VOL. VII] REAGAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL NOTES 13 



The Thunder-Bird, the Unsuccessful Battle with the Mimlos-Whale, and the Origin of 



the Prairies of the Olympic Peninsula. (Police Luke Hobucket). 

 &quot;At the time of the great flood, the thunder-bird, the representative of good, 

 fought the Minilos--wha\c, the representative of evil. The great battle lasted a long 

 time. For a long time the battle seemed undecided. The powerful bird could not 

 whip the beast in the water. Time and again it seized it in its talons and tried to fly 

 with it to its nest in the mountains; but the powerful ocean monster would get away 

 from it. Each time that it seized it there was a terrible battle, and the big noise 

 caused by the bird s flapping its wings (the thunder) shook the very mountains. The 

 places where these fights occurred were stripped of their timber, the trees being torn 

 out by their roots. A curse was brought upon them, and to this day no trees grow 

 upon them. They are the prairies of the country. At last the whale escaped to the 

 deep ocean, and the thunder-bird gave up the fight. That is why the Mim/os-whale 

 or killer-whale still lives in the ocean to-day.&quot; 



The Thunder-Bird and the Origin of the Glacial-Boulder-Train Across Beaver* Prairie. 

 (Police Luke Hobucket). 



&quot;A man was living at Wo-lot (Beaver Prairie). He was an elk hunter. He went 

 off hunting very early one morning, but soon came back, saying that he had seen a 

 very big bird sitting in a tree just a little way above the ground. The bird was the 

 thunder-bird. The man took one feather from thunderer s wing. It was just as long 

 as a canoe paddle. He bent the feather and put it in his quiver and brought it home 

 with him. After he had shown the feather to the people, he said: I also saw a 

 very, very big whale on the prairie. It had been carried there by the bird. The bird 

 was resting because it had such a big load. 



&quot;The man sent word to all the Quillayute people at the mouth of the river to 

 come up and cut up the whale, because it was so large that the bird could not 

 carry it further. All the beach and river Indians, three to six in each whaling canoe, 

 came at once to the prairie to cut up the whale. On reaching there they found the 

 huge whale lying dead in the lower part of the prairie, as had been reported. They 

 immediately commenced measuring off the parts they wanted; one family took the 

 saddle, another the head, and so on. By evening they had it all cut up. They piled 

 up the block-like sections of blubber all over the ground. Night came on; and the 

 clouds overhead became black. The thunder-bird had been robbed of his prey and 

 now he was returning with vengeance in his wings. It commenced to lightning and 

 shower a little, not so much at first. Then it hailed large hail, hail larger than your 

 fist. The hail killed and mangled all the people on the prairie. The Indians had 

 cooked and eaten whale meat that evening; and it was all right, it was good to 

 eat. But after the storm both meat and blubber were turned to stone, as were 

 the people also. And to-day, in great blocks of rocks, they form the ridge from 

 one end of the prairie to the other. One may even see the ribs of the whale s 

 carcass and its massive head.&quot; 



An Indian Myth of How the Headlands and Promontories of the Washington Coast 

 Were Formed. (Elon Mason). 



&quot;It was long ago, when people were animals and animals were people. Kwatte 

 was then still living on earth. He had his house on the beach near here; but he 

 got hardly anything to eat, for the wolves of the region prowled the coast, caught 

 the salmon, ate all the berries, and devoured all the animals of the woods, and gulped 

 down all the fish eggs that floated ashore. What was Kwatte to do? One day the 

 chief of the wolves came along up the coast. He came to Kwatte s house. Kwatte 

 pretended to be sick. The wolf came in. He made himself at home. Kwatte let him 

 stay. That night he made his bed at Kwatte s house beside Kwatte s fire. Soon he 

 was sound asleep. When he had been asleep for a considerable time he began to snore. 

 He snored loud. This was Kwatte s opportunity. He would now get even with the 

 wolves; and would also have some meat to eat. He got his knife, looked at it to see if 

 it was good and sharp, then, finding it in good shape, he went to the mat on which 

 the wolf was sleeping and severed his head with one blow. He then skinned the car 

 cass and hung the skin up above the fireplace in his house to dry. Then he stored the 

 meat safely under his bed. Then he went to sleep. 



&quot;The next morning, bright and early, a wolf came tracking his chief up the beach. 

 He tracked him to Kwatte s house. He entered the house. Said he to Kwatte, Did 

 you see Chief Wolf? Kwatte answered, No; I am sick; I have not been out of my 

 house; I have not seen him. But he came into your house. We tracked him here, 

 exclaimed the wolf. While wolf and Kwatte were talking, the wolf s slave, the blue 

 jay, had gone over to Kwatte s fire to warm himself. As he was spreading his hands 

 out before the fire, a drop of something fell on the upper surface of one of his 

 hands. At once he perceived that it was a kind of oil. He smelled it. At once he 

 recognized it to have the same smell as the smell of his master. He said nothing, but 

 went out of the room. The oil had dropped from, the skin that was drying. As soon 

 as he was out in the yard the blue jay told all the wolves what he had discovered; 

 many wolves had now followed the track to Kwatte s house. The blue jay was cry 

 ing, mourning the death of his master. The wolves all rushed into the house. Kwatte 

 had anticipated trouble and had hung a basket of combs near the door. As the wolves 

 entered, he made a quick move, seized the basket of combs, and before the wolves 

 could lay hands on him he sallied forth out the door past them and into the woods 

 near by and then down the beach. The whole pack of wolves now followed him in hot 

 pursuit. Time and again they nearly overtook him. But as they were just in the act 

 of seizing him he would take a comb out of the basket and drop it down on the beach 



