SWANTO.N] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 127 



selected wet wood for this, l)ut the girl got nothing Init dry wood, 

 and her foe continually went out. She could never start a fire with 

 it. One day, however, an old woman called to her and said, ''You 

 are with a different sort of people. You are brought away fi-om 

 your own people, I got here because the same thing happened to 

 me. Use wet wood like the rest of the women. Leave that dry 

 wood alone." Then she used wet wood and had good fires. 



When this gu'l had lost almost all the dentalia from her clothing 

 she thought, ''What is going to become of me?" But the old woman 

 said to her, "Do you want to save 3^ourself? Do you want to go 

 back to your father and mother? This is not a gootl place where 

 you are. Now," she said, ''go and get a piece of devil's club, a thorn 

 fi'om a wild rose bush, some sand, and a small rock. When you see 

 these bear people coming after you, throw that devil's club back of 

 you first. Next throw the thorn, then the mud, then the sand, then 

 the rock." 



So the woman collected these things and started off on the run, 

 and after a while she saw the bears coming l)ehmd her. When they 

 had gotten quite close to her she threw back the devil's club and 

 there came to be so many devil's clubs in that spot that the bears 

 could not get through easily. Wliile they were in the midst of these 

 she got a long distance off. The next time they got close she threw 

 back the thorn, and rose bushes covered the country they had to 

 traverse, retarding the bears again and enabling her to obtain another 

 long lead. Next she threw back the mud, and the place became so 

 muddy that they had to wade tlu"ough it slowly. After that she 

 threw the sand which became a sand bank, and the bears slid back 

 from it in attempting to cross. Finally she threw back the rock, 

 and there was a high cliff" which it took the bears a long time to 

 surmount. 



Before the bears had overcome this obstacle the girl came out on 

 a beach and saw a man in fi'ont of her in a canoe fishing for halibut. 

 She said to him, "Come ashore and save me," but he paid no atten- 

 tion to her. After she had entreated him for some time he said, 

 "Will 3^ou be my wife if I come to save you?" "Let me get into 

 your canoe, and let us go out. Then I will talk to you about that." 

 Finally, when she saw that the bears were very close to her, she said, 

 "Have pity on me. Come and save me." "Will you be my wife, 

 if I come and save you?" "Yes, I will be your wife." Upon that 

 he came in very quickl}^, took her into his canoe and went out again. 

 He was fishing with a float on the end of his line, and, when he came 

 back to it, he began pulling his line up. Then the bears rushed 

 down to the beach and shouted, "Bring us our wife. That is our 

 wife you have in your canoe. If you don't bring her to us we will 

 kill you." At first he paid no attention, but after a while he said, 



