464 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [fth. ass. 31 



on a bear skin covered with ashes (1.87). In the same manner the 

 chief of the Squirrels sends his daughter to call a young man who has 

 killed all the squirrels, and she leaves him standing outside (N 212). 



The son of the Sun flies up to the sky with his wife and his mother- 

 in-law (1.211, N 223). In heaven his wife conceives from the rays 

 of the sun, which strike her every morning through a chink in the 

 house (N224). 



A year in the house of a supernatural being seems to the visitor 

 like a day (188). Therefore people who wait for the return of a 

 person who has gone to the house of a supernatural being are found 

 dead. Only their skeletons remain (188). In one tale it is said that 

 the visitors did not know how long they had been in the house of the 

 supernatural being; but probably here also it is meant that they 

 thought they had been there one day, while they had been there a 

 whole year (287). 



A person who has supernatural power escapes in the form of bird 

 down from a woman who causes all the openings of her house to close 

 (128). The canoe of the supernatural people comes to take away a 

 man (208). 



Magical words enable a man to escape from a mountain. He says, 

 "On the thumb," "On the sand," and, repeating these words, gets 

 down safely (134). When the Porcupine throws himself down from 

 a high tree, he shouts, "Vessel of moss!" and falls on the ground 

 without hurting himself. When the Beaver shouts, "Stone!" he 

 strikes the ground and almost dies (1.231, N 81). Magical words 

 addressed to the West Wind and to the East Wind cause those winds 

 to blow gentlv (1.135). A wound closes as the effect of magic words 

 (S3). 



Supernatural beings also foretell misfortune. They tell travelers 

 that they will die at a certain moment (262). A prince who has 

 been carried away by the Salmon, and has thus become supernatural, 

 tells his friend that he will die after their arrival at home (205). A 

 shaman who has taken the shape of an owl dies, and foretells the 

 death of the people (329). 



Beings of supernatural power are able to swallow animals whole. 

 The Wolverene Woman (1.161) and the GispawadwE'da, who visit 

 Na-gun-a'ks, and who have the powers of supernatural beings while 

 in his house, swallow seals whole (286); the Cannibal swallows a 

 whole body (351). 



Magical Objects. — Among magical objects and places I will mention 

 the cave and door that open and close. In order to pass them, one 

 has to count four times and then jump through (130, 1.99, N 130). 

 The hole of the sky opens and closes in the same manner (seep. 453). 

 A magical devil's-club tree of enormous size provides medicine for 

 a whole lifetime (174). On a pleasant plain on the upper course of 



