“ While the land was still soft, the first man burst from the pod of the beach pea and looked out upon the endless plain behind him and the gray salt sea before him. He was the only man. Then Raven appeared to him and the creation of other beings began. Raven made also animals for food and clothing. Later, because the earth plain was so bare, he planted trees and shrubs and grass and set the green things to growing.
With creation by a Great Spirit, there came dangers from evil spirits. Such spirits carried away the sun and moon, and hung them to the rafters of the dome-shaped Alaskan huts. ”

“ Spirits blow the mists over the cold north sea so that canoes lose sight of their home-land. Spirits also drive the ice floes, with their fishermen, far over the horizon of ocean, into the still colder North. ”

“ Raven stole a great mouthful of water, but as he flew over the country drops spilled out of his beak. These drops made the rivers: the Nass, Skeena, Stikine, and Chilkat. Raven said, “The water that I drop down upon the earth, here and there, will whirl all the time. There will be plenty of water, but it will not flood the world.”
Now before this time, Raven was pure white. But when he stole the water from Petrel he tried to fly out of the smoke hole. Petrel cried, “Spirits of the smoke hole, hold him fast.” So the smoke-hole spirits held Raven until the smoke blackened his white coat. ”

“ Then when he woke up, Raven stood by him. Raven said, “I have changed you into a white bear. How do you like it?” Man could not make a sound until Raven waved his wings over him. Then he said he did not like it; if he was a bear he would have to live on the sea, while his son lived on land; so Man should feel badly. Then Raven struck the white skin with his wings and it fell off. So Man became himself again. But Raven took the empty bearskin, and placed one of his own tail feathers inside it for a spine. Then he waved his wing over it, and a white bear arose. ”

“ Raven called out, “Who wants to marry me? I am a fine hunter. I am young and handsome.” The geese alighted just beyond him. Raven thought, “Now I will get a wife.”
Raven saw near him a pretty white stone with a hole in it. He picked it up, strung it on a long grass stem, and hung it about his neck. Then he pushed up his beak so that it slid to the top of his head like a mask; so he became a dark-colored young man. Then he walked up to the geese. Each of the geese pushed up its bill in the same manner; they became nice looking people. Raven liked the girl ”

“ As soon as Raven stopped, he raised one of his wings and pushed up his beak, as though it were a mask, to the top of his head. Thus Raven changed at once into a man. Raven stared hard at Man, moving from side to side to see him better. ”

“ From this perch the thunderbirds, looking like a black cloud, would soar away, bringing back to their young a reindeer in their talons. Sometimes with a great noise like thunder they swooped down upon a fisherman in his kayak and carried him away. The man would be eaten by the young birds, and the kayak broken to bits in the nest. Every fall the young birds flew away into the northland, but the old birds remained in the nest. ”

“ After the reindeer ran away, Raven and Man [Pg 30] returned to the skyland. Man said, “If the people do not stop killing so many animals, they will kill everything you have made. It would be better to take the sun away from them. Then it will be dark and people will die.”
Raven said, “That is right. You stay here. I will go and take away the sun.”
So Raven went away and took the sun out of the sky. He put it in a skin bag and carried it far away, to a distant part of the skyland. Then it became dark on earth.
The people on earth were frightened when the sun vanished. ”

“ THE ORIGIN OF THE WINDS Tlingit
NOW Raven went off to a certain place and created West Wind. Raven said to it, “You shall be my son’s daughter. No matter how hard you blow, you shall hurt nobody.”
Raven also made South Wind. When South Wind climbs on top of a rock it never ceases to blow.
Raven made North Wind and on top of a mountain he made a house for it with ice hanging down the sides. Then he went in and said to North Wind, “Your back is white.” That is why mountains are white with snow. ”

“ One day Raven came back and sat down by Man by the creek and they talked of many things. Man asked Raven about the skyland. Man wanted to see the skyland which Raven had made. Therefore Raven took Man to the land in the sky.
Man found that the skyland was a very beautiful country, and that it had a much better climate than his land. But the people who lived there were very small. Their heads did not reach to Man’s hips. The people wore fur clothing, with beautiful patterns, such as people on earth now wear, because Man showed his people how to make them. ”

