply, he went back to the sea gull and said, ‘‘Do you know what that heron is saying about you? He says that you have a big stomach and get your red eyes by sitting on the beach always looking out on the ocean for some- thing to eat.’ Then he went back to the heron and said to it,‘‘ When I meet a man of my own size, I always kick him just below the stomach. That fellow is talking too much about you. Go over, and I will help you thrash him.”’ So the heron went over toward the sea gull, and, when he came close to it, Raven said, ‘Kick him just under his stomach.’’ He did so, and the big herring came out. Then Raven swallowed it quickly saying, ‘‘Just for the Raven.”’ Going on again, Raven came to a canoe in which were some people lying asleep along with a big salmon which he took away. When the people awoke, they saw the trail where he had dragged it off, and they followed him. They found him lying asleep by the fire after having eaten the salmon. Seeing his gizzard hanging out at his but- tocks, they twisted it off, ran home with it and used it as a shinny ball; this is why no human being now has a gizzard. The people knew it was Raven’s gizzard, so they liked to show it about, and they knocked it around so much that it grew large by the accumulation of sand. But Raven did not like losing his giz- zard. He was cold without it and had to get close to the fire. When he came to the place where they were playing with it, he said, ‘‘ Let it come this way.’”’ No sooner had they gotten it near him, how- ever, than they knocked it away again. After a while it reached him, and he seized it and ran off, with all the boys after him. As he ran he washed it in water and tried to fit it back in place. It was too hot from much knocking about, and he had to remove it again. He washed it again but did not get all of the sand off. That is why the raven’s gizzard is big and looks as if it had not been washed. Next Raven came to a town where lived a man called Fog (or Cloud)-on-the-Salmon (Xa/tka-koga’s!i). He wanted to marry this man’s daughter because he always had plenty of salmon. He had charge of that place. So he married her, and they dried quantities of salmon, after which they filled many animal stomachs with salmon eggs. Then he loaded his canoe and started home. He put all of the Genk eges into the bow. On the way it became stormy, and they could Or SWANTON ] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS i not make much headway, so he became tired and threw his paddles into the bow, exclaiming to his wife, ‘‘ Now you paddle!” Then the salmon eges shouted out, “It is very hard to be in stomachs. Hand the paddles here and let me pull.’’ So the salmon eggs did, and, when they reached home, Raven took all of them and dumped them over- board. But the dried salmon he carried up. That is why people now use dried salmon and do not care much for salmon eggs. — , Journeying on, Raven came to a seal sitting on the edge of a rock, and he wanted to get it, but the sead jumped into the ocean. Then he said, ‘“‘ Yak!oct!a’L!,” because he was so sorry about it. Farther on he came to a town and went-behind it to watch. After a while a man came out, took a little club from a certain place where he kept it in concealment, and said to it, ‘‘My little club, do you see that seal out there? Go and get it.” So it went out and brought the little seal ashore. The club was hanging to its neck. Then the man took it up and said, ‘‘My little club, you have done well,” after which he put it back in its place and returned to the town. Raven saw where it was kept, but first he went to the town and spoke kindly to the owner of it. In the night, however, when every one was asleep, he went back to the club, carried it behind a point and said to it, ‘‘See here, my little club, you see that seal out in the water. Go and get it.’ But the club would not go because it did not know him. After he had tried to get it to go for some time, he became angry and said to it, ‘Little club, don’t you see that seal out there?’ He kept striking it against a rock until he broke it in pieces. Coming to a large bay, Raven talked to it in order to make it into Nass (1. e., he wanted to make it just like the Nass), but, when the tide was out great numbers of clams on the flats made so much noise shooting up at him that his voice was drowned, and he could not succeed. He tried to put all kinds of berries there but in vain. After many attempts, he gave it up and went away saying, ‘‘I tried to make you into Nass, but you would not let me. So you can be called Skana’x”’ (the name of a place to the southward of Sitka). Two brothers started to cross the Stikine river, but Raven saw them and said, ‘‘ Be stones there.’’ So they became stones.@ Starting on, he came to the ground-hog people on the mainland. His mother had died some time before this, and, as he had no pro- visions with which to give a feast, he came to the ground hogs to get some. The ground-hog people know when slides descend from the mountains, and they know that spring is then near at hand, so they throw all of their winter food out of their burrows. Raven wanted them to do this, so he said, ‘‘ There is going to be a world snow slide.” But the ground-hog chief answered, ‘‘Well! nobody in this town knows about it.” Toward spring, however, the slide really took a Possibly the heroes of story 3. See also story 31, 16 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 place, and the ground hogs then threw all of their green herbs, roots, ete., outside to him. [Postea corvus in litus descendit cum quidam eum certiorem faceret de quattuor mulieribus, quae essent in insula, maturitatem adipiscentes. Deinde conatus est muliebria genitalia conficere e cortice lini arboris, et cum adveniret mediam in viam, quae in insulam perducebat, simile nomine eam nuncupavit; sed res male proces- serunt. Cortex edidit vocem argutam at ille, ira incensus, in undas eum proiecit. KEodem modo tentavit tabaci folia et alias res, sed inutile erat. Postremo processit in insulam, cul nomen erat mulie- bribus genitalibus (Gaénq!a’té). Eius comes vir quidem nomine JTonavus (Q!atxa’n) erat. Corvus autem aiebat ignavo, ‘‘Etiam si aliquid minime pavorem tibi inucit, percute scapham.”’? Mox igna- vus scapham quassabat atque exclamavit, ‘‘Iam luna adest.”’ Paene corvum in undas proiecit, qui, etsi ipse hortatus cum erat ut id faceret, aegre tulit. Corvus omnia genitalia, quae in insula erant, colligens, complevit scapham. Disponens ea locis in aequis, prae- parvit dare propter ea convivium escis porci.] After this he said to the people, ‘‘Make ear pendants because | am going to invite the whole world.”’ He was going to invite everyone because he had heard that the Gonaq adé’t had a Chilkat blanket and a hat, and he wanted to see them. First he invited the Gonaq adé’t and afterwards the other chiefs of all the tribes in the world. At the appointed time they began to come in. When the Gonaqadeé’t came in he had on his hat with many crowns and his blanket but was sur- rounded by a fog. Inside of the house, however, he appeared in his true form. It is from this feast of Raven’s that people now like to attend feasts. It is also from this that, when a man 1s going to have a feast, he has a many-crowned hat carved on top of the dead man’s grave post (kiti ‘ya). Raven made a woman under the earth to have charge of the rise and fall of the tides. One time he wanted to learn about everything under the ocean and had this woman raise the water so that he could go there. He had it rise very slowly so that the people had time to load their canoes and get into them.- When the tide had lifted them up between the mountains they could see bears and other wild animals walkingaround on the still unsubmerged tops. Many of the bearsswam out to them, and at that time those who had their dogs had good pro- tection. Some people walled the tops of the mountains about and tied their canoes inside. They could not take much wood up with them. Sometimes hunters see the rocks they piled up there, and at such times it begins to grow foggy. That was a very dangerous time. The people who survived could see trees swept up roots and all by a This appears to be retrospective. Cf. p. 9. Swanton] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 17 the rush of waters, and large devilfish and other creatures were carried up by it. When the tide began to fall, all the people followed it down, but the trees were gone and they had nothing to use as firewood, so they were destroyed by the cold. When Raven came back from under the earth, if he saw a fish left on top of a mountain or in a creek, he said, “Stay right there and become a stone.’ Soit becameastone. If he saw any person coming down, he would say, ‘‘Turn to a stone just where you are,” and it did so. After that the sea went down so far that it was dry everywhere. Then Raven went about picking up the smallest fish, as bull heads and tom cod, which he strung on a stick, while a friend who was with him at this time, named Cak!a’k",* took large creatures like whales. With the grease he boiled out, Cak!a’k" filled an entire house, while Raven filled only a small bladder. Raven stayed with Cak!a’k" and one night had a dream. He said to his friend, ‘‘I dreamed that a great enemy came and attacked us.”’ Then he had all the fowls assemble and come to fight, so that his dream might be fulfilled. As soon as Raven had told his dream, Cak!a’k" went down and saw the birds. Then Raven went into the house and began drinking up his grease. But the man came back, saw what Raven was doing, and threw him into a grease box, which he started to tie up with a strong rope. Raven, however, called out, “My brother, do not tie me up with a strong rope, but take a straw such as our forefathers used to employ.”’ He did so. Then Raven drank up all the grease in the box, and, when the man took him up on a high cliff and kicked him off, he came out easily and flew away erying ‘‘Ga.” One time Raven assembled all the birds in preparation for a feast and had the bears in the rear of his house as guests. All the birds had canes and helped him sing. As he sang along Raven would say quietly, ‘‘Do you think one of you could fly into the anus of a bear?”’ Then he would start another song and end it by saying in much the same language, ‘‘One of you ought to fly up into that hole’ (. e., anus). He kept taunting the birds with their inability to do this, so, when the bears started out, the wren (wu’Inaxwii’ckaq, ‘‘bird-that- can-go-through-a-hole’’) flew up into the anus of one of them and came out with his intestines. Before it had pulled them far out the bear fell dead. Then Raven chased all of the small birds away, sat down, and began eating. Raven never got full because he had eaten the black spots off of his own toes. He learned about this after having inquired everywhere a Said to be a kind of bird. K!ak" alone would mean ‘‘chicken hawk.’’ 49438—Bull. 39—09 2 18 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 59 for some way of bringing such a state about. Then he wandered through all the world in search of things to eat. After all the human beings had been destroyed Raven made new ones out of leaves. Because he made this new generation, people know that he must have changed all of the first people who had sur- vived the flood, into stones. Since human beings were made from leaves people always die off rapidly in the fall of the year when flowers and leaves are falling. At the time when he made this world, Raven made a devilfish digging-stick and went around to all created things (shellfish appar- ently) saying, ‘‘Are you going to hurt human beings? Say now either yes or no.” Those that said ‘‘No’’ he passed by; those that said ‘‘Yes’”’ he rooted up. He said to the people, ‘‘When the tide goes out, your food will be there. When the tide comes in, your food will be in the woods,” indicating bear and other forest animals. In Raven’s time the butts of ferns (k!walx) were already cooked, but, after some women had brought several of these in, Raven broke a stick over the fern roots. Therefore they became green like this stick. He also broke the roots up into many layers one above another. Devilfish were very fat then, and the people used to make grease out of them, but, when Raven came to a place where they were making he said, ‘‘Give me a piece of that hard thing.’ That is why its fat- ness left it. [Corvus appellavit saxum, quod erat tectum algis, ‘‘Pudenda, ubi crescunt crines.’’ Nepotes patris eius rogaverunt, ‘‘Esne capilla- tus?’’ Et ille respondit, ‘‘Sane, pudenda mea pilis vestita sunt.” At modo habebat in mente copias algarum, quae protegebant saxum in quo sedebat.] One time Raven invited all the tribes of little people and laid down bear skins for them to sit on. After they had come in and reached the bear skins, they shouted to one another, ‘‘Here is a swampy, open space.” That was the name they gave to those places on the skins from which the hair had fallen out. By and by Raven seized the bear skins and shook them over the fire, when all the little people flew into the eyes of the human beings. He said, ‘‘You shall be pupils in people’s eyes,’ and ever since human beings have had them. Now he went on from this place and camped by himself. There he saw a large sculpin trying to get ashore below him, and he said to it, ‘‘My uncle’s son, come ashore here. Come way up. One time, when you and I were going along in our uncle’s canoe we fell into the water. So come up a little farther.” Raven was very hungry, and, when the sculpin came ashore, he seized it by its big, broad tail intending to eat it: But it slipped through his fingers. This happened many times, and each time the sculpin’s tail became smaller. That is why it is so slender to-day. Then Raven said to it, ‘‘From now on you shall be named sculpin (wéq!).” SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 19 Raven had a blanket which kept blowing out from him, so he threw it into the water and let it float away. Then he obtained a wife, and, as he was traveling along with her, he said, ‘‘ There is going to be a great southwest wind. We better stop here for a. little while. I expect my blanket ashore here.’”’ After a while it came in. Then his wife said to him, ‘Take your blanket ashore and throw it on some branches.”’ He did so and it became Rebis bracteosum (Tlingit, cax). When they went on farther the sea became so rough that his wife was frightened, and told him.to put ashore some of the fat with which his canoe was loaded. He did this, but was so angry with his wife for having asked him, that he said to her, ‘‘ You better put ashore your sewing basket,’ and so she did.? Then he left. his wife and went along by himself. He assembled very many young birds, and, when he camped told them to go after cat!k!, the term he at that time applied to drinking water. Afterwards he came to a certain place and started to make a salmon creek. He said, ‘‘This woman shall be at the head of this creek.’ The woman he spoke of had long teats, so he called her Woman-with- long-teats-floating-around (Him-cakxé’nayi), saying, ‘‘When the salmon come to the creeks, they shall all go up to see her.’ That is why salmon run up the creeks. After this he went into the woods and set out to make the porcu- pine. For quills he took pieces of yellow cedar bark, which he set all the way up and down its back so that bears would be afraid of it. This is why bears never eat porcupines. He said to the porcupine, ‘“Whenever anyone comes hear you, throw your tail about.’ This is why people are afraid of it when it does so. Now Raven went off to a certain place and made the west wind, naming it Q!axo’. He said to it, ‘‘ You shall be my son’s daughter. No matter how hard you blow you shall hurt nobody. He took up a piece of red salmon and said to it, “If anyone is not strong enough to paddle home he shall take up this fish and blow behind him.” Raven is a grandchild of the mouse (kulédta!ni). That is why a mouse can never get enough to eat. Raven also made the south wind (sa’/naxet). When the south wind climbs on top of a rock it never ceases to blow. He made the north wind (xtin), and on top of a mountain he made a house for it with something like ice hanging down on the sides. Then he went in and said to it, ‘‘ Your buttocks are white.’’ Thisis why the mountains are white with snow. He made all the different races, as the Haida and the Tsimshian. They are human beings like the Tlngit, but he made their languages different. a This is evidently told to account for certain peculiarly shaped rocks, 20 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 3 He also made the dog. It was at first a human being and did every- thing Raven wanted done, but he was too quick with everything, so Raven took him by the neck and pushed him down, saying, ‘‘ You are nothing but a dog. You shall have four legs.” One time Raven came to a certain thing called fat-on-the-sea (yikatay?’), which stuck out of the ocean. . He kept saying to it, “Get down a little,” so it kept going under the surface. But every time it came up he took his paddle and cut part off. It did this seven times, but, when he spoke to it the eighth time, it went down out of sight, and he never saw it again. As he was traveling along in another place, a wild celery came out, became angry with Raven, and said, ‘‘You are always wandering around for things to eat.’”’ Then he named .it wild celery (ya’naet) and said to it, ‘“‘ You shall stay there, and people shall eat you. Once he passed a large tree and saw something up in it called caxda’q. Raven called out ‘‘Caxda’q,” and it shouted back, ‘“ You Raven.” They called back and forth to each other for some time. [Advenit in alium locum et alligavit aliquid circum caput ostrel, quod protrudebat ex arena. Appellavit idem Ldas-qé’t (viri pudenda ).] SUPPLEMENTARY TO SToRY 1 Near a bay not far from Kots!é’L! there used to be a sea-water pond in which lived a beaver. Raven very much wanted to get at this beaver and kill it, so he dug two trenches in order to drain the lake at low tide. After the water had run out through them, and the beaver had become visible at the bottom, he let down a kind of hook and pulled it up. Raven had tried every sort of thing as a post under this earth. Last of all he caught this beaver and made the post out of the bone of its foreleg [which is very solid]. That is why the world is now stand- ing. Old-woman-underneath (Hayica’nak!") attends to this post, but, when she is hungry, the earth shakes. Then people put grease into the fire and it goes to her. After he had killed the beaver Raven killed also a big whale and got his people to tow it to the place where the beaver had formerly lived. He got four large canoes full of people to tow it up the rapids in one ot the canals he had then made. After they had labored for many days, they became tired, and he said to them, “Take it easy.” Finally he himself became tired and said, ‘‘Turn into stone.’ All did so, and to this day you can see a large island there shaped like a whale and a string of four smaller islands extending out from one end of it. Raven named several places in this neighborhood. One was Qag"antoqa’, (A-hidden-person); another Tsétk! (Little Ladder). SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS mal He named an island outside, Lat!a’n. Still another was called Laqo’xas!, after the name of a small canoe, because one of these was passing at the time. Between two mountain peaks just eastward of Sitka is a hollow filled with trees supposed to resemble boys, so the place is called K !ésa’/ni-a’yaodihayiya, Where-is-a-big-crowd-of-boys. Raven ap- pointed this as the place from which the sun would turn back north. A point on the coast just north of Sitka was called by him K !o/lacatq !a’, Point-holding-things-back, because when a canoe passes it coming toward Sitka it can not go fast (i. e.,it does not seem to get by this rapidly). Just north of this is a kind of bay which Raven called Ka’datate-xak", Noisy-beach. 2. THE BIG CLAM At the farther end of Tenakee inlet (T!i’/nage) is a little bay called Where-sweetness-killed-a-person (GAtlqo’wageya). Onesummer there were many people encamped there drying salmon, and among them many lively young people. Onedaysome girls took a canoe and crossed the bay to a strawberry patch on the other side. Afterwards a man named Ts!éL! went down into the water to wade over to them but was swallowed by a halibut. So they named the place Kots!é’L! after this man. Near this inlet is a high cliff in front of which a big clam formerly lived. It used to stick its head (lit. penis) high up out of the water. It always had its valves open, and if a canoe passed that way, it would close them on it (lit. shut its mouth on it), and the canoe was gone. Raven heard of this clam, and he instructed a little mink to call to it, “Stick out your head and let us see you,” (Th’I-anaxda’x ts! aga’x dusti’n), while the people stood ready above with sharpened sticks. But, instead of speaking as it was told, the mink said, ‘‘ Raven made clam” (Y él dje’aosiniyi gaL!). Finally the mink said plainly as he had been directed, ‘‘Stick your head out of the water and let us see you,” and it began to put out its head. He said, ‘‘A little more.’’ When it was well out, all the people seized their sticks and plunged them into it, cutting the ligament which held the valves together so that they sprang apart. Then the whole bay began to smell badlyfrom it. On the rock slide back of the place where this clam used to run out its head all sorts of things now grow. It is called Clam-slide (Y és-kadé’). 99 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [RuLL. 39 ENGLISH VERSION OF THE 2sSfORY? OF THE HOUR BROTHERS 4 So There were four brothers who owned a dog of an Athapascan variety called dzi.o They had one sister. One day the dog began barking at something. Then Kack!a’Lk!, the eldest brother, put red paint inside of his blanket, took his rattle, and followed. The other brothers went with him. They pursued it up, up, up, into the sky. The dog kept on barking, and they did not know what it was going to do. It was chasing a cloud. When they got to the other side of the world they came out on the edge of a very steep cliff. They did not know what to do. The dog, however, went right down the cliff, and they saw the cloud still going on ahead. Now these brothers had had nothing to eat and were very hungry. Presently they saw the dog coming up from far below bringing the tail of a salmon. After a while they saw it run back. Then they said to one another, ‘‘What shall we do?’ We might as well go down also.” But, when Lq!aya’k!, the youngest brother, started he was smashed in pieces. The two next fared in the same way. Kack!a’Lk!, however, braced his stick against the wall behind him and reached the bottom in safety. Then he put the bones of each of his brothers together, rubbed red paint on them, and shook his rattle over them, and they came to life. Starting on again around this world, they came to a creek full of salmon. This was where the dog had been before. When they got down to it they saw a man coming up the creek. He was a large man with but one leg and had a kind of spear in his hand with which he was spearing all the salmon. They watched him from between the limbs of a large, dead tree. When he got through hooking the salmon, he put all on two strings, ene of which hung out of each cor- ner of his mouth. Then he carried them down. Then Lq!aya’k! said to his brothers, *‘Let us devise some plan for getting the salmon spear.’’ So he seized a salmon, brought it ashore and skinned it. First Kack!a’Lk! tried to get inside of it but failed. When hg !aya’k! made the attempt, however, he swam off at once, and, if one of his brothers came near him, he swam away. Then the other brothers sat up in the dead tree, Kack!a’Lk! at the top. When the big man came up again after salmon, Lq!aya’k! swam close up to him, and he said, ‘‘Oh! my salmon. It is a fine salmon.” But, when he made a motion toward it with his spear, it swam back into deep water. Finally it swam up close, and the big man speared it easily. Then Lq!aya’k! went to the tail of the fish, cut the string a This story was told by Dekina’k!u. According to some, the story begins with the birth of five chil- dren from a dog father. See stories 97 and 31 (pp. 99-105). b Lakitcane’, the father of these boys, is said to have lived near the site of the Presbyterian school at Sitka and to have used the ‘‘blarney stone,’’ so called, as a grindstone, SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS ae which fastened the big man’s spear point to the shaft and swam off with the point. Upon this the big man pulled his shaft up, looked at it and said, ‘‘My spear is gone.’ Then he went downstream. In the meantime hq !aya’k! came ashore, got out of the fish, came up to his usual station on the lowest limb of the tree, and sat down there. They had him sit below because he talked so much, and because he was the most precipitate. That night the one-legged man did not sleep at all on account of his lost spear. He was using it in working for the bear people. When he came up next morning he had a quill in his hands which would tell him things. He took this about among the trees, and, when he came to that on which the brothers were sitting, it bemt straight down. Then he cried, ‘‘Bring my spear this way.’ Although he saw no one, he knew that there were people there who had it. Then he came to the bottom of the tree, seized q!aya’k! and tore him in pieces. So he served the next two brothers. But Kack!a’Lk! had his dog, which he was able to make small, concealed under his coat and, after his brothers were torn up, he let it go, and it tore the big man all to pieces. Because he had his red paint, rattle, and dog he cared for nothing. Now he put the red paint on his brothers’ bodies and shook the rattle over them so that they came to life. Next morning they got into the same tree again. Then they saw aman with two heads placed one over another coming up the stream. It was the bear chief. He hooked a great many salmon and put them on pieces of string on each side of his mouth. Next evening a little old man came up. Lq!aya’k! came down and asked, ‘‘What are you doing here?’ He said, ‘‘I have come up after salmon.” But he could hook none at all, so Lq!aya’k! caught a lot for him. ‘Then Lq!aya’k! asked him: ‘‘What does that double-head that came up here do?’ The old man said, ‘‘I will tell you about it.”’ So they said to him: ‘‘ Now we want you to tell the truth about this? What does he really do when he gets home with his salmon? We will get you more salmon if you tell us truly.”’ And the old man answered: ‘When he gets home with a load of salmon, he leaves it down by the river. Then he takes off his skin coat and hangs it up.’ This is what he told them. The next time the two-heads came up and began to throw salmon ashore, it said all at once, ‘‘I feel people’s looks.”’* Assoon as he came opposite the place where they were sitting, Kack!a’Lk! threw his dog right upon him. It caught this big bear by the neck and killed him. Every time thereafter, when the little old man came up, they ques- tioned him about the people in the place he came from. At last they caught a lot of salmon and prepared to descend. Then Kack!a’Lk! put on the bearskin, placed his brothers under his arms 0 Meaning ‘‘I feel that people’s looks are on me.”’’ 24 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 inside of it, took strings of salmon as the bear had done, and started on. When he came in front of the houses he acted just like the two- headed man. First he entered the two-headed man’s house and shook his skin, whereupon his brothers and the dog passed behind the screens in the rear of the house and hid themselves. After that he began fixing his salmon, and, when he was through, took off his coat and hung it up in the manner that had been described to him. Toward evening a great deal of noise was heard outside, made over some object. Lq!aya’k! very much wanted to go out and look, but they tried to prevent him. Finally he did go out and began to play with the object, whereupon the players rolled it on him and cut him in two. After that the two brothers next older went out and were cut in two in the same manner. After this Kack!a’Lk! sent his dog out. He seized the object, shook it and made it fly to the tops of the moun- tains, where it made the curved shapes the mountains have to-day. Then it rolled right back again. When it rolled back, the dog became very angry, seized it a second time, shook it hard, and threw it so high that it went clear around the sun. It made the halo of light seen there. Then Kack!a’Lk! took his brothers’ bodies, pieced them together, put red paint upon them and shook his rattle over them. They came to life again. Then he took the dog, made it small, and put it under his arm; and they started off. Since that time people have had the kind of spear (dina’) above referred to. The brothers started on with it, and, whenever they were hungry, they got food with it. They always kept together. After a while they came across some Athapascan Indians called Worm-eating people (Wan-xa qoan). These were so named because, when they killed game, they let worms feed upon it, and, when the worms had become big enough, they ate them through holes in the middle of their foreheads which served them as mouths. iq !aya’k! wanted to be among these Athapascans, because they had bows and arrows and wore quills attached to their hair. They used their bows and arrows to shoot caribou, and, when they were pursuing this animal, they used to eat snow. After iq!aya’k! had obtained his bow and arrows they came out at a certain place, probably the Stikine river, and stayed among some people who were whipping one another for strength, in the sea. Every morning they went into the water with them. At that time they thought that Liq !aya’k! was going with his sister, and they put some spruce gum around the place where she slept. Then they found the spruce gum on him and called him all sorts of names when they came from bathing. They called him Messenger- with-pitch-on-his-thigh (Naqa’ni q!acgii’q!o), the messenger being a brother-in-law of the people of the clan giving a feast. They named him so because they were very much ashamed. This is why people SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 95 have ever since been very watchful about their sisters. Because he had been fooling with his sister, when gq !aya’k! went out, his broth- ers said to him, ‘You do not behave yourself. Go somewhere else. You can be a thunder (hét!).”” They said to him, ‘‘ Ha’agun kadi’.’’”4 This is why, when thunder is heard, people always say, ‘‘ You gummy thigh.” It is because Lq!aya’k! became a thunder. Their sister Was ashamed. She went down into Mount Edgecumbe (L!ux) through the crater. Because the thunder is a man, when the thunder is heard far out at sea, people blow up into the air through their hands and say, “Tet it drive the sickness away,” or ‘‘Let it go far northward.” The other brothers started across the Stikine and became rocks there. 4, ORIGIN OF THE KILLER WHALE? A man named Natsalane’, belonging to the Tsague’di (Seal peo- ple), made killer whales. He first tried to carve them out of red cedar, then out of hemlock, then out of all other kinds of wood in succession. He took each set of figures to the beach and tried to make them swim out, but instead they floated up on the surface. Last of all he tried vellow cedar, and was successful. He made these of different sorts. On one he marked white lines with Indian chalk from the corners of its mouth back to its head. He said, “‘This is going to be the white-mouthed killer whale.” When he first put them into the water he headed them up the inlet, telling them that whenever they went up to the heads of the bays they were to hunt for seal, halibut, and all other things under the sea; but he told them not to hurt a human being. When you are going up the bay, people will say to you, ‘‘Give us something to eat.” Before this people did not know what the killer whale is. Another thing people did not know was that the killer whale could go ashore and camp. One time a man married a high-caste woman and went up to the head of a certain bay with her, because he knew that the killer whales always went there. On the way they saw a camp fire blazing upon the shore. There were killer whales encamped here, but he thought they were human beings and landed to see them. When they got close in, he jumped into the water to urinate. All at once the killer-whale chief said, ‘‘I feel people’s looks. Go outside and look on the beach.’’ But, when they saw him urinating, they started off, leaving their camp just as it was, jumped into the water, and swam away. a It is said that no one knows what these words mean. b See stories 59 and 71. 26 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (BULL. 39 Then he went up to the camp with his wife, and they saw all kinds of food there. His wife said, ‘‘It is lucky that we came across this;’ and after a while the man said, ‘‘ Let us cook some, my wife.”” Then the woman took her cooking basket and put some water into it. Presently she said, ‘‘Way out there is a canoe coming.” It was a black canoe. She said, ‘‘We better leave this alone until the canoe comes so that we can invite them to eat with us.” Her husband said, “All right.” By and by his wife said, ‘‘What is the matter? To my eyes it does not appear like a canoe. It is too black.” It was really a young killer whale, under which the other killer whales were swimming to make it appear like a canoe. When. the supposed canoe reached land, the whales rushed ashore, seized the woman, who had concealed herself behind her husband, and carried her down to the sea. They took her away because her husband had taken their provisions. This time, when the killer whales rose again, instead of appearing like only one canoe, they came up out of the water thick everywhere and began to swim down the bay very fast. Meanwhile the husband went down to his canoe, got in, and paddled after them along the shore. But, when they came to a high cliff where the water went down deep, all the whales suddenly dived out of sight. Now the man climbed to the top of this cliff, fastened a bough to his head and another slim spruce bough around his waist, filled the space inside of his shirt with rocks, and jumped into the ocean at the spot where his wife had disappeared, falling upon a smooth, mossy place on the bottom. When he awoke, he arose, looked about, and saw a long town near by. He entered the last house, which proved to belong to the chief of the shark people. In this house he saw a man with a crooked mouth peeping out at him from behind a post. A long time before, when he had been fish- ing, a shark had cut his line and carried off the hook, and it was this hook that now peeped out at him. It said, ‘‘ Master, it is I. When your line broke, they took me down here and have made me a slave.”’ Then he said to the shark chief, ‘‘Is there any news in this town?”’ and he replied, ‘‘Nothing especial in our town, but right across from us is the killer-whales’ town, and recently we heard that a woman had been captured there and is now married to the killer- whale chief.”’ Then the shark chief continued: ‘‘The killer-whale chief has a slave who is always chopping wood back in the forest with a stone ax. When you come to him, say within yourself, ‘1! wish your stone ax would break.’ Wish it continually.” So the shark instructed him. Then he went over to the killer-whale town, and, when the slave’s ax did break, he went up to him and said, ‘‘I will help you to fix that stone ax if you will tell me where my wife is.”” So he began to fix it in place for him. It was the only stone ax in the killer-whaie SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS O74 tribe. Then the slave said, ‘‘I always bring wood down and make a fire in the evening, after which my master sends me for water. When you see me going after water, come to the door and wait there for me. As soon as I come in I am going to push over the fire. At the same time I am going-to empty the water into it so as to make a quantity of steam. Then rush in and carry out your wife.”’ The man followed these directions and started away with his wife. Then his halibut hook shouted, ‘‘This way, my master, this way.” So he ran toward the shark people’s town, and they pursued him. Now the killer whales attacked the shark people because they said that the sharks had instructed him what to do, and they killed many sharks. In return the sharks began to make themselves strong. They were going out again to fight the killer whales. They went to some rocks and began sharpening their teeth. Then they began the battle, and whenever the killer whales approached, the sharks would run against their bellies and rip them open, letting out their entrails. The whole bay was full of killer whales and sharks. What happened to the woman is not told. When the killer-whale tribe start north the seals say, ‘‘ Here comes another battle. Here come the warriors.”’ They say this because the killer whales are always after seals. Killer whales are of different kinds, and the one that always swims ahead is the red killer whale, called“ killer-whale-spear’’ (Kit-wusa’ni). It was so named by the man who made these animals because he shaped it long and slender, The Tsague’di, to which this man belonged, are a branch of the Daq- Llawe’di; therefore the Daqu!awe’di are the only people who make the killer whale their emblem.¢ On their way to us the first killer whales came into a bay called Kots!é@’L!, after Ts!éu!, the first man who came to that bav. They encamped at its head and the day after began digging into the cliff. The land there is not very high, so they were soon through, laid skids down, and carried their canoes across. Some people watched them. The killer whales always used to cross at the place where they laid down these skids, and now people cross there. It is called Killer- whale-crossing place (Kitgt’ni), but is now overgrown with trees and underbrush. [This place is said to be on the north arm of Tenakee bay, where a canal has been projected to enable boats to reach Huna more easily. | aThe Wua’ckitan must, however, be added. 28 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 5. KAKA’2 When Kaka’ was taken south, either to Cape Ommaney or farther, a woman came to him and said, ‘‘T amin the same fix as you. We are both saved ® by the land otters.’ That is how he found out what had happened to him. The woman also said, ‘I am your friend, and I have two land-otter husbands who will take you to your home.”’ Then she called him to her and began to look over his hair. Finally she said, ‘Your wife has put the smew from a land-otter’s tail through your ear. That is what has caused you to become a land otter.” Then they took down what looked to him like a canoe, but really it was a skate. The skate is the land-otter’s canoe. When they set out, they put him into the canoe, laid a woven mat over him and said, ‘‘ You must not look up again.”” He did look up, however, after a time and found himself tangled among the kelp stems. These land otters were going to become his spirits. On their journey they started to cross a bay called Kén to an island called Télmu’, and, as daylight was coming on, they began to be afraid that the raven would call and kill them before they reached the other side. It was almost daylight when they came to land, so they ran off at once among the bushes and rocks, leaving Kaka’ to pull up the canoe. This was hard work, and while he was at it the skin was all worn from his lower arm, so he knew that it was a skate. Some people traveling in a canoe saw his shadow there and tried hard to make him out clearly, but in vain. They did not want to have him turn into a land otter, so they said, ‘ Kaka’, you have already turned into a ground hog.”’ By and by one of his friends heard him singing in the midst of a thick fog at a place near the southern end of Baranoff island on the outside. Hach time he ended his song with the words, “Let the log drift landward with me.” Then it would drift shoreward with him, Meanwhile he was lying on the log head down with blood running ou: of his nose and mouth and all kinds of sea birds were feeding on him, It was his spirits that made him that way. The real land otters had left him, but they had come to him again as spirits. Now the people sang a song on shore that could be heard where Kaka’ was floating, but, although they heard the noise of a shaman’s beating sticks, they could not get at him. Then the friend who had first found him went ashore and fasted two days, after which he went out and saw Kaka’ lying on his back on the log. He was as well as when he had left Sitka. Then his friend brought him ashore, but the land-otter spirits remained with him, and he became a great shaman. a See story 31, pp. 87-88. b> So interpreters persist in speaking of the capture of a human being by anthropomorphic animals or other supernatural beings. SWANTON ] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 29 6. THE LAND-OTTER SISTER 2 A man set out from Sitka to a certain camp with his children in order to dry halibut, for in those days that was how they had to get their food. It was spring time. Then, too, they had stone axes and used small half baskets for pots in which to do cooking. His wife and children spent all of their time digging clams, cockles, and other shellfish down on the beach and in laying them aside for future use. The man, meantime, was hewing out a canoe with his stone ax. They had a hard time, for they had nothing to live on except the things picked up at low tide. Many years before this man’s sister had been drowned, but so long a time had passed that he had forgotten her. She, however, had been taken by the land otters and was married among them, having many children. From around a neighboring point she was watching him. Her children were all working to collect a quantity of food. After this the woman’s husband told her to take a lot of food to her brother. All the land-otter-people are called ‘‘ Point people’’ (Q!atkwedi’); they have plenty of halibut, seal, ete. So she began packing these things up to take them to her brother. In front of his dwelling house her brother had a house made of branches, and one evening he heard someone come in front of his house and seem to lay down a heavy pack there. Then the person said, ‘“‘The place where you are stopping is wonderfully far from us.”’ He went out and saw a woman but did not know who she was because her arms were grown to her breast and her mouth was thrown open with her upper lip drawn up under her nose. But the woman could see how he felt, so she said to him, “It is I. I am your sister who lives a short distance away around this point.’’ Then she brought the basket into her brother’s house and said to him, ‘‘Take the things out of the basket, for I have to return before the raven calls.”’ Next evening she came back with another full basket. This time she said, ‘“‘ You have three nephews who will come over and help you get halibut and other things.” So the little otters came to their uncle. From their waist up they looked like human beings; below they were otters, and they had tails. Their mother came with them and began to take her brother’s children on her lap saying, ‘‘ Little tail (Lit k!atsk!u’), little tail growing down.”’ Asshe sang tails began to grow down from them. Then their father looked at them, became angry, and said, “‘What are you doing to my children anyway?” Immediately she slapped them on the buttocks and said, ‘Up goes the little tail, up into the buttocks (ti/denatsi yéq),” and the tails went up into their buttocks. a See story 45. 