462 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [etii. ann. 31 



The Killer Whale and the Stars have a slave called G - ilks-ats!a'ntk 

 (Gix'sats'a'ntx- in the Nass dialect), who has the power of swelling 

 up enormously and obstructing the trail (N 90, 1.183). 



Supernatural beings are able to perform a great many magical feats 

 either for benefiting mankind or for doing harm. The Sun, who 

 wants to kill his son-in-law, owns a magical tree, the bark of which 

 falls down when struck with an ax and kills the people who try to 

 fell it (1.101). He tries to bake his son-in-law in an oven (1.103). 

 When a supernatural being kills his enemy by cutting off his head, 

 body and head rejoin until poison is mixed with the parts of the body 

 (1.163). When supernatural beings want to capture a visitor, they 

 cause all the openings of their house, smoke hole, and door to close 

 (128). When a supernatural being who returns over the ocean to her 

 home, or on the rays of the sun to the sky, looks back at her husband, 

 who follows her, his support gives way. He falls into the sea or down 

 to the ground and is killed (213, 1.113). A monster causes an island 

 to roll over (223) and creates whirlpools (224). The supernatural 

 being Sleep, by means of his magic power, raises a mountain and 

 transforms his comb into a thicket, which obstructs the flight of a 

 couple that try to escape him (N 235). 



The food of supernatural beings is dangerous (160). The first kind 

 of food that they offer to a visitor is poison ; the second may be par- 

 taken of without clanger (167). Salmon that Bears offer first is the 

 stomach of a man; crabapples offered first are decomposed flesh and 

 eyes (279). 



On the other hand, supernatural beings have many powers for 

 benefiting people. They procure food for those whom they protect. 

 They appear as providers (172,239,242, 1.77, 1.161). A supernatural 

 being promises good luck to two women if allowed to marry one of 

 them (1.79). He appears to his wife to give her advice (173). A 

 prince is successful because he has married the daughter of a super- 

 natural being (304). A supernatural being tells a man the evil plans 

 of his enemy (312). When a person has been killed by drowning or 

 by falling to the ground from a great height, the supernatural being 

 opens a hole in the floor of his house and fishes up the bones with his 

 bag net, and then proceeds to resuscitate the dead person (214, 1.99). 

 The dead are revived by swinging a plume over the body (127, 130, 

 1.113, N 234). It is said that with the first motion of the plume 

 the bones come together (127) ; with the second, sinew and flesh come 

 to be on the bones; with the third, the skin appears; and with the 

 fourth motion the hero asks the four Winds to breathe on the 

 bodies and to restore them to life. Others are revived by swinging 

 over their bodies the heart of the person who killed them (145, 150, 

 1.163); by jumping four times over them (134, 188, 189, 220); by 

 stepping over the body (1.101) after the bones have been laid out in 



