COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY 617 



a story of a fabulous people, the descendants of Tsu'ntia's mother, 

 who had been thrown into the lake Lila Teit 2.95. 



A slightly different version is told in Lil6 350. The girl was going to kill 

 her son, but the people told her to rear him. The person whom he transforms 

 into a catfish is the father of the children with whom he is playing. On asking 

 his mother about his father, she tells him first that the water, then that the 

 rock, killed him. He transforms the people who had mocked him, one into 

 a grizzly bear, one into a wolf, one into a marten, others into birds and fishes. 

 After this follow his contests with the Transformer brothers related before. 

 Tsu'ntia places a rock before them, and water gushes out of it. When he is 

 traveling about, the hog-fennel plants twine themselves around his legs. 

 In this version there follows a curious incident telling how the Transformer 

 brothers and Tsu'ntia meet at the edges of the earth, where they tell him 

 that in one country the powers were so strong that they could not produce 

 any transformations. They tell him to stop the sun. He does so, and every- 

 thing begins to burn. Then he makes the sun move again, and the earth 

 cools off. 



2. Ca'wa. 



Probably corresponding to this tale we find among the 

 Shuswap the story of the Transformer Ca'wa (Kamloops), 

 Samp (Fraser River), or Spelkamulax (North Thompson) Sh 

 651. 



Starting from Churn Greek, he travels over the country. He reaches a lake 

 where people catch frogs instead of fish. He gives them a net, and teaches 

 them to catch fish. He reaches a country where people who fall asleep are 

 believed to be dead and are buried. He tells them that people sleep during 

 the night and wake in the morning. Next follows the incident in which he 

 shows people that they do not need to cut open the women when about to 

 give birth (see p. 609). He reaches the Coyote people, who have knot- 

 holes for their wives, and he gives them real wives (see p. 609). These last 

 two stories have been discussed before in connection with the Transformer 

 cycle. 



3. Old One Ntla Teit 2.49; Ntl6 Teit 3.320-328; U 228; Sha 642; 



Shb 746. 



Besides these two types of Transformer tales, there is a very vague record 

 of Old One. Coyote tries his strength with Old One moving the rivers and 

 mountains. Old One has greater strength, and Coyote retires to a house of 

 ice in the extreme north. When he turns over, it is cold weather. Coyote 

 and Old One are expected to return and bring back the dead Indians. In a 

 contest with a boy, in which they try who can stay under water longest, Old 

 One is thrown into the upper world, whence he is expected to return among 

 clouds of tobacco-smoke. Old One transforms a man into a swan Ntla 

 Teit 2.49. 



Among the Lower Thompson there is a similar vague tradition of a great 

 chief who came from above, who punished bad people and established th«- 

 villages. He transformed the wooden seats of some people near Fort Yale 

 into stones. When the stones are rubbed, the weather changes U 228. 



In Nicola Valley it is told that Old One lives in the upper world. By 

 throwing a round ball into the middle of an expanse of water he created the 

 world. Then he came down and created trees and grass. The Beaver is said 

 to live next to him. There are a number of other creation tales referring to 



