224 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [etei. A3W. 31 



canoe rested on top of it; but all the trees of the island were swept 

 away, and nothing but bare rock remained. There was no. way to 

 escape from the island. 



The monster was still pleading for ber child, but the young chief 

 continued to ask for his people. Not many days passed before the 

 child died. Then the monster woman stopped asking for her child. 

 The young chief was still on the island, and he was there for a long 

 time with his companions. The chief still counted the days of his 

 work. 



One night about midnight the eldest one of the young men com- 

 pelled his sister to have intercourse with him. The next morning 

 she asked him to go with her to the beach. There the young woman 

 took the skin of a white weasel and tied it on the back of the head of 

 her brother. She said to him, "Go on and fly out to sea, that all the 

 people may see you I" For that reason the male sawbill duck is white 

 on the back of its head. 



When the days that the young chief had counted were at an end, 

 he said to his nephews, "Let us try to go to our empty village!" 

 Therefore they let their canoe slide down on the side of the rock; 

 and as soon as they reached the water, they paddled away hard. 

 Soon they saw the monster sound asleep floating on the sea at the 

 same place where the child had been floating. Therefore the har- 

 pooneer said to his companions, "I will take her into my canoe." 

 They went toward her, and the chief took her by the tail and threw 

 her into the canoe. Then they pulled away as hard as they could; 

 and when they had gone a short distance, the great whirlpool opened 

 behind then - swift canoe, but they paddled away to the shore. Soon 

 they came to their old village. As soon as they arrived there, the 

 monster woman died. They took her ashore, and the dead child. 

 They took her into the house with her child and hung them up inside, 

 one on each post. On the following day they all went aboard again 

 and went to their village. 



Then the whole village was astir, and the chief invited them into 

 his house; and when they were all in, the chief of the village let the 

 people dance and served his guests with food. After they had eaten, 

 the eldest nephew of the chief said that his uncle wanted to marry 

 one of the village chief's relatives. The latter invited his people to 

 tell them what the young chief said. Then the old people of the vil- 

 lage chose one of the old chief's nieces, a good-looking young princess. 

 They gave her to the young chief to be his wife, and the whole village 

 gave him all kinds of food, costly coppers, and elk skins. Then they 

 went home to their own village. 



The three nephews of the young chief wanted to take wives in the 

 same village ; and one day they went to the same village where the 

 uncle had married, and they presented to the uncle of the young 

 chief's wife and to all her relatives the skin (?) of the child of the 



