Boas.] 4-i4: j-j^oy 18, 



Before Kanikila's arrival, animals had the shape of men ; but even after 

 they were transformed they were able to appear in the shape of men by 

 taking off their blankets. The northern tribes who do not know the great 

 transformer, say that men were transformed into animals at the time of 

 the great flood. 



All tribes consider the sky a solid vault, which can be reached in the 

 far west. After having crawled through a hole in the sky, another land 

 is found, with forests, mountains, ponds, and lakes, in which the Sun and 

 many other spirits live. There is another very remarkable way of reach- 

 ing this land. Tlie man who intends to go there takes his bow and shoots 

 one arrow into the sky ; then he shoots another one, which sticks in the 

 lower end of the first one ; and so he goes on shooting until a chain is 

 formed reaching from heaven to earth. I believe that this tradition be- 

 longed originally to the tribes of the Salish stock. The Okanagan myth 

 told by Gatschet in Globus, 1887, Vol. 52, No. 9, belongs to this group of 

 legends. It is told in a great number of modifications among the tribes of 

 Vancouver island and the neighboring coast. One of the most important 

 of these is : How the Mink, the son of the Sun, visited his father. This 

 tradition is told by the Kwakiutl and Bilqula. Mink made a chain of 

 arrows reaching to the sky, and climbed up. When he arrived in heaven 

 he found his father, an old man, sitting near the fire. The fiither was 

 glad to see him, and asked him to carry the sun in his stead. Mink com- 

 plied with this request, and next morning his father gave him his nose 

 ornament, the sun, and said to him, "Do not go too fast, and don't stoop 

 down, else you will burn the earth." Mink promised to obey, and 

 ascended slowly his path ; but when it was near noon, clouds obstructed 

 his way. He got impatient, and wanted to see what was going on, on the 

 earth. He began to jump and to run and stoop down ; then the earth 

 began to burn, the rocks to crack, and the ocean to boil. When IMink's 

 father saw that his son disobeyed his orders, he pursued him, tore him to 

 pieces, and cast him into the ocean. There he was found by two women. 



Another interesting tradition is told by the Komoks, which in some 

 respects resembles a well-known myth of the Tlingit. In olden times 

 the gum was a blind man. He used to go out fishing during the night, 

 and early in the morning his wife called him back. One day, however, 

 she slept too long, and when she came down to the shore the sun was 

 high up in the sky. She called her husband, but before lie could return 

 he had melted. His sons wanted to revenge his death, and made a chain 

 of arrows reaching from heaven to earth. They climbed up and killed 

 the Sun with their arrows. Then the elder brother asked the younger 

 one, " What do you intend to do?" He said, "I will become the moon ;" 

 the elder one said, "And I will become the sun." 



Another remarkable tradition is told by the same tribe. The sou of the 

 Sun ascended a chain of arrows into heaven, and married Tlaiq's daugh- 

 ter. Tlaiq tried to kill his son-in-law, but did not succeed in his attempts. 

 The latter, in revenge, killed Tlaiq. I consider the last-mentioned tradi- 



