58 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 29 



TcIaawu'nk!'' 



[Told by Jimmy Sterling of the SlA'stas family] 



After the parents of a certain child, which was in the cradle, had 

 gone about for a while with him they landed to get mussels. There 

 the.y forgot about him. And the}^ started away. When they had 

 gone some distanc^e from him they remembered him. They came back 

 toward him. When they came near they heard some one singing for 

 him. Crows sat above him in flocks. And when they got oft' to get 

 him he acted in the cradle like a shaman. They took him aboard. 

 Then his parents came to the town with him. 



After some time had passed and he had grown to be a boy, people 

 began to die oft on account of him. But his elder brothers and his 

 imcles were numerous. His uncles"' wives did not love him. Only the 

 wife of the youngest gave him food. His old grandmother was the 

 only one who looked after him. After they had been in the town for 

 a while, and his friends were entirel}^ g'one, he and his grandmother 

 made a house out of old cedar bark b}^ a creek flowing down near the 

 town. And he went there with his grandmother to live. 



Afterward he went to the town, and the wife of his youngest uncle 

 gave him food. When he grew old enough he hunted birds. All the 

 time they lived there his grandmother got food for him. And he also 

 made a bow for himself. He continually hunted ))irds. He continu- 

 ally whittled. 



After he had hunted birds for a while he saw a heron sitting with a 

 broken beak. He told his grandmother about it. And his grand- 

 mother said to him: " When you again see it sharpen its bill. When 

 people sharpen its bill it helps them, they say." ^ When he again saw 

 it he sharpened its bill. And after he started away and had gone 

 some distance it said to him: "I will help you, grandchild." 



After that his grandmother began to teach him how to make dead- 

 falls.*^ And then he began to set them at the head of the creek for 

 black bears. They ceased to see him at the town. Sometimes he went 

 to the town, received food from his youngest uncle's wife alone, and 

 started off with it. They refused to have him at the town. There 

 was no house into which he could go. His youngest uncle's wife 

 gave him food because they refused to have him. He kept going 

 there. 



After he had set deadfalls for a while one fell on a black bear. 

 He carried it to the house. JrLe did not waste the smallest bit of 

 its fat. He smoked it and ate it. At this time they began to live 



