26 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

beneath the Bella Coola valley, and the land of the living
forms a dome over it corresponding to that of the sky over
this world. But everything is reversed. A river flows in the
land of ghosts, but it rises in the west instead of the east;
when it is warm on this earth it is cold in the land below;
when it is sunrise here, it is sunset there. Shamans are be-
lieved to have penetrated frequently to this land, and on in-
formation from them the Bella Coola base their beliefs.

There is another land beneath the ocean. In this live the
fish and sea mammals in human form, as well as other beings
to be described in the next section of this chapter. Like all
other worlds it has a sun above it,? and conditions are said to
be similar to those existing on this earth. The Bella Coola
are uncertain whether this undersea world is at the same level
as the land of ghosts, and whether or not it extends beneath
the rivers.

Although Bella Coola concepts regarding the sun and other
heavenly bodies will require further consideration, it will be
convenient at this point to describe them in outline. The sun
is regarded as a heat-radiating ball of such intensity that a
human being cannot approach it. Its path, as it crosses the
land above, varies from day to day until it reaches its limits
at the solstices. As it travels, it is accompanied by the droning
of two 4iiddxa, supernatural feminine beings who remain con-
tinually, one in the east and one in the west. According to
most informants, the ends of the sun’s course, though fixed
and invariable from year to year, are not marked by any vis-
ible means. Others state that at each limit there is the mouth
of a smug, a mythological animal of enormous size.

The moon is thought likewise to travel? each day but is
said to be very cold. Few stories are current concerning it,
although the Bella Coola say that long ago a man tried to
reach it, only to be driven back by the intense cold. A shaman
who died not many years ago claimed to have received power

*One informant stated that our sun served that purpose.
8The Aiidéxa drone as it travels, as they do for the sun.