MYTHIC TALE OF OLD MAETEN. Il5 



109, 1. shka'sbgatkaltk. A verbal adjective of shkdtkgla, to carry on back ; ka, 

 ka is the radical syllable, fouud also iu ka'mat, hack. This distributive form is appar- 

 ently due to vocalic dissimilation. Women carry conical baskets (ydki) on their backs 

 when digging roots or bulbs, and throw them over their shoulders into these recep- 

 tacles. 



109, 2. 6. 8. Sk^lamtch. See Dave Hill's relation of the same myth ; Note to 107, 3. 

 In speaking of somebody who acts on the sly, and differently from what he professes 

 and means to do, the Klamath Lake people wiU say: "He acts like Sk^lamtch." This 

 is one of the few proverbial locutions, or at least figurative modes of speech that can 

 be traced in this tribe. 



109, 3. kma' is the rounded light cap usually worn by females, fitting tight to the 

 skull. It is made of the stalks of aquatic plants, several species of them entering into 

 the manufacture of each cap. The taking away of the skull-caps was intended as a 

 signal for the women to go to their now homes. 



109, 6. tata. The words of reprehension addressed by Old Marten to Weaslet are : 

 " Did I ever order you to bring the caps of any otlier than of both the one-eyed women ? 

 I told you to get the caps of both one-eyed women only." Lapuk belongs to shtchush- 

 ;fdpkam, though separated from it by the inversion of the sentence ; kmft' is left out. 



109, 6. shtchush;{4pkam. The distributive form of shtchu';fa is so difficult to 

 articulate, that abbre\iations of it like the above and others, have resulted. Shtchu;fa 

 is evidently the medial form of tcho^fa, and its meaning is therefore "to suffer destruc- 

 tion on oneself." Of. shtchuyampka. 



109, 10. ni a'pkatki. After ii'pkatki supply gi: "said, told." 



109, 11. The text forgets to mention the calling in of the two one-eyed women. 



109, 12. Shu'hank=shitk. In many mythic stories the newly-born children are 

 made to grow miraculously fast, so that when a few days old they handle bow and 

 arrows, and after a mouth or two they are adult people. 



109, 13. nt^yala, to make a bow or bows (nte-ish), nteydkaia, to make little bows 

 (nteydga), nteyakalia or nteyakaliya, to make little bows /or somebody. 



109, 13. iinak, son, is variously pronounced u'nak, viinaka, wiinak; and so is its 

 diminutive unakag, uuakaga, viinakak, little son, '•^ sonny". 



109, 15. hishla has two meanings, both reciprocal : to shoot at each other, and to 

 shoot at the mark, rivalling to outdo each other in markmanship. Cf. 24, 17. 



109, 15. L6watkuk for lewatko huk: they, after having played; participle of lewa 

 to play. 



110, 1. hixshutdnkapksh etc. "This was an approaching himself on the sly towards 

 me" is the literal renderiug of this sentence, in which the first term is a nomen 

 actionis, a verbal indefinite. The two pronouns are governed by it. 



110, 3. mish shli'shtka gi'uapk, if he should want to shoot you; if he should shoot 

 at you purposely. 



110, 4. Shdyuakta, "he knew." Omniscience and prescience are among the cha- 

 racteristic features of Old Marten, who is the personification of K'miikamtch. Of. 107, 

 1. 3. 14. 108, 5. and Note to 107, 3. 



110, G. hutkalpeli, to rise up suddenly, to jump up again (though kiUed before- 

 hand). Cf. 108, 2. 



110,11. "shni'iilatchgaukan hft'n gi." Marten's sou said, that his arrow, when 



