was taken home, but his soul had been captured by the frogs. He was
tied to a post by them until the chief came home, who upbraided him for
having treated one of his own people, also a Kîksᴀˊdî, in this manner.
Then he let him go, and immediately his body revived. He told his
friends all that had happened to him.
74. STORY OF THE KĀˊGWANTĀN CRESTS
A man removed a bone from the mouth of a wolf and next night dreamed
that he had come to a fine town where the wolf told him something that
would make him lucky.
While members of this clan were out camping, a bear stole some fish by
reaching down through the smoke hole. Then they called it a thief, and
it became so angry that it destroyed all of them. Afterward the people
made war on all of those bears—who were Kātsǃ’s children (see story
19)—and destroyed them.
75. MIGRATION OF THE G̣ĀNAXAˊDÎ TO TONGASS
A man at Klawak lost all of his property in gambling, and his wife left
him. Then he took the sons of his seven sisters and started away by
canoe. Finally they settled at Tongass. While there they saw an animal
that looked like a bear and shot at it, but it was medicine, and a
clayey substance came off on their arrow points, which enabled them to
get plenty of game, and which also caused them to become handsome men.
One time they went farther on and came to a Tsimshian town. After that
a canoe came to them from their friends, and when these found what had
happened to them, all joined them.
76. THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED THE FROG
A version of story 22.
77. THE GIRL WHO MARRIED THE ʟǃᴀʟǃ
A girl said something about a fish called ʟǃᴀʟǃ, and afterward the
fish married her. He was a very good polo player, and one time the
boys became so jealous of him that they knocked him down and made fun
of him. Then the ʟǃᴀʟǃ told his father-in-law to tie down his house
firmly, and went off up stream. There he grew large, lay down across
Chilkat river for a while, and then got up, letting the stream sweep
all of the houses away except that of his father-in-law.
78. THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED A TREE
The spirit of a spruce tree at one end of a village came to a girl and
married her, and they had a son. One day the child began calling for
its father, and after all the other people had been called in, the tree
people were summoned, and the child recognized an old man near the door
as its parent.
79. THE GIRL WHO MARRIED THE FIRE SPIRIT
A girl said something to the fire which offended it, so that it carried
her away and married her. After her people had hunted everywhere for
her they kept the fires extinguished as much as possible, and she was
sent back. For some time she kept going back and forth from her husband
to her father and mother, but once her nephew, who was in love with
her, seized a spoon that she was holding and her fire husband treated
her badly on account of it. She never went back to him.
80. ORPHAN
A poor girl was so smart and painstaking that she married a wealthy
man. She became proud, however, and treated her poor adopted brothers
ungenerously. By and by her husband died and his relatives took all of
his property, leaving her as poor as before.
81. THE DEAD BASKET-MAKER
A man used to cry over his dead wife’s incompleted basket. By and by he
married again, and one time, when he was playing with his new wife, the
basket fell from above over his head and almost strangled him, so that
the people were obliged to cut it loose.
82. THE CRYING-FOR MEDICINE
The wife of a certain man kept running away from him. One time when he
was out hunting, he pursued what he thought was a bear and saw it go
into a hole in the side of a cliff. He knew that it was medicine, so
he took his slave up to the top of the cliff and let him down in front
of it, telling him to reach a dipper in and take whatever came out.
With the things so obtained the man compounded a medicine which made
his wife want to come back to him, but he refused to take her. It would
also bring down any animal he wanted, so that he became very wealthy.
83. THE RUNAWAY WIFE
The wife of a Haida youth kept leaving him until he learned from a
certain woman how to make her love him. When she tried to come back,
however, he refused to take her, and married somebody else.
84. THE REJECTED LOVER
A youth was in love with his cousin, but she would have nothing to
do with him. Finally, in order to please her she made him throw away
his clothing and ornaments and pull out all of his hair, after which
she left him. Then a loon came to him and restored his hair by diving
under water with him. It also gave back his clothing and landed him
at another town where he married the daughter of Calm. A long time
afterward they went back to his people. Every day while they were there
he brought his wife water, and she put a quill into it before drinking
to see whether he had been faithful to her. One day the girl he had
formerly been in love with seized his hand, and when his wife tried her
quill the water was slimy. Then she left him and started to walk home
on the surface of the sea. He followed her, but presently she looked
round on him and he went down out of sight.
