RATTLESNAKE AND SALMON
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The lodge of En-tee-tee-ueh--Salmon--was in the cliffs above the Big Falls of the Swah-netk'-qhu. Salmon was a great warrior.
Salmon heard of a beautiful girl who lived in the Kalispel country. Many warriors were trying to win her, Salmon heard, and he decided he would win her himself. So he went to her country and made war on the people. He beat them and took away the maiden. He brought her home with him. She loved Salmon from the first. She loved him for his red handsome face.
Many warriors wanted to kill Salmon and take his bride, but they did not know how to get at the pair in the lodge above the roaring falls. But near Salmon's lodge lived Hdh-ah-ooh-lah' [1]--Rattlesnake. He was an old man. He envied Salmon. He decided to kill him. He made war-arrows, singing as he worked. And then, one sun when he had finished the arrows, Rattlesnake strung his bow and stepped outside his bough-covered lodge and sent an arrow into Salmon's head.
Salmon tumbled from his cliff home into the river. His body floated down the river. Salmon's wife cried. The three Wolf brothers had been watching. They saw Salmon die. They took Salmon's wife to their own camp. There she was made to work--to be a slave--and she was watched night and day by the wives of the three brothers. She was unhappy; she felt very bad.
The river carried Salmon's body a long way. Finally it was washed upon a sand-bar, to bleach in the sun. Soon only the skull and the back-bone remained.
Gou-Kouh-wr5ay'-na--Mouse, the Sly One--came there to the sand-bar one day with her sister. They were looking for something to steal. They found what was left of Salmon. Mouse was very sad, for Salmon had been her chief. She went to a camp near-by and stole some salmon oil. With that oil she greased the skull and back-bone every sun for many suns. After awhile the flesh began to grow around the bones. Slowly Salmon was restored to life by the oil Mouse rubbed on him. At last he could get up and move around, and after many moons he became strong again. Then he went back to the Big Falls, to his home. As his wife was not there, he went over to Rattlesnake's lodge to ask about her. He heard Rattlesnake singing.
”Ta-Pin-ee, ex-en-lee-dh!" ("I shot him, and he ran down the cliffs!") [2] And Rattlesnake sang this: "I shot him! He was a chief, but he is a chief no more!"
Salmon walked into Rattlesnake's lodge. Out of the corner of one eye, Rattlesnake saw him, but he did not let on that he saw, and he changed his song. He pretended to be mourning Salmon's death. Salmon said nothing. He stooped and picked a piece of blazing wood from the fire and touched it to the dry bough lodge covering. He jumped outside, and the flames leaped up. Rattlesnake was trapped. He could not get out; he was burned to death. From one of Rattlesnake's eyes crawled a small snake. It was Rattlesnake's mystery-power.
"Always shall you crawl on your belly," Salmon told the little rattlesnake. "That is my revenge."
Then Salmon started in search of his wife. He found her in the camp of the three Wolf brothers. Two of the brothers he killed, and he told the third, the youngest, to get out of that country. He told him to go into the timber country and never come back. Wolf went. He was the first of the timber wolves. That is how the race of timber wolves originated.
Salmon and his wife did not return to their lodge in the cliffs. He took her into the water below the Big Falls, where they would be safe from the enemies they had among the Land People.
The arrow-point that Rattlesnake shot into Salmon's head stayed in his head. All salmon have arrow-points like that in their heads today.
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