26. Kokwe'la, or Kokwelahe'it.1
(cont.)Afterwards he travelled as a transformer1 over the earth. Most of the time alone, but sometimes in company with the Qwo’qtqwal brothers. One time they camped together at a place on Thompson River a little above Lytton, where there is now a fair sized spring. They were all very thirsty, and competed with one another to see who could cause water to come. When all four brothers had failed Kokwe'la kicked the ground, and caused the spring which is there to appear. When thirsty while travelling, he just kicked the ground, and water would gush forth. He left many springs in the track he travelled2
27-36. Old-One.
27. Creation of the World by the Old-One.3
Formerly the earth we live on did not exist, in its place was a great lake. Old-One, who lives in the upper world or in that part of it where now the highest snow- capped mountains reach the sky, got tired looking below him at the endless waste of water. He thought, “I will make an island in the middle of the lake, which will be nice to look at.” Taking some clear4 earth (soil of the upper world), he formed it into a round ball, hollow in the centre. And threw it down into the middle of the lake. Here it formed a large island, - the earth upon which we live. The ball burst when it hit the water,5 and, spreading immensely on all sides, it covered a large area, in the same way that a landslide may not be very large when it first shoots out; but as it runs it increases in size, spreading out eventually over a large surface. The earth remained in the water as a broken mass of flats, hollows, hills, and islets, much as we see it now.
As the world was still a bare mass of earth, not very pleasing to look at, Old-One came down himself afterwards, and commenced to improve it, making trees, grass, and other needful things to grow. This is the reason that the edge of the earth is surrounded by great lakes at the present day.
28. Old-One and the End of the World.6
The earth is a round7 , ball that revolves on a stick that is its axis. It is just like an Indian top.8 The lower end of the stick rests in another world where Old-One lives. He sits close by and watches it.
1. Some say he was sent by the Old-Man to work as a transformer.
2. Some say most of the water-springs in the Thompson River country were created by him.
3. Compare with Nicola story of Kokenaleks in this collection, where Bath-boy kicks a ball up in the sky, which, falling down on a lake, becomes the earth.
4 Some say transparent or semi-transparent.
5. Some maintain that it did not burst, but floats on the lake to the present day.
6. See A. L. Kroeber, Cheyenne, Tales. Journal of American Folk-Lore, XIII, p. 164.
7. Some say round, but flat.
8. Or like a spindle.
