[This version of the Raven story contains, besides frequent minor variations, many episodes not found in the Sitka version, and a number of stories usually given independently are incorporated into it. Only the sections that do not occur in the Sitka version are noted at length.]
Raven's mother kept losing her children, until Heron told her to swallow a red-hot pebble. She did so and gave birth to Raven, who was called from that circumstance Hammer-father. Nâs-cA'kî-yêl tried to make human beings out of rock and leaf, but the latter was quicker and man came from it, so there is death. Then he told them that if they lived right there would be a good place for them afterward. One time Raven sent a woman into the other world to convince her that it existed; so she went along the spirit trail and was ferried across a river at the end of it to the ghosts' country. The ghosts told her that they were hungry, thirsty, and cold, so, when she got back she told people to send the dead food and to burn their bodies. Raven taught people to have slaves and shamans, also to make all kinds of hooks, spears, traps, and canoes. He went under the sea and visited all of the fish people, teaching men afterward that fish are really human beings. Then Raven instituted war. Afterward he told the birds what they were to be like. He told what the land otter would do, especially how it would capture men. [Here follows the account of KAka', story 5.] After this, Raven lived in a cliff near Taku with North Wind, and that is why people believe that cliffs are inhabited by spirits. He also taught them the tabus to be used when paddling on the rivers. The killer-whale chief took him into a sweat house and tried to roast him, but Raven outwitted him by concealing a piece of ice near by. He taught the people that there were Athapascans, and he taught the Chilkat people how to keep salmon frozen in storehouses all winter. He taught them also about Indian tobacco.
Now Raven went to Laxayî'k and taught the people there to make skin canoes. A man in that country killed all of his wife's people and kept their hands in a basket in his house. When she found it out the woman asked to be taken to her own town. Her husband left her therewith her children, and they found everyone dead. Then her children made a canoe out of skins taken from the bodies, went to their father's town and made him give up their uncles' hands. Afterward they made his town sink under the sea with everybody in it. Raven instructed the boys how to restore their uncles to life.
One time Raven came to a town inhabited by ghosts and tried to carry off their property, but it was taken back by invisible hands.
[paragraph continues] He went into the interior and lived with two giants successively. He told the second giant how he might kill Wolverine-man by pretending that he had been caught in Wolverine-man's trap. After Wolverine-man had carried him home Raven continued to instruct the giant, and helped him burn Wolverine-man's body, which turned into mosquitoes and gnats.
Coming to another place, Raven found a woman and her daughter living alone, and he told the latter how to make fire with the fire drill, and then told her to eat some of the powder that comes from it. She gave birth to a boy, who was called Fire-drill's-son. When he grew up his father, Fire-drill, gave him a dog, a bow and arrows, and a club, with which he killed Man-with-one-eye, a shaman who had destroyed the people of his village. Then he came to the wife of this man, who killed people by throwing her hand, which had a knife fastened to it, at them, and he destroyed her also. Starting inland. he came to Old-mole-woman, who fed him with food taken from between her teeth, and told him where the hawk lived that had carried away his people. When he reached the place he made the young birds tell him about their father and mother, who came in clouds, and killed them, after which he got ground hogs for the young ones and told them not to eat human beings, any more. After that he left enough food with his mother and grandmother to last them all their lives, and went away from them. Pursuing something called Dry-cloud, he came among the mink and the marten people successively, but did not stop until he reached the wolf people. These became jealous of him and tried to destroy him by getting him to jump through a hoop which cut a person in two if he failed. His dog, however, seized it and threw it up to the moon, where it became the ring that indicates change of weather. Now the man and his friend among the wolves kept on after Dry-cloud and came to an old woman who told them that there was a monster fish near by. On looking at it, they found only a red cod, which Fire-drill's-son killed. He skinned it and dried the skin. After that he married Daughter-of-the-calm, and they had a son named LAkîtcîne', and this man married a woman who had a litter of puppies by the dog. Afterward she found that they were able to take off their dog skins and appear in human form, so she surprised them, gathered together the skins, and burnt them. When LAkîtcîne' saw these children he began to maltreat his wife, and her children jumped upon him and killed him. Then they went through Alaska, killing off harmful monsters. One of these, which was like an eagle, used to forewarn other animals, until they made him promise not to do so. [Here follows the adventure with the one-legged man told in story 3.] Afterward Lq!ayâ'k! chased Dry-cloud across the sky and made the Milky Way. Coming to a very cold region in the sky, he wanted to get down, but the clouds prevented until his
eldest brother, KAck!A'Lk!, opened a passage. After that they wanted to kill a monster near Wrangell, so they borrowed the canoe of He-who-knows-everything-that-happens, and passed many obstacles in it, thereby rendering them harmless, until they came to the monster and tried to catch its head in a noose. All of their nooses broke, however, until they tried one made out of the sinews of a little bird called old-person. After that they returned to their mother and sister and went southward with them through the forest, destroying the forest monsters. Coming to an old blind man whose wife had left him, they taught him how to catch fish in a net and how to cook it. They also met an Athapascan shaman with long hair, and he and KAck!A'Lk! compared the relative strengths of their spirits in the sweat house, KAck!A'Lk!'s proving to be the stronger. So they told the Athapascan not to harm the people in his neighborhood. Then they moved south and tried to cross the Stikine, but their sister, who was menstruant, looked out at them, and they were turned to stone.
