624 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [eth. ann. 31 



village. In this the Kaigani version agrees with other Haida ver- 

 sions. In all other versions the motives and situations are clearly 

 developed. 



His mother would not tell him what had become of his relatives. Meanwhile the 

 people were starving in his uncle's village. The uncle sent two slaves to get the bones 

 of his sister, whom he supposed to be dead. They brought a coffin along, but found her 

 well supplied with provisions, and discovered her son. They returned, and reported 

 what they had seen. The uncle then sent his slaves to invite his sister and his nephew. 

 Only then the mother told her son that her other children had been killed by her own 

 brother. The boy went with the slaves, carrying a fox blanket and marmot blanket, 

 and an apron made of reindeer skin. His mother followed him Tl 4. 



These incidents seem also out of place. They belong to the type 

 of tales of people deserted by their tribe (see p. 783), but there is no 

 such desertion of the woman here. 



He took his uncle's wife [some say daughter TI6 119] out of the box while the uncle 

 wasabsent, and let the flickers (kun) fly away from under her arms Tl 2, T16 119. [The 

 four boys joked with her, and the bird flew away Kai 5. When Raven At The Head Of 

 Nass River saw this, he said, "All those pretty things of mine are gone." Then he 

 asked him if he was Raven, to which he answered in the affirmative T16 119.] 



The chief uses the expression here quoted when he loses the day- 

 light. Evidently it does not belong here. 



Then the uncle tried to kill his nephew. He tried to saw off his neck with a glass 

 (obsidian) saw, which broke on his stone neck. He asked him to fell a tree which 

 stood behind the house. The boy's mother warned him, saying he would find his 

 brothers' skeletons under the tree. When he began to chop the tree, pieces of glass 

 fell down, for the tree consisted of glass. They did not hurt him. He carried the tree 

 home, cut it up, and started a great fire in the house Tl 4. [The uncle asked the boy to 

 fellatree, which fell on him, butdid not kill him because he was madeofrock T16 119 ] 

 Then the uncle took him out to a canoe he was building, and asked him to help him 

 spread it. By knocking out the spreading-sticks he made the canoe close on him. 

 The boy broke it, carried the halves home, and threw them down Tl 4. [The uncle asked 

 him to clean out the canoe that he was building, and made it close on him. The boy 

 broke it with his elbows and carried it home for firewood. Then the uncle boiled him 

 in a copper kettle; but he transformed himself into a rock, and was unharmed T16 119] 

 The uncle took him out in his canoe to get the devilfish, and made him fall overboard . 

 The boy, however, caught the devilfish, threw it down^n the house, where it assumed 

 enormous size Tl 4 [the boy was thrown overboard, but returned along the sea-bottom 

 after four days Tl 3]. [Then the waters began to rise and fill the house Tl 4.] Then the 

 uncle called the rain; and the people began to starve, because it was storming all the 

 time T16 120. The uncle put on his dancing-hat, and water poured out of its top Kai 5, 

 T16120. [Hecalled his uncle to say, "Let the deluge come!" Tl 3. He sat on the roof of 

 his uncle's house; and when the latter entered, he closed all the openings and let the 

 water rise, in order to drown him Tl 2.] 



*As the waters were rising, Raven and his mother got on the retaining-timbers of 

 the house, and, when the water reached them, climbed to the higher ones. There 

 were 'eight of these. Raven At The Head Of Nass River's house was in reality the 

 world; and while Raven and his mother were climbing the retaining-timbers, the 

 people climbed up the mountains to save themselves from the flood. When the 

 watere reached the fourth set of retaining-timbers, the mountains were half covered 



