Traditions of the Tsetsaut, 
35 
TRADITIONS OF THE TS’ETS’A'UT. 
II. 
10. THE GREAT SNOWFALL. 
Once upon a time a number of families of the wolf clan and of 
the eagle clan lived in a village at Sqamgb'ns, in Portland Channel. 
Near by there was a village of grizzly bear men.1 They attacked the 
village, and killed everybody with the exception of one boy and one 
girl of each of the two clans. They were crying all the time when 
they saw their relatives killed. Then one of the grizzly bear men 
went to their hut, and threatened to kill them if they should not 
stop crying. But one of the boys took his bow and arrow and shot 
the man in the chest, thus killing him. After this had happened, 
they dug a deep ditch in their hut, and buried all their relatives who 
had been killed. 
They left the place of these misfortunes and went down the 
mountains. After some time they reached a house, in which they 
found an old, old man who had been left by his friends to die alone. 
He said to them; “Stay here until I die, my grandchildren, and 
bury me when lam dead.” They stayed, and he asked them why 
they had left their country. When they had told him, he asked 
them to return, because salmon were nowhere as plentiful as in the 
river on which their house had stood. He also warned them, say- 
ing : “ The sky is full of feathers. Take good care to provide your- 
self with plenty of meat, and build a strong house.” He was a 
great shaman, and was able to foresee the future. 
After two days he died. The young people buried him. Then 
they started to return to their home in obedience to what the sha- 
man had told them. They followed a river, and when they were 
near its source they saw an immense herd of mountain goats coming 
down towards them. They did not stop to shoot them, but ran right 
up to them and dispatched them, cutting their throats with their 
knives. Then they went back to the camp in which they had left 
the girls, taking along only a kid that they had killed. They threw 
some of its meat and tallow into the fire, as a sacrifice to the dead 
shaman who had directed them to return home. On the following 
day they moved their camp to a hill which was located in the midst 
of three lakes. There they built a strong hut as directed by the sha- 
man. The two girls went out to fetch the meat of the mountain goats. 
While they were drying it, the boys strengthened the poles of the 
1 These were men. It is not quite clear if they were men of a grizzly bear 
clan, or if the story happened at the time when all animals were still men. 
/I fiFlV'r j" 36 
Journal of American Folk-Lore. 
house, joined them with stout thongs, and thus prepared for a heavy 
snowfall. They put the meat into the house. On the following 
day the snow began to fall. They lived on the meat of the moun- 
tain goats, but they sacrificed as much to the dead shaman as they 
ate. It continued to snow for two months. They could not go out 
to gather wood for their fire, but they had to burn the bones and 
the tallow of the goats. The smoke kept a hole open in the roof of 
their hut; and, when looking up, they could see no more than a very 
small speck of light. But after two months they saw the blue sky 
through this hole. The sun was shining again. Then they dug a 
hole towards the surface of the snow and came out. Nothing but 
snow was to be seen. The rocks of the mountains and the trees 
were all covered. Gradually the snow began to melt a little, and 
the tops of the trees reappeared. One day they saw a bear near 
the top of a tree. When they approached, it crawled back to its 
lair at the foot of the tree. Now they started on their way to 
their old home. After a long and difficult march, they reached it 
just at the time when the olachen were coming. They caught a 
plentiful supply and were well provided with provisions. In sum- 
mer there were salmon in the river. They caught them and dried 
and split them. They married and had many children. They were 
the only people who were saved from the heavy snow, and from 
them descended the present generations of people. They multiplied 
very rapidly, for they married very young, as dogs do. At the end 
of the first summer, only a small part of the snow had melted. A 
few rocks appeared in the mountains, but in the fall new snow began 
to fall. In the spring of the following year it began to melt again. 
The trees were gradually freed from snow, but some of it has always 
remained on the mountains, where it forms the glaciers. 
The two couples who had been saved from the snow grew to be 
very old. Their hair was white, and they were bent with old age. 
