46. Mink
(Lower Uta'mqt.)
(cont.)He retired into the woods for several days, where he busied himself making first a large knife and then a wooden seal which he covered with seal-skin. When he had finished the seal, he said to it, "Cry " and it ,at once cried; " Move!" and it moved; so he was well pleased with his work, He commanded it to go to the house where the feast was still in progress. It entered, and sat down on the chief seat. The people ordered it to leave, but it would not go; therefore they attacked1 it with spears, but they only glanced off. Then the seal ran through the middle of them, and, reaching the water2, swam around. All the young men took canoes and gave chase intending either to capture or to kill it; but it dodged and dived so quick that they could not get near enough to harm it. The seal came up underneath the canoes and capsized them, and many of the people were drowned. After capsizing all the canoes, it disappeared and was seen no more.
Some time afterwards Mink called all the deer from the mountains down to the riverbank. When they arrived, he told them all to stand in a row, with their tails towards him. After looking at them, he said, "You are not fat enough yet, you better go back to the mountains for a while longer." So they all ran away to where they had come from. Again he called the deer, and, after looking at them, he told them they were too lean. On the third occasion he considered them fat enough, therefore ordered them to embark in his canoe, which they did. When they were all on board, he paddled across the river to his grandmother's house, and, on entering, said to the old woman, "My canoe is full of fat deer. Go down and drive them up." She went down, but although she ordered them out of the canoe, and afterwards tried to drive them with a stick, they refused to move. She came back and told Mink that she was unable to drive them, therefore he went down and commanded them to get out of the canoe; this they did. Then he told them to march up to the house, but this they would not do; instead they all ran away up the mountain-side, laughing at mink, who felt quite crestfallen.
Shortly after this he said to his younger brother, Marten. "Let us go to the place where the salmon go in and out." Although somewhat afraid Marten agreed to this. Now, at this time the Lower Fraser River3 was blocked by a 'mystery' (xaxa')4 in the shape of a very large fish5, that occupied the whole width of the river with its huge body, which was also very high and stretched across the river like a fog-bank. This creature had an immense mouth, which extended right through its body like a passage; and when it closed it, nothing could pass up or down the river, but when it opened it the salmon6 passed through to the waters above. As long as its mouth was open, the salmon went in and out.
1 Some say they threw spears at it.
2 Some say the river.
3 Some say some part of the river between Harrison River and the mouth of the Fraser.
4 A mysterious being, possessed of great medicine.
5 Some say a whale, or, rather, give the S'a'tcinko name for whale. They have no very clear idea of what a whale is like, except that it is a large fish with a big mouth.
6 Some think that the salmon belonged to him. They say the salmon never went very far away from its mouth.
