Sacred Texts Native American Northwest Index Previous Next
A chief's wife pretends to be dead and is buried on a tree. Her lover goes to see her in the grave box. They are discovered and killed by the chief. The dead woman gives birth to a boy who lives by sucking his mother's intestines. He takes away the arrows of some playing children, and is discovered and taken to the house of the chief, who raises him. The boy and one of his friends kill two birds, put on their skins and fly through a hole in the heavens. The boy goes on alone, assumes the shape of a cedar leaf, drops into a well, and is swallowed by the daughter of the chief in heaven. She gives birth to a boy, who cries for the box in which the sun is kept. The chief sends for it. The boy steals it and becomes Txä'msEm, the Raven. He puts his cap into a cliff. He goes up Nass river and returns because ghosts whistle in front of him. Therefore the water of the river turns back. He then asks the ghosts, who are fishing olachen, for fish. He is refused and makes it daylight, thus driving away the ghosts. Finally Txä'msEm meets his brother, Lôgôbolā', who takes off his hat, thus causing a fog in which Txä'msEm is lost. Lôgôbolā' causes all fresh water to disappear. They have a shooting match and stake the Nass river against the Skeena river. Txä'msEm orders the crows to put his arrow into the goal and to remove Lôgôbolā''s. Thus he wins by fraud. They divide the stakes and make the olachen go up Nass river and the salmon up Skeena river. They separate.