ON THE ETHNOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 523 



upon a couj^le of men paddling about in a canoe. One, whose name was 

 TE'Ucapsuni (duck), sat in the bow, and the other who was called 

 Ela's (sea- cucumber) in the stern, he being the captain. Said Qais to 

 them : ' Where are you going 1 ' TE'ltcapsum replies, ' We are out 

 trapping,' and becomes so frightened that he immediately dives into the 

 sea. Qais now takes the bait the pair were using, and when TE'ltcapsum 

 comes to the surface some little way off throws it at him and strikes him 

 on the head with it. Where it struck a white spot immediately appeared. 

 TE'ltcapsum looked round to see what had happened, and Qais throws 

 a second piece at him, and hits him this time on the nose. Again a 

 white spot appeared. The duck now takes to flight, crying out in fear 

 as he goes ' anin, nin, nin, ninJ Ela's observing Qais's action now also 

 takes to the water and dives down to the bottom and remains there. 

 Qais seeing this calls out to him, ' Very well, my friend, if you want to 

 stay down there do,' and therewith he transforms him into a sea- 

 cucumber (Holothurian). Thus originated the white-headed duck and 

 the sea-cucumber. 



After these events they went up towards the head of the Sk-qo'mic 

 River. On their way they perceive a village and three Fort Douglas 

 men (membei's of the Stlatlumn tribe, whose territory is contiguous to 

 that of the Upper Sk-qo'mic), who are 'packing' something on their 

 backs. Qais transforms these men and their packs into three big 

 boulders which are to be seen at this village to this day. Going on 

 from thence they come to a mountain, down the slope of which they 

 perceive SkOd'watc (sturgeonj coming. Him also they change into stone. 

 A little after, as they still journeyed on, they come upon K-ivinl's (whale), 

 and he too is transformed by them into a rock. In course of time 

 they arrived at the spot where the village of ''nku'k-Efenatc now stands. 

 There they saw two men in their canoes. These, both men and canoes, 

 they turn into stone ; hence the name n'ku'k-Epenatc, which signifies the 

 place of the stone canoes. Some time after this they meet a man 

 carrying a spear. They request him to give them his weapon, but he 

 refuses to do so, and him they likewise turn into stone, where he may be 

 seen to this day with his spear in his hand. At this point my informant's 

 memory gave out, and he could tell me no more of the doings and trans- 

 formations of the Qais. 



Tsai'anuk. 



There was once a man who was the father of twins. One night he 

 dreamt a strange dream. In his dream he was bidden to collect the 

 bones of all the fish that frequented the Sk-qo'mic River. He was to 

 place them in a box divided by partitions, a pattern of which was 

 shown him in his dream. The bones of each kind of fish were to be kept 

 separate in the divisions of the box. On awaking he set about his task. 

 When the box was ready he filled each division of it with the bones of 

 different kinds of fish, and then placed the box in a large hole of a living 

 tree, whose trunk he had hollowed out for the purpose. He then 

 covered up the aperture so that the box could not be seen. Shortly after 

 this he died, and from that time onward no fish came into the river. 

 Many years later a man chanced to pass by the tree in which the box 

 of fish-bones was hidden. When he approached the tree, his senses were 

 taken from him, and he wandered round and round the place in a kind 

 of trance. In this state he was shown the box hidden in the tree, and 



