The Destruction of Monsters
Shuswap
There were many monsters in the Fraser River and the North Thompson River. Tlecsa was the eldest of four brothers who lived near Kamloops, and there were many evil beings in that country who killed all the Indians, so the four brothers decided to destroy them. There were the four Grizzly Bear sisters, and the huge elk which stood in the Thompson River just where it flows out of Kamloops Lake and swallowed all who came down the river, even a canoe with people. There was the great ram of the mountain sheep who lived on a cliff in Bonaparte Valley and killed people by blowing his breath upon them. Every one of these was killed by Tlecsa and his magic.
Then the brothers followed up the Bonaparte River until they came to a chasm which is now near the old fifty-nine-mile post, on the old Caribou road. Here lived Great Beaver and his friends. They were not cannibals, but the Indians feared their magic. The Indians did not know how to catch or kill them, but Tlecsa said, “I will eat beaver flesh,” so he started after him. But first he made a beaver spear, and tied a piece of white bark around each wrist so his brothers could see him, if he were dragged under water.
Tlecsa went up to Great Beaver and harpooned him. Beaver at once dragged him into the creek. His brothers watched him for a while and then lost sight of him, and at once began to search for him in all the near-by creeks. They even dug ditches in many places. At last they dug a deep ditch along the largest creek, and then they found him. When they dug near him, he said, “Be careful not to hurt me. I am here.” Great Beaver had dragged him into his own house in the bank, but there Tlecsa had killed Great Beaver. At once the brothers killed many beavers and took their skins. They also ate Big Beaver. Tlecsa said, “Hereafter beaver shall be speared by mankind. The Indians shall use their flesh and skins. Beavers shall no longer have magic power;” and it was so.
Now Tlecsa and his brothers wandered around through the mountains and through Bonaparte Valley, and after a while they went up the Marble Cañon. On a high cliff lived Great Eagle, who swooped down on the Indians in the valley. He would catch an Indian and dash him against the rocks and bring him to the young eaglets in his nest. Tlecsa said, “I shall ornament myself with eagle feathers.”
Now when his brothers were not looking, Tlecsa put some white paint in one side of his mouth, and some red paint in the other side. Soon Great Eagle saw him. Swooping down, he clutched him, and then, flying high on the cliffs, dashed him against the rocks. Tlecsa warded off the blow with his flaker, and let the red paint flow out of his mouth upon the rocks. His brothers below, watching, said, “He is dead. See his blood.”
Again Great Eagle dashed Tlecsa against the rocks, and the white paint flowed from his mouth over the rocks. His brothers below, watching, said, “He is dead. See his brains.”
Now Great Eagle also thought he was dead, so he laid him on a ledge of rocks near the nest. At once Tlecsa killed Great Eagle and pulled out his tail feathers. Then he tied an eaglet to each wrist and commanded them to fly down with him. When they reached the valley far below, Tlecsa pulled the large feathers out of the eaglets’ wings and tails, and gave them to his brothers. He said to the eaglets, “Hereafter you shall be ordinary eagles. You shall have no power to kill people, and Indians shall ornament their heads and weapons with your feathers;” and it was so.
Footnotes
1 The scenic pictures in this volume were selected to show the magnificence and beauty of the home of many of these myths.
2These Indian houses were made with rough, loose boards on the sides and top, which were shifted to let the smoke out, and in summer to let the breeze in. The fire was always in the center of such one-room houses, and the usual smoke hole was immediately above it.
3The warm wind of the North Pacific Coast is called a chinook.
4Devilfish was the usual bait in halibut fishing.
5This myth is said to give an excellent idea of climatic conditions along part of the Northwest Coast—largely a struggle between the rainy southeast wind and the cold north wind.
6Told by all Cree Indians, but of course influenced by contact with the white race.
7Popularly called Whiskey Jack, though the word is Indian. It means “meat bird,” as this Canadian jay is fond of meat and therefore is a great torment around camps.
8The name appears under various spellings—Manibozho, Nanebojo, etc. Nenebuc appears among many tribes centering around the Great Lakes, though the myth is essentially Ojibwa. Other versions of it, received from the American Ojibwas, will be found in the author’s Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes.
9The chief interest of this tale is that it is a correct description of Indian cooking and feasting.
10There seem to be innumerable waterfalls in North America concerning which there is such a tradition as this one. Without question many of them are imaginary. This story of the Crees and Iroquois is told by many tribes, though the location of the falls differs in every version of the story.