STORIES 475

Magwants’s son came running up and jumped into the canoe, which
he was able to see, and also the salmon-boy, but not the latter’s com-
panions. The canoe moved away rapidly to the west, beneath the sur-
face of the ocean, without visible means of propulsion. Presently, the
salmon-boy rubbed his hands over his comrade’s eyes, enabling him to
see the crew, who were salmon people, but in human form.

Onward the canoe sped until it entered a belt of air reeking with the
foul smell of countless sardines, which drifted out as the party passed
by the shore of the Land of Sardines. This country the travellers reached
first, because that fish is first to reach the rivers in the spring. The village,
the people, the sun, were all the same as upon the earth, but the land was
beneath the surface of the sea. Beyond the sardine country they reached
that of the herring, the second fish to come to British Columbia rivers in
the spring, then came to the olachen land, and finally to that of the
salmon, Qofofmxao wa sumtkets.8 Here was a series of adjoining towns,
the first populated by the spring salmon people, the second by the dog
salmon, and so in succession came the settlements of all varieties. In
front of these towns extended a beautiful, wide, long, grassy beach. The
canoe landed at the first town, where Magwdnts’s son found himself among
countless spring salmon men. In the next, that of the dog salmon, he
noticed that the people laughed so much that their teeth projected. On
the beach were numerous women digging white roots. Magwdnts’s son
said to Skatpis:

“T want to go for a stroll along the beach.”

“All right,” replied the salmon-boy, ‘“‘but do not stay too long, as I
want to take you to my father’s house in the middle of the town. Its front
is painted to represent the jaws of an animal, the doorway being the
mouth. It opens when anyone wishes to enter; jump quickly inside and
all will be well. Ifa visitor passes slowly through the doorway, the jaws
close and crush him.”

Magqwénts’s son promised to be absent for a short time only.

As he walked along the beach he saw that all the women whom he had
previously noticed were either Canada geese or mallard ducks, and that
all were blind. One woman smelt him and called out to her companions:

“Magqwants’s son is here.”

“No. It is impossible,” they answered, laughing. “He is thousands
of miles away.”

Magwénts’s son chewed up some of the white roots they had been
gathering and spat in the eye of the woman who had smelt him. Thus she
gained the sight in that eye.

“Yes, it is Magwdnts’s son,” she cried out. “I can see him.”

SAlso termed, Nu’ yen-ixim because it is taboo for salmon to lay eggs there.