Qamaits is a warrior goddess of the indigenous Nuxalk (sometimes called Bella Coola) people of the central coast of British Columbia in Canada.[1][2]

Qamaits is also the Goddess of the death and the beginning. At the dawn of Time, Qamaits did battle against the giants of the mountains, which were so high that nothing could survive on them. Qamaits, being a ferocious warrior, defeated legions of giants and turned them into the mountain landscapes of today, knocking them down to the size they are today. After that she grew bored of Earth and left for residence elsewhere. Her assistant Senx[3] tends to look after the daily tasks of creation.

She doesn't think much of humans and rarely visits the earth, but when she does, she causes earthquakes, forest fires, and sickness. Sometimes she visits to take her pet snake Sisiutl and to attack a few humans about and cause disasters. Her snake is a sign that she is coming.

She is also referred to as World-mother,[4] Our Woman and Afraid-of-Nothing.[5]

References

Retrieved: 19 May 2015

Retrieved: 19 May 2015

  1. "The Jesup Expedition to the North Pacific Coast". Science. 6 (145): 535–538. 1897. Bibcode:1897Sci.....6..535.. doi:10.1126/science.6.145.535. ISSN 0036-8075. JSTOR 1622723. PMID 17781657.
  2. Savill, Sheila (1978). Pears Encyclopaedia of Myths and Legends: Chapter 7. Oceania and Australia. Chapter 8. The Americas. Pelham. p. 212.
  3. Dixon-Kennedy, Mike (1998). Native American Myth & Legend: An A-Z of People and Places. Brockhampton Press. p. 194. ISBN 1860198392.
  4. Campbell, Joseph (1983). Historical Atlas of World Mythology. A. van der Marck Editions. p. 219.
  5. Gray, Louis Herbert (1916). The Mythology of All Races. Marshall Jones Company.


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