378 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [eth. ann. 31 



while they were singing a mourning-song. During the song I hey 

 were crying, thinking of the relatives that had been killed during the 

 past war. The Tlingit danced twice. Then the Tsimshian began to 

 shout. They took up the great prince of the Tlingit, lifted him up, 

 and placed him on the right side of the great chief LEg - e'°x. Then 

 they danced like the dance of the Tlingit. 



At the end of the dances the food was served; but before this was 

 done, two young girls brought new wooden dishes, poured water into 

 the dishes, and one of the girls washed the right hand of the great 

 Tlingit prince, and the other one washed his left hand. One of them 

 wiped his hands with soft shredded cedar bark. Then two other 

 girls came forward and washed the face of the great prince, and 

 another one wiped his face with shredded cedar bark. 



Next a princess stepped forward wearing her costly abalone ear- 

 ornaments, which cost each one slave, a nose-ornament of abalone 

 shell, and brass bracelets on both arms. She wore also a dancing- 

 blanket. She took the food and gave it to the great Tlingit prince. 

 They, on their part, did the same to LEg-e'°x's nephew. 



After eating, the Tlingit began to dance again. They were fol- 

 lowed by the Tsimshian. Four days they staid in the chief's house. 

 They danced three times a day, and all these customs of making 

 peace have been followed ever since. 



The morning after this the Tlingit were ready to go home. After 

 breakfast they shouted, and lifted the elk skin on which LEg - e'°x's 

 nephew was seated. They took him down to their canoe, and 

 placed him on a carved bcx. He was wearing his crests and his 

 uncle's dancing-blanket and a headdress. Two of his friends followed 

 him, because he was to be away from home for nearly a year. 



Then the Tlingit went home, while LEg - e'°x kept the prince of the 

 Tlingit in his house, and also the two men who followed him when he 

 was first taken to the house. The great prince continued to dance 

 three times a day, and the princess continued to give him food, while 

 the other girls washed him. These two great princes represented the 

 two great tribes that had made peace from that time on, forever. 



A month later the great prince of the Tlingit asked Chief LEg - e'°x, 

 "What Gowagani 1 will you give me to be my name?" Then 

 LEg"e'°x assembled all his wise men among the Tsimshian and ques- 

 tioned them : ' ' What Gowagani do you want to call this great prince V ' 

 Then each wise man named some kind of strong animal, but he 

 refused them all. Finally Chief LEg - e'°x named him Nass Gowagani; 

 and he accepted this, because Nass River is a great thing among all 



1 This is obviously the Tlingit term qdwakd'n, meaning "deer." Swanton (4, p. 451; 5, p. 12N) says Ihat 

 one man is elected and called the "deer" or the "sun deer" or "fort deer," who performs the ceremony 

 here described. 



