146 Kansas Academy of Science. 



down two white men and their boats. This monster of the deep is 

 a terrible beast. You never can see anything of this monster but 

 his tail, sometimes; it is always just going out of sight as you see 

 it. The beast is one big, big thing, but we Indians have never 

 seen what it looks like. We old people of Quileute are afraid of it. 

 Finishing this legend, the aged chief who was reciting it turned 

 to me and asked: " Did you ever see this monstrous beast, Mr. White 

 Man?" 



The dossil Legend. 



The giantess Duskia, sister of the god Kwatte, and known to the 

 coast Indians as the Evil One, had her home at the mouth of Max- 

 field creek (a tributary of the Bogachiel river from the south, 

 forming a confluence with that river about eight miles above the 

 Indian village of LaPush, Wash.). She gathered clams and sea- 

 shells from the beach and took them to her home and there ate them. 

 The middens from her "table" are there yet. They have turned to 

 stone. (There are large fossil beds at the mouth of the above 

 creek.) You can see them there to-day. 



Duskia, you know, had stolen many children. These she fed on 

 the clams. These clams she carried from the beach to where the 

 shells are now stone. This v^oman had three difiPerent places of 

 abode — one at a place just this side of Quillayute prairie, one just 

 over Quillayute Needle's Point, south of LaPush, and this one at 

 the mouth of Maxfield creek. At each of these places you can find 

 the clam shells and other kitchen middens turned to stone. 



This woman Duskia took away — stole — all the Indian children 

 who would cry. When walking around, if she heard a child cry 

 she would go and eat it. That is why one never hears an Indian 

 baby cry. 



This woman lived not so long ago, the old people say. The first 

 white men who came to this country lost many things from camp. 

 They could not imagine what became of them. At last they set a 

 beaver trap; and lo ! they caught Duskia in it. She was a very 

 large woman, with long hair that reached to her heels. She was 

 good looking. She did not dress like an Indian then; she wore a 

 short dress that came only to her knees. This dress was made of 

 snake skin. When they caught her she hallooed and screamed and 

 talked a language no one could understand. She tried to get away 

 as ordinary mortals might, but failed. Quickly then she changed 

 herself to a meteor and passed out into space as a vanishing streak 

 of blaze. 



