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The native of this Spokane area told Elkanah Walker the
Missionary that they believed in the existence of a race of giants which inhabit
a certain mountain, off to west of us. This mountain is covered with perpetual
snow. They inhabit its top. They hunt and do all their work at night. They are
men stealers. They come to the tribe's lodges in the night, when the people are
asleep and take them and put them under their skins and take them to their place
of abode without their even awakening. When they awake in the morning, they are
wholly lost, not knowing in what direction their home is. They say their track
is about a foot and a half long. They frequently come in the night and steal
their salmon from their nets, and eat them raw. If any people are awake, they
always know when they are coming very near, by the smell which is most
intolerable. The missionaries called the tribe's members "the people".
From: Nine Years with the Indians (The diary of Elkanah Walker),
by Drury.
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