{"collection":"folklore-oral-tradition","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/wikisource_Tlingit_Myths_and_Texts_Raven/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/wikisource_Tlingit_Myths_and_Texts_Raven","id":"wikisource_Tlingit_Myths_and_Texts_Raven","license":"Public Domain / CC-BY-SA (see source)","rights_basis":"wikisource_site_inclusion_policy","source":"wikisource","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Tlingit_Myths_and_Texts/Raven","summary":null,"tags":["Pages_with_translator","Subpages"],"text":"MYTHS RECORDED IN ENGLISH AT SITKA\n1. RAVEN a\nNo one knows just how the story of Raven really begins, so each\nstarts from the point where he does know it. Here it was always\nbegun in this way. Raven was first called Kit-ka ositiyi-qa-yit\n(\"Son of Kit-ka ositiyi-qa\"). When his son was born, Kit-ka ositiyi-\nqa tried to instruct him and train him in every way and, after he grew\nup, told him he would give him strength to make a world. After\ntrying in all sorts of ways Raven finally succeeded. Then there\nw T as no light in this world, but it was told him that far up the Nass\nwas a large house in which some one kept light just for himself.\nRaven thought over all kinds of plans for getting this light into\nthe world and finally he hit on a good one. The rich man living there\nhad a daughter, and he thought, \"I will make myself very small and\ndrop into the water in the form of a small piece of dirt.\" The girl\nswallowed this dirt and became pregnant. When her time was com\npleted, they made a hole for her, as was customary, in which she was\nto bring forth, and lined it with rich furs of all sorts. But the child\ndid not wish to be born on those fine things. Then its grandfather\nfelt sad and said, \"What do you think it would be best to put into\nthat hole? Shall we put in moss?\" So they put moss inside and\nthe baby was born on it. Its eyes were very bright and moved\naround rapidly.\nRound bundles of varying shapes and sizes hung about on the walls\nof the house. When the child became a little larger it crawled around\nback of the people weeping continually, and as it cried it pointed to\nthe bundles. This lasted many days. Then its grandfather said,\n\"Give my grandchild what he is crying for. Give him that one hang\ning on the end. That is the bag of stars.\" So the child played with\nthis, rolling it about on the floor back of the people, until suddenly\nhe let it go up through the smoke hole. It went straight up into\nthe sky and the stars scattered out of it, arranging themselves as\nyou now see them. That was what he went there for.\nSome time after this he began crying again, and he cried so much\nthat it was thought he would die . Then his grandfather said, \" Untie\nthe next one and give it to him.\" He played and played with it\naround behind his mother. After a while he let that go up through\nthe smoke hole also, and there was the big moon.\no Cf. story 31. 4 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 39\nNow just one thing more remained, the box that held the daylight,\nand he cried for that. His eyes turned around and showed different\ncolors, and the people began thinking that he must be something\nother than an ordinary baby. But it always happens that a grand\nfather loves his grandchild just as he does his own -daughter, so the\ngrandfather said, \"Untie the last thing and give it to him.\" His\ngrandfather felt very sad when he gave this to him. When the child\nhad this in his hands, he uttered the raven cry, \"Ga,\" and flew out\nwith it through the smoke hole. Then the person from whom he had\nstolen it said, \"That old manuring raven has gotten all of my things.\"\nJourneying on, Raven was told of another place, where a man had\nan everlasting spring of water. This man was named Petrel (GAnu k) .\nRaven wanted this water because there was none to drink in this\nworld, but Petrel always slept by his spring, and he had a cover over\nit so as to keep it all to himself. Then Raven came in and said to\nhim, \"My brother-in-law, I have just come to see you. How are\nyou?\" He told Petrel of all kinds of things that were happening\noutside, trying to induce him to go out to look at them, but Petrel\nwas too smart for him and refused.\nWhen night came, Raven said, \"I am going to sleep with you,\nbrother-in-law.\" So they went to bed, and toward morning Raven\nheard Petrel sleeping very soundly. Then he went outside, took\nsome dog manure and put it around Petrel s buttocks. When it was\nbeginning to grow light, he said, \"Wake up, wake up, wake up, brother 1\nin-law, you have defecated all over your clothes.\" Petrel got up,\nlooked at himself, and thought it was true, so he took his blankets\nand went outside. Then Raven went over to Petrel s spring, took off\nthe cover and began drinking. After he had drunk up almost all of\nthe water, Petrel came in and saw him. Then Raven flew straight\nup, crying \"Ga.