628 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [ETH. ANN. 31 



and his mother made a blanket of their skins. Then he shot whales, which he took 

 to a creek. A raven came down from the sky to eat of the whales, and after several 

 vain efforts he shot it, and hid the skin between the branches of a large tree. One 

 day he said, "My fathers are coining!" and his uncle reproved his sister, saying the 

 boy would cause them trouble. Canoes arrived, and the boy sent a slave to call 

 them ashore. When the killer whales reached the shore, they fell down. The 

 mother sprinkled water with a bailer over her lover, but refused to rescue her hus- 

 band. Then the boy let the slave call in the flood-tide, and his fathers went back 

 to Rose Spit Skg. In Hai 5 the boy grows up quickly. He asks liis uncle for 

 bow and arrows, and copper bracelets. The uncle refuses, bilt some other man gives 

 them to him. He shoots birds, and makes a blanket of their skins, which he hides 

 in a tree. As soon as he returns to the house he assumes the shape of an infant.] 



In order to gain the love of his uncle's wife, he went in search of a love-charm. 

 He met women who were singing and at the same time chewing red gum Ska. [First 

 he could not find them, then he asked them where they got their song. They an- 

 swered, "We are singing of Raven, who is in love with his uncle's wife Skjr.] They 

 gave him gum, saying, "This is woman's medicine. When you enter the house, 

 pass to the right, chew gum as you go in. When your uncle's wife asks it of you, do 

 not give it to her, but first ask for the thing her husband owns." He followed the 

 advice of the women, and his uncle's wife gave him the round white thing that her 

 husband owned. Then he gave her the red gum. She chewed it, swallowed the 

 juice, and then began to love him Ska. 



The first version of the visit of the boy's fathers is' more consistent 

 than the second one, since the visit of the killer whales gives the boy 

 the opportunity to shoot the birds. It- may well be, however, that the 

 incident of the singing women should be placed in the sky, as is done in 

 the second version (see below), and following the shooting of the birds. 

 Then in his first attempt to fly he might have visited these women 

 in search of a love-charm, and we should have here a repetition of 

 the visit to the sky — a feature so characteristic of the Haida version. 



It is not. explained what the white round object was that his uncle 

 owned, and it is not referred to again. The brief and inaccurate 

 version 1 suggests that perhaps this might have been the moon. 

 The incident according to which the owner of sun, moon, and stars 

 became disgusted because he was made to believe that Raven had 

 obtained a moon is, however, so different from all other versions from 

 the coast, that I hesitate to accept it. If this white object is at all 

 essential for the future exploits of Raven, the love affair with his 

 uncle's wife would appear here as serving a definite end, while 

 ordinarily it is only the cause of the Deluge. 



The adventure with the singing women is treated in a different 

 manner in Skg 142. There the women are placed in the sky, which he 

 reaches after the Deluge. The incident, however, is without con- 

 nection with all that precedes and follows. 



Raven reaches a place full of berries, and rivers full of salmon. He hears people 

 singing, and finds them with difficulty. He asks the women, "Where did you get 

 your song? I like it." They laugh, and reply, "Did you never hear that there 

 are five countries here, and that people use this song, which tells that NAiiki'lsuis-lina'i 

 is in love with his uncle's wife? " Thus he obtained the name NAfiki'lsLas-lina'i. 



