ON THE NORTH-WESTERN TRIBES OF CANADA. 575 



II. Mythology and Folklore. 



Astronomical. — The moon (natu'nik, Ftd'tlml'ijit natd'nih) is regarded 

 as a man, the sun (natd'nik) as a woman. There was no sun in the begin- 

 ning, and after the Indians had vainly endeavoured to discover it the 

 coyote [ski'tilcuts) was successful in making it rise above the mountains. 

 Another version makes the chicken-hawk (i'ntldk) cause the sun to rise, 

 and the coyote, getting angry, shoots an arrow at the sun, but misses, 

 with the result of setting the prairie on fire and making him run for dear 

 life. 



The moon is said to have been found by the chicken-hawk. The man 

 in the moon is an Indian, who once chopped wood all the days of the 

 week (including Sunday), whereupon the moon came down and seized 

 him, and he has been in the moon ever since. This myth may be of 

 European origin. 



The stars are mostly Indians, who from time to time have got up into 

 the sky. The Great Bear is called tld'utld {i.e., grizzly bear), and 

 was an Indian woman. Being a female grizzly she is at times very 

 angry, and the stars in the tail are Indians, upon whom she has seized. 

 The Milky Way is dqkEmd'is ad'Etltsin,' ' the dog's trail.' 



The thunder (nu'ma) is caused by a great bird that lives far up in the 

 sky. The lightning (ndqkd'tlimu'qudti'tlek) is made by the shooting of 

 its arrows. 



At first there were no clouds (dqk'dtl). The daughter of the coyote 

 married the thunder, and her father gave her the clouds for a blanket. 



Ethnic Origins, Sfc. — The Kootenays believe that they came from the 

 East, and one of their myths ascribes to them an origin from a hole in 

 the ground east of the Rocky Mountains. Another account says the 

 Kootenays sprang up from the hairs of the black bear (ni'pko), which fell 

 on the ground after he came out of the belly of the great fish which had 

 swallowed him. There were no women at first. By-and-by an Indian 

 went up into the mountains, and from a spirit who lived there received 

 the first Kootenay woman. 



Horses were made as follows : — A medicine-man took a piece of stick, 

 made it into the shape of a horse, and threw it away, whereupon it became 

 a horse. 



The Indians have a belief that the white men get their cattle from the 

 sea. They say the white men go every year to the shore of the Pacific 

 Ocean to receive the cattle which come out of the waters. 



Deluge Legend. — Sukpe'kd (a small grey bird, species ?), the wife of 

 ■i'ntldk (Accipiter Cooperi), is forbidden by her husband to go to a certain 

 lake, to di'ink of its waters, or to bathe in it. One day her husband goes 

 out after deer and repeats the warning before leaving. Sukpe'kd busied 

 herself picking berries, and, what with climbing the mountain and being 

 exposed to the hot sun, she feels very warm, and goes down to the lake. 

 Suddenly the water rises, and a giant called ydwuEnek comes forth, who 

 seizes the woman and ravishes her. I'ntldlv is very angry when he learns 

 of this, and, going to the lake, shoots the monster, who swallows up all 

 the water, so there is none for the Indians to drink. I'ntldk's wife pulls 

 the arrow out of the giant's breast, whereupon the water rushes forth in 

 torrents, and a flood is the result. I'ntldk and his wife take refuge on a 

 mountain, and by-and-by the water sinks to its proper level. 



In a variant of this legend the ' giant ' is a ' big fish.' I'ntldk sees the 



