“So nowadays, when a person wants people to think he knows a great deal and says, ‘I am very old, they will answer, ‘If Sculpin could not make Raven believe he was so old and knew so much, neither can you make us believe it of you. An older person will come along and show you to the world as the sculpin is seen now.’ So, today, when children go out in the evening, they will say, ‘There is that sculpin up there.’”

Raven saw a canoe out after halibut and said, “Come ashore and take me across,” but they paid no attention to him. Then he said, “If you do not I will put you up in the sky also. I will make an example of you, too.” Then he held his walking stick out toward the canoe and they found themselves going up into the sky. That is what you can see in the sky now. It is called The-halibut-fishers (Dana’qusike).

“When a child was lazy and disobedient, they told him how the halibut fishermen got up into the sky for their laziness. Therefore the children were afraid of being lazy.” (From the writer’s informant.)

Haven went to another place and determined to invite some people to a feast, so he invited all the seal people. When each seal came in he smeared its forehead with pitch, and, as soon as it got warm, the pitch ran down over the seal’s eyes and blinded it. Then he clubbed it to death.

“This is brought up to a child to prevent him from being a murderer in secret, or a coward.” (From the writer’s informant.)

He went along again, saw a nice fat deer, and said to it, “My friend this is you is it?” There was a deep, narrow canyon near by and Raven laid a rotten stick across it saying, “Let us go across to the other side upon this,” but the deer said, “No, I can not. It will break with me and I shall get hurt.” “No, you shall see how I cross it.” So Raven went over and Deer tried to follow him but fell to the bottom of the canyon and was crushed to death. Then Raven went down and ate him, stuffing himself so full that he could scarcely move. He then acted as though he were very sad and pretended to cry, saying, “My friend, my friend, he is gone.” He pretended that the wild animals had devoured him.

“This episode is brought up when one who was the enemy of a dead man is seen to act as if he were very sad in the house where his body lies. People say to one another, ‘He is acting as Raven did when he killed his friend the deer.’ it is also applied to a person who is jealous of one who is well brought up and in good circumstances. When such a person dies he will act like Raven.” (From the writer’s informant.)

After this, Raven went to ground-hog’s house for the winter. The ground-hogs go into their holes in September. At home they live like human beings and to them we are animals just as much. So Raven spent the winter with one of them and became very sick of it, but he could not get out. The ground-hog enjoyed himself very much, but Raven acted as if he were in prison and kept shouting to his companion, “Winter comes on, Winter comes on,” thinking that the ground-hog had power to make the winter pass rapidly. The ground-hog had to stay in his hole for six months, and at that time he had six toes, one for each, but Raven pulled one of his toes out of each foot in order to shorten the winter. That is why he has but five nowadays.

“This episode used to be brought up to girls of 14 or 15 who wanted to run about to feasts and other festivities without their mothers or grandmothers. Such girls were told that they were like Raven when be was imprisoned in the ground-hog hole and wanted to get out. Those who stayed indoors were respected by everybody. They also likened Raven to a foolish girl who tries to lead a good girl, Ground-hog, astray. They told the latter that some injury would result, as happened to Ground-hog in losing his toes. When a mother saw that her daughter was willing to listen to a foolish girl, she would say to her, ‘Whatever that foolish girl leads you to will be seen on you as long as you live.” (From the writer’s informant.)

Next Raven married the daughter of a chief named Fog-over-the-salmon (Xat-ka-qoga’si). It was winter, and they were without food, so Raven wanted salmon very much. His wife made a large basket and next morning washed her hands in it. When she got through there was a salmon there. Both were very glad, and cooked and ate it. Every day afterward she did the same thing until their house was full of drying salmon. After that, however, Raven and his wife quarreled, and he hit her on the shoulder with a piece of dried salmon. Then she ran away from him, but, when he ran after her and seized her, his hands passed right through her body. Then she went into the water and disappeared forever, while all of the salmon she had dried followed her. He could not catch her because she was the fog (gus). After that he kept going to his father-in-law to beg him to have his wife come back, but his father-in-law said, “You promised me that you would have respect for her and take care of her. You did not do it, therefore you can not have her back.”

When a young man was about to marry, people would bring this story up to him and tell him that if he did not take care of his wife and once forgot himself, he might lose her. If his wife were a good woman and he treated her right, he would have money and property, but if he were mean to her, he would lose it. And if he lost his wife and had been good to her, he could get another easily.”

Then Raven had to leave this place, and went on to another town where he found a widower. He said to this man, “I am in the same fix as you. My wife also has died.” Raven wanted to marry the daughter of the chief in that town, so he said, “Of course I have to marry a woman of as high caste as my first wife. That is the kind I am looking for.” But Tsagwa’n (a bird), who was also looking for a high-caste wife, followed Raven about all the time. He said to the people, “That man is telling stories around here. His first wife left him because he was cruel to her.” For this reason they refused to give the girl to him. Then he said to the chief, “If I had married your daughter you would have had a great name in the world. You will presently see your daughter take up with some person who is a nobody, and, when they speak of you in the world, it will always be as Chief-with-no-name. You may listen to this Tsagwa’n if you want to, but you will be sorry for it. He is a man from whom no good comes. Hereafter this Tsagwa’n will live far out at sea. And I will tell you this much, that neither Tsagwa’n nor myself will get this woman.” This is why Tsagwa’n is now always alone. Raven also said to the chief, “You will soon hear something of this’ daughter of yours.” All the high-caste men wanted to marry this woman, but she would not have them.

Going on again, Raven came to an old man living alone, named Damna’dji, and said to him, “Do you know the young daughter of the chief close by here?” “Yes, I know her.” “Why don’t you try to marry her?” “I can’t get her. I know I can’t, so I don’t want to try.” Then Raven said, “I will make a medicine to enable you to get her.” “But I have no slave,” said the old man; “to get her a man must have slaves.” “Oh!” said Raven, “you do not have to have a slave to get her. She will take a liking to you and nobody can help it. She will marry you. Her father will lose half of his property.” Then he made the old man look young, got feathers to put into his hair and a marten-skin robe to put over him so that he appeared very handsome. But Raven said to him, “You are not going to look like this all of the time. It is only for a day or so.”

