boas] APPENDIX I NOOTKA TALES 909 



After he had put all these different kinds of fish into the river, he 

 went on. Then he saw a house on the right-hand side of the river, 

 and at the door stood the daughter of the owner of the house. She 

 seemed to be very pretty, and he was the same in her sight. As 

 soon as she saw him, she called out to him to come to her, and he went. 

 As soon as he came up to her, she said to him, "Come in, and you shall 

 be my husband!" for he was really a handsome man, and she was 

 pretty. So he went into the house with her; and now he was married 

 to the chief 's daughter, and they lived together a long while and were 

 very happy. The woman kept telling her husband to take care, for 

 her father was always bad to whomever she had married before him; 

 he always found some way of killing them. And Q!a'nexe £ naxw said, 

 "Don't trouble about me, for he will never hurt me!" 



Next morning the chief said to him, "My son-in-law, get ready and 

 let us go to split a log in two, for I am going to make a canoe!" and 

 Q !a'nexe £ naxw said, "I shall be ready soon." Then he went into his 

 bedroom with his wife, and she told him that that log had been the 

 death of her former husbands. "Now take care!" she said to him, 

 "for he will throw his stone hammer into the crack of the log, and he 

 will tell you to get it for him; but when you go inside of the crack, 

 he will take out the wedge and kill you, as he did my former bus- 

 bands. Now, good-by, my husband!" He walked out of the bed- 

 room and down to the canoe. He went aboard, as did the chief, and 

 he paddled away toward a river. They went ashore in a cove. The 

 old manled the way up, and Q !a'nexe £ naxw followed . Then they came 

 to a large log with a crack in one end of it, and the old man took his 

 wedges and put them into the crack. Then he began to drive his 

 wedges with a stone hammer; and when the crack was -wide enough 

 for a man to enter, he threw the stone hammer into it. Then he said, 

 "All, my son-in-law! my stone hammer fell in. Will you go in and 

 get it for me % I will pu t in a spreading-stick to keep the crack open 

 while you are inside," and he took a round stick and put it across the 

 crack of the great log. After he had finished , Q !a'nexe £ naxw went into 

 it. "When he was inside, the old man struck off the spreading-stick, and 

 the crack closed on Q!a'nexe £ naxw. As soon, however, as he saw 

 his father-in-law strike off the spreading-stick, he turned himself into 

 mucus, and it ran through the crack of the log. After the mucus 

 had all run through, he turned himself into a man again; and he saw 

 under the log many bones and skulls of men who had been killed in 

 the same way as it was intended he should be killed. He also heard 

 his father-in-law say, "Now I am glad that I killed you, for you have 

 brought shame on me by marrying my daughter." He was saying 

 this as he picked up his wedge and was leaving for home. As he 

 neared his canoe, Q !a'nexe £ naxw picked up the stone hammer and 

 rari after him, and said, "My father-in-law, how is it that you left me 



