Chapter XXV: Part 25

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

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

18. VARIOUS ADVENTURES NEAR CROSS SOUND

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

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

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

19. KĀTSǃ

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

20. THE UNSUCCESSFUL HUNTERS

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

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

21. ORIGIN OF ICEBERG HOUSE

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

22. THE WOMAN TAKEN AWAY BY THE FROG PEOPLE

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

23. HOW THE FROGS HONORED THE DEAD

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

24. THE BRANT WIVES

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

25. STORY OF THE PUFFIN

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

26. STORY OF THE WAIN-HOUSE PEOPLE

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

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

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

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

27. THE ALSEK RIVER PEOPLE

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

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

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

28. THE YOUTHFUL WARRIOR

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

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

29. THE FIRST WAR IN THE WORLD

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

30. HOW PROTESTANT CHRISTIANITY WAS FIRST HEARD OF AT SITKA

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

MYTHS RECORDED IN ENGLISH AT WRANGELL

31. RAVEN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

32. KAKĒˊQǃᵘTÊ

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

33. ORIGIN OF THE G̣ONAQADĒˊT

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

34. A STORY OF THE G̣ONAQADĒˊT

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

35. ORIGIN OF THE LǃEˊNAXX̣ĪˊDAQ

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

36. THE THUNDERS

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

37. ORIGIN OF THE SCREECH OWL

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

38. LITTLE FELON

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

39. ORIGIN OF THE FERN ROOT AND THE GROUND HOG

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

40. THE HALIBUT THAT DIVIDED THE QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS

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

41. THE IMAGE THAT CAME TO LIFE

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

42. DJĪYĪˊN

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

43. THE SELF-BURNING FIRE

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

44. THE GIANT OF TĀˊSNA

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

45. THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED A LAND OTTER

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

46. THE LAND-OTTERS’ CAPTIVE

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

47. THE MAN FED FROM THE SKY

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

48. THE SALMON SACK

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

49. ROOTS

A version of story 13.

50. THE MUCUS CHILD

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

51. THE SALMON CHIEF

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

52. THE JEALOUS UNCLE

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

53. THE MAN WHO MARRIED THE EAGLE

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

54. THE BRANT WIFE

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

55. THE DUCK HELPER

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

56. THE BOY WHO SHOT THE STAR

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

57. THE BOY AND THE GIANT

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

58. THE BOY WITH ARROWS ON HIS HEAD

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

59. GAMNĀˊTCKǃÎ

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

60. THE HĪN-TAỴĪˊCÎ

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

61. THE EAST AND NORTH WINDS

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

62. THE BIG BEAVER

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

63. BEAVER AND PORCUPINE

A short version of story 15.

64. THE MAN WHO ENTERTAINED THE BEARS

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

65. MOUNTAIN DWELLER

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

66. HOW THE SITKA KÎKSAˊDÎ OBTAINED THE FROG

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

67. QĀQǃATCGŪˊK

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

68. THE BEAVER OF KILLISNOO

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

69. STORY OF THE GRIZZLY-BEAR CREST OF THE TEˊQOEDÎ

Almost the same as story 19.

70. STORY OF THE EAGLE CREST OF THE NEXAˊDÎ

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

71. STORY OF THE KILLER-WHALE CREST OF THE DAQLǃAWEˊDÎ

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

72. STORY OF THE NANỴAĀˊỴÎ CRESTS

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

73. STORY OF THE FROG CREST OF THE KÎKSAˊDÎ OF WRANGELL

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

74. STORY OF THE KĀˊGWANTĀN CRESTS

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

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

75. MIGRATION OF THE G̣ĀNAXAˊDÎ TO TONGASS