\"\nBefore he got through the smoke hole, however, Petrel said, \"My\nspirits up the smoke hole, catch him.\" So Raven stuck there, and\nPetrel put pitchwood on the fire under him so as to make a quantity of\nsmoke. Raven was white before that time, but the smoke made him\nof the color you find him to-day. Still he did not drop the water.\nWhen the smoke-hole spirits let him go, he flew around the nearest\npoint and rubbed himself all over so as to clear off as much of the soot\nas possible.\nThis happened somewhere about the Nass, and afterwards he started\nup this way. First he let some water fall from his mouth and made\nthe Nass. By and by he spit more out and made the Stikine. Next\nhe spit out Taku river, then Chilkat, then Alsek, and all the other large\nrivers. The small drops that came out of his mouth made the small\nsalmon creeks. After this Raven went on again and came to a large town where\nwere people who had never seen daylight. They were out catching\neulachon in the darkness when he came to the bank opposite, and\nhe asked them to take him across but they would not. Then he said\nto them, \"If you don t come over I will have daylight break on you.\"\nBut they answered, \"Where are you from? Do you come from\nfar up the Nass where lives the man who has daylight?\" At this\nRaven opened his box just a little and shed so great a light on\nthem that they were nearly thrown down. He shut it quickly, but\nthey quarreled with him so much across the creek that he became\nangry and opened the box completely, when the sun flew up into the\nsky. Then those people who had sea-otter or fur-seal skins, or the\nskins of any other sea animals, went into the ocean, while those who\nhad land-otter, bear, or marten skins, or the skins of any other land\nanimals, went into the woods [becoming the animals whose skins they\nwore].\n\nRaven came to another place where a crowd of boys were throwing\nfat at one another. When they hit him with a piece he swallowed\nit. After a while he took dog s manure and threw at the boys who\nbecame scared, ran away, and threw more fat at him. He consumed\nall in this way, and started on again.\n\nAfter a while he came to an abandoned camp where lay a piece of\njade (s!\u016b) half buried in the ground, on which some design had been\npecked. This lie dug up. Far out in the bay he saw a large spring\nsalmon jumping about and wanted to get it but did not know how.\nThen he stuck his stone into the ground and put eagle down upon the\nhead designed thereon. The next time the salmon jumped, he said,\n\"See here, spring salmon jumping out there, do you know what this\ngreen stone is saying to you? It is saying, You thing with dirty,\nfilthy back, you thing with dirty, filthy gills, come ashore here.\"\n\nRaven 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 (y\u0101\u02bcnaet), and, when the salmon did come ashore, he struck it with this and killed it. Because Raven made this jade talk to the salmon, people have since made stone axes, picks, and spears out of it.\n\nThen 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.\n\nWhen 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.\n\nBy 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!l\u0113\u0121\u0113n\u00ee', another crested bird. Then they named one another. Raven let out the ts!l\u0113\u0121\u0113n\u00ee' and told him that when the salmon comes he must call its slime unclean and stay high up until the salmon are all gone.\n\nNow 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.\nAfter 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.\n\nNow 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, close 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.\n\nThen 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 (G\u012b'ck!\u00eecuwany\u00ee'). There are always halibut swimming there, mouth up, ready for the hook.\"\n\nBy 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?\" [Corvus respondit, \"Testium cute ad escam praeparandam utor. Ursus aiebat corvo, \"Licetne uti meis quoque?\" Sed corvus dixit, \"Noli id facere, ne forte sint graviter attriti. Paulo post ursus aegre ferens aiebat, \"Abscide eos.\" Turn corvus cultellum acuens aiebat, \"Pone eos extrema in sede.\" Postea corvus eos praecidit, at ursus gemens proripuit circum scapham et moriens incidit in undas extremo cum gemitu.]\n\nAfter 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 made 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.\"\n\nAfter the bear had swallowed all of the food she began to feel\nuneasy 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\nthing to the male. While he was busy there Cormorant came near\nhim, 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.\n\nStarting on again, Raven came to a place where many people were\nencamped fishing. They used nothing but fat for bait. He entered\na house and asked 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 off, 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.