20. Prince Snail

There was an old village at the northwest of Nīen, and many people were living there. It is the same village as that in which the chief lived who married the Robin Woman.[2]

A great chief lived there who had many people in his tribe. Therefore they were proud and high-handed. He had six sons and one beautiful daughter. His sons were expert hunters. Therefore their father was a wealthy chief. He had many slaves, males and females. Therefore he was proud, and every one honored him and his family. There were many Tsimshian tribes, and each tribe had a chief. Some had one and some had two, and there were many princes in each tribe,

Now, when the daughter of this wealthy chief was grown up to be a woman, another chief wanted to marry her, but her parents declined. All the chiefs and princes of the Tsimshian wanted to marry her, but the parents refused them all. They made the bed for the young woman above their own room. Her six brothers, her servant girl, and her parents watched over her day by day. When night came, the chief himself would put a bar across the door, and all his slaves would go to bed. Her parents guarded her day after day and night after night.

The young woman used to take a walk behind her father’s house once a day, accompanied by one of her own maids. One day she wanted to take a walk with her to take some fresh air, as she was accustomed to do. Before she went out, she stood at the door and looked to the right and to the left; and when she saw some one on the right or the left, she would go back, until no one was to be seen on the street. She did so every day.

One day she went with her maid to take fresh air; and when going back, before they entered her father’s house, she saw a snail creeping along the street. So she kicked the snail out of the way with the tip of her toe, and said to it, * Wouldn’t you like to marry me?” Then she went home.*

Every day she went to bed early, soon after she had taken her

walk, and went up the ladder to her bed: and her parents made their bed at the foot of their daughter’s ladder.

Two nights had passed since the young princess had kicked the snail out of her way. In the following night, soon after midnight, the young girl felt some one touch her. So she turned her face toward him, and she saw a fine-looking young man. She put her arms around him, and felt that his skin was as smooth as glass. Therefore

she loved him very much. Before daylight the young man awoke and went away.

The following night the girl went to bed as early as she was accustomed to do, and soon all the people in the house of the great chief lay down. Then the young man came again and staid with the girl, and she loved him more and more.’

Now, the parents of the young woman did not know what was happening to their princess. The young man went to her four nights in succession; and when the fourth night had passed. the young man said to his beloved, “Shall I take you away from your father’s house into my father’s house, and to his large house? It is not far from here.”

She agreed. She forgot her pride and her father’s refusal of her to all the chiefs of the Tsimshian, and the princes’ desire to have her in marriage. She took only a small box and went with this young man, and the young man took her far away from her father’s house. Now they reached the young man’s village. He went with her into a large house. The young woman was a little behind her husband and entered after him. She looked around and saw her husband, who entered and walked right up to a large fire. There he lay down, with his back against the fire; and she saw that a large snail was there in front of the fire, as big as a whale, and another one was on the other side of the fire. These two large snails were the parents of the young man who had married the young woman. They did not care for the young man’s new wife, and staid with their backs turned toward the fire.

Then the young woman was much disappointed. She went to one corner of the large house and sat down without any one speaking to her. She sat there weeping and full of sorrow; and while she was weeping, she felt that some one touched her side and asked her for her woolen ear-ornaments. Then the young woman took off her woolen ear-ornaments, and the Mouse Woman took them. The Mouse Woman asked her, “Do you know these people?” The young woman said, “No.” Then the Mouse Woman said, ‘You remember one time when you saw a snail on your way home and you kicked it out of the way, and you said to the snail, ‘Don’t you want to marry me?’ That is what you said when you kicked it away with the tip of your toe. Therefore the great chief sent his son to marry you.” After the Mouse Woman had spoken, she went away.

Now we will go back to the young woman’s own home on the morning When she left. When no one in the house made a noise, the old woman thought that her young daughter was still asleep. Therefore she ordered every one in the house to keep quiet until her daughter should awake; and all the people of the whole household were quiet until dusk. Then the chieftainess was afraid her daughter might be dead in her bed, therefore she sent up one of her maids to see what had happened, and the young girl went up the ladder. When she reached the top, behold! her bed was empty and her box was gone.

Then the six brothers began to search through the village. They searched in every house and on the hills, among the canoes, and the chief was almost in despair. He sent out canoes among all the tribes of the Tsimshian and inquired for the young girl, and all the villagers said that they had not seen her.

When they came back with the message telling the chief that they had been to all the villages and found no trace of her, the great proud chief and his wife were sad. The chief cried. Then he ordered his attendants to call all the shamans to find out what had happened to his daughter. Therefore the attendants sent messages to all the tribes of the Tsimshian; and all the shamans from all the villages, male and female, assembled in the house of the great chief.

He paid each of them, and they took their charms and began to work and dance around the fire.

The last one of the shamans was a woman. She said to the great chief, “My dear, be of good cheer! Your beloved daughter is still alive. She is in the house of Chief Snail. The son of Chief Snail married her, but she is disappointed, and your six sons may take her home.” Then she pointed with her finger to the rising sun.

The chief rewarded the woman, giving her a boy-slave. Then the great chief said to his six sons, “Now, my dear children, I desire you to purify yourselves, in order to be successful and bring back your only sister;’* and while he was speaking these words, the tears ran down his cheeks, and the whole family wept with him.

Then the young men isolated themselves for purification. When the days of isolation of the eldest brother were ended, he went up the mountains to search for his only sister, but he failed to find her. When the days of purification of the second brother had ended, he went, as his elder brother had done before. He went; and he had not been many days among the hills and mountains, when he also gave up and came home. When the days of purification of the third brother were ended, he went a little farther than his two elder brothers had gone. When the days of purification of the fourth brother were ended, he also went, and went still farther than the elder three, but he did not succeed. When the fifth brother’s days were ended, he came almost to the village of the Snails; but he also failed, and came back home without success.

