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The History of the Columbia River From The Dalles to the Sea
By Fred Lockley, 1928, pages 94 - 95

This is the legend the Klickitats tell of Memaloose Island. Long before the white men came, a young chief loved a young woman. The chief went over the Spirit Trail but he was lonesome and found no rest in the land of the spirits. The maiden grieved for him. A vision came to her which told her to go to the land of the Spirits. She told her father of the vision so he made a canoe, placed her in it and together they paddled up the Great River to the Island of the Spirits. In the darkness as they neared the Death Island, they heard singing and the sound of the tom-tom and the drum. Four spirit people met them on the shore. The maiden stepped ashore, but the father returned. The maiden met her lover there more beautiful than he was on earth. All night they danced. When morning came they fell asleep. She slept, but when the sun was high she awoke. She looked around, All around here were skeletons. Her lover's skeleton seemed to gaze upon her. She saw that sehwas on the Island of the Dead. She was filled with horror. She found an old canoe and paddled across the Great River to her village. She had been to the Spirit Land. If she returned, evil would surely fall upon the tribe. That night her father paddled her across the river to Memaloose Island. Once more in the darkness she heard singing and the sound of the tom-tom and the dance drums. After a while a baby was born to her. It was half human, half spirit. Her lover, who was a spirit, wished his mother to see the baby. He sent a messenger to his mother, telling her to come to the island at night. In those days, those who lived could tak with those who had gone to the Spirit World. The spirit lover told his mother, when she arrived on Memaloose Island, not to look at the baby until it was ten days old, but she was impatient and lifted the cloth from the baby's face. The baby died and the spirit people were displeased, so they said, "Never again shall living people visit their loved ones who have taken the Spirit Trail."