\n\nAfter that, Raven came ashore at the place where he had been in\nthe habit of going down, got a lot of spruce gum and made a new\nnose out of it. Then he drew a root hat down over his face and went\nto the town. Beginning at the nearer end he went through the\nhouses saying \"I wonder in what house are the people who caught that Gonaq Adept'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\u00a0?\" 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.\n\nGoing thence, Raven saw a number of deer walking around on\nthe 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 with?\" (i. e., What can you do?). Said Mink, \"When I go to camp with my friends, I make a bad smell in their noses. With that.\" 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\u2032l!\u00ee, come this way axkwa\u2032l!\u00ee.\" He called him axkwa\u2032l!\u00ee because he never got angry. Finally Raven came ashore and said to Deer, \"Don't hurt yourself, axkwa\u2032l!\u00ee.\" 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.\"\n\nThen 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\u2032l!\u00ee, watch me, axkwa\u2032l!\u00ee, watch me.\" Repeating this over and over he went straight across on it, for he is light. Afterwards he said to Deer, \"axkwa\u2032l!\u00ee, 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.\n\nWhen he started on from this place, he began crying, \"axkwa\u2032l!\u00ee, axkwa\u2032l!\u00ee,\" and the fowls asked him, \"What has become of your friend, axkwa\u2032l!\u00ee?\" \"Some one has taken him and pounded him on the rocks, and I have been walking around and hopping around since he died.\"\n\nBy 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 (n\u012bs!) 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?\"\n\nWhile 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.\n\nAfter 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 (nls!). You will live on it.\" The tide now goes up and down because he treated this woman so.\n\nNow 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.\n\nAfter 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.\"\n\"That is just a little while back.\"\n\nThey 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 (qogii s\u00a0! s\u00a0! ax u ) 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\nsprinkled it in the air so that it fell through the fog as very fine rain. Said Raven, \"I, i.\" He did not like it at all. After Petrel had fooled him for some time, 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.\n\nLeaving this place, Raven came to another where he saw some\nthing floating not far from shore, though it never came any nearer.\nHe assembled all kinds of fowl. Toward evening he looked at the\nobject and saw that it resembled fire. So he told a chicken hawk\n(kA!k u ) which had a very long bill to fly out to it, saying , \"Be very\nbrave. If you get some of that fire, do not let go of it.\" The\nchicken hawk reached the place, seized some fire and started back\nas fast as it could fly, but by the time it got the fire to Raven its\nbill was burned off. That is why its bill is short. Then Raven\ntook some red cedar, and some white stones called neq! which are\nfound on the beach, and he put fire into them so that it could be\nfound ever afterward all over the world.\n\nAfter he had finished distributing the fire he started on again\nand came to a town where there were many people. He saw what\nlooked like a large animal far off on the ocean with fowl all over\nthe top of it. He wondered very much what it was and at last\nthought of a way of finding out. He said to one of his friends,\n\"Go up and cut a cane for me.\" Then he carved this cane so as to\nresemble two tentacles of a devil fish. He said, \"No matter how\nfar off a thing is, this cane will always reach it.\"\n\nAfterward 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.\"\n\nThen 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.\n\nAfter this was over he thought up a plot against the killer whales\nand sent an invitation to them. Then he told each of his people\nto make a cane that would reach very much above his head. So,\nwhen the killer whales came in and inquired, \"What do the people\nuse those canes for that extend up over their heads?\", he replied,\n\"They stick them down into their heads.\" They asked him several\ntimes, and he replied each time in the same way. After a while\none of the whales said, \"Suppose we try it.\" Raven was glad to\nhear that and said, \"All right, we will try it with you people, but\nthe 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 he was showing one how it was done. Then he took a hammer or maul 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.