Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 11. Stories : 11. STORIES OF THE MONSTER DEVILFISH A AND THE CRY-BABY B 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...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 14 : p. 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 th...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 39 : 39. ORIGIN OF THE FERN ROOT AND THE GROUND HOG A The girls of a certain place were playing house under a cliff back of their village, and each of them took some kind of food there. Among them were two very poor little orphans who had no food to bring, so the elder went home and brought, up the bony...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 64 : 64. THE MAN WHO ENTERTAINED THE BEARS B A man belonging to the Raven clan living in a very large town had lost all of his friends, and he felt sad to think that he was left alone. He began to consider how he could leave that place without undergoing hardships. First he thought of paddling away, but...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 83 : 83. THE RUNAWAY WIFE A high-caste youth among the Haida was determined to marry his uncle's daughter, because his uncle was a very old man and he wanted to take his place. But, after he had given a great deal of property for the girl and taken her, she ran away. He followed her and induced her...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 18. Various : 18. VARIOUS ADVENTURES NEAR CROSS SOUND There is a place in the neighborhood of Cross sound called K!ud'sq!ayk, which people used to frequent in olden times to hunt, catch halibut, and so on. People were then in the habit of traveling from camp to camp a great deal. One time a man and his wife went...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 73 : p. 232 73. STORY OF THE FROG CREST OF THE KKSA'D OF WRANGELL A A man belonging to the Stikine KksA'd kicked a frog over on its back, but as soon as he had done so he lay motionless unable to talk, and they carried his body into the house. This happened at Town-of-the-frogs (Xxtc!-x'yikA-n), so...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 60 : 60. THE HN-TAY'C There is a fish, called hn-tay'c, which is shaped like a halibut but has very many "legs." Early one spring a KksA'd shaman at Sitka named Face-of-mountain (C'dq) began singing, and the people did not know why. Another morning he got up very early and began to sing again, while...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 87 : p. 249 87. THE RETURNED FROM SPIRIT LAND The wife of a young man who had recently married, died, and he was very sad. His father was a chief, and both he and the parents of the girl were still living. The young couple had been married for so short a time that they had no children. The night th...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 69 : p. 228 69. STORY OF THE GRIZZLY-BEAR CREST OF THE TE'QOED A A man belonging to the Te'qoed went hunting on Unuk (Dj'nAx) river, and came to a bear's den. While he was examining it the male bear threw him inside. Then the bear's wife dug a hole in the ground and concealed him there. When the male...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 77 : 77. THE GIRL WHO MARRIED THE L!AL! There was a certain Chilkat chief belonging to the GnAxA'd whose house stood in the middle of the village. One morning his daughter, a very lively girl, went out of doors and stepped upon something slimy. "Ugh," she said, "those dirty people throw their slops out...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 10 : 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...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 34 : p. 170 34. A STORY OF THE GONAQAD'T The head chief of the people living at the head of Nass river once came down to the ocean and on his way back tied. his canoe to a dead tree hanging from a cliff. At midnight he felt the canoe shaking very hard. He jumped up and was terrified to see foam...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 31. Part 20 : Then Raven went to a river beyond Copper river called LAxay'k a and told the people that they were to make canoes out of Skins. p. 90 [paragraph continues] There he found a chief named Ay'y, who had married the daughter of another chief by whom he had five children, four boys and a girl. His wife...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 35 : 35. ORIGIN OF THE L!'NAXX'DAQ A A boy at Auk (k!u) heard that a woman lived in the lake back of his village. He heard this so often that he was very anxious to see her. One day, therefore, he went up to the lake and watched there all day, but he did not see anything. Next day he did the same thing...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 31. Part 21 : p. 80 MYTHS RECORDED IN ENGLISH AT WRANGELL 31. RAVEN A In olden times only high-caste people knew the story of Raven properly because only they had time to learn it. At the beginning of things there was no daylight and the world lay in blackness. Then there lived in a house at the head of Nass...
