SHAXTON] COSMOLOGY 453 



are sometimes said to be four, jjoes down with the sun good weather 

 is portended; if it goes away before sunset, bad weatiier. 



People did not dare to talk to the nuxjii roughly , because two girls 

 who onee did so were carried oil' liy it. They were going after water 

 when one of tlieni said. '• That moon looks just like my graiidinothers 

 labret." Immediately both went uj) into tiic moon, and the one who 

 had spoken was smashed to pieces in it. The oilier you ciin still .see 

 standing tliere holding her bucket. Afterwards the people always 

 gave feasts for these girls in the moon. When it was darkened at 

 the time of an eclip.se, tiiej' always blew out toward it to blow away 

 sickness. They thought it would l)e taken away just as the girls were 

 taken. The stars have already been referred to. In the sky were cer- 

 tain spirits called Fair-girls-of-the-sky (gOs! tukoha'ni). 



It was thought that there was some being in the wind, so people 

 always talked to it kiixlly to induce it to moderate, and otl'ered it a 

 piece offish. The wohciine (nusk) was said to have control o\'er the 

 north wind, and when a story is told about one the north wind will 

 blow. The same thing was .said when one told a story al)out tlu^ Atha- 

 pascans, because they live toward the north, and aliout I he wolf. 

 Winds from the north and east blow very persistently out of .Silver 

 bay. but when people once complained because Silver Bay blew so 

 much, he said. '"It is not 1, but my children." meaning the smaller 

 inlets. 



People asked the .sea for ivll kinds of things, l)ut especially for sea 

 otter. They thought that it l)r()ught great luck. Shamans talked to 

 it also. When a ))ig ocean swell came along, one put some black stuff 

 like charcoal called '" black raven" (yel tu'tcli) upon it, saying. '"I have 

 put this on you. Please cease." They addressed it as a female and 

 asked it to help them by spreading out its legs. 



The first big mountain at Cape Edwaids is called Xas, and when a 

 person went b^- it he always .said, ''Spread out your legs (so that it 

 will not be rough). Do not harm me." There was another high rock 

 to which people always talked as they passed. From Sitka around to 

 Huna there were various places to be spoken to. 



When a person bathed in the hot spring, he had to talk to it and he 

 put bits of copper into it to take away his sickness. 



There were spirits in the lakes and swamps, and if a man urinated in 

 these places he became weak. He urinated in bed and all the time, 

 and suti'ered a great deal when he tried to cohabit. The only way to 

 avoid this was to cut a dog open and throw it into the swamp. 



.\t the head of every creek was an old woman whom the salmon tried 

 to reach. The small sized ones wore out their noses trying to get up to 

 her. In the Auk country is a creek to which one had to use good 

 words. Otherwise, if li(> fell down near the stream, it would cut his 

 hands to pieces, although the I'ocks are not sharp ordinarily. 



