BOASj COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY 827 



canoe and dives with the man. After swimming around the lake several times and 

 diving with the man, the latter has recovered his eyesight and is ahle to see all the 

 animals on the mountains. Then the Loon tells him to go home, and, when his wife 

 should cook the head of the grizzly bear, to wish that the head should bite her. He 

 looks into the house from outside, sees his wife cooking a grizzly-bear head, wishes 

 that it should bite her. She then runs out with the grizzly-bear head biting her, and 

 dies. He takes his bow and arrows and goes back to the town, where he gives a feast 

 of grizzly-bear meat. Then he recounts his adventures M 353. 



In the Kaigani story the hunter is called DjI'naqode. He belonged 

 to the Tongass Haida (Tant Xada'-i). 



The Masset story takes up an entirely new adventure. 



A cormorant appears in front of the town, and the grizzly-bear hunter and the other 

 people throw stones at it. Nevertheless it comes ashore, gives olachen to the people, 

 which they distribute. Next Raven appears from the east, and asks for some olachen. 

 Upon being refused by the chief and by the cormorant, he transforms the people and 

 the cormorant into stone. Against his wish the olachen also turns into stone M 361. 



The Chilcotin and Carrier versions do not enter into the events that 

 happen after the killing of the woman. 



A blind man and his wife go hunting. Whenever a caribou comes in sight, the 

 woman directs the arrow, and the man shoots. One day when he hits a caribou, she 

 tells him that he missed , and runs away. The man follows the call of the Loon, marking 

 his trail by means of fur torn off from his mountain-goat blanket. He reaches the lake, 

 and promises the Loon his necklace for the restoration of his eyesight. The Loon tells 

 him to dive; and after he has dived several times, his eyesight has been restored. 

 He gives the Loon his necklace, which becomes the white mark on the neck of the bird. 

 He goes home, kills his wife, and burns her body, together with the caribou meat. 



The Carrier version is practically identical with the Chilcotin tale, except that it is 

 stated that the blind man was in the habit of moistening the arrow points with his 

 saliva, which gave them magical power. After his wife has abandoned him, he 

 wanders about aimlessly until he reaches the shore of a lake, where a Loon asks him 

 what ails him. The Loon dives with him, instructing him to hide his eyes in the down 

 on the back of its neck. The Loon dives, and emerges on the opposite shore of the lake. 

 They dive again, emerging at the place where they had first dived, and the man has 

 then regained his eyesight. He gives the Loon his dentalium necklace as a reward Car 

 171. 



From the Tlingit we have only a brief note relating how the blind 

 hunter is met by another person (Tl 104). 



The Loucheux and Hare versions (84, 226) are similar to those of 

 the Carrier and Chilcotin. 



An old man and his wife have a son. The old man is blind, but shoots caribou, the 

 wife directing the arrow. One day he kills a fat caribou. His wife says that he has- 

 missed it, but he hears the groans of the dying animal. Later on he smells the meat 

 that his wife is roasting. He goes to a lake where a Loon (white diver) dives with him. 

 After diving three times, the blind man has recovered his eyesight and is well. He 

 goes back to his wife, pretending still to be blind, and sees the caribou meat outside. 

 When he asks for food, his wife says there is nothing in the house; and when he asks 

 her for water, she gives him bad water, intending to poison him. He kills her. 



There are also several versions from the Plains on record. 



A good hunter who lives with his wife and child becomes blind. He teaches his wife 

 to shoot. One day she shoots a buffalo, but pretends to have missed it, and leaves 