30 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 After his nephews had stayed with him for some tine the man said within himself, ‘‘I have no devilfish for bait,’ and the same evening the young fellows were gone after it. Although it was high tide many devilfish were found in front of his house. The young otters called good weather bad and bad weather good. One day they went out with their uncle to fish, and, when he put his line down with the buoy on it, the little otters all jumped into the water. They went down on the line and put on the hook the big- gest halibut they could find. After they had brought in the canoe loaded twice their uncle had an abundance of provisions. In the evening the otters had worked so hard that they fell asleep on the opposite side of the fire with their tails close to the blaze. Then their uncle said to them, ‘‘ Your handy little tails are beginning to burn.”” On account of those words all became angry and left him, going back to their father. Then the man’s sister came to him and asked what he had said to his nephews. He said, ‘‘I simply told them that, their clothes were beginning to burn on them.’’ So the the otters’ father tried to explain it, saying to them: ‘‘ Your uncle did not mean anything when he said your clothes were beginning to burn. He wanted only to save your clothes. Now go back and stay with him.”’ So they got over their displeasure and went back. All that time the man was working upon his canoe. He said within himself, ‘‘I wonder how my canoe can be gotten down.” Next morning his nephews went up, put their tails under it, and pulled it down. When they got it to their uncle’s house, he loaded the canoe and started home with them, but quite near his town he missed them out of the canoe. Then all the people there wondered where he could have gotten a canoe load of such things as he had. He gave every- thing to his friends. Then his wife said to the people, “‘Something came to help us. We have seen my husband’s sister who was drowned long ago, and that is the way we got help.” Afterward he went back to the place where he had received assist- ance but saw nothing of those who had helped him. He hunted all about the place from which his sister used to come but found nothing except land-otter holes. He became discouraged and gave up searching. 7. THE LAND-OTTER SON There was a great famine at Sitka, and all the people went halibut fishing. Then a certain man went with his wife to the mouth of Redoubt bay. He had prepared barks some time before, and, when they got to this place, they made a house out of them. They fished there for a long time, but caught no more than one or two halibut a week. By the end of two months they had little to live on except shellfish and other things picked up at low tide. SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS Bie One evening they caught a small halibut at their fishing ground. They cooked a piece of it and put the rest on the drying frame in the brush house the man had constructed outside. Next day they heard a noise there as if something were being thrown down and moved about. The woman said, ‘‘What can that be?’ Then her husband went out and was astonished to see two medium-sized devilfish lying there. He wondered how they had gotten up from the beach. Then he went in and said, ‘‘ Wife (dja), I am in luck. There are two large devilfish out there. I do not know who brought them. ‘To-morrow morning we will take them and see if we can not catch some halibut. The person who brought them here is very kind, for I have been hunting everywhere vainly for bait.”’ The woman sat down and considered. She said, ‘‘ Do you know who brought them here?’ He said, ‘‘No.”” Then she said, ‘‘I will tell you who brought them here. Don’t you remember that my son was drowned a year ago, and no one has seen anything of him since? It must be he, who has taken pity on us because he sees how poor we are. I will call his name if I hear anyone whistle to-morrow or any other night, for I know it is my son.” So the woman spoke. In the morning they went out with these devilfish and caught two halibut. Evening came on. After they had reached home and it was dark, they began to cook some halibut. Just as the woman was putting some into the pot a person whistled behind the house. Then she said, ‘‘We have longed for you, my dear son. Come in. Don’t whistle around us. We have been wishing for you for the last year, so do not be afraid. It is only your father and I. Comein.” Then it whistled again. The mar went to the door, opened it, and said, ‘‘Come in, my son, I think you have come to help us because we are very poorly off here. The door is open. Come.right in.” So the father said. And without their seeing him enter, all of a sudden he was seated opposite them with his hands over his face. Then they spoke to him, saying, ‘‘Is it you, my son?’ He only whistled [by drawing in his breath]. That was the way he spoke to them. Toward midnight he began to speak. The father said, ‘‘Is it you, my son?” The land-otter-man (kii’cta-qa) said, ‘‘Yes.”” He motioned to them that there was something outside which he had brought for them. It was some more devilfish. He said, ‘In the morning we will go out.” The woman gave him a pillow and two blankets for the night, and he slept on the other side of the fire. So early in the morning that it was yet dark he took his father by the feet and shook him, saying, ‘‘Get up. We will go out.” He told hini to take his fishing line, and they carried down the canoe. Then the land-otter-man stepped in and his father followed. His father gave him: a paddle. The canoe went flying out to the halibut oo BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 eround. It was his son’s strength that took them there so quickly. Then the iand-otter-man suddenly stopped the canoe. He took the line and baited a hook with one devilfish tentacle. He baited all of the hooks and lowered them. Then he tied the end of the line to the seat. He said to his father, ‘‘Put the blanket over you. Do not watch me.” His father did so but observed him through a hole in the blanket. The land-otter-man, without causing any motion in the canoe, jumped overboard, went down the line, and put the largest halibut that he could find on their hooks. When he came in he shook the canoe and his father pretended to wake up. He gave the line to his father who began to pull up. Very many big halibut began to come up, which he clubbed and threw into the canoe as fast as he could. Then-he turned the canoe around and started for home. The canoe was full. On the way the land-otter-man was in the bow holding a spear. After he had held it there for a long time he threw it. His father could not see that he had thrown it at a large seal. He brought it close to the canoe, gave it one blow to kill it and threw it into the canoe. When they came ashore it was almost daybreak. Then, motioning to his father that the raven might call before he reached shelter, he ran straight up into the woods. Now the man’s wife came down and began cutting up the halibut. By the time they had it all into the house it was dark. The same evening, before they knew it, he was with them again. Then the man took some pieces of raw halibut, cut them into bits and placed them before him. He turned his back on them and ate very fast. He could eat only raw food. About a week later they told their son not to go into the woods at night but to stay with them. So he did. When he wanted to go fishing he would awaken his father while it was still dark, and they would start off. Each time they brought in a load of seal, halibut, and all sorts of things. They began to have great quantities of pro- visions. After that they began to see his body plainly. His mouth was round, and long hair had grown down over his back to his buttocks. He took nothing from his father and mother but raw food. Some time after they began to pack up to come to Sitka. He now talked to them like a human being and always stayed with them. He helped load their canoe, and his father gave him a paddle. Then they set out, the land-otter-man in the bow, his father in the stern, and his mother between. When they came to Poverotni point (Kaodjixiti-q!a), the woman saw the shadow of her son’s arms mov- ing, his hands which held the paddle being invisible. She said to her husband, ‘‘What is the matter with my son? He does not seem to be paddling. i can see only his shadow now.” So she moved for- SWANTON | TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS oo ward to see whether he was asleep or had fallen into the water. Her son was not there. The blanket he had had around his knees was there, but he was gone. She said to her husband, ‘‘ Your son is gone again,” and he replied, ‘‘I can not do anything more. He is gone. How can I bring him back?’ So they went on to Sitka. When they came to Sitka, they reported all that had happened. The father said, ‘‘My son helped us. Just as we got around the point he disappeared out of the canoe.’ So his friends gave a feast for him. His father’s name was Saki’, and the place where they fished for halibut is now called Saki’-i’di. 8. THE WOLF-CHIEF’S SON Famine visited a certain town, and many people died of starvation. There was a young boy there who always went around with bow and arrows. One day, as he was hunting about, he came across a little animal that looked like a dog and put i¢ under his blanket. He brought it to his mother, and his mother washed it for him. Then he took the red paint left by his dead uncles, spit upon the dog and threw paint on so that it would stick to its hair and face. When he took the dog into the woods, it would bring him all kinds of birds, such as grouse, which he carried home to his family. They cooked these in a basket pot. Afterward he brought the animal down, washed it, and put more paint upon its legs and head. This en- abled him to trace it when he was out hunting. One day after he had traced it for some distance, he found it had killed a small mountain sheep, and, when he came down, he gave it the fat part. With the meat so obtained he began to take good care of his mother and his friends. He had not yet found out whether the animal was really a dog. The next time they went hunting they came across a large flock of sheep, and he sent the dog right up to them. It killed all of them, and he cut the best one open for it. Then he took down the rest of the sheep and dressed them. What the animal was killing was keeping some of his friends alive. One time the husband of a sister came to him and said, ‘‘I wish to -borrow your animal. It is doing great things in this place.” So he brought the little dog from the house he had made for it, painted its face and feet, and said to his brother-in-law, ‘“‘When you kill the first one cut it open quickly and let him have it. That is the way I always do.” Then this brother-in law took up the little dog, and, when they came to a flock of sheep, it went straight among them, killing them and throwing them down one after another. But, after he had cut one open, he took out the entrails, threw them into the dog’s face, and said, “‘ Dogs always eat the insides of animals, not the 49438—Bull. 39—09 9 Vv 3 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 good part.’ The dog, however, instead of eating it, ran straight up between the mountains, yelping. Now when his brother-in-law brought the sheep down, the man asked him, ‘‘ Where is the little dog?”” And he said, ‘‘It ran away from me.” That was the report he brought down. Then the owner of the dog called his sister to him and said, ‘Tell me truly what he did with the little dog. I did not want to let it go at first because I knew people would do that thing to it.” His sister said, ‘He threw the entrails to it to eat. That is why it ran off.” Then the youth felt very sad on account of his little animal and prepared to follow it. His brother-in-law showed him the place between the mountains where the dog had gone up, and he went up in that direction until he came to its footprints and saw the red paint he had put upon it. This animal was really the wolf-chief’s son who had been sent to help him, and, because the man put red upon its head and feet, a wolf can now be told by the red on its feet and around its mouth. After he had followed the trail for a long distance he came to a lake with a long town on the opposite side. There he heard a great noise made by people playing. It was a very large lake, so he thought, “T wonder how I can get over there.” Just then he saw smoke com- ing out from under his feet. Then a door swung open, and he was told to enter. An old woman lived there called Woman-always- wondering (Lawat-uwadji’ei-cana’k!"), who said to him, “‘Grandchild, why are you here?”’ He answered ‘I came across a young dog which helped me, but it is lost, and I come to find where it went.” Then the woman answered, ‘‘Its people live right across there. It is a wolf- chief’s son. That is its father’s town over there where they are mak- ing a noise.” So the old woman instructed him. Then he wondered and said to himself, ‘‘ How can I get across?” But the old woman spoke out, saying, ‘‘ My little canoe is just below here.’”” He said to himself, ‘“‘It might turn over with me.” Then the old woman answered, ‘‘Take it down. Before you get in shake it and it will become large.’”’? Then she continued: “Get inside of the boat and stretch yourself on the bottom, but do not paddle it. Instead wish continually to come in front of that place.” He did as she directed and landed upon the other side. Then he got out, made the canoe small and put it into his pocket, after which he went up among the boys who were playing about, and watched them. They were playing with a reund, twisted thing called gitcxanaga’t (rainbow). Then some one directed him to the wolf- chief’s house at the farther end of the village. An evening fire, such as people used to make in olden times, was burning there, and, creep- ing in behind the other people, the man saw his little wolf playing about near it in front of his father. SWANTON | TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 35 Then the wolf chief said, ‘‘There is some human being looking in here. Clear away from before his face.”” Upon this the little wolf ran right up to him, smelt of him, and knew him at once. The wolf chief said, ‘‘I feel well disposed toward you. I let my son live among you because your uncles and friends were starving, and now I am very much pleased that you have come here after him.”’ By and by he said, ‘I think I will not let him go back with you, but I will do some- thing else to help you.”’ He was happy at the way the man had painted up his son. Now he did not appear like a wolf but like a human being. The chief said, “Take out the fish-hawk’s quill that is hanging on the wall and give it to him in place of my son.” Then he was instructed how to use it. ‘‘ Whenever a bear meets you,” he said, ‘hold the quill straight toward it and it will fly out of your hand.” He also took out a thing that was tied up like a blanket and gave it to him, at the same time giving him instructions. ‘‘ One side,” he said, ‘‘is for sickness. If you put this on a sick person it will make him well. If anyone hates you, put the other side on him and it will kill him. After they have agreed to pay you for treating him put the other side on to cure him.” Then the chief said, ‘“‘ You see that thing that the boys are playing with? That belongs to me. Whenever one sees it in the evening it means bad weather; whenever one sees it in the morning it means good weather.” So he spoke to him. Then they put something eise into his mouth and said to him, “Take this, for you have a long journey to make.’’ He was gone up there probably two years, but he thought it was only two nights. At the time when he came within sight of his town he met a bear. He heid the quill out toward it as he had been instructed and sud- denly let it go. It hit the bear in the heart. Still closer to his town he came upon a flock of sheep on the mountain, and sent his quill at them. When he reached them, he found all dead, and, after he had cut them all open, he found the quill stuck into the heart of the last. He took a little meat for his own use and covered up the rest. Coming to the town, he found no one in it. All had been destroyed. Then he felt very sad, and, taking his blanket out, laid the side of it that would save people, upon their bodies, and they all came to life. After that he asked all of them to go hunting with him, but he kept the quill hidden away so that they would not bother him as they had before. When they came to a big flock of mountain sheep, he let his quill go at them so quickly that they could not see it. Then he went up, looked the dead sheep over, and immediately cut out the quill. All his friends were surprised at what had happened. After they had gotten down, those who were not his close friends came to him and gave payment for the meat. 36 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 The people he restored to life after they had been dead for very many years had very deep set eyes and did not get well at once. After that he went to a town where the people were all well and killed some of them with his blanket. Then he went to the other people in that place and said, ‘“‘How are your friends? Are they dead?”’ “Yes.” ‘Well I know a way of making them well.” He went up to them again with his blanket and brought them back to life. They were perfectly well. = This man went around everywhere doing the same thing and be- came very famous. Whenever one was sick in any place they came after him and offered him a certain amount for his services, so that he became the richest man of his time. 9. WOLVERINE-MAN There were people living in a certain town on the mainland. You know that in olden times the people did not use guns. They hunted with bows and arrows, and horn spears, and it was very hard work to use them. So, when they were going hunting, they had to fast and wash their heads in urine. That is why in all of these stories—which I am telling you just as they were told in the olden times—food was very scarce and hard to get. Success depended on what things were used and how people prepared themselves. One day a certain man at this place began preparing himself by washing his head in urine, and the following morning he dressed and started up the valley carrying his horn spear. At the head of this valley he saw a flock of mountain sheep, but he could not get at them, so he camped over night. In the morning he saw that a wolverine (nisk) was among these sheep killing them off. Next evening he reached the top of the mountain and started into the brush to camp, but came to a house with the door wide open for him. On the inside hung pieces of fat from all kinds of animals the wolverine had killed. He wanted to go in very much, but instead he sat down in the brush near by and waited. Presently a man came along carrying a pack. This was Wolverine- man (Ni’/sgu-qa). He said, ‘‘My trader, you are here. Why don’t you step inside?”’? Then they entered, and Wolverine-man took off his clothes and began wringing them out just like a human being. Then he heated some hot rocks, took his half basket, chopped up the bones of a ground hog and put these into it along with the cooking stones. Then he said to the man, ‘Give me that kandaua’x. Give me that k!axa’kaok.’”’» These were his own words which he was teaching to this man, and they mean, ‘‘Giveme my dish. Give me my little spoon.’”? So, when one went up to the top of this mountain in olden times he called his dishes and spoons by those names. SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 37 Then Wolverine-man placed the food before his guest, but, when the latter was about to take some, Wolverine-man said something that sounded strange tohim. He said, ‘‘There he is picking it up. There he is going to eat it.”” It sounded strange. Then he kept on talking: ‘He is getting closer to the small bones. He is getting closer to the small bones. He is getting closer to the small brother of the big bone. He is getting closer to the small brother of the big bone.’ He did not want the man to eat the small bones at the joint,” and it was from Wolverine-man that people learned not to eat these. He said, “T am not saying this to you because I hate you. If anybody swallows these, the weather is not clear on top of the mountain. It is always fogey, and one can kill nothing. This is why I am telling you.” Meanwhile the people in the camps hunted every day for this man but in vain. By and by Wolverine-man said to him, ‘‘Go around to the other side of the mountain and sit down where the ground-hogs’ places are.’’ He went there every day, but always came home without anything. Wolverine-man, however, brought him a great load every time. Finally Wolverine-man told him to go and cut off two small limbs with hisax. People generally carried a stone ax when off hunting. With these he made a trap for him and named it Never-lasting-over-night (Hanka’k!ixé). It was so named because it was certain to catch. When they went up next day, Wolverine-man said, ‘‘I am going this way. Do not set your trap until you see a large ground hog going into a hole. Set it there.” Soon after he left Wolverine-man he saw a big ground hog going into its hole. He set up his trap there, stood near, and watched. Soon he heard the crack of his trap falling. He set it up many times, and each time he caught one. He killed four that day. That is why the trap is called Never-lasting-over-night. From that time on he increased the size of his catch every day, while Wolverine-man did not catch much. When he got home with all his ground hogs Wolverine-man lay down by the fire and began singing, ‘*What I would have killed has all gone over to a lazy man’s side.”’ Next morning, when they again started off to hunt, Wolverine-man, instead of continuing on his usual route, came back to see what his companion was doing. Then he climbed into a tree to watch him, began to play around in the tree, and afterwards suddenly fell down. He wanted to deceive the trapper. This tree is a small bushy one called s!ax, and it is Wolverine-man’s wife with which he had really been cohabiting. The man, however, observed what he was doing, and returned home at once, upon which Wolverine-man became so ashamed that he lay down and covered himself with ashes. After that Wolverine-man told his guest to lie down and cover himself up. Then he took his urinal full of urine, with two white a The knee-pan or the ankle and wrist bones, 38 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 rocks in it, to another place. He was going to bathe to purify himself from his wife. After he had purified himself, he came home, put grease into the fire and began to motion toward his face and to blow with his mouth. Then he took a wooden comb and began to comb his hair. The man had covered his head with the blanket but was watch- ing through a hole. Now the man arose and said to Wolverine-man, ‘‘I am going home to my children.” Then Wolverine-man told him not to say where he had been but to keep him in remembrance by means of the trap. He had stayed with Wolverine-man more than a month, and, when he went down, he had a big pack of skins. Then he began to distribute these to all his friends, telling them that he had discovered a place where there were lots of things, and that he had a trap which never failed to kill ground hogs and other animals if set on the mountain over night. When he explained to the people how to set up this trap, a man named Coward (Q!atxa’n) said, ‘‘I will go along with you.” This time they did not go way up to the place where Wolverine-man had helped him but into one of the lower valleys where there were many ground hogs. There they constructed a house out of dry sticks and began trapping. Coward had under- stood him to say that he caught ground hogs by whittling up sticks near the hole. That was what he was doing every day, until finally his companion said, ‘‘What do you do by the holes that you do not catch anything?’ He said, ‘‘Why, I have already cut up two big sticks by the holes.”” Then the other answered, ‘‘That is not right. You have to cut and make a trap with which to trap the ground hog.” After that this man thought he would do the same thing to the tree he had seen Wolverine-man do, but he fell to the ground and was barely able to crawl home. When he thought he had enough skins, he started to pack up and return. The trap was very valuable at that time because it was new, and anyone borrowing it paid a great deal. So he became wealthy by means of it. He went to every other town to let people know about it. They would invite him to a place, feast him, and ask him for it. He became very wealthy. 10. THE HALIBUT PEOPLE There was a very long town where people were fishing for halibut. One evening the daughter of the chief, whose house was in the middle of the place, went down on the beach to cut up halibut, and slipped on some halibut slime. She used bad words to it. A few days afterward many canoe-loads of people came to get this girl in marriage, and she started off with them. But, although they appeared to her like human beings, they were really the halibut peo- ple. As soon as they had left the village they went around a point, landed, and went up into the woods after spruce gum and _ pitch, SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS « 39 They brought down a great quantity of this, heated a rock in the fire and spread pitch all over it. When it was melted they seated the woman upon it. The two brothers of this girl searched along shore for her continually, and finally they discovered where she was; but she was dead. Then they felt very sad on her account and asked each other, ‘What shall we do about her?”” They thought of all kinds of schemes, and at last hit upon a plan. Then they went home, filled a bladder full of blood, and went out to the halibut fishing ground. The elder brother let his younger brother down on a line, but before he got far he lost his breath and had to be pulled up. So the elder brother prepared himself. He put on his sister's dress, took his knife and the bladder full of blood, and got safely to the bottom. When he arrived there he found himself in front of a house. Some one came out to look and then said to the chief inside, ‘‘Has your wife come out to see you?”” They thought it was the dead woman. So the halibut chief said, ‘‘Tell her to come in,’ and he married her. At this time the friends of the young man were vainly endeavoring to catch halibut, and he could see their hooks. Instead of coming into the houses these would fall around on the outside. They tried all kinds of hooks of native manufacture, but the only one that suc- ceeded was Raven-backbone-hook (Yél-ti’daq!é), which came right in through the smoke hole. After a while the halibut chief said, ‘‘Let us go and take a sweat bath.” [Frater autem puellae mortuae semper secum portabat vesi- cam cruore plenam, quo ungebat extrema vestem qua indutus erat, ut rhombum deciperet, dicens, ‘“‘Mensibus affectus sum; noli mihi appropinquare.’’| That night, as soon as the halibut chief was asleep, the man took his knife, cut the chief’s head off and ran outside with it. Every- body in the town was asleep. Then he jerked on his brother’s line, and his brother pulled him up along with the head. After that they paddled along shore for some time, and on the way the elder brother kept shooting at ducks with his arrows. Fi- nally he hit one and took it into the canoe. It was shivering, and his brother said, ‘‘ Look at this little duck. It is dying of cold. I wish you were by my father’s camp fire.”” On account of these bad words the canoe went straight down into the ocean. Arrived at the bottom, they saw a long town, and some one said, “Get out of the canoe and come up.” Then the duck led them up into the house of his grandfather, the killer whale—for the killer whale is grandfather to the duck—and a big fire was built for them. Then they seated the brothers close to this and said, ‘‘Do you think it is only your father who has a big fire?’”’ After they were so badly burned that their heads were made to turn backward with the heat, they were thrown outside. There they became the ducks called 40 ~ BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 Always-crying-around-[the-bay] (Yikaga’xe). You can hear them crying almost any time when you are in camp. They never got back to their friends. 11. STORIES OF THE MONSTER DEVILFISH? AND THE CRY-BABY® Many people once went to a certain camp to dry salmon. They did not know that a big devilfish lived under a steep cliff not very far from this place. In olden times, besides using hooks, they caught salmon by means of traps (cal), and when the trap was full, they would take out the fish and hang them on drying frames. When these people had many fish on the frames, they took off their covers so that the red color shone out on the ocean very distinctly. A man and his two brothers living at this camp were fond of hunt- ing, and one day, when very many salmon were on the frames, they started out. While they were gone the devilfish saw the glow on the water from the red salmon, threw his tentacles around the camp and swept every vestige of it into the sea. In those times a hunter washed in urine before going out hunting and was then sure to kill something, but on that day everything the hunters speared got away. When they returned to the camp, they saw many pieces of canoes drifting about the bay. Then they were very sad on account of the loss of their friends, but they did not know what had destroyed them. After they had remained there for four days, they told the youngest to climb to the top of a high hill and watch them. Then the eldest told his other brother to cut four young spruce trees, and he sharp- ened these, making two for himself and two for his brother. Early in the morning they loaded their canoe with rocks and prepared to meet the dangerous animal. They went out in front of the high cliff and began throwing rocks down there, the elder saying to his youngest brother, ‘‘ Look down.”’ After a while they saw the large devilfish coming up right under them. Then they took the sharpened sticks and began to pierce its flesh. The youngest watched all that happened. When their canoe was broken up, they climbed on top: of the devilfish and continued running the sticks into it until it died. When that happened it carried them down along with it. Then the youngest brother started off to find some settlement, and when he came to one, the people set out at once to look for his brothers. Finally they discovered the place to which the devilfish had floated, along with the hunters and their canoe. But it did not get the salmon it had destroyed so many people for. Then the SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 4] In the town to which these people belonged once lived a little boy who was always crying. His parents tried to rear him properly, yet he cried, cried, cried all the time. Finally his father shouted out, ‘““Come this way Djinakaxwa’ts!a.? Pull this boy away, for he cries too much.’”’ Toward evening he repeated the same words, and this time a land-otter-man behind the house shouted out stutteringly, “Bring my grandchild here and let him eat gatkadaxa’k!" to keep him quiet.’”’ So the little boy was taken away and given what appeared to him to be blackberries. Two days afterward they began searching for him, and they finally found him far up in the woods. When they brought him down he had a big belly and did not ery as loudly as he had _ before, so they thought that something was wrong. Then they boiled some dried salmon and gave him broth made fromit. The heat of this broth expelled all of the small creatures that had been given him to eat under the appearance of blackberries. Spiders began running out of his mouth, ears, nose, eyes, and buttocks. His insides were filled with them, and they had eaten out all of his flesh. When these were expelled, nothing was left but the skin which they threw away. 12. THE WOMAN WHO WAS KILLED BY A CLAM There was a famine at a certain town and many people had to depend on shellfish, so the women went down to the beach at low tide every day to gather them. One time a chief's daughter went down and reached far under a rock to find some clams. Then a large bivalve called xit closed upon her hand, holding her prisoner. Presently the tide began to rise, and, when it had almost reached her, she began singing a song about herself. She kept on singing until the tide passed right over her. Then all felt sad and held a feast for her at which they put food, blankets, and other things into the water. 13. KOOT-STUMP? There was a certain town in which many people were dying of sickness, but those who felt well used to play shinney on the beach every day. Then something came down through the air and one of them seized it and was dragged up from the ground. Another per- son grasped his feet, endeavoring to pull him back, but he, too, was carried up and another and another until there were ten. All of these were taken up out of sight. The next day the same thing came down a second time, and ten more were carried off. This happened every day until all the men a The name of some man that had been captured by land otters. bSee story 49. 42 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 in the town were gone. Next it came to a woman, and all the women were carried away in the same manner except two. These two women now walked along the beach calling for help. They did not know whither their friends had gone. And every day they went up into the forest after roots. One day, after they had gone up into the woods, one of these women began swallowing root-juice, and: it formed a child in her. This was born and proved to be a boy. After he had grown a little larger, his mother named him Root-stump (Xat-ctigt’Lk!i). This is what helped her. All the men who used to chop canoes away from town had also disappeared. The child grew very rapidly and repeatedly asked his mother, ‘“Where have all my friends gone?” She said to him, ‘‘We do not know. They kept going up into the air.’ When he was a little larger he began to test himself. He would go up to a tree, seize ¢ limb, and try to stretch himself. Then roots would run out from him in every direction because his mother had named him to have that sort of strength.“ His mother said to him, ‘‘ Look out when you go down on the beach to play, because those who do so go up into the air and you will also go up. So look out.” Then he ran down to the beach and began playing. All at once the thing came down. He seized it, and imme- diately roots grew out from him into the ground in every direction. So he pulled down the thing that was killing his people, and it broke into small pieces. There was another being in the woods who always chopped and made noises to entice people to him in order to kill them. He was in the habit of killing people by asking them to get into his canoe, when he knocked out a thwart so that it closed in upon them. He was the one who had killed the canoe-makers. Root-stump once found this man engaged in making a canoe, and the man asked him to jump inside. Root-stump knew what he was about, however, and jumped out too quickly. Then Root-stump was so angry that he seized the canoe- maker and beat his brains out. He broke up the canoe and piled it on top of him. This boy grew up into a very fine man. He brought in all kinds of things for his mother. If he were hunting mountain sheep and came to achasm or other similar place, he would cross it by sticking his roots into the ground on the other side. This is why they say even at the present time to a woman who works with roots, ‘‘Do not swallow the sap. You might have a baby from it.” a The exact words of the story-teller. SWANTON ] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 43 14. THE PROTRACTED WINTER One time some boys pulled a piece of drifting seaweed out of the water on one side of their canoe and put it in again on the other. It was almost summer then, but, for having done this, winter came on again and snow was piled high in front of the houses so that people began to be in want of food. One day, however, a blue jay perched on the edge of a smoke hole, with elderberries in its mouth, and cried, “Kilna’xe.”’ This was the name of a neighboring town. So the people took all the cedar bark they had prepared to make houses out of and went to Kilna’xe where they found that it was already summer and the berries were ripe. Only about their own town was it still winter. This happened just beyond the town of Wrangell. I tell you this story to show how particular people used to be in olden times about things, for it was only a piece of seaweed that brought winter on. 15. BEAVER AND PORCUPINE? A porcupine and a beaver were once very close friends.? They traveled about everywhere and reported to each other all that happened. The bear is very much afraid of the porcupine, but he hates the beaver. Wherever the beaver has a dam the bear breaks it up so as to let the water down, catches the beaver and eats him. But he is afraid of the porcupine’s sharp quills, so the porcupine sometimes stayed in the beaver’s house, which is always dry inside. When the lake began falling, they knew it was caused by the bear, and the porcupine would go out to reconnoiter. Then he would come back and say to his friend, ‘‘Do not go out. I will go out first.” Then the bear would be afraid of the porcupine’s sharp quills and go ~ away, after which all the beavers began repairing their dam while the porcupine acted as guard. By and by the porcupine said to the beaver, ‘‘I am hungry. I want to go to my own place.’ Porcupine got his food from the bark and sap of trees, so he told the beaver to go up a tree with him, but the beaver could not climb. Then the porcupine told him to stay below while he went up to eat. Soon they saw the bear coming, and the beaver said, ‘‘Partner (x0’ne), what shall I do? The bear is getting near.’ Then the porcupine slid down quickly and _ said, ‘“‘Lay your head close to my back.” In that way he got the beaver to the top of the tree. But, after a while, the porcupine left him, and the beaver did not know how to climb down. He began to beg the porcupine in every way to let him down, but in vain. After quite a while, however, the squirrel, another friend of the beaver, aSee story 63. b’ Wuteyaqa’wu, signifying friendship between people regardless of relationship. 44 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 29 came to him and helped him down, while the porcupine was off in a hole in the rocks with a number of other porcupines. By and by the porcupine went back and saw his friend swimming in the lake. The beaver asked him down to the lake and then said, “Partner, let us go out to the middle of the lake. Just put your head on the back of my head and you will not get wet at all.” Be- cause these two friends fell out, people now become friends, and, after they have loved each other for a while, fall out. Then the porcupine did as he was directed, the beaver told him to hold on tight, and they started. The beaver would flap his tail on the water and dive down for some distance, come to the surface, flap his tail, and eo down again; and he repeated the performance until he came to an island in the center of the lake. Then he put the porcupine ashore and went flapping away from him in the same manner. Now the little porcupine wandered around the whole island, not knowing how to get off. He climbed a tree, came down again, and climbed another, and so on. But the wolverine lived on the main- land near by, so after a while he began to sing for the wolverine (nask) ‘‘ Nt-u-seué-e’, Nti-u-sgué-e’, Nti-u-seué-e’.”” He called all the animals on the mainland, but he called the wolverine especially, because he wanted the north wind to blow so that it would freeze.4 Then the wolverine called out, ‘What is the matter with you?” So he at last sang a song about himself, saying that he wanted to go home badly. After Ite had sung this the whole sea froze over, and the porcupine ran across it to his home. This is why they were going to be friends no longer. Then the porcupine made friends with the ground hog and they stayed up between the mountains where they could see people when- ever they started up hunting. One day a man started out, and when they saw him, the porcupine began singing, “‘Up to the land of ground hog. Up to the land of ground hog.” The man heard him. That is why people know that the porcupine sings about the ground hog. After this the man began trapping ground hogs for food and caught a small ground hog. Te took it home and skinned it. Then he took off the head and heated some stones in order to cook it. When he was just about to put it into the steaming box the head sang plainly, “Poor little head, my poor little head, how am I going to fill him?” The man was frightened, and, instead of eating, he went to his traps in the morning, took them up (lit. ‘‘threw them off’) and came home. Next morning he reported everything to his friends, saying, ‘‘I killed a ground hog, skinned it and started to cook the head. Then it said to me, ‘Poor little head.’’’ After that he went out to see his aSee Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 453. SWANTON ] , TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 45 bear traps. While he was endeavoring to tighten the release of one of these, the dead fall came down and struck him in the neck, making his head fly off. When he had been absent for two days they searched for him and found him in his own trap. This was what the ground hog had predicted when it said, ‘‘My poor little head.” They took his body down to the beach, beat the drums for him, and had a feast on the ground hogs and other animals he had trapped. 16. THE POOR MAN WHO CAUGHT WONDERFUL THINGS There was a long town from which all the people used to go out fishing for halibut and other large fish every day. In those times, before bone was used, they made hooks of two pieces of spruce from young trees, sharpened the point and hardened it in the fire. For lines they dried slender kelp stems. A very poor man living at one end of the town fished among the others, but did not catch anything. While they were having a good time fishing he remained perfectly quiet, and they kept laughing at him. One day, when he pulled at his line, it acted as if it were fast to something. He thought it had caught upon a rock and pulled it about in the endeavor to free it. All at once it began to come slowly up, and, although every one laughed at him, he held on. After’ he had brought it close to the canoe, he looked down and saw that 1t was a great live abalone caught in the flesh. Its color shone out of the water. As it ascended it was so big that all the ‘anoes seemed to come inside of it, and it shone in every one’s face. Then some people who wanted to take this valuable thing away from him, said, ‘‘Cut the line. It is a great thing that you have caught. You better let it go.” After a while he became tired of the people’s talk, so he cut his line. Then it began to go down very slowly, shining all over. Then others came to him and said, ‘‘You did not do the right thing. It is a very valuable thing you let go.” He said, ‘‘Has it sunk?”? So nowadays, when a person has lost a valuable thing, they say to him, ‘‘Is it an abalone that has sunk?” (Dé’ca gu’nxa ak we wut!a’q!) Whenever he thought about this he cried at the riches he had let go. ; Another time they went out fishing, and he was with them. He had a sponge in his hand, and taking a piece of flesh out of his nose inside so as to make it bleed, he filled the sponge with blood and let it down into the ocean. When he began to pull up his hook, it was again fast. He pulled it up slowly, for it was very heavy. It was another valuable thing, the nest of a fish called ieqé’n. Then he filled his canoe with these fishes, called the other canoes to him and filled them. After that he stood up in his canoe and said, ‘‘The abalone has not been drowned from me yet. I still have it.’ He 46 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 distributed these fishes all over the town and began to get rich from the property he received. People gave him all kinds of skins—moose, ‘aribou, fox, etc. He had great stores of riches from having caught the abalone and the nest of fishes. i, THE: FINDING OF THE BLUE? PAINT “AND HOW? CERTAIN CREEK RECEIVED ITS NAME At Sitka lived four brothers who were very fond of hunting. In those days people liked to hunt about the straits north of Sitka for fur seals, sea otters, ete. One day, while they were out, they were forced to take refuge from a storm at a place near Mount Edgecumbe, ‘ralled Town-on-the-inside-of-blue-paint-point (Nexi/ntaiataq!-an), and while hunting about this place during their long stay they dis- covered a rocky cave or overhanging cliff from which soft blue stuff continually dropped. The youngest said, ‘‘I have discovered a val- uable thing which will be used for painting and for everything carved.” After they had been there for a long time the weather became fine and the seasmooth. Nowin olden times people knew that everything was dangerous. When the brothers were about to start, they said, ‘“We will take some off now to carry home.” So they knocked off a big piece, rolled it up among their clothes and hid it away. But the canoe had scarcely started before the sea began to get rough.’ When they were some way out they headed for an island outside of Edge- cumbe which they had to pass. Then the eldest, who was steering, began to compose a song about the course he was taking: ‘‘ Which way shall I steer the canoe, straight out into the ocean or straight on to the shore?”’ The youngest said, ‘‘There is no way of getting home. Would it not be better to throw this blue paint into the water? Then we can get ashore.” So the eldest brother put in the next verse as follows: ‘‘Which way shall we ‘steer, straight in or not? Shall we not throw this blue paint into the water? If not how shall we be saved?’ Then he exciaimed, ‘‘ Bring the blue stuff here and tie it to my head, and I will be drowned with it so that things shall eat me up with it.” They were not drowned, however, and reached shore in safety, so people still speak of their bravery in not throwing the blue paint overboard. To this day they say that, if you take anything from there, the weather will be stormy, and people are still afraid to do it, but take the risk because the thing obtained is valuable. For a long time after the brothers reached shore with this blue paint the weather was bad and great rollers came sweeping in out of the ocean. No one could go to sea after halibut. At that time some people were camping a short distance north of Sitka, and one day two women went from there with their children to dig clams. They came into a small inlet and made their camp. SWANTON ] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 47 Then the women began bringing up shellfish, which they afterwards boiled to get the insides out, ran small sticks through them, and hung them up to dry for their children. One day they went down on the beach as usual, leaving their babies in camp, and the smallest began crying. Then a child somewhat larger shouted, ‘‘ The baby is crying. The baby is crying.”’ Its mother said, ‘‘ Bury one of those cockles in the fire and cook it for her,” but the little boy -under- stood his mother to say, ‘‘Dig a hole for your little sister in the fire and put her into it.’ So the little boy began to pull the fire apart and to make a hole in the middle of it. He tried to knock his little sister into this hole but she kept getting up again, so he shouted, “She keeps trying to get away from me.’ After a while he became too strong for his little sister, put her in, and covered her over. When his mother came up, she said, ‘‘ Little son, where is your lit- tle sister?’”’ ‘I have buried her in the fire. She is there.” So after that they named the stream Creek-where-a-person-was-burned (K.a’xsiganihin). 18. VARIOUS ADVENTURES NEAR CROSS SOUND There is a place in the neighborhood of Cross sound called K!udé’s- q!ayik, which people used to frequent in olden times to hunt, catch halibut, and so on. People were then in the habit of traveling from ‘amp to camp a great deal. One time a man and his wife went out to to get cedar bark off from some trees, and the man went quite a dis- tance up into the woods from his wife with his stone ax and tree climber. This tree-climber was an apparatus composed of ropes, with a board for the climber to stand on. But, while he was high up in a tree, the board slipped from under the man’s feet, and the rope held him tight to the tree by his neck so that he died. Since he did not come back, his wife went home and reported that he was missing. Then they hunted for him everywhere, and finally a man found him hanging from the tree dead. The dead man was brother of a chief. So they took the board that had fallen from under his feet home, laid it across the neck of a slave and killed him to be revenged on the board. They kept the board and exhibited it at feasts. Afterward people were called for the death feast. People continued going to the different bays hunting, and one day a canoe with two men in it anchored close by a cliff. While they were there one of them saw two huge devilfish arms moving across the bay. They ran ashore and hid under a rock, letting the arms pass over them, while the devilfish took the canoe into its hole under water. Then the men started up the hill. On their way home they saw in a small creek what appeared to be a little halibut, but on coming 48 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 closer they found that it was only a white rock which had that appearance. After they had reached home and had reported what had hap- pened, all the people began to chop at a log. Then they started a big fire and began to burn it. But, when it was half burned, they put out the fire by throwing hot water upon it. They were going to take it to the devilfish hole and drown it there. .So they took it over to that place and let it down, but never saw it again. Later four other men went hunting by canoe one autumn to a place called Watas!a’x, where they encamped. By and by one of the party, on going to his traps, found a big land otter in one of them. He took the bough of a tree, twisted it around the land otter’s neck, and carried it home. He did not know what it was. As he dragged it home it went bouncing along behind him and at every bounce something whistled behind him. Arrived at camp he began to skin it. Then he said to his brothers, ‘Go and get your pot ready to cook it,” but, when they began to cut it up to put it in, something whistled. ‘That is just what I heard on the way,” he said. After the pot had boiled and they had begun eating, something began to whistle in a tree near by and threw a rock down. They threw one back and soon rocks were flying back and forth. It was a great thing to fool with. By and by the men said, “‘ You might cut our faces,’ so, instead of throwing rocks, they seized long cones and threw these back and forth all night. Toward morning the being in the tree, which was a land-otter-man, began to hit people, and they on their part had become very tired. Finally they tried to get him down by lighting a fire under the tree where he was sit- ting. When it was burning well, all suddenly shouted, and he fell into it. Then they threw the fire over him, and he burned up. But when they started for the beach to go home, all wriggled from side to side and acted as if they were crazy; and when anyone went to that place afterward he would act in the same manner. These men lived at a place called Person-petrified (Cakdahana’), and when they came home, it was told them, ““A woman and her child have been lost from this place.” This woman had been at- tacked by some strange man, whom she also killed with the pole which was used to take off cedar bark. At that time many per- sons had disappeared, and the people were wearied out looking for them. Now, however, they were determined to find the murderers, so all got into one canoe and started along the coast. After a time the high waves compelled them to encamp, and all went up into the woods to hunt through them for a beach. Then they came to a house made of driftwood, where the murderers lived. They went to each end where the main stringer protruded, lifted it off of its SWANTON ] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 49 supporting posts and let it fall on the occupants. Those who tried to get out between the logs they killed. Then they set the ruined house on fire and burned it with all it contained; and they broke up the canoe belonging to those people. Close by lived a shaman related to the same people. His spirits told him that there was a mountain near by where flint could be obtained. His spirits had so much strength that he went right to that place and broke it off. In those days every time a shaman cut an animal’s tongue he had more strength, so, when his strength was all combined, it amounted to considerable. At that time the people did not have any flint, but, after the spirit discovered it, all knew where it was to be found, and they have since brought it from there. 19. KATS!¢ Kats! belonged to the Ka’gwantan and lived at Sitka. One day he went hunting with dogs, and, while his dogs ran on after a male bear, this bear’s wife took him into her den, concealed him from her husband, and married him. He had several children by her. In- doors the bears take off their skin coats and are just like human beings. By and by he wanted to go back to his people, but before he started she told him not to smile at or touch his Indian wife or take up either of his children. After his return, he would go out for seal, sea lions, and other animals which he carried up into an inlet where his bear wife was awaiting him. Then the cubs would come down, pull the canoe ashore violently, take out the game and throw it from one to another up to their mother. On account of the roughness of these cubs it came to be a saying in Sitka, “If you think you are brave, be steersman for Kats!.” One day Kats! pitied one of his children and took it up. The next time he went up the inlet, however, the cubs seized him and threw him from one to another up to their mother, and so killed him. Then they scattered all over the world and are said to have been killed in various places. What is thought to have been the last of these was killed at White Stone Narrows. When some people were encamped there a girl spoke angrily about Kats!’s child, and it came upon them, killing all except a few who escaped in their canoes, and this woman, whom it carried off alive, making her groan with pain. One man tried to kall it but did not cut farther than its hair. Finally all the Indians together killed it with their spears and knives.°? a See story 69; also Boas, Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Ktiste Amerikas, p. 328. b Because a human being married among the grizzly bears, people will not eat grizzly-bear meat. 49438—Bull. 39—09—4 50 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 20. THE UNSUCCESSFUL HUNTERS Two persons very fond of hunting were in the habit of washing in urine, as was usual in old times when one wanted something very much. Then they went to a sea-lion rock, and one of them threw his spear at a sea lion but the point broke off the handle. The animal was the sea-lion-chief’s son. Afterwards the man who had done it was drowned, but his companion reached the sea-lion rock in safety. He looked about for his friend, but could not see him, so he went up on top of the rock, lay down, and, pulling the grass over himself, fell asleep. While he was asleep and dreaming, some one came to him and said, ‘‘I come to help you.” He awoke, but there was nothing visible except nesting birds flying about the island. Then he again fell asleep, and again he heard some one come to him and say, ‘‘T come to help you. The place you have drifted upon is a house. When you hear the noise of a shaman’s beating sticks, go straight to the door of the place from which it comes.” Soon he heard the noise of the sticks, as the man had forewarned him, just a little below the place where he was lying. He stepped forward quietly, and lo! he came to the door of a fine, large house. Inside of this he saw those who were beating the sticks and a man lying sick ‘‘with pneumonia,’ out of whom the string of the spear hung. Then he crept in quietly, hiding behind the people, and said within himself, ‘‘If it were I, I would push that spear in a little farther, twist it to one side and pull it out.”’ Upon this everybody said, “‘Make way for him. This shaman says he can take the spear out by twisting it and then pulling out.” He said to himself, ‘‘I guess I can do it,” so he let them have their way. Then he came out in the middle of the house, pulled his blanket about himself, used his hand like a rattle and ran around the fire just like ashaman. When he went to the spear and moved it a little, the sick man cried out. After that he let it alone for a while. He wished very much that they would give him in payment a large animal stomach which was hang- ing on a post. So the man’s father said, ‘‘Pay it to him.” Now he tied his blanket tightly about himself and said, ‘‘ Bring in some water.’ Then he ran around the sick man again, and, when he came to where the spear was, he summoned all his strength, pushed it in a little, turned it round slightly and pulled it out. At once he pushed it into the water in the customary manner and blew eagle down upon it, when all of the white matter came out of the wound and the sick man got his breath. After that he hid the spear quickly from the eyes of the people. When he went out, the man who had first come to his assistance came again. This was the puffin (xik). It said, ‘‘Take that big stomach, get inside, and go home in it. After you get inside do not think of this place again.”’ He did as the puffin had directed, but, when oO (S) SWANTON | TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS ol he was within a short distance of the shore, he thought of the place where he had been and immediately floated back to the island. The second time the skin carried him right ashore. Then he got out, went home to his friends and reported everything that had happened. Another canoe also set out to hunt in much the same way. After the people had gone on for a very long time unsuccessfully, they came upon a great seal standing out of the water, and one of the hunters speared it. It was nothing but an old log drifting about which had appeared to him like a seal. That night they anchored their canoe in front of a steep cliff not far from this place and prepared to spend the night there. By and by they heard a skate flopping along on the water near by, whereupon the steersman took his spear and struck it on one side of the belly. Then the skate swam right down into the ocean. This skate was a slave of the Gonaqadé’t who lived under that same cliff, and when the Gonaqadeé’t heard him groaning under the house steps where he always stayed, he said to one of his other slaves, ‘‘Get up and find what he is groaning about.” Then the skate said, ‘There is a canoe outside here. The people in that canoe have done something to me.” Then the Gonaqadé’t awoke all his slaves’ nephews and _ said, ‘Bring that canoe in here.” Presently the man in the bow of the canoe awoke and looked about. Their canoe was on top of the inside partitions of a house. He took something and poked his steersman quietly to awaken him, for he saw that something was wrong. Early in the morning the Gonaqadé’t awoke and said to his nephews, ‘‘ Make a big fire.” Then he exclaimed angrily, “It is of no use to bother poor slaves. Why did they want to kill that slave?’ Meanwhile the friends of these people were searching for them everywhere. Then the chief told them to come forward, saying to them, ‘‘ You will now be judged.” One could not see the part of the house near the door, it was so crowded with the nephews and friends of the Gonaqade’t (1. e., all kinds of fishes and marine animals) dressed in every style. They said to them, ‘‘To what tribe do you belong?” and the bow man replied, ‘‘We are of the Katagwa’di family.”” Then the chief said, ‘‘If one is going to visit a person, he should enter his house in a polite manner and not destroy anybody. Let them wash their hands. Give them food and dress them up well. I am a Katagwa’di myself, so you are my friends.” Then they fixed them up well, dressing them and combing their hair. But at home the people were beating drums, because they thought these men were dead, 52 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [RULL. 39 Then the chief said to them, ‘‘When you build a house, name it Rock House (Ta hit). -It is a good thing that we use each other’s emblems.” Afterward the Gonaqadé’t’s people loaded their canoe, combed their hair with cottonwood boughs so that it smelt good, and let them go home. : And when they first reached home they were dressed so finely that the people did not know them. The chief said to his friends, ‘‘A ereat living thing saved us. He gave us a thing to go by which shall be our emblem, namely, that whenever we build a house we shall call it Rock House. 21. ORIGIN OF ICEBERG HOUSE 4 A- man and his wife were living at a certain fort. At that time some disease came into the world and destroyed all of their uncles, fathers, and friends. Then the man thought within himself, ‘‘T ought to give some sort of feast to my dead friends,” and he began to gather berries. One day a quantity of ice floated up on the beach below him. He took this up piece by piece and put it into the house, treating the pieces as his guests. He poured a great deal of oil into the fire to make it blaze. Then he took dishes, put berries into them, and placed these in front of the pieces of ice to show that he was sorry for the dead people, and desired to give some one a feast. After he had given to them, the ice gave forth a kind of squeak as if the pieces were talking to him, though he could not make out what was said. It is from this squeak that the people now know that he invited them, and it is from this circumstance also that, when ice drifts down upon a person in a canoe, he talks to it and gives it tobacco, calling it ‘‘My son’s daughter” or “‘My son’s wife.” This is ahead of the Tetikane’dt (i. e., the beginning of the Tctikane’di clan). ‘Therefore they own Iceberg House.’ Afterwards this man went out again. He said to himself, “‘I will invite anyone out on the sea that hears me.” After he had gotten well out in his canoe he shouted, ‘‘Everybody this way. Everybody this way,” just as though he were calling guests, and immediately crowds of the bear tribe, thinking they were the ones invited, began coming down between the mountains. When he saw these animals coming, the man told his wife to be courageous, but for himself he said he did not care whether he lived or died, because all of his friends were dead. When the bear people began to come in, he told them to go up to the rear end of the house, saying, ‘‘It is your brother-in-law’s seat you are going to sit down a See story 64. 6 This man can not have belonged to the Tetikane’di himself, because the ice he invited must be of the opposite clan, but his wife may have been. He perhaps belonged to the T!a’q!dentan, SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 53 in’’ G. e., that was where he formerly sat). His wife was somewhat frightened, but he talked to them as if they were his own people. As he called out the names of the dead men who had held those seats they would say in turn, ‘‘Hade’ (present), and he would pass a dish up to the speaker. After they were through eating the chief of the bear tribe said to his friends very plainly, ‘‘Do not leave this man friendless, but go to him every one of you and show your respect.’’ So they told the man to lie down in front of them, and before they left they licked him, meaning that thereby they licked his sorrow away. They said, ‘‘This is because you feel lonely.”” Then the bears started off. At that time men from some other town came near, watched the big animals come out and heard the man speak to them as if they were his own friends, but they were afraid to go near. 22. THE WOMAN TAKEN AWAY BY THE FROG PEOPLE? There was a large town in the Yakutat country not very far back of which lay a big lake very full of frogs. In the middle of the lake was a swampy patch on which many frogs used to sit. One day the town-chief’s daughter talked badly to the frogs. She took one up and made fun of it, saying, ‘‘There are so many of these creatures, | wonder if they do things like human beings. I wonder if men and women cohabit among them.” When she went out of doors that night, a young man came to her and said, ‘‘May I marry you?” She had rejected very many men, but she wanted to marry this one right away. Pointing toward the lake he said, ‘‘ My father’s house is right up here,” and the girl replied, ‘‘ How fine it looks!’”” When they went up to it, it seemed as though a door was opened for them, but in reality the edge of the lake had been raised. They walked under. So many young people were there that she did not think of home again. Meanwhile her friends missed her and hunted for her everywhere. Finally they gave her up, and her father had the drums beaten for a death feast. They cut their hair and blackened their faces. Next spring a man who was about to go hunting came to the lake to bathe himself with urine. When he was done, he threw the urine among a number of frogs sitting there and they jumped into the water. When he was bathing next day he saw all the frogs sitting together in the middle of the lake with the missing woman among them. He dressed as quickly as possible, ran home to the girl’s father, and said, “T saw your daughter sitting in the middle of the pond in company with a lot of frogs.’ So her father and mother went up that evening with a number of other people, saw, and recognized her. a See story 76. This myth is more often localized at Wrangell, and the woman’s name is said to have been Qaltsi’xkli, 54 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 After that they took all kinds of things to make the frog tribe feel good so that they would let the woman return to her parents, but in vain. By and by her father determined upon a plan and called all of his friends together. Then he told them to dig trenches out from the lake in order to drain it. From the lake the frog chief could see how the people had determined, and he told his tribe all about it. The frog people call the mud around a lake their laid-up food. After the people had worked away for some time, the trench was completed and the lake began draiming away fast. The frogs asked the woman to tell her people to have pity on them and not destroy all, but the people killed none because they wanted only the girl. Then the water flowed out, carrying numbers of frogs which scattered in every direction. All the frog tribe then talked poorly about them- selves, and the frog chief, who had talked of letting her go before, now had her dressed up and their own odor, which they called ‘‘sweet perfumery,’ was put upon her. After a while she came down the trench half out of water with her frog husband beside her. They pulled her out and let the frog go. When anyone spoke to this woman, she made a popping noise “Hu,” such as a frog makes, but after some time she came to her senses. She explained, ‘‘It was the Kikca’ G. e., Kiksa’di women) that floated down with me,” meaning that all the frog women and men had drifted away. The woman could not eat at all, though they tried everything. After a while they hung her over a pole, and the black mud she had eaten when she was among the frogs came out of her, but, as soon as it was all out, she died. Because this woman was taken away by the frog tribe at that place, the frogs there can under- stand human beings very well when they talk to them. It was a Kiksa’di woman who was taken off by the frogs, and so those people can almost understand them. They also have songs from the frogs, frog personal names, and the frog emblem. All the people know about them. 23. HOW THE FROGS HONORED THE DEAD One time, when they were afraid of being attacked, all of the Kiks- a’di and Ka’gwantan encamped on Kanasq!é’ (St. Lazaria island). There are two parts to this island separated at high tide, and the Kiksa’di encamped upon one, while the Kagwantan lived upon the other. On the same island there is also a small salt water pond at the bottom of which was a creature called L!in, and, bemg pressed for food on account of their fear of the enemy, the allies often tried to bail out this pond when the tide left it, to get at the sea animal. While the people were there, a chief of the Ka’gwantan died, and, after he had been in the house among his friends for eight days, one of his friends said to the Kiksa’di, ‘‘ Take care of his dead body.”’ All the SWANTON ] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 5D Ka’ewantan chiefs marry Kikea’ (Xiksa’di women). But the real frog tribe thought they were the ones who were summoned, because they are also Kikea’. Then all the Kiksa’di made ready to go ashore to burn his dead body. They chopped much wood and made a fire, while all of the Kiksa‘di and Ka’gwantan stood around it, and everyone felt badly. All at once a big frog, as long as the hand and wrist, jumped out from the place where the fire was and began makinga noise. Alllooked at it. It had come out because the frogs were the ones to whom the Ka’gwantan had spoken. After that it jumped into the fire and burned up. Then all the people tied themselves up (ga’xani) (. e., tied their blankets around their waists, as they did when they were engaged in lifting the sun”) out of respect to the chief. All felt very badly about the dead man, and one person said, ‘‘It will not be like draining out the Lin lake (Lin a’ya). Let us goto war.” So they captured slaves and killed them for the dead man, and, when they put food into the fire for him, they also named the frog that it might receive some as well. 24. THE BRANT WIVES > A Kiksa’di youth lived with his father in a long town. When he was well grown, he went about in the woods hunting with bow and arrows. One time he came close to a lake and heard the voices of girls. When he got nearer he saw two girls bathing there. Then he skirted the shore toward them, and, when he was very close, discovered two coats just back of the place where they were. These were really the girls’ skins. He took them up, and they began talking to him, saying, ‘‘Give us those skins.”’ But he said, ‘“‘I want to marry both of you.” So he married both of them and took them to his father’s house. Both of this man’s wives used to look over his hair to pick out the lice. When spring was coming on and the brants were coming from the south, the girls sat on top of the house with him and kept saying, “There comes my uncle’s canoe. There comes my father’s canoe.” They were beginning to get homesick, and they asked their husband if he would let them go home. When the brants began coming, one would say, ‘‘Those are my friends coming up. I am going to ask them to give me something to eat.’ So, when they were above the house, she said, ‘‘Give me something to eat,” and down came green herbs one after another. When it was time for the brants to start back south, both of the giris had become tired. They wanted to go home. They knew when it was time for their father’s canoe to pass over, and just before it was due they told their husband to go up into the woods after some- aSee Twenty-sizth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 430. b See story 54. 56 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 thing. When he came down, his wives were gone. He said to his father, ‘‘Do you know where they went?” but he answered, ‘‘ No.” Then the young man said, ‘‘T will start down on foot to the place whither I think they have gone.” So he set out, and after he had gone on for some time, he heard people making a noise. It was the brant tribe in camp. On this journey he took a bag full of arrows with mussel-shell points, and bows. For this reason, when he came_ back of the place where they were, and they caught sight of him, they were afraid and flew away. Then he went down to the place where they had been sitting and found all kinds of green herbs such as brants live on. After this the girls said to their father, ‘‘Let us camp a little way off. He has been with us for some time, and we have gotten his heat. Therefore let us camp near by so that he can come to us and be taken along.’ But their father answered, ‘‘When he comes be- hind us again and camps, say to him, ‘Our fathers? do not like to see your bows and arrows. Get rid of them.’” They came to him and repeated these words, but he said, ‘‘I do not take them in order to do harm to your fathers but to get game for myself. I wish you would tell them that I want to go along, too.’ So they told him to come down,:-and, when he did so, his father-in-law said, ‘Bring out the best coat. I want to put it on my son-in-law.” After that his wives said to him, ‘‘ We are going to start along with you. When we set out do not think about going back and do not look down.’ Then they put a woven mat over him and started. After they had gone on for some distance the man wanted to urinate and dropped down from among them on the smooth grass. The brants did not want to leave him, and they followed. It was quite close to their real camping place. The brant tribe was so large that he felt as if he were in his own father’s house. They would play all the evening, and he felt very happy among them. When they arrived at their real home, this man took off his bag of bows and arrows and hid it back in the woods so that they could not see it. In the same town were fowls of all kinds—brants, swans, herons, ete.—and by and by war arose over a woman, between the brant tribe and the heron tribe. They went outside and started to fight. The swan tribe was between, trying to make peace. When they came out to fight for the second time, the brant tribe was pretty well destroyed by the heron people’s long, pick-like bills. It was from the herons that the Indians learned how to make picks. This is also the reason why the L!ak!naxa’di use the swan as their crest, for they are very slow, and the Kiksa’di use the brant as their em- blem because they are very lively. a Meaning their father and his brothers. SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 57 Then the brant chief said to his son-in-law, ‘‘ Your wives’ friends are almost destroyed. Could you do anything with your bows and arrows to help them?’ You could not see whether these were brants or people. They looked just lke people to him. When he ran among them to help his wives’ friends, he killed numbers at each shot and made them flee away from him. The heron tribe was so scared that they sent out word they would make peace. So messengers were sent back and forth, and the heron chief was taken up among the brants while the brant chief was taken up among the herons.“ They renamed the heron with his own name and the brant with his own name. In making peace they had a great deal of sport and all sorts of dances. From that time on the heron has known how to dance, and one always sees him dancing by the creeks. Then the birds began to lay up herbs and all kinds of things that grow along the beach, for their journey north. Meanwhile the man’s people had already given a feast for him, and he never returned to his father. He became as one of the brants. That is why in olden times, when brants were flying along, the people would ask them for food. 25.5 LORY OF THE. PUREIN There is a place called Ganaxa’ and a creek close by called Ganaxa’- hin whither many people used to go to dry salmon and do other work. One day some women went out from there at low tide to a neighboring island to dig shellfish. They brought their canoe to a place where there was a hole in the side of the island, but, when they endeavored to land, a breaker came in, upset the canoe, and drowned all of them except one. In former times, when this woman went by in her father’s canoe, she used to think the birds here looked pretty and was in the habit of saying, ‘“‘I wish I could sit among those birds.”’ These birds were the ones that saved her. They felt so happy at having gotten her that they flew about all the time. Meanwhile drums were beaten at the town to call people to the death feast, for they thought that she was drowned. One time a canoe from the village containing her father happened to pass this place, and they said to him, “‘Look among those birds. Your daughter is sitting there.’ The puffin chief had ordered the tagwé’te!, a bird which lives on the outer islands and is the puffin’s slave, to braid the woman’s hair, and she always sat on the edge of the cliff. Her father was very rich, so he filled many canoes with sea-otter, beaver, and marten skins for the birds to settle on when they flew out. When they reached the place, however, he could not see his aSee Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 451. 58 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 daughter, for they had taken her inside. Then he became angry. They carried all sorts of things out there but in vain. | At last, about four days afterward, the girl’s mother thought of the white hair that had belonged to her grandfather. In the morning she said to her husband, ‘‘We have that old hair in a box. What can we do with it?) We ought to try a strategeni with it. Suppose we put boards on the canoes, spread the hair all over them, and take it out.” They did this, and, when they got to the cliff where their daughter used to be, they saw her sitting on the edge with her hair hanging over. They went close in. Then all the birds flew out to them, and each stuck a white hair in its head where you may see it at this day. The girl, however, remained where she was. Then these birds flew in to the puffin chief and told him about the hair. They thought a great deal of it. Therefore the chief told them to carry the girl back to her father. But before she went he said to her, ‘If you are ever tired of staying with your father, come back to us.”’ At that time she had a nose just like one of these birds, because she had wanted to be one of them. The sea gull is also the slave of the puffin. Therefore the Huna people say that when anyone goes to that place it calls his name, because it was the slave of the puffin at the time when this woman was there. Because some of their people were drowned at that island, all of the T!a’q!dentan claim it. Later they built a house which they named after it. 26. STORY OF THE WAIN-HOUSE PEOPLE People came to a fort to live and began to kill bears, ground hogs, porcupines, mountain sheep, etc., with spears, and bows and arrows, laying the meat up in the fort. After they had killed some of these animals they would cut off their heads, set them up on sticks, and begin to sing for them. There was a young man among them who had been put into a mountain-sheep’s skin instead of a cradle as soon as he was born. When he grew older he was able to follow the mountain sheep to places where no one else could get, so he killed more than the others. He would also play and dance around the heads after they had been cut off and say, ‘‘T wish my head were cut off, too.’’ Then people sang about it. Meanwhile the sheep were getting tired of losing so many of their number. One day all the people went up to a mountain to hunt, and, find- ing a flock of sheep, began to chase them to a certain place where they could bunch all together. Suddenly this youth became separated from the other people, and on the very top of the mountain was met by a fine-looking man who shone all over and had a long white beard. SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 59 This man led him through a door into what he at first thought was a house, but it was really the inside of the mountain. All at once it looked very strange to him. Piles of horns lay about everywhere. Meanwhile all of his friends had missed him and were hunting about, but had to go home without him. They thought he was’ gone for- ever. They hunted for him every day and found his horn spear stuck into the ground at a certain place near the top of the mountain, but nothing more. After searching everywhere in vain they became discouraged and beat the drums for him. Meanwhile the mountain sheep tried to fit a pair of horns on the young man’s head. They heated these first in the fire, and tried to put them on, when it seemed to him as if the insides of his head were all coming out. The people kept up their search for him, however, and about a year afterward a man climbed up on the same mountain to hunt sheep. Above him he saw a big flock, and he heard a noise as though some one were shouting or talking there. Then he went straight down, for he knew that it was the person who had been lost, and he knew that the mountain sheep had captured him. Pointing this mountain out to the people, he said to them, ‘‘It is he, for I know his voice.”’ So all the people started up. Now the sheep could see whenever the Indians set out to hunt for the person they had taken, and they said to him, ‘‘There come your friends. If you will tell them to throw away their weapons, we will let you go to them.”’ So he said to his friends, ‘‘If you will lay down your hunting weapons, I will tell you what these mountain sheep say to me.” Afterward he said, ‘‘They say that I am being punished because you are destroying them too much, and, when you have killed them, you take the heads and put them on sticks.” Although he was among the mountain sheep he retained his own language. He sald besides, ‘‘The mountain-sheep chief tells me to say to you that you must hang up the sheep skins with their heads toward the moun- tain and the rising sun and put eagle feathers upon them. They tell me to say, ‘Do not put our heads on sticks. Grizzly-bears’ heads are the only ones you should treat that way—not ours.’”’ One could not see or hear this man unless he were specially purified by bathing inurme. Afterward the sheep went right into the mountain with him to the place where they have their homes. Now they tried in every way to recover him, and finally came out with dogs. Then the mountain sheep said to him, ‘‘ You can go among your friends after a while, but now you may talk to them from the top of a little cliff.” So his friends came up underneath this, and he talked down to them. By and by the sheep again changed their minds regarding him, and one day he said to his friends, ‘‘This is the last time I shall come to see you. If you are going to begin a war on 60 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 my account, try it in the fall. Then they always come down into the thick timber below the glacier, and you can come up there with degs.~ In the autumn, therefore, they prepared to kill the sheep. The people were told to put the sheep heads toward the rismg sun and throw their skins about anywhere without drying, for they thought that this would make the mountain sheep let their friend go. Then the mountain-sheep chief said to the man, ‘‘They are going to let you go now, because all of your fathers are suffering very much from not having their skins well dried.” The mountain sheep could easily see when all of his friends started out to fight for him, and they got him ready to send down to them. Then they said, ‘‘Now you will be allowed to start down to them.” When they got down far enough the dogs which were coming up in front met the flock he was standing among. Then they took off his mountain-sheep skin and put it aside, leaving him in human form, and he chased all the dogs away from them. He stood in the midst of the flock of sheep, and all the people stood below. Then he said to his friends, *‘Do not kill any more mountain sheep, for they will now let me go among you.” So they broke all of the shafts of the spears they had used in fighting the mountain sheep and threw them away. When he came down he smelt like the things that grow on the tops of cottonwood trees (doxkwa’nk!). They brought him into the house and he saw the mountain-sheep skins lying about there at random. Then he said, ‘‘They let me come among you again that I might have you dampen these, hang them up, and dry them thoroughly.” After they had worked upon the skins for some time they put red paint upon them and eagle down. The man who had come down from among the sheep told his people to say this to the skins while they were doing so: ‘‘We will put your skins in just the position in which they came off from the flesh.” In the morning all of the houses shook. Every piece of flesh that had come off of the mountain sheep was in its place in the skins, and, when the man who had come back to them opened the door, they came down from the drying racks and marched off. But they had been so long among the Indians that just before they reached the highest mountain where they belonged they lost their way and became scattered over all the mountains. Because the mountain sheep once saved (or captured) a man, they have beards and look in other respects like human beings. After this the mountain sheep sent a spirit called Yix4’ (A-very- young-man (or -yék)) to the man who had been rescued, to be his strength (yék). There was great rejoicing among his friends when this spirit began to manifest itself in him, and all commenced to SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 61 sing for him. At the command of this spirit he had them make him a pair of snowshoes with which his spirit could take him around the fire, a shaman’s mask, and bows and arrows. Then they came with him to Fort-by-small-lake (Ak! Na), just west of Juneau,” and built a big house for him with inside rooms (t!aq!), corner and middle posts, the last mentioned being carved to represent the Great Dipper (Yaxté’). At that time the shaman fasted for four days and Yaxté’ (the constellation) appeared to him. So from that house the people were called Yaxté’-hit-tan (Wain- House people). The mountain-sheep tribe gave this man the name of Skowada’t, and he was also called Caxtca’te (Long-toothed-humpback). When his spirit was about to work in him, two porcupine bladders were blown up and hung in the house, and, when the spirit arrived, all stood up in the customary way. Then he put on his mask and his snowshoes, which were thrown down on the floor for him, and carried his bow and arrows in his hand. Although he could not see through this mask, he climbed up on the walls of the inside rooms and ran around there backward. While there he shot ata bladder and the arrow passed straight through it. When the shaman’s spirits left him he said, ‘‘ You people are going to see a wonderful gift. It is coming to such and such a place.” In the morning they went out with a dog and armed with spears, and before they got far away the dog began to bark at a bear. Then the animal ran under a log, and all climbed on top of the log prepared to spear it. The shaman had said, ‘‘Something is going to happen to one of you,” and sure enough the first man that speared this bear fell down before it and was caught and killed. Then the others quickly speared the bear through and through and killed it. Meanwhile a spirit came to the shaman, who had remained at home, saying, ‘‘ Your friend has been killed by a bear.’ They brought the bear and the dead man’s body down at once and laid the body before him in the middle of the house. Then the shaman took some of the red paint with which they had brought the mountain sheep to life and put it on the body after which he began running around it. The third time he did this the dead man sat up. The shaman always had such strength. Some time afterward he again began testing his spirits, because they were going south to war, and, when they left him, he told his people that they would destroy an entire town. When he was walking around in the woods a raven fell in front of him, and on getting back to the house he said to his clothes man, ‘I am in luck.” He told some one to return with him, and they found the raven still with life in it. Then he said to his friends, ‘‘T will set up a Or on the side toward Sitka. 