Page:The International Folk-Lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893.djvu/329

Rh called Tow es tassin (Tow and his brother). And is as follows:

Long ago a round hill stood far up Masset Inlet. Somehow tradition does not tell, probably through volcanic action, this hill got split in two. Afterward these two hills took the names of Tow and his brother.

Prom where the brother stands down to the sea is Masset Inlet. From the lower part of this inlet to the mouth of Hiellen river is a low tract more or less filled with salt water. This inlet and these hollows were scooped out by the action of ice. Not viewing it in this light, the Haidas have the following legend: Long ago, and after Tow (food) got separated from his brother, he became dissatisfied because he could get no dogfish to eat. Learning of his dissatisfaction, Yale asked him what he wanted. To this. Tow replied he wanted dogfish, and if he could not get some he would not stay there. "Go then to Hiellen, and stay there," Yethel replied. So off he went, stopping at Hiellen where he has remained ever since.

What is remarkable, both show unmistakable evidence of being at one time one round hill two hundred and fifty feet in height, and divided by some means. Tow, on the east, presenting a steep face, up which nothing could climb; the brother presenting the same on the west.

LEGENDS OF A FLOOD.

Legends of this sort are purely local, each nation having a great flood of its own. A description of the floods of the Haidas of B. C. and the Klingat of Southern Alaska may be told in the account of a great flood given by a Haidah chief.

Long ago, he said, there was a great war between the Spirit of the Air and the Spirit of the Earth. The one of the air sent thunder and lightnings and rain. The one of the earth sent earthquakes and fire. The earth shook, heaved, and rent. Water rushed out of the cracks, the earth seemed to sink, and the sea rushed over the land. The people took to their canoes; some were lost in the wild waste of waters, others were lost by their canoes being struck by floating timber. As the waters rose, trees were drawn up from the