swANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 107 



yes, you are my younger brother. We were once coming down Nass 

 river in a canoe with our father and liad just reached its mouth when 

 you fell overboard and sank forever." Then the sculpin said, ''I can 

 not be your younger brother for I am a very old person." Said 

 Raven, "I want you to be next to me. There will be many sculpins, 

 but you shall be the principal one." So he placed the sculpin (weq!) 

 in the sky where it may still be seen [as the Pleiades]." 



Raven saw a canoe out after halibut and said, ''Come ashore and 

 take me across," but they paid no attention to him. Then he said, 

 "If you do not I will put you up in the sky also. I will make an 

 example of you, too." Then he held his walking stick out toward the 

 canoe and they found themselves going up into the sky. That is 

 what you can see in the sky now. It is called The-halibut-fishers 

 (DAnA'q"s!ike).'' 



Raven went to another place and determined to invite some people 

 to a feast, so he invited all the seal people. When each seal came in 

 he smeared its forehead with pitch, and, as soon as it got warm, the 

 pitch ran down over the seal's eyes and blinded it. Then he clubbed 

 it to death. '^ 



He went along again, saw a nice fat deer, and said to it, ' 'My friend 

 this is you is itr' There was a deep, narrow canyon near by and 

 Raven laid a rotten stick across it saying, ' 'Let us go across to the 

 other side upon this," but the deer said, "No, I can not. It will 

 break with me and I shall get hurt." "No, you shall see how I cross 

 it." So Raven went over and Deer tried to follow him l)ut fell to the 

 bottom of the canyon and was crushed to death. Then Raven went 

 down and ate him, stuffing himself so full that he could scarcely move. 

 He then acted as though he were very sad and pretendcnl to cry, 

 saying, "My friend, my friend, he is gone." He pretended that the 

 wild animals had devoured him.^ 



After this Raven went to ground-hog's house for the winter. The 

 ground-hogs go into their holes in September. At home they live 

 like human beings and to them we are animals just as much. So 

 Raven spent the winter with one of them and became very sick of it, 



« "So nowadays, when a person wants people to think he knows a great deal and says, 'I am very 

 old,' they will answer, ' If Sculpin could not make Raven Ijelieve he was so old and knew so much, neither 

 can you make us believe it of you. An older person will come along and show you to the world as the 

 sculpin is seen now.' So, to-day, when children go out in the evening, they will say, ' There is that scul- 

 pin up there.' " 



b "When a child was lazy and disobedient, they told him how the halibut fishermen got up into the 

 sky for their laziness. Therefore the children were afraid of being lazy." (From the writer's in- 

 formant.) 



'• "Tills is brought up to a child to prevent him from being a murderer in secret, or a coward." (From 

 the writer's informant.) 



d " This episode is brought up when one who was the enemy of a dead man is seen to act as if he were 

 very sad in the house where his body lies. . People say to one another, ' He is acting as Raven did when 

 he killed his friend the deer.' It is also applied to a person who is jealous of one who is well brought up 

 and in good circumstances. When such a person dies he will act like Raven." (From the writer's in- 

 fonnant.) 



