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.
Return to Indigenous Peoples' Literature
Compiled by: Glenn Welker
ghwelker@gmx.com
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