68 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 39 



south of Alsek river, named TA'nAkii, has within it the spirits of a 

 shaman called Qatsati'. When a person wante<l to kill some animal 

 he placed things there, and now the T!A'q!dentan make a door like 

 it and use it as an emblem. Near by is a place where many wild 

 onions grow. They were planted there by Raven. 



There is a small river beyond Alsek to which the Alsek River peo- 

 ple once went for slaves. On their second expedition they killed a 

 rich man, and those people, who were called L!uq!oedi', built a fort. 

 Among them was a very brave man, named Liicwa'k, who conceived 

 the idea of making the gate very strong, and of having it fastened 

 on the inside so that it could be opened only w4de enough to admit a 

 single person at a time. Now, when the Alsek River people came up 

 again and tried to enter the fort tJirough this door, they were clubbed 

 to death one at a time. By morning there were piles of dead bodies 

 around the door. 



Then the survivors begged Lucwa'k to let them have the bodies of 

 those who had been wealthy, l)ut he climbed up on the fort and said, 

 "I will name my fort again. Know that it is Eagle fort. The eagle's 

 claws are fastened in the deacl })odies, and he can not hi go of them. 

 Poor as we are you always bring war against us, l)ut now it is our 

 turn. We liave done this work, and I can not let one go." Toward 

 evening, however, he had all of the bodies thrown outside, and 

 climbed on tlie top beam of the fort where he walked about wliistling 

 with happiness. Meanwhile his opponents loaded their canoes with 

 the dead and took them home. When the}^ burned these, they took 

 all the women they had enslaved in previous expeditions and threw 

 them also into the flames. Then all the Eagle people assembled, 

 returned to Eagle fort, burned it, and destroyed nearly everybody 

 inside. Lucwa'k's body was not burned, because he was a brave 

 man, and brave men do not want to sit close to the fire in the Ghosts' 

 home like weaklings. 



Another time some Alsek people went visiting at a certain place 

 and were invited to take sweat baths. But their hosts remained 

 outside, and, when the Alsek people came out, they killed them. 

 One of their victims was a man named Sita'n, related to the Atha- 

 pascans. He j^rotected himself at first by holding a board in front 

 of his face. Then they said, "Take down the board, Sita'n. What 

 we are doing now is especially for you." In those times a person 

 used to make some kind of noise when he went out expecting to 

 be killed. So Sita'n uttered this cry, ran out, and was killed. 



After they had collected all of the dead bodies on a board a woman 

 came crying out of the town. Then they said to her, '^ Are you really 

 crying? If you are really crying for the dead bodies, lend us your 

 husband's stone ax so that we can cut firewootl with which to burn 

 them." In those times stone axes were valuable and, when one was 



