swAXTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 25 



have ever since been very watchful al)c)ut their sisters. Because 

 he had been fooHng with his sister, when Lcj laya'k ! went out, his broth- 

 ers said to him, "You do no! behave yourself. Go somewhere else. 

 You can be a thunder (heiJ)." They said to him, "Ha'agun kadi'."'^ 



This is why, when thunder is heard, people always say, "You 

 gummy thigh." It is because Lq laya'k! became a thinider. Their 

 sister was ashamed. She went down into Mount Edgecumbe (l!ux) 

 through the crater. 



Because the thunder is a man, when the thunder is heard far out 

 at sea, people blow up into the air tln^ough their hands and say, 

 "Let it drive the sickness away," or "Let it go far northward." 

 The other brothers started across the Stikine and became rocks 

 there. 



4. ORIGIN OF THE KILLER WHALE'' 



A man named XatsAlAne', belonging to the Tsague'di (vSeal peo- 

 ple), made killer whales. He hrst tried to carve them out of red cedar, 

 then out of hemlock, then out of all other lands of wood in succession. 

 He took each set of figures to the beach and tried to make them swim 

 out, but instead they floated up on the surface. Last of all he tried 

 yellow cedar, and was successful. 



He made these of different sorts. On one he markeil white lines 

 with Indian chalk from the corners of its mouth back to its head. 

 He said, "This is going to be the white-mouthed killer whale." 

 When he first put them into the water he headed them up the inlet, 

 telling them that wdienever they went up to the heads of the bays 

 they were to hunt for seal, halibut, and all other tilings under the 

 sea; but he told them not to hurt a human being. "Wlien you are 

 going up the bay, people will say to you, "Give us something to eat." 

 Before this people did not know what the killer whale is. 



Another thing people did not know was that the killer whale could 

 go ashore and camp. One time a man married a high-caste woman 

 and went up to the head of a certain bay with her, because he knew 

 that the killer whales always w^ent there. On the way they saw a 

 camp fire blazing upon the shore. There were killer wdiales encamped 

 here, but he thought they were human beings and landed to see them. 

 Wlien they got close in, he jumped into the water to urinate. All 

 at once the killer-whale chief said, "I feel people's looks. Go outside 

 and look on the beach." But, when they saw him urinating, they 

 started ofT, leaving their camp just as it was, jumped into the water, 

 and swam awav. 



a It is said that no one knows what these words mean. b See stories 59 and 71. 



