Haida Totem Poles
Indian genealogical trees
From “Memoirs, American Museum of Natural History”

MYTHS AND LEGENDS
OF
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA

SELECTED AND EDITED BY
KATHARINE BERRY JUDSON

ILLUSTRATED

CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1917

Copyright
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1917
Published April, 1917

W. P. HALL PRINTING COMPANY, CHICAGO

PREFACE

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

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE [Haida totem poles] Frontispiece [Carved stone dishes] 12 [Paradise Valley] 24 [Lakes in the clouds] 24 [Shuswap beadwork] 36 [Cathedral Peak] 48 [Haida blanket border designs] 60 [Salish basketry designs] 72 [Canoe and paddles] 84 [Haida house] 96 [Moraine Lake] 106 [Cameron Lake] 106 [Haida house with totems] 122 [Carved handles of horn spoons] 132 [Takakkaw Falls] 142 [Mount Stephen] 142 [Indian pipes] 156 [Shuswap beadwork] 170 [Sun Dance Cañon] 180 [Castle Mountain] 180 [Haida memorial columns] 192 [Indian defensive armor] 202

MYTHS AND LEGENDS
OF
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA

BELIEFS

Haida

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.

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.

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 are the “dressing up” of the Thunder Bird. Thunder Bird produces a very loud noise by rustling his feathers.

Southeast Wind lives under the sea. Northeast Wind abides along the northern mountains.

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.

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.

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.

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 lie in numberless inlets, near the water, just as the Haida towns on earth do.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

BELIEFS

Eastern Eskimo

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.

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.

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.

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.

BELIEFS

Bella Coola

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Afraid of Nothing is a great warrior. She visits the earth now and then; but when she does, her visits cause sickness and death.

Under the world where she lives is the House of the Sun. Our own earth is an island swimming in the ocean.

CREATION OF THE WORLD

Wyandot

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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. Old Toad was very small and very ugly. Big Turtle looked her over, but he said, “Well, you try then.”

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.

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.

When an earthquake occurs, it is because Big Turtle moves his foot. Sometimes he gets tired.

HOW THE EARTH WAS FORMED

Cree

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.

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.”

Carved Stone Dishes
Showing the Indian love of the grotesque
From “Memoirs, American Museum of Natural History”

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.

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.

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.

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.

This is how the earth came to be built over water. And this is why there are springs in the earth.

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.”

Beaver asked, “How are we going to live? We are eating willows and poplars here, but there are no trees on earth yet.”

Wisagatcak said, “Um-m-m-m! Yes, you will need a little creek to live in also.”

Beaver said, “Why, yes, of course.”

Wisagatcak said, “I’ll do something tonight.”

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.”

That is why, even today, Beaver eats certain white roots as well as bark.

When Wisagatcak came back, he found that Beaver had dug ditches in every direction in his search for roots.

OLD ONE AND CREATION

Thompson River

Before the days of the grandfathers, all was water. Old One lived then in the Sky Land.

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.”

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.

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.

That is why the earth is surrounded by water.

CREATION OF THE EARTH

Thompson River

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.

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.

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.

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 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.”

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.

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.

RAVEN AND CREATION

Haida

Not long ago, there was no land to be seen.

Then there was a little thing in the ocean.

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.

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.

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. When the water was almost gone from his mouth he came back to Masset. That is why the water here at Masset is red.

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.

ORIGIN OF RIVERS IN QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS

Haida

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.

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?”

Raven said, “My father has just died. We have the same ancestors. He told me to visit you and ask for food.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

After they had felled four trees, the animals said, “Please give us our chief’s water. Don’t make us unhappy.”

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.

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.

ORIGIN OF HAIDA LAND

Haida

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.

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.

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.

Then the chief called all the people together and they sang a song for Raven. It was a magic song, and 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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

Paradise Valley[1]
Laggan, Alberta, Canada
Courtesy of Canadian Pacific Ry.

Lakes in the Clouds
Laggan, Alberta, Canada
Courtesy of Canadian Pacific Ry.

RAVEN AND MOON WOMAN

Haida

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!”

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.[2] 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.

After his mother had gone out, Raven took up the moon in his beak. He turned himself into a raven and 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.

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.

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.

Now at that time it was always dark. Raven did not like darkness.

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.

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.

The fishermen replied, “One who always talks is talking about something which the supernatural beings own, and which is beyond his reach.”

