SWAXTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 183 



mon. She was careful not to let the others see what she was doing. 

 Then she went back and said to the girl, "Are you coming?" "No," 

 she replied, "since they don't want to take nie, I better stay." Then 

 her aunt said, "I have put a live coal in that brush house along with 

 a piece of dried salmon." 



As soon as the others had gone away the orphan made a big hre 

 and cooked her roots and salmon, but she did not feel like eating. 

 Therefore, instead of doing so, she went away and dug some more 

 roots. In the evening she went back to her brush house, thinking 

 she could eat now, but found that she had no appetite. So she 

 lay down antl went to sleep. Early in the morning she was awak- 

 ened by a great noise which she found on looking out was made by a 

 flock of brants (c(en). She felt so tired that she lay down again and 

 went to sleep, and, when she awoke once more, she thought she would 

 set out after more roots. Going down to the flat where these roots 

 grew, she found it covered with brants feeding upon them. Wlien 

 they saw her they flew away. Then she began removing the dead 

 grass from the place where she was going to dig, and to her surprise 

 came upon several big canoes looking as if they had been buried there, 

 which were loaded with eulachon oil, dried eulaciion, drietl halil:)ut, 

 and dried salmon. She felt very happy. She thought how lucky it 

 was that she had remained there when all of the vfllage people were 

 starving. 



Now the orphan thought that she would eat something, so she took 

 some salmon and a bundle of halibut home with her. On roasting 

 a piece of salmon, however, she found that she could not eat it. She 

 did not know what had gotten into her that she could not force her- 

 self to eat. She wished that her aunt were with her. Next morning 

 she discovered that the spirits were keeping food away from her 

 because she was becoming a shaman. The brants had become her 

 spirits. The brant spirits always come to Raven people like her. 

 So she became a great shaman and was possessed by spirits every 

 day, while sea gulls, crows, and all kinds of sea and woodland birds 

 sang for her. This happened every day. Two or three times a da}^ 

 she would go to see the buried canoes, but she could not eat anything, 

 and she gave up digging roots because she had no way of sharpening 

 her sticks. Meanwhile everyone in the village thought that she had 

 starved to death. 



After some time had passed, the girl wished that some one would come 

 to her from the village, and the day after a canoe appeared in sight. 

 This made her very happy, especially when it got close and she found 

 it contained some people of her acquaintance from the village. She 

 called them up to her brush house and gave them some food from the 

 canoes, and they remained there two or three days. They were out 

 hunting for food. After a while she told them it was time for them 