One time while Raven was traveling along he came to a sculpin who claimed to be older than he, so he placed it in the sky where it still is (the Pleiades). He also sent a canoe load of halibut fishermen thither. He invited the seal people to a feast, smeared their foreheads with pitch which ran down over their eyes, and then clubbed them. He married the daughter of a chief named Fog-over-the-salmon, who obtained a quantity of salmon for him by simply washing her hands in a basket filled with water. One time he hit her with a piece of dried salmon, and she went away, taking all of the salmon with her. He wanted to marry another high-caste woman, but a bird named tsAgwâ'n told the people bow he had treated his first wife and they rejected him. Going on from there, he turned an old man named DAmnâ'djî into a handsome youth, and told him to marry the girl. This man did so, but on the way home resumed his proper shape. When his wife's people came to visit him, he had to receive them in his miserable hovel because no one else would have anything to do with him. When he went out after water, however, he came to an old woman at the bead of the stream who made him young again, and gave him a basket full of dentalia through which he became rich. Some time afterward his wife wished to marry among the bird people, and at last the brants carried her off, finally dropping her naked. She came to an old woman and obtained some fox skins. She was now really a fox, and let herself be killed by her father. On cutting the fox open, however, they discovered her copper ornaments, and laid her on top of the house, when she revived and became a great shaman.
After this Raven changed himself into a woman, and married the killer-whale chief's son. She stole their food at night, and when her labret was discovered in a box of grease, pretended that it had gone there of its own accord. By and by she killed her husband, and pretended
to mourn over his body while in reality eating him. Raven pretended he was going to make all of the killer whales white, but instead of doing so killed and ate them. Then he came to the fishhawk and began living upon its food, saying that he was going to bring it food in return later on. He tried to live with another bird, also, but the bird left him. He married among the goose people, but they discovered him eating a goose, so they left him. After this Raven was invited to a feast, but did not come at once, and they went on without him. When he did come they paid him no attention, and he had nothing but leavings. Then Raven gave a feast himself, and instituted the feast customs.
Now Raven returned to the house of his grandfather, Nâs-cA'kî-yêl, and liberated the flickers which had been kept under his mother's arms. For this his grandfather tried to kill him by having a tree fall upon him, and a canoe close in on him, and by putting him into a kettle full of water over the fire, successively, but in vain, so, finally he raised a great flood. Raven and his mother climbed from one retaining timber to another in Nâs-cA'kî-yêl's house, which was really the world itself, and finally flew to the highest cloud in the sky and hung there, while his mother floated on the water in the skin of a diver. Then he let go and fell upon a kelp. Next he obtained sea urchins from the bottom of the sea and deceived the woman who controls the tide, so as to make it go down. He and another person tried out grease, and the other for a deceit Raven practised put him inside of a box of grease and kicked him off of a cliff.
All of the people of a Nass town named Gît!î'kc were killed except a chief, his sister, and his sister's daughter. Then the chief got Old-man-who-foresees-all-troubles-in-the-world to help him. This old man gave him an arrow which enabled him to kill many of his enemies, but finally he disobeyed instructions and was himself killed, while his sister and her daughter fled to the woods. Having offered her daughter in marriage and refused all of the animals, this woman finally accepted the sun's son. Then he put his mother-in-law into a tree where she became the echo, and took his wife up to the sky. There she had eight children, who were let down to earth on the town site of Gît!î'kc and were helped by the sun to destroy all of their enemies.
One time a woman of the same town stepped upon some grizzly-bear excrement and was carried away by the bear people. Finally she was helped by an old woman, and ran away. As she went she threw various articles behind her which obstructed her pursuers, and at last she was taken into the canoe of a man named GinAxcAmgê'tk who married her and took her home. Her husband had also for wife a big clam, which killed the new wife, but was in turn destroyed by her husband, who also restored her to life. Finally she went back to her father, but she had really been living under ground all this time and
was very filthy. After a time she gave birth to a boy who was very smart. When he was out fishing he was taken into his father's house and received a magic club which killed of itself. With this he destroyed a giant crab and a giant mussel which used to kill people. By and by this boy had a son, who was very different from him and was called Man-that-eats-the-leavings. At that time the daughter of a chief in a neighboring village said something about the devilfish for which she was carried off by them and married to a devilfish man. Presently her two children came up to visit their grandfather and he learned what had become of her. Then he invited her and her husband and children, and killed the husband, keeping her with them. For this the devilfish made war upon them and suffocated several people, but Man-that-cats-the-leavings happened along and stopped them. Then Man-that-eats-the-leavings lived in a brush house on the beach, and the rest of his story is similar to that of Garbage-man in story 89.
Man-that-eats-the-leavings had a son who was a great hunter. One time, when he was out hunting, he lost consciousness and, coming to, found himself surrounded by several men who taught him the secret-society dances. After a time he went to the Queen Charlotte islands and was told about two youths who had become wizards by sleeping on the beach among driftwood. They would be out all night, flying around among the brants and geese. Finally a man found it out by fasting and drinking sea water, but they paid him not to tell about them. When he got back to Alaska the secret-society man told this story, and wherever it was repeated there began to be wizards.