62 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 all these things.”” So he took sticks and set them all round the raven. ‘‘ Before I cut it,” he said, *‘ I will let the wings flap over it. This will be (i. e., represent) your enemies. Before I cut it I will cause it to kill all of your enemies. The raven will have so much strength.’ When they tested him? the spirit said, *‘ All people on sticks,’’ meaning that it wanted all of their foes to fall on sticks and be destroyed when they fought. Then they prepared, saying, ‘‘We will start.’ The shaman said, ‘‘ At the moment when we arrive a man is going to chop down a tree in front of us.” Toward morning they came close to the fort, all prepared for fight- ing. After they had surrounded it a man came out with a stone ax and climbed up a tree to chop off limbs. Then they shot him with arrows, unnoticed by the fort people, so that he fell down dead. But a little while afterward the fort people said, ‘‘Where is that man who climbed the tree a short time ago. He is not there now.” At once they rushed together on both sides, and all those in the fort were destroyed just as the shaman had predicted. Then they returned to their own fort, which was also known as Eulachon-trap fort (Cal nt). Another time five women went around the island where they had their fort, after mussels, and came toa reef on the outer side. They left their canoe untied and it floated away. Then the tide began to come up. They stood up on the reef with their hands in the air, sing- ing death songs for themselves, for they knew they were about to die. After that the reef was called Woman reef (Ca q!a’t!agu), on account of the women who were destroyed there. A year after this some people went across from the fort to a lake into which salmon run, and were surprised on encountering people. They thouglt it was some war party from very far south and beat a precipitate retreat to the fort. Then the people in the fort saw a big ‘canoe all covered with abalone shell come out from this place and make straight toward them. When it had come close in, the chief questioned these strangers and learned that they were on a friendly visit from Yakutat. It took the strength of all the people to bring up this canoe. Then they made the fort chief a present of land-otter skins, marten skins, skins of all kinds. This was the custom in olden times, a slave being generally given back. The chief at this place had a nephew named Yétxa’ who was very fond of gambling. The fourth day that the visitors were in town the chief's nephew was away from home, and the fire went out. Then he acted as though he were crazy. He went down to the valuable canoe of the visitors, broke off the stern piece for firewood, and threw it in- doors so that the abalone shells fell off of it. Next morning, when the man that owned the canoe got up, he saw that his stern piece was missing, and that burnt abalone shells were a That is, when the people allowed him to perform before them, ° SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 638 lying by the fire. He called to his companions, ‘‘Get up and let us be gone. Push the canoe down and load it quickly.” He had a number of copper plates and other property which he had not yet unpacked, and, after he had gotten a little distance from the fort, he landed and took these out. Then he went right back in front of the fort to destroy them on account of the injury he had received. When these people came opposite they took out a copper plate, struck it on the edge of the canoe so as to make it sound and threw it into the sea. They threw away four. Then the fort chief also took four coppers, flung them on the wall of the fort and threw them into the ocean. [I have explained to you before where this copper came from. It came from the Copper river. Probably this rich man came several times before the fort. Coppers were valued according to their height when they were first made, some at four slaves and some at six.]|“ When the Yakutat man came before this fort again, his copper plates were all gone, and he began to use cedar bark. His people would tie a rock on each piece and throw it into the water. Mean- while the fort chief put his canoe on the walls of the fort and began to put Indian beads, caribou skins, moose skins, and other articles into it. Since these t!ené/di have the dog salmon for their emblem, the chief’s sister began acting like one when it is shaking out its eggs. She pretended to be shaking out riches in the same way, and, while she did so, they threw the canoe over the edge of the fort, and all the good things spilled out. The man from Yakutat was foolish to try to contend with so wealthy a chief. His name (i. e., the Yakutat man’s) was Ka’yeswutsa’t. They chased him out with riches, and told him to come back again with more property. A song was com- posed about this afterward to the effect that he was simply fooling the people with this yellow cedar bark which was not real property at all. (See song 43.) In the same fort a woman gave birth to a boy, who exclaimed as soon as he was born, ‘‘How many things there will be for all the people who are holding my mother.” In olden times certain women used to hold a woman who was about to give birth, and they were paid for this service. The child grew very fast. He was going to be the greatest liar among his people. After he was grown up and had a family of his own, his mother died, and he started for Chilkat to invite people to the death feast. This was before the Russians came. He said to his children, ‘‘Pull away. Pull fast.’”? He had started off without any of the property he had intended to take, but on his way Indian rice hailed into his canoe, and a large box of grease floated down to him. When he got close to the mouth of Chilkat river he came in front of a waterfall. He tasted the water of this and found it very sweet. Then he took-all of his buckets and filled them with a An ‘“‘aside’’ by the story-teller, 64 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 it so that they might put this water on the rice when they ate it. As he was bound for Klukwan, the village farthest up the river, he said to his children, ‘‘Blow on the sail.”” They did so and passed right up to Klukwan. Then he stood up in his canoe and began to talk. They took all of his stuff up, and in the evening the drums were beaten as a sign that he was going to give out property. He began to cry in the customary manner as he beat the drums. Then he took a piece of bark and put it in front of his eyes, upon which the tears ran down it inastream. Afterward he gave out two copper plates and invited the people to eat what he had brought. Then the people danced for him in return, and a man came in with something very shiny on top of his head.? That is all he told when he returned. 27. THE ALSEK RIVER PEOPLE Once there was a famine among the people of Alsek (Alsé’x) river. There were two shamans there, one of whom began singing to bring up eulachon, while the other sang for strength im order to obtain bears and other forest animals. The first shaman’s spirit told him that if he would go down the little rapids he would see great numbers of eulachon. So he dressed up next morning and went straight down under the water in a little canoe. That night the other shaman’s spirits came to him, saying that the first shaman would remain under water for four nights; that he had gone into a house where were eulachon, salmon, and other fish and had thrown the door open. At the end of four days they hunted all around and found him lying dead on the beach amid piles of eulachon. As soon as they brought him up, all the eulachon that were in the ocean started to run up river, and everyone tried to preserve as many of them as he could. In the same town were two menstruant women, and the other shaman told these that there would be a great many land otters about the town that evening. Just as he had said, at the time when his spirits came to him that evening, numbers of land-otter-men came through the village. They could be heard whistling about the town. Finally some one said, ‘Why is it that it sounds as if they were all where the two women are?’ Sure enough, they found that the land otters were talking inside of the two women. The ones that were inside of them were really land-otter-men, that is, men who had been taken away by the land otters and made like themselves. A person would often creep close up to these women to find out what they were, but every time something spoke out inside, ‘‘ Do not « This last was said to be ‘‘the way the story went,’’ but otherwise was unexplained. SWANTON ] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 65 sneak around here for I can see you.”’ They could not get at them. These land-otter-men had come to the women to turn them into land- otter-people also. A menstruant woman is the only thing that will enfeeble the power of a shaman’s spirit, therefore, although the shaman endeavored to get these land-otter-men out of the women, his spirits kept turning back. When the shaman’s spirit came to him next evening, it said that there were more land-otter-men coming to take away the ones in these women and the women with them. He told the people to be watchful, because there was going to be a great disturbance that night. When night came on the people were all very much frightened at the noises the land-otter-men made under the houses, and they had great trouble keeping the two women in their rooms so that they should not be carried off. All the people helped them, but the land otters were invisible. After that nobody went out to camp for a long time. Then they said to the two women, ‘‘Take your bloody clothes to different beaches, leave them there, and tell the land otters that they are too great animals to fight with weak beings.”’ In those times whenever a menstruant woman said anything of that kind it had to be obeyed. So the land otters went off. The shamans in those times were very strict and strong, and what- ever they saw was true. By and by these shamans said, ‘‘Some- thing is going to happen to that great town there by the lake.” When the things that had happened in their neighbors’ town regarding the land otters were reported to the people there, they said, ‘“‘Are you afraid of those things that stutter and can not talk like you and I?” By and by two men started hunting from this place. When they had reached the top of a neighboring mountain, they looked back and saw a great flood come down between the mountains and overwhelm their town. This flood was caused by an avalanche which poured into the lake and filled it up, forcing the water out. Some human bodies were hanging to the branches of trees. The men knew this had happened on account of the way they had spoken of the land otters, and, starting on aimlessly, they came to the town where the shamans lived. One of these two shamans had a quantity of oil which he was going to carry to another town. He wanted to buy skins of kinds different from those his own people had. When they reached a camping place outside of the town the man’s spirit told him to go down to the beach at low tide and carry a hook with him. He ‘answered, ‘‘No, I will not play with them, but let us watch them.” So they went out and watched them. Then Fire-drill’s son said to his dog, ‘‘Now, you play there and throw it as high as you can.’’ So the dog played with it and threw it as high as he could. It was a fine moonlight night, and the ring rolled right up to the moon, where it became the ring you see there whenever there is going to be a change in weather.* After that his friend, the wolf chief, said to the rest of the wolves, ‘‘You know that this son of Fire-drill is a wonderful fellow. He can do anything. Do not try to injure him in any way, but treat him as a friend.’” After that Fire-drill’s son and his wolf friend went off together, and the wolf said, ‘‘Some strange being walks around here. Don’t a See story 3. 6“ This story is referred to in drawing the moral that one should never do anything spiteful or try to get ahead of one who knows better. If he does he will always get the worst of it. This is why in olden times the Indians looked up to the chiefs and those of high caste, knowing that they had been brought up and instructed better than themselves, and never tried to get ahead of them. “Tt is also brought up to the people how Fire-drill’s son fed the young hawks instead of killing them. If a young person is very cruel they say to him, ‘If the hawk can be made a friend of mankind, why can not you make friends with your enemies? If you want to be respected do not make enemies, but friends always.’ ‘«They tell the young peoplethat a bad fellow is always likethe one-eyed man, trying to get advantage ofa good person. Heis quick to say whatever comes into his mind, while the good man always thinks first. Therefore whatever the latter says people know is right. They ask their children to choose which of the two they would rather resemble. ‘Because the one-eyed man said, ‘I did not kill your uncles or your mother’s friends,’ a murderer nowadays will never come out and say, ‘I am the one who killed that man.’ He always tries to make an innocent person suffer. As the one-eyed man’s wife invited this boy to have something to eat in SWANTON ] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 99 run after him or he will take your life.” It was Dry-cloud that he meant. ‘‘Don’t mind me,” said Fire-drill’s son, ‘‘I know what he is. I only play with him. I know that this fellow can’t be killed, and I know that he can not kill anybody else, but I have to follow him. That was my father’s advice to me.’’ So they kept on after Dry- cloud and the wolf had to run with all his might, but it did not seem to Fire-drill’s son that he was going rapidly at all. Whenever the wolf got his tail wet in crossing a stream he was too much tired out to shake it, so he simply yelped and Fire-drill’s son shook it for him. By and by they saw smoke far ahead of them and presently came to where an old woman lived alone by herself. They stayed with her for some time, and could see Dry-cloud as long as they were there, for he lived inthe neighborhood of her house. Then they helped the old woman and collected a quantity of wood for her. After that she said to the boy, ‘‘Grandson, there is a big fish over yonder. It killed all of my friends in this town. That is why I am all alone here.” He went to the place where she said the monster lived and found a red cod. He said to her, ‘‘Grandmother, that is not a monster fish. It is good to eat.” So he took his bow and arrows and told his. friend to watch him. Then he went to the red cod and killed it, and, seeing that there were numbers of sharp spines upon it, he took off its skin and dried it. He said to the wolf: ‘‘My friend, do you know this woman? She is really Daughter-of-the-calm (Kaye’L!i-si). She is avery nice, pretty girl.” Afterward Fire-drill’s son married Daughter- of-the-calm and had a child by her named Lakitcine’. He gave this boy his dog and put the red-cod skin upon him as a shirt. Then he said to his wife: ‘‘This is going to be a very bad boy.’’¢ Lakitcine’ lived at Sitka.? He had a wife from among human beings, and every day, while he went out halibut fishing, she dug clams. The dog, Gant, that his father had given him he renamed Caq!. Lakitcine’ had several children, but he killed all of them. He would take a child up, pet it, and sing cradle songs.to it, and at the same time make his red-cod spines stick into it so that it died. order to kill him, soa bad person says whatever he chooses toa good one. But they tell their children, ‘This will not kill you. They are doing themselves injury instead of you. So turn and walk away from them.’ “‘Tf a poor person has self-respect, he will have good fortune some time, just as in the case of the two old women to whom Raven brought fortune. ‘The example of Fire-drill’s son is commended because he did not use his power meanly. He knew that he was very powerful, but when all the animals tried his power he did not do them any harm. He did not want to show his strength at once. If he had been a mean man he might have killed the old woman that lived back in the woods instead of helping her and getting her food.’’ (From the writer’s informant. ) a Katishan added that once while Fire-drill’s son was chasing Dry-cloud he was pulled into a village in the sky for some offense and punished there. Since then people have believed that the stars are inhabited. They were thought to be towns and the light the reflection of the sea. + Near the site of the Presbyterian School. 100 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 He also used the ‘‘Blarney stone’’? as a grindstone, and killed some of his children by rubbing their faces upon it. His wife mourned very much for her children, and finally thought of a way of being revenged upon him. She had a litter of puppies by the dog. There were originally twelve, but seven died, leav- ing four male puppies and one female. These puppies grew up very fast. While the man and his wife were away fishing and digging clams the puppies played about the house, and the noise they made sound- ed just like that of children. But the female always watched at the door, and when their mother ran up to stop them all would be lying about on the floor asleep. They kept getting noisier and noisier, and sounded more and more like human beings. Finally Lakitcine’ heard it and said to his wife: ‘‘Who are these making so much noise here?” ‘‘It is those dogs.” Then she thought very seriously what she should do with the puppies. The next time Lakitcine’ was out he heard them still more plainly, and now he thought that he heard human voices. He came ashore in great anger and said to his wife: ‘Tt is not those dogs that I hear talking.”’ He was so dangerous .aman that his wife was very much frightened. After that she formed a plan. So, when her husband went out halibut fishing the next time, she stuck her digging stick into the ground, put her blanket around it, and her hat upon the end. Then she ran up through the woods and hid herself, while the little dog was watching Lakitcine’. After that she crept back to the house, which was made of brush, and in which they were again making a great deal of noise. Looking inside, she found that the boys were all playing about in human forms, their dog skins lying a short distance away from them. Then she quickly ran in upon them, exclaiming, ‘‘ You must like to be dogs since you wear dog skins,” grabbed the skins and threw them into the fire. The little dog that sat outside was the only one that remained in its original form, Now, when hLakitcine’ came ashore, and saw the children, he was angry and felt very much ashamed at having been outwitted. He did not know how to kill them, for he thought they had more power than he. One,named Kack!a’Lk!,wasashaman. He had his grand- father and the one-eyed man and his wife that his grandfather had killed as his spirits. Hakitcine’ thought that he would first quarrel with his wife, and, when he came into the house, he began to throw and kick things about. But, when he began to beat his wife, the children jumped upon him and fought with him. They also asked the dog to help them. Together they killed him. After these boys were grown up, their mother told them many SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 101 killing many people. Finally they set out to see it, anchored off the mouth of the bay, and killed it with spears and arrows. They took the skin from its head. Then they went throughout Alaska, killing off the monsters of the sea and land that had troubled people and making others less harmful. The natives say, if it had not been for those boys, they would be there yet. They made some of these mon- sters promise that they would not kill people. The wolves, which were very destructive in those days, became less harmful through them. Although people in Alaska are afraid of wolves, you have not heard of anyone being killed by them. There was one person called Tcak! i’s! resembling an eagle, who flew around and was very powerful. He would say to the bears and other game animals, ‘‘ You are going to be killed.” Because he kept warning the animals,. human beings were starving, so the brothers came to him and made him promise not to imjure people or forewarn the other animals. Afterward the brothers left their mother at that place and went up to Laxayi’k, where they had heard of a bad person called One-legged- man (Lé-laq!oci’). His proper name, however, is Man-that-dries-fish- for-the-eagle (Teak !-q !e’di-at-q!an-qi), and he is very fond of spear- ing salmon. First the boys came to the prints of his one foot going up beside the river, and after a while they saw him coming down toward them spearing salmon. His shirt was the skin of a brown bear and had strength as well as he. Afterward Lq!aya’k! caught a salmon, took all of the meat out, and got into its skin. Next day, at the time when they knew One-legged- man was about to come up, Lq!aya’k! put it on again and laid himself in a salmon hole in the creek. The big man, who was just coming along, saw a fine salmon go into the hole and said, ‘‘ What a fine look- ing salmon.” He thought that he could not get it, but, after he had stood watching it for a while, it swam up toward him, and he speared it. Just as he was dragging it ashore, however, hq! aya’k! cut the cord to his spear point with a knife he had taken along and swam back into the water hole. Then the big man looked at his spear and said to himself, ‘‘ My fine spear is gone;” but after he had observed closer he said, ‘This is not broken. It is cut. I suppose it is Lq!aya’k!’s doing.” After that he went on up the stream while the brothers cooked salmon for their meal. By a by they saw One-legged-man coming down again carrying a feather tied on the end of a long stick. He would point this feather at different trees and then smell of it. Finally he pointed it at the tree in which Lq!aya’k! and his brothers were then sitting and said, “Bq!laya’k! is in that tree.” Then he spoke out saying, ‘“‘Give me my spear.” Lq!aya’k! kept saying to his brothers, ‘Shall I go out and fight him?” But they answered, ‘‘No, no, don’t go yet.” He 102 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 39 was so determined, however, that he finally went out and was killed. Then the other brothers and the dog fell upon this man. After they had set their dog on him, they killed him. They took his bear-skin shirt off and burned his body. q!aya’k! had been torn all to pieces, but Kack!a’Lk! put the pieces. together, acted around him like a shaman, and brought him back to life. Then Lq!aya’k! went along up to the head of that stream dressed in One-legged-man’s shirt and acting like him. When he got there he found the largest two bears that ever lived. These were the wife and father-in-law of the man they had killed. Loq!aya’k! threw down one salmon before the woman and another very bright one before her father just as One-legged-man had been in the habit of doing. .The woman found out right away that iq !aya’k! was not her husband, but she made love to him and he took her as his wife. His father-in-law also thought a great deal of him. Every morning Lq!aya’k! would go off down stream after salmon just as One-legged-man had done. On these expeditions he was always accompanied by his dog, which kept chewing on something continually. THe was really chewing those wild peoples’ minds away to make them tame so that they would not hurt Lq!aya’k!’s brothers. His brothers all came to him. After that they began pursuing Dry-cloud like Fire-drill’s son. Like him they chased it from one kind of animal to another. They chased it for months and months until they had followed it far up imto the sky where you can see the tracks of Lq!aya’k! to this very day (the milky way). Finally they reached a very cold region in the sky and wanted to get back, but the clouds gathered so thickly about them that they could not pass through. Kack!a’Lk!, therefore, called his spirits to open a passage. After they had done so his brothers fell through and were smashed to pieces on the earth. Kack!a’Lk!, how- ever, had his spirits make him enter a ptarmigan (q!és!awa’), and reached the earth in safety. Then he shook his rattle over his brothers and brought them to life. Before they ascended into the sky the brothers had killed all of the monsters on Prince of Wales island and elsewhere in Alaska except one at Wrangell called Kaxqoyé/ndua. When they heard about this one, they went to He-who-knows-everything-that-happens (Liu’w at-uwadji’gi-cana’k") and said to him, ‘Grandfather, we want your canoe. Will you lend it to us?” Its name was Arrow-canoe (Teti’net-yak"). Then the old man said, “What do you want the canoe for, grandchildren?” So they told him, and he said, ‘‘There is a very bad thing living there. No one can get to him. Several different kinds of spirits are to be met before you reach him. They are very dangerous.’ Then he gave them directions, saying, ‘‘ When the monster is sleeping, he has his eyes open, but when he is awake he has his eyes closed, and he is then watching everything. When you SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 103 see that his eyes are closed, do not try to kill him. Approach him when his eyes are open. The canoe,” he said, ‘is right round there back of my house.” They went to look for it but saw nothing at that place except an old log covered with moss. They said to him, *‘ Where is the canoe you were talking about?’ Then the old man came out and threw the moss off, revealing a fine painted canoe. Another name for this was Canoe-that-travels-in-the-air (Qaxyi’xdoxoa), referring to its swiftness. All of the paddles that he brought out to them were beautifully painted. Then they got into the canoe and tested it. Next day they set out and soon came to a point named Point-that moves-up-and-down (Yén-yulu’-s!ita’ngi-q!a). Whenever a canoe approached it this point would rise, and, as soon as the canoe attempted to pass under, would fall and smash it. They, however, passed right underneath, and it did not fall upon them. They killed it by doing so, theirs being the first canoe that had passed under. Beyond this they saw a patch of kelp called Kelps-washed-up- against-one-another-by-the-waves (Wtcxkaduti’t-gic), which closed on those trying to pass, but they shot through as soon as the kelp parted. Thus they killed the kelp patch, and the kelp piled up in one place, becoming a kelp-covered rock which may still be seen. Next they reached Fire-coming-up-out-of-the-sea (Him ax-qega’ntc), which rose out of the ocean quickly and fell back again. When it fell back they passed over it and killed it. After that they came to Dogs-of-the-sea (Wictadagt’q-caq!), after whom Hakitetne’’s dog is said to have been named.” These drew to each side and then ran together upon anyone who tried to pass be- tween. Arrow-canoe was too quick for them, however, and killed them by running through in safety. Then they became rocks. Before the monster’s dwelling were two mountains, called Moun- tains-that-divide (Wa’cqadagat-ca), which formed his doors. These would separate and come together again. Arrow-canoe passed be- tween when they were separated and killed them. You can see them now, one on each side of a salt-water pond, looking as though they had been cut apart. As soon as they had passed between these they saw the monster, a very bad shaman called also Shaman-of-the-sea (Hin-t!aq-i’xt!f). He looked as though his eyes were open, so they threw a rope made of whale sinew about his neck. Immediately he shook himself and broke it. They made ropes out of the sinews of all the different monsters they had killed, but he broke them. All the time they were doing this a little bird called Old-person (Laguqa’wu),? kept coming to their camp and saying, ‘‘My sinews only, my sinews.’’ So they a In another place, however, Katishan suggested that it might have been named from 1éq!, his red- cod blanket. The word caq! must be an old term for dog or some variety of dog. 6 Probably the wren. 104 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [rune 39 finally killed this bird, took out its sinews, and worked them into a very small thread. As soon as they threw this around the monster’s head it came off. Then they took off its scalp, which had long hair like that of other shamans, and the rest of its head turned into a rock at that place. They now had two principal scalps from the two big monsters they had killed. When the brothers now returned to the old man and related what had happened, he felt very good and said, ‘‘There would have been no person living. This monster would have killed them all, if you had not destroyed it.” Everybody who heard that the monster was dead, was glad, and did not fear to go to that place any more. After this they returned to their mother and sister. At that time their sister had just reached puberty and was shut up in the house with a mat curtain hung in front of her. So they hung the shaman’s sealp up in front of the curtain. They also made her drink water through the leg bones of geese and swans so that she should not touch the drinking cups. Her mother put a large hat upon her so that she should not look at anything she was forbidden to see. If one shouted that a canoe was coming, or that anything else was taking place that she wanted to witness, she did not dare to look out. Since her time these same regulations have been observed. Then they left that place and moved south through the interior. Having killed off the ocean monsters, they were now going to kill those in the forest. Besides that, they hunted all of this time, kill- ing bear, ground hogs, and other animals; but their sister was not allowed to look at any of them. Among other wild animals they told the wolverine and wolf that they must not kill human beings but be friendly with them. They killed ground hogs, mountain sheep, and other animals for them and told them that that was what they were to live upon. At one place they saw a smoke far off in the woods and, advancing toward it, came to the house of a man named He-whose-hands-see (Djingoti’n). He was so called because he was blind and had his wife aim his arrows for him. He said to lq!aya’k!, ‘‘My wife saw « erizzly bear and told me where it was. She aimed my arrow and I shot at it. I felt that I had killed it, but she said I had not. My wife has left me on account of this, and I don’t know where she is or what I am living on or how Iam living without her.” Then Liq !aya’k! and his brothers gave him ground-hog skins filled with grease and fat such as the interior people used to make, also dried meat. While they were in the interior the brothers also made needles out of animal bones and threads out of sinew for their sister to use behind the screen. She worked with porcupine quills and dyed sinews, and it is through her that the interior women are such fine workers with the needle. SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 105 After they met this man the girl’s brothers asked her to make a small net for them. This net was patterned after a spider’s web which Spider-spirit (Qasist!a’n yék) showed to Kack!a’Lk!, saying, ‘You are to take this as’a pattern.” Then they took the old man to the creek and said, ‘‘Do you feel this creek along here?’’ Putting a long handle on the net, they said to him again, ‘‘Dip this net into the water here. It is easy. You can feel when a fish gets into it.” They gave him also a basket their sister had made and said, ‘‘When you want to cook the fish, put it in here together with many hot rocks.’ After showing him how to cook his fish they left him and came to another camp. There another old man lived who said to them, ‘‘Do you see that mountain?”’ There were two mountains close together. ‘“‘A very bad person lives over there named Long-haired- person (Cakulya’t!).”’ So, after the brothers had gotten a great deal of food together for the old man, they left their mother and sister with him and went out to look for Long-haired-person. After a while they came upon good, hard trails made by him along which he had set spears with obsidian points, and presently they saw him coming along one of these with his long hair dragging on the ground. He had a bone in his nose and swan’s down around his head and wrists. Then he said, ‘‘Come to my house. I invite you home to eat something. I know you are there.”’ He said this although he could not see them. Then the boys came out to him and called him ‘‘brother-in-law,”’ and he said, “‘It is four days since I saw you, my brothers-in-law. Your story is known everywhere.’ This Athapascan shaman’s spirits were telling him all these things. So he took them home and gave them all the different kinds of food to which they were accus- tomed, not treating them as a wild man would. Then they said to him, ‘‘You see the old person that lives near by. Do not do any harm to him. He is our grandfather. Jf you see that old blind fellow down yonder, give him food also. Treat him like the other.” Presently the shaman said to the brothers, ‘‘Let us make a sweat house.’ In olden times people used to talk to each other in the sweat houses, and the shamans learned a great deal from their spirits inside of them. That was why the shaman wanted them to go in. But, when they were inside, and he and Kack!a’tk! had showed each other their spirits, it was found that Kack!a’Lk!’s spirits were the stronger. Now they returned to their mother and sister and took them to the head of the Taku river, where they spent some time in hunting. Then they crossed to this side and, moving along slowly on account of their sister, they came to a place on the Stikine called in Athapascan Hak!i’ts, where they also hunted. Their destination was the Nass. Coming down along the north bank of the Stikine to find a good place \ 106 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 for their sister to cross, they started to make the passage between Telegraph and the narrows, one of them taking the dog on his back. Before the brothers set out, however, their mother covered their sister up so that she would not look at them until they got over. But when they were half way across, they started back and it looked to the mother as if they were drifting downstream. She said to her daughter, ‘‘Daughter, it looks as if your brothers were going to be drowned. They are already drifting down the river.’”’ Upon that, the girl raised her covering a little and looked out at them, and imme- diately they turned into stone. The pack that one of them was carrying fell off and floated down a short distance before petrifying, and it may still be seen there. The dog also turned to rock on its master’s head and the mother and sister on shore. One of the boys had green and red paints with him, such as they used to paint their bows and arrows and their faces, and nowadays you can go there and get it. Years ago people passing these rocks prayed to them, stuffed pieces of their clothing into the crevices, and asked the rocks for long life.“ Raven was then living just below this place. His smoke may still be seen there, and they call it Raven’s smoke (Yét s!é@’ge). When Kack!a’Lk! turned into a rock, Raven said, ‘‘Where is that shaman that was going to come to after he had died?” He meant that, while he used torestore his brothers to life by shaking his rattle over them, he could not now restore himself; and people now apply these remarks to a shaman who has not succeeded in saving a person after he has been paid a great deal for his services. They will say, ‘‘Where is that shaman that could save anybody, but could not save the very person we wanted saved?” If a shaman were not truthful, they would say, “He is trving to have Kack!a’tk!’s spirits but will never get them because he is not truthful like Kack!a’Lk!.’’? As Raven was traveling along after his encounter with the mother of Fire-drill’s son, he saw a sculpin on the beach looking at him and hid from it to see what it would do. Then he saw it swim out on the surface of the ocean and go down out of sight some distance off. After that he opened the door of the sea, went to the house of the sculpin, which was under a large rock, and said to it, ‘‘My younger brother, this is you, is it?”’ ‘‘I. am not your younger brother.” ‘‘Oh! a See stories 3 and 97. b** The disobedience of the young woman in looking up contrary to the directions of her brothers is brought up to girls at that period in life. This is why they do whatever their mothers tell them at that time, and do not displease their brothers. They always think of Lq!ay4’k!’s sister. So this part of the story always taught them to be obedient. Anciently we were taught commandments similar to: those of the whites. Don’t look down on a per- son because he is proud. Don’t look down on a low-caste person. Don’t steal. Don’t lie.’ (From the writer’s informant.) SWANTON | TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 107 yes, you are my younger brother. We were once coming down Nass river in a canoe with our father and had just reached its mouth when you fell overboard and sank forever.’’ Then the sculpin said, ‘‘T can not be your younger brother for I am a very old person.” Said Raven, ‘‘I want you to be next to me. There will be many sculpins, but you shall be the principal one.”’ So he placed the sculpin (wéq!) in the sky where it may still be seen [as the Pleiades].“ Raven saw a canoe out after halibut and said, ‘‘Come ashore and take me across,’ but they paid no attention to him. Then he said, “Tf you do not I will put you up in the sky also. I will make an example of you, too.’ Then he held his walking stick out toward the canoe and they found themselves going up into the sky. That is what you can see in the sky now. It is called The-halibut-fishers (Dana’q's!iké).? Raven went to another place and determined to invite some people to a feast, so he invited all the seal people. When each seal came in he smeared its forehead with pitch, and, as soon as it got warm, the pitch ran down over the seal’s eyes and blinded it. Then he clubbed it to death.° He went along again, saw a nice fat deer, and said to it, ‘‘My friend this is you is it?’’ There was a deep, narrow canyon near by and Raven laid a rotten stick across it saying, ‘‘Let us go across to the other side upon this,” but the deer said, ‘‘No, I can not. It will break with me and I shall get hurt.’’ ‘‘No, you shall see how I cross it.’ So Raven went over and Deer tried to follow him but fell to the bottom of the canyon and was crushed to death. Then Raven went down and ate him, stuffing himself so full that he could scarcely move. He then acted as though he were very sad and pretended to cry, saying, ‘‘My friend, my friend, he is gone.’”’ He pretended that the wild animals had devoured him.¢ After this Raven went to ground-hog’s house for the winter. The ground-hogs go into their holes in September. At home they live like human beings and to them we are animals just as much. So Raven spent the winter with one of them and became very sick of it, a‘*So nowadays, when a person wants people to think he knows a great deal and says, ‘I am very old,’ they will answer, * If Sculpin could not make Raven believe he was so old and knew so much, neither can you make us believe it of you. An older person will come along and show you to the world as the sculpin is seen now.’ So, to-day, when children go out in the evening, they will say, * There is that scul- pin up there.’ ”’ b** When a child was lazy and disobedient, they told him how the halibut fishermen got up into the sky for their laziness. Therefore the children were afraid of being lazy.”’ (From the writer’s in- formant.) e** This is brought up to a child to prevent him from being a murderer in secret, oracoward.” (From the writer’s informant.) d** This episode is brought up when one who was the enemy of a dead man is seen to act as if he were very sad in the house where his body lies. , People say to one another, ‘ He is acting as Raven did when he killed his friend the deer.’ It is also applied to a person who is jealous of one who is well brought up and in good circumstances. When such a person dies he will act like Raven.’”’ (From the writer’s in- formant.) ; 108 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 but he could not get out. The ground-hog enjoyed himself very much, but Raven acted as if he were in prison and kept shouting to his companion, ‘‘Winter comes on, Winter comes on,” thinking that the ground-hog had power to make the winter pass rapidly. The ground-hog had to stay in his hole for six months, and at that time he had six toes, one for each, but Raven pulled one of his toes out of each foot in order to shorten the winter. That is why he has but five nowadays.?% Next Raven married the daughter of a chief named Fog-over-the- salmon (Xat-ka-qoga’s!i). It was winter, and they were without food, so Raven wanted salmon very much. His wife made a large basket and next morning washed her hands in it. When she got through there was a salmon there. Both were very glad, and cooked and ate it. Every day afterward she did the same thing until their house was full of drying salmon. After that, however, Raven and his wife quarreled, and he hit her on the shoulder with a piece of dried salmon. Then she ran away from him, but, when he ran after her and seized her, his hands passed right through her body. Then she went into the water and disappeared forever, while all of the salmon she had dried followed her. He could not catch her because she was the fog (giis!). After that he kept going to his father-in-law to beg him to have his wife come back, but his father-in-law said, ‘‘ You promised me that you would have respect for her and take care of her. You did not do it, therefore you can not have her back.’’? Then Raven had to leave this place, and went on to another town where he found a widower. He said to this man, ‘‘I am in the same fix as you. My wife also has died.’’ Raven wanted to marry the daughter of the chief in that town, so he said, ‘‘Of course I have to marry a woman of as high caste as my first wife. That is the kind I am looking for.” But Tsagwé’n (a bird), who was also looking for a high-caste wife, followed Raven about all the time. He said to the people, ‘That man is telling stories around here. His first wife left him because he was cruel to her.’’ For this reason they refused to a ** This episode used to be brought up to girls of 14 or 15 who wanted to run about to feasts and other festivities without their mothers or grandmothers. Such girls were told that they were like Raven when he was imprisoned in the ground-hog hole and wanted to get out. Those who stayed indoors were respected by everybody. They also likened Raven to a foolish girl who tries to lead a good girl, Ground-hog, astray. They told the latter that some injury would result, as happened to Ground-hog in losing histoes. Whena mother saw that her daughter was willing to listen to a foolish girl, she would say to her, ‘Whatever that foolish girl leads you to will be seen on you as long as you live.”” (From the writer’s informant.) 6“ When a young man was about to marry, people would bring this story up to him and tell him that if he did not take care of his wife and once forgot himself, he might lose her. If his wife were a good woman and he treated her right, he would have money and property, but if he were mean to her, he would lose it. And if he lost his wife and had been good to her, he could get another easily.” (From the writer’s informant. ) SWANTON ] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 109 give the girl to him. Then he said to the chief, “If I had married your daughter you would have had a great name in the world. You will presently see your daughter take up with some person who is a nobody, and, when they speak of you in the world, it will always be as Chief-with-no-name. You may listen to this Tsagwa’n if you want to, but you will be sorry for it. He is a man from whom no good comes. Hereafter this Tsagwaé’n will live far out at sea. And I will tell you this much, that neither Tsagwa’n nor myself will get this woman.” This is why Tsagwaé’n is now always alone. Haven also said to the chief, ‘‘ You will soon hear something of this daughter of yours.’ All the high-caste men wanted to marry this woman, but she would not have them. Going on again, Raven came to an old man living alone, named Damna’dji, and said to him, ‘‘Do you know the young daughter of the chief close by here?” ‘‘Yes, I know her.” ‘‘Why don’t you try to marry her?” ‘TI can’t get her. I know I can’t, so I don’t want to try.” Then Raven said, ‘“‘I will make a medicine to enable you to get her.’’ ‘‘But I have no slave,’ said the old man; ‘to get her a man must have slaves.”’ ‘Oh!’ said Raven, ‘“‘you do not have to have a slave to get her. She will take a liking to you and nobody can help it. She will marry you. Her father will lose half of his property.” Then he made the old man look young, got feathers to put into his hair and a marten-skin robe to put over him so that he appeared very handsome. But Raven said to him, ** You are not going to look like this all of the time. It is only for a day OG-s0-. After this the rejuvenated man got into his skin canoe, for this was well to the north, and paddled over to where the girl lived. He did not ask her father’s consent but went directly to her, and she immediately fell in love with him. Although so many had been after her she now said, ‘I will marry you. I will go with you even if my father kills me for it.” When the chief’s slaves found them in the bedroom at the rear of the house, they said to the chief, ‘‘ Your daughter is married.’ So her mother looked in there and found it was true. Then her father said, ‘‘Come out from that room, my daughter.’ He had already told his slaves to lay down valuable furs on the floor for his daughter and her husband to sit on. He thought if she were already married it was of no use for him to be angry with her. So the girl came out with her husband, and, when her father saw him he was very glad, for he liked his looks, and he was dressed like a high-caste person. Then the chief related to his son-in-law how a fellow came along wanting to marry his daughter, and how Tsagwa’n had come after- ward and told him that he had been cruel to his first wife. Said ALO BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 the chief, ‘‘This man had a wife. His first wife is living yet. I don’t want to hurt his wife’s feelings.”’ After that his son-in-law said, ‘‘My father told me to start right out after him to-day in my canoe.” He was in a hurry to depart because he was afraid that all of his good clothing would leave him. He said to his wife, ‘‘Take only your blanket to use on the passage, because I have plenty of furs of every description at home.” So she took nothing but her marten-skin robe and a fox robe. As she lay in the canoe, however, with her head resting on his lap she kept feeling drops of water fall upon her face, and she said many times, ‘‘What is that dripping on my face?’ Then he would say, “Tt must be the water splashing from my paddle,” but it was really the drippings that fall from an old man’s eyes when he is very filthy. Her husband had already become an old man again and had lost his fine clothing, but she could not see it because her face was turned the other way. When the woman thought that they were nearly at their destination she raised herself to look out, glanced at her husband’s face, and saw that he was an altogether different man. She cried very hard. After they had arrived at his town the old man went from house to house asking the people to take pity on him and let him bring his wife to one of them, because he knew that his own house was not fit for her. These, however, were some of the people that had wanted to marry this woman, so they said, ‘‘Why don’t you take her to your own fine house? You wanted her.’’ Meanwhile she sat on the beach by the canoe, weeping. Finally the shabby sister of this old man, who was still older than he, came down to her and said, ‘See here, you are a high-caste girl. Everybody says this man is your husband, and you know he is your husband, so. you better come up to the house with me.” Then she saw the place where he lived, and observed that his bed was worse than that of one of her father’s slaves. The other people also paid no attention to her, although they knew who she was, because she had married this man. They would eat after everybody else was through, and, while he was eating, the people of the town would make fun of him by shouting out, ‘‘Damna’dji’s father-in-law and his brothers-in-law are coming to his grand house to see him.’ Then he would run out to see whether it were so and find that they were making fun of him. Every morning, while he was breakfasting with his wife, the people fooled him in this way. Although he had not said so, the father-in-law and the brothers- in-law of Damna‘dji thought that he was a very high-caste person because he was dressed so finely. So they got together all their expensive furs to visit him, and they had one canoe load of slaves, which they intended to give him, all dressed with green feathers ee SWANTON | TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS | De 3 | from the heads of mallard drakes. One morning the people again shouted, ‘“‘Damna’dji’s father-in-law and his brothers-in-law are coming to see him.’ Running out to look this time, he saw canoe after canoe coming, loaded down deep. Then he did not know what to do. He began to sweep out the house and begged some boys to help him clean up, but they said, ‘“‘ You clean up. yourself. Those are your people coming.” The people of the place also began hiding all of their basket-work pots, and buckets. As they came in, the people in the canoes sang together and all of them were iridescent with color. They were very proud people. Then the old man begged the boys to carry up the strangers’ goods, but they replied as before, “‘ You carry them up yourself. You can do it.” So the strangers had to bring up their own things into the house and sit about without anyone telling them where. The old man’s sister was crying all the time. Then the strangers understood at once what was the matter and felt very sorry for these old people. After that the old man kept saying to the boys who came in to look at his visitors, ‘‘One of you go after water,” but they answered, ““Go after water yourself. You can do it.’ He tried to borrow 2 basket for his guests to eat off of, but they all said, ‘‘Use your own basket. What did you go and get that high-caste girl for? You knew that you couldn’t afford it. Why didn’t you get a poor person like yourself instead of a chief’s daughter? Now you may know that it isn’t fun to get a high-caste person when one is poor.’ His brothers-in-law and his father-in-law felt ashamed at what they heard, and they also felt badly for him. Then the old woman gave her brother a basket that was unfit for the chief’s slaves to eat out of, and he ran out to get water for his guests. When he got there, however, and was stooping down to fill his basket, the creek moved back from him and he followed it. It kept doing this and he kept running after it until he came to the mountain, where it finally vanished into a house. Running into this, he saw a very old woman sitting there who said to him, ‘‘What are you after? Is there anything I can do for you?” He said, ‘‘There is much that you can do for me, if you can really doit. My friends are very mean to me. My father-in-law and the other relations of my wife have all come to my place to visit me. I married a very high- caste woman, and the people of my place seem to be very mean about it. Iam very poor and have nothing with which to entertain them.” He told all of his troubles to her from the beginning, and, when he was through, she said, ‘‘Is that all?’ ‘‘Yes, that is all.” Then the woman brushed back his hair several times with her hand, and lo! he had a head of beautiful hair, while his ragged clothes changed into valuable ones. He was handsomer and better clothed than at the time when he first obtained his wife. The old woman PY BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 that brought him luck is called L!é@’naxxi’daq-that-lives-in-the-water (Hintak-L!é’naxxi’daq). The old basket he had also turned into a very large beautiful basket. Then she said to him, *‘There is a spring back in the corner. Go there and uncover it and dip that basket as far down as you can reach.” He did so and, when he drew it out, it was full of dentalia. | Now Damna’dji returned home very quickly, but nobody recog- nized him at first except his wife and those who had seen him when he went to get her. Afterward he gave water to his guests, and they could see dentalia shells at the bottom. The house was now filled with spectators, and those who had made fun of him were very much ashamed of themselves. After he had given them water, he gave them handfuls of dentalia, for which his father-in-law and his brothers-in-law gave him slaves, valuable furs, and other property. So he became very rich and was chief of that town. That is why the Indians do the same now. If a brother-in-law gives them the least thing they return much more than its value. Now he had a big house built, and everything that he said had to be done. The people that formerly made fun of him were like slaves to him. He also gave great feasts, inviting people from many villages. But, after he had become very great among them, he was too hard upon the people of his town. His wife was prouder than when she was with her father and if boys or anyone else dis- pleased her they were put to death. As they were now very proud and had plenty of people to work for them, the husband and wife spent much time sitting on the roof of their house looking about. One spring the woman saw a flock of swans (goql) coming from the southeast, and said, ‘‘Oh! there is ¢ high-caste person among those birds that I was going to marry.” Another time they went up, and a flock of geese (t!awa’q) came along. Then she again said to her husband, ‘‘Oh! there is the high-caste person I was going to marry.”” By and by some sand-hill cranes (dal) flew past, and she repeated the same words. But, when the brants (qén) came over, and she spoke these words, they at once flew down to her and carried her off with them. Her husband ran after the brants underneath as fast as he could, and every now and then some of her clothing fell down, but he was unable to over- take her. When the birds finally let this woman drop, she was naked and all of her hair even was gone. Then she got up and walked along the beach crying, and she made a kind of apron for herself out of leaves. Continuing on along the beach, she came upon a red snapper head, which she picked up. She wandered on aimlessly, not know- ing what to do, because she was very sad at the thought of her fine home and her husband. Presently she saw smoke ahead of her and SWANTON ] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS ee arrived at a house where was an old woman. She opened the door, and the old woman said, ‘‘Come in.”’ Then she said to the old woman, ‘‘Let us cook this red snapper head.” ‘‘Yes, let us cook it,’’ said the latter. After they had eaten it, the old woman said to her, ‘‘Go along the beach and try to find something else.’’ So she went out and found a sculpin (wéq!). Then she came back to the house and cooked that, but, while they were eating, she heard many boys shouting, and she thought they were laughing at her because she was naked. She looked around but saw no one. Then the old woman said to her, ‘‘Take it (the food) out to that hole.’”’ She went outside with the tray and saw an underground sweathouse out of which many hands protruded. This was the place from which the shouting came. She handed the tray down and it was soon handed up again with two fine fox skins in it. Then the old woman said to her, ‘‘Make your clothing out of these furs,’? and so she did. After she had put the skins on, this old woman said, ‘‘ Your father and mother live a short distance away along this beach. You better go to them. They are living at a salmon creek.” So the girl went on and soon saw her father and mother in a canoe far out where her father was catching salmon. But, when she ran down toward the canoe to meet them, her father said to his wife, ‘‘Here comes a fox.” Ashe was looking for something with which to kill it, she ran back into the woods. Then she felt very badly, and returned to the old woman crying. ‘‘Did you see your father?” said the latter. ‘‘Yes.’’ ‘‘What did he say to you?” ‘‘He took me for a fox. He was going to kill me.” Then the old woman said, ‘‘Yes, what else do you think you are? You have already turned into a fox. Now go back to your father and let him kill you.” The woman went to the same place again and saw her father still closer to the shore; and she heard him say, ‘‘Here comes that big fox again.”’ Then she ran right up to him, saying to herself, ‘‘Let him kill me,” and he did so. Years ago all the high-caste people wore bracelets and necklaces, and each family had its own way of fixing them. . Now, as this woman was skinning the fox, she felt something around its foreleg. She looked at it and found something like her daughter’s bracelet. Afterward she also cut around the neck and found her daughter’s necklace. Then she told her hus- band to come and look saying, ‘‘Here on this fox are our daughter’s necklace and bracelet.” So they cried over the fox and said, ‘‘Some- thing must have made her turn into a fox.’”’ They knew how this fox ran toward them instead of going away. Now they took the body of the fox, placed it upon a very nice mat, and laid another over it. They put eagle’s down, which was always kept in bags ready for use, on the body, crying above it all the time. 494538—Bull. 89—09 8 114 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 They also began fasting, and all of her brothers and relations in that village fasted with them. All cleaned up their houses and talked to their Creator (Cagt’n). One midnight, after they had fasted for many days, they felt the house shaking, and they heard a noise in the place where the body lay. Then the father and mother felt very happy. The mother went there with a light and saw that her daugh- ter was in her own proper shape, acting like a shaman. Then the woman named the spirits in her. The first she mentioned was the swan spirit, the next the goose spirit, the next the sand-hill-crane spirit, the next the brant spirit. Another spirit was the red-snapper- head spirit which called itself Spirit-with-a-labret-in-its-chin (Tats- ya-a’wu-yék), and another the fox spirit (Nagas!e’ koyé’k). Now the father and mother of this woman were very happy, but ber hus- band lost all of his wealth and became poor again.¢ Raven went to another place and turned himself into a woman. Then she thought within herself, ‘* Whose daughter shall I say Iam ?”’ She sawa sea gull sitting out on a high rock and thought she would call that her father. Years ago a chief would always pick out a high place in the village on which to sit in the morning, and when Raven saw thesea gull she thought within herself, ‘‘T am Tacakitta’n’s (Sitter- on-a-high-cliff’s) daughter.” A canoe came along filled with killer whales returning to their own village, and she married one of them. When they got near the town, some one on the beach called to them, ‘‘Where is that canoe coming from?” and one replied, ‘‘We have a“ As TsAgwa’n was a mischief maker and foilowed Raven to tell what he had done to his wife, sc some man will always follow one up if he doesn’t tell the truth. Formerly, when a man left his wife, a settlement of property was made and, if aman married again before this took place, his first wife made trouble for his second. Since no one wants trouble of this kind, a woman always found out what a man was like before she married him, just as this woman found out about Raven. “Since DAmna’dji married a woman of higher family than himself and was taunted by the town people, nowadays they tell a young man that, if he marries a girl of higher rank than himself, they will not remain together long, because she will feel above him and want him to please her continually, while she does nothing to please him. As DAmna/’dji from being poor became rich suddenly and was very hard on his people till all of his riches were again taken away from him, they say, ‘When you become wealthy after having been poor, don’t be proud or your money will all leave you.’ When a man has had plenty of money all his life and wastes it foolishly, they say of him, ‘He has fallen from the hands of the brant. Soa young man nowadays saves up a considerable sum of money before he marries that he may not be made fun of. Perhaps if we had not had this story among the natives of Alaska we would have had nothing to go by. “The fact that DAmna/’dji’s wife’s relations did not insult or maltreat him after they learned how poor he was, shows that they were really high caste. -Had they but recently acquired their wealth they would have done so. Therefore people say to a person who speaks before he thinks, ‘Why can’t you be like DAmn&’dji’s brothers-in-law? Think before you speak.’ When the village people were making fun of their brother-in-law, his wife’s relations might have done anything to them, for they had wealth in furs and slaves, but they kept quiet because they had too much respect for their sister to disgrace her husband’s village people. It was also out of respect for their sister that, when they found out that all that the poor man had for them to drink was water, they drank it willingly without saying a word, where a low-caste person would have grumbled. Therefore people tell a man who has no respect for his brother-in-law because he is low-caste that he ought to be like these brothers-in-law of DAmna/dji. Because DAmna/’dji was lucky twice, the people in olden times used to pray for luck continually. If he wanted to be lucky a poor man lived a very pure life. Those who do not do what is right never will have luck.’’ (From the writer’s informant.) SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 115 been after a wife and we have her.” ‘‘Which chief’s daughter is that?” they inquired, because in olden times people never went for any woman by canoe except the daughter of a chief. ‘‘It is Tacaki- taa’n’sdaughter,” said they. ‘‘It isCuda’xdux0’’s (Barked-hemlock’s) daughter.”’ All of the killer whales believed this. After that, the killer whales began to notice that their food was disappearing very rapidly, although they were always out fishing and hunting and had had their house piled full of boxes of grease. They said, ‘‘What is wrong?) What has become of all the grease and fat in these boxes?” They could not find out for a long time. Raven wore a labret at that time set with abalone shell which was formerly very valuable, and it is from him that high-caste people afterward used these. After some time they found this labret in one of the boxes of grease and said, ‘‘Just look at this labret in here.’ Then Raven exclaimed, ‘‘Ih! my labret, that is always the way with my labret. Whenever it feels like doing so, it will leave my lip and go off anywhere.”’ By and by Raven said, ‘‘ [wonder what is wrong that I have such bad dreams. I dreamt that all the people of this village were asleep, and my husband went to sleep and never woke up. My dreams always come true. Whatever I dream surely happens.” Late the next night she got a stick,sharpened the ends, and killed her husband; and early in the morning they heard her crying, ‘‘My husband, Cawa’t- kaLa’qdagé’s father.” Years ago, before the white laws came in force, when a chief used these words in his speech, people knew that he had a grudge against some one and was going to murder him. The killer whales, however, did not know what she meant. Then Raven told the people that her husband had said, ‘‘Take me and place me quite a distance from the town.”’ They did so, and she said, ‘‘When you hear me cry, I don’t want any of you to pass the place where I am mourning. Tie up the fingers of my right hand. Allow me to eat with my left hand only. You people must also wait upon me. You must bring me everything I eat. Also paint my face black.” She being the widow, they had to do everything just as she told them, and these are the regulations people have observed up to the present time. When they heard her crying around the spot where her husband’s body had been laid, no one dared go near, and to this day those who go by a house where people are mourning have to be very quiet. Nor do they pass it at all unless they are compelled to. Raven stayed there mourning for a long time, but she was really eating the killer-whale’s body. After she had remained by it for ¢ very long time, she would come home chewing gum, but, when the husband’s relations asked her for a piece, she would say, ‘‘No, no one can chew this gum but Maca’,” which was the name she gave to herself. 116 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 She lived there for a long time, continually crying out of doors, but she was really crying for joy because she intended to kill all of the killer whales. While sitting outside one day a kék!" (a small sea gull with black head and white body) flew past, and Raven said, ‘‘ Here comes the man I made white.” By and by she saw another, called kui!é’ta, also white, and repeated the same words. Then some swans came along far up in the sky, and she said the same thing about them. The killer whales heard all this and said, ‘“‘Since you have made them white, can’t you make us white also?’ = “It will hurt you to be made white,’ said Raven. ‘‘Those people that came along were made white because they were brave.”” Then she sharpened the same hard- wood stick with which she had killed her husband and told all of the killers to he ina row. She began pounding this into their ears, and so killed all of them but the last. This looked up in time to see what she was doing and rushed into the sea saying, ‘‘ Raven has finished us sure enough” (Qothaga’sini’yél). Raven remained there for some time eating the whales she had killed. The reason why there are so many cowards among men nowadays is because Raven, being a man, made himself into a woman at that time. The people that live single all their lives are such as came from Raven at that period. This is also why thieves are great talkers and, when they have gotten into trouble, have a way of getting out, and why some women are bad and deceive their husbands; for Raven said that his husband had wanted to be buried a long way from town, and they believed him. This is why the Tlingit used to be very careful of the way they spoke and even of the way they walked when in public.¢ After that Raven came to a fishhawk (kdnackanye’t) and exclaim- ing, ‘Oh! my friend.” entered its house, where was a great quantity of food. He felt very happy at the sight, and said to the bird, ‘“‘T will stay with you all winter.’ Then he stayed so long that the hawk began to get tired of him, because Raven would not work. When he saw that the bird was getting weary of him he would say, “The time for me to work hasn’t come yet. When I work you will have plenty of rest. You will not have to do a thing. This beach a‘*This part of the story was referred to when one wished to imply that a person was trying to make people believe that he was better than he really was. So nowadays, when a high-caste man wants to marry an orphan, people find out who her father is, because Raven made believe her own father was a chief. Some women will go off to a strange place and say falsely, ‘Iam so-and-so’s daughter,’ making people think that she belongs to a very high family. The same sort of woman will assume mourning for her husband, and make people believe she is mourning when she is really thinking what she is going to do and where she is going. If she finds out she can get her living falsely, she will keep on being false. That is why Raven told so many stories about her husband’s death. When a mother sees that her girl is very foolish, she will say to her, ‘When you marry and become a widow, you will eat up your husband’s body,’ meaning that, if her husband leaves her any property, she will use it up foolishly. She also says to her, ‘You are so foolish now, I believe you will steal after you are married,’ meaning that she will be foolish with what her husband earns. Then,she says, ‘They will find syou out by find- ing something of yours in the place where you have been, and it will be a disgrace to your brothers and your father.’’’ (From the writer’s informant.) SWANTON ] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS iE will be covered with all kinds of fish, and you will be tired of prepar- ing them.” So the hawk would think of what Raven was going to do for him, forget everything else, and work all the harder to supply him with food while Raven stayed in the house. Raven would also talk to him, saying, ‘‘I remember to have seen you long ago. You were very high-caste. J remember it very well.” In that way he made the hawk forget for a time all the bad feelings he had had toward him. But finally the little hawk determined to go away, and he left Raven there alone.¢ Then Raven went to another industrious bird, called himyikte’xi, a fishing bird living along the river. He called him ‘‘ brother-in-law,” and was invited to have something to eat, but next morning the bird left him for he knew that he was a lazy fellow.’ After that Raven came to the goose people, and married a woman among them. By and by they said to him, ‘‘We are going to leave for other countries. I don’t think you can stand the journey.” ‘‘Oh! yes,” said Raven, “‘I think I can stand the journey. If you can, I can.’ So they set out, and, when Raven became tired, his wife flew along under him to hold him up. Finally they came to camp and began going out on the beaches to dig roots. Raven helped them, but he did not like the goose life nor the food they ate,so he com- menced to get very lean. One day he killed a goose and began cook- ing it apart by himself, but they discovered him and said, ‘‘ He is a man-eater.’’ So they left him.¢ Raven went to another place, and they said to him, ‘“‘There will soon be a great feast here,’ and they asked him to make a totem pole. He finished it, and, when they put it up, they had a big dance. The people who gave this were of the Wolf clan, so he danced with one of the two Raven parties. Afterward he made a long speech to the host. Then they danced again, and Raven held a spear in his hands. This meant that he was going to invite to a feast next, and was done that they might give him more than the others. So nowadays some are in earnest in doing this while others go through the performance and leave without keeping it in mind. Raven was the person who first had those dances and speeches. a‘‘This is the way nowadays with persons who have no respect for themselves. They go from house to house to be fed by others, and such persons are greedy, great eaters, and lazy. The people tell their children that those who lead this kind of life are not respected. A person who tells the truth is always known because he keeps his word. When Katishan was a boy, they used to say to him when they could not make him do anything, ‘You are so lazy that you will be left in some village alone.’ [It is said that Raven comes along and helps one abandoned in a village.] This is why the Tlingit tried hard to earn their living and make things comfortable for themselves.’? (From the writer’s informant.) b*‘So it is always said, ‘A lazy man will be known wherever he goes.’ Such a person will go from place to place living on others and perhaps bringing in a few pails of water or some wood for his food, but however high-caste he is, he will be looked down upon. Therefore the little ones were taught to stay in their native place and make their living there, instead of wandering from town to town. To this day the high-caste Indians do so and visit in other towns only for a short time. Then people say ‘Look at so-and-so. He stays in his own village.’ ’’ (From the writer’s informant.) c‘‘Nowadays it is said that although a wicked man may appear very nice he will soon be found out. Some little act will betray him.’’ (From the writer’s informant.) 118 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 While they were engaged in the last dance the opposite company of Ravens danced very hard and showed fight by crossing the line which is always set between. For this reason Raven would not go to the next feast, to be confronted by these people. They sent after him many times, and when they- finally became tired’ of sending, began the feast without him. Then he told his slave to go ever and see if they were already eating, and on his return he said, ‘‘They are having a grand time. They are eating a great quantity of food.” “Take me there,’ said Raven to his slaves. So they went along with him, one on each side. When he came there he saw that they were having a grand time distributing boxes of food to all the head chiefs, and he said to a slave, ‘‘Ask them where this chief shall sit.” He did so, but they went on with their feast without paying the slightest attention to him. Then Raven made his slave ask again, “Where shall this chief sit? Where shall this chief sit?” and again they paid no attention, although he shouted so that all im the house could hear him. When the people left he was still standing around, so his slaves said to him, ‘‘Why were you so particular? We could have had a great deal to eat.’”’ After all were gone Raven ate the leavings. So nowadays, when a person wants more than anyone else and makes people send for him again and again, they go on with the feast, lest those of the opposite party think that the host cares more for this one person than for all the rest of them and leave his house. That is why they paid no attention to Raven when he did come. One reason why Raven stayed away was that he thought he would make them come after him several times because he had promised to give a feast in return. Nowadays a person who is going to give a feast acts in the same way, and people know by it what he intends. The following winter Raven gave his feast. This was at Alsek river, and you can still see his house there with the boxes inside [a rock hollowed out like a cave with other rocks inside of it]. When they came in sight of that the Indians would pray to it. As soon as his guests came, Raven went down to meet them with his bow and arrows. That is why people now go down with their euns. He had so much respect for his guests that he had all of his relations act as servants, washing their hands and waiting on them while they ate. Therefore the natives now act just so when they invite people from other towns. Raven taught that all who came after should do just as he had done. He also prepared chewing tobacco for his guests. Then he began building his house, and, when the frame, consisting of four uprights and two cross-pieces, was completed, he and his friends danced the first dance. In this dance people sing funeral songs. Eight songs, or one song with eight verses, are used at this SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 119 time, following a certain regular sequence and, if one that does not know the song starts it and begins with the wrong verse, it is looked on as a disgrace to his people. The guests danced, wearing their masks, hats, emblem coats, and other festal paraphernalia. After that he distributed his property, the people that had invited him before and the leading chiefs obtaining most of it.4 After this Raven returned to the place where he was born and found the box which had held the sun, moon, and stars, and which now contained his mother, still hanging up in the house of Nas-ca’ki- yél. Then he went out with his bow and arrows and shot a whale (yal). It floated ashore on the beach and every day he saw all kinds of sea birds sitting upon it, but he did not like the looks of any of them. Finally, however, he shot a bird called cax and a large bird which was very pretty and had a bill that looked like copper. Then he went to Nas-ca’ki-yél’s house, took down the box which contained his mother,’ and liberated the flickers (ktin) which she always kept under her arms. When Nas-ca’ki-yél saw that, he said, ‘‘ All those pretty things of mine are gone.’ They knew that Raven had done this, so they called him into the house, and Nas- ca’ki-yél asked him if it was indeed he. He said, ‘‘Yes.’’ Then Nas-ca’ki-yél said, ‘‘Go and fell that tree standing over there,” for he wanted: the tree to kill him. But when the tree fell upon Raven it could not kill him because he was made of rock. Finding him still alive, Nas-ca’ki-yél called him in the following day and said, ‘‘Go and clean out that canoe.’ It was a canoe just being made, and when Raven got into it to clean it out it closed upon him. Then he simply extended his elbows and broke the canoe after which he smashed it up for firewood. All this Nas-ca’ki-yél saw, and again sent for him. He came in, and they put into the fire a large copper kettle made like a box, filled it with water, and put heated stones into it. Then they told him to get in, and they covered it over in a “So nowadays a man that has invited people previously is paid first, receiving more than he had given. If he thinks that he has received more than he ought he gives another feast. Whenwe now look back at this it looks as though these people were fighting to see which family was highest. ‘““When a man has invited people and they are coming in toward the town he himself remains in the house. Then some of his relations come and pound on the door and say to him, ‘Why are you staying in the house? You are acting like acoward. Your enemies are coming.’ . So the host comes out with his bow and arrows, or nowadays his gun, and says, ‘Where are those enemies you were telling me about?’ ‘There they are out there in that canoe.’ ‘Those are not my enemies. That is acrowd of women in that canoe. Years ago my relations invited them.’ He calls them women when his people had invited them twice without a return invitation. The people that are going to give the feast study what they are to say before they have it, and they never let outsiders know what it is. As the visitors’ canoe approached shore they might say, ‘What is that I see out there?’ Then one would look and reply, ‘That is a Gonaqadé't.’ They call it a GonaqAde’t because they know that that party will give a feast and invite them in return. * They also have songs ready to sing at the very beginning of the feast, and, when such a song is started it shows that the feast will be a big one.’’ (From the writer’s informant.) b“ Some people call this woman Nas-ca’ki-yel’s wife and some his daughter, but I have always heard that she was his daughter.’’ (From the writer’s informant. ) *To see a Gonaqade’t brought wealth to the beholder. 120 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 order to kill him. Raven, however, again changed himself into a rock, and, when they thought he was cooked to pieces and looked inside, they saw that he was still there. Then they told him to come out. . Now Nas-ca’ki-yét was very angry and said, ‘‘ Let rain pour down all over the world, and let people die of starvation.’ Then it became so wet and stormy that people could not get food and began to starve. Their canoes were also broken up, their houses fell in on them, and they suffered terribly. Now Nas-ca’ki-yél asked for his jointed dance hat and when he put it on, water began pouring out of the very top of it. It is from Nas-ca’ki-yél that the Indians obtained this kind of hat. When the water rose so as to cover the house floor, Raven and his mother got upon the lowest retaining timber. This house we are talking of, although it looked like a house to them, was really part of the world. It had eight rows of retaining timbers, and, as the water came up, Raven and his mother climbed to a higher one. At the same time the people of the world were climbing up into the hills. When the waters reached the fourth retaining timber they were half way up the mountains. When the house was nearly full of water, Raven had his mother get into the skin of the cax he had killed, while he got into the skin of the white bird with copper-colored bill, and to this very day Tlingit do not eat the cax because it was Raven’s mother. The cax, which is a ereat diver, now stayed on the surface of the water, but Raven him- self flew to the very highest cloud in the sky and hung there by his bill.¢ After Raven had hung to this cloud for days and days, nobody knows how long, he pulled his bill out and prayed to fall upon a piece of kelp, for he thought that the water had gone down. He did so, and, flying off, found the waters just half way down the mountains. Then he traveled along again and came to a shark which had a long stick it had been swimming around with. He took this, stuck it straight down into the sea and used it as a ladder on which to descend under the ocean. Arrived at the bottom, he gathered up some sea urchins and started along with them. By and by Raven came to a place where an old woman lived and said to her, ‘‘ How cold I am after eating those sea urchins.’’ As she paid no attention to him, he repeated it over and over for a long time. a A short version of this part of the story was related to me by my Sitka interpreter who had obtained it from his wife. According to this, a man had a wifeof whom he was very jealous. People wanted to get to her and marry her, but he guarded her very closely. Finally a man reached her and pulled aside her arms, letting free all of the land animals and sea creatures she had been keeping there. That was why her husband was so jealous about her. Afterward the husband raised a flood, but one man heard of it and made a big canoe to which others attached theirs, and all went up together. He also took two animals of each species into his canoe. This last is evidently a Christian addition. By some the jealous husband is said to have been Loon. SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS ak At last she said, ‘‘What low tide is this Raven talking about?”’ He did not answer, and presently she said again, ‘‘ What low tide are you talking about?” After she had asked him this question many times Raven became very angry and said, ‘‘I will stick these sea-urchin shells into your body if you don’t keep quiet.”” At last he did so, and she began singing, ‘‘ Don’t, Raven, the tide will go down if you don’t stop.”’ At the same time Raven kept asking Eagle, whom he had set to watch the tide, ‘‘ How far down is the tide now?” ‘The tide is down as far as half a man.”’ By and by he asked again, ‘‘ How far down is the tide?”’ ‘‘The tide is very low,” said Eagle. Then the old woman would start her song again. ‘‘ Let it get dry all around the world,’ said Raven to Eagle. By and by Eagle said, ‘‘The tide is very, very low now. You can see hardly any water.’ ‘‘Let it get still drier,’ said Raven. Finally everything became dry, and this was the lowest. tide that there ever was. All kinds of salmon, whales, seals, and other sea creatures lay round on the sand flats where the people that were saved could get them. They had enough from that ebb tide to supply them for a long, long time. When the tide began to rise again all the people watched it, fearing that there would be another flood, and they carried their food a long distance back, pray- ing for it to stop. Quite a while before this flood took place the shamans had predicted it, and those who worked from that time on collecting food were saved while the others were destroyed. After the flood Raven stayed in a town of considerable size. A man there, named Caq!"k!", collected all kinds of big sea animals, as whales and seals, at the time of this great ebb and made a great quantity of grease out of them, while Raven collected only small fishes like cod and red cod and obtained but a few stomachs full of oil. He would eat this up as fast as he made it, but his companion worked hard so as to have a large quantity on hand. By and by Raven said to Caq!"k!", ‘‘My uncle, I had a bad dream last night. I dreamt that there was war here and that we were all killed. You must be on the watch.” After that Raven said to the birds, ‘‘You must make a lot of noise now.’ They did so and Caq!k!", thinking warriors were coming to kill him, ran out of the house. Atonce Raven began carrying off the boxes of grease to a cer- tain place in the woods. Just as he was at work on the last of these the people of the house came back, pushed him into it, and tied him up, but he made a hole with his bill and escaped. Then he went to the place where he had hidden the boxes and stayed there for a year, until he had eaten everything up. Next Raven returned to Nass river and found that the people there had not changed their ways. They were dancing and feasting and invited him to join them. 122 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 By and by he came to where war was going on between two different parties, and he said to them, ‘‘ Make carved fighting hats, greaves, and war coats to protect your bodies.” The name of one village was Git !i’ke and the warring families were the Ginaxda’yike (or Gitei- cAlk)and the Gitandu’. The people of Git!i’ke were getting the worst of it. There were only three of them left—the chief, his sister, and his sister’s daughter. So the chief began sending to all the villages for an aged man who was very smart and knew the old stories. _When- ever he brought in an old man, however, the latter would talk of what good food he had been eating and what a high family he belonged to, or tell what a wild life he had led when he was young, all which had no interest for the chief. He thought if he could find an old man that would tell him just the old story he wanted, he would pay him well. Finally he found that among his enemies was Old-man-who- foresees-all-troubles-in-the-world, the one spoken of at the beginning of this story, and he sent for him without letting the rest of his enemies know about it. After a while he heard this old man coming along, talking very loud, like a brave person, and he thought, ‘‘ This is the old man from whom I am going to hear the story.’ Then the old man said, ‘‘ Chief, if you are pleased with the story I am about to tell you, let me know how long I shall stay in your house, and, if you are not pleased, let me go at once.”’ After that he told him all about the brave people that had lived in times gone by, and said, ‘“‘ Always speak very highly of yourenemies. If you speak slightingly of them they will get above you. If you speak to them in a nice manner, you will be able to stand alone. If you speak to your enemies kindly, they will say, ‘Let us give ourselves up to him.’”’ Then the chief said to the old man, ‘‘ You shall stay with me a long time,’’ so he stayed there, and next day they waited on him, giving him water to wash his hands and face and food to eat. After that the old man sent for a piece of Alaska maple (q !alq !é’) and made a war hat out of it carved to resemble a wolf. Then he said, ‘‘Isn’t there a wolf skin around here somewhere?” So they killed a wolf, skinned it entire along with the claws and teeth and put the dancing hat inside to fill out the head. He sent for another piece of hard wood from a tree called saks and made an arrow out of it. He burned black lines around the shaft of this arrow like those on gambling sticks. Then he said to the chief, ‘‘ Your sister shall sing the war song for you, and your sister’s daughter shall beat the drum. Put the wolf on while the song is being sung and go down toward that beach just below the house. Jump over that rock four times.’’ There was a big rock upon the beach just below the house. As he gave these directions the old man made his voice sound as though he were making war. He began to excite the chief. ‘‘ My nephews,’’ he con- SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 193 tinued, ‘‘are out in the canoe farthest from the beach. Be careful how you use your arrow. Do not point it toward that canoe.’ When the old man was about to leave him he handed him the arrow and a bow and said, ‘‘ Put on your war clothes about midnight. Then stand in front of your house and pretend that you are going to shoot. Stand with the arrow pointed toward your enemies’ village and say to the arrow just before you let it go, ‘I am shooting you to kill the chief of my enemies.’ Then let the arrow go.” After that the old man left, saying that that was all he intended to tell him. The chief did everything just as he had been directed. At mid- night he put on his war clothes and said to his sister, ‘‘ You start the the war song, and let my niece go to the drum.’ Then he took the position the old man had told him and shot the arrow saying, ‘* Lodge in the heart of my enemies’ chief.’ He shot, and in the morning the people of that village saw that the chief was dead. They thought that he had died of heart disease, but, when they examined his body, they found the small arrow sticking into his heart. Then they cut this out and began asking one another, ‘‘ Where has this arrow come from? What tribe does it belong to?”? So they sent for the old man who had made it and, as he was-examining it, he said, ‘‘ 1 wonder to what place this belongs.”’ Just then it flew out of his hand, and he said, ‘‘Run out and see what it is going to say.”’ So all ran outside, and the arrow flew up and down in the sky saying ‘‘ Nu’xgayu.”’ This is the Tsimshian name of an animal, but the old man made it indicate by that the village from which it came. After that it went across to their enemies’ town. Now, when they saw this, they got into their canoes and went over to fight. As soon as the canoes had gotten around his house the chief said, ‘I am not afraid to be killed by you, because I know that you are all from a high family.” Then he again had his sister sing the war song and his niece beat the drum, and he acted as the old man had directed him. Just before he came out he threw out ashes which looked like smoke and concealed his movements. In the midst of this he came out and shot the arrow toward their canoes, which passed through every man in four of them. Then it came back to him, and he shot it through four more canoe loads. Those who were left went home. The day after this still more came to fight him with like result, but the next time he made a mistake, shot toward the canoe which con- tained the old man’s relations, and killed all of them. Then the arrow fiew back to the old man, who sent it at the chief for whom he had made it, and killed him. Now the chief’s sister put on her brother’s war clothes, while her daughter sang the song and drummed. With the arrow which had traveled back to her, she began killing off her enemies just as her brother had done. So the people made fun of the old man, saying, A: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [RULL. 39 ‘‘T thought you said you had killed that chief.” ‘‘I did kill him.” “Well! if you killed the chief, who is it that is killing our friends?’ Still he kept assuring them that he had killed the chief. Then they started over once more. But, this time, when the woman had shot and was running back into the house, they saw by the apron she wore that it was a woman, and the canoes started shoreward, the people exclaiming, ‘‘It isa woman. It is awoman.’’? When all had landed, and she saw that they were coming after her, she and her daughter escaped out of the rear of the house and ran up into the woods. From the top of the mountain there she glanced back and said to her daughter, ‘Look at your uncle’s house. It is burning.” They could see the fire and smoke coming from it. Then they felt very sad and composed songs which the Indians sing to this very day. They cried so hard that they fell asleep. After that they went farther into the forest erying, and the mother said as she wept, ‘‘I wonder whom I can get to marry my daughterso that he can helpme.”’ By and by Mink came to the woman and said, ‘‘What is the matter with me? Will not I do for your daughter?” ‘‘What do you do for a living?” she asked him. ‘‘I have a smell that kills everything.”’ Then the woman went straight on without paying the least attention to him. Next Marten came along. To this woman they appeared as human beings. And Marten said, ‘‘What is the matter with me?”’ ‘‘What can you do for a living?” He said he was a very fast runner and could get anything he wanted, but she rejected him. Then she went on again singing as before, ‘‘Who will marry my daughter in order to help me?” Next came Mountain-goat. ‘‘What is the matter with me?” ‘‘What do you do for a living?” ‘‘T can kill anything with my horns. I live far up among the bluffs where noth- ing can harm me.’ He did not please her, and she went on past. Then Wolf came, saying, ‘‘What is the matter with me? Can not L get your daughter?”’ ‘‘What do you do for a living?” ‘‘I am a fast runner. I can kill anything I want. I have plenty to eat.’ He did not suit her, and she passed by him, but he was so deter- mined that he met her again with a mountain goat in his mouth. She went right by, however, and came to a lake where she repeated the same words. At that place she met a very fine-looking young man, Frog. ‘‘What do you do for a living?”’ she asked, and he did not tell her what he did but said, “Although I am small very few people like me. Even the big animals are scared of me.”’ After him Grizzly Bear asked, ‘‘What is the matter with me?;) ‘‘What do you do for a living?”’ ‘‘Don’t you see how large I am? I am a very powerful fellow.” He showed her his strength and what teeth he had, and said that he was very quick and active, but she refused to have him, and went on. Then she met the Wild Canary (s!as!). ‘‘What do you do for a living?”’ she said. ’‘I am a fine singer.”” She SWANTON ] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 125 went on and met another bird, called Ts!inigé’ni, and asked, ‘‘What do you do for a living?” ‘‘Don’t you see that I am a very handsome fellow. All the women want to marry me.’ Then she went along and met Fox, who said, ‘‘What is the matter with me?”” ‘‘What do you do for a living?”’ she asked. She noticed that he was dressed very warmly in. very beautiful clothing. ‘‘I can run and get any- thing I want,” he said. ‘‘T have plenty to eat.’ He did not suit her, and she went right by. After a while there came Lynx eak), who replied to her question by saying, ‘‘I am a traveler and get all kinds of birds to eat.” Next she met Wolverine (Nisk) which answered, ‘‘I am a good hunter and I kill all kinds of animals.”’ After that she went along sadly, repeating as usual, ‘‘Who will marry my daughter so that he can help me?”’ Then she saw a man who shone all over, standing on top of a mountain. She came very close to him, and he said, ‘‘What is the matter with me?” ‘‘What do you do for a living?’ ‘‘I move about as quick as thought. Wherever I want to go, there [ am at once. My father is thesun.”’ She said, ‘‘Let us see him then.”’ So he spoke to the sun. It was a cloudy day, but, when he spoke to it, the sun appeared and.it became very warm. “All right,” she said, ‘‘you can have my daughter for your wife.” After that the man took a limb from a tree and said to his mother- in-law, ‘‘You shall be this limb.”’ He put her inside and shoved the limb back. Then he said to her, ‘‘The world will call you ‘Woman- of-the-forest’ (As-gutu’yik-ca). You will mock everybody that shouts or whistles. When they hear you they will know what it is.” So she became the echo. After this a spherical cloud came down and rolled up with them. As the cloud was going up, the man said to his wife, ‘‘Don’t look at it. Keep your face hidden.” When he told her to open her eyes again she saw that she was in a beautiful place with flowers all about. It was his house. It was a grassy country and there were all kinds of fruits about the place. There this woman had eight children, seven boys and a girl. She was very much afraid of everything, and that is why women are so to-day. Then they built for these children a small house with a painted front, put up forty boxes of every kind of fruit and berry, also dried salmon, grease, and other kinds of food, and stored the house with them. They had bracelets and a marten-skin robe made for the girl, and her grandfather said to her, ‘‘You are going to be very quarrelsome. While quarreling you will always examine your bracelets.” Then their grandfather prepared war clothes for the boys and said, ‘‘You are now going down to fight.” He also gave them a painted wooden wedge and said, ‘‘Keep this with you all the time. When you are fighting and see that your enemies are too strong for you, and you are getting beaten, put this wedge into the 126 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 39 fire. While putting it into the fire, say this: ‘Grandfather, our enemies are beating us?’” Then they were all placed, together with their house and its contents, in the spherical cloud and set down on the site of Git!i’%ke. As soon asit landed, the little house grew to be a big house with painted front, and the boxes of berries, salmon, and other provisions were all big painted boxes. Everything had been made small so as to come down without being seen. Then the children of the sun were all very happy, and made so much noise that their enemies, who were out on the river fishing for eulachon, heard them and said, ‘‘Those are the bones of the Git!i’ke people that are making so much racket.’ As soon, however, as they found that their enemies’ village was repeopled they started off in their canoes to make war upon them. They were so numerous that the children of the sun found they were going to be beaten and put their wedge into the fire. Then the sun came out fiercely, and many of the enemy became so hot that they jumped into the ocean. The ocean was so hot that they died there, while those upon land, becom- ing too blinded to fight, were also killed.¢ Therefore nowadays people do the same thing. When they fight and a good man of high caste is killed, his friends do not come to their opponents as though they were angry. They use good words to them, and thereby induce a man of equally high rank on the other side to come out and be killed by them. If they went there talking meanly they would not get him to come out. The woman who was saved remembered how her brother and all of her relations had been killed. Therefore she took good care in selecting a husband for her daughter, because she felt if she did so she would get all of her relatives back. That is why the Indians of good family took such good care of a daughter in old times. They knew that if she married well she would be a help to the family. . When the inhabitants of that town became very numerous the daughter of the chief there used to go out berrying. One day, while she was out after berries, she stepped into the manure of a grizzly bear and said, ‘“That nasty thing is right in the way.’’ Then the erizzly bear came to her in the form of a fine-looking man, and she went off with him but they thought that a grizzly bear had killed her. Now the grizzly-bear people watched her very closely, and, whenever she went out of the den, they covered up her tracks. This girl had dentalium shells around her neck, and the bears were very much surprised to find one of these lying in her tracks every time they covered them over. Early in the morning the male bears went out after salmon, while their wives gathered firewood. They always a Cf, story 96. SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS Ory selected wet wood for this, but the girl got nothing but dry wood, and her fire continually went out. She could never start a fire with it. One day, however, an old woman called to her and said, ‘‘You are with a different sort of people. You are brought away from your own people. I got here because the same thing happened to me. Use wet wood like the rest of the women. Leave that dry wood alone.”” Then she used wet wood and had good fires. When this girl had lost almost all the dentalia from her clothing she thought, ‘‘ What is going to become of me?’ But the old woman said to her, ‘‘Do you want to save yourself? Do you want to go back to your father and mother? This is not a good place where you are. Now,” she said, ‘‘go and get a piece of devil’s club, a thorn from a wild rose bush, some sand, and a small rock. When you see these bear people coming after you, throw that devil’s club back of you first. Next throw the thorn, then the mud, then the sand, then the rock.” . So the woman collected these things and started off on the run, and after a while she saw the bears coming behind her. When they had gotten quite close to her she threw back the devil’s club and there came to be so many devil’s clubs in that spot that the bears could not get through easily. While they were in the midst of these she got a long distance off. The next time they got close she threw back the thorn, and rose bushes covered the country they had to traverse, retarding the bears again and enabling her to obtain another long lead. Next she threw back the mud, and the place became so muddy that they had to wade through it slowly. After that she threw the sand which became a sand bank, and the bears slid back from it in attempting to cross. Finally she threw back the rock, and there was a high cliff which it took the bears a long time to surmount. Before the bears had overcome this obstacle the girl came out on a beach and saw a man in front of her in a canoe fishing for halibut. She said to him, ‘‘Come ashore and save me,” but he paid no atten- tion to her. After she had entreated him for some time he said, ‘Will you be my wife if I come to save you?” ‘‘Let me get into your canoe, and let us go out. Then I will talk to you about that.” Finally, when she saw that the bears were very close to her, she said, ‘‘Have pity on me. Come and save me.” ‘‘Will you be my wife, if I come and save you?” ‘‘Yes, I will be your wife.”’ Upon that he came in very quickly, took her into his canoe and went out again. He was fishing with a float on the end of his line, and, when he came back to it, he began pulling his line up. Then the bears rushed down to the beach and shouted, ‘‘Bring us our wife. That is our wife you have in your canoe. If you don’t bring her to us we will kill you.” At first he paid no attention, but after a while he said, 128 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 “Well! if you think you can kill me, swim out here.” Immediately they plunged into the water and when she saw them coming the girl was frightened, but the man said, ‘‘Don’t be frightened. My father was of the Ginaxcamgé’tk.”* When the bears got close to the canoe, he put his club into the sea and it killed them all. Then they went to his home. The morning after this, when her husband was about to go out fishing, he said to the woman, ‘‘I have a wife living on the other side of the house. She is a very bad woman. Don’t look at her while she is eating.” After her husband got home from fishing he waited on his new wife and was very kind to her, and, when they were through eating, they went up to the top of the house to sit. Then she said to him, ‘‘I am your wife now. Anything you know or whatever you have seen you must tell me all about.” So her hus- band said, ‘‘ This wife of mine is a very large clam. She is very high. Nobody looks at her. You see that there is always water in the place where she is sitting. Anyone that looks at her falls into this water and drifts away.” This man lived under ground, but the girl thought she was in a house because she was as if out of her head. Her husband caught halibut all of the time to give to his monster wife, and the girl thought to herself, ‘How does that thing he feeds so much eat?” One time, therefore, as soon as the clam began eat- ing, she lay down, made a hole in her blanket and looked through it at the big clam eating. She saw that it was a real clam. When the clam saw that she was looking, it shot out so much water that the house was filled, and the girl was carried underneath the clam by the current. When her husband got home, however, and found the girl gone, he said to the clam, ‘‘Where is that girl?’ He became very angry with the clam and killed it by breaking its shell. Then he found the girl’s dead body in the water under the clam, took it out, put eagle feathers upon it, and restored it to life. Therefore nowadays eagle feathers are used a great deal at dances and in mak- ing peace.? By and by the man said to his wife, “Do you know that your father lives a short distance from here? Do you want to go to see your father and mother?’ She was very glad to hear that, and a Said to be the Tsimshian word for Gonaqade’t. b* Eagle feathers are often referred to nowadays in speeches. Thus people will say to one who is mourning, ‘You have been cold. Therefore I bring you these feathers that have been handed down from generation to generation.’ When peace is about to be made one man is selected called the ‘ deer’ (Qowaka’n) because the deer is a very gentle animal. When a man is so taken he is supposed to be like the deer, and he has to be very careful what he says. Eagle feathers are put upon his head because they are highly valued. The songs he starts while dancing are those sung when the people were pre- served from some danger, or at the time of the flood. He does not sing anything composed in time of war. They also called the ‘deer’ the ‘sun deer’ (gaga’n qowaka’n), becavse the sun is very pleasant to see and never does anybody any harm. Some called him ‘fort deer ‘Nu qowaka’n), becausc people are safe ina fort. For this office a high-caste person was always selected.” (From the writer’s informant.) Cf. Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Burcau of American Ethnology, p. 451. SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 129 they started off at once, after loading the canoe down with food, for this being was rich and had all kinds of things. His canoe was a brown bear, which traveled of itself but had to be fed at short inter- rals.* Just before they reached her father’s town, they landed, carried their canoe up and placed all of the food under a large tree where it would keep dry. Then the man stayed with it and told his wife to go over to her father’s house. Her father and mother had thought that she was dead, so they were very happy to see her. She said to her father, ‘‘There is a lot of food close by here. I have brought it to you.’’ At that time she looked very filthy to them and her clothing ragged, though to herself she appeared beautiful. So her father was very much ashamed of her and gave her some good clothing. She also smelt to them very strongly of the beach. Then they went over and brought in all the food, but her husband did not come with them.’ At that time the woman was pregnant, and presently she gave birth to a boy. He was very smart like his father, though they did not let him know who his father was. When he grew larger, he was a fine shot with bow and arrows, bringing in all sorts of small ani- mals, and the other boys were jealous of him. One time, when he was out in a canoe with other boys, hunting, he began shooting at a cormorant (ytq), which kept going farther and farther out. All of a sudden it became foggy and they could not see their way, so they fastened their canoe to the end of a drifting log which was sticking out of the water, and waited. Then some one came to them and said to the boy, ‘‘I am after you. Your father wants you.” At once the boy lost consciousness, and, when he came to, found himself in a very fine house on the mainland. The chief living there said, ‘‘Do you know that you are my son?’ He also gave him a name, Cameigé’tk, and he thought a great deal of him, but the boy thought it strange that he never inquired for his mother. Then he gave his son abalone shells and sharks’ teeth (caxda’q) as presents. He also made him a club and said to him, ‘“Whenever you are among wild animals and find there are too many, put this club down and it will fight for you. When you see seals or sea lions sitting on the rocks, put it down and it will kill a‘*T have always wondered what this part of the story means but was never told. It must have been because we were going to have steamboats. Every now and then at the present time something hap- pens like things in the stories. The poor people always had luck in those days, and I have always wondered what it meant. Years ago, too, we used to hear the old people say, ‘There will be no slaves. Those that have been slaves are going to feel themselves above the real high-caste Indians.’ And sure enough nowadays the people that have come from slaves are very proud, while the race of nohies is dying out. They are protected by law and know that nothing harmful can be saidtothem. Weheard of this years ago.”’ (From the writer’s informant.) b**Some people are like this nowadays. They are very poor but are so used to the life that they can not see it, and so used to filth that they do not noticeit.”” (From the writer’s informant.) 49438—Bull. 839—09 9 130 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [ BULL. 39 them.’ After this it seemed to the boy as if a door were opened for him, and he saw the canoe he had left with the boys in it. They said, ‘‘What happened to you? Where have you been?” But he only answered, ‘‘Did not you see me sitting on the very top of this log?” He was so smart that they believed him. Then they reached home safe and the grandparents were very glad to see him, but only his mother knew what had happened. Like his father, the boy was a great hunter and fisherman. Before he came the people of that town had been starving, but now, especially since he had obtained the club, they had plenty to eat. His grandfather’s house was always full of halibut, seal, and sea-lion meat. Then his grandmother said to him, ‘‘Grandson, do not go over in that direction. None of the village people go there, and those who have done so never returned.” This, however, only made the boy anxious to see what was the trouble, so he went there and, kill- ing some seals and halibut, put them into the water to entice the creature up. Finally he saw a gigantic crab (s!a-u) coming up in the sea, so he put his club into the ocean, and it broke the crab’s shell and killed it. Then he and his slave pulled the big crab ashore, and he took a load of its flesh home to his grandparents. His grandparents had worried all the time he was away, but his mother knew that her son had power over all kinds of fish, because his father is chief of the sea. Everything in the sea is under him. Another time his grandmother said to him, ‘‘ There is a place over in this direction where lives a big mussel (yis!).. No canoe can pass it without being chewed up.” So he went to the mussel and killed that. He took all of its shell home, and the people throughout the village bought it of him for spears, arrow points, and knives. At the same time he also brought home a load of cockles, clams, and other shellfish. In the Tsimshian country the shellfish are fine, and the mussels are not poisonous as they are here. In April the Alaskans do not dare to eat shellfish, especially mussels, claiming that they are poisonous. It is because he killed the big mussel that they are all poisonous here. Since his time, too, boys and girls have done whatever their fathers used to do. After that the boy married and had a son who was very unlike him. His name was Man-that-eats-the-leavings (Q!a-1’té-ctika-qa), and, when he grew up, he was worthless. He seemed to see the shellfish, however, and understood the shellfish language. At the same time the daughter of the chief in a certain village not far away went out of doors and slipped on slime which had dropped from a devilfish hung up in front. She said, ‘“‘Oh! the dirty thing.” About the middle of the following night a fine-looking young man SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 131 came to her, and she disappeared with him; and the people wondered where she had gone. This young man was the devilfish, whom she married, and she had several children by him. Meanwhile, as she was their only child, her parents were mourning for her continually. After some time had passed, her parents saw two small devilfishes on the steps of the chief’s house early in the morning, and the people said to the chief, ‘‘What devilfishes are these here on the steps?”’ He said, ‘‘Throw them down on the beach.”” They did so, but the little devilfishes came right back. They threw them down again, but the chief said, ‘‘ If they come up the third time, leave them alone. Let them do what they will, but watch them closely.” Then they came right into the chief’s house, and one climbed into the chief's lap while the other got into that of his wife. He said, ‘‘ My daughter must have gone to live among the devilfishes.”’ To see what they would do, he said, ‘‘ My grandchildren, is this you?”? Upon which they put their tentacles around his neck and began moving about. Then he gave them some food on long platters, and they acted as though they were eating from these. Afterward he said, ‘‘ Take those platters and follow them along to see where they go.”’ They did so and saw them disappear under a large rock just in front of the town. So the people came back and said to the chief, ‘‘They went under that large rock down there. Your daughter must be under there also.’’ When the people got up next morning they saw on the steps the platters they had taken down, wiped very clean. Now the chief felt very badly, for he knew what had happened to his daughter, so he said to the people in his house, ‘‘Go down and invite my daughter, and say, ‘Your father wants you to come to dinner.’’? So they went down and said, ‘‘ Your father has sent us to invite you, your children, and your husband to come to dinner at his house.”’ ‘‘We are coming,” said the woman from under the beach, ‘‘so go back. We will be there soon.’’ She knew the voices of all of her husband’s servants. When these came back to the chief, he said, ‘‘Did you ask her? Did you go there?”’ ‘Yes, we were there.” ‘‘What did you say to her?” ‘‘We told her just what you wanted us to say to her. She said that her husband, her children, and herself would be here soon.” So the people watched for her, and by and by she came up along with her devilfish husband and with the two little devilfishes right behind her. Her marten-skin robe was rotten, all sorts of sea weeds were in her hair, and she looked badly, although she had formerly been very pretty. Her father and mother were very sorry. Then they set out food for them and afterward took the trays down to the place where the little ones had gone under the rock. Now the chief invited all of the people into his house, gave them tobacco to chew, and told them how badly he felt. After they had 182 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 talked the matter over for a while they said to him, ‘‘ You might as well have all the devilfishes killed. When those small ones are grown up you do not know what they will do to your house.” So they invited the devilfishes again, killed the big one, threw the little ones down on the beach, and kept the girl. By and by, however, the girl said to her father, ‘‘There is going to be a terrible war. All of the devilfish are assembling. Don’t allow any of the people of your town to sleep at night. Let them watch.’ So, when night came on, they could see large and small devilfishes coming in through every little crack until the house got quite full of them, and some people were suffocated by having the devilfishes cover their mouths. The devilfish that they had killed was chief among them. Just then Man-that-eats-the-leavings came to that town, and they told him what a hard time they were having every mght with the devilfish, so he stayed with them until evening. When they came in this time he seemed to have control over them, and they ceased bothering the people. The large devilfishes are called dagasa’. The small ones, which they threw down on the beach, are those that the Alaskan Indians see, but these do not injure anyone now because their grandfather was a human being. Afterward they bathed the girl to take all the devilfish off of her, and put fine clothing on her. Her face was very pretty, so that all the neighboring chiefs wanted to marry her. In olden times a good looking woman was considered high-caste, for they knew she would marry well, and a good looking woman among the high-caste people was considered very high. Among those who wanted to marry this girl was Man-that-eats-the- leavings. He lived in a brush house at a place where garbage was thrown out. Tle was a fine shot, however, and one day he went to a lake behind the town where a loon was swimming about and shot it. When the arrow struck it gave forth a sound like a bell and swam right up to the shore. Then he went down to it and found, instead of a loon, a canoe made out of copper. This was, in fact, the grizzly-bear canoe that had belonged to his grandfather. It had long since been forgotten. Next he found a piece of a painted house front (q!@n) and shook it, upon which a grand house stood there with four horizontal house timbers, and he lined the inside of this house with copper-plates made out of the copper canoe. Then he married the chief's daughter without her father’s consent and took her to his house. By and by the chief’s daughter was missed, and they hunted for her through all of the houses, but they did not look into the old brush house, for they thought she would never go there. They thought SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS IS ys! that she might have gone back to the rocks again, and they dug up all of the large rocks to look underneath them. Finally, however, they saw her going into the brush house and told her parents, and her parents felt very badly on her account. All got out spears to kill her husband, but her mother said, ‘‘I am going there to see her first.’’ So she went down in great anger, but found the door already open for her, and, when she went in, each side of the house shone so brightly that she could hardly keep her eyes open. She saw that the house was full of very nice things, so she said to her daughter, ‘Daughter, are you married?” ‘‘Yes, mother, I am married.’’ Her mother had intended to take her home and have her husband killed, but instead she put the fire out and sat in the ashes, as was customary in the case of a woman whose daughter married without her consent. It meant that she wanted property. And before she had sat there very long, her new son-in-law handed out eight bright copper plates and sent her home, and she told her husband all that she had seen. Then they laid their spears aside, and the following morning they saw a beautifully painted house standing where the brush house had been. Now the chief invited his daughter and her husband to a feast. The servants that were sent with the invitation were finely dressed. When they got there, they said to the girl, ‘‘We are sent after you by your father; he wants you to come to a feast, you and your husband.”’ They did so, and, after food had been served, he gave his son-in-law eight slaves, one for every copper plate his wife had received. And to this day, when a girl runs off with some one, and her people find he is all right, they do all they can for her.¢ By and by this chief's daughter had a little boy who proved to be very smart and became a great hunter. He used to hunt far up on the mountains for mountain goats and other animals. One time he fell from the top of a mountain and lost consciousness, and, when he came to, he saw many men standing about him in a cirele. They had cedar-bark rings around their heads and necks. Then they said to him, ‘‘What kind of spirit do you want, the Raven Spirit or the Wolf Spirit?”’ and he said ‘‘The Wolf Spirit.”” So they held white rocks over his head, and he became unconscious. That is how he got the spirit. Then he ran around screaming, naked except for an apron, while all of the Cliff Spirits and all of the Forest Spirits sang and pounded on sticks for him. They also tied up his hair like a wolf’s ears. This is the origin of the Luqana’, or secret societies, and the one this man first started is said to have been the Dog-eaters’ society. He sang a song, too, only employed nowadays by a high-caste person a For another version of this part, see story 89. 134 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [RULL. 39 when he is inititated. It is called Cma’xlk!, and goes this way, “Tam above the world. I walk in high places. There is nobody else after me. I am alone.’ Those who became luqana’s after this were not like him, because he said, ‘‘I am alone. There is nobody after me.”’ They only imitate him. There are many kinds of luqana’s. Some are dog-eaters and some pretend to eat the arms of people. It is previously arranged between the luqana’ and his father what he is to do and whom he is to injure, and, after the spirit has come out, the father has to pay a great deal of money for damages. The luqana’s are always found at feasts, and high-caste people stand around them. The people who learned from this boy first are those in the direction of Victoria, and there they think that a person who has performed many times is very high. It is only very lately that we Alaskans have had luqana’s. Tuqana’ is a Tsimshian word meaning yék.¢ When they perform up here, the southern Tlingit dance Tsimshian dances and the northern Tlingit Athapascan dances. After this youth had come back to his people from the woods and had shown them all about the luqana’, he went to the Queen Char- lotte islands and came to the greatest chief there. Then the people at that place said to him, ‘‘It is terrible the way things have been going on. We have wizards (nuks!a’ti), who kill men in a sly way. There is one very high-caste person here who has taught himself to be a wizard. And they told him this man’s story. He and his friend were very dissolute young men who wanted very much to be wizards, and the former begged his slave to tell him what to do. ‘‘If you want to become one very much,” said he, “‘go down there and sleep among the driftwood left by the tide. Then you will see what it is.’ They did this, and a very nice looking woman came to them and taught them witcheraft. This was the mouse (k!uts!i’n). They thought that it was a fine thing. After a while the woman again appeared to them in a dream and said, ‘“Would you like to be among the geese and brants?”’ They answered ‘“Yes,”’ one saying, ‘‘I will be a goose;’” the other, ‘‘I will be a brant.” At once they flew off in those forms. They thought that it was a fine thing to be wizards, and would spend all their nights going about that way, never coming in till morning. For that reason the town people began to suspect that something was wrong with them. Nowadays a person among the natives who sleeps much is said to be of no account, for it was through sleep that witchcraft started. They also say that a wizard has no respect for anything and never speaks to his neighbors. a Actually it is from the Kwakiutl word Lii’koala, Katishan calls it Tsimshian because the Tlingit received their secret societies through them. SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 135 Finally a certain man began to drink salt water and fast in order to discover the wizards. He also made a medicine. Then he dreamt about them, and went to them, tellmg them everything he knew. The two young men replied, *‘Don’t tell about us. If you keep it to yourself we will pay you ten slaves. We will let you win ten slaves from us in gambling.” And they did so. This is the story that the tuqaAna’ man told to his friends when he came home, and wherever he told it there began to be wizards. Therefore witchcraft came to Alaska through the sons of Aaya’yi@ and through the Haida. They also learned from the Haida that witch- craft may be imparted by means of berries. When women are gathering these, they do not pick up the ones that are dropped accidentally, no matter how many they may be, because that is what witches do. The shamans say it is this way: A man claims that he sees a large creek. It is witchcraft. A smaller creek flows into this. It is the lying creek. Another creek comes into it. It is the stealing creek. Still another creek comes into it. It is the profligates’ creek. All these are in witchcraft. One time Raven came to a place called Cold-town and said to the boys there, *‘Let us go shooting with bow and arrows.” He took down his own canoe and they started out, but presently the canoe upset and the boys were all drowned. Then he said to them, ‘‘ You will stay here.’ They are the ikaga’xe, sea birds whose voices can be heard at a long distance. , Next Raven went to Tan-lutt’ (the southern end of Prince of Wales island) and saw a man there named Qonatgi’c.? Raven said to him, ‘‘What are you doing here?”’ ‘‘I am a great gambler,” he said. “‘I love to gamble.” Said Raven, ‘‘You are a gambler but you can not win a thing. If you eat forty devil’s clubs and fast many days you will become a great gambler. You will win every- thing you wish. But why do you want to learn gambling?”’ The man said, “‘I have been gambling steadily and I can not win any- thing. A person won from me my wife’s clothing and all of my food and property. Since I have so disgraced myself, I have left my town and have come here to die.”’ Said Raven, ‘‘Gambling is not very good. There will always be hard feelings between gamblers, vet | will show you how. One of the sticks has a red mark around it. It will be named naq (devilfish). You will see the smoke of naq. When you get the devilfish, you are lucky. As long as it keeps away a See pp. 90-91. > Said to be a Haida name, 136 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 from you, you are unlucky.’’ Then he said to the man, ‘‘Make a house for yourself out of devil’s clubs first and stay inside while you are fasting. After you have fasted four days, Greatest Gambler (alqa’-s!a’ti) will appear to you. When the man had fasted for three days, living on mouine but devil’s clubs, he started to look for more. Then is found a devil? s club, as big around as a large tree, covered with scars, and he took the bark off in eight different spots. Then he went to sleep and dreamed that a man came to him. He said, ‘‘Do you know that I am Greatest Gambler? You took the bark off from me in eight spots. It was I standing there.”’ Then Greatest Gambler said to him, ‘“When you leave this place, look around down on the beach and you will find something. When you reach your own village do: the same thing again, and you will find something else.” Next morning a real person came to him and said, ‘‘I want to see your gambling sticks.”” So he showed them to him, and he gave them their names. He gave all of them their names at that time. Each stick had a certain mark. One was named devilfish and the others were called after other kinds of animals and fish. They are the same to-day among both Tsimshian and Tlingit.* The two princi- pal sticks besides the devilfish are tuq (a small bright fish found in the sand along shore) and anca’dji (a small gregarious bird which seems to feed on the tops of trees). After Greatest Gambler had showed him how to gamble he pre- pared to return to his people. When he was getting ready he looked about upon the beach and found a sea otter lying there. When he reached the first place where he had camped on coming away he ‘amped there again and on looking around as directed found a fur seal. He took off the two skins there and dried them. It took him a whole day. When he at last entered the village everybody made fun of him, saying, “Aya’o Qonalet’c”’ (said to be Haida words meaning ‘‘Come and let us gamble, Qonalgi’c”). He had made a shirt out of the sea otter and a blanket out of the fur seal, so they were anxious to gamble in order to win those things. When they first heard him speak of gambling they made fun of him, thinking to beat him as before, and the same one who had before won all of his goods sat down opposite. He was a fine gambler and therefore very rich. When they started to play, the poor man began to go through all kinds of performances, jumping up, running about, ne saying funny things to his opponent, so that the latter became confused and could not do anything. The poor man began winning his goods, and, when he got tobacco, he would treat the crowd about him withit. Finally the poor man said, ‘“That is enough. I am 2. through,” but the rich man answered, ‘‘Stay and a ]t appears from examples that no such seceee really exists. SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 187 let us gamble more,” thinking that he would get all of his goods back. The poor man, however, said he was through but would be willing to gamble with him the next day, and he left his opponent sitting there feeling very badly. The same day, however, his opponent went over to him again and again asked him to gamble. ‘‘Oh! let us wait until to-morrow,” he said, and he spoke kindly to him. Finally they began again. Whatever words the poor man used toward his oppo- nent at this time, people use at this day. By and by he said to the chief, ‘‘Let us gamble for food next. I want to feed my people.” Then the rich man was angry, sat down, and began gambling with him for food. Again his opponent won everything and said, ‘ “That is enough. We have plenty of time to gamble. We will gamble some other day.’”’ So they stopped, although the chief would have persevered, and the poor man invited all of his friends in order to give them the food he had won. Next day the chief again brought over his gambling sticks, and they recommenced. Whenever the poor man saw that his luck was turning, he would jump tp, run around the circle of people, who were watching him closely, run to a little creek near by, wash his hands very clean and return to gamble. He did that over and over again while he was gambling. Sometimes he would run off and chew upon a piece of dried salmon. Then he could see the devilfish smoke much better. This time they staked slaves, and he won quite a number, after which he jumped up, saying that he had gambled enough. The chief begged him to continue, but he said, ‘‘No, we have gambled long enough. I will gamble every day with you if you desire, but this is enough for to-day.” Next morning they gambled again. = = A q!