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<h1>MYTHS AND LEGENDS <br/><span class="smallest">OF</span> <br/><span class="small">BRITISH NORTH AMERICA</span></h1>
<p class="tbcenter"><span class="smaller">SELECTED AND EDITED BY</span>
<br/>KATHARINE BERRY JUDSON</p>
<p class="center"><span class="smaller">ILLUSTRATED</span></p>
<div class="fig">> <ANTIMG src="images/p0009.jpg" alt="Publisher’s Logo" width-obs="250" height-obs="247" /></div>
<p class="center"><span class="smaller">CHICAGO</span>
<br/>A. C. McCLURG & CO.
<br/><span class="smaller">1917</span></p>
</div>
<p class="center smaller">Copyright
<br/>A. C. McCLURG & CO.
<br/>1917
<br/>Published April, 1917</p>
<p class="center"><span class="smallest">W. P. HALL PRINTING COMPANY, CHICAGO</span></p>
<h2 class="eee">PREFACE</h2>
<p>From the bleak coasts of Labrador and the icy
borders of the Frozen Sea, in the east, through
the river-threaded steppes and plains of the
interior with all their charming lakes, over the tremendous,
gleaming white heights of the Canadian
Rockies, and onwards by cañon and pass to the more
pacific climate of the western coast—it is a far sweep
of country, this British North America, and occupied
in bygone times by many a tribe of red men.</p>
<p>Yet from eastern coast to western, from the long
southern boundary to the Arctic Ocean, one finds everywhere
the same questioning among these red men.
Who was the Someone who had cut and carved the
rivers and plains and great mountain heights? Who
was the Someone who gave Squirrel a beautiful bushy
tail which swept his back, and gave Rabbit no tail at
all? Why did Someone send the icy winds of winter,
the storm winds that shriek around the tepee and rattle
the flaps, howling through the trees and blowing the
snow down the smoke-hole? It seemed impossible that
it was the same One who sent the warm breezes in
summer, when the lakes were full of fish and the bushes
<span class="pb" id="Page_009">009</span>
laden with berries, when the forests full of game, and
life was easy. Therefore there must be two Powers,
one strong and ugly, one beautiful and good, always
battling against each other—the universal human belief
in both good and evil.</p>
<p>Indian myths and legends are the efforts of the red
men to answer these questions, as well as to interest
and amuse each other in the long winter evenings when
the fires burned brightly in the tepees and the carved
plumstone dice were thrown. Men forgot their games
and women the beading of the moccasin, while children
listened intently, as the story tellers of the camp
related, with dramatic gestures, stories of the Days of
the Grandfathers, in the beginning of the Newness of
Things. Nothing was too large or too small to come
within the bounds of their beliefs, or within the play
of their fancy.</p>
<p>As in all other volumes of this series, only the quaint,
the pure, and the beautiful, has been taken from the
tales of the Indians. Any one wishing pure ethnology,
good and bad together, would do better to go to ethnological
reports.</p>
<p>The Indians omitted many stories we wish they had
told. There are few references to the snowy mountains,
probably because of their belief that all above the
snowline was governed by vague, misty, but powerful
<span class="pb" id="Page_010">010</span>
spirits who sent down the thundering avalanches in
the sunlit valleys when summer had come and all was
green and beautiful. There are few references to large
lakes or rivers, which is characteristic, for even the
Indian names of rivers apply to localities on the river,
not to the entire river itself. And in the myths of
British North America, especially on the western coast,
there are many legends involving cannibalism—an
element entirely lacking in the myths of the United
States, whether east or west. Even Alaskan myths
practically omit that subject, while in the Old South-west—New
Mexico and Arizona—one finds myths
of rare beauty and charm of imagery. Indeed, climatic
conditions played not only a distinct part in the
physical life of the Indian, but had a tremendous influence
over his thinking.</p>
<p>Only authentic myths and legends have been used
in the compilation of this volume. The leading
authorities are the publications of the United States
Bureau of Ethnology, of the Jesup North Pacific
Expedition, of the Memoirs of the American Museum
of Natural History, as well as the ethnological
publications of the Canadian Bureau of Mines.</p>
<p><span class="lr">K. B. J.</span></p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0"><i>February, 1917.</i></p>
</div>
<h2>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h2>
<br/><SPAN href="#c1" class="cn">Beliefs</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Haida</i> </span>1
<br/><SPAN href="#c2" class="cn">Beliefs</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Eastern Eskimo</i> </span>5
<br/><SPAN href="#c3" class="cn">Beliefs</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Bella Coola</i> </span>7
<br/><SPAN href="#c4" class="cn">Creation of the World</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Wyandot</i> </span>9
<br/><SPAN href="#c5" class="cn">How the Earth was Formed</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Cree</i> </span>12
<br/><SPAN href="#c6" class="cn">Old One and Creation</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Thompson River</i> </span>15
<br/><SPAN href="#c7" class="cn">Creation of the Earth</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Thompson River</i> </span>16
<br/><SPAN href="#c8" class="cn">Raven and Creation</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Haida</i> </span>18
<br/><SPAN href="#c9" class="cn">Origin of Rivers in Queen Charlotte Islands</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Haida</i> </span>20
<br/><SPAN href="#c10" class="cn">Origin of Haida Land</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Haida</i> </span>22
<br/><SPAN href="#c11" class="cn">Raven and Moon-woman</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Haida</i> </span>25
<br/><SPAN href="#c12" class="cn">Origin of Light</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Wyandot</i> </span>28
<br/><SPAN href="#c13" class="cn">Origin of Light</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Thompson River</i> </span>29
<br/><SPAN href="#c14" class="cn">Creation of Light</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Carrier</i> </span>31
<br/><SPAN href="#c15" class="cn">Coming of Fire</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Carrier</i> </span>33
<br/><SPAN href="#c16" class="cn">How Grizzly Bear and Coyote made Light and the Seasons</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Shuswap</i> </span>35
<br/><SPAN href="#c17" class="cn">Origin of Light and Fire</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Lillooet</i> </span>38
<br/><SPAN href="#c18" class="cn">How Fire was Secured</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Lillooet</i> </span>42
<br/><SPAN href="#c19" class="cn">How Raven Brought Fire</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Haida</i> </span>44
<br/><SPAN href="#c20" class="cn">When Mink Carried the Torches</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Bella Coola</i> </span>45
<br/><SPAN href="#c21" class="cn">Old One</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Shuswap</i> </span>50
<br/><SPAN href="#c22" class="cn">The Great Fire</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Lillooet</i> </span>52
<br/><SPAN href="#c23" class="cn">The Burning of the World</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Cree</i> </span>54
<br/><SPAN href="#c24" class="cn">The House of Sun</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Bella Coola</i> </span>57
<br/><SPAN href="#c25" class="cn">Why the Sun is Bright</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Lillooet</i> </span>60
<br/><SPAN href="#c26" class="cn">When Sun was Snared</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Ojibwa</i> </span>62
<br/><SPAN href="#c27" class="cn">Sun and Moon</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Thompson River</i> </span>64
<br/><SPAN href="#c28" class="cn">The Man in the Moon</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Central Eskimo</i> </span>65
<br/><SPAN href="#c29" class="cn">Why the Moon is Pale</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Wyandot</i> </span>67
<br/><SPAN href="#c30" class="cn">The Woman in the Moon</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Shuswap</i> </span>68
<br/><SPAN href="#c31" class="cn">Moon</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Thompson River</i> </span>69
<br/><SPAN href="#c32" class="cn">War with the Sky People</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Thompson River</i> </span>70
<br/><SPAN href="#c33" class="cn">How Two Sisters got out of Skyland</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Chilcotin</i> </span>72
<br/><SPAN href="#c34" class="cn">Origin of the Pleiades</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Wyandot</i> </span>74
<br/><SPAN href="#c35" class="cn">The Star Hunters</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Chilcotin</i> </span>77
<br/><SPAN href="#c36" class="cn">The Great Bear and the Hunter</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Chilcotin</i> </span>79
<br/><SPAN href="#c37" class="cn">How the Summer Came</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Ojibwa</i> </span>81
<br/><SPAN href="#c38" class="cn">The Rainbow Trail</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Wyandot</i> </span>83
<br/><SPAN href="#c39" class="cn">Origin of the Chinook Wind</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Shuswap</i> </span>85
<br/><SPAN href="#c40" class="cn">When Glacier Married Chinook’s Daughter</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Lillooet</i> </span>89
<br/><SPAN href="#c41" class="cn">Mink’s War with the Southeast Wind</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Kwakiutl</i> </span>91
<br/><SPAN href="#c42" class="cn">When North’s Son Married Southeast’s Daughter</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Haida</i> </span>94
<br/><SPAN href="#c43" class="cn">Capture of Wind</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Chilcotin</i> </span>98
<br/><SPAN href="#c44" class="cn">How Wind Became a Slave</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Haida</i> </span>99
<br/><SPAN href="#c45" class="cn">Thunder, Lightning, and Rain</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Central Eskimo</i> </span>100
<br/><SPAN href="#c46" class="cn">Thunder</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Wyandot</i> </span>101
<br/><SPAN href="#c47" class="cn">Turtle and the Thunder Bird</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Ojibwa</i> </span>103
<br/><SPAN href="#c48" class="cn">Why Lightning Strikes the Trees</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Thompson River</i> </span>105
<br/><SPAN href="#c49" class="cn">The Making of Lakes and Mountains</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Haida</i> </span>106
<br/><SPAN href="#c50" class="cn">Origin of Races</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Cree</i> </span>109
<br/><SPAN href="#c51" class="cn">Origin of Chilcotin Cañon</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Shuswap</i> </span>110
<br/><SPAN href="#c52" class="cn">Origin of Animals</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Eastern Eskimo</i> </span>111
<br/><SPAN href="#c53" class="cn">Bird Beginnings</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i> Eastern Eskimo</i> </span>112
<br/><SPAN href="#c54" class="cn">Mosquitoes</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Haida</i> </span>115
<br/><SPAN href="#c55" class="cn">Origin of Death</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Thompson River</i> </span>117
<br/><SPAN href="#c56" class="cn">Duration of Human Life</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Haida</i> </span>118
<br/><SPAN href="#c57" class="cn">How Death Came</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Lillooet</i> </span>119
<br/><SPAN href="#c58" class="cn">Origin of Arrowheads</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Lillooet</i> </span>120
<br/><SPAN href="#c59" class="cn">Origin of Carved House Posts</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Haida</i> </span>121
<br/><SPAN href="#c60" class="cn">The Wind-power Carving</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Thompson River</i> </span>123
<br/><SPAN href="#c61" class="cn">Calendar</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Thompson River</i> </span>124
<br/><SPAN href="#c62" class="cn">Calendar</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Cree</i> </span>125
<br/><SPAN href="#c63" class="cn">Calendar</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Shuswap</i> </span>126
<br/><SPAN href="#c64" class="cn">How the Indians First Obtained Blankets</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Chilcotin</i> </span>127
<br/><SPAN href="#c65" class="cn">Hunting in the Snow Mountains</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Chilcotin</i> </span>129
<br/><SPAN href="#c66" class="cn">Coyote’s Gift of the Salmon, and the Cañon of the Fraser River</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Nicola Valley and Fraser River</i> </span>132
<br/><SPAN href="#c67" class="cn">The Coming of the Salmon</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Bella Coola</i> </span>135
<br/><SPAN href="#c68" class="cn">Coyote and the Salmon</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Shuswap</i> </span>139
<br/><SPAN href="#c69" class="cn">Wolverene and the Geese</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Eastern Eskimo</i> </span>142
<br/><SPAN href="#c70" class="cn">Nanebojo and the Geese</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Ojibwa</i> </span>145
<br/><SPAN href="#c71" class="cn">Adventures of Nanebojo</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Ojibwa</i> </span>149
<br/><SPAN href="#c72" class="cn">Wiske-djak and the Geese</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Algonquin</i> </span>154
<br/><SPAN href="#c73" class="cn">Wiske-djak and the Partridges</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Algonquin</i> </span>158
<br/><SPAN href="#c74" class="cn">Wiske-djak and Great Beaver</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Algonquin</i> </span>161
<br/><SPAN href="#c75" class="cn">Nenebuc</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Ojibwa</i> </span>163
<br/><SPAN href="#c76" class="cn">Nenebuc and Big Bear</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Ojibwa</i> </span>166
<br/><SPAN href="#c77" class="cn">Coyote and Fox</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Shuswap</i> </span>168
<br/><SPAN href="#c78" class="cn">The Venturesome Hare</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Eastern Eskimo</i> </span>172
<br/><SPAN href="#c79" class="cn">Rabbit and Frog</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Eastern Eskimo</i> </span>175
<br/><SPAN href="#c80" class="cn">Big Turtle</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Wyandot</i> </span>177
<br/><SPAN href="#c81" class="cn">Wolverene and Rock</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Eastern Eskimo</i> </span>180
<br/><SPAN href="#c82" class="cn">Raven’s Canoe Men</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Haida</i> </span>183
<br/><SPAN href="#c83" class="cn">Raven and Pitchman</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Haida</i> </span>184
<br/><SPAN href="#c84" class="cn">When Raven Married off his Sister</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Haida</i> </span>185
<br/><SPAN href="#c85" class="cn">Beaver and Porcupine</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Haida</i> </span>187
<br/><SPAN href="#c86" class="cn">Beaver and Porcupine</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Shuswap</i> </span>190
<br/><SPAN href="#c87" class="cn">Beaver and Deer</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Haida</i> </span>192
<br/><SPAN href="#c88" class="cn">Eagle’s Feast</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Kwakiutl</i> </span>195
<br/><SPAN href="#c89" class="cn">When Chickadee Climbed a Tree</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Shuswap</i> </span>196
<br/><SPAN href="#c90" class="cn">Redbird and Blackbird</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Ojibwa</i> </span>198
<br/><SPAN href="#c91" class="cn">Little Gray Woodpecker</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Wyandot</i> </span>200
<br/><SPAN href="#c92" class="cn">Owl</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Eastern Eskimo</i> </span>201
<br/><SPAN href="#c93" class="cn">Chipmunk</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Thompson River</i> </span>202
<br/><SPAN href="#c94" class="cn">Muskrat’s Tail</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Cree</i> </span>203
<br/><SPAN href="#c95" class="cn">Wolverene and Brant</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Eastern Eskimo</i> </span>204
<br/><SPAN href="#c96" class="cn">War of the Four Tribes</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Shuswap</i> </span>205
<br/><SPAN href="#c97" class="cn">Tradition of Iroquois Falls</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Eastern Cree</i> </span>206
<br/><SPAN href="#c98" class="cn">The Giantess and the Indian</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Wyandot</i> </span>207
<br/><SPAN href="#c99" class="cn">The Destruction of Monsters</SPAN><span class="tribe"> <i>Shuswap</i> </span>209
<div class="pb" id="Page_1">1</div>
<h1 title="">MYTHS AND LEGENDS <br/><span class="smaller">OF</span> <br/>BRITISH NORTH AMERICA</h1>
<h2 id="c1">BELIEFS</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Haida</i></p>
<p>The Earth World is flat and has a circular out-line,
and above it is a solid sky like a great bowl.
Upon the top of the sky is the Sky Country.
The sky rises and falls regularly, and so the clouds
strike against the mountains and make a noise.</p>
<p>The Earth World floats, but it rests upon Sacred-One-standing-and-moving,
and he rests upon a copper
box. Upon his breast rests a pole which reaches up to
the sky. When Sacred-One-standing-and-moving is
about to move, a marten runs up the pole making the
thundering noise which is always heard just before an
earthquake. Because when this Sacred-One moves, it
causes an earthquake.</p>
<p>In the Sky Country, the greatest power is held by
Power-of-the-Shining-Heavens. He gives power to all
things. The clouds are his blankets. Thunderclouds
<span class="pb" id="Page_2">2</span>
are the “dressing up” of the Thunder Bird. Thunder
Bird produces a very loud noise by rustling his feathers.</p>
<p>Southeast Wind lives under the sea. Northeast Wind
abides along the northern mountains.</p>
<p>There are many tribes of Ocean People. Now in
Haida Land, that is, the Queen Charlotte Islands,
the land and sea are entangled in an extraordinary
way.</p>
<p>Just so it is with the lands of the Ocean People—the
Devilfish People, the Porpoise People, the Killer-Whale
People, and the Black-Whale People. Of all
the Ocean People the Killer-Whale People are the
most powerful. They have towns scattered along the
shore beneath the water, just as the Indians have their
towns along the shore above the water.</p>
<p>When a man dies in Haida Land, he follows a trail
until he reaches the shore of a bay. On the other side
of the bay lies the Ghost Land. Then he calls across,
and soon a person appears who pushes a raft from the
farther side. This raft is made of fine cedar bark, such
as is used in the rings of the secret society. Then the
raft comes of itself to where the man is standing, and
ferries him over.</p>
<p>Now in Ghost Land there are many towns, and many
houses in each town. So if a man is looking for his
wife there, it may take him a long time. These towns
<span class="pb" id="Page_3">3</span>
lie in numberless inlets, near the water, just as the
Haida towns on earth do.</p>
<p>When food or grease is put into the fire in the family
of a man who has just died, it comes to him at once;
therefore he is not hungry. And if his family sing songs
loudly when he dies, then he enters Ghost Land proudly,
with his head up. It gives him a good name in that
country. But if they do not, then he enters Ghost Land
with his head hanging down, and people do not think
so much of him. When a man enters Ghost Land there
is always a dance given in his honor.</p>
<p>People who are drowned go to Killer-Whale Country.
But first they go to The-One-in-the-Sea who gives
them their fins and then they go into the houses of the
other Killer Whales. When killer whales gather in
front of a town, it is thought they are human beings
who have been drowned and take this way of informing
the people.</p>
<p>One man who went to the Ghost Land, after he had
been there for some time, put all his property in his
canoe and went to Xada, which is the second Ghost
Land. Then he went on to a third one, and later to a
fourth, and then came back to earth as a blue fly.
Therefore when a blue fly bumps into a man on earth,
he says, “This is my friend, who thus shows me that he
recognizes me.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_4">4</div>
<p>At a place beyond the Ghost Land, and just visible
from it, lives a chief called Great Moving Cloud. He
owns all the dog salmon. Once when a gambler died,
he went there and gambled with him. The stakes were
the dog salmon, and ghosts. When Great Moving
Cloud won, many ghosts came into Ghost Land. When
the gambler won, there was a great run of salmon.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_5">5</div>
<h2 id="c2">BELIEFS</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Eastern Eskimo</i></p>
<p>No man can ever go into the Sky Land until
he is dead; so all the people say. The sky that
we see is a hard, blue stone, built up over the
earth just as the igloo is built with snow, rounding,
over the Eskimo family. But where the land and sea
meet are high precipices which slope inward so that
no one can climb up in the Sky Land. This blue dome
is very cold, and sometimes it is covered with crystals
of frost which fall as snow, and then the sky becomes
clear.</p>
<p>The clouds are large bags of water, owned by two
old women who push them across the sky. The thunder
is their voice and the lightning their torch. When
water leaks out of the seams of the bags, it rains on
earth. If a spark of lightning falls upon anyone, he
has to go to the Ghost Land.</p>
<p>At each corner of the Earth World there lives a
mighty being, with a very large head. When any one
of these breathes, the wind blows. Some breathe violent
storms and others summer breezes. Each wind
spirit has many powerful servants.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_6">6</div>
<p>At the edge of the Earth World, and beyond the
precipices, is a great abyss. A narrow pathway leads
across it to a land of brightness and plenty and abundance
and warmth. To this place none but Raven and
the dead can go. When spirits wish to speak to people
on earth, they make a whistling noise and people answer
only in whispers. Auroras are the torches held in the
hands of spirits to guide the newly dead over the abyss.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_7">7</div>
<h2 id="c3">BELIEFS</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Bella Coola</i></p>
<p>The Bella Coola believe there are five worlds,
one above the other. The middle one is our
own world, the earth. Above it are two upper
worlds, one the home of Afraid of Nothing, and the
one below that is the House of the Sun. Below our
earth are two lower worlds. The first is the Ghost
Land; the second is the home of those who die a second
time.</p>
<p>The upper heaven, which is the home of “Our
Woman,” or Afraid of Nothing, as others call her, is
a prairie without any trees upon it. In order to reach
it, one must pass through the House of the Sun; though
some people say that the sky is rent and one must pass
through the great hole to reach the upper world.</p>
<p>The house of Afraid of Nothing stands in the far
east. A strong wind blows always toward it across the
open prairie so that everything rolls to her house; but
immediately around the house it is quite calm. In
front of the house stands a post in the shape of a large
winged monster, and its mouth is the entrance.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_8">8</div>
<p>Afraid of Nothing created the whole world. A long
time ago she also had a great war with the mountains.
In the beginning of the world the mountains were of
great height. They were human, and they made the
world uninhabitable. Afraid of Nothing made war
upon them and defeated them. She made them much
smaller than they used to be. During this fight she
broke off the nose of one mountain, and its face may
be recognized even now. It is near the Bella Coola
River.</p>
<p>There were two mountains near the headwaters of
the Bella Coola River, and one kept always a fire burning
in his house. One could see the smoke, and this fire
warned its master, the mountain, whenever an enemy
appeared. When Afraid of Nothing came down in her
canoe, the fire gave warning. When she approached,
the mountain broke her canoe and turned it into stone.
So she returned to heaven. The canoe is still there at
the foot of the mountain.</p>
<p>Afraid of Nothing is a great warrior. She visits
the earth now and then; but when she does, her visits
cause sickness and death.</p>
<p>Under the world where she lives is the House of the
Sun. Our own earth is an island swimming in the
ocean.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_9">9</div>
<h2 id="c4">CREATION OF THE WORLD</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Wyandot</i></p>
<p>The people were living beyond the sky. They
were Wyandots. One day the shaman told the
people to dig around the roots of the wild
apple tree standing by the chief’s lodge and Indians at
once began to dig. The chief’s daughter was lying
near by. As the men dug, a sudden noise startled them.
They jumped back. They had broken through the floor
of the Sky Land, and the tree and the chief’s daughter
fell through.</p>
<p>Now the world beneath was a great sheet of water.
There was no land anywhere. Swans swimming about
on the water heard a peal of thunder. It was the first
peal ever heard in this world. When they looked
upward, they saw the tree and the strange woman falling
from the Sky Land. One of them said, “What
strange thing is falling down?” Then he added, “The
water will not hold her up. Let us swim together so
she will fall upon our backs.” So the chief’s daughter
fell upon their backs, and rested there.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_10">10</div>
<p>After a while one swan said, “What shall we do
with her? We cannot swim about this way very long.”
The other said, “Let us ask Big Turtle. He will probably
call a council. Then we shall know what to do.”</p>
<p>They swam around to Big Turtle and asked him
what to do with the woman on their backs. Big Turtle
at once sent a runner with a moccasin to the animals,
so they came at once for a great council. The council
talked a long while. Then someone stood up and
asked about the tree. He said perhaps divers might
go down and get just a little earth from its roots, if
they knew where it had sunk. Big Turtle said, “Yes.
If we can get earth, perhaps we might make an island
for this woman.” So the swans took them all to the
place where the tree had fallen in the waste of waters.</p>
<p>Big Turtle called for divers. First down went Otter,
the best of them all. He sank at once out of sight.
He was gone a long, long while. At last he came up,
but he gasped and was dead. Then Muskrat was sent
down. He also was gone a long, long while. Muskrat
also died. Next Beaver was sent down to get earth
from the roots of the tree. Beaver also was drowned.
Many animals were drowned.</p>
<p>Big Turtle called, “Who will offer to go down for
the earth?” No one offered himself, until at last Old
Toad said she would try. All the animals laughed.
<span class="pb" id="Page_11">11</span>
Old Toad was very small and very ugly. Big Turtle
looked her over, but he said, “Well, you try then.”</p>
<p>Down went Old Toad. At last they could not see
her at all, though she went down slowly. Then they
waited for her to come back. They waited, and waited,
and waited. They began to say, “She will never come
back.” Then they saw a little bubble break on the
water. Big Turtle said, “Let us swim there. That is
where Old Toad is coming up.” So it was done. Then
Old Toad came slowly to the surface, close to Big
Turtle. She opened her mouth and spat out a few
grains of earth that fell on Big Turtle’s shell. Old
Toad was done for, too.</p>
<p>Small Turtle at once began to rub the earth around
the edge of Big Turtle’s shell. It began to grow into
an island. The animals were looking on as it grew.
Then the island became large enough for the woman
to live on, so she stepped onto the earth. The island
grew larger and larger, until it became as large as the
world is today.</p>
<p>When an earthquake occurs, it is because Big Turtle
moves his foot. Sometimes he gets tired.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_12">12</div>
<h2 id="c5">HOW THE EARTH WAS FORMED</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Cree</i></p>
<p>One winter day Wisagatcak was chiseling the
ice, trying to catch Big Beaver. At last he
caught him by shutting up the creek with
stakes, leaving only an opening in the center of the
stream. Then Wisagatcak stood there, waiting for Big
Beaver to attempt an escape in that way. He stood
there a long while. Just as evening came, Wisagatcak
saw a beaver coming along, but just as he was about
to kill him, Muskrat came up quietly behind him and
scratched him. Wisagatcak was so startled he did not
catch the beaver.</p>
<p>At last it became dark, so he went ashore and built
a fire, but he had nothing to eat. He said to himself,
“Tomorrow I will try to break the dam down and dry
up the creek.”</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig2"> <ANTIMG src="images/p0033.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="621" /> <p class="center small"><span class="sc">Carved Stone Dishes</span> <br/>Showing the Indian love of the grotesque <br/><i class="small">From “Memoirs, American Museum of Natural History”</i></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_13">13</div>
<p>Early next morning Wisagatcak made a pointed stick
from juniper wood. Then he broke the dam down,
but yet the creek did not dry up. The water rose, and
rose, and rose, until Wisagatcak no longer stood on dry
ground. So he at once made a raft and got on that.