One day the young men climbed the mountains to hunt mountain 
goat. One of the old men accompanied them, but he was left be- 
hind, as he could not walk as fast as the young men did. When he 
had reached a meadow high up the side of the mountain he heard a 
voice from the interior of the rocks saying ; “ Here is the man who 
killed all our friends.” When he looked up he saw a number of 
mountain goats above. He did not know how to reach them, since 
his legs were weak. He took two sticks and tied one to each of 
his legs in order to steady and to strengthen them. Thus he was 
enabled to climb. He reached the mountain goats and cut their 
necks. He killed thirty. Among these was a kid. He took out 
its tallow and put it on his head; he cut off its head and took it 
under his arm to carry it home. He had stayed away so long that Compliments of Franz Boas. 
128 West 82nd Street, 
New York City. Traditions of the Ts'ets'dut. 
37 
his friends had given him up for lost. He told them of his adven- 
ture. He roasted the kid’s head and ate it. On the following 
morning he was dead. 
11. THE CHILDREN OF THE DOG. 
Once upon a time there was a woman who went every night 
hunting porcupines. During the daytime she hunted marmots. 
While out on the mountains she built a shelter of branches. One 
night, when she had gone to sleep, a young man entered her hut. 
He looked just like her lover, and she thought he had followed her. 
In the morning she boiled some of the porcupine meat and both 
partook of it, and in the evening the young man went out to hunt 
porcupines. As soon as he had left the hut, he put on his blanket 
and appeared in his true shape. He was one of the dogs of the 
village. He crawled into the dens of the porcupines and caught a 
great number. Then he took off his blanket and reappeared in the 
shape of a man. For three nights he stayed with the woman. 
During the daytime he went hunting marmots, and he never went 
out without bringing back a vast amount of game. Then he ate of 
the food that the woman had cooked and they went to bed. In the 
third night he arose about midnight. He had assumed his true 
shape, and ate the meat and gnawed the bones of the marmots and 
of the porcupines. The woman awoke by the noise and saw a large 
dog eating their provisions. She turned to the man, intending to 
awake him, but there was nobody to be seen. Then she took a 
club and killed the dog. Early in the morning she made a bundle 
of the remaining dried meat and returned to her village. She did 
not tell any one of what had happened. But soon she felt that she 
was with child, and when this came to be known nobody knew who 
had been her lover. After two months she was about to be con- 
fined, The women of the village assembled to assist her, but what 
was their terror when she gave birth first to two male dogs, then to 
a female dog ! They all fled, even her mother. Only her brother’s 
sister remained with her. The women told the people what had 
happened, and all the inhabitants of the village resolved to desert 
her. They packed their belongings and left the place. Only the 
young woman and her pups remained. 
They grew up rapidly. Every day their mother went gathering 
food for them. As soon as she left the hut, the pups took off their 
skins, and played about in the shape of children. They had nice, 
light skins. When they saw their mother approaching, they put 
on their skins, resumed the shape of dogs, and lay in the ashes 
of the fireplace. One day their mother did not go very far. 
She heard voices of children near her hut. They seemed to be 38 
Journal of American Folk-Lore. 
playing and singing. Cautiously she approached the hut, walking 
noiselessly over the snow; but the children had seen her coming, 
and put on their blankets before she was able to come near. On 
the following day she went up the mountains, and there she pushed 
her staff into the ground and hung her blanket of marmot skins over 
it. Again she approached the hut cautiously. When she came 
near, she saw two boys and one girl playing around. The latter 
went to look from time to time, and returned on seeing the staff 
that was covered with the blanket. She said to her brothers; 
“ Mother is still out gathering wood.” Then the mother jumped 
into the hut. On one side of the fireplace were two dog-skins; 
on the other there was one. She took the first two, and threw 
them into the fire. Before she was able to take the last, the girl 
had run into the house, put it on, and was transformed into a dog. 
Then the boys sat down in a corner of the house, crying for their 
skins. Their mother gave them blankets made of marmot skins. 
She made garments and snow-shoes, bows and arrows, and the boys 
began hunting squirrels. When they came to be larger they hunted 
larger animals, and the bitch accompanied them. She was a very 
good hunter. They had such a vast supply of game that they did 
not know what to do with it. Their house was quite filled with 
supplies. 
The people, however, who had left the woman were unsuccessful 
in hunting, and were almost starving. They returned to their old 
hunting-ground, and were surprised to find the woman still alive, 
and to see the two young men. 
One day the two hunters went out to hunt mountain goats. 
