swanton] TLTNGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 215 



59. GAMNA'TCK!l« 



GAmna'tck!i killed a seal, skinned it, and threw the skin and meat 

 to his wife to wash. While she was washing them in the sea she 

 saw some killer whales coming landward. By and by the meat she 

 was washing drifted out from her and she waded after it. She went 

 out until the water reached her hips. Then she suddenly felt some 

 one pull her and she disappeared under water. It was the killer- 

 whale people who thus took her into their canoe. 



After that GAmna'tck!i felt very badly and thought to himself, 

 "How can I get my wife back? How can I look for her under the 

 water?" He could not sleep all night, and early in the morning he 

 thought, "I wonder if I couldn't raise this water so as to go under it." 

 In the morning, therefore, before he had eaten he took his red and 

 black paints, went down to the water, raised the edge of it just as 

 if he were raising a blanket, and walked under. He walked on 

 farther and farther. It was just like walking on land. 



By and by he came to a village full of very pale people who 

 went about with their heads down. He found out that they were 

 the red-cod people. He wanted to make friends of them, so, think- 

 ing that they looked very white, he painted them all red — men, 

 women, and children. That is how these fishes got their color. 

 After that he asked them if they had seen his wife, but they said 

 that they had seen no one, so he went on. Presently he came to 

 another village and asked the people there the same question to 

 which he received the very same answer. Those were the halibut 

 people. In each village they gave him something to eat. 



After he had left the halibut people GAmna'tck!i traveled for 

 several daj^s before he came to another town. By and by, however, he 

 perceived smoke far ahead of him, and, going toward it, he saw that it 

 was from a fort. Inside of this fort was a large house which he 

 immediately entered, but the people there did not seem to care to 

 see strangers and woidd not talk to him. These were also very pale 

 people, so to please them he took out his black paint and painted all 

 of them with it. Then they felt well disposed toward him and were 

 willing to talk. "Can you tell me what clan has my wife?" he said. 

 At first they said that they did not know, but afterward one replied, 

 "There is a strange woman in that town across there." Then this 

 person pointed the village out, and GAmna'tckli felt pleasetl to know 

 where his wife was. The people he had come among were the sharks, 

 and those whose village they showed him were the killer whales. 



Then the shark chief said, "Every time we have had a fight we 

 have beaten them." The shark peo];)le also §aid to him, "The killer- 

 whale chief has a slave. Every morning the slave goes out after 



a Evidently a version of the Tsimshian story of Gunaxnaxsimgyet. See story 4. 



