Legends of Vancouver · Chapter
The Lure in Stanley Park explained
This chapter recounts the Coast Indian legend of a witch-woman turned to stone in Stanley Park, whose evil soul lures unwary travelers into endless circling.
What happens
This chapter recounts the Coast Indian legend of a witch-woman turned to stone in Stanley Park, whose evil soul lures unwary travelers into endless circling. The Sagalie Tyee's Four Men transform kind souls into the Cathedral Trees to counteract the stone's evil, illustrating the Indian belief that good ultimately prevails and that kindness is the highest virtue.
Themes in this chapter
Morality and Ethical Conduct
The legend contrasts good and evil: the witch-woman's cruelty versus the kindness of the souls turned into trees, emphasizing that kindness is the highest virtue among the Coast tribes.
Nature and Landscape as Sacred
The Cathedral Trees and the stone embody transformed human souls, making the forest a sacred space where good and evil are physically manifest.
Cultural Preservation and Oral Tradition
The legend is passed down through oral tradition, known universally among tribes, and the narrator emphasizes the importance of these tales in revealing Indian values.
Characters to notice
- Sagalie Tyee
The deity who transforms evil souls into stone and good souls into trees, weeping for afflicted humanity and commanding the Four Men.
- The Four Men
Representatives of the Deity who pursue the witch-woman, turn her to stone, and later create the Cathedral Trees from benevolent souls.
- Unknown Narrator
The narrator who relates the legend and reflects on the Indian reverence for kindness, having heard the tale from multiple tillicums.
Key passages
“The good has predominated, as He planned it to, for is not the stone hidden in some unknown part of the park where eyes do not see it and feet do not follow—and do not the thousands who come to us from the uttermost parts of the world seek that wondrous beauty spot, and stand awed by the majestic silence, the almost holiness of that group of giants?”
Goodness has prevailed as intended: the evil stone remains hidden and unseen, while countless visitors from afar are drawn to the awe-inspiring, sacred Cathedral Trees.
The narrator concludes that the Sagalie Tyee's plan succeeded, with the good trees attracting reverence while the evil stone is forgotten.
“If you talk with any of them, and they mention some man they particularly like or admire, their first qualification of him is: 'He's a kind man.' They never say he is brave, or rich, or successful, or even strong, that characteristic so loved by the red man. To these coast tribes if a man is 'kind' he is everything.”
When Coast Indians praise someone, they call him 'kind' before mentioning bravery, wealth, or strength; kindness is the highest compliment among them.
The narrator observes that the tribes value kindness above all other traits, reflecting the moral core of their legends.