After this the rejuvenated man got into his skin canoe, for this was well to the north, and paddled over to where the girl lived. He did not ask her father’s consent but went directly to her, and she immediately fell in love with him. Although so many had been after her she now said, “I will marry you. I will go with you even if my father kills me for it.”

When the chief’s slaves found them in the bedroom at the rear of the house, they said to the chief, “Your daughter is married.” So her mother looked in there and found it was true. Then her father said, “Come out from that room, my daughter.” He had already told his slaves to lay down valuable furs on the floor for his daughter and her husband to sit on. He thought if she were already married it was of no use for him to be angry with her. So the girl came out with her husband, and, when her father saw him he was very glad, for he liked his looks, and he was dressed like a high-caste person.

Then the chief related to his son-in-law how a fellow came along wanting to marry his daughter, and how Tsagwa’n had come afterward and, told him that he had been cruel to his first wife. Said the chief, “This man had a wife. His first wife is living yet. I don’t want to hurt his wife’s feelings.”

After that his son-in-law said, “My father told me to start right out after him today in my canoe.” He was in a hurry to depart because he was afraid that all of his good clothing would leave him. He said to his wife, “Take only your blanket to use on the passage, because I have plenty of furs of every description at home.” So she took nothing but her marten-skin robe and a fox robe.

As she lay in the canoe, however, with her head resting on his lap she kept feeling drops of water fall upon her face, and she said many times, “What is that dripping on my face?” Then he would say, “It must be the water splashing from my paddle,” but it was really the drippings that fall from an old man’s eyes when he is very filthy. Her husband had already become an old man again and had lost his fine clothing, but she could not see it because her face was turned the other way. When the woman thought that they were nearly at their destination she raised herself to look out, glanced at her husband’s face, and saw that he was an altogether different man. She cried very hard.

After they had arrived at his town the old man went from house to house asking the people to take pity on him and let him bring his wife to one of them, because he knew that his own house was not fit for her. These, however, were some of the people that had wanted to marry this woman, so they said, “Why don’t you take her to your own fine house? You wanted her.” Meanwhile she sat on the beach by the canoe, weeping. Finally the shabby sister of this old man, who was still older than he, came down to her and said, “See here, you are a high-caste girl. Everybody says this man is your husband, and you know he is your husband, so you better come up to the house with me.” Then she saw the place where he lived, and observed that his bed was worse than that of one of her father’s slaves. The other people also paid no attention to her, although they knew who she was, because she had married this man. They would eat after everybody else was through, and, while he was eating, the people of the town would make fun of him by shouting out, “Damna’dji’s father-in-law and his brothers-in-law are coming to his grand house to see him.” Then he would run out to see whether it were so and find that they were making fun of him. Every morning, while he was breakfasting with his wife, the people fooled him in this way.

Although he had not said so, the father-in-law and the brothers-in-law of Damna’dji thought that he was a very high-caste person because he was dressed so finely. So they got together all their expensive furs to visit him, and they had one canoe load of slaves, which they intended to give him, all dressed with green feathers from the heads of mallard drakes. One morning the people again shouted, “Damna’dji’s father-in-law and his brothers-in-law are coming to see him.” Running out to look this time, he saw canoe after canoe coming, loaded down deep. Then he did not know what to do. He began to sweep out the house and begged some boys to help him clean up, but they said, “You clean up yourself. Those are your people coming.” The people of the place also began hiding all of their basket-work pots, and buckets.

As they came in, the people in the canoes sang together and all of them were iridescent with color. They were very proud people. Then the old man begged the boys to carry up the strangers’ goods, but they replied as before, “You carry them up yourself. You can do it.” So the strangers had to bring up their own things into the house and sit about without anyone telling them where. The old man’s sister was crying all the time. Then the strangers understood at once what was the matter and felt very sorry for these old people.

After that the old man kept saying to the boys who came in to look at his visitors, “One of you go after water,” but they answered, “Go after water yourself. You can do it.” He tried to borrow a basket for his guests to eat off of, but they all said, “Use your own basket. What did you go and get that high-caste girl for? You knew that you couldn’t afford it. Why didn’t you get a poor person like yourself instead of a chief’s daughter? Now you may know that it isn’t fun to get a high-caste person when one is poor.” His brothers-in-law and his father-in-law felt ashamed at what they heard, and they also felt badly for him. Then the old woman gave her brother a basket that was unfit for the chief’s slaves to eat out of, and he ran out to get water for his guests.

When he got there, however, and was stooping down to fill his basket, the creek moved back from him and he followed it. It kept doing this and he kept running after it until he came to the mountain, where it finally vanished into a house. Running into this, he saw a very old woman sitting there who said to him, “What are you after? Is there anything I can do for you?” He said, “There is much that you can do for me, if you can really do it. My friends are very mean to me. My father-in-law and the other relations of my wife have all come to my place to visit me. I married a very high-caste woman, and the people of my place seem to be very mean about it. I am very poor and have nothing with which to entertain them.” He told all of his troubles to her from the beginning, and, when he was through, she said, “Is that all?” “Yes, that is all.” Then the woman brushed back his hair several times with her hand, and lo! he had a head of beautiful hair, while his ragged clothes changed into valuable ones. He was handsomer and better clothed than at the time when he first obtained his wife. The old woman that brought him luck is called Le’naxi’daq-that-lives-in-the-water (Hintak-le’naxi’daq). The old basket he had also turned into a very large beautiful basket. Then she said to him, “There is a spring back in the corner. Go there and uncover it and dip that basket as far down as you can reach.” He did so and, when he drew it out, it was full of dentalia.

