Raven swallows blubber

Source
The Jessup North Pacific Expedition
edited by Franz Boas
Memoir of the American Museum
of Natural History – New York
Volume VIII
3. The Eskimo of Siberia
by Waldemar Bogoras
Leiden & New York, 1913

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► Themes of the story

Trickster: Raven, a common trickster figure in many indigenous cultures, uses cunning methods to obtain the blubber.

Transformation: Raven undergoes a physical change by consuming a large amount of blubber, which affects his ability to fly and necessitates vomiting to deliver the food.

Sacrifice: Raven endures personal discomfort and risk by overindulging in the blubber to provide for his family, highlighting a form of self-sacrifice.

► From the same Region or People

• North Asia
  • Yupik Lore

Learn more about the Yupik peoples

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Told by Milu’tarak, an Asiatic Eskimo man, on St. Lawrence Island, May, 1901.

Raven, who lived at Cheri’nak, married among the Reindeer-men. His father-in-law said, “They say that the islanders are this year quite rich in walrus-meat. I want to eat sea-food.” — “Aha!”

Raven flew away, and came to the island. The people of the island had just killed a whale. They used only the hides of the largest walrus that they had caught. All the blubber was left on the shore. Raven swallowed plenty of blubber, and could fly away with difficulty only.

When he came home and alighted near his house, he vomited all the blubber. It was as much as a load for seven sledges. Then he wakened his wife and father-in-law. They ate of the blubber. There they lived, eating blubber.