The Wonderful Basket

There was once a time when young women of the Tlingit people were not allowed to eat between meals. Two girls from one of the noblest families knew this rule very well. But one day, feeling very hungry, they took some food despite it.tribe were not allowed to eat between their meals, but in spite of this rule which they knew very well, two girls belonging to one of the noblest families one day being very hungry took some food. Of course, they did not tell anybody, but their mother, who looked after the food box, foundfood-box found it out and was very angry.

'What do you mean by behaving like that?' she asked her eldest daughter, shaking her violently while she spoke. 'It is not right that a big girl like you should do such things. I am ashamed of you! As you are so fond of eating, you had better go and marry Mountain Dweller. You will get plenty of food from him.' But though the mother did not scold her other daughter who was still quite little, the child did not like her sister to be slapped and scratched. Her sister did not like it either. SoThe sister did not like it either; so that night the two girls crept softly out of the house and ran away to the forest.

Next morning their mother was surprised to find no sign of her daughters. But she thought they were cross or lazy and had stayed in bed to avoid doingThe mother was surprised next morning when she found no signs of her daughters, but she thought they were cross or lazy, and had stayed in bed in order that they might not have to do any work. She waited a little, expecting them to appear at any moment. When they did not come,to see them every moment, and as they did not come she called out, 'Why don't you get up? Itit is very late.' There was no answer, so she went to their room to discover what was the matter. Then she realized that they had never been to bed at all. Sheperceived that they had never been to bed at all, and felt sorry that her cross words the day before had driven them away.

First she went to some neighbours’ houses and asked whether they knew anything about her daughters. Had the girls been playing games with their children?The first thing she did was to go to the houses of some neighbours, and ask if they knew anything of her daughters, and if they had been playing any games with the children. But no one had seen them. For seven days their mother wandered from one place to another, but could find nothem; and for seven days the mother wandered from one place to another, but she could never find any trace of them.

All this time the two girls wandered through the woods, not knowing where they were going. Very hungry, they searched in vain for fruit or berries.were walking about the woods not knowing where they went, and looking vainly for fruit or berries, as they were very hungry. At last the path they were following led upwards, and they found themselves among the mountains. They heard a faint sound, as if someone were chopping wood far away. The elder sister said to herself, 'I wonder if that is the man Mother was talking about.'A faint sound as of somebody chopping wood a long distance off reached their ears, and the elder sister said to herself, 'I wonder if that is the man that mother was talking of.' After a while the sound grew clearer and clearer. Turning a corner, they came upon the woodcutter,By and bye the sound grew clearer and clearer, and on turning a corner they came upon the woodcutter, with his face painted red, standing over a fallen tree. As the girls approached he looked up and said:

'What are you two doing here?'

'Mother was unkind to us,' answered the elder, 'so we came away.'

'What had you done to upsetvex her?' asked the man.

'We had eaten some food between our meals, and she said, "If you are so fond of eating, you had better go and marry Mountain Dweller."'

'Well, come into my house,' said Mountain Dweller, for it was he who had been chopping the wood. They went with him, and he showed them all around his house. It was very fine indeed.was chopping the wood, and they went with him and he took them all over it, and very fine it was. Last of all he led them into a storehouse full of dried meat, salmon, deerstore-house full of dried meat, salmon, and deer, and halibut. They gazed at it hungrily without saying anything. But Mountain Dweller saw their eyes and gave them food, which they gladly ate. Theyhungrily, though they did not say anything, but Mountain Dweller saw their eyes and gave them food which they gladly ate; and they slept there all that night, as they did not know where else to go.

Next morning they got up very early and found Mountain Dweller getting ready to hunt, pulling on his leggingsmaking ready to hunt, drawing on his leggingsExplanation: Here leggings are coverings worn on the legs. and choosing his weapons.

'We will be married tomorrowto-morrow,' said he, 'but todayto-day I have a long way to walk, and I shall not be back till nightfall. And before I go, I want to warn you not to peep behind the large curtain of skins hanging over that door. A very bad woman lives on the other side, and she does not like anyone to see her.'

'No; of course we won't,' they answeredanswered they, and Mountain Dweller set out.

So the girls stayed in the house all day, and wondered what their friends in the village were doing and whether they were still looking forwere doing in the village, and if they were still seeking them. 'I expect,' said the elder, 'they think we have been eaten by wolves, and are mourning for us. And mother will have cut off her hair, and painted her face black.'

'Yes; she is sure to have done that,' answered the little girl; and so she had.