\n\n[Now Raven and another person started to boil out the killer-\nwhales grease, and the other man had more than he. So Raven\ndreamed a dream which informed him that a lot of people were\ncoming to fight with him, and, when such people really did make their\nappearance, he told his companion to run out. After he had done so,-\nRaven quickly drank all the latter s grease. By and by, however,\nthe man returned, threw Raven into a grease box, and shut him in,\nand started to tie it up with a strong rope. Then Raven called\nout, \" My brother, do not tie the box up very strongly. Tie it with a\npiece of straw such as our forefathers used to use.\" The man did\nso, after which he took the box up on a high cliff and kicked it over.\nThen Raven, breaking the straw, flew out, crying Ga.\" When he got\nto the other side of the point, he alighted and began wiping himself.]\n\nNext he came to a large whale blowing along out at sea, and noticed\nthat every time it came up, its mouth was wide open. Then Raven\ntook a knife and something with which to make fire. When the\nwhale came up again he flew into its mouth and sat down at the\nfarther end of its stomach. Near the place where he had entered he\nsaw something that looked like an old woman. It was the whale s\nuvula (Anu t!ayi). When the whale came up, it made a big noise, the\nuvula went to one side and the herring and other fish it lived on\npoured right in. Then Raven began eating all these things that the\nwhale had swallowed, and, presently, he made a fire to cook the fat\nof the whale itself that hung inside. Last of all he ate the heart.\nAs soon as he cut out this, the whale threw itself about in the water\nand 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.\n\nAfter 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\nthis 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\ncame to the spot where Raven had lighted his fire to make oil.\n\nMeanwhile 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 tclan (his word for\nwhale)?\" and one answered, \"Yes, a queer noise was heard inside of the whale.\" \"I wonder what it was,\" said Raven.\n\nAfter their food was all prepared Raven said to the people, \"Long ago, when a sound was heard inside of a tclan, 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\nthan be destroyed.\" So they went off leaving all of their things, and Raven promptly took possession of them.\n\nRaven 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.\n\nBy and by Raven came to a sea gull standing at the mouth cf a creek and said to it, \"What are you sitting in this way for? How do you call your new month?\" \" YAdiiq!o l,\" a replied the sea gull. 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.\n\nAfter they had quarreled over it for a long time, the gull became\nangry, flew out to sea, and brought back a big herring. He lighted\nnear Raven and laid the herring beside him, but, when Raven tried\nto get it, he gulped it down. In another direction from the sea gull\nRaven saw a large heron and went over to it. He said to the heron,\n\"Sea gull is calling you Big-long-legs-always-walking-upon-the beach.\" Then, although the heron did not reply, he went back to\nthe sea gull and said, \"Do you know what that heron is saying about\nyou? He says that you have a big stomach and get your red eyes\nby sitting on the beach always looking out on the ocean for some\nthing to eat.\" Then he went back to the heron and said to it, \"When\nI meet a man of my own size, I always kick him just below the\nstomach. 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.\"\n\nGoing on again, Raven came to a canoe in which were some people\nlying asleep along with a big salmon which he took away. When\nthe people awoke, they saw the trail where he had dragged it off, and\nthey followed him. They found him lying asleep by the fire after\nhaving 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.\n\nThe 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, how ever, 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.\n\nNext Raven came to a town where lived a man called Fog (or\nCloud)-on-the-Salmon (Xn/tkA-koga sIi). He wanted to marry this\nman s daughter because he always had plenty of salmon. He had\ncharge of that place. So he married her, and they dried quantities of\nsalmon, after which they filled many animal stomachs with salmon eggs.\nThen he loaded his canoe and started home. He put all of the fish\neggs 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.\n\nJourneying 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, \"Y&kloGtU/Lf,\" 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.\n\nComing 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 clams on the flats made so much noise shooting up at him that his voice was drowned, and he could not succeed. 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).\n\nTwo brothers started to cross the Stikine river, but Raven saw them and said, \"Be stones there.\" So they became stones.