26G TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY 



1. When went to spear fish my dear lord, alas! 

 When went to spear fish my dear lord, alas! 



■2. Then fell the cormorant hat of my dear lord, alas! 

 And so the town Dzi'gwa was destroyed, alas! 



3. So the town Dzi'gwa of my dear lord was destroyed, alas! 

 So the great town Dzi'gwa was destroyed, alas! 



4. Then the shining garment appeared, alas! 



So the great town Dzi'gwa was destroyed, alas! ' 



She wont on and on until she came to a large lake; and while she 

 was walking around the lake, she beheld a beautiful garment spread 

 for her on the ground, glittering like the stars of heaven. The gar- 

 ment was full of the foam (?) of living persons; and she put this glit- 

 tering garment into the mourning-song. 



She went along, weeping, past the garment; and while she was 

 still going on along the lake, she suddenly heard a great noise coming 

 forth from the water of the lake. It sounded like the rolling of 

 thunder. She looked up, and saw a supernatural halibut coming 

 up out of the water in the shape of a house with carved front, and 

 she put it into her mourning-song. She passed by, going her way, 

 struggling along until she felt weary and faint, because she was 

 starving, and her voice was almost lost on account of her weakness. 



After some time Omen came down on the other side of the lake, and 

 she saw a fire burning under the root of a spruce tree. She went 

 toward it, feeling very weak. Her garments were almost gone on 

 account of her long journey. She sat down by the fire, with her 

 back toward it . 



On this fire the body of a dead princess of a town near by had been 

 burned. The only daughter of a chief and his chief tainess had died 

 and had been burned there. And while the wandering princess was 

 sitting by the funeral pyre warming herself, a canoe came along with 

 four people in it. When they saw the princess sitting by the fire, 

 they passed on toward the village on the other side, and they took 

 the news to the people of the village, saying that they had seen a 

 young princess sitting by the funeral pyre; and all the people were 

 glad, and said that the princess had come back to life. Therefore 

 the chief and his wife went over to see what had happened there. 

 They arrived at the beach, and, behold ! a princess was sitting down 

 by the fire. They came ashore as quickly as they could, and the chief 

 and his wife went up to the fire. Then the whole company, and also 

 the chieftainess, embraced the girl; and the chieftainess asked her, 

 "What is your name?" The girl said that her name was Omen, 

 and so on; and this had been the name of the chief tainess's only 



i Mr. Tate has given tune and words apart, and I can not fit the words to the music.— F. B. 