Their dog accompanied them. Then a goat attacked the dog, gored 
it, and threw it down the side of the mountain. 
Later on the two young men married women of the tribe. Once 
upon a time they went hunting, accompanied by seven men. They 
hunted mountain goats near the sources of Tcunaq River. They 
killed a whole herd. Only one kid escaped by climbing a high, 
precipitous rock. There it stood, crying pitifully. The men of the 
party wanted to return, but the two brothers were so eager to kill 
the poor kid that they began the dangerous ascent of the steep 
rock. They had no pity. Then the rock began to grow and carried 
them up so high that there was no possibility of return. They 
succeeded in reaching a cleft. There they sat close together warm- 
ing each other, but after three days one of the brothers died. On 
the following day the men of the tribe went to the cliff and shouted 
to the brothers, but there was no reply. The other one had died 
also. When they turned away to rejoin their tribe, on looking at 
the rock they saw blood flowing down from the place where the Traditions of the Tsetsaut. 
39 
brothers had died, and also from the retreat of the kid. The blood 
may be seen on the rock up to this day. 
Note, This tale is very widely spread over North America. It 
has been recorded all along the Pacific coast from Columbia River to 
Alaska (see Krause, “ Die Tlinkit Indianer,” p. 269; F. Boas, “ In- 
dianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Kiiste Amerikas,” pp. 25, 
93, 114, 132, 263, 269). From the Mackenzie Basin it is known 
through a version recorded by E. Petitot (“Traditions du Canada 
Nord-Ouest,” p. 311, a tradition of the Dog-rib Indians; p. 314, a 
tradition of the Hare Indians). There is little doubt that here also 
belongs the similar tradition of the Eskimo recorded by Rink 
(“Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo,” p. 471) ; Boas (“The Cen- 
tral Eskimo,” p. 630); by Murdoch (“American Naturalist,” 1886, 
p. 594); and also by Boas from Port Clarence (“ Journ. Am. Folk- 
Lore,” vol. vii. p. 207). 
12. THE STARS. 
There were two sisters who were playing in front of their house. 
They made a small hut and lay down in it to sleep. During the night 
they awoke, and saw the stars in the sky. One of the sisters said : 
“Do you see that white star ? I will have him for my husband. 
You take that red star,” They joked and laughed on this proposi- 
tion, and finally went to sleep again. While they were sleeping 
two men entered their hut. One of them wore a white blanket, the 
other wore a red blanket. The latter married the elder sister, 
while the former took the younger for his wife. They removed 
them from the house into the sky. They were the two stars of 
whom the girls had been speaking. When the sisters awoke and 
saw the strange men by their sides, they did not know where they 
were. 
On the following morning their mother called them to come to 
breakfast. When she did not receive an answer, she grew angry 
and went to call the girls. Then she saw that they had disappeared. 
During the night a boy had heard how the girls had been talking 
about the stars, and thus the people were led to suppose that the 
stars had abducted the girls. The stars go out every night with 
bow and arrows hunting cariboos. Then they look through the 
holes in the sky and see what is going on on earth. 
The two stars who had married the girls also went out every 
night, and brought home many cariboos. The young women 
skinned and carved them. They made gloves, shoes, and dresses 
from the skins. They cut long thongs from the skins of others, 
cutting spirally around their bodies. They hid the clothing and 40 
Journal of American Folk-Lore. 
the thongs carefully from their husbands. There was no water, 
no cloud, and no rain in the sky, and they were always suffering 
thirst. They had nothing to eat but meat. Therefore they longed 
to return to their own country. When they had prepared a suf- 
ficient number of thongs and of cloths they made ready to escape. 
