<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN>
<div class="covernote">
<p><b>Transcriber's Note</b></p>
<p>The cover image was created by the transcriber for the convenience of the reader,
and it is placed in the public domain.</p>
</div>
<div class="titlep">
<h1>MYTHS AND LEGENDS<br/> OF ALASKA</h1>
<p class="author"><span class="smlfont">SELECTED AND EDITED BY</span><br/>
<span class="lrgfont">KATHARINE BERRY JUDSON</span><br/>
<span class="smlsmcaps">Author of “Myths and Legends of the Pacific Northwest,” and<br/>
“Montana, ‘The Land of Shining Mountains’”</span></p>
<p class="tpcontent">ILLUSTRATED</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/logo.jpg" width-obs="160" height-obs="160" alt="Publisher's logo" /></div>
<p class="tpcontent"><span class="smlfont">CHICAGO</span><br/>
<span class="lrgfont">A. C. McCLURG & CO.</span><br/>
1911</p>
</div>
<div class="fmatter">
<p class="copyright">Copyright<br/>
A. C. McCLURG & CO.<br/>
1911<br/>
———<br/>
Published September, 1911</p>
<p class="pdetail">W. F. Hall Printing Company<br/>
Chicago</p>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="costume" id="costume"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla01.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="458" alt=""/> <div class="caption">Tlingit Indians in Dancing Costume</div>
</div>
<div class="bookbox">
<p class="center"><i>BY THE SAME AUTHOR</i></p>
<p class="hang">MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF THE PACIFIC
NORTHWEST. Especially of Washington and
Oregon. <i>With 50 full-page illustrations. Small 4to.</i></p>
<p class="right"><i>$1.50 net.</i></p>
<p class="hang">MONTANA: “The Land of Shining Mountains.”
<i>Illustrated. Indexed. Square 8vo.</i></p>
<p class="right"><i>75 cents net.</i></p>
<p class="center">A. C. McCLURG & CO., Publishers</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>v]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="preface" id="preface"></SPAN>PREFACE</h2>
<p><span class="dropcap">L</span>ONG ago, even before the days of the animal people,
the world was only a great ocean wherein
was no land nor any living thing except a great
Bird. The Bird, after a long, long time, flew down to
the surface of the water and dipped his great black
wings into the flood. The earth arose out of the waters.
So began the creation. While the land was still soft,
the first man burst from the pod of the beach pea and
looked out upon the endless plain behind him and the
gray salt sea before him. He was the only man. Then
Raven appeared to him and the creation of other beings
began. Raven made also animals for food and
clothing. Later, because the earth plain was so bare,
he planted trees and shrubs and grass and set the green
things to growing.</p>
<p>With creation by a Great Spirit, there came dangers
from evil spirits. Such spirits carried away the sun
and moon, and hung them to the rafters of the dome-shaped
Alaskan huts. The world became cold and
cheerless, and in the Land of Darkness white skins became
blackened by contact with the darkness. So it
became necessary to search for the sun and hang it
again in the dome-shaped sky above them. Darkness
in the Land of Long Night was the cause, through
magic, of the bitter winds of winter—winds which
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>vi]</SPAN></span>
came down from the North, bringing with them ice and
cold and snow. This was the work of some Great Spirit
which had loosened the side of the gray cloud-tent
under which they lived, letting in the bitter winds of
another world. Spirits blow the mists over the cold
north sea so that canoes lose sight of their home-land.
Spirits also drive the ice floes, with their fishermen, far
over the horizon of ocean, into the still colder North.
Spirits govern the run of the salmon, the catching of
whales, and all the life of the people of the North who
wage such a terrific struggle for existence.</p>
<p>So there must needs be those who have power over
the evil spirits, those who by incantations and charms
of magic, by ceremonial dancing in symbolic dress, can
control the designs of those who work ever against
these children of the North. Thus there arose the
shamans with all their ceremonies.</p>
<p>The myths in this volume are authentic. The original
collections were made by government ethnologists,
by whose permission this compilation is made. And
no effort has been made, in the telling of them, to
change them from the terse directness of the natives.
The language of all Indian tribes is very simple, and
to the extent that an effort is made to put myths and
legends into more polished form, to that extent is their
authenticity impaired.</p>
<p>Only the quaintest and purest of the myths have been
selected. Many Alaskan myths are very long and
tiresome, rambling from one subject to another,
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>vii]</SPAN></span>
besides revealing low moral conditions. These have
been omitted, as have also those which deal with the
intermarriage of men and birds, and men and animals.
Such myths are better left among government documents
where they can be readily consulted by those
making a special study of the subject. They are
hardly suitable for any collection intended for general
reading. The leading myth of the North, however,
the Raven Myth, is given with a fair degree of
completeness. It would not be possible, nor would
it be wise, to attempt a compilation of all the fragments
of this extensive myth.</p>
<p>Especial thanks are due to Dr. Franz Boas for the
Tsetsaut and Tsimshian myths, to John R. Swanton
for the Tlingit myths, to Edward Russell Nelson for
the Eskimo myths, to Ferdinand Schnitter, and to
others. Thanks are also due for courtesies in securing
photographs to Mr. B. B. Dobbs and particularly to
Mr. Clarence L. Andrews, both of whom have spent
many years in Alaska.</p>
<p class="sig">K. B. J.</p>
<p class="address"><i>University of Washington,<br/>
Seattle, Washington<br/>
July, 1911.</i></p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii"><!-- blank page --></SPAN></span></p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>ix]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="contents" id="contents"></SPAN>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h2>
<div class="centered">
<table border="0" summary="Table of contents">
<tr>
<td class="tdl"> </td>
<td class="tdl"> </td>
<td class="tdr"><small>PAGE</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Raven Myth</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Bering Straits</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap01">17</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Flood</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap02">33</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Origin of the Tides</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tsetsaut</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap03">37</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">How the Rivers were Formed</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap04">39</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Origin of Fire</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap05">40</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Duration of Winter</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap06">41</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Raven’s Feast</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap07">42</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Creation of the Porcupine</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap08">44</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">How Raven Taught the Chilkats</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap09">45</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Raven’s Marriage</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Bering Straits</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap10">46</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Raven and the Seals</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tsimshian</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap11">51</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Raven and Pitch</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tsimshian</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap12">53</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Raven’s Dancing Blanket</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tsimshian</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap13">55</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Raven and the Gulls</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tsimshian</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap14">56</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Land Otter</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap15">57</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Raven and Coot</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Athapascan</i> (<i>Upper Yukon</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap16">58</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Raven and Marmot</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Bering Strait</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap17">59</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Bringing of the Light by Raven</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Lower Yukon</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap18">61</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Daylight on the Nass River</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap19">65</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Naming of the Birds</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap20">67</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Origin of the Winds</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap21">70</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Duration of Life</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap22">71</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Ghost Town</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap23">72</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>x]</SPAN></span>How Raven Stole the Lake</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Haida</i> (<i>Queen Charlotte Islands</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap24">73</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Killer Whale</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Haida</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap25">75</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Origin of the Chilkat Blanket</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tsimshian</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap26">77</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Origin of Land and People</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Lower Yukon</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap27">80</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Creation of the World</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Athapascan</i> (<i>Upper Yukon</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap28">81</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Origin of Mankind</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Bering Straits</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap29">82</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The First Woman</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Bering Straits</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap30">83</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The First Tears</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Bering Straits</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap31">85</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Origin of the Winds</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Lower Yukon</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap32">87</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Origin of the Wind</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Athapascan</i> (<i>Upper Yukon</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap33">91</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">North Wind</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap34">92</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">East Wind and North Wind</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap35">93</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Creation of the Killer Whale</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap36">94</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Future Life</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap37">96</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Land of the Dead</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Lower Yukon</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap38">97</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Ghost Land</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap39">100</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Sky Country</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap40">103</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Lost Light</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Port Clarence</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap41">105</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Chief in the Moon</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Bering Straits</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap42">109</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Boy in the Moon</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Lower Yukon</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap43">110</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Boy in the Moon</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Athapascan</i> (<i>Upper Yukon</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap44">112</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Meteor(?)</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tsetsaut</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap45">113</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Sleep House</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap46">114</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Cradle Song</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Koyukun</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap47">115</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Proverbs</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tsimshian</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap48">118</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">How the Fox became Red</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Athapascan</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap49">119</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Beaver and Porcupine</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tsimshian</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap50">120</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>xi]</SPAN></span>The Mark of the Marten</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Athapascan</i> (<i>Upper Yukon</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap51">126</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Wolves and the Deer</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tsimshian</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap52">127</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Camp Robber</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Athapascan</i> (<i>Upper Yukon</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap53">129</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Circling of Cranes</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Bering Straits</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap54">131</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Last of the Thunderbirds</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Lower Yukon</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap55">132</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">How the Kiksadi Clan Came to Sitka</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap56">135</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Origin of the Grizzly Bear Crest</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap57">137</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Origin of the Frog Crest</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap58">138</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Origin of the Beaver Crest</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap59">139</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Origin of the Killer Whale Crest</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Tlingit</i></td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap60">140</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Discontented Grass Plant</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Bering Straits</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap61">142</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Wind People</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Koryak</i> (<i>Siberia</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap62">147</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Tricks of the Fox</td>
<td class="tdl"><i>Koryak</i> (<i>Siberia</i>)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chap63">148</SPAN></td>
</tr>
</table></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii"><!-- blank page --></SPAN></span></p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>xiii]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="illustrations" id="illustrations"></SPAN>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
<div class="centered">
<table border="0" summary="List of illustrations">
<tr>
<td class="tdl"> </td>
<td class="tdr"><small>PAGE</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Tlingit Indians in Dancing Costume</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#costume"><i>Frontispiece</i></SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Reindeer on the Tundra</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#reindeer">20</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">“Raven taught them how to build houses of driftwood and bushes, covered with earth”</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#house">21</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">“The next morning the baby was a big boy”</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#boy">24</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">“The clay became a beautiful girl”</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#girl">25</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Ivory Pipe Stems</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#pipestems">28</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Kayak Man Casting a Bird Spear</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#kayak">29</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Eskimo Woman from Cape Prince of Wales</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#woman">34</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Fur Parkas Worn by Eskimo Women</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#parkas">35</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Reflection of Mountain Peaks</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#reflection">38</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">“So the smoke-hole spirits held Raven until the smoke blackened his white coat”</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#raven">39</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Pine Falls, Atlin</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#pinefalls">42</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Elk Falls</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#elkfalls">43</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Porcupine</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#porcupine">44</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">“Raven showed the people how to make canoes out of skins”</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#canoes">45</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Shoup’s Glacier, Valdez</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#shoups">48</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Birdseye View of Valdez</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#valdez">49</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Masks</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#masks">52</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Dolls</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#dolls">53</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Eskimo Boys</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#boys">58</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">“Marmot put out the tip of his nose”</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#marmot">59</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Ice Hummocks on Bering Sea</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#hummocks">62</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Snow Shovel, Pick, Rake, and Maul</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#tools">63</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>xiv]</SPAN></span>Eskimo in Waterproof Coat Made of Walrus Intestines</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#waterproof">66</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">“Raven said to Grouse, ‘You know that Sea-lion is your grandchild’”</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#grouse">67</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Figurehead on Indian Canoe</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#figurehead">68</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">“Raven said to Crow, ‘You will make lots of noise. You will be great talkers’”</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#crows">69</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">“Raven said to North Wind, ‘Your back is white.’” (On the Road to Fairbanks)</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#northwind">70</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Old Russian Blockhouse, at Sitka</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#blockhouse">71</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">“Raven unrolled the lake there. There it lay”</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#lake">74</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">“The man-spirit was inside the Skana”</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#skana">75</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">A Chilkat Blanket</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#blanket">78</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Alaskan Baskets</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#baskets">79</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Keystone Canyon</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#keystone">80</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The “S” Glacier</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#sglacier">81</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">The Yukon, Taken at Midnight in June</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#yukon">84</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Islands in Sitka Sound</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#islands">85</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Tool and Trinket Boxes</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#boxes">88</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Spoons and Ladles</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#spoons">89</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Skagway River, from Porcupine Hill</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#skagway">92</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Middle Lake and Bridge on the ’97 Trail</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#middlelake">93</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Face of Davidson Glacier</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#davidson">96</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">“The Land of the Dead”—Graveyard at Rasboinsky</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#graveyard">97</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Perry Island, Bogosloff Group, Newly Risen from the Sea</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#perry">100</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">“The end of the Death Trail”</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#deathtrail">101</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Walrus Tusks</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#tusks">106</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">A Shaman</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#shaman">107</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Box Canyon, on White Pass and Yukon Route</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#boxcanyon">110</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Near Valdez Narrows</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#narrows">111</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Frozen Waterfall</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#frozen">114</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">“The wind blows over the Yukon”</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#windblows">115</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>xv]</SPAN></span>Travellers over the Chilkoot Pass (1891) after the Discovery of Gold</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#chilkoot">118</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Looking down Cut-off Canyon from below White Pass Summit</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#cutoff">119</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Dog Team with Record of 412 Miles in 72 Hours</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#dogteam">122</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Siberian Husky</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#husky">123</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Totem Poles</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#totem">126</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Laplanders Milking Reindeer, near Port Clarence</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#milking">127</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">View of Skagway</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#view">130</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Bering Sea, near Nome</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#bering">131</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">View of Eldorado</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#eldorado">136</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Scene on the White Pass and Yukon Route</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#whitepass">137</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">Alaska Cotton on the Tundra, near Nome</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#cotton">142</SPAN></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdl">A Crested Hat</td>
<td class="tdr"><SPAN href="#hat">143</SPAN></td>
</tr>
</table></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi"><!-- blank page --></SPAN></span></p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>17]</SPAN></span></p>
<p class="reptitle">MYTHS AND LEGENDS<br/>
OF ALASKA</p>
<h2 class="nobreak"><SPAN name="chap01" id="chap01"></SPAN>THE RAVEN MYTH</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Bering Straits</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>T was in the time when there were no people on the
earth plain. The first man for four days lay
coiled up in the pod of the beach pea. On the
fifth day he stretched out his feet and burst the pod.
He fell to the ground and when he stood up he was a
full-grown man. Man looked all around him and then
at himself. He moved his hands and arms, his neck
and legs. When he looked back he saw, still hanging
to the vine, the pod of the beach pea, with a hole
in the lower end out of which he had dropped. When
he looked about him again, he saw that he was getting
farther from his starting place. The ground seemed
to move up and down under his feet, and it was very
soft. After a while he had a strange feeling in his
stomach, so he stooped down to drink some water from
a small pool at his feet. Then he felt better.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>18]</SPAN></span>
When Man looked up again he saw coming toward
him, with a fluttering motion, something dark. He
watched the dark thing until it stopped just in front
of him. It was Raven.</p>
<p>As soon as Raven stopped, he raised one of his wings
and pushed up his beak, as though it were a mask, to
the top of his head. Thus Raven changed at once into
a man. Raven stared hard at Man, moving from side
to side to see him better.</p>
<p>Raven said, “What are you? Where did you come
from? I have never seen anything like you.”</p>
<p>Raven still stared at Man, surprised to find this
new thing so much like himself. He made Man walk
around a little, while he perked his head from side to
side to see him better. Then Raven said again, in astonishment,
“Where did you come from? I have
never seen anything like you before.”</p>
<p>Man said, “I came from the pea pod.” He pointed
to the plant from which he came.</p>
<p>“Ah, I made that vine,” said Raven. “But I did
not know that anything like you would come from it.
Come with me to the high ground over there; it is
thicker and harder. This ground I made later and it is
soft and thin.”</p>
<p>So Man and Raven walked to the higher ground
which was firm and hard. Raven asked Man if he had
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>19]</SPAN></span>
eaten anything. Man said he had taken some of the
soft stuff from one of the pools.</p>
<p>“Ah, you drank some water,” said Raven. “Now
wait for me here.”</p>
<p>Raven drew down his beak, as though it were a mask,
over his face. He at once became a bird and flew far
up into the sky—far out of sight. Man waited until
the fourth day. Then Raven returned bringing four
berries in his claws. He pushed up his beak and so
became a man again. Then he gave to Man two salmon
berries and two heath berries, saying, “Here is something
I made for you to eat. I wish them to be plentiful
on the earth. Eat them.”</p>
<p>Man put the berries into his mouth, one after the
other, and ate them. Then he felt better. Then Raven
left Man near a small creek while he went to the edge
of the water. He took two pieces of clay at the water’s
edge, and shaped them like a pair of mountain sheep.
He held them in his hand until they were dry, and then
he called Man to come and see them. Man said they
were pretty, so Raven told him to close his eyes. Man
closed his eyes tightly. Then Raven pulled down his
beak-mask, and waved his wings four times over the
pieces of clay. At once they bounded away as full-grown
mountain sheep. Raven told Man to look.</p>
<p>Man was so much pleased that Raven said, “If these
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>20]</SPAN></span>
animals are plentiful, perhaps people will try to kill
them.”</p>
<p>Man said, “Yes.”</p>
<p>Then Raven said, “Well, it will be better for them
to live among the steep rocks so every one cannot
kill them. There only shall they be found.”</p>
<p>Raven took two more pieces of clay and shaped them
like tame reindeer. He held them in his hand until
they were partly dry, then told Man to look at them.
