Page:Tlingit Myths and Texts.djvu/86

A man named Xaku tc! was very fond of hunting and hunted almost every day with his brother-in-law, bringing home seal and all sorts of game which he had speared. There was no money in those days.

It was winter. One morning when he went out he speared a porpoise near the place where a devilfish lived, and began to skin it there, letting its blood spread out over the water. He told his steersman to keep a sharp lookout for the devilfish.

While they were moving along slowly skinning it, they saw the color of the devilfish coming toward them from under the water. It had its arms extended upward ready for action.

Xaku tc! had a big spear ready by his side, while his brother-in- law began to sharpen his knife and thought to do great things with it. When the devilfish came up out of the water he jumped into the midst of its arms along with his knife and was swallowed so quickly that he was able to do nothing; so his brother-in-law had to fight by himself. After he had fought with it for a long time he killed it, and it began to sink with him. The canoe stood up on one end before it went under, and he climbed up on the thwarts as high as he could go. At last the devilfish went right under with them, and finally floated up again at a place called Narrow point (Kulisa o q!a).

Some one must have witnessed this fight, for they cut the devilfish open to see if the hunter were there, and found him stowed away snugly inside of it. That was the man that people often talk about in these days as Xaku tc!.^[2] He it was who killed the devilfish.

Afterward his spirit came to one of his friends. People now try to get strength from him because he killed this devilfish. In olden times, when one killed a great creature, his strength always came to another person. Then his strength came to a certain person, impelling him to go to war.

They used to put a light, thin-skinned coat on this person's back to try his strength by endeavoring to pull it off, but they were not able to do so. They would pull this coat as far back as his shoulders, but, try as hard as they might, they could not get it farther. Then [the spirit in this shaman] told his name. He said, "I am Xaku tc!. I have been swallowed by a devilfish, and I come to you as a spirit (yek)." Many people came to see the shaman when he was possessed and to try him with the coat which no one could pull off* What do you think it was that held it on his back?