SWAN'TOX] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 19 



Raven had a blanket wiiich kept blowing out from him, so he 

 threw it into the water and let it float away. Then he obtained a 

 wife, and, as he was traveling along with her, he said, "There is going 

 to be a great southwest wind. We better stop here for a little 

 while. I expect my blanket ashore here." After a while it came in. 

 Then his wife said to liim, "Take 3^our blanket ashore and tlirow it 

 on some branches." He did so and it became Rehis hracteosum 

 (Tlingit, ciix). When the}^ went on farther the sea became so rough 

 that his wife was frightened, and told him. to put ashore some of the 

 fat with which his canoe was loaded. He did tliis, but was so angry 

 with his wife for having asked him, that he said to her, "You better put 

 ashore your sewing basket," and so she did.'' 



Then he left his wife and went along by liimself. He assembled 

 very many young birds, and, when he camped told them to go after 

 cat!k!, the term he at that time applied to drinking water. 



Afterwards he came to a certain place and started to make a salmon 

 creek. He said, "This woman shall be at the head of tliis creek." 

 The woman he spoke of had long teats, so he called her Woman-with- 

 long-teats-floating-around (Hin-cAkxe'nayi), saying, "When the 

 salmon come to the creeks, they shall all go up to see her." That is 

 why salmon run up the creeks. 



After this he went into the woods and set out to make the porcu- 

 pine. For quills he took pieces of yellow cedar bark, wliich he set all 

 the way up and down its back so that bears would be afraid of it. 

 This is why bears never eat porcupines. He said to the porcupine, 

 "Whenever anyone comes near you, throw your tail about." This is 

 why people are afraid of it when it does so. 



Now Raven went ofi" to a certain place and made the west wind, 

 naming it Q!axo'. He said to it, "You shall be my son's daughter. 

 No matter how hard you blow you shall hurt nobody. 



He took up a piece of red salmon and said to it, "If anyone is not 

 strong enough to paddle home he shall take up this fi.sh and blow 

 behind him." 



Raven is a grandcliild of the mouse (kute'itAini). That is why a 

 mouse can never get enough to eat. 



Raven also made the south \\'ind (sa'naxet). When the south 

 wind climbs on top of a rock it never ceases to blow. 



He made the north wind (xun), and on top of a mountain he made a 

 house for it with something like ice hanging down on the sides. 

 Then he went in and said to it, "Your buttocks are white." This is 

 why the mountains are white with snow. 



He made all the different races, as the Haida and the Tsimshian. 

 They are human beings like the Tlingit, but he made their languages 

 different. 



a This is evidently told to account for certain peculiarly shaped rocks. 