He took on the raft with him two of every kind of
animal, and stayed there with them for two weeks. So
they drifted about because there was no chance to land
anywhere. And while he drifted, Big Beaver was
making medicine against him for breaking the dam.</p>
<p>Now after two weeks, Wisagatcak wished to know
the depth of water under the raft. He tied a long
string to the feet of Muskrat and asked him to dive
down and bring up some mud.</p>
<p>Muskrat went down, down, down! He could not
even reach the bottom, and drowned before Wisagatcak
could bring him up. Then he waited three days and
told Crow to go and see if he could find any moss.
Crow came back without anything in his bill. When
Crow came back without any moss, Wisagatcak was
frightened. He had a little moss on his raft, so he took
that and began to make medicine. The next day he
asked Wolf to take the moss in his mouth and run
around the raft with it. Wolf did so, and as he ran
around, earth began to appear and grow on the raft.</p>
<p>Wolf ran around the raft for a week, and the land
grew larger and larger. It continued to grow for two
weeks. By that time the earth had grown so large
that Wolf never came back.</p>
<p>This is how the earth came to be built over water.
And this is why there are springs in the earth.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_14">14</div>
<p>When Wolf had been gone for a week, Wisagatcak
said to the other animals, “I guess now the land must
be large enough for us all to live on.”</p>
<p>Beaver asked, “How are we going to live? We are
eating willows and poplars here, but there are no trees
on earth yet.”</p>
<p>Wisagatcak said, “Um-m-m-m! Yes, you will need
a little creek to live in also.”</p>
<p>Beaver said, “Why, yes, of course.”</p>
<p>Wisagatcak said, “I’ll do something tonight.”</p>
<p>That night Wisagatcak made magic again. He tried
to dig down through the earth to his raft, to get a log
from it; but the earth was so thick, and the pressure of
it so great, he could not even find a trace of a log.
When he failed to get even a stick, he said to Beaver,
“I’ll make a creek for you, and you will have to live
on grass roots until trees grow up.”</p>
<p>That is why, even today, Beaver eats certain white
roots as well as bark.</p>
<p>When Wisagatcak came back, he found that Beaver
had dug ditches in every direction in his search for
roots.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_15">15</div>
<h2 id="c6">OLD ONE AND CREATION</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Thompson River</i></p>
<p>Before the days of the grandfathers, all was
water. Old One lived then in the Sky Land.</p>
<p>He still lives in the Sky Land, just where it is
reached by the snow-capped mountains. But in the
days before the grandfathers, Old One became tired
of looking down at the waste of waters beneath him.
There was no earth at all. Old One thought, “I will
make an island in the middle of that great lake, which
will be pleasant to look at.”</p>
<p>He took some soil from the Sky Land, and made a
large hollow ball of it. Then he threw it down on the
water. The lower side of the ball spread flat, and all
the upper part caved in and spread out into a very large
island. The earth even now lies on the water just as
it was when Old One threw down the ball. It is all
broken up into flats and hollows, hills and islets, just
as it spread out from the hollowed ball.</p>
<p>But even then the bare earth was not pleasant to
Old One, so he himself came down afterward and
made the grass and trees and flowers to grow.</p>
<p>That is why the earth is surrounded by water.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_16">16</div>
<h2 id="c7">CREATION OF THE EARTH</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Thompson River</i></p>
<p>Long, long ago, everything was a blank. There
was nothing at all, anywhere, except a number
of people who lived together in a camp. They
were Sun and his wife Earth. There were also Moon
and Stars living there in that camp.</p>
<p>Now Earth scolded Sun all the time. She kept saying,
“Oh, you’re so hot! Go out of doors; you make
the house too hot!” She kept telling Sun how cross
he was. Then Sun got tired of it. He moved away,
and as Stars and Moon were his relatives, they went
with him. So Earth Woman was left all alone in the
camp. Then Earth Woman wept because she was
alone.</p>
<p>Old Man came around just then, and he asked what
was the matter. He asked all about it and Earth
Woman told him everything. Then he went to Sun’s
camp. He talked to Sun.</p>
<p>Then Old Man said, “This will never do. There’ll
be people after a while. Something has to be done for
them.” So Old Man sent Sun, Moon, and the Stars
<span class="pb" id="Page_17">17</span>
up into the sky. He made them just what they are
now. He said to them, “Henceforth you shall not
desert people nor hide yourselves; you shall remain
where everybody can see you, either by day or by
night.”</p>
<p>Then Old One changed Earth Woman into the earth
upon which we live. Her hair became flowers and
grass. Her bones are the rocks. Earth is never alone
now, because she can always see Sun.</p>
<p>When people came, Old Man taught them how to
spear fish and shoot deer with bows and arrows, how
to cook the meat and dress the skins. Old Man taught
people all they know.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_18">18</div>
<h2 id="c8">RAVEN AND CREATION</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Haida</i></p>
<p>Not long ago, there was no land to be seen.</p>
<p>Then there was a little thing in the ocean.</p>
<p>This was all open sea, and Raven sat upon
this. He said, “Become dust!” It became earth.
Then it increased and he divided it, and he put this
earth into the water on each side of him. One earth
he made small, but he made the one on the other side
larger. Because he made one earth small, this island
is small. So he finished this country. White men
call it the Queen Charlotte Islands.</p>
<p>Again Raven started off. He came to where Eagle
lived. And Eagle owned the fresh water. Before
that there was none to be seen. Raven wanted to drink
the water, but Eagle did not want to give it to him.
A long time Raven wanted to drink this water. Then
he drank it secretly, unseen by Eagle. Then he made
off with it.</p>
<p>Then Raven spit it out. He spit out water upon
all lands. He spit out Quilan first, therefore that is
the elder brother of all the streams on Masset Inlet.
<span class="pb" id="Page_19">19</span>
When the water was almost gone from his mouth he
came back to Masset. That is why the water here at
Masset is red.</p>
<p>This is the way the story was told in the days of
the grandfathers. But some of the story-tellers say
that when Raven had taken all the fresh water from
the Owner-of-the-Water, he carried it in his bill. He
let a drop fall and it became the Chilcat River. When
he spit it out, all the water flowed away and the ground
became dry. Then he spit out more, and the ground
also dried up after the water flowed away. Raven saw
that. Then he let still more drop, and as soon as he
let it drop he bent it together. He made a circle out
of it; then it stopped running off. Because Raven bent
the water together, all the streams keep on running,
although they run every day.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_20">20</div>
<h2 id="c9">ORIGIN OF RIVERS IN QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Haida</i></p>
<p>Beaver lived in a beautiful house on the shore
of a large lake. In the lake were salmon and
on the shores were berries of all kinds.</p>
<p>One day Raven disguised himself as a poor, hungry
person. He went to Beaver’s house. Beaver was just
coming home with a fish and berries. Beaver said,
“What are you doing here?”</p>
<p>Raven said, “My father has just died. We have
the same ancestors. He told me to visit you and ask
for food.”</p>
<p>Beaver believed Raven and pitied him. He told
Raven to stay at home, promising to give him much
food. There were always fish in the lake and ripe
berries on the shores.</p>
<p>The next day Raven went to the lake. He rolled
up the water like a blanket. He took it in his beak
and flew away. He alighted on the top of a large
cedar tree.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_21">21</div>
<p>When Beaver went out to fish, he found his lake
was gone. Then Beaver called all the Beavers to help
him, all the Wolves and Bears. He called also a monster
Talat-adega, which has a long body, a long tail,
and many legs. He asked them to throw the tree down.</p>
<p>The Wolves dug up the roots of the tree, Beavers
gnawed the trunk of the tree. All the animals worked
until the tree fell; then Raven flew to another tree.</p>
<p>All the animals of the forest worked hard. They
tried to throw this tree down. But when it fell down,
Raven flew to another tree.</p>
<p>After they had felled four trees, the animals said,
“Please give us our chief’s water. Don’t make us
unhappy.”</p>
<p>But Raven only flew away. He spilled some of the
water on the ground as he flew along. Thus originated
all the rivers on Queen Charlotte Islands. Raven also
made the Skeena and Stikine rivers.</p>
<p>There was a man named Kilkun at Skidegate. Kilkun
said to Raven, “Give me some water!” Raven
gave him only a few drops. Then Kilkun became
angry and fell dead. He forms the long point of land
at Skidegate.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_22">22</div>
<h2 id="c10">ORIGIN OF HAIDA LAND</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Haida</i></p>
<p>Before the days of the grandfathers there was
nothing but water. All was water, except a
single reef. Here lived the supernatural beings.
They were much crowded. They all lay heaped together.
Then Raven flew all about trying to get a
footing, but he could alight nowhere.</p>
<p>Then Raven looked at the sky. It was solid. It was
very beautiful and Raven was fascinated by it. He
said, “I’ll go up there,” so he ran his beak into the sky
and climbed up.</p>
<p>Now in the Sky Land was a large town. The chief
lived there and in the chief’s house was a baby. When
night came, Raven took the baby by the heel and shook
all his bones out. Then he crept into the skin and
pretended to be the baby. But at night he stole out
of the baby’s skin and became Raven. He flew into
all the houses and made much mischief. Then at last
a woman saw him and told all the people.</p>
<p>Then the chief called all the people together and
they sang a song for Raven. It was a magic song, and
<span class="pb" id="Page_23">23</span>
in the midst of it the one holding Raven let him fall,
and he dropped down out of the Sky Country until he
fell upon the great waters.</p>
<p>Now the cradle drifted about on the water for a
long time. Raven cried; then he cried himself to
sleep; but as Raven slept, something said, “Your
powerful grandfather invites you in.” Raven sat up
quickly. He looked toward the sound, but there was
nothing there. Soon the voice said the same words.</p>
<p>Raven looked through the hole in his marten’s-skin
blanket. Presently up through the water came a grebe
saying, “Your powerful grandfather invites you in.”</p>
<p>Then Raven stood up. His cradle was floating
against a kelp with two heads. He stepped upon it,
and behold! it was really a two-headed house pole made
of stone. When Raven climbed down, he found he
could breathe as easily as in the air above.</p>
<p>Beneath the house pole was a house. Someone said,
“Come inside, my son, I hear that you come to borrow
something from me.” Raven entered. In the back
part of the house sat old Sea-Gull Man. The old man
sent him for a box which hung in the corner. There
were four others inside of this. Raven pulled them
all apart and took out two long pieces of something.
One was black and the other was covered with shining
points.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_24">24</div>
<p>Sea-Gull Man took the two pieces and showed them
to Raven. He said, “Lay this speckled stone in the
water first, and this black one last. Then bite off a
piece of each, and spit it out and the pieces will
reunite;” so he said.</p>
<p>When Raven went out, he put the black piece into
the water first. When he had bitten off part of the
rock with shining points and laid it in the water, the
points rebounded. He had not done as he had been
told. Now he went back to the black one, and bit off
part of it, and spit it out again. Then the pieces stuck.
These were going to become land. He put this into
the water, and it stretched itself out and became the
Haida Country. Of the other piece he made the Seaward
Country—the mainland.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig3"> <ANTIMG src="images/p0047a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="358" /> <p class="center small"><span class="sc">Paradise Valley</span><SPAN class="fn" id="fr_1" href="#fn_1">[1]</SPAN> <br/>Laggan, Alberta, Canada <br/><i class="small">Courtesy of Canadian Pacific Ry.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig4"> <ANTIMG src="images/p0047b.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="359" /> <p class="center small"><span class="sc">Lakes in the Clouds</span> <br/>Laggan, Alberta, Canada <br/><i class="small">Courtesy of Canadian Pacific Ry.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_25">25</div>
<h2 id="c11">RAVEN AND MOON WOMAN</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Haida</i></p>
<p>Raven became the son of Moon Woman. He
cried a great deal. When he cried, he said,
“Boo-hoo, moon!” Then his mother said, “He
talks about a thing beyond his reach, which the supernatural
beings own.” So Raven began to cry again,
“Boo-hoo, moon!”</p>
<p>Then, when Moon Woman’s mind was tired out with
his noise, she stopped up all the holes in the house. She
stopped up the smoke hole, and all the small holes
as well.<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_2" href="#fn_2">[2]</SPAN> Then she untied the strings of the box.
Although they were very strong, she untied them. She
did this because the moon was inside the box. Then
she took the moon out and let Raven play with it.
She did not give it to him; she only let him play with
it to quiet him.</p>
<p>After his mother had gone out, Raven took up the
moon in his beak. He turned himself into a raven and
<span class="pb" id="Page_26">26</span>
flew about the house with it. He made himself small.
Just before his mother returned, he made himself a
child again. Then he again played with the moon.</p>
<p>Then Raven again began crying loudly, when his
mother returned. He cried, “Boo-hoo, boo-hoo, smoke
hole!” So he cried, “Boo-hoo, boo-hoo, smoke hole!”
He cried this way for a long time. Then he tired his
mother’s mind with his crying, and she opened the
smoke hole a little. Raven cried, “Boo-hoo, more!
Boo-hoo, more!” for a long time. Then she made the
opening in the smoke hole larger, and he kept crying,
“Boo-hoo, more!” until she had made it quite large.</p>
<p>Then again Raven played with the moon. Raven
cried because he wanted the moon, and his mother did
not want to give it to him. When he cried very much,
she gave it to him and made that large opening in the
smoke hole.</p>
<p>Now at that time it was always dark. Raven did
not like darkness.</p>
<p>Now after she had made the smoke hole larger, his
mother again went out, and Raven was playing with
the moon. Then he put the moon in his beak and flew
through the smoke hole with it. Immediately he put
the moon under his wing. He perched up on top of
the house with the moon under his arm and called like
a raven.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_27">27</div>
<p>Then Raven flew to the bank of the Nass River,
where they were taking olachen. And it was dark.
Raven called, “If you will bring me your spruce
needles, I will make it light for you.” He called the
olachen spruce needles. He said that same thing again.</p>
<p>The fishermen replied, “One who always talks is
talking about something which the supernatural beings
own, and which is beyond his reach.”</p>
<p>Thus they made him angry, and he let them see a
little of the moon. It became light. Then they all
went to him and gave him a great many olachen.</p>
<p>Raven again put the moon under his arm. Flying
up with it, he sat on the top of a high mountain. He
took the moon out, and threw it down so it broke. He
took half of it and threw it up into the sky, and said,
“You shall be the moon and shall give light in the
middle of the night.” He then threw the other half
upward and said, “You shall shine in the middle of
the day.” Then he threw upward the small fragments,
and said, “You shall be the stars; when it is clear, they
shall see you all during the night.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_28">28</div>
<h2 id="c12">ORIGIN OF LIGHT</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Wyandot</i></p>
<p>After the earth was formed on Big Turtle’s
shell, there was not enough light, so the animals
said. Big Turtle called a council. When the
council met, Big Turtle said that because the island
had been made for the woman, there should be more
light. Someone said that a light hung in the sky would
be well. Then Small Turtle at once answered, “If I
could climb into the sky, I could gather together some
of the lightning, and make a ball of it.” Big Turtle
said, “Oh, yes. Try to climb up. You have great
power.”</p>
<p>At once Small Turtle made medicine, and soon there
was a great storm. A cloud full of lightning rolled
down towards the council, with a great noise. There
were broken rocks and trees in the cloud. It came so
near that Small Turtle climbed into the cloud, and
went upward with it.</p>
<p>When she reached the Sky Land, Small Turtle
gathered much lightning together. She made a ball
out of it, and hung it in the sky. After that there was
light on the island because the sun shone. Small
Turtle also made moon.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_29">29</div>
<h2 id="c13">ORIGIN OF LIGHT</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Thompson River</i></p>
<p>A large dead tree stood near Spence’s Bridge.
It was full of magic and possessed the power
of giving light. At that time the world was
always dark. Now Chipmunk did not like the continual
darkness, and his friends did not like it, but
some of the animals did. And some of the other
animals were undecided.</p>
<p>Chipmunk knew that if he set fire to the magic tree
near Spence’s Bridge, the world would become light
again, so he set fire to the roots, and kept poking the
ashes away with a stick that the wind might fan the
flames. When the tree fell, the earth became light.</p>
<p>Now Grizzly Bear and his friends wanted continual
darkness. When that tree fell, Grizzly appeared in a
great rage and began to put out the fire by throwing
earth on the log and on Chipmunk.</p>
<p>Grizzly Bear cried,</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">Le pa, Le pa! Dimness, dimness!</p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_30">30</div>
<p>Chipmunk would poke the fire and brush the earth
and ashes away and sing,</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">Tse ka, tse ka! Light, light, light!</p>
</div>
<p>And immediately the fire would flame up and light
would come; but when Grizzly Bear threw on more
earth it became dark again.</p>
<p>Now both Grizzly and Chipmunk sang as loud and
as hard as they could, and sometimes it was light and
sometimes it was dark. After a while they both grew
tired. Then they agreed that it should be dark part
of the time, and light part of the time.</p>
<p>But Grizzly Bear was angry at Chipmunk and chased
him into a hole. As Chipmunk scampered into the
hole, Grizzly scratched his back. That is the reason
Chipmunk has stripes on his back.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_31">31</div>
<h2 id="c14">CREATION OF LIGHT</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Carrier</i></p>
<p>In the days of the animal people, there was darkness
everywhere except in the tepee of an old
chief. He owned all the light, fire, and water;
therefore men were very miserable and sighed always.
Men pleaded with the old chief for light, but he would
give them none. Therefore they tried to get it by craft.</p>
<p>Now all the animals put on their masks and their
dancing aprons and went to the old chief’s lodge for
a dance. He did not invite them. They went. They
were going to get light by craft.</p>
<p>Now each one sang his own song. Fox kept singing,</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">Khain, khain, khain,</p>
</div>
<p>because he thought in that way he would gain light.
Therefore the animals call him Khain, which means,
“He cries for daylight.”</p>
<p>Now the old chief steadily refused to give them light.
Yet the animal people were each singing his own song,
and each singing,</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">Light, light, light, light!</p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_32">32</div>
<p>Thus they sang. And they sang so loudly and so
steadily that light began to steal up into the sky, like
a faint dawn. The old chief saw it. At once he
shouted,</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">Let there not be——!</p>
</div>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">Let there not be——!</p>
</div>
<p>Had he said “light” as the last word, light would have
come. But at once the light disappeared below the
edge of the sky.</p>
<p>Now young Fox kept on conjuring and crying,</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">Khain, khain, khain, khain!</p>
</div>
<p>and the animals kept on dancing and singing for light,
because they wanted to tire the old chief. And again
light began to steal into the sky. Then the old chief
saw it and he became much excited. The noise confused
him and he shouted,</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">Let there be—light!</p>
</div>
<p>And immediately the light came up into the sky. Ever
since then men have had light. But the old chief did
not mean to say that.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_33">33</div>
<h2 id="c15">COMING OF FIRE</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Carrier</i></p>
<p>Now after the animal people had won light by
shouting “Khain,” and “light,” and had confused
the old chief, they were very happy for
a time. But they had no fire. The same old chief
owned all the fire in the world. He kept it in his lodge,
carefully guarded. Therefore the people resolved to
steal it, because he would not give it to them.</p>
<p>Now the people laid their plans. They said Young
Caribou and Muskrat must help. Then they put on
their dancing aprons and their dancing masks, and
went to the lodge of the old chief. Young Caribou
had a fine headdress of pine shavings fastened to his
horns. Young Muskrat had a dancing apron made of
a marmot skin.</p>
<p>Now they all entered the old chief’s lodge. They
began singing, and Young Caribou and Muskrat began
their dancing. Each took a place at one side of the
fire, where the old chief kept close watch. Muskrat
sang,</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">Oh, shelte! Oh, shelte!</p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_34">34</div>
<p>which are magic words. Therefore Indians say, “Oh,
shelte,” even today, when they hunt muskrats.</p>
<p>Young Caribou, as he danced, jerked his head from
side to side until the shavings caught fire. At once the
old chief put them out with his hands. Everybody
began to dance then, and Young Caribou let the shavings
catch fire. And again the old chief put them out,
though they were quite a blaze.</p>
<p>Now, while the old chief was busy watching Caribou,
Muskrat had been busy. He had burrowed a tunnel
through the earth. Then he quickly stole a piece of
fire and slipped into his hole with it. The old chief
was busy putting out the fire in the shavings on Caribou’s
horns. Everybody went on dancing.</p>
<p>Suddenly a person said, “Oh, look!” He pointed
to a great mountain far away, near the edge of the sky.
A great column of smoke rose from it. Then soon
flames burst from the mountain top.</p>
<p>At once everybody knew that Muskrat had stolen the
old chief’s fire, and had given it to men and animals.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_35">35</div>
<h2 id="c16">HOW GRIZZLY BEAR AND COYOTE MADE LIGHT AND THE SEASONS</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Shuswap</i></p>
<p>One day Grizzly Bear met Coyote and said to
him, “I am great in magic, greater than all of
the people. When I wish a thing to be so, it
has to be so. Now, I do not like having it dark so
short a time. I intended to make it dark all the time.”</p>
<p>Coyote said, “Oh, no! That would inconvenience
the people too much.”</p>
<p>Grizzly Bear said, “I intend to have it my way.”</p>
<p>Coyote said, “No, you can’t!”</p>
<p>At once Grizzly Bear began to dance, singing,</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">Darkness! darkness! darkness! Let it always be dark!</p>
</div>
<p>That was his song.</p>
<p>Coyote also danced and sang,</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">Light! light! light! light! Let it always be light!</p>
</div>
<p>Thus Coyote sang.</p>
<p>They danced and sang a long, long time. Sometimes
it was dark, when Grizzly sang loudest, and sometimes
<span class="pb" id="Page_36">36</span>
it was light when Coyote sang loudest. But
neither won.</p>
<p>At last Grizzly Bear became tired. He said, “Let’s
have it dark half the time, and light half the time.”
Coyote agreed. He said, “Hereafter it shall be light
from the time that the sun prepares to follow the trail
through the Sky Land until he reaches the edge of the
Darkening Land. The rest of the time shall be night.
Thus every day shall Sun travel. When he leaves the
Earth Plain, the darkness shall follow him.”</p>
<p class="tb">After a while, Grizzly Bear said, “I do not like
the length of the year. Winter is far too short. Let
winter be as many moons long as there are feathers
in the tail of Blue Grouse.” So they counted and
found twenty-two feathers in the tail of Blue Grouse.
Grizzly Bear wanted winter to be twenty-two moons
long!</p>
<p>Coyote said at once, “Oh, no! The people would
die. Let winter be half that number.” Grizzly Bear
objected. Then Coyote said, “Let there be as many
moons in the year as there are feathers in Flicker’s
tail.” Grizzly Bear agreed, because he thought there
were many feathers in Flicker’s tail.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig5"> <ANTIMG src="images/p0061.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="743" /> <p class="center small"><span class="sc">Shuswap Beadwork</span> <br/>Tobacco pouch designs of great beauty. From the region of the Canadian Rockies <br/><i class="small">From “Memoirs, American Museum of Natural History”</i></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_37">37</div>
<p>Now, when they counted, there were only twelve
feathers in Flicker’s tail. But it was too late to make
any change. So Coyote said, “Hereafter in a year
there shall be six months of warm weather and six
months in which it may snow and be cold.”</p>
<p>Thus Coyote saved the people from living in darkness,
and from very long, cold winters.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_38">38</div>
<h2 id="c17">ORIGIN OF LIGHT AND FIRE</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Lillooet</i></p>
<p>Raven and Sea Gull were friends. Their
houses were close together in the Lillooet
country. It was dark all over the world at this
time, because Sea Gull owned the daylight, which he
kept in a box. He never let any of it out except for
his own use.</p>
<p>Raven said, “It isn’t fair that Sea Gull should have
all the daylight. People should have some of it.”
Therefore Raven planned to get the daylight.</p>
<p>One night he placed thorn branches on the trail
between Sea Gull’s house and the place where his canoe
was fastened. Then he ran to Sea Gull, shouting,
“Your canoe has gone adrift! Your canoe has gone
adrift!” Sea Gull heard Raven and rushed out of the
house in haste. He did not even put on his moccasins;
he ran in his bare feet and stepped on the thorns. Then
Sea Gull screamed, “Ah-ah!” just as sea gulls do now.
He shouted to Raven, “Get my canoe! Save my
canoe!” Then he went back to his house. He was
much excited.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_39">39</div>
<p>Raven pulled up the canoe and went to the house.
Gull spoke of those thorns in his feet. Raven said,
“Oh, I can pull them out, if you will let a little daylight
out of your box.” So Gull sat down beside the
box and opened it a little with one hand. Raven began
to pull out the thorns with an awl. Soon he said, “I
can’t see well. Give me more light.” Gull opened the
box a little more.</p>
<p>Raven pulled out all the thorns but one. He said,
“This last one is hard to get out. I shall need more
light.” When Gull opened the box a little more,
Raven gave his arm a push. Thus he knocked down
the box and broke it. Then all the daylight rolled out
and spread all over the world. Sea Gull was unable
to collect it again.</p>
<p>Raven took out the last thorn and went home
chuckling.</p>
<p class="tb">Now Raven could see very well indeed, and one day
he cleaned himself nicely. He combed and oiled his
hair, and put on his best robe, and painted his face
black. Then he sat on the top of his underground
house and looked all over the world. He saw nothing.
The third day he changed the paint on his face. That
evening he saw signs of smoke. The fourth day Raven
changed his face paint again. Now he located the
<span class="pb" id="Page_40">40</span>
smoke. It was far away to the south, on the shore of
the sea.</p>
<p>Raven had four servants. They all at once entered
a small canoe, but it was swamped. Then he tried
another. Then he said to his wife, “Go to Sea Gull’s
house and tell him I need to borrow his canoe.” So
he started off in Sea Gull’s canoe.</p>
<p>Now they paddled downstream until they were
close to the house of the people who owned the fire.
They planned very quietly. That night they bored a
hole under where the baby board hung and stole the
baby. Then they ran away.</p>
<p>Now early in the morning the people missed the
baby. They knew what had happened. But Raven
was too far ahead. They sent out men. Sturgeon,
Whale, and Seal searched for Raven’s boat, but they
could not find him. Other men searched, but only one
small fish found Raven’s canoe. He tried to stop the
runaways by sticking to the paddle, but after a while
he got tired and went home. Now Raven reached his
own country.</p>
<p>Then the Fire People visited Raven with presents.
