| No one knows just how the story of Raven really begins,
so each starts from the point where he does know it. Here it was
always begun in this way. Raven was first called Kit-ka'ositiyi-qa-yit
("Son of Kit-ka'ositiyi-qa"). When his son was born, Kit-ka'ositiyi-qa
tried to instruct him and train him in every way and, after he grew
up, told him he would give him strength to make a world. After trying
in all sorts of ways, Raven finally succeeded. Then there was no
light in this world, but it was told him that far up the Nass was
a large house in which some one kept light just for himself.
Raven thought over all kinds of plans for getting this light
into the world and finally he hit on a good one. The rich man
living there had a daughter, and he thought, "I will make
myself very small and drop into the water in the form of a small
piece of dirt." The girl swallowed this dirt and became pregnant.
When her time was completed, they made a hole for her, as was
customary, in which she was to bring forth, and lined it with
rich furs of all sorts. But the child did not wish to be born
on those fine things. Then its grandfather felt sad and said,
"What do you think it would be best to put into that hole?
Shall we put in moss?" So they put moss inside and the baby
was born on it. Its eyes were very bright and moved around rapidly.
Round bundles of varying shapes and sizes hung about on the
walls of the house. When the child became a little larger it crawled
around back of the people weeping continually, and as it cried
it pointed to the bundles. This lasted many days. Then its grandfather
said, "Give my grandchild what he is crying for. Give him
that one hanging on the end. That is the bag of stars." So
the child played with this, rolling it about on the floor back
of the people, until suddenly he let it go up through the smoke
hole. It went straight up into the sky and the stars scattered
out of it, arranging themselves as you now see them. That was
what he went there for.
Some time after this he began crying again, and he cried so
much that it was thought he would die . Then his grandfather said,
" Untie the next one and give it to him." He played
and played with it around behind his mother. After a while he
let that go up through the smoke hole also, and there was the
big moon.
Now just one thing more remained, the box that held the daylight,
and he cried for that. His eyes turned around and showed different
colors, and the people began thinking that he must be something
other than an ordinary baby. But it always happens that a grandfather
loves his grandchild just as he does his own daughter, so the
grandfather said, "Untie the last thing and give it to him."
His grandfather felt very sad when he gave this to him. When the
child had this in his hands, he uttered the raven cry, "Ga,"
and flew out with it through the smokehole. Then the person from
whom he had stolen it said, "That old manuring raven has
gotten all of my things."
Journeying on, Raven was told of another place, where a man
had everlasting spring of water. This man was named Petrel (Ganu'k).
Raven wanted this water because there was none to drink in this
world, but Petrel always slept by his spring, and he had a cover
over it so as to keep it all to himself. Then Raven came in and
said to him, "My brother-in-law, I have just come to see
you. How are you?" He told Petrel of all kinds of things
that were happening outside, trying to induce him to go out to
look at them, but Petrel was too smart for him and refused.
When night came, Raven said, "I am going to sleep with
you, brother-in-law." So they went to bed, and toward morning
Raven heard Petrel sleeping very soundly. Then he went outside,
took some dog manure and put it around Petrel's buttocks. When
it was beginning to grow light, he said, "Wake up, wake up,
wake up, brother in-law, you have defecated all over your clothes!"
Petrel got up, looked at himself, and thought it was true, so
he took his blankets and went outside. Then Raven went over to
Petrel's spring, took off the cover and began drinking. After
he had drunk up almost all of the water, Petrel came in and saw
him. Then Raven flew straight up, crying "Ga."
Before he got through the smoke-hole, however, Petrel said,"My
spirits up the smoke hole, catch him." So Raven stuck there,
and Petrel put pitchwood on the fire under him so as to make a
quantity of smoke. Raven was white before that time, but the smoke
made him of the color you find him today. Still he did not drop
the water. When the smoke-hole spirits let him go, he flew around
the nearest point and rubbed himself all over so as to clear off
as much of the soot as possible. This happened somewhere about
the Nass, and afterwards he started up this way. First he let
some water fall from his mouth and made the Nass. By and by he
spit more out and made the Stikine. Next he spit out Taku river,
then Chilkat, then Alsek, and all the other large rivers. The
small drops that came out of his mouth made the small salmon creeks.
After this Raven went on again and came to a large town where
were people who had never seen daylight. They were out catching
eulachon in the darkness when he came to the bank opposite, and
he asked them to take him across but they would not. Then he said
to therm, "If you don't come over I will have daylight break
on you." But they answered, " Where are you from ? Do
you come from far up the Nass where lives the man who has daylight?"
At this Raven opened his box just a little and shed so great a
light on them that they were nearly thrown down. He shut it quickly,
but they quarreled with him so much across the creek that he became
angry and opened the box completely, when the sun flew up into
the sky. Then those people who had sea-otter or fur-seal skins,
or the skins of any other sea animals, went into the ocean, while
those who had land-otter, bear, or marten skins, or the skins
of any other land animals, went into the woods [becoming the animals
whose skins they wore].