One day, when their husbands had started on a long hunting expedi- 
tion, they went to the hole in the sky. They tied stones to one end 
of a thong and let it down towards the earth. When one thong was 
paid out they tied a new one to the end of the first, and thus they 
continued from morning to night. The one woman brought the 
cloths and the thongs from their hiding-place, while the other let 
them down. Finally, after four days, they felt the rope striking the 
ground. They could not see the earth because it was hidden by 
smoke. They shook the thong and it fell a little farther, but finally 
it seemed to have reached the ground. At least they felt that it 
was held by something. Now they tied two pairs of sticks together, 
one being on each side of the rope. They put on four suits of 
clothing, four pairs of shoes, and four pairs of gloves. The elder 
sister stepped on one pair of sticks and they began to glide down, 
the sticks acting as a brake. The rope swung to and fro, and the 
sister who had remained behind gradually lost sight of her. Finally 
the young woman reached the end of the rope and found herself on 
the top of a tall tree. Her clothing and her gloves were almost 
worn through by friction. Then she shook the rope, and upon this 
signal her sister began to slide down in the same manner. She 
came down very much quicker, because her sister was holding the 
end of the rope. Looking upward, she beheld a small dot in the 
air. It was coming nearer and increased in size. Soon she recog- 
nized her sister, who finally reached the top of the tree. There 
they were on the top of a tall spruce-tree, and there was no way of 
getting down. They broke off some branches, and made a bed in 
the tree. The elder sister, before starting, had tied an additional 
piece of thong around her waist, thinking that she might use it in 
case the long rope should not have reached the ground. She un- 
tied it, and fastened it on to the long rope, but still it was not long 
enough. 
After a while, the young women saw a number of men passing 
the foot of the tree. They were armed with bows and arrows, and 
were on snowshoes. They recognized the wolf, the bear, and many 
other animals. They called to them, asking them to help them 
down, but they passed by without paying attention to their entreat- 
ies. The next morning they saw another man approaching the tree. 
They recognized the fisher. They called him, and he at once climbed 
the tree. The young women asked him to carry them down, but he Traditions of the Ts ets a ut. 
demanded that they should first marry him. The elder one said: 
“ I will do so, but first carry me down.” The fisher finally agreed 
and carried her down. When they arrived at the foot of the tree, 
she demanded from him that he should first carry down her youngest 
sister. Reluctantly he was compelled to do so. Then he demanded 
from the youngest sister that she should marry him. She said : “ I 
will do so, but carry me down first,” He took her down. When he 
insisted upon his former demand, the elder sister said: “We are 
almost starved ; first bring us some food.” He went away and soon 
returned, carrying a bear that he had killed. During his absence 
the young women had lighted a fire. He wanted to roast the bear 
meat, but they said they wished to eat it boiled. Then the fisher 
made a basket of bark, and placed stones into the fire, which he 
intended to use to boil water in the basket. Meanwhile the young 
women had hidden a few pieces of meat under their blankets, and 
now they pretended to go to fetch water in which to boil the meat. 
As soon as they were out of sight they ran away down the moun- 
tains. After a while the eldest sister flung a piece of meat at a 
tree, asking it to whistle. They went on, and again she threw a 
piece of meat at a tree, asking it to talk. In this manner she con- 
tinued to give meat to all the trees. 
41 
When the young women did not return, the fisher followed them 
to the brook, where they had gone to fetch water. He discovered 
their tracks, and saw that they had escaped. He pursued them. 
Soon he came to the tree which they had asked to whistle. It did 
so when the fisher went past. Then he thought they were on the 
tree, climbed it, and searched for them. When he did not find 
them, he continued his pursuit. He came to the second tree, which 
spoke when he went past. Again he thought the young women 
might be on the tree. He climbed up, but did not find them. Thus 
he lost so much time that they made good their escape. 
Towards evening they reached a deep canon. They walked along 
its edge, and soon they were discovered by the grizzly bear, who was 
residing here. He wanted to marry them, and they did not dare to re- 
fuse. But they said : “ First go and bring us something to eat. We 
are almost starving.” While the bear was away hunting, the girls built 
a platform over the steep precipice of the canon. It overhung the 
abyss, and was held in place by two ropes which were tied to a tree 
that grew near the edges of the canon. Its outer edge was supported 
by two slanting poles which leaned against a ledge a short distance 
down the precipice. When the bear came back, he found them 
apparently asleep on this platform. He did not bring any meat; he 
had only roots and berries. The young women said that they could 
not eat that kind of food, and demanded that he should go hunting fournal of American Folk-Lore. 
again. It had grown dark, however, and the bear proposed to go 
out on the following morning. They lay down on the platform, and 
the young women induced the bear to lie near the edge, while they 
lay down near the tree to which the platform was tied. They kept 
away from the bear, promising to marry him after he should have 
obtained food for them. Early in the morning, when the grizzly 
bear was fast asleep, they arose without disturbing him, cut the ties 
with which the platform was fastened to the tree, and it tipped over, 
casting the bear into the abyss. 
