swANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 195 



"Grandson^ take off all of your clothes, get into this creek until the 

 water is up to your neck, and sit there no matter how cold it is." The 

 boy did so, and, after a long time, the big man saw the water shake 

 around him and thought, "The water is shaking because he has sat in it 

 so long that he is beginning to get cold." Then the big man told him 

 to come out, and, after he had done so, he said, "Go and try to pull 

 up that tree." This tree was a short one, and he pulled it up easily 

 by the roots. Then the big man told him to strike a large round 

 white rock near by to see if he could smash it, and he did so. The 

 rock was broken in pieces. But this rock was only a friable one j^ut 

 there on purpose for the boy to break. Then the big man said to 

 him, "Put on your clothes now and go home. To-morrow come up 

 again." 



The next day the big man told him td get into the creek again, and, 

 when he saw him shivering, told him to come out and pull up a still 

 larger tree. He pulled it up easily. Then he took him to a still 

 larger rock that looked shiny and hard and told him to strike it. 

 When he did so the tree went into slivers, but the rock was intact. 

 So he told the boy to dress, run down home, and come up again very 

 early. This time he was told to pull up a big crab-apple tree. He 

 succeeded, but, although it looked easy to him to break the rock, only 

 the tree was shattered. 



The fourth time the boy came up very early l^efore daylight. After 

 he had been in the stream long enough to shiver the big man said, 

 "Run to that tree standing over there. Try to break that." It was 

 a wild maple, but he broke it more easily than the crab apple. The 

 big man was surprised. 



Now the boy knew that he had great strength, and when the big 

 man told him to try to smash the rock again, the rock flew all about. 

 Then the big man took off his leggings, his shirt, and his moccasins, 

 which were beautifully worked with porcupine quills, and put them on 

 the boy. The moccasins were made to tie to the leggings and the sole 

 of one of them was a whetstone. Then the man told him that he was 

 Strength and had come to help him. He showed him a valley and 

 said, "Go right up that valley, making sure to walk in the middle of 

 it. On one side is the glacier. As soon as you reach the to]^ of the 

 mountain you will hear some one calling. You will see a large town 

 there. This village is where your people went when they disap- 

 peared and those are the wolf people that took them. As soon as 

 they get within your reach hit them with your club, and if it touches 

 one of them it will kill him. Run up the hill. If you run down the 

 hill you will be caught. If you become tired, think of me and you 

 will become stronger." 



Now the boy went up the hill as he had been directed until he 

 reached the end of the valley, where he heard some one call. He 



