swan-ton] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 5 



After this Raven went on again and came to a large town where 

 were people who had never seen daylight. They were out catching 

 eulachon in the darkness when he came to the bank opposite, and 

 he asked them to take him across but they would not. Then he said 

 to them, "If you don't come over I will have daylight break on you." 

 But they answered, ''Where are you from? Do you come from 

 far up the Nass where lives the man who has daylight?" At this 

 Raven opened his box just a little and shed so great a light on 

 them that they were nearly thrown down. He shut it quickly, but 

 they quarreled with him so much across the creek that he became 

 angry and opened the box completely, when the sun flew up into the 

 sky. Then those people who had sea-otter or fur-seal skins, or the 

 skins of any other sea animals, went into the ocean, while those who 

 had land-otter, bear, or marten skins, or the skins of any other land 

 animals, went into the woods [becoming the animals whose skins they 

 wore]. 



Raven came to another place where a crowd of boys were throwing 

 fat at one another. When they hit him with a piece he swallowed 

 it. ^Vfter a while he took dog's manure and threw at the boys who 

 became scared, ran away, and threw more fat at him. He consumed 

 all in this way, and started on again. 



After a while he came to an abandoned camp where lay a ])iece of 

 jade (s!u) half buried in the ground, on which some design had been 

 pecked. This he dug up. Far out in the bay he saw a large spring 

 salmon jumping about and wanted to get it but did not know how. 

 Then he stuck his stone into the ground and put eagle down upon the 

 head designed thereon. The next time the salmon jumped, he said, 

 ''See here, spring salmon jumping out there, do you know what this 

 green stone is saying to you? It is saying, 'You thing with dirty, 

 filthy back, you thing with dirty, filthy gills, come ashore here.' " 



Raven suddenly wanted to defecate and started off. Just then 

 the big spring salmon also started to come ashore, so Raven said, 

 "Just wait, my friend, don't come ashore yet for I have some business 

 to attend to." So the salmon went out again. Afterward Raven 

 took a piece of wild celery (ya'naet), and, when the salmon did come 

 ashore, he struck it with this and killed it. Because Raven made 

 this jade talk to the salmon, people have since made stone axes, picks, 

 and spears out of it. 



Then Raven, carrying along the spring salmon, got all kinds of 

 birds, little and big, as his servants. When he came to a good place 

 to cook his fish he said to all of them, "Here, you young fellows, go 

 after skunk cabbage. We will bury this in the ground and roast it." 

 After they had brought it down, however, he said, "I don't want any 

 of that. My wife has defecated all over that, and I will not use it. 

 Go back and pass over two mountains." While they were gone, 