The young women travelled on, and for a whole month they did 
not fall in with a soul. Then, one day, they discovered tracks of 
snowshoes, and soon they found the hut of a woman who had given 
birth to a child. They entered, and recognized one of their friends. 
They stayed with her for a short time, and when the young mother 
was ready to return to the village, they sent her on in order to in- 
form their relatives of their return. She went to the mother of the 
two lost girls, and told her that they were waiting in the woods, but 
she would not believe the news. The young mother returned to her 
friends and told them that their mother would not believe that they 
had come back. Then they gave her as a token a skin hat that was 
decorated with stars. She took it to the village and showed it to the 
mother of the two young women. Then she began to think that 
there might be some truth in the report, and went out to look. 
There she saw and recognized her daughters. At that time all the 
men were out hunting. The women on hearing of the return of the 
two lost girls went out to see them, and they told of their adven- 
tures. Then they climbed two trees, tied their skin belts to the 
branches, and hanged themselves. 
Note. The distribution of this legend over North America is 
very remarkable. It has its closest analogue in a tradition of the Mic- 
mac of Nova Scotia (Rand, “Legends of the Micmac,” pp. 160, 308). 
The two tales are almost identical up to the passage of the escape 
of the two girls from the animal that rescued them from the tree. 
The first part of the tradition, so far as the descent of the young 
women to the earth, is found among the Songish of southern Van- 
couver Island (Boas, /. c. p. 62). The same portion of the tale, 
although in a different combination, is found among the Dacota 
(Riggs, “Dacota Grammar, Texts, and Ethnography,” Contributions 
to North American Ethnology, vol. ix. p. 90), the Otoe (“Jour. Am. 
Folk-Lore,” 1893, p. 299, recorded by G. T. Kercheval), the Pawnee 
(Ibid. 1894, p. 197, recorded by G. B. Grinnell), and the Kiowa, 
among whom it was recorded by A. S. Gatschet. Traditions of the Tsetsaut. 
43 
Once upon a time the Porcupine was on a small island. It began 
to rain and the waters began to rise, so that it was cut off from 
retreat to the mainland. It cried and sang :“ I wish it would cease 
raining ; I wish it would grow cold and the waters would freeze over.” 
(This song is said to be sung in both the Tlingit and the Ts’Ets’a'ut 
languages.) Then the clouds dispersed, and the waters began to 
freeze over. The Porcupine succeeded in reaching the shore, but not 
without difficulty, since the ice was very slippery. The Beaver met 
it and said: “You must stay at home when the branches of the 
trees are covered with frost, else you will fall down and break your 
bones.” The Porcupine replied: “ Henceforth you shall live in 
rivers and in lakes.” 
13. THE BEAVER AND THE PORCUPINE. 
Note. This is a very imperfect record of a well-known tradi- 
tion of the Tsimshian. (Boas, /. c. p. 305 ; Petitot, /. c. p. 234, col- 
lected among the Hare Indians.) The fullest record of this tradi- 
tion was obtained on Nass River. The remark of the Ts’Ets’a'ut 
from whom I obtained the tale, to the effect that the song is sung in 
both the Tlingit and Ts’Ets’a'ut languages, seems to indicate that the 
tale must be familiar to the Tlingit also. 
14. tsufa'. 
Once upon a time two young men went hunting porcupines. They 
found a den under a rock, and one of them crawled in. While they 
were there a Tsufa' came, and when the young man saw him he 
called his companion, shouting: “A Tsufa' is coming.” But the 
Tsufa' did not kill the young man. He pitied him and made friends 
with him. In vain he tried to induce the young man who had 
crawled into the cave to come out, promising to adopt him and help 
him in all his undertakings. He would not come. Finally the 
Tsufa' grew angry, and defecated in front of the entrance to the den, 
thus imprisoning the young man. He left him to perish in the cave. 
He placed the other one on his head and carried him to his home. 
When the two young men were missed by their friends and parents, 
the people set out to find them, but a fresh snow had covered their 
tracks as well as those of the Tsufa'. 
