88 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. :{9 



was a log with KAka' lying upon it clothed only in a kelp apron. 

 The people were delighted to find even his body, and took it into 

 their canoe. He looked very wild and strange. He did not open 

 his eyes, j'^et he seemed to know who had possession of him, and 

 without having his lips stir a voice far down in his chest said, "It is I 

 my masters." It was a shaman's spirit that said this, and to the 

 present day a shaman's spirit will call the shaman's relations "my 

 masters." 



The old woman that saved him and told him to sit astride of the 

 log was his spirit and so was her husbaml. The log was the spirit's 

 canoe. This woman and her husband had been captured by the 

 land otters long before, but IvAka' was so strong-minded a fellow 

 that they felt they could do nothing with him, so they let him go 

 and became his spirits. They could not turn him into a land otter 

 because he did not believe that land otters are stronger than human 

 beings. 



After the people had brought KAka' to a place just around the ])oint 

 from their village, he said, "Leave me here for a little while.'' So 

 most of his relations remained with him, while two went home to 

 tell the people who were there. They were not allowed to keep it 

 from the women. Then they made a house for him out of devil clubs 

 and he was left there for two days while the people of the town fasted. 

 They believed in these spirits as we now believe in God. Before he 

 was brought home the house and the people in it had to be very clean, 

 because he would not go where there was filth. After they got him 

 home they heard the spirit saying far down within him, "It is I, 

 Old-land-otter-spirit (Ku'cta-koca'nqo-yek)." This was the name of 

 the old woman who first told him what to do. The next spirit was 

 The-spirit-that-saves (Qosine'xe-yek). He sang inside of him the 

 same song that the land otters sang. It was his spirit's song and has 

 many words to it. 



All the birds that assembled around him when he was floating 

 upon the sea were also his spirits. Even the wind and waves that 

 first upset him were his spirits. Everything strange that he had seen 

 at the time when the land otters got possession of him were his 

 spirits. There are always sea birds sitting on a floating log, and 

 from IvAka' people learned that these are shamans' spirits. It is 

 from his experience that all Alaskans — Tlingit, Haida, even Eskimo 

 and Athapascans — believe in the land-otter-men (kii'cta-qa). By 

 means of his spirits KAka' was able to stand going naked for two 

 years. This story of IvAka' is a true story, and it is from liim tliat 

 the Tlingit believe in shamans' spirits (yek)." 



a See story 5. 



