322 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [bth.ann.3J 



bring all then goods down to the new chief's house. They were 

 going to have their home there. The young wives of the great prince 

 had each two children at a time. He had many children. The 

 elder wife gave birth to six pairs of twins, and the other wife gave 

 birth to three pairs of twins, so that he had eighteen children in all. 

 They were skillful hunters, the girls also. 



Now the time for his end came, and he called all his children, and 

 said to them, "If you return to your own home, do not hurt my 

 people when you see them on the mountains ; and if you marry some 

 of these people, do not go back home!" The children promised that 

 they would not return to their own home; and the prince's days 

 came to an end and he died. 



His eldest son was married to one of the daughters of another 

 chief, and the rest of his children all married. The girls also married 

 some of the princes. Only two of the children returned to their own 

 home. Therefore the wolves are afraid of human beings up to this 

 day. 



54. The Ghost Who Fought with the Great Shaman 1 



In olden times many different things happened among the people. 

 Some were good and others bad, and some were funny. And so it is 

 with this story of the ghost and the great shaman. 



In a village on Nass River there was a chief who had an only son. 

 When the boy had grown up to be a youth, he had four friends who 

 were of the same age as he. It was the custom of princes to choose 

 some good and wise young men to be his friends; and so it was with 

 this prince. Every day they went into the woods and built a small 

 hut, to which they used to go every day. The prince pretended to 

 be a shaman, and his four friends were his singers. They made a 

 skin drum, and had a board on which to beat time; and so they went 

 to their hut day by day. Their parents did not know what they were 

 doing. Soon after they had had their breakfast in the morning, they 

 went to their little hut, and played there all day until evening. At 

 dusk they came home. They did this day by day and month by 

 month and year by year. 



Finally, when the prince was full grown, one day they went in 

 another direction to hunt squirrels. Before evening they came 

 home; and before they reached there, they passed by the graveyard 

 a little behind the village, on the bank of a brook behind the town; 

 and as they were passing by, they saw one of the coffins open. 



The young prince said, "Shall I go into that open coffin there?" 

 His friends asked him to desist; but he did not pay any attention to 

 what they said, and jumped into the open coffin. He lay down in 

 it; and as soon as he lay down there, he was dead. Then his four 

 friends were very sorry. They stood around the coffin, weeping. 



