swANTON] HAIDA TEXTS AND MYTHS 149 



*'- Certain rocks at this place arc ^aid to be the bundles of cedar bark which the 

 birds left there. 



^''This sentence was contributed by an old woman of the StA^stas famil)' living 

 at Skidegate. She said that the meaning of ijAlaastl^s had been forgotten, but 

 thought that Raven used it because he was hungry. 



■''M)r Master Canoe-builder, a favorite Ilaida deity. 



55 iiprj. Raven is called Wi'git, a name by which he is sometimes known, especially 

 when he is_ identified with the being who determines the length of a child's life 

 when it is born. 



^"I do not know the English equivalent. They are described as birds like ducks 

 and as having white spots. 



^"Therefore it is always roily about the places where herring are spawning. 



'"'"The beginning of this episode seems to have been omitted. Eagle caught a 

 black cod, which is full of grease, while Raven caught a red cod, which has firmer, 

 drier flesh. 



■'^ The old man first started the story at this point, but next morning he said that 

 he had been talking over the proper place to begin with an old woman, and at once 

 recommenced as in this text. Perhaps the real reason was that he disliked to start 

 in immediately with a stranger at the beginning of the "old man's story," which is 

 the most venerated part of the whole. 



""An exclamation indicating that great crowds turned out. 



"•The skids upon which canoes were hauled overland. 



'■'-'The halibut slid him over their backs into the canoe. 



•■'■'Or "Supernatural fisherman," the God of Fishing. 



"* Compare second version of story, given below. 



"^ INIeaning carnal knowledge. 



""I'sing insulting and indecent words, 



"'This is where the division was made by my interpreter. It is not impossible 

 that much that precedes may have been included in the " young man's " story. 



''"'*The proper place to insert this episode is uncertain, but this was thought the 

 best by my interpreter. 



««Haidaq!aMji. 



™An exclamation jneaning "pretty" or "nice." 



'• Name of the labret. 



'■^ Or the American dipper. 



"My informant would have told this as two episodes had it not been for his wife, 

 who objected that it was simply repetition. 



"The same as G.Ano'; see note 2. 



'^The figure of a mallard was sometimes carved on shamans' rattles. 



'"It was customary to turn the heads of halibut toward him who caught them. 



"This word, sifi, refers particularly to the day-lighted sky. It also means "day." 



'"^"Raven's mustache" is a kind of seaweed from which fish eggs were sometimes 

 gathered, but it did not serve as well as hemlock boughs. 



"See note 24. 



*°SkAfi is an epithet applied to a person who refuses to reply when questioned. 



*'Said to be a tree similar to an alder. 



^■•'"Sqa^djix.u or sqa^djigu, a univalve identified by Dr. C. F. Newcombe as Fis- 

 suroidea aspera, Est-h. ''Raven pretends to be a great chief and only comnmnicates 

 with others through Eagle. 



^'•'An island on the Tsimshian coast. 



•^MYhen they stopped laughing he knew that they were asleep. 



*•' Probably related to the chitons. 



*" Referring to the way in which the Ilaidu strip these animalcules of their outer 

 skiu. 