Texts. 97. The Four Brothers : p. 297 97. THE FOUR BROTHERS A Another being that hated us was a shaman, who used to live in a cave. His name was Gon'tqs'xduk!q!. They could do nothing to him, so they gave their sister to him in marriage. He always slept with his back to the fire, and a spirit watched at his door. Finally a plot...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 76 : 76. THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED THE FROG A A certain girl once said something very bad to a frog. Some time afterward she went up to the woods with her little sister, and suddenly her little sister lost her. She had met a fine-looking man and had walked on with him for a long time until they were far off...
Texts. 92. Mountain Dweller : p. 280 92. MOUNTAIN DWELLER A A chief was living with his two children in the middle of a long town. People were always visiting him, and he kept tallow stored away for strangers. By and by a big canoe came to him, and [the peoples'] things were taken up. [The children's] grandmother had charge...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 68 : 68. THE BEAVER OF KILLISNOO Some people belonging to the D'citn family captured a small beaver, and, as it was cunning and very clean, they kept it as a pet. By and by, however, although it was well cared for, it took offense at something and began to compose songs. Afterward one of the beaver's...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 72 : 72. STORY OF THE NANYA'Y CRESTS At the time of the flood the Nanya'y were climbing a mountain on the Stikine river, called Sku'qle-ca, and a grizzly bear and a mountain goat went along with them. Whenever the people stopped, these two animals stopped also, and whenever they moved on the animals...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 26. Story : 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...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 31 : This is the last thing that happened in the Raven story. From this time on everything is about spirits (yk) over and over again. Very few people believed in Ns-cA'k-yl. Most believed in the spirits. From the time that these come into the story you hear little about Raven because people had so much...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 80. Orphan : 80. ORPHAN An orphan girl in the Tlingit country named SAh'n (Orphan) was adopted by some high-caste people so that she might be a companion to their only daughter. She was very fond of going to the creek to get water, and the chief's daughter always accompanied her. Every time they went...
Texts. The Tobacco Feast : p. 372 THE TOBACCO FEAST A If one of the family of the writer's informant, the Kasq!ague'd, had married a Nanya'y woman and she died, the Nanya'y would invite his people for tobacco. They invited them there to mourn. This feast was different from the pleasure feasts, when dancing and such things...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 16 : 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...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 78 : 78. THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED A TREE An old spruce tree stood at the end of a certain village. In this same village a high-caste girl dreamed for several nights in succession that she was married to a fine-looking man, and by and by she gave birth to a boy baby. As she was a very virtuous girl, people...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 81 : 81. THE DEAD BASKET-MAKER A woman at Klawak was just finishing a basket when she died. She had not yet cut off the tops. Then her husband took the basket and put it up under the roof over his bed. He thought a great deal of it because it was his wife's last work. Sometimes he would take p. 241 it...
Abstracts Of Myths. Myths Recorded In English. Part 02 : p. 416 ABSTRACTS OF MYTHS MYTHS RECORDED IN ENGLISH AT SITKA 1. RAVEN Raven was the son of a man named Kit-ka'ositiyi-q, who gave him strength to make the world. After he had made it he obtained the stars, moon, and daylight from their keeper at the head of Nass by letting himself be swallowed by...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 66 : 66. HOW THE SITKA KKSA'D OBTAINED THE FROG A A man and his wife were crossing the mouth of a big bay named L!'yq, when it became so foggy that they could not even see the water around their canoe and stopped where they were. Then, quite a distance away in the thick fog, they heard singing, and it...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 85 : 85. THE FAITHLESS WIFE A man of the Anq!a'kitn at Killisnoo lost his wife. When she was dying she said to her husband, "When I die, don't bury me. Keep me out of the ground." Bodies of common people used to be put into the ground for a little while before they were burned, those of p. 246...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 62 : 62. THE BIG BEAVER At a certain place far back in the forest was a large lake in which were many beaver houses. One time some people found this lake and dug a trench out of it in order to drain it. Then they broke up the beavers' houses so that the beavers began to swim down through the trench...