Four times they came; Raven refused all their gifts.
Then they said, “What do you wish?” Raven said,
“Fire.” Then they said, “Well, why didn’t you say
that before?” And they were glad, because they had
<span class="pb" id="Page_41">41</span>
plenty of fire and thought little of its value. So they
brought Raven fire, and he gave them back their baby.
These Fire People showed Raven how to make fire
with dry cottonwood roots.</p>
<p>Raven said to Sea Gull, “If I had not got the light
from you, I could not have seen where the fire was
kept.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_42">42</div>
<h2 id="c18">HOW FIRE WAS SECURED</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Lillooet</i></p>
<p>Beaver and Eagle lived with their sister in the
Lillooet country. They had no fire at all, so
they ate all their food raw. The sister cried and
complained constantly because she had no fire at which
to roast her dried salmon skins. At last the brothers
said, “Don’t cry any more. We will get fire for you.
First we will need to train ourselves for a long time;
but if you cry while we are training, we shall fail.”</p>
<p>Beaver and Eagle went into the mountains and
trained for four years. Then they knew where fire was,
and they returned home and told their sister that they
knew how to find it.</p>
<p>Now they started off. They traveled five days to the
house of the people who owned the fire. Eagle drew
over himself an eagle’s body; and Beaver drew over
himself a beaver’s body.</p>
<p>Beaver at once went to work. He dammed the creek
nearby and that night made a hole under that house.
The next morning Beaver swam around in the pond
of water made by the dam. An old man saw him and
<span class="pb" id="Page_43">43</span>
shot him. He took Beaver into the house and laid him
beside the fire. He told the people to skin him. While
they were skinning Beaver, they found a clam shell
under his arm, which he had hidden there.</p>
<p>Just then the people saw a large eagle perched in
a tree nearby. Quickly they wished for his feathers.
At once they all ran out and began to shoot at him, but
no one could hit him. And while they were shooting,
Beaver was left alone.</p>
<p>Then Beaver rose quickly and put fire in his clam
shell. He dug into the hole he had made beneath the
house, and raced away to the water. He swam away
with the fire.</p>
<p>As soon as Eagle saw that Beaver was safe, he flew
away. Then they returned home. They gave fire to
their sister.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_44">44</div>
<h2 id="c19">HOW RAVEN BROUGHT FIRE</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Haida</i></p>
<p>At that time there was no fire to be seen.
They did not even know of it. Raven went
northward on the surface of the sea. Far out
at sea a big kelp was growing out of the water, but the
kelp head was gone, and many sparks came out of it.
This was the first time that Raven had ever seen fire.</p>
<p>Then Raven went along to it on the bottom of the
sea. Then the big fishes—the Black Whales, and the
Dolphins, and others—wanted to kill him as he went
along. Owner-of-the-Fire was the one to whom he
went.</p>
<p>When Raven entered his house, Owner-of-the-Fire
said to him, “Come and sit here, chief.” Raven said,
to him, “Will the chief give me fire?”</p>
<p>Owner-of-the-Fire gave fire to Raven, as he had
been desired, and when he gave it to him, he put it in
a stone tray. A cover was over it.</p>
<p>Raven went away with it. After he had gone up
to the shore, Raven put a fragment of live coal into a
cedar standing there. Because he put fire into the
cedar, when people want to start a fire they use a drill
of cedar, because fire comes from it.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_45">45</div>
<h2 id="c20">WHEN MINK CARRIED THE TORCHES</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Bella Coola</i></p>
<p>Mink’s father was “Walking-through-the-Heavens.”
He was Sun, but no one knew it,
and one day when Mink was playing with
the children of his village, they laughed at him saying
that he had no father. Mink began to cry and went
home to his mother.</p>
<p>Mink’s mother said, “Why, your father is Walking-through-the-Heavens.”
Then Mink demanded bows
and arrows, and his mother gave them to him.</p>
<p>Mink went outside the lodge and began to shoot his
arrows into the sky. The first arrow struck the sky and
stuck there. The second arrow hit the notch of the
first, and held there; and the third arrow stuck in the
notch of the second. So with four arrows Mink made
an arrow chain which became a rope. He called to
his mother and said, “Hold the rope so it will not
shake,” and she did so.</p>
<p>Then Mink began to climb up into the Sky Land,
while his mother held the rope. After a long time
he reached the door to the upper world. Then he
<span class="pb" id="Page_46">46</span>
climbed in and looked around him. He began to
walk toward a bright house in the distance. It was
Sun’s house. As he came near it, a woman came out
to pick up wood. When she saw Mink, she said, “Oh,
little one! Where do you come from, sonny?” The
woman went at once back into the house and told Sun.</p>
<p>Now Walking-through-the-Heavens was tired that
day. He did not climb the trail through the sky, but
left it covered with clouds. Therefore it was gray and
cloudy in the Earth Land. When there are clouds in
the sky, that is the time that Walking-through-the-Heavens
rests.</p>
<p>Mink told his father that the boys in the village
teased him. He begged to be allowed to carry Sun’s
torches. Then Sun said, “Oh, you can’t do it. I carry
many torches. Early in the morning and late in the
afternoon I burn small torches; but at noon I burn the
larger ones.”</p>
<p>Mink teased and teased. He said he wanted to carry
the torches just once. Therefore one day Sun said, “I
think I’ll rest today. You may carry the torches.”</p>
<p>So Walking-through-the-Heavens gave him the
torches. He said, “Oh, child, take care! Walk in the
morning, but don’t walk too fast. Do not sweep your
aunts, the clouds, away too quickly, or it will go hard
with the people in the Earth World.” Then he said
<span class="pb" id="Page_47">47</span>
again, as Mink started off, “Don’t be too fast when
you walk or sweep.”</p>
<p>So Mink started off, carrying the torches. At first
he lighted only small ones, and he walked slowly, and
swept away the clouds not too rapidly. He did it very
well indeed. But at noon Mink became tired. He
swept away the clouds very rapidly, and he walked
very fast. Then he also lighted many of the large
torches at once.</p>
<p>At once it grew very hot. Great cracks came into the
mountains and they began to split. All the rocks in
the world were burned so that they are bare, even
today. The trees began to burn and many animals
jumped into the water. But the water began to boil.
Mink’s mother covered all the people with her blanket,
so they were saved. All the people in the world hid
under her blanket. The animals tried to hide under
the rocks and in caves. Ermine crept into a hole which
was not quite large enough, so the end of his tail stuck
out. It was burned black. That is why Ermine is
white with a black tip to his tail. Mountain Goat hid
in a cave, so he is perfectly white. All the animals
which did not hide were scorched and therefore they
have dark fur on the upper side of their bodies, but the
under side is lighter.</p>
<p>Now when Sun saw what was happening to the
<span class="pb" id="Page_48">48</span>
people of the Earth World, he rushed up the trail, and
said, “Why do you do so? Do you think it is good that
there should be no people on the Earth World?”</p>
<p>Sun took the half-burned torches and put them out.
Then he pushed Mink right out of the Sky Land, saying,
“Go right down to the Earth World again. You
shall be mink and men shall hunt you.”</p>
<p>Now four women had gone out digging clams. Then
they saw something floating around among the drifting
seaweed. They went towards it. It was Mink. When
they touched him, he rubbed his eyes and said, “I have
been sleeping on the water for a long time.” Then he
went up the beach and went home to his mother.</p>
<p>Now the world was hot, and the trees were burning,
so that Sun caused the waters to rise until they covered
the whole country except for a few mountains on
Bella Coola River which rose above the waters. The
Bella Bella and the Bella Coola tribes fastened their
canoes to the tops of these mountains, and for this reason
they were not lost. Other tribes tied their canoes to
other mountains, but some of the canoe ropes broke and
the people drifted away to different countries. The
flood went as far north as the Skeena River, and people
drifted even from up there. One canoe drifted over
in the lands of the white people. Then at last Sun made
the waters to sink.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig6"> <ANTIMG src="images/p0075.jpg" alt="" width-obs="800" height-obs="468" /> <p class="center small"><span class="sc">Cathedral Peak</span> <br/>Field, British Columbia <br/><i class="small">Courtesy of Canadian Pacific Ry.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_49">49</div>
<p>Crow was sitting on the top of a tree when Mink
made the Earth World to burn. The smoke was so
black that it made Crow black all over. Before that
Crow had been white; so the Indians say.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_50">50</div>
<h2 id="c21">OLD ONE</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Shuswap</i></p>
<p>In the days of the grandfathers men did not know
anything at all about the other worlds. They knew
very little even about the Earth Land.</p>
<p>Now in the Sky Land lived an old chief who was
very wise and very kind, and with great magic. The
son of the old chief died and he did not know where
he had gone. Therefore Old One was very sorrowful.
He wailed, “Where is my son gone? He cannot be
dead. He has only gone away. But where has he
gone?” In those days death did not happen often.</p>
<p>Therefore Old One began to travel. He went everywhere.
He came down to the Earth World and went
into the Shuswap country. Here he found the people
very ignorant. He taught them how to fell trees and
make twine, how to sew clothes and make needles and
awls. He also taught them how to hunt game, how to
trap, and dig roots, and gather berries so they would
have food enough. So the people were much happier.
There were no salmon there in those days; it was long
afterward that Coyote brought the salmon up the river.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_51">51</div>
<p>After traveling all through the Shuswap country,
Old One went on. It became known afterward that he
traveled through the country of six different tribes,
teaching all the people how to live, and looking always
for his son.</p>
<p>When he lived at home in the Sky Land, Old One
had two servants and several companions. His two
servants were Beavers, and one slept at the head of his
bed and one at the door of his house. Because they
were nearer to him, Old One made them the most
valuable of animals. That is why beaver fur is always
so much sought after.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_52">52</div>
<h2 id="c22">THE GREAT FIRE</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Lillooet</i></p>
<p>When Tsuntia and the four Black Bear
brothers had traveled over the earth and put
things to rights, they met one another at the
edge of the earth. Black Bear brothers said, “There
is yet one country where the people are bad. They were
too strong for us. You go to that country and stop the
sun so they will all be burned up.” Thus they spoke
to Tsuntia.</p>
<p>Tsuntia said, “If I go there and stop the sun, all the
people in the world will be burned up and everything
on earth besides.”</p>
<p>The brothers would not believe this, so Tsuntia commanded
the sun to stand still. Then the earth became
so hot it was scorched. The tops of the trees began to
smoke. The Black Bear brothers were overcome with
the heat, and they began to be afraid. They said, “We
see that you know and speak the truth. Now let the
sun move on.”</p>
<p>Tsuntia said to them, “Whistle at the sun, and he
will go on.” They said, “Oh, no. You do it.” So
<span class="pb" id="Page_53">53</span>
Tsuntia whistled and pointed his finger at the sun. The
sun followed his finger as he moved it toward the west.
He moved his finger down over the mountains and the
sun set rapidly.</p>
<p>Then a breeze sprang up and soon cooled the earth
and the people. The bad people of that country were
never punished. They are there yet, near the edge of
the earth.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_54">54</div>
<h2 id="c23">THE BURNING OF THE WORLD</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Cree</i></p>
<p>Once all the world was burned. Only a man
and his mother and his sister were saved.
Before the fire there were many people on
earth. Then the young man fell out with his father,
and they became enemies. The young man had heard
that all the world was to be burned, but his father did
not believe it.</p>
<p>Now the young man made a bow and arrows. He
shot one arrow to the west, and one to the east, and one
to the north, and one to the south. The places where
the arrows fell were the four corners of a bit of ground
which would not burn. The young man told everybody
who wanted to be saved from the fire to come onto that
square of land. Many did not believe the world would
be burned, so they would not come.</p>
<p>After a while the fire came. They could hear it.
They were encamped by the side of a big lake. By and
by all the birds and animals came running to that bit
of ground marked out by the arrows. The old man
had quarreled with his son, so he would not come. The
<span class="pb" id="Page_55">55</span>
fire was very hot. All the water boiled because it was
so hot.</p>
<p>After a while the fire was put out, and the water
had settled down. Everything had to be started over
again.</p>
<p>Now there were many animals on this patch of
ground, and the man named some of them and told
them what to do.</p>
<p>He put Beaver in the water, but Rabbit wanted to
live in the water. The man said, “No.” Then Rabbit
jumped into the water and the man had to pull him out.
He said to Rabbit, “Your legs are too long. Even if
you do eat willow like Beaver, you don’t go about in
the water properly.”</p>
<p>Squirrel wanted to be Bear. He did all he could to
be Bear. He argued and chattered a great deal about it.
The man said, “Oh, you’re too noisy. You wouldn’t
be a good Bear.” He said also, “If you are Bear, you
are so noisy that when people come again, they will
kill too many of you. A bear must keep quiet. He has
many enemies.” Then Squirrel began to weep. He
wept until his eyes were white. Even today Squirrel
has eyes bright and swollen from weeping.</p>
<p>The man made Bear then, because he was nice and
wise and quiet.</p>
<p>Somebody wanted to be Caribou—nobody remembers
<span class="pb" id="Page_56">56</span>
just who wanted that. Then Deer was made, and
made so swift that he could outrun all pursuers.</p>
<p>After the man had finished making all the animals,
he put a mark on them, so people would know what
they were.</p>
<p>Then the man had to give all the people new names.
His mother he called Robin, because she was friendly.
His sister he called Golden-winged Woodpecker, because
she was beautiful. He called himself Blackbird
because he would only come every spring.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_57">57</div>
<h2 id="c24">THE HOUSE OF SUN</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Bella Coola</i></p>
<p>The House of Sun stands in the center of the
lower heaven. It has other names. Sometimes
it is called “Where man was created,” sometimes
“House from which people come down,” and
sometimes “House to which people go.”</p>
<p>In front of the house stands a great pole, painted with
birds of every kind, with the white crane sitting on
top of the post. The master of the house is Sun. He
is also called “Our Father,” and sometimes the “Sacred
One.” The Bella Coola pray to Sun. When they go
hunting they say, “Look on us, where we are going,
Father.” Or they say, “Take care of us, Father.”
After long rain, they pray, “Wipe your face, Father,
that it may be fair weather.” The hunter who has shot
deer, or the woman who has found many berries, prays,
“Father, you make me happy; you give me what I
desire; thus I find what I wished for!”</p>
<p>The Bella Coola also make offerings to the Sun.
Hunters throw four small slices of seal meat, or of
mountain-goat tallow, into the fire, as an offering to
Sun, to obtain success in hunting.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_58">58</div>
<p>There are other gods living in the House of the Sun.
Two of them wake man after sleep; without their help
nobody could awaken from sleep. One of them is the
guardian of the Moon. Every month she restores the
Moon to her full size; and she cleans the face of the
Moon after an eclipse. Because when the Moon performs
religious ceremonies, she paints her face black.</p>
<p>The Mother of Flowers lives also in the House of
Sun. Every spring she sends all the new young flowers
down to the earth.</p>
<p>There are four brothers who live in the House of
Sun. They are always busy in carving and painting.
They taught men to make boxes, to build houses, to
carve wood, and to paint. They also taught him to
hunt, and they made fish for him to catch.</p>
<p>The Daughter of Sun invented the art of working
cedar bark. She has a song which she sings when the
bark is brought to her and she breaks it over the edge of
a stick, so that it may be woven into mats and clothing.
First she sings, “Bring me the board on which to break
the bark,” and then when she begins to work, she sings
another song. Part of it is, “Behold me, ye who are
not initiated. I am the Cedar-bark Breaker, the
Daughter of Sun.”</p>
<p>Many other people live in the House of Sun. One
of them visits houses and steals provisions.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_59">59</div>
<p>The path of Sun is well guarded. Bear guards the
sunrise. He is a very fierce warrior who protects Sun
against warlike enemies, and Bear is also the cause of
the warlike spirit of man. His hair is tied up in a knot
on top of his head.</p>
<p>At the sunset stands an enormous post which supports
the sky and prevents Sun from falling down into the
lower world. The trail of Sun is a wide bridge. It is
as broad as the distance between the summer solstice
and the winter solstice. Sun always walks with his
face to the west. In summer he walks on the right-hand
side of the bridge, and in winter at the left-hand
side. The extreme right-and left-hand sides of the
bridge are called “Place where the Sun sits down.”
If Sun tarries too long on the left-hand side of the
bridge, people say, “Salmon will be dried late this
year.” But if he stays a long while on the right-hand
side, they say, “There will be plenty of salmon this
year.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_60">60</div>
<h2 id="c25">WHY THE SUN IS BRIGHT</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Lillooet</i></p>
<p>Once a whole village moved away. They were
angry with a boy, so they left him behind with
his grandmother. Now it looked as though
they would starve. Grandmother said, “Snare small
animals. Shoot the birds.” So the boy snared rabbits
and squirrels and many small animals. He shot
many birds with bright plumage. Grandmother cooked
the animals and birds, but she made him a robe from
the skins of the birds. The robe was very large and
bright. The boy wore it when he went to spear fish.</p>
<p>Now Sun, when he followed the trail in the Sky
Land, saw the robe when the boy was spearing fish. He
saw that robe many times. One day Sun left the trail
and came to visit the boy. Sun always dressed in a
goatskin robe, with long fringe.</p>
<p>Sun said to the boy, “I will exchange blankets with
you.” The boy looked at the goatskin robe, and said,
“Oh, no!”</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig7"> <ANTIMG src="images/p0089.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="718" /> <p class="center small"><span class="sc">Haida Blanket Border Designs</span> <br/>Symbolical of the raven and the killer whale <br/><i class="small">From “Memoirs, American Museum of Natural History”</i></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_61">61</div>
<p>Sun said, “You do not know the value of my robe.
It can catch more fish than you can spear.” Sun placed
the fringe of his blanket in the water, and at once a fish
caught on each tip of the fringe. When the boy saw
that, he exchanged blankets at once.</p>
<p>Before Sun traded for the boy’s robe of birds’ plumage,
he was pale, and his light was like the light of
the moon. Therefore people could look at him. Now
he became bright and dazzling as he is today, because
of his bright robe. People can no longer look at him.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_62">62</div>
<h2 id="c26">WHEN SUN WAS SNARED</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Ojibwa</i></p>
<p>Once there was a poor boy who lived with his
grandmother. He set snares for birds and rabbits
because they were very poor. Now one
day this boy set his snares, and then went home to his
grandmother. But he had set his snare on Sun’s trail.</p>
<p>The next day when Sun came up over the edge of
the earth and started off on his trail, he was caught in
the snare. He could not go on. There was only a little
light and Sun did not rise all day. People began
to be anxious at the gloom. They said, “What has
happened?”</p>
<p>Then someone asked the boy, “Where did you set
your snare?” and the boy told him. They went to look,
and there was Sun caught fast in it. People said again,
“What shall we do?” because Sun was so hot no one
could go anywhere near him. Someone said, “We
shall have to gnaw through the cords of the snare,” and
somebody else asked, “Well, who will do that?”</p>
<p>At last a number of the animals tried to gnaw the
string. They were all burned. They said, “Let
<span class="pb" id="Page_63">63</span>
Beaver-Mouse try it. He has such sharp teeth.” So
Beaver-Mouse tried it, and he gnawed the string so Sun
could rise and follow his trail. But Beaver-Mouse’s
teeth were so burned that they are brown even to this
day.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_64">64</div>
<h2 id="c27">SUN AND MOON</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Thompson River</i></p>
<p>Sun and Moon were both chiefs who looked after
the people. One day they were quarreling, and
began to say unpleasant things to each other.</p>
<p>Sun said to Moon, “You give too faint a light. The
people cannot see properly. Besides you do not warm
them.”</p>
<p>Moon answered, “People turn aside their faces when
they look at you. You blind them; and you are so hot
you make them very uncomfortable. I don’t burn people
as you do. Besides, I am prettier than you are.”</p>
<p>Thus they disputed.</p>
<p>At last they agreed to this: Sun should shine by day
and Moon by night. And they did so. They do so even
to this day. They used both to shine at the same time;
so the Indians say.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_65">65</div>
<h2 id="c28">THE MAN IN THE MOON</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Central Eskimo</i></p>
<p>Once an Eskimo visited the Moon. He put out
all the lamps in his house, and sat down with
his back to them, and at once his guardian spirit
carried him through the air.</p>
<p>Moon’s house was not very large. It is white because
it is covered with white deerskins, which Moon always
has drying there. On each side of the entrance is the
upper half of a walrus’s body, with very long teeth.
It is very dangerous to pass here, because the teeth try
to bite you. Moon’s dog is dappled red and white. He
lives in the passage, and is the only dog in the moon.</p>
<p>Moon always sits in the outer room, but in an inside
room, the Eskimo saw Sun. She is Moon’s wife. The
moment she saw the Eskimo, she brightened her fire
and got behind the glow of it, therefore the Eskimo
could not look at her for the brightness. Moon had
great piles of deer meat lying about, and piled up; yet
he did not offer any to the Eskimo until he and Sun
had danced a very strange dance.</p>
<p>There are great plains in Moon Land, and large
herds of deer roaming over them. Moon allowed the
<span class="pb" id="Page_66">66</span>
Eskimo to choose one animal, which at once fell through
a hole in Moon Land to the earth below. In a large
house were many seals swimming. The Eskimo chose
one seal and it at once fell to the earth and into the
ocean.</p>
<p>That is why the Eskimo have deer and seals. If this
Eskimo had not visited Moon, they would not have
them.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_67">67</div>
<h2 id="c29">WHY THE MOON IS PALE</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Wyandot</i></p>
<p>Now Small Turtle made Sun out of lightning
when she climbed up into the sky. She also
made Moon for his wife. Moon was smaller
than Sun, but she was very bright. Then the animals
bored a hole through the edge of the earth so that Sun
and Moon could pass through at night, and begin their
trail again at the east.</p>
<p>Small Turtle never meant Sun and Moon to travel
together. But one day Moon ran into the hole at the
edge of the earth much too soon. She also ran in ahead
of her husband, Sun. Sun was very angry. Moon
stayed under the earth for a long while. Small Turtle
went after her one day to see what was the matter. She
found Moon small and pale because of Sun’s anger.
Then Small Turtle tried to make her large again.
Moon would grow larger for a while, and then remember
Sun’s anger, and fade away again, until she was only
a strip. She does so even today. That is why Moon is
so pale, and why she keeps changing as she does.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_68">68</div>
<h2 id="c30">THE WOMAN IN THE MOON</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Shuswap</i></p>
<p>Moon was a very handsome man. During the
winter he traveled constantly, camping every
night in a different place. He had a wife
called Wala and many children. When they were traveling,
Moon always went ahead and prepared a house
for his wife and children. White men call his house
a halo.</p>
<p>Wala was always loaded down. She carried large
birch-bark baskets on her back, and a birch-bark snow
shovel in her hands. Wala used the shovel to fill the
baskets with snow, for melted snow was all the water
they could get in winter time.</p>
<p>One morning Wala said to Moon, “Where are you
going to camp tonight?” Moon did not answer. Wala
said, “Where will you pitch camp tonight?” Still
Moon did not answer. Thus Wala kept asking, “Where
are you going to camp tonight?” until Moon said
crossly, “Oh, camp on my face!”</p>
<p>And Wala did that. She jumped right on his face
and stuck there. We know this is true because Wala
may still be seen on Moon’s face, holding her birch-bark
baskets and her snow shovel.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_69">69</div>
<h2 id="c31">MOON</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Thompson River</i></p>
<p>Moon used to be an Indian. He would be as
bright as Sun if his sister Frog did not sit
upon him. At one time when Moon had
invited the Stars to his house, it was so crowded there
was no room for his sister Frog to sit down. She jumped
on his face and stuck there.</p>
<p>Whenever it threatens to snow or rain, Moon builds
a house and enters it. White men call it a halo. The
cirrus clouds are the smoke of his pipe, and he always
holds his pipe in his hand. You can see it in the moon
today, and the basket which he uses as a hat. Moon
seems to change from night to night, sometimes being
larger and sometimes smaller, but that is all because of
Frog’s shadow.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_70">70</div>
<h2 id="c32">WAR WITH THE SKY PEOPLE</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Thompson River</i></p>
<p>The people of Sky Land stole Swan’s wife.
Swan at once called all the Earth People to a
great council. They agreed to make war on
the Sky People.</p>
<p>Now they gathered their bows and arrows. Swan
was their chief. Each man began to fire his arrows at
the sky. Every one came down. Every man tried to
shoot an arrow into the Sky Land, until at last only
Wren was left.</p>
<p>Then Wren shot an arrow. The people watched, but
it did not come back to earth. They watched a long
time. It had stuck in the sky. Wren fired another
arrow. That did not come down. It had stuck in the
notch of the first one. Wren fired many arrows. Not
one came back, though all the birds and animals were
watching carefully. They at last could see the chain
of arrows, and Wren shot more arrows until the chain
reached the earth.</p>
<p>Now all the Bird People and the Animal People
climbed over the arrow chain and went up into Sky
<span class="pb" id="Page_71">71</span>
Land and fought the Sky People. Grizzlies lived there,
and Black Bear and Elk. And the Sky People won
the fight. The Earth People began to retreat in great
haste. They came down over the arrow chain, but
when about half the people had reached the ground,
the chain broke. Those who could not get down had
to go back to Sky Land. Some of them were made
prisoners and some were killed.</p>
<p>There used to be many more birds and animals than
there are now; so the Indians say. There are fewer
now because of this war.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_72">72</div>
<h2 id="c33">HOW TWO SISTERS GOT OUT OF SKY LAND</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Chilcotin</i></p>
<p>Once there were two sisters who were not
happy, and they ran away from home. They
ran until they came to Sky Land, where they
lost their way. At last they came to the house of an
old woman. She asked, “Where are you going?”</p>
<p>“We don’t know,” said the sisters. “We are lost.”
