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broken, people beat a drum as though somebody had died. It means that this woman was very sorry indeed for the dead people when she lent her stone ax for this purpose.
When the Alsek River people heard of this slaughter they were very sad, but first they started their respective shamans fighting. It was really the shamans spirits that fought. The shaman would stand in one place and say, "Now we are going to fight." He would also perform with knives just as if he were fighting something, though at that time the shamens were very far apart. Their spirits, however, could see each other plainly. They would also give the names of those warriors who were to be killed.
On the next expedition from Alsek against the people who had killed so many of their friends, they killed the same number on the other side. That was the way people did in olden times. They kept on fighting until both sides were even. Therefore they stopped at this point.
28. THE YOUTHFUL WARRIOR
A man belonging to the Wolf clan went hunting with his brothers-in-law. He wore a black bear-skin coat. They went up a certain creek after grizzly bears, but one time at camp he climbed a tree with his bear skin on and was filled with arrows by his companions who mistook him for an animal. Then he said to them, "I will not say that you filled me with arrows. I will say that I fell from the tree." So, when they got him home, he said, "I fell from a tree." After he was dead, however, and his body burned, they found mussel-shell arrow points lying among his bones.
After this his friends told his sister s son to go up to the place where he had been killed. The name of this place is Creek-with-a-cliff-at-its-mouth (WAtlage L), and it is near Port Frederick. When the hunters came into camp with a bear the boy pretended to be asleep, but really he was looking through a hole in his blanket. While they were cooking the bear some of them suggested that they say to this boy, "The bear s soup is very sweet," but others did not wish to. They tried to get the boy to eat some of it, but he would not. Then they started home with him.
After he had reached home he said to his mother, l Let us go down to the beach. I want you to look over my hair for lice." But, when she got down there with him, he said, "Mother, I want you to tell me truly what my fathers meant. They said, Wake this young fellow up and let him drink some of this bear s soup. " Then his mother became frightened and said to him, "Your uncle went to that creek. They shot him full of arrows there." When he found that out he chased his mother away.