Texts. 89. The Origin Of Copper : p. 252 TEXTS A 89. THE ORIGIN OF COPPER B A chief lived in the middle of a very long town. His daughter was fond of picking berries. Once she went for berries with her father's slaves, and while picking far up in the woods she stepped upon some grizzly-bear's dung. "They always leave things under...
Letter Of Transmittal : p. III 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. Swanton, with the recommendation that it be published...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 12 : 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...
Texts. 98. The Kiksa'di Woman Who Was Turned : p. 299 98. THE KKSA'D WOMAN WHO WAS TURNED INTO AN OWL A When this town (Sitka) was first discovered the KksA'd were here, and we stayed on this (the north) side. This town (at the northern end) was named Mossy-town. There four men grew up, two of whom were named Lq!ay'k! and KAck!A'Lk!. They...
Texts. 96. How The Kiksa'di Came To Sitka : p. 295 96. HOW THE KKSA'D CAME TO SITKA A When we were first born people hated us. And after that some beings named Sky-people brought war upon us. They destroyed us completely. A woman saved herself. And right here at Q!nt'lk! she dug a hole under a log to conceal herself from the enemy. Various...
Texts. 99. Moldy End : p. 301 99. MOLDY-END A The KksA'd used to live at Dax't, where they dried salmon. After they had gotten through drying it they tied it up there. So he (a small boy) was baiting a snare for sea gulls. When he came into the house afterward he was very hungry. "Mother, I am hungry. Give me some dried...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 37 : p. 176 37. ORIGIN OF THE SCREECH OWL A There was a certain woman at Sitka living with her husband and her husband's mother. One evening she got hemlock branches, made strings out of red-cedar bark, tied them together, and put them around herself. Then she went out to a flat rock, still called...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 74 : p. 233 74. STORY OF THE K'GWANTN CRESTS A man belonging to the K'gwAntn was out camping, and saw a wolf coming toward him, showing its teeth as though it were laughing. On looking more closely, he saw that it had a bone stuck between its teeth. Then he took the bone out and said, "Now you must...
Texts. 95. Origin Of The Frog Crest Among : p. 294 95. ORIGIN OF THE FROG CREST AMONG THE KKSA'D A A married couple went from Sitka into Gaya' bay, and camped at GA'xgu-n. They were there for perhaps a month. One morning they started out hunting. Then they heard a song on Gaya' bay. They listened. They did not hear plainly. [The man's] wife...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 70 : 70. STORY OF THE EAGLE CREST OF THE NEXA'D There was a very poor NexA'd man who did not know how to provide himself with food, so he lived off of others. He was always cruising around in a small canoe, getting small bullheads and flounders. One time he went out just for the day. He did not take any...
Texts. Words Of Songs Taken In Connecti : p. 390 WORDS OF SONGS TAKEN IN CONNECTION WITH GRAPHOPHONE RECORDS The language of these songs is so highly metaphorical that they are often difficult to understand even in the light of the native explanations, and in some cases the author's informants were themselves uncertain with regard...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 33 : 33. ORIGIN OF THE GONAQAD'T In a village somewhere to the northward a high-caste person had married a high-caste girl from a neighboring village. His mother-in-law lived with them, and she disliked her son-in-law very much because he was a lazy fellow, fond only of gambling. As soon as they were...
Texts. 102. The Sea Lion Hunt : p. 324 102. THE SEA-LION HUNT A canoe [load of people] came behind the sea lions at Cape Ommaney. And they camped behind them. In the morning they went out to the sea-lion island. They sharpened limbs on the ends to make the sea lions sneeze and pushed them into their noses. In that way they...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 19. Kats : 19. KTS! A Kts! belonged to the K'gwAntn 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. Indoors the bears take off their...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 58 : 58. THE BOY WITH ARROWS ON HIS HEAD A chief's daughter married her father's nephew and had a child by him who was named WAts!h'tc. He was not exactly a human being, for he had sharp arrow points on his head. When his mother began petting him and using endearing terms to him, he said to her, "Don't...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 46 : 46. THE LAND-OTTERS' CAPTIVE Several persons once went out from Sitka together, when their canoe upset and all were drowned except a man of the KksA'd. A canoe came to this man, and he thought that it contained his friends, but they were really land otters. They started southward with him and kept...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 31. Part 11 : 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 kAg'xe, se...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 28 : 28. THE YOUTHFUL WARRIOR A man belonging to the Wolf clan went hunting with his brothers-in-law. He wore a black bear-skin coat. They went up a certain creek after grizzly bears, but one time at camp he climbed a tree with his bear skin on and was filled with arrows by his companions who mistook...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 31. Part 15 : 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 grizzly bear came to her in the form...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 7 : 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...
