30 GEOEGE M. DAWSON ON THE 



sayiug to the dead body, " Get up and cook, here is meat ;" but there was no response, 

 and finding all his eflbrts to awake the dead useless, he struck the body, spoke con- 

 temptuously to it, and went on his way again, alone. Next he took to wife a short-tailed 

 mouse, and with her lived some time, till she bore him a son named Ska-ilalest. But one 

 day he found his new wife skinning a deer, and covered with blood in consequence. This 

 made him angry, and he abused her and said, " Why do you not go outside," when she 

 ran away and he was unable to find her again. It was after this event, according to my 

 informant, that he set out on his expedition to open the way for the ascent of the salmon 

 from the sea. 



The end of Skil-âp' is thus related. "When at one time he was travelling up the 

 south branch of the Thompson River, on the north bank, and had arrived at a place not 

 far below the outlet of Little Shuswap Lake, he met a terrible being who ate men and 

 appeared to be nothing but skin and bone. Skil-rip"s son was with him on this journey. 

 He told his son to sit down and wait, and advanced alone toward the cannibal, who was 

 preparing to kill him. " Wait a bit," said Skil-fip', " I also am an eater of men like your- 

 self." The cannibal doubted this, but Skil-fip' proposed that in order to prove it both 

 should vomit. So they sat down opposite each other and shut their eyes. The cannibal 

 vomited first and produced the half of a man. Skil-âp' followed, but succeeded only in 

 producing a mat which he had swallowed ; but using his magic power he quickly trans- 

 formed this into a portion of a human being " Now open your eyes," he cried, but just 

 at this moment he and the cannibal and the boy, who was sitting at a little distance, were 

 turned to stone. Thus ended the career of Skil-fip', and the stones into which the trio 

 were changed may still be seen, two resting close together and the third, representing the 

 boy, at a little distance. 



The following story relating to Skil-âp' is communicated by Mr. J. W. Mackay. It 

 is derived from the Indians of the Aucinity of Lytton, and while resembling some of those 

 obtained by myself, it differs in several points from these. I retain Mr. Mackay's spelling 

 of the proper names : — 



Sin-ka-yap (Skil-âp') came to the world or ground or country before man. He was 

 like unto a man with wings, and made man and everything ui)on the earth. At one 

 time he saw a tree, and in the tree was a nest upon which was a beautiful bird. He 

 told N-kik-sam-tam, his son, to climb the tree and obtain the bird for him. N-kik-sam-tam 

 had two wives, and one of these Sin-ka-yap wanted. When N-kik-sam-tam began to 

 climb the tree, Sin-ka-yap caused it to grow higher, and therefore N-kik-sam-tam could 

 not reach the nest, but became tired and wished to return to the ground. Sin-ka-yap, 

 however, encouraged his son to go on and told him he would soon get to the bird, and 

 the son persevered, while the tree grew till at length it reached the sky. There N-kik- 

 sam-tam found himself in a strange country, where he met two old men whom he had 

 known on the earth before they died. He asked them how he could get back to the 

 earth, and they said that they would make a long rope and lower him down. This they 

 did, and also constructed a basket, which was fastened to the rope, hanging by four cor- 

 ners. They then told N-kik-sam-tam that in descending he would reach four different 

 regions or places. One, they said, will be wet ; that is not the earth. One will be cold ; 

 that is not the earth. One will be foggy ; that is not the earth. But when you hear the 



