_Bella Coola_
The House of Sun stands in the center of the lower heaven. It has
other names. Sometimes it is called “Where man was created,”
sometimes “House from which people come down,” and sometimes “House
to which people go.”
In front of the house stands a great pole, painted with birds of
every kind, with the white crane sitting on top of the post. The
master of the house is Sun. He is also called “Our Father,” and
sometimes the “Sacred One.” The Bella Coola pray to Sun. When they
go hunting they say, “Look on us, where we are going, Father.” Or
they say, “Take care of us, Father.” After long rain, they pray,
“Wipe your face, Father, that it may be fair weather.” The hunter
who has shot deer, or the woman who has found many berries, prays,
“Father, you make me happy; you give me what I desire; thus I find
what I wished for!”
The Bella Coola also make offerings to the Sun. Hunters throw four
small slices of seal meat, or of mountain-goat tallow, into the
fire, as an offering to Sun, to obtain success in hunting.
There are other gods living in the House of the Sun. Two of them
wake man after sleep; without their help nobody could awaken from
sleep. One of them is the guardian of the Moon. Every month she
restores the Moon to her full size; and she cleans the face of the
Moon after an eclipse. Because when the Moon performs religious
ceremonies, she paints her face black.
The Mother of Flowers lives also in the House of Sun. Every spring
she sends all the new young flowers down to the earth.
There are four brothers who live in the House of Sun. They are
always busy in carving and painting. They taught men to make boxes,
to build houses, to carve wood, and to paint. They also taught him
to hunt, and they made fish for him to catch.
The Daughter of Sun invented the art of working cedar bark. She has
a song which she sings when the bark is brought to her and she
breaks it over the edge of a stick, so that it may be woven into
mats and clothing. First she sings, “Bring me the board on which to
break the bark,” and then when she begins to work, she sings another
song. Part of it is, “Behold me, ye who are not initiated. I am the
Cedar-bark Breaker, the Daughter of Sun.”
Many other people live in the House of Sun. One of them visits
houses and steals provisions.
The path of Sun is well guarded. Bear guards the sunrise. He is a
very fierce warrior who protects Sun against warlike enemies, and
Bear is also the cause of the warlike spirit of man. His hair is
tied up in a knot on top of his head.
At the sunset stands an enormous post which supports the sky and
prevents Sun from falling down into the lower world. The trail of
Sun is a wide bridge. It is as broad as the distance between the
summer solstice and the winter solstice. Sun always walks with his
face to the west. In summer he walks on the right-hand side of the
bridge, and in winter at the left-hand side. The extreme right-and
left-hand sides of the bridge are called “Place where the Sun sits
down.” If Sun tarries too long on the left-hand side of the bridge,
people say, “Salmon will be dried late this year.” But if he stays a
long while on the right-hand side, they say, “There will be plenty
of salmon this year.”