754 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [eth.ann. 31 



and tear off his clothes. It is seen that his skin is covered with blotches. He refuses 

 to go back home until his wife herself calls him. He sends word to his father-in-law 

 to close and tie up the house. Then he goes up the river, holds back its waters, and 

 then lets it go. This causes a flood, which sweeps away the whole village, except 

 his father-in-law's house Tl 237. 



The woman who marries a Tree has a child, but nobody knows who its father is. 

 The child calls for its father; and the young woman's father calls first the people, 

 then the people who inhabit the trees. When they enter, the child stops crying. 

 An old man sits near the door. The child crawls up to him, and he is recognized as 

 a certain spruce tree Tl 238. 



A Skull who has married a girl asks for a small canoe and hunting-weapons. The 

 people can not see what the Skull Man is doing, but in the evening he returns with a 

 canoe loaded with sea food and land animals. Finally the two skulls become living 

 beings. When the place where the men sit down is marked with blood, they fall over 

 dead Tl 247. 



The story M 625 is probably the same as the preceding Tlingit story. The Half-Head 

 marries the girl. He goes hunting and obtains much food. The people want to 

 break his skull. They do not succeed. He becomes angry and kills the aggressors. 

 He goes hunting again and brings a great quantity of seals and sea otters. While he 

 is away, his wife becomes sick. He feels it and returns at once. The Half-Head 

 disappears M 625. 



It is fairly evident from the further development of the last group 

 of stories that they form a separate group, and merely use the abduc- 

 tion of the girl as an introduction. 



(g) The Escape from the Animals 

 The third part of the story contains the incidents connected with 

 the escape of the woman from the animals that have taken her, or 

 her liberation, sometimes followed by the revenge of the people. 



In the Snail story given before, the Mouse Woman tells the girl how she can make 

 her escape. She points out the trail marked by the slime of snails, which leads to 

 her parents' house. The young woman pretends to go out, and runs away, following 

 this trail. She is pursued, and hears a formidable noise behind her. She reaches her 

 parents' village, tells them to go aboard quickly, jumps into the canoe, and at the 

 same moment a land-slide comes down, which is caused by the Snails Ts, note p. 747. 



In another version of the Snail story the girl's brothers search for her in vain. 

 Finally a shaman woman discovers that she had been captured by the Snails. The 

 chief's sons purify themselves and try to find her. The youngest one takes with him 

 woodworking-tools, fat, down, ocher, and tobacco, blood, paint, and lime. He finds 

 a great plain, reaches a precipice, and sees down below a village. He sacrifices, 

 makes an artificial eagle, first of red cedar, then of spruce, yellow cedar, and finally 

 of various kinds of wood. By its means he flies down. Before starting he sends his 

 two friends who accompanied him home. The young woman sees her brother and 

 walks out. He takes her on his back and flies up. They run home. When they 

 reach their father's house, the people are ordered to chop down young trees. The 

 women and children are put aboard the canoes and sent to an island. The Snails 

 arrive, and where they go the trees fall down. They slide down, swim on the 

 water, the people give battle and spear them with their trees. The Snails are killed, 

 float to the island, and are transformed into shellfish. Some of their fat is driven 

 ashore and is transformed into snails Ts 161. 



A young woman who had been taken away by the Snails and had been placed half- 

 way up a cliff is found by her brothers, who try to make wings of various kinds of 



