420 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [eth. ass. 31 



(267), four sons and two daughters (236, 255). In still others the 

 stories treat simply of the sons of a chief, without any mention of 

 his daughters. Thus there are ten sons mentioned (141), six (131), 

 and four (N 200). An only son is spoken of on 58, 154, 192, and in 

 N 188; the only son of a woman on 243. An only daughter is men- 

 tioned on 172. The man who has eighteen Wolf children belongs, of 

 course, in the domain of myth (322). In one story there appear a 

 chief and his sister ; the chief has a son, and his sister a daughter ( 1 85 ) . 

 Two children, without reference to sex, form the subject of the story 

 N 159. In most of these cases the children are referred to as living 

 in their father's house (244), although a few times (1.195, N 100) 

 they are referred to as living with their mothers. There are hardly 

 any cases in which the social unit of which the story treats consists 

 of a chief and his nephews. We find mention of such a chief and 

 his four nephews on 116. 



A number of times polygamy is specifically referred to. Thus the 

 chief is said to have six wives (267), as many as twenty (278), and 

 many wives (238). 



After the destruction of a village, a chief, his sister, her two sons 

 and one niece, are the sole survivors (222); and at the saihe place it 

 is said that four boys and two girls were the only survivors (223). 



Love. — Although marriages were arranged as previously described, 

 the personal inclination of the girl was evidently of considerable 

 importance. We hear (185) that the relatives of a prince talk to the 

 father and the uncle of a princess in order to arrange a match for him, 

 but that they are unable to overcome the objection of the girl. In 

 another story a girl's aunt asks her to be kind to her cousin, who 

 wooes her, but whom she rejects (166). Again, at another place, a 

 girl makes love to a man whom she had previously rejected (189). 



Clandestine marriages with supernatural beings, and subsequent 

 elopement, are one of the ever-recurring motives of the tales. The 

 man always takes the girl along with him to his town. 



A girl sends her maid to a youth in order to tell him that she loves 

 him (189). She asks a visiting stranger to marry her (1.117, N 158). 

 A youth meets in the woods a girl whom he loves (155); a woman 

 pretends to be dead, and her lover visits her in her grave-box in the 

 woods (215); a boy elopes with his cousin (1.171); a stranger mar- 

 ries the chief's daughter (1.115); a prince meets a beautiful girl, and 

 at once wants to take her in his canoe (261). 



The boy (154, 242) or the girl (242) who does not want to marry, 

 either on account of a secret marriage or because of pride, is met 

 with often. 



A girl who does not like her suitor makes fun of him without 

 mercy (186). 



