boasJ TSIMSHIAN MYTHS 165 



continued to offer sacrifices. lie put it on and flew upward, way up 

 into the air. Then he flew down again and up. He did so several 

 times and took a rest. His companions were still offering sacrifices. 

 Now he ordered his two friends to go home as soon as they could. 

 Therefore the two friends started, and left him alone on the brink of 

 the deep valley. Three days after his companions had left him he 

 put on the eagle form that he had made and flew down into the 

 valley. When he reached the bottom, he did not see any one on the 

 streets of the village. He walked down straight toward the large 

 house in the middle of the village and stood by the door. Without 

 looking through the door, he saw his sister sitting in one corner of 

 the large house, and he also saw the large animals lying around the 

 fire asleep. Then the young woman looked toward the door, and saw 

 her brother standing outside. He beckoned to her, and quickly she 

 arose and walked to him. Then the young man put his sister on 

 his back and flew up as quickly as he could. They arrived at the 

 brink of the deep valley, and started home, running as fast as they 

 could. Whenever they were weary, the young man would put on 

 his eagle form and would fly in the direction toward his home. 

 When they reached their home, he said to his father the chief, "Now, 

 father, order your people to chop down young hemlock trees and young 

 spruce trees, and let them sharpen them at one end, for they will come 

 to pursue us. Let the people be ready tomorrow ! " So the great chief 

 ordered his slave to shout outside ; and the slave went out and shouted, 

 ' O people ! chop down young hemlock trees and young cedar ( ? spruce) 

 trees ; " and every family set ou t, and brought down many sharp young 

 trees ; and the young prince told them, ' ' Load your canoes ! ' ' and all the 

 people did as he had told them. After they had done so, they put 

 their wives and children in some canoes and sent them across to 

 Beaver-Tail Island (Douglas Island). As soon as the women had 

 gone, the people saw the Snails coming down, pursuing their daughter- 

 in-law. They ran as fast as they could, and all the trees were falling 

 down before them. They cut them down as a sickle cuts down the 

 grass. They had the scent of the footprints of the young people. 

 They were coming down from the top of Xien Mountain, and slid 

 right down into the water, and went on swimming on the water. 

 Then the chief's people went to meet them, and fought with them on 

 the water. They speared them with then sharpened hemlock trees and 

 sharpened spruce trees. The large animals swam right along to 

 Beaver- Tail Island over the sea. Then the three large animals were 

 killed there. Their fat floated all over the sea around Beaver-Tail 

 Island, and the wind blew all the fat toward the dry land — the fat of 

 these three large animals — and some of the fat went down to the bot- 

 tom of the sea and became a kind of shellfish whose back is very hard, 

 with a shell like that of an abalone, one shell joined to another all along 



