Page:Myths and Legends of British North America.djvu/172

 COYOTE'S GIFT OF THE SALMON AND THE CAÑON OF THE ERASER RIVER

Nicola Valley and Fraser River

OYOTE was powerful in magic, and therefore he was sent into the world by Old One. He spent much time traveling in the Shuswap and Okanogan countries. It is said that he lived with Old One before coming to earth, and that after he finished his work—as some say—he went back to Old One. But others say that Old One built him a house of transparent ice and put inside of it a log of wood which burns forever. The aurora is the light of Coyote's fire, shining through the ice, or the reflection of it cast up by the ice. Coyote can hear when people speak his name. When he rolls over in his sleep, it creates the sharp wind which makes the earth so cold.

Coyote lived for many years in Nicola Valley. He hunted elk and deer in the winter time, and in the early fall he fished for salmon about six miles above Spence's Bridge where he had a weir across the Thompson River. Even yet it is called "Coyote's Weir."

Now when Coyote was traveling about on earth, he gave names to all parts of the country. He changed