And finally, we have in the following the most pictorial representations of the spirit world of Crater Lake:
Tradition tells how two hunters, brave and skillful Nimrods of the Klamath tribe, ventured far beyond the realm of the living. Went where, the ancient doctor told, dwelt the Great Spirit–where he had, when yet the nation was in its infancy, given vent to his rage in sending forth spouts of flame and smoke. The very fathers of the tribe had been issued from the land of spirits through a mighty cavern, which they said led into the regions of the uncanny. Here did they believe and teach that all men returned to dwell in spiritual form with their Maker. They described it as a place deep and bottomless as the very sky–a place where the mountains sank into the bottomless depth of the spiritual world. A peak, they said, arose from near the center of this unbounded depth, and this was the throne of the Almighty. Within this dome there was a furnace, from which issued the flame and smoke. About the glowing cloud at the mouth of the crater struggled winged salamanders, or “fire spirits,” attempting to escape from their fiery prison, but bound by the will of the Great Spirit. These were the spirits of evil men doomed to suffer an eternal penalty of torture for their earthly wrongdoings. In the bottom of the abyss was a sheet of water as blue and deep as the sky which it reflected. Over the surface of this lake and on its surrounding banks sported the spirits of the departed good. They sailed in gilded canoes over the glossy depths of the lake and in the tranquil shades of the surrounding forest they roamed in search of game; they sailed like birds from one pinnacle to another, and fished in the balmy blue waters. Here was the paradise, and in the crater the infernal regions.
The doctors of the tribe only were allowed by the Great Spirit to visit this holy retreat. Here they came and counseled with him; here they met the dead of the tribe and bore messages from them to the living; here did they procure medicine for the sick and charms to guide the fate of men. So did the doctors tell the people, and so did the people and do many yet believe. They said that it was the decree of the Great Spirit that any living man who should dare to intrude upon the sacred presence of the dead should die in consequence, and be doomed to the infernal furnace. Yet these warriors were brave. They feared not even the Great Spirit himself. They wore the scalps of mighty warriors at their belts. They had vanquished the fiercest beasts of the forest; they had overcome all enemies they had chanced to meet; they longed for fresh adventures–for more thrilling dangers, and they rivalled each other’s courage. They at last determined to invade the realms of the supernatural. They entered the forest and traveled toward the sky-towering pinnacles of Crater lake. On they pressed, dauntless in their courage. They reached the regions of the uncanny. They climbed nearer and nearer the great abyss. At last they came to a break in the forest, and there before them lay the awful spectacle. It was as it had been pictured to them. They stood fixed to the spot. There, as the doctors had described, lay the lake. There before their eyes, with wings like birds, sported the spirits, and from the crater far below them in the lake burst forth flames and smoke and the agonizing cries of suffering men. The screams of the tortured mingled with the happy songs of the peaceful spirits. There the birds which once had fallen, pierced by lightning arrows, flew in spirit flocks. Fish once victims to the fraudulent fly sported in the lake, and deer and bear, whose skins had long since been worn for garments, browsed in the forest. Dogs followed their masters through space. Here they stood and gazed, unable to tear themselves away, till at last the Great Spirit, ever conscious of the movements of all men, issued from the fiery depths of the crater, and, summoning a huge monster from the bed of the lake, pointed to the two men on the shore. The great dragon, wont to do the bidding of his grim master, cut the tranquil surface of the lake with his thousand fins, and, clearing the high precipice with a gigantic leap, caught one of the warriors in his mighty arms and returned with him to the crater. The other warrior fled at the approach of the monster, and ran wildly down the mountain. Myriads of spirits, now disturbed, dashed after him, but he ran desperately on and reached safely the settlements on the Upper Klamath. He told them of what he had seen, of his adventures, and of the fate of his companion, and then, fulfilling the stern decree of the Great Spirit, yielded up his soul to undergo the tortures awaiting him in the fiery crater. But the Indians have not to this day forgotten his experience, and they still tell their children of that happy hunting ground where “their dogs shall bear them company.” [26]
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