90. The Man Who Was Abandoned

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90. THE MAN WHO WAS ABANDONED

People living in along town were suffering from famine. A certain man stayed with his uncle, who had two wives. The people were very hungry. This man was always sleeping, for he was lazy. When their food was all gone, they started away from the lazy man to camp, but his uncle's wife threw some dried fish into a hole beside the house post for him, while she was walking around back of the fire. Then she said to him, "I threw a piece of dried fish into the post hole for you." He Would put a small piece of this into his mouth. When he took it out, he would go to sleep. He always had his head covered.

Suddenly something said to him, "I am come to help you." When he looked there was nothing there. At once he fell asleep. Hunger was overcoming him. At once he prepared himself for it. What was speaking to him was a small thing running around him. Its teeth

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were long. Then he took it away. He put it among his rags, and fell asleep again. Then he dreamed that it said to him, "Put me into the water." When it was getting light he did so. He went down into the water with it. He kept throwing it up and down in his hands. Saying, "You came to help me," he threw it into the water. Where he threw it in [the water] smoked. And when it was getting dark he covered his head. When day was beginning to dawn be heard the cry of the raven below him. A halibut had drifted ashore there, and the thing that was helping him was at its heart.

Quickly he built a house. He built a big one. In the morning he went down to the beach with his helper and let. it go. Toward daylight he again heard the raven's call at the beach, and he ran down. Then five seals were floating below him, one behind another. His helper hung around the neck of the fifth, and he took it off. One could not

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see about inside of his house on account of the drippings. His uncles who had left him, however, were suffering from famine.

Suddenly some mountain sheep came out above him. He let it go among them. Then all fell down. The inside of his house could not be seen on account of the great abundance of food.

Now when his uncle thought that he had died he sent some one thither to burn his body., His slaves that he told to go after him came thither, and he called the slaves into the house. They came up. He gave them things to eat, and they remained with him one night. One of these slaves had a child. Then he said to them, "Do not take away anything." The little slave, however, threw a piece inside of something. "Tell your household that you burned me up." He left those directions with them.

When they reached home that night the baby began to cry: "Little fat, Little fat," the slave's child began to cry out. There was a great

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famine in the town whither the people had moved. Some among them had died. Then the chief thought about the way the slave's baby was crying. He kept crying louder: "Little fat, Little fat," be cried. His mother said, "He is crying for the inside of a clam." But the slave had a piece of fat on her side for her baby. She sat up with it. Its mouth was greasy all over. At once she confessed to him. She said to her master, "He is there. The things that he has are many."

Then all started thither. Indeed it was a great quantity of things that he had. The wife of his uncle who had hated him tried to make herself look pretty, but when she wiped her face something got inside of the rag and she cut her face. But the one who had thrown something into the post hole for him, he thought kindly toward. Then the people moved to him. He willed, however, that the food should not fill his uncle or his uncle's wife. Just where they lay, his uncle and

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his uncle's wife were dead. So he married the other wife that helped him. The food his helper obtained for him, however, he sold for slaves. The people came to him to buy everything. Afterward he fixed a little box for the thing that had helped him. No one ever saw it because it was kept out of sight.

One day a whale came along, moving up and down, and he let his helper go at it. In the morning the big whale floated up below on the beach. When all were busy with the whale he forgot his helper. It was hanging to the last piece. When they took up the whale he forgot it. And because be forgot it all of the people were destroyed. This is why people say to a lazy man even now: "You will be like the man that was abandoned." All the things that had been killed came to life. Some ran into the water and some into the woods. The people were completely destroyed.