NELSON] THE DISCONTENTED GRASS PLANT 505 



them to a shapeless mass. Then he caught up her basket and scattered 

 about him in a circle all the finger bones it contained. Without a 

 moment's delay he took the rib and striking the bones as quickly as 

 possible, repeated, '^ He is dead. He is dead. He is dead." And his 

 enemies fell as he moved until not one of them was left alive. Then 

 he exercised his magic power and restored his brothers to life again, 

 after which the villagers were called iu. When the latter came and 

 saw the kashim filled with dead men, they were full of fear and told the 

 brothers that so many people had been killed by them that they feared 

 to have them remain there any longer. 



The brothers consented to go, and preparing their umiak, they 

 embarked with their sister. Just as they were leaving, the villagers 

 told them to be sure to stop and build a large fire on the beach as soon 

 as they came iu sight of their native village. Tliey traveled slowly 

 back as they had come, and finally they were pleased to see their 

 village just ahead of them. At this time the sister was walking along 

 the shore with a dog, towing the boat by means of a long, walrus-hide 

 line. When she saw the houses she remembered the directions of the 

 villagers about building a fire when they came in sight of their home, 

 and reminded her brothers of it, but Ak'-chik-chu'-guk was eager to 

 complete the Journey, and said impatiently, " No, no, we will not trouble 

 ourselves to do that; I wish to hurry home." When the sister turned 

 and started to go on she had scarcely taken a step forward when her 

 feet felt so heavy that she could not raise them. She shrieked in fear, 

 and said, " My feet feel as if they were becoming stone." As she spoke 

 she changed into stone from head to foot. Then the same change 

 occurred with the dog, and out along the line to the boat, changing it 

 and its occupants into stone. There until this day, as a rocky ledge, is 

 the boat where it stopped, the brothers facing their home, and a slender 

 reef running to the land where thetowliue dropped, while on shore are 

 the stony figures of the girl and the dog. 



THE DISCONTENTED GEASS PLANT 

 (From Sledge island) 



Near the village of Pastolik, at the Yukon mouth, grows a tall, slen- 

 der kind of grass. Every fall just before winter commences the women 

 from the villages go out and gather great stores of it, pulling or cut- 

 ting it oft" close to the ground, and making large bundles which they 

 carry home on tlieir backs. This grass is dried and used for braiding 

 mats and baskets and for pads in the soles of skin boots. 



One of these Grass-stalks that had been almost pulled out of the 

 ground by a woman, began to think that it had been very unfortunate 

 in not being something else, so it looked about. Almost at first glance 

 it spied a bunch of herbs growing near by, looking so quiet and undis- 

 turbed that the Grass began to wish to be like them. As soon as this 