“ In the lakes were strange animals which would have killed Man if he had tried to drink [Pg 26] of the water. In a dry lake bed, thickly covered with tall grass, Man saw a wonderful animal resting upon the tips of the grasses. It had a long head and six legs. It had fine, thick hair, and on the back of the head were two thick, short horns which bent forward and then curved back at the tips. Raven told Man it took many people to kill this animal.
Then they came to a round hole in the sky and around the edge of the hole was short grass, glowing like fire. ”

“ DURATION OF LIFE Tlingit (Wrangell)
RAVEN-AT-THE-HEAD-OF-NASS tried to make human beings, at the same time, out of a rock and out of a leaf. But he created human beings out of the leaf first. Then Raven showed a leaf to people. He said, “You see this leaf. You are to be like it. When it falls off the branch and rots there is nothing left of it.”
That is why there is death in the world. If men had come from the hard rocks there would be no death. Years ago, when people were getting old, they would say, “It is unlucky that we did not come from the rock. We are made from leaves ”

“ In the middle of the world Qa discovered a rock in the sea. He built a house under the rock. Then he made a hole through it and through the earth and fitted a lid to it. Raven put a man in charge of the hole. Twice a day he opens the lid and twice each day he closes it. When the hole is open the water rushes down through it into the depths; then it is ebb tide. When he closes the lid, the water rises again; then it is flood tide.
Once upon a time, Tael, a Tlingit chief, while hunting sea otters was carried out to Qa’s rock by the tide. ”

“ THE LAND OTTER Tlingit (Wrangell)
RAVEN said to Land Otter, “You will live in the water just as well as on land.”
Raven and Land Otter were good friends, so they went halibut-fishing together. Land Otter was a good fisherman. Raven said to Land Otter, “You will always have your house on a point where there are breezes from all sides. Whenever a canoe with people capsizes, you will save the people and make them your friends.” That is how the Land Otter Man was created: because Raven told this to Land Otter. ”

“ Raven took the girl to Man. “There is a companion for you,” he said.
Now in the days of the first people on the earth plain, there were no mountains far or near. No rain ever fell and there were no winds. The sun shone always very brightly.
Then Raven showed the first people on the earth plain how to sleep warmly in the dry moss when they were tired. Raven himself drew down his beak-mask and went to sleep like a bird.
When Raven awakened, he went back to the creek. Here he made two sticklebacks, two graylings, and two blackfish. ”

“ Then Raven made other animals. He made the a-mi-kuk, a large, slimy animal, with thick skin, and with four long, wide-spreading arms. This is a fierce animal and lives in the sea. It wraps its four long arms around a man or a kayak and drags it under the water. A man cannot escape it. If he climbs out of [Pg 28] his kayak on the ice, the a-mi-kuk will dart underneath and break the ice. If Man runs away on shore, the a-mi-kuk pursues him by burrowing through the earth. No man can escape from it when once it pursues him. ”

“ NORTH WIND Tlingit (Wrangell)
AFTER Raven left the Land Otters, he came to Taku. There North Wind lived in a cliff at the mouth of the inlet. Raven stayed there with him.
Now North Wind is very proud and shines all over with what the Indians think are icicles. So the Indians never say anything against North Wind, no matter how long it blows, because the spirits give it power. Years ago people thought that there were spirits in all the large cliffs upon the islands and would pray to those cliffs. This was because Raven once lived in this cliff with North Wind. ”

“ DURATION OF WINTER Tlingit (Wrangell)
ONCE Raven went to Ground-hog’s house for the winter. Now Ground-hogs go into their holes in September. At home they live like people. People to them are animals.
So Raven spent the winter with Ground-hog and became very tired of it. But he could not get out. Ground-hog enjoyed himself, but Raven acted like a prisoner. Raven kept shouting, “Winter comes on. Winter comes on.” Raven thought that Ground-hog had power to shorten the winter.
Now at that time, Ground-hog had to stay in his hole for six months ”

