52 The Mountaineer 



the richest of all men. Accordingly, going back to his 

 tent, he informed his wife that he was going on a long 

 hunt, but in reality he was setting forth for the summit 

 of the mountain. He climbed almost to the summit on 

 the first day, and the next morning, at the rising of the 

 sun, he stood upon the mighty summit. There he dis- 

 covered that there was a great valley in the summit of 

 the mountain, all filled with snow except one place in 

 the middle. Here was a lake of black water and at 

 one end of it were three large rocks. The old man was 

 confident that these were tomanowas rocks, for one 

 was shaped like a salmon's head, the next like a camas 

 root, and the third like the head of his own totem or 

 divinity, Moosmoos, the elk. 



Our hero, preceiving these symbolical rocks, imme- 

 diately concluded that this must be the place where the 

 hiaqua was secreted. At once therefore he began to 

 dig, with an elkhorn pick which he had brought along, 

 at the foot of the rock which was shaped like the head 

 of Moosmoos. At this a number of otters came out of 

 the lake and gathered around in a circle watching him 

 dig. When the man had struck the ground a number 

 of times equal to the number of otters, they began to 

 pound the ground with their tails. Still he continued 

 to dig, and about the time of the setting of the sun he 

 turned over a great block of stone underneath which 

 he discovered a cavity filled with great strings of hia- 

 qua, enough to make him the richest man in all the 

 land. 



But now the greedy adventurer made a great mis- 

 take. He loaded himself down with the strings of hia- 

 qua, but left not a single shell as a votive offering to the 

 tomanowas powers by whose magic he had made the 

 discovery. Sahale was greatly displeased at such un- 

 grateful conduct, and all the tomanowas powers com- 

 bined to show their wrath. Skamson, the thunder-bird, 

 Tootah, the thunder, and Colasnass, the snow god, all 