Now Damna’dji returned home very quickly, but nobody recognized him at first except his wife and those who had seen him when he went to get her. Afterward he gave water to his guests, and they could see dentalia shells at the bottom. The house was now filled with spectators, and those who had made fun of him were very much ashamed of themselves. After he had given them water, he gave them handfuls of dentalia, for which his father-in-law and his brothers-in-law gave him slaves, valuable furs, and other property. So he became very rich and was chief of that town. That is why the Indians do the same now. If a brother-in-law gives them the least thing they return much more than its value.

Now he had a big house built, and everything that he said had to be done. The people that formerly made fun of him were like slaves to him. He also gave great feasts, inviting people from many villages. But, after he had become very great among them, he was too hard upon the people of his town. His wife was prouder than when she was with her father and if boys or anyone else displeased her they were put to death.

As they were now very proud and had plenty of people to work for them, the husband and wife spent much time sitting on the roof of their house looking about. One spring the woman saw a flock of swans (goql) coming from the southeast, and said, “Oh! there is a high-caste person among those birds that I was going to marry.” Another time they went up, and a flock of geese (tawa’q) came along. Then she again said to her husband, “Oh! there is the high-caste person I was going to marry.” By and by some sand-hill cranes (dul) flew past, and she repeated the same words. But, when the brants (qen) came over, and she spoke these words, they at once flew down to her and carried her off with them. Her husband ran after the brants underneath as fast as he could, and every now and then some of her clothing fell down, but he was unable to overtake her.

When the birds finally let this woman drop, she was naked and all of her hair even was gone. Then she got up and walked along the beach crying, and she made a kind of apron for herself out of leaves. Continuing on along the beach, she came upon a red snapper head, which she picked up. She wandered on aimlessly, not knowing what to do, because she was very sad at the thought of her fine home and her husband. Presently she saw smoke ahead of her and arrived at a house where was an old woman. She opened the door, and the old woman said, “Come in.” Then she said to the old woman, “Let us cook this red snapper head… Yes, let us cook it,” said the latter. After they had eaten it, the old woman said to her, “Go along the beach and try to find something else.” So she went out and found a sculpin (weq). Then she came back to the house and cooked that, but, while they were eating, she heard many boys shouting, and she thought they were laughing at her because she was naked. She looked around but saw no one. Then the old woman said to her, “Take it (the food) out to that hole.” She went outside with the tray and saw an underground sweathouse out of which many hands protruded. This was the place from which the shouting came. She handed the tray down and it was soon handed up again with two fine fox skins in it. Then the old woman said to her, “Make your clothing out of these furs,” and so she did.

After she had put the skins on, this old woman said, “Your father and mother live a short distance away along this beach. You better go to them. They are living at a salmon creek.” So the girl went on and soon saw her father and mother in a canoe far out where her father was catching salmon. But, when she ran down toward the canoe to meet them, her father said to his wife, “Here comes a fox.” As he was looking for something with which to kill it, she ran back into the woods.

Then she felt very badly, and returned to the old woman crying. “Did you see your father?” said the latter. “Yes.” “What did he say to you?” “He took me for a fox. He was going to kill me.” Then the old woman said, “Yes, what else do you think you are? You have already turned into a fox. Now go back to your father and let him kill you.”

The woman went to the same place again and saw her father still closer to the shore; and she heard him say, “Here comes that big fox again.” Then she ran right up to him, saying to herself, “Let him kill me,” and he did so. Years ago all the high-caste people wore bracelets and necklaces, and each family had its own way of fixing them. Now, as this woman was skinning the fox, she felt something around its foreleg. She looked at it and found something like her daughter’s bracelet. Afterward she also cut around the neck and found her daughter’s necklace. Then she told her husband to come and look saying, “Here on this fox are our daughter’s necklace and bracelet.” So they cried over the fox and said, “Something must have made her turn into a fox.” They knew how this fox ran toward them instead of going away.

Now they took the body of the fox, placed it upon a very nice mat, and laid another over it. They put eagle’s down, which was always kept in bags ready for use, on the body, crying above it all the time. They also began fasting, and all of her brothers and relations in that village fasted with them. All cleaned up their houses and talked to their Creator (Cagu’n). One midnight, after they had fasted for many days, they felt the house shaking, and, they heard a noise in the place where the body lay. Then the father and mother felt very happy. The mother went there with a light and saw that her daughter was in her own proper shape, acting like a shaman. Then the woman named the spirits in her. The first she mentioned was the swan spirit, the next the goose spirit, the next the sand-hill-crane spirit, the next the brant spirit. Another spirit was the red-snapper-head spirit which called itself Spirit-with-a-labret-in-its-chin (Tuts-ya-u’wu-yek), and another the fox spirit (Nagase’ koye’k). Now the father and mother of this woman were very happy, but her husband lost all of his wealth and became poor again.

As Tsagwa’n was a mischief maker and followed Raven to tell what he had done to his wife, so some man will always follow one up if he doesn’t tell the truth. Formerly, when a man left his wife, a settlement of property was made and, if a man married again before this took place, his first wife made trouble for his second. Since no one wants trouble of this kind, a woman always found out what a man was like before she married him, just as this woman found out about Raven.

Since Damna’dji married a woman of higher family than himself and was taunted by the town people, nowadays they tell a young man that, if he marries a girl of higher rank than himself, they will not remain together long, because she will feel above him and want him to please her continually, while she does nothing to please him. As Damna’dji from being poor became rich suddenly and was very hard on his people till all of his riches were again taken away from him, they say, ‘When you become wealthy after having been poor, don’t be proud or your money will all leave you.’ When a man has had plenty of money all his life and wastes it foolishly, they say of him, ‘He has fallen from the hands of the brant.’ So a young man nowadays saves up a considerable sum of money before he marries that he may not be made fun of. Perhaps if we had not had this story among the natives of Alaska we would have had nothing to go by.

