222 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [bih. ANN. 31 



Therefore the whole village assembled to talk about the monster 

 that was destroying all their young men, and they agreed to make 

 war against it. So one day they prepared their weapons, and made 

 ready to go out against the monster and its child. On the following 

 day they went. Part of the people went to battle against the monster, 

 and the rest remained in the village. 



When the party arrived at the place where the child was floating, 

 they did not find it. So they came to the large island, and there they 

 saw sea otters running about. They hunted them and clubbed a 

 great number. They nearly forgot their grief, because they had 

 slain so many sea otters. It was very calm that day, and before 

 evening they loaded the canoes with the sea otters; and while on 

 their way back home, between the two islands they saw the child 

 floating on the surface of the water. 



Then a violent man said, "I will kill the child to revenge the blood 

 of my relatives!" and they all agreed. He took up his spear and 

 thrust his spear right through the heart of the floating child; and 

 when he took the spear from the body, the monster came up from 

 the water, and asked, "Who killed my only child?" The man who 

 had killed it said, "I killed your child, for you destroyed all my 

 family." Then the monster shouted and cried aloud. A great 

 whirlpool opened and swallowed the canoes. The first canoe went 

 along very fast, so that the whirlpool could not catch it. The crew 

 brought the sad news to the people who remained in the village. 



Then that part of the people who had remained in the village made 

 ready to fight the monster. On the following day they went; and 

 when they arrived at the same place (that is, between the two islands), 

 they did not see anything on the surface. They went right ahead 

 until they arrived at the large island; and they saw that the land 

 was full of sea otters, but they did not pay any attention to them. 

 They came back soon. On their way back they saw a child floating 

 there. Then the two canoes went on (?), and the two harpooneers 

 took up their spears and tlirust them through the body of the child. 

 The monster came up and cried for her child, whose body was torn 

 by the spears. She said in a low voice, "Why did you kill my 

 child?" and the harpooneers of the two canoes said, "Why are you 

 killing all our people ? You have killed the greater part of our tribe." 

 Then she shouted as loud as the rolling thunder. A whirlpool opened 

 and drew in the canoes, but the two canoes the harpooneers of which 

 had the child's body at the end of their spears could not be swallowed 

 by the whirlpool. Then the monster seized the bow of each canoe 

 and took them down to the bottom of the sea and destroyed them all. 



Now only one young chief remained in the village, with his two 

 nephews and his niece and the mother of these two young people. 

 The young chief thought how ho could overcome the monster of the 

 sea. One day he said to his two nephews, "Let us build a good swift 