85. THE FAITHLESS WIFE
The wife of a certain man pretended to die and was put into the grave
box. Then the son of the town chief, with whom she was in love, took
her to his father’s house and married her. One time her little girl
came to that house for fire, saw her, and told her father. Then her
father went to the grave box and saw it was empty, and through the
smoke hole of the chief’s house he saw her playing with the chief’s
son. Then he made himself a wizard by playing with dead men’s bones,
flew to the chief’s house, and ran two sharp-pointed sticks into the
hearts of his wife and her new husband. Next morning he went out
gambling.
86. THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED THE DEAD MAN
A girl kicked aside the skull of a dead person, and the following night
two boys came to her and she married one of them. This was the man who
had owned the skull. The two youths stayed there for a long time. When
they hunted they went all through the actions of paddling, spearing,
and camping without ever leaving the house. When they pretended to get
back, however, their canoe would be found on the beach loaded with fish
and seals. They were slowly becoming materialized when another girl
became jealous of them and destroyed them by marking the places where
they sat with human blood.
87. THE RETURNED FROM SPIRIT LAND
After the death of a certain woman her husband, who was very fond of
her, started off aimlessly and came by the spirit road to a lake. He
shouted to the people on the other side to come over and get him, but
they did not hear him until he spoke in a whisper. After he reached
the other side he found his wife and started back with her. At first
nothing could be seen of her but a shadow, but gradually she became
more and more distinct. She was about to resume her proper shape, when
a young man who had been in love with her lifted the curtain which was
stretched around her and her husband, and both went back to ghost land.
88. THE SKY COUNTRY
A man whose wife had died felt so lonely that he set out after her
along the beach. He soon found himself in a wide trail, and met a woman
tanning a skin, who directed him to his wife. The people in the town
where she was staying wanted to burn him, but he made them think he was
more afraid of being thrown into the water, so he saved himself. They
were really in the sky. By and by a spider woman let them down, and
they returned home.
89. THE ORIGIN OF COPPER
A woman was carried away by the grizzly-bear people, escaped, and
impeded her pursuers by throwing small objects behind her which changed
into great obstructions. Finally she was taken up into the sun in a
canoe and married the sun’s sons, who made way for her by killing
their former cannibal wife above a Tsimshian town. Therefore there are
many cannibals among the Tsimshian. At last the woman returned to her
parents in a canoe which was like a live grizzly bear. By and by her
husbands became angry with her and left her. Then she and her child
lived in a brush house covered with filth, at one end of the town. When
he got larger her boy shot something in the lake which proved to be his
fathers’ canoe, and pounded out all kinds of copper objects from the
metal of which it was composed. Then he married the daughter of the
town chief and became a great man.
90. THE MAN WHO WAS ABANDONED
A lazy man was abandoned by his townspeople, who left him nothing
except a piece of dried fish which one of his uncle’s wives dropped
into a post hole. After that a small animal killed all kinds of game
for him, and he became wealthy, while the other people were starving.
By and by some slaves were sent to burn his body and were feasted by
him. They were told not to say anything about him, but one of them
concealed a piece of fat for her child and the cries of the infant over
this food let the truth be discovered. Then they went to him and he
became a great chief. He married the woman who had been good to him,
but killed his uncle’s other wife and her husband.
91. THE SHAMAN WHO WENT INTO THE FIRE, AND THE HERON’S SON
A little boy was so badly treated by his uncle’s wife that he went
off into the woods, made eight nests, like those of the salmon, along
the edge of a stream, and spent as many nights in them. So he became
a shaman and could bring to himself and destroy all kinds of animals
by means of his songs. By and by his uncle searched for him and found
him. A spirit called Nix̣âˊ came to him and took him into the fire,
and he burned down to a very small size, but his uncle, obeying his
directions, took him out, put him into a basket, and so restored him.
