Tag: 05. Transformation

Physical, emotional, or spiritual changes

Raven (Part 4)

This story follows Fire-drill’s son, born from a mysterious origin, as he grows into a brave and resourceful hero. Guided by wisdom and aided by a powerful dog and magical tools, he avenges his mother’s friends by defeating dangerous beings, including a one-eyed shaman and predatory hawks. Through his journey, he demonstrates kindness, patience, and respect, offering moral lessons about virtue, humility, and the value of forging friendships over enmity.

Source: 
Tlingit Myths and Texts 
by John R. Swanton 
[Smithsonian Institution] 
Bureau of American Ethnology 
Bulletin 39 
Washington, 1909

► Themes of the story

Transformation: The narrative features the miraculous birth of Fire-drill’s son, conceived through magical means, and his rapid growth into a formidable hero.

Quest: Fire-drill’s son embarks on a journey to discover the fate of his mother’s missing friends, confronting and overcoming various adversaries along the way.

Moral Lessons: Throughout his journey, the protagonist exemplifies virtues such as kindness, patience, and respect, imparting lessons on humility and the importance of friendship over enmity.

► From the same Region or People

Learn more about the Tlingit people

Myth recorded in English at Wrangell, Alaska, in January-April 1904

Now Raven went farther and came to a woman and a little girl all alone. She was crying and Raven asked her, “What are you crying about?” “I have lost all of my friends. I am all alone here with my little girl. The people kept going off hunting or fishing and never come back. What has happened to them I do not know.” Then Raven said to the girl, “Do you know the thing with which they make fire?” She said “No,” for they had kept their fires all night since the other people were gone. Then Raven showed her how to make fire with the fire drill. He said, “Drill away until you get a lot of this fine stuff. Then take some and eat it.”

After the girl had done this she became pregnant and gave birth to a male child whom they called Fire-drill’s son (Tu’li-ya’di). Then Raven said to her, “There is a cold spring back here. Bathe your little one in it every day, and he will grow up very fast.”

► Continue reading…

To this day they call that spring Water-that-makes-one-grow. The woman bathed him as directed and he soon grew up into a man very skilful at work of all kinds. Finally he asked his mother: “Mother, is this the way you have always been? Didn’t you have a father, mother, and friends?” But she said, “We have always been this way.” He was so bright that she would not tell him. Then the child went on asking, “Whose houses are those? I think that you had friends who have all died off, and you will not tell me.” So his grandmother finally told him what had happened.

This boy was a good shot with arrows, but he said, “What can I do? All the canoes lying here are old and broken.” In the night, however, his father, Fire-drill, appeared to him in a dream and said, “Take one of those old canoes up into the woods and cover it with brush. No matter how old it is. Do it.” The morning after he had done this, he went there and found a very pretty little canoe with all things in it that he needed. Then his father appeared to him again, pulled the root of a burned tree out of the ground and made it into a little dog for him. He called it Gant (Burnt), and it could scent things from a great distance. Although small it was as powerful as a bear. He also gave his son a bow, and arrows pointed with obsidian(?). Finally he gave him a very powerful club called Qotaca’yi-qus.

Now he thought of what his grandmother had told him, took his canoe down, and prepared to go away. He told his mother that he might be gone for two days and said, “Take care of this fire drill. Hang it in a safe place overhead, and, if I am killed, it will fall.” He went along on the water shooting at birds and suddenly saw a canoe coming toward him. “There is the thing that has killed all of my mother’s friends,” he thought. Then he began talking to his dog, his club, and his bow and arrows, all of which could understand him.

The man coming toward him had only one eye, placed in the middle of his face and from this fact was called Lecawa’gi (Man-with-one-eye). He was a very big man whose home was in a cliff. Then he said to the boy, “Is this you, my nephew?” He answered, “It is I.” “Where did you come from?” “From my uncle’s village.” “Yes, I know you.” The one-eyed man could read the boy’s thoughts and said to him, “It was not I who killed your uncles and your mother’s friends. It was the East wind and the North wind.” He mentioned all of the winds. But the boy knew that this big man was after him, and he knew what he meant by talking to him so kindly. Then the big man said, “Let us trade arrows.” “Oh! no, my arrows are better than yours. They cost a great deal.” One of the boy’s arrows was named Heart-stopper (Teq-gots), because a person’s heart stopped beating the instant it touched his body. Another was pointed with porcupine quills, and a third with bark. The big man made the boy believe that his arrow points were sea urchin spines, but in reality they were only the seed vessels of fireweed. This man was a bad shaman. He held his arrow points up, and said, “Do you see these arrows?” He could see that the points were all moving. Then the boy said, “It is wonderful, but my arrows are not like that. They are only good for shooting birds.” Now the shaman’s object was to get Heart-stopper. Finally the boy said to the shaman, “Look here, you call yourself my uncle. That is how you did away with my uncles and my mother’s friends, is it? You will never make away with me so.” That angered the big man, and before they knew it both had their arrows in hand, but the boy was the quicker and killed his antagonist; the dog helped him. Then the boy took the big man’s tongue out and burned his body. All this time his mother was worrying about him.

Then he paddled along by the shore and heard some one calling to him. He thought, “There is another bad man.” So he went to the place and discovered on a very steep cliff falling sheer into the water an aperture with red paint around it and devil clubs tied into a ring hanging close by. Some one inside of this invited him in, and, as he was very brave and cared for nothing, he went up to the entrance. The person who lived there was the wife of the man he had killed. She had seen his canoe passing and thought, “He must have killed my husband.” So she said, “Your aunt’s husband went across that way.” And the boy said, “I have seen your husband.” This woman’s name was Knife-hand (Djiwan-yis), because she had a knife on each hand. She said to the boy, “You better come in here and let me give you food before you go on.” “All right,” he said. So he entered and found her cooking the parts of a human being. She called the ends of its fingers, “crab apples,” its eyes, “berries,” etc. When he told her that he did not eat that sort of food, she at once said, “Well! let us have a fight then. We will kill each other.” He agreed and she went to a large rock where he could hear her drawing both hands back and forth to sharpen them. As soon as she had finished, she threw her hand at him, but he jumped aside so quickly that it stuck in the spot where he had been sitting, and, when she drew her hand away, the knife remained there. Then the boy jumped forward, seized it, and threw it back with such good aim that it killed her. He also cut her tongue out. He had no more than finished with her, however, than he noticed that the entrance hole was growing smaller and smaller. So he made himself small also, crept into one of the ermine skins he had tied in his hair, and ran out. When he came home again with his canoe loaded down with seal and deer, his mother and grandmother were very glad to see him, for they had been weeping for him and worrying about him ever since he left. Now he told them not to worry any longer because he had killed the bad people who destroyed their friends.

Next he said to his mother, “Mother, do not be afraid to tell me. What was it that killed my uncles when they went back here hunting?” By and by he went back into the woods to hunt and saw smoke rising a long distance off. He came to a house and entered. There he saw a very old woman called Old-mole-woman (Kaga’kqo ca’naku). As soon as she saw the boy this woman said, “My grandson what is it that you are after?” The boy felt that she was an honest old woman and said, “I am looking for the person that killed my uncles and all of my mother’s friends.” Then she told him to come in and eat. She picked a small piece of salmon out from between her teeth which at once turned into a whole salmon. That was the way she got anything she wanted, and it was the only way she got her food. Then she said to the boy, “Grandson, it is pretty hard to get at the beings that murdered your uncles. They are the hawks (kidju’k). You must find their nests, which are very high up, and watch until the old birds go away, leaving their two young ones.” When he came to the nest, however, he saw that the old birds were away, so he went up to the young ones and said to them, “What do you live on?” The birds showed him numbers of human skulls and other human bones lying about the base of the tree and said, “That is what we live on.” They also said, “Our father and our mother always come just at daybreak. You can not see them because they come in clouds. Our mother comes over the mountain in a yellow cloud and our father comes in a black cloud.” Then he said to the birds, “Do not tell about me or I will kill you,” and they believed he would do it.

Suddenly the boy saw the yellow cloud coming. He distinguished the mother bird bringing a human body for her children to eat. Then he killed her and threw her down to the foot of the tree along with the body she was carrying. After that he saw the black cloud coming and presently distinguished the father bird. The father bird said to the young ones, “Where is your mother?” and they answered, “Our mother dropped the dead body she was bringing and went down after it.” As he was sitting there talking the boy killed him also and threw his body down. Then he said to the little birds, “You must never kill people any more or live on human flesh. I will go and get something for you to eat until you are strong enough.” So he went out hunting and brought them a lot of ground hogs, saying to them, “This is what you are to live upon.” So these birds now live only on ground-hog meat. They do not live on human flesh any more. They kill their victims with rocks, and a person who is about to become rich will see them throw one of these. Then he picks it up and it brings him good luck.

After that he went back to the old woman and told her what he had done, and she was very happy to learn that these dangerous birds were killed. He said to her, “I am going back to my mother and grandmother. I and my dog have obtained a great deal of food for them.” He also gave a quantity of food to the old woman who had helped him. His mother and grandmother were very glad when they saw him come back with the skins of those birds and a quantity of provisions.