Texts. 103. The War In The Spruce Canoe : p. 325 103. THE WAR IN THE SPRUCE CANOE A People went to war from Chilkat in a spruce canoe. They drifted down on the people below, and they came to D'gtiyA. Then they defeated the Stikine people completely, and afterward they made peace together. FOOTNOTES 325:a Probably refers to story 29.
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 54 : 54. THE BRANT WIFE A A man at Gon'xo in the Laxay'k (or Yakutat) country married a brant woman (qn). One day in spring this woman said to her husband, "Let us go outside and watch the flocks of geese passing. My father's canoe will soon be coming along." Then they went out and saw a flock of brant...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 24 : 24. THE BRANT WIVES B A KksA'd 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...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 31. Part 03 : Later on a chief's daughter at the place named Q!AqAx-du' obtained a wood worm (L!uq!u'x) as a pet and fed it on different kinds of oil. It grew very fast until it reached the length of a fathom. Then she composed a cradle song for it: "It has a face already. Sit right here. Sit right here (K...
Texts. 101. Qaqatcgu'k : p. 321 101. QQ!ATCG'K A At Sitka were several brothers, the eldest of whom was named Qq!Atcg'k. They were fond of hunting. One morning they went out among the islands. [Qq!Atcg'k] killed nothing. Again he went to the place where he had been in the habit of going. Then his name, was mentioned among...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 31. Part 07 : Now all the people were very happy because the salmon were running, but before they had left the town Raven came to them and said, "Don't leave the town. Stay right here. Don't go to any of the salmon creeks." They were very hungry for salmon, however, and said to four boys, "Go to the salm...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 20 : p. 50 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...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 31. Part 19 : One day Raven saw a whale far out at sea and sat down on the beach to study how he should bring it ashore. Then he got some pitchwood and rocks of the kind that was formerly used in making fire, flew out to the place where he thought the whale would come up, and went into its open mouth. He made...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 50 : 50. THE MUCUS CHILD From a certain village the men began to disappear. They would go up into the woods behind after firewood and never come back. Finally all the rest of the men went up there together, intending to kill whatever had been destroying their friends, but they, too, never came back...
Phonetic Key : p. VIII PHONETIC KEY a longer and shorter forms of the Continental "a", like "a" in far as in fall A as in "final"; a close approximation to "u" in cut e longer and shorter forms of the Continental "e", like a in fate as in bell i longer and shorter forms of the Continental "i", like "ee"...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 30. How : 30. HOW PROTESTANT CHRISTIANITY WAS FIRST HEARD OF AT SITKA A A man went south from Sitka and returned after two months. When he came ashore he called all the people to a dance and told them that God (Dek'-anq'wo, Distant-chief) had come down from heaven to help them. Then all the women made...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 44 : 44. THE GIANT OF T'SNA At T'sna, near the mouth of the Yukon(?), was a large village in which everybody had died except one small boy. His mother was the last to perish. This boy was very independent, however, remaining in his mother's house all the time instead of going around to the other houses...
Texts. Speeches Delivered At A Feast When : p. 374 SPEECHES DELIVERED AT A FEAST WHEN A POLE WAS ERECTED FOR THE DEAD A Some morning just at daylight the chief who is about to erect the pole and give the feast, no matter how great a chief he is, passes along in front of the houses of the town, singing mourning songs for the dead. Then...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 31. Part 13 : 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...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 31. Part 09 : After the rich opponent of QonAlg'c had lost all of his property, his wife left him, and he went away from that town. He made a bow and arrows and wandered about in the forest like a wild animal. Coming down to the beach at a certain place, he found a fine bay and built his house upon it. There he...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 31. Part 17 : LAktcne' lived at Sitka. b 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!. LAktcne' had several children, but he killed all of them. He would take a child up, pet it, and sing...
