FE —————<— 
ON THE ETHNOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 1 
who each time the young woman threw them roots drove his mate off and 
ate them all up himself. But as the hen recalled to the memory of the 
selfish cock her deeds of past kindness one after the other, which corre- 
sponded exactly to the acts of the young Shaman’s lately forsaken wife, 
his memory became clearer and clearer until in the last scene of this litile 
domestic drama of the birds, when the hen said, ‘ Didn’t I tell you that 
you would forget and forsake me if you allowed your sisters and parents 
to kiss you before you returned to me?’ the full memory of the past 
suddenly rushed to his mind, and in the young woman before him exhi- 
biting her birds he recognised his forsaken and forgotten wife. He sprang 
up with a great ery and embraced her before the whole assembly, calling 
her by all the dear names he could think of. His action caused great 
astonishment to those present, but he explained that the stranger was his 
wife, and told them how he had won and lost her. Even the bride-elect 
and her relations could not complain, and he was permitted to withdraw 
from the proposed marriage. Compensation in the form of presents was 
made to the father of the disappointed young woman who had so strangely 
been robbed of her prospective husband, and another suitor was found 
for her. 
Story of the Adventures of Snikid’p' the Coyote, and his Son N’tlikeu'mtum. 
In the old, old days Snikia’p lived all alone by himself. He had 
neither wife nor children, He much desired a son, and being a medicine- 
man of great power it was not difficult for him to obtain his desire. One 
day he got a lump of pitch,? and, working it in his hands for a while, 
fashioned it in the form of a human being. Having done this he laid it 
on the ground and stepped over it three times, saying at the same time, 
‘Rise up.’ After the third time the effigy rose upon its feet and became 
a living being. He now bids his son to be exceedingly careful never to 
go where it was hot. ‘Harm will come to you, my son,’ said he, ‘if you 
do, When the weather is very warm you must go and swim in the river, 
and when it is cool you can safely come home again.’ The boy, who 
steadily grows, followed his father’s instructions carefully for a time ; but 
after a while he gets tired of passing the best part of the day in the water. 
So one day he finds a large flat stone on the bank and lies down upon it 
inthe sun. The sun’s heat soon begins to act upon him, and ina short 
time he melts away. When evening came and he did not return as usual, 
Snikia’p goes out to look for him, and presently discovers the melted pitch 
on the ground. He now determines to create another son for himself who 
‘ Dr. G. M. Dawson has recorded a brief account of the doings of Snikia’p the 
Coyote, from notes supplied him by Mr. J. W. Mackay, in his ‘Notes on the Shuswap 
People of British Columbia,’ Zrans. Roy. Soc. Canada, sect. ii. 1891. According to my 
informant, Chief Mischelle, of Lytton, an exceptionally intelligent and well-informed 
man, the name should be written as I have transliterated it. I have heard it called 
Shnikia’p by the Indians, and also by Mischelle himself once. In the mouth of the 
Indians of this region the dental sibilant s commonly changes into the corresponding 
palatal sh, the speakers being apparently unaware of the change themselves. Accord- 
ing to Dr. Dawson the Shuswaps of Kamloops call this being Skila'p. Snikia’p is 
the N’tlaka’pamug for Coyote. The Coyote always goes by this name in the stories 
(see below). This Skila'p, or Snikia’p, is frequently confused in the stories with 
Skoe’qt-koatlt, the Culture-hero of the N’tlaka’pamugq. See the writer's account of the 
doings of this hero in the Zransactions of the English Folklore Society for this year. 
? Dr. Dawson has also recorded a brief account of a story similar in part to this 
in his ‘ Notes,’ only in the Shuswap version it is a lonely grizzly woman who creates a 
gon in this way for herself, and the after incidents are also different, 
