swAXTo.N] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 121 



At last she said, ""Wliat low tide is this Raven talking about?" He 

 did not answer, and presently she said again, "What low tide are 3^011 

 talking about?" After she had asked him this question many times 

 Raven became very angry and said, "I will stick these sea-urchin 

 shells into your body if you don't keep quiet." At last he did so, 

 and she began singing, "Don't, Raven, the tide will go down if you 

 don't stop." At the same time Raven kept asking Eagle, whom he 

 had set to watch the tide, "How far down is the tide now?" "The 

 tide is down as far as half a man." By and by he asked again, " How 

 far down is the tide?" "The tide is very low," said Eagle. Then 

 the old woman would start her song again. "Let it get dry all around 

 the world," said Raven to Eagle. By and by Eagle said, "The tide 

 is very, very low now. You can see hardly any water." "Let it get 

 still drier," said Raven. Finally everything became dry, and this 

 was the lowest tide that there ever was. All kinds of salmon, whales, 

 seals, and other sea creatures lay round on the sand flats where the 

 people that were saved could get them. They had enough from that 

 ebb tide to supply them for a long, long time. Wlien the tide began 

 to rise again all the people watched it, fearing that there would be 

 another flood, and they carried their food a long distance back, pray- 

 ing for it to stop. 



Quite a while before this flood took place the shamans had predicted 

 it, and those who worked from that time on collecting food were saved 

 while the others were destroyed. 



After the flood Raven stayed in a town of considerable size. A 

 man there, named CAq!"k!", collected all kinds of big sea animals, 

 as whales and seals, at the time of this great ehh and made a 

 great quantity of grease out of them, while Raven collected only 

 small fishes like cod and red cod and obtained but a few stomachs full 

 of oil. He would eat this up as fast as he made it, but his comj^anion 

 worked hard so as to have a large quantity on hand. 



By and by Raven said to CA(i!"k!", "My uncle, I had a bad dream 

 last night. I dreamt that there was war here and that we were all 

 killed. You must be on the watch." After that Raven said to the 

 birds, "You must make a lot of noise now." They did so and 

 CAf(!"k!", thinking warriors were coming to kill him, ran out of the 

 house. At once Raven began carrying off the boxes of grease to a cer- 

 tain place in the woods. Just as he was at work on the last of these the 

 people of the house came back, pushed him into it, and tied him up, 

 but he made a hole with his bill and escaped. Then he went to the 

 place where he had hidden the boxes and stayed there for a year, 

 until he had eaten everything up. 



Next Raven returned to Nass river and found that the people 

 there had not changed their ways. They were dancing and feasting 

 and invited him to join them. 



