640 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [etii.ann.31 



Apparently in none of the Raven tales does a close connection 

 exist between the introduction dealing with the lover of the faithless 

 wife, or her son, and the subsequent myth. There are, however, a 

 number of analogous tales that make it clear that the person who 

 survives the machinations of his jealous uncle is considered unusu- 

 ally powerful. Here should be quoted the tales of the jealous uncle 

 (Tlingit Tl 198, Haida Sk 277, Kwakiutl Ne 10.365), ' in which the 

 boy is finally set adrift on the ocean, and then, by means of super- 

 natural powers, takes revenge on his uncle. 



Important for the interpretation of the Tlingit version is also the 

 story of Lakitcine' Tl 99 (Laguadji'na Haida Sk 252, M.376), which 

 is a culture-hero story belonging to the Athapascan cycle. In all 

 these versions the husband, whose wife has children by a dog, 

 kills these, except the last, by pressing them against his cape, 

 which is set with spines, in the same way as Raven's uncle kills his 

 nephews; and only one, whose skin is hard like stone, survives The 

 same idea probably underlies the incident of the Tlingit version, in 

 which Raven is born invulnerable because his mother conceived him 

 by swallowing a stone. Since most of the Dog-children stories do 

 not contain this element, I presume it has been introduced into this 

 tale from the Raven tale. 



It would seem, therefore, that the essential idea contained in all 

 the versions is the acquisition of supernatural power by Raven. In 

 the Tlingit and Haida stories this power is manifested in the boy's 

 contest with his uncle. In the Tsimshian version it is acquired by 

 his heavenly birth. The latter form accounts also, in a way, for the 

 boy's refusal to eat. As a heavenly boy he needs no human food; 

 and when he is endowed with human qualities by eating scabs, the 

 transformation is overdone, and, instead of eating like an ordinary 

 human being, he becomes voracious. 



Common to all the versions is the initial scene after Raven's return 

 from the sky, the world being covered by water. In the Tsimshian 

 legend this is merely expressed by the fact that the child is found on 

 a bunch of kelp in the ocean. It seems to my mind that this opening 

 scene should be compared with that of the Mink tradition of the 

 Kwakiutl (Ne 5.173; K 11.80; K 9.123; K 5.157; Ri 5.215; H 5.234; 

 BC 5.246; BC 95). In the Kwakiutl version it is told that a woman 

 conceives when the rays of the sun strike her back. She gives birth 

 to a boy, who ascends to the sky, where he visits his father. He 

 carries the sun in his place, descends too low, and sets the earth on 

 fire. Then his father takes away the sun from him, and casts him 

 down. He falls into the sea, and drops on some kelp, where he is 

 found. After this begin his migrations, which differ, however, in 

 their general character, from the Raven legends, in that the central 

 idea is the amorousness of Mink rather than his voraciousness, while 



