100 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [m. ANN. 31 



ready for them, put on his raven garment , and flew away. The chief's 

 son decided to kill the man who had dragged down these animals. 

 They rushed at him; but TxamsEin ran as fast as he could toward 

 a log that floated a little way out on the water. He flew, and alighted 

 on it. Then the Wolves went away with the carcasses, but TxamsEm 

 paddled to the north country on the floating log. He drifted to 

 Cape Fox with the tide. Therefore the canoes do not capsize in 

 stormy weather when they cross over there. We call the place 

 "Mouth Of Nass River" up to this time. 



(37) txa'msem invites the monsters 1 



TxamsEm had been away from this country for a long time, many 

 years; and when he came back from the north, wearing the old 

 raven garment, he gave a great feast to all the monsters on one of 

 the outer islands. When his guests came into the bay on the outer 

 side of that island, TxamsEm went out to meet them. The water 

 was full in front of the new carved house that TxamsEm had built. 

 This was the first potlatch to which he invited all kinds of monsters; 

 and when they came into the bay, TxamsEm stood in front of his house 

 and began to address his guests. "O chiefs! I am so glad to see that 

 you have come to my potlatch. I have been away from this country 

 for a long time, therefore I am glad to see you again. I want to say 

 something else. I wish you would stay there and become rocks." 

 Then all the monsters became rocks. He continued, "And I will 

 also become a rock." As soon as TxamsEm said this, the devilfish 

 went down quickly. Therefore the devilfish stays now at the bottom 

 of the sea. The people were much pleased because all the monsters 

 had been turned into stone; and TxamsEm himself became a stone 

 shaped like a raven, and only the devilfish remains alive. The people 

 say that nowadays, when a devilfish comes out of the water, the 

 people cry, "Caw, caw, caw!" like a raven, and the devilfish dies 

 when he hears the raven cry. That island is full of stones shaped 

 like all kinds of monsters — whales, killer whales, sharks, and so on — 

 and the raven stands in front of his carved house even now. 2 



(38) THE FURTHER HISTORY OF TXi'MSEM :1 



There was a great chief among the G'i-lu-dza'r named TlEm-nunx. 

 Three years before the white people reached this country the great 

 chief T lEm-nunx gave a great feast to all the Tsimshian tribes. He 

 built a very good carved house, carved on the outside, and with 

 carved timbers inside even better than the outer carving. After he 

 had finished his house, he invited all the Tsimshian chiefs to his new 

 carved house; and when the chiefs came in, they were delighted to 



