Day 211: A long time ago, Mount Olympus (the peak in the Olympic Range) had two wives. The younger wife was very jealous of the elder wife, and so one day, she decided to leave. She packed for a journey and set out walking south, carrying a basket of edible roots and berries on her back. She travelled down the Peninsula until she came to the bottom of Puget Sound, and then turned eastward but by this time, she was tired and hungry. When she reached the place we now call Yelm, she took her basket off her shoulders and sat down to make herself a meal. When she was done, she started walking again, but she left behind a few bulbs of the blue Camas. From those few bulbs came the Camas prairies of southwest Washington. The jealous wife walked and walked, and eventually came to a beautiful, wide-open meadow. "This is where I want to make my home," she said, and there, she spread her skirts and sat down to stay. Today, we know Mount Olympus' jealous wife by another name. We call her Mount Rainier.
This traditional story is one of my favourites. I had never seen Blue Camas until I moved to the prairie as a young married woman. Every time I see the fields turn blue in the early spring, I think of Mount Rainier's journey to her present home.
No comments:
Post a Comment