74 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [bth.ann. 31 



them that I should like to eat what they have there now." The 

 slave said, "O chief! my master says he does not eat what you have 

 there now, because he is afraid he might die." The chief of the house 

 said, "Oh, I see! Then we will eat it with you, Lgum." Then 

 TxamsEm sat there, looking at his slave angrily. The slave ate all 

 with the chief of the house, but TxamsEin had only very little to eat. 

 After they finished eating, they went out. TxamsEm was still angry 

 with his slave. TxamsEm went first, followed by his slave Gahaya(?). 

 Soon they came to a deep canyon. TxamsEm had placed the dried 

 stem of a skunk-cabbage across, forming a bridge. He himself went 

 across first; and when he reached the other side, he called Lgum to 

 come across, but the slave was afraid to follow him. After a while, 

 however, he followed him; and when Lgum reached the middle of the 

 bridge, it broke. Then Lgum fell into the deep canyon, and his 

 belly burst. When TxamsEm saw what had happened, and saw 

 the food of which he had not been able to partake, he flew down to 

 the bottom of the canyon and ate the contents of the slave's stomach. 

 TxamsEm simply took the food with both his hands and ate it all. 

 After he had eaten, he flew up from the bottom of the canyon. 



(19) FISHERMEN BREAK OFF TXA.'mSEM's JAW 1 



Again TxamsEm was very hungry. He went on, not knowing which 

 way to turn. Behold! he came out of the woods near a large town. 

 There were people out in front of the town, fishing for halibut. 

 TxamsEm thought they might have much bait on their hooks and that 

 he would eat it. He dived and saw the bait. He took it off from the 

 hooks and ate it. Then TxamsEin went from one hook to another, 

 eating all the bait. Thus the bait of all the fishermen had disappeared, 

 and they did not know how it had happened. Finally one of the fisher- 

 men caught TxanisEm's jaw. His jaw was caught on one of the hooks. 

 Then the fisherman pulled up his line, and TxamsEin was pulled up. 

 He offered resistance, but could not take the hook out of his mouth, 

 and he held on to the rocks at the bottom of the sea. Then the fisher- 

 men assembled, and hauled together at the fishing-line. TxamsEm 

 had said to the rocks to which he held at the bottom of the sea, 

 "Help me, rocks of the bottom!" and finally he said to his jaw, 

 "Break off, jaw! I am getting tired now." Then his jaw broke off, 

 and the fisherman hauled up the line easily. Behold! the fishermen 

 saw come up on the hook the great jaw with a long beard. Some 

 of them laughed, but others were scared. They all went ashore at 

 once, and all the people assembled in the chief's house. They looked 

 at the great jaw, and were surprised to see a man's jaw with a long 

 beard caught on a halibut hook. On the following day the gam- 

 blers assembled at one place on the beach of the town. There they 



' Notes, p. 6S4. 



