boas] COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY 709 



of his origin, and rail him K'e'xenete (or Result Of Scraping) K 11. He takes the 

 child out of the ground and puts boards around it, as people are to do in the future. 

 The boy is called SAqaiyu'l. 1 Lightning flashes around his knee-joints Sk.] 



K!wek!waxa'we £ builds a canoe: and when he launches it, the boy accompanies 

 him. In the middle of the canoe they find a hat. The boy puts it on and is lifted up 

 into the air Ri 5. 6 /£ rneal invites all the animals to show off the strength of his son, 

 who jumps fo half the height of a cedar. Thunderbird makes fun of him. The next ' 

 time he jumps over the cedar, and Thunderbird carries him away Ne 5. The child 

 jumps the first time higher than his father's house, then halfway up the trees, last 

 higher than the tops of the trees. The fourth time the Thunderbird takes him K 11. 

 In Ska it is simply said that he vanishes. 



For four days the father cries. Suddenly he hears some one saying, "lam your boy, 

 I have returned. " Since the youth has no hair, and his face looks different on ac- 

 count of the strong wind of the sky, his father repudiates him. He returns to the 

 sky, and therefore the ilend do not return P,i 5. Raven searches for the boy on the island 

 and the mainland. He hears that the supernatural beings have taken the boy because 

 he, Raven, used to fool them. The boy reappears with disheveled hair and without 

 lightning. Therefore Raven spits on his face, repudiates him, and the boy disappears 

 again Ska. 



The version Ri MS begins with He'niaskas'o making a canoe. The boy Ki'61 

 plays about, puts on the hat of the Thunderbird, which lies near by, and is taken away 

 by it. He'maskas'o cries, puts his tears and mucus into a mussel-shell, and it becomes 

 a child. When it grows, he puts it into a clamshell, then into a large mussel-shell, 

 finally into a large clamshell. The child cries while he holds it in his arms, he throws 

 it down, and it is retransformed into mucus. 2 He cries for his son K'i'61, who appears. 

 He'mask'as'o does not recognize him, because his face is changed. K'i'61 flies off, 

 and then he recognizes him by the tattooing on his legs, but too late. 



Masmasala'nix, who is a canoe-builder, wants to get Xiu'lx fo assist him. When 

 Raven launches his new canoe, the Thunderbird carries the boy to his friend Masmasa- 

 la'nix. After three days the boy comes to see his father, who does not recognize him 

 and sends him off. This is the cause of death in our world II ap 884. 



Another Bellabella version begins with Raven and K'i'61, who has a white complex- 

 ion and long hair, gathering firewood. The Thunderbird takes the boy while the 

 father is out gathering wood. On his return to the canoe. Raven asks the paddle and 

 the thwarts what has become of the boy. They can not answer. The bow of the canoe 

 tells him what has happened. Ho cries, and after four days the boy 3 reappears. His 

 father does not recognize him, since he has lost his hair, and his face is changed by the 

 strong wind up above. He recognizes the boy too late, when he flies off. Since that 

 time the dead do not return H 5. 



The continuation of this story in the versions II ap, Ri 5, Ri MS, Ne 5, K 11, is 

 Raven's war with the Thunderbird (see No. 43, p. 711). 



The incident of the boy who is taken away, reappears, but is not 

 recognized by his parents, occurs also in other connections: 



A youth is lost while hunting goats. The following winter he is seen on the moun- 

 tains wearing pieces of quartz on his head. One day a person enters the house of the 

 youth's father, and says that he is the boy returned; but since he has no hair and no 

 nose, and since his eyes are red, his father does not recognize him and drives him 

 away. He recognizes the boy too late by a scar on his thigh K 11.180. 



In the Comox tale of Raven and Gull, in which Gull causes Raven 

 to lose his way in a fog (see p. 666), it is said that Raven loses his 



1 In Sk 311 this lu'in^ is menlioned as protector of a shaman. 



2 This incident evidently corresponds to the first part of the tale as (liven in all the < it her versions. 



3 Erroneously stated "the daughter." 