Abstracts Of Myths. Myths Recorded In English : p. 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, and a number of stories usually given independently are incorporated into it. Only the sections that do not occur...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 40 : 40. THE HALIBUT THAT DIVIDED THE QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS Formerly there was but one village on the Queen Charlotte islands (Dek' qoan 'n, Town-far-out). Everyday the people used to go out from this village to fish for halibut, and all were successful except one man. Though the people all about his...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 56 : 56. THE BOY WHO SHOT THE STAR Two very high-caste boys were chums. The father of one was town chief and had his house in the middle of the village, but the house of the other boy's father stood at one end. These boys would go alternately to each other's houses and make great quantities of arrows...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 48 : 48. THE SALMON SACK A small boy whose father was dead lived with his mother at the town of snA'xk! on the Queen Charlotte islands. The other town people were continually bringing in halibut and a salmon called cq'n, but he and his mother could not get one piece and were very hungry. One day he...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 25. Story : 25. STORY OF THE PUFFIN There is a place called GnAxa' and a creek close by called GnAXa'hn 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...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 22 : 22. THE WOMAN TAKEN AWAY BY THE FROG PEOPLE A 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...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 31. Part 05 : In the same town, TA'qdjk-n, lived a chief named GAlw't! belonging to the Takwane'd family. He was bathing in the sea for strength every day, and the people of his village bathed with him. In the cold mornings he would rise, run down to the sea, and rush in. Then he would run up to a good-sized...
Texts. 31. Raven, Part Xxii : Now people were disappearing from the town they had left. There were two wood roads. When anybody went out on one of these roads he never came back, and a person who went out on the other also, never came back. When one went away by canoe, he, too, was never seen again. He did not come home...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 4. Orig : 4. ORIGIN OF THE KILLER WHALE B A man named NtsAlAne', belonging to the Tsague'd (Seal people), 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...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 52 : 52. THE JEALOUS UNCLE A A high-caste man had a beautiful wife of whom he was very jealous. He had also four sisters well married in different villages, all with sons. One morning the eldest of these sisters said to her husband, "I want to go to see my brother. I believe he would like to see our s...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 41 : 41. THE IMAGE THAT CAME TO LIFE A young chief on the Queen Charlotte islands married, and soon afterwards his wife fell ill. Then he sent around everywhere for the very best shamans. If there were a very fine shaman at a certain village he would send a canoe there to bring him. None of them could...
Texts. 104. Story Of The Ka'gwantan : p. 326 104. STORY OF THE K'GWANTN A From XAkAnuw' went a man of the XAkAn'ked, who were named from their town. The people used to go out from there after seals, which, not having guns at that time, they hunted with long-shanked and short-shanked hunting spears always kept in the bow. The shank...
Texts. 105. Story Of The Ka'cke Qoan : p. 347 105. STORY OF THE K'CK!E QOAN A LtAxdA'x was dead. He had a valuable copper, and he also had a dish named Ts!AnAt!'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...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 5. Kaka : p. 28 5. KAKA' A When KAka' was taken south, either to Cape Ommaney or farther, a woman came to him and said, "I am in the same fix as you. We are both saved b 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...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 31. Part 16 : As Raven was traveling along after his encounter with the mother of Fire-drill's son, he raw 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 do...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 31. Part 08 : One time four boys went out hunting from Klawak with bow and arrows. They saw some black ducks and shot at them, but the ducks kept swimming out to sea, drawing them on. Far out the canoe upset. They hunted for the boys for days and days, but could not find them. Then some property was given...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 1. Raven : p. 3 MYTHS RECORDED IN ENGLISH AT SITKA 1. RAVEN A 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-q-yt ("Son of Kit-ka'ositiyi-q"). When his son was born...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 31. Part 12 : 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...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 9. Wolverine : 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...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 45 : 45. THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED A LAND OTTER A A man at Sitka had three little children who were crying with hunger because he had nothing to give them. His sister had been captured by the land otters after having been nearly drowned. Then be said to the little ones, "You poor children, I wish your aunt...
