i 



ox THE ETIIXOLOCilCAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 703 



himself to tlie treasure-house, and easily entered it through the snioke- 

 hole. He then seized a club that he found on the floor, and smashed the 

 box to pieces, taking care not to injui'e the sun. When he had wrought 

 this havoc he began to ponder upon his miserable lot in life, and presently, 

 becoming eni-aged at his ill-fortune, threw clown the sun and kicked it to 

 pieces. But the broken parts, instead of falling to the ground, leaped 

 up into the sky, the largest piece becoming a sun, the next biggest a. 

 moon, and the other pieces stars. Thus were created the Haida sun and 

 moon and stars, according to the traditions of the ancients. 



When the wretched slave became calm once more he speedily realised 

 the danger he now stood in at the hands of the heaven-born man. So 

 before dawn of the following morning he was well on his way to his former 

 abode at North Island. He travelled only by night, hiding himself in the 

 forest during the day, thus avoiding the keen eyes of the Raven and a 

 meeting with his sister's husband. At last he reached home, and for days 

 he sat brooding over his cruel lot until the happy thought struck him that he 

 should do as the Raven had done and go and seek a wife for himself from 

 among the daughters of heaven. But the difficulty was how to get there. 

 This he overcame in the following manner. Taking his bow and arrow.s 

 in his hand one moonlight night he shot an arrow at the moon, Avhich 

 embedded itself in that luminary's face ; he then shot another into the 

 notch of the first and another into the notch of this again, and so on until 

 he had a line of arrows reaching from the moon to the earth. But all 

 this was not accomplished in one night. According to one tradition he 

 took 364 nights over his task, which later were lengthened into 364 days 

 and nights, which number just makes up the Haida year of 13 months of 

 28 days each. They account for the discrepancy between their year of 

 364 days and ours of 365 by saying that the slave occupied one day in 

 climbing the arrow ladder, which has been left out of their reckoning. 

 When the slave had completed the ladder he lost no time in climbing up 

 it into heaven. He arrived there early in the morning, and the first thing 

 that he saw was a beautiful woman swimming in a lake of crystal. He 

 stealthily approached the side where she seemed likely to step ashore 

 after her swim to await her. She presently swam in his direction, and no 

 sooner had she put her foot upon the beach than he seized and dropped 

 with her through the clouds into the sea close by the shore of North 

 Island. As they descended the Raven happened to be flying near the 

 spot, and perceiving something unusual in the air above him watched to 

 see what it was. At first he thought it to be a pair of large eagles, but 

 presently discovered it to be his slave and a beautiful heaven-born woman. 

 No sooner had the slave led his prize into the house than the Raven 

 appeared and demanded that the woman should be given over to hiin. 

 Tlie slave declining to comply with the request, the Raven became angry, 

 seized the woman, and transformed the man into an invisible spirit and 

 drove him away from his presence for ever. Furthermore, he cursed him 

 and bade him wander over the land and take upon himself the task of 

 caring for the growth and development of every living thing the Raven 

 had created. 



Thus the Wanderer, as the slave is now termed by the Haidas, is 

 always busily engaged causing the beri-ies and roots to grow for the 

 support of the people. Every plant, flower, and tree is under his control, 

 and thus it is that Haida-land produces the finest trees for canoes through- 

 out the whole northern region. At the present time the Haidas 