Raven came to another place where a crowd of boys were throwing
fat at one another. When they hit him with a piece he swallowed
it. After a while he took dog's manure and threw at the boys who
became scared, ran away, and threw more fat at him. He consumed
all in this way, and started on again.
After a while he came to an abandoned camp where lay a piece
of jade (s!u) half buried in the ground, on which some design
had been pecked. This he dug up. Far out in the bay he saw a large
spring salmon jumping about and wanted to get it but did not know
how. Then he stuck his stone into the ground and put eagle down
upon the head designed thereon. The next time the salmon jumped,
he said, "See here, spring salmon jumping out there, do you
know what this green stone is saying to you? It is saying, 'You
thing with dirty, filthy back, you thing with dirty, filthy gills,
come ashore here.'"
Raven suddenly wanted to defecate and started off. Just then
the big spring salmon also started to come ashore, so Raven said,
"Just wait, my friend, don't come ashore yet for I have some
business to attend to." So the salmon went out again. Afterward
Raven took a piece of wild celery (ya'naet), and, when the salmon
did come ashore, he struck it with this and kihed it. Because
Raven made this jade talk to the salmon, people have since made
stone axes, picks, and spears out of it.
Then Raven, carrying along the spring salmon, got all kinds
of birds, little and big, as his servants. When he came to a good
place to cook his fish he said to all of them, "Here, you
young fellows, go after skunk cabbage. We will bury this in the
ground and roast it." After they had brought it down, however,
he said, "I don't want any of that. My wife has defecated
all over that, and I will not use it. Go back and pass over two
mountains." While they were gone, Raven put all of the salmon
except one fat piece cut from around the " navel " which
is usually cooked separately, into the skunk cabbage and buried
it in the fire. Before they returned, he dug this up and ate it,
after which he put the bones back into the fire and covered them
up.
When the birds at last came back he said to them, "I have
been across two mountains myself. Now it is time to dig it up.
Dig it out." Then all crowded around the fire and dug, but,
when they got it up, there was nothing there but bones.
By and by the birds dressed one another in different ways so
that they might be named from their dress. They tied the hair
of the blue jay up high with a string, and they added a long tail
to the ts!egeni', another crested bird. Then they named one another.
Raven let out the ts!egeni' and told him that when the salmon
comes he must call its slime unclean and stay high up until the
salmon are all gone.
Now Raven started off with the piece of salmon belly and came
to a place where Bear and his wife lived. He entered and said,
"My aunt's son, is this you?" The piece of salmon he
had buried behind a little point. Then Bear told him to sit down
and said, " I will roast some dry salmon for you." So
he began to roast it. After it was done, he set a dish close to
the fire and slit the back of his hands with a knife so as to
let grease run out for Raven to eat on his salmon. After he had
fixed the salmon, he cut a piece of flesh out from in front of
his thighs and put it into the dish. That is why bears are not
fat in that place.
Now Raven wanted to give a dinner to Bear in return, so he,
too, took out a piece of fish, roasted it, set out the dish Bear
had used, dose to the fire and slit up the back of his hand, thinking
that grease would run out of it. But instead nothing but white
bubbles came forth. Although he knew he could not do it, he tried
in every way.
Then Raven asked Bear, "Do you know of any halibut fishing
ground out here?" He said "No." Raven said, "Why!
what is the use of staying here by this salt water, if you do
not know of any fishing ground? I know a good fishing ground right
out here called Just on-the-edge-of-kelp (Gi'ck!icuwanyi'). There
are always halibut swimming there, mouth up, ready for the hook."
By and by Raven got the piece of fish he had hidden behind the
point and went out to the bank in company with Bear and Cormorant.
Cormorant sat in the bow, Bear in the middle, and, because he
knew where the fishing ground was, Raven steered. When they arrived
Raven stopped the canoe all at once. He said to them, " Do
you see that mountain, Was!e'ti-ca? When you sight that mountain,
that is where you want to fish." After this Raven began to
fill the canoe with halibut. So Bear asked him, "What do
you use for bait anyhow, my friend?" Raven answered, "I'll
use the skin covering the testicles as bait." The bear asked,
"Is it alright to use mine?" But the raven said, "
I don't want to do it, for they might be too wasted." Soon
the bear was urging it strongly, "Cut them off!" So
the Raven, sharpening a short knife, said, "Place them on
the seat." Then the Raven cut them off, so that the Bear,
crying out, fell from the boat and, dying, spilled into the waves
with one last sigh.
After a while Raven said to Cormorant, "There is a louse
coming down on the side of your head. Come here. Let me take it
off." When he came close to him, he picked it off. Then he
said, "Open your mouth so that I can put it on your tongue."