Raven again drew down his beak-mask and waved his
wings four times over them. Thus they became alive,
but as they were only dry in spots while Raven held
them, therefore they remained brown and white, with
mottled coat. Raven told Man these tame reindeer
would be very few in number.</p>
<p>Again Raven took two pieces of clay and shaped
them like the caribou or wild reindeer. But he held
them in his hands only a little while so that only the
bellies of the reindeer became dry and white. Then
Raven drew down his beak-mask, and waved his wings
over them, and they bounded away. But because only
their bellies were dry and white while Raven held
them, therefore the wild reindeer is brown except its
white belly.</p>
<p>Raven said to Man, “These animals will be very
common. People will kill many of them.”</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="reindeer" id="reindeer"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla02.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="448" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">Photograph by B. B. Dobbs</div>
<div class="caption">Reindeer on the Tundra</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="house" id="house"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla03.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="448" alt="A house" /> <div class="caption">“Raven taught them how to build houses of driftwood and bushes, covered with earth”</div>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>21]</SPAN></span>
Thus Raven began to create the animals.</p>
<p>Raven said one day to Man, “You are lonely by
yourself. I will make you a companion.” He went to
some white clay at a spot distant from the clay of which
he had made animals, and made of the clay a figure almost
like Man. Raven kept looking at Man while he
shaped the figure. Then he took fine water grass
from the creek and fastened it on the back of the head
for hair. When the clay was shaped, Raven drew
down his beak-mask and waved his wings over it. The
clay became a beautiful girl. The girl was white and
fair because Raven let the clay dry entirely before he
waved his wings over it.</p>
<p>Raven took the girl to Man. “There is a companion
for you,” he said.</p>
<p>Now in the days of the first people on the earth plain,
there were no mountains far or near. No rain ever fell
and there were no winds. The sun shone always very
brightly.</p>
<p>Then Raven showed the first people on the earth
plain how to sleep warmly in the dry moss when they
were tired. Raven himself drew down his beak-mask
and went to sleep like a bird.</p>
<p>When Raven awakened, he went back to the creek.
Here he made two sticklebacks, two graylings, and two
blackfish. When these were swimming about in the
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>22]</SPAN></span>
water, he called Man to see them. Man raised his hand
in surprise and the sticklebacks darted away. Raven
told him the graylings would be found in clear mountain
streams, while the sticklebacks would live along
the coast, and that both would be good for food.</p>
<p>Raven next made the shrewmouse. He said, “The
shrewmouse will not be good for food. It will prevent
the earth plain from looking bare and cheerless.”</p>
<p>In this way Raven was busy several days, making
birds and fishes and animals. He showed each of them
to Man and explained what they were good for. Then
Raven flew into the sky, far, far away, and was gone
four days. When he came back he brought a salmon to
Man.</p>
<p>But Raven noticed that the ponds and lakes were
silent and lonely, so he made water bugs to flit upon the
surface of the water. He also made the beaver and the
muskrat to live around the borders of the ponds. Raven
told Man that the beavers would live along the streams
and build strong houses, so Man must build a strong
house also. Raven said the beavers would be very cunning
and only good hunters could catch them. He
also told Man how to catch the muskrat and how to use
its skin for clothing.</p>
<p>Raven also made flies and mosquitoes and other insects
to make the earth plain more cheerful. At first
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>23]</SPAN></span>
mosquitoes were like flies; they did not bite. One day
Man killed a deer. After he had cut it up and placed
the fat on a bush, he fell asleep. When he awoke he
found the mosquitoes had eaten all of it. Then Man
was very angry and scolded the mosquitoes. He said,
“Never eat meat again. Eat men.” Before that mosquitoes
never bit people.</p>
<p>When the first baby came on the earth plain, Raven
rubbed it all over with white clay. He told Man it
would grow into a man like himself. The next morning
the baby was a big boy. He ran around pulling up
grass and flowers that Raven had planted. By the third
day the baby was a full-grown man.</p>
<p>Then another baby was born on the earth plain. She
was rubbed over with the white clay. The next day the
baby was a big girl, walking around. On the third day
she was a full-grown woman.</p>
<p>Now Raven began to be afraid that men would kill
all the creatures he had made. He was afraid they
would kill them for food and clothing. Therefore
Raven went to a creek nearby. He took white clay and
shaped it like a bear. Then he waved his wings over it,
and the clay became a bear. But Raven jumped very
quickly to one side when the bear became alive because
it looked fiercely around and growled. Then Raven
showed the bear to Man and told him to be careful.
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>24]</SPAN></span>
He said the bear was very fierce and would tear him to
pieces if he disturbed it.</p>
<p>Then Raven made the seals, and taught Man how to
catch them. He also taught Man how to make strong
lines from sealskin, and snares for the deer.</p>
<p>Then Raven went away to the place of the pea vine.</p>
<p>When he reached the pea vine he found three other
men had just fallen from the same pod that Man had
fallen from. These men were looking about them in
wonder. Raven led them away from the pea vine, but
in a different direction from the first man. He brought
them close to the sea. Raven stayed with these three
men a long time. He taught them how to take wood
from the bushes and small trees he planted in hollows
and sheltered places, and to make a fire drill, and also
a bow. He made many more plants and birds which
like the seacoast, but he did not make so many as in the
land where Man lived. He taught these men how to
make bows and arrows, spears and nets, and how to use
them; and also how to capture the seals, which were
now plentiful in the sea. Then he taught them how
to make kayaks, and how to build houses of drift logs
and of bushes, covered with earth. Then he made
wives for these men, and went back to Man.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="boy" id="boy"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla04.jpg" width-obs="449" height-obs="600" alt="A young boy" /> <div class="capleft">Copyrighted by F. H. Nowell</div>
<div class="caption">“The next morning the baby was a big boy”</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="girl" id="girl"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla05.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="600" alt="A young woman" /> <div class="capleft">Courtesy “Alaska-Yukon Magazine”</div>
<div class="caption">“The clay became a beautiful girl”</div>
</div>
<p>When Raven reached the land where Man lived, he
thought the earth plain still looked bare. So, while the
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>25]</SPAN></span>
others slept, Raven planted birch and spruce and cottonwood
trees to grow in the low places. Then he woke
up the people, who were pleased with the trees.</p>
<p>Then Raven taught Man how to make fire with the
fire drill, and to place the spark of tinder in a bunch
of dry grass and to wave it about until it blazed, and
then to put dry wood upon it. He showed them how
to roast fish on a stick, and how to make fish traps of
splints and willow bark, and how to dry salmon for
winter use.</p>
<p>Where Man lived there was now a large village because
the people did everything as Raven told them,
and therefore all the babies grew up in three days. One
day Raven came back and sat down by Man by the
creek and they talked of many things. Man asked
Raven about the skyland. Man wanted to see the skyland
which Raven had made. Therefore Raven took
Man to the land in the sky.</p>
<p>Man found that the skyland was a very beautiful
country, and that it had a much better climate than his
land. But the people who lived there were very small.
Their heads did not reach to Man’s hips. The people
wore fur clothing, with beautiful patterns, such as people
on earth now wear, because Man showed his people
how to make them. In the lakes were strange animals
which would have killed Man if he had tried to drink
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>26]</SPAN></span>
of the water. In a dry lake bed, thickly covered with
tall grass, Man saw a wonderful animal resting upon
the tips of the grasses. It had a long head and six legs.
It had fine, thick hair, and on the back of the head
were two thick, short horns which bent forward and
then curved back at the tips. Raven told Man it took
many people to kill this animal.</p>
<p>Then they came to a round hole in the sky and around
the edge of the hole was short grass, glowing like fire.
Raven said, “This is the star called the moon-dog.”
Some of the grass had been pulled up. Raven said he
had taken some to start the first fire on earth.</p>
<p>Then Raven said to Man, “Shut your eyes. I will
take you to another country.” Man climbed upon
Raven’s back and they dropped down through the star
hole. They floated a long, long time through the air,
then they floated through something else. When they
stopped Raven saw he was at the bottom of the sea.
Man could breathe there, but it seemed foggy. Raven
said that was the appearance of the water. Then
Raven said, “I want to make some new animals here;
but you must not walk about. You lie down and if
you get tired, turn over on the other side.”</p>
<p>Man went to sleep lying on one side, and slept a long
while. When he waked up, he wanted to turn over,
but he could not. Then Man thought, “I wish I could
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>27]</SPAN></span>
turn over,” and at once he turned. As he turned, he
was surprised to see that his body was covered with long,
white hairs; and his fingers were long claws. Then he
went to sleep again. This he did three times more.
Then when he woke up, Raven stood by him. Raven
said, “I have changed you into a white bear. How do
you like it?” Man could not make a sound until Raven
waved his wings over him. Then he said he did not
like it; if he was a bear he would have to live on the
sea, while his son lived on land; so Man should feel
badly. Then Raven struck the white skin with his
wings and it fell off. So Man became himself again.
But Raven took the empty bearskin, and placed one of
his own tail feathers inside it for a spine. Then he
waved his wing over it, and a white bear arose. Ever
since then white bears have been found on the frozen
sea.</p>
<p>Raven said, “How many times did you turn over?”</p>
<p>Man said, “Four.”</p>
<p>Raven said, “You slept just four years.”</p>
<p>Then Raven made other animals. He made the
a-mi-kuk, a large, slimy animal, with thick skin, and
with four long, wide-spreading arms. This is a fierce
animal and lives in the sea. It wraps its four long arms
around a man or a kayak and drags it under the
water. A man cannot escape it. If he climbs out of
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>28]</SPAN></span>
his kayak on the ice, the a-mi-kuk will dart underneath
and break the ice. If Man runs away on shore, the
a-mi-kuk pursues him by burrowing through the earth.
No man can escape from it when once it pursues him.</p>
<p>Then Raven showed Man the walrus, and the dog
walrus, with head and teeth like a dog. It always
swam with large herds of walrus and with a stroke of
its tail could kill a man. He showed him whales and
the grampus. Raven told Man that only good hunters
could kill a whale, but when one was killed an entire
village could feast on it. He showed him also the sea
fox, which is so fierce it kills men; and the sea otter,
which is like the land otter but has finer fur, tipped
with white, and other fishes and animals as they rose to
the surface of the water.</p>
<p>Then Raven said, “Close your eyes. Hold fast to
me.”</p>
<p>Then Man found himself on the shore near his
home. The village was very large. His wife was very
old and his son was an old man. The people gave him
place of honor in the kashim, and made him their
headsman. So Man taught the young men many things.</p>
<p>Now Man wanted again to see the skyland, so Raven
and Man went up among the dwarf people and lived
there a long time. But on earth the village grew very
large; the men killed many animals.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="pipestems" id="pipestems"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla06.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="455" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">From photograph loaned by the Smithsonian Institution</div>
<div class="caption">Ivory Pipe Stems</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="kayak" id="kayak"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla07.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="360" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">From drawing loaned by the Smithsonian Institution</div>
<div class="caption">Kayak Man Casting a Bird Spear</div>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>29]</SPAN></span>
Now in those days, the sun shone always very
brightly. No rain ever fell and no winds blew.</p>
<p>Man and Raven were angry because the people
killed many animals. They took a long line and a
grass basket, one night, and caught ten reindeer which
they put into the basket. Now in those days reindeer
had sharp teeth, like dogs. The next night Raven took
the reindeer and let them down on the earth close to
Man’s village. Raven said, “Break down the first
house you see and kill the people. Men are becoming
too many.” The reindeer did as Raven commanded.
They stamped on the house and broke it down. They
ate up the people with their sharp, wolf-like teeth.
The next night, Raven let the reindeer down; again
they broke down a house and ate up the people with
their sharp teeth.</p>
<p>The village people were much frightened. The
third night they covered the third house with a mixture
of deer fat and berries. On the third night when
the reindeer began to tear down the third house, their
mouths were filled with the fat and sour berries. Then
the reindeer ran away, shaking their heads so violently
that all their long, sharp teeth fell out. Ever since
then reindeer have had small teeth and cannot harm
people.</p>
<p>After the reindeer ran away, Raven and Man
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>30]</SPAN></span>
returned to the skyland. Man said, “If the people do
not stop killing so many animals, they will kill everything
you have made. It would be better to take the
sun away from them. Then it will be dark and people
will die.”</p>
<p>Raven said, “That is right. You stay here. I
will go and take away the sun.”</p>
<p>So Raven went away and took the sun out of the sky.
He put it in a skin bag and carried it far away, to a
distant part of the skyland. Then it became dark on
earth.</p>
<p>The people on earth were frightened when the sun
vanished. They offered Raven presents of food and
furs if he would bring back the sun. Raven said,
“No.” After a while Raven felt sorry for them, so
he let them have a little light. He held up the sun in
one hand for two days so people could hunt and secure
food. Then he put the sun in the skin bag again and
the earth was dark. Then, after a long time, when the
people made him many gifts, he would let them have
a little light again.</p>
<p>Now Raven had a brother living in the village. He
was sorry for the earth people. So Raven’s brother
thought a long time. Then he died. The people put
him in a grave box and had a burial feast. Then they
left the grave box. At once Raven’s brother slipped
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>31]</SPAN></span>
out of the box and went away from the village. He
hid his raven mask and coat in a tree. Soon Raven’s
wife came for water. When she took up a dipperful
to drink, Raven’s brother, by magic, became a small
leaf. He fell into the water and Raven’s wife swallowed
him. . . . .</p>
<p>When Raven-Boy was born he grew very rapidly.
He was running about when he was only a few days old.
He cried for the sun which was in the skin bag, hanging
on the rafters. Raven was fond of the boy so he
let him play with the sun; yet he was afraid Raven-Boy
would lose the sun, so he watched him. When Raven-Boy
began to play out of doors, he cried and begged
for the sun. Raven said, “No.” Then Raven-Boy
cried more than ever. At last Raven gave him the sun
in the house. Raven-Boy played with it a long while.
When no one was looking, he ran quickly out of the
house. He ran to the tree, put on his raven mask and
coat, and flew far away with the sun in the skin bag.
When Raven-Boy was far up in the sky, he heard
Raven call, “Do not hide the sun. Let it out of the
bag. Do not keep it always dark.” Raven thought
the boy had stolen it for himself.</p>
<p>Raven-Boy flew to the place where the sun belonged.
He tore off the skin covering and put the sun in its
place. Then he saw a broad path leading far away.
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>32]</SPAN></span>
He followed it to the side of a hole fringed with short,
bright grass. He remembered that Raven had said,
“Do not keep it always dark,” therefore he made the
sky turn, with all the stars and the sun. Thus it is
now sometimes dark and sometimes light.</p>
<p>Raven-Boy picked some of the short, bright grass by
the edge of the sky hole and stuck it into the sky. This
is the morning star.</p>
<p>Raven-Boy went down to the earth. The people
were glad to see him. They said, “What has become
of Man who went into the skyland with Raven?” Now
this was the first time that Raven-Boy had heard of
Man. He started to fly up into the sky, but he could
get only a small distance above the earth. When he
found he could not get back to the sky, Raven-Boy
wandered to the second village, where lived the men
who had come from the pod of the beach pea. Raven-Boy
there married a wife and he had many children.
But the children could not fly to the sky. They had
lost the magic power. Therefore the ravens now flutter
over the tundras like other birds.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>33]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap02" id="chap02"></SPAN>THE FLOOD</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">L</span>ONG, long ago, in the days of the animal people,
Raven-at-the-head-of-Nass became angry.
He said, “Let rain pour down all over the
world. Let people die of starvation.” At once it became
so stormy people could not get food, so they began
to starve. Their canoes were also broken up, their
houses fell in upon them, and they suffered very much.
Then Nas-ca-ki-yel, Raven-at-the-head-of-Nass, asked
for his jointed dance hat. When he put it on water began
pouring out of the top of it. It is from Raven that
the Indians obtained this kind of a hat.</p>
<p>When the water rose to the house floor, Raven and
his mother climbed upon the lowest retaining timber.
This house we are speaking of, although it looked like
a house to them, was really part of the world. It had
eight rows of retaining timbers.</p>
<p>When Raven and his mother climbed to a higher timber,
the people of the world were climbing into the
hills. Then Raven and his mother climbed to the
fourth timber; by that time the water was half-way up
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>34]</SPAN></span>
the mountains. When the house was nearly full of
water, Raven’s mother got into the skin of a cax. To
this very day Tlingits do not eat the cax because it was
Raven’s mother. Then Raven got into the skin of a
white bird with copper-colored bill. Now the cax is
a diver and stayed upon the surface of the water. But
Raven flew to the very highest cloud and hung there by
his bill. But his tail was in the water.</p>
<p>After Raven had hung in the cloud for days and days—nobody
knows how long—he pulled his bill out and
prayed to fall on a piece of kelp. He thought the water
had gone down. When Raven fell upon the kelp
and flew away he found the waters just half-way down
the mountains.</p>
<p>Raven flew around until he met a shark, which had
been swimming around with a long stick. Raven took
the stick and climbed down it as a ladder to the bottom
of the ocean. But Raven had set Eagle to watch the
tide.</p>
<p>Raven wandered around the bottom of the ocean
until he came to an old woman. He said to her, “How
cold I am after eating those sea urchins.” He repeated
this over and over again.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="woman" id="woman"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla08.jpg" width-obs="449" height-obs="600" alt="A young woman carrying a baby on her back" /> <div class="capleft">Copyrighted by F. H. Nowell</div>
<div class="caption">Eskimo Woman from Cape Prince of Wales</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="parkas" id="parkas"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla09.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="600" alt="Two women wearing fur parkas" /> <div class="capleft">Copyrighted by F. H. Nowell</div>
<div class="caption">Fur Parkas Worn by Eskimo Women</div>
</div>
<p>At last the woman said, “What low tide is this
Raven talking about?”<SPAN name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</SPAN> Raven did not answer. The
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>35]</SPAN></span>
woman kept repeating, “What low tide are you
talking about?”</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><SPAN name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></SPAN><span class="label"><SPAN href="#FNanchor_1_1">[1]</SPAN></span>
In these Northern myths, questions and answers have no relation
to each other. Such speeches are regarded as magic sayings.</p>
</div>
<p>Then Raven became angry. He said, “I will stick
these sea urchins into you if you don’t keep quiet.” At
last he did so.</p>
<p>Then the woman began singing, “Don’t, Raven! The
tide will go down if you don’t stop.”</p>
<p>But the water was receding, as Raven had told it to,
in his magic words. Raven asked Eagle, who was
watching the tide, “How far down is the tide now?”</p>
<p>“The tide is as far down as half a man.”</p>
<p>“How far down is the tide?” he asked again.</p>
<p>“The tide is very low,” said Eagle.</p>
<p>Then the old woman started her magic song again.</p>
<p>Raven said, “Let it get dry all around the world.”</p>
<p>After a while, Eagle said, “The tide is very low now.
