boas] COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY 829 



on its head, and carries him to its nest on a cliff. From there the Loon takes the boy 

 to a pond and dives with him. After they have killed the mother in the same way 

 as recorded in the Greenland tale, the brother and sister leave the village. They 

 come to a house. The boy wants water, sends his sister into the house, where she is 

 killed and eaten. In revenge the boy kills the inhabitants of this place. He carries 

 his sister's bones along, and she revives Later on they visit other people, among 

 whom she marries, Kroeber, Smith Sound 169. 



Except for the incident of the loon taking the boy to its nest, 

 this story agrees with the versions recorded from Baffin Land and 

 Labrador. We have two versions from Cumberland Sound. 



A boy loses his eyesight, and his mother starves him. When the bear appears in 

 the window of the house, the sister directs the arrow, and the boy shoots it. The 

 mother tells her that he missed, but the sister gives him to eat. One da v a loon calls. 

 He follows it to a lake and is taken down three times. Thus he recovers his eyesight. 

 When he comes back, he sees the skin and cuts it up. He questions his mother, who 

 tells him that a passing boat left the skin. He goes white-whale hunting, and one day 

 asks his mother to hold the line. He harpoons a large white whale, which pulls her 

 into the water. She cries, "Loukl" (evidently corresponding to the cry "ulo" in 

 Greenland). The brother and his sister repent and travel inland. They come to a 

 house. The boy is thirsty and sends his sister for water. When she bends down to 

 dip up water, the inhabitants of the house scratch her back with their long nails. The 

 boy comes in and kills the people. He takes his sister along, and they reach another 

 village where people live who have no anus, and she marries among them, Central 

 Esk Boas 625. 



A second version from Cumberland Sound adds a few details. When the loon takes 

 the boy down into the water, he first believes that he is sitting in a kayak; and when- 

 ever the loon comes up with him, he finds himself in a kayak. Later on, when the 

 mother is pulled into the water, she cries, "I cleaned you, lulc!" After the sister has 

 been scratched by the people whom they visit, he wraps her in rabbit skins and carries 

 her along. The people among whom the sister marries are in the habit of cutting open 

 the women when they are about to give birth to children (see No. 70, p. 609). He 

 tells them that this is not necessary. He causes them to sit down on pegs, by which 

 means they attain the normal human form, while a few die. Boas, Bulletin Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History, vol. xv, p. 168. 



In the Labrador version (Rink 99) the loon dives with the boy, and the mother 

 shouts, "I nursed thee!'' 



It is remarkable that in all these versions, except in the stories 

 recorded from west Greenland, the later incidents agree so closely. 

 Obviously the story of the origin of the narwhal and that of the visit 

 to the fabulous people inland have been associated for a long time. 



Distantly related to this group is the Masset story of the blind 

 man who became a chief (M 677). The people maltreat him, and the 

 Gulls restore his eyesight by removing blood from his eyes. 



38. Local Wixter ix Git-q!a'°da (p. 246) 



(8 versions: Ts 250; Tl 43; M 630; Sk 331; Chil 19; Sh 744; Kath 216; Wasco 244) 



In spring a man catches a spring salmon imder the ice. On his way home a snow- 

 storm comes up. He lifts the salmon and scolds the sky for letting snow come late 

 in winter. In consequence of this, snow continues to fall and the people die. One 



