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188 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

land of the salmon early in January, and it is owing to his
successful raid that there is a plentiful supply of fish the fol-
lowing year. The fact that the Bella Coola attribute the same
function to Nodkxynm provides no difficulties to native philo-
sophers.

“Different individuals have different stories,” they say, and
the fact that the two are contradictory is a matter of no
consequence.

The incidents described in the following myth are always
spoken of as having taken place long ago, and yet the coming
of Winwina is an annual event, a confusion disconcerting to
the investigator though not to the Bella Coola themselves.

Winwina® once led a raiding party against the salmon, whose home
is far to the west, and against the berries who live in a flat and warm
country beyond even the land of salmon. His crew consisted of birds
who are spoken of in the myth by unusual designations, said to be either
their supernatural or their kusiut names. One informant spoke of these
beings as individuals, and only added that they were birds as an after-
thought, while another emphasized their avian rather than their human
characteristics. This is not surprising, considering that the story belongs
to the distant past when birds and human beings were not as clearly
differentiated as they now are. Winwina’s crew consisted of:

The Bald Eagle, Tcékwak;

The Hawk (?) species, Anukigaksaix;

The Raven, ’Zuxwagsdlaix, “He Who Talks at Dawn and Wakens
Everyone”;

The Water Ouzel, THikmaxotalka, “The Walking One’;

The Great Blue Heron, Masaxilian, “Long Neck”’;

The Hermaphrodite, 4fa’yao;

The Cormorant, Kwakwék'la, who joined the expedition at Bella
Bella as a passenger;

Four lazy supernatural beings, Kama#azk?.

The expedition was under the especial protection of Kolxeta, a female —
supernatural shaman, who guided the canoe in which the raiders travelled
by the force of her intellect as if it had been a compass. After a lengthy
journey, the party reached the land of the salmon where the clouds
obligingly drifted low in the heavens so that the fish could not see their
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8A word etymologically connected with wina, the Bella Coola term for raid.