Now Fire-drill’s son collected enough food and grease in boxes to last his mother and grandmother all their lives and said, “Mother, I am going to leave you forever. I was not put here to be with you always. I have done what I wanted to do. If what you have hanging overhead falls, you may know that you will never see me again. But do not worry, for it is my duty to leave you.” Then he went away.

As he was traveling along from that place, Fire-drill’s son saw some one ahead of him called Dry-cloud (Gus-xuk). He was able to travel very fast, and he chased it. As he was running along he came to the mink people. He ran along again and came to the marten people. Both kept saying to him, “We want you to be our friend,” but he paid no attention to them and kept on pursuing Dry-cloud. Then he came to the wolf people and stayed there.

One of the wolf chiefs thought a great deal of Fire-drill’s son. One time the wolves began talking about all those things that can run very fast, and finally they spoke about the mountain goats, how they can travel about easily among the cliffs, and said that they were going out to hunt them. When they set out, all ran hard to see who could kill the first one, but Fire-drill’s son’s dog killed a great number before anyone could get near them, so many, in fact, that Fire-drill’s son took only the leaf lard home to show how many he had gotten. Then the wolves all went up and brought down the dead goats, and they felt very much ashamed that they, who were noted runners and hunters, had gotten nothing. They wondered what they could do to get even with Fire-drill’s son. Then they took a quantity of long stringy vines called mountain-eel (cayali’ti), made them into rings and began playing with them. They would let these roll down the sides of the mountains and jump through them when they were at full speed. Anyone who got caught in one of these would be cut in two.

Fire-drill’s son’s wolf friend said to him, however, “My friend, don’t go near those people that are playing. You do not know anything about the things they are using. They will kill you.” He answered, “No, I will not play with them, but let us watch them.” So they went out and watched them. Then Fire-drill’s son said to his dog, “Now, you play there and throw it as high as you can.” So the dog played with it and threw it as high as he could. It was a fine moonlight night, and the ring rolled right up to the moon, where it became the ring you see there whenever there is going to be a change in weather. After that his friend, the wolf chief, said to the rest of the wolves, “You know that this son of Fire-drill is a wonderful fellow. He can do anything. Do not try to injure him in anyway, but treat him as a friend. “

This story is referred to in drawing the moral that one should never do anything spiteful or try to get ahead of one who knows better. If he does he will always get the worst of it. This is why in olden times the Indians looked up to the chiefs and those of high caste, knowing that they had been brought up and instructed better than themselves, and never tried to get ahead of them.

It is also brought up to the people how Fire-drill’s son fed the young hawks instead of killing them. If a young person is very cruel they say to him, ‘If the hawk can be made a friend of mankind, why can not you make friends with your enemies? If you want to be respected do not make enemies, but friends always.’

They tell the young people that a bad fellow is always like the one-eyed man, trying to get advantage of a good person. He is quick to say whatever comes into his mind, while the good man always thinks first. Therefore whatever the latter says people know is right. They ask their children to choose which of the two they would rather resemble.

Because the one-eyed man said, ‘I did not kill your uncles or your mother’s friends,’ a murderer nowadays will never come out and say, ‘I am the one who killed that man.’ He always tries to make an innocent person suffer. As the one-eyed man’s wife invited this boy to have something to eat in order to kill him, so a bad person says whatever he chooses to a good one. But they tell their children, ‘This will not kill you. They are doing themselves injury instead of you. So turn and walk away from them.’

If a poor person has self-respect, he will have good fortune some time, just as in the case of the two old women to whom Raven brought fortune.

The example of Fire-drill’s son is commended because he did not use his power meanly. He knew that he was very powerful, but when all the animals tried his power he did not do them any harm. He did not want to show his strength at once. If he had been a mean man he might have killed the old woman that lived back in the woods instead of helping her and getting her food.

After that Fire-drill’s son and his wolf friend went off together, and the wolf said, “Some strange being walks around here. Don’t run after him or he will take your life.” It was Dry-cloud that he meant. “Don’t mind me,” said Fire-drill’s son, “I know what he is. I only play with him. I know that this fellow can’t be killed, and I know that he can not kill anybody else, but I have to follow him. That was my father’s advice to me.” So they kept on after Dry-cloud and the wolf had to run with all his might, but it did not seem to Fire-drill’s son that he was going rapidly at all. Whenever the wolf got his tail wet in crossing a stream he was too much tired out to shake it, so he simply yelped and Fire-drill’s son shook it for him. By and by they saw smoke far ahead of them and presently came to where an old woman lived alone by herself. They stayed with her for some time, and could see Dry-cloud as long as they were there, for he lived in the neighborhood of her house. Then they helped the old woman and collected a quantity of wood for her. After that she said to the boy, “Grandson, there is a big fish over yonder. It killed all of my friends in this town. That is why I am all alone here.” He went to the place where she said the monster lived and found a red cod. He said to her, “Grandmother, that is not a monster fish. It is good to eat.” So he took his bow and arrows and told his friend to watch him. Then he went to the red cod and killed it, and, seeing that there were numbers of sharp spines upon it, he took off its skin and dried it. He said to the wolf: “My friend, do you know this woman? She is really Daughter-of-the-calm (Kaye’li-si). She is a very nice, pretty girl.” Afterward Fire-drill’s son married Daughter-of-the-calm and had a child by her named Lakitcine’. He gave this boy his dog and put the red-cod skin upon him as a shirt. Then he said to his wife: “This is going to be a very bad boy.”

Katishan added that once while Fire-drill’s son was chasing Dry-cloud he was pulled into a village in the sky for some offense and punished there. Since then people have believed that the stars are inhabited. They were thought to be towns and the light the reflection of the sea.

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Raven (Part 1)

This Tlingit origin story explores Raven’s significant role in shaping the world and guiding humanity. As a creation by Nas-ca’ki-yel, the deity who brought light, life, and order, Raven demonstrates cleverness and resilience. He teaches survival skills, crafts, and moral lessons, introduces rituals, and transforms elements of nature. Through adventures and trickery, Raven profoundly impacts Tlingit beliefs, linking humans, animals, and spirits in a shared existence.

Source: 
Tlingit Myths and Texts 
by John R. Swanton 
[Smithsonian Institution] 
Bureau of American Ethnology 
Bulletin 39 
Washington, 1909

► Themes of the story

Creation: The narrative describes the world’s beginnings, emphasizing the absence of daylight and the subsequent actions leading to the world’s formation.

Trickster: Raven embodies the archetypal trickster, using cunning and intelligence to influence events and bring about change.

Transformation: The story highlights Raven’s ability to change forms and the transformative impact of his actions on the world and its inhabitants.

► From the same Region or People

Learn more about the Tlingit people

Myth recorded in English at Wrangell, Alaska, in January-April 1904

In olden times only high-caste people knew the story of Raven properly because only they had time to learn it.

At the beginning of things there was no daylight and the world lay in blackness. Then there lived in a house at the head of Nass river a being called Raven-at-the-head-of-Nass (Nas-ca’ki-yel), the principal deity to whom the Tlingit formerly prayed [in another place the writer’s informant admitted that he had concluded this must be the case because there were no bad stories about Nas-ca’ki-yel.], but whom no one had seen; and in his house were all kinds of things including sun, moon, stars, and daylight.

He was addressed in prayers as Axcagu’n, or Axkinaye’gi, My Creator, and Wayigena’lxe, Invisible-rich-man.

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With him were two old men called Old-man-who-foresees-all-troubles-in-the-world (Adawu’l-ca’naku) and He-who-knows-everything-that-happens (Liu’wat-uwadji’gi-can). Next to Nas-ca’ki-yel, they prayed to the latter of these. Under the earth was a third old person, Old-woman-underneath (Hayi-ca’naku), placed under the world by Nas-ca’ki-yel. Nas-ca’ki-yel was unmarried and lived alone with these two old men, and yet he had a daughter, a thing no one is able to explain. Nor do people know what this daughter was. The two old persons took care of her like servants, and especially they always looked into the water before she drank to see that it was perfectly clean.

First of all beings Nas-ca’ki-yel created the Heron (Laq) as a very tall and very wise man and after him the Raven (Yel), who was also a very good and very wise man at that time.

Raven came into being in this wise. His first mother had many children, but they all died young, and she cried over them continually. According to some, this woman was Nas-ca’ki-yel’s sister and it was Nas-ca’ki-yel who was doing this because he did not wish her to have any male children. By and by Heron came to her and said, “What is it that you are crying about all the time?” She answered, “I am always losing my children. I can not bring them up.” Then he said, “Go down on the beach when the tide is lowest, get a small, smooth stone, and put it into the fire. When it is red hot, swallow it. Do not be afraid.” She said, “All right.” Then she followed Heron’s directions and gave birth to Raven. Therefore Raven’s name was really Aztca’ku, the name of a very hard rock, and he was hence called Ta’qlik-ic (Hammer-father). This is why Raven was so tough and could not easily be killed.