Texts. 94. The Le'naxxi'daq : p. 292 94. THE L!'NAXX'DAQ A A man at Auk went out on the lake after firewood. On the way round it be saw a woman floating about. Her hair was long. Looking at her for some time, he saw that her little ones were with her. He took one of the children home. When it became dark they went to sleep. It...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 53 : 53. THE MAN WHO MARRIED THE EAGLE This is a story of something that happened among the Haida. It is about a young man there who married a very fine-looking. girl. This girl deceived her husband and went with the son of the town chief, but her husband found it out and killed him. Since the dead m...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 31. Part 04 : After this the people went out hunting and encamped in a place called Tayuk!nAxe. A man went out from here with his brother and little son one day, and, when they returned, saw that every one had disappeared. They felt very badly and said, "What is wrong with our village?" Then they saw th...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 8 : 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 it under his blanket. He brought it...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 13. Root Stump : 13. ROOT-STUMP B 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 person grasped his feet...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 27 : 27. THE ALSEK RIVER PEOPLE Once there was a famine among the people of Alsek (Als'x) river. There were two shamans there, one of whom began singing to bring up eulachon, while the other sang for strength in order to obtain bears and other forest animals. The first shaman's spirit told him that if...
Texts. 90. The Man Who Was Abandoned : p. 262 90. THE MAN WHO WAS ABANDONED People living in along town were suffering from famine. A certain man stayed with his uncle, who had two wives. The people were very hungry. This man was always sleeping, for he was lazy. When their food was all gone, they started away from the lazy man to camp...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 57 : 57. THE BOY AND THE GIANT At a certain place in the interior lived a manly little boy who was very fond of hunting. He would take his lunch and go off hunting very early in the morning and stay all day, bringing home two or three porcupines in the evening. One morning he started earlier than usual...
Texts. 93. Kaha'si, The Strong Man : p. 289 93. KH'S!, THE STRONG MAN A Among some people bathing for strength was a man named Kh's!. He was very poor. The people bathed continually in preparation for war. He, however, was very miserable. When the others came out of the water they always laughed at him. He kept urinating in his sleep...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 43 : 43. THE SELF-BURNING FIRE One winter the people at a certain place on Copper river were left with nothing to eat and began dying off. About the middle of that winter all of the children and some of the adults were dead, and only about half of the former population remained. When only eight men were...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 31. Part 14 : 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 animals, and the other boys were jealous...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 6 : p. 29 6. THE LAND-OTTER SISTER A 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...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 2 : 2. THE BIG CLAM At the farther end of Tenakee inlet (T!'nage) is a little bay called Where-sweetness-killed-a-person (GAtlq'wageya). One summer there were many people encamped there drying salmon, and among them many lively young people. One day some girls took a canoe and crossed the bay...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 31. Part 10 : Next Raven went to Tn-lut' (the southern end of Prince of Wales island) and saw a man there named QonAlg'c. b 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...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 29 : p. 72 29. THE FIRST WAR IN THE WORLD A A man named Xaku'tc! was very fond of hunting and hunted almost every day with his brother-in-law, bringing home seal and all sorts of game which he had speared. There was no money in those days. It was winter. One morning when he went out he speared...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 47 : 47. THE MAN FED FROM THE SKY Dtg's, the nephew of a chief at Chilkoot, used to lie all the time bundled up in a corner made by the retaining timbers. When everybody else was in bed he would rise and go to the fire. Then he would gather the coals into a heap in order to warm his blanket over them...