a 



402 REPORT— 1902. 



At daybreak one of the women left the house to get some water, and as she 

 went to the stream she came upon Beaver lying upon his back in the path 

 apparently dead. She had never seen anything of the kind before, and 

 became alarmed, and cried out to the others to come and see the Cla'lakum 

 (spirit, supernatural being). They all rushed down to see the strange thing. 

 No one knew what it was, and all expressed surprise and fear, the more 

 timid bidding the rasher not to go too close. As they stood gazing and 

 wondering, one ran down from the village and pushed the crowd aside, 

 saying, ' Let me see him ; I think I know that person.' This was Keu'q, 

 the ' steel-head ' salmon ; who, when he saw the Beaver, said : ' I have 

 met this person before in my visits up the river. You must be careful of 

 him, he is a very crafty fellow. Give me a knife and I will cut him open, 

 and you shall see what he has in his mind ; he is here for no good pur- 

 pose.' As he was about to cut Beaver open Tseuht and Tsc'kel came flying 

 over their heads, making a great noise and attracting everybody's atten- 

 tion. They all left Beaver and endeavoured to catch the birds. The 

 latter pretended to be lame and enticed the people to follow them. While 

 everybody was trying to secure the strange birds S'kElau' opened his eyes 

 and looked about him. Seeing all the people preoccupied with his friends, 

 he quickly made his way to the house. Inside he saw a baby hanging 

 from the swing-pole. In a moment he snatched it down, and making 

 straight for the river plunged in and carried it off. Tseuht, who had been 

 watching him, now called out to Tsckel to make for the canoe. When they 

 got there they found Beaver waiting for them with the baby in his posses- 

 sion. They instantly paddled off. The Salmon people then rushed for their 

 canoes and gave chase to them. But no sooner did the paddlers bend to 

 their work than the paddles snapped one after another. The water, too, 

 forced its way through the holes in the canoes made by KwCiftel, so that 

 they could make but poor headway. A few of them, however, whose canoes 

 and paddles Mouse had overlooked, did better, and steadily gained upon the 

 fugitives, who were stupidly paddling with the edge instead of the flat of 

 the paddle. Presently they passed by a point where Kaia'tlla (the snail) 

 was standing watching the chase. Seeing them paddling with the edge 

 of their paddles she cried out : ' Paddle with the flat of your paddles and 

 you'll get along faster.' They followed Kaia'tlla's advice and soon gained 

 upon their pursuers, who, seeing they were losing ground, presently threw 

 their paddles aside, jumped into the water, and began to swim after 

 them. When S'kElau' and his friends got up the Fraser as far as the 

 Coquitlum River they took ofl" the baby's akilatl (under-garments). One 

 of these, a dirty one, they threw into this stream. Hence they went on 

 to the Chilliwack River, and into this they cast another skilati, this time a 

 clean one. They went on to the Harrison River and dropped another there, 

 and thence to Yale, on the Fraser, where there was a tsld'kq (fish-weir). 

 On the lower side of this they dropped the child ; whereupon the water 

 began to rage and boil. The four adventurers now separated and went 

 up different creeks and became da'lakum (supernatural beings). 



From this time onwards the salmon have visited annually the streams 

 mentioned ; but because the dirty skilati was thrown into the Coquitlum the 

 salmon taken in that river are bad and difficult to dry. At the Harrison 

 something kills the salmon, and they die in great numbers there. In the 

 Chilliwack, on the contrary, they are good and fine, and are easily dried 

 and cured. 



There are many points in this story which recall the manner in which 



