BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY


The writer was told that there was a special story about these. "Devil"
is, of course, a distortion of the native term for supernatural being or
spirit, which is ne'ka, and is equivalent to the manitu of the Algon-
quians or the yjk of the Tlingit. Sometimes people would clothe
themselves in alligator skins in order to represent evil spirits and
scare others. It is affirmed that the old-time Indians would not kill
an eagle, and that some would not eat bear meat because they thought
the bear was related to human beings. The former statement must
require certain modifications, however, for otherwise there would have
been no way of providing eagle plumes for the war and peace calu-
mets. These calumets were also ornamented with feathers of the wood
duck (ta w's). A thunder-bird belief appears to have been non-
existent, thunder having originated from Ku'tnahin. Coals were
saved from the fires used on Christmas eve and a little burned when-
ever it thundered. There are said to have been special stories re-
garding the horned owl and the screech owl, and also about a white
lion," the lion ('haimasi'ks) being called the king of the animals."
This looks like a European story, and must certainly have been such,
unless we are to understand by lion the panther or some other in-
digenous animal. The common word for panther is different, how-
ever. There was another story of a woman who lived by herself and
was guarded by a pet panther. An Indian and a white man were
once hunting together and met a white deer. The Indian warned his
companion not to kill it, but he did so, and afterward, although he
went hunting many times, he was unable to see a single deer.
 A small yellow bird, called tclntc, said to be the wild canary, was
 able to talk with human beings and foretell the weather. Another
 bird able to converse with men is a bird called ku'nsnu, which appears
 as cold weather approaches. It is of the yellow color of dry hay, and
 when it gets into hay can not be distinguished. Since the land has
 been cleared it has become scarce. The gqmpol 'stamo n is a bird a
 little larger than a mocking bird and with a flat head like a chicken
 hawk. It dives so quickly that it takes a good marksman to kill it.
 Some call it the devil bird, because it is supposed to break another
 bird's neck with its wings by flying against it. Clams and hailstones
 are called by the same name, kdc, because the germs of clams are
 contained in hailstones and grow after the hailstones melt."
 There are said to be four great sacred trees in the world, one at the
 mouth of the Mississippi, one somewhere over east on the seashore,
 one at the entrance of Vermilion bay, and one at Hi'pinimc, on Grand
 lake. This last, at least, is a cypress, and is well known to both In-
 dians and whites. It is believed that if anyone splashes water upon it
 a thunderstorm will come on and drench him. A white man assured
 me that he had experienced this himself. He added that on one oc-


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