72 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

Fish, too, are regarded in the same light. Indeed, there is
a particularly close affinity between men and saimon, for twins
are born through the instrumentality of the latter. Just how
this occurs no Bella Coola knows, but a twin and salmon are
regarded almost as brothers. In days when men were more
powerful than now, a twin was especially liked by animals.
Through his connection with salmon, a ko’/a (the term applied
to a twin associated with a salmon) could understand the
speech of birds, animals, and fish. In many instances he could
also assume salmon form at will.

In view of beliefs of this kind it is not surprising that the
Bella Coola attribute great powers even to beasts well known
to them. In the story recorded in vol. I, p. §5, the War-Party ot
the Tides was summoned by the speaking of a dog. A beliet
persists that danger is always present when a dog acts in an
unusual way, though this can be avoided by killing it at once.
In July, 1922, a visit was made to an elderly Bella Coola early
one morning. The man was ina state of absolute terror. The
preceding night he had locked his pet dog outside his house to
give warning if anyone approached, but when he awoke in the
morning, it was curled up asleep as usual at the foot of his bed.
There was no possible hole through which it could have en-
tered, so it seemed to the owner that his dog must have trans-
formed itself into some minute animal and made its way
beneath the door. The only other explanation was that its
master, hearing in his sleep the whimpering of his pet, had
got out of bed to let it in, without remembering that he had
done so. To the writer this seemed the probable explanation,
especially when the old man admitted that he had been in
the habit of walking in his sleep in his younger days, but the
Bella Coola was not satisfied. He could not decide whether
or not to kill the dog, a great favourite, but finally decided
not to do so. The incident was mentioned to another infor-
mant, who was greatly worried and assumed it to be an omen
of death to the dog’s master. His only comfort lay in the fact