816 



TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY 



(1) Palling tree. 



(2) Drowning. I Rath m 



(3) Keeping awake. 



(4) Capture of animals and their revenge. J 



The Contest stories which are found in the region of Columbia 

 River differ in type from the preceding groups. We have the fol- 

 lowing records: 



1 Snapping door. z Occurs in another 



It appears from this general statement that the southern stories 

 are particularly characterized by the incident of the revenge which 

 is accomplished either by the animals that the young man is required 

 to bring, and which kill or mutilate the father-in-law ; by the animals 

 which he creates by magic; or by causing the food which the father- 

 in-law eats to destroy him. The northern stories, except those 

 belonging to the tale of the man who marries the Eagle, substitute 

 the falling-tree test for the wedge test, although the latter reap- 

 pears in some of the stories of the Comox and Kwakiutl. The 

 task of getting the animals which are to destroy the hero is also 

 quite differently developed in the northern area and in the south- 

 ern area. The most characteristic feature of the northern area is 

 the Devdfish and Clam tests; whUe in the south, particularly south 

 of Vancouver Island, we find that the hero is instructed to bring dan- 

 gerous animals, like wolves and bears, which, however, on account 

 of his great strength, he is able to overcome. In the whole central 

 region, from the Tsimshian as far south as the Kwakiutl, this test 

 does not seem to occur. The heat test in the particular form that 

 the youth is required to sit down in a kettle, in which he is boiled, 

 occurs only among the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian; while in other 

 regions the overheated sweat-house is substituted for it. The inci- 

 dent <>f the precipice is regularly present in the story of the man who 

 marries the Eagle, while among the Bellacoola and Tsimshian it 

 occurs also in the test of a mountain-goat hunter. 



