boas] TSIMSHIAX MYTHS 251 



jay was sitting in the smoke hole with a large cluster of ripe elder- 

 berries in its bill. The bird opened its mouth, crying, "Qwash, 

 qwasJi, qtvasTi!" When the elderberries dropped down, the young 

 woman arose and took them and showed them to her starving hus- 

 band. Their hearts felt relieved. Then the woman said to her 

 husband, "Be of good cheer, my dear! Let us try to leave this 

 desolate place, and we shall find summer, for the supernatural power 

 sends a large cluster of elderberries to show us that summer has 

 come." 



Now, they made ready to go to another place while it was stdl 

 snowing heavily. On the following day they put on their snowshoes 

 and went down river, leaving then- old home. They struggled along 

 in the snow. The prince was very weak because he was starving, 

 and his wife suckled him twice a day. They traveled for one day 

 from the old village site, and they passed out of the snow and reached 

 a place where it was summer. When they looked behind, black 

 clouds were still hanging over the village. They went farther down 

 the river and made a camp. The prince was still very weak, and 

 the young woman suckled him. Then she went down to the river 

 to fetch water, and brought it to her husband, and she would always 

 see small trout among the stones in the shallow water. On the 

 following day she told her husband that she had seen many trout 

 among the stones in the shallow water. Therefore the weak prince 

 took his knife and split a small piece of red cedar, and made out of it 

 a fish trap. The young woman took it down to the river and placed 

 it among the stones where the small trout were. There she left it 

 over night. On the following morning she went down, and, behold! 

 the trap was full of small trout. She took them to her sick husband. 

 She boiled them hi a root basket and took them to her husband. 

 She gave him a wooden spoon, but the prince declined it. He said, 

 "You shall eat it, and you shall go on suckling me." The young 

 woman did so every day until the prince was a little stronger. Then 

 he made a larger trap, for larger trout; ami every night they caught 

 many trout, and also eels. They dried some of the trout and eels, 

 and the prince made a still larger trap for salmon. Then he caught 

 many spring salmon. 



Next he made two large traps, and he also built a weir on one side 

 of the Skeena River, and put two large salmon traps hi the deep 

 water at the end of the bridge. He built a house for smoking salmon. 

 Then they had plenty to eat. There was no longer any famine. In 

 midsummer they dried all kinds of berries, and at the end of the 

 summer the prince built a large canoe; and after the canoe was 

 finished, they loaded it with all kinds of dried salmon and boxes of 

 dried berries. They went down river, and camped at Fall Camp. 



