boas] TSIMSHIAN MYTHS 297 



49. Gau'o 1 



(Printed in Boas 13, pp. 193-22(1.) 



50. Story of the Gtspawadwe'da 2 



Once upon a time a man went out hunting mountain goats. He 

 met a Black Bear, who carried him to his den. There the Bear taught 

 him how to catch salmon and how to build canoes. Two years later 

 the man returned home. When he arrived, all the people were afraid 

 of him, because he looked like a bear. One man, however, caught 

 him and carried him to the house. He was unable to speak, and did 

 not want to eat boiled meat. Then the people rubbed him with 

 medicine, until finally he resumed his human form. After this, 

 whenever he was in difficulty, he went up the mountain to his 

 friend the Bear, who would help him. In winter, when nobody was 

 able to obtain salmon, he would catch fresh salmon for him. Then 

 the man built a house, and painted it with a picture of the Bear. His 

 sister wore a dancing-apron with a representation of a bear. There- 

 fore his sister's descendants use the bear as their crest up to this day. 3 



51. TSAUDA AND HALUS 2 



There are many different tales belonging to the time after the 

 great Deluge, when the people were scattered all over the earth, and 

 when they had villages at Metlakahtla. 



There was a great chief who had a wife, and they had an only 

 daughter who was very beautiful. In olden times people would love 

 their children very much. So it was with this chief and his wife. 

 They loved their only beautiful daughter. They did not let her go 

 out often in the daytime, and all the princes in the village of Metla- 

 kahtla wanted to marry her; but her parents would not let her 

 marry, because they loved her dearly. She was quite young, and 

 her father chose the daughters of his principal men to be her friends. 

 Ten of these were chosen. Once a month throughout the year she 

 would take a walk with the maids on the street of her father's village, 

 and all the young princes followed her when they saw her walking on 

 the street. 



Now, the princess came to be a woman, and she wished in her 

 heart to marry soon, before she should be old; and she lay in bed 

 sleepless every night, thinking about this matter. Her bed was over 

 her parents' bed, and the beds of her maids were under hers. 



One midnight she thought that she saw a vision. She saw a 

 shining light eome down through the smoke hole. It went to her, 

 and she saw a young man in the midst of the shining light. He said 



' Notes, p. 847. . . p. 855.' ''Translated from Boas 1, p. 293. 