The fact that Damna’dji’s wife’s relations did not insult or maltreat him after they learned how poor he was, shows that they were really high caste. Had they but recently acquired their wealth they would have done so. Therefore people say to a person who speaks before he thinks, ‘Why can’t you be like Damna’dji’s brothers-in-law? Think before you speak.’ When the village people were making fun of their brother-in-law, his wife’s relations might have done anything to them, for they had wealth in furs and slaves, but they kept quiet because they had too much respect for their sister to disgrace her husband’s village people. It was also out of respect for their sister that, when they found out that all that the poor man had for them to drink was water, they drank it willingly without saying a word, where a low-caste person would have grumbled. Therefore people tell a man who has no respect for his brother-in-law because he is low-caste that he ought to be like these brothers-in-law of Damna’dji. Because Damna’dji was lucky twice, the people in olden times used to pray for luck continually. If he wanted to be lucky a poor man lived a very pure life. Those who do not do what is right never will have luck.

Raven went to another place and turned himself into a woman. Then she thought within herself, “Whose daughter shall I say I am?” She saw a sea gull sitting out on a high rock and thought she would call that her father. Years ago a chief would always pick out a high place in the village on which to sit in the morning, and when Raven saw the sea gull she thought within herself, “I am Tacakitua’n’s (Sitter-on-a-high-cliff’s) daughter.” A canoe came along filled with killer whales returning to their own village, and she married one of them. When they got near the town, some one on the beach called to them, “Where is that canoe coming from?” and one replied, “We have been after a wife and we have her.” “Which chief’s daughter is that?” they inquired, because in olden times people never went for any woman by canoe except the daughter of a chief. “It is Tacakitua’n’s daughter,” said they. “It is Cuda’xduxo’s (Barked-hemlock’s) daughter.” All of the killer whales believed this.

After that, the killer whales began to notice that their food was disappearing very rapidly, although they were always out fishing and hunting and had had their house piled full of boxes of grease. They said, “What is wrong? What has become of all the grease and fat in these boxes?” They could not find out for a long time. Raven wore a labret at that time set with abalone shell which was formerly very valuable, and it is from him that high-caste people afterward used these. After some time they found this labret in one of the boxes of grease and said, “Just look at this labret in here.” Then Raven exclaimed, “Ih! my labret, that is always the way with my labret. Whenever it feels like doing so, it will leave my lip and go off anywhere.”

By and by Raven said, “I wonder what is wrong that I have such bad dreams. I dreamt that all the people of this village were asleep, and my husband went to sleep and never woke up. My dreams always come true. Whatever I dream surely happens.” Late the next night she got a stick, sharpened the ends, and killed her husband; and early in the morning they heard her crying, “My husband, Cawa’tkala’qdage’s father.” Years ago, before the white laws came in force, when a chief used these words in his speech, people knew that he had a grudge against some one and was going to murder him. The killer whales, however, did not know what she meant.

Then Raven told the people that her husband had said, “Take me and place me quite a distance from the town.” They did so, and she said, “When you hear me cry, I don’t want any of you to pass the place where I am mourning. Tic up the fingers of my right hand. Allow me to eat with my left hand only. You people must also wait upon me. You must bring me everything I eat. Also paint my face black.” She being the widow, they had to do everything just as she told them, and these are the regulations people have observed up to the present time. When they heard her crying around the spot where her husband’s body had been laid, no one dared go near, and to this day those who go by a house where people are mourning have to be very quiet. Nor do they pass it at all unless they are compelled to.

Raven stayed there mourning for a long time, but she was really eating the killer-whale’s body. After she had remained by it for a very long time, she would come home chewing gum, but, when the husband’s relations asked her for a piece, she would say, “No, no one can chew this gum but Maca’,” which was the name she gave to herself.

She lived there for a long time, continually crying out of doors, but she was really crying for joy because she intended to kill all of the killer whales.

While sitting outside one day a keku (a small sea gull with black head and white body) flew past, and Raven said, “Here comes the man I made white.” By and by she saw another, called kule’ta, also white, and repeated the same words. Then some swans came along far up in the sky, and she said the same thing about them. The killer whales heard all this and said, “Since you have made them white, can’t you make us white also?” “It will hurt you to be made white,” said Raven. “Those people that came along were made white because they were brave.” Then she sharpened the same hardwood stick with which she had killed her husband and told all of the killers to lie in a row. She began pounding this into their ears, and so killed all of them but the last. This looked up in time to see what she was doing and rushed into the sea saying, “Raven has finished us sure enough” (Qothaga’sini’yel). Raven remained there for some time eating the whales she had killed.

The reason why there are so many cowards among men nowadays is because Raven, being a, man, made himself into a woman at that time. The people that live single all their lives are such as came from Raven at that period. This is also why thieves are great talkers and, when they have gotten into trouble, have a way of getting out, and why some women are bad and deceive their husbands; for Raven said that his husband had wanted to be buried a long way from town, and they believed him. This is why the Tlingit used to be very careful of the way they spoke and even of the way they walked when in public.

“This part of the story was referred to when one wished to imply that a person was trying to make people believe that he was better than he really was. So nowadays, when a high-caste man wants to marry an orphan, people find out who her father is, because Raven made believe her own father was a chief. Some women will go off to a strange place and say falsely, ‘I am so-and-so’s daughter,’ making people think that she belongs to a very high family. The same sort of woman will assume mourning for her husband, and make people believe she is mourning when she is really thinking what she is going to do and where she is going. If she finds out she can get her living falsely, she will keep on being false. That is why Raven told so many stories about her husband’s death. When a mother sees that her girl is very foolish, she will say to her, ‘When you marry and become a widow, you will eat up your husband’s body, meaning that, if her husband leaves her any property, she will use it up foolishly. She also says to her, ‘You are so foolish now, I believe you will steal after you are married,’ meaning that she will be foolish with what her husband earns. Then, she says, ‘They will find you out by finding something of yours in the place where you have been, and it will be a disgrace to your brothers and your father.’”

