FABLE AND FOLKLORE 231 



difficult to separate Raven the demigod, from the sable, 

 kawing, cunning bird so conspicuous all over northern 

 Canada; and in this respect Yel differs from Rukh, 

 Simurgh, and the other similar figments of Oriental 

 fancies, in that he is modelled upon a real bird, rather than 

 on something utterly unknown to earthly ornithology. 



A favorite tale with many variants describes how the 

 cormorant lost its voice. As the Haidas of Queen 

 Charlotte Islands tell it, Raven once invited the cormorant 

 to go a-fishing with him. The cormorant went, and 

 naturally caught many fish, while the Raven took none. 

 Then Raven, angry made the cormorant stick out its 

 tongue. 'There is something on it," quoth Raven, and 

 pulled the tongue out by the roots; and that is why 

 cormorants have no voice.* 



Here Raven is plainly the supernatural, irresponsible 

 being of Totemic importance, who often presented him- 

 self as a man or in some other form, for he could assume 

 any shape he liked. Thus the Hudson Bay Eskimos relate 

 that Raven was a man who loudly cautioned persons when 

 moving a village-camp not to forget the deer-skin under- 

 blanket called "kak": so he got that nickname, and 

 ravens still fly about fussily calling kak! kak! The Tlingits 

 also have a story in which Raven begins the action as a 

 man, and ends plain bird — an outwitted one at that. Raven 

 was in a house and played a trick on Petrel, then tried to 

 get away by flying up through the smoke-hole in the 



* The cormorant was once a wool-merchant. He entered into a 

 partnership with the bramble and the bat, and they freighted a large 

 ship with wool. She was wrecked and the firm became bankrupt. 

 Since that disaster the bat skulks about until midnight to avoid his 

 creditors, the cormorant is forever diving into the deep to discover 

 its foundered vessel, while the bramble seizes hold of every pass- 

 ing sheep to make up the firm's loss by stealing the wool. This is 

 an ancient European story quite as silly as the Haida one. 



