620 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY Teth. ann. 31 



the Transformer legend of the Fraser Delta, but they are always 

 assigned to Mink, who is a companion of the Transformer, and who 

 appears as trickster among the tribes of northern Vancouver Island. 

 I have discussed the significance of this phenomenon at another place. 1 

 The Transformer tales of the interior share with those of the south- 

 ern part of the coast the dissociation of the culture-hero element and 

 of the trickster. The separation, however, is not so complete, because 

 we are dealing here with different sets of Transformer tales. The 

 Coyote as Transformer — a cycle which I have not discussed here, 

 since it seems to be foreign to the Pacific coast — shares with the 

 Raven cycle the lack of differentiation between culture-hero and 

 trickster; but in the southwestern interior of British Columbia we 

 find, besides Coyote, various Transformers who are essentially analo- 

 gous to the culture-heroes of Washington and Vancouver Island. 

 Their function, however, is different. They transform the animals 

 which were in ancient times monsters or cannibals into the useful 

 animals of our present period. At the same time, transformations 

 into stones are very numerous. There is, of course, no relation to 

 village communities, since these tribes are not organized in well- 

 defined village groups. Both the Vancouver Island and interior 

 groups may be contrasted with the northern group by the complete 

 absence of all myths relating to fire, water, sun, moon, etc., as parts 

 of the Transformer legends. 



The Raven Myth of the Tsimshian 



The Raven myth of the Tsimsliian is cpiite similar to that of the 

 Tlingit and Haida. Among these three tribes most of the incidents 

 that compose it are the same, and a few even occur in the same 

 arrangement. Although many of them have a much wider distri- 

 bution, the myth, with its elaborate introduction, is confined to the 

 three coast tribes just mentioned, including, however, probably the 

 Athapascan tribes immediately to the east of the Tlingit and Tsim- 

 shian. Among all of them it comprises the incidents that led to the 

 establishment of the present order of the world, and begins with the 

 supernatural origin of Raven. 



. In order to gain an insight into the probable lustory of this myth, 

 it is necessary to reconstruct its forms from the various versions that 

 have been recorded. 



We wall begin our analysis with a discussion of the introduction, 

 which includes the incidents leading to Raven's migrations. Four 

 types may be distinguished, which will be considered separately. I 

 begin with a summary of the tale, which will be followed by a detailed 

 account of its variants. 



' Introduction to Teit 2. 



