The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-05-21
HAvENMoRN1Ne JoURNAl ooURER TUEsDAY

elapsed. The story of Rip Van Wrinkle
 seems to be one of the most widespread of myths.
 A likeness to certain ancient Greek myths will be found in a legend of the
 Fort Rupert Indians respecting the sun,
 A woman was sitting in a house mak- Ing a mat. The sun shone through a
 chink in the wall upon her back, and
 thus she became pregnant. The child,
 when he grew up, was maltreated by
 other boys, who jeered at him because
 he had no father. He appealed to his
 mother who informed him that the sun
 was his father. So then he went out
 and shot an arrow toward the heavens.
 It mounted higher and higher until it
 stuck in the sky. Then he fired a sec
 ond arrow, which stuck in the notch of
 the first one, and likewise with third
 and a fourth, and so on until a chain
 was made reaching down to the earth
 Up this chain the boy climbed as Jack
 ascended the famous beam stalk, until
 he reached the city. Thereupon he
 found himself on beautiful prairie,
 and presently he came to a house i'm
 which was a woman, who said: Your
 father will be glad to see you. He Is
 getting old and you will be able to take
 his place and carry the sun for him"
 In the evening the Sun Spirit came
 home and was delighted to see the boy
 He gave to him his ornaments and
 nose-piece of abalone shell, and on the
 next morning Entrusted the sun to his
 care. At the same time he warned the
 youth not to go too high during the
 days journey, lest the earth be frozen,
 nor yet to descend too low for fear of burning things up. The boy started confidently on his trip, but, finding that he could not see distinctly what was go- Ing on, approached too near the earth, on which the trees began to burn and the people to jump into the water The father, seeing what was happening, hastened after him, deprived him of the ornaments appropriate to the Sun God and tore him to pieces. Thereupon he was transformed into the mink. Dur ing this period of search the mountain goat hid in a cave, and thus his skin re- mained white. The ermine did likewise but the tip of his taH stuck out and was burned black,
 There are six distinct tribes of Tndi- ans on the Island of Vancouver. no two of which speak or understand the same language. In all these savages number about five thousand In the southern part of the island they have become civilized to some extent through con- tact with the whites. It will be remem- bered that at the extreme southeast corner of the island is the city of Vic toria, which is the capital of British Co., lufnbia and the center of the fishing trade of all that region. In the extreme north and on the west coast the na- lives are quite wild and wholly fndis- posed to adopt the customs of civiliza- tion. Missionary work among them has been total failure. In those parts 1 there are only very few whites traders, lumbermen and managers of | salmon canneries. The island is about | twice as long as Long Island, and is densely wooded with gigantic pines and | cedars. Huge mountains rise to a height of seven thousand feet. crowned | by glaciers, Thus 1t is hardly practi- cable to cross from the eastern to the western shore.
 The widest of the native tribes is | that of the Fort Rupert Indians at the | north end. They live on fish chiefly, | which they dry for winter They catch ! the bear and seal also and gather ber- I'es of which there is an abundance raspberries, blackberries, salmon-ber- | ries and huckleberries. These savages are nearly white, with reddish brown hair. Their faces are very broad, with high noses and small Mongoloid eyes They are of small stature with short legs, Al the same time they are re- intelligent. The heads of in- fants are deformed by tying about them hard cushions of cedar bark, thus giv- ng them sugar-loaf shape. Men and women go barefoot They wear blank ats and cotton shirts The women have adopted petticoats which have replaced 'edar bark aprons Members of the rbe sometimes visit Victoria, adopt ng the apparel of white people tempo 'a1'ily and going back to their native garb on their return. They use steel spives, axes and other civilized imple- nents.