[5] Lā′nas- = “town” or “village”: kꜝīsqꜝe-ū′ = “upper or smaller part of stomach.” This is one of the creatures that were supposed to bring wealth to the one who possessed himself of them. [↑]
[6] See the story of [Big-tail]. [↑]
[7] The word used is one applied to descendants generally. [↑]
[8] See the story of [Cloud-watcher]. [↑]
[9] A good dancer, whose name is probably compounded from dī′lᴀ, the word for Sand-hill crane; see the story of [He-who-was-born-from-his-mother’s-side]. [↑]
[10] This is an attempt to reproduce the sounds used in this song, which is very likely Tsimshian. [↑]
[11] The ruling family at Tcꜝā′ał, the principal west coast town. [↑]
[12] See the story of [A-slender-one-who-was-given-away], note [6]. [↑]
[13] That is, before the spirit over the town. [↑]
[14] It would be interesting if we could trace the word Bᴀlê′la to its origin, for it was certainly connected in some way with the first appearance of white people in northern British Columbia and with the first efforts of Christian missionaries. Bī′nĭ evidently = Peni, from ni “mind,” a Carrier Indian, who, immediately after the appearance of the first Catholic missionaries, claimed remarkable supernatural powers and started a kind of sporadic cult which spread throughout much of the northern part of British Columbia. (See Morice, Hist. of the N. Interior of Brit. Col., p. 235.) At Masset I discovered that certain songs there had been obtained, or were supposed to have been obtained, from a Jesuit missionary on the Skeena. The Christian influences apparent in this story evidently emanated from the same source, as [[315]]Bᴀlê′la’s and Bī′ni’s songs are all said to have been revealed at a place up the Skeena river at the same time and to have spread from there. ↑ [a] [b]