boas] COMPAEATIVE STUDY OF TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY 677 



The Masset version treats of a man who secretly observes the 

 cooking food and who then eats it M 348. 



In the Nez Perc£ version Coyote goes to sleep while the salmon is cooking. The ani- 

 mals steal it, and cut off flesh from his body, which they put on the fire. The Ant 

 tells him that he is eating his own flesh. In return he steals the eggs that the 

 animals are roasting, and gives (hem their present form. 



The boy goes to sleep while the salmon is roasting. Boys smear his mouth with 

 fat and run a stick into his anus Lil 325. 



This is a common incident in the folk-lore of the Plains Indians. 



(20,20a) WHY CROW AND RAVEN ARE BLACK 



(a) Crows or Gulls are Blackened 



(4 versions: Na 30; N6 34; Ska 113; Tl 4.265. See alsoTla 5; T16 85; M6 299) 



There are a number of single stories accounting for the colors of 

 specific birds. 



The gulls are eating Giant's (TxamsEm's) olachen. He throws them into the fire 

 place, and ever since that time the tips of their wings have been black Na 30, N6 34. 



After having killed the spring salmon, he roasts it and lies down on his back to 

 sleep. The Crows steal the salmon and put some of the meat between his teeth. 

 When he sees that it is gone, the Crows maintain that he has eaten it himself, show- 

 ing him the pieces of salmon between his teeth. Thereupon he spits into their faces 

 and says that they shall be black Ska 113 (see under 19c, p. 676). 



The Tlingit version Tl 4.265 is evidently identical with the preceding. After 

 having killed the salmon, he sends his nephews the Crows to get leaves, which he 

 intends to use as dishes. He tells them to go across two mountains because his wife 

 has been burned near by. Meanwhile he eats the salmon, puts sticks into the 

 ground, and goes to sleep. When his nephews come back to call him, he claims that 

 they have eaten the salmon. He throws ashes upon them, and they become black (see 

 under 19c, p. 676). 



As stated before, the Tlingit version Tla 5 introduces here the painting of the birds 

 in place of the blackening of the crows. In another Tlingit version (T16) no mention 

 is made of the painting of the birds. It is merely stated that he took all kinds of 

 birds for his servants, and through these it was found out that he was Raven. 



Some of the versions which tell of the theft of the spring salmon 

 which has been killed by Raven do not contain this element. The 

 Masset version Mb simply tells how the stump lays itself over the 

 salmon that is being steamed in a hole and takes it away. 



(b) Raven is Caught in the Smoke Hole 



< 5 versions: Tla 4; Tl 4. 261; Tl 6.28; also N6 64; Tl 5.314. See also Quin 92; Wish 99) 

 In a number of stories it is told how Raven became black by 

 being caught in a smoke hole. 



In the version Tla 4, Tl 4.261, and Tl 6, Petrel, whose water Raven has stolen, 

 orders his smoke hole to catch him. He was white up to that time, but tin smoke 

 blackened him (see p. 736rf, 2). 



Smoke Hole orders the door and the smoke hole to close, and Txa'msEm is caught 

 and smoked. He puts his voice in a bluff, where it forms an echo that scolds the 

 chief, who becomes ashamed and lets Raven go, who holds aider bark in his mouth, 

 the juice of which looks like blood. It is not stated in this version that he is made 

 black by the smoke, but it is implied N6 64. 



