SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 247 



First the man went up into the woods, procured very hard hmbs 

 and began to spHt them. He made the points very sharp. Then he 

 stuck them into grease and burned it off in order to harden them. 

 He took these along with him and crawled up on top of the house. 

 Then he flew down through the smoke hole. He bewitched everyone 

 in the house so that all slept soundly, passed into the rear bedroom, 

 and stuck the sticks into the hearts of liis wife and her lover so that 

 they died. 



Early next morning, when the slaves got up as usual to wait upon 

 the young people, they were kept waiting so long that they were sur- 

 prised. They thought that they were sleeping very late. Finally 

 they went to see what was the matter and saw them lying in each 

 others" arms with the blood flowing from their mouths. The news 

 was soon all over the village. 



Early that same morning the woman's former husband took his 

 gambhng sticks and came out to gamble. He pretended that he 

 knew notliing about what had happened. When persons came to 

 gamble with him he shouted out as people do when they are gambling, 

 "These are the sharp sticks. These are the shaq) sticks." People 

 wondered why he said it, and much wliispering went on while they 

 gambled. The man looked very happy. 



86. THE WOMAN WHO ^lARRIED THE DEAD MAN 



A woman belonging to the cohoes people (L!u'kAnA-ca), whose father 

 was a chief, was kept very pure and had a girl accompany her always. 

 One day, as she was going out with her servant, she tripped over 

 something and on looking at it found that it was a skull. She said, 

 "Who can the bad person be who has brought skulls near my father's 

 house in the place where I was going to walk?" She kicketl the skull 

 to one side and walked straight back into the house, for she was 

 frightened. 



The same night this girl thought she dreamed that two boys came 

 to her. They were two chiefs' sons who were dead, and it was the 

 skull of the elder that she had kicked out of the way. It was really no 

 dream, as she at first thought, and she married the elder youth. 

 These two chiefs' sons had met with some accident together, and so 

 they always traveled in company. 



Next morning the chief said, "What is wrong with my daughter? 

 She isn't up yet." Then he called the servant girl to go and awaken 

 her. So the girl ran to look, saw the young men there, and told the 

 girl's mother that she was married. "Well," said the mother, 

 "whom can she have married? She did not know anybody." 

 After that the girl and the young men rose and came down to the fire 



