516 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

a large cave in the vicinity where the hunters smoked the meat and boiled
down the grease and marrow, but they had killed so many that it was
January before their task was completed. Meanwhile the smell of flesh
had attracted a number of martens which were caught in snares; in fact,
they captured enough for two blanket-robes. When ready to leave for
home, they prepared snow-shoes and on these safely negotiated the deep
drifts and reached the village where all hope of their safety had long been
abandoned. Sédnuxumdxots arrived at dusk and heard his parents weeping
and wailing; he asked who had died and found that they were mourning
for him. His safe return turned their lamentations into rejoicings and a
herald was sent out to call in the villagers to share the good news. When
finally packed in, there was enough goat meat for an elaborate potlatch.”

A year or two later, four men prepared to set out one afternoon to fish
for trout. As they were leaving, Sénuximdxots’s young son begged to be
taken along and cried so piteously that they at last consented. So they
wrapped him carefully in a goat-skin blanket, and placed him in the
bottom of the canoe which they paddled about six miles upstream. They
landed on the bank, cooked a meal, and dried black spruce branches over
the fire to serve as torches to lure the fish within range of their spears.
When night had fallen, they began to drift downstream, one man holding
aloft a brand while the others speared. They had fair success, but nothing
noteworthy occurred until, as they neared Nusga/st, they saw white on
the water, and paddled slowly forward, thinking it must be a huge flock
of swans. As they drew nearer they saw that it was snow; a huge slide
had swept over the village and blocked the channel of the river. The
water, no longer able to flow westward, was swirling back to the east, and
the fishermen drifted with it until they found a place to camp for the
night with their young companion.

As soon as it was light, they returned to the scene of the disaster and
found a deep bed of snow over the site of the village. They landed to
investigate, and called repeatedly, hoping that some at least had escaped.
At last they heard an answer and began to dig, imagining that it must be
Sdnuxumdxots himself. After excavating a deep hole, they unburied the
sole survivor, a slave who had escaped by covering with a copper the

It will be noticed that there are many points of similarity between this story
and the onein vol.II, p.512. Itis possible that they are versions of the same account,
but it seems more likely that they refer to different incidents of which the principal
character of one has been forgotten. In such cases the Bella Coola, believing
that individuals with the same name often have the same characteristics, frequently
give to the hero of an earlier incident the name of a person who has figured in a
similar one within recent years.