146 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull.29 



On the followinj^ day Raven went out to the lake. He rolled up 

 the water like a blanket, took a number of tish out, boiled them, and 

 ate them. When Beaver came home he found Kaven crying and 

 pretending to be hungry. On the following day Raven went out again. 

 He rolled up the water, took it in his beak, and flew away. He 

 alighted on the top of a large cedar tree. 



When Beaver went out in order to fish in his lake he found that 

 it was gone, and he saw Raven sitting on a tree, holding the water. 

 Then Beaver called the monster Tfi'LafadEga, ^"^ which *has a long 

 body, a long tail, and many legs; and he called all the beavers and the 

 bears and asked them to throw the tree down. The wolves dug up its 

 roots, the beavers gnawed the ti'unk of the tree, and all the animals 

 tried to do what was in their power. Finall}" the tree fell. Than 

 Raven flew ofl' to another tree. They tried to throw this tree down. 

 All the animals of the forest helped Beaver. After they had throv/n 

 down four trees the}" asked a favor of Raven: "Please give us our 

 chief's water. Don't make us unhappy!'"' But he did not comply 

 with their request. He flew away, and spit some of the water on the 

 ground as he flew along. Thus originated all the rivers on Queen 

 Charlotte islands. He also made the Skeena and Stikine rivers. 



There was a man named K*'i'lkun, who lived at Skidegate. He 

 asked Raven to give him some water. Raven complied with his 

 request, but gave him very little only. This annoyed him so much 

 that he fell down dead. He forms the long point of land near Skide- 

 gate.^"* The same thing happened at Naeku'n.^"'' For this reason 

 there is a long point of land at that place. 



This is the best known, as it is the l(jngest, of all stories told on the upper north- 

 west coast, and many writers have given fragments of it. Although often spoken of 

 as the creation legend, it would be more correct to say that it explains how things 

 were altered from one state or condition into that in which we now find them. 

 Thus topographic features, natural phenomena, the tastes, passions, habits, and cus- 

 toms of animals and human beings are mainly explained by referring to something 

 that Kaven did in ancient times. He was not the only originator of all these things, 

 but he was the principal, and for that reason he was known as NAiiki^lsLas ("He- 

 whose-voice-is-obeyed" ). Until Qi^ngi adopted him he was called NAiiki^lsLas-JifiaM 

 ("The-potential-NAfiki^lsLas"). Some even said that NAuki'lsLas was a great chief 

 who put on the skin of a raven only when he wanted to act like a buffoon. Among 

 the three peoples who have developed this story most — Haida, Tlingit, and Tsim- 

 shian — the Raven clan is also of very great importance, and it is evident to me that 

 there is a causal relation between the two facts. I have, however, discussed the 

 singular prominence of the Raven clan among the people in this region in volume v, 

 part 1, of the Memoirs of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, page 104. 



Aware of the important position held by this myth, I made a special endeavor to 

 secure as much of it as possible and consulted several different story-tellers. The 

 main portion of the storj' was given me by John Sky, a Kloo man, who also related 

 the five next and that on page 86. A long section was added by Walter McGregor, who 

 belonged to the people of the west-coast town of Kaisun, and fragments were con- 

 tributed by Abraham, an old man of Kloo, by Tom Stevens, chief of Those-born- 

 at-House-point, the ancient people of Rose spit, and by Job Moody, a man of the 



