ON THE ETHNOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 407 



puted control of the river from its southern mouth to the borders of the 

 NEka'mEn, sixty or seventy miles inland. 



Of their origin they give various mythical accounts. Among the 

 Kwa'ntlEn proper the first man was called Swa'nisEt, meaning ' to appear 

 or come in a mysterious manner. He was a tEn Swe'yil, ' descendant of 

 the sky,' who suddenly appeared on the Fraser River. Another account 

 makes the first man a tE7i Tp/muH, a descendant of the earth. This 

 latter is possibly an adaptation of the Mosaic account of the first man. 

 With him were created all the native tools and utensils, and also the 

 Kiol'kwitlEm tribe to be his slaves. His name is given as Sk-ioElsc'lmn, 

 The sia'm-Kwa'ntlEn have a genealogical record of their chiefs for nine 

 generations. It is as follows : — 



1. Sk-wElse'lEm I. 



2. Sk-wElse'lEm II. 



3. Sk-wElse'lEm III. 



4. Ctla'lsitEt, afterwards changed to Sk-wElse'lEm IV. 



5. Sq'tctEn I. Sk-wElse'lEm IV. dying without male issue the slii'm- 

 ship passed to his sister's son ; hence the change of name. 



G. Sq'tctEn II., afterwards changed to Stltl'mtEn, which has reference 

 to thunder. The story in connection with the change of name was for- 

 gotten. The name is a su'I'ia name. 



7. Sq'tctEn III. 



8. Sq'tctEn IV 



9. Sq'tctEn V., who is the present chief. 



The original signification of these names seems to be forgotten. 



In the lives of the earlier chiefs certain important events are recorded 

 as happening. Thus, when Sk'wElse'lEm II. was chief a mighty conflagra- 

 tion spread all over the whole earth, from which but few people and 

 animals escaped. This would seem to I'efer to some volcanic phenomena in 

 the experience of their ancestors. During the lifetime of Sk-wElse'lEm III. 

 a great flood overwhelmed the people and scattered the tribes. Then it 

 was, according to the Kwa'ntlEn belief, that the Nootsak tribe was parted 

 from the Sk-qo'mic, to whom they are regarded as belonging. They also 

 say that a branch of the Kwa'ntlEn named Pe'loeli settled on the coast 

 somewhere opposite Alert Bay, and they assert that this tribe still lives 

 there and speaks the Kwa'ntlEn language. If there is any truth in this 

 statement they have not yet been made known to ethnologists. When 

 the statement was first made to me I very naturally concluded that I was 

 getting an account of the settlement of the Bilqula tribe, but when I 

 mentioned them they assured me the Pe'lQeli were not the Bilqula, but a 

 distinct tribe, speaking the Kwa'ntlEn tongue, which lived beyond the 

 Bilqula territories. I have thus far not yet been able to test the truth of 

 this statement. It certainly will be an interesting fact if the Pe'lQeli can 

 be found and identified as Kwa'ntlEn. ^ 



' From further inquiries since the above was written I am disposed to think this 

 tradition does refer to the Bilqula tribe. It will be seen that Pelaeli is merely a 

 dialectic variation of Bilqula. In speaking with the Kwa'ntlEn of this tribe 1 always 

 used the English form Uella Coola. This doubtless misled my informants. More- 

 over, it is worthy of note that the Bilqula themselves have a tradition connecting 

 them or their ancestors with the Fraser River region. In the important myth of 

 Tutosvhiq the Fraser River is given as the place of his origin. The term PelQe'u also 

 occurs in Bilqula legends under the form Pelkhany or PElqani, Jt is the name of a, 



