484 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [BTH. ANN. 18 
The Raven boy at once took his snowshoes and set off for the south. 
For many days he traveled, and the darkness was always the same. 
When he had gone a very long way he saw far in front of him a ray of 
light, and then he felt encouraged. As he hurried on the light showed 
again, plainer than before, and then vanished and appeared at intervals. 
At last he came to a large hill, one side of which was in a bright light 
while the other appeared in the blackness of night. In front of him 
and close to the hill the boy saw a hut with a man near by who was 
shoveling snow from the front of it. 
The man was tossing the snow high in the air, and each time that he 
did this the light became obscured, thus causing the alternations of 
light and darkness which the boy had seen as he approached. Close 
beside the house he saw the light he had come in search of, looking 
like a large ball of fire. Then the boy stopped and began to plan how 
to secure the light and the shovel from the man. 
After a time he walked up to the man and said, ‘‘Why are you 
throwing up the snow and hiding the light from our village?” The 
man stopped, looked up, and said, ‘‘I am only cleaning away the snow 
from my door; I am not hiding the light. But who are you, and whence 
did you come?” “It is so dark at our village that I did not like 
to live there, so I came here to live with you,” said the boy. ‘What, 
all the time?” asked the man. ‘“ Yes,” replied the boy. The man then 
said, ‘It is well; come into the house with me,” and he dropped his 
shovel on the ground, and, stooping down, led the way through the 
undergound passage into the house, letting the curtain fall in front of 
the door as he passed, thinking the boy was close behind him. 
The moment the door flap fell behind the man as he entered, the boy 
caught up the ball of light and put it in the turned up flap of his fur coat 
in front; then, catching up the shovel in one hand, he fled away to the 
north, running until his feet became tired; then by means of his magic 
coat he changed into a raven and flew as fast as his wings would carry 
him. Behind he heard the frightful shrieks and cries of the old man, 
following fast in pursuit. When the old man saw that he could not 
overtake the Raven he cried out, ‘“ Never mind; you may keep the light, 
but give me my shovel.” 
To this the boy answered, ‘No; you made our village dark and 
you can not have your shovel,” and Raven flew off, leaving him. As 
Raven traveled to his home he broke off a piece of the light and threw 
it away, thus making day. Then he went on for a long time in dark- 
ness and then threw out another piece of light, making it day again. 
This he continued to do at intervals until he reached the outside of the 
kashim in his own village, when he threw away the last piece. Then he 
went into the kashim and said, ‘‘ Now, you good-for-nothing shamans. 
you see I have brought back the light, and it will be light and then 
dark so as to make day and night,” and the shamans could not answer 
him. 
After this the Raven boy went out upon the ice, for his home was on 
