eoas] TSIMSHIAN MYTHS 135 



On the following day the young man called all his relatives, and 

 they went to the foot of the steep mountain, where the bones of the 

 goats lay, piled them up, and burned them all; and they walked 

 around the burnt bones. They also burned the meat and the skins. 



In those days the people did not speak badly of animals of any 

 kind. They burned the bones and the meat of the animals, and 

 did not leave the bones on the mountains. It is said that when a 

 hunter burned the bones and meat, then the animals would recover 

 from then - sickness; but as long as the bones lay scattered on the 

 ground, then the animals' sickness would grow worse and w T orse, and 

 they could not be cured. This is what the young Goat t old his friend 

 behind the little spruce tree on the slope of the sliding mountain. 

 This is the end. 



13. The Giant Devilfish 1 



A long time ago a good hunter went out with four men in his canoe. 

 They went around a large island. Soon they saw Killer Whales 

 jumping here and there. There were many of them, and the hunters 

 went ashore to hide from them. Soon they saw a good-sized Killer 

 Whale jumping out of the water at the foot of a high precipice. Sud- 

 denly they saw that he floated dead on the surface, his belly upward, 

 and all the Killer Whales were floating there. 



The hunters had camped at this place in the evening. Early the 

 following morning the chief hunter awoke and went out of their hut. 

 There he saw many Killer Whales coming from all directions, for the 

 prince of the Killer Whales had been killed by the Giant Devilfish 

 on the preceding day when the hunters had passed the island. The 

 Living Depths Horror was the den of the Giant Devilfish at the foot 

 of that great precipice. 



When the great monster had killed the prince of the Killer Whales, 

 the chief of the Killer Whales sent his messengers to all parts of the 

 world, and called his people to his village. He gave them a great 

 feast, and told them that his only son had been killed by the great 

 monster who lived at the foot of the great precipice. He said, 

 ' ' I want you to come and help me kill it, because it will always be 

 very dangerous to our children." Then all the chiefs of the Killer 

 Whales agreed. Therefore they all assembled that morning when 

 the hunter saw them all around on the water. 



Now, the hunters all came out and saw them, and they heard them 

 speak like men. All the Killer Whales have only four clans, like 

 human beings. The chief of each clan called his warriors to kill the 

 great monster. The crests of each clan of these Killer Whales are 

 on their dorsal fins. The Eagles have a white fine in the middle of 

 the dorsal fin; the Wolves have a long dorsal fin like a wolf's tail; 