When he did open his mouth, however, Raven reached far back and
pulled his tongue out. He did this because he did not want Cormorant
to tell about what he had done. He told Cormorant to speak, but
Cormorant made only a gabbling noise. "That is how young
fellows ought to speak," said Raven. Then Raven towed the
dead body of the bear behind the point and carried it ashore there.
Afterwards he went to Bear's wife and began to take out his halibut.
He said to the female bear, "My father's sister, cut out
all the stomachs of the halibut and roast them." So she went
down on the beach to cut them out. While she was working on the
rest of the halibut, he cooked the stomachs and filled them with
hot rocks. Then he went down and said to her, "You better
come up. I have cooked all those stomachs for you. You better
wash your hands, come up, and eat." After that Cormorant
came in and tried to tell what had happened but rnade only a gabbling
sound. Raven said to the bear, " Do you know what that fellow
is talking about? He is saying that there were lots of halibut
out where we fished. Every time we tried to get a canoe load they
almost turned us over." When she was about to eat he said,
" People never chew what I get. They always swallow it whole."
Before she began she asked Raven where her husband was, and Raven
said, "Somehow or other he caught nothing, so we landed him
behind the point. He is cutting alders to make alder hooks. He
is sitting there yet."
After the bear had swallowed all of the food she began to feel
uneasy in her stomach, and Raven said to Cormorant, "Run
outside quickly and get her some water." Then she drank a
great quantity of water, and the things in her stomach began to
boil harder and harder. Said Raven, "Run out Cormorant."
He did so, and Raven ran after him. Then the female bear ran about
inside the house grabbing at everything and finally fell dead.
Then Raven skinned the female bear, after which he went around
the point and did the same thing to the male. While he was busy
there Cormorant came near him, but he said, "Keep away, you
small Cormorant," and struck him on the buttocks with his
hand saying, "Go out and stay on those rocks." Ever
since then the cormorants have been there. Raven stayed in that
place until he had consumed both of the bears.
Starting on again, Raven came to a place where many people were
encamped fishing. They used nothing but fat for bait. He entered
a house and askced what they used for bait. They said "Fat."
Then he said, "Let me see you put enough on your hooks for
bait," and he noticed carefully how they baited and handled
their hooks. The next time they went out, he walked off behind
a point and went under water to get this bait. Now they got bites
and pulled up quickly, but there was nothing on their hooks. This
continued for a long time. The next time they went out they felt
the thing again, but one man among them who knew just how fish
bite, jerked at the right moment and felt that he had caught something.
The line went around in the water very fast. They pulled away,
however, until they got Raven under the canoe, and he kicked against
it very hard. All at once his nose came out, and they pulled it
up. When they landed, they took it to the chief's house and said,
"We have caught a wonderful thing. It must be the nose of
the Gonaqade't." So they took it, put eagle down on it, and
hung it up on the wall.
After that, Raven came ashore at the place where he had been
in the habit of going down, got a lot of spruce gum and made a
new nose out of it. Then he drew a root hat down over his face
and went to the town. Beginning at the nearer end he went through
the houses saying "I wonder in what house are the people
who caught that Gonaqade't's nose." After he had gone halfway,
he entered the chief's house and inquired, "Do you know where
are the people who caught that Gonaqade't's nose ?" They
answered, "There it is on the wall." Then he said, "
Bring it here. Let me examine it." So they gave it to him.
"This is great," he said, and he put up his hat to examine
it. "Why," said he, "this house is dark. You ought
to take off the smoke-hole cover. Let some one run up and take
it off so that I can see." But, as soon as they removed it,
he put the nose in its place, cried "Ga," and flew away.
They did not find out who he was.
Going thence, Raven saw a number of deer walking around on the
beach, with a great deal of fat hanging out through their noses.
As he passed one of these, he said, "Brother, you better
blow your nose. Lots of dirt is hanging out of it." When
the deer would not do this, Raven came close to him, wiped his
nose and threw the fat by his own side. Calling out, "Just
for the Raven," he swallowed it.
Now Raven formed a certain plan. He got a small canoe and began
paddling along the beach saying, "I wonder who is able to
go along with me." Mink came down and said, "How am
I?" and Raven said, "What can you do?". Said Mink,
"When I go to camp with my friends, I make a bad smell in
their noses. That's what I can do." But Raven said, "I
guess not. You might make a hole in my canoe," so he went
along farther. The various animals and birds would come down and
say, "How am I?" but he did not even listen. After some
time Deer ran down to him, saying, " How am I?" Then
he answered, " Come this way, Axkwa'L!i-i-i, come this way
Axkwa'L!i-i-i." He called him Axkwa'L!i-i-i because he never
got angry. Finally Raven came ashore and said to Deer, "
Don't hurt yourself, Axkwa'L!i-i-i." By and by Raven said
" Not very far from here my father has been making a canoe.
