Note 14 — Story of the shaman, G̣ᴀ′ndox’s-father

It would be interesting if we could trace the word Bᴀlê′la to its origin, for it was certainly connected in some way with the first appearance of white people in northern British Columbia and with the first efforts of Christian missionaries. Bī′nĭ evidently = Peni, from ni “mind,” a Carrier Indian, who, immediately after the appearance of the first Catholic missionaries, claimed remarkable supernatural powers and started a kind of sporadic cult which spread throughout much of the northern part of British Columbia. (See Morice, Hist. of the N. Interior of Brit. Col., p. 235.) At Masset I discovered that certain songs there had been obtained, or were supposed to have been obtained, from a Jesuit missionary on the Skeena. The Christian influences apparent in this story evidently emanated from the same source, as Bᴀlê′la’s and Bī′ni’s songs are all said to have been revealed at a place up the Skeena river at the same time and to have spread from there. ↑ a b