One time Raven went shooting with some boys, when the canoe was upset and they were drowned, and he changed them into sea birds.
At the southern end of Prince of Wales island he met a man called QonAlgî'c, who had lost everything by gambling, and he enabled him to meet Greatest Gambler and win. So QonAlgî'c renewed the game and got back everything he had lost besides all that his antagonist had owned. Then his opponent's wife left him, and he went away and lived by himself. From a grouse this latter learned of a great medicine-man, who in turn taught him a medicine which would make him a great dancer. He went to another town and pleased people so much by his dances and the songs that he composed that they paid him a great deal of property, and he became wealthy. After a while he taught a chief's son, so that he became a still better dancer, but the boy's father determined that it was best to leave this sort of dancing to low-caste people, reserving the chief's dance for those of high caste.
The man that first learned about dancing was upset in a canoe and became a land-otter-man called Tûts!îdîgû'L, who has very great power. Some time afterward four boys were drawn out to sea after some black ducks, upset there, and taken into the land-otters' dens. A shaman
told the people where they were, and they burned out the dens, killing many otters, but Tûts!îdîgû'L escaped with the boys. Now the land otters made war on human beings, and the bodies of the latter broke out in pimples and sores which were really caused by the spider-crab-shell arrows. At last some people came upon two white land otters, which they carried home and treated as if they were deer (peace ambassadors). Then the land otters came to the town and danced to make peace.
The people of that place were now very happy, but before they could leave it Raven came to them and told them not to go away. When four boys were at last sent, a man came down from the woods and told them that three would die successively, while the fourth would reach home, announce that the shaman was to die, and then perish. Everything happened as he foretold, so that the people were very much frightened and no longer dared to leave town. A child which cried very much was carried away by Man-with-a-burning-hand, and when its parents found it, was lying in a hole in the cliff, and ants were crawling out of its nose, eyes and ears. Now follows a much longer version of story 93, below. Instead of being brought home at once from the sea-lion rock, according to this version the hero was abandoned there and taken into the house of the sea lions, where he cured a wounded sea lion and received a box in return which controlled the winds. Inside of this he drifted ashore. Next follows the story of the monster devilfish (story 11). At Tuxican a girl began to nurse a woodworm, which grew so large that the people became afraid, induced her to come away from it, and killed it. Since then her people, the GânAxte'dî, have used it as a crest. A shaman there named S!âwA'n was sent for by the land otters to cure one of their number, who was carried along concealed under a mat. When they reached their town they tried to make him think that the sick person was in another house, but his rattle and belt ran ashore ahead of him to the right place. Then he cured the sick otter by drawing an arrow point out of its side; soon afterward the shaman was found lying upon a sandy beach not far from his own town with gulls flying about him.
This story is partially identical with story 104. A man named Kakê'q!utê went up among the Athapascans and taught them all sorts of ways of collecting and preserving food. Then he brought them down to the Grass people, who sent them away, so they came to the L!ûk!nAxA'dî. After that the L!ûk!nAxA'dî settled along the coast above Cross sound. One time the GânAxte'dî of Chilkat gave a feast and made a raven hat. The L!ûk!nAxA'dî also made a raven out of coppers, and took it to the Kâ'gwAntân when they went to feast them.
[paragraph continues] War followed with the Chilkat, and at first the L!ûk!nAxA'dî were defeated, but, when they had obtained new spear heads made of iron that had been washed ashore on some wreckage, they renewed the fight, killed Chief Yêl-xâk, and carried off his carved pole. Then the Chilkat went to KAq!Anuwû', and they made peace.
A certain woman disliked her son-in-law very much because he was lazy and fond of gambling. When the people went to camp he split a tree in two, spread it apart, and caught a lake monster. He put on its skin and then began catching fish and sea animals, which he left where his mother-in-law could find them. She thought she was a shaman, and began prophesying what animal would be left next. One time the Raven called just as her son-in-law was coming out of the monster's skin in front of the village, and be died, and, when she found who had been bringing in the animals, his mother-in-law died of shame. After that the man's wife had his body and the skin carried back to the edge of the lake. There he came to life and carried her down into his house at the bottom. He became the GonaqAdê't, and their children are the women at the head of the creeks.
A chief accompanied by his nephews anchored in front of a cliff near the mouth of Nass. During the night all were carried away by the GonaqAdê't except the chief, who was discovered there and brought home. At first the people prepared to wage war in retaliation, but the chief induced them to invite the GonaqAdê't to a feast instead. The latter came, restored the chief's nephews, and gave each of them a headdress, rattle, and songs.
The first part of this is another version of story 94, while the latter part is a version of the last episode in story 105.
A girl offended a snail and was found next morning on the side of a high cliff with a big snail coiled about her. Then her brothers made wings, flew up to her, and brought her down. Afterward they brought food to the people of that town, and finally they became the Thunders.
