224 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull :59 



from their robes she and her husband and all her relations went out. 

 There she saw both of her daughters. "My daughters," she cried, 

 and wept with happiness. All in the village ran to see them and 

 were very happy. 



Next day the elder girl said to her mother, "Mother, there is a 

 basket a little way back there in the woods. Send after it and have 

 it brought down." All the people went out to it, but returned 

 saying, "It is sucli a large basket that all the people in the village 

 can't bring it in." Then the girl went up herself, and it became small 

 so tliat she l)rought it home easily. As soon as she had gotten it into 

 the house and had set it down, it became large once more. Then she 

 began to unpack it, and the house was filled xWth all sorts of meats. 

 They feasted on these, and the village people were satisfied and felt 

 very happy. Their mother, however, took too much grease on top 

 of everything else. On going to bed, she drank some very cold w^ater 

 which hardened the grease so that her stomach broke in two. 



Nowadays it is a fortunate man that hears Mountain Dweller's ax 

 or sees where he has l)een clio])ping. The basket obtained from him 

 at this time is called Mother-basket (KAk"La), and is used by the 

 GanAxte'di as an emblem. 



66. J low TI IK SITKA KiKSA'Dl OBTAINED THE FKOG« 



A man and his wife were crossing the mouth of a big bay named 

 Lle'yaq, when it became so foggy that they could not even see the 

 water around their canoe and stopped where they were. Then, quite 

 a distance away in the thick fog, they heard singing, and it continued 

 for so long a time tliat they learned the song by heart. The words 

 of this song are (first verse), "We picked up a man; you picked up 

 a man;" (second verse), "They captured a man; they captured a 

 man; you've captured a man." The voice was so powerful that they 

 could hear it reecho among all the mountains. 



When the fog began to rise so that they could look under it a little 

 they heard the song coming nearer and nearer. They looked about 

 ami finally saw that it came from a very little frog. To make sure 

 of it they paddled along for some time in the direction it was taking. 

 Then the man said, "This frog is going to be mine. I am going to 

 claim it," and his wife answered, "No, it is going to be mine. I am 

 going to claim it." But, after they had disputed for some time, the 

 man finally let it go to his wife. 



Then the woman took it ashore, treating it like a child, carried it 

 up to the woods, put it down by a lake and left it there. From that 

 time on, her people have been KiksA'dt. That is how the Sitka 

 KtksA'dt came to claim the frog. 



a For the Sitka version, see story 95. 



