swAXTON] TLTNGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 67 



creeks, and he told someone to make him a one-barbed hook (dina')- 

 Wlienever the sahnon he was after came he was ^oing to use this in 

 order to <2;et it. ^^lien it came up it filled the whole of Alsek river 

 and broke all the hooks of those who tried to catch it. Then the 

 shaman selected a small boy and said, "This little boy is o;oino; to 

 hook it." So he s:aYe him the hook he had had made, and the little 

 boy pulled it up easily. The shaman's spirits had lulled it. This 

 salmon was so larp;e that all in that town had a share, and even then 

 it was more than they could cook for one meal. It was the bio;oest 

 salmon ever Idlled. There are two creeks in that region, and to this 

 day a youno- boy can easily pull in a laroe sprint^ salmon there such 

 as is hard for an adult to manage. 



There is a hole near by called IIole-Raven-bored (Yet-djuwAtu'lia), 

 because Raven made it long ago. In early times, whenever there 

 was to l>e a large run of eulachon or other fish, quantities of rocks 

 came out of that hole. So people used to go there to look at it. 



In one place Alsek river runs under a glacier. People can pass 

 beneath in their canoes, but, if anyone speaks, while tliey are under 

 it, the glacier comes down on them. They say that in those times 

 this glacier was like an animal, and could hear what was said to it. 

 vSo, when they camped just below it, people would say, "Give us some 

 food. We have need of food." Then the glacier always came down 

 witli a rush and raised a wave which threw numbers of salmon ashore. 



The people were also in the habit of going up some distance above 

 the glacier to a place called CanyukA' after soapberries which grow 

 there in abundance. The first time they went up they discovered 

 people who were all naked except about the loins, and there was a 

 shaman among them who was reputed to have a great deal of strength. 

 For that reason they tried him. ■ They took mussel shells, clam shells, 

 and sharp stones and tried to cut his hair, but a single hair on his 

 head was 3 inches across, so everything broke. This shaman had 

 mauA^ spirits. Some were glacier spirits, called vSlt! tu koha'ni, Fair- 

 girls-of-the-glacier; others were of the sky tribe called Giis! tu 

 koha'ni, Fair-girls-of-the-sky. 



The shaman said that, on their way down, one canoe load of the 

 down-river people would be drowned as the}^ passed under the glacier; 

 but the spirits of the shaman below told him about this, and he went 

 up to see the Athapascan shaman. In those days shamans hated 

 one another exceedingly. vSo the Athapascan shaman placed kA([!- 

 AnacjlAq!, sometlung to destroy all of one's opponent's people, before 

 his guest. The latter, however, all at once saw what it was and went 

 home. Socm after he got there, the Athapascan shaman died, Idlled 

 by his rival's spirits, and his spirits passed to one of his friends. 



The shamans living on Alsek river had a great deal of strength. 

 All things in the sea and in the forest obe^^ed them. A rock just 



