406 
INDIAN TRIBES OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 
medicines, among which are both emetics and cathartics. The patriarchal institutions of slavery 
and polygamy are yet retained among them; the number of wives being limited only by the 
wealth of the husband, for with them it is the woman wdio is sold. 
A curious custom exists, exhibiting their savage ideas of equity as opposed to the common-law 
maxim of “ caveat emptor .” If a wife dies within a short period after marriage, the bereaved 
husband may reclaim the consideration from the father; so also with slaves and horses. No 
systematic aitempt has, it is believed, been made to convert the Klikatats to Christianity, 
although many individuals have come in contact with missionaries of some denomination. 
Several of those at Chequoss have had instruction from the Rev. Jason Lee and others, formerly 
at the Dalles. 
The old chief Tow-e-toks preserved a paper on which some one made a sort of calendar or record 
of the days of the week. He expressed great anxiety lest, as it was nearly worn out, he should 
be unable to distinguish the Sundays, and requested me to prepare him a new one. He added 
that he was in great fear of death, and constantly “talked to the Chief above.” As will readily 
be imagined, the remarkable features of this mountain scenery, and the neighborhood of the great 
snow peaks—Mount St. Helens and Mount Adams—give a color to the legends of the Klikatats. 
They, in common with the other Oregon tribes, seem to have had no distinct religious ideas 
previous to those introduced by the whites, nor any conception of a Supreme Being. Their 
mythology consists of vague and incoherent tales, in most of which Ta-la-pus, or the prairie 
wolf, figures as a supernatural power. Besides him there are other agents, among whom a race 
denominated the “ Elip Tihcum,” from two jargon words signifying “first people,” or “people 
before,” figure prominently. Though trifling in themselves, yet, as specimens of what may be 
considered the unwritten literature of the Indians, they may not be uninteresting—the more 
especially as the belief in the existence of those giants seems to be of universal currency through¬ 
out Oregon. The following are among them: 
In descending the valley from Chequoss, there occurs beneath a field of lava a vaulted 
passage, some miles in length, through which a stream flows in the rainy season, and the roof 
of which has fallen in here and there. Concerning this they relate that a very long time ago, 
before there were any Indians, there lived in this country a man and wife of gigantic stature. 
The man became tired of his partner, and took to himself a mouse, which thereupon became a 
woman. When the first wife knew of this, she was very naturally enraged, and threatened to 
kill them. This coming to the man’s knowledge, he hid himself and his mouse-wife in a place 
higher up the mountain, where there is a small lake having no visible outlet. The first woman 
finding that they had escaped her, and suspecting that they were hidden underground, com¬ 
menced digging, and tore up this passage. At last she came beneath where they stood, and 
looking up through a hole, saw them laughing at her. With great difficulty, and after sliding 
back two or three times, she succeeded in reaching them; when the man, now much alarmed, 
begged her not to kill him, but to allow him to return to their home and live with her as of old. 
She finally consented to kill only the mouse-wife, which she did, and it is her blood that has 
colored the stones at the lake. After a time the man asked her why she had wished to kill the other 
woman. She answered, because they had brought her to shame, and that she had a mind to kill 
him too; which she finally did, and since when she has lived alone in the mountains. 
Another story about the same place is to the effect that it was made by a former people called 
the Siam, a name corresponding with the jargon word for grizzly bear. The mouse story 
appears to be interwoven with the Klikatat mythology, for besides the name of this place, 
Hool-hool-se, (from hool-hool, a mouse,) one of the names of their country is Hool-hool-pam, 
or the mouse-land. This is given to it by the Yakimas. Both versions, as well as many others 
of their tales, refer to their Indian Pre-adamites, the Elip Tilicum; to whom, and to the Ta-la- 
pus, as many wonders are attributed as among Christians to Satan. 
Concerning the Ta-la-pus, this story is related by'the Klikatats in connexion with a favorite 
