ON THE NOHTH-WESTEEN TRIBES OF CANADA. 239 



rising. Yetl, however, flew up to the sky, and at last pi-essed down his 

 uncle's hat, thus drowning his enemy. The waters disappeared again, 

 and then Yetl obtained the sun, which was in possession of a chief, and 

 the fresh water, which was owned bj' the fabulous K'anii'k'. He made 

 trees and mountains next, and finally tried to create man. First he 

 shaped human figures out of stone and wood, but did not succeed. Then 

 he made man out of grass, and for this reason men are mortal. After 

 this Yetl began to wander all over the world, and in all his further ad- 

 ventures he is described as extremely voracious and greedy. 



The mythology of the Haida is substantially the same as that of the 

 Tlingit. The raven is called Yetl by the Kaigani, while on Queen 

 ■Charlotte Island his name is Qoia. His uncle's name is Nenkyilstla's. 



The Tsimshian have also traditions referring to the raven, but he is 

 not considered the creator of men. They consider the Nass River region 

 as their original home, and the Nass language the oldest dialect of the 

 Tsimshian. The origin of men is thus accounted for : — A long tinae ago 

 a rock and an elder, near the mouth of Nass River, were about to give 

 birth to men. The children of the elder were the first to be born, there- 

 fore man is mortal. If the children of the rock had been born first, he 

 would have been immortal. From the rock, however, he received the 

 nails on hands and feet. 



The Tsimshian worship the deity in heaven, Leqa', who lives above 

 the sun. The raven myths were evidently imported from some foreign 

 sources, and then the raven was made the descendant of this deity in 

 order to account for his supernatural powers. This legend, which is found 

 from Nass river as far south as the northern portion of Vancouver Island, 

 is substantially as follows : — A chief's wife, who was with child, died and 

 was buried. In the grave she gave birth to a boy, who grew up feeding 

 upon his mother's body. Eventually he was discovered and claimed by the 

 chief, who grew to be very fond of him. The boy used to shoot birds and to 

 skin them. One day he put on a bird's skin and flew up to heaven, where 

 he married the deity's daughter. They had a son, who, when born, 

 dropped from his mother's hand and fell into the ocean. He was found 

 by a chief, and in course of time became Tqertsem, of whom the same 

 adventures are told which Yetl is said to have accomplished. He appears 

 generally in the shape of the raven. 



The flood, of which the Tsimshian also tell, is said to have been sent 

 by heaven as a punishment for the ill-behaviour of man. First, all people, 

 with the exception of a few, were destroyed by a flood, and later on by 

 fire. Before the flood the earth was not as it is now, but there were no 

 mountains and no trees. After the flood Leqa' created these too. The 

 earth is considered to be round, and resting on a pillar that is held by an 

 old woman. 



The most important of the Kwakiutl legends is that of the wanderer 

 K a'nikila. He is the son of the deity, and descended from heaven to 

 earth, where he was born again of a woman. When he came to be 

 grown up he wandered all over the world, transforming his enemies into 

 animals and making friends with many a mighty chief. Another im- 

 portant legend is that of the mink, Tle'selakila (meaning the son of the 

 sun), who made a chain of arrows reaching from the sky to the earth, on 

 which he climbed up and visited his father, who let him cai'ry the sun in 

 his stead. When, however, he went too fast, and set the earth on fire, 

 his father cast him into the sea. While the northern tribes of this race 



