boas] TSIMSHIAN MYTHS 173 



On the following morning it was perfectly calm. The widow 

 went on to Nass River, and arrived there the same day when the fish 

 arrived; and after the people had done their work of fishing, they 

 moved back to the old village of Metlakahtla. 



After they had been there a while, they moved to Skeena River 

 for salmon fishing. The widow always had good success with the 

 salmon and the berries she dried; and in the fall they moved down 

 to the old town for the winter season. 



Now, when the time came, the young woman gave birth to a boy, a 

 good-looking boy; and when the child was growing up, she went into 

 the woods to get more fuel. There she met a young man, who said 

 to her, "I came to visit you and my son. How is he?" — "Oh, he is 

 a strong and fine boy." He said again, "When he comes to be a 

 youth, do not give him too much to eat, but give him often devil's-club, 1 

 and let him chew some of the inner bark of devil's-club, and let him 

 blow this in his hands, and let him rub it over his body after washing, 

 and do not pass the place where I came to you first. I shall be with 

 him, and he shall be a successful hunter in the future, and I will show 

 him how to set traps and how to snare animals. Do not let him 

 marry soon, when he is too young. Keep him unmarried." 2 



After he had said so, he went away. Then the young woman went 

 back home, carrying dry wood for the fire. 



Now, the child grew up rapidly and became a skillful hunter. One 

 time he went to the mouth of Nass River with four of his friends, and 

 they camped at the same place where his mother had camped on her 

 way to Nass River when the young man had come to her on that 

 stormy night. While Iris companions lighted a fire, this young man 

 went into the woods; and when he went into the thick forest, he saw 

 a man coming down in front of him, who said, "Are you my son?" 

 The young man was surprised at the words of the stranger. He stood 

 there without speaking. The man who met him said again, "I am 

 your father. I have come down to talk to you." The young man 

 replied, "Then speak, father!" — "I will teach you how to obtain 

 valuable animals by trapping them without shooting them," and he 

 made a little trap. He showed him how to make it, and also how to 

 make snares and how to bait wooden traps and skin snares; and he 

 told him how many days he would have to observe taboos, and how 

 many days he would have to fast and to wash. He continued, "And 

 you shall eat the bark of devil's-club; and in the night, after you 

 have counted four days, you shall wash on the bank of a brook and 

 dive in the brook. You shall not wash your body for twelve months; 

 then you shall dive hi the stream twelve times, and every time after 



> Devil's-club (Fatsia horridit), one of the most powerful "medicines" of the Tsimshian.— F. B. 

 = Original: Ada gild,' m dzE dilt m dzE na'ksEnt; a dzE asl gal-su-p!a'°st dzE gukgulam dEm 

 wa-dzagEm ga'd a hana'ogat. 