Then the old woman told them they could not get back
to the earth again, so they stayed with her.</p>
<p>One day the old woman went out to get some berry
vines. She told the sisters not to open a basket which
stood just there. After she had gone, the younger sister
opened the basket, and at once thousands and thousands
of rabbits jumped out and ran all about the house.
When the old woman came back, she was very angry,
but she caught the rabbits, every one, and put them all
back into the basket.</p>
<p>The next day the old woman went out again. She
told the sisters not to touch a certain box that stood
there. As soon as she was gone, the younger sister
opened it and looked in. Then she was frightened, for
she could see clear down to the earth below.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig8"> <ANTIMG src="images/p0103.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="698" /> <p class="center small"><span class="sc">Salish Basketry Designs</span> <br/>Made by the Lower Thompson River and Lillooet tribes <br/><i class="small">From “Memoirs, American Museum of Natural History”</i></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_73">73</div>
<p>When the old woman came back, she made a rope of
the berry vines and fastened a basket to one end. Then
she said to the younger sister, “Get in, and I will let
you go down to the earth. You must keep your eyes
shut. If the basket stops, you must give it a little shake.
Perhaps it is stuck in a cloud. But do not open your
eyes.” Thus she said.</p>
<p>So the sister started. She shut her eyes tight, and
soon she felt the basket stick in something. She shook
it a little and then it went on. It had stuck in the cloud.
After a while the basket stopped. She shook it once,
and it did not move. Then she shook it hard. It remained
still. Then the sister put out her hands and
felt grass. At once she opened her eyes and stepped
out of the basket.</p>
<p>The old woman called down to her to cut the grass
and put it in the basket. So she did so. Then the old
woman pulled the basket up to the Sky Land again.</p>
<p>Now the young woman sat down and waited many
days, looking into the sky all the time. At last she saw
a speck far up. Then she knew it was her sister in the
basket. When it came near enough, she reached up and
helped her sister out. They both went back to their
mother.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_74">74</div>
<h2 id="c34">ORIGIN OF THE PLEIADES</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Wyandot</i></p>
<p>A young man was out fasting. His fasting
lodge stood at the end of a lake, where no one
ever came. There was a broad bench on both
sides.</p>
<p>Now, one evening he heard something. Sounds of
songs, faint and distant, came to his ear. He did not
know what it was. He looked everywhere. There was
no one to be seen. Then the sounds were clearer. They
came from the sky over the lake. The young man listened.
Now he thought the voices came from the beach
near by.</p>
<p>He crept slowly down to the lake, through the reeds
and grasses. The singing grew more distant. Then
through the reeds he saw seven maidens, dancing about
in the light of the stars.</p>
<p>Then a pebble slipped under his foot. The maidens
sprang into a large basket, and vanished into the sky.</p>
<p>Now the young man went back to his fasting lodge.
The next evening he listened. The air was very still.
The water was very quiet. The stars were shining.
<span class="pb" id="Page_75">75</span>
Then he heard again the sound of far-away voices. He
heard distant songs. So he crept to the edge of the lake,
through the reeds and grasses. He saw a great basket
come down with the seven maidens. They danced together,
under the light of the stars. The air was very
quiet as they sang. Then they danced along, each dancing
in turn. And one maiden was more beautiful than
her sisters. Then the young man forgot; he made a
sound with his voice and the maidens vanished into the
sky.</p>
<p>Now every evening the maidens came down to dance
on the beach. It was a broad beach. No one ever came
to that end of the lake. They danced under the stars,
when the air was still, and they sang their songs. So
the young man watched them.</p>
<p>Now they came again, and the young man rushed
among them; rushed among them as they danced when
the air was quiet, and seized the most beautiful sister.
Then the maidens sprang into the basket, and the young
man caught the maiden, and held the basket edge with
one hand. Then they fell to the earth together, and the
maiden was grieved.</p>
<p>The maiden said, “We are seven sisters. We live in
the Sky Land. Often you see us when you look into the
sky. But at this season, when the air is still and the lake
is quiet, we come here to dance in the starlight.” She
<span class="pb" id="Page_76">76</span>
said also, “I cannot marry you until you come and live
with me in the Sky Land.”</p>
<p>So the young man went into the Sky Land with her.
Everything there happened just as one wished it.</p>
<p>We know this is true, because even today the seven
sisters are in the sky. Six are clearly seen, but the seventh
sits back in the shadow with her husband.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_77">77</div>
<h2 id="c35">THE STAR HUNTERS</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Chilcotin</i></p>
<p>There were once three young men who spent
most of their time with their two dogs in hunting.
They lived with their grandmother.
When they came in from hunting, they gave meat to her.</p>
<p>One day the hunters were gone all day without finding
anything. In the evening, for a joke, one of them
gave grandmother a piece of punk, saying, “Here is
some caribou liver for you,” but when she put it into
her mouth, lo, it was punk wood! She was angry.</p>
<p>Now the next day, when the young men were out
hunting, grandmother heated a bear’s foot in the fire,
and danced about the camp and sang her song. So she
turned them by this magic into stars, and they lived up
in Sky Land.</p>
<p>One day the young men were hunting in Sky Land,
and they found the tracks of a great moose. They followed
him for several days. Then as they were tracking
the moose, they looked down and saw the Earth
Land far below them. The eldest brother said, “I am
going to try to get down to the earth again.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_78">78</div>
<p>Now this brother told the other two to cover themselves
with their blankets, and not to look down. Then
he started down to the earth, but he was only halfway
down when the youngest brother looked through a hole
in his blanket. At once the eldest brother stopped. He
could go no further. So the three brothers have all
lived in the Sky Land among the stars. They live there
with the great moose and their dog. The Indians can
see them even to this day. The morning star is the
old grandmother, with a torch, looking for the young
men.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_79">79</div>
<h2 id="c36">THE GREAT BEAR AND THE HUNTER</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Chilcotin</i></p>
<p>Once a man went out with his two dogs to hunt.
It was in the autumn and there was a little snow
on the ground. At night he camped.</p>
<p>As he lay on the ground under the trees, Great Bear
appeared in the sky. Then the hunter started on, because
he knew it was nearly morning. When he had
gone but a little way, however, his dogs started a bear.</p>
<p>The bear ran fast and the dogs followed. The man
followed both as rapidly as he could, and soon he came
to a man sitting on a log. At once the hunter knew this
was the bear. The man wore a blanket made of many
different kinds of skins.</p>
<p>When the hunter came up, Bear said, “You thought
last night I was slow in coming up, but my trail in the
Sky Land is very hard and rough. Sun has the same
trouble. He travels rapidly at first when the trail is
smooth, but in the middle of the day the trail is rough
and he travels more slowly. Then his trail grows easier
again, and he travels more rapidly to the going-down
place at the edge of the earth.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_80">80</div>
<p>Great Bear then told the young man to pull out from
the blanket which he wore the skins of whatever animals
he wished most to kill. The man took the skins
of marten and fisher. Great Bear told him whenever
he went out to hunt, to put the skin of whatever animal
he wished to kill in his pouch, and then he would easily
kill as many as he wished.</p>
<p>Then Great Bear went back into the Sky Land.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_81">81</div>
<h2 id="c37">HOW THE SUMMER CAME</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Ojibwa</i></p>
<p>Fisher used to live somewhere in this world, but
nobody knows where. This was in the days when
there was no summer at all. It was always snow
and cold and ice all the time. People knew that there
was a Summer Land where the Summer Birds lived,
but they were not sure where it was.</p>
<p>Now it was always winter because in the days of the
grandfathers a man had captured all the Summer Birds
and had taken them away with him. Thus it was always
cold. The people talked about it in their tepees when
North Wind rattled the flaps and shouted to them.</p>
<p>At last Fisher said he would find those Summer
Birds so that summer would come again. Fisher did
not know where the Summer Land was, but he traveled
for a long, long while until he came to it in the Sky
Land. Then he reached the tepee where the man lived.
All the Summer Birds were there, all tied together.</p>
<p>Now Fresh-water Herring lived there also with this
man. Fisher at once put some pitch in Herring’s
mouth, so that he could not cry out. Then he took the
<span class="pb" id="Page_82">82</span>
birds up, and tried to break the cords which bound them
together; but he could not do it. Fisher then used his
teeth, and the cords gave way, and behold! the Summer
Birds flew about everywhere.</p>
<p>Then Herring got the pitch out of his mouth. He
began to shout, “Fisher breaks the bundle! Fisher
breaks the bundle! The Summer Birds!” Several
times he called out until the man came rushing in, but
by that time Fisher and the Summer Birds were a long
way off. The Summer Birds dropped right down to
the earth through a hole in the Sky Land, but the man
closed the hole before they all got through. That is
why it is not summer all the time. If all the Summer
Birds had come to earth, it would always be summer.</p>
<p>Fisher did not have time to jump back to earth, so he
rushed up among the stars. The man followed close
after him, trying to shoot him with his bow and arrows.
But Fisher got safely into Star Land. Only the man
shot him once and hit him in the tail. That is why
Fisher’s tail is broken. You can see it today—so the
Indians say.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_83">83</div>
<h2 id="c38">THE RAINBOW TRAIL</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Wyandot</i></p>
<p>Big Turtle had sent Small Turtle into Sky
Land to make a light for the Earth Plain. So
Little Turtle became the Keeper of the Sky. She
lived in the sky. Whenever she was needed at a council,
she was called by Deer, the herald whose voice “goes a
long ways.” At once she came down on a cloud.</p>
<p>After a while Deer wanted to go into Sky Land. He
went to ask Rainbow to help him. Rainbow said, “Oh,
no!” and Deer had to go away. But Deer kept thinking
about the Sky Land. Then he went again to Rainbow.
Deer said, “Please take me up into the Sky
Land,” so Rainbow spread wide the broad trail and
Deer leaped up until he reached the top of it. Thus
Deer went into Sky Land.</p>
<p>Now Big Turtle called a council of all the animals.
All came except Deer and Little Turtle. Big Turtle
asked, “Where is Deer?” but no one answered. Yet
some of the animals knew. Big Turtle said to the runners,
“Go find Deer.” The runners came back after a
long time. They said, “People say Deer has gone into
<span class="pb" id="Page_84">84</span>
Sky Land.” Hawk also said that. Then Big Turtle
was angry. He said, “Sky Land is Little Turtle’s country.
And where is Little Turtle?”</p>
<p>Deer was the only one whose voice “goes a long
ways.” He should have called Little Turtle out of
Sky Land. But he was up in Sky Land and no one
could make her hear. But at last they shouted until
Little Turtle heard and came down. But no council
could be held without Deer.</p>
<p>The animals said, “Oh, what shall we do?” Little
Turtle said, “Deer is now up in the sky. He has been
there for some time, running around everywhere.”</p>
<p>Little Turtle said, “Rainbow has a beautiful trail.
Deer went up that way.” Then she said, “I will show
you the Rainbow trail.” So all the animals followed
her. Then Big Turtle spoke. He said, “Since Deer
has gone to Sky Land, we will all follow him there!”
So Rainbow took them all up on the trail of many
colors. The animals are up there also; so they say.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig9"> <ANTIMG src="images/p0117.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="379" /> <p class="center small"><span class="sc">Canoe and Paddles</span> <br/>All Indian designs are symbolical. Those on the canoe and paddles represent the eye of the raven and the whale <br/><i class="small">From “Memoirs, American Museum of Natural History”</i></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_85">85</div>
<h2 id="c39">ORIGIN OF THE CHINOOK WIND<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_3" href="#fn_3">[3]</SPAN></h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Shuswap</i></p>
<p>Fox and Hare were brothers. They lived together
with many other people. This was in the days
of the grandfathers when there was no fire and
the earth was very cold. The Cold People of the north
delighted in making icy winds sweep down over the
Indian country. The people shivered, shivered always.</p>
<p>One morning Fox smoked his pipe and muttered,
“Last night I dreamed. I gained much knowledge.”
When Fox had finished smoking, he said to the people,
“The People of the Cold have had power over us for
a long time. Do you like the cold?”</p>
<p>The Indians at once said, “No. We hate the cold;
but we do not know what to do.”</p>
<p>After a while Fox said to Hare, “Come with me.
We will find warm weather.”</p>
<p>Now Fox and Hare were great warriors. They took
their bows and arrows and traveled south many days.
They reached the mouths of the large rivers where
dwelt the People of the Heat. They owned all the
<span class="pb" id="Page_86">86</span>
heat; and they were enemy to the Cold People. Their
chief was Sun, and they lived always in warm weather,
sunshine, and mild winds.</p>
<p>Fox knew just what to do because his dream had told
him.</p>
<p>When Fox and Hare entered the House of Sunshine,
they saw a large round bag hanging on a post. It contained
the chinook wind. Fox at once ran and struck
the bag with his fist, trying to burst it. At once the Heat
People jumped up to stop him, but Hare held his bow
with arrow drawn on them so that they were afraid.</p>
<p>Again Fox ran at the bag and struck it. The fourth
time he tried, the bag burst and the chinook wind
rushed out. Then Fox and Hare ran along with the
wind, and the Heat People made the weather exceedingly
hot, so as to overcome them.</p>
<p>At last the heat became so intense that the country
took fire, and the Heat People made the fire run with
the wind so as to overtake Fox and Hare. But Fox and
Hare were great warriors. They were very swift-footed,
so they kept ahead. Thus the earth burned up
for a long distance north and many trees and people
were destroyed. Hare kept just far enough ahead of
the fire to have time, every now and then, to sit down
and smoke his pipe. Hare was a great smoker. When
Fox told Hare to hurry, Hare would sit right down and
<span class="pb" id="Page_87">87</span>
smoke his pipe. Fox was much annoyed with Hare.
So Fox went on alone and soon left Hare and the fire
far behind. He was also swifter than the wind, but
wind kept right after him. So when Fox reached his
own people, he said, “I bring the warm chinook wind.
You will be cold no longer.”</p>
<p>At first his people did not believe him. But soon
the chinook wind began to blow. The ice and snow
melted. The people felt the cold no more. Then Fox
said, “Henceforth the chinook wind shall no longer
belong only to the Heat People of the south. Warm
winds shall blow over the north and the rest of the
world. They shall melt the snow and dry the earth.
Only sometimes may they be followed by fire. Henceforth
the Cold People shall not always rule the weather
and plague the Indians with their icy winds.”</p>
<p>Now the wind had left the fire far behind, and without
wind the fire soon died out.</p>
<p class="tb">A long time afterward Hare arrived home and met
Fox. Fox was smoking a fine stone pipe, all carved
with many strange figures. Hare’s pipe was only of
wood.</p>
<p>Fox said to Hare, “You and I are the greatest
smokers of all the people. Let us run a race. The one
who wins shall have both pipes; and the one who
<span class="pb" id="Page_88">88</span>
loses shall smoke no more at all.” Hare agreed to that.</p>
<p>Then Fox said, “We will run on flat, open ground!”
Hare said, “Oh, no! I like to run where there are fallen
logs and much brush.”</p>
<p>Well, Fox assented to that, so they began to run
through a brushy piece of country, full of fallen logs.
Fox had to jump over the logs, while Hare always ran
underneath them and so easily kept ahead. Then Fox
got angry. He gave a great spring, and seized Hare as
he came out from underneath a log, and said,</p>
<p>“Hereafter you shall be only an ordinary hare. As
you like to run in the brush, you shall always live in
that kind of a country. You shall no longer be the
greatest smoker of all the people.”</p>
<p>Then Fox took Hare’s pipe and went home.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_89">89</div>
<h2 id="c40">WHEN GLACIER MARRIED CHINOOK’S DAUGHTER</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Lillooet</i></p>
<p>Now Glacier lived near the end of Lillooet
Lake. This was a long while ago. Then he
decided to marry. Glacier traveled southward
until he reached the sea, and then he followed southward
along the shore until he reached the house of
Chinook Wind. Chinook Wind said, “Yes!” He
allowed his daughter to marry Glacier. So Glacier
took her home.</p>
<p>Glacier’s wife was not comfortable. Soon she complained
because it was so cold. She lighted a fire; but
Glacier began to melt, so he put out the fire and threw
the wood away. He said to his servants, “When my
wife desires wood for a fire, always give her wet wood,
and never dry.” Chinook’s daughter tried to burn the
wet, green wood, but it gave out no heat. It smoked,
also, so that she could not see.</p>
<p>After a long while Chinook’s daughter had a chance
to send word to her relatives. Her brother and many
friends came at once to her in a canoe. When they
<span class="pb" id="Page_90">90</span>
neared Glacier’s house, they changed to snowflakes and
danced around and above it. Chinook’s daughter saw
them. She said, “The weather is milder. It is snowing.
My brother has arrived.”</p>
<p>Then Glacier made it colder. Much frost was on
the trees and Chinook Wind was driven away. But he
came back soon with more friends. They changed
themselves to soft snowflakes and sleet. They danced
around the house. Again Glacier made it colder, so
that ice formed on the trees; but Chinook Wind came
back as rain. He began to melt Glacier. Glacier
could only fight him with hail. Then Chinook Wind
came back again, warm and steady and strong. Glacier
retreated up the mountain side, leaving his wife behind.</p>
<p>Chinook’s daughter at once stepped into the canoe
with her brother and his friends, and they paddled
again down to Lillooet Lake. Then her brother turned
around and said:</p>
<p>“Henceforth, in this country, it shall be cold and icy
only for a few months each year. Then Chinook Wind
will come and drive away the cold and melt the ice as
we have done. The journey we have made this year
shall be made every year.”</p>
<p>And it became so. Then they went home.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_91">91</div>
<h2 id="c41">MINK’S WAR WITH THE SOUTHEAST WIND</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Kwakiutl</i></p>
<p>Mink called all his friends together—Deer,
Raccoon, Young Raccoon, and Canoe-Calking,
the Raven. The four friends went in
at once to the council.</p>
<p>Mink said, “Oh, friends, my reason for calling you
is that I wish to make war on Southeast Wind.” Thus
he said. Deer thanked Mink for what he said. They
said they would ask Halibut, Sea Bear, Devilfish, and
Merman to go along. Mink and all these people lived
at Crooked Beach. Southeast Wind was blowing hard
all the time, and therefore these people had no way of
getting anything to eat.</p>
<p>Therefore they all went to the house of Devilfish<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_4" href="#fn_4">[4]</SPAN>
and Halibut, for these two lived together. They asked
them to join in war on Southeast Wind. They agreed
at once. Sea Bear and Merman also agreed.</p>
<p>In the morning, when daylight came, they started in
their canoe. In one day they expected to reach Southeast
<span class="pb" id="Page_92">92</span>
Wind’s house. They went southward from Crooked
Beach. They were already sailing close to the southeast
wind. The wind blew hard. It did not detain
them. When evening came, they discovered the house
of Southeast Wind. Then Mink said, “Let us stop at
this cove and consider how we may conquer him.”
Then they held a council.</p>
<p>Now Mink said, “Oh, friend Halibut! Lie down
flat outside of the door of Southeast Wind. When he
comes out of his door, he will step on you, and slip on
you, and come stumbling down into our canoe, where
we will hold him.” Then Deer said the wrong thing.
He said they should go to Southeast Wind’s house while
it was not yet dark. They indeed tried to, but they
could not, because of the strong wind. When night
came, it was calmer. So they started at once, and
stopped on the beach right in front of the house. Halibut
at once went and lay down flat just outside of the
door. Soon Southeast Wind came to the door and
stepped upon Halibut. At once he slipped; he could
not stand up. He slipped right down into Mink’s
canoe. Then Devilfish caught hold of him, and Sea
Bear and Merman. Now they held Southeast Wind.</p>
<p>Then Southeast Wind said, “Oh, Born-to-be-the-Sun,
tell me what you intend to do with me!” He said that
to Mink. He saw that Mink was a great warrior.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_93">93</div>
<p>Mink answered, “I am doing this because you do not
let our world be calm.” Southeast Wind answered
quickly, “Oh, Chief, now your world shall always be
calm, and your sea shall always be smooth.” So he
spoke to Mink.</p>
<p>Mink said, “Don’t give us too much. I do not say
that it is good when our world is always calm.” Thus
he spoke.</p>
<p>Then Southeast Wind said, “It shall not blow in your
world for four days.” Thus he said. Then those who
held him let him go at once, because Southeast Wind
was very much afraid of Born-to-be-the-Sun.</p>
<p>Therefore the southeast wind does not blow all the
time, on account of what Mink did. This is the end.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_94">94</div>
<h2 id="c42">WHEN NORTH’S SON MARRIED SOUTHEAST’S DAUGHTER<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_5" href="#fn_5">[5]</SPAN></h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Haida</i></p>
<p>When North’s son wanted to marry Southeast’s
daughter, there was no wind. He spoke to
his mother. He spoke also to his father: “I
want to marry Southeast’s daughter.” North said to
his son, “What will you wear when the weather is
bad?” Southeast was such a dreary, rainy wind that
North did not want his son to marry the daughter. The
son said, “Oh, that’s all right. Give me something to
wear when it rains.” North said, “I have nothing for
it. But marry her.”</p>
<p>When his son started off, North gave him some directions:
“When you get near Southeast, look at him
from a distance. If his face is good, go to him. But if
his face is red, and under it black, do not go. Go to him
from Point Gafixet [Cape St. James].”</p>
<p>North’s son started. He went from Cape St. James.
At that time Southeast’s face was not bad. It was clean.
<span class="pb" id="Page_95">95</span>
Then the son came to a big cloud rising out of the
ocean. That was Southeast’s house.</p>
<p>When North’s son reached there, Southeast’s daughter
was sitting in front of the house. North’s son sat
down beside her.</p>
<p>“Where are you going?” she asked.</p>
<p>“I have come to marry you,” he replied.</p>
<p>“I will tell my mother,” she said.</p>
<p>Now Southeast and his wife were much pleased with
them both. By and by North’s son told his wife he
wanted to go away. “You must go also,” said Southeast
to his daughter.</p>
<p>When they were about to leave, Southeast gave his
daughter some directions. “When North speaks, and
you are cold, call to me,” he said.</p>
<p>Now they came to North’s house. When he saw them
he took them into the house. After a while, North
said, “What does your wife eat?”</p>
<p>“She eats nothing but limpets,” said the son.</p>
<p>Now North’s house was floored with ice, but it was
warm. In front of his house it was sandy, and there
were broad ebb-tide flats. After Southeast’s daughter
had been there a while, she went out of the house for a
short walk. As she went, she pulled off an icicle hanging
from the wall of the house. Then North groaned.
When she went in, she ate it. After a while she went
<span class="pb" id="Page_96">96</span>
out again, and pulled off another icicle. North groaned
again.</p>
<p>North’s son said, “Stop doing that. Those are my
father’s fingers.” She was eating North’s fingers.</p>
<p>When the tide was out, North’s son said, “Let us go
down now and get limpets.” While they were there, a
noise was heard from North’s house. He was angry
because his daughter-in-law had pulled off some of his
fingers.</p>
<p>So North began to blow. North’s son called at once
to his wife, but she said, “Wait!” Even while she said
so, the place where she stood became icy. Then the tide
began to come in. When it reached her knees, the snow
fell. Then North’s son left her. The ice formed all
around her. Where North’s house stood the snow fell
so thickly that it looked like smoke.</p>
<p>Then the woman cried to her father. She was not
disturbed because she thought her father would save
her. She sang, “Father, I am cold! Father, I am cold!
I want to go to my father!”</p>
<p>Even at once came the Southeast wind, “<i>Hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi</i>,”
making it rough right up to the shore. She
began to sing another song. “The wind blew upon me!
The wind blew upon me! The wind blew upon me
from Cape St. James!”</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig10"> <ANTIMG src="images/p0131.jpg" alt="" width-obs="707" height-obs="500" /> <p class="center small"><span class="sc">Haida House</span> <br/>The design, which covers the end of the house, shows the thunder bird and the killer whale <br/><i class="small">From “Report of U. S. National Museum,” 1895</i></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_97">97</div>
<p>Now she had waited two days. Then she felt of the
water. It was slightly warm. Her father had heard
her voice. He had dressed himself up and set out to
see her. His daughter was still singing. While she
sang, North stopped blowing.</p>
<p>Then it blew from the Southeast. Clouds became
black and rains fell. The icicles began to melt and
fall. Then North groaned. Southeast also broke up
the floor of North’s house. He came upon him from
below.</p>
<p>Then all of the ice melted and the woman went to
her father. She is the Oyster Catcher. Since its bill
was made red with the cold, it is red today. Because
its legs were frozen, they are now white.</p>
<p>Now Southeast was a very powerful chief. He had
ten servants. One was Mist, another was named He-that-takes-away-the-Surface-of-the-Sea,
and another
was called Canoe Breaker. Still another was Cutter-off-of-Tree-Tops.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_98">98</div>
<h2 id="c43">CAPTURE OF WIND</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Chilcotin</i></p>
<p>A long time ago there was a chief who had
many sons. In those days Wind used to blow
furiously all the time, and the chief told one
of his sons to capture Wind. The son made a snare
and placed it in a tree. Then next morning, when he
went to that tree, he found in the snare a small boy with
a fat body and streaming hair. Now that boy was
Wind. The chief’s son kept him for some time, then
he let him go free when Wind promised he would not
blow so hard. Only once in a while could he blow
hard, said the chief’s son, and Wind agreed. So now
he is free, and he does not blow nearly so hard as he
used to.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_99">99</div>
<h2 id="c44">HOW WIND BECAME A SLAVE</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Haida</i></p>
<p>Raven wanted to go to a rock from which
Wind was always blowing. He intended to kill
Xeio, Wind. Raven tried to make canoes of
hemlock, of spruce, of fir, but they would not carry him
to the rock. Then Raven called upon the birds to carry
him there. He called upon Bluejay, upon Robin, upon
Woodpecker, and upon all the birds. But they could
not carry Raven to the rock. Then Raven took wood of
a maple tree and made a canoe. The maple-wood canoe
carried him to the rock. Then Raven fought Wind
and conquered him. Thus Wind became his slave.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_100">100</div>
<h2 id="c45">THUNDER, LIGHTNING, AND RAIN</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Central Eskimo</i></p>
<p>Three sisters make the light, thunder, and rain.
