456 ' THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [kth.ann.18 



stopped, and Eaven remained with them a long time, teaching them 

 how to live. He taught them how to make a iire drill and bow frota a 

 piece of dry wood and a cord, taking the wood from the bushes and 

 small trees he had caused to grow in hollo\ys and sheltered jilaces on 

 the hillside. He made for each of the men a wife, and also made 

 many plants and birds such as frequent the seacoast, but fewer kinds 

 than he had made in the land where the first man lived. He taught 

 the men to make bows and arrows, spears, nets, and all the imple- 

 ments of the chase and how to use them ; also how to capture the seals 

 which had now become plentiful in the sea. After he had taught them 

 how to make kaiaks, he showed them how to build houses of drift logs 

 and bushes covered with earth. Now the three wives of the last men 

 were all pregnant, and Raven went back to the first man, where he 

 found the children were married 5 then he told Man about all he had 

 done for the people on the seacoast. Looking about here he thought the 

 earth seemed bare; so, while the others slept, he caused birch, spruce, 

 and Cottonwood trees to spring up in low places, and then awoke tlie 

 people, who were much j)leased at seeing the trees. After this they 

 were taught how to make fire with the fire drill and to place the spark 

 of tinder in a bunch of dry grass and wave it about until it blazed, 

 then to place dry wood upon it. They were shown how to roast fish on 

 a stick, to make fish traps of splints and willow bark, to dry salmon 

 for winter use, and to make houses. 



Eaven then went back to the coast men again. When he had gone 

 Man and his son went down to the sea and the son caught a seal which 

 they tried to kill with their hands but could not, until, finally, the son 

 killed it by a blow with his fist. Then the father took off its skin with 

 his hands alone and made it into lines which they dried. With these 

 lines they set snares in the woods for reindeer. When they went to look 

 at these the next morning, they found the cords bitten in two and the 

 snares gone, for in those days reindeer had sharp teeth like dogs. 

 After thinking for a time the young man made a deep hole in the deer 

 trail and hung in it a heavy stone fastened to the snare so that when 

 it caught a deer the stone would slip down into the hole, drag the deer's 

 neck down to the ground, and hold it fast. The next morning when 

 they returned they found a deer entangled in the snare. Taking it 

 out they killed and skinned it, carrying the skin home for a bed ; some 

 of the flesh was roasted on the fire and found to be very good to eat. 



One day Man went out seal hunting along the seashore. He saw 

 many seals, but in each case after he had crept carefully up they would 

 tumble into the water before he could get to them, until only one was 

 left on the rocks; Man crept up to it more carefully than before, but it 

 also escaped. Then he stood up and his breast seemed full of a strange 

 feeling, and the water began to run in drops from his eyes and down 

 his face. He put up his hand and caught some of the drops to look at 

 them and found that they were really water; then, without any wish 



