SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 165 



Tlicy said to Cku'wu-yel, "Have 3011 3'our canoe ashore with aU of 

 your people in it?" He said, "I have it ashore." This was their 

 way of asking whether there woukl be any more war. Then they 

 woukl say to the deer again, "My deer, we are going to camp in a 

 nice sunny phice, are we not; and we are going to come in in a shel- 

 tered place where there are no waves, are we not?" He would say, 

 ''Yes, we are going to camp in a good place." Then they would say 

 to him, "You are going to sleep well hereafter, are you not?" And 

 he answered, "Yes." ^Vlien they were moving about, warring people 

 could never sleep well. That is why they said this to him. By the 

 waves and wind they meant the troubles tliey hatl had, and by saying 

 that they were going to camp in a calm place the}^ meant that they 

 were not going to war any more. 



The opposite deer, taken from Sleep house, was asked similar ques- 

 tions. If the deer did not have his mind fixed on making peace people 

 knew it by his songs, therefore they noticed every word he uttered. A 

 high-caste person was always selected as deer, because througli liim 

 there would be a certain peace. The man that came to another vil- 

 lage to be taken up as deer brought food with him on which to feast 

 the people there. The other side gave a feast in return. 



After they had made peace Ckti'wu-yel danced on the beach just 

 before he set out. Ldahi'n, the owner of Sleep house, danced on the 

 other side. This is the only way in which people made up with each 

 other after having been enemies for years. It happened years and 

 years ago, and to this day those people are friends. 



33. ORIGIN OF THE GONAQADE'T 



In a village somewhere to the northward a high-caste person had 

 married a high-caste girl from a neighboring village. His mother-in- 

 law lived with them, and she disliked her son-in-law very much 

 because he w^as a lazy fellow, fond only of gambling. As soon as they 

 were through with their meal she would say to the slaves, "Let that 

 fire go out at once." She did not want her son-in-law to have any- 

 thing to eat there. Long after dark the man would come in, and they 

 would hear him eating. Then his mother-in-law would say, "I sup- 

 pose my son-in-law has been felling a tree for me." Next morning 

 he would go out again very early. His wife thought it was useless to 

 say anything. The same thing happened every evening. 



When summer came all the people went after salmon, and the gam- 

 bler accompanied them. After he had hung u]:> tpiite a lot of this sal- 

 mon and dried it, he took it up into the woods beside a lake and made 

 a house there out of dry wood. Then lie began chopping with his 

 stone ax upon a big tree which stood a little distance back. It took 

 him a very long time to bring it down. After he had felled it into the 

 lake he made wedges out of very hard wood and tied their thick ends 