The days went by in much the same way, except that the big girl was now married to Mountain Dweller. Every morning he went out to hunt, so the two sisters had plenty to eat, and if they wanted any food between meals, they took it. They were quite happy until one unlucky morning when it snowed so hard they could not leave the house. At last they grew boredwas snowing so fast they could not leave the house, and at last they grew weary, and longed for something new.

'Who can the woman be that lives behind the curtain?' said the elder sister at last. 'I daresay she is not so very bad after all, and perhaps she can teach us some newfresh games. I have noticed that there is a little hole in the curtain; I will peep through that, and if she looks kind and good-natured, I will go in.'

'Yes; that is a good plan,' answered the child, and they both went on tiptoe to the curtain.

The hole was so small that it was hardly possible for anyone on the other side to see them looking through. Yet the moment Mountain Dweller’s wife put her eye to it, the woman threw up her hands and screamed. Both sisters fell down dead. That wasvery small, and it was hardly possible that anyone on the other side of the curtain should have seen them looking through. Yet the moment that the wife had fixed her eye on it, the woman threw up her hands and screamed, and both sisters fell down dead; and that is how Mountain Dweller found them when he returned from the hunt.

He guessed at once what had happened. He was so angryhappened, and his anger was so great that the first thing he did was to run behind the curtain and kill the bad woman who lived there. Then he took some soft down feathers from an eagle and spread them over the girls’ bodies. Heeagle-down and spread it over the girls' bodies, and walked round them many times, shaking his rattle all the while. At last their limbs began to shiver slightly. The colour came back into their faces, and there they stood on their feet, as well as ever.length slight shivers passed through their limbs; the colour came back into their faces, and there they stood on their feet, as well as ever they were.

When they had been in the mountain for many, many months, Mountain Dweller said one day to his wife:

'Wouldn’t youWould you not like to see your father and mother once more?'

'Oh, yes, yes!' cried both the girls at once.

'Well, you shall,' said he; 'but first I must go to hunt and prepare a gift for them. So make me a little basket, just big enough for you to put ato put your finger in.'

'That won't take long,' she laughed. When he returned that evening,laughed she, and on his return in the evening the basket was ready. But this basket was not like other baskets. When her husband shook it, it grew large enough to hold all kinds of meat and bags of tallow, a kind of animal fat. When he shook it again, the basket shrank—and so did the meat.baskets, for when the husband shook it, it grew large enough to hold all kinds of meat and bags of tallow, and when he shook it again, it shrunk—and the meat also.Explanation: Tallow is a kind of animal fat. The story does not identify which animal supplied it, so the modernization keeps the name and adds only this short explanation.

At dawn the next day the girls set off, carrying the basket to their father’s house. They did not arrive until evening. Their little brother was the first to see them coming, and he ran indoors,started and carried the basket to their father's house. It was evening before they arrived, and the first person who saw them approaching was their little brother, who ran in, crying, 'Mother, my sisters are there.'

'Nonsense!' she answered angrily. 'Why do you say such things? They have been dead forthis many a long day.'

'They are my sisters,' he shoutedshouted he. 'Do you suppose I don't know them?'

'Well, let me see some furthe hair from their marten-skin robes,' she replied, still unbelieving, for she remembered that her daughters had marten-skin robes, such as only the chief families were allowed to wear. The boy went and spoke to his sisters, then pulled out little pieces of the fur.Then the boy went and spoke to his sisters, and pulled little pieces of the fur out. As soon as she saw the fur, their mother believed. She, her husband and their relatives went out to meet the lost girls, weeping for joy at findingthe mother believed, and she and her husband and their kinsfolk went forth to meet the lost girls, weeping for joy at having found them again.

The next day the big girl said to her mother, 'There is a little basket in the woods, filled with meat. Have someone fetch it.Let it be fetched.' Several people went to fetch it but returned saying that the basket was so large they could not bring it in even together.So several people went to fetch it, but returned, saying it was so large that all of them put together could not bring it in.

'I will go and see about it,' the girl answered. She made the basket small so that she could easily carry it. Butanswered the girl, and she made it small so that she could easily carry it, but as soon as she laid it down in the house, it became as large as ever. She knelt on the floor and unpacked the basket. The house could hardly contain everything in it, and the village people came and feasted too.basket, and the house could hardly contain all that was in it; and the village people came and feasted likewise. Only the mother ate so much that she grew very ill, and never got any better.

To this day, good luck comes to every man who hears Mountain Dweller choppingday luck befalls every man who hears Mountain Dweller chopping the wood.