506 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

portion of the grease until it was exhausted; then she ate the container,
and when it was finished she was entirely without food. She was very
weak, but not unconscious, and the careful husbanding of her provisions
had kept her alive into February. It so happened that four Kimsquit
men, brothers, were trapping beaver in this particular hunting ground.
Followed by his four dogs, one of the brothers went to inspect a shack,
which they had previously built at some distance from the place where
they were encamped. One of the dogs began to dig in the snow, and soon
the other three joined in. The hunter thought it strange that they did
not bark as usual when digging for game, and asked the dogs what they
were after. To his amazement a voice spoke from below, using the Bella
Coola language:

“You will be rewarded if you save me. I am the daughter of Tax?-
exwam,” it said.

All Kimsquit knew of her fate, so the hunter quickly grasped what
had happened. He burrowed a passage down through the snow to the
woman, who told him of her effort to return home by the overland route
to Kimsquit. The rescuer cut her some firewood and admonished her to
be brave, while he dashed off for help. He hurried back to his brothers,
told them the news, and then rushed back with a little food, telling them
to follow his tracks to where the woman lay and bring with them stone
dishes for cooking. By the time the three brothers arrived, the fore-
runner had replenished the fire, and the woman was sitting up. - One of
the three was a shaman; he felt her heart and said that she would re-
cover. For one day they camped with the woman, feeding her first with
warmed grease of goat and olachen, then with a little food. This revived
her sufficiently so that the brothers could carry her on a litter to their
camp. For twenty days she was so very weak that one of them had
constantly to remain in camp to feed her with bear soup and other nour-
ishing foods, but she gradually regained her strength.

On her account the brothers decided to return home in April, instead
of waiting until June as usual. They planned their arrival at Kimsquit
to take place at night, and hid the woman in their house, telling only the
members of their own family about her. It was June before she had
fully recovered from her painful experience. Then she left the home of
her rescuers, clad in new clothes which they had given her, and the account
of her adventures was made public. A canoe was sent to Bella Coola
informing her father of his daughter’s safety, and inviting him to fetch
her. This he refused to do, but said if her rescuer brought her home he
might marry her with his full approval. This was agreeable to her sav-
iour, and a large party of his Kimsquit friends accompanied him to Bella
Coola where presents were exchanged and the couple married. As an