You can hardly see any water.”</p>
<p>Raven said, “Let it get still drier.”</p>
<p>At last everything was dry. This is the lowest tide
there ever was. All the salmon, and whales, and seals
lay on the sands because the water was so low. Then
the people killed them for food. They had enough
food to last them a long time.</p>
<p>When the tide began to rise again, the people were
frightened. They feared there would be another flood,
so they carried their food back a long distance.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>36]</SPAN></span>
Afterward Raven returned to Nass River and found
that people there had not changed their ways. They
were dancing and feasting. They asked Raven to
join them.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>37]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap03" id="chap03"></SPAN>THE ORIGIN OF THE TIDES</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tsetsaut</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> LONG time ago, a man wandered down the Nass
River. Wherever he camped, he made rocks of
curious shapes. Now his name was Qa, the
Raven. The Tlingit call him Yel.</p>
<p>Qa wandered all over the world. At last he travelled
westward. Now at that time the sea was always high.</p>
<p>In the middle of the world Qa discovered a rock in
the sea. He built a house under the rock. Then he
made a hole through it and through the earth and fitted
a lid to it. Raven put a man in charge of the hole.
Twice a day he opens the lid and twice each day he
closes it. When the hole is open the water rushes down
through it into the depths; then it is ebb tide. When
he closes the lid, the water rises again; then it is flood
tide.</p>
<p>Once upon a time, Tael, a Tlingit chief, while hunting
sea otters was carried out to Qa’s rock by the tide.
The current was so strong he could not escape. When
Tael was drawn toward the rock, he saw a few small
trees growing on it. Tael threw his canoe line over
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>38]</SPAN></span>
one of the trees. Thus he escaped being carried down
by the water into the hole under the rock. After some
time he heard a noise. The man was putting the lid
on the hole. Then the water began to rise. Tael paddled
rapidly away. He paddled away until the tide
began to ebb again. Then he fastened his canoe to a
large stone nearby, and waited until flood tide came
again. Thus Tael escaped.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="reflection" id="reflection"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla10.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="447" alt="" /> <div class="caption">Reflection of Mountain Peaks</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="raven" id="raven"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla11.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="452" alt="A raven" /> <div class="caption">“So the smoke-hole spirits held Raven until the smoke blackened his white coat”</div>
</div></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>39]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap04" id="chap04"></SPAN>HOW THE RIVERS WERE FORMED</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">P</span>ETREL was the first person created by Raven-at-the-head-of-Nass.
He was keeper of the fresh
water. No one else might touch it. Now the
spring he owned was on a rocky island called Dekino,
Fort-far-out, where the well may still be seen. Raven
stole a great mouthful of water, but as he flew over
the country drops spilled out of his beak. These drops
made the rivers: the Nass, Skeena, Stikine, and Chilkat.
Raven said, “The water that I drop down upon
the earth, here and there, will whirl all the time. There
will be plenty of water, but it will not flood the world.”</p>
<p>Now before this time, Raven was pure white. But
when he stole the water from Petrel he tried to fly out
of the smoke hole. Petrel cried, “Spirits of the smoke
hole, hold him fast.” So the smoke-hole spirits held
Raven until the smoke blackened his white coat.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>40]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap05" id="chap05"></SPAN>THE ORIGIN OF FIRE</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">L</span>ONG ago, in the days of the animal people,
Raven saw a fire far out at sea. He tied a piece
of pitch to Chicken Hawk’s bill. He said, “Go
out to the fire, touch it with the pitchwood, and bring
it back.” Chicken Hawk did so. The fire stuck to
the pitchwood and he brought it back to Raven. Then
Raven put the fire into the rock and into the red cedar.
Then he said, “Thus shall you get your fire—from
this rock and from this red cedar.” The tribes did as
he told them.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>41]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap06" id="chap06"></SPAN>DURATION OF WINTER</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">O</span>NCE Raven went to Ground-hog’s house for
the winter. Now Ground-hogs go into their
holes in September. At home they live like
people. People to them are animals.</p>
<p>So Raven spent the winter with Ground-hog and became
very tired of it. But he could not get out.
Ground-hog enjoyed himself, but Raven acted like a
prisoner. Raven kept shouting, “Winter comes on.
Winter comes on.” Raven thought that Ground-hog
had power to shorten the winter.</p>
<p>Now at that time, Ground-hog had to stay in his
hole for six months; at that time, Ground-hog had
six toes, one for each month of winter. Then Raven
pulled one toe off each foot, so that the winter would
be shorter. That is why the Ground-hog now has but
five toes.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>42]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap07" id="chap07"></SPAN>RAVEN’S FEAST</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">R</span>AVEN’S mother died, so he gave a great feast,
but first he went to the Ground-hog people to
get food. Now the Ground-hog people know
when slides descend from the mountains, and they know
that spring is then near at hand, so they throw all of
their winter food out of their burrows. Raven wanted
them to do this. He said, “There is going to be a
world snowslide.” Ground-hog chief answered, “Well,
nobody in this town knows about it.”</p>
<p>In the spring when the snowslides did come, the
Ground-hogs threw out all their green herbs, and their
roots from their burrows.</p>
<p>Therefore Raven said to the people, “I am going to
have a feast. I am going to invite the whole world.”
Raven was going to invite every one because he had
heard that the Gonaqadet had a Chilkat blanket and a
Chilkat hat and he wanted to see them.<SPAN name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</SPAN> First he invited
the Gonaqadet and afterward the other chiefs
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>43]</SPAN></span>
of all the tribes in the world. At the right time they
came.</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><SPAN name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></SPAN><span class="label"><SPAN href="#FNanchor_2_2">[2]</SPAN></span>
See myth, “Origin of the Chilkat Blanket.”</p>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="pinefalls" id="pinefalls"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla12.jpg" width-obs="453" height-obs="600" alt="" /> <div class="caption">Pine Falls, Atlin</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="elkfalls" id="elkfalls"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla13.jpg" width-obs="430" height-obs="600" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">Photograph by C. L. Andrews</div>
<div class="caption">Elk Falls</div>
</div>
<p>When the Gonaqadet came in he had on his Chilkat
hat with many crowns and his Chilkat blanket, but he
was surrounded by a fog. Inside of the house, however,
the fog melted away.</p>
<p>Because Raven had this feast, people now have to
have feasts. Because Raven had this burial feast, when
a man is going to have a burial feast he has a many-crowned
hat carved on the top of the dead man’s grave
post.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>44]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap08" id="chap08"></SPAN>CREATION OF THE PORCUPINE</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">R</span>AVEN went into the woods and set out to make
porcupines. For quills he took pieces of yellow
cedar bark. These he set all the way up and
down the porcupine’s back so that bears would be afraid
of it. That is why bears never eat porcupines. Raven
said to the porcupine, “Whenever any one comes near
you, throw your tail about.” That is why people are
afraid to go near a porcupine.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="porcupine" id="porcupine"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla14.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="460" alt="" /> <div class="caption">Porcupine</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="canoes" id="canoes"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla15.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="453" alt="A group of people in a large canoe" /> <div class="caption">“Raven showed the people how to make canoes out of skins”</div>
</div></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>45]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap09" id="chap09"></SPAN>HOW RAVEN TAUGHT THE CHILKATS</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">R</span>AVEN taught the Chilkats that there were Athapascan
Indians. He went back into their
country. So the Chilkat people to this day
make their money by going there. Raven also taught
the Chilkats how to make secret storehouses outside of
their villages, and he taught them how to put salmon
into the storehouses and keep them frozen over winter.
That is how the Chilkats got their name, from <i>toil</i>,
“storehouse,” and <i>xat</i>, “salmon.”</p>
<p>Raven also showed the Chilkats the first seeds of Indian
tobacco and taught them how to plant it. After
the tobacco was grown, he dried it and pounded it up
with burned clam shells. The Chilkats made a great
deal of money by trading tobacco with the Athapascans.</p>
<p>Afterward Raven went beyond Copper River to
Yukatat. There he showed the people how to make
canoes out of skins.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>46]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap10" id="chap10"></SPAN>RAVEN’S MARRIAGE</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Bering Straits</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">A</span>FTER Raven had lived alone a long while, he
decided to get married. It was late in the fall
and the birds were flying southward. So Raven
flew away in the path of the geese and birds on their
way to summerland. Raven stopped directly in the
path.</p>
<p>Soon Raven saw a young goose coming near. He
looked down at his feet and called, “Who will marry
me? I am a very nice man.” The goose flew on.</p>
<p>Soon a black brant passed. Raven looked down at
his feet and called, “Who will marry me? I am a very
nice man.” The black brant flew on. Raven looked
after her. He said, “What kind of people are these?
They do not even stop to listen.”</p>
<p>A duck came near. Raven hid his face and called,
“Who will marry me? I am a very nice man.” The
duck looked toward him, then flew on. Raven said,
“Ah, I came very near it then. I shall succeed this
time.”</p>
<p>Soon a whole family of white-front geese came along.
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>47]</SPAN></span>
There were the parents, four brothers, and a sister.
Raven called out, “Who wants to marry me? I am a
fine hunter. I am young and handsome.” The geese
alighted just beyond him. Raven thought, “Now I
will get a wife.”</p>
<p>Raven saw near him a pretty white stone with a
hole in it. He picked it up, strung it on a long grass
stem, and hung it about his neck. Then he pushed up
his beak so that it slid to the top of his head like a
mask; so he became a dark-colored young man. Then
he walked up to the geese. Each of the geese pushed
up its bill in the same manner; they became nice looking
people. Raven liked the girl; he gave her the
stone, thus choosing her for his wife, and she hung it
about her own neck. Then all pushed down their bills
again and became birds. So they flew south toward
the summerland.</p>
<p>The geese flapped their wings heavily and flew
slowly. Raven, on outspread wing, glided on ahead.
The geese looked after him, saying, “How light and
graceful he is!”</p>
<p>When Raven became tired he said, “We had better
stop early and look for a place to sleep.” Soon they
were all asleep.</p>
<p>The next morning the geese were awake early. They
wanted to be off. Raven was sound asleep. Father
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>48]</SPAN></span>
Goose wakened him. He said, “We must make haste.
It will snow here soon. We cannot wait.”</p>
<p>So the geese flapped their wings and flew slowly and
heavily along. Raven led the others with outspread
wings. He was always above or ahead of the others.
They said, “See how light and graceful he is!”</p>
<p>Thus they travelled until they came to the seashore.
They feasted upon the berries on the bushes around
it. Soon they were asleep.</p>
<p>Early the next morning the geese made ready to go
without breakfast. Raven was hungry but the geese
would not wait. As they flapped their wings and
started, Father Goose said, “We will stop once on the
way to rest; then our next flight will bring us to the
other shore.” Raven began to be afraid, but he was
ashamed to say so.</p>
<p>The geese flapped their wings slowly and flew steadily,
heavily along. Raven, with outspread wings, glided
ahead. After a long time Raven began to fall behind.
His wings ached. The geese flew steadily on. Raven
flapped heavily along, then glided on his outstretched
wings. But he grew more and more tired. He fell
farther and farther behind. At last the geese looked
back. Father Goose said, “He must be tired. I
thought he was light and active. We will wait.”</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="shoups" id="shoups"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla16.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="453" alt="" /> <div class="caption">Shoup’s Glacier, Valdez</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="valdez" id="valdez"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla17.jpg" width-obs="422" height-obs="600" alt="" /> <div class="caption">Birdseye View of Valdez</div>
</div>
<p>The geese settled close together in the water. Raven
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>49]</SPAN></span>
flew slowly up, gasping for breath. He sank down upon
their backs. When Raven had his breath again, he put
his hand on his breast. He said, “I have an arrow
here from an old war. It pains me greatly. That is
why I fell behind.”</p>
<p>After resting, the geese rose from the water. They
flapped slowly along. Raven flew with them. After a
while, Raven began to fall behind. He grew more and
more tired. At last the geese looked back. Father
Goose said, “He must be tired. We will wait.” So
the geese sank down together in the water, while Raven
flew slowly up to them and sank down upon their backs.</p>
<p>Raven said, “I have an arrowhead which pierced
my heart in an old war. That is why I fell behind.”
Raven’s wife put her hand on his breast. She could
feel it beating like a hammer; she said she could not
feel an arrowhead.</p>
<p>So the geese rose again from the water. They
flapped slowly along. But Raven’s wings were very
tired. Before long he fell behind again. Again the
geese waited for him.</p>
<p>Then the Geese Brothers began to talk among themselves.
They said, “We do not believe he has an
arrowhead in his heart. How could he live?”</p>
<p>Now this last time when they rested, they could see
the far-off shore. Father Goose said to Raven, “We
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>50]</SPAN></span>
will not wait for you again. We will not rest again
until we reach the shore.”</p>
<p>So the geese rose from the water and flapped slowly
along. Raven’s wings seemed very heavy. The geese
flew nearer and nearer the shore; but Raven flew nearer
and nearer the waves. As he came close to the water he
shrieked to his wife, “Leave me the white stone. Throw
the white stone back to me.” It was a magic stone.
Thus Raven cried. Then he sank down into the water,
but the geese had reached the land.</p>
<p>Raven tried to rise from the water. His wings would
not spread. Raven drifted back and forth with the
waves. The white caps of the surf buried him. Only
once in a while could he get his beak above the water
to breathe. Then a great wave cast him on the shore.
Then he struggled up the beach. He reached some
bushes where he pushed up his beak. Thus he became
a small, dark-colored man. Then he took off his raven
coat and mask. He hung them on a bush to dry.
Raven made a fire drill out of dry wood and made a
fire. Thus he dried himself.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>51]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap11" id="chap11"></SPAN>RAVEN AND THE SEALS</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tsimshian</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">A</span>S Raven travelled along, he came to a house
where a man lived near the edge of the water.
Raven said to him, “I will be your friend.”</p>
<p>The man said, “That is good.”</p>
<p>Now the beach in front of the house was full of
seals. Raven ate them all during two nights. He ate
all the seals in front of the house. Then he was hungry
again.</p>
<p>Raven killed the man. Then he used his canoe and
harpoon. Raven used those. He speared four seals.
Then he returned to the shore. He took the seals out of
the canoe and began cutting wood. Then he built a
fire and placed stones in it in order to heat them. Afterward
he put the seals on a pile of hot stones. He
cooked the four seals and covered them with skunk cabbage
leaves.</p>
<p>Raven then raised the cover and took out a seal. He
ate it. Then he stretched out his hand and took another
seal.</p>
<p>Now there was Stump sitting nearby. Raven held
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>52]</SPAN></span>
the seal in his hands and said to the stump, “Don’t you
envy me, Stump?” Then he went into the woods. At
once Stump arose and sat down on the hole in which the
seals were steaming. The seals were right under
Stump. Then Raven returned, carrying leaves of
skunk cabbage. When he saw Stump sitting on his
seals, he cried. He was much troubled because he was
hungry. Then he took a stick and dug the ground.
He cried all the time he was digging. He found a little
bit of meat and ate that. But he could not do anything.
He cried all the time because he was so hungry.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="masks" id="masks"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla18.jpg" width-obs="464" height-obs="600" alt="Drawings of three different masks" /> <div class="capleft">From drawing loaned by the Smithsonian Institution</div>
<div class="caption">Masks</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="dolls" id="dolls"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla19.jpg" width-obs="446" height-obs="600" alt="Drawings of five different dolls" /> <div class="capleft">From drawing loaned by the Smithsonian Institution</div>
<div class="caption">Dolls</div>
</div></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>53]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap12" id="chap12"></SPAN>RAVEN AND PITCH</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tsimshian</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">R</span>AVEN went travelling through the woods until
he came to the house of Little Pitch. Little
Pitch was rich, and invited him in. When
Raven had eaten enough, he slept. When he awakened,
he said they would go to catch halibut.</p>
<p>Little Pitch was willing, but said, “It is not good
for me to be out after sunrise. I must return while it
is still chilly. I shall have enough by that time.”</p>
<p>Raven said, “I shall do whatever you say, Chief.”</p>
<p>Little Pitch said, “Well!”</p>
<p>Then they started for the fishing place. They fished
all night. When the sun rose Little Pitch wanted to go
ashore.</p>
<p>Raven said, “I enjoy the fishing. Lie down in the
bow of the canoe and cover yourself with a mat.”</p>
<p>Little Pitch did so. After a while Raven called,
“Little Pitch!”</p>
<p>He answered, “Heh!”</p>
<p>After a while Raven called again, “Little Pitch!”</p>
<p>He answered again in a loud voice.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>54]</SPAN></span>
Again after some time, Raven called again, “Little
Pitch!”</p>
<p>Then Little Pitch’s answer was very weak because
the sun was getting warm.</p>
<p>Now Raven hauled up his line and paddled home.