Heron and Raven both became servants to Nas-ca’ki-yel, but he thought more of Raven and made him head man over the world. Then Nas-ca’ki-yel made some people.

All of the beings Nas-ca’ki-yel had created, however, existed in darkness, and this existence lasted for a long time, how long is unknown. But Raven felt very sorry for the few people in darkness and, at last, he said to himself, “If I were only the son of Nas-ca’ki-yel I could do almost anything.” So he studied what he should do and decided upon a plan. He made himself very small, turned himself into a hemlock needle, and floated upon the water Nas-ca’ki-yel’s daughter was about to drink. Then she swallowed it and soon after became pregnant.

Although all this was by the will of Nas-ca’ki-yel and although he knew what was the matter with his daughter, yet he asked her how she had gotten into that condition. She said, “I drank water, and I felt that I had swallowed something in it.” Then Nas-ca’ki-yel instructed them to get moss for his daughter to lie upon, and on that the child was born. They named him Nas-ca’ki-yel also. Then Nas-ca’ki-yel cut a basket in two and used half of it for a cradle, and he said that people would do the same thing in future times, so they have since referred its use to him.

Nas-ca’ki-yel tried to make human beings out of a rock and out of a leaf at the same time, but the rock was slow while the leaf was very quick. Therefore human beings came from the leaf. Then he showed a leaf to the human beings and said, “You see this leaf. You are to be like it. When it falls off the branch and rots there is nothing left of it.” That is why there is death in the world. If men had come from the rock there would be no death. Years ago people used to say when they were getting old, “We are unfortunate in not having been made from a rock. Being made from a leaf, we must die.”

Nas-ca’ki-yel also said, “After people die, if they are not witches, and do not lie or steal, there is a good place for them to go to.” Wicked people are to be dogs and such low animals hereafter. The place for good people is above, and, when one comes up there, he is asked, “What were you killed for?” or “What was your life in the world?” The place he went to was governed by his reply. So people used to say to their children, “Do not lie. Do not steal. For the Maker (Nas-ca’ki-yel) will see you.”

Some time afterward a man died, and Raven, coming into the house, saw him there with his wife and children weeping around him. So he raised the dead man’s blanket with both hands, held it over the body, and brought him back to life.

After that both Raven and her husband told this woman that there was no death, but she disbelieved them. Then Raven said to her, “Lie down and go to sleep.” And, as she slept, she thought she saw a wide trail with many people upon it and all kinds of fierce animals around. Good people had to pass along this trail in order to live again. When she came to the end of the trail there was a great river there, and a canoe came across to her from the other side of it. She entered this and crossed. There some people came to her and said, “You better go back. We are not in a good place. There is starvation here, we are cold, and we get no water to drink.”

This is why people burn the bodies of the dead and put food into the fire for them to eat. Burning their bodies makes the dead comfortable. If they were not burned their spirits would be cold. This is why they invite all those of the opposite clan as well as the nearest relations of the dead man’s wife, seating them together in one place, and burn food in front of them. It is because they think that the dead person gets all of the property destroyed at the feast and all of the food then burned up. It is on account of what Raven showed them that they do so.

Because Nas-ca’ki-yel got it into his mind to wish for daylight in the world, he had wished for a grandchild through whom it might come. Now, therefore, although he knew what answer he would receive, he sent for Liu’wat-uwadji’gi-can and questioned him to see whether he would answer right: “Where did this child come from? Whose is it? Can you tell?” And the other said, “His eyes look like the eyes of Raven.” That is how he came to get the name Raven.

After a while the baby began to crawl about. His grandfather thought a great deal of him and let him play with everything in the house. Everything in the house was his. The Raven began crying for the moon, until finally they handed it to him and quick as a wink he let it go up into the sky. After he had obtained everything else, he began to cry for the box in which daylight was stored. He cried, cried, cried for a very long time, until he looked as though he were getting very sick, and finally his grandfather said, “Bring my child here.” So they handed Raven to his grandfather. Then his grandfather said to him, “My grandchild, I am giving you the last thing I have in the world.” So he gave it to him.

Then Raven, who was already quite large, walked down along the bank of Nass river until he heard the noise people were making as they fished along the shore for eulachon in the darkness. All the people in the world then lived at one place at the mouth of the Nass.

They had already heard that Nas-ca’ki-yel had something called “daylight,” which would some day come into the world, and they used to talk about it a great deal. They were afraid of it.

Then Raven shouted to the fishermen, “Why do you make so much noise? If you make so much noise I will break daylight on you.” Eight canoe loads of people were fishing there. But they answered, “You are not Nas-ca’ki-yel. How can you have the daylight?”, and the noise continued. Then Raven opened the box a little and light shot over the world like lightning. At that they made still more noise. So he opened the box completely and there was daylight everywhere.

When this daylight burst upon the people they were very much frightened, and some ran into the water, some into the woods. Those that had hair-seal or fur-seal skins for clothing ran into the water and became hair seals and fur seals. Hair seal and fur seal were formerly only the names of the clothing they had. Those who had skins called marten skins, black-bear skins, grizzly-bear skins, etc., ran into the woods and turned into such animals.

Petrel (Ganu’k) was one of the first persons created by Nas-ca’ki-yel. He was keeper of the fresh water, and would let none else touch it. The spring he owned was on a rocky island outside of Kuiu, called Deki’-nu (Fort-far-out), where the well may still be seen. Raven stole a great mouthful of this water and dropped it here and there as he went along. This is the origin of the great rivers of the world, the Nass, Skeena, Stikine, Chilkat, and others. He said, “This thing that I drop here and there will whirl all the time. It will not overflow the world, yet there will be plenty of water.” Before this time Raven is said to have been pure white, but, as he was flying up through the smoke hole with Petrel’s water, the latter said, “Spirits, hold down my smoke hole.” So they held him until he was turned black by the smoke.

After this Raven saw a fire far out at sea. Tying a piece of pitchwood to a chicken hawk’s bill, he told him to go out to this fire, touch it with the pitchwood, and bring it back. When he had brought it to him Raven put it into the rock and the red cedar saying, “This is how you are to get your fire, from this rock and this red cedar,” and that is the way they formerly did.

Thus Raven (Yel) went about among the natives of Alaska telling them what to do, but Nas-ca’ki-yel they never saw. Raven showed all the Tlingit what to do for a living, but he did not get to be such a high person as Nas-ca’ki-yel, and he taught the people much foolishness. At that time the world was full of dangerous animals and fish. Raven also tied up some witches, and so it was through him that the people believed in witchcraft. Then he told the people that some wild animals were to be their friends (i.e., their crest animals) to which they were to talk.

Once he gave a feast and invited persons to it from other places. He had two slaves after that, named Gidzage’t and Gidzanu’qu. This is why the natives here had slaves. It was on account of his example. There was a man who had no arm, so Raven thought he would be a shaman and cure him. This is how the Tlingit came to have shamans. After there was death he showed them how to dance over the body placed in the middle of the floor.

Raven also taught the people how to make halibut hooks, and went out fishing with them. He had names for the halibut hooks and talked to them before he let them down into the sea. That is why the natives do so now. He also taught them to be very quick when they went out halibut fishing or they would catch nothing.

He also made different kinds of fish traps and taught the people how to use them. He made the small variety and a big trap, shaped like a barrel, for use in the Stikine.

He taught them how to make the seal spear (kat). It has many barbs, and there are different kinds. One is called tsa-caxictdza’s. It is provided with some attachment that hits the seal (tsa) upon the head whenever it comes to the surface, driving its head under water until it dies, and that is what the name signifies.

Then he showed them how to make a canoe. This he did on the Queen Charlotte islands. At first the people were afraid to get into it, but he said, “The canoe is not dangerous. People will seldom get drowned.”

He taught them how to catch a salmon called icqe’n, which requires a different kind of hook from that used for halibut. The place where he taught people how to get different kinds of shellfish is a beach on the Queen Charlotte islands called Raven’s beach to this day.

After he was through teaching the people these things, he went under the ocean, and when he came back, taught them that the sea animals are not what we think they are, but are like human beings. First he went to the halibut people. They have a chief who invited him to eat, and had dried devilfish and other kinds of dried fish brought out. He was well liked everywhere he went under the sea because he was a very smart man. After that he went to see the sculpin people, who were very industrious and had all kinds of things in their houses. The killer-whale people seemed to live on hair-seal meat, fat, and oil. Their head chief was named Gonaqade’t, and even to this day the natives say that the sight of him brings good fortune.

While he was under the ocean he saw some people fishing for halibut, and he tried to tease them by taking hold of their bait. They, however, caught him by the bill and pulled him up as far as the bottom of their canoe, where he braced himself so that they pulled his bill out. They did not know what this bill was and called it gone’t-luwu’ (bill -of-something-unknown). Then Raven went from house to house inquiring for his bill until he came to the house of the chief. Upon asking for it there, they handed it to him wrapped in eagle down. Then he put it back into its place and flew off through the smoke hole.

Raven left that town and came to another. There he saw a king salmon jumping about far out at sea. He got it ashore and killed it. Because he was able to do everything, the natives did all that he told them. He was the one who taught all things to the natives, and some of them still follow his teachings. After that he got all kinds of birds for his servants. It was through these that people found out he was the Raven.

