240 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 39 



people could not guess the cause, and next day she appeared in her 

 father's house once more, looking very sad, for she had left her hus- 

 band; and now she stayed with her father all the time. 



After that her father's nephew kept trying to get her to marry him, 

 but she would have nothing to do with him. Before she had liked 

 him, but after she had been abused by the Fire Spirit on account of 

 what he hail done, she did not care for him and remained single all 

 the rest of her life. 



80. ORPHAN 



An orphan girl in the Tlingit country named SAha/n (Orphan) was 

 adopted by some high-caste ]:)eople so that she might be a companion 

 to their only daughter. She was very fond of going to the creek to 

 get water, and the chief's daughter always accompanied her. Every 

 time they went the chief's daughter would drink water from this 

 creek against the protests of her foster sister, and it made her very 

 unlucky. When she married into another high-caste family her hus- 

 band became very poor on account of her ami finally abantloned her. 

 Then he married Orphan, who was very ])right and knew how to take 

 care of things, and she made him rich. She was quiet and paid a 

 great deal of attention to her husband. The village ]:)eople were also 

 very much pleased with her, for after her husband married her, they 

 lived off of him. 



Everything that this girl had was good, her dishes and spoons 

 being all set with abalone shell. She had four adopted brothers, of 

 whom the elder two were rich but the younger two very poor and 

 unlucky. The former she would always treat well because she knew 

 that they were bright and able to take care of things, and she always 

 gave them food in her fine dishes. When she invited her poor brothers 

 her husband would say, ' 'Go and get your dishes now and let your 

 brothers eat off of them," but she always answered, "No, I don't 

 want to let them use my good dishes. They might leave the marks 

 of poverty on them." 



After Orphan had lived some time in luxury, however, her husband 

 died, and, as was customary, her husband's relations took the prop- 

 erty all away from her. She became as poor as she had been before. 

 Luck went against her because she had treated her poor brothers so 

 meanly. That is why, nowadays, when a rich person has a poor 

 brother he always treats him just as well as the rich one. 



81. THE DEAD BASKET-^IAKER 



A woman at Klawak was just finishing a basket when she died. 

 She had not yet cut oft' the tops. Then her husband took the basket 

 and put it up under the roof over his bed. He thought a great deal 

 of it because it was his wife's last work. Sometimes he would take 



