boas] DESCRIPTION OF THE TSIMSHIAN 467 



tho staff or out of the basket, they resume their natural size (104). 

 Fat that is thrown down on mats in the house is also caused to 

 increase (1.95). Presents that are given to a supernatural being, 

 consisting of beads, tobacco, and copper, also increase in size in a 

 miraculous way (208, 287). Only the recipients of these gifts are 

 able to lift the heavy staffs or baskets (1.95). 



Ceremonials and the paraphernalia belonging to them appear in one 

 tale only, in which it is said that the Mice give a dancing-feather, 

 neck-band, and skin drum to a visitor (237). 



A girl is given "a garment of wealth." Whoever meets her or 

 hears her child cry, becomes wealthy. A gambler is given gambling- 

 sticks that have the power to win (157). 



People are able to put on the skin of an animal and to assume its 

 shape. Thus a boy puts on a gull's skin and flies (229), a boy puts 

 on a frog's skin and travels about in the water (N 179). 



Fire that falls down from heaven is transformed into valuable 

 copper (N 137). 



Gravel thrown overboard by a woman is transformed into sand- 

 bars, on which she can rest (170); and a stone carried by the Raven 

 and dropped into the water becomes a reef, on which he rests (60). 



Persons who want to attain a certain purpose by the help of ani- 

 mals may make animals of wood. Generally four different kinds of 

 wood are used in the attempt to make the successful form. Killer 

 whales that are to kill the enemies of a man are made first of cedar, 

 then of other kinds of wood, and finally of yellow cedar. The person 

 who made them blackens the backs with charcoal and puts lime on 

 the belly. Then he lays his hands on their backs in order to endow 

 them with life. At the same time his wife sacrifices to the super- 

 natural beings. The killer whales of yellow cedar move like real 

 killer whales (1.139). Then they are instructed what to do (1.141). 

 Another man makes sea lions for the same purpose, first of various 

 kinds of wood, finally of a hard wood of red color (N 109). It drags 

 the maker's enemy across the ocean (N 110). An eagle which is to 

 carry a man into a deep valley is first made of red cedar, then of 

 spruce, then of yellow cedar, after that of various kinds of wood; 

 and finally the body is made of red cedar, head and tail of white 

 pine, legs and beak of yellow cedar, and the claws of mountain-goat 

 horn. Then the eagle carries the person down into the valley (164). 

 A carved human figure which is to deceive supernatural beings by 

 crying is made first of red cedar, then of yellow cedar, which is found 

 satisfactory (N 89). A successful canoe is made in a similar way 

 after a number of attempts. First a cedar ( ?), then a spruce, next a 

 yellow cedar, and last a yew tree, are used (223). The South Wind 

 sends a wooden duck as messenger to her father (123). 