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.

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.”

ORIGIN OF LIGHT

Wyandot

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.”

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.

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.

ORIGIN OF LIGHT

Thompson River

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.

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.

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.

Grizzly Bear cried,

Le pa, Le pa! Dimness, dimness!

Chipmunk would poke the fire and brush the earth and ashes away and sing,

Tse ka, tse ka! Light, light, light!

And immediately the fire would flame up and light would come; but when Grizzly Bear threw on more earth it became dark again.

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.

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.

CREATION OF LIGHT

Carrier

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.

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.

Now each one sang his own song. Fox kept singing,

Khain, khain, khain,

because he thought in that way he would gain light. Therefore the animals call him Khain, which means, “He cries for daylight.”

Now the old chief steadily refused to give them light. Yet the animal people were each singing his own song, and each singing,

Light, light, light, light!

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,

Let there not be——!

Let there not be——!

Had he said “light” as the last word, light would have come. But at once the light disappeared below the edge of the sky.

Now young Fox kept on conjuring and crying,

Khain, khain, khain, khain!

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,

Let there be—light!

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.

COMING OF FIRE

Carrier

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.

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.

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,

Oh, shelte! Oh, shelte!

which are magic words. Therefore Indians say, “Oh, shelte,” even today, when they hunt muskrats.

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.

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.

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.

At once everybody knew that Muskrat had stolen the old chief’s fire, and had given it to men and animals.

HOW GRIZZLY BEAR AND COYOTE MADE LIGHT AND THE SEASONS

Shuswap

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.”

Coyote said, “Oh, no! That would inconvenience the people too much.”

Grizzly Bear said, “I intend to have it my way.”

Coyote said, “No, you can’t!”

At once Grizzly Bear began to dance, singing,

Darkness! darkness! darkness! Let it always be dark!

That was his song.

Coyote also danced and sang,

Light! light! light! light! Let it always be light!

Thus Coyote sang.

They danced and sang a long, long time. Sometimes it was dark, when Grizzly sang loudest, and sometimes it was light when Coyote sang loudest. But neither won.

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.”

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!

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.

Shuswap Beadwork
Tobacco pouch designs of great beauty. From the region of the Canadian Rockies
From “Memoirs, American Museum of Natural History”

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.”

Thus Coyote saved the people from living in darkness, and from very long, cold winters.

ORIGIN OF LIGHT AND FIRE

Lillooet

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Raven took out the last thorn and went home chuckling.

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 smoke. It was far away to the south, on the shore of the sea.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Raven said to Sea Gull, “If I had not got the light from you, I could not have seen where the fire was kept.”

HOW FIRE WAS SECURED

Lillooet

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.”

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

As soon as Eagle saw that Beaver was safe, he flew away. Then they returned home. They gave fire to their sister.

HOW RAVEN BROUGHT FIRE

Haida

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.

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.

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?”

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.

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.

WHEN MINK CARRIED THE TORCHES

Bella Coola

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.”

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.”

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 again, as Mink started off, “Don’t be too fast when you walk or sweep.”

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.

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.

Now when Sun saw what was happening to the 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?”

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.”

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.

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.

Cathedral Peak
Field, British Columbia
Courtesy of Canadian Pacific Ry.

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.

OLD ONE

Shuswap

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

THE GREAT FIRE

Lillooet

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.

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.”

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.”

Tsuntia said to them, “Whistle at the sun, and he will go on.” They said, “Oh, no. You do it.” So 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.

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.

THE BURNING OF THE WORLD

Cree

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.

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.

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 fire was very hot. All the water boiled because it was so hot.

After a while the fire was put out, and the water had settled down. Everything had to be started over again.

Now there were many animals on this patch of ground, and the man named some of them and told them what to do.

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.”

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.

The man made Bear then, because he was nice and wise and quiet.

Somebody wanted to be Caribou—nobody remembers just who wanted that. Then Deer was made, and made so swift that he could outrun all pursuers.

After the man had finished making all the animals, he put a mark on them, so people would know what they were.

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.

THE HOUSE OF SUN

Bella Coola

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.”

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!”

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.

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.

The Mother of Flowers lives also in the House of Sun. Every spring she sends all the new young flowers down to the earth.

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.

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.”

Many other people live in the House of Sun. One of them visits houses and steals provisions.

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.