Let us go there and look at it."
Then Raven brought him to a large valley. He took very many
pieces of dried wild celery and laid them across the valley, covering
them with moss. Said Raven, Axkwa'L!i-i-i, watch me, Axkwa'L!i-i-i,
watch me." Repeating this over and over he went straight
across on it, for he is light. Afterwards he said to Deer, "Axkwa'L!i-i-i,
now you come and try it. It will not break," and he crossed
once more. "You better try it now," he said. "Come
on over." Deer did so, but, as he was on the way, he broke
through the bridge and smashed his head to pieces at the bottom.
Then Raven went down, walked all over him, and said to himself,
"I wonder where I better start, at the root of his tail,
at the eyes, or at the heart." Finally he began at his anus,
skinning as he went along. He ate very fast.
When he started on from this place, he began crying, "Axkwa'L!i-i-i,
Axkwa'L!i-i-i," and the fowls asked him, "What has become
of your friend, Axkwa'L!i-i-i?"
"Some one has taken him and pounded him on the rocks, and
I have been walking around and hopping around since he died."
By and by he came to a certain cliff and saw a door in it swing
open. He got behind a point quickly, for he knew that here lived
the woman who has charge of the falling and rising of the tide.
Far out Raven saw some kelp, and, going out to this, he climbed
down on it to the bottom of the sea and gathered up a number of
small sea urchins which were lying about there. He brought these
ashore and began eating, making a great gulping noise as he did
so. Meanwhile the woman inside of the cliff kept mocking him saying,
"During what tide did he get those things ?"
While Raven was eating Mink came along, and Raven said, "Come
here. Come here."
Then he went on eating. And the woman again said, "On what
tide did you get those sea urchins you are making so much noise
about?"
"That is not your business," answered Raven. "Keep
quiet or I will stick them all over your buttocks." Finally
Raven became angry, seized the knife he was cutting up the sea
urchins with and slit up the front of the cliff out of which she
spoke. Then he ran in, knocked her down and began sticking the
spines into her buttocks.
"Stop, Raven, stop," she cried, " the tide will
begin to go down."
So he said to his, servant, Mink, "Run outside and see
how far down the tide has gone."
Mink ran out and said, "It is just beginning to go down."
The next time he came in he said, "The tide is still farther
down." The third time he said, "The tide is lower yet.
It has uncovered everything on the beach."
Then Raven said to the old woman, "Are you going to let
the tide rise and fall again regularly through the months and
years?" She answered "Yes."
Because Raven did this while he was making the world, nowadays,
when a woman gets old and can not do much more work, there are
spots all over her buttocks.
After the tide had gone down very far he and his servant went
out. He said to Mink, "The thing that will be your food from
now on is the sea urchin. You will live on it." The tide
now goes up and down because he treated this woman so.
Now Raven started on from this place crying, "My wife,
my wife ! " Coming to some trees, he saw a lot of gum on
one of them and said to it, "Why! you are just like me. You
are in the same state." For he thought the tree was crying.
After this he got a canoe and began paddling along. By and by
Petrel met him in another canoe. So he brought his canoe alongside
and said, "Is this you, my brother-in-law? Where are you
from?"
He answered, "I am from over there."
Then Raven began to question him about the events in this world,
asking him how long ago they happened, etc. He said, "When
were you born? How long have you been living?"
And Petrel answered, "I have been living ever since the
great liver came up from under the earth. I have been living that
long." So said Petrel.
"Why! that is but a few minutes ago," said Raven.
Then Petrel began to get angry and said to Raven, "When
were you born ? "
"I was born before this world was known."
" That is just a little while back."
They talked back and forth until they became very angry. Then
Petrel pushed Raven's canoe away from him and put on his hat called
fog-hat so that Raven could not see where he was. The world was
round for him in the fog. At last he shouted, "My brother-in-law,
Petrel, you are older than I am. You have lived longer than I."
Petrel also took water from the sea and sprinkled it in the
air so that it fell through the fog as very fine rain. Said Raven,
"Ayee! Ayee!" He did not like it at all. After Petrel
had fooled him for some tirne, he took off Fog-hat and found Raven
close beside him, pulling about in all directions. Then Raven
said to Petrel, "Brother-in-law, you better let that hat
go into this world." So he let it go. That is why we always
know, when we see fog coming out of an open space in the woods
and going right back again, that there will be good weather.
Leaving this place, Raven came to another where he saw something
floating not far from shore, though it never came any nearer.
He assembled all kinds of fowl. Toward evening he looked at the
object and saw that it resembled fire. So he told a chicken hawk
which had a very long bill to fly out to it, saying, "Be
very brave. If you get some of that fire, do not let go of it."
The chicken hawk reached the place, seized some fire and started
back as fast as it could fly, but by the time it got the fire
to Raven its bill was burned off. That is why its bill is short.
