swAXTox] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS Y8 



After the}" had tested all of his spirits they started south to war. 

 They were always warring with the southern people. They and the 

 southern people hated each other. When they went down with this 

 shaman they always enslaved many women and sometimes destroyed 

 a whole town, all on account of his strength. 



There was a brave man among the southern people, called Q!oga', 

 who liked to kill people from up this way. One time a little boy 

 they had capturetl escaped from the fort where he was. He had a 

 bow and arrows with him. The brave man discovered where he 

 was, went after him, and pulled him out from under the log where 

 he was hiding. But meanwhile the spirits in the canoes of the northern 

 people had seen Q!oga'. Then Q!oga' took the little boy down on 

 the beach and said to him, "Shoot me in the eye." He put an arrow 

 in his bow and took such good aim that the arrow passed straight 

 through it. The point of this arrow was made of the large mussel 

 shell. The brave man fell just like a piece of wood thrown down. 

 The little boy had killed him. Then all ran to the little boy and took 

 off his head. The chiefs passed his dried seal]) from one to another 

 and wondered at what he had done. They named him ever after 

 Little-head (Qaca'k!"), and the man he killed was called One-Little- 

 head-killed (Xuga'wadjaget). Even now they relate how Little- 

 head killed the brave man. Then the northern people came around 

 the fort and destroyed everybody there, some of those in the canoes 

 being also killed. 



After that the southern people started north to war. They had 

 a shaman among them. On the way they came to a man named 

 Murrelet (Tc!lt). When this man was young, he had been trained 

 to run up steep cliffs by having a mountain-sheep's hoof tied 

 to his leg or neck, and being held up to the walls of the house 

 and made to go through the motions of climbing. They said, "Is 

 this the man they talk about so much who can run up any moun- 

 tain?" This is what they said when they were chasing him. Then 

 they caught him and took him into one of their canoes. 



Now the war cliief said to his friends, " Let us take him ashore to 

 that cliff." So they took him to a place called Bell point (Gao litu') 

 where ])art of the town of Huna is, to try him there. They said 

 to him, ''Murrelet, go up this cliff." When he attempted it, how- 

 ever, he fell back into the canoe. All the people in the canoes 

 laughed at him. They said, "Oh! you little thing. Why is it that 

 they say you are the best runner up this way?" After he had 

 fallen back the third time, he said, "This is not the way I am dressed 

 when I go up a cliff. I always carry a stone ax, a staff, and a flint, 

 and I always carry along a seal's stomach full of grease." They 

 prepared these things for him and gave them to him. Then he 



