NO. 4 UPPER YUKON NATIVE CUSTOMS — SCIIMITTEK 2$ 



After the fight he said he would make a big pot-latch (a celebration with 

 feasting and giving of presents), because he had wounded and killed lots of 

 people. Then he went hunting every day, and killed all kinds of game and 

 saved the hide and meat. The mother and daughter tanned all the skms, 

 dried the game and cached it. The little man said he was going to give the 

 skins as presents to other people. The old woman said, "All the people are 

 killed, so who can you give them to?" and he said, "Bye and bye lots of people 

 will come." This was on a big island just this side of the Old Woman rock. 

 When he collected his meat and fur he began to sing every day that he wished 

 that lots of people would come from up and down the river to the pot-latch on 

 the island, and they came without being told. They all moved about together 

 and sung as usual at a pot-latch. When they did it the island cracked in two 

 parts, because too many people were on it. The people feasted every day. 

 After the feasting he gave away all kinds of skins and furs. He made the 

 big time because he killed lots of people and was sorry for it. He killed the 

 people because they killed his friends first. 



THE 30Y IN THE MOON. 



See the mark in the middle of the moon like a man? That was a little 

 Indian boy when nobody had anything to eat. During the famine this boy 

 dreamed that they were going to kill lots of caribou. 



The boy said that when they killed all the caribou he wanted the leader 

 caribou. The boy's uncle gave him the wrong caribou, because the uncle did 

 not believe the boy dreamed it. Then the boy cried for two nights beacuse he 

 didn't get the right kind of caribou. The boy told his father, who brought 

 home the hind quarter of caribou, to never cut the flesh off it to the bone, but 

 to cut off what he needed, wrap it in a skin, and put it under his head to sleep 

 on. The father did this and when he awoke he found a whole hind quarter, 

 and thus forever he could eat caribou from this leg and always have it whole. 

 Next night the boy, who always slept between his father and mother, was gone 

 and nobody could find him. The boy wore marten-skin pants. In the morn- 

 ing the left leg of the pants was found on the tent-pole where the hole is in 

 the roof for the fire. Hence they concluded that he went up through the hole 

 and the left pants' leg was torn off going through. He went up to the moon 

 and was seen there the next night, and it was proved, for he had a larger right 

 leg than left, because the right leg has pants on. From his right hand hangs a 

 little round bag with the wrong caribou meat in it. That night a big storm 

 came and snowed all over where the caribou was cached. Then all the killed 

 caribou came to life and went away, and the Indians couldn't find their meat. 

 Then they all starved to death except the boy's father and mother. During 

 the fall and winter with clear sky, one who has been properly instructed can 

 readily make out the outline of this boy in the moon. 



THE CAMP ROBBER 



The camp robber is a slate-colored Alaskan jay, well known for its habit of 

 stealing food from camps. 



W^hen all animals were men the camp robber was a medicine-man. One 

 time the people had nothing to eat, and they asked the medicine-man to get 

 them some food. For six nights a different man each night dreamed to find a 

 way to get something to eat. The camp robber was the last and sixth man. 



