swANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS • 39 



They brought down a great quantity of this, heated a rock in the fire 

 and spread pitch all over it. When it was melted they seated the 

 woman upon it. The two brothers of tliis girl searched along shore 

 for her continually, and finally they discovered where she w^as; but 

 she w^as dead. 



Then they felt very sad on her account and asked each other, 

 ' ' What shall we do about lier 1 ' ' They thought of all kinds of schemes, 

 and at last hit upon a plan. Then they went home, filled a l)ladder 

 fidl of blood, and went out to the halibut fishing ground. The elder 

 brother let his younger brother d()^v^l on a line, but before he got 

 far he lost his breath and had to be pulled up. So the elder })rother 

 prepared himself. He put on liis sister's dress, took liis knife and 

 the bladder full of blood, and got safely to the bottom. W^hen he 

 arrived there he found himself in front of a house. Some one came 

 out to look and then said to the chief inside, "Has your wife come 

 out to see you?" They thought it was the dead woman. So the 

 hali])ut cliief said, '.'Tell her to come in," and lie married her. 



At this time the friends of the young man were vainly endeavoring 

 to catch halibut, and he could see their hooks. Instead of coming 

 into the houses these woidd fall around on the outside. They tried 

 all kinds of hooks of native manufacture, but the only one that suc- 

 ceeded was Raven-backbone-hook (Yel-tu'dAq!e), which came right 

 in through the smoke hole. 



After a while the halibut chief said, "Let us go and take a sweat 

 bath." [Frater autem puellae mortuae semper secum portabat vesi- 

 cam cruore plenam, quo ungebat extrema vestem qua indutus erat, 

 ut rhombum deciperet, dicens, "Mensibus afl'ectus sum; noli mihi 

 ap pro pinquare . "] 



That night, as soon as the halibut chief was asleep, the man took 

 his knife, cut the chief's head off and ran outside with it. Every- 

 l)0(ly in the town was asleep. Then he jerked on his brother's line, 

 and his brother pulled him up along with the head. 



After that they paddled along shore for some time, and on the 

 way the elder brother kept shooting at ducks with his arrows. Fi- 

 nally he hit one and took it into the canoe. It was shivering, and liis 

 brother said, "Look at this little duck. It is dying of cold. I wish 

 you were by my father's camp fire." On account of these bad words 

 the canoe went straight down into the ocean. 



Arrived at the bottom, they saw a long town, and some one said, 

 "Get out of the canoe and come up." Then the duck led them up 

 into the house of his grandfather, the killer whale — for the killer 

 whale is grandfather to the duck — and a big fire was built for them. 

 Then they seated the brothers close to this and said, "Do you think it 

 is only your father who has a big fire?" After they were so badly 

 burned that their heads were made to turn backward with the heat, 

 they were thrown outside. There they became the ducks called 



