Kalitan, Our Little Alaskan Cousin

or the Moon is old, and a Thlinkit child should show respect for age. So the Moon would not endure so rude a thing from a girl child, and it came down from the sky and took her thither. Sh

se. We have other girl children; she is now wedded

de and the water spills from the clouds and it is the months of rain, it is the bad Moon maiden tipping over her water-bucket upon the ea

the door of the hut and told Kalitan and Ted quaint old stories. Ted was delighted with her

il and called him to return, lest evil befall. But Zampa heard not his father's voice and pursued diving birds,[11] and, lo! he was far from land and the dark fell. He sailed to the nearest shore and beheld the village of Yakaga, where the people of his sister's husband made him welcome, though Yakaga was not within his hut. There was feasting and merry-making, and, according to their custom, he, the stranger, was given a chieftain's daughter to wife, and her

s body to the surface, he gave a mighty cry, for, lo! it was his brother-in-law whom he had pursued, for he was Yakaga. Then fearing the terrible rage of Zampa's father, he dared not return with the body, so he left it with the overturned canoe in the kelp and weeds. Kitt-a-youx he bore with him to his own island. There she was sad as the sea-gull's scream, for the lord she loved was dead. And her father gave her to another toyon, who was cruel to her, and her

usband. The morning broke, and she saw the weeds and the kelp where her lover had gone from her sight, and, with a glad sigh, she clasped Zampa's chi

dead. And Zampa's sister, going to his funeral feast, fell upon a stone with her child, so that both were killed. Then broke the old chief's heart. Beside her brother he laid her in the cave, and gave orders that he himsel

same cave, and, wrapping them in furs, they placed Kitt-a-youx beside her beloved husband, and in her burial she found her home and felt the kindness of the Gre

ll you," said Ted. "Are there

aid Tanana. "We used to burn our dead,

les by your doors were to

different. It does not stand beside the door, but far away. It is alone, as the soul of the dead in whose honour it is made. It is but little carved. A square hole is cut at the back of the pole, and the body of th

ankets and things to eat on people's

a. "Perhaps the warrior spirit wishes his

come back for the

on his girl's grave," said Kalitan,

ady, Ted changed th

e raven at the top

her was raven totem. He carve her totem at the top of the pole, then his totem and

t these totems

t go alone into the forest to fast, and there he chooses his totem, and he is brother to that animal all

all those Round-Table things," exclaimed Ted, in delight, for he dearly loved t

tales in the moonlight, as they sat beneath the shadows

TNO

Chie

] C

] D