456 THE TLINGIT INDIANS [etii. ann. 26 



"as smart as wolverine." At the saine time, lie was so annoying' that 

 the christianized Indians reckon him next to the devil for badness. 

 Originally he is said to have been an Indian. 



Although apparently so harmless, the land otter was dreaded more 

 than any other creature. This was on account of his supposed super- 

 natural powers, fondness for stealing people away, depriving them of 

 their senses, and turning them into land-otter men (ku'cta-qa). As 

 they lived at various points along shore, these land-otter men were 

 called q!a'tu-qa ("men-inside-of -points"). Naturally enough the land 

 otters were closely associated with shamanism, which, in fact, is said 

 to have come from them through a man named KAka'. Years ago the 

 Tlingit would not use their fur. 



When a person was in danger of drowning, canoes would come to 

 him (or her) and the people in them would say, "I am your friend," 

 and take the person home. After that he became like them, but was 

 called a land-otter man. One woman thus captured saw a number of 

 round objects by the tire which she was told not to touch, but she 

 jumped on one and it burst. They were the land-otters" scent bags. 

 Then she was thrown outside and became a woman once more. In such 

 a case a person had to come to human beings again or other land otters 

 would take him. CAk" are bad-smelling things on the beaches always 

 eaten by the land-otter men. They caused a person upon whom the 

 land-otter man ])reathed to faint, but if one put native tobacco, iron, 

 or lead into his mouth it counteracted the influence. To restore a land- 

 otter man to his senses live coals were thrown upon him, and after he 

 had fainted slits were made with a knife on the palms of his hands and 

 the soles of his feet, into which urine was rubbed. 



My interpreter's father and two other Indians once heard something 

 whistling behind them. When the creature that made the noise got 

 near it climbed into a tree bj* the tire and began throwing cones upon 

 them. They invited it to talk and to come down and eat, when in a 

 strange, unnatural voice it announced the death of a Klukwan shaman. 

 When they set out a dish of fish for it, it appeared on the other side 

 of the fire and approached it slowly. Its breath smelt strongly of 

 cAk", so they put tobacco and bullets into their mouths. Its mouth 

 was open, enabling them to see its large, savage-looking teeth. Then 

 they said to one another, " Let us throw coals upon it." but the instant 

 a motion was made it disappeared. It kept whistling around and 

 throwing down cones all night. After they had started ofl' in their 

 canoe for Yende'staqle they met another canoe coming from Klukwan 

 and learned that the shaman the land-otter man had spoken of was dead. 



A land-otter man once hung about a spring and made several people 

 who came there faint, after- which it stripped them naked and left 

 them in ridiculous attitudes. When one young man went after water 

 the land-otter man kept throwing cones into his bucket. In the morn- 



