296 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [eth. ANN. 30 



So the chief ordered his attendants to bring snow in a dish. They 

 brought in a large wooden dish filled with snow, and placed it 

 before the stranger. Then the stranger stood up and went out. 

 The stranger looked very poor. 



On the following morning the same stranger was seen coming along 

 the ice. He went into the house of the second chief, whose attendants 

 spread mats for him by the side of the fire. ' Then the chief ordered 

 his attendants to put fuel on the fire, and they did so. The chief 

 asked what kind of food the stranger had eaten when he was coming 

 down the river. He replied, "I ate only snow when I was coming 

 along." So the chief ordered his attendants to bring in snow in a 

 wooden dish, and they did so. They filled a large wooden dish with 

 snow, and placed it before the stranger. The stranger went out 

 without touching the snow. 



The third morning he was seen coming along on the ice. He went 

 into the house of the third chief, and the same happened as before. 

 Finally, on the sixth morning, the stranger went into the house of 

 the sixth chief, who was a veiy young man. The six chiefs were 

 brothers, and this one was the youngest of them. The stranger 

 entered the house, and the young chief welcomed him. He said to 

 his attendants, "Spread the- mats by the side of the fire." They did 

 so, and they put fuel on the fire. The young chief had seen the 

 meanness of his five brothers to the poor stranger who had come to 

 their village, and he had made up his mind to be kind to Mm and to 

 comfort him. His wife arose, went to one of the boxes, opened it, 

 and took out their last dried salmon, half of which she put back in 

 her box. The other half she put in a wooden dish, and placed it 

 before the stranger, who ate it. After the stranger had eaten, he 

 said to the young chief, "Very early tomorrow morning go to the 

 other side of the river. If you should hear anything, you might go 

 across. I will then give you a present." The young chief did not 

 sleep that night. Very early next morning he arose with his attend- 

 ant. They crossed the river, and as soon as they came to the other 

 side, they heard a mourning-song. Then the Prince of the Black 

 Bears came down from the hills singing this song, and with three 

 crests, red leggings, a mountain-goat hat, and a grizzly-bear hat, 

 and he gave them to the chief in return for the half-salmon which 

 he had eaten in the chief's house the day before. Then the five 

 brothers of the young chief quarreled with their younger brother. 

 Since that time the G'ispawadwE'da have the- Prince of the Black 

 Bears in their dances, with abalone shells in each ear and on each 

 eye, and abalone shells on each tooth, and no chief besides Dzeba'sa 

 can use Prince of the Black Bears. 



