530 EEPORT— 1900. 



' I could eat twice that quantity,' said he. But to his surprise he finds 

 the fruit more than he can consume. Eat as many as he will, some still 

 remain on the platter. Presently he begins to cough and spit. Some of 

 the spruce needles have got into his throat and he cannot dislodgo them. 

 Between his spasms of coughing he cries out : ' Ah ! son-in-law, you 

 have beaten me this time.' Saying this his eye (for it seems he possessed 

 but one) begins to start from his head, and presently a young hemlock- 

 spruce burst through his crown and speedily grew into a big tree. 

 MEn-tlE-Saie'lEm then called his wife and sister-in-law, and said to them : 

 ' We will go away and leave your wicked father now.' They forthwith 

 pack up their belongings and start off. When they get outside of the 

 house MEn-tlE-Saie'lEm gives a great kick to the back of it, and the 

 whole structure falls in and is transformed into a big rock with the tree 

 that grew from the old shaman's head still standing up, and apparently 

 growing out of it. 



This boulder, which the Indians used to look upon as an enchanted 

 rock, is said to be situated near Nanaimo. Even now the older Indians 

 believe that the shaman is still shut up in it. They declai'e they can 

 sometimes hear him saying, ' You have beaten me this time, son-in-law,' 

 and if any one passing by on the water were to revile it, or call it 

 opprobrious names, such as ' old one-eye,' they believe a tempest similar 

 to that the old shaman brought upon MEn-tlE-Saie'lEtn when he went 

 after the loon would immediately arise and drown all in the canoe. 



From the fact that this rock is situated within the borders of the 

 SnamaimuQ, as well as from the hero's name being doubtful Sk-qo'mic, 

 it is pretty certain this story has been borrowed from the SnamaimuQ. 



Te Qoitcita'l, tJie Seiyent- slayer. 



A long time ago many people lived at Stamis, a village at the mouth 

 of the Sk'qo'mic River. The son of the chief had just been married. 

 The night following the marriage, just before daybreak, the old people 

 heard the cry of Te Sino'tlkai (a huge double-headed water-serpent) as he 

 passed from one side of the mountain to the other. The old people woke 

 up the young couple who were sleeping together by tlu-owing cold water 

 over them, and told the young man that he ought to get up and go after 

 the Sino'tlkai. The youth was deeply oQended at this treatment on his 

 ■wedding night, and would not at first stir ; but presently he said to his 

 wife, ' I will do what they wish. I will follow the Sino'tlkai and kill it. 

 Don't be alarmed during my absence. I shall be away only four days.' 

 He was really absent four years, though the years seemed to him as 

 days. So he got up and took his bow and arrows and blanket and went 

 after the serpent. When he came upon the creature's trail the stench 

 which it had left behind it in its passage was so terrible, and the buzzing 

 of the flies whicli the smell had attracted so annoying, that he was 

 obliged to keep some distance off. From time to time as he went along 

 he bathed himself. After a while he came upon the serpent, which was 

 lying lengthwise across a small lake. Its heads rose up on one side, and 

 its tail on the other. Qoitcita'l would not bathe in this lake where the 

 serpent lay, but sought out another spot a little way off. The serpent 

 stayed here testing the lake's capacity for the space of two whole days 

 as it seemed to Qoitcita'l. In reality a whole year thus passed away. 

 It then went on again followed by Qoitcita'l as before, who bathed 