Then Raven took some red cedar, and some white stones called neq!
which are found on the beach, and he put fire into them so that
it could be found ever afterward all over the world.
After he had finished distributing the fire he started on again
and came to a town where there were many people. He saw what looked
like a large animal far off on the ocean with fowl all over the
top of it. He wondered very much what it was and at last thought
of a way of finding out. He said to one of his friends, "Go
up and cut a cane for me." Then he carved this cane so as
to resemble two tentacles of a devil fish. He said, "No matter
how far off a thing is, this cane will always reach it."
Afterward he went to the middle of the town and said, "I
am going to give a feast. My mother is dead, and I am going to
beat the drums this evening. I want all of the people to come
in and see me."
In the evening he assembled all of the people, and they began
to beat drums. Then he held the cane in his hands and moved it
around horizontally, testing it. He kept saying "Up, up,
up" He said, "I have never given any feast for my mother,
and it is time I did it, but I have nothing with which to give
a feast. Therefore I made this cane, and I am going to give a
feast for my mother with this wonderful thing."
Then he got the people all down on the beach and extended his
cane toward the mysterious object until it reached it. And he
began to draw it in little by little, saying to the people, "Sing
stronger all the time." When it struck land, a wave burst
it open. It was an everlasting house, containing everything that
was to be in the waters of the world. He told the people to carry
up fish and they did so. If one had a canoe, he filled it; if
he had a box, he filled that; and those that had canoes also boiled
eulachon in them. Since then they have known how to boil them.
With all of these things Raven gave the feast for his mother.
After this was over he thought up a plot against the killer
whales and sent an invitation to them. Then he told each of his
people to make a cane that would reach very much above his head.
So, when the killer whales came in and inquired, "What do
the people use those canes for that extend up over their heads?",
he replied, " They stick them down into their heads."
They asked him several times, and he replied each time in the
same way.
After a while one of the whales said, "Suppose we try it."
Raven was glad to hear that and said, "All right, we will
try it with you people, but the people I have invited must not
look when I put a cane into anyone's head."
Then he went away and whittled a number of sticks until they
were very sharp. After that he laid all of the killer whales on
the beach at short distances apart, and again he told them not
to look up while hewas showing one how it was done. Then he took
a hammer and drove his sticks into the necks of these whales one
after the other so that they died. But the last one happened to
look up, saw what was being done, and jumped into the ocean.
Now Raven and another person started to boil out the killer
whales' grease, and the other man had more than he. So Raven dreamed
a dream which infomed him that a lot of people were coming to
fight with him, and, when such people really did make their appearance,
he told his companion to run out. After he had done so, Raven
quickly drank all the latter's grease. By and by, however, the
man returned, threw Raven into a grease box, and shut him in,
and started to tie it up with a strong rope. Then Raven called
out, "My brother, do not tie the box up very strongly. Tie
it with a piece of straw such as our forefathers used to use."
The man did so, after which he took the box up on a high cliff
and kicked it over.
Then Raven, breaking the straw, flew out, crying "Ga."
When he got to the other side of the point, he alighted and began
wiping himself.
Next he came to a large whale blowing along out at sea, and
noticed that every timo it came up, its mouth was wide open. Then
Raven took a knife and something with which to make fire. When
the whale came up again he flew into its mouth and sat down at
the farther end of its stomach. Near the place where he had entered
he saw something that looked like an old woman. It was the whale's
uvula. When the whale came up, it made a big noise, the uvula
went to one side and the herring and other fish it lived on poured
right in. Then Raven began eating all these things that the whale
had swallowed, and presently, he made a fire to cook the fat of
the whale itself that hung inside. Last of all he ate the heart
As soon as he cut this out, the whale threw itself about in
the water and soon floated up dead. Raven felt this and said,
"I wish it would float up on a good sandy beach." After
he had wished this many times, the whale began to drift along,
and it finally floated ashore on a long sandy beach.
After a while some young fellows who were always shooting about
in this neighborhood with their bows and arrows, heard a voice
on the beach say, "I wonder who will make a hole on the top
so that he can be my friend."
The boys ran home to the town and reported, We heard a queer
noise. Something floated ashore not far from this place, and a
person inside said, 'I wish that somebody would make a hole above
me so that he can be my friend.'"
Then the people assembled around the whale and heard Raven's
words very clearly. They began to cut a hole just over the place
these came from and presently they heard some one inside say,
"Xone'e." When the hole was large enough, Raven flew
straight up out of it until he was lost to sight. And they said
to him, "Fly to any place where you would like to go."
After that they cut the whale up and in course of time came
to the spot where Raven had lighted his fire to make oil.
Meanwhile Raven flew back of their camp to a large dead tree
that had crumbled into fine pieces and began rubbing on it to
dry himself. When he thought that the people were through making
oil, he dressed himself up well and repaired to the town. There
he said to the people, "Was anything heard in that whale?"
and one answered, "Yes, a queer noise was heard inside of
the whale."
