boas] COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY 817 



(ii c) The Mountain Goats 



Inserted into the Test theme is the visit of Asdi-wa'l to the house of 

 the Mountain Goats. This story has been treated on p. 738. 



(11 d) Asdi-wa'l's Return from Heaven 



Asdi-wa'l is homesick. The Chief In Heaven asks his daughter why her husband 

 is depressed, and he sends him home. He tells him the names of the constellations. 

 The ynung couple go to the edge of the prairie and slide down the rays of the sun. 

 The woman takes along four small baskets — one filled with mountain-goat meat, 

 another with fat, the third with salmonberries, the fourth a water bucket. They go to 

 Asdi-wa'l's mother. He gives a potlatch and takes the name Waxaya'°k Ts 1.109-111. 



Here follows the test of the husband's faithfulness by means of the plume. 

 Whenever he brings water, the woman dips the plume into it. When her husband 

 is true to her, the water is clear. When he is not true to her, it is slimy. She strikes 

 her husband in the face, and returns, going up the rays of the sun. Her husband 

 follows her; and when she looks back, he sinks. (This incident has been discussed 

 fully on p. 780.) The young woman enters her father's house crying. He opens the 

 hole in the floor of his house, fishes up the bones of the young man in his bag net, 

 swings the plume over them four times, and thus revives him. After a while Asdi- 

 wa'l becomes homesick again. He parts from his wife, goes down to Skeena River, 

 which he follows towards the sea Ts 1.111-115. 



In Ts 5.288 the first return of Asi'wa is omitted. When he is homesick, his wife 

 tells her father, who sends him back. Asi'wa goes to sleep; and when he awakes, he 

 finds himself at the foot of the cliff which he had climbed when pursuing the hear. 

 His bow, arrows, and snowshoes lie next to him. He thinks he has been away only a 

 few days, but in reality he has been absent a whole year. 



In N 228 the whole incident of the marriage to the daughter of the Sun is omitted. 



III. THE SEA-LION HLTNTERS 



(hi a) Asdi-wa'l's Marriages 



He reaches Ginaxangi'°gEt. He falls in love with the chief's daughter, who has 

 four brothers. After a while he invites his brothers-in-law to go mountain-goat hunting 

 with him. The mountain goats are very numerous. He puts on his snowshoes and 

 kills all the goats by means of his supernatural gifts. The people start for Metlakaht la. 

 In the spring they go to Nass River, each in his own canoe. Asdi-wa'l is in the canoe 

 of his eldest brother-in-law. At KsE-ma'ksEn they are detained by a head wind. 

 Asdi-wa'l and his brothers-in-law quarrel about the question whether it is more 

 difficult to hunt on the mountains or at sea. The brothers go sea hunting. Asdi-wa'l 

 goes up the mountains. He kills many bears; but in the evening the brothers-in-law 

 have deserted him because they have come home empty handed. They have taken 

 along Asdi-wa'l's wife, who is with child Ts 1.115. 



(hi b) He Marries among the G'it-qxa'la 



(3 versions: Ts 1.121; Ts 5.288; N 228) 



Asdi-wa'l is met by four brothers and their sister, of the tribe of G'it-qxa'la, who are 

 going to Nass River. He marries the girl. He is a successful hunter, and the starving 

 Tsimshian buy meat of them. After the olachen-fishing season they return home. 

 50633°— 31 eth— 16 5? 



