Cil ETHNOGKArUlC sKpyroH. 



sometimes also, but they manage to revive again and to revenge themselves 

 on their enemies. Wliat hrought these two beasts into mutual connection 

 in the popular mind has been already pointed out: both change their furs, 

 more than other animals, from a darker hue in suuuiier to a lighter one 

 in winter, when the weasel's fur l)ecomes white. They are l)otli supposed 

 to live at Yamsi, "Northwind's Home," a high peak east of Klamath Marsh. 

 To act like Ske'lamtch is to do something not meaning to do it apparently. 

 Ske'l is a great wrestler, and like K'mukamtch has the faculty of changing 

 himself into a bird, beast, dog, old woman, etc., at will. To a certain 

 extent he is the counterpart of K'mukamtch and performs the same deeds 

 as he does, it appearing as if K'mukamtch acted under the mask of Marten 

 and Tchaskai under that of Ai'shish, in whom we recognize a lunar deity. 

 But there are other acts by which the two pairs differ considerably, and 

 where Marten and hi.s brother appear to represent the wintry season only 

 and the rough weather attendino- it. 



Another deity of the same type, and far-famed over all the Pacific 

 coast, is the prairie-tmlf, little wolf, or coyote. This quadruped belongs 

 rather to the genus jackal than to the wolves, looks as smart as a fox, carries 

 a beautiful fur, and does not attack people unless united in packs of a dozen 

 or more. His habit of living in earth holes, and his doleful, human-Hke, 

 whining ululation, heard especially during moonlit nights were probably 

 what set him up in the esteem of certain Indians, like the fCastern Selish 

 and the Centi-al Californians, so high as to make of him the creator of the 

 world and of man. In Modoc stories he appears more frequently than in 

 Klamath Lake folklore, and at present there are but few of these animals 

 left on the headwaters of Klamath River. Wash, or Washamtch as the 

 Klamaths call him, always appears in sun and moon stories, and is, like 

 Ske'l and Tchashgai, a substitute for the sun-and-moon deities. When he 

 ran a i-ace with the clouds he thought at first that there were two of him, 

 for he always saw another person, his shadow, going by his side. When 

 he stayed in the lodge of the Firedrill lirothers he took the fire-sticks of 

 these in his hands and they all blazed uj). In the lodge of the ten Hot- 

 Water Basket brothers he was burnt terribly by the inmates, and when 

 repairing to the Ants' lodge the inmates punished him fearfullv l)v their 



