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lying by the fire. He called to his companions, "Get up and let us be gone. Push the canoe down and load it quickly." He had a number of copper plates and other property which he had not yet unpacked, and, after he had gotten a little distance from the fort, he landed and took these out. Then he went right back in front of the fort to destroy them on account of the injury he had received. When these people came opposite they took out a copper plate, struck it on the edge of the canoe so as to make it sound and threw it into the sea. They threw away four. Then the fort chief also took four coppers, flung them on the wall of the fort and threw them into the ocean.
[I have explained to you before where this copper came from. It came from the Copper river. Probably this rich man came several times before the fort. Coppers were valued according to their height when they were first made, some at four slaves and some at six.][1]
When the Yakutat man came before this fort again, his copper plates were all gone, and he began to use cedar bark. His people would tie a rock on each piece and throw it into the water. Meanwhile the fort chief put his canoe on the walls of the fort and began to put Indian beads, caribou skins, moose skins, and other articles into it. Since these Llene di have the dog salmon for their emblem, the chief's sister began acting like one when it is shaking out its eggs. She pretended to be shaking out riches in the same way, and, while she did so, they threw the canoe over the edge of the fort, and all the good things spilled out. The man from Yakutat was foolish to try to contend with so wealthy a chief. His name (i. e., the Yakutat man's) was Ka/yeswusa/t. They chased him out with riches, and told him to come back again with more property. A song was composed about this afterward to the effect that he was simply fooling the people with this yellow cedar bark which was not real property at all. (See song 43.)
In the same fort a woman gave birth to a boy, who exclaimed as soon as he was born, "How many things there will be for all the people who are holding my mother." In olden times certain women used to hold a woman who was about to give birth, and they were paid for this service. The child grew very fast. He was going to be the greatest liar among his people. After he was grown up and had a family of his own, his mother died, and he started for Chilkat to invite people to the death feast. This was before the Russians came.
He said to his children, "Pull away. Pull fast." He had started off without any of the property he had intended to take, but on his way Indian rice hailed into his canoe, and a large box of grease floated down to him. When he got close to the mouth of Chilkat river he came in front of a waterfall. He tasted the water of this and found it very sweet. Then he took all of his buckets and filled them with
- ↑ An "aside" by the story-teller.