swANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 177 



basket, and merely hooted (hm, hm). She had become the screech 

 owl. She left them altogether. 



Nowadays, when a young girl is very selfish, people say to her, 

 "Ah! when you get married, you will put a hot rock into your mother- 

 in-law's hand, and for punishment you will become an owl," 



38. LITTLE FELON 



A certain man had a felon (kweq) on his finger and suffered ter- 

 ribly, so that he could get no sleep. He did not know what to do for 

 it. One day somebody said to him, "Hold it under the smoke hole 

 of the house and get some one to poke it with something very sharp 

 through the smoke hole. You will find that it will get well." He did 

 so, and the two eyes of the felon came right out. Then he wrapped 

 them up and put them away. Late in the evening he looked at it 

 and saw a little man there about an inch long. It was the disease 

 from his finger. He took very good care of this little man and he 

 grew rapidly, soon becoming large enough to run about. He called 

 the little man Little Felon (Kweqk!"). 



Little Felon was a very industrious little fellow, always at w'ork, and 

 he knew how to carve, make canoes, paint, and do other similar 

 things. When he was working his master could not keep from work- 

 ing himself. He simply had to work. They thought it was because 

 he had come from the liand. Little Felon was also a good shot wdth 

 bow and arrows, and he was a very fast runner, rumiing races with 

 all the different animals. Finally he started to run a race with the 

 heron, and everybod}^ said the heron w^ould prove too much for him. 

 They raced all the way round Prince of Wales island, and, when they 

 were through. Little Felon said to the heron, "I have been way back 

 among the mountains of this island, and there are thirty-three 

 lakes." The heron answered, "I have been all along the creeks, and 

 there are fifty creeks." 



By and by a youth said to Little Felon, "There is a girl living with 

 a certain old woman. She is a very pretty girl and wants to marry, 

 but she hasn't seen anybody she likes. Her grandmother has the 

 dried skin of an animal and she has l)een making all the young fellows 

 guess the name of it. Those that guess wrong are put to death. 

 You ought to try for her." But Little Felon said to the boy, '' I don't 

 care to marry, and I don't want to guess, because I know. You tell 

 her that it is the skin of a louse. It was crawling upon the woman, 

 and she put it into a box and fed it until it grew large. Then she 

 killed and skimied it. You will get her if you tell her. But be care- 

 fi.l. That old woman knows a lot about medicines. When you are 

 going toward her, go with the wind. Don't let the wind come from 

 her. Don't go toward her when the south wind is blowing. Go 

 49438— Bull. 39—00 12 



