boas] CONCLUSION 873 



with a continuous stream, that runs from the interior to the coast by 

 way of Skeena River, and that has slightly affected the Haida. 

 Swanton's collections show that Tlingit mythology has also obtained 

 much material from inland sources, but in this case the affiliations are 

 rather toward the Athapascan tribes of the Northeast. The number 

 of analogues to Tsimshian tales that have been found throughout the 

 interior of southern British Columbia and along the middle part of 

 Columbia River seems remarkably large. 



Although some of the incidents that I have discussed possess a very 

 wide distribution, they have developed characteristic peculiarities in 

 restricted parts of the territory in which they occur. This may be 

 illustrated by the incidents composing the story of the Bungling 

 Host (pp. 694 et seq.). The fundamental idea of the story, the 

 failure of the attempt to imitate magical methods of procuring food, is 

 common to the whole North American Continent, apparently with the 

 sole exception of California and of the Arctic coast. Confined to 

 the North Pacific coast are the tricks of procuring food by letting 

 oil drip from the hands, by striking the ankle, and by the song of 

 a bird. The trick of cutting or digging meat out of the host's body is 

 practically unknown on the North Pacific coast. The host's trick 

 of killing his children, who revive, which forms part of the Bungling 

 Host tale in Washington and on the Plateaus, is well known on the 

 North Pacific coast. However, it does not occur as part of this 

 story. It is entirely confined to stories of visits to the countries of 

 supernatural beings. 



Similar observations may be made in regard to the prolific Test 

 theme. The dangerous entrance to the house of the supernatural 

 beings is represented among the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian by 

 the closing cave or by the closing horizon; among the tribes between 

 Millbank Sound and the Gulf of Georgia, by the snapping door; in 

 the interior of the country, by animals that watch the door (pp. 797, 

 798). In the northern type of heat test the youth is baked in an 

 oven or boiled in a kettle; in the southern area he is sent into an 

 overheated sweat-lodge or placed near a large fire. More important 

 differences may be observed in the general setting of the Test tales, 

 which in the northern part of the country are tests of the son-in-law ; 

 in the southern area, matches between the inhabitants of a village 

 and their visitors (see also p. 816). 



Other examples of the local development of the plot by the introduc- 

 tion of specific incidents are contained in our series; as in the story 

 of Raven killing the Deer (p. 703), whom in the north he strikes with 

 a hammer, while in the south he pushes him over a precipice ; and in 

 the story of the rejected lover (p. 767), in which in the northern 

 versions the youth is made beautiful by being bathed in the bathtub 

 of a supernatural being, while in the south he is given a new head. 



