STORIES 393

“T will give my necklace of dentalium to whoever will recover my
foot.” 3

First Gull tried, but he could not stay under water long enough to
find it; Loon, however, dived down and brought the foot back to Qyaisei?.
She tied it to a stick which she carried over her shoulder, and paraded the
village singing merrily:!°

Kicaldinits wasaitswastatyia | xnuwakila | diatiums-aiyiya
Has cut off my leg | now Nowakila'; | Yes, he did it.”
| gtaiseelxanixi

Stamlisogo daté?xapndanidis
What is that

is carrying Qiaisex?®

Dixmésologo | dixddims | gtaisexdnixi
It is her leg that | is carrying Qtaisedx4
Asnanikiqwat asnanikiqwat

She will gum it on; | she will gum it on.

Then she went into the forest at one end of the village and collected
a large quantity of hemlock gum with which she fastened her foot in its
proper place, reinforcing the junction with pliant sticks. Once more she
paraded up and down the town, singing. This time her theme was:

“ Otaiset?’s foot is now gum.”

For ten days she kept it embedded in the gum, and when she removed
the covering, the foot had regrown to her leg.1® Raven was amazed, but
said nothing; in fact, the two avoided one another as much as possible.
However, when Raven once more invited Qfaise/# to accompany him, this
time berry-picking, she refused to go, saying that she was afraid.

This was recorded as song VII D 13b, National Museum of Canada; singer,
Jim Pollard. The same method of recording has been used as for dance songs,
although the vertical lines indicate only word clusters, not grouped forms to be
called out by an announcer.

UThat is: Nowakila [Raven’s name as chief] has just cut off my leg.

2 This song is divided into four parts, although they are not as clearly separated
as dance songs. :

“That is: What is Qfaisefx carrying? The man from whom the song was
obtained used this form of the woman’s name; the narrator of the story called her
Qtaiset2. :

“That is: Qtaise?x is carrying her leg.

*The Bella Coola, who still use hemlock gum to fasten splints and for swollen
wounds, affirm that they learnt the practice from Qjaised?.