152 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [HTH. iJN. 31 



that she had no time to call up her own supernatural helpers. They 

 bit her neck, bit off her head, and the two dogs ate her flesh, but her 

 head was still alive. The young man took it and put it on a pole, 

 which he placed upright in the mouth of her den. Then the young 

 woman took her two dogs, petted them, and they became smaller 

 and smaller until they were of the same size as before. 



They went to then- own house, and when they arrived there, the 

 pups were dead. Then the young man died also. The woman took 

 her husband's body and her two dead dog*' and carried them to her 

 own home. That is the end. 



17. The Hunter and his Wooden Wife > 



A hunter married a young woman. He loved her very much 

 because the young woman knew how to make dancing-blankets, 

 which were very dear to the people in olden times. 



Not many days after their marriage the hunter made ready to go 

 up the mountains for fall and winter hunting. One day they started, 

 and he went with his young wife, taking all his woodworker's tools 

 and his traps and snares. They went on and on until they arrived 

 at his camping-ground, and there they went into the hut. In the 

 autumn the young man first hunted mountain sheep, whose wool 

 the young wife needed for making dancing-garments. Therefore 

 the man killed many. He took off the good wool, and the young 

 woman took all the wool and washed it; and when it was dry enough, 

 she spun it into yarn; and after she had spun it all, she dyed some; 

 and when she was ready, she began to weave; and when one half of 

 her weaving was finished, she became sick while her husband was 

 away. When he came homo, he found his young wife very ill. 



When she was dying, she called her young husband to her side, 

 and said, "My dear husband, keep your love for me after I am dead. 

 Don't go home too soon! Watch over my grave!" Then she died. 



The young man was in deep sorrow for her sake. He kept her 

 dead body many days. Now the winter was nearly passed, and he 

 still kept the body until it was decayed. Then he buried it. He 

 carved an image of his wife out of red cedar. 



This man never touched anything that his wife had made, and so 

 it was with her dancing-garment which she was making when she 

 died. It was still hanging there where it had been when she was work- 

 ing on it. When he made the image of his late wife, he seated it in 

 front of her unfinished dancing-garment, and he made the fingers 

 move as though they were weaving a dancing-garment. He made 

 it turn when he opened the door, and he pretended that the image 

 could speak. 



1 Notes, p. 744. 



