502 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

master, who was the only person ever known to have more than one. On this occasion Qwaiutsamlaix saw a movement in the water near his canoe and speared at it, thinking it to be a salmon; he felt the impact of a successful throw, but when he pulled in the rope, he found that it had been cut. The slave suggested that it must have been a beaver. The following afternoon when they were returning to Stuwx, and were only a short distance below that village, they saw something move on the bank and, going ashore, Qwaiutsamlaix found that it wasa wolverine devouring a beaver in the back of which was embedded his detachable harpoon-head. The wolverine, startled by the man’s sudden appearance, fled up a single tall tree. Qwaiutsamlaix called his slave and the two felled it so that it crashed into the water and drowned the animal. By the time they had finished, it was too late to return to Stuux so they camped for the night at the edge of a pool of water formed by the river overflowing its banks. There was a thin coating of ice over the pond, but during the night Qwaiutsamlaix heard, or perhaps sensed, that there were trout in the pool. Next morning he broke the ice and caught a great number of the fish, on which they breakfasted heartily. The fisherman realized that here was a valuable source of food, and accordingly, with the aid of his slave, he made a stockade to prevent the fish from escaping back to the main river. This occupied a large part of the day. When the enclosure was finished, Qwaiutsamiaix returned to Stu.x and told the woman that she would have no further need to exist on the refuse of trout since he had obtained a great abundance of food. She returned with him to the place where the fish were imprisoned; the two, with the slave, subsisted on them for the period of the famine, about one and a half years. They lived in tolerable comfort though many people starved to death.

THE FLOOD®

Once, long ago, it began to rain steadily. —The mountain creeks became swollen, then the rivers, and the valleys became flooded. The people were forced to make canoes, and the improvident were in trouble when the waters continued to rise; some were taken aboard by their relatives, others were drowned. The valleys were filled; at first a number of moun- tain tops were left exposed, but finally the bare peak of Nusqalst, the highest in the Bella Coola valley, alone rose above the raging torrent. The Bella Coola were driven to this spot where a large camp was formed. The gales were so strong there, that on two occasions the mooring-rope of a canoe broke; one was carried away towards the Skeena and another

69For another account of the flood see Boas, p. 96.