_Thompson River_
Before the days of the grandfathers, all was water. Old One lived
then in the Sky Land.
He still lives in the Sky Land, just where it is reached by the
snow-capped mountains. But in the days before the grandfathers, Old
One became tired of looking down at the waste of waters beneath him.
There was no earth at all. Old One thought, “I will make an island
in the middle of that great lake, which will be pleasant to look
at.”
He took some soil from the Sky Land, and made a large hollow ball of
it. Then he threw it down on the water. The lower side of the ball
spread flat, and all the upper part caved in and spread out into a
very large island. The earth even now lies on the water just as it
was when Old One threw down the ball. It is all broken up into flats
and hollows, hills and islets, just as it spread out from the
hollowed ball.
But even then the bare earth was not pleasant to Old One, so he
himself came down afterward and made the grass and trees and flowers
to grow.
That is why the earth is surrounded by water.