450 BUREAU OF AMEKICxVN ETHN01.0GY [bull. 39 



105. Story of the Ka'ckIe qoan 



After the death of an Athapascan chief on Copper river the people 

 of his house began figtiting- over the possession of a dish, and those 

 who lost it determined to emigrate. They set out, and, after losing- 

 some of their people in the mist, crossed the mountains near Mount St. 

 Elias and came to the sea. While they were living at the mouth of a 

 large river a little girl reared a sea gull which attained enormous pro- 

 portions. When it got large her brothers wanted to kill it, but it dis- 

 appeared together with the girl. By and by the chief sent six brothers 

 alongshore to hunt for other people. They encountered head winds at 

 one place and lost one of their number, but finally reached Yakutat. 

 W hen they got back they heard that the name of the girl who had reared 

 the sea gull had been given to another. This girl dug up some thing long 

 and red in the forest out of which a dish was carved like the one that 

 had been taken away from them. Presently they called in some 

 Burnt-house people who were coming south from the mouth of Cop- 

 per river and entertained them. 



After this the six brothers were sent back to Copper river for a 

 certain copper plate that had been left there, and they went and came 

 in twenty days each way, half the time it had taken the whole band to 

 come out. Then the people all set out for Yakutat, where they were 

 at tirst received in a hostile maimer by the Koskle'di and L'.uqioe'di 

 living there, until they purchased a creek from them with the copper 

 plate and settled upon it. This was Kack!, from which they obtained 

 their name. By and by the six brothers went hunting, and one of 

 them became so lazy that the others left him for some time. Then a 

 mountain being came to him and helped him to become a great hunter. 

 Finally he sent him home in a canoe w^hich was really a grizzly bear. 

 This bear turned around to be fed when it was hungry, and that is 

 what made the turns in the river. After a time tlie brothers went up 

 to a glacier at the head of Kack! to hunt, but their canoe was carried 

 away by a swell raised by falling ice. After waiting in vain for suc- 

 cor, they started to cross the glacier, but one of them became dizzy 

 and was carried away by the Wolf people. The others got across and 

 were in a starving condition, when the youngest discovered a mountain 

 sheep with very large horns, that was really " the mother of the bears." 

 After that they reached home. 



By and by the six brothers started south with their brother-in-law. 

 They tried to cross from KAstax?'xda-an to Auk, but were delayed for 

 months by storms. Finally Heavy-wings, their brother-in-law, dis- 

 covered that this was caused by North Wind, who was in love with his 

 daughter, and he gave her to him. After that Heavy-wings saw and 

 caught the Lle'nAxxI'dAq and became wealthy, but because he did not 

 use exactly the right words at that time he was killed by a copper 



