Chapter V: Part 5

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.

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.”

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.

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 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.

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.

THE DESTRUCTION OF MONSTERS

_Shuswap_

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.

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 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.

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.

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.

FOOTNOTES

[1]The scenic pictures in this volume were selected to show the
magnificence and beauty of the home of many of these myths.

[2]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.

[3]The warm wind of the North Pacific Coast is called a chinook.

[4]Devilfish was the usual bait in halibut fishing.

[5]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.

[6]Told by all Cree Indians, but of course influenced by contact
with the white race.

[7]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.

[8]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 _Myths and Legends of the Mississippi
Valley and the Great Lakes_.

[9]The chief interest of this tale is that it is a correct
description of Indian cooking and feasting.

[10]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.

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