SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 111 



from the heads of mallard drakes. One morning the people again 

 shouted, "DAmna'dji's father-in-law and his brothers-in-law are 

 coming to see him." Rumiing out to look this time, he saw canoe 

 after canoe coming, loaded down deep. Then he chd not know 

 what to do. He began to sweep out the house and begged some 

 boys to help him clean up, but they said, "You clean up yourself. 

 Those are your people coming." The people of the ])lace also began 

 hiding all of their basket-work pots, and buckets. 



As they came in, the people in the canoes sang together and all 

 of them were iridescent with color. They were very proud people. 

 Then the old man begged the boys to carry up the strangers' goods, 

 but they replied as before, "You carry them up yourself. You can 

 do it." So the strangers had to bring up their own things into the 

 house and sit about without anyone telling them where. The old 

 man's sister was crying all the time. Then the strangers understood 

 at once what was the matter and felt very sorry for these old people. 



After that the old man kept saying to the boys who came in to 

 look at his visitors, "One of you go after water," but they answered, 

 "Go after water yourself. You can do it." He tried to borrow a 

 basket for his guests to eat off of, but they all said, "Use your own 

 basket. ^^Tlat did you go and get that high-caste girl for? You 

 knew that you couldn't afford it. Wliy didn't you get a poor person 

 like yourself instead of a chief's daughter? Now you may know 

 that it isn't fun to get a high-caste person when one is poor." His 

 brothers-in-law and his father-in-law felt ashamed at what they 

 heard, and they also felt badly for him. Then the old woman gave 

 her brother a basket that was unfit for the chief's slaves to eat out 

 of, and he ran out to get water for his guests. 



When he got there, however, and was stooping down to fill his 

 basket, the creek moved back from him and he followed it. It 

 kept doing this and he kept running after it until he came to the 

 mountain, where it finally vanished into a house. Running into this, 

 he saw a very old woman sitting there who said to him, "What are 

 you after? Is there anything I can do for you?" He said, "There 

 is much that you can do for me, if you can really do it. My friends are 

 very mean to me. My father-in-law and the other relations of my 

 wiie have all come to my place to visit me. I married a very high- 

 caste woman, and the people of my place seem to be very mean 

 about it. I am very poor and have nothing with which to entertain 

 them." He told all of his troubles to her from the beginning, and, 

 when he was through, she said, "Is that all?" "Yes, that is all." 

 Then the woman brushed back his hair several times with her hand, 

 and lo! he had a head of beautiful hair, while his ratjged clothes 

 changed into valuable ones. He was handsomer and better clothed 

 than at the time when he first obtained his wife. The old woman 



