boas] TSIMSHIAN MYTHS 281 



days' bath he had taken away the mat and put it aside, and had 

 taken a new mat for the other twenty days. 1 



So Chief Black Bear asked the young princess how many mats her 

 eldest brother had; and these sixty Black Bears hung their heads, for 

 they knew that they would soon be slain by the eldest brother of the 

 princess. Therefore they hung their heads and cried. 



The Black Bear chief asked her further, "How many mats has 

 your second brother?" — "My second brother has forty mats." 

 Then the forty Black Bears hung their heads, and the tears ran down 

 their noses. Again the chief asked, "How many mats has your third 

 brother?" The princess replied, "My third brother has twenty 

 mats. " Then twenty Bears hung their heads, and the water ran 

 down their noses. 



Again the chief asked, "How many mats has your youngest 

 brother, princess?" — "My youngest brother has five mats." Then 

 five Black Bears hung their heads, and water ran down their noses; 

 and the princess's husband also hung his head, and the tears ran 

 down his nose. 



After the chief had questioned them, he said to aU his people, 

 "Tomorrow you shall go all over the country and gather wild carrots 

 for your own use in your dens for the winter. " Then the old Bear 

 said, ' ' We shall lie down under old fallen trees ; " and the chief said to 

 his people, ' ' As soon as you hear the thunder rolling, then each shall 

 go to his own den, lest danger come upon you. " 



On the following morning all the Bear people went out; and soon 

 the thunder was heard rolling, and each Bear family went to its 

 own den. 



Now the eldest brother was prepared to go hunting. He had been 

 away for a month in the mountains, and had succeeded in killing 

 sixty black bears. He went home, and the second brother was 

 ready to go hunting. He staid in the mountains for a month, and 

 then went home, having killed forty black bears. When the third 

 brother was ready to go, he left home, and staid in the mountains a 

 month, and then went home, having killed twenty black bears. Then 

 he came home. 



Now the youngest brother was read}', and went with his two dogs, 

 Red and Spots. He went on and on, and did not find anything. 

 He went farther on. Many days had passed and he had not killed 

 anything. So he stood at the foot of a mountain, crying, and thinking 

 of his sister that was lost the preceding summer. 



While he was crying, his two dogs raised their noses and went up 

 a mountain with a rock-slide on each side. Soon they came up to a 



1 They used this custom when they wanted to have success in hunting. Original: Ada laxst a 

 gu'plElda sa'°t a kple'lda laxst a mEla-kiE'rElda sa°t hi-ga'odi klErElda laxst. Dat gik l!i-ga' nakst ligi 

 ami dzE wa-na'kst dat ga ligi-lEp-wila's hanii'°gat ana 'gat, adat da'mgEt ; dit hi-sa-ba' g6'°p'Elda sa'°t 

 laxst ganl sil-na'kgA hana'gat; dat ksa-ga-sgant at ma 'gat. Ada am tsel-ma'gat. Adat gik ga° su-sgant 

 agikk!E'rEldagidissa°. 



