84 G. M. DAWSON ON THE KWAKIOOL 



with an arrow and also killed his mother, changing his father into a heron and his mother 

 into a woodpecker. 



These are some of the chief acts which Kau-C-a-ke-luh performed. After finishing all 

 his works, he married " a woman of the sea" and went away over the ocean and was no 

 more seen. This, Ow-Tt said, he did that no one in future should " have his name " 

 as one of theirs. The wife of one of the chiefs at Na-wî-tî once assumed his name, 

 but she was lost from a canoe, and drowned, and no one has dared ever since to take it. 

 The younger brother, however, did not disappear, and so some persons still use 

 his name. Thus Ow-ît, for example, has this name as one of his. Though Kan-ë-a-ke-luh 

 never returned, he had a son who came back named Kla-soo-tc-walis, and all the salmon, 

 berries and other good kinds of food came with him, " and this is the reason that they 

 return year by year to the present day." Ow-ït claims himself to be a descendant of this 

 son, as does also the Kôs'-kï-mo chief. 



The Eev. A. J. Hall, several times referred to before, was kind enough to make 

 enquiries for me as to the myths of the Nîm-kish tribe. Of Kan-ê-a-ke-luh he writes as 

 below. This account it will be seen does not perfectly agree with either of those above 

 given. 



" Kânï-kë-lâq had no wife and no child, and belonged to no tribe. No one knows his 

 origin or whence he came. He never travelled in a canoe, but always walked. He is 

 regarded as a deity and as the creator. Those who blasphemed him, he turned into birds, 

 beasts, and fishes ; but those who spoke well of him, he turned into men and protected. 

 The heron was once a man who despised Kânï-kë-lâq. It was Kânï-kë-lâq who stole fire 

 and water and gave them to the Indians. The chief who possessed fire, lived at the ' edge 

 of the day,' viz., the rising of the sun. When the friends of this chief were dancing 

 round the fire, Kânï-kë-lâq appeared in the form of a deer, and with a bunch of gum wood 

 between his antlers, joined the dancers. At a given signal from his friends outside, he 

 dipped his head, and the sticks ignited. He leapt across the fire and rushed from the 

 house, scattering the stolen fire everywhere. He was pursued, but his friends had placed 

 halibut on his track, which caused his pursuers to trip up. This accounts for the short 

 black tail of the deer, burnt of course by the fire 



"Kânï-kë-lâq also stole water from the ' Nawitti ' chief, who alone possessed it. To 

 do this, he assumed a form of a raven, but borrowed the bladder of a sea-lion {gllkum). 

 The water was in a hole in a stone, a foot in diameter. He was allowed to take a little, 

 and when the chief went to drive him off, he begged for more, because his thirst was not 

 quenched. Having consumed all there was, he flew off, and vomited the water every- 

 where. Where the water dropped, rivers were formed, and ever since there has been an 

 abundance of water." 



The following deluge myth was obtained, in 18*78, from Hnm-tshit, a chief of the 

 Hailtzuk division of the Kwakiool, at Kâ-pa (Kilkite Village of charts), Yeo Island, Mil- 

 bank Sound : — Very long ago there occurred a great flood, during which the sea rose so 

 as to cover everything with the exception of three mountains. Two of these are very 

 high, one near Bella-Bella, the other apparently to the north-east of that place. The 

 third is a low but prominent hill on Dou Island, named Ko-Kwus by the Indians ; this 

 they say rose at the time of the flood so as to remain above the water. Nearly all the 

 people floated away in various directions on logs and trees. The people living where 



