bWAXTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 445 



S6. TirE Woman avho Markifm) the Dead Man 



A »;irl kicked aside the skull of a dead person, and the following 

 nioht two boys came to her and she married one of them. This was 

 the man who had owned the skull. The two youths stayed there for 

 a lono- time. When they hunted they went all through the actions of 

 paddling-, spearing, and camping without ever leaving the house. 

 When they pretended to get back, however, their canoe would be 

 found on the beach loaded with tish and seals. They were slowly 

 ])ecoming materialized when another girl became jealous of them and 

 destroyed them by marking the places where they sat with human 

 blood- 



87. The Returned from Spirit Land 



After the death of a certain woman her husl)and, who was very fond 

 of her, started oft' aimlessly and came by the spirit road to a lake. 

 He shouted to the people on the other side to come over and get him, 

 but they did not hear him until he spoke in a whisper. After he 

 reached the other side he found his wife and started back with her. 

 At first nothing could be seen of her but a shadow, but gradually she 

 became more and more distinct. She was a))Out to resume her proper 

 sha])e, when a j^oung man who had been in love with her lifted the 

 curtain which was stretched around her and her husband, and both 

 went back to ghost land. 



88. The Sky Country 



A man whose wife had died felt so lonely that he set out after her 

 along the beach. He soon found himself in a wide trail, and met a 

 woman tanning a skin, who directed him to his wife. The people in 

 the town where she was staying wanted to burn him, but he made 

 them think he was more afraid of l)eing thrown into the water, so he 

 saved himself. They were really in the sky. By and by a spider 

 woman let them down, and thc}^ returned home. 



89. The Oricin of Copper 



A woman was carried away by the grizzly-bear people, escaped, 

 and impeded her pursuers by throwing small objects behind her 

 which changed into great obstructions. Finally she was taken up 

 into the sun in a canoe and married the sun's sons, who made way for 

 her by killing their former cannibal wife above a Tsirashian town. 

 Therefore there are many cannibals among the Tsimshian. At last 

 the woman returned to her parents in a canoe which was like a live 

 grizzly bear. By and by her husbands became angry with her and 

 left her. Then she and her child lived in a brush house covered with 

 filth, at one end of the town. When he got larger her boy shot some- 

 thing in the lake which proved to be his fathers' canoe, and pounded 



