444 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

hands he crashed it down on smug’s head, crushing it to a pulp so that
the brains ran out over the stones. The animal died instancly. The boy
built a fire over the carcass, reducing it to ashes which he blew in all direc
tions, saying as he did so:

“Henceforth you shall be mosquitoes.”

That is why there are mosquitoes in all parts of the land today.

Thanks to his supernatural vision the youth could see s#umg’s house.
He went there at once to rescue the little girl, whom he restored to her
mother amid great rejoicing.

The next day the supernatural youth asked the little girl to accom-
pany him a short distance up the river. At a spot where eagles were
plentiful he made a small shelter in which he placed the down of several
of the birds which he killed, then, towards dusk, the two returned home.
Every day they did this until a large pile of eagle down had been collected.
Then the supernatural one said to the little girl:

“T must go back to my own home tomorrow. My father sent me down
to your mother because he saw how disconsolate she was at your loss.
Now that you are home I have done my work. You must not mourn for
me, nor let your mother do so.”

They returned home that night as usual and the following morning
the supernatural one told his “mother” that he was going to leave that
day. With the little girl he went as usual to the shelter containing the
eagle down.

“Soon I shall bury myself under the down,” he said to her. “Then I
want you to take a stick and beat lightly on it. Keep on beating for a
longtime. I shall become eagle down, and presently you will see a rather
large tuft work its way up to the top of the pile. That will beI. Takeme
and throw me up inthe air. I will slowly drift upwards in circles. You
can watch me until I disappear, then you must go home.”

The little girl faithfully obeyed orders. It wasa very long time before
she saw a rather large tuft of down come to the surface, but when she
threw it into the air it at once floated upwards. She watched it until it
vanished, then went home weeping at the loss of her supernatural rescuer
whom she had come to regard as a brother. Her parents, although them-
selves filled with grief, comforted her by reminding her that he had left
according to his own free will.

THE WOES OF Swzunug*®

Above Canoe Crossing there was long ago a village at a point where
two creeks enter the Bella Coola River, one from either side. The people
of the place lived in underground houses facing the stream. One night a

**For similar stories see Boas, pp. 64 and 87.