SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 213 



this small birtl, I have gotten very heav}^, and it is hard for him to 

 walk?" Then he threw the bird away and the giant walked on 

 again as lightly as before. The boy enjoyed so much being with this 

 giant that he had forgotten all about his father and mother. After 

 that they traveled on together until they came to a very large lake. 

 In it the boy saw beaver houses, and the beaver dam ran right across 

 it. He thought, "This is a beaver lake. This is the kind of place 

 my father has told me about." Then the big man tore a hole through 

 the top of a beaver house, took all of the beavers out, and made a 

 fire right back of the lake at which to cook them. They camped 

 there for several days, living on beaver meat and drying the skins. 

 But the first evening the giant said, "Keep a look out. If you hear 

 any noise during the night, wake me up. There is a bigger man 

 than I of whom I am much afraid." He also said to the bo}^, "Sleep 

 some distance away from me, or I might move against you or throw 

 my leg on you so as to kill you." 



The second night they encamped there the boy heard the bushes 

 breaking, and sure enough the second giant came along. He was 

 so tall that his head was far up above the trees, and they could not 

 see it. This second giant had been looking for the other for a long 

 time unsuccessfully, so he rushed upon him, threw him down, and 

 lay on top of him. Then the boy's friend cried, "Grandson, take 

 that club of mine out and throw it at him." The Ijoy ran to the 

 big man's bed, took his club, which was made from the entire skele- 

 ton of a beaver, out from under it, and threw^ it at the intruder. As 

 soon as he let it go out of his hands it began chewing at the second 

 giant's leg, and, as he was unable to feel it, the club chewed off 

 both his legs. Then the other, who had been almost smothered, 

 killed him and threw his body into the lake. 



After this the boy's companion had nothing to fear, and wandered 

 from lake to lake, and the boy was so fond of hunting that he forgot 

 all about his father and mother. It was now winter time, and that 

 winter was very severe. From the time the second giant had been 

 killed he had been doing nothing but killing beaver. 



One evening, however, the boy began thinking of his father and 

 his mother, and was very quiet. Then the big man said, "Why 

 is it that you are so quiet this evening?" The boy answered, "I 

 have just thought of my father and mother. I feel lonely (i. e., home- 

 sick) for them." Then his companion said, "Would you like to go 

 to them ? " "I can't go to them because I don't know where they are. 

 I don't know which way to go to get to them." Then the big man 

 said, "All right, you can go," but the boy did not know what he 

 meant. Now the big man wT.nt to a small tree, broke it off, trimmed 

 it well for the boy, and said to him, "Take this along and as soon 

 as you feel that you are lost, let it stand straight up and fall over. 



