78 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. :!9 



finished, they came to a big tree they had already marked out and 

 began to chop at it from all sides. This was the biggest tree ever 

 known. Wliile they worked, the women would come around it wailing 

 and mourning for their dead friends. It took two days to chop this 

 tree down, and, if an}'body broke his stone ax, they felt very sorry 

 for him and beat the drums as though some one were dead. Then 

 they cut th.e tree in two and took a section oil" along the wliole length 

 where the upper side of the canoe was to l)e, and the head workman 

 directed that it be burnt out inside with lire. So all the people 

 assembled about it to work, and as fast as it was burnt they took 

 sticks and knocked olf the l)urnt ])art so as to bm^n deeper and to shajic 

 it properly when it had been Ijurned enough. There was one heavy 

 limb that they let stand, merely finishing about it. This work took 

 them all winter. Dining the same time they bathed in the sea and 

 whipped one another in order to be brave in the approaching war. 



Toward spring they got inside of the canoe with their stone axes 

 and began to smooth it ])y cutting out the burnt ])art. Then they 

 began to give names to the canoe. It was finally called Sj^ruce-canoe 

 (Sit-yJik"). The thing they left in the middle was the real thing they 

 were going to kill j^eople with. Finally they finished it by putting in 

 seats. 



Now they were only waiting for it to get warmer. In those days 

 there were special war leaders, and in fighting they wore helmets and 

 greaves made of common varieties of wood. 



There was a shaman among these people named QalA'tk! belonging 

 to the Naste'di. Because they were going to war, all of his people 

 would come about him to help him capture the souls of the enemy. 

 One time he said to his clothes man, ' 'Go out for food, and be brave. 

 The head spirit is going to help you." So the clothes man went out 

 as directed and the spirit showed him the biggest halibut in the 

 ocean. For the float to his line he used the largest sea-lion stomach, 

 and, when he began to pull it up, it looked as though the whole ocean 

 were flowing into its mouth. But the shaman told him to be cour- 

 ageous and hold on though the hook looked like nothing more than a 

 small s])ot. It did not even move, for the strength of the spirits 

 killed it, l)ut it was so large that they had to tow it in below the town. 

 Then all the people who were going to fight cut the halibut up and 

 began to dry it. There was enough for all who were going to war and 

 for all the women left at home. When it was dried tliey started to 

 pack part away in the canoe. Then they pushed the canoe down on 

 skids made of the bodies of two women whom they had captured 

 from the southern people on a previous expedition and whom they 

 now killed for the jnn-pose. Meanwhile the southern people thought 

 that they had destroyed all of those at the north and were scattered 

 everywhere in camps, not taking the trouble to make forts. 



