Page:Tlingit Myths and Texts.djvu/79
sneak around here for I can see you." They could not get at them. These land-otter-men had come to the women to turn them into land-otter-people also.
A menstruant woman is the only thing that will enfeeble the power of a shaman's spirit, therefore, although the shaman endeavored to get these land-otter-men out of the women, his spirits kept turning back. When the shaman's spirit came to him next evening, it said that there were more land-otter-men coming to take away the ones in these women and the women with them. He told the people to be watchful, because there was going to be a great disturbance that night. When night came on the people were all very much frightened at the noises the land-otter-men made under the houses, and they had great trouble keeping the two women in their rooms so that they should not be carried off. All the people helped them, but the land otters were invisible. After that nobody went out to camp for a long time. Then they said to the two women, "Take your bloody clothes to different beaches, leave them there, and tell the land otters that they are too great animals to fight with weak beings." In those times whenever a menstruant woman said anything of that kind it had to be obeyed. So the land otters went off.
The shamans in those times were very strict and strong, and whatever they saw was true. By and by these shamans said, "Something is going to happen to that great town there by the lake." When the things that had happened in their neighbors' town regarding the land otters were reported to the people there, they said, "Are you afraid of those things that stutter and can not talk like you and I?" By and by two men started hunting from this place. When they had reached the top of a neighboring mountain, they looked back and saw a great flood come down between the mountains and overwhelm their town. This flood was caused by an avalanche which poured into the lake and filled it up, forcing the water out. Some human bodies were hanging to the branches of trees. The men knew this had happened on account of the way they had spoken of the land otters, and, starting on aimlessly, they came to the town where the shamans lived.
One of these two shamans had a quantity of oil which he was going to carry to another town. He wanted to buy skins of kinds different from those his own people had. When they reached a camping place outside of the town the man's spirit told him to go down to the beach at low tide and carry a hook with him. A shaman's spirits never liked salt things. There he saw a very big devilfish under a rock, and his spirit said to him, "Look out, master, that is a big live devilfish." As soon as he had hooked it, he saw what appeared to be two ducks flying toward him from either side, but they were really the devilfish s arms. Then his spirit told him to run up quickly on the bank, and