Page:The International Folk-Lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893.djvu/327

Rh bush and swamp, some falling over rocks and trees, some breaking their shins. Others turned back, saying anything so fraught with danger and trouble was not worth having. At last one man overtook it, saying: "Birdy, give me your fire." "No," it said, "you are too selfish. So long as you are right yourself, you care not for other people." So away it flew. Another man came up saying: "Birdy, give me your fire. I have been a good man and kind." "I believe you," said the bird, "no doubt you are kind enough, but you brought your friend to grief by stealing his wife. So you cannot have any fire from my tail." So on went the bird, few following, until it came to a woman nursing a poor old sick man. It flew directly to her, saying: "Good woman, bring your chumuch, and put it on my tail, you are welcome to the fire." "I cannot do it," said the woman, "I am not worthy of such a boon. I have done no good action that would make one deserving of it." "You have," said the bird. "You are always doing good, thinking it only your duty. Take the fire; it will, if you take care of it, serve you and your posterity forever. So she took the fire, and gave it to her neighbors. So that is how the Whull-e-mooch got, at first, their fire.

There is another remarkable legend amongst the abovementioned people, which may be classed as a creation, myth, or legend, and as it has a remarkable bearing on the glacial period it is worthy of a place in this paper. It is as follows:

Long ago our fathers tell us the "Whullemooch lived a long way further South than we, their children, do now. They did not like the country they lived in, and wished to emigrate, but did not know where to go. Southward lived a people stronger than they; northward the country was a mass of snow and ice; eastward, because of the high mountains, the country was little better.

One time they were met to consider what was best to do, whether to go to war with their neighbors or to remain where they were. While the subject was under discussion, Spaul the raven god came amongst them and listened to their conversation. After a while he spake, thus: "I have heard your complaints, and know your wants. To one and