\n\nStarting on, he came to the ground-hog, people o.n the mainland. His mother had died some time before this, and, as he had no pro visions 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\nthem 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,\netc., outside to him.\n\n[Postea corvus in litus descendit cum quidam eum certiorem\nfaceret de quattuor nuilieribus, quae essent in insula, maturitatem\nadipiscentes. Deinde conatus est muliebria genitalia conficere e\ncortice lini arboris, et cum adveniret mediam in viam, quae in insulam\nperducebat, simile nomine earn nuncupavit; sed res male proces-\nserunt. Cortex edidit vocem argutam at ille, ira incensus, in undas\neum proiecit. Eodem modo tentavit tabaci folia et alias res, seel\ninutile erat. Postremo processit in insulam, cui nomen erat mulie-\nbribus genitalibus (Ganqla/tej. Eius comes vir quidem nomine\nTgnavus (QUtxa n) erat. Corvus autem aiebat ignavo, \"Etiam si\naliquid minime pavorem tibi iniicit, percute scapham.\" Mox igna-\nvus scapham quassabat atque exclamavit, \"lam luna adest.\"\nPaene corvum in undas proiecit, qui, etsi ipse hortatus cum erat ut\nid faceret, aegre tulit. Corvus omnia genitalia, quae in insula erant,\ncolligens, complevit scapham. Disponens ea locis in aequis, prae-\nparvit dare propter ea convivium escis porci.]\nAfter this he said to the people, \"Make ear pendants because I am\ngoing to invite the whole world.\" He was going to invite everyone\nbecause he had heard that the GonaqAde t had a Chilkat blanket and a\nhat, and he wanted to see them. First he invited the GonaqAde t and\nafterwards the other chiefs of all the tribes in the world. At the\nappointed time they began to come in. When the GonaqAde t came\nin he had on his hat with many crowns and his blanket but was sur\nrounded by a fog. Inside of the house, however, he appeared in his\ntrue form. It is from this feast of Raven s that people now like to\nattend feasts. It is also from this that, when a man is going to have a\nfeast, he has a many-crowned hat carved on top of the dead man s\ngrave post (kuti VA).\nRaven made a woman under the earth to have charge of the rise and\nfall of the tides. a One time he wanted to learn about everything under\nthe ocean and had this woman raise the water so that he could go\nthere. He had it rise very slowly so that the people had time to load\ntheir canoes and get into them. When the tide had lifted them up\nbetween the mountains they could see bears and other wild animals\nwalking around oh the stiU unsubmerged tops. Many of the bears swam\nout to them, and at that time those who had their dogs had good pro-\ntection. Some people walled the tops of the mountains about and\ntied their canoes inside. They could not take much wood up with\nthem. Sometimes hunters see the rocks they piled up there, and at\nsuch times it begins to grow foggy. That was a very dangerous time.\nThe people who survived could see trees swept up roots and all by\na This appears to be retrospective. Cf. p. 9, the rush of waters, and large devilfish and other creatures were carried up by it.\n\nWhen 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,\n\"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.\n\nAfter 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 torn cod, which he strung on a stick, while a friend who was with him at this time, named CAkU kv took large creatures like\nwhales. With the grease he boiled out, CAkU k 11 filled an entire house, while Raven filled only a small bladder.\n\nRaven stayed with CAklA k 11 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,\nCAklA k\" 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,\n\"My brother, do not tie me up with a strong rope, but take a straw such as our forefathers used to employ.\" He did so. Then Raven drank up all the grease in the box, and, when the man took him up on\na high cliff and kicked him off, he came out easily and flew away crying \"Ga.\"\n\nOne 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\" (i. e., anus). He kept taunting the birds with their inability to do this, so,\nwhen the bears started out, the wren (wu lnAxwu 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.\n\nRaven never got full because he had eaten the black spots off of his own toes. He learned about this after having inquired everywhere\n\na Said to be a kind of bird. K!Ak u alone would mean \"chicken hawk,\"\n49438 Bull. 3909 2 for some way of bringing such a state about. Then he wandered through all the world in search of things to eat.\n\nAfter 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.\n\nAt the time when he made this world, Raven made a devilfish digging-stick and went around to all created things (shellfish apparently) 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.\n\nIn Raven's time the butts of ferns (klwAlx) 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.\n\nDevilfish 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.\n\n[Corvus appellavit saxum, quod erat tec turn algis, \"Pudenda, ubi crescunt crines.