226 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 39 



discovered that it was a mountain. Then they felt brave and worked 

 harder, and it became bigger and bigger. They did not know what 

 mountain it was but said, "If we get to that place we can reach the 

 village." After a while they saw another mountain farther back and 

 then knew that the first was Mount Edgccumbe (l!Qx) and the second 

 Verstovaia (Qane'sdi-ca). By and by they reached the mountain and 

 drew their canoe up in a little bay under it, which they named Place- 

 where-canoe-rested (YAk"-kuse'gAk"). After two days they started 

 on again. Then they said, "Everyone has now gone to the salmon 

 creeks." By and by they came to Sitka village and had no more 

 than done so before the wind began to blow very hard. They must 

 have been on the rock seven months. As they had anticipated, they 

 found Sitka empty, and started for the salmon creek, Daxe't. 



All of the village people were then at Daxe't drying salmon, and 

 both of QaqlAtcgu'k's wives were with them. The younger had 

 already remarried, but the elder sat near the point every day and 

 cried for him. The}^ had held a death feast for him and had set up a 

 post. They were burning food and clothing for him. 



That day, after the old wife had sat crying for some time, she 

 looked up and saw a canoe with three men^m it coming toward her. 

 As she wept she looked up at it every now and then. When it got 

 very close she suddenly stopped crying and thought to herself, 

 "There is a fellow in that canoe that paddles just like my husband." 

 It made her feel sad. But, when it was still nearer, she said, "That 

 is he and his brothers who went with him. Nobody ever paddled so 

 much like him." Then she got up and walked toward the house. 



Then her husband, who thought a great deal of her, stood up and 

 said, "That is my wife." He looked again and was certain of it. 

 Then he said to his brothers, "That is my wife. She must have been 

 sitting there, crying." 



Wlien the woman reached her house she said, "There is a canoe 

 coming and I am sure that one of the men in it is my husband. Go 

 out and look." Then all went out, and saw that it was indeed he, 

 and began to shout his name, announcing that he had come back. 

 When he at length landed, he asked first for his wives, and they said, 

 "The younger is married again, but the elder has been grieving her 

 life away." He asked whether his children were all alive and they 

 said they were. Then they brought up his furs and other property 

 from the canoe, and he began telling how he had happened to stay 

 away so long. He told them how hard they had tried to get back, 

 and how he had thought of his wife and children worrying at home, 

 how they lived upon the large rock, how they provided themselves 

 with water and meat, and how many valuable furs they could have 

 gotten had they had bigger canoes. He told them how the seals, 

 fur seals, sea otter, and sea lions were so tame that they looked at 



