Page:The International Folk-Lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893.djvu/334

276 think of her? She is all very well, he replied, in her cold beauty, but I want the daughter of the Sun only.

At last they brought him the one he cared for, the lovely daughter of the Sun. " This," said they, "is the one you cared for; take her, and welcome." So he took her and was happy. So, after all his troubles, he married a wife who made him great, while his old lover, with her beauty, came to nothing.

If I had time I could give a large number of these legends, but will have to he content with one. In bygone days, when anything unnatural or unusual was found which they could not explain, they generally appear to have made a story which would please, and at the same time have a moral effect on the people. For instance, up Stickeen River in Alaska, are a line of pillar-shaped rocks; two little ones on land, one little one at the edge of the river, and two or three bigger ones in the river. A mere casual glance at this freak of nature will show what it is. All the rocks are volcanic: at one time a large rent became filled with molten matter; this, after cooling, became harder than the older rocks. When the river commenced to flow through this valley a lake was formed above by this barrier, which was always becoming weaker by the falling water washing away the softer rock behind, until, finally, the weaker parts would give way, letting out the waters of the lake above and leaving a few harder places here and there standing like pillars in the river, as well as on the land, where once flowed the river. Of the above, the following legend has been told.

THE DOOM OF THE CATTIQUINS.

Long ago there lived amongst the Stickeens a very bad family called the Cattiquins. The whole family were notoriously wicked. The whole family were against everybody, and everybody was against them. At length they became so bad that nobody would have any dealings with them. When any of the people went a hunting, or a fishing, or gathering berries, all was kept secret from them. One day all the people wished to go to the flat, where now stand these pillars. The Cattaquins, being a lazy lot as well,