SUPPLEMENTARY STORIES 

 The Origin of the G 'ispawaduwe'da 



[Told by Chief Jlountain] 



There were two towns in the canyon of Nass river. The one was 

 inhabited by the G'ispawaduwE'da, the other by the G'itg'inio'x. In 

 the tirst of these towns there were four brothers who were beaver 

 hunters. They went to a lake that was full of beaver dams. They 

 began to open one of the dams in order to allow the water of the lake 

 to run off. When the eldest brother climbed down under the dam, 

 it gave way and buried him, a large tree piei'cing his heart. When 

 the water had run off. the brothers took out his body. Thej' said to 

 one another, " Why was our brother unfortunate to-daj^? Certainly 

 his wife was not true to him." The three brothers went home and hid 

 behind the hou.se. They cut pitch wood and made a torch. AVhen it 

 was dark and the people had gone to bed, they went up to the house 

 in which the wife of the eldest bi'other was living. They went to the 

 place where thej' knew her bed stood, and listened. They heard her 

 talking with a man who was lying down with her. They waited until 

 they heard them snoring. Then the youngest brother lighted his torch 

 and entered. He stepped up to his mother and asked, ''Did an_y one 

 come to our house while we were away ? " His mother replied, " Yes; 

 the chief's son, from the village opposite, came here, and he is here 

 now." Then the young man told his mothei' of the death of her eldest 

 son, and added that he had certainly died on account of his wife's faith- 

 lessness. Then he took his torch and stepped up to the bed of his 

 sistei'-in-law. He saw that she was lying with one arm stretched out, 

 and that a young man with earrings of abalone shell was lying on her 

 arm. Then he put his torch down, pulled out his knife, and cut off 

 the head of the young man and took it along with him. The woman 

 awoke and found the blood streaming over her bed. She was fright- 

 ened. She dug a hole under her lied and buried the body. Then she 

 .spread her bed again and lay down. 



On the following morning the G'itg'inio'x missed their young chief. 

 They inquired where he had gone, and tinalh- learned that he had 

 crossed the river. Then they suspected that he might have been killed 

 by the G'ispawaduwE'da. The three lirothers had taken the body of 

 their eldest brother home, and they had hung the head of their enemy over 

 the doorway. The G"itg'inio'x. under the pretext that their fire had 

 gone out, sent a girl slave to the G'ispawaduwE'da to ask permission to 



221 



