RELIGION 35

accordingly created four supernatural Carpenters. They in
turn made a number of workers, d/@watltintut? nunugomaxmulx.
These beings, endowed with enormous power by Afquntim,
chiselled from wood a number of human beings, the forefathers
of mankind. Some men state that this was done by the four
Carpenters, but the consensus of opinion seems to be that they
were merely supervisors. No explanation is given of the means
used by Azguntam to give life to the beings thus created. The
workers made not only human bodies, but constructed their
mentality, including the speech. Nusmdt-a contains a large
number of rooms, in each of which a different set of Indians,
with a different language, was manufactured; thus is explained
the diversity of tongues among the people of British Columbia.
The Carpenters did not confine their attention to men and
women. Supernatural beings, animals, birds, trees, flowers,
fish, mountains, rivers, perhaps even moon and stars, all were
created almost simultaneously by them under the direction of
Alguntim in Nusmét.a. The sun alone was not made in this
way. Afguntdm chose the proper plumage or fur for each bird
and animal, which the Carpenters painted and carved accord-
ing to his instructions. As they provided men with different
languages, so they furnished the birds and beasts with their
speech, which men can no longer understand. Each was given
the necessary tools for existence on the earth below; sharp
incisors to beaver, strong talons to eagle, a penetrating eye to
heron, and so on. The Bella Coola do not regard birds and
animals as being of a lower order than themselves, for all were
created by the same power, at the same time; in many respects
they consider that they belong to a higher plane than human
beings. It would be too great a digression to include at this
point a number of myths describing the creation, but these will
be found in vol. I, chap. v1.

Mythology does not record in detail the sending down to
this earth of trees and plants or of the forefathers of all other
Indian tribes; but the manner in which the first Bella Coola
arrived is clearly stated. Around the walls of Nusmdt-a were