Once he went to a certain place and told the people to go and fight others. He said, “You go there and kill them all, and you will have all the things in that town.” This was the beginning of war.

After having been down among the fish teaching them, Raven went among the birds and land animals. He said to the grouse (nukt), “You are to live in a place where it is wintry, and you will always look out for a place high up so that you can get plenty of breeze.” Then he handed the grouse four white pebbles, telling him to swallow them so that they might become his strength. “You will never starve,” he said, “so long as you have these four pebbles.” He also said, “You know that Sealion is your grandchild. You must be generous, get four more pebbles and give them to him.” That is how the sealion came to have four large pebbles. It throws these at hunters, and, if one strikes a person, it kills him. From this story it is known that the grouse and the sealion can understand each other.

Raven said to the ptarmigan: “You will be the maker of snowshoes. You will know how to travel in snow.” It was from these birds that the Athapascans learned how to make snowshoes, and it was from them that they learned how to put their lacings on.

Next Raven came to the “wild canary” (sas), which is found in the Tlingit country all the year round, and said: “You will be head among the very small birds. You are not to live on what human beings eat. Keep away from them.”

Then he went to the robin and said: “You will make the people happy by letting them hear your whistle. You will be a good whistler.”

Then he said to the flicker (kun): “You will be the head one among the birds next in size. You will not be found in all places. You will be very seldom seen.”

He said to the luga’n, a bird that lives far out on the ocean: “You will live far out on the ocean on lonely rocks. You will be very seldom seen near shore.”

Then he came to the snipes and said to them: “You will always go in flocks. You will never go out alone.” Therefore we always see them in flocks.

He said to the asqaca’tci, a small bird with greenish-yellow plumage: “You will always go in flocks. You will always be on the tops of the trees. That is where your food is.”

To a very small bird called kotai’, about the size of a butterfly, he said: “You will be a very respectable bird. You will be seen only to give good luck. People will hear your voice always but never see you.

Then Raven came to the blue jay and said: “You will have very fine clothes and be a good talker. People will take patterns (probably “colors”) from your clothes.”

Then he went to a bird called xunkaha’ and said: “You will never be seen unless the north wind is going to blow.” That is what its name signifies.

He came to the crows and said: “You will make lots of noise. You will be great talkers.” That is why, when you hear one crow, you hear a lot of others right afterward.

He came to a bird called gusyiadu’l and said to it: “You will be seen only when the warm weather is coming on. Never come near except when warm weather is coming.”

He came to the humming bird and said: “A person will enjoy seeing you. If he sees you once, he will want to see you again.”

He said to the eagle: “You will be very powerful and above all birds. Your eyesight will be very good. What you want will be very easy for you.” He put talons on the eagle and said that they would be very useful to him.

And so he went on speaking to all the birds.

Then he said to the land otter: “You will live in the water just as well as on land.” He and the land otter were good friends, so they went halibut fishing together. The land otter was a fine fisherman. Finally he said to the land otter: “You will always have your house on a point where there is plenty of breeze from either side. Whenever a canoe capsizes with people in it you will save them and make them your friends.” The land-otter-man (ku’cta-qa) originated from Raven telling this to the land otter. All Alaskans know about the land-otter-man but very few tell the story of Raven correctly.

If the friends of those who have been taken away by the land otters get them back, they become shamans, therefore it was through the land otters that shamans were first known. Shamans can see one another by means of the land-otter spirits although others can not.

The first man captured (or saved) by the land otters was a Kiksa’di named Kaka’. The land otters kept coming to him in large canoes looking like his mother or his sister or other dear relation, and pretending that they had been looking for him for a long time. But they could not control themselves as well as he, and at such times he would discover who they were and that their canoe was nothing but a skate. Finally, when Kaka’ found that he could not see his friends, he thought that he might as well give himself up to the land otters. Then they named him Qowulka’, a word in the land-otter language now applied to a kind of fishhook which the halibut are thought to like better than all others. Nowadays, when a figure of Qowulka’ is made, it is covered with a dog skin, because it was by means of a dog skin that he frightened the land otters, and they also hang his apron about with dog bones. The shaman who is possessed by him dresses in the same manner. From Kaka’ the people learned that the land otters affect the minds of those who have been with them for a long time so as to turn them against their own friends. They also learned from him that there are shamans among the land otters, and that the land otters have a language of their own.

For two years Kaka’s friends hunted for him, fasting at the same time and remaining away from their wives. At the end of this period the land otters went to an island about 50 miles from Sitka and took Kaka’ with them. The land-otter tribe goes to this place every year. Then an old land-otter-woman called to Kaka’: “My nephew, I see that you are worrying about the people at your home. When you get to the place whither we are going place yourself astride of the first log you see lying on the beach and sit there as long as you can.” And her husband said, to him: “Keep your head covered over. Do not look around.” They gave him this direction because they thought, “If this human being sees all of our ways and learns all of our habits, we shall die.” On the way across the land-otter-people sang a song, really a kind of prayer, of which the words are, “May we get on the current running to the shore.”

The moment they came to land the land-otter-people disappeared and he did not know what had become of them. They may have run into some den. Then he ran up the sandy beach and sat on the first log he came to, as he had been directed. The instant his body touched it he became unconscious. It was a shaman’s spirit that made him so.

By and by Kaka’s friends, who were at that time hunting for fur seals, an occupation that carries one far out to sea, suddenly heard the noise of a shaman’s drum and people beating for him with batons. They followed the sound seaward until they saw thousands and thousands of sea birds flying about something floating upon the ocean a mile or two ahead of them. Arrived there they saw that it was a log with Kaka’ lying upon it clothed only in a kelp apron. The people were delighted to find even his body, and took it into their canoe. He looked very wild and strange. He did not open his eyes, yet he seemed to know who had possession of him, and without having his lips stir a voice far down in his chest said, “It is I my masters.” It was a shaman’s spirit that said this, and to the present day a shaman’s spirit will call the shaman’s relations “my masters.”

The old woman that saved him and told him to sit astride of the log was his spirit and so was her husband. The log was the spirit’s canoe. This woman and her husband had been captured by the land otters long before, but Kaka’ was so strong-minded a fellow that they felt they could do nothing with him, so they let him go and became his spirits. They could not turn him into a land otter because he did not believe that land otters are stronger than human beings.

After the people had brought Kaka’ to a place just around the point from their village, he said, “Leave me here for a little while.” So most of his relations remained with him, while two went home to tell the people who were there. They were not allowed to keep it from the women. Then they made a house for him out of devil clubs and he was left there for two days while the people of the town fasted. They believed in these spirits as we now believe in God. Before he was brought home the house and the people in it had to be very clean, because he would not go where there was filth. After they got him home they heard the spirit saying far down within him, “It is I, Old-land-otter-spirit (Ku’cta-koca’nqo-yek).” This was the name of the old woman who first told him what to do. The next spirit was The-spirit-that-saves (Qosine’xe-yek). He sang inside of him the same song that the land otters sang. It was his spirit’s song and has many words to it.

All the birds that assembled around him when he was floating upon the sea were also his spirits. Even the wind and waves that first, upset him were his spirits. Everything strange that he had seen at the time when the land otters got possession of him were his spirits. There are, always sea birds sitting on a floating log, and from Kaka’ people learned that these are shamans’ spirits. It is from his experience that all Alaskans — Tlingit, Haida, even Eskimo and Athapascans — believe in the land-otter-men (ku’cta-qa). By means of his spirits Kaka’ was able to stand going naked for two years. This story of Kaka’ is a true story, and it is from him that the Tlingit believe in shamans’ spirits (yek).

After leaving the land otters Raven appeared at Taku. There is a cliff at the mouth of that inlet called Wasase’ where the North Wind used to live, and Raven stayed there with him. The North Wind was very proud and shone all over with what the Indians thought were icicles. So the Indians never say anything against the North Wind, however long it blows, because it has spirits (i.e., power). Years ago people thought that there were spirits in all the large cliffs upon the islands, and they would pray to those cliffs. They had this feeling toward them because Raven once lived in this cliff with the North Wind.

Raven observed certain regulations very strictly when he was among the rivers he had created. He told people never to mention anything that lives in the sea by its right name while they were there, but to call a seal a rabbit, for instance, and so with the other animals. This was to keep them from meeting with misfortune among the rapids. Formerly the Indians were very strict with their children when they went up the rivers, but nowadays all that has been forgotten.

After this Raven went to Chilkat and entered a sweat house along with the chief of the killer whales who tried to roast him. Raven, however, had a piece of ice near him and every now and then put part of it into his mouth. Then he would tell the killer whale that he felt chilly and make him feel ashamed. “If I did not belong to the Ganaxte’di family,” said Raven, “I could not have stood that sweat house.” For this reason the Ganaxte’di now claim the raven as an emblem and think they have more right to it than anybody else.

