_Bella Coola_
Mink’s father was “Walking-through-the-Heavens.” He was Sun, but no
one knew it, and one day when Mink was playing with the children of
his village, they laughed at him saying that he had no father. Mink
began to cry and went home to his mother.
Mink’s mother said, “Why, your father is
Walking-through-the-Heavens.” Then Mink demanded bows and arrows,
and his mother gave them to him.
Mink went outside the lodge and began to shoot his arrows into the
sky. The first arrow struck the sky and stuck there. The second
arrow hit the notch of the first, and held there; and the third
arrow stuck in the notch of the second. So with four arrows Mink
made an arrow chain which became a rope. He called to his mother and
said, “Hold the rope so it will not shake,” and she did so.
Then Mink began to climb up into the Sky Land, while his mother held
the rope. After a long time he reached the door to the upper world.
Then he climbed in and looked around him. He began to walk toward a
bright house in the distance. It was Sun’s house. As he came near
it, a woman came out to pick up wood. When she saw Mink, she said,
“Oh, little one! Where do you come from, sonny?” The woman went at
once back into the house and told Sun.
Now Walking-through-the-Heavens was tired that day. He did not climb
the trail through the sky, but left it covered with clouds.
Therefore it was gray and cloudy in the Earth Land. When there are
clouds in the sky, that is the time that Walking-through-the-Heavens
rests.
Mink told his father that the boys in the village teased him. He
begged to be allowed to carry Sun’s torches. Then Sun said, “Oh, you
can’t do it. I carry many torches. Early in the morning and late in
the afternoon I burn small torches; but at noon I burn the larger
ones.”
Mink teased and teased. He said he wanted to carry the torches just
once. Therefore one day Sun said, “I think I’ll rest today. You may
carry the torches.”
So Walking-through-the-Heavens gave him the torches. He said, “Oh,
child, take care! Walk in the morning, but don’t walk too fast. Do
not sweep your aunts, the clouds, away too quickly, or it will go
hard with the people in the Earth World.” Then he said again, as
Mink started off, “Don’t be too fast when you walk or sweep.”
So Mink started off, carrying the torches. At first he lighted only
small ones, and he walked slowly, and swept away the clouds not too
rapidly. He did it very well indeed. But at noon Mink became tired.
He swept away the clouds very rapidly, and he walked very fast. Then
he also lighted many of the large torches at once.
At once it grew very hot. Great cracks came into the mountains and
they began to split. All the rocks in the world were burned so that
they are bare, even today. The trees began to burn and many animals
jumped into the water. But the water began to boil. Mink’s mother
covered all the people with her blanket, so they were saved. All the
people in the world hid under her blanket. The animals tried to hide
under the rocks and in caves. Ermine crept into a hole which was not
quite large enough, so the end of his tail stuck out. It was burned
black. That is why Ermine is white with a black tip to his tail.
Mountain Goat hid in a cave, so he is perfectly white. All the
animals which did not hide were scorched and therefore they have
dark fur on the upper side of their bodies, but the under side is
lighter.
Now when Sun saw what was happening to the people of the Earth
World, he rushed up the trail, and said, “Why do you do so? Do you
think it is good that there should be no people on the Earth World?”
Sun took the half-burned torches and put them out. Then he pushed
Mink right out of the Sky Land, saying, “Go right down to the Earth
World again. You shall be mink and men shall hunt you.”
Now four women had gone out digging clams. Then they saw something
floating around among the drifting seaweed. They went towards it. It
was Mink. When they touched him, he rubbed his eyes and said, “I
have been sleeping on the water for a long time.” Then he went up
the beach and went home to his mother.
Now the world was hot, and the trees were burning, so that Sun
caused the waters to rise until they covered the whole country
except for a few mountains on Bella Coola River which rose above the
waters. The Bella Bella and the Bella Coola tribes fastened their
canoes to the tops of these mountains, and for this reason they were
not lost. Other tribes tied their canoes to other mountains, but
some of the canoe ropes broke and the people drifted away to
different countries. The flood went as far north as the Skeena
River, and people drifted even from up there. One canoe drifted over
in the lands of the white people. Then at last Sun made the waters
to sink.
[Illustration: Cathedral Peak
Field, British Columbia
_Courtesy of Canadian Pacific Ry._]
Crow was sitting on the top of a tree when Mink made the Earth World
to burn. The smoke was so black that it made Crow black all over.
Before that Crow had been white; so the Indians say.