308 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [BTH. ANN. 33 



was very skillful in making bows and arrows, and he gave them to his 

 three friends. When they grew up to be young men, they were able 

 to shoot large animals. Then the mother of the prince told her son 

 all that Ins wicked father had done to her other sons, how he had 

 killed them as soon as they were born, and she told her son how his 

 father had killed all her brothers and uncles on account of the trap 

 that had been built between the two villages, and she told him every- 

 thing about her wicked husband. 



The young man took pity on her and wept with her, and he hated 

 his father; and one day he killed Mm to avenge his uncles and his 

 mother's uncles and his own brothers, but he was afraid lest the 

 people should laugh at him. 



Then his mother told him a story about an arrow with a living 

 reptile-head, which was in another village far away in the uttermost 

 parts of the world, in the northwest, in the house of a chief called 

 Gutginsa'. She said, "Many brave men have tried to gain this 

 arrow of supernatural power, but they all failed because it is so far 

 away." Thus spoke the woman to her son. 



Then the young man left his mother. He called his four compan- 

 ions who had always been with him ever since his youth. He told 

 them the story that his mother had told him, and he said to Ms com- 

 panions that he intended to go there. They all agreed. 



They made a good-sized canoe; and when they finished the canoe, 

 the prince asked his mother to collect as much food as she could. 

 She did as her only son said. Then they loaded their canoe with all 

 kinds of food — grease, fat, dried berries, meat — also with coppers, 

 eagle down, and red ocher, and set out. They went toward the 

 northwest. 



One night they camped in a certain place. Then the young man, 

 all by himself, went into the woods to wash, in order to gain success, 

 while liis companions started the camp-fire. Wliile he was in the 

 brook batliing, he beheld a young man who stood by the pool where 

 he was bathing. The young man said to him, "What have you done 

 with my batliing-place ? " The prince, who was batMng, said, "O 

 supernatural one, take pity on me! I did not know that tMs pool 

 belonged to you. I came here to bathe because I wanted to have 

 success and take revenge on the enemy of my relatives." Then the 

 supernatural being said to Mm, "What do you want to have?" The 

 young man replied, "My mother told me that a cMef in a far-away 

 country has a five arrow. His name is Gutginsa'." 



The supernatural being replied, "Yes, it is very far away from 

 here, in the outermost part of the world, but you shall get there. I 

 will let you have my blanket; and whenever you reach a village, you 

 shall wear it, and you shall shout behind the houses. Then they .shall 

 tell you how many more villages there are before you reach the place 



