Xá:ls (plural Xexá:ls) is the great Transformer of the Coast Salish peoples of the lower Fraser River and Strait of Georgia. In Stó:lō sxwōxwiyám the Xexá:ls are the four children — three bear brothers and their sister — of Red-Headed Woodpecker and Black Bear, who journeyed from the head of the Fraser to the sea and back at the close of the myth age, punishing the wicked, rewarding the generous, and turning beings into salmon, cedar, and stone so that the world took its lasting shape. Numerous transformer stones in the landscape, most famously Xá:ytem, are pointed out as the petrified subjects of his work, and elders describe him with English glosses such as Transformer, Changer, and Holy One.