INDIANS OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 653 



MYTHS. 



Thunder and lightning. — The general belief has been that these are 

 caused by a great bird fiappiug its wiugs, aud some poiut to trees that 

 have been struck bj^ lightning and say that the bird touched these 

 trees aud hence they were torn to pieces. Some say they have seen the 

 bird, but others do not believe this. A fable by the Indians says that 

 tbeUoswailopsh mountain had two wives: Mount Ranier was one, aud 

 a mountain near Hood's Canal was the other; Mount Ranier aud this 

 mountain quarrelled and Mount Ranier moved away, and now they 

 always fight by thunder and lightuing. 



The sun. — In addition to those traditions given in " Eells on the 

 Twanas," I give the following from the Klallams : 



" A long time ago there was only oue woman in the world, but no man. 

 She made a man of gum and set him up and wished him to become alive 

 aud to be her husband. She went to sleep and life came to him. Being 

 of gum, he was very sensitive to the heat of the sun, which was much 

 hotter then than now. He worked when it was cool aud rested in the 

 shade when it was hot. He had some children. One day he went fishing 

 and told his wife to look out for him if it became hot; but she went to 

 sleep and did not do so, and the heat grew intense aud melted him, aud 

 he died. His sous were very angry at the sun for this ; oue of them made 

 a bow and very many arrows. He shot them up towards the sun aud 

 they formed a chain or roj)e on which the boys ascended, aud found a 

 prairie land. They asked the geese, who could then talk, ' Where is the 

 man who killed my father?' and the geese pointed in one direction aud 

 said ' Yonder.' The boys went in the direction indicated, and came to 

 a house where two blind women lived, aud they sat down. As oue 

 woman gave some food to her companion oue of the boys took it. 

 'Have you received your foodf said the first woman to the other. 

 The latter replied ' No,' aud both wondered what had become of it. 

 Soon one of the boys said he had taken it and asked ' Where is the 

 man who killed my father?' The woman rei)lied, 'Farther on,' and 

 gave them a very small basket, in which were six salmon berries. The 

 boys went on aud soon found some swallows which could talk, aud 

 again they asked, 'Where is the man who killed my father?' The 

 swallows said ' In yonder house.' The pair went to the house and found 

 an old man piling pitch wood on a very hot fire, so hot it nearly roasted 

 the boys, aud this was what made it hot on the earth. They gave the 

 old man the six salmon berries, which became very many aud swelled 

 within him and killed him. The fire then went down somewhat, aud it 

 has not been so hot on the earth since." 



FABLES OF THE TWANAS. 



The pheasant and the raven. — The raven had a trap Jind caught very 

 many fishes, but would not give any to the pheasant. At last the 

 pheasant went to hunt deer. While he was on his way a deer met 