He pretended to paddle hard, but he only put his paddles
into the water edgewise. Again he called, “Little
Pitch!”</p>
<p>“Heh!” Little Pitch replied, but his voice was very
weak. The sun was getting still hotter. Then Raven
knew that Little Pitch was melting.</p>
<p>Behold! Pitch came out and ran over the halibut
in the boat. Therefore the halibut is black on one side.</p>
<p>Then Raven took the pitch and mended his boat
with it.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>55]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap13" id="chap13"></SPAN>RAVEN’S DANCING BLANKET</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tsimshian</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">O</span>NE day Raven put on the shaman’s blanket of
his grandfather. Then he went away; he
strayed off. He was very poor and he tore his
dancing blanket. Then he caught ravens. He used
anything to kill the ravens. Then he took the skins of
the ravens and tied them together. Then he walked
about in them, dressed very well.</p>
<p>Now he saw a good shaman’s blanket like the one
he had before. He tore his raven’s blanket. He took
the dancing blanket that hung before him. Behold! it
was not a shaman’s blanket. It was only the lichens on
a tree. Now he saw it was only lichens. He sat down
and wept. He took his old raven’s blanket and tied it
together. Then once more he went on, weeping with
hunger.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>56]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap14" id="chap14"></SPAN>RAVEN AND THE GULLS</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tsimshian</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">R</span>AVEN did another thing. He induced the
olachen to come to Nass River. He said to
them, “Go up on both sides of the river.”
They did so. Then Raven’s canoe was quite full of
fish. He had not used his rake, but the whole shoal
of olachen jumped into his canoe.</p>
<p>Then he camped at Crab-apple place. He clapped
on the top of the stone. Then very slippery became the
top of that stone that the olachen should not be lost.
He put olachen on spits to roast them.</p>
<p>Raven called, “Little Gull!”</p>
<p>Then many gulls came. They ate all the olachen
of Raven. They said, “<i>Qana, qana, qana, qana!</i>”
They talked much while they ate all the olachen of
Raven.</p>
<p>Then Raven was sad. Therefore he took the gulls
and threw them into the fireplace. So the tips of their
wings have been black, ever since that day.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>57]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap15" id="chap15"></SPAN>THE LAND OTTER</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">R</span>AVEN said to Land Otter, “You will live in
the water just as well as on land.”</p>
<p>Raven and Land Otter were good friends, so
they went halibut-fishing together. Land Otter was a
good fisherman. Raven said to Land Otter, “You
will always have your house on a point where there are
breezes from all sides. Whenever a canoe with people
capsizes, you will save the people and make them your
friends.” That is how the Land Otter Man was
created: because Raven told this to Land Otter.</p>
<p>If people who are taken away by Land Otters are
brought back by their friends, they become shamans.
It was through the Land Otters that shamans were
first known. Shamans, by means of Land Otter spirits,
can see each other, even though others cannot.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>58]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap16" id="chap16"></SPAN>RAVEN AND COOT</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Athapascan</i> (<i>Upper Yukon</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> LONG time ago, Raven wanted all the birds to
look well, so he painted them. Raven painted
Coot last. Then Coot began to paint Raven,
who wanted many bright colors. So Coot painted
Raven with bright colors with one hand, but in the
other hand he hid charcoal. When Raven looked
away, Coot quickly blackened all the bright colors with
charcoal. Then Raven was angry and he chased Coot.
But Coot ran too quickly, so Raven threw white mud
at him,—white mud which spattered over Coot.
Therefore Coot had white spots on his head and back.
But Coot flew away and left Raven all black.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="boys" id="boys"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla20.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="450" alt="" /> <div class="caption">Eskimo Boys</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="marmot" id="marmot"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla21.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="452" alt="A marmot pokes its head out from amongst rocks" /> <div class="capleft">Photograph by C. L. Andrews</div>
<div class="caption">“Marmot put out the tip of his nose”</div>
</div></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>59]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap17" id="chap17"></SPAN>RAVEN AND MARMOT</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Bering Straits</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">O</span>NCE Raven was flying over a reef near the seashore,
near seabirds that were perched on the
rocks. Seabirds cried to him, “Oh, you offal-eater!
Oh, you carrion-eater! Oh, you black one!”
Raven turned and flew far away crying, “<i>Qaq! qaq!
qaq!</i>” He flew far away across the great water until he
came to a mountain on the other side.</p>
<p>Raven saw just in front of him the hole of Marmot.
Then Raven stood by the door watching, until Marmot
came home, bringing food. But Marmot could not enter
his hole because Raven stood in the way. Marmot
asked Raven to stand to one side. Raven said, “No.
They called me ‘carrion-eater.’ Now I will show them
I am not. I will eat you.”</p>
<p>Marmot said, “All right; but I have heard that you
are a very fine dancer. Now, if you will dance, I will
sing. Then you can eat me, but let me see you dance
before you eat me.”</p>
<p>Raven agreed to dance. Then Marmot sang,</p>
<div class="poemcenter">
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>60]</SPAN></span>
<span class="i0">“Oh, Raven, Raven, Raven, how well you dance!<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Oh, Raven, Raven, Raven, how well you dance!”<br/></span></div>
</div></div>
<p>Raven danced. Then they stopped to rest.</p>
<p>Marmot said, “I like your dancing. Now I will
sing again, so shut your eyes and dance your best.”</p>
<p>So Raven shut his eyes and danced clumsily around.
Marmot sang,</p>
<div class="poemcenter">
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">“Oh, Raven, Raven, Raven, what a graceful dancer!<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Oh, Raven, Raven, Raven, what a fool you are!”<br/></span></div>
</div></div>
<p>Because Marmot, with a quick run, had darted between
Raven’s legs and was safe in his hole.</p>
<p>When Marmot was safe in his hole, he put out the
tip of his nose and mocked Raven. He said, “<i>Chi-kik-kik,
chi-kik-kik, chi-kik-kik!</i> You are the greatest
fool I ever saw. What a comical figure you cut when
dancing! I could hardly keep from laughing. Just
look at me—see how fat I am. Don’t you wish you
could eat me?”</p>
<p>Raven, in a rage, flew far away.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>61]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap18" id="chap18"></SPAN>THE BRINGING OF THE LIGHT BY RAVEN</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Lower Yukon</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>N the first days, the sun and moon were in the sky.
Then the sun and moon were taken away and people
had only the light of the stars. Even the magic
of the shamans failed to bring back the light.</p>
<p>Now there was an orphan boy in the village who sat
with the humble people over the entrance way of the
kashim. He was despised by every one. When the
magic of the shamans failed to bring back the sun and
moon into the sky the boy mocked them. He said,
“What fine shamans you must be. You cannot bring
back the light, but I can.” Then the shamans were
angry and beat that boy and drove him out of the
kashim. Now this boy was like any other boy until he
put on a raven coat he had. Then he became Raven.</p>
<p>Now the boy went to his aunt’s house. He told her
the shamans had failed to bring back the light, and they
had beaten him when he mocked them. The boy
said, “Where are the sun and moon?”</p>
<p>The aunt said, “I do not know.”</p>
<p>The boy said, “I am sure you know. Look what a
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>62]</SPAN></span>
finely sewed coat you wear. You could not sew it that
way if you did not know where the light is.”</p>
<p>Thus they argued.</p>
<p>Then the aunt said, “If you wish to find the light,
go far to the south. Go on snowshoes. You will know
the place when you get there.”</p>
<p>The boy put on his snowshoes and set off toward the
south. Many days he travelled and the darkness was
always the same. When he had gone a very long way
he saw far in front of him a ray of light. Then the boy
hurried on. As he went farther the light showed again,
plainer than before. Then it vanished for a time. Thus
it kept appearing and vanishing.</p>
<p>At last the boy came to a large hill. One side was
brightly lighted; the other side was black as night.
Close to the hill was a hut. A man was shovelling snow
from in front of it. The man tossed the snow high in
the air; then the light could not be seen until the snow
fell. Then the man tossed the snow again. So the
light kept appearing and disappearing. Close to the
house was a large ball of fire.</p>
<p>The boy stopped and began to plan how to steal the
ball of light.</p>
<p>Then the boy walked up to the man. He said, “Why
do you throw up the snow? It hides the light from our
village.”</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="hummocks" id="hummocks"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla22.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="455" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">Photograph by B. B. Dobbs</div>
<div class="caption">Ice Hummocks on Bering Sea</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="tools" id="tools"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla23.jpg" width-obs="381" height-obs="600" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">From photograph loaned by the Smithsonian Institution</div>
<div class="caption">Snow Shovel, Pick, Rake, and Maul</div>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>63]</SPAN></span>
The man said, “I am not hiding the light. I am
cleaning away the snow. Who are you? Where did
you come from?”</p>
<p>The boy said, “It is so dark at our village I do not
want to stay there. I came here to live with you.”</p>
<p>“All the time?” asked the man.</p>
<p>“Yes,” said the boy.</p>
<p>The man said, “All right. Come into the house with
me.” Then he dropped his shovel on the ground. He
stooped down to lead the way through the underground
passage into the house. He let the curtain fall in front
of the door as he passed, because he thought the boy was
close beside him.</p>
<p>Then the boy caught up the ball of light. He put it
in the turned-up flap of his fur coat. Then he picked
up the shovel and ran away toward the north. He ran
until his feet were tired. Then he put on his raven coat
and flew away. He flew rapidly to the north. Raven
could hear the man shriek behind him. The man was
pursuing him. But Raven flew faster. Then the man
cried, “Keep the light; but give me my shovel.”</p>
<p>Raven said, “No, you cannot have your shovel. You
made our village dark.” So Raven flew faster.</p>
<p>Now as Raven flew, he broke off a little piece of the
light. This made day. Then he went on a long time
in darkness, until he broke off another piece of light.
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>64]</SPAN></span>
Thus it was day again. So as Raven flew to the village
he broke off the pieces of light. When Raven reached
the kashim of his own village he threw away the last
piece. He went into the kashim and said to the shamans,
“I have brought back the light. It will be light
and then dark, so as to make day and night.”</p>
<p>After this Raven went out upon the ice because his
home was on the seacoast. Then a great wind arose,
and the ice drifted with him across the sea to the land
on the other side.</p>
<p>Thus Raven brought back the light. It is night and
day, as he said it would be. But sometimes the nights
are very long because Raven travelled a long way without
throwing away a piece of the light.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>65]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap19" id="chap19"></SPAN>DAYLIGHT ON THE NASS RIVER</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">W</span>HEN Raven had grown quite large he walked
down the bank of the Nass River one day, until
he heard the noise people were making in
the darkness as they fished for olachen. Now all the
people in the world lived at one place on the Nass
River. They had heard that Raven-at-the-head-of-Nass
had something called “daylight.” They were afraid
of it and talked about it a great deal.</p>
<p>Raven shouted to the fishermen, “Why do you make
so much noise? If you make so much noise I will bring
the daylight here.”</p>
<p>Eight canoe-loads of people were fishing there.
They said, “You are not Nas-ca-ki-yel. You are not
Raven-at-the-head-of-Nass. How can you have the
daylight?” They kept on making much noise.</p>
<p>Then Raven opened the box and daylight shot over
the world like lightning. They made still more noise.
So Raven opened the box wide and there was daylight
everywhere.</p>
<p>Then the people were frightened. Some ran into the
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>66]</SPAN></span>
woods and some jumped into the water. Those that
had clothes of fur seal skins jumped into the water;
they became seals. Those which had clothing of bear
skins, marten skins, and wolf skins, ran into the woods
and turned into grizzly bears, martens, and wolves.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="waterproof" id="waterproof"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla24.jpg" width-obs="451" height-obs="600" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">Copyrighted by F. H. Nowell</div>
<div class="caption">Eskimo in Waterproof Coat made of Walrus Intestines</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="grouse" id="grouse"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla25.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="447" alt="A grouse" /> <div class="caption">“Raven said to Grouse, ‘You know that Sea-lion is your grandchild’”</div>
</div></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>67]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap20" id="chap20"></SPAN>THE NAMING OF THE BIRDS</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">N</span>OW Raven went around among the birds, teaching
them. He said to Grouse, “You are to
live in a place where it is wintry. You will
always live in a place high up so you will have plenty
of breezes.” Then Raven gave Grouse four white
pebbles. He said, “You will never starve so long as
you have these four pebbles.”</p>
<p>Raven also said to Grouse, “You know that Sea-lion
is your grandchild. You must get four more pebbles
and give them to him.” That is why the sea-lion has
four large pebbles. It throws these at hunters. If one
strikes a person, it kills him. From this story it is
known that Grouse and Sea-lion understand each
other.</p>
<p>Raven said to Ptarmigan, “You will be the maker
of snowshoes. You will know how to travel in snow.”
It was from these birds that the Athapascans learned
how to make snowshoes, and how to put the lacings on.</p>
<p>Raven came next to Wild Canary, that lives all the
year around in the Tlingit country. He said, “You
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>68]</SPAN></span>
will be head among the very small birds. You are not
to live on the same food as human beings. Keep away
from them.”</p>
<p>Then Raven said to Robin, “You will make people
happy by your whistle. You will be a good whistler.”</p>
<p>Then Raven said to Kun, the Flicker, “You will be
chief among the birds of your size. You will not be
found in all places. You will seldom be seen.”</p>
<p>Raven said to Lugan, a bird that lives far out on the
ocean, “You will seldom be seen near shore. You will
live on lonely rocks, far out on the ocean.”</p>
<p>When Raven came to Snipes, he said, “You will always
go in flocks. You will never go out alone.”
Therefore we always see snipes in flocks.</p>
<p>Raven said to Asq-aca-tci, a small bird with yellow-green
plumage, “You will always go in flocks. You
will always be on the tree tops. That is where your
food is.”</p>
<p>Raven said to a very small bird, Kotlai, the size of a
butterfly, “You will be liked. You will be seen only to
give good luck. People will hear your voice, but seldom
see you.”</p>
<p>Then to Blue-jay Raven said, “You will have very
fine clothes. You will be a good talker. People will
take colors from your clothes.”</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="figurehead" id="figurehead"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla26.jpg" width-obs="446" height-obs="600" alt="" /> <div class="caption">Figurehead on Indian Canoe</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="crows" id="crows"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla27.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="451" alt="Three crows sitting on a tree stump" /> <div class="caption">“Raven said to Crow, ‘You will make lots of noise. You will be great talkers’”</div>
</div>
<p>Then Raven said to Xunkaha, “You will never be
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>69]</SPAN></span>
seen unless the north wind is going to blow.” That is
what the name Xunkaha means.</p>
<p>To Crow, Raven said, “You will make lots of noise.
You will be great talkers.” That is why, when you
hear one crow, you hear a lot of others right afterward.</p>
<p>Raven said to Gusyiadul, “You will be seen only
when warm weather is coming. Never come near except
when warm weather is coming.”</p>
<p>To Humming-bird Raven said, “People will enjoy
seeing you. If a person sees you once, he will want to
see you again.”</p>
<p>Raven said to Eagle, “You will be very powerful
and above all birds. Your eyesight will be very good.
It will be easy for you to get what you want.” Then
Raven put talons on the eagle and said they would be
useful to him.</p>
<p>Thus Raven taught all the birds.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>70]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap21" id="chap21"></SPAN>THE ORIGIN OF THE WINDS</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">N</span>OW Raven went off to a certain place and
created West Wind. Raven said to it, “You
shall be my son’s daughter. No matter how
hard you blow, you shall hurt nobody.”</p>
<p>Raven also made South Wind. When South Wind
climbs on top of a rock it never ceases to blow.</p>
<p>Raven made North Wind and on top of a mountain
he made a house for it with ice hanging down the sides.
Then he went in and said to North Wind, “Your back
is white.” That is why mountains are white with
snow.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="northwind" id="northwind"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla28.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="451" alt="A dogsled travelling near forest and mountains" /> <div class="caption">“Raven said to North Wind, ‘Your back is white’” (On the Road to Fairbanks)</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="blockhouse" id="blockhouse"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla29.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="460" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">Photograph by C. L. Andrews</div>
<div class="caption">Old Russian Blockhouse, at Sitka</div>
</div></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>71]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap22" id="chap22"></SPAN>DURATION OF LIFE</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">R</span>AVEN-AT-THE-HEAD-OF-NASS tried to
make human beings, at the same time, out of a
rock and out of a leaf. But he created human
beings out of the leaf first. Then Raven showed a leaf
to people. He said, “You see this leaf. You are to
be like it. When it falls off the branch and rots there
is nothing left of it.”</p>
<p>That is why there is death in the world. If men had
come from the hard rocks there would be no death.
Years ago, when people were getting old, they would
say, “It is unlucky that we did not come from the rock.
We are made from leaves; therefore we must die.”</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>72]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap23" id="chap23"></SPAN>GHOST TOWN</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">O</span>NCE Raven came to a large town which was
deserted. Every one seemed to have died.
Raven entered the largest house, but he felt
some one continually pushing him away. Yet he
saw no one there. It was a ghost house. The place
was called Ghost Town.</p>
<p>Raven then loaded a canoe with provisions from the
empty houses and started to paddle away. He did not
notice that a long rope was fastened to the stern of the
canoe and to a tree on the shore. When Raven had
paddled the length of the rope, the canoe was pulled
right back to the beach. All the provisions were carried
back to the houses. Yet Raven could see no one.
Then a ghost dropped a large stone on Raven’s foot.