The giant reached a frozen lake in which there were a great many 
beaver dams. There he stopped. With his hands he scooped up 
the beaver dams and shook them, so that all the beavers dropped 
out. Then he killed them by filliping them. He singed them over 
a fire, and ate them when they were done. A beaver was just a 
mouthful for him. The young man ate part of one beaver only.  Journal of American Folk-Lore. 
44 
After he had eaten, the Tsufa' laydown. He had discovered a num- 
ber of elks browsing beyond a small hill. He stretched his hand 
over the hill, and in it caught three elks, which he squeezed to death. 
Then he broke off dry limbs of trees, and made a large fire, at which 
he roasted the elks. When they were done he began to eat. For 
him an elk was just two mouthfuls. 
On the following day he travelled on. He came to another lake, 
where he found cariboos. These the Tsufa' killed. 
Deinde progress!, ad magnum domicilium pervenerunt, übi habita- 
bat Tsufae occisi uxor. Dux, cum in possessionem siccatae carnis 
omnis invasisset, quae ibi condita esset, adulescenti “ Cuba quaeso,” 
inquit, “ cum hac muliere.” Is primum timuit; mox autem illi cohor- 
tanti paruit abiitque ex oculis in mulieris vaginam. Quae cum a 
Tsufa magna voce obsecraretur ne filium ipsius necaret, e strato ex- 
siluit atque se excussit donee adulescens ad humum delapsus est. 
Turn vero Tsufa ipse cum ea cubuit. Mentulam autem suam 
propter incredibilem longitudinem ita ferebat ut corpus ejus bis 
amplexa per adversum tergum atque etiam super humerum por- 
recta esset. Itaque mulierem, cum hac transfigeret ut extrema pars 
ex ore ejus exstaret, interfecit. 
Finally the young man longed to return to his own country. The 
Tsufa' made a staff of yellow cedar, which was to show him the way. 
Whenever he put it into the ground it would turn the way the young 
man had to go. He also told him that the staff would break in 
twain as soon as he died. Then they parted. The young man fol- 
lowed the direction the staff was pointing, and after long wanderings 
reached his home. There he married. He placed this staff under 
a tree. After two years the staff broke, and he knew that his friend 
was dead. 
Note. A similar tradition see in “ Verhandlungen Ges. f. An- 
thropologic,” Berlin, 1888, p. 404, collected among the Eskimo of 
Baffin Land. 
15. THE XUDELE. 
The Xudele are cannibals. They are very lean. Their noses 
are turned up and their eyebrows run upward. Their faces look 
almost like those of dogs. They wear small axes in their belts, with 
which they kill men. They take the scent of men like dogs. 
One day the Xudele had gone hunting man. They found the tracks 
of a hunter who was on the mountains. He saw them coming, and 
tried to escape. When he came near a snow-field that terminated 
abruptly at a precipice, he cut steps into it and climbed down. Half 
way down he found a small rock shelter, where he stayed. He re- Traditions of the Tsetsaut. 
45 
solved t*o make an attempt to kill his pursuers by a ruse. He built 
a fire and roasted a porcupine that he had caught. The Xudele saw 
the smoke and smelled the roasting meat. When they came to the 
snow-field it had grown dark. They shouted down; “ Where are 
you? Let us have some of your meat!” The Ts’Ets’a'ut shouted 
back: “You must slide down this snow-field, then you will find me. 
I invite you to take part in my meal! ” Then the Xudele began to 
slide down the snow-field one after the other, and were precipitated 
into the abyss. Finally only one of their number was left. He did 
not dare to slide down, and shouted ; “ Where are all my friends ? ” 
The man replied : “They are all here.” But the Xudele could not 
be induced to slide down. He cut steps into the snow, and climbed 
down as the man had done. Finally he reached the man. When 
he did not see his friends, he asked what had become of them, and 
the man told him that they had all perished because they had slid 
past his shelter. Now the Xudele, who did not dare to attack the 
man single-handed, offered to gamble with him, and said they would 
stake their lives. The Ts’Ets’aTit refused. He had employed the 
time while the Xudele were sliding down the snow-field to make a 
heavy club, which he had placed near his fire. While he was talk- 
ing with the Xudele he watched his opportunity, and slew him with 
his club. Then he returned to his village and told what had hap- 
pened. The people were afraid that the friends of the Xudele 
might come to look for them, and moved to another place. 
