730 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [eth. Ann. 31 



The Nass version is very fragmentary. It is merely stated that a youth sleeps 

 outside the house at the edge of the smoke hole, and is able to pull out whole trees for 

 firewood N 116. 



There are nine brothers at Sea-Lion Town. The eldest one is unable to obtain 

 strong supernatural power. His younger brothers disappear, and the mother com- 

 plains that her eldest son has no power. He orders his sister to pour salt water into 

 his mother's stone box. The eldest brother crawls into it. His sister presses him 

 down with a poker. He breaks the side of the box by stretching himself. This is 

 repeated several times. He goes into the sea. Something touches him. He seizes 

 it, and finds in his hands the tail of a flounder. He gives it to his sister to roast and 

 eat. Next he takes one-half of a halibut, a porpoise tail, a white porpoise tail, finally 

 a whale's tail. Finally he is touched by something which at first he can not grasp. 

 When he seizes it with both hands, it pulls him out of the inlet. Something cracks at 

 the bottom of thj island, and he obtains the transparent hair of He Who Tries The 

 Supernatural Powers Of Men. Then he obtains strength by the help of a supernat- 

 ural being with whom he has a contest Sk 190. 



In the Masset version it is said that a supernatural being destroyed the uncles of 

 Ashes Eater, who makes himself strong by bathing. All the men of the village are 

 killed. He goes to a point of land, where he sees eagles flying inland from the ocean. 

 They drop a small flat fish, which strikes the earth with great noise. When he tries to 

 cut it, he is told not to do so, but pulls the meat out at the tail. He puts on the skin 

 and goes out in the form of the fish. The rest of the story does not belong here M 365. 



More closely related to the beginning of our story are the following 

 Tlingit and Kaigani tales. 



A chief bathes in the sea for strength, and the people bathe with him. Whenever 

 he comes out of the water, he runs to a good-sized tree, tries to pull out a limb, and 

 tries to twist trees from top to bottom. The chief's nephew does not go into the water, 

 and the people tease him by pushing him over. In reality the boy lies in bed when 

 the others bathe, but spends the nights in the water. He throws water on the ashes 

 of the fire to make it steam, and puts his mat on top of the ashes. When he is sent 

 after firewood, he pretends to be weak. One night when he is bathing, he hears a 

 sound like that of a loon. He goes towards it, and sees standing on the beach a short 

 stout man clothed in bear skin, who announces himself as the spirit of strength, and 

 wrestles with him. This is repeated, and he is able to pull out the limb of a tree and 

 to twist another tree down to the roots. He does not pay any attention when the 

 people make fun of him. The next day the chief pulls out the limb easily, because 

 the boy had pulled it out before him. (The story here continues, telling how Black 

 Skin proves to be an excellent sea-lion hunter [see p. 818]) Tla 145, T16 289. 



At Si'nagulqa, near Klawak, two men bathe for strength. One of them bathes pub- 

 licly; the other, secretly at night. DA'gu tlaoL, who bathes at night, sees Master Of 

 Strength swimming towards him. Ho wrestles with him. This is repeated at inter- 

 vals until the youth is able to overcome the spirit. He pulls out the excrescence from 

 a tree and puts it back. On the following day the other man, who bathes during the 

 daytime, pulls it out, and believes he has done it by his own power. Here follows the 

 sea-lion hunting adventure Kai 250. 



The same manner of obtaining strength is inserted as an incident 

 in the story of the mucus child (Tl 194). 



The people of a certain village disappear, except a woman and her daughter. 

 From the tears and the mucus of the lattor a child originates. The mother makes bow 



