94 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [eth. ANN. 31 



(34) TXa'mSEM AND THE WOLVES 1 



TxamsEm went on again in the woods, lonely, without any friends. 

 There was no meat for him to eat. At last he came out of the forest 

 at a place where a house was standing in the valley. TxamsEm went 

 toward it. Before he arrived there, the sound of the voices of young 

 men met him proceeding from the house. They asked him where- he 

 came from and where he was going. TxamsEm replied, saying that he 

 was out hunting, and the young men were glad to learn that he was 

 a hunter. Therefore they invited him in. Many people were in the 

 house. They spread mats on one side of the large fire. TxamsEm 

 sat down and looked around, and he saw that the house was full of 

 all kinds of meat. There was some fresh meat. He smiled when he 

 was looking around. Then they roasted dried salmon, and put it in 

 a dish and placed it in front of TxamsEm. He ate. The next course 

 was boiled dried meat, and then fresh meat steamed in a hole in the 

 ground. This was the house of Chief Wolf and of his people. Txam- 

 sEm was afraid. On the following day Chief Wolf said to his hunt- 

 ers, "Bring me some fresh meat tomorrow, while our friend is 

 staying with us!" Then all the young people got ready for the fol- 

 lowing morning; and early in the morning they started, as soon as 

 the sun rose. They came home one by one, bringing all kinds of 

 animals. Some brought mountain goats, some venison, some black 

 bear, some geese, and so on. TxamsEm did not know what to do, 

 for he was afraid of the Wolves. He tried often to obtain all those 

 provisions which he saw in the house of the chief of the Wolves. 

 The Wolves did not sleep in the night, and they smelt everything; 

 therefore TxamsEm could not deceive them. 



On the following day TxamsEm intended to leave them for a whde, 

 and he said he would be back after a few days. He told Chief Wolf 

 that he was going for his hunting-gear. Chief Wolf ordered his 

 servants to fill a big bag with fat meat, which he was going to give 

 to his friend to eat on his way. On the following morning he started. 

 He had not gone long before he had eaten all the fat meat in his bag. 



(35) TXA'MSEM AND CHIEF GROUSE 2 



Then TxamsEm climbed a mountain and saw a house on the other 

 side. He went up to it secretly and looked in through a knot-hole. 

 Behold! there were a woman and her two children. He left secretly, 

 and went a little farther back and sat there a wliile. Then three 

 Crows whom TxamsEm had called came to him. He was going to 

 pretend that one of the Crows was his wife and the two others were 

 his children; so they went together toward the little house. Before 

 they reached there, behold! a hunter came down with fresh meat of 

 mountain goats, and the two children of the hunter came forth to 