It was from Raven that people found out there are Athapascan Indians. He went back into their country. So the Chilkat people to this day make their money by going thither. He also showed the Chilkat people how to make tcil, secret storehouses maintained some distance out of town, and he taught them how to put salmon into these and keep them frozen there over winter. So the Chilkat people got their name from tcil, “storehouse,” and xat, “salmon.”

Raven also showed the Chilkat people the first seeds of the Indian tobacco and taught them how to plant it. After it was grown up, he dried it, gathered clam shells, roasted them until they were very soft, and pounded them up with the tobacco. They used to chew this, and it was so good that it is surprising they gave it up. They made a great deal of money at Chilkat by trading with this among the interior Indians, but nowadays it is no longer planted.

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How Protestant Christianity was first heard of at Sitka

A man returned to Sitka after two months, claiming God had descended to aid them. Following his instructions, women adorned themselves with beadwork and danced, falling backward during rituals. Saltwater was used to revive them, believed to ward off smallpox. This practice continued for an entire year, blending faith, community, and healing traditions into a prolonged ceremonial response.

Source: 
Tlingit Myths and Texts 
by John R. Swanton 
[Smithsonian Institution] 
Bureau of American Ethnology 
Bulletin 39 
Washington, 1909

► Themes of the story

Divine Intervention: The man’s claim that a deity has descended to help the people signifies the influence of divine forces in human affairs.

Ritual and Initiation: The introduction of new dances and the use of saltwater as protective measures highlight the role of ceremonial rites in marking transitions and seeking protection.

Transformation: The community’s adoption of new spiritual practices represents a shift in cultural and religious identity, indicating a significant change in their belief system.

► From the same Region or People

Learn more about the Tlingit people

Myth recorded in English at Sitka, Alaska
January-April 1904

[It is possible, however, that this was the result of Jesuit teaching on the upper Skeena.]

A man went south from Sitka and returned after two months. When he came ashore he called all the people to a dance and told them that God (Deki’-anqa’wo, Distant-chief) had come down from heaven to help them.

Then all the women made beadwork for their hair and ears. One evening, when they were through with that, they again began dancing. While the women danced they would fall flat on their backs. When this happened, in accordance with directions the man had received below, they brought up salt water, wet part of each woman’s blanket and flapped it against her breast to make her come to. This prevented the smallpox from having any effect upon her. They kept on dancing a whole year.

► Continue reading…

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The youthful warrior

A hunter from the Wolf clan, mistaken for a bear while wearing a black bear-skin coat, was fatally shot by his companions. His nephew, seeking revenge, grew into a fierce warrior but ultimately renounced violence after a transformative encounter with his aunt. A series of interconnected tales follows, revealing themes of honor, reconciliation, and community customs, emphasizing the cultural complexity of Tlingit traditions.

Source: 
Tlingit Myths and Texts 
by John R. Swanton 
[Smithsonian Institution] 
Bureau of American Ethnology 
Bulletin 39 
Washington, 1909

► Themes of the story

Revenge and Justice: The nephew seeks to avenge his uncle’s death, embodying the pursuit of retribution.

Transformation: The nephew evolves from a vengeful youth into a figure who renounces violence after a profound realization.

Family Dynamics: The narrative delves into the relationships within the family, particularly between the nephew, his mother, and his aunt, highlighting the complexities and influences of familial bonds.

► From the same Region or People

Learn more about the Tlingit people

Myth recorded in English at Sitka, Alaska
January-April 1904

A man belonging to the Wolf clan went hunting with his brothers-in-law. He wore a black bear-skin coat. They went up a certain creek after grizzly bears, but one time at camp he climbed a tree with his bear skin on and was filled with arrows by his companions who mistook him for an animal. Then he said to them, “I will not say that you filled me with arrows. I will say that I fell from the tree.” So, when they got him home, he said, “I fell from a tree.” After he was dead, however, and his body burned, they found mussel-shell arrow points lying among his bones.

After this his friends told his sister’s son to go up to the place where he had been killed. The name of this place is Creek-with-a-cliff-at-its-mouth (Watlage’l), and it is near Port Frederick.

► Continue reading…

When the hunters came into camp with a bear the boy pretended to be asleep, but really he was looking through a hole in his blanket. While they were cooking the bear some of them suggested that they say to this boy, “The bear’s soup is very sweet,” but others did not wish to. They tried to get the boy to eat some of it, but he would not. Then they started home with him.

After he had reached home he said to his mother, “Let us go down to the beach. I want you to look over my hair for lice.” But, when she got down therewith him, he said, “Mother, I want you to tell me truly what my fathers meant. They said, ‘Wake this young fellow up and let him drink some of this bear’s soup’.” Then his mother became frightened and said to him, “Your uncle went to that creek. They shot him full of arrows there.” When he found that out he chased his mother away.

When he was a few years older he began bathing for strength in winter-time. After people had whipped each other they would go to the shaman to see what he predicted. This had been going on for some time when four persons went out of the town to carve things for the shaman. They were gone so long that late in the winter it was thought they had been lost, and the shaman was consulted. They laid him in the middle of the house and tested his spirits in every way to find out what the matter was. Finally, the shaman got his spirits to take a certain man up to the sky to see if he could discover the missing men. The man he chose knew that the young man was preparing to kill some one, so, when he awoke, he said to him, “Tell the shaman that they are there (i.e., in the heaven to which those go who are killed).” And the youth said to the people, “The persons who destroyed my uncle are the same who destroyed these. Let us go to war.”

Then they made a war hat for the young man all covered with abalone shells, and he went out to fight. Every time he went out he conquered, because he was strong. The missing men, however, got home safely. After some time the youth came against a fort where lived an old sister of his father, and this woman shouted down to him during the fight, “I never thought that that boy would grow into such a powerful man. When I took away the moss [a piece of moss was placed in the cradle for sanitary purposes] from his cradle he never felt how cold it was.” So the young man, when he got into the fort, inquired, “Who said that to me?” “It was your father’s sister who said it.” So he pitied his father’s sister, pulled off his war hat, and smashed it on the rocks in front of her, breaking the abalone shells all to pieces. He gave up fighting, and they made peace.

Some time after this, however, he killed one of his own friends belonging to another town, and they came over and killed two of his people in revenge. After that every time the young man ate, he would say, “I will leave this good part for my enemy,” meaning that he would feed them on a good war. He always made fun of his enemies because he was brave. So the people at this place, when they had destroyed all of his companions, took him captive because he had talked so much. They would not let him touch the bodies of his friends, and he said to them at last, “Let me have my friends.” “Will you do this any more?” they said. “No, I will not set out to war any more. Let me have my friends.” Then they lowered a canoe into the water with himself and a few others who had been preserved, and they started home with the bodies. On the way one of his companions said to him, “I wish you would steer this canoe well.” “It can not be steered well,” he said, “because there are so few to paddle it.” Some of the women belonging to his enemies were in the canoe along with them. When they burned their dead, they put these women into the fire along with the bodies. Then the man gave up all idea of fighting. He was the last one left in that clan.

After they had made peace on both sides, a man named Qoxti’tc came there from Prince of Wales island on the way to Chilkat. He went to the man who used to fight so much and said, “How is Chilkat? Is it a town?” He answered, “It is a notable town. A man has to be careful what he does there or he will suffer a great shame.” Then he started for Klukwan, which he wanted to see very much. He came in sight of the first village, Yende’staqe, with many people going around in it, and said to his wife, “Put on your earring [of abalone shell].” The earring was called Earring-that-can-be-seen-clear-across-the-Nass (Na’skanax-duti’n). Then the, man also put on his leggings and dressed up finely, for if one were not dressed up just right he would suffer a great shame. Afterward he began dancing in his canoe. When he came away from Chilkat he left his dancing clothes with the people but brought back a great quantity of presents received for dancing.

A very rich man once started from Chilkat to Kaqanuwu’ on a visit with his wife and all of his property. [There seems to be no connection between this part of the story and that which goes before except that both happened at Kaqanuwu’.] When they approached the town the people heard his wife singing. She had a very powerful voice. Then they were frightened and wondered what man was smart enough to reply to this wealthy visitor. There was a certain poor man who always sat with his head down, and they kept taunting him, saying, “Will you speak to that rich man?”

When the visitor came in front of the houses he did not speak to the men who lived in them but to the dead chiefs who had formerly owned them. No one replied, for they did not know what to say. After a while, however, the poor man seized a spear and rushed down to the rich man’s canoe. Then the people shouted, “There goes Saqaye’. He is going to kill this rich man. Stop him.” When he got right in front of the canoe they caught him, but he said, “I did not want to kill this rich man, but I heard people talking so much about him that I pretended to.” His action had a sarcastic import, because others were so much afraid of the visitor.

The rich man talked from the canoe for such a long time that they made a long noise instead of speaking to him, to let him know that he had talked too long about things that were past. Then they said to him, “Jump into the water.” This was formerly said to a visitor when blankets were about to be given away for some dead person, though they always stood ready to catch him. Afterward they took the man up into a house, placed a Chilkat blanket under him, and gave him five slaves and a canoe load of property for his dead friend. When he went home they returned his visit.

