808 TS1MSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [bth. ann. 31 



house U 209. They are sent into a sweat-house made of stones. Beaver turns a 

 somersault and produces a lake. They cool themselves in the water. 'When they 

 throw stones into the water, people think their hearts are bursting. The sweat-house 

 is opened, and they come out unharmed Wish 83. The visitors of the people beyond 

 the ocean are sent into a house heated by the breath of the people. The visitors call 

 the Bear, Beaver, and Deer to help them, but they are unsuccessful. Raccoon sings, 

 and a stream of water springs forth. The supernatural beings are drowned Till 30. 



East Wind, the father-in-law of Arrow Man, goes into his sweat-house. When he 

 comes out, the stones are as cold as ice. When Arrow Man goes in, the sweat-house is 

 overheated, so that he bursts Till 136. 



In a Lillooet tale that is more distantly related to this group, it is told that a youth 

 who wishes to marry a woman is sent into an underground house, in which dripping 

 fat burns through the visitors Lil 348. 



In M 421 a youth who went to marry a girl must pass, on his way to her, over 

 burning ground. 



In a Thompson story a fire test occurs, but I do not feel certain 

 that it is related to the preceding ones. 



A youth is told that his father-in-law wants to kill him by means of fire, and the 

 advice is given to him to step in the middle of a trail, where the fire can not hurt 

 him Teit 2.39, U 209. 



This incident occurs in another connection in the traditions of the 

 Kutenai. 1 It seems likely that in this case we have a tradition embody- 

 ing the general Test theme of the coast tribes, in which, however, the 

 incidents are filled in in accordance with analogous tales of the 

 interior. In the same story four other tests — one of fire, one of 

 water, one of wind, and one of cold — are briefly mentioned. A house 

 killing by cold occurs Sh 671. 



One of the two contestants sings, and the other one overcomes him, until finally the 

 cold kills one of them Ntl Teit 2.40. 



In another heat test which is characteristic of a number of Thomp- 

 son tales, the youth who is tested puts out the fire. 



The Lice build a fire over their visitors, who hide in a clamshell, and thus escape 

 unharmed . This is repeated four times. The last time the boy makes a hole through 

 the house by urinating. The urine stands like a rainbow, and he and his mother 

 escape over it Ntl Teit 3.364. A cannibal tries to boil a boy in a kettle. He makes 

 the kettle leak and puts out the fire Ntl Teit 3.317. The Frog, who, with his mother 

 and aunt, is put into a kettle by a cannibal, makes a hole in it and puts out the fire 

 by urinating U 253. 



(9 a) The Smoke Test 



(3 versions: Ntl Teit 3.364; Chin 56; Wish 79) 

 A number of southern stories which describe a contest between 

 people from this world who visit a foreign country and the super- 

 natural beings who entertain them, contain a heat test of different 

 character. 



Eagle and his younger brothers visit the land beyond the ocean. They are put 

 into a house in which dead men's bones burn as fuel. The smoke is to kill them. 

 The supernatural beings send the Smoke Swallower to swallow the smoke, but Eagle 

 and his brothers are unharmed Wish 79. The house of the supernatural people is 



'Boas, Kutenai Tales (Bulletin 59, Bureau of American Ethnology, pp. 49, 69). 



