The Quileute in their boats sailed wherever the wind currents carried them. They rose until the very tops of the mountains were covered with water. When the water began to cover things, the Quieute got into their boats. Even Whale's ribs and his great head may still be seen. Thus a ridge was made of great rock blocks from one end of the prairie to the other. All the meat and blubber that they had piled there was turned into stone. After the storm all those people were turned into stone. It killed and mangled all the people there on the prairie Thunderbird was very angry with those people, because they had taken the whale. It began to rain a little, not so much at first. He was very angry because the people had stolen his food. It got dark and the clouds overhead became very black. They cooked some of the whale meat and ate it. All over the ground, pieces of blubber were piled. By evening they had it all cut in pieces.
In this fashion they divided the whole whale. The people began to measure off the parts each wanted. When they reached that place, Whale was lying there dead in the lower part of the prairie. There were from three to six people in each whaling canoe. He is so large that thunderbird cannot carry him further." All the beach and river Indians came at once to the prairie. The man sent word to all the Quileute people living at the mouth of the river. Thunderbird was resting in the tree, because Whale was so heavy." It had been carried there by thunderbird. After he showed the feather to the people, he said, "I also saw a very big whale on the prairie. He had had to bend it in order to put it into his arrow quiver when he brought it home with him. Here is a feather that I took from Thunderbird's wing." The feather was as long as a canoe paddle. He told the people, "I saw a very big bird sitting just a little way above the ground in a tree. He went off hunting very early one morning, but soon he came back. Those places are the prairies on the Olympic Peninsula today.Ī man was living at Beaver Prairie. In those places where Thunderbird and Mimlos-whale fought, to this day, no trees grow. That is why the killer whale still lives in the ocean today. At last Mimlos-whale escaped to the deep ocean, and Thunderbird gave up the fight. Each time thunderbird caught Mimlos-whale there was a terrible battle, and all the trees in that place were uprooted. All the trees there were torn out by their roots. Again they fought a terrible battle in another place. The noise that Thunderbird made when he flapped his wings shook the mountains. Thunderbird would seize Mimlos-whale in his talons and try to carry Mimlos-whale to his nest in the mountains. Thunderbird in the air could not whip Mimlos-whale in the water. For a long time the battle was undecided. Hobucket said that Thunderbird represented good and that Mimlos-whale represented evil.) And no trees have ever grown in that place to this day. Thunderbird and Whale fought so hard that they pulled up the trees there by their roots. The whale fought very hard before he was killed. One time Thunderbird got a big whale in his talons and carried him to Beaver Prairie and ate him there. He makes the big noise by the flapping of his wings. He makes the lightning by his rapid flight through the air. No one would sleep near that place over night. Everyone was afraid of Thunderbird and of the thunder noise. There it broke into a million pieces, and rattled as it rolled farther down the valley.
The ice would roll until it came to the level place where the rocks are. Whenever people came near there, he rolled ice down the mountain side while he made the thunder noise.
He caused ice to come out of the door of his house.
He did not want any person to come near his house. This is a supernatural place." Whenever they walked close to the hole they approached his place. They found a hole in the side of the mountain. Some men were hunting on the Hoh mountains. When he moves about in there, he makes the noise there under the ice. Thunderbird keeps his meat in a dark hole under the glacier at the foot of the Olympic glacial field. The flapping of his wings makes the thunder and the great winds. When he opens and shut his eyes, he makes the lightning. When it is stormy weather the thunderbird flies through the skies. (Neah bay Indians believe that the lightning is caused by two monstrous feathered snakes which dart out from under Thunderbird's breast when he flies forth in anger.) Walters, 1933, "Tales from the Hoh and Quileute", Journal of American Folklore, V.
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