416 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [HTH.ANK.3J 



Later on he received, in addition to theso, a mountain staff. All 

 these had songs belonging to them. 



A few of the stories are of a mixed type and refer in part to the 

 descent of the ancestor, in part to his exploits. Here belongs, for 

 instance, the story of GunaxnesEmg"a'd, who is the son of a super- 

 natural being, but transmits the name Y!aga-k!une'°sk that he has 

 taken at a feast (1.191). Here may also be mentioned the story of a 

 man who killed the Wolf prince and took his crests — a blanket with cleft 

 hoofs of deer and sheep, an armor set with ears of reindeer and other wild 

 animals, and a hat with a wolf's tail (317) — who, however, was later 

 adopted by the mother of the Wolf whom he had murdered, married 

 two Wolf sisters, and whose children lived in part among the Wolves, in 

 part among the people, and established the crests and a friendship be- 

 tween wolves and man. Here we have apparently a contradiction, for 

 the man is given the place of the wolf whom he had killed. Therefore 

 his sister's children should inherit his place. It is not stated that the 

 children whom he had by his Wolf wife, and who staid with the people, 

 inherited his crests; but, according to their descent, they must have 

 been Wolves, although the Wolves themselves would then have had 

 different clans. In short, it seems difficult to reconcile this story 

 with the present organization of the tribe^ 



The stories telling how a shaman receives his powers are quite 

 similar to the crest stories of the second type. This may be seen, for 

 instance, on 347, where a man is given the Grizzly Bear, Thunder- 

 bird, a being called Living Eyes (the hail), one called Mouth At Each 

 End, and the Cuttlefish; or in the story of the man who obtained 

 power from the squirrel (N 211). 



In a few cases the encounter with a supernatural being results not 

 only in the acquisition of crests, but also in the establishment of 

 what seem to be clan taboos, or relations between clans and animals. 

 Na-gun-a'ks forbids his proteges to kill fish (288), a friendly relation 

 is established between the Wolves and the people of the Wolf Clan 

 (322). We may perhaps mention here also the promise to assist 

 their uncles, made by the young Bears, the children of a woman who 

 had been carried away by the Bears (284). In one story of the 

 first type a somewhat analogous incident occurs. There the descend- 

 ants of the supernatural being are given the power to work copper 

 and the taboos of this kind of work (306). On the whole, however, 

 this feature is not strongly developed. 



Names are acquired in the same manner as crests, and are given 

 by supernatural beings to their grandchildren or obtained in an indi- 

 vidual encounter. Thus in 273 a male supernatural being calls his 

 son's son Coming Dora The Useless River; this refers to the name 

 of the supernatural being himself, and therefore can not possibly 

 belong to the maternal family, since the child's mother was of human 