Now the days of purification of the youngest brother were ended. He went off, taking with him his woodworking tools, and fat and down and red ocher and tobacco, much good food, and blue paint and lime of burnt clamshells, and he took two young men to go with him and carry his provisions.

Now he started. They went on and on day after day; and each evening in the camp the young man would burn something good in the fire, and would pray to the supernatural powers to direct hun to the place where his only sister lived. He did so night after night. Still he went on, and passed all the mountains, valleys, rivers, and difficulties. Then they reached a great plain, and ran as fast as they could toward the rising sun. Finally they arrived at a great valley. They stood at the edge of the valley, and, behold! smoke ascended straight from it down below; but there were bare rocks all around the valley, and there was no way to descend.

The youngest brother camped here with his company, and offered his burnt-offering the same evening. In the night he was thinking of a way to get down into the deep valley. It occurred to him that it must be the town to which his sister had been taken, and therefore he was sleepless that night. Early the next morning he arose. He took up his tools and started. Before he left he ordered his companions to continue to offer sacrifices. He cut down a red-cedar tree and shaped it in the form of a flying eagle, for this man was a woodworker. When he had finished it, he took it down to the camp, and said to his companions, “I will put on this eagle and try to fly up in the air like a bird, for I want to reach my only sister in the village there.” So he put on his wooden eagle that he had made. Then he flew up, and not very high above the ground the wings broke, and he fell back to the ground; therefore he broke it up and threw it into the fire.

Then he went again and cut down a spruce tree and made it into an eagle. After he had finished, he took it down to the camp. His two companions continued to offer sacrifices. Then the young man put on his eagle carving and flew up; but he did not reach very high when the feathers of the tail broke and he fell down to the ground. He broke it up and threw it into the fire and burned it.

On the following day he went and cut down a yellow cedar. He did better than before; he carved an eagle, and took it down to the camp where his two friends were still offering sacrifices. He put on the eagle and flew up. He flew way up into the air; and when he tried to fly down again, the tips of his wings broke, and he fell rapidly down to the ground. He. tried all kinds of wood, but failed.

Finally he went and sat in the woods and considered what to do. At last he thought that if he should make an eagle from different kinds of light woods, he might succeed. Therefore he made the body out of red cedar; the head, and also the tail, of white pine; the legs and the beak,*of yellow cedar; and the claws, of mountain-goat horn. He finished it, and took it down to their camp, where his companions continued to offer sacrifices. He put it on and flew upward, way up into the air. Then he flew down again and up. He did so several times and took a rest. His companions were still offering sacrifices.

Now he ordered his two friends to go home as soon as they could. Therefore the two friends started, and left him alone on the brink of the deep valley. Three days after his companions had left him he put on the eagle form that he had made and flew down into the valley. When he reached the bottom, he did not see any one on the streets of the village. He walked down straight toward the large house in the middle of the village and stood by the door. Without looking through the door, he saw his sister sitting in one corner of the large house, and he also saw the large animals lying around the fire asleep. Then the young woman looked toward the door, and saw her brother standing outside. He beckoned to her, and quickly she arose and walked to him. Then the young man put his sister on his back and flew up as quickly as he could. They arrived at the brink of the deep valley, and started home, running as fast as they could. Whenever they were weary, the young man would put on his eagle form and would fly in the direction toward his home. When they reached their home, he said to his father the chief, ‘Now, father, order your people to chop down young hemlock trees and young spruce trees, and let them sharpen them at one end, for they will come to pursue us. Let the people be ready tomorrow!” So the great chief ordered his slave to shout outside; and the slave went out and shouted, ‘O people! chop down young hemlock trees and young cedar (?spruce) trees;” and every family set out, and brought down many sharp young trees; and the young prince told them, “Load your canoes!” and all the people did as he had told them. After they had done so, they put their wives and children in some canoes and sent them across to Beaver- Tail Island (Douglas Island). As soon as the women had gone, the people saw the Snails coming down, pursuing their daughterin-law. They ran as fast as they could, and all the trees were falling down before them. They cut them down as a sickle cuts down the grass. They had the scent of the footprints of the young people. They were coming down from the top of Nīen Mountain, and slid right down into the water, and went on swimming on the water. Then the chief’s people went to meet them, and fought with them on the water. They speared them with their sharpened hemlock trees and sharpened spruce trees. The large animals swam right along to Beaver- Tail Island over the sea. Then the three large animals were killed there. Their fat floated all over the sea around Beaver-Tail Island, and the wind blew all the fat toward the dry land—the fat of these three large animals—and some of the fat went down to the bottom of the sea and became a kind of shellfish whose back is very hard, with a shell like that of an abalone, one shell joined to another all along the back, and the color of the body is like dark crimson.[1] It has no feet, but its under side is like that of a snail, and it sticks to the rocks. At low water the natives take them off the rocks for food. Beaver-Tail Island is the place where they are found, and they are about six inches long and four inches wide.

Some of the fat of the big animals was driven to the dry land. Therefore small snails cover all the land on the coast, and they creep slowly along the ground in summer-time. His is because their forefathers missed the way when pursuing their daughter-in-law. In the warm days in summer some of the old snails go down to the beach when the tide is very low and stick to the rocks, and there they become a kind of shellfish with a hard shell on the back, which sticks to the rocks. His is the end.