340 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 29 



hot. Then they had her fins ready. They had a stone box in readi- 

 ness on the side toward the door. 



Now they went after water again, and the last to come in fell down 

 with the water. A big stream ran into the fire. Then a gr-eat steam 

 arose. And he ran over for his wife. He took her up in his arms. 

 Then he ran back with her. 



[The house pole had three heads. Their -voices sounded an alarm. 

 They say they were always watching.]" 



Then they found out that she was gone, and they went after her, all 

 the people in the town. Fast-rainbow-trout pursued him above. 

 Marten yjursued him below." The two slaves ran in advance. Now 

 they almost caught him, when one slave let himself fall. He let his 

 belly swell up. Then Mouse'" gnawed through his belly. 



Again they pursued him. When the}^ had nearly caught him again 

 the other slave let himself fall. Then Weaser^ burst his belly with 

 his teeth. 



Now he came to the place where he had gone down. He entered 

 his canoe. The one left to take care of the canoe had become an old 

 man. Now he fled. And the killer whales came in a crowd to his 

 stem. They pursued him. Then they almost upset him. And then 

 he spilled out the blue hellebore. They sank down from him. Now 

 they again came near him, and he again spilled some out. Now he 

 came with her to Q!ado'. 



Then he came to the house with his wife. And he kept his wife in 

 the bottom of a box. There were five boxes fitting one inside the 

 other. Day broke. Now he watched his wife closely. One day, 

 when he looked for his wife, she was gone from the box. There was 

 a hole in the bottom of the box. 



This is part of the famous Tsimshian story of Gunaqane'semgyet or Tsag'atila'o 

 (see Boas in Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Kiiste Amerikas, pp. 294- 

 300). The same episodes occur in one or two of my Masset stories, and in the story 

 of He-who-got-supernatural-power-from-his-Httle-tinger of the present series, and it 

 is noteworthy that in all Haida versions the adventure with the killer whale occu- 

 pies a disproportionately large space. That is also the section which is always taken 

 for artistic representation. 



'That is, "Merely pretend to eat it." 



^Making a noise as if she were killing the frogs. 



^ A town near Metlakahtla prominent in story 



*A mountain on the south side of Nass inlet. 



^This is a passage into Nass river. 



^Isne'g.al is the name of a mountain. 



'That is, it was excavated beneath and the earth held ])ack by rows of retaining 

 timbers. 



^Inserted at the instance of my interpreter. 



^See the story of "Raven traveling," notes 20 and 21. 



'"So tgi'yutsin was translated to me, though this is not the mouse usually spoken 

 of in the stories, which is Keen's mouse. 



"Identified by Doctor Newcombe as Putorius haidarum, Preble. 