This made him very lame.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>73]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap24" id="chap24"></SPAN>HOW RAVEN STOLE THE LAKE</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Haida</i> (<i>Queen Charlotte Islands</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">A</span>FTER Raven had made the crows black because
they had eaten his salmon—crows had always
been white before that, they say—he met some
people with feathers on their heads and gambling-stick
bags on their backs. They said, “What is the
matter?”</p>
<p>Raven said, “Oh, my father and mother are dead.”</p>
<p>Then they started home with him. These were the
Beavers, they say. They were going out to gamble,
but turned back on account of him.</p>
<p>The next morning they put their gambling-stick bags
upon their backs and started off again. Raven flew
around behind a screen. Lo, a lake lay there! In a
creek flowing from it was a fish trap. The fish trap
was so full of salmon it looked as if some one were
shaking it. There were plenty of salmon in it and in
the lake were very small canoes passing each other.
Several points of land were red with cranberries.</p>
<p>Raven pulled out the fish trap, folded it together,
and laid it down at the edge of the lake. Then he
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>74]</SPAN></span>
rolled it up with the lake and house, put them under his
arm, and pulled himself up into a tree that stood close
by. They were not heavy for his arm. He had rolled
the lake up just as though it were a blanket. Raven sat
in the tree half-way up.</p>
<p>After a while some one came. His house and the
lake were not there. After he had looked about him
for some time, he looked up. Lo, there sat Raven with
their property!</p>
<p>Then the Beavers went quickly to that tree. They
began cutting it with their teeth. When it began to
fall, Raven went to another one. When that began to
fall, he went to another. After the Beavers had cut
down many trees in this way, they gave it up. They
then travelled about for a long time, they say. After a
long time, they found a lake and settled down on it.</p>
<p>Then after Raven had travelled around for a while
with the lake, he came to a large open place. He unrolled
the lake there. There it lay. He did not let
the fish trap or the house go. He kept them to teach
the Seaward (mainland) people and the Shoreward
(Queen Charlotte Islands) people, they say.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="lake" id="lake"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla30.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="449" alt="A lake surrounded by forest" /> <div class="caption">“Raven unrolled the lake there. There it lay”</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="skana" id="skana"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla31.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="450" alt="" /> <div class="caption">“The man-spirit was inside the Skana”</div>
</div></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>75]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap25" id="chap25"></SPAN>THE KILLER WHALE</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Haida</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> LONG time ago, a canoe-load of Indians were
out seal-hunting. The weather was calm and
the sea was smooth. Then a killer whale kept
near the canoe and the young men threw stones at it.
They hit the fin of the killer whale with several stones.
Then the whale went to the beach. Soon the men in the
canoe saw a smoke rising from the beach. They went
to see who was there. When they reached the shore,
there was not the Skana, the killer whale, but a man
cooking some food.</p>
<p>The man said, “Why did you throw stones at my
canoe? You have broken it. Now go get cedar withes
in the woods and mend it.”</p>
<p>So the men mended the broken canoe. When they
had finished, the man said, “Turn your backs to the
water. Cover your heads with your fur robes. Don’t
look until I call you.” They all did as he told them.
They heard the canoe grate on the beach as it was
hauled down into the water. Then the man said,
“Look now.”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>76]</SPAN></span>
They looked and there was the canoe in the water.
But when the canoe came to the second breaker, it went
under. When it came to the surface, behold!—there
was no canoe. There was a Skana—a killer whale.
The man-spirit was inside the Skana.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>77]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap26" id="chap26"></SPAN>ORIGIN OF THE CHILKAT BLANKET<SPAN name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</SPAN></h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tsimshian</i></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><SPAN name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></SPAN><span class="label"><SPAN href="#FNanchor_3_3">[3]</SPAN></span>
Although the patterns of the Chilkat blankets vary, nearly all of
them show, in symbolic weaving, the bear with his heart between his
eyes, Gonaqadet the sea spirit, the boy, and the father of the chief’s
daughter. In some of them also, the raven and the thunderbird
figure. Only the Indians can really interpret the various weavings,
and their interpretations vary.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>N the days of the animal people, long, long ago, all
the animals were divided into different tribes. In
those days also, animals could take off their furry
skins; then they looked just like people.</p>
<p>Now in those days long ago, a group of women once
went out to search for wild celery in the early spring.
They found it growing here and there, and spent all
day gathering it. Then they tied it in bundles and
started home with it on their backs.</p>
<p>Now among these women was the daughter of a
chief. She picked twigs as she followed in the trail in
the evening light, and then slipped into the footprints
of a brown bear. The jolt loosened her pack. She
stopped to readjust her bundle of celery. She said
sharp words about bears. Then she hastened on to rejoin
her companions who were already lost in the dusk.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>78]</SPAN></span>
Suddenly the chief’s daughter heard footsteps behind
her. A handsome young man joined her. Soon he
asked her to be his wife. The chief’s daughter consented,
so she went home with him. They walked far,
far into the woods until they came to Bear village.
Then the chief’s daughter knew that her lover belonged
to the Bear tribe.</p>
<p>After a while the chief’s daughter became unhappy.
She wanted to go back to her father’s home, but the
Bear tribe watched her so she could not escape.</p>
<p>One day chief’s daughter reached the shore. Out on
the water she saw a fisherman in a boat, and she called
to him to rescue her. The fisherman touched his canoe
with his killing club and in one bound it sprang to the
shore, just as the Bear and some of his tribe appeared.
The fisherman began to fight Bear, but he could not kill
him. Then the chief’s daughter told him to strike Bear
between the eyes, because his heart was there. So Bear
was killed.</p>
<p>The fisherman took the chief’s daughter in his canoe.
But behold!—he was no fisherman at all. It was
Gonaqadet, the spirit of the sea. So the woman married
Gonaqadet, who was very kind to her.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="blanket" id="blanket"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla32.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="458" alt="" /> <div class="caption">A Chilkat Blanket</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="baskets" id="baskets"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla33.jpg" width-obs="453" height-obs="600" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">Copyrighted by F. H. Nowell</div>
<div class="caption">Alaskan Baskets</div>
</div>
<p>After a long while, the chief’s daughter became unhappy
again. She wanted her son to be trained by her
people, as the custom was. Then Gonaqadet permitted
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>79]</SPAN></span>
her to return to earth with the boy, but he made her
promise that she would weave him a blanket telling of
her life and his courtship. So the woman returned to
earth from the sea. Then she wove for Gonaqadet the
blanket. This was the first Chilkat blanket.</p>
<p>Now one day Yel, the Raven, wandering along the
seashore, entered a great cavern under the sea. There
he found Gonaqadet, wearing a beautiful Chilkat
blanket. Gonaqadet welcomed Raven, and offered him
food. He placed food before him in two long carved
platters. After Raven had feasted, Gonaqadet taught
him many dances and gave him a copy of the blanket
pattern. Then Raven taught the people how to weave
the blankets, but he taught the Tsimshian tribe first.
Afterward the Chilkats learned how to weave them.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>80]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap27" id="chap27"></SPAN>ORIGIN OF LAND AND PEOPLE</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Lower Yukon</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>N the beginning there was water over all the earth.
There were no people. It was very cold. The
water was covered with ice, and the ice pieces
ground together, making long ridges and hummocks.</p>
<p>Then a man came from the other side of the great
water and stopped on the ice hills. He took for his wife
a wolf. Then their children grew up. Each pair spoke
a different language from that of their parents, or from
that of their brothers and sisters. So each pair went
out in a different direction and built houses on the ice
hills. Then the snow melted and ran down the hillsides.
It scooped out ravines and river beds and made
the earth. Thus the earth was made and the people.
That is why so many different languages are spoken.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="keystone" id="keystone"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla34.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="456" alt="" /> <div class="caption">Keystone Canyon</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="sglacier" id="sglacier"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla35.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="450" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">Photograph by C. L. Andrews</div>
<div class="caption">The “S” Glacier</div>
</div></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>81]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap28" id="chap28"></SPAN>CREATION OF THE WORLD</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Athapascan</i> (<i>Upper Yukon</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> LONG time ago, water flowed all over the
world. There was one family and they made
a big raft. Then they put animals on the raft.</p>
<p>Now there was no land but all water, so the people
wanted to make a world. The man tied a cord around
a beaver and sent him down to find the bottom of the
water. But the beaver got only half-way and drowned.
Then the man tied a string around a muskrat and sent
him down. Muskrat drowned, but he reached the bottom
and got a little mud on his hands. Then the man
took the mud out of the muskrat’s hands into his palm.
He let it dry and then crumbled it to dust. Then he
blew the dust out of his palm all over the waters. This
made the world.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>82]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap29" id="chap29"></SPAN>ORIGIN OF MANKIND</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Bering Straits</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">L</span>ONG, long ago, a man and a woman came down
from the sky and landed on one of the Diomede
Islands. They lived there a long while, but they
had no children. At last one day the man took some
walrus ivory, and from this he carved five dolls, just
like people. Then he took some wood and made from
it five more dolls. Then, one night, when all were
finished, he set them off to one side, all ten in a row. The
next morning the dolls had become people. The ivory
dolls became men, therefore they are brave and hardy;
but the wooden dolls became women, therefore they are
soft and timid. From these ten dolls came all the
people of the Diomede Islands.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>83]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap30" id="chap30"></SPAN>THE FIRST WOMAN</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Bering Straits</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">L</span>ONG, long ago there were many men living in the
northland, but there was no woman among
them. Far away in the southland lived one
woman. At last one of the young men in the northland
travelled south to the home of the woman and married
her. He thought, “I have a wife, while the son of the
headsman has none.”</p>
<p>Now the son of the headsman had also started to
travel to the home of the woman in the southland. He
stood in the passage to the house and heard the husband
talking to himself. So he waited until all the people
were asleep. Then the son of the headsman crept into
the house and began to drag the woman away. He
caught her by her shoulders.</p>
<p>Then the husband was awakened. He ran to the
passage and caught the woman by her feet. So the men
pulled until they pulled the woman in two. The son of
the headsman carried the upper part of her body to the
north. Then they began to carve wood to make each
woman complete. Thus there were now two women.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>84]</SPAN></span>
The woman in the south was a good dancer; but she
could not do fine needlework in sewing the furs, because
her hands were wooden. The woman in the north was
a poor dancer, because her feet were wooden, but she
could sew with fine stitches in the furs. So all the
women of the north are skilful with their hands, and all
the women of the south are good dancers, even to this
day. Thus you may know that the tale is true.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="yukon" id="yukon"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla36.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="456" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">Photograph by C. L. Andrews</div>
<div class="caption">The Yukon, Taken at Midnight in June</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="islands" id="islands"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla37.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="452" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">Photograph by C. L. Andrews</div>
<div class="caption">Islands in Sitka Sound</div>
</div></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>85]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap31" id="chap31"></SPAN>THE FIRST TEARS</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Bering Straits</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">O</span>NE day Man hunted for seals along the seashore.
Many seals were there, but as Man
crept carefully up to them, they slipped into
the water. At last only one seal was left on the rocks.
Man crept up to it carefully, but just as he was about
to catch the seal, it slipped into the water.</p>
<p>Then Man stood up. His breast was full of a strange
feeling. Water began to drop from his eyes. He put
up his hand and caught the drops; thus he saw that
they were really water. Then loud cries came from
his breast and more water came out of his eyes. Now
Man’s son saw him coming. He called to his wife that
Man was making a strange noise. So they went down
to the seashore. They were surprised to see water coming
out of his eyes. Then Man told them he had tried
to catch seals. He had crept carefully up, but they
slipped into the water. Thus all the seals had
escaped. Then water began to come out of the eyes
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>86]</SPAN></span>
of the son and his wife. Loud cries came from their
breasts. In this way people first learned to cry. Afterward,
Man and his son killed a seal; then they made
snares for more seals from its skin.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>87]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap32" id="chap32"></SPAN>ORIGIN OF THE WINDS</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Lower Yukon</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> LONG time ago a man and his wife had no
children. So one night the man went out of the
house to find a solitary tree that grew on the
tundra. First he saw a long track of bright light, like
that made by the moon shining on the snow. It led
across the tundra. So far, far along the trail of bright
light travelled the man until he saw a beautiful tree, all
alone, shining in the bright light. He took out his
hunting knife, cut off part of the trunk, and went home
again over the bright trail.</p>
<p>When the man reached home, he carved a boy doll
from the wood and his wife made fur clothes for it.
Then the man carved little wood dishes from the scraps
of wood. The wife set the doll on the bench opposite
the entrance, in the place of honor. She placed before
it food and water.</p>
<p>That night, when all was dark, they heard low whistling
sounds. The woman said, “Do you hear that? It
was the doll.” When they made a light, they saw that
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>88]</SPAN></span>
the doll had eaten the food and drunk the water. They
saw that its eyes moved.</p>
<p>In the morning, the doll was gone. The man and his
wife could not find it, but they saw the tracks of the
boy doll leading away from the door. The tracks followed
the direction of the trail of light which the man
had followed the night before. So the man and his wife
went into the house.</p>
<p>But Doll followed the bright path until he came to
the edge of day, where the sky comes down to the earth.
There were holes in the sky wall covered with gut-skin.</p>
<p>In the east, Doll saw the gut-skin cover over the hole
in the sky wall bulging inward. Doll stopped and said,
“It is very quiet in here. I think a little wind will
make it better.” Doll drew his knife and cut the cover
loose about the edge of the hole. A strong wind blew
through, bringing with it a live reindeer. Looking
through the hole, Doll saw another world, just like the
earth. Then he drew the cover loosely over the hole,
and said to East Wind, “Sometimes blow hard, sometimes
lightly. Sometimes do not blow at all.”</p>
<p>Doll walked along the sky wall to another opening
at the southeast. The gut-skin cover bulged inward.
Then Doll cut the cover loose at the edges, and a great
gale swept in. It brought reindeer, trees, and bushes.
Then Doll fastened the cover lightly and said,
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>89]</SPAN></span>
“Sometimes blow hard, sometimes lightly. Sometimes do not
blow at all.”</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="boxes" id="boxes"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla38.jpg" width-obs="411" height-obs="600" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">From photograph loaned by the Smithsonian Institution</div>
<div class="caption">Tool and Trinket Boxes</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="spoons" id="spoons"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla39.jpg" width-obs="412" height-obs="600" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">From photograph loaned by the Smithsonian Institution</div>
<div class="caption">Spoons and Ladles</div>
</div>
<p>Then Doll came to a hole in the south, and the gut-skin
cover bulged inward. He cut the edges loose and
a hot wind rushed in. It brought rain, and spray from
the great salt sea which lay beyond the sky hole on that
side. Then Doll closed the opening lightly and said to
South Wind, “Sometimes blow hard, sometimes lightly.
Sometimes do not blow at all.”</p>
<p>Doll walked along the sky wall to the west. There
he saw another opening, covered by gut-skin. So he
cut the edges loose, and West Wind swept in, bringing
with him rain, with sleet and spray from the gray ocean.
Then Doll fastened the edges of the gut-skin loosely,
and said to West Wind, “Sometimes blow hard, sometimes
lightly. Sometimes do not blow at all.”</p>
<p>So Doll passed along the sky wall to the northwest.
When he cut the edges of the gut-skin covering, a blast
of cold wind rushed in, bringing snow and ice. Doll
became cold; he almost froze. Therefore Doll closed
the hole quickly, saying, “Sometimes blow hard, sometimes
lightly. Sometimes do not blow at all.”</p>
<p>Again Doll went along the sky wall to the north, but
it became so cold he had to leave it. So he went toward
the centre of the earth, away from the sky wall, until he
saw the opening to the north. Then he went to the hole
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>90]</SPAN></span>
in the sky wall, but so great was the cold that Doll
feared to cut the strings. He waited. Then he cut the
strings quickly. The terrible North Wind swept in,
bringing with him great masses of snow and ice. North
Wind strewed the snow and ice all over the earth plain.
Then Doll closed the hole very quickly, yet he fastened
it loosely. He said to North Wind, “Sometimes blow
hard, sometimes lightly. Sometimes do not blow at
all.”</p>
<p>Then Doll travelled into the midst of the earth plain.
He looked up and saw the sky arch, resting upon long,
slender poles, like a tepee, but of beautiful blue material.
Then Doll went back to the village where he
was made.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>91]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap33" id="chap33"></SPAN>ORIGIN OF THE WIND</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Athapascan</i> (<i>Upper Yukon</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> LONG time ago, when all were men, there was
no wind. Now Bear used to go about with a
bag on his back. The animal people wanted to
know what was in the bag. Many times they asked
Bear but he would not tell them. One day Bear fell
asleep with the bag on his back. Then a man saw him
asleep. The man cut the bag and found the wind in it.
Therefore the wind escaped and has never since been
caught.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>92]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap34" id="chap34"></SPAN>NORTH WIND</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">A</span>FTER Raven left the Land Otters, he came to
Taku. There North Wind lived in a cliff at
the mouth of the inlet. Raven stayed there
with him.</p>
<p>Now North Wind is very proud and shines all over
with what the Indians think are icicles. So the Indians
never say anything against North Wind, no matter
how long it blows, because the spirits give it power.
Years ago people thought that there were spirits in all
the large cliffs upon the islands and would pray to those
cliffs. This was because Raven once lived in this cliff
with North Wind.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="skagway" id="skagway"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla40.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="448" alt="" /> <div class="caption">Skagway River, from Porcupine Hill</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="middlelake" id="middlelake"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla41.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="450" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">Copyrighted by C. L. Andrews</div>
<div class="caption">Middle Lake and Bridge on the ’97 Trail</div>
</div></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>93]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap35" id="chap35"></SPAN>EAST WIND AND NORTH WIND</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> HIGH-CASTE man married first the daughter
of East Wind. When he heard of the pretty
daughter of North Wind he married her also.
