This tale from Tenakee Inlet recounts two mythic events. In the bay named Where-sweetness-killed-a-person, a man, Tsel, was swallowed by a halibut while wading across to join girls picking strawberries, giving the area its name. Nearby, a giant clam that devoured canoes was slain by Raven’s clever plan, leaving the place known as Clam-slide, where the remnants foster abundant growth.
Source:
Tlingit Myths and Texts
by John R. Swanton
[Smithsonian Institution]
Bureau of American Ethnology
Bulletin 39
Washington, 1909
► Themes of the story
Mythical Creatures: The giant clam and the halibut that swallowed Tsel are mythical creatures central to the narrative.
Cunning and Deception: Raven employs cunning to devise a plan that ultimately leads to the clam’s demise.
Origin of Things: The story explains the origins of place names like Where-sweetness-killed-a-person and Clam-slide, linking them to the events described.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Tlingit people
Myth recorded in English at Sitka, Alaska
January-April 1904
At the farther end of Tenakee inlet (Ti’nage) is a little bay called Where-sweetness-killed-a-person (Gatlqo’wageya). One summer there were many people encamped there drying salmon, and among them many lively young people. One day some girls took a canoe and crossed the bay to a strawberry patch on the other side. Afterwards a man named Tsel went down into the water to wade over to them but was swallowed by a halibut. So they named the place Kotse’l after this man.
Near this inlet is a high cliff in front of which a big clam formerly lived. It used to stick its head (lit. penis) high up out of the water. It always had its valves open, and if a canoe passed that way, it would close them on it (lit. shut its mouth on it), and the canoe was gone.
► Continue reading…
Raven heard of this clam, and he instructed a little mink to call to it, “Stick out your head and let us see you,” (ili’l-anaxda’x tsaga’x dusti’n), while the people stood ready above with sharpened sticks. But, instead of speaking as it was told, the mink said, “Raven made clam” (Yel dje’aosiniyi gal). Finally the mink said plainly as he had been directed, “Stick your head out of the water and let us see you,” and it began to put out its head. He said, “A little more.” When it was well out, all the people seized their sticks and plunged them into it, cutting the ligament which held the valves together so that they sprang apart. Then the whole bay began to smell badly from it. On the rock slide back of the place where this clam used to run out its head all sorts of things now grow. It is called Clam-slide (Yes-kade’).
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