@ ke kawastis aqa’xyidi aga’awe te!a aodi’wakite. Nas!gaducu’ all went up its long stringers “at that time they danced the Eight house together, nati’te yuci’. Yani'awe yuhi’t Len ka’oduLiké} ytiatyuwu’. Ye areal- the songs. When it was. the house | big was soaked the stomach. Thus ways finished {for building it] duwasa’k® yuatyuwu’ xe’ca-hi’ni. Yuhi’ntcayu dutisa’k". Aré’n is named the stomach water. The water it is itgetsitsname A big from. hi’tayu yuhi’t. ateayu’ yu'diyit nagu’ttc? qa’ ye gunaske’ik!ite house is that house. Why below that always walks man_ thus is always small ywhit ye k'geyi'te. Ayine'l-gagu’dinawe Hingi’t saAlaga/onute. the house thus being large, Inside the house when one person's voice isalways loud comes {to reach across. | Atcawe’ ye udiiwasa’k® Qiyaha’yi-hit. Why thus it isnamed Shadow-house. Wanani'sawe ca ctatqo’daci gok"nle’nx qago’kq!" wudina’q. At once the began to put on fringed ornaments on theirears — started to pre- women themselves fastened pare for the feast. Alo 7 Se oY lg gon! Ike Qeq! ra 5! Yoi'q ! A tcla’ou Hngi’ti tclago at qagu’k qaca’ téq!. Qa’yu gqoi’q!e yén Old time Tlingit old things ontheir [or] their red Those invited there ears heads paint. men qé’awe ca’xo di’wate yus!a’x" Gonaqadé’t s!ax" cadakii’q!. when upon his he put the hat Gonaqade’t hat in sections. seated head Atxawe’ q!at!a’xt-dusi’n hin ye dowasa/k" Xe’ca-hi’ni qaxode’t Afterward placed close to the water thus named soaked with among the door water people duli’tnute diiwuwe't yayi'q! qi’det. Ye dusniayu’ ya/duwuwet threw it the gifts * just before they Thus when they the gifts distributed, gave away SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS Sou they had received from the Athapascans and their other property. These feasts were always called q!aoduwaci’. They also called out to whom the slaves should be given and gave out coppers, which were placed around inside of the house. After their guests had gone out they danced. The other side also danced, wearing raven hats, and the feast was over. The Athapascans on their way down used to be seen when still far back from the coast. One time, as they were coming across the glacier, the chief’s daughter, who was menstruant, said something to make the glacier angry. In those days a girl menstruant for the first time did not stay out of the house. They placed something heavy in front of her, and for five months she was not allowed to talk. This is the period during which a labret hole was made. It was always done when she was fasting. This girl said to the glacier, *‘ Would that that glacier were Go/nana a’ti qa qa‘djiq! yeti'tya. Ql!aoduwaci’ yi’dusaite. Athapascans’ things and [what] to was [in Feasts they were the men possession]. always named. Gonétkanay?’djit ye’dusnite. Gux qo’a ayu’ dule’q!. Tinna’ ts!u To the opposite phratry gave them. Slaves however those they called out coppers also [whom they should be given to]. qi’dji nélyi’ cayaka’oduwadjal a’awe qa’djit ye udu’dzine yubi’t had around in ‘ they set them when to the thus they gave the the house people away house = — I = A = — = — Lén datx. Yugqoi’q!! yux naa’dawe aodii’watiex. Hé’nax a’/a big around. The guests out when they they danced. The other it was went party ca’owu ts!u yet slax® yén adutié’xawe hé’nax a/a ts!u Le had on also raven hats there when they were the other it was also then heads ; through dancing side yeye’ wuti. stopped. Dus! wuwe't yuanqgi’wu si. Teclunaki’déawe’ —_ duti’nute His daughter was the rich man’s daughter, Way back in the woods they always menstruant saw yi’gonana. Aka’x yén wua‘di sit! ax k!a’na ka’oLigat yuwe’tadite. ‘those Acrossit there coming glacier after said something to the menstruant Athapascans. it make it angry one. tet xaka’yt uté’xq!" yuwuwe'di ca’wat. Aga’ dutleka’yi at Not outside stays the menstruant woman, At that in frontof some- time her thing Fa 2A A — duoxq!o’nutc. ax at yéx doxi’ttc. Kidji’n di’sayu aga’ they always put. From some- like they always put Five months it during it thing it [something heavy]. was luq!é’datangfnutcya. Yiicawat gagawe’din ya’doq!oa gax duta’gé. she was not allowed to talk. The woman — whenshe is this is the they are going to menstruant one’smouth to make a hole in. habitually Cawa't qo’a ya'qlagaxete q!eduta’qte. Ga'né dui’n yux Woman, however, * when she fasts they always make Outside with her out a hole [in her lip]. anaa/dawe ye yawaqa’, ‘‘Yida’t axi’c sitlix siti’.” Tclure’ tat svhen she was thus she said, ‘Would that my become his it would,’ And then one going father glacier night 49438— Bull, 39—09——22 10 10 338 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY IBULL. 89 my father’s,” and during that night it began to grow out over their new house. It extended itself far out over the town, and the people fled from it to Kag!anuwi’, where they built a new one. The T!a’q!dentan fled to and established themselves at a place just opposite. By and by the people of Kaq!anuwi’ started to Gona’xo to make war on the Lugqa’xadt, because of a Ka’gwantan woman who had been killed. They were armed with native picks, war spears, and bows and arrows. After they had killed their enemies they discovered a woman left alone in that place, whom they caught fora slave. She was mother of Chief Qlayega’tqén. Then she said to them, ‘** For what could you use me? Up here is the wolf post belonging to my son.” The wolf post had been hidden when the people fled. Letting the woman go, there- fore, the Ka’gwantan warriors rushed greedily for the post, and brought it down. A man whose face had been scratched up by the giwe’ gonaye’ ka’waa. Te!lute’ duhe’xwa tclaa’nawe Lag" during * started it grew out. Then in spite of them still long house ye kanaé’n. Tc!ure’ yi'daliyexe hit ka’xawe yekanaé’n. Tclute’ it kept growing Then the building house over it was growing Then down. down over. aka’x ka’waa yi/an Le yux kiq! awe’ yaka’waa yusi't!. over it it grew that town then out far it was was growing the glacier. Kaq!anuwi’dawe wudiké’L! yulingi’t Le wuduriya’x an sak". to Kaq!Anuwt’ fled those Tlingit then they built atown for, Akeka’t ts!u aodiké’n! T!a’q!dentan sak". Opposite it also started to flee the T!a’q!dentan for. Ada’xawe xa’djiudfgut Kaq!anuwi’ dax Gonia’xo dé awe’ And then [they] started to war Kaq!anuwit’ from Gona/xo to it was djrudigut Quqa’xadt xo/dé. Ka’gwantin ca’wat wudii’wadjaq started DHugqa’/xadi to among. Ka/gwantan woman was killed aya’q!ayu aka’oduwanaq. Yi’Luqa’xadi ani’ Ka’gwantan ke’tlu “for that they went forth. The Luqa’xadi town Ka’gwantan native pick, ayu’ an xa’djiududzigut tsiga’L! tetine’t. Has atsi’s dui’n it was with came to go to war [and] war bows and They killed them them spears arrows. yuKa’gwantain. Tela’ya a’ni tiq! awe’ wudu'dzitin yuca’wat. Gtx the Ka’gwantan, Thenalone town in it was theycametosee the woman. Aslave (or camp) sak"awe’ wudii’wacat yiti’cawat. Xate yiianqga’wo duta’ asiwe’ for was caught the woman. It was the chief his mother was Qlayega’tqén-1a. Le ye aya’osiqa, ‘‘Datx sa xat gux yi'layex” Qlayega’/tqén’s-mother. Then thus she said to them, ‘For what? me you could use,”’ ye yawagqa’. ‘Géed’naho axyi't ga's!f, gote gis!.” Tclak" xaiakaidjta’nin she said. “Up here is myson’s post, wolf post.’? Anciently liked to go to war Ling?’t. a’dawe duta’n yii’gote gas!. Wu'dutisi’n. Tclure’ at Tlingit. At it {they] had the wolf post. It was hidden. Then there cuka’oduwagiq! yi’eiwat yuxa’tte. Wuedjisi’/xawe ka’odudzfat let go entirely the woman _ those warriors. Rushing for it greedily came to go Ka’ewantante yuga’s!. Tclune’ ax yeq wuduwata’n. Tclak" an the Ka’gwantan the post. Then from it down it was brought. Anciently with it ducudjin xa’eq!o. Qa’xetkat ya'dutatefnudjin. Ya'duya yi’aosiné {they] used scratching On tke breast rubbing it up and down. His face the one rub- to bathe sponge. bing on SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 339 scratching-sponge that people used in ancient times before starting to war reached the post first. His name was Top-spirit, and the name of the next Fish-that-comes-up-in-front-of-one’s-face-and-shakes. Then they started back with it but quarreled so much over it that they began to talk of not allowing anybody to have it. When they were out from shore, however, the war-leader, whose name was Dancer, stood up wearing objects representing ears over his face and said, *‘ Who sent out these warriors? I, a high-caste Ka’gwantian, am also a brave man.” Then they started off. At that time there were two canoe loads of Island people going along, and there was a shaman among them named Wolf-weasel, who 1adeight tongues. The Ka’gwantiin shaman tore his canoe apart by pre- tending to split the water of its wake. Before they got far out it began to split. The Ka’gwantan warriors had already landed at Xuq! creek where this shaman also went ashore, and they came out behind him. His spirits’ apparel was in a box in the bow. yuxa’eq!ute a ih’ ka’olis!au! duya’ qicu’kat ada’t wudjixi’x. Qacuka’t the sponge it scratched up his face first to it ran. The first was qa ye dowasa’k" Qa’ka-yek Qaya’kaoduxat ts!u. Teclune’ a’nawe at manthus was named Top-spirit Fish-that-comes-up-in- also. Then with it (thing) front-of-one’s-face-and- shakes wuxt’n wexa’ qo’xdé. Tc!lust/goaawe’ wicdjide’ yaodudjige’ye ya started the warriors to go back. Then — to cach other that no one would have it a’da q!aoduia’t. Dekina’ daq saxi’xawe gé’nax a’odihain at gti’gu about they were begin- from the out when they from in- one started things like ears it ning to talk, shore got quickly side it to stand up [with] duya’. Ye ql!ayaqa’ yuxa’-s!ati, ‘‘Adi’tsa kawana’yi xa’aya?” Le’ni [or] his Thus saidto[them] the war chief, “Who sent out these war- Dancer face. riors ?”” yu'dowasak" yuxa’-s!ati. ‘‘ Ka’owantan ayu’ anyé’d? xat satiyi’ tiiq!, was thename of the war chief. “ Ka/gwantan that high caste me being into Qlée’ga gai xat siti’.” Tclure’ aya’xt awe’ at wuxi’n. real (i.e., man I ari. Then away it was. they started off, brave) Q!atqaa’yi déx yak" yikt. Ixt! ts!a has duxo’ tcla’tuyax i’xt!awe. Island people two canoes in. Shaman too them among just as [the had a sha- others} man. He’nax aA’a xowu' Gotcda’ yit’dowasak". Nas!gaducii’ yate’ The others it was among Woltf-weasel was named. Eight “were dua’t ula’tle. Wio'cdax awas!é’L! duya’k® ite’ hi'ni. Tecutl to him tongues. Apart he tore his canoe by split- the Just (or his things tongues). ting water. before wuha’djiawe wt’/cdax wudiga’t. H.a’xcte ya’naa’dawe yuxa’ Xuq!-hin they got far out apart it started to Ashore ‘having already warriors Xuq! creek split. gone yu’dowasak" yé’naxawe yén uwagqo’x yul’xt! diwa-u’. Tc!utLe’ named ashore there came the shamans [warriors] Then were there. yé/ndi yanago’xoawe dut!a’t awaa't yuxa’. Duyé’k daide’dt to it while he wascoming back of him come the warriors. His spirits’ apparel cAka’tsa-in. was in a box in the bow, 10 10 15 840 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 When the warriors rushed down upon them they soon destroyed his “anoe men, but the shaman himself flew away by means of his spirits. Even now people say that a shaman can fly about. After he had flown about a certain town for some time the people told a menstruant woman to look at him. She did so, and he fell into a small lake. Then he swam under a rock, sticking up in it, leaving his buttocks protruding. To the present time this lake is red. It is his blood. The sister and aunt of this shaman were enslaved, and the warriors also carried away his spirit box. Before they had gotten very far off, however, they stopped, untied the box, and began to handle the things init. They took out all of the spirits (i.e., masks, whistles, ete. ), and asked his sister [regarding one of them], ‘‘ What is its name?” This was the chief spirit, and had a long switch of hair. ‘* The spirit is named Hanging-down spirit,” said she. Then the warrior in the bow put it on saying, ‘‘Let me be named Hanging-down spirit.” Le duka’nax caodite’ yui’xt!. Qotx ciduLixi’x duyi’k qa’wu. Then uponhim [they] rushed theshaman. Destroyed were all [his inside of his men. men] quickly [the canoe] Hu qoa/awe telute’ wudeqé’n duyé’kq!i tiwa’dax. Teli yida’t ye He, however, then flew away his spirits on account of. Even now thus Atewa’ak" wicka’t wudigé’n yui'xt!. Telaa’ye ya’tiyi qo’o xa’nq ‘awe people say as around flies the shaman. Like this were people init (town) follows ye yati’ we'tatti. Dui’waq q!aodi/waqa. Let uga’ yua’ aka’qlawe thus was amenstruant Hereyes they told hertoput Not forit the lake there woman. on him. [was big] wudzigi’t aka’nax. Naci’ta ata’ye da wuq!a’k tea ta’ye na’xawe he came to fall into it. Rock stick- under it he swam right from under ing up doq!ai’ wacu’ yuwée’tatete dui’t awulgeni’tcayu. Telu yida’t leq! his but- stuck the menstruant at him looked it was. Even now red ° - tocks out woman uya’x yaté’ yi’a. Ductyi'te ye'séte. likeit "is thelake. His blood it is. Yui'xt! duna’k! wudunica’t. Dura’k! ts!u an udurica’t. Dui‘k! The shaman his sister was enslaved. His aunt also’ with they took cap- Her her tive. brother’s yek da’ka-qo’ku wududziya’ yuxa’te. Yén nax Idnatiye’q! tn spirit cover of box came tocarry away the warriors. There from notfar[going with by land] it awua’tdj? awe’ yén odudziya’, qa ka’oduwaket!ay?’ at kaoduwak!a’t they got when there they came to and untying it : things they meddled with rest, yuqo’k". Yuxa’te ke ka’ndudjit yuye’k. Aka’q! aduwa’s! dura’k! [in] the box. The warriors out took all the spirits. For it they asked his sister ‘* Wasa’ duwasa’k"” tax yék kina’q!awe ye yati’. Aklat!a’désati’n “What is the name?”’ Very = spirit head of it “was. Was half added on yute!’n. ‘*Wa'sa duwasa’k® yaye’k,” yia'yaodudziqa yuca’wat. the hairswitch. ‘What is the name of this spirit,’’ was what they said to this woman. “Ki daxealci’ awe’ yu/awasa yuye’k.” Xa cakaha’didjawe cax orica’t. ‘‘Hanging-down it is named the spirit.” The in the bow put it on. [spirit] warrior ‘*Xat yéx at naxdusa’k" Kida’xgaleu.” Yut wudu’wagoge yaxawe’ “Me likeit some- let me be called Hanging-dowu Out (or he had been pushed like it thing ; Spirit.” Cown) Sreton | TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 841 Immediately he fell down‘as if he had been knocked over. He ceased to breathe. Another put it on. ‘* Let me be named Hanging-down spirit,” he said. All of those who put this on were destroyed. One, however, stood up, made a noise, and ran off. To this day his (the shaman’s) spirit has not ceased killing. After the other warriors had returned to Kaq!anuwt’, they deter- mined to erect a house. They were the old Ka’gwantain who were going to put it up. So they sharpened the jadite which they used in chopping and went out. On account of the house timbers the owner of that house fasted for four days. After they had chopped for one month it was finished, and the chief went outside and spoke to all the people. In the morning those of the opposite phratry went out in ten canoes to push the timbers down. ‘They paddled across singing, and brought all of them in, and they left them on the beach overnight. wu'nt yuga’. Tc!ure’ hutc! dudasée’g’. Ts!u go’naate cax wutica't. was that man. Then ended he breathed (or Also another one on his put it. had sense). head **Xat Ki’daxgaltcu yi’-xat-nax-dusak".” Ada’xayu qot cl’ waxix “Me Hanging-down spirit let me be named.”’ And then destroyed’ were all quickly yu’ at-caix-ye’itea'tdji yek tcli’ne. Lé’nax a’yina uwaha’n a’lax tin those putting on his spirit’s switch. One of them ‘ up stood making with a noise yut wudjixi’x. Tc!la yida’t Let got ke uxi’xtc duyé’gite duya’x away ran. Even ~° now not ever gets lost his spirit for him qoyawadja’gc. killing off. Yuxa’ qo’a de’a ani’de ya'wagu, Kaq!anuwi'di. De gux The war- however, now home went, to Kaq!Anuwit’. Now they riors, dultiye’x yuhi’t. Tclak"a’ye Ka’gwantaintcayu gux Ilayé’x yuhi't. were going the house. Theold [phratry] of Ka’gwantan it was were going to-build the house. to build Doge’L! yi’cAnaxaye sak" yu’s!la qa ta’yes sak’. Yéni'awe’ They sharp- what they used to for the green and axes for. When they were ened chop with stone ready ka’oduwagis!. Yak" hit daede’di sa’k*ewa as s!a’te sak" qo’a awe’ they went out. Canoe house timbers for” tree ownerof for, however, daq!i’n q!é’waxe. eq! di’sawe aya’nax wudt'waxot! yéni’awe yux four days fasted. One monthit was during it was chopped and when it was outside ready qle’watan. Yuhi't s!a’ti sak® ddaka’t yu’antqenit q!e’watan. he Bren and] The house owner for (of) all to the people spoke. spoke. Ts!uta’dawe at wuxi’n djaldaka’t yi’antqeni. Djinka’t yak" at In the morning started off all the people. Ten eanoes ya'wag" yu’/antgqent yu’as ani’ ax i’qdi gux dutsuya’. Yéq * went the people the tree place fromit down they were going to Down push them. ka’oduwadjél yuhi’t wen daitdi’ sak". Yak" kaci’yi kat doxa’ they brought them the house big timbers for. Canoes singing On across paddled 10 yu’gonetkanayi’'te. An egaya’t doxa’teawe é@qq! uwaxe’. Lidaka’t 15 the opposite phratry. The town down to when they onthe’ theystayed All brought beach oue night. 10 342 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 In the morning they were invited for tobacco. There was no white leaf tobacco in those days. Then mortars were brought out so that the part of the house near the door was covered with them. The tobacco was chewed, a liquid was poured over it, and it was mixed with powdered shells. After that the names of those of the opposite phratry to whom balls of tobacco were to be given, were called out, for they did not have any pipes at that time. Those who had received the tobacco prepared to dance, and those who owned emblem hats, as the raven or the whale, wore them. Now they started to carry up he house timbers for the first of the houses of the Ka’ewantan cbiefs. They carved the wolf posts and finished the entire house in one year. It was named Wolf house from its posts. When the house was completed a man went to Chilkat to invite the Ganaxte’di, to Sitka for the Kiksa’di, and to Killisnoo for the Dé’citan. yuantgen? awa’ wuduwai'q! yids axa’dji. wel Let qaga’nd]? qosti’. the people it was wereinvited the tree thosetowing. Not white leaf tobacco was. Daq ka’oduwadjét yi’taq!ayét. Yu'’q!lot!aq! nax yén wudiga't. Out they brought the mortars. The door close to there it started to be covered. Yén duta’q! wudutrelu’q!.. Kats! att’de nax duti’n. Kadona’ There it was chewed a liquid was poured Powdered into it was put. They called over it. shell out names yu'wac-at Linei’t La’nq!itdjidi’. vel wudusku’ s!aqdaki’t. Qo’a the round balls = Tlingit giving them. Not was known about the tobacco But of tobacco pipe. yux Anaa’dawe lex ka’odiwana yit’'gonétqana’ete. Yut’gante out when they were they called out the names and the opposite people The leaf to- going gave . ills away to (i.e., Eagles). bacco awata’q!e aawe’ a a’qgwa!é’x. Ave’n ca’wahik yohi’t. a’xo-a ati’ those chewed those were who were going Entirely was filled the house. Some among em- the ones to dance. them blems duca’ yel s!ax" yal s!lax¥. at slatq!yé’n qodzite’ ya’atu. De wore raven hats, whale hats. Things owners of used thoseemblems. Now da’qde ye gax dusni’ yihi’t daidedi’, Ka’gwantin cagii’nayu up thus they were going to the house timbers. Ka’/gwantan head of (in re- take membrance of what they had done) telak'a’yi anqa’q!uayu hit a gux tlayé’x gonétqana’yi. A’dji the oldest chiefs it was house it was were going to build the opposite tribe, Those (Eagles) kaodu’waga. Yugi’s! kaxduti’t. Yi’gote ga’s!ayu kaxduti’ qaa’di told them to doit. The posts they carved. The wolf post it was they carved their own [possession } sak". Telune’ wuduLiya’x yuhi’t. eq! tak yant’wani. Le asayi’x for, Then was made the house. One year it wasfinishedin. Then name was wusite’ Gdte-hit. Gas! yaye’ wuti’. given to it Wolf house. Posts they were on. Yeniawe Djilqa’t dé koga’nagudt wugi't. Telute!a’k" yaGanaxte’di Whenitwas Chilkat to going after the {a man] A long time the Ganaxte’di finished guests went. yi'dowasik" na aga’ wugu't. Ci’t!ka qoan ts!u aga’ awagu’t named tribe for it he went. Sitka people also for it he went SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS o40 They were going to invite all of them besides the T!a’q !dentan into this house. Since then inviting back and forth has been going on. The guests kept coming out from the nearest point to the town site to look at the new house. The drums made a great noise there continually. After they had spent one night close to the town they came in quickly, dancing and singing. Inside, the town people began to dress them- selves to dance before their guests. They went into the water, wearing Chilkat and marten-skin blankets. After that the owner of Wolf house went out and made a speech. On the point at Kaq!aAnuwi’ is a place named Slaves’-valley. Their slaves always? came from far to the south. Then the owner of this house killed four slaves for his guests, while the next in rank killed two slaves, and the whole number killed at that time was ten. After they had killed them they threw their bodies down into this valley. There two of them came to life, and one, getting up, opened and Kiksa’d?, Xutsni’wada qoan ts!u, De’citéin. wLéq! hi’tayu a’yide ye Kiksa/di, Killisnoo people — also, De/citan. One house was intoit they goga’xduiq! T!a’q!dentan. Tc!lure’ atxa’ya ye yanagu’t ya ling?'t-a’ni were going to {including the] Then since then thus it has been this world invite all T!4’q!dentan. going on in to qoa/nt wuctai’q!. Le atla’k"Iteni’ an yaoga’/s!te yuhi’t gax dusti'n. people invite each other. Then coming out from town site the house that they may a point to see. I’dayu qa’yayik dua’xdjinute yt’andé Lluwti’gaoq!. T!a wuduwaxa’ Around alwaysmake a big noise in the town the drums. After they went out you them yugoi’q!é. Tclu eq! tat ka’dayu an tuwanyi’'t yawagi’. An the guests. Just one night they stayed town right close to ‘they came. Town egaya’di ya’nasxix. Cika’t adutlé’x. Ayi’q! wak’an ayi’ gqoi’q!i “below they came ashore, Withsongs they danced. Inside the town people guests quickly. ctat godici’ aile’x yis. Naxe’n ana’q qa klux hinx wu’at commenced todress dancing for. Chilkat blanket wearing and marten- into the went themselves before skin water blanket yuaule’xeyl’yl. Yani’yaniwe yi’gotc hit s!até’ yux q!é’watiin. the dancers. * When they were on the wolf house ownerof outside went and spoke. the shore Kaq!anuwi’ a’lukwa ye duwasa’k® Gux-qlaga’k!a. Yitixki’dax Kaq!Anuwt’ onthe point of thus [is a place] Slaves’-valley. From far down named [south] dus!na’xtin Yingi’t a’awe qa’dji va/natidjin. Yuw’hit s!ati’djawe went Tlingit those people they always were. The house owner of was daq!a’/n uwadja’q yugi’x yugoi’q!e daq!. Yi’q!ak yi’kde tc!ute’ four killed the slaves the guests for. Thesmall valley down in then dak ca/dutitec. Ts!u du’niya de’a déx gix a’wadjaq. Dyjinka’t out they alwaysthrew Next wasordered now two slaves killed. Ten them. [day] wudiwadjag yu’gux. Da’xanax gi’xawe aq! gox wudia’t were killed slaves. Two slaves there to life started to come a** Usually’’ would be truer. 10 10 344 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 closed his fingers to the peopie sitting on the hill. From that time the place was named Slaves’-valley by the Ka’gwantan. By and by they began to feed their guests. The people of all this world were there. The one who had invited them began to dress him- self. Even now this part of the feast is named All-arisen [to attend to the feast]. They put on their abalone shells, Indian paint, and eagle feathers on their heads, and the women ear pendants. By and by the headman was told to start his song. This man always said, ‘‘All right, you are ready, my outside shell.” He worea blanket which had been kept laid away in a box and all the other things that his dead predecessor had worn. His wife also had her blanket secured around her waist. He always handed out his moose skins to the people. The chief always distributed for the dead. After all the blankets had been brought out, they were taken up one at a time, and the names of those who were to receive called out, beginning with the guest highest in rank. When one’s name was yu'qlak taq!. Telute’ teaodanugt’awe ge’gwaLliawate yu-deki'tnaq. the valley in. Then when one of them he opened and closed — to those standing got up his fingers on the hill. Ka’ gwantang !é xo’dé tclua’txawe ye dowasa’k® yi'L!atk Ka’/gwantan among from that very time thus was named the place Gux-q!a’gak!. Slave-valley. Leq! ani’ qoxe’ awe’ yaodu'dzidaq qoi’q!é. daka’t yah’ngit-a’ni One town they were when they come to feed the guests. All this world [day] in ge qoa/ni ayu’ atya/odiha. Yila’tk ada’xayu_ ctat ka’odict inside people it was there were. The town from in began to dress himself yu'-tut-qowai'q!iya. ‘* Wudii’wanaq” ye dowasa’k" teliyeda’t. the one who invited the “All gotup”’ [to thus is named even now. guests. attend to feast] Dasaqi’da gunxa’ ca qo’a gokutlé’nx"® qa té’qlaya ga qloat! They put on abalone the however, ear pendants and Indian paint and _ eagle their things, shells, women, feathers qa’ca. Wanani’sayu’ aca’de-ha’ni q!e’cukandogetc. ‘*Gutc waé’te on their All at once the head man (at was told to start his song. “All you heads. head standing) right, da’nayiti” yu'yanagetc, ‘‘axdakanu’gq!uq!aya’xa.” Yutcla’ke are ready,” was what he always said ‘““my outside shell.” A long time duna’waq!iu at yi'yanuaxte. Duca’t qoulsi’ktc. Yu'as!até he had on [a blanket] always kept laid His wife alwaystied up [her The owner away in a box. blanket round her waist]. wind’ wuq!i’ qo’a wudaq!li’te. Qa’djit acu’axtc yutsi’sk! wa’sa Was dead wore, however, he always wore, To people —_ he always the moose what handed out skins PEW [oat 4 .— Asdji’yakugue. Aya’xawe — udja’qte. he had, For them (the he always killed dead) (i.e., distributed). Yugqoi’q!le xdq! dak qax dudji’iinawe aqdoa’xte. Yuqoi’q!le The guests among out after they had taken all they always take The guests up one at a time. ca’de-hani dui’t dula’te. *‘Hade’™ yt’'yanagete. Dyildaka’t yuqor’q!e head man tohim always “This way” was what he All the guests [among] gave it. always said. SWANTON | TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS ry 85) valled he rose and said, *‘ Hade’” (‘This way”). The chief’s prop- erty was sufficient for all of his guests. Whoever had slaves gave them away as well. When they began to give his property away the giver stood near the door with a baton in his hand. At that time there were no white men’s things, the guests being invited for Indian articles only. After all of his property had been distributed the chief made a speech, and the people took their things home. In the morning the guests received all of the dishes, spoons, baskets, ete., and they thanked their host by leaving a dance. Afterward all of the guests returned to their homes. Now all the people lived inside of this big house, Wolf house. The young fellows were in the habit of racing one another when they went to cut firewood with their stone axes. They called it ‘*Stone-ax- taken-in-canoe.” The party that had been beaten became angry, and when they were eating grease together they pushed the fire over upon those who had left them behind. Their opponents did the same xoga’ yaqi’wael doa’ti adi’sa gtx dutciyé’yati yi’dunick. Tec!ure’ for “was enough histhings who- slaves has — that is given Then among ever away. ya'qlat!aq nax awe’ yaa'tgaintc, wutsa’ga ha’sdutciyé’yatt the door from near it was when they started giy- acane- had in his hand ing his things away yu-has-at-r’ni. vet Let qa a’ti qod’sti. Tslas Lingi’t a’di awe’, the one giving them Not white men’s things wereany. Only Tlingit things there things. were ayi’s wucedui’q!anute. Wanani’sawe ql!a’oduwatan yuqa’ a’dt for it guests always used Atonce spoke the man his to be invited. things hite!gixaliye’x. An yux 4a’waat yuw’basdulatq!u. Ts!uta’tawe when he was through With out they went their gifts. In the morning with all. them wudutiki’te. Wdaka’t-at tin cal kak® qa Idaka’t-at qoi’q!edyjit all [their dishes] All things with spoons, baskets, and everything to the guests were given away. ye dusnitc. Qadji’t at kadji'lawe Lex wudu’dzit!e ctoga’daté. thus they gave Tothe things weregiven dance was left for him by way of away. people when away thanks, Ldaka’t qox ya’odigu yuqoig!e ani'dé, All back ° went the guests to their homes, - Atxa’we aye’ wudti’wa-u yuhi’t Lén Idaka’t qate. Godte-hit ya’/duwasa. After that inside lived the big all the Volf house it was named. of it house people. Ada’x widj kigi’ kanduga’s!tc at sanayi’ tayi’s tin. Tclute’ ye After that together they alwaysraced things going’ native with. Then thus after axes d Sy eed fb Pins == Wb Ie oi ae A Wa EP = ra = ya oA owas’ k De'yax tayi’s-a’waté. anani’sawe qatii’n witi it was called “ Stone-ax-taken-in-canoe.” At once angry got yu yudutiv!i’tkiate. Wia'djkiq!lawe doxa’nate ywt’éx k!tsa/nite. the canoe left behind. Together always ate the grease the young boys. Wanani’sawe yuyugo'li-L!i’tkia xo6de’awe ke yaka’oduritaq yuq!a’n. At once the side that left among it over "~ was pushed the fire. them behind was Telure’ aya’q! at wi'ni. Axodé’ ke ayaka’oduritag yu-liq!a’ni-xitsi. Then in re- some- wasdone Among over , they pushed the burning coals. turn thing like it. them 10 10 346 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 thing. They did not have any shirts on. The chiefs, however, were sitting on top of the retaining timbers and had nothing to do with this. It was all done by their nephews. This thing never was forgotten, although now people do not kill one another. They threw fire at one another. Finally, however, one of the cohoes people, whose house was behind this, ran down bearing the raven hat, and made a noise like the raven. ‘*Ga,” he said. Because they heard this raven they did not kill one another. . This is what caused all the trouble. We are called Burnt-house people, because the timbers of that house caught fire and were burned, and for this reason the people moved out of it and built other houses in the same place. Afterward some of the Burnt-house people moved to this place (Sitka). Because we are their descendants we are here also. ‘They continue to be here because we occupy their places. Let k!ida’s! kaka’. ingi’t rang! qo’a_ taq! caki’ ke uwagqe’. él Not shirts they had Tlingit great ones how- retaining ontop up sat. Not on. (=chiefs), ever, planks Ax wel yuanga’q!ute. Qo’a ts!as duxa’q!uawe ye quwanu’q. el touched (=had the chiefs. But only theirnephews thus were doingit. Not anything to do with) qut qé@’uxixte yuiade’ at wini'yiva. Telivyeda’t wel go’a wudj | XIX i yu : | ever it got lost what happened was like that. Even now not, however, they wududja’q. Telaya’ datct’/nawe wid] xddé’ yaodurigé’te yuq!a'n. kill each other. Like it, however, one among : they threw the fire. another Liuknaxa’didjiq!awe ye yati’ vel slax". at!a’t Jaa’ hasduhf’t?. An Cohoes people have raven hat. Back ofit was theirhouse. With it a’yeq awagu’t. Aka’oduwaax yi’yel. ‘*Ga,” yu'yawaqa. ate él down one went. He madenoise of | the raven. “Ga” he said. That is not why widj wududja’q yet aka’ wudit’/axéte. atcawe’ ayi'tx yux wu'ligas!. each (because) they raven onit always washeard. Thatis why from down out they moved. other killed in [the house] r A . A _ Telune’ hitq! wudutiyé’x tc!a aq!. Then houses they built right there. Ataya’ atct’wani. Yi’hit aqa’xyed? wulq!a’nete. a’tcaya This is what caused all the The house main beams got on fire. This is why [trouble]. Ka’gwantin yi’haduwasak*. Yuhi’t qa’xyed? kawugané’te. adjawe’ 3urnt-house we are called. The house beams were burned. This is why people yux At ka’oduwadjélt. Hitq! ye yaqai’wagé Kagq!anuwii’q!. out things they took. Houses (there- * there are at KAq!Anuwv’. fore) many Atxawe’ ya’de a’/oligas!. Ka’gwantan yat wudii'wau. Ayide’ This is to this place some moved. 3urnt-house here lived. Their children why (i.e., Sitka) people (or deseend- ants) qotu’stiyi’djaya yaq! ye ha’yate oha’n ts!u. atcé’ya yida’t telu because we are’ here thus we are we also. This is why “now still ye yanagu’t ya’yedat a-ité’ qotustéyi'te. thus ‘it goes on [because] now in place we live. of them 105. STORY OF THE KA‘CKIE QOAN@ Ltaxda’x was dead. He hada valuable copper, and he also had a dish named Ts!anat!u’k!. When he was dead they took his property out. Those of the house in which these people lived who obtained the dish got into trouble over it. Whoever had a sister told her to go with him. ‘‘Let us go to some other place,” he said. The people that went away were from that side of the house from which the dish was taken away. They were sad on that account. Probably they num- bered about forty. They said, ‘* Let us go straight for that mountain.” Whoever had three brothers took them along to carry things for him. After that they came out under the brow of the big mountain. On the way they dressed themselves in their fine clothing, some in weasel- skin coats, some in marten-skin coats, and they wore hats also because Ltaxda’x wana’. Adu’dji ye yati’ yutinna’ q!alitsi’n, qa yusii’q! Etaxda’x was dead. His was a copper expensive, and_ the dish ts!u du’dji ye yatt’ Ts!anat!a’k!. Nana’awe dua’di daiq ye udu’dzini. also he had [named] Ts:Anat!a’k!. When he was his out they came to take. dead things Yuq!alitsi’ntya yus!i’q! yu'A-adjide’ Anudjixé’n Léq! ane’t qoa’ni Was expensive ” the dish _ the [side] that got it one [house] in people ayu’ aayu’ ada’x wucka/oduwaxit!. Adi’sa duta’k! qodzite’ were those from it got into trouble. Whoever his sister had Agatsa‘Tte. ‘*Gude’ nax tua’de tcagiide’sa.” Yutée’q! hit ye qo-u’ told her to go “To some away let us go thither.” The one house people with him. place aya’ ake’kdax ayu’ a’waat hée’nax ade’ yén wucexeni’tc yus!i’q!. these fromone side that Wwentaway onthe then there was taken away the dish. of other side Qa tuwuni’g" tceayu’ ye at wuni’. Gut daq!i’ndjinkadi’nax ayu’ And they were sorry because so they did. Probably about forty those qo’wate, ye ql!ayadoga’, ‘‘Tc!a yi’ca ka’yaaqgaa’dé.” Adii’sa were thus they said, “Right that moun- let us go LO:72 Whoever tain duki’k-has te!u na’/s!genax ti’y? te du’ndayayl nasti’te. atxawe’ his brothers then three were then tocarry forhim alwaystook. After that daq max 4na’x aqleyi't a’waat yii'ca Len. Qa naa’di klide’n out from from it below it they came to the big. And going well mountain yén wudu’dzinit axd’a da kluda’s! axod’a kiiix-k!luda’s!. ati’t there they prepared among weasel coats among them marten coats. Wearing {their clothes] them them qonga’nadayu s!ax" ts!u. Ada’x site’ weda’ wel caya’odaha aye’ because they wanted hats also. From it was away not came away were to die, aThis story was told by aman named Q!a’/dustin, who belongs to the same family, and therefore contains seme of the peculiarities of Yakutat speech. 347 10 10 348 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 they wanted to die wearing them. Not very many came away. Many more stayed up there than came out. When they got up to the foot of the mountain they came together to talk over where they should pass through. ‘They came to a place where there were many ground squirrels, which they clubbed. This is why it became foggy. They lost one another in it, and some of them disappeared. It was the fog that they got lost in. Then they let them (those who had disappeared) go. After that they made good headway toward the place whither they were bound. There appeared no place to get through. The mountain seemed to be very close to them. By and by they came to the very foot of the mountain. There was no place where they could get through. But through the northern part of the mountain passed a glacier, and they went up that way toward the top. They thought that they were all going to die off when they reached the top. ‘They did not come to the highest summit of the mountain, however. Then they put on all of their best clothing for good. They stayed there perhaps five days. They were wuti’yia. Yii’daq ka cayadthe’n go’a ax daq u’waadia. Yuca’q!ayit! many. Up there were many more than fromit out they started to It to the foot of go. the mountain aa’dawe wueda’t duna’q ada/ytq! adutia’tk ana’x aya’k*gwaat. when they together they came about it began to talk through what they should go. got [place] Aawe’ wududziti’n ye aokagaye tsatk Le aca’odowaxéct. Aa’sewe Inthe they came to find thus were many ground someof they clubbed. This is why place squirrels which qaka’ kaofigwa’s!. Le aq!awe’ tsa wudjite’x aya/oduLigén. tLe a fog was made. Then there right each other ‘they missed. Then gwiya’l aqo’sté. Yu'qogas! ti’q!wasiyu got wi’at. Le de has there was some gone. The fog in that it was they got lost. Then now they wuduLiLli’t yuqogi’s! tuq! qot has wuadi'djayu. Le ade’ de let them go the fog into lost they because got. Then where to wudutitsi’n ya’naat. wel ana’x awuga’adiya qosté’.’ Telayu’ Li’y: they made strong where they Not throughit a place to g » there was. Very close to headway were going. them A’siwe Atx dudji’x. it was it appeared, Wanani'sawe q!é’ga yi’ca k!i’yit awaa’t. wel ana’x awuga/adiya At once truly themoun- tothe they came. Not through where they could tain foot of it get qo’st?. wek!-yati'yiya ko’saat ina’nax a ana’xawe sit! wiacu’. was. Where was no way to go through it an ice ridge went (glacier) over. Ana’xawe Acaki’ ke adwaa’t. Le kak"gwana’/ayu yu'qattu wua’t! That way toward top up they went. Then they were going to die they thought of it off acaki’ ke aa’t. wel Lax acaki’ ke awua’t aga/awe. Lax ql!e’ga toward top up they Not very ontopof up they got, however. Very truly of the went. it mountain qi’na-A’di-nadeye’ wudu'dzini. Gul kidji/ngiyu aqo’uxe. Awe’ all their best things they put on. Probably — for five days they stayed Then there. SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 349 now going to start on singing the song that they had sung when they left home. The.morning of the day after they started away. And they started the song they used to sing up on Copper river. At that time they wore nose pins. When they were about to start from that place they put on weasel hats and coats. All mourned together over the friends they had ieft behind and over those who had been lost in the fog. When they were through mourning they arose and started off. The Athapascans did not know about the sea, and they called one an- other together. They said, *‘ What is that so very blue?” They said, ‘Let us go down to it. We have saved ourselves,” they said. Com- ing to the lower end of the glacier, they traveled very fast down to the sea. They crossed a river boiling out from under the mountain and almost as large as Copper river. They went down to the sea along- side of the big river. Afterward they stayed down there at the Aka’t’ kaosida’gea ci awe’ aka’t gonaye’ aqgwaa’t. atx qé’naa away from they started song that onit to start away they were Afterthat day it it (each when they going. was other) went ts!uta’dawe ax gonaye’ dwaa’t. Le ke kaodtiwaci’, Yu’éq-he’nt next morning from it “started they went. Then up they started the Copper river song, cakq! qatu’q! yeté’xq!un. Ta’q!x€é agaawe’tsa lt'nax ke yé up in they used to use. Nose pins at that time intheirnoses up thus ka’odudzini. Ax gonave’ Aqtoewaa’di yuda’ s!ax" ga yuk!uda’s!. ka’odudz gonay 2 \ \ ) they wore. From it “starting they were going the weasel hat and coat [they put on]. Agiawe’tsa qika’q! yax wudjixé’n tuwuni’k, yuna’q awaa’de a At that time there like together they all mourned, behind these they left qaxo’nq!i. Dadé’ kaayu’ qoga’s! tuq! qot wuade’ adadé’ayu. Yén friends. And about those fc eg in were lost about them. There eax dusti’ awe’ tsa 4x wudu’wanaq. Gonaye’ awaa’t. mourn- was then indeed from it they got up. Starting they went. ing Let wudusku’ yue’L! qostiyiye’ yt’gonanatc. Le yati'yi yéq! Not knew theseawater there was the Athapaseans. Then there being ‘there wudjxa’ndi wtcduxo’x. Y rucda’yadoqa, ‘‘ Dasayu’ xc ye s! jXA nal wucauXxo x. e wucda yVAcoqda, Jasayuo LAX ye 8-u together they called. As follows they said, “What is it very so blue u 9) r r ‘ tay K! TO k 1 a] wk ball] ra! © ‘ VAX4 yas: le yén ~ kax dusnu’k’, Le ytiqoya’waqa. like * is? Well there out to we go,”’ then they said. “Dé cwutudzine’x,” ye wucda'yadoga. Yusi’t!ganax @q nax ““Now we have saved our- so they said to one another. From the glacier beach [at on selves,”’ lower end] aya'Agaa’t aya’xawe Le Lak" awaa’t yue’L! ya’xdé. Le aka’nax and below it like it very fast they went thesea down to. Then across it water ya'waat yuhi’n én yucca’ tayina’x wuduwaqo’q, wel unala’ “they got a river large amountain from under- was boiling, not (scarcely) neath Eq-hi’nt yax qoge’y?. Le éL! ya’xe yaa’waat wehi’n Lén ya’xnax. Copperriver like was larger. Then sea down to ‘they came theriver big alongside. water Atxawe’ Le @’yéq uwate’ wehi’n yax. Tc!ure’ qaa’dix wusite’ Afterit then downthere theystayed theriver atmouth Then the first thing they did of. 10 15 on 10 350 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 mouth of that river. The first thing they did there was to claim the big mountain [as a crest], because they were the first to pass through it. When winter began to come on they built a house beside the river. They named it Mountain house because they had nearly lost their lives on that mountain. This is why they so named it. They stayed right there in that house, and the settlement grew into a town. Then the Ca’dadix® grew strong. They were the ones who built Mountain house. After they had been there ten years one persor began living away from town in order to make the frame of a skin boat. A woman named K!wadéeta reared a young sea gull. The sea gull did not grow large. All at once she did something to it that made it grow as large as an eagle. It began to grow big. Now it was almost as large asa house. When it got large she wanted to take it among her playmates. Her brothers, however, wanted to kill it. When she was playing with it the sea gull swam out of the mouth of the river. She also disappeared. She started after it. They used the song that yivea Len cuq!a’nax ada’t a’wuadi'djayu. Ta’k"dé yakogwaha’awe the big (to claim) on it because they were Winter when it began to be mountain the first who came. ’ =f a , r a r A oa + x ‘ hit wuduriya’x yuhi’n yaxq!we wudutiya’xe. Hit ya’oduwasa house they made the river alongside they made. House ~ they named 2) I ay ‘ ka 7! a Ix <9 tyy77" t Ts re’! va 1] 1a TI|QQ! | l/ t rf ca lita ee | eat ee ol ~ wari, bee = mf} - =f uwaqo’x. At has qd’xawe yi’ca Lén séyi’ ye has dui’n kaduni’k came, At they came the big at the so to them they told it (when) mountain foot of yuke’Ladi dak act’'yawus hia’wua de kaya’oduwasa ca atk!a’tsk!”. the sea-gull out followed after her was named [another] small. woman Yaq! xat Jas!é’L! wugi’de yi'ca at-kla’tsk!" q!ana’x-yati'yiat ke There roots toscratch went out the little girl red thing up of trees up aka’osfha, Ye’awa kuwa’t!a yi-ke-aka/ostha’ye-at. Layu’ yu-qadji'tx- dug. It was quite long the thing she dug up. Then thething that was wuduta’nea Le aya’xawe wudutLiya’x yus!i’q!. atxawe’ yén taken away then like it was made the dish. After it there from them SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS Ba the sea gull. At that time a song was composed in remembrance of her. The people remained there one year after the six men had gotten back. Then the ninth month was beginning to come on. At that time a skin canoe came in sight from the direction of Copper river. It was bound southward. The people were called in, and they came ashore there. These were Ka’gwantian from the mouth of Cop- per river. They called them into the house and gave them food. After they had fed them six brothers went hunting with dogs, and the youngest killed nothing. They always put up a great quantity of food, and carried it around with them. By and by all rushed after mountain sheep on top of the mountains. Their brother-in-law also went along with them. One of them (the youngest) in chasing the mountain sheep went astray in front of a cliff. It was toward even- ing. He was shaking all over. When it was almost evening the mountain sheep rushed toward him. Their leader went to him and wududzini’ yus!i’q! du-iti’'q!awe ga’wu duwata’n weke’Ladi dik came to be the dish for her drums were beaten the sea gull out finished Acu’yawus hu’wu a. aga’awe dui’t ciyi’ ka’odzite. aq! ts!u tak" followed she did. Atthattime forher a song” was given. There also year qaka’yan uwate’ yua’qo has wudiqo’xaya. Ada’x yax ya’qogwaha there they {after] they got back. * After like was beginning to stayed to the that come place guewk aayu’ yudi’s. Ya’qlawe wududziti’n djaqo’x yu'EKq-hi'ni ninth it was the month. At that time came to be seen — skin canoe Copper river _A fee ~ Sed Yee Pe TAY b Bein is lee var : yinana xX. Hat uwaqo xX. A'’we Leyl nde wuduwaxo’x Le kagay a nax “from the This came. Then ashore they were called and toward it direction of, way yén uwaqo’x. Xate Ka’gwantan a’seyu yué’q-hi’‘ni watda’x a. there they came. These Burnt-house were Copper river from the mouth people of were, Nélde’ wuduwaxo’x. Ha’sduq!wex at wudi'wate. Into the they called them. Their mouths things’ they put into. house Ha’sduq!wex at naduti’ wereducti’nax yatiyl’ wudjkik!iyé’n Their mouths things they put six “were the brothers into kéx tin has wua't. Keklea/awe sel adudja’q. Wii'yén has dogs with they went. The youngest not killed anything. Lots of food they aolidja’g. Wucke’t has udaya'ite. Awe’ djé’nwu has a’oltiq!