Page:Myths and Legends of British North America.djvu/263

 THE DESTRUCTION OF MONSTERS

Shuswap

HERE 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