He took her back to the village where his first wife
lived.</p>
<p>Then people said to the daughter of East Wind,
“There is a pretty woman here. Her clothes sparkle
all over. They make a tingling noise.”</p>
<p>The daughter of East Wind was very jealous. She
made the east wind to blow. It began to grow warm
and cloudy. Then the daughter of North Wind lost all
her sparkling clothing. The icicles and the frost
melted away. Then the daughter of North Wind was
no longer beautiful.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>94]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap36" id="chap36"></SPAN>CREATION OF THE KILLER WHALE</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> MAN named Natsayane, belonging to the Seal
People, made the killer whales. He first tried
to carve them out of red cedar, then out of the
hemlock, and then out of all other kinds of woods. He
took each set of figures to the beach and tried to make
them swim; but they only floated on the surface. Last
of all he tried yellow cedar. Then the killer whales
swam.</p>
<p>Natsayane on one marked white lines from the corners
of its mouth back to its head. He said, “This is
going to be the white-mouthed killer whale.”</p>
<p>When Natsayane put them into the water, he said,
“Go up into the inlets. Go up into the head of the
bays. Hunt for seal, for halibut, and for things under
the sea. Do not hurt human beings.” Before this people
did not know what a killer whale was.</p>
<p>When the Killer whale tribe start north, the Seal
People say, “Here comes another battle. Here come
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>95]</SPAN></span>
the warriors.” They say this because the killer whales
are always after seals. The killer whale which always
swims ahead is the red killer whale, called the “killer
whale spear” because it is long and slender.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>96]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap37" id="chap37"></SPAN>FUTURE LIFE</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i> (<i>Wrangell</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">A</span>FTER Raven had created people, a man died.
Raven came into his house and saw his wife and
children weeping around him. Raven raised
with both hands the blanket of the dead man and held
it over his body. So he brought him back to life.</p>
<p>Now Raven and the man both told the woman there
was no death. She would not believe them. Then
Raven said to her, “Lie down and go to sleep.”</p>
<p>When the woman slept she saw a wide trail. There
were many people on it and many fierce animals. Good
people had to pass this trail in order to live again. At
the end of the trail there was a broad river, and a canoe
came to her from the other side. When she crossed the
river, people came to her. They said, “You had better
go back. We are not in a good place. We are hungry
here and can get no water to drink. We are cold.”</p>
<p>That is why people burn the bodies of the dead and
place food in the fire for them to eat. If they were not
burned their spirits would be cold. That is why food
and drink are given to them at the feast of the dead.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="davidson" id="davidson"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla42.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="456" alt="" /> <div class="caption">Face of Davidson Glacier</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="graveyard" id="graveyard"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla43.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="375" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">From photograph loaned by the Smithsonian Institution</div>
<div class="caption">“The Land of the Dead”—Graveyard at Rasboinsky</div>
</div></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>97]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap38" id="chap38"></SPAN>THE LAND OF THE DEAD</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Lower Yukon</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> YOUNG woman on the Lower Yukon died.
When she died she went to sleep for a while.
Then some one shook her arm and said, “Get
up. Do not sleep. You are dead.” Then she saw she
was in her grave box and the shade of her grandfather
was shaking her. Then she went with her grandfather
back to the village, but the country she knew had disappeared.
In its place was a strange village which
reached as far as the eye could see.</p>
<p>As she entered the village, the old man told her to go
into one of the houses. As soon as she entered it, a
woman picked up a stick of wood and raised it to strike
her. The woman said, “What do you want here?”</p>
<p>So the young woman ran out, crying to her grandfather.
He said, “This is the village of the dog
shades. Now you see how living dogs feel when
beaten by people.”</p>
<p>They came to another village. Here she saw a man
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>98]</SPAN></span>
lying on the ground with grass growing up through his
joints. He could move, but he could not rise. The
grandfather said this shade was punished for pulling up
and chewing grass stems when he was on earth. Then
the grandfather suddenly disappeared.</p>
<p>The girl followed a trail to another village, but she
came to a swift river. This river was made up of the
tears of people who on earth weep for the dead. When
the girl saw she could not cross the river, she began to
weep. At once a mass of straw floated down the river
to her. Upon this, as a bridge, she crossed the stream.
Before she reached the village the shades smelled her.
They crowded around her, saying, “Who is she?
Where does she come from?” They looked for the
totem marks on her clothing.</p>
<p>Some one said, “Where is she? Where is she?” and
her grandfather came toward her. He led her into a
house nearby and there was her grandmother. The
old woman asked her if she were thirsty. The girl
looked about and saw only one water vessel made like
those of her own village. This had in it their own Yukon
water. It had been given them at the festival of the
dead by the girl’s father. The other tubs had only the
water of the village of the shades. The old woman
gave the girl a piece of deer fat. This, too, had been
given at the festival of the dead. Then the
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>99]</SPAN></span>
grandmother explained that the guide had been the grandfather
because the last person thought of by a dying
person hurries away to show the road to the new shade.
Thoughts are heard in the land of the shades.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>100]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap39" id="chap39"></SPAN>THE GHOST LAND</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>HE young wife of a chief’s son died and the
young man was so sorrowful he could not sleep.
Early one morning he put on his fine clothes
and started off. He walked all day and all night. He
went through the woods a long distance, and then to a
valley. The trees were very thick, but he could hear
voices far away. At last he saw light through the trees
and then came to a wide, flat stone on the edge of a lake.</p>
<p>Now all the time this young man had been walking
in the Death Trail. He saw houses and people on the
other side of the lake. He could see them moving
around. So he shouted, “Come over and get me.” But
they did not seem to hear him. Upon the lake a little
canoe was being paddled about by one man, and all the
shore was grassy. The chief’s son shouted a long
while but no one answered him. At last he whispered
to himself, “Why don’t they hear me?”</p>
<p>At once a person across the lake said, “Some one is
shouting.” When he whispered, they heard him.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="perry" id="perry"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla44.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="432" alt="A simple wooden cross and an abandoned sled on a hillside" /> <div class="caption">Perry Island, Bogosloff Group, Newly Risen from the Sea</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="deathtrail" id="deathtrail"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla45.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="447" alt="" /> <div class="caption">“The end of the Death Trail”</div>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>101]</SPAN></span>
The voice said also, “Some one has come up from
Dreamland. Go and bring him over.”</p>
<p>When the chief’s son reached the other side of the
lake, he saw his wife. He was very happy to see her
again. People asked him to sit down. They gave him
something to eat, but his wife said, “Don’t eat that.
If you eat that you will never get back.” So he did not
eat it.</p>
<p>Then his wife said, “You had better not stay here
long. Let us go right away.” So they were taken back
in the same canoe. It is called Ghost’s Canoe and it is
the only one on that lake. They landed at the broad, flat
rock where the chief’s son had stood calling. It is
called Ghost’s Rock, and is at the very end of the Death
Trail. Then they started down the trail, through the
valley and through the thick woods. The second night
they reached the chief’s house.</p>
<p>The chief’s son told his wife to stay outside. He went
in and said to his father, “I have brought my wife
back.”</p>
<p>The chief said, “Why don’t you bring her in?”</p>
<p>The chief laid down a nice mat with fur robes on it
for the young wife. The young man went out to get his
wife, but when he came in, with her, they could see only
him. When he came very close, they saw a deep
shadow following him. When his wife sat down and
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>102]</SPAN></span>
they put a marten skin robe around her, it hung about
the shadow just as if a person were sitting there. When
she ate, they saw only the spoon moving up and down,
but not the shadow of her hands. It looked very strange
to them.</p>
<p>Afterward the chief’s son died and the ghosts of both
of them went back to Ghost Land.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>103]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap40" id="chap40"></SPAN>THE SKY COUNTRY</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">L</span>ONG ago, a man’s wife was stolen from him. He
cared for her so much he thought he would
follow her. So he began to walk. He thought
he was walking along the beach, but he was following
a wide trail through the woods. He walked on for a
long time with his head bent down, until he saw smoke
ahead. When he came near he saw a woman tanning
a skin. He showed her a necklace he had made. He
said, “I will give you this string if you will tell me
where my wife is.”</p>
<p>The woman said, “She is over at the next camp.”</p>
<p>So he at last reached his wife and stayed there a
long time.</p>
<p>Now the people of this village wanted to kill him.
They kindled a fire and began to drag him to it. He
said, “Oh, how glad I am! I want to die.” Then they
stopped and began to drag him toward the water. The
man said he was afraid of water, so they threw him in.
He came up in the middle of the lake.</p>
<p>People said, “See him. He is looking at us.”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>104]</SPAN></span>
The man laughed. He said, “The water is just
where I like to be.” He said this because he was a
good swimmer and there was much rain in his country.
He stayed in the water all the time he remained in
that country.</p>
<p>Now all this while the man and his wife had really
been in the sky. Now they wanted to get down. They
started back to the house of a certain woman. She was
the spider. The house was her web. The woman put
them into a web and began to lower them to the earth.
Before they started, the woman said, “If you get
caught on anything, jerk backward and forward until
the web comes loose.” She thought they might get
caught on the edges of the clouds. So the man and his
wife reached the earth safely and the web was drawn
up into the sky.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>105]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap41" id="chap41"></SPAN>THE LOST LIGHT</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Port Clarence</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">O</span>NCE upon a time, all the people were together
in a singing house. While they were dancing
the sun disappeared. No one knew where it
had gone. Because it was so dark, people could not go
hunting and soon their provisions were exhausted.
Then they told the women to mend their clothing carefully
and to make as many boots as possible. These
they put into bags. Then the people set out to search
for the sun.</p>
<p>They followed the seacoast. They travelled so far
they wore out their boots, so they put on new boots from
their bags. Yet it was dark all the time.</p>
<p>After many days they came to a country where were
many, many seals and walrus and deer. The language
of the people was different from their own. After a
while they learned to talk it a little. They asked these
people where to find the sun.</p>
<p>These people said that the sun was far off. Before
they came to the sun’s country they would come to five
places. This was the first place. But in the fourth
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>106]</SPAN></span>
place beyond there lived a woman who kept both the
sun and moon in her house.</p>
<p>So they went on. It was very cold and they ran as
fast as they could because it was so cold. Then their
food gave out. But they reached a country where there
was plenty to eat. Here the people spoke a strange
language. After a while they learned to talk it a little.
These people told them that at the third place they
reached they would find a woman who kept the sun
and moon in her house.</p>
<p>The people ran on. They ran because it was so
very cold. Then when their food was gone, they
reached another country where there was plenty of
food. The language of the people was different from
their own. But after a while they learned to understand
it a little. These people said that at the second
place which they would reach lived a woman named
Itudluqpiaq who had both sun and moon in her house,
but it was doubtful if they would be able to get them.</p>
<p>Then they went on again. They had to run as fast as
they could to keep warm. It was very cold. When
their food was almost gone, they reached the country
of the dwarfs. It was a country with plenty of food,
walrus and seal and deer. The dwarfs tried to run
away when they saw the large men coming. But the
people caught them. The dwarfs said that at the next
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>107]</SPAN></span>
place lived the woman Itudluqpiaq who had both sun
and moon.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="tusks" id="tusks"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla46.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="454" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">Photograph by B. B. Dobbs</div>
<div class="caption">Walrus Tusks</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="shaman" id="shaman"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla47.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="454" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">Copyrighted by Case and Draper</div>
<div class="caption">A Shaman</div>
</div>
<p>As the people ran on from the country of the dwarfs,
they found ice and driftwood in their way. They
kicked it all aside. At that time the people were very
strong and able to lift heavy stones.</p>
<p>After they had run a long way, they saw a singing
house. When they came near, they went very slowly
because they were afraid. At last one of the men tied
his jacket around his waist and his trousers around his
knees. Then he crept cautiously through the entrance
and put his head through the door at the bottom of the
floor. He saw a young woman, Itudluqpiaq, sitting in
the middle of the house toward the rear. Her father
was sitting in the middle of the house on the right-hand
side and her mother on the left-hand side. At the back
of the house, in the right-hand corner on the rafter,
hung a large ball; in the left-hand corner a small ball.</p>
<p>The man whispered, “Itudluqpiaq, we came to ask
you for some light.”</p>
<p>The mother said, “Give them the small ball.”</p>
<p>The man refused the small ball. He asked for the
large one. Then Itudluqpiaq took it down and gave it
a kick. It fell right into the entrance hole.</p>
<p>The people took the ball and ran outside. Then they
tore the ball to pieces and the daylight came out of it.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>108]</SPAN></span>
It was not so warm at once, but it grew warmer day
after day. If they had taken the small ball it would
have been light, but it would have remained cold. The
small ball was the moon.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>109]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap42" id="chap42"></SPAN>THE CHIEF IN THE MOON</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Bering Straits</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">F</span>AR away in the moon lives a great chief and
shamans with strong magic visit him there. A
long time ago a shaman went to visit the great
chief. He flew like a bird up as high as the sky because
of his magic. The sky was a land just like the earth,
only the grass was long, and grew downward toward the
earth. And the grass was filled with snow. When the
wind blows up in the sky it rustles the long grass stems,
hanging downward, and loosens the snow. When the
wind blows the snow loose in the sky, it falls down upon
the earth from the long grass stems, and men call it a
snowstorm.</p>
<p>Up in the sky, among the grass, are many small,
round lakes. At night these shine and men call them
stars.</p>
<p>But the Malemut tribes say that the north wind is the
breath of a giant. When he builds a snow house and
the snow flies from his shovel, then there is a snowstorm
upon earth.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>110]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap43" id="chap43"></SPAN>THE BOY IN THE MOON</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Lower Yukon</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">O</span>NCE upon a time, long, long ago, in a village
on the great river, lived four brothers and a
sister. There was also a small boy who was a
great friend of his sister. The brothers were hunters
and in the fall hunted at sea, but after the Bladder-feast
was over they went to the mountains and hunted reindeer.
But the boy was lazy.</p>
<p>Now the boy fell in love with the girl. One day the
girl took up a dish of meat and berries and went out
of the house. There she saw a ladder leading up into
the sky, with a line hanging down by the side of it.
Taking hold of the line, the girl climbed the ladder
going up into the sky. Then her brothers saw her and
began at once to scold the boy.</p>
<p>The boy caught up his sealskin trousers. Being in a
hurry, he thrust his right leg into them and drew a deerskin
sock upon the other foot as he ran outside the
house. There he saw the girl, far, far up in the sky,
and he began to climb the ladder to her. But the girl
floated far away, the boy following her.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="boxcanyon" id="boxcanyon"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla48.jpg" width-obs="451" height-obs="600" alt="" /> <div class="caption">Box Canyon on White Pass and Yukon Route</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="narrows" id="narrows"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla49.jpg" width-obs="449" height-obs="600" alt="" /> <div class="caption">Near Valdez Narrows</div>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>111]</SPAN></span>
Now the girl became the sun and the boy the moon.
