26 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 56 



He dreamed and called all the people together to bring their snares with them. 

 He made a pack of the snares and put them on his back. The people made the 

 snow in a big heap. Around this he went, chanting and saying, "Bye and bye 

 meat will come." Then he reached into the snow heap and pulled a caribou's 

 head out by the horns. He did not kill it, for it was not a real caribou ; only a 

 spirit. So he painted the horns and tail red, with red ochre, and let it back 

 into the snow heap. Next day they got lots of caribou, and the one with red 

 horns and tail was amongst them. That is why an Indian never kills a camp 

 robber when he steals grub, but lets him go because he helped them in the 

 days when he was a medicine-man. 



THE RAVEN 



The raven lies more than any other game. Long time ago all the animals 

 were good except the raven. He was an habitual liar and robbed everybody. 

 Whenever he found dead game he ate the eyes first. Once when the raven was 

 like a man he came to a strange camp and told a man to kill his old dog and 

 throw it into the river. The man did so. Then the raven followed the dog 

 down the river and pulled it out and ate its eyes. Thus he went from camp to 

 camp as a deceiver. 



THE RAVEN RESTORES THE SUN TO THE SKY 



The raven was the cleverest deceiver of all animals, but has one good deed 

 to his credit. At this time, when all animals were men, a bear, who was a bad 

 man, did not want the people of the world to have light, so he took the sun 

 down from the sky and hung it with a string on his neck and kept it covered 

 with his coat. The raven came to his house and pretended to be a friend, and 

 soon married the bear's daughter. They very soon had a child who could 

 walk as soon as born, and grew up in a very short while. The raven told the 

 boy to get the sun from the bear, so the boj'^ cried for it very much and finally 

 the bear allowed the boy to play with it, but watched him carefully. There 

 was no hole in the roof, but the raven made one, and when the bear's attention 

 was away for a moment the boy threw the sun up through the hole into the 

 sky and the bear couldn't get it any more. The raven then ran away and 

 never came back, for the bear would like to kill him. 



THE R.\VEN AND THE COOT (muD HEn) 



The raven wanted all the birds to look nice and he painted them with their 

 various hues. He painted the coot last. The coot was then in turn to paint 

 the raven, who wanted to be very richly variegated with colors. The coot was 

 painting the raven gorgeously with his right hand, but had charcoal concealed 

 in his left hand. Then, for a joke, while the raven's attention was away, he 

 smeared the raven all over with charcoal. The raven was angry and chased 

 but couldn't catch the coot, so he grabbed and threw a handful of white mud, 

 spattering it over the coot. That is why the coot has white spots on his head 

 and back. The coot flew away and the raven has remained black ever since. 



THE WOODPECKER 



The woodpecker was a very domestic sort of a man-bird. He used to get 

 married lots of times. When he would get married he would go away from 



