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TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS
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ward to see whether he was asleep or had fallen into the water. Her son was not there. The blanket he had had around his knees was there, but he was gone. She said to her husband, “Your son is gone again,” and he replied, “I can not do anything more. He is gone. How can I bring him back?” So they went on to Sitka.

When they came to Sitka, they reported all that had happened. The father said, "My son helped us. Just as we got around the point he disappeared out of the canoe." So his friends gave a feast for him. His father s name was SAkl , and the place where they fished for halibut is now called SAki -I di.


8. THE WOLF-CHIEF'S SON

Famine visited a certain town, and many people died of starvation. There was a young boy there who always went around with bow and arrows. One day, as he was hunting about, he came across a little animal that looked like a dog and put it under his blanket. He brought it to his mother, and his mother washed it for him. Then he took the red paint left by his dead uncles, spit upon the dog and threw paint on so that it would stick to its hair and face. When he took the dog into the woods, it would bring him all kinds of birds, such as grouse, which he carried home to his family. They cooked these in a basket pot. Afterward he brought the animal down, washed it, and put more paint upon its legs and head. This en abled him to trace it when he was out hunting.

One day after he had traced it for some distance, he found it had killed a small mountain sheep, and, when he came down, he gave it the fat part. With the meat so obtained he began to take good care of his mother and his friends. He had not yet found out whether the animal was really a dog.

The next time they went hunting they came across a large flock of sheep, and he sent the dog right up to them. It killed all of them, and he cut the best one open for it. Then he took down the rest of the sheep and dressed them. What the animal was killing was keeping some of his friends alive.

One time the husband of a sister came to him and said, "I wish to borrow your animal. It is doing great things in this place." So he brought the little dog from the house he had made for it, painted its face and feet, and said to his brother-in-law, "When you kill the first one cut it open quickly and let him have it. That is the way I always do." Then this brother-in law took up the little dog, and, when they came to a flock of sheep, it went straight among them, killing them and throwing them down one after another. But, after he had cut one open, he took out the entrails, threw them into the dog s face, and said, "Dogs always eat the insides of animals, not the