boas] COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY 783 



The Skidegate version differs materially from the two Tsimshian 

 versions. 



After the young woman's brothers and uncles have been slain and thrown behind 

 the house, the chief makes war on his younger wife's tribe and destroys them. The 

 mother of the young woman is saved- She weeps and prays, stretching her hands 

 upward, and out of her thigh issues a child. She makes a bow for him, with which 

 he kills first birds, then larger animals. He has a copper bow and a copper neck-ring. 

 His mother tells him what has happened, and warns him not to go to the houses. 

 He disobeys, hides behind the town, and wishes for his sister to come. She obeys 

 the wish, and tells him that she is treated badly by the chief. He gives her his copper 

 neck-ring, and tells her to say that she found it for her husband. She is told that 

 when she gives it to him it will begin to burn, and she is to run away. She is also 

 given the copper bow, and the same happens. The fire then destroys the people. 

 The youth asks her to take him to her brothers' bodies. He spite medicine on them, 

 and they revive. He is the Moon, who had come down because the young woman's 

 mother had prayed to him. The story then goes on telling of the feats of the youth 

 and his uncles Sk 348. 



A Kwakiutl story of a man who kills the lover of "lis faithless wife is somewhat 

 similar to this. He cuts off the head of his wife's lover while they are asleep. The 

 woman escapes to her brothers. Her husband kills the latter during a feast. Then 

 follows their revival as in the Tsimshian tale, but without the incident of the Pisbe- 

 liever. I consider this tale a recent importation among the Kwakiutl, because it 

 differs very much from all the other tales of this people K 5.130. The Disbeliever, 

 or "the one without ears," is also referred to in Sk 172, note 32. 



31. HakIula'q 

 (4 versions: Ts 221; Tl 103; M 380; Sk 256) 

 This is evidently a modified version of a complex tale that is more 

 fully developed among the Tlingit and Haida. 



The child of the monster HakIula'q is drifting between two islands. When the 

 people take it aboard, their canoes are upset. The people try to make war against 

 the monster. When they go out, they kill many sea otters on an island. On their 

 way back one of their number spears the child . The monster comes up. A whirlpool 

 opens and swallows the canoes. One escapes. The same happens again; and only 

 one chief, his nephews and nieces, remain. They try to make a canoe that will with- 

 stand the waves, first of spruce wood, then of yellow cedar, finally of yew (see p. 822). 

 The last named is strong enough . It is faster than a flying bird . When they pass the 

 child, they take it aboard. They land on one of the islands. The monster comes and 

 asks for his child. When they refuse it, it causes the island to roll over. They escape 

 in their canoe. The child dies. While they are on the island, the eldest one of the 

 men seduces his sister. She ties weasel skin on his head, and he is transformed into 

 a sawbill duck. On their return they see the monster asleep on the surface. They 

 throw it into the canoe, a whirlpool opens, but they escape. The monster dies in the 

 canoe. The young men marry, and the young chief takes the HakIula'q for his 

 crest Ts 221. 



The Masset have a story of people who borrow a fast canoe of a bird, cut off the 

 head of a floating sea monster, whose father threatens to overturn the island on which 

 they had saved themselves M 380. In the elaborate Skidegate version of this story 

 the canoe belongs to the jellyfish Sk 256. 



The story of LAkitcine' contains an episode telling of the killing of a sea monster 

 that is floating on the surface with open eyes while asleep, and whose scalp is taken. 

 The story is related to the HakIula'q tale, but the relation is more remote Tl 103. 



