Texts of the North American Indian

Writings of E.S. Curtis
Excerpts from "The North American Indian" Set #254, Vol. 8

THE CHINOOKAN TRIBES (cont'd)

MYTHOLOGY

The myths of the Wishham are exceedingly interesting in that they show unusual wealth of imagination and vivacity, yet they are disappointing in their incomplete cosmology and their inattention to obvious phenomena. It is possible that much seemingly nonexistent material has been lost through tribal retrogression. The old men and women possessing knowledge of the stories have largely passed away, and it is likely that no person living at this knows all the myths that were current when the tribe was in its prime. No considerable effort to suggest comparisons and similarities will be made at this time. A later volume will be devoted to the coast tribes, which have many characteristics in common with the Wishham, and with that material in hand a more satisfactory analysis of the whole can be given.

The Wishham mythology gives no heed to the creation of the world, but assumes it existent and populated with beings in human form, some of whom were committing evil and some good deeds. The miracle performer, Coyote, transformed the evil creatures into animals or objects, and the good ones into perfected human beings. The transformer is conceived to have been in the beginning in human form, but later his face was changed to that of the animal. The inconsistencies so common to Indian myths constantly occur.

COYOTE, THE TRANSFORMER

The journeyings of coyote began at the ocean, at the mouth of Columbia river, where lived and atatáhlia, and evil creature who was constantly destroying people by tying them upon a baby-board and sending them adrift into the foggy distance, with the command, "GO FOREVER!" After a time the board came floating back to her, and upon it was nothing but bones, for on its voyage it had been in a place of such intense heat that the flesh was melted away. On the shore sat many people awaiting their turn to be sent adrift. Their hearts would have run away, but the power of the atatáhlia held them there. Then Coyote came among them, and after watching the evil one for a time, he told them "I will try that, and soon I will return." So he was tied to the board, and, as he started to drift out into the fog, the old women said "GO FOREVER!" But all the people cried out, "Come Back Again!" after awhile the watchers could faintly see the board drifting closer, and they wondered if coyote had been powerful enough to survive; and when it touched the shore that he was alive, and the people were glad. Then, to prove which was the stronger, the women was placed on the board and went out into the fog, while coyote and all the people shouted, "Go Forever!" In time the board came drifting back with nothing but her bleached bones upon it The people were happy that the evil was destroyed, and urged their deliverer to take from their number a wife. But he said: "No, I do not want a wife. I am to travel up the river."

As he went on he heard that above him two women had all the salmon penned up. Coming near to the place, he saw the two women in their canoe catching driftwood. Wishing to get into their place, he formed himself into a piece of alder, slipped into the water, and floated down. As he passed close to the canoe, the younger woman cried, "See that nice piece of alder!" But the other did not wish to secure it. "Here are smaller ones she said; "let that one go." After passing out of sight, Coyote floated ashore and returned to the point from which he had started. Having studied the matter for awhile, he became a piece of cedar, thinking that perhaps they would take that kind of wood, which they could use in making their drying racks. Again he drifted close to the boat, and the younger called attention to the cedar log, but the elder did seem to wish it. The next time he formed himself into a piece of oak, but this, too, the elder women ejected. A long fir pole was Coyote's next disguise, but even this, which would have been so useful to lay from eaves to eaves and hang dried fish on, did not appeal to the elder sister, and was allowed to float by. Coyote's ingenuity was almost exhausted, and for a long time he sat on the bank meditating before he transformed himself into a little baby, strapped to a board. He floated down the river toward the women, crying lustily. Water began to lap into his mouth, and it seemed to him that he must soon choke, when the younger women cried excitedly: "Here is a baby! Someone has tipped over and lost it. Quick, let u get it!" The elder said: "no, sister, we do not need a baby," and began to paddle away; but the other seized her own paddle and endeavored to force the canoe toward the drowning infant. The paddled with all their might, and the water fairly boiled with rapid strokes, but, both being the same strength neither could make headway, and all the while he baby was drifting nearer to them. At last it came close to the stern, and the younger women reached out and took it into the canoe. "Its a boy!" she cried. "Now if we rear it we will have someone to help us." So it was agreed that they take the child and care for it.

When they reached home they untied the child and removed it from its wrappings. The younger said to herself: "What are we going to feed this baby? I will give it a piece of dried lamprey to suck." She did so, and the baby eagerly took the lamprey, which was soon eaten. She laced it up on its board, cut off another piece, and hen this was about half eaten the baby fell asleep. "Now the baby is sleeping, we can go and get more wood." said she. The elder woman was uneasy since the coming of the infant. She took no interest in it, and did not wish to help care for it. The two went out and began to catch driftwood. When Coyote found it quiet in the house he opened his eyes. Quickly he unlaced his cover, crept slyly out, and saw the women on the river. Inside he found a great abundance of dried lampreys and other fish, and he hurriedly roasted a quantity on sticks, ate them, and hid the sticks. Then he laced himself to the board, put the half-eaten piece of lamprey in his mouth, and closed his eyes. The women returned and were surprised to find the baby still sleeping. When the retired for the night, the younger sister laid the baby at her side, and Coyote liked that place to sleep, but was all the time thinking how he could let the salmon escape. The next morning, the younger sister gave him another piece of fish, and after seeing the child sleep the two went to the river for wood. Again Coyote crawled out and ate, and then went to the pond in which the fish were impounded. After making five oak root-diggers he concealed them and returned to the baby board. The third day Coyote cooked and ate, then took one of his root-diggers, thrust it into the bank of the river, and pried off a great chunk of earth. Again and again he repeated this until the digger was blunt and broken, and then he took a new one. This, and a third, and a fourth were used, when the sisters, happening to look up, saw what was going on. AS Coyote began to use his fifth digger they start to paddle ashore in great haste, the elder sister saying over and over: "You see, I did not want to take that baby. It was Coyote and we shall lose out fish, and now we shall never live as well as we have lived." Just as the canoe grounded, and they leaped out, Coyote pried off the last mass of earth, and the water began to rush out of the lake, carrying the salmon with it. He picked up a lump of white clay and ran toward the two sisters. "Its not right for you to have all of these fish penned up in one place!" he cried. "Things are going to change, there will be other beings here besides you." H threw the lump of clay; it struck the younger sister on the forehead, leaving a white mark. Then he did the same to the other. "You two are swallows," he said, "and will be seen only at salmon time." They flew away, but each year, when the salmon come, many of them are seen along the river building their nests in the rocks.

When coyote came to Shkichúthat (a prairie at Vancouver), he found there certain evil people whom he thought he would change in such a way that their true character would be known. He came to them while they were all asleep around a pit of roasting goose-eggs, and, after eating the eggs he pulled the faces of the people out into long, peaked snouts, and lengthened their ears. Awaking they discovered what had been done to them, and knew at once who was the guilty one, for it was common knowledge all along the river that coyote was traveling up-stream and changing the creatures whom he found. So they followed him, and when they came to him sleeping they pulled his nose and ears and made them pointed. Coyote was very angry, and he transformed them into wolves, as they are now. After that Coyote himself was human in form, except his head.

The salmon were now in the river, and as Coyote traveled up the stream they followed him. All the various places along the river he named. When he came to Skólups (Cape Horn, Washington), he stood thinking for a time on the top of the high bluff. In the middle of the stream he saw a canoe in which was a sturgeon. Soon there appeared a person coming out of the water under the canoe with a sturgeon in each hand. These threw into the boat.

EDWARD S. CURTIS