Afterward he had his uncle send for his wife, but he took the bottom
part of her away so that what she ate did her no good. By and by a
spirit showed itself in the form of a bear, after the shaman had been
carried into the fire, scaring his uncle’s wife so that she died, while
the uncle forgot to take his nephew out of the fire and let him burn
up. At once all of the animals that had been killed came to life and
ran away.
All the people of the town to which this shaman had belonged
disappeared except a woman and her daughter. The woman called for
something to marry her daughter and was answered by the heron, by
whom the daughter had a son very fond of hunting. One time he found
a fish called hīn-taỵīˊcî swimming in a pool, reared it, and, when
it became as large as himself, killed it and made use of its skin.
After a while he went up on one of the two trails on which his uncles
had disappeared, saw a finger sticking up there, pulled up the being
to which it belonged, and killed it. Then he went along in the other
trail, saw a head, and killed the being to which it belonged. Next he
went along the beach, came upon a monster devilfish, and killed it by
means of his hīn-taỵīˊcî coat. He killed an enormous rat in the same
manner. Then he came to a cannibal woman who offered him human flesh
to eat. When he refused it she threw a mussel shell at him to kill him,
but he jumped aside, threw the shell back, and destroyed her. He put
her body into the fire and the ashes became mosquitoes. Then he met and
killed her cannibal husband.
92. MOUNTAIN DWELLER
Another version of story 65.
93. KĀHĀˊSǃÎ, THE STRONG MAN
In a certain town two persons were bathing for strength in order
to kill sea lions. One of these, the town chief, bathed in public
accompanied by all of the town people, while his nephew bathed during
the night only, and lay in bed all day, pretending that he was a
weakling. Finally a being called Strength came to the latter and made
him so powerful that he was able to accomplish the feats the chief had
set himself, namely, to pull the stump of a branch out of a tree and
twist another tree down to the base. Having done so, however, he put
them into their original positions, and when the chief tried them next
he thought that he had become strong. When they started out for the
sea-lion islands, they let Kāhāˊsǃî go along also, and, while the chief
was killed, Kāhāˊsǃî destroyed two big sea lions, one with each hand.
94. THE LǃÊˊNAXX̣ĪˊDAQ
A man saw a woman and two children floating in Auk lake, and he
captured one of the children and brought it home. During the night
the child gouged out the eyes of all the people living in the village
except one woman, and ate them. This woman killed the child, and taking
on her back her own child, to which she had just given birth, she went
up into the woods and became the ʟǃêˊnᴀxx̣īˊdᴀq. As she went along she
ate mussels and fitted the shells together.
95. ORIGIN OF THE FROG CREST AMONG THE KÎKSAˊDÎ
Another version of story 66.
96. HOW THE KÎKSAˊDÎ CAME TO SITKA
When the Kîksᴀˊdî first reached Sitka some people, called Sky-people,
killed all of them except one woman who concealed herself in a cave.
She called for some one to marry her, and, after having refused all the
animals, married the sun’s son. By him she had four boys and a girl,
and their grandfather placed them inside of a fort which he let down on
the site of their former village. Then the enemy came upon them, and
when they were in danger, their grandfather heated the land so hot that
the enemy ran down into the sea. They found that boiling hot also and
were destroyed.
97. THE FOUR BROTHERS
In order to destroy a malevolent shaman four brothers let their sister
marry him, took her back, and got her to tell them the location of
her husband’s heart. They killed him outside of Ring island, Sitka
sound, and took away his red-snapper coat. One of these brothers,
named Łqǃayāˊkǃ, then put this on and used it in the pursuit of large
animals. By and by he pursued an animal up into the sky and his
footprints formed the Milky Way.[195]
FOOTNOTES:
[195] This is part of a longer story of which story 3 is one version
while a second is contained in story 31.
98. THE KÎKSAˊDÎ WOMAN WHO WAS TURNED INTO AN OWL
Another version of story 37.