A woman at Sitka refused to give her mother-in-law herring, and when she held out her hand for some, dropped the hot milt of a male
herring into her hand and burned it. When her son came home the old woman told him. Then the son went out in his canoe, brought in a load of herring, and told his wife to go down and bring it up. She went down without her basket, and began calling to them to bring it to her. As they paid no attention, she kept on calling, and she called all night. Finally her voice changed to the hooting of an owl, and she also changed into an owl.
A little person came out of the felon on a man's finger. He was a hard worker and a fast runner. One time he raced Heron all the way around Prince of Wales island. A certain woman would give her daughter only to the person who should guess to what animal a louse skin she had, belonged. Little Felon helped a young man to guess it and afterward assisted him to overcome various monster animals the woman sent him after. Finally he helped him bring up the old woman's bracelet from under the ocean. By and by this young man and his wife had a quarrel and she disappeared. He went hunting for her and became a beach snipe.
A cliff fell over on some girls, imprisoning all of them. They rubbed grease on the rocks, and the birds inclosed with them pecked at it and pecked a hole through. As the last girl was trying to get out through this aperture the rock closed on her, and her head and breast became the fern root, but her hinder portion the ground hog.
An unsuccessful fisherman on the Queen Charlotte islands finally caught a small halibut which flopped about on the beach, and at last increased so in size that it smashed that town to pieces and the Queen Charlotte islands themselves into numerous fragments.
A young Haida lost his wife, of whom he was so fond that he had an image carved to resemble her. He cherished this for a long time, until it finally came to life, but it neither moved nor spoke much. It gave birth to a flourishing red cedar, and that is why cedars are so fine on the Queen Charlotte group.
An orphan girl named Djîyî'n was very badly treated. One time she determined to stay on an island by herself, and while there she became a shaman and discovered a great quantity of food which made
her rich. By and by the town chief's daughter fell sick and all kinds of shamans were summoned to no purpose. Finally they called Djîyî'n, who found that the wild canary (s!âs!) had bewitched her. She made this bird find the charm and throw it into the sea. Then the bird was taken at its own request to a place some distance from the village, where it disappeared.
All of the people of a certain town on Copper river died of starvation except eight men. These started to walk down to the sea, but fell by the way one at a time. Then the last man came to a self-burning fire which warmed him, and all of his friends came to life and assembled around it.
A boy whose people had died off met a giant and shot him in the mouth, bringing them all back.
Another version of story 6, which differs principally in making the man visit the land-otter town.
A Sitka man was captured and carried south by the land otters. There he met an aunt who had been captured long before, and her husbands brought him back again. He was now a land-otter-man, and annoyed the people so much that they captured him and restored him by harsh treatment to his senses.
During a period of scarcity a chief's nephew received food through the smoke hole, with which he filled the empty food boxes and feasted all of his uncle's people. Then his uncle gave him his younger wife, who had been kind to him.
A poor boy went fishing and pulled up a sack filled with multitudes of salmon.
A version of story 13.
All of the people of a certain village disappeared except a woman and her daughter. The latter swallowed some mucus and gave birth to a boy who grew rapidly. By and by he met a being called Strength, who made him bathe every day, pull up trees, and break rocks, till he was very strong. After that he climbed to the top of a mountain, found a town occupied by wolves, and killed all. He came to another wolf town and obtained the box of his uncles' lives. After he had left this in each house for four days, his people all came to life again.
A man came upon a salmon lying on the beach and was about to take it home, when the salmon spoke to him, telling him to put it into the sea. He did so and afterward caught many salmon. Another time he met a salmon in the same place, which told him to eat it and put the bones of its head under his pillow. In the morning he saw two fine baby boys there. One always stayed at home, but the other was very energetic and started away. He came to an old woman who told him about a seven-headed monster to which they were about to give the chief's daughter. The boy killed this monster and married the girl.
A man was so jealous of his wife that he killed all of his nephews but one by pushing them inside of the shell of a big clam or into the hole of a devilfish. The last of the nephews obtained an eagle-down bracelet which enabled him to turn into a ball of feathers, and with its assistance destroyed both of the creatures. He also escaped in this manner when his uncle pushed him off a high tree. Finally his uncle fastened him on a plank, which be set adrift, but the plank went ashore where two girls lived, and he married them. One of these had been in love with the first boy that was killed. By and by the man returned to his uncle and killed him.
The wife of a Haida youth went with the son of the town chief, and when her husband discovered it he shot him. The slayer, escaping by canoe, was abandoned by his slave on a small reef. He got inside of a sea-lion skin, floated ashore, and was found by a girl among the eagle people, whom he married. All his brothers-in-law gave him eagle skins, in which he went hunting. After a while he learned that his mother had been driven out of town, so he carried all kinds of animals to her. One time he killed a whale and left it in front of her house. The people of the town he had come from found this and began
cutting it up, but he seized the town chief and carried him, along with the other men in that village, who were holding on to one another, far out to sea, where he drowned them.
This is a version of story 24. It differs mainly in the concluding portion, according to which the hero was left on a rock far out at sea and was carried ashore by a sea bird.
All the people of a certain village died except a woman and her son. One time the boy went far inland and got lost. He came to a lake and found a black duck there, which lent him its coat in which to fly home.