Ever he pursues her but never overtakes her. When the
sun sinks in the west, the moon rises in the east, but
always too late. The moon has no food, and sometimes
almost fades away. Then the sun reaches out the dish
of meat and berries and the moon becomes fat again.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>112]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap44" id="chap44"></SPAN>THE BOY IN THE MOON</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Athapascan</i> (<i>Upper Yukon</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">L</span>ONG ago, in the days of Raven, there was a great
famine. No one in the village had anything to
eat. Then a boy dreamed that they would kill
many caribou. Then the hunters began to find caribou
and to kill them. The boy said when they killed all
the caribou that the leader of the herd must be given
to him. The boy’s uncle gave him caribou, but not
the leader, because he did not believe the boy dreamed
what he said. Then the boy cried two nights because
he did not get the right caribou.</p>
<p>The next morning the boy was gone. Now this boy
wore trousers of marten skin. When they searched for
him, they found only the left leg of his trousers on a
pole in the smoke hole. So they knew the boy had gone
away through the smoke hole.</p>
<p>The boy went up into the moon. He was seen there
the next night. His father and mother knew it was the
boy because the right leg was larger than the left. The
left leg had no trousers because it had been caught in
the smoke hole.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>113]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap45" id="chap45"></SPAN>THE METEOR (?)</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tsetsaut</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> LONG time ago fire was seen coming through
the air from the north. It looked like a huge
animal. Its face was fire. Fire came from its
mouth and also from its back. Flames of fire shot from
its paws. The Thing, moving backward, thundered
through the air.</p>
<p>In the olden times, these monsters came often. Now
they have not been seen for a long time.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>114]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap46" id="chap46"></SPAN>SLEEP HOUSE</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">O</span>NCE a Huna man and his wife were paddling
along in a canoe, about midnight, in search of
seals. The man kept hearing a noise around
his head like that made by a bird. At last he hit the
thing with his hand and knocked it into the canoe. It
was shaped like a bird, only with eyelids hanging far
over, and its name was Ta, Sleep. He gave the bird to
his wife, saying, “Here, you can keep this for your
own.” So she gave it to her relatives who built a house
called Sleep House. All the poles in it were carved
to look like this bird. After that the man got very tired
without being able to sleep. At last he ran away into
the forest.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="frozen" id="frozen"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla50.jpg" width-obs="444" height-obs="600" alt="" /> <div class="caption">Frozen Waterfall</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="windblows" id="windblows"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla51.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="448" alt="A river winding through the landscape" /> <div class="capleft">Photograph by C. L. Andrews</div>
<div class="caption">“The wind blows over the Yukon”</div>
</div></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>115]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap47" id="chap47"></SPAN>CRADLE SONG<SPAN name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</SPAN></h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Koyukun</i></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><SPAN name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></SPAN><span class="label"><SPAN href="#FNanchor_4_4">[4]</SPAN></span>
Transcribed by J. A. Dall.</p>
</div>
<div class="poemcenter">
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<p class="cap">THE wind blows over the Yukon,<br/>
<span class="i3">My husband hunts the deer on the Koyukun Mountains.<br/></span>
<span class="i3">Ahmi, Ahmi, sleep, little one.<br/></span></p>
</div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">“There is no wood for the fire.<br/></span>
<span class="i0">The stone axe is broken, my husband carries the other.<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Where is the sun-warmth? Hid in the dam of the beaver, waiting the spring-time?<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Ahmi, Ahmi, sleep, little one, wake not!<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">“Look not for ukali, old woman.<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Long since the cache was emptied, and the crow does not light on the ridge pole!<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Long since my husband departed. Why does he wait in the mountains?<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Ahmi, Ahmi, sleep, little one, softly.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>116]</SPAN></span>
<span class="i0">“Where is my own?<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Does he lie starving on the hillside? Why does he linger?<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Comes he not soon I will seek him among the mountains.<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Ahmi, Ahmi, sleep, little one, sleep.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">“The crow has come, laughing,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">His beak is red, his eyes glisten, the false one.<br/></span>
<span class="i0">‘Thanks for a good meal to Kuskokala the shaman.<br/></span>
<span class="i0">On the sharp mountain quietly lies your husband.’<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Ahmi, Ahmi, sleep, little one, wake not!<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">“‘Twenty deer’s tongues tied to the pack on his shoulders;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Not a tongue in his mouth to call to his wife with.<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Wolves, foxes, and ravens are tearing and fighting for morsels.<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Tough and hard are the sinews; not so the child in your bosom?’<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Ahmi, Ahmi, sleep, little one, wake not!<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">“Over the mountain slowly staggers the hunter.<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Two bucks’ thighs on his shoulders, with bladders of fat between them.<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Twenty deer’s tongues in his belt. Go, gather wood, old woman!<br/></span>
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>117]</SPAN></span>
<span class="i0">Off flew the crow,—liar, cheat, and deceiver!<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Wake, little sleeper, wake, and call to your father!<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">“He brings you backfat, marrow, and venison fresh from the mountain.<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Tired and worn, he has carved a toy of the deer’s horn,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">While he was sitting and waiting long for the deer on the hillside.<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Wake and see the crow, hiding himself from the arrow!<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Wake, little one, wake, for here is your father!”<br/></span></div>
</div></div>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>118]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap48" id="chap48"></SPAN>PROVERBS</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tsimshian</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> DEER, although toothless, may accomplish something.<SPAN name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</SPAN></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><SPAN name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></SPAN><span class="label"><SPAN href="#FNanchor_5_5">[5]</SPAN></span>
Deceptive appearances.</p>
</div>
<p>He is just now sleeping on a deerskin.<SPAN name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</SPAN></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><SPAN name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></SPAN><span class="label"><SPAN href="#FNanchor_6_6">[6]</SPAN></span>
Comfort now but trouble ahead.</p>
</div>
<p>He wants to die with all his teeth in his head.<SPAN name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</SPAN></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><SPAN name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></SPAN><span class="label"><SPAN href="#FNanchor_7_7">[7]</SPAN></span>
Too reckless to live to old age.</p>
</div>
<p>You think Nass River is always calm.<SPAN name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</SPAN></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><SPAN name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></SPAN><span class="label"><SPAN href="#FNanchor_8_8">[8]</SPAN></span>
Foolhardiness of those who think everything favorable to them.
The mouth of the Nass is very rough.</p>
</div>
<p>You mistake the corner of the house for the door.<SPAN name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</SPAN></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><SPAN name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></SPAN><span class="label"><SPAN href="#FNanchor_9_9">[9]</SPAN></span>
A gross blunder.</p>
</div>
<p>What will you eat when the snow is on the north side of the trees?<SPAN name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</SPAN></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><SPAN name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></SPAN><span class="label"><SPAN href="#FNanchor_10_10">[10]</SPAN></span>
Improvidence. At the end of winter food is always scarce.</p>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="chilkoot" id="chilkoot"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla52.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="454" alt="More than one hundred figures walk in single file through the snow" /> <div class="capleft">Copyright, 1898, by E. A. Hegg</div>
<div class="caption">Travellers over the Chilkoot Pass (1891) after the Discovery of Gold</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="cutoff" id="cutoff"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla53.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="600" alt="" /> <div class="caption">Looking Down Cut-off Canyon from below White Pass Summit</div>
</div></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>119]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap49" id="chap49"></SPAN>HOW THE FOX BECAME RED</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Athapascan</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">O</span>NCE Fox, when very hungry, was travelling
through the country. All at once he saw a
goose with many goslings. Fox ran after them.
As he ran he sang,</p>
<div class="poemcenter">
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">“I shall have your tender breasts before I go to sleep;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">I shall have your tender breasts before I go to sleep.”<br/></span></div>
</div></div>
<p>As Fox ran toward them, the geese came to water
and plunged in. Fox followed slowly along the edge
of the water. When he saw he could not get the geese,
Fox became so angry he turned red all over—all except
the tip of his tail.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>120]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap50" id="chap50"></SPAN>BEAVER AND PORCUPINE</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tsimshian</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">N</span>OW Beaver was the friend of Porcupine.
Much they loved each other. Then Beaver
invited Porcupine to his house on the large
lake. There in the very middle of the lake was the
house of Beaver. Now Beaver, on his part, liked the
water, but Porcupine had no way to go from the shore
to the lake, because he knew not how to swim. Therefore
feared Porcupine that he should die should his
stomach be filled with water, because he knew not how
to swim. Therefore this did Beaver: from the lake to
the land he went for Porcupine. Only twice rose
Beaver above the water, going to where Porcupine was
sitting on the shore.</p>
<p>Then said Beaver to Porcupine, “I carry you. Fast
hold my neck.”</p>
<p>Porcupine was afraid. He said to Beaver, “I might
die.”</p>
<p>“You shall not die.” Thus said the Beaver to the
Porcupine.</p>
<p>Then went up Porcupine to the back of Beaver.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>121]</SPAN></span>
Beaver said, “Fast hold my neck.”</p>
<p>Thus did Porcupine. Then swam Beaver out on the
water. But not long did he swim. Beaver dived.
Then much troubled was Porcupine because he knew
not how to swim. Now the Beavers really own the
country of the water, but among the mountains is the
country of Porcupine.</p>
<p>Twice rose Beaver above the water. Then reached
he the middle of the great lake where floated his home.
But much troubled was Porcupine, lest he die in the
water. Then they entered the house of Beaver. Then
they ate. Now this for food had the Beaver: sticks
were the food for his feast. Then really troubled was
the Porcupine, there to eat sticks. Yet Porcupine ate
the stick.</p>
<p>Well, then one day, said Beaver to Porcupine:
“Friend, now we play.”</p>
<p>Then said Beaver how he would play: “I carry you.
Four times I emerge from the water.”</p>
<p>“Surely I die.” Thus said the heart of Porcupine.
Yet he agreed.</p>
<p>Beaver said, “Fast hold to my neck. Lie close
against the nape of my neck.”</p>
<p>Then was ready the heart of Porcupine to die. Then
dived Beaver. Yet first struck he the water with his
tail. Thus he first splashed water into the face of
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>122]</SPAN></span>
Porcupine. Then dived Beaver. Long was he under water.
Then a little dead was Porcupine. His stomach
was full of water. Three times the Beaver rose from
the water. Then only once more remained. Then
again dived Beaver. Almost dead was Porcupine.
Then with him he returned. From lake to land he took
him.</p>
<p>Then Porcupine went back to his tribe. When again
he reached his tribe, to his house he invited the people.
Then into the house of Porcupine went the invited ones.
Then he told them what Beaver had done in his great
house on the lake. He told the people what Beaver,
who had invited him, had done. He said, “Almost
dead was I through my friend.”</p>
<p>Then said his people, “Good! You also invite him.
Also play with him.”</p>
<p>This did Porcupine. He also invited Beaver, his
friend. To the house of Beaver did he send. Then
came Beaver into the valley. Up he went. Then came
he to the house of Porcupine. Then this did Porcupine:
when Beaver entered into the house, Porcupine
struck on the fireplace with his own tail. Then it
burnt. Then Beaver made a song:</p>
<div class="poemcenter">
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">“In the middle burnt the tail of little Porcupine, pa!<br/></span>
<span class="i0">In the middle burnt the tail of little Porcupine.”<br/></span></div>
</div></div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="dogteam" id="dogteam"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla54.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="450" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">Copyrighted by B. B. Dobbs</div>
<div class="caption">Dog Team with Record of 412 Miles in 72 Hours</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="husky" id="husky"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla55.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="431" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">Courtesy “Alaska-Yukon Magazine”</div>
<div class="caption">Siberian Husky</div>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>123]</SPAN></span>
Then ran Porcupine around in front of Beaver to play
with his friend. Now when this was finished, what
did the Porcupine? He got food for the Beaver to eat.
Then this did the Porcupine: bark of a tree and leaves
of a tree did he give him for a feast. Then, on his part,
Beaver was afraid to eat. Then this said the Porcupine
to his great friend, Beaver: “Eat fast, friend. Eat
fast, friend.” Then so did the Beaver.</p>
<p>Then said Porcupine, “Friend,”—thus said he to
Beaver—“to-morrow morning we play, you and I.
There stands a tree on a grassy slope. There is my
playground.”</p>
<p>Then they slept. But Porcupine sang,</p>
<div class="poemcenter">
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">“Now along the edge I walk . . . out falls my shooting star.”<br/></span></div>
</div></div>
<p>Then spoke Porcupine to the sky, and the sky did so.
Clear became the sky. The ground was ice in the
morning.</p>
<p>Now again Porcupine invited the people to a feast
for great Beaver. Then Porcupine said, “We play,
friend. There stands my playground.”</p>
<p>Now very sharp was the cold. The ground was ice.
Where water ran down, slippery was it with ice. But
Beaver followed Porcupine. Then again was Beaver
troubled. Always slippery were his hands, but long
were the claws of Porcupine. Then Porcupine
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>124]</SPAN></span>
returned to see great Beaver. Then said Porcupine,
“Come, do it, friend.” Thus said Porcupine to great
Beaver. But the Beaver could not cross, because icy
was the mountain. Then this did the Porcupine: he
took the hands of Beaver, then across he led him. Thus
across he got. Porcupine was going to play with
Beaver, just as he also did once. So they reached the
place where stood the tree.</p>
<p>“Good! Go up!” Thus said Porcupine to Beaver.
Then much troubled was Beaver. He was afraid.</p>
<p>“Well! See!” Thus said Porcupine. So Porcupine
went up first. Up he went to the very top. Then
he let go the top of the tree. As soon as he dropped,
this he said, while coming down:</p>
<div class="poemcenter">
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">“An-de-be-laq! An-de-be-laq!”<br/></span></div>
</div></div>
<p>Then he dropped on a stone, but arose. Not dead was
he!</p>
<p>Then said Porcupine to Beaver, “See, friend! It is
not hard.”</p>
<p>Then up on the tree carried he Beaver. He said,
“Fast hold to my neck.” And very fast he held to the
neck of Porcupine. Then when Porcupine reached
near the top of the tree, he put Beaver on a branch.
Then greatly afraid was Beaver for his hands were not
good for holding fast to a tree. Only a Porcupine
knows that, because long are his claws.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>125]</SPAN></span>
Then thus said Porcupine: “Really hold fast, friend.
I go down first.” The Beaver did so. All around the
branch were his hands. Then Porcupine let go the tree.
Into space he went. Again he said,</p>
<div class="poemcenter">
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">“An-de-be-laq! An-de-be-laq!”<br/></span></div>
</div></div>
<p>Then once more he dropped on the stones, but not dead
was he!</p>
<p>Much troubled was the heart of great Beaver, in
holding the branch. Much troubled was he at falling.
Then about the foot of the tree ran Porcupine. Then
up he looked to where was his friend. Thus said Porcupine:
“Go on, friend. It is not hard. Look at me.
Not dead am I because I fell!”</p>
<p>Then Beaver let go the branch. Thus said Beaver as
he fell,</p>
<div class="poemcenter">
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">“Loop! Lo-op!”<SPAN name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</SPAN><br/></span></div>
</div></div>
<div class="footnote">
<p><SPAN name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></SPAN><span class="label"><SPAN href="#FNanchor_11_11">[11]</SPAN></span>
“Stone! Stone!”</p>
</div>
<p>Then Beaver struck the rocks. He lay on his back. He
was dead.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>126]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap51" id="chap51"></SPAN>THE MARK OF THE MARTEN</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Athapascan</i> (<i>Upper Yukon</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">L</span>ONG ago a hungry marten went to an Indian
camp. The Indians around the camp fire were
eating salmon. Marten sat still and watched
them. He was hungry and he watched this Indian and
then that. Then an Indian threw at him a piece of
red salmon. It struck Marten on the breast and the
reddish mark is there, even to this day.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="totem" id="totem"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla56.jpg" width-obs="454" height-obs="600" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">Copyrighted by F. H. Nowell</div>
<div class="caption">Totem Poles</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="milking" id="milking"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla57.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="453" alt="" /> <div class="caption">Laplanders Milking Reindeer, near Port Clarence</div>
</div></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>127]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap52" id="chap52"></SPAN>THE WOLVES AND THE DEER</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tsimshian</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">N</span>OW the Wolves had a feast on a prairie at the
mouth of Skeena River. Then invited the
Wolves to the feast all the Deer chiefs. At
once came the invited Deer. At once they sat down on
the prairie face to face with the Wolves.</p>
<p>Then said the Wolves to the Deer, “Laugh ye on the
other side.”</p>
<p>“No,” thus said the Deer to the Wolves, “ye first
laugh.”</p>
<p>“Well,” said the Wolves at once, “then we will
laugh. <i>Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!</i> Go on, ye also. Ye also, on
the other side, laugh.”</p>
<p>“Well,” said the Deer. Then they laughed, “<i>Mm,
mm, mm, mm, mm!</i> Again also ye must laugh.”</p>
<p>“Well.” At once again laughed the Wolves: “<i>Ha,
ha, ha, ha, ha!</i>”</p>
<p>At once the Deer were much afraid when they saw
the great teeth of the Wolves. Then again said also
the Wolves, “Go on! Laugh again, ye on the other side.
Keep not your mouths closed when ye laugh. Not so
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>128]</SPAN></span>
does any one laugh. Open wide your mouths when ye
laugh.” Thus said the Wolves. “Now, laugh ye!”</p>
<p>At once then laughed the Deer: “<i>Ha, ha, ha, ha,
ha!</i>” Thus laughed the Deer, opening their mouths.
But they had no teeth. Then the Wolves saw that the
Deer had no teeth. At once they attacked them. At
once the Wolves bit them all over. At once they ate the
Deer. Only a few escaped. Therefore now are the
Deer afraid of Wolves.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>129]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap53" id="chap53"></SPAN>THE CAMP ROBBER<SPAN name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</SPAN></h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Athapascan</i> (<i>Upper Yukon</i>)</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><SPAN name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></SPAN><span class="label"><SPAN href="#FNanchor_12_12">[12]</SPAN></span>
The camp robber is the slate-colored Alaskan jay, troublesome
for its habit of stealing food from the camps.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="dropcap">N</span>OW in the days of the animal people, the camp
robber was a medicine man. One time the
people had nothing to eat, so they asked the
medicine man to find food for them. Therefore for six
nights the men dreamed of a way to find food. The
camp robber was the sixth man. He dreamed on the
sixth night. Then he called all the people together and
told them to bring their snares with them. He took
all the snares, make a pack of them, and put them on his
back. But the people heaped up the snow in a great
pile. Around this snow pile the camp robber walked,
chanting and singing “By and by meat will come.”
Thus he sang.</p>
<p>Then the camp robber reached into the snow and
pulled out a caribou’s head by the horns. This was not
a real caribou; it was the spirit caribou. So the camp
robber painted the horns and tail red and sent it back
into the snow heap. The next day a great herd of
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>130]</SPAN></span>
caribou came. The one with red horns and tails was
among them.</p>
<p>That is why an Indian never kills a camp robber when
he steals food. He lets him go because he helped to
find food for them in the days of the animal people,
when the camp robber was a medicine man.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="view" id="view"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla58.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="451" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">Photograph by C. L. Andrews</div>
<div class="caption">View of Skagway</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="bering" id="bering"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla59.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="451" alt="" /> <div class="caption">Bering Sea, near Nome</div>
</div></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>131]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap54" id="chap54"></SPAN>THE CIRCLING OF CRANES</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Bering Straits</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">O</span>NE day in the autumn, long, long ago, the cranes
were preparing to go southward. As they gathered
in a great flock, they saw a beautiful girl
standing alone near the village. The cranes wanted to
take her with them. They gathered about and lifted her
on their outspread wings. So they carried her into the
air and far away. Now when the cranes were taking
her up into the air, they circled below her closely so she
could not fall. They also cried in loud, hoarse voices
so that people could not hear her call for help. Therefore
the cranes always circle about in autumn when
preparing to fly southward, and utter loud hoarse cries.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>132]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap55" id="chap55"></SPAN>THE LAST OF THE THUNDERBIRDS</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Lower Yukon</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">L</span>ONG, long ago there were many thunderbirds living
in the mountains, but at last there were only
two left. These birds made their home on the
round top of a mountain overlooking the Yukon. They
hollowed out a great basin on the summit for a nest, and
from the rocky rims they could look down upon a village
upon the river bank.</p>
<p>From this perch the thunderbirds, looking like a
black cloud, would soar away, bringing back to their
young a reindeer in their talons. Sometimes with a great
noise like thunder they swooped down upon a fisherman
in his kayak and carried him away. The man would be
eaten by the young birds, and the kayak broken to bits
in the nest. Every fall the young birds flew away into
the northland, but the old birds remained in the nest.