Running and expanding this site requires resources: from maintaining our digital platform to sourcing and curating new content. With your help, we can grow our collection, improve accessibility, and bring these incredible narratives to an even wider audience. Your sponsorship enables us to keep the world’s stories alive and thriving. ♦ Visit our Support page

Story of the Wain-House people

A young man, raised in a mountain sheep’s skin, excelled in hunting sheep, earning their ire. After being captured by a luminous mountain-sheep chief, he relayed their message: respect their remains and rituals. Returned to his people, he became a powerful shaman, resurrected the dead, foretold battles, and united tribes. The tale blends reverence for nature, cultural practices, and supernatural encounters.

Source: 
Tlingit Myths and Texts 
by John R. Swanton 
[Smithsonian Institution] 
Bureau of American Ethnology 
Bulletin 39 
Washington, 1909

► Themes of the story

Supernatural Beings: The young man encounters a luminous mountain-sheep chief, representing an interaction with a supernatural entity.

Transformation: The young man’s journey leads to his transformation into a powerful shaman with extraordinary abilities.

Harmony with Nature: The narrative emphasizes the importance of respecting nature and its creatures, highlighting the consequences of overhunting and the need for ritualistic reverence.

► From the same Region or People

Learn more about the Tlingit people

Myth recorded in English at Sitka, Alaska
January-April 1904

People came to a fort to live and began to kill bears, ground hogs, porcupines, mountain sheep, etc., with spears, and bows and arrows, laying the meat up in the fort. After they had killed some of these animals they would cut off their heads, set them up on sticks, and begin to sing for them.

There was a young man among them who had been put into a mountain-sheep’s skin instead of a cradle as soon as he was born. When he grew older he was able to follow the mountain sheep to places where no one else could get, so he killed more than the others. He would also play and dance around the heads after they had been cut off and say, “I wish my head were cut off, too.” Then people sang about it. Meanwhile the sheep were getting tired of losing so many of their number.

► Continue reading…

One day all the people went up to a mountain to hunt, and, finding a flock of sheep, began to chase them to a certain place where they could bunch all together. Suddenly this youth became separated from the other people, and on the very top of the mountain was met by a fine-looking man who shone all over and had a long white beard. This man led him through a door into what he at first thought was a house, but it was really the inside of the mountain. All at once it looked very strange to him. Piles of horns lay about everywhere.

Meanwhile all of his friends had missed him and were hunting about, but had to go home without him. They thought he was gone forever. They hunted for him every day and found his horn spear stuck into the ground at a certain place near the top of the mountain, but nothing more. After searching everywhere in vain they became discouraged and beat the drums for him.

Meanwhile the mountain sheep tried to fit a pair of horns on the young man’s head. They heated these first in the fire, and tried to put them on, when it seemed to him as if the insides of his head were all coming out.

The people kept up their search for him, however, and about a year afterward a man climbed up on the same mountain to hunt sheep. Above him he saw a big flock, and he heard a noise as though some one were shouting or talking there. Then he went straight down, for he knew that it was the person who had been lost, and he knew that the mountain sheep had captured him. Pointing this mountain out to the people, he said to them, “It is he, for I know his voice.” So all the people started up.

Now the sheep could see whenever the Indians set out to hunt for the person they had taken, and they said to him, “There come your friends. If you will tell them to throw away their weapons, we will let you go to them.” So he said to his friends, “If you will lay down your hunting weapons, I will tell you what these mountain sheep say to me.” Afterward he said, “They say that I am being punished because you are destroying them too much, and, when you have killed them, you take the heads and put them on sticks.” Although he was among the mountain sheep he retained his own language. He said besides, “The mountain-sheep chief tells me to say to you that you must hang up the sheep skins with their heads toward the mountain and the rising sun and put eagle feathers upon them. They tell me to say, ‘Do not put our heads on sticks. Grizzly-bears’ heads are the only ones you should treat that way-not ours.’” One could not see or hear this man unless he was specially purified by bathing in urine. Afterward the sheep went right into the mountain with him to the place where they have their homes.

Now they tried in every way to recover him, and finally came out with dogs. Then the mountain sheep said to him, “You can go among your friends after a while, but now you may talk to them from the top of a little cliff.” So his friends came up underneath this, and he talked down to them. By and by the sheep again changed their minds regarding him, and one day he said to his friends, “This is the last time I shall come to see you. If you are going to begin a war on my account, try it in the fall. Then they always come down into the thick timber below the glacier, and you can come up there with dogs.”

In the autumn, therefore, they prepared to kill the sheep. The people were told to put the sheep heads toward the rising sun and throw their skins about anywhere without drying, for they thought that this would make the mountain sheep let their friend go.

Then the mountain-sheep chief said to the man, “They are going to let you go now, because all of your fathers are suffering very much from not having their skins well dried.”

The mountain sheep could easily see when all of his friends started out to fight for him, and they got him ready to send down to them. Then they said, “Now you will be allowed to start down to them.” When they got down far enough the dogs which were coming up in front met the flock he was standing among. Then they took off his mountain-sheep skin and put it aside, leaving him in human form, and he chased all the dogs away from them.

He stood in the midst of the flock of sheep, and all the people stood below. Then he said to his friends, “Do not kill any more mountain sheep, for they will now let me go among you.” So they broke all of the shafts of the spears they had used in fighting the mountain sheep and threw them away.

When he came down he smelt like the things that grow on the tops of cottonwood trees (doxkwa’nk). They brought him into the house and he saw the mountain-sheep skins lying about there at random. Then he said, “They let me come among you again that I might have you dampen these, hang them up, and dry them thoroughly.” After they had worked upon the skins for some time they put red paint upon them and eagle down. The man who had come down from among the sheep told his people to say this to the skins while they were doing so: “We will put your skins in just the position in which they came off from the flesh.”

In the morning all of the houses shook. Every piece of flesh that had come off of the mountain sheep was in its place in the skins, and, when the man who had come back to them opened the door, they came down from the drying racks and marched off. But they had been so long among the Indians that just before they reached the highest mountain where they belonged they lost their way and became scattered over all the mountains. Because the mountain sheep once saved (or captured) a man, they have beards and look in other respects like human beings.

After this the mountain sheep sent a spirit called Yixa’ (A-very-young-man) to the man who had been rescued, to be his strength (yek). There was great rejoicing among his friends when this spirit began to manifest itself in him, and all commenced to sing for him. At the command of this spirit he had them make him a pair of snowshoes with which his spirit could take him around the earth, a shaman’s mask, and bows and arrows.

Then they came with him to Fort-by-small-lake (A’ku Nu), just west of Juneau, [or on the side toward Sitka] and built a big house for him with inside rooms (taq), corner and middle posts, the last mentioned being carved to represent the Great Dipper (Yakte’). At that time the shaman for four days and Yakte’ (the constellation) appeared to him. So from that house the people were called Yakte’-hit-tan (Wain-House people).

The mountain-sheep tribe gave this man the name of Skowada’l, and he was also called Caxtca’tc (Long-toothed-humpback). When his spirit was about to work in him, two porcupine bladders were blown up and hung in the house, and, when the spirit arrived, all stood up in the customary way. Then he put on his mask and his snowshoes, which were thrown down on the floor for him, and carried his bow and arrows in his hand. Although he could not see through this mask, he climbed up on the walls of the inside rooms and ran around there backward. While there he shot at a bladder and the arrow passed straight through it.

When the shaman’s spirits left him he said, “You people are going to see a wonderful gift. It is coming to such and such a place.” In the morning they went out with a dog and armed with spears, and before they got far away the dog began to bark at a bear. Then the animal ran under a log, and all climbed on top of the log prepared to spear it. The shaman had said, “Something is going to happen to one of you,” and sure enough the first man that speared this bear fell down before it and was caught and killed. Then the others quickly speared the bear through and through and killed it.

Meanwhile a spirit came to the shaman, who had remained at home, saying, “Your friend has been killed by a bear.” They brought the bear and the dead man’s body down at once and laid the body before him in the middle of the house. Then the shaman took some of the red paint with which they had brought the mountain sheep to life and put it on the body after which he began running around it. The third time he did this the dead man sat up. The shaman always had such strength.

Some time afterward he again began testing his spirits, because they were going south to war, and, when they left him, he told his people that they would destroy an entire town.

When he was walking around in the woods a raven fell in front of him, and on getting back to the house he said to his clothes man, “I am in luck.” He told some one to return with him, and they found the raven still with life in it. Then he said to his friends, “I will set up all these things.” So he took sticks and set them all round the raven. “Before I cut it,” he said, “I will let the wings flap over it. This will be (i.e., represent) your enemies. Before I cut it I will cause it to kill all of your enemies. The raven will have so much strength.” When they tested him [that is, when the people allowed him to perform before them] the spirit said, “All people on sticks,” meaning that it wanted all of their foes to fall on sticks and be destroyed when they fought. Then they prepared, saying, “We will start.” The shaman said, “At the moment when we arrive a man is going to chop down a tree in front of us.”

