Myths and Legends of British North America/Origin of Light (Thompson River)

by Katharine Berry Judson

ORIGIN OF LIGHT

Thompson River

A LARGE dead tree stood near Spence's Bridge. It was full of magic and possessed the power of giving light. At that time the world was always dark. Now Chipmunk did not like the continual darkness, and his friends did not like it, but some of the animals did. And some of the other animals were undecided.

Chipmunk knew that if he set fire to the magic tree near Spence's Bridge, the world would become light again, so he set fire to the roots, and kept poking the ashes away with a stick that the wind might fan the flames. When the tree fell, the earth became light.

Now Grizzly Bear and his friends wanted continual darkness. When that tree fell, Grizzly appeared in a great rage and began to put out the fire by throwing earth on the log and on Chipmunk.

Grizzly Bear cried,

Le pa, Le pa! Dimness, dimness!

Chipmunk would poke the fire and brush the earth and ashes away and sing,

Tse ka, tse ka! Light, light, light!

And immediately the fire would flame up and light would come; but when Grizzly Bear threw on more earth it became dark again.

Now both Grizzly and Chipmunk sang as loud and as hard as they could, and sometimes it was light and sometimes it was dark. After a while they both grew tired. Then they agreed that it should be dark part of the time, and light part of the time.

But Grizzly Bear was angry at Chipmunk and chased him into a hole. As Chipmunk scampered into the hole, Grizzly scratched his back. That is the reason Chipmunk has stripes on his back.