Two boys were great playmates, but one of them said something that displeased the moon, and the moon carried him off. Then the other boy shot an arrow into a star in the sky and kept shooting until be had made a chain reaching down to the earth. This turned into a ladder on which he mounted, living on berries borne on branches stuck into his hair. Arrived in the sky country, he met an old woman who told him where to go for his friend and how to get him. Then he went to the moon's house, pulled his friend out from a place near the smoke hole where he had been kept, and placed a cone there to imitate his cries. When the people discovered that their captive was gone, they pursued, but the boys threw behind them some things that the old woman had provided, which turned into great obstacles, and escaped to her house. Afterward, by her direction, they lay down where the second boy had lain, went to sleep there, and, when they woke up, found themselves on the earth below.
A little boy went hunting and came upon a giant with whom he lived for a long time. As the giant was carrying him along they came upon a very small bird, which the boy shot and put into the bosom of his shirt. This bird was so heavy for the giant that he had to throw it away. By and by another giant attacked the first, and would have killed him, but the boy threw his friend's club, made out of a beaver skeleton, at the intruder, and it chewed off his legs, so that he was easily destroyed.
A boy was born with sharp arrow points on his head. He was of so evil a disposition that he killed his own mother and afterward ran
about in the forest, destroying all he met. At last an uncle of his killed him and burned his body, the ashes of which became minute gnats.
A somewhat extreme variant of part of story 4. The hero obtains the favor of the red-cod people by painting them red and of the shark people by painting them black.
A shaman took his friends to a place near Sitka and seated them there facing the sea. Then a large number of killer whales came near and fought a flat fish with sharp edges, called hîn-tayî'cî, which killed all of them except three. Some time later the shaman took them out again and the same thing recurred. The killer whales got devilfishes and a big halibut to assist them successively with like result, but finally they brought a big crab by which the hîn-tayî'cî was destroyed.
A man married the daughter of East Wind, and afterward he married the daughter of North Wind. Everyone thought the latter was very pretty on account of her sparkling clothing, but when the east wind began to blow it disappeared, for it was only frost and icicles.
Some people drained a beaver lake and killed all of the beaver there except one very large one. Some time afterward they went up to that place and heard a woman singing, and on their way down they were all drowned. Most of them were taken captive by the big beaver.
A short version of story 15.
A man who had lost all of his friends did not care to live, so he lay down across a grizzly-bear trail. When the bears came down, however, he invited them to his house to a feast, upon which they went straight back into the forest. Early next day they came down, and he fed them, after which they licked the paint from his breast and arm. Next day the smallest bear came back, told their host that he was a human being who had been carried off by the bears, and interpreted what the bear chief had said in his speech the day before.
Two girls ate between meals, contrary to the tabus, and their mother scratched the inside of the mouth of the elder and scolded them both. Among other things she told them that they could not marry Mountain Dweller. Then the girls ran away, and after wandering for some time, came to Mountain Dweller, who married them. While they were there their mother-in-law killed them because they looked at her while she was eating, but Mountain Dweller killed her in turn and restored them to life. After that they went to their father's town, and their husband accompanied them, carrying a magic basket which contained an enormous amount of food, and yet was made small enough to be carried on his thumb. Afterward they killed their mother in revenge.
A man and his wife hunting near Sitka heard a frog singing. Both claimed it at first, but finally the man let his wife have it, and her people, the KîksA'dî, have used it ever since.
A very successful fur-seal hunter was driven to a rock far out at sea where there was a great abundance of sea animals. After some months he and his companions set out on their return, guiding themselves by the sun. At length they came in sight of the summit of Mount Edgecumbe and later of Verstovaia. They rested on Kruzof island, and then came to Daxê't, where the people were camping, and were received joyfully. The elder of his two wives had grieved for him all this time and was the first to catch sight of him, but the younger had married again and now felt very much ashamed.
A beaver was captured by some of the Dê'citân, who afterward found two spears that it had made. Becoming offended, it killed its master with one of these and then caused the earth on which his house stood to fall in. It had previously made a great excavation underneath.
Almost the same as story 19.
A poor man out hunting was guided by an eagle to a great house up in the woods. This was occupied by eagles, and the man was so happy
among them that he married there and remained with them forever. Then his brothers-in-law gave him an eagle skin with which he caught all kinds of fish. Some of these he left where his mother and brothers could find them, and he told them in a dream what had become of him, and that it was he that was providing them with food. One day they saw him bringing in some fish, and heard him say, "It is I."
A man quarreled so much with his wife that his brothers became ashamed of it and left him on an island out at sea. There be whittled out from various kinds of wood killer whales, to which he endeavored to give life, and was finally successful with yellow cedar. He sent these out to upset his brothers-in-law's canoes and destroy them.
At the time of the flood a grizzly bear and a mountain goat accompanied the Nanyaâ'yî as they were climbing a mountain. Since then they have used those animals as crests.
A youth kicked a frog over on its back and lost his senses. His body was taken home, but his soul had been captured by the frogs. He was tied to a post by them until the chief came home, who upbraided him for having treated one of his own people, also a KîksA'dî, in this manner. Then he let him go, and immediately his body revived. He told his friends all that had happened to him.