They had carried away so many fishermen that only
the most daring would go out on the great river.</p>
<p>One day when a fisherman went to look at his traps,
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>133]</SPAN></span>
he cautioned his wife not to leave the house for fear of
the thunderbirds. During the morning, she needed
fresh water and started for the river. A noise like
thunder filled the air, a black shadow fell over her, and
a thunderbird darted down upon her.</p>
<p>When the fisherman returned to his house, people of
the village told him of the thunderbird. He made no
answer. He took his bow and quiverful of war arrows
and started for the mountain. When he reached the
rim of the great nest, he looked in. The old birds were
away. The nest was full of young eagles with fiery,
shining eyes and shrill cries. The hunter fitted a war
arrow, the string twanged, and the arrow killed a young
thunderbird. So the hunter killed them all.</p>
<p>The hunter hid behind a great rock near the nest.
When the old birds came home, the thunder of their
wings was heard even across the great river; their cries
of rage frightened the villagers on the river’s bank.
The mother bird swooped down upon the hunter beside
the rock. Quickly he fitted a war arrow, the string
twanged, and the arrow bit deep into her throat. Then
the mother bird, flapping her wings so that the hills
shook, flew away to the northland.</p>
<p>The father bird circled overhead and then swooped
down upon the hunter. He crouched below the rocks
and the thunderbird’s great talons caught only the rock.
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>134]</SPAN></span>
The hunter fitted a war arrow in his bow, the string
twanged, and the heavy war arrow bit deep under his
great wing. Spreading his wings like a black cloud
in the sky, the thunderbird flew away to the northland.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>135]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap56" id="chap56"></SPAN>HOW THE KIKSADI CLAN CAME TO SITKA</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">L</span>ONG ago, when we were first born, people hated
us. Then the Sky People brought war upon us.
They destroyed us completely. One woman
saved herself; she hid in a hole which she dug under
a log.</p>
<p>Afterward various people came to her. “I wonder
who can tell me about things,” she said. Grizzly Bear
came near her.</p>
<p>“What can you do?” she asked.</p>
<p>“Whenever I catch a man, I slap my paws down
upon him.”</p>
<p>The woman said, “That is nothing.”</p>
<p>Some one in the sun spoke to her. “How am I?”
said a voice.</p>
<p>“What can you do?”</p>
<p>“My father in the sun peeps out through the clouds—the
mottled clouds.”</p>
<p>So the woman married the child of the sun. He lowered
down from the sky a great fort to protect the woman
and her children. When the enemy saw that, they
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>136]</SPAN></span>
came back. The father said, “When the enemy get too
strong, put your minds on me.” So when the enemy
became too strong, the woman and her children put
their minds on Grandfather Sun. He peeped out
through the clouds upon the enemy. It quickly became
smoking hot. The sea water out there boiled. The
enemy ran down quickly into the water and were all
destroyed. Then the water stopped boiling. The
grandchildren of Sun stayed inside their fort.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="eldorado" id="eldorado"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla60.jpg" width-obs="442" height-obs="600" alt="" /> <div class="caption">View of Eldorado</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="whitepass" id="whitepass"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla61.jpg" width-obs="452" height-obs="600" alt="" /> <div class="caption">Scene on the White Pass and Yukon Route</div>
</div></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>137]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap57" id="chap57"></SPAN>ORIGIN OF THE GRIZZLY BEAR CREST</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> LONG time ago when some of the Kagwantan
clan were catching herring at Town-at-mouth-of-lake,
a bear came to the place where they
were fishing. The bear reached down through the
smoke hole and stole the herring they were drying.
Then people said; “Who is this thief that is stealing
our fish?” Because they said that, the grizzly bear
killed all of them. Then the Kagwantan seized their
spears and set out to kill the bears nearby. When they
found them, the bears were lying in holes they had dug
out for themselves. The people said to them, “Come
out here. We will fight it out.” So the bears came out
and the people killed them. They took the skins from
the heads of the bears and preserved them. That is
how the Kagwantan came to use the grizzly bear crest.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>138]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap58" id="chap58"></SPAN>ORIGIN OF THE FROG CREST</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">L</span>ONG ago, a man and his wife were crossing a
large bay near Sitka when it became very foggy.
They could not even see the water around their
canoe. Then, in the thick fog, they heard singing. The
song was:</p>
<div class="poemcenter">
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">We picked up a man;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">We picked up a man;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">You picked up a man.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">They captured a man;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">They captured a man;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">You’ve captured a man.<br/></span></div>
</div></div>
<p>The voice was so strong they could hear it reëcho
among the mountains.</p>
<p>As the fog rose, the song came nearer and nearer. At
last they saw the voice came from a wee little frog.</p>
<p>The man said: “This frog is mine. I shall claim it.”</p>
<p>His wife said, “No, it is mine. I shall claim it.”</p>
<p>Thus they argued. At last the man let his wife
take the frog.</p>
<p>The woman took it ashore, treating it just like a child.
She took it up into the woods, put it down by a lake,
and left it there. That is why the Kiksadi clan at Sitka
claim the frog as their totem.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>139]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap59" id="chap59"></SPAN>ORIGIN OF THE BEAVER CREST</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> YOUNG beaver was captured, long ago, by a
family of the Decitan. It was well cared for,
but it became angry and began to make songs.
Afterward the beaver’s master went through the woods
to a creek and found there two salmon-spear handles,
beautifully carved. They were at the foot of a big
tree. He took them home and when the beaver saw
them he said, “That is my work.”</p>
<p>After a while, something offended the beaver again.
He began to sing just like a human being. Then he
seized a spear and threw it through his master’s chest.
So his master was killed. The beaver thumped its tail
on the ground and the house fell into the ground. The
beaver had dug a great hollow under the house. It is
from this story that the Decitan clan claim the beaver
as their totem and have the beaver crest. They also
have songs composed by the beaver.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>140]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap60" id="chap60"></SPAN>ORIGIN OF THE KILLER WHALE CREST</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Tlingit</i></p>
<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> LONG time ago there was a man named Natsiane
who always quarrelled with his wife. One
day his brothers-in-law took him to an island far
out at sea and left him there.</p>
<p>Natsiane began to think, “What can I do?” As he
sat there thinking, he whittled two killer whales out of
cottonwood bark. He put them into the water and
shouted as the shamans do. They looked as if they
were swimming but when they came to the surface, they
were only cottonwood bark.</p>
<p>Natsiane made two more whales out of alder. He
tried to put the spirit of his clan into them. As he
put them in the water, he whistled four times like a
spirit, “<i>Whu, whu, whu, whu</i>.” When they floated
to the surface they were only alder wood. Then he
tried hemlock, then red cedar. Afterward he tried
yellow cedar. These whales swam right away like large
killer whales. They swam out a long distance. When
they came back they turned into wood.</p>
<p>Then Natsiane made holes in their dorsal fins, seized
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>141]</SPAN></span>
one of them with each hand, and let the killer whales
tow him out to sea. He said to them, “If you see my
brothers-in-law in canoes, you are to upset them.”
After the whales had towed Natsiane to sea for some
distance, they returned to the island. They became
wood again.</p>
<p>The next time Natsiane saw his brothers-in-law in
their canoes, he put the spirit of his clan into the killer
whales. Then they overturned the canoes and broke
them to bits. They killed the people in them. After
that Natsiane said to his killer whales, “You are not
to injure people again. You must be kind to them.”</p>
<p>So these two killer whales became the canoes of the
spirits. Shamans are lucky if they can get the spirit
canoes.</p>
<p>It is through this story that the Daqlawe clan have
the killer whale crest.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>142]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap61" id="chap61"></SPAN>THE DISCONTENTED GRASS PLANT</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Eskimo</i> (<i>Bering Straits</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">N</span>EAR the village of Pastolik, at the mouth of
the Yukon, grows a tall, slender grass which
the women weave into baskets and mats.</p>
<p>A grass-stalk which had almost been pulled up by
the women became much frightened. He wished he
were something else. Close to him was a bunch of
herbs, living peacefully and quietly. Grass said, “I
wish I were an Herb.” At once it became an Herb,
and lived peacefully.</p>
<p>One day the women came back with sharp-pointed
picks, made from the antlers of the reindeer. They
began to dig up the herbs and to eat some of the roots.
Again Grass was frightened. He saw a small creeping
plant nearby, very small and obscure. Grass said, “I
wish I were a Creeping Plant.” At once he became a
small Creeping Plant.</p>
<p>The women came back again and tore up much of the
small creeping plant. Grass became much worried.
He said, “I wish I were that small Tuber-plant there.”
At once he became a plant having a tuberous root.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="cotton" id="cotton"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla62.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="452" alt="" /> <div class="capleft">Courtesy “Alaska-Yukon Magazine”</div>
<div class="caption">Alaska Cotton on the Tundra, near Nome</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="hat" id="hat"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/mla63.jpg" width-obs="455" height-obs="600" alt="A young man wears a crested hat" /> <div class="capleft">Copyrighted by Case and Draper</div>
<div class="caption">A Crested Hat</div>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>143]</SPAN></span>
Soon a small tundra mouse came creeping through
the grass, and began nibbling at one of the tubers nearby.
Grass thought, “I will not be safe until I become
a Mouse.” At once Grass became Mouse.</p>
<p>He felt quite free as Mouse, and ran around over the
tundra, nibbling at roots. Sometimes he would sit up
on his hind legs and look about him. While travelling
along, Mouse saw a great white Thing coming toward
him. Sometimes it dropped to the ground, and after
eating something would fly on. As it came near, Mouse
saw it was a great white owl. Owl saw Mouse and
darted down upon it, but Mouse slipped into a hole
nearby and Owl flew away.</p>
<p>Mouse was very badly frightened by this. When he
came out of his hole, he said, “I will be Owl. Then
I will be safe.” At once he became a beautiful white
Owl. With slow, noiseless wing he flew toward the
north, stopping now and then to catch and eat a mouse.
After a long flight, he came in sight of Sledge Island.
Owl thought he would go there. When far out at sea,
he became very tired. He could hardly reach the shore.</p>
<p>As he rested on a piece of driftwood on the sand, two
men passed along the shore. Owl thought for a while.
Then he said, “I will be a Man.” At once he became
a fine-looking young man, but he had no clothing.
Night came on and the air became cool. Man sat down
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>144]</SPAN></span>
with his back against the piece of driftwood and slept
there until morning. When the sun arose he awakened.
He felt lame and stiff from the cold night air.</p>
<p>Looking about him, Man found some grass which
he wove into a loose robe, which helped to keep out
the cold. Suddenly he saw reindeer near him. He
crept on hands and knees close to one, seized it by the
horns and broke its neck with a single effort. He carried
the reindeer on his back to his sleeping place. He
felt all over the reindeer’s body but its skin was too thick
for his fingers to break an opening. For a long time he
thought. Then he saw near him a sharp-edged stone.
He picked it up and found he could cut the skin with it.
So Man skinned the deer. But he had no fire with
which to cook it. Looking around, he saw two round
white stones upon the beach. Striking them together,
he saw they gave out sparks. He then found some dry
wood and scraped off bits. With the wood and the
stones he made a fire, and roasted some of the meat.</p>
<p>Man tried to swallow a large piece of meat, as he
had done when he was Owl, but he could not do it. He
had to cut it with the sharp-edged stone into smaller
pieces.</p>
<p>The next day he killed another reindeer and skinned
it. And the next day another. Then the nights became
so cold he wrapped the skins upon him. When they
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>145]</SPAN></span>
dried, they became as part of his body. But the nights
became still colder, and the days were colder. Then
Chunuhluk, the man, found some driftwood and made
a rough hut.</p>
<p>After finishing his hut, Chunuhluk was walking over
the hills one day when he met a strange black beast
among the blueberry bushes. Chunuhluk did not know
what to do, but at last he caught it by the hind legs.
The black thing turned around with a growl and
showed its white teeth. Chunuhluk quickly caught the
bear by the heavy hair and threw it to the ground so it
lay quiet. Then he killed it. Then he threw it across
his shoulders and went home. Then he skinned it.</p>
<p>When Chunuhluk skinned the bear, he found it had
much fat. He thought it might burn. His hut was
very dark. So he went along the beach until he found
a flat stone with a small hollow in it. He put the oil
from the fat in this; then he put in a bit of dry moss and
set the end of the moss on fire. Then his hut was
lighted very well.</p>
<p>Chunuhluk also hung the bearskin in the opening of
the door to keep out the cold. So he lived many days.</p>
<p>But at last Chunuhluk became lonely. Then he remembered
the two men who had passed him when he
was Owl. He went in search of people. At last he
found two new kayaks at the foot of a hill, with spears,
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>146]</SPAN></span>
lines, floats, and other hunting implements. Then he
saw a path nearby. On the top was a house. On the
ground around were several dead white whales.
Chunuhluk crept cautiously into the entrance way and
up to the door. He lifted the corner of a skin and saw
a young man working on some arrows. He stepped in
very quietly. The young man raised a bow and arrow
to shoot, but Chunuhluk said, “I have come, brother.”</p>
<p>The young man said gladly, “Are you my brother?
Come and sit beside me.”</p>
<p>At first the young man was very glad. He taught
Chunuhluk all things. Then at last he became jealous
of him. Then Chunuhluk became scornful. He said
one day, “You cannot kill anything without a bow and
arrow. I can kill with my hands alone.” Then the
brother became still more angry.</p>
<p>One day both were out on the water in their kayaks.
The young man said, “Now let us see who can gain the
shore first.” They both reached the beach at the same
time. Then the young man said, “You are no more my
brother. You go in that direction and I will go in this.”
So they parted angrily. As they went, Chunuhluk
turned into Wolverine and his brother became Gray
Wolf. To this day they wander in the same country,
but never together.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>147]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap62" id="chap62"></SPAN>THE WIND PEOPLE</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Koryak</i> (<i>Siberia</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>T was at a time when the Creator lived. Once a
violent snowstorm broke out and it blew incessantly.
Creator got ready to go to Wind Man’s
village to find out why the storm raged so constantly.
He took a skin boat instead of a sledge. He hitched to
it mice instead of reindeer. Then he started.</p>
<p>He came to the village of the Wind People. All the
people surrounded him and laughed at his sledge and
reindeer. “How will you carry off our presents on
such reindeer?” they asked.</p>
<p>Creator said, “Just put them into the boat and never
mind how I carry them off.”</p>
<p>The Wind People took out all the food and clothes
they had and loaded the skin boat heaping full.
Creator drove back his mice which dragged the loaded
skin boat home. Then he returned to the village of
the Wind People. They loaded his skin boat again and
he carried off everything they had. Then Creator’s
mice gnawed the straps off all the sledges and harness
of the Wind People. Thus the Wind People could not
drive any more and the snowstorm ceased. That’s all.</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>148]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chap63" id="chap63"></SPAN>TRICKS OF THE FOX</h2>
<p class="nation"><i>Koryak</i> (<i>Siberia</i>)</p>
<p><span class="dropcap">O</span>NE day Fox said to his children, “I am going
to get some eggs.” He went to the woods and
saw Eagle’s nest high up in a tree. He put
some grass stalks into his ears, knocked with them on
the tree, and said to Eagle, “Throw me down an egg.
If you don’t, I will knock the tree over with these
stalks and break it.”</p>
<p>Eagle became frightened and threw down an egg.</p>
<p>“Throw down another,” said Fox.</p>
<p>“That’s enough,” said Eagle. “I will not throw
down any more.”</p>
<p>Fox said, “Throw it down. If I knock down the
tree, I’ll take them all.”</p>
<p>Eagle was frightened and threw down another egg.
Then Fox laughed and said, “I fooled you nicely.
How could I have knocked down a whole tree with
these small grass stalks?”</p>
<p>Eagle became angry. He threw himself upon Fox,
grasped him with his talons, lifted him high in the air,
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>149]</SPAN></span>
flew far out to sea and threw him down upon a lonely
island.</p>
<p>Fox remained on that island. He lived there and
thought to himself, “Am I really going to die on this
island?”</p>
<p>Fox began to sing shamans’ songs. Seals, walrus, and
whales appeared near the island. “What are you singing
about?” they asked Fox.</p>
<p>“This is what I was singing about,” said Fox. “Are
there more animals in the waters of the sea or on the
dry land?”</p>
<p>“Certainly there are more in the waters of the sea,”
so the Sea People replied.</p>
<p>“Well, let us see,” said Fox. “Come up to the surface
of the water and form a raft from this island to
the land. Then I will take a walk over you and count
you all.”</p>
<p>The Sea People all came up to the surface of the
water and formed a raft. Fox ran over their backs, pretending
to count them. But as soon as he reached land,
he jumped ashore and went home. That’s all.</p>
<p class="end">THE END</p>
</div>
<div class="bbox">
<p><b>Transcriber’s Note</b></p>
<p>Variations in spelling are preserved as printed.</p>
<p>The following amendments have been made:</p>
<div class="amends">
<p>Frontispiece <SPAN href="#costume">caption</SPAN>—Tinglit amended to Tlingit—<span class="smcap">Tlingit Indians in Dancing Costume</span></p>
<p>Page <SPAN href="#Page_xiii">xiii</SPAN>—Tinglit amended to Tlingit—Tlingit Indians in Dancing Costume</p>
<p>Page <SPAN href="#Page_19">19</SPAN>—beak-mast amended to beak-mask—Then Raven pulled down his beak-mask, ...</p>
</div>
<p>The frontispiece illustration has been moved to follow the title page. Other
illustrations have been moved where necessary so that they are not in the middle
of a paragraph.</p>
</div>
<SPAN name="endofbook"></SPAN>
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