568 REPORT— 1895. 



and the dish and went home. The trail led up the river through a beautiful 

 valley. Finally she came to a pass leading across the mountains. As 

 soon as she reached this place she fainted. When she awoke she found 

 herself in her hut. The two girls were asleep, and the bag and the dish 

 which the ghost had given her stood next to them. She gave them some 

 meat and told them that she had been to the village of the ghosts who 

 had given her provisions. The next morning they proceeded on their 

 journey and finally reached the tribe. The meat in the bag did not grow 

 less although they were using it all the time. She told the people of her 

 adventure and showed them the dish, which diSered in shape from the 

 dishes of the Ts'Ets'a'ut. They lived on the meat for a whole year and it 

 did not grow less. The girls became stout because they were always well 

 nourished. The aunt and the two girls married. After some time the aunt's 

 husband was lost when hunting porcupine. When he did not return the 

 people went to look for him, but they could not find him. On returning 

 they told the widow to go once more to the village of the ghosts in order to 

 see if her husband were dead. She lay down to sleep, and when she awoke 

 she found herself on the pass which she had crossed before. She saw the 

 village down below in a beautiful valley on both sides of a river. While 

 it was winter on earth it was summer here. She reached the village and 

 entered her sister's hut. She told her that she herself and her nieces had 

 married and that she had come to look for her lost husband. Then her 

 sister cried and told her that her husband was in tlie hut next door where 

 he stayed with his parents. The woman said : " He took a belt and a 

 marmot-skin blanket away which belong to my child. I wish to take 

 them home." Her sister replied : " He had them on when I saw him." Then 

 the woman went into the hut next door and found her husband lying near 

 the fire. She saw his parents and others of his deceased relatives. Then 

 she asked him for the belt and the blanket, and he gave them to her. He 

 also told her the place where his body was lying. It was at the foot of a 

 mountain where they had camped before. There was a little boy in 

 the hub who ran up and down in front of the woman. She grew angry 

 and pushed him so that he fell into the fire. He vanished, for if a ghost 

 is killed, he is destroyed entirely and he ceases to exist. The woman ran 

 out of the house and at once she awoke in her own hut. It was early in 

 the morning. The blanket lay next to her. The belt was on the ground, 

 but one half of it was still in the ground and the people were unable to 

 pull it out. She reported what her husband had told her, and when the 

 people went to look for the body of her husband tliey found it at the place 

 indicated by the ghost. The head was frozen to the ice, while the lower 

 part of the body was moving. They tried to free it from the ice, but they 

 were unable to do so. Then they cut wood and burnt the body right 

 where it lay.' 



I did not obtain much information in regard to their games and 

 pastimes. Levi insisted that he had never seen a Ts'Ets'a'ut gambling 

 and knew only a game at ball played with a ball of cedar-bark, and the 

 game of cat's-cradle. Hunters, who desire to secure good luck, fast and 

 wash their bodies with ginger-root for three or four days and do not touch 

 a woman for two or three months. They drink decoctions of ' devil's 

 club ' for purposes of purification and for securing good luck. 



Their traditions are remarkable on account of the slight influence of 

 the coast tribes upon them. The Rev. F. Maurice has pointed out that the 

 customs and traditions of the Tinneh of the interior of British Columbia, 



