3. QWA'QTQWETL and KOKWE'LA.
(From the Upper and Lower Thompson Indians.)
(continued)
He left his country, and, after travelling eastward and northward among the Shuswap and other tribes, he came down the Fraser River as far as Nkai'a,1 where he met the Qwa'qtqwEtl brothers on his way up the river. They tried to transform him, but without success. He also tried his powers in vain on Qwa'qtqwEtl. Then they said to one another, "We are of equal power; let us camp together!" Their camping-place may still be seen in the shape of a large flat rock. Since he had no water, Kokwe'la drove his staff into the ground; and when he withdrew it, water came out, and runs until this day. Each of the four men carried diminutive kettles of basketry for cooking, a small pack of food, and very small spoons of sheep's-horn. All of these became large whenever they desired to use them. Their food was inexhaustible.(Here follows the incident of the soup, as related in a previous publication.2) Qwa'qtqwEtl said to his brothers, "Watch me finishing his soup at one spoonful." When he failed, Kokwe'la scraped the soup up with one sweep of his thumb, and left the basket completely empty.
Before they parted, Qwa'qtqwEtl and Kokwe'la agreed that they would travel in opposite directions to the ends of the earth. Kokwe'la then descended the Fraser River and reached the west end of the earth at some place near the ocean. There he sat down and disappeared. He assumed the name SEsuqElia'n,3and will remain in the west until the time comes for the dead to return, when he will re-appear with Coyote and act as a chief and judge.
Qwa'qtqwEtl and his brothers travelled up the Thompson River, and continued their journey eastwards until they reached the end of the land in that direction, near the other ocean. The youngest brother said to the elder ones, "Our work is done, now I shall transform you." They went hunting a bear up in the sky; and he transformed them, their dog, and the bear into the group of stars known as the Grizzly Bear.4 Then he assumed the name CEkwo'liatc,5 and took his position at the east end of the earth. He also will return to act as chief, judge, and transformer when the earth is sufficiently old, and the time comes for the great change.6
His brothers were only slightly gifted with magic, and travelled with him rather as helpers and companions. On their way up the Thompson River they wrought at least three transformations between Lytton and Spences Bridge on the south side of the river, -- the first at a place a little east of Thompson station, where they met a young woman7 who waylaid men. She was a Snake woman, who called on all male passers-by and made love to them. When they succumbed to her enticement, her vagina closed, and severed or crushed their genital organs, and thus killed them. Qwa'qtqwEtl said he would overcome her. His brother tried to dissuade him, saying, "You will surely be killed." The brothers found the woman lying near the trail with her legs apart, as was her custom. Qwa'qtqwEtl inserted his arrow-flaker crosswise in her vagina, and thus prevented the parts from closing. He transformed her into a rock, saying, " Henceforth no privates of women shall have the power to destroy men." This rock is there yet.8
A second transformation occurred at a place called "Gaping" or "Open-Mouth," near Drynoch. Here lived a huge horse9 which caught people with its mouth. It placed its open mouth on the trail, and people walked in. It closed it, and they could not get out.10 Qwa'qtqwEtl placed his arrow-flaker11 on end in the creature's mouth, so that it could not be closed. After he had thus killed its power, he transformed it into a stone, which may still be seen at that place. He said, "Henceforth horses shall not swallow people, but shall be their friends, and be used by man."
A third transformation took place near Mud Slide. (Here follows the incident of Qwa'qtqwEtl's transformation into a fish, and the capture of the copper harpoon-point.12) The mystery, or cannibal, of this place, and his underground lodge, were transformed into a stone, which may be seen there above the old Indian trail. As the man's wife had spoken kindly to them, and had warned them against her husband, they transformed her into an animal, and not into a stone. Qwa'qtqwEtl threw her toward the side-hills of Botani Valley, saying, "Henceforth you shall be it short-tailed mouse, and your food shall be roots. At the place where I put you these will be in great abundance."
1 On the west side of the Fraser River, near Lytton.
2 RBAE 31 : 616.
3 See p. 13.
4 The constellation the Great Bear or Dipper. All the Shuswap and Thompson tell stories of the transformation of hunters or men and a bear into the constellation the Great Bear. -- RBAE 31 : 615 (No. 17).
5 See p. 13.
6 Some Indians believe that the "people of the birch-bark canoe" (i.e., the Sun and companions) will also return as chiefs to earth at the time of the great transformation at the end of the world.
7 Some informants say she was an adolescent girl. --RBAE 31: 614 (No. 12).
8 This rock is prayed to by Indians who have swellings of the limbs. They strike the rock and the affected parts of the body with fir-branches, asking the mystery of the place to cure them. The rock has a fissure similar to the rock called "Coyote's Wife," near Spences bridge.
9 When I pointed out that the horse was a recent introduction, and could not have been in the Thompson country in very early times, the Indians said it might have been a buffalo or an elk, but they had heard the story told of a horse, or of a being resembling a horse. It may have been simply the "mystery" of the place.
10 See pp. 115, 117, 122, 148.
11 RBAE 31 : 610 (No. 1)
12 RBAE 31 : 606 (No. 67).
