THE WONDER-WORKER’S PIPE 197

was no water; there were no hills; there were no trees.
It was not a good place and Thaimshim did not like
it, for there still were many insects flying in a cloud
around him. He was about to turn back when he spied
a camp-fire. He took the form of a man-size person
and stole cautiously toward it.

Beside it sat a man—dark, long-faced, wearing
the strange garments of another race. In his mouth
was a pipe, though Thaimshim did not know what it
was, for it was the first pipe he had ever seen. He
watched while the man puffed upon it and blew little
clouds of smoke into the air. When he saw that the
smoke drove away the insects so that the man was
able to have a little peace, he thought the pipe was a
new kind of magic and longed to have it for his
own.

That night, while the man slept, Thaimshim stole
the pipe and the tobacco he had seen the man put
into it. Then he took his giant form, and hastened
away over mountain, lake, and river until he came
back to the land of the Tsimshian. He was very hun-
gry, for it had been a long time since he tasted sal-
mon. He was tired, also, so he found a comfortable
seat on a rock high up on the mountain. Then he
commanded the salmon in the bay to come up to him
where he sat, but they would not come because there
was no water. So Thaimshim took his walking-stick
and hollowed out some pools in ledges on the moun-
tainside below. Into these he turned a mountain