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 59 : p. 215 59. GAMN'TCK! A GAmn'tck! killed a seal, skinned it, and threw the skin and meat to his wife to wash. While she was washing them in the sea she saw some killer whales coming landward. By and by the meat she was washing drifted out from her and she waded after it. She went out until...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 51 : 51. THE SALMON CHIEF A certain fisherman fished for salmon and nothing else. One day, after he had fished for a long time, he was walking upon the beach and came upon a salmon left by the tide. He was very glad for he had not been getting any fish for some time and saw that this was nice and fresh...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 31. Part 18 : Now Raven went farther and came to a woman and a little girl all alone. She was crying and Raven asked her, "What are you crying about? I have lost all of my friends. I am all alone here with my little girl. The people kept going off hunting or fishing and never come back. What has happened...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 31. Part 06 : Now the people of that town were very much frightened, and none of them went away. They had heard before that the land otters have death and all kinds of sickness for their bows and arrows, but until then they had not believed it. Afterward the people began to starve, and the children especially...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 31. Part 02 : In the town where this occurred a man named S!wA'n became a shaman. He told the people to leave and go somewhere else because spirits were saying in him, "If you stay in this village, you will all p. 153 die." There was so much respect for shamans in those days that people obeyed everything th...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 23. How : 23. HOW THE FROGS HONORED THE DEAD One time, when they were afraid of being attacked, all of the KksA'd and K'gwAntn encamped on KAnAsq!' (St. Lazaria island). There are two parts to this island separated at high tide, and the KksA'd encamped upon one, while the K'gwAntn lived upon the other...
Texts. 100. Moldy End : p. 311 100. MOLDY-END A The Sitka, KksA'd have a salmon stream called Dax't and the father of Lively-frog-in-pond went there to camp. The boy was playing on the beach. Afterward Lively-frog-in-pond caught sea gulls by means of bait. Then lie was hungry, and went into the house. He cried...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 49. Roots : 49. ROOTS A A boy was walking along in front of the houses of a very populous village early one morning when a quill fell right in front of him. The boy picked it up and started to run away, but it lifted him up into the air out of sight. After that several other people were missed, and no one knew...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 55 : 55. THE DUCK HELPER All the people in a village called T'sna, "just south of the mouth of the Yukon," once died of smallpox with the exception of one woman and her son. The boy was just old enough to realize what had happened. His mother kept weeping day after day, and it so distressed her son th...
Texts. 106. Origin Of A Low Caste Name : p. 369 106. ORIGIN OF A LOW-CASTE NAME A There was a certain village in the north from which the people were fond of going hunting. By and by three men went out, and finally came to the rocks among which they always hunted. After they reached the rocks they saw a little boy. Then they took him...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 84 : 84. THE REJECTED LOVER Somewhere to the north lived a chief who had a daughter and a nephew who was in love with this daughter. In olden times when a man married a woman with a marriageable daughter he married the daughter as well, so the youth wanted to marry this chief's wife in order to get her...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 63 : 63. BEAVER AND PORCUPINE A The beaver and the porcupine (lAk!A'tc) were great friends and went about everywhere together. The porcupine often visited the beaver's house, but the latter did not like to have him come because he left quills there. One time, when the porcupine said that he wanted to go...
Title Page : TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS RECORDED BY JOHN R. SWANTON SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 39 WASHINGTON, GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE [1909] Scanned , July 2003. J.B. Hare, Redactor. This Text Is In The Public Domain. These Files May Be Used For Any Non-commercial Purpose...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 67 : p. 225 67. QQ!ATCG'K A One of the Sitka KksA'd, a man named Qq!Atcg'k, was very fond of hunting and could use his spear very accurately. He had two wives and several children, to whom he always brought home a fur seal. One time he heard a little fur seal crying continually, and he heard one...
