Page:Myths and Legends of British North America.djvu/37

 Thompson River EFORE the days of the grandfathers, all was water. Old One lived then in the Sky Land. He still lives in the Sky Land, just where it is reached by the snow-capped mountains. But in the days before the grandfathers, Old One became tired of looking down at the waste of waters beneath him. There was no earth at all. Old One thought, "I will make an island in the middle of that great lake, which will be pleasant to look at."

He took some soil from the Sky Land, and made a large hollow ball of it. Then he threw it down on the water. The lower side of the ball spread flat, and all the upper part caved in and spread out into a very large island. The earth even now lies on the water just as it was when Old One threw down the ball. It is all broken up into flats and hollows, hills and islets, just as it spread out from the hollowed ball.

But even then the bare earth was not pleasant to Old One, so he himself came down afterward and made the grass and trees and flowers to grow.

That is why the earth is surrounded by water.