Traditions of the Thompson River Indians (cont.)
The man answered, "Why do you lie to us?" He grew angry and attacked the Rat with a spear. To avoid the man's savage thrusts, the Rat ran up and down the walls of the house, and along the roof, whilst his wife hid in a corner. Being sorely wounded, and hard pressed by the people, the Rat called to the door to open. He jumped outside and ordered the door to close again.
Thus the people were all imprisoned in the cave. The Rat caused the roof and the walls of the house to fall in, and thus all the people were killed. The Bush-tailed Rat then left that part of the country, and took up his abode in another place, where he lived in a cave in the rocks, and killed all the people who went to visit him. He made the door of his house close on them, thereby crushing them to death. Eventually a man153 went to the Rat's house, and placed a spear-head154 horizontally across the entrance. The Rat called to the door to shut; but it could not do so, owing to this obstruction. The man then changed the Bushtailed Rat into the animal known by that name at the present day, and cursed him, saying, "You will now be an ordinary bush-tailed rat, and you will be dependent for your livelihood on the refuse that you may steal from people's cellars. Your house hereafter will be only an ordinary hole between rocks, and the entrance will no longer open or shut at your command. You will also be glad to take refuge in the deserted habitations of people."155
V. THE OLD MAN.156
[Cawa'xamux and Nkamtcinemux]
Having finished his work on earth, and having put all things to rights, the time came that the Coyote should meet the Old Man. He was travelling eastward through the country somewhere to the southeast of the Columbia, when he met the Old Man, but did not know that he was the "Great Chief " or "Mystery," because he did not appear to be different from any other old man. The Coyote thought, "This old man does not know who I am. I will astonish him. He knows nothing of my great powers, and of the wonders I have performed." After saluting each other, the Old Man derided the Coyote as a person possessed of small powers; consequently the latter felt annoyed, and began to boast of the many wonders he had performed. The Old Man then said, "If you have performed all those feats, you must indeed be the Coyote, of whom all the people speak, for he alone can do such things." The Coyote said, "Yes, I am he. Why do you doubt my powers?" Whereupon the Old Man answered, "If you are he, and so powerful as you say, remove that river, and make it run yonder." This the Coyote did. Then the Old Man said, "Bring it back;" and the Coyote did so. The Old Man then said, "Place that high mountain on the plain." The Coyote did so, and the Old Man then said, "Replace it where it was;" but this the Coyote could not do, because the Old Man, being the greater in magic of the two, willed otherwise.
The Old Man then asked the Coyote why he could not replace it, and the latter answered, "I don't know. I suppose because you are greater than I in magic, and therefore make my efforts fruitless." The Old Man then made the mountain go back to its place. Then, to test the Old Man's power, the Coyote said, "Remove that river." The Old Man did so. The Coyote then told him to remove a mountain, and he did so, returning each of them to its original position. The Coyote then said, "You must be the Old Man, or the Great Chief. I was looking for you." The Old Man answered "I am the Great Chief. Now you have been a long time on earth; and since the world, mostly through your instrumentality, has been put to rights, you have nothing more to do.
Soon I am going to leave the earth. You will not return again until I myself do so. You shall then accompany me, and we will change things in the world, and bring back the dead to the land of the living." The Old Man then made a large house out of ice in a far-away part of the world, and put the Coyote therein to await his coming. He placed inside the house a large log, which should burn forever, and be a fire for the Coyote. No one knows where the Coyote's house is.157 He will come again at some future time, and will bring back the Indian dead from the land of shades.
[Cawa'xamux.]
Shortly after the Old Man's meeting with the Coyote, he encountered a lad who was gifted in magic. When they met, each tested the other's magical powers. Eventually the Old Man pointed out to the lad a house in the distance, saying, "That is my house. I want you to go to it, and take possession of it, but you must go in seven steps." The lad made three attempts to get there, and failed; but on the fourth attempt he accomplished the feat, and reached the house, which he entered, finding plenty of food and everything he could desire. He saw the Old Man coming towards the house, and thought, "I will cook a meal for the Old Man." The lad did not know who the latter was.
