BOAS] TSIMSHIAN TEXTS 241 



Growing-up-like-one-who-has-a-Grandmother 



A chief's nephew is a poor orphan. A lioht comes down from 

 heaven and hangs at the end of a 1)ranch. It proves to b(> copper. 

 The chief promises his daughter to the one who will knock it down. 

 The orphan boy receives from a supernatural being stones of four 

 different colors, and with the last stone knocks it down, but the young 

 men take the copper away from him, and claim to have hit it. The 

 next day a white bear is heai-d behind the village, and the chief's 

 daughter is promised to him who kills it. The orphan boy kills it 

 with his arrow. The other youths claim to have killed it, but the 

 youth's arrow is found, and thus the ciiief learns that his nephew has 

 killed the bear. The chief is ashnnied and deserts his nephew, his 

 daughter, and their grandmother. The boy goes to a pond and 

 shouts. A giant frog, the guardian of the pond, emerges and pur- 

 sues the boy. The boy mak(>s a trap and catches the frog in it. He 

 skins it and goes into the pond, where he catches a trout. He puts 

 the trout on the beach. In the morning a raven linds it and begins to 

 croak. The jjrincess sends the boy to look, and he lirings the trout. 

 EverjT night he goes out and catches in succession trout, salmon, 

 halibut, bullheads, seals, porpoises, sealions. and whales. Finally 

 the princess discovers that he catches them and asks him to marry 

 her. They have two children. The chief's people are starving, and 

 the chief sends a man and some slaves to see if his nephew, his 

 daughter, and their gi'andmother are dead. The boy gives them to 

 eat, and they report what they have seen. The people return, and 

 he sells his provisions for slaves and elk skins, gives a potlatch. and 

 becomes a chief. Finally he is unable to take oft' his frog blanket, 

 and staj's in the sea, whence he provides his wife and children with 

 food. 



LiTTLE-KAGI.E 



A chief's son, instead of catching salmon, feeds eagles and pulls out 

 their feathers for his arrows. In winter, when provisions run short, 

 the bo3', his grandmother, and a slave are deserted. The boy's mother 

 hides some fish in a clam shell. Eveiy morning the eagles bring them 

 food; first a ti'out, then bullheads, salmon, halil)ut, seals, porpoises, 

 sealions, and whales. The boy puts on a gull skin and tiies to look at 

 his people, whom he finds starving. He drops a piece of seal meat 

 into a canoe. The chief sends a man and several slaves to see if his 

 son is dead. They find him alive and he feeds them, but forbids them 

 to take food along. One slave hides some seal meat under his shirt. 

 At home he gives the meat to his child. The child bolts it and is 

 almost suffocated. The chief's wife pulls out the seal meat, and thus 

 they learn that the prince has plenty of provisions. The people 

 B. A. E.. Bull. 27— (i-2 U3 