They live in a large house, the walls of which
are supported by whale ribs. It stands in the
far west, at a great distance from the sea.</p>
<p>Ingnirtung strikes the fire. She strikes two red flint
stones together. Kadla makes thunder by rubbing sealskins
together and singing. The third sister makes the
rain. They procure food by striking the reindeer. This
roasts the flesh.</p>
<p>If an Eskimo should happen to enter their house, he
must run away immediately, or Ingnirtung will strike
him. Even the stones are so afraid of her that they
jump down the hills whenever they see lightning or
hear thunder.</p>
<p>The faces of the three sisters are black.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_101">101</div>
<h2 id="c46">THUNDER</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Wyandot</i></p>
<p>Henq was one of seven brothers. They all
played together—oh, a long time ago—but
Henq always made the others sorrowful. He
was very strong. He smashed everything. If he laid
his hand on a pole of the lodge, the lodge would fall to
the ground.</p>
<p>At last his brothers said, “Henq is too strong. We
are not safe.” So they made a plan.</p>
<p>One day the brothers said, “We will go hunting.”
So they started off in their canoes to an island far away.
They began to hunt. Henq and one of his brothers
went up into the island. Then the others jumped into
their canoes and paddled away. The brother said to
Henq, “Go up farther into the woods and wait for me.”
And Henq did so. Then that brother got into his canoe
and paddled away.</p>
<p>Henq waited a long while. He heard no one. Then
he came down to the shore and saw his brothers far
away in their canoes. He lifted his great voice and
called to them. His voice was so strong and so loud it
<span class="pb" id="Page_102">102</span>
made the air shake. He said, “Will you take me
back?” They said, “No.”</p>
<p>So Henq stayed on the island. Sometimes he raises
his voice to call to his brothers, and ask them how they
are getting along. He always makes the air shake.
Henq roams around the island, in the spring and summer;
but in the winter he sleeps. When there is thunder
in winter, the Wyandots say, “Henq is turning
over. Something has broken into his sleep.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_103">103</div>
<h2 id="c47">TURTLE AND THE THUNDER BIRD</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Ojibwa</i></p>
<p>Once Turtle was living all alone in a lake.
Several times he was hit by something. When
he came out to see what it was, he could see
nothing at all. One day he was struck again. He
thought he would ask someone to help him. When
he came out of the water, he went into the woods. He
cried, “Who will help me? Who will help me?”</p>
<p>Deer ran out from among the shrubs and said, “I
will help you.”</p>
<p>“Come on,” said Turtle, “let me see how you can
fight.” Deer started to fight a tree and broke his horns.</p>
<p>Turtle said, “Oh, you will not last long enough.”
He left Deer and again called out, “Who will help
me?”</p>
<p>Bear came out and said, “I will help you.”</p>
<p>Turtle said, “Let me see how you can fight.”</p>
<p>Bear started to fight a tree, but he was so clumsy
jumping around, that Turtle said, “Oh, you won’t last
long if you have to fight the giant I am after.”</p>
<p>Turtle again began to call, “Who will help me?”
<span class="pb" id="Page_104">104</span>
He called this as he came to a little swamp, and he
heard small voices saying, “We will.”</p>
<p>“Come out and show me how you can fight,” said
Turtle. And behold! a crowd of little Turtles came
out and began to fight him. Soon Turtle cried,
“You’re the very people I am looking for.” So he led
them to the lake where he lived and left them just outside.
Then he went home. Soon a big stone fell down
upon the little turtles and killed them all. When Turtle
ran out to see what had happened, he saw a big bird
overhead.</p>
<p>Turtle ran to his neighbor who had ducked into the
water. He asked, “What bird was that?”</p>
<p>Muskrat answered, “That is the Thunder Bird and
I am very much afraid of him.”</p>
<p>Ever since that day Turtle has stayed in the water
when there was a thunderstorm.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_105">105</div>
<h2 id="c48">WHY LIGHTNING STRIKES THE TREES</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Thompson River</i></p>
<p>Thunder Bird was angry with people and
tried to drown the whole world, but he could
not make the water rise high enough, so some
of the people escaped. Then Thunder Bird shot arrows
at them. He really did hurt many, but all the
people ran away and hid in a cave.</p>
<p>Then Turtle came out. He shouted out to Thunder
Bird, “You cannot kill people. Your arrows fly wild.
Shoot at the trees and rocks; perhaps you can hit them.”
Turtle mocked Thunder.</p>
<p>Thunder said, “Oh, yes, I do strike people. I have
killed many of them!”</p>
<p>Turtle said at once, “Well, then, prove it by killing
me.” So he drew his shell down tight and moved about
very carelessly, not hiding at all, while Thunder shot
many arrows at him. They only glanced off his thick
shell.</p>
<p>Then Thunder Bird believed that he really could not
hit people, so now he shoots his arrows at trees and rocks.
But if people stand under a tree in a storm, it is likely
that Thunder will hit them.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_106">106</div>
<h2 id="c49">THE MAKING OF LAKES AND MOUNTAINS</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Haida</i></p>
<p>Once the Bears stole a woman. Now she
wanted to escape, and she remembered to do as
she was told. When she combed her hair, she
gathered the combings together. She prepared some
hair oil and she made ready also a whetstone and some
red ochre.</p>
<p>Then the woman went out to get wood. Bear was
watching her. He went with her. So she piled much
wood upon him and tied the bundle. Now she took a
little wood herself and ran to the house with it. She
threw it down outside. Then she took the things she
had made ready and ran away.</p>
<p>After the woman had gone on awhile, the one who
watched her came and called out. After she had run
awhile longer, she heard them making a great noise in
pursuit. When they got very close to her, she poured
out some of the hair oil. It became a big lake. And
after she had run on awhile longer, she broke off a
piece of the whetstone. It became a mountain. Now
after she had run on again, snowbirds almost surrounded
her. Then she poured out some red ochre and
the birds all went back to it and painted their faces
with it.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig11"> <ANTIMG src="images/p0143.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="360" /> <p class="center small"><span class="sc">Moraine Lake</span> <br/>Laggan, Alberta, Canada <br/><i class="small">Courtesy of Canadian Pacific Ry.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig12"> <ANTIMG src="images/p0143a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="358" /> <p class="center small"><span class="sc">Cameron Lake</span> <br/>Vancouver Island, British Columbia <br/><i class="small">Courtesy of Canadian Pacific Ry.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_107">107</div>
<p>Now she ran on again, and after a while when they
had almost overtaken her, she threw down the hair
combings. They at once became a mass of fallen trees.
And while the Bears struggled through these, she went
on a long distance.</p>
<p>When she was almost overtaken again, she broke off
part of the whetstone and put it in the ground. It
became a great mountain. Then as she ran on, she
threw down her hair combings and again they became
great masses of fallen trees.</p>
<p>Now as she ran on, she saw they had almost overtaken
her. She stuck the whole comb into the ground. “Become
a mountain!” she said. It became a great mass
of mountains which they could not cross. They had to
go around. Then again the snowbirds almost came up
with her. She poured out all her red ochre and they
began again to paint their faces. When again she
heard the noise of pursuit, she stuck the remainder of
the whetstone in the ground. It became a great mountain.
And as the birds pursued her, she poured out all
the hair oil, and put combings around it, and it became
a large lake with masses of fallen trees about it. She
ran on.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_108">108</div>
<p>Then she ran to the shore of the great sea. A man in
a canoe paddled near her. She cried, “Let me go with
you!” At first he paid no attention to her, then he said,
“Get in.” He let her get into his canoe.</p>
<p>Just at that moment, in a great crowd, the Bears came
after her. They crowded about the shore and then
began to swim out to her. The man put a carved club
into the water, and this club of itself killed all the
Bears. The man said to her, “Look out here,” and the
woman saw the Bears were all dead.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_109">109</div>
<h2 id="c50">ORIGIN OF RACES<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_6" href="#fn_6">[6]</SPAN></h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Cree</i></p>
<p>When Great One made mankind, he first
made an earth oven. Then he modeled a man
of clay and put him in to bake. He was not
baked enough and came out white. Great One tried
again, but this time he baked the man too long. He
came out black. The third time Great One baked the
man just the correct time, and he came out red. That
is why different races have different colors.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_110">110</div>
<h2 id="c51">ORIGIN OF CHILCOTIN CAÑON</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Shuswap</i></p>
<p>A very long time ago, when the earth was new,
Coyote traveled about a great deal, looking after
things and helping the Indians. Now Coyote
found that the salmon went to the upper Chilcotin
River. He did not like that at all, for he was a friend
of the Shuswaps on the lower Chilcotin River, and did
not like the tribes on the upper river. Therefore Coyote
made a rocky dam across the stream, very high, so that
the salmon could not leap over it. Thus the Shuswaps
had all the salmon and the Chilcotins had none. But
the pounding of the waters wore away Coyote’s dam,
and now the salmon go far up the river. This is how
the Chilcotin Cañon was formed.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_111">111</div>
<h2 id="c52">ORIGINS OF ANIMALS</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Eastern Eskimo</i></p>
<p><i>Wolves.</i>—Once a poor woman lived in an
Indian camp with many children. Her husband
was dead, and she had so many children
she could not find enough for them to eat. Always they
were hungry; always they were gaunt and lean. Therefore
they were changed into wolves. Even yet they
are always hungry and wander over the land, roaming
about, lean and gaunt, seeking for food.</p>
<p><i>Hares.</i>—Once a child in an Indian camp had such
long ears that everyone laughed at him. At last he
went off into the brush and lived by himself. Therefore
he was changed into a hare. When Hare sees anyone
near, he lays his ears down flat, for if he hears a person
shout he thinks he is laughing at his long ears. He does
this even yet. Hare has no tail now because he formerly
did not have one.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_112">112</div>
<h2 id="c53">BIRD BEGINNINGS</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Eastern Eskimo</i></p>
<p><i>Ravens.</i>—Raven used to be a man. Now in
those days, people moved about a great deal,
hunting and fishing. One day a whole village
was preparing to move. They were collecting their
blankets and cooking boxes. Raven kept calling to someone
that he had forgotten his <i>kak</i>—forgotten the lower
blanket of deerskin used for a bed. Raven kept calling
“Kak, kak, kak!” People said, “Get the kak yourself.
Go back for it yourself.” So Raven did, but he hurried
so that he was changed into a bird.</p>
<p>Raven still follows the camps. Even to this day when
a camp is being moved, Raven flies over it and shouts,
“Kak, kak, kak!” because he is afraid they will forget
the blankets.</p>
<p><i>Gulls.</i>—Some people in a boat wanted to go around
a long point of land. Now the water was always rough
at the point, and some of the women were told to get out
and cross the neck of land. One woman got out with
her children in order to lighten the load, but when she
got on shore, the noise of the water prevented her from
<span class="pb" id="Page_113">113</span>
hearing what the boat people said. She wandered
around the cliffs with her children, crying over and
over, the last word she heard, “Go over, goover, over,
ove, oh—”</p>
<p><i>Hawks.</i>—Once there was a woman whose neck was
very, very short. All the people in her village laughed
at her. One day the woman went to a very high place
up on the rocks, and in the mountains. Then she began
to go there very often because she did not like people,
so she was changed into a hawk. Now, when she sees
any one, she cries, “Kea, kea, kea—who, who was it
said ‘short neck’?”</p>
<p><i>Swallows.</i>—Once there were some small children,
who were very wise. They played a great deal on the
edge of a high cliff near their village, and their play
was always building toy houses on the cliff. One day
when they were playing, they were changed into swallows.
Even to this day they come to the cliff near the
Indian village and build their houses in the side of the
cliffs. They are very wise. Even the raven does not
molest them, and the Eskimo children like much to
watch these little swallows.</p>
<p><i>Loons.</i>—Once a man had two children, Raven and
Loon. He wanted to paint them so that they would look
just alike, and he began with Loon. First he painted
Loon’s breast white, and then he painted square spots on
<span class="pb" id="Page_114">114</span>
his back. When Raven saw how comical Loon looked,
he laughed so much that Loon became ashamed and ran
away to a near-by pond. Loon always faces a person so
as to show his white breast and hide the spots on his
back. Raven refused to be painted in that way. He
ran away.</p>
<p><i>Guillemots.</i>—Some Eskimo children were very fond
of playing on the level top of a high cliff near their
village, while the larger ones watched them. Now this
cliff overhung the sea and the sea was still covered with
ice. There was an icy strip near the shore, so that even
the seals could not approach. The wind was cold and
the children played hard to keep warm, shouting and
calling to each other. Just then the strip of ice along
the shore broke away, and the water was filled with
seals. The men saw them, and ran for their kayaks,
and put them into the water to pursue the seals. The
children saw all this, and they shouted all the louder.
The seals were so frightened that they plunged into the
water and were out of sight.</p>
<p>The men were so angry that almost at once the cliff
toppled over, and the children slipped down with the
fragments to the bottom. When they reached the bottom,
they had become sea pigeons with red feet. They
still live among the fragments of rock and earth at the
foot of the cliff.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_115">115</div>
<h2 id="c54">MOSQUITOES</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Haida</i></p>
<p>Sun was fond of gambling. After he had gambled
at one place and another on Toets Island he
launched his canoe. He wore a ragged marten-skin
blanket.</p>
<p>When Sun reached that place where he was going,
he went up into the woods. When he got far into the
woods, something before him made a noise, but the noise
was not like that of a bird. Following it, he came to a
narrow trail. Sun went along this and came to a pond.
When he reached it, a log was there, with the top cut
off, and a nest made of moss at the end of it. This was a
quiet place. And there were nests near one another in
the moss near the lake.</p>
<p>While Sun was looking at the moss hanging from the
branches of the trees above him, a long, thin bird flew
out. It flew straight towards him. It made a noise
like <i>M-mmmmmmm</i>. It had a long bill. And it sat
on the moss nest at the end of the log. This was the
place where it sat. It was its nest. The bird was
Mosquito. The inside of its nest was green.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_116">116</div>
<p>Then Sun went to look for a stick and he broke off a
stick with his feet. The bird’s nest was upon the moss.
Then Sun walked to it upon the log. He walked slowly
to it. He held the stick in his hand. When he got near,
he struck it. Then Sun saw it was dead, and he took it
up, but it was very light.</p>
<p>Just as Sun turned, a humming sound arose on the
other side—<i>Hm-hm-mmmmmmmm</i>, it sounded. Mosquitoes
came out from inside the moss. These were
small ones, like ashes. What Sun had come to was a
Mosquito town.</p>
<p>Then they bit that man. He ran very fast, but he
kept his large Mosquito. When he got far from the
lake, he knew they were following him for that. Then
he tore it in pieces and threw it about. He said, “You
will bite even the last generation of people.”</p>
<p>Because Sun tore it in pieces, the big mosquitoes
came to be in the world.</p>
<p>Then he escaped to his canoe.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_117">117</div>
<h2 id="c55">ORIGIN OF DEATH</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Thompson River</i></p>
<p>Ant and Spider were very wise. They were
arguing one day about death. Spider said to
Ant, “You are cutting yourself in two with that
tight belt. Soon you will die.”</p>
<p>Ant said, “Well, if I do, I shall come to life again
in a few hours.”</p>
<p>Spider said, “I think it would be better if people
died properly, else the world will soon become overcrowded.
If so many people come to earth and none
die, soon people will starve.”</p>
<p>Thus they argued.</p>
<p>Now Fly joined Spider, so it was two to one. They
said death must happen.</p>
<p>Soon after that Spider’s child died. Spider came
weeping to Ant, and said, “Let us put things right by
declaring people cannot die.”</p>
<p>Ant said, “But it is too late now. Death has already
happened.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_118">118</div>
<h2 id="c56">DURATION OF HUMAN LIFE</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Haida</i></p>
<p>At one time Raven said to stones scattered about,
“Get up and help me. I am tired;” so he said.
The stones got up, but they were unable to stand
erect. Then Raven said, “Remain stones forever!” so
they did.</p>
<p>Now the grass on the landward side of the stones was
thick, and the salmon-berry bushes were very thick
indeed. Then Raven said to the salmon-berry bushes
and the grass, “Get up! Get up and help me. I am
tired!” Then the grass and the salmon-berry bushes
both arose. They turned into human beings, and they
helped Raven.</p>
<p>So we are salmon-berry bushes and grass. Therefore
we die in a short time, because grass and salmon-berry
bushes are weak. Therefore people die in just the same
way the leaves fall.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_119">119</div>
<h2 id="c57">HOW DEATH CAME</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Lillooet</i></p>
<p>Raven was once a chief of great power and very
wise. At that time people did not die. One
day a man came to Raven and said, “I am not
happy as things go now. Let people die so that we may
weep, and then we will be happy.”</p>
<p>Raven said, “Very well. If people wish to die, it
shall be so.”</p>
<p>The man went away and soon after his child died.
He was sorry. He wept; but instead of being happy
when he wept, he was very miserable. He went to
Raven and asked him to stop people from dying.</p>
<p>Raven said, “It is too late for that now. I made it
as you asked it. I cannot change things now. Henceforth
people shall continue to die.”</p>
<p>That is the reason people die. Afterward Raven
was changed into a mere bird, because he let death
happen. Through him it came into the world.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_120">120</div>
<h2 id="c58">ORIGIN OF ARROWHEADS</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Lillooet</i></p>
<p>It was after Raven let death happen. His own
child died, and Raven was very sorrowful. He
took an arrow stone and cut himself with it. He
was surprised that it cut his flesh. Thus Raven first
discovered arrow stone and found that it could kill.
After that the people learned to make it into arrow
points and knives. Raven put arrow stone into the end
of a stick; thus he made the first spear.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_121">121</div>
<h2 id="c59">ORIGIN OF CARVED HOUSE POSTS</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Haida</i></p>
<p>Many people lived upon the north shore of
Masset Island. The east wind blew so
strongly that they did not care to live there.
Therefore they came to Delkatla, a few miles above
Masset.</p>
<p>There was no salt water there. It was all covered
with grass. Then they dug the town-chief’s house hole.
They finished his first. But afterward they built
houses on either side of him. Then they began to live
in their own.</p>
<p>One autumn after that they went to Rose Spit in two
big canoes. Very many people went. They went for
berries.</p>
<p>Then one woman who was not paddling looked into
the water. It was very calm, and it was bright sunshine.
Then the one who looked into the sea saw something
carved at the bottom. It was carved with figures
of human beings. The lower part was carved with a
killer whale, and the human being stood upon the
whale.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_122">122</div>
<p>They remained a long time above this thing, and
they memorized it. Then they went away. Then afterward
they described it. They said, “We will make
the chief such house posts.” But some of them were
afraid.</p>
<p>After they had finished picking berries, they went
home. They told about the carving to those who had
stayed home. They made two posts for the chief’s house
like the one they had seen. Still some were afraid.</p>
<p>At this time the land moved. The Ocean People
were angry on account of it. Then a flood came. And
after the people had fastened the canoes together, they
put the posts upon them. They liked them too much to
leave them. When the waters got far up on the side
of a small mountain, they put one post upon that. And
they put one in the sea. They wept bitterly. They sang
a song: “The supernatural beings were the ones who
made the flood come—made the flood come.” They
sang that.</p>
<p>At this time the sea began to move. The canoes
began to sink, and when the canoes had sunk, the people
floated upon the ocean. Now the people became birds.
The Ocean People were the ones who caused it all.
Then the tide began to fall. And now the people are
birds.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig13"> <ANTIMG src="images/p0161.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="664" /> <p class="center small"><span class="sc">Haida House with Totems</span> <br/>Entrance to the house is through the open mouth <br/><i class="small">From “Memoirs, American Museum of Natural History”</i></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_123">123</div>
<h2 id="c60">THE WIND-POWER CARVING</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Thompson River</i></p>
<p>Now many of the people had carvings. They
had house posts and door posts, and they carved
their totems on the posts, and they made carvings
of their guardian spirit.</p>
<p>Once there was a girl who was not happy in the village.
She wandered away and went to a lake in the
mountains, where she saw many fish swimming in the
water. She sat down to watch them. Then the fish
changed themselves to small children with very long
hair. They watched her and smiled at her. The girl
thought, “I should like to live with them, they seem
so happy.” So she jumped into the water.</p>
<p>As the girl fell into the lake, a violent wind blew
all over the country. It even blew down her parents’
house. When the girl found she could not sink, she
came out of the water and at once it became calm. In
the lake were neither fish nor children to be seen.</p>
<p>In this way this girl obtained possession of the power
and knowledge of wind. Only her descendants who
live near Yale, in the mountains, can use the wind-power
carving on their grave boxes and in their dancing
masks and in the house.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_124">124</div>
<h2 id="c61">CALENDAR</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Thompson River</i></p>
<dl class="undent"><br/><i>First month.</i>—People-hunt-deer moon.
<br/><i>Second month.</i>—“Going-in” moon. People go into their winter houses.
<br/><i>Third month.</i>—Last “going-in” moon. Last of the people go into winter houses.
<br/><i>Fourth month.</i>—“Little-coming-out” moon. Alternate cold and rain. Some people camp in lodges for a time.
<br/><i>Fifth month.</i>—“Going-in-again” moon. Last cold when people go into winter houses again.
<br/><i>Sixth month.</i>—“Coming-out” moon. Winter houses left for good. People catch fish in bag nets.
<br/><i>Seventh month.</i>—People-go-on-short-hunts moon.
<br/><i>Eighth month.</i>—People-pick-berries moon.
<br/><i>Ninth month.</i>—People-begin-to-fish-for-salmon moon.
<br/><i>Tenth month.</i>—People-fish-for-and-cure-salmon moon.
<br/><i>Eleventh month.</i>—“To boil food a little.” So called because people prepare fish oil.
<br/><i>Autumn.</i>—People hunt large game and go trapping.
<div class="pb" id="Page_125">125</div>
<h2 id="c62">CALENDAR</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Cree</i></p>
<dl class="undent"><br/><i>May.</i>—Frog moon.
<br/><i>June.</i>—Moon in which birds begin to lay eggs.
<br/><i>July.</i>—Moon in which birds cast their feathers.
<br/><i>August.</i>—Moon when the young birds fly.
<br/><i>September.</i>—Moon when the deer cast their horns.
<br/><i>October.</i>—Rutting moon.
<br/><i>November.</i>—Hoar-frost moon.
<br/><i>December.</i>—Ice moon.
<br/><i>January.</i>—Whirlwind moon; or, extremely cold moon.
<br/><i>February.</i>—Big moon.
<br/><i>March.</i>—Eagle moon.
<br/><i>April.</i>—Goose moon.
<div class="pb" id="Page_126">126</div>
<h2 id="c63">CALENDAR</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Shuswap</i></p>
<p>Beginning with March:</p>
<dl class="undent"><br/><i>First.</i>—Spring.
<br/><i>Second.</i>—Grass month.
<br/><i>Third.</i>—Root-digging month.
<br/><i>Fourth.</i>—Strawberry month.
<br/><i>Fifth.</i>—Berry month.
<br/><i>Sixth.</i>—Salmon month.
<br/><i>Seventh.</i>—Month when salmon get bad.
<br/><i>Eighth.</i>—Month when the deer travel.
<br/><i>Ninth.</i>—Month in which they return from hunting.
<br/><i>Tenth.</i>—Remaining-at-home month.
<br/><i>Eleventh.</i>—Midwinter month.
<br/><i>Twelfth.</i>—Pil-tshik-in-tin (translation unknown).
<div class="pb" id="Page_127">127</div>
<h2 id="c64">HOW THE INDIANS FIRST OBTAINED BLANKETS</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Chilcotin</i></p>
<p>Once a Being with great power sat on a stone
in the middle of a river, and as he sat there, he
wailed. So people were afraid to pass up and
down in their canoes. But one day a man came poling
upstream, and when he heard the wailing, he got out
of his canoe and wailed with the stranger. Yet he was
a little afraid and kept one foot in the canoe, ready to
shove off.</p>
<p>The stranger said his son had been hunting in the
snow mountains and had been buried by a snowslide.
As the man wailed with him, Esterreqot was pleased.
He took a sheet of metal on which he had been sitting
and gave it to his visitor. He told him to come to his
house in the mountains, but to come at night so no one
would know it. Thus he did.</p>
<p>When the man came to the house of Esterreqot, he
was given two boxes, one full of food and one full of
blankets. The man took them back to his tribe and
invited the people to a feast. When they came, they
<span class="pb" id="Page_128">128</span>
saw nothing for a feast. Then the man opened the
boxes and took out food enough and blankets enough to
fill the whole house, and there was a great potlatch.</p>
<p>That is how the Indians first secured blankets.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_129">129</div>
<h2 id="c65">HUNTING IN THE SNOW MOUNTAINS</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Chilcotin</i></p>
<p>Once there was a boy who was very bad. He
had sung a shaman’s song, and the shaman had
scolded him.</p>
<p>Now late in the autumn he went out hunting alone.
He went up the Chilcotin River, to a place near Siwash
Bridge. Here he found three beavers, so he killed them.
He skinned them and hid the meat, and went on up
into the snow mountains. He came to a great gulch in
the mountains, and looking down he saw all kinds of
animals—deer, caribou, mountain sheep, and mountain
goats. And as he looked down upon them from the top,
he wished his brother were there to help him, there
were so many. Then he went to a small cañon at the
head of the gulch and waited.</p>
<p>Soon the boy heard someone calling, away down the
valley, and the caribou started to run up through the
cañon. As they crowded in, the young man shot all
the big ones, until they lay in heaps all around him.
So he made his camp there and started to cut up the
meat.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_130">130</div>
<p>Then the boy saw three men coming up the valley.
As they came near, they asked, “Did you kill all these
caribou?” He answered, “Yes, I did.”</p>
<p>Now these three men were Nun, or wolves. The
Nun told the boy they had found his beaver meat in
the valley below, and had eaten it. So they had helped
him in his hunt. They had called away down in the
valley and frightened the caribou.</p>
<p>Now the young man stayed at that place and hunted
caribou and dried the meat until it made a huge pile.
Then he danced and sang around the pile of meat, until
it shrank into two large packs. So he started home.
