swANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 163 



out. Big Raven said, "LA'kua has gotten up already. LA'kua has 

 looked out now. My masters, which way is this LA'kua going to go ?" 

 The people said, ''Wliat are you saying. Big Raven? Go wherever 

 you think best." Then he told them to pound away on the sticks, 

 and he shouted, ''Here, here is the camping place." After the spirit 

 had been all over their course it said, ''Ho, he, the Raven swinging 

 back and forth." 



For Cadisi'ktc's war hat they made a carving of a monster rat 

 which is said to live under the mountain Was !l'ca. His spear points 

 they made out of iron — taken pr(d)ably from some wreck. They 

 considered themselves very lucky when they found this iron. They 

 thought that it grew in the timber and not that it belonged to a ship. 

 This they called Gaye's! ha'wu (Log of Iron). Gaye's! was originally 

 the name given to black mud along the beaches to which people 

 likened iron rust. 



Now the war canoes started from Kos!e'x for Chilkat, drilling as 

 they went. Wlien people do this they take out their drums and 

 drill wherever possible. There are certain songs called "drilling 

 songs." Wlien the shaman said, "This is the place where LA'kua 

 camped," they camped there. They thought that it would bring 

 bad luck to go any farther than to the place where he had camped. 

 When on an expedition the war chief never looked back in the direc- 

 tion in which they had come. At KAq lAnuwu' they stopped long 

 enough to get the L!uk!nAXA'di there. Those were the people of 

 which so many had been killed by the Chilkat before. The KiksA'di, 

 T!*A'q!dentan,and other families also started with them, and they paid 

 these for their help with copper plates. All this time the shaman's 

 spirit sang the same song about "the raven swinging back and 

 forth." 



At last the warriors reached Chilkat and stood in a row fronting 

 the river back of the Chilkat fort. Behind all stood Cadisi'ktc. 

 Then Yel-xak came out on top of the fort and said, "Where is that 

 Cadisi'ktc?" So Cadisi'ktc stepped out in front of his party with the 

 mouse war hat on his head, saying, "Here I am." Then Yel-xak said, 

 "Wliere lias that mouse (kutsll'n) been? What has he been doing?" 

 He answered, "I have been in that great mountain that belonged to 

 my mother's uncle, and I have come out after you." After this they 

 heard a drum in the fort, which meant that those people were about 

 to come out. Then they came out in files, and Yel-xak and Cadi- 

 si'ktc went to meet each other with their spears. But the Chilkat 

 still had their spears pointed with bone and mountain-goat horn, 

 and wlien Yel-xak speared Cadisi'ktc he did not seem to hurt him. 

 Cadisi'ktc, however, speared Yel-xak through the heart, and his 

 body floated down the river on which they fought until it struck 

 against a log running out from the bank. The end of this log moved 



