“This myth comes from the Tlingit Indians of Alaska and is named ‘The Wain House People,’” began Miss Miller.
“Certain Indians came to a fort to live, and after a time began killing bears, ground-hogs, porcupines, mountain sheep, and other animals for food. After they had killed them, they cut off the heads and set them up on sticks about the village, then the people sang to these objects.
“Now there was a young man among them who was to be Chief. When he was born he had been placed in a sheep’s skin instead of cradle. As he grew older he was able to follow the mountain sheep to places on the cliffs where no one else could go, hence he killed more sheep than anyone else.
“After he had cut off and mounted the heads of his sheep he, too, would sing and dance about them, saying tauntingly: ‘I wish I was a sheep! I wish my head was cut off too!’
“Meantime, the mountain sheep were becoming angry at losing so many of their flocks and one day, when the villagers went up for a great hunt, they met a flock of sheep that led them up the steep mountain-side to a place where they appeared to be herding together.
“But once near the sheep, the people were surprised to see them race still higher up the side of the steep rocks. The young hunter who wished to be a great chief ran after them and became separated from his companions. When on the very top of the peak he was met by a fine looking young man who shone like the sun and had a long white beard like the mountain ancients. This stranger turned to the youth who had been cradled in a sheep’s skin and invited him to his home. He led the way inside of the mountain where everything looked weird and strange. Great heaps of horns were piled everywhere, and the stranger said: ‘These are the horns I am keeping to fit to the heads of the villagers.’
“When the young man’s friends missed him they sought day and night without success, then they went home to plan how to rescue him. For many days the search was resumed until finally they discovered his horn-spear stuck in the ground near the top of the peak. But no other clue could they find although they kept up a search for many days.
“Then the villagers declared that he was lost to them and they wailed and beat the drums for the hunter who came not back.
“Now the shining stranger tried to fit a pair of horns on the young hunter’s head. They were heated and, when taken from the terrific fire that burned continually in the pit of the mountain, they were put upon and held to his head so that the poor hunter thought the insides of his head would be burnt out.
“During this trial, a few of the hunter’s friends still sought for him whenever they hunted on the mountain-side, and after a year’s time, a young man climbed up the peak after a flock of mountain sheep, and there he heard someone shout to him. He knew it was the friend who had been lost. He shouted back, but the lost friend began singing and saying: ‘I must go now, the shining stranger comes and will find me.’