44. Origin of the Elk.
(cont.)Then they cut it up, ate some of the fat, and carried the rest home. Thus was the first elk seen and slain. Soon after this, two more elks came out from underneath the Sun; and from them or others that came afterwards elk multiplied and became very numerous.1
45.Sun and his Questioner.
(Nkamtci'nEmux.)Once the people sent a man to the Sun to ask him questions and get knowledge. He asked the Sun how to know the people who would live long, and those who would be short-lived. The Sun answered, “Those people who lie in bed until the sun shines upon them will be short-lived, while those who rise early, and are careful never to let the sun shine on them when asleep, will be long-lived.”
46. Origin of Land and Water Mysteries.2
Formerly the people on earth were very bad, and especially those who lived in the western part of it, between the Cascade Mountains and the sea. In the west were many bad shamans who continually wrought evil; but the people of the east were not so bad. Now Beaver,3 who lived east of the Cascades, caused a great flood to come, which drowned all the bad people.4 At this time originated land mysteries (xaxaoe'mux) and water mysteries (xaxaa'tko). As the flood receded, it left all the hollows and holes of every size full of water, thus forming an immense number of lakes and ponds. Many of these took a Long time to dry up, and some continue still in the form of stagnant ponds and lakes of peculiar color.5 As the water receded, the corpses of the bad shamans and ancients endowed with magic were left on the ground to rot, or drifted into the lakes, where they disappeared; while their spirits took up their abode in the places where their bodies dissolved. Thus those who were left on dry land became land mysteries, that live underground; while the others became water mysteries, and live under water. They are like ghosts, and haunt many lakes and mountains. They show themselves in a great variety of forms, and their influence is often felt, for they portend calamity when seen, give hunters who are near their haunts bad luck and bad weather. They seem to rein over certain places, and are always feared and propitiated by hunters and others who camp in their domain.
1. At one time elks were very common in many parts of the Okanagon and Thompson countries and especially so in Nicola. About fifty years ago they had become scarce, and at the present day they are extinct in the above-named places.
2. Compare with stories of the flood. See Teit, The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, Vol. I of this series, p. 338.
3 Some say, Old-One and not the beaver.
4 All the good people saved themselves in canoes.
5. Stagnant lakes, or lakes with yellow scum on them, are often called xaxaa'tko
