boas] TSIMSHIAN MYTHS 169 



smoke will enter the den. Then make two or three clubs, and as 

 soon as you see the otters come out of the den, club them. I will 

 help you." 



On the following day the young woman did as the Mouse Woman 

 had told her. She took stones and logs and put them against the 

 three holes on the sides of the den. On the following day she said 

 to her Otter child, "My dear, I wish you to go early in the morning 

 to get food for me." So very early in the morning the Otter went. 

 Then she began her work, and set fire to the leaves, so that the 

 smoke entered the den. Then her husband came out first, and the 

 Mouse Woman said to her, "This is your husband." She clubbed 

 him. Then all the Otters came out of the den, and she clubbed 

 them. But the Otter chief and his wife did not come out, and many 

 died in the den. At last these two large Otters came out, and she 

 clubbed both of them. 



As soon as she had killed all of them, the little Otter came home, 

 and asked her, "What is that smoke?" The mother told him that 

 it was the smoke of her little fire. He replied, "No, it is not so. I 

 have seen all the Otters killed on the beach." Therefore the mother 

 said, "Yes, I killed them all because they cast me out before I gave 

 birth to you. Only one good old woman took pity on me and gave 

 me a fire. Therefore I am still alive, and you, too, for without her 

 we both of us should have died." Then the little Otter was very 

 unhappy. 



Now, I will go back to the women who were camping at Kiyaks 

 Eiver. The princess's aunt was greatly troubled after the princess 

 had gone. In the morning she said to her companions, "Let us go 

 home today instead of digging fern roots!" So they started for 

 home in the evening. They arrived at home, and asked if the 

 princess had come home safe the preceding night. The people 

 replied that the chief's nephew had been at home the whole day. 

 Then the woman told the people what had happened to them in 

 camp — how the prince with his friend had come up and taken the 

 princess home with them before daylight. 



Therefore the great chief was full of sorrow, for he had lost his 

 young daughter. He called all the. shamans from all the villages of 

 the Tsimshian; and after they had finished their dancing, they said 

 that the princess was in the otter den on an island away out at sea. 

 Therefore the chief knew that he had no power to take her back, and 

 he wept for her sake with his wife. 



One day the little Otter said to his mother, "Shall I go and visit 

 my grandfather?" His mother described to him where his grand- 

 father's house was. She directed him to the second village in the 

 entrance to Metlakahtla Channel. She continued, "But don't go 

 there, lest you die on the sea, and then there Avill be nobody to take 



