How Raven stole the rich man’s daughter

Sometimes the rich man would hunt for deer, and would kill plenty of deer with his arrows and bow, and would feed all the people. Now, his daughter was a fine girl, and she did not wish to get married to anybody. And all the young boys liked her, and every one got fire-wood for her, and tried to go into her father’s house to visit her; but she did not care for them, and threw all their dry wood over the bank. They all tried for her, but they could not get her. One summer the girls of the village took their canoes and went to get berries, and the rich man’s daughter went with them in her canoe. They all stopped at the foot of a mountain, and left their canoes, and went up on the mountain to get berries. When the Raven man heard that the girls had gone to get berries, he took his canoe and went after them, and found their canoes drawn up on the shore, and took them over to the other side of the river. When the girls came down from the mountain, they found that their canoes were gone; and they said, “Oh, my! our canoes are on the other side of the river: the wind did it.” Then they saw the Raven man paddling past them; and they called to him, and said, “Bring our canoes over to us!” But he said, “No, I will take you across in my canoe.” So the girls said, “Yes;” and he took over first one, and then another. Then the rich man’s daughter said, “Take me over!” but he said, “By and by.” So after he had taken all the others over, he took the rich man’s daughter into his canoe, but he went off down the river with her. And she cried, because she did not like the Raven man. So he went on down the river with her; and she cried all day long, because she did not like him. And he said to her, “Don’t cry! I will not hurt you, I am a good man.” But she said, “I don’t like you: you tell lies all the time.” The next day the girl said, “I want to go into the woods for a little while.” So the Raven man said, “Yes;” and he tied a long rope to her, because he thought she might run away, and he held the end of it while she went into the woods. Then she untied the rope, and tied it to a tree and ran away. The Raven man called to her, but there was no answer; and he pulled upon the rope, but it did not give; and he pulled it hard, and the tree broke off. Then he ran up into the woods, looking for her; but she was on the way home, and got there first. Afterward he went home too; and his grandmother asked him, “Where have you been?” and he said, “I have been in the woods.” But his grandmother said, “I hear that you took the rich man’s daughter off down the river. Don’t do that again, because you are not a rich man, to take that girl for your wife.” And after that, all the people turned into animals.

(Another version) There was a big village where a great many people lived. And they had only one kashime, and in this village there lived a Raven man. There was a girl, too, who did not want to get married. All the young men wanted her, but she did not care for any of them. It came summertime, and all the women went to get berries, and this girl went with them. After they had gone, the Raven got up and put on his little dog-skin parka and boots, and went out of the kashime, and went looking around, and found a canoe laid up. He took it down and looked at it, and found that it was made of fish-skin. He put it in the water and got into it, and found the place where the girls had gone to get berries. He saw their canoes drawn up on the shore, and took them all across the river, and then went off down the river again. In the afternoon he came up again; and by that time the women were coming back, down the mountain. “Oh, my!” said one of them, “our canoes are all on the other side of the river. How shall we get across?” Then they saw the Raven coming up the river in his canoe; and they all called out to him, “Oh, my dear grandfather! please, will you bring our canoes over for us?” But the Raven said, “No, I can’t do that, because it will be too much work. I’ll tell you what I will do. I will take you all over, one at a time.” So they all said, “Yes,” and he took them all over except that beautiful girl. “Come on!” said -he, “and I will take you over, too.” So she got into his canoe; but, instead of taking her across, he went off down the river with her; and she screamed, because she didn’t like him. He went on about twenty days, and one day the girl said that she would like to take a walk on the shore. So the Raven said she might; and he went ashore and took a big dogharness out of his canoe, and tied a long rope to it, and put it on the girl, and told her to go ahead. So she went up the bank, into the brush, and found a big stump, and took off the dog-harness and put it on the stump, and went off a little way. “Come on!” said the Raven-, and the Stump said, “By and by, I am not ready yet.” And after a while the Raven pulled on the rope, and hauled the big Stump out to the bank; and he became angry and went up on the bank, looking through the brush. Pretty soon he came back, and saw the girl sitting in the canoe; and he said, “Come on, come and get me!” But the girl said, “I don’t like you.” And the Raven said, “If you won’t take me, give me my arrows and my bow.” But she broke them in pieces, and threw them into the water, and paddled away home. Then the Raven began to cry, because he had no canoe to go home in; and he made his way home walking on the beach, and reached the village in about twenty days, very ill and sore, and went to his grandmother’s house. “Where have you been?” said his grandmother. “I don’t know,” said he. He was sick one day and one night, and the next morning he died. His grandmother wailed for him, and all the women wailed, too, and that night all the people made songs. But some of them made bad songs, and the Raven made trouble for them. In the morning, when it grew light, the Raven flew away, and afterward all the men and women flew away, too.

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