484 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH.AN.V. 18 



The .Raven boy at once took his snowshoes and set off for the south. 

 For many days he traveled, and the darkness was always the same. 

 When he had gone a very long way he saw far in front of him a ray of 

 light, and then he felt encouraged. As he hurried on the light showed 

 again, plainer than before, and then vanished and appeared at intervals. 

 At last he came to a large hill, one side of which was in a bright light 

 while the other appeared in the blackness of night. In front of him 

 and close to the hill the boy saw a hut with a man near by who was 

 shoveling snow from the front of it. 



The man was tossing the snow high in the air, and each time that he 

 did this the light became obscured, thus causing the alternations of 

 light and darkness which the boy had seen as he approached. Close 

 beside the house he saw the light he had come in search of, looking 

 like a large ball of fire. Then the boy stopped and began to plan how 

 to secure the light and the shovel from the man. 



After a time he walked up to the man and said, &quot; Why are you 

 throwing up the snow and hiding the light from our village?&quot; The 

 man stopped, looked up, and said, &quot; I am only cleaning away the snow 

 from my door ; I am not hiding the light. But who are yon, and whence 

 did you come 1 ?&quot; &quot;It is so dark at our village that I did not like 

 to live there, so I came here to live with you,&quot; said the boy. &quot;What, 

 all the time?&quot; asked the man. &quot; Yes,&quot; replied the boy. The man then 

 said, &quot;It is well; come into the house with me,&quot; and he dropped his 

 shovel on the ground, and, stooping down, led the way through the 

 undergound passage into the house, letting the curtain fall in front of 

 the door as he passed, thinking the boy was close behind him. 



The moment the door flap fell behind the man as he entered, the boy 

 caught up the ball of light and pat it in the turned up flap of his fur coat 

 in front; then, catching up the shovel in one hand, he fled away to the 

 north, running until his feet became tired; then by means of his magic 

 coat he changed into a raven and flew as i ast as his wings would carry 

 him. Behind he heard the frightful shrieks and cries of the old man, 

 following fast in pursuit. When the old man saw that he could not 

 overtake the Raven he cried out, &quot;Nevermind; you may keep the light, 

 but give me my shovel.&quot; 



To this the boy answered, &quot;No; you made our village dark and 

 you can not have your shovel,&quot; and Eaven flew off, leaving him. As 

 Haven traveled to his home he broke off a piece of the light and threw 

 it away, thus making day. Then he went on for a long time in dark 

 ness and then threw out another piece of light, making it day again. 

 This he continued to do at intervals until he reached the outside of the 

 kashim in his own village, when he threw away the last piece. Then he 

 went into the kashim and said, &quot; Now, you good-for-nothing shamans, 

 you see I have brought back the light, and it will be light and then 

 dark so as to make day and night,&quot; and the shamans could not answer 

 him. 



After this the Raven boy went out upon the ice, for his home was on 



