swANTON] TLTNGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 63 



lyin<^ l)y tlie fire. He called to his conipaiiions, "Get iij) and let us be 

 gone. Push the canoe down and load it quickly." He had a num})er of 

 copper plates and other property which he had not yet unpacked, and, 

 after he had gotten a little distance from the fort, he landed and took 

 these out. Then he went right back in front of the fort to destroy 

 them on account of the injury he had received. Wlien these people 

 came opposite they took out a copper plate, struck it on the edge of 

 the canoe so as to make it sound and threw it into the sea. They 

 threw away four. Then the fort chief also took four coppers, flung 

 them on the wall of the fort and threw them into the ocean. 



[I have explained to you befoi-e where this copper came from. It 

 came from the Copper river. Probably this rich man came several 

 times before the fort. Coppers were valued according to their height 

 when they were first made, some at four slaves and some at six.]" 



Wlien the Yakutat man came before this fort again, his copper 

 plates were all gone, and he began to use cedar bark. His ])eople 

 would tie a rock on each ])iece and throw it into the water. Mean- 

 while the fort chief put his canoe on the walls of the fort and began to 

 put Indian beads, caribou skins, moose skins, and other articles into 

 it. Since these L'.ene'di have the dog salmon for their emblem, the 

 chief's sister began acting like one when it is shaking out its eggs. 

 She pretended to be shaking out riches in the same way, and, while 

 she did so, they threw the canoe over the edge of the fort, and all the 

 good things spilled out. The man from Yakutat was foolish to try 

 to contend with so wealthy a chief. His name (i. e., the Yakutat 

 man's) was Ka'yeswusa't. They chased him out with riches, and 

 told him to come back again with more property. A song was com- 

 ])osed about this afterward to the effect that he was simply fooling 

 the people with this yellow cedar bark which was not real property 

 at all. (See song 43.) 



In the same fort a woman gave birth to a boy, who exclaimed as 

 soon as he was born, "How many things there will be for all the 

 people who are holding my mother." In olden times certain women 

 used to hold a woman who was about to give birth, and they were 

 paid for this service. The child grew very fast. He was going to be 

 the greatest liar among his people. After he was grown up and had 

 a family of his own, his mother died, and he started for Chilkat to 

 invite people to the death feast. This was before the Russians came. 



He said to his children, "Pull away. Pull fast." He had started 

 off without any of the property he had intended to take, but on his 

 way Indian rice hailed into his canoe, and a large box of grease floated 

 down to him. When he got close to the mouth of C^hilkat river he 

 came in front of a waterfall. He tasted the water of this and foimd 

 it very sweet. Then he took all of his buckets and filled them with 



a An "aside" by the story-teller. 