He carried one pack one day, and then went back and
brought up the other pack. But he became tired. That
was slow work. Therefore he danced and sang around
these two packs until they became one small pack. Then
he continued home. At last he reached the place where
he had killed the beaver. He took the skins.</p>
<p>Then he came to the top of a hill near his village.
He dropped the small pack of meat and it became at
once a huge pile, just as it was before he danced and
sang around it. Now he came into the village and heard
wailing. The people thought he was lost. They were
wailing for him.</p>
<p>The next morning the boy told the men to go to the
top of the hill and bring in the meat he had left there.
<span class="pb" id="Page_131">131</span>
Two men started, but he told more to go. Then he
ordered others to go, until all the men in the village
had gone. When they brought the meat in, the young
man gave a great meat potlatch.</p>
<p>So the boy became a shaman. The wolves were his
helpers.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_132">132</div>
<h2 id="c66">COYOTE’S GIFT OF THE SALMON AND THE CAÑON OF THE FRASER RIVER</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Nicola Valley and Fraser River</i></p>
<p>Coyote was powerful in magic, and therefore
he was sent into the world by Old One. He
spent much time traveling in the Shuswap and
Okanogan countries. It is said that he lived with Old
One before coming to earth, and that after he finished
his work—as some say—he went back to Old One.
But others say that Old One built him a house of transparent
ice and put inside of it a log of wood which burns
forever. The aurora is the light of Coyote’s fire, shining
through the ice, or the reflection of it cast up by the
ice. Coyote can hear when people speak his name.
When he rolls over in his sleep, it creates the sharp wind
which makes the earth so cold.</p>
<p>Coyote lived for many years in Nicola Valley. He
hunted elk and deer in the winter time, and in the early
fall he fished for salmon about six miles above Spence’s
Bridge where he had a weir across the Thompson
River. Even yet it is called “Coyote’s Weir.”</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig14"> <ANTIMG src="images/p0173.jpg" alt="" width-obs="773" height-obs="500" /> <p class="center small"><span class="sc">Carved Handles of Horn Spoons</span> <br/>Beautiful examples of early Indian art <br/><i class="small">From “Memoirs, American Museum of Natural History”</i></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_133">133</div>
<p>Now when Coyote was traveling about on earth, he
gave names to all parts of the country. He changed
many things. He made hills and plains wherever he
saw fit. He placed bushes and trees here and there, and
narrowed or widened the river, and made cañons and
waterfalls and rapids just as he pleased.</p>
<p>Coyote even made the various tribes to speak different
languages.</p>
<p>Formerly there were no salmon in the interior of the
country because the coast people kept them all. There
was a dam across both the Fraser and the Columbia
rivers. When Coyote had traveled through the Shuswap
country, he went down the Fraser and changed himself
into a piece of wood in the cañon and floated downstream
until stopped by the fish dam. Then he broke
down the dam of the four skookums who prevented
the salmon from coming up the river. Then he went
ashore.</p>
<p>Now Coyote led the salmon up the main waters of
the Fraser and through the tributary streams. He traveled
along the river banks and they followed him. He
went up the Thompson River and the North Thompson.</p>
<p>Then Coyote went down to the mouth of the Columbia
River where four skookums had dammed the river.
He changed himself to a piece of wood, as he had at
the Fraser River, and floated down against the dam.
They picked it up, saying, “This will make a fine dish.”
They shaped it into a salmon dish. Then they put
<span class="pb" id="Page_134">134</span>
salmon on it. But all the salmon they put on it disappeared.
The skookums became afraid of the dish, and
they threw it into the fire.</p>
<p>Suddenly, in just a moment, the skookums heard a
baby’s wail from the fire. There it was. They picked
up the little thing hastily. They said, “How did it get
there?” yet they were all skookums.</p>
<p>Now Coyote grew very rapidly. Soon he was running
about. The skookums told him not to touch four
baskets which stood there. But Coyote grew very rapidly
indeed, and one day when they went out to get
firewood, he opened them all. Out of the four baskets
came flies, wasps, wind, and smoke. That is why flies
and wasps always appear during the salmon season, and
why the winds at that season always blow up river.</p>
<p>When Coyote had opened the baskets, he went out to
the fish dam. He said, “Henceforth, there shall be no
dam here, and the salmon shall ascend the river!”</p>
<p>Coyote led the salmon up the Columbia. Hair Seal
went almost as far as the Falls of the Columbia with
him. The Coyote pushed him in the water and told him
that sometimes he could come up as far as that point.</p>
<p>Then Coyote sent the salmon into all the tributaries
of the Columbia.</p>
<p>The broken dam at the mouth of the Fraser River
now forms the cañon.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_135">135</div>
<h2 id="c67">THE COMING OF THE SALMON</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Bella Coola</i></p>
<p>A long time ago, a man named Winwina lived
on the Bella Coola River, and he often sat in
front of his house looking at the river. One day
he thought, “I wish fish would ascend this river.” At
that time not a single salmon visited the Bella Coola
River. He thought much about it.</p>
<p>One night Winwina had a dream. He dreamed that
with the help of all the animals he had made war upon
the Salmon People and had defeated them.</p>
<p>At once Winwina invited all the animals to his house,
and told them his dream. When they came, he said,
“I wish something. You shall help me obtain what I
desire.”</p>
<p>Mink said, “What are we to do?” Mink always
talked a great deal.</p>
<p>Winwina said, “I want to go to Mialtoa. There is
not a single salmon in this river. Let us make war upon
the Salmon People. I shall certainly take some slaves
and we will place them in this river.”</p>
<p>Mink sputtered. He said, “I’m glad <i>you’re</i> speaking
in regard to this matter. I asked my father, Sun, to
<span class="pb" id="Page_136">136</span>
give us salmon and I think he gave you the dream you
have just told us.”</p>
<p>But all the tribes agreed. The animals all wanted to
start at once.</p>
<p>Winwina asked a person to make a canoe for them.
He at once made a self-moving canoe. In the third
moon after the winter solstice the canoe was completed.</p>
<p>At once Winwina started. With him went the clouds,
the birds, and all the animals. When they passed the
village of Bella Bella, Cormorant was sitting on the
beach. He asked to be taken along as passenger. So
they followed the trail of Sun for a long time.</p>
<p>At last they reached the country of the Salmon People.
The country was a great plain, and there were no
trees at all. A large sun was shining in the sky. Soon
the warriors saw the Salmon village and they sent Raven
out to spy. Raven was not gone very long. When he
returned, he said, “The Salmon People play on the
beach every evening.” Mink at once said, “That would
be a good time to carry them off.”</p>
<p>Crane said, “I will carry away Sockeye Salmon.”</p>
<p>Winwina said, “I will carry off the Humpback
Salmon.”</p>
<p>Kingfisher said, “And I will look after the Dog
Salmon.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_137">137</div>
<p>Raven said, “You can depend upon me for the Silver
Salmon.”</p>
<p>Fish Hawk said, “I will capture the Salmon Trout
and Olachen.” Fish Hawk was undertaking a good
deal, but the olachen and salmon trout were not so large,
nor so warlike as the Salmon People.</p>
<p>Cloud said, “I will capture the Spring Salmon.”</p>
<p>But Cormorant said, after everyone else had spoken,
“Well, I’m only a passenger. I’ll take whatever I
can get.”</p>
<p>Mink answered, “I won’t tell what I am going to
take! Now start! The Salmon People cannot see you,
just as we cannot see ghosts.”</p>
<p>At once they went on the warpath. They each seized
a boy and a girl of the various Salmon tribes, and the
Salmon People could not see them at all. They only
saw that their children were fainting, as though their
ghosts had gone away.</p>
<p>Then the bird and animal warriors went back to the
canoe with their slaves. They were about to start home,
when someone said, “Let us go and see what is beyond
this country of the Salmon People.”</p>
<p>The canoe at once went on, and they came to the
Berry Country. One of the birds went ashore and
picked up a great many of the Berry People and put
them in the canoe. Then they returned home. For
<span class="pb" id="Page_138">138</span>
seven moons they had remained in the Land of the
Salmon People.</p>
<p>When they passed Bella Bella, Cormorant said,
“This is my town. I will go ashore here.”</p>
<p>The birds and animals traveled on, and came to the
mouth of the Bella Coola River. There they threw all
their Salmon slaves into the water. The Salmon people
jumped and began to ascend the river. Then Winwina
arose in his canoe and told each one—the silver salmon,
the hump-back salmon—told each one at what season
he was to arrive. Ever since that time there have been
salmon in the Bella Coola River.</p>
<p>Winwina also scattered the Berry People all over
the mountains, and through the valleys, and told each
one at what season it was to ripen.</p>
<p>After all this was done, Winwina invited everyone
to his house. He gave them a great feast.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_139">139</div>
<h2 id="c68">COYOTE AND THE SALMON</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Shuswap</i></p>
<p>Once Coyote said, “I have never yet given a
feast! Why should not I feast the people?”</p>
<p>Coyote at once caught great numbers of sockeye
and king salmon. He made much salmon oil, and
buried much roe. He filled all the skins with grease.
Then he sent messengers to invite all the people.
Coyote said to himself, “I will sing a great song, and
dance for all the people when they come. They shall
think me a great man.”</p>
<p>Now when the people came they began to dance. And
as Coyote danced, one salmon which hung from the
ridge pole kept striking his head and catching in his
hair until he was angry. Yet again it caught in
Coyote’s long hair, and he pulled and he pulled to get
free, but he only pulled his own hair. He became very
angry. He pulled the whole fish down and threw it in
the river.</p>
<p>Immediately all the salmon came to life. They
jumped off the poles and ran to the river and leaped in.
Coyote tried to catch some of them, but into the river
<span class="pb" id="Page_140">140</span>
they jumped, every one of them. As he was trying to
catch the last one, he saw that all the oil had come to
life. It was running to the river. He tried to stop the
oil, but it was too late. And then all the salmon roe
he had buried suddenly jumped into the river.</p>
<p>Then all the people went home.</p>
<p>Soon after there was a great snowstorm. Coyote
was snowed in and without food for so long he
nearly starved. The snow was nearly as high as the
trees all around Coyote’s house. Coyote thought, “This
is a very hard winter. The deer will all die.”</p>
<p>Now Coyote’s stock of dried fish and his roots had
become exhausted. He wondered what he should do.
He said, “This is a very long winter.”</p>
<p>Coyote went to the top of the ladder and looked
around. The heat and smoke had kept a little opening.
The snow nearly hid the trees around his house.</p>
<p>Now the very next day a snowbird came and
perched above the smoke hole. He gave Coyote a ripe
berry, saying, “Why are you living here? It is summertime.”</p>
<p>Coyote laughed and said, “Oh, but it is the middle
of winter. See the snow all around.”</p>
<p>Then again a snowbird came and gave him a ripe
berry, saying, “See! The berries are ripe, but you are
still in your winter house.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_141">141</div>
<p>Coyote answered, “How can the berries be ripe and
snow be still almost to the tree tops?”</p>
<p>Four times the snowbirds brought him berries, and
then Coyote thought something must be wrong. He
put on his snowshoes and blanket, and climbed over the
snowdrifts. Behold! As he came down on the other
side of the drifts, just a few feet from his house, it was
bare ground! Then he went on and came in just a little
while to a place where the trees were budding and a
little farther they were in full leaf. He passed down
the North Thompson Valley and saw service berries in
blossom, and then came to bushes full of ripe fruit.
Then Coyote came to a large berry patch, and heard
two Indian women singing.</p>
<p>The summer time had come. That was the way in
which the salmon took their revenge upon Coyote.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_142">142</div>
<h2 id="c69">WOLVERENE AND THE GEESE</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Eastern Eskimo</i></p>
<p>Wolverene was running along the seashore,
when he saw many geese, brant, ducks, and
loons, playing in the water not far off.</p>
<p>Wolverene called to them, “Come here, brothers, I
have found a pretty bees’ nest! I will give it to you if
you will come on shore and have a dance!”</p>
<p>All the birds went on land. Wolverene said, “Now
let us have a dance and I will sing. But shut your eyes
and do not open them until we have finished dancing.”
Wolverene began to sing,</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">A-ho-u-mu-hou-mur-mur-<i>hum</i></p>
<p class="t0">A-ho-u-mu-hou-mur-mur-<i>hum</i>.</p>
</div>
<p>So he sang. He sang that last word <i>hum</i> very loud and
very often. And every time he sang <i>hum</i> he snipped
off the head of a duck. Now Loon thought it very
strange he sang <i>hum</i> so often. He opened his eyes and
looked.</p>
<p>Then Loon ran to the water shouting, “Our brother
is killing us.” Wolverene ran after him, but Loon
dived and came up a long way off, shouting very loudly:</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig15"> <ANTIMG src="images/p0185.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="360" /> <p class="center small"><span class="sc">Takakkaw Falls</span> <br/>Field, British Columbia <br/><i class="small">Courtesy of Canadian Pacific Ry.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig16"> <ANTIMG src="images/p0185a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="360" /> <p class="center small"><span class="sc">Mount Stephen</span> <br/>Field, British Columbia <br/><i class="small">Courtesy of Canadian Pacific Ry.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_143">143</div>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">A-ho-u-mu-hou-mur-mur-<i>hum</i>.</p>
</div>
<p>He sang that many times.</p>
<p>“Be quiet,” shouted Wolverene, “you shall be red-eyed!”
And so Loon is even today. Then Wolverene
returned to the birds and pulled their feathers off and
cleaned them. He put them in a pot to boil.</p>
<p>Then Wolverene saw Jay flying about in the woods.
Now the Canadian Jay is a great talker. Wolverene
threw a firebrand at Jay, shouting, “You’ll be telling on
me, you long-tongued bird.”</p>
<p>And Jay did so. He flew away to some Indians. He
said to them, “Wolverene has killed a lot of birds and
is cooking them.” Then he added, “I think he is sleeping.
I’ll show you where he is.”</p>
<p>The Indians said at once, “We are hungry. We will
go.” And they went. Now Wolverene was asleep
beside the pot. Then the Indians pulled out all the
birds and ate them all. Only the bones they put back
in the pot.</p>
<p>After a long time, Wolverene awakened. He said,
“Now I shall have my dinner.” He poured it all out
into his eating dish. Behold! There were only the
bones of the birds, and the broth. Wolverene said, “I
must have been asleep a long while. The meat is all
boiled away.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_144">144</div>
<p>Now Jay was flying about in the woods. He said,
“The Indians ate it all up. I told them where it was.”</p>
<p>Wolverene said, “You stupid bird! I was keeping a
big piece for you!”</p>
<p>But he wasn’t. This is the end.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_145">145</div>
<h2 id="c70">NANEBOJO AND THE GEESE</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Ojibwa</i></p>
<p>Nanebojo lived with his grandmother. His
parents had been killed by a war party. Now
Nanebojo resolved to leave that place with his
grandmother. He told the Indians that a stranger was
coming who would harm all of them.</p>
<p>Then Nanebojo climbed to the top of a maple tree.
He poured water into it; therefore the sap in the maple
is now watery and thin. It has to be boiled before it
becomes sugar. Nanebojo also went through the cornfields
and pulled off all the ears of corn except one or
two. Therefore now cornstalks have but one or two
ears. They used to have ten or twelve.</p>
<p>Then Nanebojo went away.</p>
<p>Nanebojo and his grandmother traveled until they
reached Lake Erie. Then they journeyed to Lake St.
Clair. Grandmother went on ahead.</p>
<p>Nanebojo saw ducks in Lake St. Clair, but he could
not think how to capture them. At last he remembered.
He went to his grandmother and told her to make him
a sack.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_146">146</div>
<p>“What for?” asked grandmother.</p>
<p>“Never mind what for,” answered her grandson. So
Grandmother made the sack.</p>
<p>Nanebojo took the sack and went along the lake shore
to where there was a hill, with a short stretch of flat
land between the hill and the water. He climbed to the
top of the hill, got into the sack, closed the neck, and
rolled down the hill. Then he got out and walked up
again, laughing heartily all the time. Again he rolled
down the hill, shouting loudly.</p>
<p>Now the ducks heard him. They came out of the
water and waddled around him. They came closer and
closer. After a while, one duck grew bold. He said,
“Let us roll downhill just once.”</p>
<p>Nanebojo said, “Oh, no indeed, you go away! Every
time I do anything you come around and bother me!”
Then he went up the hill again with his sack on his
back, and rolled himself downhill, laughing loudly.</p>
<p>Again the ducks said, “Let us roll downhill just
once.”</p>
<p>Nanebojo said, “Very well. You may roll downhill
just once,” and he told them to get into the bag. Just
then some geese flew by overhead. They stopped to
watch. Nanebojo also saw them.</p>
<p>Nanebojo carried the ducks to the top of the hill, laid
down the bag, filled it with ducks, tied the neck, and
<span class="pb" id="Page_147">147</span>
started it to rolling down the hill. He ran beside it,
laughing very loudly, while the ducks quacked. They
all made much noise. When the bag of ducks reached
the bottom of the hill, Nanebojo emptied out the bag,
and told them to go away. Then he went up the hill
with the sack on his shoulder, and again he rolled down-hill,
laughing loudly, but always keeping one eye on the
ducks and one on the geese. “If I lose one, I may get
the other,” he said. Every time he rolled down, the
geese came nearer. Nanebojo pretended not to see
them. At last they came very near indeed and asked
him if they might roll down. “Let us roll down just
once,” they said.</p>
<p>Nanebojo said, “No!” and kept right on rolling
downhill. The geese were about to fly away when
Nanebojo said, “Oh, well. If you want to, you may
roll down once.”</p>
<p>The geese were very glad to get into the sack. Nanebojo
squeezed them in together very tightly, saying, “If
you are close together, you will have more fun.” Then
he shouldered the sack and started up the hill.</p>
<p>Nanebojo walked a long, long time. He walked up to
the top of the hill and then he walked down on the other
side. The geese after a while thought he had walked
too long a time. They called out, “Where are you
going?” but he made no answer and walked straight on.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_148">148</div>
<p>When Nanebojo reached his grandmother, he said,
as he laid down the sack, “You heat some water while
I go and get more from the spring.” Then he went out
after he had said, “Do not untie the sack.” When he
had left the lodge, Grandmother untied the sack,
wondering what was in it. At once the geese flew out
and got away. Not one was left.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_149">149</div>
<h2 id="c71">ADVENTURES OF NANEBOJO</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Ojibwa</i></p>
<p>Nanebojo and his grandmother journeyed
about for a long time. At last they came again
to Lake St. Clair. In the lake were many
geese. Nanebojo thought, “How am I going to get
some of those ducks?” He thought for a long while.
Then he remembered.</p>
<p>Nanebojo took a birch-bark pail, and began to drum
on it and to sing. He sang,</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">I am bringing new songs,</p>
<p class="t0">I am bringing new songs.</p>
</div>
<p>When the geese heard that, they drew near to him.
At once he said to his grandmother, “Go farther on,
and build a lodge where we may live.” And at once she
did so. Then he went down to the water where the
geese were floating around. He pulled out his sack, got
into it, and dived into the water. The ducks and geese
were quite surprised to see what a good diver he was.
They came closer and closer.</p>
<p>Nanebojo said, “I can dive better than you can.”
The geese said, “Oh, no!” Then they all began diving,
<span class="pb" id="Page_150">150</span>
and Nanebojo did beat them. So he spent a long time
diving and floating about in the water. Suddenly he
dived, came up softly among the geese, caught the feet
of many, and tied them together with a string of basswood
bark. At once the geese started to fly. They rose
very slowly at first, because Nanebojo was pulling back,
but at last they rose high in the air, carrying with them
Nanebojo, who held on to the basswood string. Higher
and higher they rose, until the earth was far beneath
them. Then the string broke, and Nanebojo fell to the
earth. He fell into a tall hollow tree.</p>
<p>Nanebojo spent a long while in that hollow tree. At
last he heard the sound of chopping wood. Then
he called for help, and the Indian women let him
out of the tree. At once he went in search of his grandmother.</p>
<p>Grandmother asked, “Why didn’t you get the geese?”</p>
<p>“You know you never eat goose, even when you do
get it,” answered Nanebojo.</p>
<p class="tb">Nanebojo killed a deer. He at once skinned and
dressed it, and then he lighted a fire and roasted it.
When he sat down to eat, the branch of a tree near by
began to screech. Two branches were rubbing together.
Nanebojo did not like that. He said to the tree, “Don’t
bother me just now when I want to eat, I am hungry!”
<span class="pb" id="Page_151">151</span>
But every time he took a bite the branch began to
screech.</p>
<p>Nanebojo climbed into the tree, broke off a branch,
and just then caught his hand between two branches as
they rubbed together. He could not free himself.</p>
<p>Just then a pack of wolves came running along the
river. Nanebojo heard them at a distance. He called
to them, “Run right along. Don’t look this way.” The
wolves said among themselves, “He must have something
to eat over there, else he wouldn’t tell us to run
straight ahead.” So they went right under his tree.
They ate that entire deer.</p>
<p>When they had finished, Nanebojo said, “Now go
straight ahead and don’t look at that tree near-by.” In
the tree he had hung the deer’s head for his grandmother.
So the wolves looked at the tree and at once
ate the head. Then they went on.</p>
<p>At once the tree released Nanebojo’s arm, and he
climbed down. He could only pick the bare bones of
the deer. He went to the head. He turned it round
and round. It was entirely bare. He went on and
joined his grandmother.</p>
<p class="tb">One day when Nanebojo went for a drink, he saw
some whitefish in the river. He said to them, “Can’t
I go along with you?”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_152">152</div>
<p>“Oh, no,” said the whitefish. “You wouldn’t last
long if you did.”</p>
<p>“Why not?” asked Nanebojo.</p>
<p>“Because the Indians are always looking for us. You
would be the first one caught,” they answered.</p>
<p>“I am very timid,” said Nanebojo. “If I go with
you, I shall never be caught.” So he turned himself
into a whitefish.</p>
<p>Soon after some Indians came along fishing. Nanebojo
said, “Now I am going over there to tease them.
You all stay here and I will go over there alone. Just
before they try to spear me, I will dive to the bottom of
the river and rise again a long way off.”</p>
<p>So Nanebojo began teasing the Indians. He kept it
up for some time until one of the Indians speared him.
The Indian kept his spear in the water until he got to
the shore, and then dragged Nanebojo out. The other
whitefish remarked, “That is just what he said—that
after he dived he would not come up for a long time,
and then at some distance.”</p>
<p>The Indians took Nanebojo home with them. He
was a very large fish. After a while he began to jump
about a little, so the Indians were afraid. They did not
cook him at once.</p>
<p>Just about dawn the next morning, Nanebojo came
to life again and remembered he was a fish and that the
<span class="pb" id="Page_153">153</span>
Indians had speared him. So he got up and found
everyone sleeping.</p>
<p>“If they wanted to eat me, they should have done so
while they had a chance,” he said as he walked away.
He was going back to his grandmother.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_154">154</div>
<h2 id="c72">WISKE-DJAK<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_7" href="#fn_7">[7]</SPAN> AND THE GEESE</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Algonquin</i></p>
<p>Wiske-djak was always hungry. One time,
in the autumn of the year, he stood on the
shores of a lake, when clouds of ducks were
flying by overhead. Wiske-djak wanted some of those
ducks. He thought for a long time. Then he made a
small clearing right there on the lake shore, and built
quite a large tepee, with a fire in the center. The grassy
floor of the tepee was very smooth, so one could dance
well there. Wiske-djak made a birch-bark door, with
a long center stick to keep the bark spread, and to prevent
the door from opening inward. Now everything
was ready.</p>
<p>Wiske-djak went out walking and soon met Duck.
“I suppose you will soon be going south,” he said.
“Yes,” said Duck, “and we’ll be gone all winter. It’s
a bit cold up here for us.”</p>
<p>“It would be pleasant,” said Wiske-djak, “if we all
had a dance before you went. Invite your friends, all
<span class="pb" id="Page_155">155</span>
of them, and Geese and any of the others who go south
for the winter. We’ll have a dance in my tepee.” Duck
thought that would be very pleasant.</p>
<p>Wiske-djak went back to his tepee, and sat down in
the sunshine outside. He got his drum and rattle and
began to sing a song of invitation. He sang:</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">You will all be gone for a long time.</p>
<p class="t0">You will all be gone until it is warm again.</p>
<p class="t0">Let us have a dance before you go.</p>
</div>
<p>Thus he sang.</p>
<p>Soon ducks and geese came flying by overhead, and
they heard his singing. They alighted on the ground
very near the tepee.</p>
<p>Wiske-djak called, “Let us go inside and have a good
dance,” and he opened the door. In went all the ducks.
Wiske-djak mended the fire so it would give very little
light.</p>
<p>“Now,” he said, when he had finished that, “you must
all follow the rules of the dance. You must do whatever
I call out.” So they all began to dance. Geese
were there and ducks and a few loons, and Cyngabis
was there also. They danced hard, around and around
the tepee.</p>
<p>Then Wiske-djak said, “Now close your eyes. Don’t
open them until I give the order. That is one of the
rules of the dance.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_156">156</div>
<p>The birds all closed their eyes tightly, and as they
danced and sang, they made a great deal of noise. Anyone
who has seen Indians dance knows that they make
much noise. So Wiske-djak caught one fat bird after
another, and wrung his neck as he passed him in the
dance. No one heard anything at all because of the
noise of the dancing.</p>
<p>But after a while Cyngabis thought Wiske-djak was
moving around in the dance, so he slipped into a dark
corner and opened one eye just a little. At once he saw
that Wiske-djak was wringing the neck of the dancers.
He called out, “Wiske-djak is killing you! Fly!”</p>
<p>At once the birds all opened their eyes and took wing.
They flew very rapidly indeed. But Cyngabis was way
over in one corner and he was the very last man to
get out. Wiske-djak tried to catch him, but he got
away.</p>
<p>Now Wiske-djak began to cook the birds for a feast.
He built the fire outside the tepee, after poking the
earth loose with a stick. Then he buried his birds in
the hot earth, with the hot coals above them. Then he
went to sleep.</p>
<p>Now some Indians came around the point in a canoe.
