EELLS ON THE TWANA INDIANS. 113 



formed a boom of logs arouucl it, many of wliicli often struck it. That 

 season was stormy, and some of the older Indians said, however, " No 

 wonder, as the rock is shaken all of the time." It is on the beach, fac- 

 ing the water, where it is flooded at high tide, but not at low tide, and 

 the impression is being gradually worn away by the waves. 



Eclipse. — An eclipse of the sun almost annular occurred about two 

 weeks ago, which gave me an opportunity to learn some of their ideas 

 about it. They formerly, as near as I can learu, supposed that a whale 

 was eating up the sun. At the time of the eclipse, several of the women 

 and old persons told me that they stopped work, went to their houses 

 and prayed in their minds to God. Many wished to know what I 

 thought was the cause of it. 



Prodigies. — (1) Stick Siwash, a great man or giant, by some thought 

 to be as large as a tree, who would carry off women and children when 

 alone or nearly alone, does not attack men. He lives in the woods. (2) 

 A great land animal which carried oft" a woman was pursued by a large 

 number of people, who attacked it, cut it with knives, speared it, and 

 did many things, enough to have killed very many common animals, 

 but were unable to kill it, and left it. (3) A great water animal, which 

 has overturned canoes and eaten up the people, but cannot be killed. 



Prayer. — In connection with their worship of the Great Spirit, or liter- 

 ally the Chief Above, as given (see Great Spirit, III, 17, F), they pray 

 to the Great Spirit, asking Him to take care of them, help them, and 

 make them good. 



F.— Belief. 



Animism or the existence of the soul — They firmly believe in this. 



Transmigration. — They believe that some wicked people have beeu 

 turned to animals, or did formerly believe it. 



They have a tradition of a dog which was bad, which swam from Eneti 

 to Union City, and back near to the graveyard, a distance of about five 

 miles, and was turned into a long rock, now lying there; also that a cer- 

 tain kind of round flat shell about four inches in diameter was formerly 

 their gambling-disks, but that these disks were changed to these shells. 



Worship of a Great Sinrit. — They believe in Him and worship Him, 

 chiefly as the Americans do; the old way, which has now ceased, being 

 by girding themselves, singing, and dancing before Him. 



Incarnation. — They have a tradition that God once came down to 

 earth, because of a certain impression in a rock on this canal (now 

 washed away), which looked somewhat like a large footstep, and since 

 they have been told that Christ came to this earth, they say they know 

 it to be true. 



la addition to the tradition given in connection with gambling (see 

 III, 10, A) they also have a tradition that when the Son of God 

 walked over this land, as He was walking on the beach, north of the 

 mouth of the Skokomish River, He slipped, and because of it He 

 cursed the ground, and it has been a salt-water marsh ever since, 



8 BULL 



