INDIANS OF BEITISH COLUMBIA. 55 



Among the Coast Salish and the northeru trihes of Kwaldutl lineage, a great number 

 of fables and tales refer to the mink, but these are similar in character to those told by the 

 Tlingit and their neighbors referring to the raven. It is only among the Suanaimiiq that 

 the mink is of some importance, as he obtained the fire. The legend says the ghosts 

 were in the sole possession of the fire. Mink wanted to have it, and for this purpose 

 stole the infant child of the chief of the ghosts. The ghosts pursued him, but did not 

 dare to attack him, and offered in exchange for the child, furs, mountain-goat blankets, 

 and deer-.skins, and finally the fire-drill. Mink accepted the latter, and thus obtained the 

 fire. From all we know about the traditions of the Northwest American Indians, it 

 seems that the series of legends treating of mink as the sou of the sun are confined to the 

 Bilqula and Kwakiutl, and that they haA-^e spread to some extent among their northern 

 and southern neighbors. As the mink occupies a position of similar importance to that 

 of the raven, many of the adventures and exploits of the latter are also told of the former. 

 "We have shown above that the Bilqula are closely related to the Coast Salish. As the 

 latter have no legends referring to the mink as the son of the sun, we conclude that the 

 Bilqula adopted them from the Kwakiutl. Thus we have found a second centre from 

 which the folklore of Northwest America has spread. 



"We have frequent occasion to mention the importaut part played by the sun in the 

 legends of these Indians. The farther south we proceed, the more important becomes the 

 sun as a mythological figure. Among the Coast Salish we observe that he is worshipped, 

 although no offerings are made to him, while it is said that the Salish of the interior burn 

 food, blankets, and other property as an offering to the sun. The most important of the 

 legends referring to the sun, which are known only in the southern parts of the coast, 

 are those referring to his murder, and the origin of the new sun and of the moon. Lin- 

 guistic research has shown that, among a great number of tribes of this region, sun and 

 moon have the same name ; and a study of the legends shows that they are really consi- 

 dered one and the same person, or at least as two brothers. These facts are so important 

 that I shall give one of the traditions belonging to this group. I heard it told by a 

 Çatloltq at Comox. 



A long time ago the gum was a man named Momhanâ'tc, who was blind. As he 

 was unable to endure the heat of the sun, he went, during the night, fishing. "When the 

 day began to dawn, his wife came down to the beach and called him, saying, " Hasten to 

 come home. The sun is going to rise." Thus he returned before it grew warm. One 

 day, however, his wife slept too long, and when she aAVoke she saw that it was daylight. 

 She ran to the beach and called her husband to come home as quick as possible. He 

 hastened as fast as he could, but it was too late. The sun was so hot that he melted 

 before he reached the shore. Then his sons spoke unto one another : " "What shall we 

 do ? "We will avenge father." And they made a chain of arrows reaching from heaven 

 to earth, and climbed up. They killed the sun with their arrows. And they thought, 

 " "What shall we do next ? " The older one said, " Let us be the sun." And he asked his 

 brother where he wanted to go. The latter answered, " I will go to the night : you go to 

 the day." And they did so. The younger brother became the moon, the elder the sun. 



Connected with the sun myths we find the legend of the wanderer. He is considered 

 the son of the deity, and called by the Coast Salish Quls, and by the Kwakiutl Kanikila 

 He instituted the laws and customs which are rigidly observed, and he transformed man 