A man removed a bone from the mouth of a wolf and next night dreamed that he had come to a fine town where the wolf told him something that would make him lucky.
While members of this clan were out camping, a bear stole some fish by reaching down through the smoke hole. Then they called it a thief, and it became so angry that it destroyed all of them. Afterward the people made war on all of those bears-who were Kâts!'s children (see story 19)--and destroyed them.
A man at Klawak lost all of his property in gambling, and his wife left him. Then he took the sons of his seven sisters and started away by canoe. Finally they settled at Tongass. While there they saw an animal that looked like a bear and shot at it, but it was medicine, and a clayey substance came off on their arrow points, which enabled them to get plenty of game, and which also caused them to become
handsome men. One time they went farther on and came to a Tsimshian town. After that a canoe came to them from their friends, and when these found what had happened to them, all joined them.
A version of story 22.
A girl said something about a fish called L!AL!, and afterward the fish married her. He was a very good polo player, and one time the boys became so jealous of him that they knocked him down and made fun of him. Then the L!AL! told his father-in-law to tie down his house firmly, and went off up stream. There he grew large, lay down across Chilkat river for a while, and then got up, letting the stream sweep all of the houses away except that of his father-in-law.
The spirit of a spruce tree at one end of a village came to a girl and married her, and they had a son. One day the child began calling for its father, and after all the other people had been called in, the tree people were summoned, and the child recognized an old man near the door as its parent.
A girl said something to the fire which offended it, so that it carried her away and married her. After her people had hunted everywhere for her they kept the fires extinguished as much as possible, and she was sent back. For some time she kept going back and forth from her husband to her father and mother, but once her nephew, who was in love with her, seized a spoon that she was holding and her fire husband treated her badly on account of it. She never went back to him.
A poor girl was so smart and painstaking that she married a wealthy man. She became proud, however, and treated her poor adopted brothers ungenerously. By and by her husband died and his relatives took all of his property, leaving her as poor as before.
A man used to cry over his dead wife's incompleted basket. By and by he married again, and one time, when he was playing with his new wife, the basket fell from above over his head and almost strangled him, so that the people were obliged to cut it loose.
The wife of a certain man kept running away from him. One time when be was out hunting, he pursued what he thought was a bear and saw it go into a hole in the side of a cliff. He knew that it was medicine, so he took his slave up to the top of the cliff and let him down in front of it, telling him to reach a dipper in and take whatever came out. With the things so obtained the man compounded a medicine which made his wife want to come back to him, but he refused to take her. It would also bring down any animal he wanted, so that he became very wealthy.
The wife of a Haida youth kept leaving him until he learned from a certain woman how to make her love him. When she tried to come back, however, he refused to take her, and married somebody else.
A youth was in love with his cousin, but she would have nothing to do with him. Finally, in order to please her she made him throw away his clothing and ornaments and pull out all of his hair, after which she left him. Then a loon came to him and restored his hair by diving under water with him. It also gave back his clothing and landed him at another town where be married the daughter of Calm. A long time afterward they went back to his people. Every day while they were there he brought his wife water, and she put a quill into it before drinking to see whether he had been faithful to her. One day the girl he had formerly been in love with seized his hand, and when his wife tried her quill the water was slimy. Then she left him and started to walk home on the surface of the sea. He followed her, but presently she looked round on him and he went down out of sight.
The wife of a certain man pretended to die and was put into the grave box. Then the son of the town chief, with whom she was in love, took her to his father's house and married her. One time her little girl came to that house for fire, saw her, and told her father. Then her father went to the grave box and saw it was empty, and through the smoke hole of the chief's house he saw her playing with the chief's son. Then he made himself a wizard by playing with dead men's bones, flew to the chief's house, and ran two sharp-pointed sticks into the hearts of his wife and her new husband. Next morning he went out gambling.
A girl kicked aside the skull of a dead person, and the following night two boys came to her and she married one of them. This was the man who had owned the skull. The two youths stayed there for a long time. When they hunted they went all through the actions of paddling, spearing, and camping without ever leaving the house. When they pretended to get back, however, their canoe would be found on the beach loaded with fish and seals. They were slowly becoming materialized when another girl became jealous of them and destroyed them by marking the places where they sat with human blood.
After the death of a certain woman her husband, who was very fond of her, started off aimlessly and came by the spirit road to a lake. He shouted to the people on the other side to come over and get him, but they did not hear him until he spoke in a whisper. After he reached the other side he found his wife and started back with her. At first nothing could be seen of her but a shadow, but gradually she became more and more distinct. She was about to resume her proper shape, when a young man who had been in love with her lifted the curtain which was stretched around her and her husband, and both went back to ghost land.
A man whose wife had died felt so lonely that he set out after her along the beach. He soon found himself in a wide trail, and met a woman tanning a skin, who directed him to his wife. The people in the town where she was staying wanted to burn him, but he made them think he was more afraid of being thrown into the water, so he saved himself. They were really in the sky. By and by a spider woman let them down, and they returned home.
