Page:Tlingit Myths and Texts.djvu/45

Rh One evening they caught a small halibut at their fishing ground. They cooked a piece of it and put the rest on the drying frame in the brush house the man had constructed outside.

Next day they heard a noise there as if something were being thrown down and moved about. The woman said, &quot;What can that be?&quot; Then her husband went out and was astonished to see two medium-sized devilfish lying there. He wondered how they had gotten up from the beach. Then he went in and said, &quot;Wife (dja), I am in luck. There are two large devilfish out there. I do not know who brought them. To-morrow morning we will take them and see if we can not catch some halibut. The person who brought them here is very kind, for I have been hunting everywhere vainly for bait.&quot; The woman sat down and considered. She said, &quot;Do you know who brought them here?&quot; He said, &quot;No.&quot; Then she said, &quot;I will tell you who brought them here. Don't you remember that my son was drowned a year ago, and no one has seen anything of him since? It must be he, who has taken pity on us because he sees how poor we are. I will call his name if I hear anyone whistle to-morrow or any other night, for I know it is my son.&quot; So the woman spoke.

In the morning they went out with these devilfish and caught two halibut. Evening came on. After they had reached home and it was dark, they began to cook some halibut. Just as the woman was putting some into the pot a person whistled behind the house. Then she said, &quot;We have longed for you, my dear son. Come in. Don t whistle around us. We have been wishing for you for the last year, so do not be afraid. It is only your father and I. Come in.&quot; Then it whistled again. The man went to the door, opened it, and said, &quot;Come in, my son, I think you have come to help us because we are very poorly off here. The door is open. Come right in.&quot; So the father said. And without their seeing him enter, all of a sudden he was seated opposite them with his hands over his face. Then they spoke to him, saying, &quot;Is it you, my son?&quot; He only whistled [by drawing in his breath]. That was the way he spoke to them. Toward midnight he began to speak. The father said, &quot;Is it you, my son?&quot; The land-otter-man (ku cta-qa) said, &quot;Yes.&quot; He motioned to them that there was something outside which he had brought for them. It was some more devilfish. He said, &quot;In the morning we will go out.&quot; The woman gave him a pillow and two blankets for the night, and he slept on the other side of the fire.

So early in the morning that it was yet dark he took his father by the feet and shook him, saying, &quot;Get up. We will go out.&quot; He told him to take his fishing line, and they carried down the canoe, Then the land-otter-man stepped in and his father followed. His father gave him a paddle. The canoe went flying out to the halibut