HOW SHEWISH BECAME A GREAT WHALE HUNTER


The centre figure in the pictographic painting is a wolf grotesquely
drawn. Within her body four young wolves are seen. Above the wolf is
a killer whale surmounted by a second picture of the Thunder Bird,
and in the left top corner of the pictograph is seen the face of
a young klootsmah or Indian girl. How strangely are her features
pictured. With upturned hands she gazes in a blank unvarying
stare. She holds the key to this old tale which the great scroll
perpetuates. One time this Indian maiden, daughter of a chief of
great renown, with her two sisters left their home on Village Island.
They went in search of yellow cedar bark which grew in quantity upon
the mountain top above the village, of Toquaht. The cedar bark is
highly prized, and when the sap ascends in May to feed the new born
green, the bark is loose and easily removed, and when the klootsmah
cuts the bark through to the sap half round the tree and pulls with
all her strength, it comes in strips from off the tree till the first
branch is reached, and then it breaks and falls obedient at her dark
feet. The klootsmah rolls it up and puts it in the basket on her
back, and when she reaches home she splits the bark, and pounds it
between stones, with water softening it, and after long and tedious
work the fibres being separated, she cleanses them and weaves them
into cloaks, and then with true artistic taste, trims them with
pretty fur.

[Illustration: THE BARK GIVES WAY AND COMES IN STRIPS FROM
OFF THE TREES]

The daughters of the Village Island chief took with them food to last