After that Raven came to a fish-hawk (kunackanye’t) and exclaiming, “Oh! my friend.” entered its house, where was a great quantity of food. He felt very happy at the sight, and said to the bird, “I will stay with you all winter.” Then he stayed so long that the hawk began to get tired of him, because Raven would not work. When he saw that the bird was getting weary of him he would say, “The time for me to work hasn’t come yet. When I work you will have plenty of rest. You will not have to do a thing. This beach will be covered with all kinds of fish, and you will be tired of preparing them.” So the hawk would think of what Raven was going to do for him, forget everything else, and work all the harder to supply him with food while Raven stayed in the house. Raven would also talk to him, saying, “I remember to have seen you long ago. You were very high-caste. I remember it very well,” In that way he made the hawk forget for a time all the bad feelings he had had toward him. But finally the little hawk determined to go away, and he left Raven there alone.

“This is the way nowadays with persons who have no respect for themselves. They go from house to house to be fed by others, and such persons are greedy, great eaters, and lazy. The people tell their children that those who lead this kind of life are not respected. A person who tells the truth is always known because he keeps his word. When Katishan was a boy, they used to say to him when they could not make him do anything, ‘You are so lazy that you will be left in some village alone.’ [It is said that Raven comes along and helps one abandoned in a village.] This is why the Tlingit tried hard to earn their living and make things comfortable for themselves.”

Then Raven went to another industrious bird, called hinyikle’xi, a fishing bird living along the river. He called him “brother-in-law,” and was invited to have something to eat, but next morning the bird left him for he knew that he was a lazy fellow.

“So it is always said, ‘A lazy man will be known wherever he goes.’ Such a person will go from place to place living on others and perhaps bringing in a few pails of water or some wood for his food, but however high-caste he is, he will be looked down upon. Therefore the little ones were taught to stay in their native place and make their living there, instead of wandering from town to town. To this day the high-caste Indians do so and visit in other towns only for a short time. Then people say ‘Look at so-and-so. He stays in his own village.’”

After that Raven came to the goose people, and married a woman among them. By and by they said to him, “We are going to leave for other countries. I don’t think you can stand the journey.” “Oh! yes,” said Raven, “I think I can stand the journey. If you can, I can.” So they set out, and, when Raven became tired, his wife flew along under him to hold him up. Finally they came to camp and began going out on the beaches to dig roots. Raven helped them, but he did not like the goose life nor the food they ate, so he commenced to get very lean. One day he killed a goose and began cooking it apart by himself, but they discovered him and said, “He is a man-eater.” So they left him.

Nowadays it is said that although a wicked man may appear very nice he will soon be found out. Some little act will betray him. (From the writer’s informant.)

Raven went to another place, and they said to him, “There will soon be a great feast here,” and they asked him to make a totem pole. He finished it, and, when they put it up, they had a big dance. The people who gave this were of the Wolf clan, so he danced with one of the two Raven parties. Afterward he made a long speech to the host. Then they danced again, and Raven held a spear in his hands. This meant that he was going to invite to a feast next, and was done that they might give him more than the others. So nowadays some are in earnest in doing this while others go through the performance and leave without keeping it in mind. Raven was the person who first had those dances and speeches.

While they were engaged in the last dance the opposite company of Ravens danced very hard and showed fight by crossing the line which is always set between. For this reason Raven would not go to the next feast, to be confronted by these people. They sent after him many times, and when they finally became tired of sending, began the feast without him. Then he told his slave to go over and see if they were already eating, and on his return he said, “They are having a grand time. They are eating a great quantity of food.” “Take me there,” said Raven to his slaves. So they went along with him, one on each side. When he came there he saw that they were having a grand time distributing boxes of food to all the head chiefs, and he said to a slave, “Ask them where this chief shall sit.” He did so, but they went on with their feast without paying the slightest attention to him. Then Raven made his slave ask again, “Where shall this chief sit? Where shall this chief sit?” and again they paid no attention, although he shouted so that all in the house could hear him. When the people left he was still standing around, so his slaves said to him, “Why were you so particular? We could have had a great deal to eat.” After all were gone Raven ate the leavings.

So nowadays, when a person wants more than anyone else and makes people send for him again and again, they go on with the feast, lest those of the opposite party think that the host cares more for this one person than for all the rest of them and leave his house. That is why they paid no attention to Raven when he did come. One reason why Raven stayed away was that he thought he would make them come after him several times because he had promised to give a feast in return. Nowadays a person who is going to give a feast acts in the same way, and people know by it what he intends.

The following winter Raven gave his feast. This was at Alsek river, and you can still see his house there with the boxes inside [a rock hollowed out like a cave with other rocks inside of it]. When they came in sight of that the Indians would pray to it.

As soon as his guests came, Raven went down to meet them with his bow and arrows. That is why people now go down with their guns. He had so much respect for his guests that he had all of his relations act as servants, washing their hands and waiting on them while they ate. Therefore the natives now act just so when they invite people from other towns. Raven taught that all who came after should do just as he had done. He also prepared chewing tobacco for his guests.

Then he began building his house, and, when the frame, consisting of four uprights and two cross-pieces, was completed, he and his friends danced the first dance. In this dance people sing funeral songs. Fight songs, or one song with eight verses, are used at this time, following a certain regular sequence and, if one that does not know the song starts it and begins with the wrong verse, it is looked on as a disgrace to his people. The guests danced, wearing their masks, hats, emblem coats, and other festal paraphernalia. After that he distributed his property, the people that had invited him before and the leading chiefs obtaining most of it.

So nowadays a man that has invited people previously is paid first, receiving more than he had given. It he thinks that he has received more than he ought he gives another feast. When we now look back at this it looks as though these people were fighting to see which family was highest.