"I wonder what it was," said Raven.
After their food was all prepared Raven said to the people,
"Long ago, when a sound was heard inside of a whale, all
the people moved out of their town so as not to be killed. All
who remained were destroyed. So you better move from this town."
Then all of the people said, "All of us better move from
this town rather than be destroyed." So they went off leaving
all of their things, and Raven promptly took possession of them.
Raven once went to a certain place outside of here (Sitka) in
his canoe. It was calm there, but he began rocking the canoe up
and down with his feet until he had made a great many waves. Therefore,
there are many waves there now even when it is calm outside, and
a canoe going in thither always gets lost.
By and hy Raven came to a sea gull standing at the mouth of
a creek and said to it, "What are you sitting in this way
for? How do you call your new month?" "Yadaq!o'l,"
replied the seagull. Raven was questioning him in this way because
he saw many her ring out at sea. So he said, "I don't believe
at all what you say. Fly out and see if you can bring in a herring."
This is why, until the present time, people have differed in their
opinions concerning the months and have disputed with one another.
After they had quarreled over it for a long time, the gull became
angry, flew out to sea, and brought back a big herring. He lighted
near Raven and laid the herring beside him, but, when Raven tried
to get it, he gulped it down.
In another direction from the sea gull Raven saw a large heron
and went over to it. He said to the heron, "Sea gull is calling
you Big-long-legs-always-walking-upon-the beach."
Then, although the heron did not reply, he went back to the
sea gull and said, "Do you know what that heron is saying
about you? He says that you have a big stomach and get your red
eyes by sitting on the beach always looking out on the ocean for
some thing to eat."
Then he went back to the heron and said to it, "When I
meet a man of my own size, I always kick him just below the stomach.
That fellow is talking too much about you. Go over, and I will
help you thrash him."
So the heron went over toward the sea gull, and, when he came
close to it, Raven said, "Kick him just under his stomach."
He did so, and the big herring came out. Then Raven swallowed
it quickly saying, "Just for the Raven."
Going on again, Raven came to a canoe in which were some people
lying asleep along with a big salmon which he took away. When
the people awoke, they saw the trail where he had dragged it off,
and they followed him. They found him Iying asleep by the fire
after having eaten the salmon. Seeing his gizzard hanging out
at his buttocks, they twisted it off, ran home with it and used
it as a shinny ball; this is why no human being now has a gizzard.
The people knew it was Raven's gizzard, so they liked to show
it about, and they knocked it around so much that it grew large
by the accumulation of sand. But Raven did not like losing his
gizzard. He was cold without it and had to get close to the fire.
When he came to the place where they were playing with it, he
said, "Let it come this way." No sooner had they gotten
it near him, however, than they knocked it away again. After a
while it reached him, and he seized it and ran off, with all the
boys after him. As he ran he washed it in water and tried to fit
it back in place. It was too hot from much knocking about, and
he had to remove it again. He washed it again but did not get
all of the sand off. That is why the raven's gizzard is big and
looks as if it had not been washed.
Next Raven came to a town where lived a man called Fog-on-the-Salmon.
He wanted to marry this man's daughter because he always had plenty
of salmon. He had charge of that place. So he married her, and
they dried quantities of salmon, after which they filled many
animal stomachs with salmon eggs. Then he loaded his canoe and
started home. He put all of the fish eggs into the bow. On the
way it became stormy, and they could not make much headway, so
he became tired and threw his paddles into the bow, exclaiming
to his wife, "Now you paddle!"
Then the salmon eggs shouted out, "It is very hard to be
in stomachs. Hand the paddles here and let me pull." So the
salmon eggs did, and, when they reached home, Raven took all of
them and dumped them over board. But the dried salmon he carried
up. That is why people now use dried salmon and do not care much
for salmon eggs.
Journeying on, Raven came to a seal sitting on the edge of a
rock, and he wanted to get it, but the seal jumped into the ocean.
Then he said, "Yak!oct!a'l!," because he was so sorry
about it. Farther on he came to a town and went behind it to watch.
After a while a man came out, took a little club from a certain
place where he kept it in concealment, and said to it, "My
little club, do you see that seal out there? Go and get it."
So it went out and brought the little seal ashore. The club was
hanging to its neck. Then the man took it up and said, "My
little club, you have done well," after which he put it back
in its place and returned to the town. Raven saw where it was
kept, but first he went to the town and spoke kindly to the owner
of it.
In the night, however, when every one was asleep, he went back
to the club, carried it behind a point and said to it, "See
here, my little club, you see that seal out in the water. Go and
get it." But the club would not go because it did not know
him. After he had tried to get it to go for some time, he became
angry and said to it, "Little club, don't you see that seal
out there?" He kept striking it against a rock until he broke
it in pieces.
