442 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

The fish were so plentiful that the expedition was really in the nature of
apicnic. They had built a huge fire in which they had thrown stones for
boiling some of the salmon, when one of the lads, who was sitting on a
log somewhat apart from the others, called the attention of his comrades
to something that he saw coming down the mountain. The boy, whose
name was ’O-k‘, was a cripple and also had a split lip which made his
speech difficult to understand. Whether his companions failed to com-
prehend him, or whether he saw something invisible to them, is not
known. At any rate they saw nothing.

“All you see is your split lip,” they said.

’0-k could now see a smug rapidly approaching, but his companions
paid no heed to his frantic warnings. The dreaded creature dashed into
the camp, caught one after another, until he had stuffed all of the party
into his basket. There was wild wailing and weeping. ’O-# alone had
retained sufficient presence of mind to keep the knife with which he had
been splitting salmon, and with this he slit the bottom of the basket so
that one captive after another could drop out without the smumg being
aware of his loss. Each one shed his or her blanket so as to slip out more
easily, and these coverings in time formed a false bottom, so that a little
girl who had last been caught and, therefore, was at the top of the basket,
could not escape. The s#imug was very angry to find on reaching home
that this one child was his only prey.

When the children returned to Kwatna and told what had happened
there was grief and consternation. The little girl carried off was an only
child and her parents were almost overcome by sorrow; every day the
bereaved mother used to go behind her house to weep, crying until she
finally sobbed herself to sleep. One day as she was crying, she happened
to notice some of the mucus which she had blown from her nose on to the
ground, and saw, to her utter amazement, that a head appeared to be
forminginit. As she watched, the mucus gradually grew into a boy which
she picked up and carried home, delighted beyond measure. The infant
was a supernatural being. By the next morning it had grown miracu-
lously, and this phenomenal growth continued for four days; by that time
the child had the strength and ability of a well-grown youth; he was also
very handsome.

On the fourth day the youth asked his father, as he called the husband
of the woman from whose mucus he had been formed, to get him a bow
and arrows, and a fish-spear. Thus armed, he set off up the river and
finally sat down on a fallen log that projected at an angle over the stream.
In a little while the sug came along and greatly desired him on account
of his wonderful beauty. The youth showed no fear, but as the creature
rushed at him merely used his own supernatural power to vanish, appear-