31. Old-One and the Creation of the Nicola Country.
(cont.)He showed them how to build lodges, and said, “Henceforth men will hunt, fish, and make tools, and women will dig roots, and make baskets and mats. You people will henceforth live thus as I have taught you, and inhabit this country until such time as you will join the dead. Mow I leave you for a long time; but I will return to the earth some day, and then your mother, the Earth, from whom all things grow, will again assume her original and natural form.”1
32. Old-One and Women.
In some parts of the world, formerly, the women had no privates, and consequently could have no sexual intercourse, nor give birth to children. In other parts .of the world they gave birth only to male children. Likewise, some kinds of animals and birds had all female offspring, while other kinds had all male offspring. Old-One visited these people, and ordained that they should be right, saying, “Henceforth all women shall have proper female organs, shall have intercourse with men, and shall give birth to children. Henceforth all offspring of people, animals, birds, and fish, shall bring forth of their kind male and female in about equal proportions. There shall be no race exclusively males nor exclusively females.”
33. Old-One and the Ku'tuen.2
Old-One met the Ku'tuen, who used to travel by means of his mouth, and transformed him, saying, “Henceforth you will be the ku'tuen-fish, and will ascend streams by sticking to the rocks with your mouth. You will always precede the salmon when they run, and will carry their breath ahead of them.”
34. Old-One and Sucker (Fish).
When the people were being taught the arts by Old-One, the Sucker said to him, “You need not teach the people how to kill me: I will do that myself.” Then he told the people to catch him with a net, and he would roll himself tightly in it, and die. They tried this, and found that he spoke the truth. Therefore the sucker, when caught in a net, is invariably found wrapped up in it, and dead when taken out.
1. She will become a woman again. This will be the end of the world; and all people, living and dead, will join the Old-One and Coyote, and return with them to live in the upper world, where life will be similar to what it is at present in the land of shades. See Thompson beliefs regarding character of the land of souls, The Thompson Indians of British Columbia. Vol. I of this series, p. 343.
2. A kind of fish like a lamprey or eel, which is said to move up stream by sticking to the rocks with its mouth.
