504 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

Another account of the flood states that while many persons fled to
Mount Nusgalst, others took refuge on the summit of the mountain oppo-
site to it, on the north side of the Bella Coola River. The waters con-
tinued to rise until this latter peak was on the point of being submerged,
when it requested Nusgalst to give it some of itself. Nusga/st complied,
and gave to the other the small knob that projects from its summit. This
was not inundated.

Kimsquit too was flooded at the same time. The Kimsquit River rose
until the people were driven to the slopes of the mountain now known as
Sutuks?, to the west of the river. Here they were forced to camp for
several months, and it is from this event that the river received its name,
which means ‘‘Many Houses.’”’ The Dean River people were driven to
Mount Swakx, where, in later years, indications of their sojourn were to
be found, such as mooring loops for canoes, hooks for lifting fish-traps,
and various utensils. One man tried to remove some of these relics, but
they crumbled in his hands as if they had been burnt paper.

According to Bella Coola belief, the flood was not limited to any one
locality. As evidence of its occurrence in Fort Rupert the following
myth was related by a man who had heard it from his father’s father, a
Fort Rupert Indian.

One of the latter’s ancestors, having dreamt that a flood would cover
the earth, prepared a great quantity of gum with which he pitched his
house both inside and out. Presently it began to rain, and the deluge
continued until the whole land was covered, but this man dwelt secure
in his rain-proof house. When at last he heard the sound of drops on the
roof, he knew that the flood must have diminished so he dared open his
door. When he and his family went outside they found on the shore two
sisiut?, the supernatural double-headed salmon that cause land-slides.
From this event the man took the designation, Nukao-sa. When the
present owner of the name performs his ceremonial, the beating-boards
are in the shape of a susiut#, and there appears a masked figure of a man
who always shields his face with his arm. This appears to be an allusion
to the man protecting himself from the waters.7°

It is said that the time of the great heat” occurred soon after the flood.

HistroricaL STORIES

Although the Bella Coola regard all the stories included in
this chapter as chronicles of events, yet they realize that all the
preceding possess elements of the supernatural which are

“Tt was impossible to learn the type of ceremonial of which this story serves
as origin myth; it has accordingly been included in this miscellaneous section.
1Various accounts of this have already been given; see vol. II, p. 424 and p. 500.