swAXTOx] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 149 



tree." Then the town people were troubled and said, " Wlw did jou 

 leave him out there? Why didn't you bring him m?" 



Meanwhile Black-skin took out the sea-lion intestines and dried 

 them. He had nothmg to make a fire with and did not know what 

 he should do. So he lay down and went to sleep, his head covered 

 with his blanket. Then he heard something that sounded like the 

 beating of sticks. Suddenly he was awakened l)y hearing someone 

 say, "I have come after 3^ou." He looked around, but could not see 

 anything except a black duck which was swimming about in front of 

 him. Then he saw the black duck coming toward him and said to it, 

 "1 have seen you already." It answered, "I am sent after you. 

 Get on my back but keep your eyes closed tight." So he did. Then 

 the duck said again, "Now open your eyes." He opened them and 

 saw that he was in a fine house. It was the house of the sea lions. It 

 is through this story that the natives to the present day say that 

 everything is like a human being. Each has its "way of living." 

 Why do fish die on coming out of the water? It is because they have 

 a "way of living" of their own down there. 



Meanwhile the elder wife of the chief, who had helped Black-skin, 

 was mourning for her husband and nephew. Her husband's body 

 was still on that island. The older people were also saying to the 

 people who had left him, "Why did you do it? A powerful fellow 

 like that is scarce. We want such a fellow among us." Then the 

 widow begged the young men to go back to the island and l)ring home 

 her nephew and her husband's body but the younger wife did not 

 care. Finally some other people did go out. They saw the body 

 there, but Black-skin was gone. Then they took aboard the body, 

 loaded the canoe with the bodies of sea lions, and went home. When 

 they heard of it the wise people all said that something was wrong. 

 The shamans said that he was not dead and that they would see him 

 again. They saifl that he was off with some wild animal. This 

 troubled the village people a great deal. They felt very badly to 

 think that he had kept himself so very lowly before the low-caste peo- 

 ple, and they feared that he was suffering somewhere agam when he 

 might just as well have occupied his uncle's place. 



Black-skin, however, continued to stay among the sea lions. They 

 looked to him like human beings, but he knew who they really were. 

 In the same house there was a boy crying all the time with pain. The 

 sea-lion people could not see what ailed him. Black-skin, however, 

 could see that he had a barbed spear point in his side. Then one of 

 the sea lions spoke up saying, "That shaman there knows what is the 

 matter. He is saying, ' How is it that they can not see the bone in the 

 side of that child?'" Then Black-skin said, "I am not a shaman, but 

 I can take it out." So he cut it out and blood and matter came out 

 with it. Then they gave him warm water to wash the wound, and, 



