676 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [eth. ann. 31 



place.] He sends them back over two mountains to get clean leaves. While Ihey are 

 away, he cooks the salmon, eats it, and puts the bones back. He cooks the "navel" 

 of the salmon separately. "When the birds return, he says he himself has been over two 

 mountains. They dig up the salmon, and find it all gone. [While the birds are away, 

 he eats the salmon and puts the tails into the ground. He plants sticks in the ground 

 and goes to sleep. When the Crows return, he claims that they have eaten it, throws 

 ashes over them, and makes them black Tl 4.] This version is not very consistent. 

 Ii.'imi! .■ Raven eats the salmon and cheats the Crows, while in most of the tales he 

 himself is cheated. There is no mention of the blackening of Crow in Tla, but the 

 incident is followed immediately by the painting of birds (see p. 664). The two 

 versions Tl 4 and Tla, however, corroborate each other. 



M6 simply states that a stump of a tree sat on it, so that he could not eat it. 



White Crows gather over the salmon which was cooking in the hole; he sends them 

 for dishes; they bring first mussel shells, then clamshells and other kinds of shells; 

 then he himself goes to get dishes, and meanwhile the Crows eat the salmon; the 

 ground is covered with their excrement; Raven ordains that they shall be black Ts. 



After the salmon has been killed, Raven calls the Crows to help him; he steams it 

 on hot stones; then he goes to sleep with his back to the fire; and meanwhile the Crows 

 eat the salmon, put some between his teeth, and, when he awakes, they tell him 

 that he has eaten it; then he spits in the Crows' faces, and says, "Future people shall 

 not see you flying about hiking as ymi do nou-;" thus they became black Ska. 



(d) Raven's Feast 

 (2 versions: Tl 5.277; Ne 5.176) 



Raven teases the animals, and gives some of them their present form. The Squirrel 

 rubs off his eyebrows. The Thrush goes so near the fire that Ms stomach is burned 

 black. Bluejay takes hold of a piece of salmon which Raven is about to take away 

 from him. For this reason he becomes angry, takes hold of his hair, this forming the 

 crest of the bluejay Ne 5. The version Ne 9.213 does not contain this incident. 



The version Tl 5.277 is quite similar. One of the guests sits so near the fire that 

 his cheeks become red, and he is transformed into a bird. The Squirrel rubs off his 

 eyebrows, and Raven tears out Cormorant's tongue when he tries to eat of the fish. 



In Nu ap 934 we find a tale of Raven teasing the animals and stealing their food. 



I suspect that the Newettee version may not be quite correctly 

 placed. It was told by a half-blood Indian, the daughter of a Tlin- 

 git woman who as a young child had lived on Nass River, and grew 

 up and lived among the Kwakiutl. It may therefore well be that 

 we have here a mixture of the Tlingit and Kwakiutl versions. 



(e) The Salmon is Stoli n 



Aversions: K9.143; Co 5.74; Lil325; Nez Perce Spinden 18. See also No 30, N6 35, 

 M 348) 

 In the Nass version this story is attached to that of the origin of 

 the olachen. Raven talks to the Gulls, who eat his olachen Na, Ni. 



While Mink is roasting the salmon, he sings, "Who will eat his eyes, his head, his 

 roe? " Then he goes to sleep. The Wolves steal the salmon, rub it over his teeth, and 

 when, on waking, he finds some salmon eggs in his teeth, he thinks he has eaten it 

 himself Co 5. 



In K 9 Mink borrows his mother's fish-knife, pretending that he wants to cut a piece 

 of kelp. He roasts the salmon with the head attached to the backbone. He becomes 

 drowsy and asks the trees to take care of it. Children who are sitting on the trees 

 come down and steal the fish. They rub some of its blood over Mink's mouth, and 

 pull out his musk-bag. (Here follows the story of the children playing ball with 

 Mink's musk-bag, which may be compared with No. 38, p. 706.) 



