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TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS
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he was within a short distance of the shore, he thought of the place where he had been and immediately floated back to the island. The second time the skin carried him right ashore. Then he got out, went home to his friends and reported everything that had happened.


Another canoe also set out to hunt in much the same way. After the people had gone on for a very long time unsuccessfully, they came upon a great seal standing out of the water, and one of the hunters speared it. It was nothing but an old log drifting about which had appeared to him like a seal. That night they anchored their canoe in front of a steep cliff not far from this place and prepared to spend the night there. By and by they heard a skate flopping along on the water near by, whereupon the steersman took his spear and struck it on one side of the belly. Then the skate swam right down into the ocean.

This skate was a slave of the GonaqAde t who lived under that same cliff, and when the GonaqAde t heard him groaning under the house steps where he always stayed, he said to one of his other slaves, "Get up and find what he is groaning about." Then the skate said, "There is a canoe outside here. The people in that canoe have done something to me."

Then the GonaqAde t awoke all his slaves nephews and said, "Bring that canoe in here."

Presently the man in the bow of the canoe awoke and looked about. Their canoe was on top of the inside partitions of a house. He took something and poked his steersman quietly to awaken him, for he saw that something was wrong.

Early in the morning the GonaqAde t awoke and said to his nephews, "Make a big fire." Then he exclaimed angrily, "It is of no use to bother poor slaves. Why did they want to kill that slave ?"

Meanwhile the friends of these people were searching for them everywhere.

Then the chief told them to come forward, saying to them, "You will now be judged." One could not see the part of the house near the door, it was so crowded with the nephews and friends of the GonaqAde t (i. e., all kinds of fishes and marine animals) dressed in every style. They said to them, "To what tribe do you belong?" and the bow man replied, We are of the KAtagwA di family." Then the chief said, "If one is going to visit a person, he should enter his house in a polite manner and not destroy anybody. Let them wash their hands. Give them food and dress them up well. I am a KAtagwA di myself, so you are my friends." Then they fixed them up well, dressing them and combing their hair. But at home the people were beating drums, because they thought these men were dead.