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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

K. B. J.

February, 1917.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE [Beliefs] Haida 1 [Beliefs] Eastern Eskimo 5 [Beliefs] Bella Coola 7 [Creation of the World] Wyandot 9 [How the Earth was Formed] Cree 12 [Old One and Creation] Thompson River 15 [Creation of the Earth] Thompson River 16 [Raven and Creation] Haida 18 [Origin of Rivers in Queen Charlotte Islands] Haida 20 [Origin of Haida Land] Haida 22 [Raven and Moon-woman] Haida 25 [Origin of Light] Wyandot 28 [Origin of Light] Thompson River 29 [Creation of Light] Carrier 31 [Coming of Fire] Carrier 33 [How Grizzly Bear and Coyote made Light and the Seasons] Shuswap 35 [Origin of Light and Fire] Lillooet 38 [How Fire was Secured] Lillooet 42 [How Raven Brought Fire] Haida 44 [When Mink Carried the Torches] Bella Coola 45 [Old One] Shuswap 50 [The Great Fire] Lillooet 52 [The Burning of the World] Cree 54 [The House of Sun] Bella Coola 57 [Why the Sun is Bright] Lillooet 60 [When Sun was Snared] Ojibwa 62 [Sun and Moon] Thompson River 64 [The Man in the Moon] Central Eskimo 65 [Why the Moon is Pale] Wyandot 67 [The Woman in the Moon] Shuswap 68 [Moon] Thompson River 69 [War with the Sky People] Thompson River 70 [How Two Sisters got out of Skyland] Chilcotin 72 [Origin of the Pleiades] Wyandot 74 [The Star Hunters] Chilcotin 77 [The Great Bear and the Hunter] Chilcotin 79 [How the Summer Came] Ojibwa 81 [The Rainbow Trail] Wyandot 83 [Origin of the Chinook Wind] Shuswap 85 [When Glacier Married Chinook’s Daughter] Lillooet 89 [Mink’s War with the Southeast Wind] Kwakiutl 91 [When North’s Son Married Southeast’s Daughter] Haida 94 [Capture of Wind] Chilcotin 98 [How Wind Became a Slave] Haida 99 [Thunder, Lightning, and Rain] Central Eskimo 100 [Thunder] Wyandot 101 [Turtle and the Thunder Bird] Ojibwa 103 [Why Lightning Strikes the Trees] Thompson River 105 [The Making of Lakes and Mountains] Haida 106 [Origin of Races] Cree 109 [Origin of Chilcotin Cañon] Shuswap 110 [Origin of Animals] Eastern Eskimo 111 [Bird Beginnings] Eastern Eskimo 112 [Mosquitoes] Haida 115 [Origin of Death] Thompson River 117 [Duration of Human Life] Haida 118 [How Death Came] Lillooet 119 [Origin of Arrowheads] Lillooet 120 [Origin of Carved House Posts] Haida 121 [The Wind-power Carving] Thompson River 123 [Calendar] Thompson River 124 [Calendar] Cree 125 [Calendar] Shuswap 126 [How the Indians First Obtained Blankets] Chilcotin 127 [Hunting in the Snow Mountains] Chilcotin 129 [Coyote’s Gift of the Salmon, and the Cañon of the Fraser River] Nicola Valley and Fraser River 132 [The Coming of the Salmon] Bella Coola 135 [Coyote and the Salmon] Shuswap 139 [Wolverene and the Geese] Eastern Eskimo 142 [Nanebojo and the Geese] Ojibwa 145 [Adventures of Nanebojo] Ojibwa 149 [Wiske-djak and the Geese] Algonquin 154 [Wiske-djak and the Partridges] Algonquin 158 [Wiske-djak and Great Beaver] Algonquin 161 [Nenebuc] Ojibwa 163 [Nenebuc and Big Bear] Ojibwa 166 [Coyote and Fox] Shuswap 168 [The Venturesome Hare] Eastern Eskimo 172 [Rabbit and Frog] Eastern Eskimo 175 [Big Turtle] Wyandot 177 [Wolverene and Rock] Eastern Eskimo 180 [Raven’s Canoe Men] Haida 183 [Raven and Pitchman] Haida 184 [When Raven Married off his Sister] Haida 185 [Beaver and Porcupine] Haida 187 [Beaver and Porcupine] Shuswap 190 [Beaver and Deer] Haida 192 [Eagle’s Feast] Kwakiutl 195 [When Chickadee Climbed a Tree] Shuswap 196 [Redbird and Blackbird] Ojibwa 198 [Little Gray Woodpecker] Wyandot 200 [Owl] Eastern Eskimo 201 [Chipmunk] Thompson River 202 [Muskrat’s Tail] Cree 203 [Wolverene and Brant] Eastern Eskimo 204 [War of the Four Tribes] Shuswap 205 [Tradition of Iroquois Falls] Eastern Cree 206 [The Giantess and the Indian] Wyandot 207 [The Destruction of Monsters] Shuswap 209