114 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 39 



They also began fasting, and all of her brothers and relations in that 

 village fasted with them. All cleaned up their houses and talked to 

 their Creator (Cagii'n). One midnight, after they had fasted for 

 many days, they felt the house shaking, and they heard a noise in 

 the place where the body lay. Then the father and mother felt very 

 happ3\ The mother went there with a light and saw that her daugh- 

 ter was in her own proper shape, acting like a shaman. Then the 

 woman named the spirits in her. The first she mentioned was the 

 swan spirit, the next the goose spirit, the next the sand-hill- crane 

 spirit, the next the brant spirit. Another spirit was the red-snapper- 

 head spirit which called itself Spirit-with-a-labret-in-its-chin (Tuts- 

 ya-u'wu-yek), and another the fox spirit (NagAsIe' koye'k). Now 

 the father and mother of this woman were very happy, but her hus- 

 band lost all of his wealth and l)ecame poor again. "^ 



Raven went to another place and turned himself into a woman. 

 Then she thought within herself, "Whose daughter shall I say I am?" 

 She saw a sea gull sitting out on a high rock and thought she would 

 call that her father. Years ago a chief would always pick out a high 

 place in the village on which to sit in the morning, anil when Raven 

 sawthesea gull she thought within herself, "I aniTACAkituA'n's (Sitter- 

 on-a-high-cliff's) daughter." A canoe came along filled with killer 

 whales returning to their own village, and she married one of them. 

 Wlien they got near the town, some one on the beach called to them, 

 "Where is that canoe coming from?" and one replied, ''We have 



n " As TsAgvva'n was a mischief maker and followed Raven to tell what he had done to his wife, so 

 some man will always follow one up if he doesn't tell the truth. Formerly, when a man left his wife, a 

 settlement of property was made and, if a man married again before this took place, his first wife made 

 trouble for his second. Since no one wants trouble of this kind, a woman always found out what a man 

 was like before she married him, just as this woman found out about Raven. 



"Since DAmna'dji married a woman of higher family than himself and was taunted by the town 

 people, nowadays they tell a young man that, if he marries a girl of higher rank than himself, they will 

 not remain together long, because she will feel above him and want him to please her continually, while 

 she does nothing to please him. As DAmna'dji from being poor became rich suddenly and was very 

 hard on his people till all of his riches were again taken away from him, they say, 'When you become 

 wealthy after having been poor, don't be proud or your money will all leave you.' AVhen a man has 

 had plenty of money all his life and wastes it foohshly, they say of him, 'He has fallen from the hands 

 of the brant So a young man nowadays saves up a considerable sum of money before he marries that 

 he may not be made fun of. Perhaps if we had not had this story among the natives of Alaska we 

 would have had nothing to go by. 



"The fact that DAmna'dji's wife's relations did not insult or maltreat him after they learned how 

 poor he was, shows that they were really high caste. Had they but recently acquired their wealth they 

 would have done so. Therefore people say to a person who speaks before he thinks, 'Why can't yoii 

 be like DAmna'dji's brothers-in-law? Think before you speak.' When the village people were making 

 fun of their brother-in-law. his wife's relations might have done anything to them, for they had wealth 

 in furs and slaves, but they kept quiet because they had too much respect for their sister to disgrace 

 her husband's village people. It was also out of respect for their sister that, when they found out that 

 all that the poor man had for them to drink was water, they drank it willingly without saying a word, 

 where a low -caste person would have grumbled. Therefore people tell a man who has no respect for 

 his brother-in-law because he is low-caste that he ought to be like these brothers-in-law of DAmna'dji. 

 Because DAmniL'dji was lucky twice, the people in olden times used to pray for luck continually. If 

 he wanted to be lucky a poor man lived a very pure life. Those who do not do what is right never will 

 have luck." (From the writer's informant.) 



