SWANTON] TLINGIT MYTHS AND TEXTS 429 



MYTHS RECORDED IN ENGLISH AT WRANGELL 

 31. Raven 



[This version of the Raven story contains, besides frequent minor 

 variations, many episodes not found in the Sitka version, and a number 

 of stories usually given independently are incorporated into it. Only 

 the sections that do not occur in the Sitka version are noted at length.] 



Raven's mother kept losing her children, until Heron told her to 

 swallow a red-hot pebble. She did so and gave birth to Raven, w ho 

 was called from that circumstance Hammer-father. Nas-cA'ki-yel 

 tried to make human beings out of rock and leaf, but the latter was 

 quicker and man came from it, so there is death. Then he told them 

 that if they lived right there would be a good place for them after- 

 ward. One time Raven sent a woman into the other world to convince 

 her that it existed; so she went along the spirit trail and was ferried 

 across a river at the end of it to the ghosts' country. The ghosts told 

 her that they were hungr}', thirsty, and cold, so, when she got back 

 she told people to send the dead food and to burn their bodies. Raven 

 taught people to have slaves and shamans, also to make all kinds of 

 hooks, spears, traps, and canoes. He went under the sea and visited 

 all of the tish people, teaching men afterward that lish are really 

 human beings. Then Raven instituted war. Afterward he told the 

 birds what they were to be like. He told what the land otter would do, 

 especially how it would capture men. [Here follows tlie account of 

 KAka', story 5.] After this, Raven lived in a cliff near Taku with 

 North Wind, and that is why people believe that cliffs are inhabited by 

 spirits. He also taught them the tabus to be used when paddling on the 

 rivers. The killer-whale chief took him into a sweat house and tried 

 to roast him, but Raven outwitted him by concealing a piece of ice 

 near by. He taught the people that there were Athapascans, and he 

 taught the Chilkat people how to keep salmon frozen in storehouses all 

 winter. He taught them also about Indian tobacco. 



Now Raven went to Laxayi'k and taught the people there to make 

 skin canoes. A man in that country" killed all of his wife's people 

 and kept their hands in a basket in his house. When she found it 

 out the woman asked to be taken to her own town. Her husband 

 left her there with her children, and they found everyone dead. Then 

 her children made a canoe out of skins taken from the bodies, went 

 to their father's town and made him give up their uncles' hands. 

 Afterward they made his town sink under the sea with everybody in 

 it. Raven instructed the boys how to restore their uncles to life. 



One time Raven came to a town inhabited by ghosts and tried to 

 carry off their property, but it was taken back by invisil)ie hands. 



