SHUSWAP PEOPLE OF BEITISH COLUEBIA. 29 



In the remotest antiquity, the country was peopled by Indians, but they were poor, 

 because the salmon could not ascend the Fraser on account of a dam, which two old 

 hags or witches had made where Hell-Grate Canon now is. Skil-âp' told the people 

 that he would go down the river and break the dam, so that the salmon might come up. 

 He instructed them to watch for a great smoke which he would make to show them when 

 he had set out on his return. He then transformed himself into a smooth flat piece of 

 wood, well shaped, and floated down the river till he lodged against the dam at Hell-Grate 

 Canon. Soon the women came to the dam to get salmon, and seeing the piece of wood 

 said, " "We will make a plate of this." They took the wood and three times put salmon 

 upon it, but each time the fish disappeared, for Skil-âp' ate it. They then became suspicious 

 and threw the wood upon the fire, but no sooner had they done so than it began to cry 

 like a child, and apparently turned into a man child, for they snatched it from the fire, 

 and having washed and dressed it, proceeded to care for it. By degrees the boy grew, and 

 the women always kept him tied up to prevent him from getting to the fire. But when 

 the women went away Skil-âp' used to feast on their salmon and other good things. At 

 length, when on one occasion the women were absent, he put a hard covering of some 

 kind on his head, so as to render himself invulnerable, and began to dig at and break 

 down the dam. When his object was only partly accomplished, however, the women 

 returned and assailed him with clubs, but were unable to hurt him. Thus he destroyed 

 the dam, and when he had done so the salmon began to go up, tumbling one over the 

 other, in great numbers. Then he followed the bank of the river, keeping abreast of the 

 vanguard of the salmon, and making a great smoke by setting fire to the woods as he 

 proceeded, so that the people knew that he was coming. Just below Savoua (at the out- 

 let of Kamloops Lake) he stopped to eat, and made there a dam or weir to catch some 

 salmon at a place where some high rocks may still be seen. 



When Skil-âp' got as far up the Thompson as the mouth of the Clearwater, he found 

 the people making a salmou-dam, and told them he would complete it for them. There 

 to the present day are steep rocks on either side of the river, and above them is a large 

 pool or basin where he fished with his scoop-net, and which is a noted salmon fishing- 

 place yet. On the rocks may be seen the prints of his feet where he stood to fish. 



Thus the salmon were enabled to ascend into all the rivers of the Shuswap country. 



It appears that Skil-âp' is expei^ed to return at some distant period when " the world 

 turns " and the good old days come back. 



Skil-âp', it seems (of whose origin I was unable to learn anything definite,) had a 

 brother, the fox {Hô-ni-um), whom he killed in order to possess his wife. Having done 

 this he travelled off' with the woman, singing " Ch'j-lô-s', chô-lô-s', I have killed my 

 brother, and now I will kill all the people I meet." Soon he found some people and 

 killed them, taking two more women. With his three wives he still travelled on and on, 

 till at length the feet of the women became sore with walking. Then he rested two days, 

 but his two new wives were still unable to travel, so he killed them and went on his 

 way with the woman he had taken from his brother; but at last even she became 

 footsore, and he killed her also. Still going on, but now alone, he came at length to a 

 place where some graves were, and saying to himself, "I will take one of these people 

 for a wife," he uncovered the body of a woman and lay down beside it to sleep. When 

 he awoke he went out hunting and killed a fawn, which he brought and threw down, 



