Reading Notes: Pacific Northwest, Part B

The story "The Memaloose Islands" tells the story of a young chief and the woman he loves. The chief goes over the spirit trail and cannot find any rest in the land of the spirits. The maiden had a vision telling her that she should go to the land of the spirits and she told her father about her vision. He prepared a canoe and they paddled up Great River to the spirit island. They heard singing and a beat drum and four spirits greeted them when they reached the death island. The maiden got off the canoe, but her father returned home. She found the chief and they danced all night. When the morning came, the spirits slept but she could not sleep soundly. She woke up later that day, surrounded by skeletons and skulls. The maiden realized she was in the island of death and became filled with horror. She found a boat and paddled home to her village. Her father was worried though, because she had been to the spirit land and evil would fall upon the tribe if she returned. Again, the father prepared a canoe and they paddled to Memaloose Island. The maiden gave birth to a half human, half spirit baby. The chief wanted his mother to see the baby, so he sent a messenger to tell her to come to island at night but not to look at the baby until it was ten days old. When she reached the island, the mother became impatient to see the baby and lifted the cloth covering its face. The baby died because she looked at its face and the spirit people became displeased. They said they living people should never again visit the land of those gone by the spirit trail.

Memaloose Island by Glenn Scofield Williams

Story source: Myths and Legends of the Pacific Northwest, especially of Washington and Oregon, by Katharine Berry Judson (1910)

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