Post by vilnoori on Dec 17, 2007 3:32:55 GMT -5
Origin Notes and History
"Cultus Lake (not Swehl-tcha)" adopted in the 13th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 30 June 1914, as labelled on BC map 2B, 1914.
Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office
Labelled "Schweltza Lake" on the Royal Engineer's 1862 map "British Columbia: Hope to Similkameen and Rock Creek..." and on G.M. Dawson's 1877 Geology Map of a Portion of the Southern Interior of British Columbia.
Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office
"Cultus... is a Chinook jargon word signifying "bad" etc. The Indians believed it to be the home of 'slalakums' or evil spirits..." [letter to Denys Nelson from Professor Charles Hill-Tout, anthropologist, citing his Chilliwack report, below.] The legend concerning Cultus Lake is given by Professor Hill-Tout in the Origin of the Tluke'l Su'lia: There was once a youth who was undergoing his puberty rites and seeking his su'lia on the margin of [this lake]. This lake was the abode of Slalakum (ie. supernatural water people who lived at the bottom of lakes). One day he took a stout buckskin and pierced it with many pointed bones. This he fastened about him, and taking a large stone to weigh himself with, jumped into the lake. The story goes on to describe how he reached the bottom of the lake and falls on the roof of the Slalakum's dwelling. They all come out to see what is the matter. They take him into the house where he finds some of the inmates sick through his having been spitting into the lake. He wipes the spittle away, and also the ashes of his fire which have dropped down upon them, and thus heals them from their sickness. In return they give him the Tluke'l, an object resembling a long stout icicle. After staying with the Slalakums [awhile] he returns to the surface of the lake, taking the Tluke'l with him. When he gets home all the people are taken sick at the sight of him, and he heals them all with the Tluke'l and thus becomes a great SQEla'm. He is specially able to cure those who fall ill from contact with a Slakakum. Tidings of his adventure and the fame of his skill spread [to] neighbouring tribes and a man of the NEk a'men tribe determines to visit "Cultus Lake" and seek similar powers for himself. Accordingly in company with a friend to assist him, he sets out for the lake. They manage to get there without the knowledge of the Teil Qe'uk (Chilliwack) people in whose territory the lake lies. They brought with them a stout ste'qim (rope). They get out into the middle of the lake and the man who seeks to visit the Slalakum ties the rope to the middle of his body and jumps into the water, bidding the other pay out the slack as he descends. He carried a big stone to make him descend quickly. When he had been down a good while, the friend grew impatient and drew up the rope, at the end of which he was horrified to see the fleshless body of his friend. He had been devoured by the fish of the lake. Greatly frightened, the survivor packed up the skeleton and made his way home again as fast as he could. Deterred by the shocking fate of this man, no one hereafter sought to pay a second visit to the Slalakums of "Cultus Lake"." (Paper on the ethnography of the mainland Halkomaylem, by Charles Hill-Tout; Report of the Eth. Surv. of Canada, British Association for the Advancement of Science; Belfast, 1902, p.15)
Source: Nelson, Denys; Place Names of the Delta of the Fraser River; 1927, unpublished manuscript held in the Provincial Archives
"The anglicized form of the Halkomelem word for the lake is Sweltzer... meaning 'unclear liquid that warns secretly.' The Indians believed that dreaded supernatural creatures lived in Cultus Lake, often manifesting themselves as dirtly swirlings in the water."
Source: Akrigg, Helen B. and Akrigg, G.P.V; British Columbia Place Names; Sono Nis Press, Victoria 1986 /or University of British Columbia Press 1997
"Cultus Lake (not Swehl-tcha)" adopted in the 13th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 30 June 1914, as labelled on BC map 2B, 1914.
Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office
Labelled "Schweltza Lake" on the Royal Engineer's 1862 map "British Columbia: Hope to Similkameen and Rock Creek..." and on G.M. Dawson's 1877 Geology Map of a Portion of the Southern Interior of British Columbia.
Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office
"Cultus... is a Chinook jargon word signifying "bad" etc. The Indians believed it to be the home of 'slalakums' or evil spirits..." [letter to Denys Nelson from Professor Charles Hill-Tout, anthropologist, citing his Chilliwack report, below.] The legend concerning Cultus Lake is given by Professor Hill-Tout in the Origin of the Tluke'l Su'lia: There was once a youth who was undergoing his puberty rites and seeking his su'lia on the margin of [this lake]. This lake was the abode of Slalakum (ie. supernatural water people who lived at the bottom of lakes). One day he took a stout buckskin and pierced it with many pointed bones. This he fastened about him, and taking a large stone to weigh himself with, jumped into the lake. The story goes on to describe how he reached the bottom of the lake and falls on the roof of the Slalakum's dwelling. They all come out to see what is the matter. They take him into the house where he finds some of the inmates sick through his having been spitting into the lake. He wipes the spittle away, and also the ashes of his fire which have dropped down upon them, and thus heals them from their sickness. In return they give him the Tluke'l, an object resembling a long stout icicle. After staying with the Slalakums [awhile] he returns to the surface of the lake, taking the Tluke'l with him. When he gets home all the people are taken sick at the sight of him, and he heals them all with the Tluke'l and thus becomes a great SQEla'm. He is specially able to cure those who fall ill from contact with a Slakakum. Tidings of his adventure and the fame of his skill spread [to] neighbouring tribes and a man of the NEk a'men tribe determines to visit "Cultus Lake" and seek similar powers for himself. Accordingly in company with a friend to assist him, he sets out for the lake. They manage to get there without the knowledge of the Teil Qe'uk (Chilliwack) people in whose territory the lake lies. They brought with them a stout ste'qim (rope). They get out into the middle of the lake and the man who seeks to visit the Slalakum ties the rope to the middle of his body and jumps into the water, bidding the other pay out the slack as he descends. He carried a big stone to make him descend quickly. When he had been down a good while, the friend grew impatient and drew up the rope, at the end of which he was horrified to see the fleshless body of his friend. He had been devoured by the fish of the lake. Greatly frightened, the survivor packed up the skeleton and made his way home again as fast as he could. Deterred by the shocking fate of this man, no one hereafter sought to pay a second visit to the Slalakums of "Cultus Lake"." (Paper on the ethnography of the mainland Halkomaylem, by Charles Hill-Tout; Report of the Eth. Surv. of Canada, British Association for the Advancement of Science; Belfast, 1902, p.15)
Source: Nelson, Denys; Place Names of the Delta of the Fraser River; 1927, unpublished manuscript held in the Provincial Archives
"The anglicized form of the Halkomelem word for the lake is Sweltzer... meaning 'unclear liquid that warns secretly.' The Indians believed that dreaded supernatural creatures lived in Cultus Lake, often manifesting themselves as dirtly swirlings in the water."
Source: Akrigg, Helen B. and Akrigg, G.P.V; British Columbia Place Names; Sono Nis Press, Victoria 1986 /or University of British Columbia Press 1997
