SELISn MYTIIS 



By W. J. HOFFMAN, M. D. 



Introduction. 



The accompanying stories were obtained from the Flat- 

 head, or, more properly speaking, Selish Iiidians, coii- 

 sisting of one of the tribes composing the eastern division 

 of the Selish linguistic stock, and who occiipy the Jocko 

 Valley, in Montana, at the eastern base of the Rocky 

 Mountains. The Selish, as well as all other native tribes, 

 are extremely fond of passing the long winter evenings in 

 story-telling, and to attempt to record the events of one 

 evening would be an arduous task. A few myths have 

 been selected for this paper, and for the purpose of illus- 

 trating the language, as well as the syntactical structure, 

 bat a sinsfle narrative is submitted in the ori^^inal text. 

 It is proper to state that these Indians, when speaking of 

 the various animals and birds and their participation in 

 varions transactions and exploits, do not look upon them 

 in auy other light than that of human beings who lived in 

 remote times. One reason why we hear such expressions 

 as " A Panther married a Salmon," or "The Bear killed 

 the Gopher," is because an individual named " The Pan- 

 ther " married the daughter of another called the " Salmon ;" 

 though generally, these names are not personal names but 

 relate to the gens or clans of which the respective persons 

 were members. According to tribal laws, no one is 

 permitted to marry within the gens, but always selects a 

 partner from without, the gens being considered consan- 

 guineous and descendants from a common ancestor. 



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