Coming to a large bay, Raven talked to it in order to make it
into Nass (i. e., he wanted to make it just like the Nass), but,
when the tide was out great numbers of dams on the flats made
so much noise shooting up at him that his voice was drowned, and
he could not succced. He tried to put all kinds of berries there
but in vain. After many attempts, he gave it up and went away
saying, "I tried to make you into Nass, but you would not
let me. So you can be called Skana'x" (the name of a place
to the southward of Sitka).
Two brothers started to cross the Stikine river, but Raven saw
them and said, "Be stones there." So they became stones.
Starting on, he came to the ground-hog people on the mainland.
His mother had died some time before this, and, as he had no provisions
with which to give a feast, he came to the ground hogs to get
some. The ground-hog people know when slides descend from the
mountains, and they know that spring is then near at hand, so
they throw all of their winter food out of their burrows. Raven
wanted them to do this, so he said, "There is going to be
a world snow slide." But the ground-hog chief answered, "
Well! nobody in this town knows about it."
Toward spring, however, the slide really took place, and the
ground hogs then threw all of their green herbs, roots, etc.,
outside to him.
After this he said to the people, "Make ear pendants because
I am going to invite the whole world." He was going to invite
everyone because he had heard that the GonaqAde't had a Chilkat
blanket and a hat, and he wanted to see them. First he invited
the Gonaqade't and afterwards the other chiefs of all the tribes
in the world. At the appointed time they began to come in. When
the Gonaqade't came in he had on his hat with many crowns and
his blanket but was surrounded by a fog. Inside of the house,
however, he appeared in his true fom. It is from this feast of
Raven's that people now like to attend feasts. It is also from
this that, when a man is going to have a feast, he has a many-crowned
hat carved on top of the dead man's grave post.
Raven made a woman under the earth to have charge of the rise
and fall of the tides. One time he wanted to learn about everything
under the ocean and had this woman raise the water so that he
could go there. He had it rise very slowly so that the people
had time to load their canoes and get into them. When the tide
had lifted them up between the mountains they could see bears
and other wild animals walking around on the still unsubmerged
tops. Many of the bears swam out to them, and at that time those
who had their dogs had good protection. Some people walled the
tops of the mountains about and tied their canoes inside. They
could not take much wood up with them. Sometimes hunters see the
rocks they piled up there, and at such times it begins to grow
foggy. That was a very dangerous time. The people who survived
could see trees swept up roots and all by the rush of waters and
large devilfish and other creatures were carried up by it.
When the tide began to fall, all the people followed it down,
but the trees were gone and they had nothing to use as firewood,
so they were destroyed by the cold. When Raven came back from
under the earth, if he saw a fish left on top of a mountain or
in a creek, he said, "Stay right there and become a stone."
So it became a stone. If he saw any person coming down, he would
say, "Turn to a stone just where you are," and it did
so.
After that the sea went down so far that it was dry everywhere.
Then Raven went about picking up the smallest fish, as bull heads
and tom cod, which he strung on a stick, while a friend who was
with him at this time, named Cak!a'ku, took large creatures like
whales. With the grease he boiled out, Cak!a'ku filled an entire
house, while Raven filled only a small bladder.
Raven stayed with Cak!a'ku and one night had a dream. He said
to his friend, "I dreamed that a great enemy came and attacked
us." Then he had all the fowls assemble and come to fight,
so that his dream might be fulfilled. As soon as Raven had told
his dream, Cak!a'ku went down and saw the birds. Then Raven went
into the house and began drinking up his grease. But the man came
back, saw what Raven was doing, and threw him into a grease box,
which he started to tie up with a strong rope. Raven, however,
called out, "My brother, do not tie me up with a strong rope,
but take a straw such as our forefathers used to empIoy."
He did so. Then Raven drank up all the grease in the box, and,
when the man took him up on a high cliff and kicked him off, he
came out easily and flew away crying "Ga."
One time Raven assembled all the birds in preparation for a
feast and had the bears in the rear of his house as guests. All
the birds had canes and helped him sing. As he sang along Raven
would say quietly, "Do you think one of you could fly into
the anus of a bear?" Then he would start another song and
end it by saying in much the same language, "One of you ought
to fly up into that hole." He kept taunting the birds with
their inability to do this, so, when the bears started out, the
wren (wu'naxwu'ckaq, "bird-that can-go-through-a-hole")
flew up into the anus of one of them and came out with his intestines.
Before it had pulled them far out the bear fell dead. Then Raven
chased all of the small birds away, sat down, and began eating.
Raven never got full because he had eaten the black spots off
of his own toes. He learned about this after having inquired everywhere
for some way of bringing such a state about. Then he wandered
through all the world in search of things to eat.
After all the human beings had been destroyed Raven made new
ones out of leaves. Because he made this new generation, people
know that he must have changed all of the first people who had
survived the flood into stones. Since human beings were made from
leaves, people always die off rapidly in the fall of the year
when flowers and leaves are falling.
