{"collection":"folklore-oral-tradition","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/wikisource_Tlingit_Myths_and_Texts_Wolverine_man/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/wikisource_Tlingit_Myths_and_Texts_Wolverine_man","id":"wikisource_Tlingit_Myths_and_Texts_Wolverine_man","license":"Public Domain / CC-BY-SA (see source)","rights_basis":"wikisource_site_inclusion_policy","source":"wikisource","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Tlingit_Myths_and_Texts/Wolverine-man","summary":null,"tags":["Pages_with_translator","Subpages"],"text":"9. WOLVERINE-MAN\n\nThere were people living in a certain town on the mainland. You\nknow that in olden times the people did not use guns. They hunted\nwith bows and arrows, and horn spears, and it was very hard work to\nuse them. So, when they were going hunting, they had to fast and\nwash their heads in urine. That is why in all of these stories which I\nam telling you just as they were told in the olden times food was\nvery scarce and hard to get. Success depended on what things were\nused and how people prepared themselves.\n\nOne day a certain man at this place began preparing himself by\nwashing his head in urine, and the following morning he dressed and\nstarted up the valley carrying his horn spear. At the head of this\nvalley he saw a flock of mountain sheep, but he could not get at them,\nso he camped over night. In the morning he saw that a wolverine\n(nusk) was among these sheep killing them off.\n\nNext evening he reached the top of the mountain and started into\nthe brush to camp, but came to a house with the door wide open for\nhim. On the inside hung pieces of fat from all kinds of animals the\nwolverine had killed. He wanted to go in very much, but instead he\nsat down in the brush near by and waited.\n\nPresently a man came along carrying a pack. This was Wolverine-\nman (Nu sgu-qa). He said, \"My trader, you are here. Why don t\nyou step inside?\" Then they entered, and Wolverine-man took off\nhis clothes and began wringing them out just like a human being.\nThen he heated some hot rocks, took his half basket, chopped up the\nbones of a ground hog and put these into it along with the cooking\nstones. Then he said to the man, \" Give me that kAndALa x. Give\nme that klAxA kaok.\" These were his own words which he was\nteaching to this man, and they mean, Give me my dish. Give me my\nlittle spoon.\" So, when one went up to the top of this mountain in\nolden times he called his dishes and spoons by those names.\n\nThen Wolverine-man placed the food before his guest, but, when the\nlatter was about to take some, Wolverine-man said something that\nsounded strange to him. He said, \"There he is picking it up. There\nhe is going to eat it.\" It sounded strange. Then he kept on talking:\n\"He is getting closer to the small bones. He is getting closer to the\nsmall bones. He is getting closer to the small brother of the big\nbone. He is getting closer to the small brother of the big bone.\" He\ndid not want the man to eat the small bones at the joint, and it was from Wolverine-man that people learned not to eat these. He said,\n\"I am not saying this to you because I hate you. If anybody\nswallows these, the weather is not clear on top of the mountain. It\nis always foggy, and one can kill nothing. This is why I am telling\nyou.\" Meanwhile the people in the camps hunted every day for this\nman but in vain.\n\nBy and by Wolverine-man said to him, \"Go around to the other\nside of the mountain and sit down where the ground-hogs places are.\"\nHe went there every day, but always came home without anything.\nWolverine-man, however, brought him a great load every time.\nFinally Wolverine-man told him to go and cut off two small limbs with\nhis ax. People generally carried a stone ax when off hunting. With\nthese he made a trap for him and named it Never-lasting-over-night\n(Lanka/klixe). It was so named because it was certain to catch.\n\nWhen they went up next day, Wolverine-man said, \"I am going\nthis way. Do not set your trap until you see a large ground hog\ngoing into a hole. Set it there.\" Soon after he left Wolverine-man\nhe saw a big ground hog going into its hole. He set up his trap there,\nstood near, and watched. Soon he heard the crack of his trap falling.\nHe set it up many times, and each time he caught one. He killed four\nthat day. That is why the trap is called Never-lasting-over-night.\nFrom that time on he increased the size of his catch every day, while\nWolverine-man did not catch much. When he got home with all his\nground hogs Wolverine-man lay down by the fire and began singing,\n\"What I would have killed has all gone over to a lazy man's side.\"\n\nNext morning, when they again started off to hunt, Wolverine-man,\ninstead of continuing on his usual route, came back to see what his\ncompanion was doing. Then he climbed into a tree to watch him,\nbegan to play around in the tree, and afterwards suddenly fell down.\nHe wanted to deceive the trapper. This tree is a small bushy one\ncalled S!AX, and it is Wolverine-man's wife with which he had really\nbeen cohabiting. The man, however, observed what he was doing,\nand returned home at once, upon which Wolverine-man became so\nashamed that he lay down and covered himself with ashes.\n\nAfter that Wolverine-man told his guest to lie down and cover\nhimself up. Then he took his urinal full of urine, with two white rocks in it, to another place. He was going to bathe to purify himself from his wife. After he had purified himself, he came home, put grease into the fire and began to motion toward his face and to blow with his mouth. Then he took a wooden comb and began to comb his hair. The man had covered his head with the blanket but was watching through a hole.\n\nNow the man arose and said to Wolverine-man, \"I am going home to my children.\" Then Wolverine-man told him not to say where he had been but to keep him in remembrance by means of the\ntrap. He had stayed with Wolverine-man more than a month, and, when he went down, he had a big pack of skins.\n\nThen he began to distribute these to all his friends, telling them that\nhe had discovered a place where there were lots of things, and that he\nhad a trap which never failed to kill ground hogs and other animals if\nset on the mountain over night. When he explained to the people\nhow to set up this trap, a man named Coward (QlAtxa n) said, \"I\nwill go along with you.\" This time they did not go way up to the\nplace where Wolverine-man had helped him but into one of the lower\nvalleys where there were many ground hogs. There they constructed\na house out of dry sticks and began trapping. Coward had under\nstood him to say that he caught ground hogs by whittling up sticks\nnear the hole. That was what he was doing every day, until finally\nhis companion said, \"What do you do by the holes that you do not\ncatch anything?\" He said, \"Why, I have already cut up two big\nsticks by the holes.\" Then the other answered, \"That is not right. You have to cut and make a trap with which to trap the ground hog.\"\n\nAfter that this man thought he would do the same thing to the tree he had seen Wolverine-man do, but he fell to the ground and was barely able to crawl home. When he thought he had enough skins, he\nstarted to pack up and return. The trap was very valuable at that\ntime because it was new, and anyone borrowing it paid a great deal.\nSo he became wealthy by means of it. He went to every other town\nto let people know about it. They would invite him to a place, feast him, and ask him for it. He became very wealthy.","title":"Tlingit Myths and Texts/Wolverine-man","tradition":"folklore-oral-tradition","translated_text":null,"word_count":1333}