Page:Myths and Legends of British North America.djvu/74

 people of the Earth World, he rushed up the trail, and said, "Why do you do so? Do you think it is good that there should be no people on the Earth World?"

Sun took the half-burned torches and put them out. Then he pushed Mink right out of the Sky Land, saying, "Go right down to the Earth World again. You shall be mink and men shall hunt you."

Now four women had gone out digging clams. Then they saw something floating around among the drifting seaweed. They went towards it. It was Mink. When they touched him, he rubbed his eyes and said, "I have been sleeping on the water for a long time." Then he went up the beach and went home to his mother.

Now the world was hot, and the trees were burning, so that Sun caused the waters to rise until they covered the whole country except for a few mountains on Bella Coola River which rose above the waters. The Bella Bella and the Bella Coola tribes fastened their canoes to the tops of these mountains, and for this reason they were not lost. Other tribes tied their canoes to other mountains, but some of the canoe ropes broke and the people drifted away to different countries. The flood went as far north as the Skeena River, and people drifted even from up there. One canoe drifted over in the lands of the white people. Then at last Sun made the waters to sink.