When a man has invited people and they are coining in toward the town he himself remains in the house. Then some of his relations come and pound on the door and say to him, ‘Why are you staying in the house? You are acting like a coward. Your enemies are coming. So the host comes out with his bow and arrows, or nowadays his gun, and says, ‘Where are those enemies you were telling me about?’ ‘There they are out therein that canoe.’ ‘Those are not my enemies. That is a crowd of women in that canoe. Years ago my relations invited them.’ He calls them women when his people had invited them twice without a return invitation. The people that are going to give the feast study what they are to say before they have it, and they never let outsiders know what it is. As the visitors’ canoe approached shore they might say: ‘What is that I see out there?’ Then one would look and reply, ‘That is a Gonaqade’t’.” They call it a That is a Gonaqade’t because they know that that party will give a feast and invite them in return. (To see a Gonaqade’t’ brought wealth to the beholder.) They also have songs ready to sing at the very beginning of the feast, and, when such a song is started it shows that the feast will be a big one.

After this Raven returned to the place where he was born and found the box which had held the sun, Moon, and stars, and which now contained his mother, still hanging up in the house of Nas-ca’ki-yel. Then he went out with his bow and arrows and shot a whale (ya’i). It floated ashore on the beach and every day he saw all kinds of sea birds sitting upon it, but he did not like the looks of any of them. Finally, however, he shot a bird called cax and a large bird which was very pretty and had a bill that looked like copper. Then he went to Nas-ca’ki-yel’s house, took down the box which contained his mother, [”Some people call this woman Nas-ca’ki-yel’s wife and some his daughter, but I have always heard that she was his daughter.”] and liberated the flickers (kun) which she always kept under her arms. When Nas-ca’ki-yel saw that, he said, “All those pretty things of mine are gone.” They knew that Raven had done this, so they called him into the house, and Nas-ca’ki-yel asked him if it was indeed he. He said, “Yes.” Then Nas-ca’ki-yel said, “Go and fell that tree standing over there,” for he wanted the tree to kill him. But when the tree fell upon Raven it could not kill him because he was made of rock. Finding him still alive, Nas-ca’ki-yel called him in the following day and said, “Go and clean out that canoe.” It was a canoe just being made, and when Raven got into it to clean it out it closed upon him. Then he simply extended his elbows and broke the canoe after which he smashed it up for firewood. All this Nas-ca’ki-yel saw, and again sent for him. He came in, and they put into the fire a large copper kettle made like a box, filled it with water, and put heated stones into it. Then they told him to get in, and they covered it over in order to kill him. Raven, however, again changed himself into a rock, and, when they thought he was cooked to pieces and looked inside, they saw that he was still there. Then they told him to come out.

Now Nas-ca’ki-yel was very angry and said, “Let rain pour down all over the world, and let people die of starvation.” Then it became so wet and stormy that people could not get food and began to starve. Their canoes were also broken up, their houses fell in on them, and they suffered terribly. Now Nas-ca’ki-yel asked for his jointed dance hat and when he put it on, water began pouring out of the very top of it. It is from Nas-ca’ki-yel that the Indians obtained this kind of hat. When the water rose so as to cover the house floor, Raven and his mother got upon the lowest retaining timber. This house we are talking of, although it looked like a house to them, was really part of the world. It had eight rows of retaining timbers, and, as the water came up, Raven and his mother climbed to a higher one. At the same time the people of the world were climbing up into the hills. When the waters reached the fourth retaining timber they were half way up the mountains. When the house was nearly full of water, Raven had his mother get into the skin of the cax he had killed, while he got into the skin of the white bird with copper-colored bill, and to this very day Tlingit do not eat the cax because it was Raven’s mother. The cax, which is a great diver, now stayed on the surface of the water, but Raven himself flew to the very highest cloud in the sky and hung there by his bill.

A short version of this part of the story was related to me by my Sitka interpreter who had obtained it from his wife. According to this, a man had a wife of whom he was very jealous. People wanted to get to her and marry her, but he guarded her very closely. Finally a man reached her and pulled aside her arms, letting free all of the land animals and sea creatures she had been keeping there. That was why her husband was so jealous about her. Afterward the husband raised a flood, but one man heard of it and made a big canoe to which others attached theirs, and all went up together. He also took two animals of each species into his canoe. This last is evidently a Christian addition. By some the jealous husband is said to have been Loon.

After Raven had hung to this cloud for days and days, nobody knows how long, he pulled his bill out and prayed to fall upon a piece of kelp, for he thought that the water had gone down. He did so, and, flying off, found the waters just half way down the mountains.

Then he traveled along again and came to a shark which had a long stick it had been swimming around with. He took this, stuck it straight down into the sea and used it as a ladder on which to descend under the ocean. Arrived at the bottom, he gathered up some sea urchins and started along with them.

By and by Raven came to a place where an old woman lived and said to her, “How cold I am after eating those sea urchins.” As she paid no attention to him, he repeated it over and over for a long time. At last she said, “What low tide is this Raven talking about?” He did not answer, and presently she said again, “What low tide are you talking about!” After she had asked him this question many times Raven became very angry and said, “I will stick these sea-urchin shells into your body if you don’t keep quiet.” At last he did so, and she began singing, “Don’t, Raven, the tide will go down if you don’t stop.” At the same time Raven kept asking Eagle, whom he had set to watch the tide, “How far down is the tide now?” “The tide is down as far as half a man.” By and by he asked again, “How far down is the tide?” “The tide is very low,” said Eagle. Then the old woman would start her song again. “Let it get dry all around the world,” said Raven to Eagle. By and by Eagle said, “The tide is very, very low now. You can see hardly any water.” “Let it get still drier,” said Raven. Finally everything became dry, and this was the lowest tide that there ever was. All kinds of salmon, whales, seals, and other sea creatures lay round on the sand flats where the people that were saved could get them. They had enough from that ebb tide to supply them for a long, long time. When the tide began to rise again all the people watched it, fearing that there would be another flood, and they carried their food a long distance back, praying for it to stop.

