MYTHS RECORDED IN ENGLISH AT WRANGELL 



31. KAVEN« 



In olden times only high-caste })eo})lo knew the story of Raven 

 properly because only they had time to learn it. 



At the beginning of things there was no daylight and the world lay 

 in blackness. Then there lived in a house at the head of Nass river 

 a being called Raven-at-the-head-of-Nass (Nfis-cA'ki-yel), the princi- 

 pal deity to whom the Tlingit formerly prayed'' but whom no one had 

 seen; and in his house were all kinds of things including sun, moon, 

 stars, and daylight. lie was addressed in jn'ayers as Axcagu'n, or 

 Axkinaye'gi, ^M}' Creator, and Wayigena'lxe, Invisible-rich-man. 

 With him were two old men called Old-man-wlio-foresees-all-trou- 

 bles-in-the-world (Adawu'l !-ca'nak" !) and Ile-who-lviiows-everything- 

 that-happens (Liu'wAt-uwadji'gi-can). Next to Nas-cA'ki-yel, they 

 prayed to the latter of these. Under the earth w\as a third old per- 

 son, Old- woman-underneatli (Hayi-ca'nak!"), placed under the world 

 by Nas-cA'ki-3'el.'' Nas-cA'ki-3'el: was unmarried ami lived alone with 

 these two old men, and yet he had a daughter, a thing no one is able 

 to explain. Nor do people know what this daughter was. The two 

 old persons took care of her like servants, and especially they always 

 looked into the water before she drank to see that it was perfectly 

 clean. 



First of all beings Nas-cA'ki-ye} created the Heron (LAq!) as a very 

 tall and very wise man and after him the Raven (Yel), wdio was also a 

 very good and very w4se man at that time. 



Raven came into being in this \\'ise. His first mother had many 

 children, but they all died young, and she cried over them continually. 

 According to some, this woman was Nas-cA'ki-j^el's sister and it was 

 Nas-cA'ki-yel who was doing this because he did not wish her to have 

 any male children. By and by Ileron came to her and said, "What 

 is it that you are crying about all the time?" She answered, "I am 

 always losing my children. I can not bring them up." Then he said, 

 "Go down on the beach when the tide is lowest, get a small, smooth 

 stone, and put it into the fire. Wlien it is red hot, swallow it. Do 



a See story 1. Into this story, as will be seen, the writer's informant has woven a large port.ion of the 

 sacred myths of his people. 



tin another place the writer's informant admitted that he had concluded this jnust be the case, 

 because there were no bad stories about Nas-cA'ki-ycl. 



cSee Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of A mcriciin Ethnology , p. 454. 



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