ABSTRACTS OF MYTHS 



MYTHS RECORDED IN ENGLISH AT SITKA 



1. Raven 



Raven wiis the .son of a man named Kit-ka'ositiyi-qa, who gave hun 

 streniith to make the world. After he had made it he obtained the 

 stars, moon, and daylight from their keeper at the head of Nass by 

 letting himself be swallowed by the keeper's daughter and be born of 

 her. lie obtained fresh water by tricking its owner, Petrel. As he 

 was Hying out thi'ough the smoke hole, however. Petrel made his 

 smoke-hole spirits catch him and lighted a lire under him, turning him 

 from white to l)lack. Raven scattered the fresh water out of his mouth 

 to make rivers and streams. Because some peo]:)le who were tish- 

 ing for eulachon would not take him across a river, he let the sim 

 forth, and they Hed into the woods or ocean, becoming such animals 

 as the skins they wore had belonged to. Next Raven stole fat from 

 some boys who were throwing it back and forth. He found a piece 

 of jade bearing some design, stuck it into the ground, and pretended 

 to a spring salmon that the object was calling it names. The salmon 

 came ashore, and Raven killed it. Then he got the birds to procure 

 him skunk cal)bage so that the}^ might eat the tish, but instead of 

 feeding them, he sent them away a second time and ate it himself, 

 Inirying the l)ones in the ashes. After that the birds dressed and 

 painted themselves up. Raven came to the Bear, and the latter fed 

 him on some of his own ilesh, a proceeding whicii Raven tried to 

 imitate in vain a little later. Then Raven went out fishing with Bear 

 and Cormorant, killed the former by cutting oil' a piece of flesh, and 

 pulled out Cormorant's tongue so that he could not tell anybody. 

 Afterward he killed Bear's wife by inducing her to eat halibut blad- 

 ders which he had filled with hot stones. He came to some fishermen 

 and stole the bait from their hooks, but was finallv hooked in the nose 

 and had to recover his nose disguised as another person. Now he came 

 to some deer with fat hanging out of their nostrils, pretended that it 

 was nuicus, and obtained it. He started along by canoe, and all of the 

 animals wanted to accompany him, but he accepted only Deer. Com- 

 ing to a deep valley, he laid some dried celery stalks across, covered 

 them with moss, and induced Deer to tr}^ to walk across. Deer did so 

 and was precipitated to the bottom where he was devoured by Raven. 



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