boas] COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY 807 



Raven At Head Of Nass River sends for Raven. Water is healed in a large copper 

 kettle, and he is told to go in. When the kettle is covered over, Raven changes him- 

 self into a rock and comes out unharmed Tl 119. Hot stones are placed in a stone box 

 lying near the door. The youth is told by his father-in-law lo get in. He spits 

 medicine upon himself, and the water gets cold. The box is covered, and after a 

 while he taps upon the side. After a while he throws his hair out, kicks the box to 

 pieces, and comes out unharmed Sk 243. Ts'ak's father-in-law orders a box to be 

 filled with water. Red-hot stones are thrown in, and Ts'ak' is ordered to jump in. 

 He sits down in it, and the people see that his hair comes off. The water is poured 

 out, and the youth arises unharmed X 131. In M 422 and in the doubtful story 

 M 350 a boy is boiled. Asdi-waTs father-in-law has slaves make an oven, and orders 

 his son-in-law to lie down on the red-hot stones. Asdi-wa'l receives from his father a 

 piece of ice, which he is to put in his armpits. He is also given bones, which he is 

 to stick out of the ashes. He lies down, is covered over, and fire is lighted over the 

 oven. After some time the bones which he shoves out are seen. The slaves remove 

 the ashes, and he arises. The stones are full of ice Ts 1.103. A similar test occurs 

 as an incident of the Raven tale Tl 89. 



A youth who marries the daughter of the sky chief is put in an oven by his father-in- 

 law. When the fire has burnt out, he is still alive, but red-hot, so that he burns through 

 a plank on which he is placed Tsts 267. 



In central British Columbia and farther to the south we find two 

 types of heat tests. Either the man is seated close to the fire or he 

 is sent into a sweat-house which is overheated. 



The Salmon boy who visits the Sun is placed near the fire. Then one of the deities 

 wipes his face, and by this means produces from the floor of the house fire that scorches 

 everything. The youth ties his blanket around his body and opens a bladder which 

 contains cold wind, which cools the house BC 79. G'i'i is placed by Dza'wadalalis 

 close to the fire. He throws mussels into the fire, which almost extinguish it K 5.136. 

 /£ mea! marries the daugther of the Killer Whale. The Killer Whale calls him out 

 of the room. His attendants drive stakes into the floor of the house, to which /£ rneal 

 is tied. A fire is made near by in order to burn him, but /£ meal enters the stake 

 and comes out unharmed K 10.339. Q!a'neqe £ lak u is tied to a pole. A large fire is 

 started near by. When it gets very hot, he hides in the poles. Then he puts on the 

 ermine mask and runs back into the room of Dza/wadalalis's daughter Ne 11.242. 

 Anthti'ne is placed next to a fire. He throws in mussels, which almost extinguish 

 the fire. Four times the chief tries to burn him, but is unsuccessful Nu 5.118. 



The incident of the sweat-house occurs among the Bellacoola, 

 Chilcotin, and on the coast of Washington. 



The Salmon son is led by the Sun into a subterranean sweat-house made of stone. 

 When it gets very hot, the youth opens the bladder containing cold wind. Snow 

 begins to fall, which extinguishes the fire, and icicles form on the roof. The Sun's 

 daughters are sent to clean the house, and find him unharmed BC 79. The Sun has 

 an iron sweat-house. The Salmon boy who visits the Sun is put in. He lets out 

 the cold, which he carries in a porcupine gut, and the house becomes cold. The Sun 

 sends his daughter to clear out the bones, but the boy is alive. He says that he has 

 been rolling skulls about in the sweat-house Chil 25. Four villagers go into one corner 

 of the sweat-house, the four travelers into another. When the heat becomes intolerable, 

 Beaver and Land Otter dig a tunnel to the river, and they and their companion, Blue- 

 jay, keep cool in the water. The villagers are almost overcome by the heat Quin 104. 

 Bluejay and his friends, who visit the supernatural beings, are sent into a sweat-house 

 which is a cave in a rock. The ch'ef of the birds takes ice along and it is cool. The 

 supernatural beings who are sweating in another cave die of the heat Chin 58. Coyote 

 and his son, by placing ice on their foreheads, survive the heat of a fire made in a 