Toward morning they came close to the fort, all prepared for fighting. After they had surrounded it a man came out with a stone ax and climbed up a tree to chop off limbs. Then they shot him with arrows, unnoticed by the fort people, so that he fell down dead. But a little while afterward the fort people said, “Where is that man who climbed the tree a short time ago. He is not there now.” At once they rushed together on both sides, and all those in the fort were destroyed just as the shaman had predicted. Then they returned to their own fort, which was also known as Eulachon-trap fort (Cal nu).

Another time five women went around the island where they had their fort, after mussels, and came to a reef on the outer side. They left their canoe untied and it floated away. Then the tide began to come up. They stood up on the reef with their hands in the air, singing death songs for themselves, for they knew they were about to die. After that the reef was called Woman reef (Ca qa’tagu), on account of the women who were destroyed there.

A year after this some people went across from the fort to a lake into which salmon run, and were surprised on encountering people. They thought it was some war party from very far south and beat a precipitate retreat to the fort. Then the people in the fort saw a big canoe all covered with abalone shell come out from this place and make straight toward them. When it had come close in, the chief questioned these strangers and learned that they were on a friendly visit from Yakutat. It took the strength of all the people to bring up this canoe. Then they made the fort chief a present of land-otter skins, marten skins, skins of all kinds. This was the custom in olden times, a slave being generally given back.

The chief at this place had a nephew named Yetxa’ who was very fond of gambling. The fourth day that the visitors were in town the chief’s nephew was away from home, and the fire went out. Then he acted as though he were crazy. He went down to the valuable canoe of the visitors, broke off the stern piece for firewood, and threw it indoors so that the abalone shells fell off of it.

Next morning, when the man that owned the canoe got up, he saw that his stern piece was missing, and that burnt abalone shells were laying by the fire. He called to his companions, “Get up and let us be gone. Push the canoe down and load it quickly.” He had a number of copper plates and other property which he had not yet unpacked, and, after he had gotten a little distance from the fort, he landed and took these out. Then he went right back in front of the fort to destroy them on account of the injury he had received. When these people came opposite they took out a copper plate, struck it on the edge of the canoe so as to make it sound and threw it into the sea. They threw away four. Then the fort chief also took four coppers, flung them on the wall of the fort and threw them into the ocean.

[I have explained to you before where this copper came from. It came from the Copper river. Probably this rich man came several times before the fort. Coppers were valued according to their height when they were first made, some at four slaves and some at six.]

When the Yakutat man came before this fort again, his copper plates were all gone, and he began to use cedar bark. His people would tie a rock on each piece and throw it into the water. Mean while the fort chief put his canoe on the walls of the fort and began to put Indian beads, caribou skins, moose skins, and other articles into it. Since these Lene’di have the dog salmon for their emblem, the chief’s sister began acting like one when it is shaking out its eggs. She pretended to be shaking out riches in the same way, and, while she did so, they threw the canoe over the edge of the fort, and all the good things spilled out. The man from Yakutat was foolish to try to contend with so wealthy a chief. His name (i.e., the Yakutat man’s) was Ka’yeswusa’t. They chased him out with riches, and told him to come back again with more property. A song was com posed about this afterward to the effect that he was simply fooling the people with this yellow cedar bark which was not real property at all.

In the same fort a woman gave birth to a boy, who exclaimed as soon as he was born, “How many things there will be for all the people who are holding my mother.” In olden times certain women used to hold a woman who was about to give birth, and they were paid for this service. The child grew very fast. He was going to be the greatest liar among his people. After he was grown up and had a family of his own, his mother died, and he started for Chilkat to invite people to the death feast. This was before the Russians came.

He said to his children, “Pull away. Pull fast.” He had started off without any of the property he had intended to take, but on his way Indian rice hailed into his canoe, and a large box of grease floated down to him. When he got close to the mouth of Chilkat river he came in front of a waterfall. He tasted the water of this and found it very sweet. Then he took all of his buckets and filled them with it so that they might put this water on the rice when they ate it. As he was bound for Klukwan, the village farthest up the river, he said to his children, “Blow on the sail.” They did so and passed right up to Klukwan. Then he stood up in his canoe and began to talk. They took all of his stuff up, and in the evening the drums were beaten as a sign that he was going to give out property.

He began to cry in the customary manner as he beat the drums. Then he took a piece of bark and put it in front of his eyes, upon which the tears ran down it in a stream. Afterward he gave out two copper plates and invited the people to eat what he had brought. Then the people danced for him in return, and a man came in with something very shiny on top of his head. [This last was said to be “the way the story went,” but otherwise was unexplained]

That is all he told when he returned.

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Story of the puffin

This legend recounts the tale of Ganaxa’hin, where a woman survived a canoe accident, saved by puffins she once admired. Thought drowned, she lived among the birds, transforming partly into one of them. Her father’s lavish offerings finally persuaded the puffin chief to return her, though she retained her connection to the birds. This story is significant to the Ta’qdentan people, symbolized in a house they later built.

Source: 
Tlingit Myths and Texts 
by John R. Swanton 
[Smithsonian Institution] 
Bureau of American Ethnology 
Bulletin 39 
Washington, 1909

► Themes of the story

Transformation: The woman’s partial change into a puffin reflects themes of physical and perhaps spiritual transformation.

Supernatural Beings: The puffins exhibit supernatural qualities, communicating and interacting with the woman in extraordinary ways.

Harmony with Nature: The woman’s integration and subsequent bond with the puffins highlight a deep connection and harmony with the natural world.

► From the same Region or People

Learn more about the Tlingit people

Myth recorded in English at Sitka, Alaska
January-April 1904

There is a place called Ganaxa’ and a creek close by called Ganaxa’hin whither many people used to go to dry salmon and do other work. One day some women went out from there at low tide to a neighboring island to dig shellfish. They brought their canoe to a place where there was a hole in the side of the island, but, when they endeavored to land, a breaker came in, upset the canoe, and drowned all of them except one. In former times, when this woman went by in her father’s canoe, she used to think the birds here looked pretty and was in the habit of saying, “I wish I could sit among those birds.” These birds were the ones that saved her. They felt so happy at having gotten her that they flew about all the time.

Meanwhile drums were beaten at the town to call people to the death feast, for they thought that she was drowned.

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One time a canoe from the village containing her father happened to pass this place, and they said to him, “Look among those birds. Your daughter is sitting there.”

The puffin chief had ordered the lagwa’tc, a bird which lives on the outer islands and is the puffin’s slave, to braid the woman’s hair, and she always sat on the edge of the cliff.

Her father was very rich, so he filled many canoes with sea-otter, beaver, and marten skins for the birds to settle on when they flew out. When they reached the place, however, he could not see his daughter, for they had taken her inside. Then he became angry. They carried all sorts of things out there but in vain.

At last, about four days afterward, the girl’s mother thought of the white hair that had belonged to her grandfather. In the morning she said to her husband, “We have that old hair in a box. What can we do with it? We ought to try a stratagem with it. Suppose we put boards on the canoes, spread the hair all over them, and take it out.” They did this, and, when they got to the cliff where their daughter used to be, they saw her sitting on the edge with her hair hanging over. They went close in. Then all the birds flew out to them, and each stuck a white hair in its head where you may see it at this day. The girl, however, remained where she was.

Then these birds flew in to the puffin chief and told him about the hair. They thought a great deal of it. Therefore the chief told them to carry the girl back to her father. But before she went he said to her, “If you are ever tired of staying with your father, come back to us.” At that time she had a nose just like one of these birds, because she had wanted to be one of them.

The sea gull is also the slave of the puffin. Therefore the Huna people say that when anyone goes to that place it calls his name, because it was the slave of the puffin at the time when this woman was there.

Because some of their people were drowned at that island, all of the Ta’qdentan claim it. Later they built a house which they named after it.

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The brant wives

A Kiksa’di youth marries two mystical brant girls after taking their skins. They grow homesick and return to their brant tribe, leaving the young man behind. He follows, integrates with their bird-like community, and helps the brants win a war against the herons using his bows and arrows. Ultimately, he becomes part of the brant tribe, symbolizing harmony between humans and nature.

Source: 
Tlingit Myths and Texts 
by John R. Swanton 
[Smithsonian Institution] 
Bureau of American Ethnology 
Bulletin 39 
Washington, 1909

► Themes of the story

Transformation: The young man undergoes a significant change as he integrates into the brant community, adapting to their way of life and symbolically becoming one with them.

Journey to the Otherworld: The protagonist ventures into the mystical realm of the brant tribe, a world beyond ordinary human experience, representing a journey into an otherworldly domain.

Harmony with Nature: The story emphasizes the unity and harmonious relationship between humans and the natural world, as the young man becomes part of the brant tribe and aids them in their endeavors.

► From the same Region or People

Learn more about the Tlingit people

Myth recorded in English at Sitka, Alaska
January-April 1904

A Kiksa’di youth lived with his father in a long town. When he was well grown, he went about in the woods hunting with bow and arrows. One time he came close to a lake and heard the voices of girls. When he got nearer he saw two girls bathing there. Then he skirted the shore toward them, and, when he was very close, discovered two coats just back of the place where they were. These were really the girls’ skins. He took them up, and they began talking to him, saying, “Give us those skins.” But he said, “I want to marry both of you.” So he married both of them and took them to his father’s house.