At the time when he made this world, Raven made a devilfish
digging-stick and went around to all created things saying, "Are
you going to hurt human beings ? Say now either yes or no."
Those that said "No" he passed by; those that said "Yes"
he rooted up. He said to the people, "When the tide goes
out, your food will be there. When the tide comes in, your food
will be in the woods," indicating bear and other forest animals.
In Raven's time the butts of ferns were already cooked, but,
after some women had brought several of these in, Raven broke
a stick over the fern roots. Therefore they became green like
this stick. He also broke the roots up into many layers one above
another.
Devilfish were very fat then, and the people used to make grease
out of them, but, when Raven came to a place where they were making
he said, "Give me a piece of that hard thing." That
is why its fatness left it.
One time Raven invited all the tribes of little people and laid
down bear skins for them to sit on. After they had come in and
reached the bear skins, they shouted to one another, "Here
is a swampy, open space." That was the name they gave to
those places on the skins from which the hair had fallen out.
By and by Raven seized the bear skins and shook them over the
fire, when all the little people flew into the eyes of the human
beings. He said, "You shall be pupils in people's eyes,"
and ever since human beings have had them.
Now he went on from this place and camped by himself. There
he saw a large sculpin trying to get ashore below him, and he
said to it, "My uncle's son, come ashore here. Come way up.
One time, when you and I were going along in our uncle's canoe
we fell into the water. So come up a little farther."
Raven was very hungry, and, when the sculpin came ashore, he
seized it by its big, broad tail intending to eat it. But it slipped
through his fingers. This happened many times, and each time the
sculpin's tail became smaller. That is why it is so slender today.
Then Raven said to it, From now on, you shall be named 'sculpin.'"
Raven had a blanket which kept blowing out from him, so he threw
it into the water and let it float away. Then he obtained a wife,
and, as he was traveling along with her, he said, "There
is going to be a great southwest wind. We better stop here for
a little, wife. I expect my blanket ashore here." After a
while it came in. Then his wife said to him, "Take your blanket
ashore and throw it on some branches.
He did so and it became Rebis bracteosum. When they went on
farther the sea became so rough that his wife was frightened and
told him to put ashore some of the fat with which his canoe was
loaded. He did this, but was so angry with his wife for having
asked him, that he said to her, "You better put ashore your
sewing basket," and so she did.
Then he left his wife and went along by himself. He assembled
very many young birds, and, when he camped told them to go after
cat!k!, the term he at that time applied to drinking water.
Afterwards he came to a certain place and started to make a
salmon creek. He said, "This woman shall be at the head of
this creek." The woman he spoke of had long teats, so he
called her Woman-with long-teats-floating-around, saying, "When
the salmon come to the creeks, they shall all go up to see her."
That is why salmon run up thc creeks.
After this he went into the woods and set out to make the porcupine.
For quills he took pieces of yellow cedar bark, which he set all
the way up and down its back so that bears would be afraid of
it. This is why bears never eat porcupines. He said to the porcupine,
"Whenever anyone comes near you, throw your tail about."
This is why people are afraid of it when it does so.
Now Raven went off to a certain place and made the west wind,
naming it Q!axo'. He said to it, "You shall be my son's daughter.
No matter how hard you blow you shall hurt nobody.
He took up a piece of red salmon and said to it, "If anyone
is not strong enough to paddle home he shall take up this fish
and blow behind him."
Raven is a grandchild of the mouse . That is why a mouse can
never get enough to eat.
Raven also made the south wind (sa'naxet). When the south wind
climbs on top of a rock it never ceases to blow.
He made the north wind (xun), and on top of a mountain he made
a house for it with something like ice hanging down on the sides.
Then he went in and said to it, "Your buttocks are white."
This is wy the mountains are white with snow.
He made all the different races, as the Haida and the Tsimshian.
They are human beings like the Thingit, but he made their languages
different.
He also made the dog. It was at first a human being and did
every thing Raven wanted done, but he was too quick with everything,
so Raven took him by the neck and pushed him down, saying, "You
are nothing but a dog. You shall have four legs."
One time Raven came to a certain thing called fat-on-the-sea,
which stuck out of the ocean. He kept saying to it, "Get
down a little," so it kept going under the surface. But every
time it came up he took his paddle and cut part off. It did this
seven times, but, when he spoke to it the eighth time, it went
down out of sight, and he never saw it again.
As he was traveling along in another place, a wild celery came
out, became angry with Raven, and said, "You are always wandering
around for things to eat." Then he named it wild celery (ya'naet)
and said to it, "You shall stay there, and people shall eat
you.
Once he passed a large tree and saw something up in it called
Caxda'q . Raven called out "Caxda'q," and it shouted
back, "You Raven." They called back and forth to each
other for some time.
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