Myths and Legends of British North America/The Wind-power Carving (Thompson River)

by Katharine Berry Judson

THE WIND-POWER CARVING

Thompson River

NOW many of the people had carvings. They had house posts and door posts, and they carved their totems on the posts, and they made carvings of their guardian spirit.

Once there was a girl who was not happy in the village. She wandered away and went to a lake in the mountains, where she saw many fish swimming in the water. She sat down to watch them. Then the fish changed themselves to small children with very long hair. They watched her and smiled at her. The girl thought, "I should like to live with them, they seem so happy." So she jumped into the water.

As the girl fell into the lake, a violent wind blew all over the country. It even blew down her parents' house. When the girl found she could not sink, she came out of the water and at once it became calm. In the lake were neither fish nor children to be seen.

In this way this girl obtained possession of the power and knowledge of wind. Only her descendants who live near Yale, in the mountains, can use the wind-power carving on their grave boxes and in their dancing masks and in the house.