Myths and legends of the Pacific Northwest, especially of Washington and Oregon

The criteria for these myths were chosen, by necessity excluded those that showed traces of the white man's religion or the red man's rudeness. Only a few myths can be identified. These were myths about creation, the origin of races, theft of fire, salmon, and especially those associated with the physical features of the country, such as the group of mountains of the bridge of the gods, Tahoma, Shasta and the Columbia River. The collection grew out of an attempt to find, just for personal entertainment, a complete and accurate account of the legend of the bridge of the gods. It is well known, but it was difficult for me to find it, and my search brought up many bizarre local myths that were practically inaccessible to the general reader. This volume makes no claim to the original work, save for the selection of myths and rewriting of some of them, in which Indian simplicity and directness have been destroyed by witty attempts, philosophical remarks, or verbose explanations. A consistent effort was made to tell these stories as the Indians told them. Some legends such as “Duration of Life”, “Old Grizzly Bear and Old Antelope”, and “Robe of Kemush” are almost literal translations from Indian as recorded by government ethnologists. The name "Kemush", by the way, is a popular and abbreviated form of the name "K'mutkmitch". This volume is also not intended to be very serious or scientific. However, it is genuine. All myths for which no responsible authority could be found were rejected.