boas] COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY 787 



slave and the grandmother eat the trout N. The eagle flies away. The boy goes to 

 the rock and finds a spring salmon. They steam it, and the boy and his grandmother 

 eat the soup Sk. The boy finds the tail of a spring salmon under the eagle M 415. In 

 the morning the grandmother sends the boy to the beach, where he finds a halibut, 

 which they roast and eat H ap 885.] On the following day there are many eagles screech- 

 ing. The slave finds a bullhead, which they steam in a hole . The slave eats it. This is 

 repeated for several days. They dry the meat. Next follow silver salmon, of which the 

 prince eats a little ; then a large spring salmon, which is so heavy that the prince must 

 help drag it up; then a seal and a sea lion. In order to bring it in, they make a cedar 

 rope, which they fasten, and haul in the sea lion at high tide. Finally whales are 

 found. Six of these are carved, and four are left on the beach. Three houses are full 

 of food Tsa. [In Tsb the order is a flounder, a small halibut, of which the prince takes 

 a piece in his mouth without swallowing it, a squid, a large halibut, which the slave 

 drags up with difficulty, a humpback salmon, seal, and sea lion. After this the eagle 

 does not return, but more food is found on the beach — seals, sea lions, and whales. 

 Four houses are full of food in the places where the uncles' houses had been. He 

 builds a small house for his mother. The beach is covered with food. In N the order 

 is bullhead, trout, sculpm. Then two eagles appear. A salmon is found. The 

 prince must help drag it up. Then three eagles appear. A spring salmon is. on the 

 beach. The prince's grandmother roasts it, and they have much dried salmon. The 

 slave is now large and strong, because he has plenty of food. The eagle is heard far 

 out towards the water, and a halibut is found, which the prince drags up. Then many 

 eagles screech, and one after another a seal, porpoise, a sea lion, are found. The sea 

 lion is fastened to the beach, and dragged in with a line of cedar twigs. Last of all, 

 whales are found N.] 



The Haida story Sk 173 does not introduce the incident of the eagle, but instead 

 the dog barks behind the house. The boy takes his bow, and sees under the roots 

 of a cedar a pool of water in which there is first a salmon, then two salmon, then three, 

 finally twenty. Then he begins to eat. The number of salmon increases until there 

 are forty salmon. Finally the dog digs out a Salmon Creek. The boy builds houses, 

 which he decorates with salmon figures. He makes a fish trap and has plenty of 

 food. (Here follows a story telling how a being appears which steals the salmon [see 

 pp. 723, 820].) 



Parallel to the last story is the Masset tale M 460, which is localized on Skeena 

 River and is said to belong to the Gitlanda'. It opens with the statement that a 

 foolish grandmother and her foolish grandchild live alone. Evidently they have 

 been deserted, and the boy's female cousin has left him a piece of salmon and some 

 fire. The grandmother makes an ax, and the boy cute a cedar. He digs a trench 

 around a skunk-cabbage. They live on clams. He finds a salmon in the trench. 

 Every day he finds more. (Then follows the incident of the being that steals the 

 salmon.) 



After these incidents the story continues at the same point where 

 the Tsimshian story opens. 



An eagle is screeching on the beach while the boy is going every day trying to get 

 birds. He feeds the eagle. Finally he does not find any birds in the woods, and his 

 grandmother tells him to go to the place where the eagle sits. There he finds first a 

 spring salmon, then a seal, then half the tail of a whale, then a whole whale M 460. 



In another Masset story it is told that an old woman and her grandson are deserted. 

 While the old woman gathers shellfish the boy mends the bill of a heron, which in 

 return gives them first a piece of a salmon, then a whole one, a piece of a porpoise and 

 a whole one, parts of a whale and then a whole one. Then they make many boxes, 

 into which they put the grease M 705. 



