778 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [eth. jnn. 31 



jumps aboard. He sees that something round hangs from the armpit of the super- 

 natural beings. He squeezes it, and the spirits almost die. The spirits restore erne 

 another, and are well again as soon as he lets go. They land, and he continues to 

 squeeze the round thing hanging from the chief 's armpit. The greatest shaman among 

 the supernatural beings sees what is happening, while the human shaman remains in- 

 visible to all the others. When he finally lets go, he is given the other shaman's skin, 

 who finally is revived Sk 294. 



Practically the same story is told by the Masset and Kaigani. In this case the 

 shaman presses the supernatural beings with' his knees M 565, Kai 240. 



(n c) The Companion Makes Himself Known to the Salmon Boy 



The friend takes the pebble out of his mouth and puts it into the prince's mouth, 

 who sees him at once. (Here follows a repetition of the killing of the children [i b] 

 and the description of the dancing Herrings.) Ts 204. 



(ii d) The Companion Marries the Salmon Chief's Daughter 



This incident is closely related to the tales of the dangerous women 

 (vagina dentata) which are so frequent in the mythology of the 

 Kwakiutl, and which belong in many cases to the Test theme (see 

 p. S09). In the Salmon myth the tale is confined to the Bellacoola 

 and their immediate neighbors, the Bellabella. It is inserted in the 

 visit of the boy's friend to the Salmon village, where he tries to marry 

 the daughter of the Salmon chief. 



When walking through a village, they see a house with snapping door. The friend 

 sees a beautiful girl inside, and wants to marry her. It is explained that this is impos- 

 sible. He insists and marries her. They have a daughter BC 76. 



The form in which this incident is given in BC 5.267 is evidently 

 distorted. Here the relation to the southern tales appears even more 

 clearly. 



The Salmon boy and his friend reach the country of the Partridges. He wishes to 

 marry one of them, but Salmon says that he will die if he should do so. The boy 

 insists and survives. They go on and pass through the villages of different Salmon. 

 In the village of the Silver Salmon, finally, they see four girls bathing. The friend 

 assumes the form of a little boy, whom the girls mistake for their slave. When they 

 recognize him, they run away. Evidently this episode is parallel to the character- 

 istic incident in the story of Gwana'la s lis (see p. 814). 



The Salmon boy instructs his friend to look for the chief's daughter, who is bathing 

 in a lake. He carries away one of them and marries her without the knowledge of her 

 father. The woman gives birth to a child, and her father tries to discover who the 

 child's father is. The people are tested one after another, and the boy is recognized. 

 The people smell him when he arrives H ap 887. 



(m) The Ascent of the Salmon Boy to the Sun 



This story is entirely independent, and is found only among the 

 Bellacoola and their neighbors, the Cbilcotin. It belongs to the series 

 of test stories which will be found discussed on p. 794. The only part 

 that is characteristic of this story is the manner of the ascent. In the 



