794 



TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY 



[BTH. ANN. 31 



When the bear gets to the top of the mountain, it kicks it, and a gorge originates. 

 Asdi-wa'l places his lance end to end with his quiver, lays them across the gorge, 

 and crosses over. This is repeated twice. At the end of a plain Asdi-wa'l sees a 

 ladder reaching up to the sky. The bear climbs it. Asdi-wa'l follows. On top is a 

 prairie full of flowers. A path leads to a house. The bear enters, and Asdi-wa'l sees 

 through a hole that the bear is a young woman who is taking off her white-bear 

 blanket. She shakes ashes out of her blanket. Asdi-wa'l is called in and married 

 to the daughter of Chief Sun Ts 1.83-87. 



Asi'wa has been married one year when a white bear appears on the ice of Nass 

 River. He tries to shoot it, but his arrows break. He pursues the bear up the river. 

 His companions desert him. The bear climbs a steep mountain. He follows on his 

 snowshoes. 1 On top he finds a large house, which the bear enters. The bear takes 

 off his skin and appears in the form of a man, an old slave of the chief. Asi'wa is 

 called in, and learns that the white bear is a slave who had been, covered with stone 

 and ashes. The chief gives his daughter to Asi'wa in marriage Ts 5.287. 



Supernatural Being In Heaven covers his slave with ashes, and sends him to Nass 

 River, where he appears like a white bear. The hunters are unable to kill it. When 

 Asi-hwi'l sees it, he puts on his snowshoes and pursues it. The bear climbs a vertical 

 cliff, and Asi-hwi'l follows. The marks of his snowshoes may still be seen. On top 

 he sees the bear enter a house. He hears the people singing, "Asi-hwi'l is picking 

 the bones of my neck!" The version as recorded does not tell of his adventures in 

 the sky, but merely states that he returned and lost the bear N 227-228. 



(n b) The Sun Tests Ms Son-In-Law 



In the versions Ts 1.71, which in this part is evidently most com- 

 plete, follows a long account of the tests to which the Sun subjects 

 his son-in-law. This is a form of the widespread Test theme, which 

 has been fully treated by Robert H. Lowie. 2 The following forty-five 

 versions have been recorded on the North Pacific coast: 



Some of these are different versions of the same tale; and in order 

 to understand more clearly the significance of the Test tale, it is 



i It is evidently a misunderstanding that the text asserts that he took oft" his snowshoes in order to follow 

 him. 



3 Robert H. Lowie, The Test-Theme in North American Mythology (Journal of A merican Folk-Lore, 

 vol. XXI, pp. 97-118). 



3 F. A. Golder, Tales from Kodiak Island (ibid., vol. XVI, pp. 16-31, 85-103). 