99. MOLDY-END
A small boy made an angry remark about a piece of moldy salmon and was
carried off by the salmon people to their town. When he became hungry
he began eating the salmon eggs lying upon the beach, but was told
that they were salmon dung. Finding that he was homesick, his salmon
father diverted him by sending him to Amusement creek and placing his
arms around two sand-hill cranes. By and by they started back with him,
and passed through something called sīt which opens and closes, and
scars those salmon which are caught in it. When they camped they made
other scars by throwing hot rocks upon one another, as if cooking. Then
they met the herring tribe, with which they had a verbal contest, and
finally announced what creeks they would enter. The boy’s father went
to Dax̣ēˊt, where the boy let his human father spear him. When his
mother began to cut him open she discovered his copper necklace, and
concluded it was her son. His father put him into a basket and placed
it upon the roof, where his spirit began to work in him, and he turned
back into a man. Then he became a great shaman and told the people what
had happened to him. By and by he tested his spirits by sending a raft
load of his people over a waterfall under the sea. The next morning it
came up with all the people safe. He sent his clothes man to spear land
otter, and, although he had him throw his spear across a point at an
invisible animal, it struck the land otter on the tip of the tail and
killed it. He lived to be more than a hundred.
100. MOLDY-END
Wrangell version of the above story, more detailed in the main portion
but without the last episode.
101. QĀQǃATCGŪˊK
Another version of story 67.
102. THE SEA-LION HUNT
Some hunters killed a large number of sea lions by pushing sharpened
sticks into their noses.
103. THE WAR IN THE SPRUCE CANOE
The Chilkat people once warred against the Stikine in a spruce canoe
and killed numbers of people. (This probably refers to story 29.)
104. STORY OF THE KĀˊGWANTĀN
A noted hunter named Qakēˊqǃᵘtê killed the sleep bird, and along with
it all his own people. Being unable to sleep himself, he wandered
north to the mouth of Alsek river where he tried to trap a ground hog,
but found a frog in his trap instead. He thought he saw some people
but found they were stones. Then he went up the river and came among
the Athapascans, whose good will he obtained by teaching them how to
catch eulachon, thus preserving them from starvation. In spring they
accompanied him back to his own people, bringing loads of furs with
them. They came first to the Grass people, but these were afraid and
sent them away, so they went to the Kāˊgwᴀntān who opened trade with
them and became rich. The Athapascans traded particularly for a kind of
seaweed.
From the wealth thus obtained the Kāˊgwᴀntān built Shadow house, and
had a great feast. By and by the chief’s daughter, who was menstruant,
said something to anger the glacier, and it extended itself over
the town, driving the people to Kᴀqǃᴀnuwūˊ, while the Tǃᴀˊqǃdentān
settled opposite. Later on the people warred with the Łuqāˊxᴀdî of
Alsek river and captured the Wolf post from them. A Łuqāˊxᴀdî shaman
was attacked by some warriors and flew away. He flew around for some
time until a menstruant woman looked at him, making him fall into
a pond. The warriors who had attacked him began to tamper with his
spirit paraphernalia, and all but one of them were destroyed. Then the
Kāˊgwᴀntān erected another house, which they named Wolf house, and
carved its posts like the Wolf post they had captured. They invited
people to the feast from Chilkat, Sitka, and Killisnoo. Slave’s valley
then received its name from some slaves who came to life after having
been killed and thrown down into it, supposedly dead. Afterward two
parties of young people contended with each other going after firewood,
and later on pushed the house fire over on each other until the great
beams caught. As a result of this fight the family scattered, and
some moved to Sitka. From that time, too, they came to be known as
Burnt-house people (Kāˊgwᴀntān).
105. STORY OF THE KÂˊCKǃE QOAN
After the death of an Athapascan chief on Copper river the people of
his house began fighting over the possession of a dish, and those who
lost it determined to emigrate. They set out, and, after losing some
of their people in the mist, crossed the mountains near Mount St.
