914 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [ETH. ANN. 31 



light into this world; so he called all his speakers into his great 

 house, Ha' £ wiisats!Im', and also his wise men, and asked them if 

 they could tell him how he could get light into the dark world. 

 After a good deal of talking, one of his wise men said, "Will 

 you, Woodpecker, try my plan, and let your princess go and sit 

 on the roof of your house, and see if we can get the Chief of the 

 Light to take her for his wife ? and if he does not come and take 

 her away from the roof of jour great house, then we will give up 

 trying to get the light." And the chief said that it was a good 

 plan to try. "For," said he, "my princess is very pretty, and 

 every chief tries to get her for his wife." Then he called his princess 

 to come to him; and when she came, he told her about his plan. 

 She told her father that she was ready to go and sit on the roof, 

 to get married to the Chief of Heaven, and to bring the light into 

 the world. 



Then they dressed her in a sea-otter-skin blanket and painted 

 her face, and took her up to the roof of the great house. After 

 she had been sitting there a long time, her father sent four of his 

 speakers to see if she were still there. When they came to the place, 

 they found her still there. Then they went away for a while; and 

 again the old chief was bothered in his mind about her, and he sent 

 another four speakers to see if she were sitting there still; and when 

 they came to the place where she had been sitting, they could not 

 find her anywhere. 



When these four speakers came and told Woodpecker that she 

 was gone, and that they could not find her anywhere, the old chief 

 knew that she had been taken up to heaven by the Chief of the 

 Light. "Now," said Woodpecker, "we shall expect the world to 

 get light soon, for I know that my daughter will not forget what I 

 want her to get for me." 



At that time Woodpecker had Kwa'tlyat' as a slave, and it was 

 dark all the time for about four years after that. One fine day 

 Kwa'tlyat' came in, and said, "My master, Woodpecker, come out 

 and listen to the song that I have heard sung up in heaven!" Then 

 Woodpecker ran to the door of his great house and listened, and 

 the first thing he heard was the voices of children singing; and these 

 were the words they sang — ■ 



"We are coming to our grandfather's house!" 



Woodpecker went on the roof of his great house; and when he 

 reached there, he saw two little boys. Each of them had a long 

 rope tied to his waist. They had been lowered from heaven by their 

 parents with these ropes. The elder one had a box under his arm; 

 and as soon as they stood on the roof of that great house Ha' £ wil- 

 satsltm", he opened the box, and the fight came into the world, and 

 has remained ever since; and all the world was happy after that. 



