sw ANTON] HA IDA TEXTS AND MYTHS 235 



He-who-travels-behind-us (ok Qona'ts) 



[Told by the ("liiuf of KIoo of Those-born-at-Skedans] 



Thorp lay Pebble-town/ At times the town people fished for her- 

 iint>- with nets. Sometimes they got a porpoise in their nets. And, 

 when they reaehed home, the town chief sent a slave into the house 

 of him who had killed it and had him say: "The chief sa3's you are 

 not to spill the blood of the porpoise upon the ground." '^ In this way 

 the porpoises were often taken away. The chief treated the town 

 people as if they were his slaves. 



And his nephew was a child. He saw that his uncles were treated 

 like slaves. He saw that, although they had been nearl}' starved for 

 some time, the chief took awa}' the porpoises in the town from them. 

 One day he and his grandmother went awa}". After they had gone on 

 for some time they arrived at Telel.^ 



Then they l)uilt a house there. And there he began to bathe for 

 strength. After he had bathed for some time he became strong. 

 Then he made a ])ow for himself. And he shot a goose with his arrows. 

 1'hen he skinned it and cut a hole on its under surface. He put it on 

 his head, and it fitted well. Then he dried it. 



The geese being plentiful on the water, he put his head into [the 

 skin] and swam to them. From beneath he pulled them under 

 water. At once he twisted ofi' their necks. He did the same thing to 

 their wings. Then he carried them to his grandmother, and his gi-and- 

 mother plucked them. He at once dried them. 



And one time he punched his nose with broken pieces of basket work 

 and let [the bloodj run upon these. Pie used them to l>ait his halibut 

 hooks, and he took along wooden floats, laid his halibut hooks upon 

 them, and pushed them out into the sea. When they were some distance 

 out to sea, he jerked, the halibut hooks fell into the water, and he 

 pulled in halibut. He kept giving them to his grandmother.* 



And one day he went down the inlet in search of something. 

 After he had gone on for a while some creature wearing a broad, l)lue 

 hat came to him. Then he asked him: "Where did you come from?" 

 He paid no attention to him. And again he asked him: "Where did 

 you come from r* Then he said to him: "[I came] From QiAkun."' 



And he had two duck skins" on his back, one of which had the top 

 of its head spotted with white. He seized one of them. He did not 

 know what happened to him. Lo! he came to himself lying upon the 

 edges of the retaining timbers in some house. 



Then some one in the house said concerning him: "Throw him out. 