Elias and came to the sea. While they were living at the mouth of a
large river a little girl reared a sea gull which attained enormous
proportions. When it got large her brothers wanted to kill it, but
it disappeared together with the girl. By and by the chief sent six
brothers alongshore to hunt for other people. They encountered head
winds at one place and lost one of their number, but finally reached
Yakutat. When they got back they heard that the name of the girl who
had reared the sea gull had been given to another. This girl dug up
some thing long and red in the forest out of which a dish was carved
like the one that had been taken away from them. Presently they called
in some Burnt-house people who were coming south from the mouth of
Copper river and entertained them.
After this the six brothers were sent back to Copper river for a
certain copper plate that had been left there, and they went and came
in twenty days each way, half the time it had taken the whole band to
come out. Then the people all set out for Yakutat, where they were at
first received in a hostile manner by the Koskǃēˊdî and ʟǃuqǃoeˊdî
living there, until they purchased a creek from them with the copper
plate and settled upon it. This was Kâckǃ, from which they obtained
their name. By and by the six brothers went hunting, and one of them
became so lazy that the others left him for some time. Then a mountain
being came to him and helped him to become a great hunter. Finally he
sent him home in a canoe which was really a grizzly bear. This bear
turned around to be fed when it was hungry, and that is what made the
turns in the river. After a time the brothers went up to a glacier at
the head of Kâckǃ to hunt, but their canoe was carried away by a swell
raised by falling ice. After waiting in vain for succor, they started
to cross the glacier, but one of them became dizzy and was carried
away by the Wolf people. The others got across and were in a starving
condition, when the youngest discovered a mountain sheep with very
large horns, that was really “the mother of the bears.” After that they
reached home.
By and by the six brothers started south with their brother-in-law.
They tried to cross from Kᴀstaxēˊxda-ān to Auk, but were delayed for
months by storms. Finally Heavy-wings, their brother-in-law, discovered
that this was caused by North Wind, who was in love with his daughter,
and he gave her to him. After that Heavy-wings saw and caught the
ʟǃêˊnᴀxx̣īˊdᴀq and became wealthy, but because he did not use exactly
the right words at that time he was killed by a copper falling upon
him and cutting him open. His nephew also saw the ʟǃêˊnᴀxx̣īˊdᴀq, used
the right words toward it, and became very wealthy.
106. ORIGIN OF A LOW-CASTE NAME
Some people found a rock man’s son on some rocks and adopted him, but
he got them into so much trouble that they carried him back there. Then
the weather, which had been bad, immediately cleared. Since that time a
low-caste person has been called a “man of the rocks.”
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
In versions of this eBook that support hyperlinks, the page references
in footnotes lead to the corresponding stories.
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected
after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and
consultation of external sources. Inconsistencies in the Tlingit have
not been corrected.
Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added, when a
predominant preference was found in the original book.
Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and
inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.
Pg 30: Duplicate “the” removed from “So the the otters’ father....”
47: Duplicate “to” removed from “...his wife went out to to get
cedar bark...”
58: “strategem” replaced with “stratagem”
80: “Adawūˊlǃ-caˊnakᵘǃ” replaced with “Adawūˊlǃ-caˊnakǃᵘ”
123: Duplicate “the” removed from “Then he took the the
position....”
131: “husband’s” replaced with “father’s” in “She knew the voices
of all her husband’s servants.”
134: “inititated” replaced with “initiated”
145: “Takʷaneˊdî” replaced with “Takᵘaneˊdî”
Note 98: “tal” replaced with “tale”
Pg 160: “ʟǃūǃkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî” replaced with “ʟǃūkǃnᴀxᴀˊdî”
204: “Meawhile” replaced with “Meanwhile”
255: Duplicate “it” removed from “for it it was”
275: “Kucaqēˊǃtkᵘ” replaced with “Kucaqǃēˊtkᵘ”
338: “x̄ᴀˊaỵā” replaced with “xāˊaỵā”
369: “abroad” replaced with “aboard”
370: “valuble” replaced with “valuable.”