\" Nepotes patris eius rogaverunt, \"Esne capilla-\ntus?\" Et ille respondit, \"Sane, pudenda mea pilis vestita sunt.\"\nAt modo habebat in mente copias algarum, quae protegebant saxum\nin quo sedebat.]\n\nOne 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.\n\nNow he went on from this place and camped by himself. There he saw a large sculpiri 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.\nSo 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,\nand each time the sculpin s tail became smaller. That is why it is so slender to-day. Then Raven said to it, \"From now on you shall be named sculpin (weq!).\" 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 while. 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 (Tlingit, c\u0101x). 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,\n\nThen he left his wife and went along by himself. He assembled very many young birds, and, when he camped told them to go after catlk!, the term he at that time applied to drinking water.\n\nAfterwards 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 (Hln-cAkxe nayi), saying, \"When the\nsalmon come to the creeks, they shall all go up to see her.\" That is why salmon run up the creeks.\n\nAfter 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.\n\nNow 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.\n\nHe 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.\"\n\nRaven is a grandchild of the mouse (kule JtAlni). That is why a mouse can never get enough to eat.\n\nRaven also made the south wind (sa naxet). When the south wind climbs on top of a rock it never ceases to blow.\n\nHe 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 why the mountains are white with snow.\n\nHe made all the different races, as the Haida and the Tsimshian. They are human beings like the Tlingit, but he made their languages different.\n\nHe also made the dog. It was at first a human being and did everything 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.\"\n\nOne time Raven came to a certain thing called fat-on-the-sea\n(y\u012bkat\u0101\u1ef5\u00ee\u2032), 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.\n\nAs 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 (y\u0101\u2032naet) and said to it, \"You shall stay there, and people shall eat you.\n\nOnce he passed a large tree and saw something up in it called cAxdA q.\nRaven called out \"Caxda\u2032q,\" and it shouted back, \"You Raven.\"\nThey called back and forth to each other for some time.\n\n[Advenit in alium locum et alligavit aliquid circum caput ostrei,\nquod protrudebat ex arena. Appellavit idem Ldas-qe t (viri\npudenda).]\n\nSUPPLEMENTARY TO STORY 1\n\nNear a bay not far from KotsIe L! there used to be a sea-water pond\nin which lived a beaver. Raven very much wanted to get at this\nbeaver and kill it, so he dug two trenches in order to drain the lake at\nlow tide. After the water had run out through them, and the beaver\nhad become visible at the bottom, he let down a kind of hook and\npulled it up.\n\nRaven had tried every sort of thing as a post under this earth.\nLast of all he caught this beaver and made the post out of the bone of\nits foreleg [which is very solid]. That is why the world is now stand\ning. Old-woman-underneath (Hayica/nak! u ) attends to this post,\nbut, when she is hungry, the earth shakes. Then people put grease\ninto the fire and it goes to her.\n\nAfter he had killed the beaver Raven killed also a big whale and got\nhis people to tow it to the place where the beaver had formerly lived.\nHe got four large canoes full of people to tow it up the rapids in one of\nthe canals he had then made. After they had labored for many days,\nthey became tired, and he said to them, \"Take it easy .\". Finally he\nhimself became tired and said, \"Turn into stone.\" All did so, and to\nthis day you can see a large island there shaped like a whale and a\nstring of four smaller islands extending out from one end of it.\n\nRaven named several places in this neighborhood. One was\nQag u Antoqa\u00a0; (A-hidden-person)\u00a0; another Tsetk! (Little Ladder), He named an island outside, LatU n. Still another was called\nLAqo xAs!, after the name of a small canoe, because one of these was passing at the time.\n\nBetween two mountain peaks just eastward of Sitka is a hollow filled with trees supposed to resemble boys, so the place is called Kle^a ni-a yaodihayiya, Where-is-a-big-crowd-of-boys. Raven ap pointed this as the place from which the sun would turn back north. A point on the coast just north of Sitka was called by him K lo lacAtq !a ,\nPoint-holding-things-back, because when a canoe passes it coming toward Sitka it cannot go fast (i. e., it does not seem to get by this rapidly). Just north of this is a kind of bay which Raven called KA dAlAtc-xAk, Noisy-beach.","title":"Tlingit Myths and Texts/Raven","tradition":"folklore-oral-tradition","translated_text":null,"word_count":9751}