boas] COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY 723 



THE FURTHER HISTORY OF TXa'MSEM (p. 100) 



This is evidently a recent story, which is composed of elements of 

 a number of folk-tales (if the Northwest coast. 



A chief builds a beautiful house, the fame of which spreads over the whole country. 

 One night Txa'msEm appears in the form of a giant to look at the house. The people 

 watch for him, and one man shoots him with a gun. A number of years later, after 

 canneries had been established on Skeena River, a young man who had lost every- 

 thing in gambling wanders about in the mountains, finds a narrow trail on a large 

 plain, and discovers a house in a deep valley. There he finds Txa'msEm, who shows 

 his wound and sends his pups to hunt mountain sheep. The cubs are monsters, 

 which, when called, become very large. The mountains around the valley are 

 covered with mountain sheep. Txa'msEm gives the young man fat, which by 

 squeezing he reduces in size. The young man returns, and Txa'msEm smoothes the 

 land for him. Behind him terrible noises are heard, and the mountains resume 

 their form. 



The first part of this story is obviously the widely-distributed 

 incident of the giant or monster who visits a house to steal salmon, 

 and who is shot by the owner or his son. This incident occurs with 

 particular frequency in Kwakiutl tales (see p. 820). The deep valley 

 in which the supernatural being resides is a common feature of 

 Tsimshian stories (see p. 456), and the pups which become large 

 hunting-dogs when put down on the ground are also of common 

 occurrence (see p. 465). 



2. The Meeting of the Wild Animals (p. 106) 



(See p. 728) 



3. The Porcupine-Hunter (p. 108) 



No parallels of this story have been recorded. 



A hunter kills too many porcupines. He is called into the house of the Porcupine 

 chief, who asks the hunter to tell the Porcupine chief's name. lie gives several wrong 

 answers, and every time he is struck by the Porcupine. Mouse Woman tells him the 

 right name of the chief, which is Sea Otter On Green Mountain. The face of the 

 hunter is rubbed with the contents of the Porcupine chief's wives' stomachs, and he is 

 well again. Hence it is known that the contents of the porcupine stomach will draw out 

 quills. The hunter is told not to smoke porcupines out of their dens, to eat them be/ore 

 winter sets in, and to throw the bcv.es into the fire. 



4. The Story of Grizzly Bear and Beaver 



(2 versions: Ts 111; Kai 238) 



Grizzly Hear kills Heavers on the ice and in their houses. One Beaver only escapes. 

 He makes an artificial swam]) under a fallen tree that, stretches over the water, sits at 

 the end of it, and excites Grizzly Bear by scolding him. Beaver jumps into the water 

 and swims away. Grizzly Bear jumps into the morass and is drowned Ts 111. 



In the Tlingit country there is a beaver lake. Grizzly Bears and Wolves kill the 

 Beavers. Only one is left. He makes an island, which serves as his fort. He shouts, 

 as in the preceding version, "I wish the Grizzly Bears would die!" The Grizzly 

 Bears swim out and are drowned in the mud around the island. The Beaver gives a 



