

boas] COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY 831 



39. The Drifting Log (p. 253) 

 (2 versions: Ts 253; N 102) 



The Eagles and G'ispawadwE'da of G'itslEmga'lon are at war. The Eagles are 

 defeated, and their chief escapes with his niece, going to Nass River. In spring they 

 go fishing olachen. The children are left to play; and the girls, who are in charge 

 of the princess who had come from G'itslEmga'lon, play in a hollow log on the beach. 

 One night the tide rises very high, and the log floats away. The princess owns a tame 

 eagle that flies along. She tries to comfort the children. The parents are searching 

 for the girls, but are unable to find them. The eagle flies back to the village, and 

 the parents conclude that it has come from the drifting log. The log lands on Queen 

 Charlotte Islands, in front of a Haida camp. The princess sends the girls to hide behind 

 the village, while she steps out on the beach. She is taken into the chief's house, 

 and the chief's son marries her. The girls are called out, and some of them marry. 

 The eagle would fly to and fro between the Haida country and Nass River. The 

 princess has a number of children. One day these happen to quarrel with other chil- 

 dren, and they are told that their mother was found on the beach . When this happens 

 a second time, the princess becomes sad, and decides to send her children home. Only 

 one daughter remains behind. The eagle guides them to Nass River. Their various 

 camps are described. The canoe arrives at the grandparents' village, and they tell 

 them what has happened to the princess and to the girls. The old chief tells the 

 eldest boy to take his place and to go back to G'itslEmga'lon and to take revenge. 

 The young people visit the Haida country, and the Haida and Nass people become 

 friendly. Later on they cross the mountains to G'itslEmga'lon, attack their enemies, 

 and kill them. Among them they find the youngest sister of their mother, who had 

 been made captive. They rescue her Ts 253. 



Children are playing in a hollow log of driftwood on a beach. They are carried out 

 to sea by the tide. They strike their noses until they bleed, and smear the outside 

 of the log with the blood. Gulls that lie on the log are glued to it by the blood. The 

 boys kill them and subsist on them N 102. 



From here on the story does not continue as a quasi-historical clan 

 legend, hut it takes up a numher of marvelous adventures of the 

 children who drifted across the ocean. 



The log drifts into a large whirlpool, and is pulled out by a one-legged person who 

 lives near by, and who is hunting seals in the whirlpool. He takes care of the boys. 

 His neighbor, Hard Instep, envies him. The boys are homesick, and are sent to look 

 for One Leg's canoe, which they can not find because it looks like a rotten log. 

 Finally he uncovers it, and it proves to be a self-moving canoe with a monster head at 

 each end. These heads eat whatever crosses the bow or the stern of the canoe. The 

 boys feed each end with five seals, and the canoe takes them home N' 104. 



Persons who consist of one side of a body only, occur in quite a 

 number of tales. 



In the Tlingit story of the four brothers it is said that the brothers reach the end 

 of the world, where they meet a large man with but one leg, who is spearing salmon. 

 When he is through, he puts the salmon on two strings, which he carries in his mouth. 

 Then follows the story of the theft of the salmon-harpoon (see p. 606) Tl 22, Tl 101. 



According to the Haida, Master Hopper, or He Who Jumps About On One Leg, 

 has only one side to his body, Sk Swanton 2.30, Sk 267. 



The Bellacoola tell of a man called Qasa'na, who consists of only one side of the body, 

 and who marries a wife carved of wood (see p. 745) BC 5.256. The Chippewayan also 

 tell of a monster of similar kind 7.363. 



The whirlpool at the edge of the world occurs also in Tlingit 

 mythology. 