Quite a while before this flood took place the shamans had predicted it, and those who worked from that time on collecting food were saved while the others were destroyed.

After the flood Raven stayed in a town of considerable size. A named Caquku, collected all kinds of big sea animals, man there, as whales and seals, at the time of this great ebb and made a great quantity of grease out of them, while Raven collected only small fishes like cod and red cod and obtained but a few stomachs full of oil. He would eat this up as fast as he made it, but his companion worked hard so as to have a large quantity on hand.

By and by Raven said to Caquku, “My uncle, I had a bad dream last night. I dreamt that there was war here and that we were all killed. You must be on the watch.” After that Raven said to the birds, “You must make a lot of noise now.” They did so and Caquku, thinking warriors were coming to kill him, ran out of the house. At once Raven began carrying off the boxes of grease to a certain place in the woods. Just as he was at work on the last of these the people of the house came back, pushed him into it, and tied him up, but he made a hole with his bill and escaped. Then he went to the place where he had hidden the boxes and stayed there for a year, until he had eaten everything up.

Next Raven returned to Nass river and found that the people there had not changed their ways. They were dancing and feasting and invited him to join them.

By and by he came to where war was going on between two different parties, and he said to them, “Make carved fighting hats, greaves, and war coats to protect your bodies.” The name of one village was Giti’kc and the warring families were the Ginaxda’yikc (or Gitgicalk) and the Gitandu’. The people of Giti’kc were getting the worst of it. There were only three of them left — the chief, his sister, and his sister’s daughter. So the chief began sending to all the villages for an aged man who was very smart and knew the old stories. Whenever he brought in an old man, however, the latter would talk of what good food he had been eating and what a high family he belonged to, or tell what a wild life he had led when he was young, all which had no interest for the chief. He thought if he could find an old man that would tell him just the old story he wanted, he would pay him well. Finally he found that among his enemies was Old-man-who-foresees-all-troubles-in-the-world, the one spoken of at the beginning of this story, and he sent for him without letting the rest of his enemies know about it.

After a while he heard this old man coming along, talking very loud, like a brave person, and he thought, “This is the old man from whom I am going to hear the story.” Then the old man said, “Chief, if you are pleased with the story I am about to tell you, let me know how long I shall stay in your house, and, if you are not pleased, let me go at once.” After that he told him all about the brave people that had lived in times gone by, and said, “Always speak very highly of your enemies. If you speak slightingly of them they will get above you. If you speak to them in a nice manner, you will be able to stand alone. If you speak to your enemies kindly, they will say, ‘Let us give ourselves up to him.’” Then the chief said to the old man, “You shall stay with me a long time,” so he stayed there, and next day they waited on him, giving him water to wash his hands and face and food to eat.

After that the old man sent for a piece of Alaska maple (qalqe’) and made a war hat out of it carved to resemble a wolf. Then he said, “Isn’t there a wolf skin around here somewhere?” So they killed a wolf, skinned it entire along with the claws and teeth and put the dancing hat inside to fill out the head. He sent for another piece of hard wood from a tree called saks and made an arrow out of it. He burned black lines around the shaft of this arrow like those on gambling sticks. Then he said to the chief, “Your sister shall sing the war song for you, and your sister’s daughter shall beat the drum. Put the wolf on while the song is being sung and go down toward that beach just below the house. Jump over that rock four times.” There was a big rock upon the beach just below the house. As he gave these directions the old man made his voice sound as though he were making war. He began to excite the chief. “My nephews,” he continued, “are out in the canoe farthest from the beach. Be careful how you use your arrow. Do not point it toward that canoe.” When the old man was about to leave him he handed him the arrow and a bow and said, “Put on your war clothes about midnight. Then stand in front of your house and pretend that you are going to shoot. Stand with the arrow pointed toward your enemies’ village and say to the arrow just before you let it go, ‘I am shooting you to kill the chief of my enemies.’ Then let the arrow go.” After that the old man left, saying that that was all he intended to tell him.

The chief did everything just as he had been directed. At midnight he put on his war clothes and said to his sister, “You start the war song, and let my niece go to the drum.” Then he took the position the old man had told him and shot the arrow saying, “Lodge in the heart of my enemies’ chief.” He shot, and in the morning the people of that village saw that the chief was dead. They thought that he had died of heart disease, but, when they examined his body, they found the small arrow sticking into his heart. Then they cut this out and began asking one another, “Where has this arrow come from? What tribe does it belong to?” So they sent for the old man who had made it and, as he was examining it, he said, “I wonder to what place this belongs.” Just then it flew out of his hand, and he said, “Run out and see what it is going to say.” So all ran outside, and the arrow flew up and down in the sky saying “Nu’xgayu.” This is the Tsimshian name of an animal, but the old man made it indicate by that the village from which it came. After that, it went across to their enemies’ town. Now, when they saw this, they got into their canoes and went over to fight. As soon as the canoes had gotten around his house the chief said, “I am not afraid to be killed by you, because I know that you are all from a high family.” Then he again had his sister sing the war song and his niece beat the drum, and he acted as the old man had directed him. Just before he came out he threw out ashes which looked like smoke and concealed his movements. In the midst of this he came out and shot the arrow toward their canoes, which passed through every man in four of them. Then it came back to him, and he shot it through four more canoe loads. Those who were left went home.

The day after this still more came to fight him with like result, but the next time he made a mistake, shot toward the canoe which contained the old man’s relations, and killed all of them. Then the arrow flew back to the old man, who sent it at the chief for whom he had made it, and killed him.