They saw the smoke of the fire, and they saw something
strange lying beside the fire. Therefore they went
nearer.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig17"> <ANTIMG src="images/p0201.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="684" /> <p class="center small"><span class="sc">Indian Pipes</span> <br/><i class="small">From “Memoirs, American Museum of Natural History”</i></p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_157">157</div>
<p>One Indian said, “Look out, it might be Wiske-djak
up to more of his mischief!” But another Indian went
ashore, saying, “I’ll see who it is and what he is doing.”
When he came close to the fire, there lay Wiske-djak,
sure enough, and sound asleep. But the Indian couldn’t
see why he should have a big fire on a warm day until
he saw ducks’ legs sticking out of the earth under the
hot coals. At once he went back to his friends and told
them all about it.</p>
<p>The Indians all jumped out of the canoe. They said,
“Ha! We will take Wiske-djak’s ducks and geese and
eat them ourselves.” With their paddles they dug up
all the birds, twisted the legs off, and put the leg bones
back in the earth. They looked just as Wiske-djak had
placed them. Then the Indians paddled off.</p>
<p>Soon Wiske-djak waked up. He got up and looked
all around. No one was there. Everything looked just
as it had when he went to sleep. He looked at the dying
coals, and said, “I guess those birds are pretty well
cooked by this time.” He went all around the coals,
pulling out the ducks’ legs. They came out very easily.
He was surprised. “They must be very tender,” he
thought. He dug around in the earth, but not one thing
did he find. Wiske-djak was disgusted.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_158">158</div>
<h2 id="c73">WISKE-DJAK AND THE PARTRIDGES</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Algonquin</i></p>
<p>Wiske-djak wandered over the swamps and
mountains feeling all out of sorts with himself.
It was just after the Indians had stolen
all his ducks and geese as they cooked in the coals. All
at once he came upon a little flock of partridges, just
newly hatched. Their mother was away.</p>
<p>“<i>Kwe!</i>” said Wiske-djak. “What are you doing
here?”</p>
<p>“Nothing,” said the partridges. “Just staying here.”</p>
<p>“Where is your mother?” asked Wiske-djak.</p>
<p>“She’s away hunting,” they said.</p>
<p>“What’s your name?” he asked one of them. And
then each little partridge had to tell him his name until
he came to the very last. “What’s your name?” he
demanded.</p>
<p>“Suddenly Frightened,” answered little partridge.</p>
<p>“Oh, you!” said Wiske-djak, “what can you
frighten?” And he picked up a big lump of soft mud
and threw it all over the clean little partridges. “What
can you frighten now?” he said. Then he walked off.
<span class="pb" id="Page_159">159</span>
He walked for a long time until he came to a high mountain.
When he had climbed to the very top he found a
nice breeze blowing across it.</p>
<p>“This feels good,” said Wiske-djak. “I think I’ll
stay here,” and he searched around until he came to a
place clear of trees just on the edge of a great chasm.
The rock broke straight away for hundreds of feet, and
over the edge of the cliff came a delightful breeze.
Wiske-djak lay right down there and went to sleep at
once.</p>
<p>By this time Old Partridge had got home, and found
them all covered over with mud.</p>
<p>“What has happened to you? Where did you go?”
she asked.</p>
<p>“Nowhere,” said the little partridges.</p>
<p>“Who did this?” asked Old Partridge.</p>
<p>“Wiske-djak came along,” said the littlest one. “He
asked us a lot of questions, and then he asked us our
names. When I told him my name, he said, ‘Well,
what could you frighten?’ and threw mud all over us.”</p>
<p>Old Partridge was angry. She cleaned up the children,
and washed them and dried them, and gave them
their supper. Then she asked them which way Wiske-djak
had gone, and she went straight on his trail.</p>
<p>Old Partridge tracked Wiske-djak to the high mountain.
Then she kept right on until she reached the high,
<span class="pb" id="Page_160">160</span>
rocky cliff. There lay Wiske-djak, fast asleep. Old
Partridge went close to him, on the upper side of the
rock. She spread her wings, went close to his ears,
and flapped her wings and gave her warwhoop. Wiske-djak
waked up so suddenly he could only see that something
terrible was whooping right above him. He
moved backward and fell right over the edge of the
cliff.</p>
<p>“Well,” said Old Partridge, “now you know what
‘suddenly frightened’ means.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_161">161</div>
<h2 id="c74">WISKE-DJAK AND GREAT BEAVER</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Algonquin</i></p>
<p>Wiske-djak was traveling about, looking for
adventures. He never succeeded in anything
he tried to do, and he was always hungry.
In his travels he came to Turn-back Lake. White men
call it Dumoine Lake. He had no canoe, but he was a
good swimmer, yet when he came to Turn-back Lake,
he found it too broad to swim. Therefore he started
to walk around it.</p>
<p>Wiske-djak wanted to hunt beaver. On one side of
the lake he came to a high mountain, very round, which
looked just like a beaver lodge. And a little way offshore,
in the lake, was a small island, with many grasses.
“Hm-m-m!” said Wiske-djak, “This must be the home
of Big Beaver.” And so it looked, with the great, round
lodge and the island of grasses.</p>
<p>Wiske-djak tried to think how to catch Big Beaver.
At last he went to the lower end of the lake and broke
down the dam, so the water would run off. He lingered
there while the lake drained. He even took a nap.
When it was low enough for him to get at Big Beaver,
<span class="pb" id="Page_162">162</span>
he found that Beaver was gone. But as he looked about,
he saw Big Beaver just going over the dam. So he
began to chase him.</p>
<p>Wiske-djak followed Big Beaver past Coulonge
River and the Pembroke Lakes. But when Big Beaver
reached the Calumet Chutes, he was afraid to go
through and took to the portage. When Wiske-djak
got to the lower end of the portage, however, he had
lost sight of Big Beaver and started back up the Ottawa
River. When he got to the upper end, he saw fresh
tracks.</p>
<p>“Somebody has been here,” he said very quickly.
“I wonder if I might be able to trail him? I might
get something to eat.”</p>
<p>Wiske-djak followed the tracks to the lower end of
the portage, and found they turned toward the upper
end, so he raced back there. He did not see any beaver,
however, so he turned back again to follow other fresh
tracks to the lower end of the portage. Then he saw
he had been following his own trail.</p>
<p>Even today one can see Wiske-djak’s footprints in
the stone on the Calumet portage.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_163">163</div>
<h2 id="c75">NENEBUC<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_8" href="#fn_8">[8]</SPAN></h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Ojibwa</i></p>
<p>Once a girl told her father to put his wooden
dish before the fire upside down and look under
it every morning for five mornings. Then she
went to live in the sun.</p>
<p>The father did as he was told. On the first morning
he looked under the upturned dish, and there sat Nenebuc.
The next morning he looked under again, and
there sat Nenebuc’s brother with him. So he did for
the five days. Nenebuc and his four brothers had
all come to earth to live. Then the old man picked
up the dish and put it away.</p>
<p>Now one brother had horns on his head. Grandfather
said to him, “You can’t stay here; you go west!”
and he sent him out to the edge of the Darkening Land.
Then he sent another brother to the east and one to the
<span class="pb" id="Page_164">164</span>
north and one to the south. Nenebuc stayed with his
grandfather.</p>
<p>Now one summer Nenebuc could not fish during the
whole summer because of the high winds. The people
almost starved and Nenebuc became very angry. His
anger was against West Wind for blowing so much.
West Wind blew all the time—blew hard.</p>
<p>Nenebuc said to his grandfather, “I am going west.
I’ll make West Wind cease blowing in this way.”</p>
<p>Grandfather said, “But don’t kill him. Tell him
to let the wind blow awhile, and then stop. Then
everything will be all right.”</p>
<p>“I’ll be back soon,” said Nenebuc. “And I’ll end
this constant wind.”</p>
<p>So Nenebuc went away. He went toward the Darkening
Land, and there he found his brother. Now
this was the brother with the two horns, and he was
not friendly toward Nenebuc. He refused to stop the
blowing of West Wind, and at last they fought about
it. Nenebuc hammered his brother hard with a club
and at last broke one of his horns. Then he said,
“Don’t blow so hard any more. Grandfather and all
the people will starve if the wind always blows so
hard.” Then he went home.</p>
<p>So things went much better. Nenebuc went fishing
and found it was very calm, with only a little puff
<span class="pb" id="Page_165">165</span>
of wind now and then. All the winds stopped blowing,
because West Wind had warned the other brothers
that Nenebuc would come and fight with them if they
did not.</p>
<p>After a while things went badly again. There was
no wind at all and the water became ill-smelling, and
bad-tasting. People could not drink it. Fish could
not live in it. Grandfather said, “We must have some
wind or the people will die. Did you kill West
Wind?”</p>
<p>“Oh, no,” said Nenebuc. “But I’ll have to go and
see him again.” So he went again toward that Darkening
Land where West Wind dwelt.</p>
<p>“I came to tell you,” he said to his brother, “that
we must have some wind once in a while. It must not
be a dead calm like this, but we don’t want too much
wind. It spoils the fishing.”</p>
<p>So now the winds blow as they should, because West
Wind told the other three brothers. Sometimes it is
calm, and people go fishing; and sometimes it is windy.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_166">166</div>
<h2 id="c76">NENEBUC AND BIG BEAR</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Ojibwa</i></p>
<p>Once when Nenebuc was traveling, he met
Big Bear. Now Big Bear ate people, and
he had eaten many Indians. They were all
very much afraid of him. Nenebuc went to Bear and
said, “If you eat so many Indians, they will soon all
be gone. I shall make you very small and harmless.”</p>
<p>Then Nenebuc turned Bear into Squirrel and
Squirrel into Bear. Squirrel did not care at all, because
he was fond of eating berries and roots anyway. He
did not care to eat Indians.</p>
<p>But Big Bear felt very badly. He wept so much
at being Squirrel that his eyebrows turned gray, and his
eyes are all white and shiny. Nenebuc said to Bear,
“Now what are you going to eat?” and Bear said,
“I shall go right on eating people.” But he was so
small, now that he was Squirrel, he couldn’t eat them
at all.</p>
<p>Nenebuc said, “You are too small to eat people.
Run up that black spruce there, and taste the seeds
<span class="pb" id="Page_167">167</span>
in the cones. Then see whether you want to eat Indians
any more.”</p>
<p>And Squirrel did that. He tasted the sweet seeds
in the spruce cones and was so well pleased he said
he really did not want to eat Indians any more.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_168">168</div>
<h2 id="c77">COYOTE AND FOX</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Shuswap</i></p>
<p>Coyote, while traveling about, came to an
underground house in which lived very small,
short people. They were the Rock Rabbit
People. Coyote said, “They are far too short for
people. I will just eat them up.” He killed every one
of the Rabbit people, tied them all on a string, and
carried them off on his shoulder.</p>
<p>Now the weather was clear and hot, so Coyote carried
them to the shade of a large yellow-pine tree. He
made a big fire, and heated stones red hot; then he dug
a hole in the earth and put in the hot stones. Then he
put in the rock rabbits and covered them with leaves
and then with earth. Then Coyote went to sleep in
the shade of the big yellow pine.</p>
<p>Now along came Fox, and seeing Coyote asleep, he
spied the earth oven. Then he at once began to dig
out the rabbits and eat them. He had eaten half of
them when Coyote awoke. Coyote was very lazy and
sleepy. He said to Fox, “Spare me ten.” Fox kept
right on eating. Then Coyote said, “Well, spare me
<span class="pb" id="Page_169">169</span>
nine.” Fox still went on eating. Coyote was very
lazy. He saw Fox eating the rabbits, and he kept
talking about them. He kept asking Fox to spare some
for him. At last he said, “Spare me half a rabbit,
anyway.” But Fox ate every scrap.</p>
<p>Fox could hardly move when he had eaten all those
rabbits. Coyote was very hungry, and he suddenly
became very wide awake. Coyote said, “I will settle
with that fellow,” and he followed Fox’s trail. Soon
he came upon Fox sleeping in the shade of a thick fir
tree. Coyote, by his magic, made that tree fall on
Fox. “Now I guess we are square,” said Coyote.</p>
<p>But the tree was so branchy that the trunk never
came anywhere near Fox. He crawled out from among
the branches and walked away. Coyote followed close
after him.</p>
<p>Soon Fox reached a place where the rye grass, or
wild redtop, was very thick and tall. He crept into
the middle of it and went to sleep. Coyote set fire to
the grass, but Fox waked up and set back fires, so
Coyote’s fire did not reach him.</p>
<p>Then Fox went on again until he came to a reedy
place, where hares were many. Coyote set fire to the
reeds, saying, “Fox will burst in the fire.” But when
the fire spread, the hares ran out and Coyote was so
busy clubbing some of them that Fox ran out also,
<span class="pb" id="Page_170">170</span>
and Coyote never saw him until he was far off. Then
he called, “Fox, you may go.”</p>
<p>Now Coyote traveled on until he came to a place
where magpies were many. He set snares and caught
many, and then made a robe for himself of the skins.
He put on his robe and was well pleased. He kept
singing,</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">What a beautiful robe I have!</p>
<p class="t0">How the feathers shine!</p>
</div>
<p>He sang that over and over.</p>
<p>Soon afterward Coyote met Fox who was wearing
a robe of silver-fox skins, gleaming in the sun, and
thickly covered with tail feathers of the golden eagle.
Coyote said, “His robe looks better than mine, and is
much more valuable.” So he offered to exchange
robes.</p>
<p>Fox said, “How can you expect me to exchange my
fine robe with eagle feathers for your robe of magpie
skins?” So Coyote made believe to turn away; but
the moment they separated, he seized Fox’s robe and
made off with it.</p>
<p>Coyote ran on until he came to a lake. He took off
his robe of magpie skins and tore it to bits. Then he
threw the pieces into the water. Coyote then put on
the eagle-feather robe and strutted about in it, admiring
himself. He kept saying, “If only a wind would
come, then I could see and admire these feathers as
they fluttered.”</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig18"> <ANTIMG src="images/p0217.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="740" /> <p class="center small"><span class="sc">Shuswap Beadwork</span> <br/>Leggins and garters. Region of the Canadian Rockies <br/><i class="small">From “Memoirs, American Museum of Natural History”</i></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_171">171</div>
<p>Now Fox had watched Coyote until he was out of
sight. Fox was thinking. Then by his magic he made
a great wind to blow. The wind blew the robe off
Coyote’s back and carried it back to Fox.</p>
<p>Now Coyote went back to the lake, to see if he could
find his old magpie robe. The wind had scattered all
the pieces and the feathers. Only here and there on
the lake could a feather be seen.</p>
<p>Fox was wearing that robe afterward, when he
became just an ordinary fox. Therefore he still wears
silver-fox skins, the most valuable of all furs.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_172">172</div>
<h2 id="c78">THE VENTURESOME HARE</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Eastern Eskimo</i></p>
<p>A long time ago, Hare lived with his grandmother.
They were poor, and Hare was hungry.
One day he said, “Grandmother, I shall
set a trap and catch fish.” The old woman laughed.
She said, “<i>If</i> you can! Go set the net, grandson. But
even if you should catch one, we have no fire.”</p>
<p>“I’ll see to that,” said Hare.</p>
<p>Off went Hare with the net, and he set it. The next
morning in every mesh of the net was a fish, caught by
its fins. Hare said, “Oh, <i>my</i>!” He could not even
pull up the net, so he shook out some of the fish and
pulled the rest in. Many of these he buried. The
rest he took home, and dropped them outside the lodge
while he went in.</p>
<p>“Grandmother,” said Hare, “Here are the fish.
You clean them. The Indians across the river have
fire, and I shall go over and steal some.”</p>
<p>Grandmother was frightened. She said, “Oh, no!”
But Hare had now dried his net, so he folded it up
and put it under his arm.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_173">173</div>
<p>Then Hare went to the river, but the river was wide.
Hare could not possibly jump across, so he sat down
and thought. Then he called to the whales to help
him. Many whales at once came up the river, and
side by side they lay across the river. Hare jumped
from one to the other. Thus he crossed. Then Hare
jumped into the water to wet his fur.</p>
<p>Now Hare laid himself down in the sand along the
shore, for he had seen some Indian children. Then
the children came to where Hare lay. They saw him
there. At once a boy picked him up and carried him
home. Someone said, “Well, put him in the pot.”
And a pot stood ready there, near a bright, crackling
fire. So the boy put down Hare. An old man said,
“You must kill him first.”</p>
<p>Hare was greatly frightened. He opened one eye
just a little to see if there was any way of escape beside
the door. In the top of the tepee was a large round
smoke hole. Hare said, “I wish a spark of fire would
fall on my net.” Instantly the brands burned through
and rolled apart and a great spark fell on the net and
began to burn it.</p>
<p>Hare, in a flash, sprang out of the smoke hole—sprang
out through the top of the tepee. The Indians
saw him leap, and they ran after Hare shouting. Now
when Hare came to the river bank he had not time to
<span class="pb" id="Page_174">174</span>
call his friends, the whales, to help him. Hare was
running very fast, and he gave one great leap across
the river and landed on the other side.</p>
<p>“Did I not tell you, Grandmother, that I would get
fire?” said Hare when he reached home.</p>
<p>“How did you get across the river, Grandson?”
asked Grandmother.</p>
<p>“Oh, I just jumped across,” said Hare indifferently.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_175">175</div>
<h2 id="c79">RABBIT AND FROG</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Eastern Eskimo</i></p>
<p>One day Rabbit wandered over the hillside, and
came near an Indian wigwam. Now Rabbit
was very timid. He crept close to the lodge
and peered through a small hole. There was Frog,
sitting near the fire.</p>
<p>“Brother,” said Rabbit, “what are you doing?”</p>
<p>“I am playing with the ashes,” said Frog.</p>
<p>“Come live with me,” said Rabbit.</p>
<p>Frog said, “I have a lame leg. That is why I am
sitting here while my brothers are out hunting.”</p>
<p>Rabbit went into the lodge and tossed Frog on his
back. “This is the way I will carry you,” he said.</p>
<p>When Rabbit reached home, he went out to hunt for
food. Suddenly he spied smoke curling up from among
the willows along the river bank. Rabbit became
frightened, and started home, exclaiming, “I have
forgotten my crooked knife! I must go quickly and
get it.” Rabbit rushed home and dashed excitedly into
his lodge. He exclaimed, “I have forgotten my
crooked knife! I came home to get it.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_176">176</div>
<p>Frog said calmly, “Brother, why are you frightened?”</p>
<p>Rabbit said, “I saw a large smoke.”</p>
<p>“Where was it?” asked Frog.</p>
<p>“Among the willows by the river,” said Rabbit.</p>
<p>“Pooh!” said Frog. “The smoke came from
Beaver’s lodge. He lives down there. You’re very
brave to be so afraid of Beaver! <i>I</i> can hunt <i>him</i>.”</p>
<p>Rabbit felt better. He said, “I’ll carry you to
Beaver’s lodge. We’ll break it in and catch him.” So
he carried Frog to Beaver’s lodge down among the
willows by the river.</p>
<p>Rabbit built a dam of stakes across the stream, and
told Frog to watch, while he broke in the top of
Beaver’s lodge. While Rabbit was doing this, Frog
pulled up some stakes, and therefore Beaver escaped.
When Rabbit saw this, he shook Frog roughly and
pushed him into the water under the ice.</p>
<p>And this was just what Frog wanted.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_177">177</div>
<h2 id="c80">BIG TURTLE</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Wyandot</i></p>
<p>An old man lived with his nephew. Every
day the nephew went somewhere. Every day
the uncle asked, “Well, where have you been
today? What did you see today?”</p>
<p>One day the nephew said, “I have pulled off Eagle’s
feather.” And in truth he had Eagle’s tail feather.
His uncle at once exclaimed, “Danger! We are in
danger!”</p>
<p>Then he hung the eagle feather in the smoke hole
of his house. Soon Eagle came and stood for a while
over the smoke hole. The uncle exclaimed, “Danger!
We are in danger! We must have a council at once!”</p>
<p>So they called a council of all the animals. The
young man sent around saying, “Come, for there is
danger!” They all came at once. The old man stood
at the door of his house. Some of the animals he would
not allow to enter. He said to Deer, to Bear, and to
Wolf, “I do not want you at this council. You can
run too fast.” Only the animals that could not run
fast were allowed to form a council. Turtle came, and
Otter and Skunk and Porcupine and others.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_178">178</div>
<p>Then they held their council. Each said what he
would do in case of danger. Porcupine said, “I will
shoot my quills through them when they come near
me.” They all said things like that.</p>
<p>Then the people from the council all ran away to
where a big tree stood, for fear Eagle would come.
For safety they all climbed the tree. Then Eagle came
and stood over the smoke hole for the second time, but
the feather was not there. Turtle had carried it away.</p>
<p>Now the tree that all the people had climbed was
very rotten. A strong wind came and blew it down,
so the animal people were scattered all about. Porcupine
had been covered with bits of rotten wood.
Therefore Porcupine climbed up on Turtle’s back, to
hide him, and they went away. Turtle carried the
Eagle’s feather. Now all along the way Porcupine
kept scattering ashes on Turtle’s trail so Eagle would
not see him. But Eagle followed the trail of ashes.
Then, just as he got to the bank of the river, Eagle’s
friends caught Turtle.</p>
<p>They said, “We will throw Turtle into the fire.”
Turtle pretended to enjoy it very much. Then they
struck him, but they hit Turtle on his shell. They
could not see that he minded it. Then someone said,
“Let us drown Turtle.” Turtle began to cry, “Oh,
no! I am afraid of the water!” Then they dragged
<span class="pb" id="Page_179">179</span>
him toward the water. Turtle pushed back—he
pushed back, and he cried. That is why someone said,
“Let us drop him to the bottom of the water. That
is the place for him.” So it was done. They threw
him in. They could see Turtle lying on his back on
the bottom of the water. Then they left him.</p>
<p>At once Turtle turned over and swam to a log near
the opposite shore. Turtle climbed on that log, and
waved Eagle’s feather high in the air. He shouted,
“Ki-he.” Truly, that is the cry of one who has overpowered
his enemy.</p>
<p>Now Eagle’s friends heard it. They gathered on
the shore. They said, “Who will bring back Eagle’s
feather?” They held a council. One said, “No, I
cannot go there.” Another said, “No, I would be
drowned if I went there.” At last Otter said, “I will
try it.” So he did.</p>
<p>Now Turtle sat on that log waving the feather.
Otter darted across the river and reached that log where
Turtle was sitting. Turtle dropped off the back side
into the water. Soon Otter began to yell, “Oh-oh! He
is hurting me so badly!” Turtle was pinching him all
over. Otter yelled, “Oh, he is pinching me all over!”</p>
<p>Therefore Turtle kept that feather of Eagle’s.
Turtle cannot be overpowered by anyone—so the
Wyandots say.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_180">180</div>
<h2 id="c81">WOLVERENE AND ROCK</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Eastern Eskimo</i></p>
<p>Wolverene was out walking one day, out
on a hillside, when he came to a large rock.
Wolverene asked, “Was it you who was
out walking just now?”</p>
<p>“No,” said Rock, “I cannot walk.”</p>
<p>“Well, I’ve seen you walking,” said Wolverene
sharply.</p>
<p>“That isn’t true,” said Rock. But Wolverene insisted
that it was. He said, “You are the very Rock
I have seen out walking.”</p>
<p>Wolverene then ran off a little way and jeered at
Rock. He shouted, “Catch me if you can!” Then
Wolverene went close to Rock and hit him with his
paw. He shouted, “See if you can catch me.”</p>
<p>“I can’t walk, but I can roll,” said Rock, who was
very indignant.</p>
<p>“That’s just what I wanted,” said Wolverene, and
he began to run.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig19"> <ANTIMG src="images/p0229.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="359" /> <p class="center small"><span class="sc">Sun Dance Cañon</span> <br/>Near Banff, Alberta, Canada <br/><i class="small">Courtesy of Canadian Pacific Ry.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig20"> <ANTIMG src="images/p0229b.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="360" /> <p class="center small"><span class="sc">Castle Mountain</span> <br/>Banff, Alberta, Canada <br/><i class="small">Courtesy of Canadian Pacific Ry.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_181">181</div>
<p>But Rock began to roll. Wolverene raced away
and Rock tore after him, close to his heels, all down
that hillside. Then Wolverene began to jump and
leap and Rock rolled faster and faster, touching his
heels. Then Wolverene tripped over a stick and fell.
Rock rolled right on top of him and stopped there.
He stopped rolling.</p>
<p>Wolverene yelled, “Get off of me. You are breaking
my bones!” Rock stayed right there. Then Wolverene
yelled to the Wolves and Foxes to come
and save him. They all gathered around Rock and
Wolverene.</p>
<p>“How did you get under Rock?” they asked. Wolverene
was not a favorite. Wolverene said, “I dared
Rock to run after me, and he rolled.” Then they all
said, “It served you right.”</p>
<p>But yet they tried to push Rock away. Rock stayed
right there. The animals pushed and pushed. Rock
did not roll.</p>
<p>Then Wolverene began to shout to his other brother,
Thunder and Lightning. In a few minutes a dark
cloud rushed up from the southwest. It made so much
noise and was so black that all the Wolves and Foxes
ran away. Lightning suddenly drew back and then
rushed forward and hit Rock, while Thunder crashed.
Lightning knocked Rock into tiny small pieces, but he
also tore Wolverene’s coat all to pieces.</p>
<p>Wolverene picked himself up and saw that he had
<span class="pb" id="Page_182">182</span>
no fur at all. He could find only a few bits of his coat
so he said sharply to Lightning, “You needn’t have
torn my coat all to pieces when I only asked you to
strike Rock!”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_183">183</div>
<h2 id="c82">RAVEN’S CANOE MEN</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Haida</i></p>
<p>Crow made a great feast. He invited all the
people, and he invited Raven. But Raven
refused. Raven wanted all the feast of hemlock-bark
cakes and cranberries.</p>
<p>Before they began eating, Raven ran into the woods.
