166 BUREAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 39 



with roots to make them strong. He tried to spUt the tree along its 

 whole length. When he had accomplished this he put crosspieces 

 between to hold the two sections apart. Then he baited his line with 

 salmon, with the bright part turned out, and let it down between. 

 He had been told that there was a monster in that lake, and he was 

 going to fmd out. By and by he felt his line move, but w hen he pulled 

 up quickly it broke. The next time, however, he pulled it up still more 

 rapidly and the creature followed it to the surface between the two 

 halves of the tree. Then he pushed the crosspieces out so that the 

 halves of the tree sprang together and caught its head while he jumped 

 ashore. He stood on a grassy spot near by to watch. Then the 

 monster struggled hard to get away, and it was so strong that it kept 

 dragging the tree clear under water, but at last it died. Now the 

 man spread the cedar apart by means of his crosspieces, dragged out 

 the monster's body and examined it. He saw that it had very sharp, 

 strong teeth and that its claws looked like copper. Then he skinned 

 it with the claws, etc., entire, dried it very carefully, got inside, and 

 went into the water. It began to swim away with him, and it swam 

 down to the monster's house under the lake, which was ver}^ beautiful. 



After this man had come up again, he left his skin in a hole in a dry 

 tree near by and went home, but did not say a word to anybody about 

 what he had discovered. When wanter came all went back to their 

 village, and the following spring there was a famine. 



One morning the man said to his wife, ''I am going away. I will 

 be here every morning just before the ravens are awake. If you hear 

 a raven before I get back don't look for me any more." Then he 

 again got into the monster's skin and swam to his house. He found 

 that from there he could go out into the sea, so he swam along in 

 the sea, fcnmd a king salmon ami brought it back. He took off his 

 skin and left it where he had ])ut it before. The salmon he carried to 

 town and left on the beach close to the houses. 



Next morning this man's mother-in-law got up early, went out, and 

 came upon a salmon. She thought that it had drifted there, so she took 

 it home. Then she came in and said to her husband, "I have found a 

 fine big salmon." They cooked it for all the people in the village and 

 distributed the food, as was formerly the custom. Next evening her 

 son-in-law did the very same thing, only he caught two salmon. 

 Then he went to bed. He told his wife that it was he who was getting 

 these salmon, but she must not say a word about it. 



The third time he brought salmon in and his mother-in-law found 

 them she considered the matter very deeply. Her son-in-law would 

 sleep all day, not getting up to eat until it was almost evening. 

 Before this he had been in the habit of rising very early in order to 

 gamble. When he got up next day, the old woman said to him, "The 

 idea of starving people who are sleeping all day. If I did not go 



