XCviii ETHNOGRArHlC SKETCH. 



From a Klamath myth we gather the information tliat there is a 

 guardian over the spirits wafting through the sky, called Wash k'miish, or 

 the gray fox. This name is evidently borrowed from the coloring of the 

 sky, as it appears before or during a polar light, and must be compared with 

 another beast name, the wan or wanaka, the red fox, which is the symbol 

 of the sun-halo. 



Another class of spirits embodies the spirits of those animals which 

 have to be consulted by the kiuks or conjurer when he is called to treat a 

 case of disease. Such persons only who have been trained during five 

 years for the profession of conjurers can see these spirits, but by them they 

 are seen as clearly as we see the objects, around us. To see them they have 

 to go to the home of a deceased conjurer, and at night only. He is then 

 led by a spirit called YayayA-ash appearing in the form of a one-legged man 

 towards the spot where the animal-spirits live; this specter presides over 

 them; there the conjurer notices that each appears different from the other, 

 and is at liberty to consult them about the patient's case. Yayay4-ash 

 means "the frightener," and by the myth-tellers is regarded as the Thunder 

 or its spirit. 



Giants. — The imagination of every primitive people has been busy in 

 producing monsters of all qualities and shapes, human and animal, even 

 walking mountains and trees. What we call giants are generally personifi- 

 cations of irresistible powers of nature, which are sujiposed to perform feats 

 impossible for man's utmost strength; by dwarfs are symbolized powers of 

 nature which achieve great and wonderful things by steady and gradual 

 work unnoticed by the generality of human beings. 



Giants are often the originators of geological revolutions of the earth's 

 crust. Thus the giant Lewa represents the circular, lofty island lying 

 within the waters of Crater Lake or Gi'wash. He went by an underground 

 passage (fissure?) from his seat over to Yamsi Mountain to wrestle with 

 Ske'l, the all-powerful pine-marten, whose home is at Yamsi. After con- 

 quering him, he carried him through the same passage again to Crater Lake 

 for the })urpose of feeding him to his children, and his daughter, Lewanx 

 p('-ip, struck him with a heavy flint-stone. 



J^ike the walls of tliat lake and the whole Cascade range, the island in 



