STORIES 469

it was learnt only from their adventures is a point that this tale does not
explain.

In the morning, when Nuskiaxek’s servant Tiao’kwoa went down to
the weir, he was much surprised to see the enormous log in it. He ran
back to tell Nuskiaxek, who asked him why he had not brought it to land.
Tizo’ kwoa then returned to the salmon-weir and tossed the trunk ashore,
a feat that his remarkable strength made easy. As it struck the ground,
the log split, exposing the three boys cowering within; back ran the sur-
prised T#zo’kwoa to tell his master what he had seen, and Nuskiaxek told
his servant to bring them home. When Tiao’kwoa had delivered the
message, the three followed him to the house where the first thing that
met their horror-stricken eyes was their brother, dead, hanging spitted
through the mouth amid a row of salmon. Seals were playing about as
if they had been dogs; otherwise it resembled an ordinary house, always
excepting the ghastly hanging corpse. An old woman sitting in one
corner, though they did not know it, had long been a prisoner of Nusk-
faxek, whom she determined to thwart by aiding the three boys.

“You will be seated,” she whispered, “‘with a fire on each side of you.
As the heat increases, your captors will examine you to see if your noses
are sweating; if they are, they will say, ‘What fine salmon,’ and will kill
andeat you. Wearesalmontothem. But take this piece of greenstone
and conceal it under your arm-pit. When the heat increases so that you
begin to perspire, just draw it out a little and it will become cooler where
you are sitting.”

With this advice the old woman gave the eldest of the three brothers
a fine, smooth piece of jadeite, such as is found on the Queen Charlotte
Islands.

Towards evening Nuskiaxek’s companions gathered in the house.
They seated the three boys between two fires and offered them what they
said was a kind of cranberry, but the lads had watched their hosts take
the food from a large provision box and saw that it was really the eyes of
dead people. The three declined the meal in horror; in so doing they
were fortunate, because if they had eaten the eyes they would never have
been able to return to the land of mortals. Nuskiaxek then killed one of
the young seals which was playing around in the house and on this the
three boys made their supper. Before long it began to get very hot, but
the eldest lad pulled forth the stone so that he and his brothers did not
feel the heat. Their hosts kept handling them and remarking what fine
salmon they were, but the stone had done its work and their noses did
not sweat.

When Nuskiaxek realized that he had no power over his guests he
became friendly. At their request he restored to life the youngest brother