xlii ETHNOGRAPniC SKETCH. 



As a result of their seclusion, all their ^eogonic and creation myths are 

 acting around the headwaters of Klamath River and in Lost River Val- 

 ley, and the first man is said to have been created V)y their national deity, 

 K'mukamtchiksh, at the base of the lofty Cascade Range, upon the prairie 

 drained bv Wood River. T have obtained no myth dis(dosing an}' knowl- 

 edge of the ocean, Avhich is scarcely one hundred and fifty miles distant in 

 an air line from their seats. They have no flood or iimiidation myths that 

 are not imported from abroad: and what is of special importance here, their 

 terms for salt (a'dak, slio'lt) are not tJmr own, but are derived from foreign 

 lanoruages. 



There is an animal story embodied in the Texts, page 131, forming 

 No. II of the "Spell of the Laughing Raven," containing the sentence: 

 "Hereupon the Klamath Lake people began fighting the Northerners." I 

 believed at first that this contained a historic reminiscence of some inter- 

 tribal war, but now am rather doubtful about it. The song 192:1 was 

 supposed by some Indians to be a, very old reminiscence, while others 

 referred it to the presence of the Warm Spring scouts in the Modoc war. 



I conclude from the foregoing facts that historic traditions do not exist 

 among these mountaineer Indians. If there are any, I was unable to obtain 

 them. The racial qualities of the Modocs, and still more those of the 

 E-ukshikni, indicate a closer resemblance with Oregonians and Columbia 

 River tribes than with Shoshonians and Californians. 



B. ARCH^OLOGIO REMAINS. 



The Klamath people have not evinced any more propensity for erect- 

 ing monuments of any kind than they have for perpetuating the memory 

 of their ancestors in song or tradition. In fact, structures the probable 

 age of which exceeds one hundred years are very few. Among these may 

 be particularized the three ceremonial sweat-lodges and perhaps some of 

 the river-barrages, intended to facilitate the catch of fish, if they should 

 turn out to be of artificial and not of natural origin. In the Lost River 

 Valley is a well, claimed by Modocs to be Aishish's gift — probably one of 

 the large natural springs or welwash which are seen bubbling up in .so 

 many places upon the reservation Stephen Powers reports that near the 



