boas] COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY 843 



(9) He sees smoke in the center of a fine valley Se. At the end of the Killer Whale 

 town he meets the old Crane Woman, who sits with her back to the fire Ts 1 [Crane is 

 the watchman of the Killer Whales Hai G; Crane grandmother Se; Heron Ma; Crane 

 in a hut of branches warming his back Ts 4]. As soon as he is seen, the Crane shouts 

 Ts 1, Hai 6, Se [he approaches from behind Mo, and Hon in shouts Mo, Sko].» He blows 

 into the ashes, which fly over Crane; therefore its belly is gray. The Crane coughs on 

 account of the smoke Ts 4. Then he gives him tobacco Ts 4. He gives Crane Woman 

 a harpoon-point to form her beak Ts 1 [a bone Ts 4; he makes a sign before Heron's 

 eyestind gives him a whetstone to sharpen his beak Mo; the man kicks Crane into the 

 fire, and then cures him and gives him a fish-spear Na 5; in return Crane Woman 

 hides him in her feathers Ts 1 [takes him in the form of a louse under the wing Ts 4]. 

 The Killer Whales have heard the shout and come to inquire Ts 1, Ts 4, Sko. She 

 says that she cried because she fell into the fire T 1 s 1. The Killer Whales scent the 

 man, but they can not find him Ts 4. 



In another group of tales the Crane or Heron is standing at the 

 end of the village, working on a canoe. 



The old man tells that the Heron stands at the end of the town repairing a canoe, 

 and instructs him to put tobacco into his mouth and to give him cedar-twig rope when 

 he shouts Sko. The Crane uses a feather for drilling holes; when he has mended one 

 part of the canoe, he breaks another Hai 6. He is told about Heron watching at the 

 end of the town, repairing a canoe, and is instructed to give him cedar-twig drill 

 and whetstone when he shouts Ski. When the man approaches, he hears hammering 

 Ska. He finds the Crane, who is mending a canoe Hai 6. He gives him a drill Hai 6, 

 and the other objects that he had been told to give him. Heron shouts; Heron hides 

 him in his mouth Ska [in the armpit Sk6], and the Killer Whales come to inquire 

 Ska, Sko. The Heron says that he has been mistaken Sko [Crane says that he has 

 been frightened by four men, but that they are friends Hai 0; Heron says his awl had 

 slipped Ska; the Killer Whales say that Crane smells of a human being, but they 

 can not find the man Ska]. 



The Crane, propitiated, then promises his or her help. The Crane advises him 

 that when he comes back he is expected to eat him, but that he will not do so Ts 4 

 [Heron advises him that the house post of the Killer Whales has three watchmen on 

 top Ska, and that the man who has married the woman lives in the middle house of 

 the town Sko]. 



The Tlingit versions treat the approach to the Killer Whale house 

 in a quite different manner. 



He comes to a fort; the people inside do not want to see strangers; they look pale, 

 and he paints them black; they are Sharks Tic [he sees a long town; the last house 

 is that of the Shark people Tla]. He inquires what clan has taken his wife; and the 

 Sharks point out the town, saying that the woman has been taken by the Killer Whales 

 who live across the way, and that they beat the Killer Whales in all their fights; 

 while he is talking, a bony-looking person jumps up behind the boxes and says he is 

 the man's lost halibut hook named Lgudji', which is the name of an island Tic [a 

 man with crooked mouth peeps from behind a post and tells him that he is one of his 

 halibut hooks which was taken away by Sharks and enslaved Tla]. The Sharks 

 instruct him what to do Tla, Tic. 



At this point the incident of the wood-splitting slave is introduced. 

 I have found 20 versions of this incident: Ts 1.177; Ts 4.277 ; Ts 5.300; 

 Tla 26; Tic 215; M 421; Ma 498; Ska 245; Sk6 339; Hai 6.73; Ki 

 MS; BC 5.259; Na 5.56; Se 53. Also N 88; Sk 267; Ne 5.175; Ne 

 9.219; K 9.169; K'10.332. 



