boas] COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY 833 



The sons of the chief of Djfgua fish charr with nooses. Their fishing-ground is 

 near New Kloo. The cormorant hat of one of them falls into the water. He is 

 angry, strikes the water, and scolds it. They make a fire on shore to roast the fish. 

 A frog appears, whose skin looks like copper. They put it into the fire, where it 

 bursts and scatters the wood. This is repeated several times. When going down 

 the river, a person appears on shore and tells them they will die as they pass certain 

 points, and that the last one will tell their story and then die. When the children in 

 Dji'gua are playing, a woman with a large belly appears. They strike her. It 

 sounds like a drum. Nextra woman appears carrying a child, who predicts the end 

 of the town. The people go halibut fishing, and only a part are successful. The 

 water begins to burn, cinders fall down. There are other portents of evil. The sky 

 becomes red, and Djila'qons causes the town to be burned. A woman who is hidden 

 in a cellar is saved. Djila'qons appears carrying a cane decorated with frog and 

 cormorant and wearing a frog hat, and sings a mourning-song. The young woman 

 comes out of her cellar, takes up some coppers, and starts traveling. A man from the 

 Tsimshian country meets her and takes her along Sk 316. 



Another version which is added at this place continues that when she is married in 

 the Tsimshian country, her high rank is discovered when a dogfish tattooing is seen 

 on her back. Some of her children later on go back because they are taunted with 

 being Haida slaves, Sk Swanton 2.94. 



The Tsimshian tale is also located in the town of Dzi'gwa, the 

 Tsimshian pronunciation of DjI'gwa. 



A prince and his three friends go out fishing. His cormorant hat falls into the 

 water, so that he can not spear the fish. He tears up his hat and throws it away. 

 The steersman fishes it out of the water again. They Btart a fire. The frog leaps on 

 their cooked fish, and they throw it into the fire. It jumps out again, but they 

 put it back, and it is killed. One of the young men throws it into the bushes. 

 When they go home, a young woman with blackened face appears on the beach 

 and asks to be taken along. One of the young men jumps ashore, tries to 

 embrace her, but only a frog leaps away. This happens four times. The last time 

 they refuse to go ashore. Then she tells them that they will die as they pass various 

 points of land; that the last one will tell the story and then die. The people move 

 away. An old woman of the tribe dreams that the village is destroyed by fire. She 

 tells the chief to hide his daughter in a cellar which is lined with coppers and valuable 

 skins. Fire falls from the sky and burns the village. After everything has been 

 burned, an old woman appears, singing a mourning-song. Another woman appears, 

 carrying a cane on which is carved a frog and an eagle, and wearing a hat painted 

 green. She is the mother of the frog that had been burned. The girl learns the songs 

 and begins to travel. On her way she sees a glittering garment and a supernatural 

 halibut, which therefore are mentioned in her mourning-song. She finds a fire 

 burning at the foot of a cedar tree, and sits down. The daughter of a chief had been 

 burned here; and when the parents come to wail, they adopt her as their daughter 

 come back. The next summer the young people go in their canoes to pick straw- 

 berries. The young woman is left alone in the canoe, which drifts away and lands 

 at Metlakahtla. There she marries the prince of the G'id-wul-g'adz. She has five 

 children. One day she is taunted with being a Haida slave. The children take the 

 names and emblems of their maternal uncle. The children are sent back to Queen 

 Charlotte Islands. Two sons and one daughter remain with their mother Ts 260. 



The incident of the prediction of death, telling that the members 

 of a crew shall fall dead one after another and that the last one shall 

 tell the news and shall then die, occurs also in other connections. In 

 50633°— 31 eth— 16 53 



