Traditions of the Thompson River Indians of British Columbia ...

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For the American folk-lore society by Houghton, Mifflin, 1898 - Indians of North America - 137 pages
This is a collection of tales of the Thompson Indians along with traditional and cultural facts. There is an introduction by Franz Boas.
 

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Page 19 - Major US Army, Ex-President of the American Folk-Lore Society, etc. With Introduction, Notes, Illustrations, Texts, Interlinear Translations, and Melodies. 1897. Pp. viii, 299. VOL. VI. TRADITIONS OF THE THOMPSON RIVER INDIANS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. Collected by JAMES TEIT. With Introduction by FRANZ BOAS, and Notes. 1898. Pp. x, 137.
Page 41 - ... friend, and found him with his head stuck down in the ice-hole. He pulled him out, more dead than alive, and addressing him, said, "Poor fellow! Why should you make yourself worse off than you already are? You are very foolish to try to do things that are beyond your powers. Now look at me!" Tsalas then put his head down in the hole and soon commenced to toss plenty of fish out on the ice. He made a present of them to the Coyote, and went home, leaving the Coyote in anything but a pleasant mood....
Page 19 - There were among them cannibals, and many mysterious persons. After a time certain men successively appeared on the earth, travelling here and there, working wonders, changing and modifying the existing order of things. Gradually many of the speta'kl who were bad were shorn of their powers, driven out of the country, or were transformed into birds, fishes, animals and trees. The greatest of these transformers was the Old Coyote who, it is said, was sent by the Old Man to put the world in order, so...
Page 48 - Having finished his work on earth and having put all things to rights, the time came that the Coyote should meet the Old Man. When he met him he did not know that he was the 'Great Chief or 'Mystery,' because he did not appear to be different from any other old man. The Coyote thought, 'This old man does not know who I am. I will astonish him. He knows nothing of my great powers.
Page 42 - ... fell in with a buck deer, whom he commenced to belittle and slander, calling him all kinds of nasty names, just as the Magpie had done. The buck grew angry, charged the Coyote, who made for home, where his snare was, with the buck close after him. On reaching the net, the Coyote tried to jump over it, but failed to do so. He fell into the net and became entangled in it. Then the buck began to prod him with his antlers, and would have killed him if the people had not run out and prevented it by...

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