Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/9



When Alexander Mackenzie in 1789 was exploring the great river which bears his name, he asked everywhere for information concerning the tribes west of the Rocky Mountains. He was told that natives on the river to the southwest which falls into the Belhoullay Teo or White Man's Lake were of gigantic stature, very wicked, and adorned with wings; that they fed on gigantic birds; and that they possessed the extraordinary power of killing common men with a look of the eye. These native reports of native contemporaries, even to the