boas] DESCRIPTION OF THE TSIMSHIAN 437 



Trading-expeditions are referred to in X 19(5, where the people go 

 inland to trade red ocher for weasel skins. 



On p. 362 the custom is described of destroying life and property 

 in order to regain a loss of prestige sustained by some act that is con- 

 sidered shameful. In this sense must be understood the act of a 

 chief referred to on 233, who has his daughter, who married a Mouse 

 Man, sent adrift in a box lined with ten coppers, many elk skins, 

 marten blankets, and expensive garments. Here may perhaps also 

 belong the reference to a girl who is put into a pit lined with costly 

 garments and coppers at a time when the tribe was expecting a dis- 

 aster sent as a punishment for the acts of the chief's son (2G4). 



Visitors and Festivals 



The reception of visitors and formal feasts are elaborated on a 

 similar plan, and I shall therefore describe these together, beginning 

 with a simple visit, and ending with a great potlatch. When a 

 traveler arrives at a village, the chief sends out a messenger to call 

 him into the house, and he is given to eat (142, 194, 292, X 113). 

 A hunter arriving at a village is called into the house and fed (94, 1 79) . 

 A chief walking in front of a town is called hi by the head chief and 

 treated to rich food (72, 98). When a man looks into the last houso 

 in the village, the occupant, a woman, calls him hi, smiling; and 

 when the chief learns of his arrival, he is taken to the chief's house, 

 where .he is given to eat (146). A traveler who reaches the house 

 of a lonely old woman is called in and given to eat (127). A chief 

 sends out four messengers to invite a visitor (235) . The visitor should 

 be given good food. When a slave-girl who arrives as a visitor is 

 given salmon-backs, she resents this as an insult and leaves (X 188). 



In a tale of the town of the Mice, no strange human being i> 

 allowed to come near; but finally the husband of the mother of the 

 Mice is permitted to visit the village, and four messengers take him 

 in (237). Travelers who are. not certain of a friendly welcome hide 

 behind the houses, and one of them shows himself on the beach (254) . 



The visitor may be called in by the people who happen to see him 

 first (85, 95, 121). If the visitor is an important person, he may 

 also send his own messenger to announce his arrival (63, 72). Then 

 the people come out to meet the stranger (72). When entering the 

 house, he should wait in the doorway until called by the chief him- 

 self (188). 



When the visitor is led into the house (208) , a good new mat is 

 spread for him by the side of the fire, and he is invited to sit down 

 on it. This is a very common incident in all the tales (85, 94, 108, 

 226, 236, 254, 296, X 230). A grizzly-bear skin is spread for the 

 visitor to sit on (153). The mats are, of course, not always specifi- 



