43. The War-Party that killed the Sturgeon.
(Lower Uta'mqt.)
(cont.)Some of the water-spirits also stopped at the waterfall near the mouth of the creek. Persons (especially strangers) who repair to these places at the present day are often unknowingly seized with sickness, while others see apparitions of the water-spirits in the shape of black bears, dogs, or people, or hear dogs yelping from the water, and immediately afterwards they become ill. In either case, persons attacked with this peculiar sickness turn mad and bite themselves. If they are not at once attended to by a medicine-man who understands the water-spirits of the creek, they usually die. Formerly young men used to repair to the pools and waterfall of this creek, where they trained themselves to become medicine-men.
44. The Strange People discovered by the S'a'tcinko.
(Lower Uta' mqt.)A people, who were S'a'tcinko, lived at the head of a creek which takes its rise in a lake called Cultus Lake, situated in the hills back of Chilliwhack They lived near the place where the waters flow out of the lake, and they fished plenty of salmon and other kinds of fish at this place. They had lived there a long time, and yet they knew very little about the lake which was so near to them. The country right at the source of the creek and all around the lake was a tangled forest, rocky and impassable owing to the thick underbrush: consequently the S'a'tcinko, who lived on the creek, never attempted to penetrate it.
One day two young men from the creek were out hunting in the neighboring hills, and from a distant eminence they obtained a good view of the lake. To their surprise, they beheld a wreath of smoke rising from the timber near the lake's edge. They thought it must be smoke from some camp: so they approached the lake from the direction opposite to the creek, and found that the country was not so tangled as around their own home, near the outlet of the lake. After a long walk they arrived at the place where they had seen the smoke, and were astonished to find many people living there. These people lived principally by fishing in the lake, and knew nothing of the S'a'tcinko who lived so near to them. They talked in a language which was unintelligible to the S'a'tcinko, and was said to be similar to a language spoken by a tribe of Indians on the American side, west of the Cascades. These people thought the young men were interior or Thompson Indians, of whom they seemed to know. The chief gave a wife to each of the S'a'tcinko young men, who, returning home, informed their people that a people almost as numerous as themselves were living on the lake.
TEIT, MYTHOLOGY OF THE THOMPSON INDIANS. 279
