boas] TSIMSHIAN MYTHS 279 



came and filled her basket again. They went on some distance, 

 and again her carrying-strap tore. Then some of the women went 

 away home. The berries were scattered on the ground and were 

 mixed with dirt, but a few companions staid with her and gathered 

 the berries. They went on, but again her carrying-strap broke; 

 and her companions said to her, "Let the bags go! We have plenty 

 of bags full of berries for you. You do not need those for yourself. 

 Let us go on instead of gathering those berries, before night comes, 

 lest the wild beasts devour us and we perish." 



The princess, however, answered, "No, I will not leave my berries. 

 Go right on if you want to. " When all the young women had left 

 her in the woods, and she was alone there picking up her berries, 

 behold! two young men came to her, and asked her, "What is the 

 matter?" She told them that her carrying-strap tore several times. 

 They asked her what had become of her companions, and she replied, 

 "They would not wait any longer. " Then these two men asked her 

 to let them carry her basket, and she consented. They took the 

 basket of berries, and went on until they arrived at a village that 

 was unknown to her. 



She was standing outside, a large house. Then the father of the young 

 men asked them, "Did she not come on with you, my sons?" They 

 replied, "She is standing outside." — "Bring her in!" So two girls 

 went out to get her, and took her into the house, and she was made to 

 sit on one side of the fire. 



As soon as she was seated, a Mouse Woman came to her side, and 

 asked her, "Don't you know who has brought you here?" The 

 princess replied, "Xo. " — "The Black Bear brought you here, for 

 you were angry when you slipped on the bear dung while you were 

 picking berries. Therefore they brought you here. Xow take good 

 care. They will give you something to eat, but do not eat the first 

 salmon that they offer you. It is the stomach of a human body. " 



Now the Bear people took good dried salmon and roasted it, put it 

 into a dish, and placed it before the princess, but she did not eat of it. 

 They took it back and ate it themselves. Then they took real salmon 

 and roasted it. This the Mouse Woman had said was real salmon, 

 so she ate of it. 



The Mouse Woman had told her also that they would offer berries 

 mixed with crabapples, and that she was to refuse this. She said, 

 "Don't taste of it! That is decomposed flesh of a body, and the 

 crabapples are the eyes of the dead person; but the second dish of 

 berries mixed with crabapples will be good. " So she ate of this, and 

 continued to do so. 



She became the wife of one of the sons of the Black-Bear chief. 

 She staid there a long time, until the fall. Every morning the male 

 Bears went for salmon, which they caught in the brooks, and the 

 female Bears went into the woods to pick berries, and in the evening 