A woman was carried away by the grizzly-bear people, escaped, and impeded her pursuers by throwing small objects behind her which changed into great obstructions. Finally she was taken up into the sun in a canoe and married the sun's sons, who made way for her by killing their former cannibal wife above a Tsimshian town. Therefore there are many cannibals among the Tsimshian. At last the woman returned to her parents in a canoe which was like a live grizzly bear. By and by her husbands became angry with her and left her. Then she and her child lived in a brush house covered with filth, at one end of the town. When he got larger her boy shot something in the lake which proved to be his fathers' canoe, and pounded
out all kinds of copper objects from the metal of which it was composed. Then he married the daughter of the town chief and became a great man.
A lazy man was abandoned by his townspeople, who left him nothing except a piece of dried fish which one of his uncle's wives dropped into a post hole. After that a small animal killed all kinds of game for him, and he became wealthy, while the other people were starving. By and by some slaves were sent to burn his body and were feasted by him. They were told not to say anything about him, but one of them concealed a piece of fat for her child and the cries of the infant over this food let the truth be discovered. Then they went to him and he became a great chief. He married the woman who had been good to him, but killed his uncle's other wife and her husband.
A little boy was so badly treated by his uncle's wife that he went off into the woods, made eight nests, like those of the salmon, along the edge of a stream, and spent as many nights in them. So he became a shaman and could bring to himself and destroy all kinds of animals by means of his songs. By and by his uncle searched for him and found him. A spirit called Nixâ' came to him and took him into the fire, and he burned down to a very small size, but his uncle, obeying his directions, took him out, put him into a basket, and so restored him. Afterward be had his uncle send for his wife, but he took the bottom part of her away so that what she ate did her no good. By and by a spirit showed itself in the form of a bear, after the Shaman had been carried into the fire, searing his uncle's wife so that she died, while the uncle forgot to take his nephew out of the fire and let him burn up. At once all of the animals that had been killed came to life and ran away.
All the people of the town to which this shaman had belonged disappeared except a woman and her daughter. The woman called for something to marry her daughter and was answered by the heron, by whom the daughter had a son very fond of hunting. One time he found a fish called hîn-tayî'cî swimming in a pool, reared it, and, when it became as large as himself, killed it and made use of its skin. After a while be went up on one of the two trails on which his uncles had disappeared, saw a finger sticking up there, pulled up the being to which it belonged, and killed it. Then he went along in the other trail, saw a head, and killed the being to which it belonged. Next he went along the beach, came upon a monster devilfish, and killed it by means of his hîn-tayî'cî coat. He killed an enormous rat in the same manner. Then he came to a cannibal woman who offered him human
flesh to eat. When he refused it she throw a mussel shell at him to kill him, but he jumped aside, threw the shell back, and destroyed her. He put her body into the fire and the ashes became mosquitoes. Then he met and killed her cannibal husband.
Another version of story 65.
In a certain town two persons were bathing for strength in order to kill sea lions. One of these, the town chief, bathed in public accompanied by all of the town people, while his nephew bathed during the night only, and lay in bed all day, pretending that he was a weakling. Finally a being called Strength came to the latter and made him so powerful that he was able to accomplish the feats the chief had set himself, namely, to pull the stump of a branch out of a tree and twist another tree down to the base. Having done so, however, he put them into their original positions, and when the chief tried them next he thought that he had become strong. When they started out for the sea-lion islands, they let Kâhâ's!î go along also, and, while the chief was killed, Kâhâ's!î destroyed two big sea lions, one with each hand.
A man saw a woman and two children floating in Auk lake, and he captured one of the children and brought it home. During the night the child gouged out the eyes of all the people living in the village except one woman, and ate them. This woman killed the child, and taking on her back her own child, to which she had just given birth, she went up into the woods and became the L!ê'nAxxî'dAq. As she went along she ate mussels and fitted the shells together.
Another version of story 66.
When the KîksA'dî first reached Sitka some people, called Sky people, killed all of them except one woman who concealed herself in a cave. She called for some one to marry her, and, after having refused all the animals, married the sun's son. By him she had four boys and a girl, and their grandfather placed them inside of a fort which he let down on the site of their former village. Then the enemy came upon them, and when they were in danger, their grandfather heated the land so hot that the enemy ran down into the sea. They found that boiling hot also and were destroyed.
In order to destroy a malevolent shaman four brothers let their sister marry him, took her back, and got her to tell them the location of her husband's heart. They killed him outside of Ring island, Sitka sound, and took away his red-snapper coat. One of these brothers, named Lq!ayâ'k!, then put this on and used it in the pursuit of large animals. By and by he pursued an animal up into the sky and his footprints formed the Milky Way. a
Another version of story 37.
A small boy made an angry remark about a piece of moldy salmon and was carried off by the salmon people to their town. When he became hungry he began eating the salmon eggs lying upon the beach, but was told that they were salmon dung. Finding that he was homesick, his salmon father diverted him by sending him to Amusement creek and placing his arms around two sand-hill cranes. By and by they started back with him, and passed through something called sît which opens and closes, and scars those salmon which are caught in it. When they camped they made other scars by throwing hot rocks upon one another, as if cooking. Then they met the herring tribe, with which they had a verbal contest, and finally announced what creeks they would enter. The boy's father went to Daxê't, where the boy let his human father spear him. When his mother began to cut him open she discovered his copper necklace, and concluded it was her son. His father put him into a basket and placed it upon the roof, where his spirit began to work in him, and he turned back into a man. Then he became a great shaman and told the people what had happened to him. By and by he tested his spirits by sending a raft load of his people over a waterfall under the sea. The next morning it came up with all the people safe. He sent his clothes-man to spear land otter, and, although he had him throw his spear across a point at an invisible animal, it struck the land otter on the tip of the tail and killed it. He lived to be more than a hundred.