éu! killed With them- they always carried And mountain they rushed {and prepared. ] selves it around. sheep caya’q!. Le nax yati'y? hasduka’ni ts!u hasdui’n wua’t. Awe’ on top ofthe And from there’ their brother- also with them went. And mountains. them was in-law qag duwagu’t git! yiq! djé’nwu iftq!. Xana ayu’ ye wii'ni. astray one went cliff infront of mountain after. Evening that so it was sheep toward, Ldaka’t yi ye’kudal kaodina’t. Lax xa’naawe A’nax at liwagu’q All he was shaking. Very nearevening tohim = ran toward yudjé‘nwu. Yu'aitq! ye wuniyi’ cu’q!waa-i’djawe aci’t caiwaxi’th the mountain To those so it was like the leader to him went sheep. 49438—Bull, 39—09——23 10 10 15 354 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [RULL. 89 took him on its horns. It ran away with him and made him stand up ona place to one side. Then the people started down. They went down without hunting any more. When they got down on the beach they started home for Yakutat. Now the six brothers started on a journey for the place whence they had all come out. Their uncle told them to go back for a copper plate which was in a valley called Ltaxe’n, leading down to Copper river. They did not want to leave it there because it was valuable. When the people first came out, it took them forty days and nights, but the young men took only twenty days and nights, They got back among their friends. When they.came among their friends again these wept with them and did not want them to return. But after they had stayed there for some time they went to the valley where was the copper plate. Since they had left their friends no one had been to the valley. The real owner of it, too, was dead. They reached the opposite side of that valley. When they got there they saw the ducedina’x wultxa’t!. Telune’ awe’ AcI’n wudjixl’x tLe fand] on his horns took him. Then it was with him it ran and Lia’denyaka’q!awe a’cdjiwana’g. Atxawe’ Le yi’nde has wua't. at a side place let him stand up. After that then homeward they went. Let at nati’ yax has yaodaht’n. Yek has a’dawe has at kawana’ Not things were like they * hunted. Down they came they to it started [when] home Yakuda’tde, to Yakutat Le ducti’nax-has-de yu-wudjkik!iyé’n ko has wu'deat yu’ax dak Then the six now the brothers they started fromit out {to the place] has wusda’geyedi. Hasduka’kteawe qox has kawaqa’ Kq-hi'ni they had come out. Their uncle it was to go. them told Copper back river — —s;— — A ° - —_ katq!ata’n Ltaxe’n yi/éq aye’yatil. aqa’xayu ql!alatsini’tcayu Let leading into {a valley a copper * was. Because it was expensive not called Ltaxé/n] ha’sdutu wa’ue gu has atew’wunige’. Dag!u'n-dji’nkat has uwaxe’ their minds wanted there they should leave it. Forty [days and nights] they camped cii’q!wa dak has gasada’g. Ywtklisa’ni weqa’ has uwaxe’. Has when first out they came. The young men’ twenty they camped. They qo’a At has uwaa’t hasdux0d’ng!i xot. Ya has wududjigé’ at however to it’ they came their friends among. They not wanting there them to come away has at hasduxo’ng!i xd, hasdui’n ga’xduste. et qox dé ye has they got their friends among, with them — they wept. Not back to so they a’d } Tr aku aac ati ee) te lak" Santon RT AEC ti rt a ! d A oD there he remembered his earrings. From his ears away he threw them. Ada’xawe aya’osinaig. Awaca’t aka’q! yaayé’d? agawe'tsa ka’odigax After that he chased her. He caught on her her child as soon as started to cry [back] out we'ciawat. Ga’xtde -Ac yawaca’t. A-ite’ kaolisi’L!. Cti’q!wa the woman. In the face him she scratched. On him she made great At that marks, time Agaca’t ye awuttixe’s! ‘‘Anqa’wox xat naxsati’ q!wan. 4Ldaka’t when he so he said within ‘““A rich man me be let. All eaught her himself SWANTON ] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 367 me catch you.” But he made a mistake in speaking, for he said, ‘*Let me burst open with riches.” After he had chased her a short distance up into the woods she sat down in front of him. There the woman defecated. When she got up there was only foam to be seen. Her excrement was very long and white. Then he took the foam and put it into a piece of paper. He made a box for the foam. The scabs from his face were called Medicine-to-rub-on-the-body (Da-naik"), and he gave it to those of his brothers-in-law who loved him. Although anything he had was very little it grew to be much, and he became a rich man. Toward the end of winter he started for Yakutat. Before he reached home they went ashore. The sun was shining. He had his things taken outside. Then he wanted to sleep, and he lay down beside them, By and by some children ran against them and the pile fell on top of him. ) If I do not take I shall always be I shall always be Girls little, listen. anything ashamed, ashamed. Cak!u sa’nf he. Girls little, listen. If I do not take anything [to the party], I shall be ashamed, I shall be ashamed. Little girls, listen. Little girls, listen. (15) Cradle song for a boy. Hagu’ qadica’ce? axhu’nx duea’t naq nani’ni. Now Tam certain my brother his wife after he dies. to marry I am certain to marry my brother’s wife after he dies.? (16) A cradle song of unknown authorship. It might be used by anyone. Tslitsk! agat!i’ku kaiti-ya’d? q!és. Ql!at agatage’ axia’k! q!eés. Small bird let me shoot my younger for. Asmall let me my sister for. brother trout spear Let me shoot a small bird for my younger brother. Let me spear a small trout for my sister. (17) The song with which Raven was nursed. Both phratries use it. Aha’ aha ql!ati!i-daye’djiyi. Yel qlosite’ axod’x yaolicu’. Yet Aha aha island snipes. Raven tracks among [I] see. Raven's (i. e., here it is) qe vk!"-has. Dzana’, dzana’, dzana’. | i ; nephews. Bad smell- bad smell- bad smell- ing fish, * ing fish, ing fish. Aha, aha, island snipes. Among them I see lots of raven tracks, the nephews of ravens. Bad-smelling fish, bad-smelling fish, bad- smelling’ fish.’ (18) Composed by one of the L!ené’d? named Cuk!usi’yi (Little-lake- up-above), when his people expected others to come with food to give them a feast. His name was probably derived from Auk lake. Tela yigiy!’ ttiq! qaya’t kanaha’ntc. Tsu naqate’n uga’ an Every day in front of my face it always is. Also I sleep when of them xalgé’ntc. De ii’tde sax"Lit!a’n. T always Indeed for IT long much. think. you aWhen aman died and was succeeded by his brother, the latter married the widow. 6 Because ravens lived on them. 894 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bunn. 39 Ctanv’k" yax xat uwati’ ida’yu tuta’nk diye’l. Having a like I am about thinking you sudden you Ravens. sickness It is before my face every day. And when I sleep I always think of you. [long much for you. Thinking about you Ravens comes to me like a sudden sickness. (19) Also composed by Cuk!usi’y? on the same occasion as the preceding. r . oo A — _ — A — A Tukaisina’t ye’ ctant’gya got uwati’ Ida’yu tuta’nk t!ene’di Youmake me Raven asif shaking I were com- about thinking Llené/di’s feel pletely you ! 1“ yA tq?l. children, You make me feel as if I were shaking, thinking about you, Llene’di’s children. (20) Composed by Cuk!usa’yi after they had vainly expected a feast for some time. Telas xAt cé’gi ana’g xat gogana’ yak"duni’k T!a’q!dentan Only I it is from it il am going without seeing Ta’qidentan’s to die [that are talked about] ral 1% yA tq!. children. 3 Ts!u aAka’x gané’xt xAnu’k" fsagiwu’ Ganaxa’di ya’tq!i. Tslu INAXA‘dI’s ‘children, Also Again I try to make myself well thinking about you Ga A A _ — Idadé’ gax ctutx xadateé’x. about erying into IT alway try ° you myself to stop. alone am coing le without havine seen T!a’q!dentan’s children. Tal 1 going to die without having seen T!a’q!dent hildr ry to make myself well again thinkine about Ganaxa’di’s Lctry) ke myself Il again thinking about Ganaxa’d children. I keep trying to stop crying about you. . fo) (21) Composed by Kuxe’t! of the L!ene’di when they expected people to give them a feast. There is a little bird called people’s-thoughts (qatuwu’), and a person knows when he sees it that a feast is coming. Sugaa’set tugasagwe'te iye’li digo’te qatuwu’ hat g@adagé’nin. Always teels happy about you thi. Welf people’s- toward when his thoughts Raven [phratry] thoughts him fly. — — = = ~ = A — = Adi'sgi yéel gux sanée’x deki’yaq!aq! hin? waite wutta’t. Dea’q! I wonder Rayens will save way out there water together areupseton. On it who A—? 7 has wulixa’e yuye'l. they float the Ravens. You Raven always feel happy about this Wolf phratry when your thoughts fly toward him like the bird named people’s-thoughts. I wonder who can get out and save the Ravens that are upset to- gether way out there in the seas. (22) This is called Big-song (Ci-Len) and was used by all the Ka’- ewantan at feasts after a rich man had died. As they sang all turned around in the direction of the sun. It was also sung for the Deer in making peace, when it was ended differently. Originally it is said to SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 895 have come from Luca’cak!i-an, where it was composed by Datxagu’tte (named from the action of a man carving a wolf post when he steps some distance away to take a good look at it). [Introductory words] It@’ qoxdziti'yt qaq! aya’q!a Datxagu’tte — q!: After Iam living man Iam say- Datxagu’tte mouth ing like, (he used > to say) ya’xa Luca’cak!i-an dax cI A. like it Sand-hill town from song is. Uha’n tinei’t-a’nt tig! haqltge’. Fes) DS We world inside we feel higher of than all. I am now saying just as the man I live after, Datxagu’ttc, used to say. This song is from Sand-hill town. We are the people who feel higher than all others in the world. (23) A song used at feasts when two of the host’s people dance and one of each of the two parties invited sings for them. Kit-gii’ci-hinax tela xat qatixa’c. Da yia’ni kana’x yén xat In Killer-whale’s-dorsal- right I am. floating Now your town infrontof there I fin river down. kaiJahit Ka’gwantan yée'tq!i. Kut xat gox lixa’c. wish you would Ka/gwantan’s children. Away I might drift. help me, Tam floating right down in Killer-whale’s-dorsal-fin river. 1 wish you would help me ashore in front of your town, Ka’ewantin’s children. I might drift away (24) Composed by a man oni od Small-lake-underneath (Hayi-a’k!") about a drifting log found full of nails, out of which a house was built. It is used ane a feast is about to be given for a dead man, and they have their blankets tied up to their waists and carry canes. Wucke’t wutixa’c! gaye’s! xa’wu yax ida’ axtunati’te. axhu’nx Drifting 5 [with] log like with ITalwayscompare. My brother iron nails you tela’ya gax taxa’c. Telani’djt gu laxa’c. just so let him float. On a good let him float sandy beach ashore. = = A = . = Guts! tu’di wuxixt gaga’n yax ida’ axtunati’te axtza’. Clouds into goes * sun like around you’ Icompare my mother. acga’ Lingit-a/ni kanacgé’tte. That is world makes always dark. what Lalways compare you to a drifting log with iron nails in it. Let my brother float in, in that way. Let him float ashore on a good sandy beach. Ialways compare you, my mother, to the sun passing behind the clouds. ‘That is what makes the world dark. (25) A Ka’ewantan song used at a feast when a slave is to be killed. Yek!u't qodziti’ di’nayaqayi’, tk!ax ucfti’yi nayaqay?’. Are now backing down the people’ s words, worthless are people’s w ords. on me (people) The words of people are now backing down on me, the words of worthless people. 396 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [RULL. 89 (26) A potlatch song composed by Man-that-obeys (Q!aya’x-qo’ste) of the Box-house people. Qa’kdé ittiwati’ tea kit kati’yi? Yayi’kde wudaqe’ni Yet tet Out you want to indeed whale are ? Inside went Raven not come killer acq!é’ wuk!a’s? Tea’tclawa agwatsa’s Yet q!e’iqgwak!as tea diki't? [you know what] And indeed you think Raven you will satisfy now you killer he consumed? whale? Te!a hite ciya’x aodita’n doa/ni. Tea Le’nax | agane’x? J ro) Just he with him- turned over his town And alone how ean he self (the world). save himself? Why do you want to come out, killer whale? Don’t you know what Raven did when he went inside of a whale? And do you think you will satisfy Raven, you killer whale? He turned this world over with himself. And how can he alone save himself ¢ (27) Composed by Nawe’ya, a very old man of the Box-house people, just before he died, so that it could be used at feasts. Aktce’ Iwak!e’el Ka’ewantin ya’tq!t. Tya’tq!? kat idjfkta’n. You must be very good, Ka/gwantan’s children. Your children for you have jumped (i. &., Opposites) to. save. —_ - a A =- Qée’ga xat ya’yagaxe Wuckita’n ya’tq!i. De daq naxagu’t Truly she you have pitied Wuekita/n children, Now up Tam going s!act-qa’wu ani’ dé | S:AQI1-qi ‘ 3 ghost world to. You must be very good, Ka’ewantin’s children. Your children have jumped to save you. Iam very glad that you took pity on me, Wuckita’n’s children. Now | am going up to the ehost world. (28) Song about the eagle hat, sung at a feast when one is not satis- fied with the property he has obtained. ‘The word given below, which is the only one, is said to be Tsimshian. Xédzicxiga’, Here is the eagle hat. (29) A similar song about the gonaqade’t hat. Informant did not know what the words mean, they being in Tsimshian, Naganawi’ Jugana’ hao hao. Lugana’, however, is evidently Lo’koala, Kwakiutl name for the winter ceremonial. (30) This song is used by all the Wolf families, who sing it all together just as they are coming in to a feast. Anqi’wo yanagu’t. Yituwu’ = yicat!i’q!. A rich man is coming. Your feelings you keep silent. | Words repeated at the end] Cisate’ ye yanage’te ‘‘Ganha’o hute!.” When itis thus they always say “Tt is all gone.”’ ended There is a rich man coming. Keep silent. When it is ended, they always say, ** It is all gone.” (31) Composed inthe Tsimshian language and used by the Ka’ewantan at a great feast. Guda’x gana’keia tangi‘kcia agi’keia. The last word is said to mean ‘*stern of canoe.” SWANTON ] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 397 (32) Sone used like the above. Xuts!nuwi’ dé ts!u ye naga’xduiq!. Tea anya’tq!i naxa’. Hutsnuwu to also thus weare going to Very high-caste are going to eat. to be invited. people We are also going to be invited to Killisnoo. High-caste people are going to eat. (83) Composed by a Haida living in Sitka, called Naqa’li, or popu- larly *t Haida Charley,” and used when four dance together at a feast. Wasa’k" déndzigi’t axcagi’ntya. Yet hint ki’‘na gqoha’n qo’a Ss su ty I I wonder what will do to me my future life. Raven’s river atheadof people, how- ever, gdote ani kadé’ tclayu’. luwagu’q. Wolf town to right to have started to go. Uqa'tulitsi’n cégayé’li qo’a ek! yen dudziqa’ ciGanaxte’di JT have no hard feel- this Raven however, not there Isaid anything these Ganaxte/di’s ings against tribe, = s 78A A = ya'tq!i. Hande’ idji’n tclinakalae’gu. children. Come here your hands I will shake. I wonder what will happen to me in the future. The people at the head of the Raven’s river have started for the Wolf phratry’s town. I have no hard feelings against the Raven phratry and I said nothing to Ganaxte’di’s children. Come here and I will shake your hands. (84) Song composed by Naqa’ti (Haida Charley) for four when they are dancing at a feast. Déxtutse’ Kiksa’d? ya'tq!i tela akaye’x tcuc gitiye’x, da fcandé’ Iftwo-minded Kiksa/di’s children justso like it might something on pity happen, A__—/s]A ! ive’ti qo’a. your Raven however. phratry © Nao yAx ya xaAt kanalcé’n axh’'Ik!"-has ani’. Daga vot’e sA . J tz) tom Whisky like likethis I weregetting drunk mygrandfathers’ town. What Wolf [phratry] ? on [thinking of] Axdauna’x sida’q. ean bring my mind into the right place. Don’t be double-minded, Kiksa’di’s children, or something might happen to you, but have pity on your Raven phratry. Thinking about my grandfathers’ town is just as if I were getting drunk with whisky. There is no Wolf phratry (person) that can set my mind aright. (85) Composed by Going-across-the-road (Degahe’t!) who belonged to the T!i’kana tribe of the Xakanu’kedi.¢ De séq! gokasti’q!" Ka’gwantiin ya’tq!i. Aga’ naxate’n? yée’ndt Now onneck ITamgoingtotieit, Ka’gwantan’s children. So that when Iam there asleep xAt tu gux fJadja’q. I shall know that it is with me. aSee story 101. Otherwise neither of these is mentioned elsewhere. 398 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY | BULL, 39 Yaxc? tiwu’ yaq*gwati’ Ka’gwantan ya'tq!i. Teara’k! axtuwu’k Iwonderif will ever forgive me, Ka/gwantan’s children. Always my feelings dana’tte. are troubled. I am going to tie it around my neck, Ka’gwantan’s children, so that when I am asleep I shall know that it is with me. I wonder if Ka’gwantin’s children will ever forgive:me. My feelings are always troubled. (86) Composed by Little-lake-up-above (Cuk!usa’-y?) of the Llene’di. See songs 18-20, above. De’dji yani’gu hatuwu’ ceyu’g? itna’x ka dune’k ka godji’ yaqayt’. Must have been very great that they were telling to me after it is past Wolf * words. phratry's Duhi’te! In yis wute yén axdoga’x Kiksa’di ya'tq!i.- The last time for with each let us be very Kiksa‘di's ‘children. other friendly, The Wolf phratry’s words that they are telling me about must have been very great. Let us be friendly with each other for the last time, Kiksa’di’s children. (837) Composed by one of the Kiksa’di named Dead Raven (Nawiye’l). There was a second part to this which the writer’s in- formant had forgotten. Teusu’ga iyuq!ata’ng? tii’de qoxdzia’x Ql!atkaa’y? ya'tq!i. Very at: what you have said to I listened Island-people’s — children. tentively I have listened very attentively to your words, Island-people’s children. (38) Composed by one of the Ka’gwantain named Be-careful-of-it (Katea’s). Agia’ xa yit iya’k!" xoge’qte Ka’gwantan ya’tq!? gote q!a'tatsini. Nomore away yourface Iw ill throw Ka’gwantan’s children Wolf because you make valuable. Daqi’t kax sa axtuwa’sigu ye’lyi ani’? Gut kawusi’nkax What ? do I care about Raven's town? Only when there is just a little in me Axtuwi’sigu ye'lyi a’ni. I like Raven's town, I will no more throw your faces away, Ka’gwantan’s children, because you are the ones that make the Wolf phratry valuable. What do I care about the Raven’s town? I like it only when there is a very little [whisky] in me. (839) Composed by one of the w!uk!naxadi? named Nawutsi’n, probably from the jerking of cohoes when dying. Hin tii’nax te!a ke ayaxé’te go’/tcyi ani’ cahe’ yadiyée’l. Water fromin just up he were tak- Wolf’ town didto this Raven. as if ing [me] Ada’ axa’ yéx ckugwatye’x dogo’teyi ya’gu ada’de gax duti’n. Now paddle like he is going to use his Wolf canoe aroundit so that he will himself phratry's be seen, SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 399 This Raven did to the Wolf’s town just as if he were taking me out of the water. Now he is going to use himself as a paddle so that he will be seen around his Wolf phratry’s canoe. (40) Composed by Kakaye’k of the Ka’gwantan. Inuwu’ ced?’ wuctuka/odjitan yagodji’, Wuckita’n ya'tq!? age’q! 'S) « D 9 e | oD | Your fort inside of | wants to put itself this Wolf Wuckita/n’s children inside phratry of it tsa gax tuxe’q!". SO we shall sleep. Yel yax kogwati’ Ka’gwantan ya’tq!i. Dogo’dji tux yeékewagu' tte. Raven like are going Ka’/gwantan’s children. His Wolf among he is going. to be phratry This Wolf phratry wants to put itself inside of your fort, Wuckita’n’s children, so that we can sleep. @ The Ka’gwantan’s children are going to be like Raven. He is SD fo) going among the people of his Wolf phratry. (41) Composed by Saxa’ of the Ka’gwantan. Xate xati’'n yek niya’. Gi's!? hayina’x tcla wugaa't. axsati’ sak" It is Isee_ spirits that will Cloud from down right they get. Mymasters for come to me. under yel ani’ kat nagaa’t. Raven town on they will walk. I can see the spirits that are going to come tome. They will go under a cloud. They will be my masters who will walk in the Raven town. (42) Composed by Crying-[wolf] (Ga’xe) of the Chilkat Ka’gwantan. Wa’sa ac nasini’ ditca’k!. Duye’lt acda’t kanatyi’tctc. Deki’q! I wonder has done to him the eagle. His Raven around always flies. In the air what {phratry] him acda’t kanatdu’L!tc lingi’t-a’nt alt yax yéq! utc!a’s dutuwu’ diye’l. around they would fly world not like he made his mind this Raven. him very quickly Hite! hasdutuwu’ diye’ hasduki’d? hasduna’q yén nagu’. Finally their minds this Raven their from them there went. killer whale I wonder what the Eagle has done to him. His Raven phratry always flies around him. They fly around thickly unlike Raven when he made the world, |The translation of the last paragraph is uncertain. | (43) This was sung by New-rich (Yisgana’lx), chief of the Auk people, when he defeated a Yakutat chief in a property contest, as related in story 26. Xat kaniidi’xast yiianqéi’wo. Ts!as ti-sé’L!i aq!é’x aosta’x. I am very much the chief. Only cedar bark with it he made a ashamed of pretense, aComplimentary metaphorical terms used toward the opposite phratry, 400 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL 39 Tinna’x aoliya’x. Hat qox tclu Laduda’x agi’? La q!educi’ Copper he made itinto Here back then will youcome ? Never feast ' (i.e., pretended it was). 5laliwe tk 5 2 qa’stiyayik an? do you think we town? have in this part of our I am very much ashamed of the chief. He only made a pretense with cedar bark. He made it into copper plates. Will you come back here? Do you think we never have feasts in this town (44) Composed by one of the Ka’gwantan called Yuwa’k!. Ye'ot yéx ackadé’ yanaa’t Ka’gwantan ya'tq!i datuwu’. Spirits like on him : coming Ka’/gwantan’s children thinking of. down = r — — A — — A — A Hatsattya’ Ka’gwantin ya’tq!? gusu’ xan ikewana’wu kayaqay?’ Alas! (a Haida Ka‘gwantan’s daughters where with me you were going your words word, hadjadi’a) [is it} to die xadé’s adusha'ite ¢ you ought to fulfill? Thinking of you, Ka’gwantan’s children, is just like having spirits come down upon me. Alas! Ka’gwantan’s children, why don’t you fulfill your promise. that you were going to die with me? (45) Composed by For-a-town spirit (An-de-yék) of the Llené’di about the T!a’q!dentan, because when the latter came to Juneau to drink they did not pay any attention to the Auk people. THtk!"-has ant’ akya Aq! yiq! aAklige’. axh’tk!"-has ani'te yax ye Your grandfather’s town — this is not. My grandfathers town like thus [rich] yaosite tea qi gux k!uca’ni. has made you now [you] slaves poor. Ye suka’tya teucka’x xalti’n ade’ nati’‘teya wuna’wu qa. Ayayide’ So people are how I'see when are — dead men, Before it treated xat kacé’x. I am drinking. De tulatsi’n ayé’x yidztoi’t T!a’q!dentan ya’tq!t. Tela Lek : 4 2 | 3 | Now youare very | like it you did T!A’q!dentan’s children. But not selfish for iya’kuqwaq!é’ tela waa iyaqayi’. atc ye cylidzini’ ya’diyel. I will blame you for will blame your That is hisown fault this Raven’s. words. This is not your grandfather’s town. It is my grandfather's place that has made you rich, you poor slaves. I observe how people are treated after they are dead, and therefore I drink before I die (i. e., enjoy myself). What you did was very selfish, T!a’q!dentan’s children. But I will not blame you for your words. It is this Raven’s fault. (46) Composed by Nigo’t, one of the Taku Yénye'd?. His name is used also by the Ka’gwantan, SWANTON]. TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS | 401 Yésu’ xat ya-ilidje’te ceye’t. Tela go’naa gotc yisati’ni tcusii’ga You now surprise me, you Raven. Another Wolf when you z see kina’q! ci’yika ke idjaqa’k. way up on branch up you want to get. Daga’tkax sa cxa’dzixan? Na’odana kax cxadzixa’n. Ica’n xat For what us do you think I To drink whisky I live. Pity me live? Xet Te’qoed? ya’tq!? xat yenaiga’x. Foam Te’qoedi’s children me have on. (a town) You surprise me, you Raven. When you see a person of the Wolf phratry, you want to get way up on a branch. What do you think I live for? I live to drink whisky. Have pity on me, Foam Te’qoedi’s children.? (47) Composed for and given to Other-water (Gonahi’n) of the Ka’gwantan, who lived very long ago. He went to Prince of Wales island to marry a woman named S!elti’n. When he was ready to start back, his father-in-law laid down a row of copper plates for his daughter to walk down on, and, as she went down, they sang this song and gave it to the Ka’gwantan. It is therefore called S!élti’n q!ostye’d?, ‘* S!elti’n’s-return-song.” The words are in Tsimshian and are the following: Xéeleayuwa héeyuwa’ haya’cetinaxa, hayu’wacetinaxa. (48) Composed by Ts!aka’k!, a Da’qu!ao-ca, about Kitilts!a’xk of the Kosk!e’di. f Qati’yi Daqulawe'di ya’tq!? naq xat gogana’. Aya’x a’kwe fkda’s Tam DaqL!iawe’di's children for i am going Like it is nothing if (not having seen) to die. Ago’tx goxtaye’xte. I lose lots of property. De'tc!a ciya’idé daga’x awe’ at cix axq!e’nastite. it is only about erying itis [in] song that comes tome. myself Iam going to die without seeing Daqu!awe’di’s children any more. That is nothing if I lose lots of property. It is only crying about myself that comes to me in song. (49) Composed by one of the L!ene’d? about Juneau when gold was first found there. Lida’t ye ql!ayaika’q tLilenée’di ya’tq!i. Lingit-a’nt tu qoa’ni Do not so talk Llené/di’s children. World in people any more ; yayiLa’k. you ‘are ahead of, Do not talk any more, t!ene’d’?’s children. You are ahead of all the people in the world. a Evidently the Te’qoedi living at Foam from which the XéI qoan, or Foam people, also came. 49438—Bull. 89 —09——26 402 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [RULL. 39 (50) An *‘ Angry song” composed by Sexdagwée’t! of the Llene’di against Little Raven (Yéelk!), a blind man of Tongass (Ta’nta qoan), with whom he was angry. Deki’ tacukadé’ dak acia’waadt do’xont qié’yaqayt ql!laye’nax eae Far out on the beach out chased his friends’ words because of ye edf-xe’'te Yelk! Teluq!wa’s!ga yée’x ] ctax dani’qnute. Lekax so threw himself Little A little numb * like not into I ever feel. Not for [before my Raven, myself himself words] kodjitini Yelk! xan = q!ak gax dugqé’n. can see Little Raven to me whose words are always reported. Just as if a man chased him out on the beach because of some one’s talking, Little Raven threw himself before my words. I do not feel even a little numb. That fellow, Little Raven, whose words they are always reporting to me, can not see anything. (51) On the same subject as the above and by the same ue Yelk! Ieka’x ke djiti’nt yéx guxyikya’tix fsatiyi’te xa Tq!a’yanuk. Little mnotfor out cansee like = slave's son because you I hate w hat you Rayen yourself are always say. Yen goha’ni yax iyada’tstik!a’ng! qi gux ucya’ ate xa iq!ayani’k. Sea cu- big like you have spots all over and ane e look just for Ihate to have you cumber(?) your face like that talk to me. Wase’t + keciti’ni yeq! s!i’qle yax Lié’wu gilaxa’nte Ckax Why not seeing anything into dish like sand you always For your- at all pick up self "Ay f ke djfti’n? yeq! tea gux yik ya’di? not seeing ‘into you big slave’s son? Little Raven, I hate what you keep saying, because you are a slave’s son and can see nothing. I hate to have you talk to me because you have spots all over your face like a big sea cucumber (4) and look like aslave. Don’t you know that, because you can not see anything, you big slave’s son, you keep picking up sand instead of dipping into the dish ? (52) Composed about a certain man by Andeyeé’k, one of the Llene’df, Ts!u. Jamestownte iya’wadji wilené’d? ya’ty!i. Ts!u na‘ilanlit Also the Jamestown had punished Llené/di’s children. Also you put away you dé yiq!alaiye’t. ate ke yai'latakq!u. (imp. ) ; your lying. That is you get the best of people. how axtuwé’sigu yaGold creek xat ya'yagaxe’. Ts!u at cnaxalti’te T always like this Gold creek me to haye you pity in. Also Lalways feel very happy when yaGold creek xat yayaga’xe Kiksa’di ya’tq!t. this Gold creek me you pity in Kiksa/di’s children. The Jamestown” has punished you already, Lene’di’s children. Put away all of your lying. That is how you get the best of people. I always like to have you pity me in this Gold creek. I always feel very MW appy W yn you pity me in this Gold creek, Kiksa’di’s children. aA former revenue cutter, which probably carried away the man against oan this was composed and held him in confinement for a time. SWANTON ] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 403 (53) Composed by one of the Box-house people called Saxa’, about another man, Among-the-brant (Qénxo’), one of the Kfksa’d?. It was sung at feasts and in making peace. Ye wusgi't yadiye’t tcla gdte qlasé’gu dwaci’t. Yadiyé’t de So always does this Raven this very Wolf thelivesof takes away. This Raven now phratry this ~ ad Pat ag A_A?L — Bet pa =—4 = Ar an cyika t wudigé Nn. ACIX YaxO xX gote yAqayl. with upon the has flown. From him isasking Wolf ” words. it branch phratry Ts!u duyaqa’ yex asi’ anadji’ doxoni’ yagayi’. Ts!u adjiye’t Also he was saying like it was he thought hisfriend’s ~ words. Also to him it was kandana’tte. it always shakes. This is the way this Raven always takes the lives of the Wolf phratry. This Raven has already flown up on the branch with the words of the Wolf phratry for which the Wolf phratry is asking him. He thought that it was his friend’s words that the Raven was doing this with. That always shakes him (i. e., it was really the words of the Wolf phratry). (54) Reply of Among-the-brant (Qénxo’) to Saxa’. Qo’xde ga’wu tin wucuxdiya’ ittiwu’. Deq!é@’t cwudifta’n yel On the way drum with I compare myself your mind. Now they are Raven’s back to make peace beating it a’nt kaq!. town in, I compare myself to a drum beaten to make peace on the way back. hey are beating it already in the Raven’s town. (55) Composed by Dead-slave (Gux-nawu’) about a woman named Poor-orphan (I J oD before Judge Tuttle. He’daho djate da fh’ ftuwu’ waa’qwe. Kiksa’di ya’tq!i f’site About this, Judge, about never your mind disturb. Kiksa/di’s children you are Aqss-y Wore at idjiyi’t qtax duga’q!. of you one should be afraid. Never mind about this, Judge. You are not a child of the ) 5 Kiksa’d? that people should be afraid of you. , , (99) A love song originally obtained from a Tiigish woman. Dat sak" sayu’ Daye’ cak dax fxa’ndi xégudiye’q!. Ts!as axna’q What for was it Dyea farup from to you I have gone to. Only from me yax igi’t goti!a’tki qadé’. Iiti’t xodziga’x. on you went * some other to. Foryou Tam crying. some- [town] thing. Why have I come to you to Dyea from far inland only to find that you have gone away to another town [ona steamer]? Here I am, ery- ing for you. a Songs 97 to 102 were given the writer by his interpreter, Don Cameron. The rest were obtained from a Sitka Indian of the Box-house people named Dekina’k!x, SWANTON ] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS A (100) A very modern love song. Djildaka’t-at Léxko’ctu) yéx kati’yi my dear boy xat djiwana’q, Everything indifferent tome asif is | me has gone from, my dear Tommy. I don’t care about anything since even my dear boy, my dear Tommy, has gone from me. (101) A love song composed by a dancer named Sig!oé’t, who belonged to the Raven phratry. His sweetheart was away when the 4th of July came. Wa'sa k*cis xat gogwati’ yadjulai’a yaqge’ga-e’ni. axa’t-has Lét How Iwonder I will be this July morning is coming. My aunts not qoqatin LAx yé’xa gugeée’k! axtiwu’. I can see very aweak about it my thoughts. I wonder what this coming July morning will be like. My mind is very weak thinking that I shall be unable to see my aunts (i. e., my sweetheart).@ (102) Composed by a man named Raven-skin (Yél-digu’) when his sweetheart abandoned him. Yuk doge’q!tc gogana’ qa godji’ tin qongana’. Lex cél gux If one had charge of death person a Wolf with it would be easy It would be (woman) to die. sagt’ ots. very pleasant. If one had control of death, it would be very easy to die witha Wolf woman. It would be very pleasant. (103) A mourning song belonging to the Ka’gwantan. Tela hu dituwu’ aci’t tsite’ yadego’tc. Lit q!wan ctu ye'daq!éq. Right hismind tohim was thismanof Wolf Never (imp.) blame others. {people}. It is his own fault that this Wolf man got into that condition (i. e., died). Do not lay the blame en anybody else. a The term translated ‘‘aunts”’ is used generally for those women of the opposite clan with whom it was allowable to marry. ABSTRACTS OF MYTHS MYTHS RECORDED IN ENGLISH AT SITKA 1. Raven taven was the son of a man named Kit-ka’ositiyi-qa, who gave him streneth to make the world. After he had made it he obtaimed 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 fish- ing 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 blad- ders 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. Com- ing 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. 416 SWANTON | TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 417 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 ona 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 ina 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.) 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 toa 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 swal- lowed. Having stolen a salmon from some people when they were asleep, they in turn discovered him asleep and wrenched off his giz- zard. He went after it, found them using it as a polo ball, and recov- ered it, but ever since the Raven’s gizzard has been big and dirty. Next he married the daughter of Foe-on-the-salmon, and they put up many salmon eggs and dried salmon. When it became stormy the salmon eges helped him paddle. Afterward he carried up the dried salmon and dumped the salmon eges 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 a An episode which is perhaps misplaced. See p. 418. 49438—Bull. 39—09——27 418 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 39 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 unsue- cessful. 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 gen- ital 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 Gonaqadé’t. 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 moun- tain tops and kept their canoes inside. All who survived were with- out 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, ete. Raven seared 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.? 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 eoing 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 be 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 aSee above, p. 417. SWANTON ] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 419 the sea, let it float ashore, and threw it upon a bush where it became Rebis bracteosum (cix). Drinking water he called cat!k!. 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 aitered 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 Bia 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. 8. 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 420 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 most powerful of them took his place. That evening the people out- side 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, Lq!aya’k!, obtained bows and arrows. By and by they came to some people who were bathing for strength in the sea, andjoinedthem. At this time they suspected that Lgq!aya’k! 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 Tsague’d? after he had tried every other kind of wood in vain. One time a man and his wife discovered some killer whales camp- ing, 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 Kots!@’n! and carried their canoes across to the other side on skids. They still cross at this place every year. 5. Kaxa’ Kaka’ 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 SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 221 | 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. Tur Lanp-Orrer 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. Tuer Lanp-OrTrEerR 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 after- ward 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 Wo.rFr-CHIkF’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 itran 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 killinga 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 s!ax 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 499 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 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 hoes were caught by whittling up sticks in front of their holes. 10. Tor Harrspur PEroPie 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 fas- tened 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 some- thing offensive to it. For this the killer whale, the duck’s grand- father, took them down to his house, burned them badly before the fire, and turned them into a certain species of duck. 11. Srorres 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 WomMAN WHo wASs 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. SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 423 14. THe PrRotTracTED 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 neigh- boring 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 Poreupine 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 ovér. 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 woo Caucut WonDERFUL THINGS A poor man could catch no halibut, although others were very suc- cessful. 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 feqe’n. From these he became very rich. 17. THe Frnpine or THE BLUE Parnt, 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 (Ka’xsiganthin). 424 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 18. Various ADVENTURES NEAR Cross SounpD 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 fol- lowed home by a land-otter-man, who began throwing rocks at them froma 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. Kars! A Sitka man named Kats! 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. Kats!’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. Tur 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 Gonaqade’t because one of them had struck his slave, the skate. When he learned that they were Katagwa’di, 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 SWANTON ] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS A425 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. 292.-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 Kiksa’d? claim the frog crest and names. 23. How THE FrRoGs HONORED THE DEAD A Ka’gwantin chief having died, one of his friends called upon the Kiksa’di 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, Tue Brant WIvEs A Kiksa’d? found two women swimming ina 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 endeay- oring 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 T!a’q!dentan the T!a’q!dentan claim that island. 426 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [ BULL. 39 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 posses- sion, 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 con- test 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 deyvil- fish 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 SWANTON ] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 427 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 suf- ficed 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 Atha- pascan 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 T!a’q!dentan. — 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 expedi- tion, 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, under- took another raid, and killed a number equal to those that had been lost. 28. THe YourHruL 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 towar. 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 Kaq!anuww’ to obtain property for a dead friend. He was so high that no one dared speak to him 498 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 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 imme- diately brought the visitor ashore and paid him for his dead friend. 29. THe First War IN THE WorRLD Aman named Xaku’te! 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 toa 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 ‘anoes 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 ProtTesTANtT CHRISTIANITY WAS First HEARD OF AT SITKA A man returning to Sitka from the south told his people that Deki’- anqa’wo (God) had come down from Heaven to help them, and the women dressed up and began dancing. They danced an entire year. SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 429 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, anda 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. Nas-ca’ki-yét 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 after- ward. 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 Kaka’, 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 Laxayi’k 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. 430 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 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 enats. voming 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 car- ried 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. Afterthat he married Daughter-of-the-calm, and they had a son named Lakitctne’, 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 sur- prised them, gathered together the skins, and burnt them. When Lakitcine’ 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 prom- ise not to do so. [Here follows the adventure with the one-legged man told in story 3.] | Afterward hq!aya’k! 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 . SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 431 eldest brother, Kack!a’Lk!, 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 ina noose. All of their nooses broke, how- ever, 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 Kack!a’Lk! compared the relative strengths of their spirits in the sweat house, Kack!a’/Lk!’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 ob- tained 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 tsagwa’n told the people how he had treated his first wife and they rejected him. Going on from there, he turned an old man named Darana’dji 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 her- self 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 _ pre- woe BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 tended to mourn over his body while in reality eating him. Raven pre- tended 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 fishhawk 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 discov- ered him eating a goose, so they left him. After this Raven was in- vited 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, Nas-ca’ki-yel, and liberated the flickers which had been kept under his mother’s arms. For this hisgrandfather 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. taven and his mother climbed from one retaining timber to another in Nas-ca’ki-yél’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 Git!i’ke were killed except a chief, his sister, and his sister’s daughter. Then the chief got Old- man-who-foresees-all-troubies-in-the-world to help him. This old man gave him anarrow 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 Git!i’ke 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 Ginaxcamg¢’tk 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 SWANTON | TLINGIT*MYTHS AND TEXTS -433 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 hus- band and children, and killed the husband, keeping her withthem. 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 Qonatgi’c, who had lost everything by gambling, and he enabled him to meet Greatest Gambler and win. So Qonalgi’c 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 Tuts!idigt’L, 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 4948S—Bull. 39—09——28 43 BUREAU OF AMERICAN+ ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39 told the people where they were, and they burned out the dens, kill- ing many otters, but Tuts!idiga’L 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- erab-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. ) i i 7 io a i er ari : a ie ss Be Wage f eG an aa ba) id Oh eae or D i q 7 ao he ra! i . ae SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION LIBRARIES “OUI 3 9088 01421 7855