swANTo.N] TLINGTT MYTHS AKD TEXTS 79 



Finally all the northern warriors got into the big canoe and they 

 started south. It took probably ten days to get there. At the first 

 camp they reached they killed all the men and put the women and 

 children down on the sharpened limb alive. Of one woman who was 

 saved they asked where the other people wxre, and she said that they 

 were scattered everywhere in camps which she named. After they 

 had destroyed the second camp they enslaved more women, whom 

 they also put upon the sharpened limb. As they never took any off, 

 the number on this increased continually. Then they asked the 

 woman: ''Didn't you expect any war party to come down here?" 

 She said, ''No one expected another raid down here, so they built no 

 forts." 



The big canoe went around everywhere, killing people, destroying 

 property, and enslaving women. The women captured at each place 

 told them where others were to be found, and so they continued from 

 ])lace to place. They destroyed more of the southern people than 

 were killed up this way. When they thought that they had killed 

 everybody they started north, stopping at a certain place to scalp the 

 bodies. Then they reached home, and everybody felt happy. They 

 not only brought numbers of slaves but liberated those of their own 

 jicople who had l)een taken south. Since that time people have been 

 freer to camp where they please, and, although the northern and 

 southern people fought against each other for a long time, more 

 slaves were taken up this way, so the northern people did not esteem 

 the southern people very highly. This is said to have been the very 

 oldest war. 



30. HOW PROTESTANT CHRISTIANITY WAS FIRST HEARD 



OF AT SITIvA« 



A man went south from Sitka and returned after two months. 

 When he came ashore he called all the people to a dance and told them 

 that God (Deki'-anqa'wo, Distant-chief) had come down from heaven 

 to help them. 



Then all the women made beadwork for their hair and ears. One 

 evening, when they were through with that, they again began danc- 

 ing. While the women danced they would fall flat on their backs. 

 When this happened, in accordance with directions the man had 

 received below, they brought up salt water, wet part of each woman's 

 blanket and flapped it against her breast to make her come to. This 

 prevented the smallpox from having any effect upon her. They kept 

 on dancing a whole year. 



(1 It is possible, however, that this was the result of Jesuit teaching on the upper Skeena. 