At another time a man had gone out hunting. It was in summer. 
He discovered a vast number of Xudele coming right up to him, so 
that he could not escape. There happened to be a swamp close to 
the trail which he was following. He jumped into the mud and lay 
down, keeping motionless. He looked just like a log. He extended 
his arms, so that they looked like limbs of a tree. The Xudele 
came, and one after the other passed him without noticing him. 
Finally, one of their number noticed the resemblance of the sup- 
posed log to a human figure. He raised his axe, and was about to 
strike him. But since the man did not wince, he concluded that it 
was nothing but a log and passed on. When all had passed, the 
man jumped up and ran on the nearest way to his village. There he 
told the chief that the Xudele were coming. He called a council, 
and they resolved what to do. They killed a number of dogs and 
cut them up, skin and bone and intestines. Then they pounded flint 
to dust, mixed it with the meat, and made a soup of it. When the 
Xudele came, they invited them to the chief’s house and set the soup 
before them. Before they began eating, a little boy happened to 
walk past a Xudele, who seized him, tore out his arms and legs, and 
ate him. The Ts’Ets’a'ut did not dare to remonstrate. Now the 46 
-Journal of American Folk-Lore. 
Xudele began to eat. Soon the effects of the poison the pounded 
stone began to be felt. They acted as though they were drunk, 
and some of them fell dead. Then the Ts’Ets’a'ut took up their 
clubs and killed them one and all. 
The Xudele put up traps for catching men on the trails which 
they travel on their snowshoes. They cover a stick with moss and 
snow, which is so arranged that it catches in the snowshoe of the 
traveller. A few feet in front of this stick is another, sharp-pointed 
stick, put into the ground point upward. When the snowshoes 
catch in the first stick, the traveller falls forward on to the pointed 
stick, which pierces him. One day a hunter was passing over a 
trail. He saw a small irregularity of the snow, and discovered that it 
was the trap of a Xudele, He intended to go on, when he saw the 
Xudele to whom the trap belonged. As he was unable to make his 
escape, he tried a stratagem. He struck his nose so that it bled and 
smeared his chest with blood. Then he lay down on the pointed 
stick of the trap. The Xudele approached, and when he saw the 
man, he smiled and said : “ Again my trap has caught something 
for me.” He took the man off the stick, put him into his bag, and, 
after having reset his trap, turned to go home. The man was very 
heavy, and he had to put down his load from time to time. Then 
the man blew the air out of his compressed lips, thus imitating the 
noise of escaping gases. The Xudele said : “He must have been 
in my trap for a long time, for the body is decomposing already; the 
gases are escaping.” When he arrived at home he threw the body 
down near the fireplace. The man glanced around furtively, and, 
saw stores of dried human flesh in the house. There was a black 
woman in the house, and three children were playing near the fire. 
The Xudele went to fetch his knife in order to skin and carve the 
man, and he sent his wife for water. The man saw an axe lying 
near the fire, and when the Xudele turned his back he jumped up, 
seized it, and split the head of his captor. The Xudele cried : 
“Sxinadle, asidle,” and died. (It is said that the Xudele always 
utter this cry, which is unintelligible to the Ts’Ets’a'ut, at the time 
of their death.) When the children saw their father dying they ran 
out of the house, assumed the shape of martens, and ran up a tree. 
The man threw the body of the Xudele into the fire. Then he went 
out of the hut to kill the woman, whom he met carrying a basket of 
water. He split her stomach with his axe. Then two minks jumped 
out of her and ran into the water. She died and he burnt her 
body. When he returned to his country he told what he had seen. 
Therefore we know that the martens and minks descend from the 
Xudele. Traditions of the Ts ets a ut. 
47 
Note. —I do not know of any Athapaskan legend resembling the 
present in detail, but in the collection of traditions published by 
Petitot beings half dog and half man play a very important part. 
They are described as having the faculty of taking the scent of man 
in the same manner as the Xudele. Similar tales may be found 
among all the Eskimo tribes, who call the fabulous inlanders, who 
are half dog, half men, Adla or Eqigdlit. 
