344 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [Bin. ANN. 31 



canoe-line in his hands, and tied it firmly to the rock. When he has- 

 tened to the top of the rock, I cut the line and pushed off the canoe 

 from the rock. He looked at me, and said that he intended to come 

 and take me home, but I paid no attention to what he said; and I 

 shouted, as he had done. He was anxious to stop me, but I shouted 

 four times, and I saw the birds of heaven descend to the rock when I 

 paddled away from it." 



Thus said the princess, and all the chiefs wept. On the following 

 morning all the tribes went with the princess to go to the grassy rock. 

 Before they reached there, the princess asked them to let her fath?r 

 go first. He went ashore first; and after he had gathered beautiful 

 feathers, all the other chiefs came ashore. They picked up their 

 daughters' hand baskets, gathered their bare bones, and took them 

 home. On that day there was great mourning on the island by the 

 parents of those princesses who had been lost. They saw the bare 

 bones of the bad shaman there, and every one who passed them threw 

 stones at them. 



The father of the princess went to the little island and took from 

 the house of The Man Who Bound Up His Wrinkles At The Back Of 

 His Head all kinds of costly garments and all kinds of arrows and feath- 

 ers, and abalone shells of all kinds ; and when they came home, the 

 chief returned to his fellow-chiefs their children's garments, and he 

 gave them ten beautiful feathers with each garment, and the princess 

 was honored by all the tribes on that day. 



58. The Brothers Who Visited the Sky 1 

 Three brothers went up the mountains to hunt. They lay down 

 to sleep, and when they awoke they saw the stars above so near that 

 they could touch them. They found that they were on a flat rock 

 which had arisen high above the ground. They had nothing to eat 

 and no water to drink. The eldest one spoke. ' ' What shall we do ? 

 Let us cut ropes from the skins of large mountain goats and climb down 

 to the ground ! " But the youngest one replied, "No, let us wait! Per- 

 haps he who took us up while we were asleep will take us back in our 

 sleep." They followed his advice and lay down to sleep. Suddenly 

 the youngest one heard a voice, saying, ' ' Take a round pebble and hold 

 it in your mouth ! " It was the daughter of the Sun who was speaking 

 thus. He followed her order; and when he awoke on the following 

 morning, he saw his brothers lying there dead. In his dream he had 

 seen that they left him and tried to climb down to the ground. Since 

 they had not prayed, they had perished in the attempt. Then the 

 young man prayed to the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars. He put his 

 arrow into the crack of the rock, tied a rope to it, and climbed down- 

 He got back safe. 



1 Translated from Boas 1, p. 290— Notes, p. 861. 



