boas] TSIMSHIAN MYTHS 309 



where yon want to go; but you shall hide your canoe from every 

 tribe that you pass. Don't show yourselves, lest they tell you how 

 difficult is the way that you are to go; and you shall order your com- 

 panions always to offer burnt>efferings." 



After the supernatural being had said so, he handed Mm the skin 

 of a sparrow and vanished from his sight. 



Then the young man went to his companions, who were encamped, 

 and told them to offer a burnt-offering. They did so. 



On the following morning they went on, and toward evening they 

 saw a village in the distance. They camped near by and hid their 

 canoe. Early the following morning the young man put on his 

 sparrow blanket, flew up, and alighted on the branches of a tree 

 behind the house of the chief of the village. Then the sparrow 

 began to sing; and an old man in the chief's house said, "O super- 

 natural one, supernatural one! there are many more villages before 

 you reach the place where you want to go." 



They started again, and reached the next village. The prince put 

 on his sparrow garment, alighted on the top of the chief's house, and 

 began to sing, "Crisguuts gut ginsai!" An old man who heard the 

 bird said, "O supernatural one, supernatural one! the country that 

 you want to reach is very far away." 



The prince's companion made a burnt>offering in every place where 

 they camped. 



They started again, and reached another village, and, sitting on 

 the top of the chief 's house, he began to sing, as he had done before in 

 the villages that they had passed. The same answer came from the 

 mouth of an old man, who said that there were many more villages 

 before they would reach there. 



They went on, and passed many villages. Finally they came to a 

 large village; and the prince put on his sparrow blanket and began 

 to sing, as before; and an old man in the chief's house said, "O super- 

 natural one, supernatural one! there are only three more villages 

 before you reach there, but it will take a month to go from one village 

 to the next one." 



They traveled on' and on. A month passed, and they reached the 

 next village, larger than the preceding one. The prince put on his 

 sparrow blanket and began to sing, as before. Then the old man 

 in the chief's house said, "O supernatural one! there are only two 

 more villages before you reach there, but it takes a month to go from 

 this village to the next one." 



They started again, and at the end of a month they arrived at the 

 next village, larger than the other two. The prince put on his spar- 

 row blanket and alighted on the chief's house and began to sing. 

 Then the old man in the chief's house said, "O supernatural one! 