16. ALAMA TSAT’A d’AGA. 
In the beginning there were no mountain goats. The first man 
to discover them was Aiama. One day he went up the mountains 
and found a cave full of goats. When it grew dark he put a snare 
in the entrance of the cave and hid himself near by. As soon as a 
goat came out it was caught in the snare. He killed two. He tied 
the one around his waist, the other one on his back. Thus he car- 
ried them home. Therefore he was called anama tsat’a d’aga, or 
Albania amongst the mountain goats. 
17. ad ad a' 
Two men and one woman went in their canoe to Nek'ehudja' 
(Boca de Quadra ?) to dry salmon. One day the woman crossed the 
lake to gather berries. When she did not return in the evening, 
the men thought she might have been captured by the Haida. But 
in the evening, when passing a steep rock, they saw an Adada' com- 
ing out, and knew at once that he had devoured the woman when 
she was crossing the lake. He looked like a giant. They resolved 
to kill the monster. They called the other men of the village to 
help them, and they cut a number of young hemlock-trees and sharp- 
ened both ends. Thus they made three boat-loads of sharp poles. 
They carried their canoe up to the top of the rock under which the 
monster lived. Then they let it down to the water by means of 
two stout cedar-bark ropes. After a while the water began to swell 
and to form a deep whirlpool. The Adada' was drinking. Then 
they dropped the sharp poles into the whirlpool, in which they dis- 
appeared. After a .while the water began to grow calmer, and 
finally the whirlpool disappeared. The Adada' came up and drifted 
on the water. The poles had pierced his stomach and his intestines. 
His hair was blue, and his skin like that of a man. The men let 
the canoe down to the lake, paddled up to the body, which they 
chopped up with their hatchets. It was as large as a house. In its 
stomach they found the canoe in which the woman had gone out. 
The woman was still in it, but she was dead. 
Above Atxaye' is a lake, Nugufega'. A steep precipice falls 48 
Journal of American Folk-Lore. 
down toward the water. Below it lived the monster Adada'. Once 
upon a time in winter, many men went up to the lake. On the ice 
they saw an animal that looked like a huge porcupine ; but when 
they came nearer they saw that its skin was smooth, and that it had 
a mouth like that of a mouse. They approached it cautiously, and 
found that it was dead. Its skin was quite blue. The people were 
afraid of it, and left the place. After a few days another party of 
men passed the lake. They also saw the animal. 
Later on, a man and his son passed the lake on their way up the 
mountains. They were going to hunt marmots. They set their 
traps on a steep mountain near the lake. It was a hot, sunny day. 
All of a sudden they saw the waters rising, and a huge monster 
emerged from the waters. It looked like a man. It rose up to its 
waist. Its head was as large as a hut. Its hair was blue and drifted 
on the surface of the water. It was more than three fathoms long. 
The men kept hidden behind a rock. When the sun set, the mon- 
ster dived and disappeared under the rock, where it lived in a cave. 
18. THE METEOR (?). 
A long time ago, a fire was seen to approach through the air from 
the north. It looked like a huge animal. Its face was fire. Fire 
came from its mouth and from its back. Flames of fire also shot 
from its paws. It passed thundering through the air, moving back- 
ward. In former times we were often visited by these monsters, 
but they have not been seen for a long time. 
The fishers are always trying to kill people. They appear to 
hunters in the shape of pretty girls. They have a very nice smell. 
They try to seduce men. If they succeed the man must die. They 
also try to kill girls and women who go out picking berries. They 
appear to them in the shape of good-looking and sweet-smelling 
men. If they succeed in seducing the girls, these must die. 
19. THE FISHER. 
I was also told that before our times the country was inhabited first 
by the ts’ak’e', who wore marmot-skins; later on, by the futvud’ie', 
who wore bear-skins. Both were said to have spoken the TsTts’d'ut 
language, and it is not quite clear to my mind if the narrator did 
not want to tell me that his ancestors wore garments of this kind. 
He also told me a story of the encounter of a Tlingit with the 
land-otter people, which I do not tell here because it is evidently 
simply a Tlingit story of an encounter with the kushtaka, or land- 
otter people. 
Franz Boas.