boas] TSIMSHIAN MYTHS 79 



angry, and threw it into the corner of the house. He said again, 

 "You come from the naked body of a woman, and you catch my long 

 blond hah!" Bright-Cloud Woman arose at once. She said to the 

 dried Salmon, "Come, my tribe, let us go back!" Thus she said to 

 them. She stood up and whistled. Then all the dried Salmon flew 

 out of the house; and while the dried Salmon were flying away, 

 TxamsEm's blond hah became scorched and turned back to its own 

 natural color, and his own rough skin came back again. And while 

 his blond hah was being scorched, he tried to take hold of its end, 

 and said, "You should not do that, hah;" and he was uglier than 

 before. Then Bright-Cloud Woman started, and led her tribe, the 

 dried Salmon, and they all went into the water. TxamsEm tried to 

 put his arms around his wife, but her body was like smoke, and his 

 arms went through her, for she was a cloud. TxamsEm came to be 

 very poor, and had nothing to eat and was very hungry. He was 

 there all alone, no one to comfort him. He had lost all his provisions, 

 and his beautiful wife had gone. His blond hah was scorched, and 

 his soft white skin had become rough again. He sat down in the 

 house, weeping and sorrowful on account of the tilings he had lost. 



(23) txa'msem makes war on the south wind * 



TxamsEm continued to live alone in his little hut. It had been 

 bad weather all the time since his wife had left him, for the south 

 wind was blowing hard, and he could not get anything to eat. All 

 the people were also unable to get their food, and they were starving. 

 They were also unable to get any fish; for the halibut, red cod, 

 black cod, and others would not bite, and the fishermen could not 

 get any bait on account of the bad weather. They all were very 

 much distressed. TxamsEm's eyes were sore on account of the 

 smoke which the south wind blew down through the smoke hole, and 

 which filled his little hut. Then TxamsEm called aU the Fish. When 

 they were in his house, he said, "O my father's tribe! let us consider 

 if we can not get something to eat, the weather always being so bad ! 

 We shall soon die of starvation if we always stay at home on account of 

 the bad weather." Then the Devilfish arose, and said at once, "O 

 chief! I will speak what is in my mind. Let us go and make war 

 against the Master Of The South Wind, that we may not all die of 

 starvation!" Then the Halibut also arose, and said, "I am much 

 pleased with what my friend said. Let us go and make war against 

 him, lest we and our children die!" The Fish agreed to go and 

 make war against the Master Of The South Wind." Then the Devilfish 

 also said, ' ' Let us borrow the canoe of our brother Killer Whale, for he 

 has a strong canoe, which can be used in a gale ! " The Fish consented, 



1 The form of the following story is influenced by the Kwakiutl tale printed in Boas and Hunt, Kwakiut 

 Texts (Publications o/theJesup North Pacific Emciition, vol. in, p. 350).— Notes, p. 658.— F. B. 



