250 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [BTH. ANN. 31 



heard again the hooting of an owl; and he said, "You foolish woman, 

 go away from me! I don't want you to come near my camp!" 

 Then the owl stopped hooting when she heard what her husband 

 said, and the man forgot that he had been talking to the owl. He 

 went out of his hut, and the owl flew just above his head, and he fell 

 dead right there. 



3S. Local Winter in G , it-q!a' da 1 



Before the Deluge the Tsimshian lived on the upper course of 

 Skeena River. There was the great village of the G'it-q!a'°da, 

 and in it were many people. They had only one great chief who 

 commanded his people and made laws for them in regard to every- 

 thing. 2 



The son of that chief of the G"it-q!a'°da had married according to 

 their custom, in winter. He was a young man of very good mind. 

 Shortly after he had married, there was a great famine all along the 

 coast. In the spring a man cut a hole in the ice on Skeena River and 

 put down his bag net. He caught a spring salmon. His wife steamed 

 it in a box and put small sticks through the spring salmon the width 

 of a finger apart. Then he invited all his tribe, and the people were 

 very glad to have a fresh spring salmon. The starvation was almost 

 forgotten; and after they had eaten, they went to their own houses, 

 taking part of the boiled salmon to their wives and children. 



While they were on their way home, a snowstorm came up; and 

 one man named G'augun took off the cover from his salmon, stretched 

 both his hands toward Heaven, and said, "How is it?. Do you think 

 winter is coming back again ? Look at the fresh boiled spring salmon 

 that I have in my hand ! Shame on you for letting it snow every day !" 

 Then he went home and gave his boiled salmon to his wife and his 

 children. After they had eaten, they felt satisfied. 



Then all the people of the village were ready to go fishing the next 

 morning on the ice. In the same night a heavy snowstorm set in, 

 and it continued until the food of all the people was gone, and there 

 was a very bad famine among the people. Many died of starvation. 

 No one was able to work and to get food, on account of the snow- 

 storms. 



The wife of the newly married prince had given birth to a child; 

 and whUe it was snowing every day, the whole tribe died. Only the 

 prince and his wife remained alive. They ate very little food once 

 a day. The young woman would boil a little piece of dried salmon, 

 and would take the soup for the child that she was nursing, while the 

 prince ate a piece of the salmon. 



Soon their food was gone. Then the child died, for the mother 

 had no milk for it. On the day after the child had died, a blue- 



i Notes, p. 829. 2 Then follows a description of the 



