swANTON] HAIDA TEXTS AND MYTHS 347 



Then he went down to the river. He looked into the water and saw 

 his wife wearing the loon skin lying with her arm round an old log 

 in the river. After she had put this |skin] on she thought she saw a 

 spring salmon. She seized it. But [instead] she seized an old log 

 lying under water. There she was drowned. 



Then he pulled out his wife's body and started inland in shame right 

 o})posite. She alone knew what her husband did. And, after he was 

 gone, the slave began doing the same thing. Before he had done it 

 for a long time, in going out to a spring salmon which was swimming 

 about, he disappeared for ever. 



This is wh}^ women always spoil things by meddling with them and 

 by talking; [whj'] slaves, too, are always ashamed when they make 

 mistakes. 



Thin is another story of the rival towns so popular among Tsimshian and Haida 

 alike. Compare the story of A-slender-one-who-was-given-away and notes to same. 



' To tind a good day for hunting. 



'^The unfaithfulness of a hunter's wife would cause him to have poor luck or even 

 ])ring about his death. Such was the case also in war. 



^This word for grouse is a general one. The sooty grouse or " blue grouse," how- 

 ever, is said to have been called tkli^ng.a sqa^owa-i, "wood grouse." 



*Townsend's Sparrow (Passerella iliaca unalaschcensis, C4mel. ). 



* Perhaps the Eed-winged Black Bird (Agelaius phoeniceus, Linn.). 

 •'See the story "How Shining-heavens caused himself to be born." 



'This bird was caught like the wa^sg.o, in the story of Sacred-one-standing-and- 

 moving. 



^AU the spirits in the woods, be they quadrupeds, birds, or the spirits of trees, 

 sticks, and stones. 



* A mountain on the south side of Nass inlet. 

 •OThat was whv he lost. 



