ON THE ETHNOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 519 



ears till they become long and pointed, and at his arms till they equal his 

 legs in length. They then take the pointed bone he had been at work 

 upon and thrust it into one of his feet, in consequence of which this bone 

 (stnumk'SEn) is found in the feet of all his bestial descendants to this day. 

 After this they clap their hands and make a noise like a deer, and he in- 

 stantly loses his original form and becomes a deer, with antlers springing 

 from his forehead. Thus did Qais create the deer for the Sk-qo'mic. The 

 creature starts off in fear and runs from them with the swiftness of the 

 wind. When he had gone some distance he stopped and looked back, 

 whereupon Qais beckoned to him to return. Said the eldest : ' He runs 

 too fast ; the people who come after us will never be able to catch him. 

 We must make him go slower.' When the deer comes back to them they 

 take him by the hind legs and knock his hoofs together several times. 

 They then clap their hands again and send him oft' a second time. On 

 this occasion he does not run so fast. ' That will do,' said they ; ' he is all 

 right now.' From here they paddle on till they come to an old man who 

 appears to be fishing for salmon with a long double-pronged fish-spear. 

 He carries also a big basket with him. The Qais stop and watch his 

 proceedings. They find that he does not spear the salmon, but merely 

 feels for them and rubs his spear against them, bringing away each time 

 a little of the slime from their bodies. This he wipes off with some moss 

 into the basket. When they see what he is doing they go up to him and 

 take his spear away from him. From their pockets they then produce a 

 ml'dtc (a barbed spear-point) and put it on the spear, saying as they do 

 so : ' See, grandfather, this is the proper way to fish.' And as they speak 

 Qais feels in the water with the blunt end of the spear for the salmon, 

 and when he touches one he turns the spear quickly about and plunges it 

 into the salmon. They then return the old man his spear and tell him to 

 catch his salmon as they had shown him. The old man gets angry and 

 says : ' I don't want you to tell me what I ought to do. I like my own 

 method best, and I prefer the slime to the fish.' When he makes this 

 strange statement they are convinced that he must be a person of a very 

 undesirable character, who ought to be checked in his evil ways. They 

 therefore take his spear from him and break it in two. The two halves 

 they set against his legs one on each side. The point of the spear they 

 push up his nose. They then pull at his head till his neck is much 

 elongated, after which they clap their hands and utter the cries of a crane, 

 and the old man is immediately turned into a bird of that species and 

 flies away. Thus did Qais bring the crane into being. 



They continue their journeyings till they come to a high bluS" on the 

 sea shore. Here they land, and the youngest resumes his own form. 

 They now build a house for themselves and propose to stay a while there. 

 When the house was completed the eldest suggests the making of a trap 

 to catch the Sun. Said he : 'I will make a trap and snare the Sun. I 

 want to have a talk with him.' He then transforms his youngest brother 

 into a salmon, and secures him to the shore by a line ; the salmon sports 

 about in the water and looks a very fine fish. Presently Snu'k'um (sun) 

 perceives the bait set for him, and descending in the form of an eagle 

 pounces upon it and carries it oft", breaking the line which held the salmon 

 to the shoi-e as he did so. The three brothers were unconscious of what 

 was occurring, having been cast by Snu'k"um into a deep trance. When 

 they awakened from their trance their youngest brother had disappeared. 

 Qais was not to be beaten by Snu'k'um in this way, so he now transforms 