“ Raven said to Gusyiadul, “You will be seen only when warm weather is coming. Never come near except when warm weather is coming.”
To Humming-bird Raven said, “People will enjoy seeing you. If a person sees you once, he will want to see you again.”
Raven said to Eagle, “You will be very powerful and above all birds. Your eyesight will be very good. It will be easy for you to get what you want.” Then Raven put talons on the eagle and said they would be useful to him. ”

“ Raven led them away from the pea vine, but in a different direction from the first man. He brought them close to the sea. Raven stayed with these three men a long time. He taught them how to take wood from the bushes and small trees he planted in hollows and sheltered places, and to make a fire drill, and also a bow. He made many more plants and birds which like the seacoast, but he did not make so many as in the land where Man lived. He taught these men how to make bows and arrows, spears and nets, and how to use them; and also how to capture the seals, which were now plentiful in the sea. ”

“ Raven said to Lugan, a bird that lives far out on the ocean, “You will seldom be seen near shore. You will live on lonely rocks, far out on the ocean.”
When Raven came to Snipes, he said, “You will always go in flocks. You will never go out alone.” Therefore we always see snipes in flocks. ”

“ The next time Natsiane saw his brothers-in-law in their canoes, he put the spirit of his clan into the killer whales. Then they overturned the canoes and broke them to bits. They killed the people in them. After that Natsiane said to his killer whales, “You are not to injure people again. You must be kind to them.”
So these two killer whales became the canoes of the spirits. Shamans are lucky if they can get the spirit canoes. ”

“ Ground-hog chief answered, “Well, nobody in this town knows about it.”
In the spring when the snowslides did come, the Ground-hogs threw out all their green herbs, and their roots from their burrows.
Therefore Raven said to the people, “I am going to have a feast. I am going to invite the whole world.” Raven was going to invite every one because he had heard that the Gonaqadet had a Chilkat blanket and a Chilkat hat and he wanted to see them. [2] First he invited the Gonaqadet and afterward the other chiefs [Pg 43] of all the tribes in the world. At the right time they came. ”

“ RAVEN’S FEAST Tlingit
RAVEN’S mother died, so he gave a great feast, but first he went to the Ground-hog people to get food. Now 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. ”

“ When the first baby came on the earth plain, Raven rubbed it all over with white clay. He told Man it would grow into a man like himself. The next morning the baby was a big boy. He ran around pulling up grass and flowers that Raven had planted. By the third day the baby was a full-grown man. ”

“ If people who are taken away by Land Otters are brought back by their friends, they become shamans. It was through the Land Otters that shamans were first known. Shamans, by means of Land Otter spirits, can see each other, even though others cannot.
[Pg 58]
RAVEN AND COOT Athapascan (Upper Yukon)
A LONG time ago, Raven wanted all the birds to look well, so he painted them. Raven painted Coot last. Then Coot began to paint Raven, who wanted many bright colors. So Coot painted Raven with bright colors with one hand, but in the other hand he hid charcoal. ”

“ The fish trap was so full of salmon it looked as if some one were shaking it. There were plenty of salmon in it and in the lake were very small canoes passing each other. Several points of land were red with cranberries.
Raven pulled out the fish trap, folded it together, and laid it down at the edge of the lake. Then he [Pg 74] rolled it up with the lake and house, put them under his arm, and pulled himself up into a tree that stood close by. They were not heavy for his arm. He had rolled the lake up just as though it were a blanket. Raven sat in the tree half-way up. ”

“ And no effort has been made, in the telling of them, to change them from the terse directness of the natives. The language of all Indian tribes is very simple, and to the extent that an effort is made to put myths and legends into more polished form, to that extent is their authenticity impaired. ”

“ Go up into the head of the bays. Hunt for seal, for halibut, and for things under the sea. Do not hurt human beings.” Before this people did not know what a killer whale was.
When the Killer whale tribe start north, the Seal People say, “Here comes another battle. Here come [Pg 95] the warriors.” They say this because the killer whales are always after seals. The killer whale which always swims ahead is the red killer whale, called the “killer whale spear” because it is long and slender.
[Pg 96]
FUTURE LIFE Tlingit (Wrangell)
AFTER Raven had created people, a man died. ”