702 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [eth.ann. 31 



east we have only incidents 4 and 4'. Incidents 5 and 6 are most 

 characteristic of the Western Plateaus and the adjoining parts of 

 the Prairies. Incident 8 seems to belong to the whole west-easterly 

 Canadian belt, without, however, extending beyond the northern 

 part of Vancouver Island. Incident 7 appears only locally as part 

 of the Bungling Host story. 



(33) RAVEN MARRIES HAIR-SEAL WOMAN 1 



(2 versions: Ske 131; Co 5.77) 

 He marries Hair-Seal Woman. They have a son, with whom he goes after fire- 

 wood. He tells him that he desires to eat him, and finally devours him Ske. The 

 same story is found among the Comox. Raven marries a Seal. One day he goes 

 hunting with their son. The boy eats a great deal of deer meat. After his meal he 

 drinks, and Raven kills him with a club. Then he eats him. 'When he gets home, 

 he says to his wife that the boy has been drowned. He has eaten so much that he 

 vomits seal oil, which drops into the fire and makes it blaze Up. The woman jumps 

 into the sea. Since that time seals have lived in the water Co 5. 



(34) TXA'MSEM VISITS CHIEF ECHO (p. 85) 



(llversions: TsSo; N6 60; T16 92; Tl 5.310; Mo 312; Mc335; Mrf340; Sk/134; BC93; 

 Chin 181; Till 31. See also Sh 5.8; Takelma 39 2 ) 



In this group of tales the essential elements are the same through- 

 out. In the Tlingit, Skidegate, and Tsimshian versions, Raven is 

 punished by having his ankle broken by a hammer or by wedges, 

 while in most of the others he is simply dragged back by the hair 

 and beaten with sticks. The inhabitants of the house are variously 

 called Shadows, Air, Ghosts, and Echo. In one Tlingit version they 

 are called Shadows and Feathers. 



Raven reaches an open place [Raven traveling with Butterfly Mc], where he sees a 

 carved house in which lives Chief Echo Ts [finds town of Air N6, a town in which the 

 people seem to have died, a town of the Ghosts T16; he goes up the river and comes 

 to the house ( if Shadows and Feathers Tl 5; he comes to a town inhabited by Shadows, 

 on the wall of the house a design is drawn with finger-nails M<;, Mc, Sk/; he goes to a 

 house in the middle of the town, which is empty Mrf; he reaches a house with open door 

 BC]. People are heard singing inside. A voice announces his arrival, and he is 

 invited to sit down Ts [the people say a chief is coming N6; he is asked by an invisible 

 voice where he is going and is asked to sit down Ma]. The house is full of halibut 

 and fat stored in boxes Tl 5 [halibut and smoked seal Sk/; salmon roe and hair-seal 

 stomachs Mc; full of food Mrf; full of dried fish BC]. He hears a voice asking slaves 

 to roast salmon. A box opens of itself. A dish goes to the the. Salmon is cut up 

 and goes into the dish. After he has eaten, a horn dipper conies, and erabapples 

 mixed with grease [he looks for a dish and does not find one, and the Shadows bring 

 him food; what is left over he takes in his basket to his canoe Tl 5; he sees things in 

 the house moving about, as though women were working BC]. He thinks he will 

 take away the mountain-goat fat Ts, No [he calls his sisters. Crow, Mouse, Gull, and 

 Rat, to cany away the provisions; he takes salmon roe Mc; he takes fish from the 

 drying-poles and asks his sisters to pack them into baskets BC]. The women in the 

 corner of the house hear his thoughts and repeat them, laughing. When he carries 



i See also No. 39, p. 706. 



■ E. Sapir, Takelma Texts ( University nf I'lnnsylmiiiii, Tin Musmm Anthropological Publications- , 

 vol. II, No. 1). 