Now the chief’s sister put on her brother’s war clothes, while her daughter sang the song and drummed. With the arrow which had traveled back to her, she began killing off her enemies just as her brother had done. So the people made fun of the old man, saying, “I thought you said you had killed that chief.” “I did kill him.” “Well! if you killed the chief, who is it that is killing our friends?” Still he kept assuring them that he had killed the chief. Then they started over once more. But, this time, when the woman had shot and was running back into the house, they saw by the apron she wore that it was a woman, and the canoes started shoreward, the people exclaiming, “It is a woman. It is a woman.” When all had landed, and she saw that they were coming after her, she and her daughter escaped out of the rear of the house and ran up into the woods. From the top of the mountain there she glanced back and said to her daughter, “Look at your uncle’s house. It is burning.” They could see the fire and smoke coming from it. Then they felt very sad and composed songs which the Indians sing to this very day. They cried so hard that they fell asleep. After that they went farther into the forest crying, and the mother said as she wept, “I wonder whom I can get to marry my daughter so that he can help me.”

By and by Mink came to the woman and said, “What is the matter with me? Will not I do for your daughter?” “What do you do for a living?” she asked him. “I have a smell that kills everything.” Then the woman went straight on without paying the least attention to him. Next Marten came along. To this woman they appeared as human beings. And Marten said, “What is the matter with me?” “What can you do for a living?” He said he was a very fast runner and could get anything he wanted, but she rejected him. Then she went on again singing as before, “Who will marry my daughter in order to help me?” Next came Mountain-goat. “What is the matter with me?” “What do you do for a living?” “I can kill anything with my horns. I live far up among the bluffs where nothing can harm me.” He did not please her, and she went on past. Then Wolf came, saying, “What is the matter with me? Can not I get your daughter?” “What do you do for a living?” “I am a fast runner. I can kill anything I want. I have plenty to eat.” He did not suit her, and she passed by him, but he was so determined that he met her again with a mountain goat in his mouth. She went right by, however, and came to a lake where she repeated the same words. At that place she met a very fine-looking young man, Frog. “What do you do for a living?” she asked, and he did not tell her what he did but said, “Although I am small very few people like me. Even the big animals are scared of me.” After him Grizzly Bear asked, “What is the matter with me?” “What do you do for a living?” “Don’t you see how large I am? I am a very powerful fellow.” He showed her his strength and what teeth he had, and said that he was very quick and active, but she refused to have him, and went on. Then she met the Wild Canary (sas). “What do you do for a living?” she said. “I am a fine singer.” She went on and met another bird, called Tsinige’ni, and asked, “What do you do for a living?” “Don’t you see that I am a very handsome fellow? All the women want to marry me.” Then she went along and met Fox, who said, “What is the matter with me?” “What do you do for a living?” she asked. She noticed that he was dressed very warmly in very beautiful clothing. “I can run and get anything I want,” he said. “I have plenty to eat.” He did not suit her, and she went right by. After a while there came Lynx (gak), who replied to her question by saying, “I am a traveler and get all kinds of birds to eat.” Next she met Wolverine (Nusk) which answered, “I am a good hunter and I kill all kinds of animals.”

After that she went along sadly, repeating as usual, “Who will marry my daughter so that he can help me?” Then she saw a man who shone all over, standing on top of a mountain. She came very close to him, and he said, “What is the matter with me?” “What do you do for a living?” “I move about as quickly as thought. Wherever I want to go there I am at once. My father is the sun.” She said, “Let us see him then.” So he spoke to the sun. It was a cloudy day, but, when he spoke to it, the sun appeared and it became very warm. “All right,” she said, “you can have my daughter for your wife.”

After that the man took a limb from a tree and said to his mother-in-law, “You shall be this limb.” He put her inside and shoved the limb back. Then he said to her, “The world will call you ‘Woman-of-the-forest’ (A’s-gutu’yik-ca). You will mock everybody that shouts or whistles. When they hear you they will know what it is.” So she became the echo.

After this a spherical cloud came down and rolled up with them. As the cloud was going up, the man said to his wife, “Don’t look at it. Keep your face hidden.” When he told her to open her eyes again she saw that she was in a beautiful place with flowers all about. It was his house. It was a grassy country and there were all kinds of fruits about the place.

There this woman had eight children, seven boys and a girl. She was very much afraid of everything, and that is why women are so today. Then they built for these children a small house with a painted front, put up forty boxes of every kind of fruit and berry, also dried salmon, grease, and other kinds of food, and stored the house with them. They had bracelets and a marten-skin robe made for the girl, and her grandfather said to her, “You are going to be very quarrelsome. While quarreling, you will always examine your bracelets.” Then their grandfather prepared war clothes for the boys and said, “You are now going down to fight.” He also gave them a painted wooden wedge and said, “Keep this with you all the time. When you are fighting and see that your enemies are too strong for you, and you are getting beaten, put this wedge into the fire. While putting it into the fire, say this: ‘Grandfather, our enemies are beating us?’” Then they were all placed, together with their house and its contents, in the spherical cloud and set down on the site of Giti’kc. As soon as it landed, the little house grew to be a big house with painted front, and the boxes of berries, salmon, and other provisions were all big painted boxes. Everything had been made small so as to come down without being seen.

Then the children of the sun were all very happy, and made so much noise that their enemies, who were out on the river fishing for eulachon, heard them and said, “Those are the bones of the Giti’kc people that are making so much racket.” As soon, however, as they found that their enemies’ village was repeopled, they started off in their canoes to make war upon them. They were so numerous that the children of the sun found they were going to be beaten and put their wedge into the fire. Then the sun came out fiercely, and many of the enemy became so hot that they jumped into the ocean. The ocean was so hot that they died there, while those upon land, becoming too blinded to fight, were also killed.

Therefore nowadays people do the same thing. When they fight and a good man of high caste is killed, his friends do not come to their opponents as though they were angry. They use good words to them, and thereby induce a man of equally high rank on the other side to come out and be killed by them. If they went there talking meanly they would not get him to come out. The woman who was saved remembered how her brother and all of her relations had been killed. Therefore she took good care in selecting a husband for her daughter, because she felt if she did so she would get all of her relatives back. That is why the Indians of good family took such good care of a daughter in old times. They knew that if she married well she would be a help to the family.

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