SWAXTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 55 



Ka'gwAntan chiefs marry Kikca' (KiksA'di women). But the real 

 frog tribe thought they were the ones who were summoned, because 

 they are also Kikca'. 



Then all theKiksA'di made ready to go ashore to burn his dead body. 

 They chopped much wood and made a fire, while all of the KiksA'di 

 and Ka'gw^Aiitan stood around it, and everyone felt badly. All at 

 once a big frog, as long as the hand and wrist, jumped out from the 

 place w here the fire w^as and began making a noise. All looked at it . It 

 had come out because the frogs were the ones to whom the Kfi'gwAntan 

 had spoken. After that it jumped into the fu'e and burned up. 



Then all the people tied themselves up (gA'xAni) (i. e., tied their 

 blankets around then' w^aists, as they did when they were engaged in 

 lifting the sun") out of respect to the chief. All felt very badly about 

 the dead man, and one person said, "It will not be like draining out 

 the L !ln lake (L!in a'ya). Let us go to war." So they captured slaves 

 and killed them for the dead man, and, when they })ut food into the 

 fire for him, they also named the frog that it might receive some as 

 well. 



24. THE BRANT WIVES '' 



A KiksA'di youth lived with his father in a long towm. When he 

 was well grown, he went about in the woods hunting with bow and 

 arrows. One time he came close to a lake and heard the voices of 

 girls. When he got nearer he saw two girls bathing there. Then he 

 skirted the shore toward them, and, when he was very close, discovered 

 two coats just back of the place where they were. These w^ere really 

 the girls' skins. He took them up, and they began talking to him, 

 saying, "Give us those skins." But he said, "I want to marry both 

 of you." So he married both of them and took them to his father's 

 house. 



Both of this man's wives used to look over his hair to pick out the 

 lice. When spring was coming on and the brants were coming from 

 the south, the girls sat on top of the house w^ith him and kept saying, 

 "There comes my uncle's canoe. There comes my father's canoe." 

 They were beginning to get homesick, and they asked their husband 

 if he would let them go home. When the brants began coming, one 

 would say, "Those are my friends coming up. I am going to ask 

 them to give me something to eat." So, when they were above the 

 house, she said, "Give me something to eat," and down came green 

 herbs one after another. 



When it was time for the brants to start back south, both of the 

 girls had become tired. They wanted to go home. They knew when 

 it was time for their father's canoe to pass over, and just before it 

 was due they told their husband to go up into the woods after some- 



aSee Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 430. 6 See story 54. 