Texts. 91. The Shaman Who Went Into The Fire : p. 267 91. THE SHAMAN WHO WENT INTO THE FIRE, AND THE HERON'S SON A A little boy's friends were all gone. His uncle was a great hunter, and the little boy was always going around far up in the woods with bow and arrows. He was growing bigger. He also went out with his uncle. His uncle went...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 79 : 79. THE GIRL WHO MARRIED THE FIRE SPIRIT There was a chief's daughter whom all of the high-caste men wanted to marry. One day, as she sat close to the fire, a spark came out on her clothing and she said something bad to the fire, pointing her hand at it with fingers extended. That night the girl...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 15. Beaver : 15. BEAVER AND PORCUPINE A A porcupine and a beaver were once very close friends. b 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...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 17 : 17. THE FINDING OF THE BLUE PAINT, AND HOW A 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, etc. One day, while they were out, they were forced to take refuge...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 3. English : 3. ENGLISH VERSION OF THE STORY OF THE FOUR BROTHERS A There were four brothers who owned a dog of an Athapascan variety called dz. b 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...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 32 : 32. KAK'Q!UT A A Huna man named Kak'q!ut and his wife were paddling along in a canoe about midnight in search of seals, and he kept hearing a noise around his head like that made by a bird. Finally he hit the creature with his hand and knocked it into the canoe. It was shaped like a bird, only with...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 88 : 88. THE SKY COUNTRY A certain man's wife was taken away from him, and he longed so much for her that he thought he would follow her along the beach. He was half crazy. When he went out and thought he was walking along the beach, he was in reality in a wide trail which ran through p. 251 the woods...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 71 : 71. STORY OF THE KILLER-WHALE CREST OF THE DAQL!AWE'D A There was a man called NatslAne' (the name of a worm that appears on dried salmon) who was continually quarreling with his wife. He had many brothers-in-law, who became very much ashamed of this discord but had to stay around to protect their...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 75 : 75. MIGRATION OF THE GNAXA'D TO TONGASS At Klawak was a man of the GnAxA'd named Dancer (L!'Xe) who was very fond of gambling but unable to win. Finally his wife said, "If you gamble again we will leave each other. I don't want to be with you any more. You are gambling too much." Her husband said...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 36 : 36. THE THUNDERS A high-caste girl who had four brothers went out of the house one morning and stepped on a snail. Then she said. "Oh! this nasty thing. There isn't a time when I go out but that snail is around this house." The evening after a youth of about her own age came to the girl, and she...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 61 : 61. THE EAST AND NORTH WINDS A high-caste man married the daughter of East-wind (S'nAxet). After a time he heard of a very pretty high-caste girl, the daughter of North-wind (Xn), so he left his first wife, came north, and married her. Then he took her back to the village where his first wife lived...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 86 : 86. THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED THE DEAD MAN A woman belonging to the cohoes people (L!'kAnA-c), whose father was a chief, was kept very pure and had a girl accompany her always. One day, as she was going out with her servant, she tripped over something and on looking at it found that it was a skull. She...
Introduction : p. 1 TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS RECORDED BY JOHN R. SWANTON INTRODUCTION The following myths and texts were collected at Sitka and Wrangell, 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...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 65 : 65. MOUNTAIN DWELLER A Years ago young women were not allowed to eat between meals. Two sisters belonging to a high family once did this, and, when their mother found it out, she was very angry. She pulled the elder girl toward her, abused her shamefully, and scratched the inside of her mouth all...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 82 : 82. THE CRYING-FOR MEDICINE One of the Ksq!ague'd named Floating (NAlx'c), living at Wrangell, had a wife called Axtc'k! who kept running away from him. He was a great hunter and hunted continually among the mountains of Bradfield canal accompanied by his slave. One day, as they were pulling along...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 38 : 38. LITTLE FELON A certain man had a felon (kwq) on his finger and suffered terribly, so that he could get no sleep. He did not know what to do for it. One day somebody said to him, "Hold it under the smoke hole of the house and get some one to poke it with something very sharp through the smoke...
Myths Recorded In English At Wrangell. 42. Djiyi'n : 42. DJY'N A While the Tlingit were still living at Klinkwan (Lnqo-n) a famine broke out. There was an orphan girl there named Djy'n who was taking care of herself. Once in a while her father's sister would help her, but all were starving, her father's sister also being poor. One day some women were...
Myths Recorded In English At Sitka. 21. Orig : 21. ORIGIN OF ICEBERG HOUSE A 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, "I ought to give some sort of feast to my dead friends," and he began to gather...
