The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-01

an important divinity. She is supposed
to carry basket on her back and.
II she hears a child crying, she is apt
to take II and carry il away in her basket.
Whether or not she serves to some extent
as an equivalent Of the Bogie Man in the
Fort Rupert nursery does not seem to
be satisfactorily established There is a
legend to the effect that boy of the tribe
once caught the Witch Woman stealing
salmon. He shot an arrow into her breast,
and following the trail of blood at length
reached the abode of spirits, where the
Witch Woman dwells. She was very sick,
and nobody could cure her, because the
spirits were unable to see the weapon of
human manufacture that was sticking in
her breast. The boy offered to be her
physician and quickly effected a cure by
taking out the arrow. Thereupon he went
back home, and though he supposed that
he had only been away for a day or two,
he discovered that many years had elaps-
ed. 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 making
a mat. The sun shone through chink in
the wall upon her back, and thus she be-
came pregnant. The child, when he grew
up, was maltreated by other boys who
teered at him because he had no father.
He appealed tot his mother who informed
him that the sun was his father. So then
he went out and shot an arrow toward
the heavens. 1t mounted higher and high
V.
a second arrow, which stuck in the notch
of the first one, and likewise with a third
and fourth, and so on until a chain was
made reaching down to the earth. Up
this chain the boy climbed, as Jack as
cende the famous bean stalk, until he
reached the sky, through a hole in which
he crawled. Thereupon he found himself
on beautiful prairie, and presently he
came to house in which was a woman,
who said: Your father viii be glad 20
see you. He is getting old. and you will
1a oh ~ f~lrA s.Fr
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 nosepiece of aba
lone shell, and on the next morning en-
trusted 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 distinctly see
what was going 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 hap
pening, fastened 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 moutain
goat hid in a cave, and thus his skin re-
manned white. The ermine did likewise,
but the tip of his tail stuck out and was
burned black.
There are six distinct tribes of Indians
on the island of Vancouver. no two of
which speak or understand the same Ian
guage. In all. these savages number
about 5000 In the southern part Of the
island they have become civilized to some
extent through contact with the whites
1t will be remembered that at the extreme
southeast corner of the island is the city
of Victoria, which is the capital of British
Columbia, and the center of the fishing
trade of all that region. In the extreme
north and on the west coast the natives
are quite wild and wholly indisposed to
adopt the customs of civilization. Mis-
sionary work among them has been a fetal
failure. In those parts there are only
very few whites-traders, lumbermen and
managers OF salmon canneriess The is
land is about twice as long as Long Is
land and is densely wooded with gigantic
pines and cedars. Huge mountains rise
to a hight of 1000 feet, crowned by gla-
ciers. Thus it is hardly practicable to
cross from the eastern to the western
shore
The widest of the native tribes is that
of the Fort Rupert Indians al the north
end. They live on fish chiefly, which they
dry for winter. They catch the bear and
seal also and gather \ berries, of which
there Is an enormous NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
ries, bl2ckberries, sdlmon-berri ana
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. At the same time
they are remarkably intelligent The