swAXTox] TLTNGTT MYTHS AND TEXTS 105 



After they met this man the girl's brothers asked her to make a 

 small net for them. This net was patterned after a spider's web 

 which Spider-spirit (Qasist !a'n jek) showed to KAcklA'Lk!, saying, 

 "You are to take this as a pattern." Then they took the old man to 

 the creek and said, "Do you feel this creek along here?" Putting a 

 long handle on the net, they said to him again, "Dip this net into the 

 water here. It is easy. You can feel when a fish gets into it." 

 They gave him also a basket their sister had made and said, "When 

 you want to cook the fish, put it in here together with many hot 

 rocks." After showing him how to cook his fish they left him and 

 came to another camp. There another old man lived who said to 

 them, ' ' Do you see that mountain ? ' ' There were two mountains close 

 together. "A very bad person lives over there named Long-haired- 

 person (CAku}yA''t!)." So, after the brothers had gotten a great deal 

 of food together for the old man, they left their mother and sister 

 with him and went out to look for Long-haired-person. After a while 

 they came upon good, hard trails made by him along wliich he had 

 set spears with obsidian points, and presently they saw him coming 

 along one of these with his long hair dragging on the ground. He had 

 a bone in his nose and swan's down around his head and wrists. Then 

 he said, "Come to my house. I invite you home to eat something. 

 I know you are there." He said this although he could not see them. 

 Then the boys came out to him and called him "brother-in-law," 

 and he said, "It is four days since I saw you, my brothers-in-law. 

 Your story is known everywhere." This Athapascan shaman's 

 spirits were telling him all these thuigs. So he took them home and 

 gave them all the different kinds of food to which they were accus- 

 tomed, not treating them as a wild man would. Then they said to 

 him, "You see the old person that lives near by. Do not do any 

 harm to him. He is our grandfather. If you see that old blind 

 fellow down yonder, give him food also. Treat him like the other." 

 Presently the shaman said to the brothers, "Let us make a sweat 

 house." In olden times people used to talk to each other in the 

 sweat houses, and the shamans learned a great deal from their spirits 

 inside of them. That was why the shaman wanted them to go in. 

 But, when they were inside, and he and KAcklA'Lk! had showed each 

 other their spirits, it was found that IvAcklA^Lkl's s])irits were the 

 stronger. 



Now they returned to their mother and sister and took them to 

 the head of the Taku river, where they spent some time in hunting. 

 Then they crossed to this side and, moving along slowly on account 

 of their sister, they came to a place on the Stikine called in Athapascan 

 HAk!i'ts, where they also hunted. Their destination was the Nass. 

 Commg down along the north bank of the Stildne to find a good place 