Wrangell version of the above story, more detailed in the main portion but without the last episode.
Another version of story 67.
Some hunters killed a large number of sea lions by pushing sharpened sticks into their noses.
The Chilkat people once warred against the Stikine in a spruce canoe and killed numbers of people. (This probably refers to story 29.)
A noted hunter named Qakê'q!utê killed the sleep bird, and along with it all his own people. Being unable to sleep himself, he wandered north to the mouth of Alsek river where he tried to trap a ground hog, but found a frog in his trap instead. He thought he saw some people but found they were stones. Then he went up the river and came among the Athapascans, whose goodwill he obtained by teaching them how to catch eulachon, thus preserving them from starvation, In spring they accompanied him back to his own people, bringing loads of furs with them. They came first to the Grass people, but these were afraid and sent them away, so they went to the Kâ'gwAntân who opened trade with them and became rich. The Athapascans traded particularly for a kind of seaweed.
From the wealth thus obtained the Kâ'gwAntân built Shadow house, and had a great feast. By and by the chief's daughter, who was menstruant, said something to anger the glacier, and it extended itself over the town, driving the people to KAq!Anuwû, while the T!A'q!dentân settled opposite. Later on the people warred with the Luqâ'xAdî of Alsek river and captured the Wolf post from them. A Luqâ'xAdî shaman was attacked by some warriors and flew away. He flew around for some time until a menstruant woman looked at him, making him fall into a pond. The warriors who had attacked him began to tamper with his spirit paraphernalia, and all but one of them were destroyed. Then the Kâ'gwAntân erected another house, which they named Wolf house, and carved its posts like the Wolf post they had captured. They invited people to the feast from Chilkat, Sitka, and Killisnoo. Slave's valley then received its name from some slaves who came to life after having been killed and thrown down into it, supposedly dead. Afterward two parties of young people contended with each other going after firewood, and later on pushed the house fire over on each other until the great beams caught. As a result of this fight the family scattered, and some moved to Sitka. From that time, too, they came to be known as Burnt-house people (Kâ'gwAntân).
After the death of an Athapascan chief on Copper river the people of his house began fighting over the possession of a dish, and those who lost it determined to emigrate. They set out, and, after losing some of their people in the mist, crossed the mountains near Mount St. Elias and came to the sea. While they were living at the mouth of a large river a little girl reared a sea gull which attained enormous proportions. When it got large her brothers wanted to kill it, but it disappeared together with the girl. By and by the chief sent six brothers along shore to hunt for other people. They encountered head winds at one place and lost one of their number, but finally reached Yakutat. W hen they got back they heard that the name of the girl who had reared the sea gull had been given to another. This girl dug up something long and red in the forest out of which a dish was carved like the one that had been taken away from them. Presently they called in some Burnt-house people who were coming south from the mouth of Copper river and entertained them.
After this the six brothers were sent back to Copper river for a certain copper plate that had been left there, and they went and came in twenty days each way, half the time it had taken the whole band to come out. Then the people all set out for Yakutat, where they were at first received in a hostile manner by the Kosk!ê'dî and L!uq!oe'dî living there, until they purchased a creek from them with the copper plate and settled upon it. This was Kâck!, from which they obtained their name. By and by the six brothers went hunting, and one of them became so lazy that the others left him for some time. Then a mountain being came to him and helped him to become a great hunter. Finally he sent him home in a canoe which was really a grizzly bear. This bear turned around to be fed when it was hungry, and that is what made the turns in the river. After a time the brothers went up to a glacier at the head of Kâck! to hunt, but their canoe was carried away by a swell raised by falling ice. After waiting in vain for succor, they started to cross the glacier, but one of them became dizzy and was carried away by the Wolf people. The others got across and were in a starving condition, when the youngest discovered a mountain sheep with very large horns, that was really "the mother of the bears." After that they reached home.
By and by the six brothers started south with their brother-in-law. They tried to cross from KAstaxê'xda-ân to Auk, but were delayed for months by storms. Finally Heavy-wings, their brother-in-law, discovered that this was caused by North Wind, who was in love with his daughter, and be gave her to him. After that Heavy-wings saw and caught the L!ê'nAxxî'dAq and became wealthy, but because he did not use exactly the right words at that time he was killed by a copper
falling upon him and cutting him open. His nephew also saw the L!ê'nAxxî'dAq, used the right words toward it, and became very wealthy.
Some people found a rock man's son on some rocks and adopted him, but he got them into so much trouble that they carried him back there. Then the weather, which had been bad, immediately cleared. Since that time a low-caste person has been called a "man of the rocks."
448:a This is part of a longer story of which story 3 is one version while a second is contained in story 31.