He made rotten trees into ten canoes. Then he put in
spruce cones, standing them up along the middle of
the canoes. Raven put grass tops into their hands for
spears. Raven walked near them, with his blanket
wrapped tightly around him. The canoes came
around the point, terrible to behold! Men were standing
in lines along the middle of the canoes. The people
fled at once. They left their feast. Then Raven went
into the house and ate the cakes of hemlock bark and
cranberries. He ate and he ate! When the canoes
landed they were washed about by the waves.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_184">184</div>
<h2 id="c83">RAVEN AND PITCHMAN</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Haida</i></p>
<p>Raven came to a town. Now the Pitch People
lived at that town. Therefore Raven said to
Pitchman, “Let us go fishing.” While it was
dark, they went fishing. Then only Pitchman killed
halibut; Raven could not kill any. Pitchman wanted
to go home before the sun rose because he was afraid
of being melted.</p>
<p>Then they went fishing again in the morning. And
again only Pitchman killed halibut, and Raven caught
nothing at all; and again Pitchman wanted to go home
early before the sun rose. But Raven did not want to
go home. He said, “Oh, no.”</p>
<p>When the sun rose, Pitchman wanted to go home
very much. Raven said, “Wait until I kill a halibut.”
Then the sun got higher. Pitchman began to say
“A-a-a-a-a,” rather weakly, because he was getting
warm. Pitchman wanted to go home very much.</p>
<p>“Put the blanket over you,” said Raven to Pitchman.
When the sun got too hot, Pitchman said,
“Ummmm!” He kept saying it. Then Pitchman
began to melt. At last he melted completely.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_185">185</div>
<h2 id="c84">WHEN RAVEN MARRIED OFF HIS SISTER</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Haida</i></p>
<p>Raven wanted to find a good husband for his
sister. He went out one day and cried, “Who
will marry my sister?”</p>
<p>“I,” “I,” “I,” “I,” said all the animals. So Raven
began to question them.</p>
<p>“What can you do?” he asked Grizzly Bear.</p>
<p>“When I see people, I will roar,” said Grizzly.</p>
<p>“You are too bad-tempered,” said Raven. He
refused him.</p>
<p>Wolf offered. “What can you do?” asked Raven.</p>
<p>“I snap at people if I am alone. When the pack is
with me, I devour them,” said Wolf.</p>
<p>“You are too bad-tempered,” said Raven.</p>
<p>Then Elk offered. “I can crash through the forests,”
said Elk. Raven refused him.</p>
<p>“What can you do?” asked Raven of Deer and Porpoise.
They were cousins.</p>
<p>“I can pull out any skunk cabbage with my teeth,”
said Deer. Porpoise said, “I will always eat clean
<span class="pb" id="Page_186">186</span>
things. I always eat herring.” That is why, when Deer
swims to an island, Porpoise always swims with him.</p>
<p>So Raven consented. He let Porpoise marry his
sister.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_187">187</div>
<h2 id="c85">BEAVER AND PORCUPINE</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Haida</i></p>
<p>Beaver’s store of food was plentiful. While
he was away hunting one day, Porcupine stole
that food. Then he remained sitting there.
When Beaver returned he asked, “Did you eat my
food?”</p>
<p>Porcupine said, “No, indeed. How can the food
of supernatural beings be taken? You have supernatural
power and I have supernatural power.”</p>
<p>Then they started to fight. Beaver tried to seize
Porcupine with his teeth, but when he threw himself
at his face, the sharp spines struck him. After they
had fought for a while, Beaver went to the place where
his parents lived. He was all covered with spines.</p>
<p>Then his father called the people together, and the
Beaver people came in a crowd. They all went along
to fight Porcupine. Porcupine used angry words to
them. Then they pushed down his house upon him.
They seized him. They took him to an island lying
out at sea, upon which two trees stood.</p>
<p>When Porcupine was almost starved, he called upon
the animals of his clan. He called upon his father.
<span class="pb" id="Page_188">188</span>
He called upon all of his friends. They did not
answer him.</p>
<p>By and by Something said to him, “Call upon Cold-weather,
call upon North wind.” Porcupine did not
understand. Then the Voice said, “Sing North songs.
Then you will be saved.”</p>
<p>So Porcupine began singing,</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">Xune qa-sa zune,</p>
<p class="t0">Let the sky clear altogether;</p>
<p class="t0">Hu-n, hu-n, hun, hun.</p>
</div>
<p>After that he sat on a rock and sang,</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">Xunisa,</p>
<p class="t0">Let it be cold weather;</p>
<p class="t0">Gai-ya-li-sa,</p>
<p class="t0">Let it be smooth on the water.</p>
</div>
<p>Then North sent cold weather. The wind became
strong. Then Porcupine began to sing for smooth
water. When it became smooth, the surface of the
sea froze. When the ice became thick, his friends came
and got Porcupine; but he was not able to walk.</p>
<p>Now after Porcupine reached his father’s house,
his father called all the Forest People. He gave them
all food. Then they asked Porcupine why the Beaver
people did this to him. He said it was because he had
eaten Beaver’s food.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_189">189</div>
<p>Then the Porcupine people went to war with the
Beaver people. But they did not defeat the Beaver
people. After they had fought for a while, they
stopped.</p>
<p>After that, when they were gathering food, they
seized Beaver. The Porcupines did this. They were
always plotting against Beaver. They took Beaver up
a tall tree. After he had been there awhile, he began
eating the tree from the top. He finally got down and
went away. Beavers cannot climb trees.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_190">190</div>
<h2 id="c86">BEAVER AND PORCUPINE</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Shuswap</i></p>
<p>Beaver and Porcupine lived together. They
used to eat together, but their food was different
and Porcupine was always eating Beaver’s food.
He would leave his own food and eat Beaver’s.</p>
<p>One day Beaver said, “Hereafter we shall eat apart.”
So he took his own food and went some distance away,
leaving Porcupine to eat his own. But even so, Porcupine
left his own food, and came around to Beaver,
and ate his.</p>
<p>One day Beaver said to Porcupine, “Tomorrow we
will travel into the mountains where there is much
food.” They packed their blankets and boxes and all
their things and traveled into the mountains, where
they camped. The next morning Beaver said, “There
is much food here in the mountains. I am going
hunting.”</p>
<p>When Beaver had gone some distance, he stopped
and called to Porcupine far, far away:</p>
<p>“Hereafter you shall be a common porcupine. You
shall always live in the mountains. You shall never
<span class="pb" id="Page_191">191</span>
again live with Beaver nor eat his food. Neither shall
you ever live in a good country.”</p>
<p>That is why porcupines live in the mountains, while
beavers live in low, flat lands, where there is plenty of
water. Because when Beaver left Porcupine, he traveled
on to a flat country, with many lakes and streams.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_192">192</div>
<h2 id="c87">BEAVER AND DEER</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Haida</i></p>
<p>Deer lived near Taku. The skunk cabbage he
ate was like a garden. Beaver came also to
this place and he gnawed down the forest trees
growing around there. So there came to be many trees
on top of the garden. Then Beaver went away.</p>
<p>Deer went to see his property. Then he saw that
trees were piled upon it and he knew that Beaver had
done this.</p>
<p>Now Beaver lived under an island in a lake in the
woods. One morning he felt the water was going
down. Beaver went out. Deer was standing there, and
Deer had dug a trench from the lake. But Deer could
not get at Beaver.</p>
<p>Therefore Deer called to Beaver, “Come, go with
me.” So Beaver went with him. Then they came to
the shore of the sea. Beaver had never been in the
sea, but Deer said, “Let us swim out to that island.”</p>
<p>“I have never been in the sea,” said Beaver.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig21"> <ANTIMG src="images/p0243.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="590" /> <p class="center small"><span class="sc">Haida Memorial Columns</span> <br/>Erected in honor of chiefs of the tribe <br/><i class="small">From “Memoirs, American Museum of Natural History”</i></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_193">193</div>
<p>“You shall sit on my back,” said Deer. “There are
many things to eat over there.” So Beaver got on
Deer’s back, and they went there. When he got off,
Deer went with him up to the woods. Then they came
up under the trees.</p>
<p>Deer said, “Go up, and I will sit down here and
wait for you.” So Beaver went up into the woods.
When Beaver was a long way off, Deer ran away
quickly and swam off.</p>
<p>Beaver came back quickly, but Deer was nowhere
to be seen. Beaver sat down on the beach. He could
see no way to get off the island, because he was not
used to swimming in the ocean. After he had sat there
awhile, evening came upon him. Then, in the middle
of the night, he called to the different animals.</p>
<p>First he called to Black Bear, then he called to
Wolf. “Save me!” he called. Then he called to
Grizzly Bear, and he called to all the smaller animals.
None of them heard him. Beaver had been upon the
island ten nights. He called every day, wailing.
When he was unsuccessful, his heart was tired. So he
sat still.</p>
<p>After a while, Beaver began to call to North:
“North, save me! North, save me! North, save me!”
And as he sang this every day, he continued to wail.</p>
<p>After ten days had passed, a black wind came
toward him along the surface of the sea, as he sat near
the shore. North had heard his voice. The wind blew
<span class="pb" id="Page_194">194</span>
hard from the north. At midnight Beaver felt of the
sea. After he had sat awhile longer, he felt of it
again. After he had done so for a while, he felt that
it was frozen over. He sat still. Then he perceived
it was strong enough.</p>
<p>Then Beaver stepped upon it. And he went ashore
upon it. He escaped to land. Then he went to his
home. He stopped up that trench. After he finished
stopping it up, he went into his house. This is the end.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_195">195</div>
<h2 id="c88">EAGLE’S FEAST<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_9" href="#fn_9">[9]</SPAN></h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Kwakiutl</i></p>
<p>Eagle gave a feast. He invited all of the myth
people. Eagle told his servants to get the four
cooking boxes and to put stones into the fire and
to get the tongs. When this was done, Eagle put on
his eagle mask and seated himself on the seashore.</p>
<p>As soon as Eagle was seated, he saw a porpoise coming
up. Eagle flew down and grasped it and brought it
to the beach. When he had been sitting there a long
time, he saw another porpoise come up. Eagle grasped
it at once and carried it up to the beach. Thus he did
four times. Then as soon as he had caught four porpoises,
he took off his eagle mask and hung it up.
Then he cut up the porpoises. When they were cut
up, water was poured into the cooking boxes. Then
Eagle put the porpoises in, and put red hot stones into
the boxes also. Soon they were cooked. Then they
were taken out. Eagle had invited all his friends for
a feast, so they ate all the porpoises. Then they went
out.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_196">196</div>
<h2 id="c89">WHEN CHICKADEE CLIMBED A TREE</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Shuswap</i></p>
<p>Once Grizzly Bear told her grandson that if
ever any of his arrows should catch in a tree,
and beyond his reach, not to climb the tree.
At first the boy did just as Grandmother said; but he
lost many arrows. Now one day he shot his best arrow
at a bird that was sitting in a tree. The bird flew away
and the arrow stuck in a branch just beyond his reach.
It was his very best arrow.</p>
<p>Then the boy forgot and climbed that tree to get
the arrow. Just as he came near it, the tree suddenly
grew and the arrow was far out of his reach. The boy
climbed again, but just as he reached out his hand to
take it, the tree shot up and again it was far out of his
reach. This happened many times. So the boy kept
on climbing.</p>
<p>Now as the boy looked down, he saw that the earth
was far below him, and there were no branches at all
on the tree trunk. He could not climb down, so he
began to climb from branch to branch after his arrow,
and the tree grew higher and higher until it broke
<span class="pb" id="Page_197">197</span>
through the floor of the Sky Land. Its lower branches
were just level with the floor. And only then was the
boy able to reach his arrow. Then he pulled it out,
and climbed off the branch into the Sky Country.</p>
<p>Now the Sky Country was a great plain, covered
lightly with snow. There were no signs of people.
He said to himself, “There is no use in wandering aimlessly
around in this way. I will set my arrow on end,
and follow whichever way it falls.”</p>
<p>Then he did so. He traveled the way the arrow
fell and came to some chips which showed him that
some people had been there felling a tree. Then he
came to some fresher chips. Then he traveled on until
he came to a lodge, with a mat door.</p>
<p>Then someone opened the door and he went in.
Afterward he became the chickadee.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_198">198</div>
<h2 id="c90">REDBIRD AND BLACKBIRD</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Ojibwa</i></p>
<p>Once there were two men named Redbird and
Blackbird. They had a house on the shore of
the lake, and they lived on wild potatoes.
They spent all their time digging for wild potatoes,
and that was all the food they ever had.</p>
<p>One day Blackbird said to Redbird, “There are
great fields of wild rice across the lake. We ought to
go and gather it.” So the very next day they crossed
the lake and found themselves among large fields of
wild rice. They began gathering the rice, then they
saw people near by. They went to the people and said,
“How do you do?”</p>
<p>The people said, “We have never seen you before.”
Blackbird said, “No. We live on the other side of
the lake. We live on the wild potatoes we find there.”
The people said, “Well, you did right in coming over
here. You ought to have good food.”</p>
<p>Then Blackbird and Redbird shook hands all around
and went home.</p>
<p>Now these people talked about the wild potatoes.
Just about that time, Redbird said to Blackbird, “Those
<span class="pb" id="Page_199">199</span>
people are planning to attack us, for our wild potatoes.
What shall you do?” Blackbird said at once what he
would do. Then Redbird said what he would do.
The very next day those people came. Redbird heard
their voices. At once he began to grow smaller and
smaller until he was only a single feather lying on the
ground. When Blackbird heard their voices, he hit
himself against the house, and soon there was only an
awl standing there.</p>
<p>The people came and searched everywhere. They
said, “No, we can’t find those men,” so they went
home.</p>
<p>Blackbird and Redbird were a little afraid they
would come back. So they changed themselves into
birds. Redbird flew to the woods, but Blackbird went
over the lake to live.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_200">200</div>
<h2 id="c91">LITTLE GRAY WOODPECKER</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Wyandot</i></p>
<p>Once a beautiful Indian maiden used to go
often to dances. When she was dressing for
the dance, Gray Woodpecker would come to
help her. He helped her put the many colors on her
face.</p>
<p>Now Little Gray Woodpecker was gray all over.
He had only a few small white spots. Now one day
the maiden left some red paint on the bit of wood
she used for a brush. Woodpecker saw this, and
he said, “I will make myself beautiful with this.” So
Gray Woodpecker took the brush and rubbed it just
over his ears, on each side of his head. He did this
many times. That is why he has two tiny red stripes
on the sides of his head.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_201">201</div>
<h2 id="c92">OWL</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Eastern Eskimo</i></p>
<p>Sometimes Owl greatly disturbs a camp of
Indians. Short-eared Owl will come to a camp
just at the dimming of the twilight, and when the
Indians hear his quiet flitting through the trees they
are on the alert. Immediately they hang up some robe
or leggings which they have not worn, which is just a
silent way of saying, “We are not so poor as you think.”
Owl annoys only poor people.</p>
<p>Owl also likes the lower levels, so the Indians camp
often on the higher lands where he does not come.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_202">202</div>
<h2 id="c93">CHIPMUNK</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Thompson River</i></p>
<p>One day, as Grizzly Bear came along the trail,
Chipmunk called her names and mocked her.
Grizzly Bear rushed at Chipmunk. Chipmunk
ran under a log. Grizzly Bear rushed at her
again. Chipmunk did the same thing. Grizzly Bear
shouted, “I’ll get you!” and the fourth time almost
caught her. Her claws scratched Chipmunk’s back.
Therefore the chipmunk has stripes on his back even
today, because Grizzly scratched her in that way.</p>
<p>Later, Marmot met Grizzly Bear. He teased her
in the same way that Chipmunk had, and the very
fourth time that Grizzly rushed at him, she almost
caught him, and scratched him, too. So Marmot also
has stripes, even today.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig22"> <ANTIMG src="images/p0255.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="745" /> <p class="center small"><span class="sc">Indian Defensive Armor</span> <br/>The first two designs are body armor, the third a shield <br/><i class="small">From “Memoirs, American Museum of Natural History”</i></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_203">203</div>
<h2 id="c94">MUSKRAT’S TAIL</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Cree</i></p>
<p>Once Wisagatcak killed a bear; then he skinned
it, and cut it in pieces, and cooked all of them.
While he was cooking, he looked up and saw
Muskrat in the river. Now the bear’s grease would
not harden, so Wisagatcak told Muskrat to swim
through the water with it. Muskrat did so, and when
he returned Wisagatcak made his tail much thinner
and smaller. Muskrat formerly had a broad, fleshy
tail like Beaver’s, and it was a great annoyance to him.</p>
<p>“Now see how fast you can go,” said Wisagatcak.
Muskrat jumped into the river and swam so rapidly
that he broke the grease bladder which he still carried.
All the grease and oil came out. That is why Muskrat
leaves such a smooth, oily wake when he swims.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_204">204</div>
<h2 id="c95">WOLVERENE AND BRANT</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Eastern Eskimo</i></p>
<p>Wolverene once called all the birds together.
He said, “Do you not know that I
am your brother? Come to me and I will
dress you in feathers.” So he dressed them all up in
feathers, and made wings for himself. He said, “Now,
brothers, let us fly.”</p>
<p>Brant said to Wolverene, “You must not look below
when we are flying over a point of land, when you hear
a noise below. Take a turn when we take a turn.”</p>
<p>The first time they took a turn, Wolverene did not
look below, though he heard a noise. At the second
turn, when the birds came over a point of land, he
heard the shouting of Indians below. At once he
looked down. And down he came like a bundle of
rags!</p>
<p>All the Indians ran up to him, shouting, “A brant
has fallen down.” They found nothing but an old
dead wolverene.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_205">205</div>
<h2 id="c96">WAR OF THE FOUR TRIBES</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Shuswap</i></p>
<p>Once in the ancient time, so the old men say,
the Crees from the east, the Thompson River
Indians from the south, and the Lillooet Indians
from the west, made up their minds to attack
the Shuswap of the north. They sent messengers with
the war moccasin to each other, and then they met on
the east bank of the Fraser River and there joined
forces. There were several hundred men in all. Then
they went forward to attack the Shuswaps.</p>
<p>Now when they were nearly opposite the mouth of
Lone Cabin Creek, and still some distance from Canoe
Creek, they were met by Coyote, who changed them
all into pillars of clay. You may see them there today.
The tall Crees are on the right, the shorter Thompsons
in the center, and the short Lillooets on the left.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_206">206</div>
<h2 id="c97">TRADITION OF IROQUOIS FALLS<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_10" href="#fn_10">[10]</SPAN></h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Eastern Cree</i></p>
<p>At Iroquois Falls, a war party of Iroquois
attacked and killed a Cree party. They took
the plunder of the camp, and saved one woman
alive for a guide. They asked her if she could run a
rapid, and she said, “Yes.”</p>
<p>Now when the party came to a point above the
Iroquois Falls, the woman guide told them it was possible
to shoot the rapids there if the women and goods
were taken out of the canoes to lighten them. The
Iroquois let her out, as well, and she went by the portage.
When the Iroquois saw her there, they put out
from shore, though the waters were very swift. As
they neared the falls, they saw how high they were.
Then the Cree woman saw them try to escape, but they
could not. The current of the water was too swift. So
they headed their canoes for the falls and sang their
war song. All went crashing over the falls and were
drowned.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_207">207</div>
<h2 id="c98">THE GIANTESS AND THE INDIAN</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Wyandot</i></p>
<p>Once there were three men along a river making
a canoe. As they had just finished the canoe,
they heard a Stredu approaching. She was a
giantess. Two of the men fled at once, without warning
their friend, who sat with his back to them in the canoe.</p>
<p>The Stredu said to the man in the canoe, “Now I
have got you!” He swiftly launched his canoe, and
paddled across the river, saying unconcernedly, “Now
I will see how good it is.”</p>
<p>The Stredu said, as if speaking to herself, “Try your
canoe if you wish to, but there is more than one way of
crossing a river.” She at once started across, walking
on the river bottom. The water was far over her head,
and the Indian could see her on the bottom. He was
now returning in his canoe.</p>
<p>When the Stredu reached the other side, she was
surprised still to see the Indian on the other side. But
she thought, “This will not prevent me from walking
back. But perhaps he has supernatural power.” So
she started back, walking on the bottom of the river
<span class="pb" id="Page_208">208</span>
bed. The Indian at once started to recross. He said,
unconcernedly, “My canoe is not quite water-tight. I
will now patch it.” But he forgot and left his stone
ax on the shore when he began to cross this time.</p>
<p>When the Stredu had recrossed, she again saw that
Indian on the other side. Then she saw the stone ax.
She said, “He has forgotten his weapon,” for she did
not know what it was. She said, “I will smash it
against that rock.” Then she hit the rock with the ax
and the rock was shattered into bits. The ax was not
broken. Then the Stredu became afraid. She ran
away.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_209">209</div>
<h2 id="c99">THE DESTRUCTION OF MONSTERS</h2>
<p class="jr1"><i>Shuswap</i></p>
<p>There were many monsters in the Fraser River
and the North Thompson River. Tlecsa was
the eldest of four brothers who lived near Kamloops,
and there were many evil beings in that country
who killed all the Indians, so the four brothers
decided to destroy them. There were the four Grizzly
Bear sisters, and the huge elk which stood in the
Thompson River just where it flows out of Kamloops
Lake and swallowed all who came down the river, even
a canoe with people. There was the great ram of the
mountain sheep who lived on a cliff in Bonaparte Valley
and killed people by blowing his breath upon them.
Every one of these was killed by Tlecsa and his magic.</p>
<p>Then the brothers followed up the Bonaparte River
until they came to a chasm which is now near the old
fifty-nine-mile post, on the old Caribou road. Here
lived Great Beaver and his friends. They were not
cannibals, but the Indians feared their magic. The
Indians did not know how to catch or kill them, but
Tlecsa said, “I will eat beaver flesh,” so he started after
<span class="pb" id="Page_210">210</span>
him. But first he made a beaver spear, and tied a piece
of white bark around each wrist so his brothers could
see him, if he were dragged under water.</p>
<p>Tlecsa went up to Great Beaver and harpooned him.
Beaver at once dragged him into the creek. His
brothers watched him for a while and then lost sight
of him, and at once began to search for him in all the
near-by creeks. They even dug ditches in many places.
At last they dug a deep ditch along the largest creek,
and then they found him. When they dug near him,
he said, “Be careful not to hurt me. I am here.”
Great Beaver had dragged him into his own house in
the bank, but there Tlecsa had killed Great Beaver.
At once the brothers killed many beavers and took their
skins. They also ate Big Beaver. Tlecsa said, “Hereafter
beaver shall be speared by mankind. The Indians
shall use their flesh and skins. Beavers shall no longer
have magic power;” and it was so.</p>
<p>Now Tlecsa and his brothers wandered around
through the mountains and through Bonaparte Valley,
and after a while they went up the Marble Cañon.
On a high cliff lived Great Eagle, who swooped down
on the Indians in the valley. He would catch an
Indian and dash him against the rocks and bring him
to the young eaglets in his nest. Tlecsa said, “I shall
ornament myself with eagle feathers.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_211">211</div>
<p>Now when his brothers were not looking, Tlecsa put
some white paint in one side of his mouth, and some
red paint in the other side. Soon Great Eagle saw
him. Swooping down, he clutched him, and then,
flying high on the cliffs, dashed him against the rocks.
Tlecsa warded off the blow with his flaker, and let the
red paint flow out of his mouth upon the rocks. His
brothers below, watching, said, “He is dead. See his
blood.”</p>
<p>Again Great Eagle dashed Tlecsa against the rocks,
and the white paint flowed from his mouth over the
rocks. His brothers below, watching, said, “He is
dead. See his brains.”</p>
<p>Now Great Eagle also thought he was dead, so he
laid him on a ledge of rocks near the nest. At once
Tlecsa killed Great Eagle and pulled out his tail
feathers. Then he tied an eaglet to each wrist and
commanded them to fly down with him. When they
reached the valley far below, Tlecsa pulled the large
feathers out of the eaglets’ wings and tails, and gave
them to his brothers. He said to the eaglets, “Hereafter
you shall be ordinary eagles. You shall have no
power to kill people, and Indians shall ornament their
heads and weapons with your feathers;” and it was so.</p>
<h2 id="c100">FOOTNOTES</h2>
<div class="fnblock"><div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_1" href="#fr_1">[1]</SPAN>The scenic pictures in this volume were selected to show the magnificence and beauty of the home of many of these myths.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_2" href="#fr_2">[2]</SPAN>These Indian houses were made with rough, loose boards on the
sides and top, which were shifted to let the smoke out, and in
summer to let the breeze in. The fire was always in the center of
such one-room houses, and the usual smoke hole was immediately
above it.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_3" href="#fr_3">[3]</SPAN>The warm wind of the North Pacific Coast is called a chinook.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_4" href="#fr_4">[4]</SPAN>Devilfish was the usual bait in halibut fishing.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_5" href="#fr_5">[5]</SPAN>This myth is said to give an excellent idea of climatic conditions along part of the Northwest Coast—largely a struggle between the rainy southeast wind and the cold north wind.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_6" href="#fr_6">[6]</SPAN>Told by all Cree Indians, but of course influenced by contact with the white race.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_7" href="#fr_7">[7]</SPAN>Popularly called Whiskey Jack, though the word is Indian. It means “meat bird,” as this Canadian jay is fond of meat and therefore is a great torment around camps.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_8" href="#fr_8">[8]</SPAN>The name appears under various spellings—Manibozho, Nanebojo, etc. Nenebuc appears among many tribes centering around the Great Lakes, though the myth is essentially Ojibwa. Other versions of it, received from the American Ojibwas, will be found in the author’s <i>Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes</i>.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_9" href="#fr_9">[9]</SPAN>The chief interest of this tale is that it is a correct description of Indian cooking and feasting.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_10" href="#fr_10">[10]</SPAN>There seem to be innumerable waterfalls in North America concerning which there is such a tradition as this one. Without question many of them are imaginary. This story of the Crees and Iroquois is told by many tribes, though the location of the falls differs in every version of the story.</div>
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