Both of this man’s wives used to look over his hair to pick out the lice. In the spring, when the brants were coming from the south, the girls sat on top of the house with him and kept saying, “There comes my uncle’s canoe. There comes my father’s canoe.”

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They were beginning to get homesick, and they asked their husband if he would let them go home. When the brants began coming, one would say, “Those are my friends coming up. I am going to ask them to give me something to eat.” So, when they were above the house, she said, “Give me something to eat,” and down came green herbs one after another.

When it was time for the brants to start back south, both of the girls had become tired. They wanted to go home. They knew when it was time for their father’s canoe to pass over, and just before it was due they told their husband to go up into the woods after something.

When he came down, his wives were gone. He said to his father, “Do you know where they went?” but he answered, “No.”

Then the young man said, “I will start down on foot to the place whither I think they have gone.” So he set out, and after he had gone on for some time, he heard people making a noise. It was the brant tribe in camp. On this journey he took a bag full of arrows with mussel-shell points, and bows. For this reason, when he came back of the place where they were, and they caught sight of him, they were afraid and flew away. Then he went down to the place where they had been sitting and found all kinds of green herbs such as brants live on.

After this the girls said to their father, “Let us camp a little way off. He has been with us for some time, and we have gotten his heat. Therefore let us camp near by so that he can come to us and be taken along.” But their father answered, “When he comes behind us again and camps, say to him, ‘Our fathers [meaning their father and his brothers] do not like to see your bows and arrows. Get rid of them.’” They came to him and repeated these words, but he said, “I do not take them in order to do harm to your fathers but to get game for myself. I wish you would tell them that I want to go along, too.” So they told him to come down, and, when he did so, his father-in-law said, “Bring out the best coat. I want to put it on my son-in-law.”

After that his wives said to him, “We are going to start along with you. When we set out, do not think about going back and do not look down.” Then they put a woven mat over him and started. After they had gone on for some distance the man wanted to urinate and dropped down from among them on the smooth grass. The brants did not want to leave him, and they followed. It was quite close to their real camping place. The brant tribe was so large that he felt as if he were in his own father’s house. They would play all the evening, and he felt very happy among them.

When they arrived at their real home, this man took off his bag of bows and arrows and hid it back in the woods so that they could not see it. In the same town were fowls of all kinds — brants, swans, herons, etc. — and by and by war arose over a woman, between the brant tribe and the heron tribe. They went outside and started to fight. The swan tribe was between, trying to make peace. When they came out to fight for the second time, the brant tribe was pretty well destroyed by the heron people’s long, pick-like bills. It was from the herons that the Indians learned how to make picks. This is also the reason why the Luknaxa’di use the swan as their crest, for they are very slow, and the Kiksa’di use the brant as their emblem because they are very lively.

Then the brant chief said to his son-in-law, “Your wives’ friends are almost destroyed. Could you do anything with your bows and arrows to help them?” You could not see whether these were brants or people. They looked just like people to him. When he ran among them to help his wives’ friends, he killed numbers at each shot and made them flee away from him. The heron tribe was so scared that they sent out word they would make peace. So messengers were sent back and forth, and the heron chief was taken up among the brants while the brant chief was taken up among the herons. They renamed the heron with his own name and the brant with his own name. In making peace they had a great deal of sport and all sorts of dances. From that time on the heron has known how to dance, and one always sees him dancing by the creeks. Then the birds began to lay up herbs and all kinds of things that grow along the beach, for their journey north.

Meanwhile the man’s people had already given a feast for him, and he never returned to his father. He became as one of the brants. That is why in olden times, when brants were flying along, the people would ask them for food.

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The woman taken away by the frog people

A town-chief’s daughter insults frogs by mocking their humanity. That night, she marries a mysterious man who leads her to a hidden frog community beneath a lake. After her disappearance, her family discovers her among the frogs. Attempts to retrieve her fail until they drain the lake. Though rescued, her humanity is corrupted by the frog life, and she dies shortly after. Her tribe inherits frog-related traditions.

Source: 
Tlingit Myths and Texts 
by John R. Swanton 
[Smithsonian Institution] 
Bureau of American Ethnology 
Bulletin 39 
Washington, 1909

► Themes of the story

Supernatural Beings: The narrative involves interactions with frog people, who possess human-like qualities and live beneath a lake, indicating a supernatural element.

Transformation: The chief’s daughter undergoes a transformation, both in her environment—moving from her human community to the frog people’s realm—and in her behavior, adopting frog-like characteristics upon her return.

Divine Punishment: The woman’s initial mockery of the frogs leads to her abduction and eventual demise, suggesting a form of retribution for her disrespect toward other beings.

► From the same Region or People

Learn more about the Tlingit people

Myth recorded in English at Sitka, Alaska
January-April 1904

There was a large town in the Yakutat country not very far back of which lay a big lake very full of frogs. In the middle of the lake was a swampy patch on which many frogs used to sit.

One day the town-chief’s daughter talked badly to the frogs. She took one up and made fun of it, saying, “There are so many of these creatures, I wonder if they do things like human beings. I wonder if men and women cohabit among them.”

When she went out of doors that night, a young man came to her and said, “May I marry you?” She had rejected very many men, but she wanted to marry this one right away. Pointing toward the lake he said, “My father’s house is right up here,” and the girl replied, “How fine it looks!”

► Continue reading…

When they went up to it, it seemed as though a door was opened for them, but in reality the edge of the lake had been raised. They walked under. So many young people were there that she did not think of home again.

Meanwhile her friends missed her and hunted for her everywhere. Finally they gave her up, and her father had the drums beaten for a death feast. They cut their hair and blackened their faces.

Next spring a man who was about to go hunting came to the lake to bathe himself with urine. When he was done, he threw the urine among a number of frogs sitting there and they jumped into the water. When he was bathing next day he saw all the frogs sitting together in the middle of the lake with the missing woman among them. He dressed as quickly as possible, ran home to the girl’s father, and said, “I saw your daughter sitting in the middle of the pond in company with a lot of frogs.” So her father and mother went up that evening with a number of other people, saw, and recognized her.

After that they took all kinds of things to make the frog tribe feel good so that they would let the woman return to her parents, but in vain. By and by her father determined upon a plan and called all of his friends together. Then he told them to dig trenches out from the lake in order to drain it. From the lake the frog chief could see how the people had determined, and he told his tribe all about it. The frog people call the mud around a lake their laid-up food.

After the people had worked away for some time, the trench was completed and the lake began draining away fast. The frogs asked the woman to tell her people to have pity on them and not destroy all, but the people killed none because they wanted only the girl. Then the water flowed out, carrying numbers of frogs which scattered in every direction. All the frog tribe then talked poorly about themselves, and the frog chief, who had talked of letting her go before, now had her dressed up and their own odor, which they called “sweet perfumery,” was put upon her. After a while she came down the trench half out of water with her frog husband beside her. They pulled her out and let the frog go.

When anyone spoke to this woman, she made a popping noise “Hu,” such as a frog makes, but after some time she came to her senses. She explained, “It was the Kikca’ (i.e., Kiksa’di women) that floated down with me,” meaning that all the frog women and men had drifted away. The woman could not eat at all, though they tried everything. After a while they hung her over a pole, and the black mud she had eaten when she was among the frogs came out of her, but, as soon as it was all out, she died. Because this woman was taken away by the frog tribe at that place, the frogs there can understand human beings very well when they talk to them. It was a Kiksa’di woman who was taken off by the frogs, and so those people can almost understand them. They also have songs from the frogs, frog personal names, and the frog emblem. All the people know about them.

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Kats

Kats, a Ka’gwantan hunter from Sitka, married a female bear who sheltered him after a hunt. Living with her, he fathered cubs and discovered bears shed their skins indoors to appear human. Returning to his people, he secretly provided for his bear family. However, breaking his wife’s warnings, he touched his child, prompting his bear family to kill him. Their offspring caused chaos before being eradicated by the Sitka people. This tale explains the taboo against eating grizzly bear meat.

Source: 
Tlingit Myths and Texts 
by John R. Swanton 
[Smithsonian Institution] 
Bureau of American Ethnology 
Bulletin 39 
Washington, 1909

► Themes of the story

Forbidden Love: Kats’s union with a bear defies natural and societal norms, highlighting the complexities and consequences of such relationships.

Transformation: The story explores physical and metaphorical changes, as bears shed their skins to become human-like indoors, and Kats transitions between human and animal worlds.

Divine Punishment: Kats’s disregard for his bear wife’s warnings leads to his demise, illustrating retribution from higher powers for transgressions.

► From the same Region or People

Learn more about the Tlingit people

Myth recorded in English at Sitka, Alaska
January-April 1904

Kats belonged to the Ka’gwantan and lived at Sitka. One day he went hunting with dogs, and, while his dogs ran on after a male bear, this bear’s wife took him into her den, concealed him from her husband, and married him. He had several children by her. Indoors the bears take off their skin coats and are just like human beings.

By and by he wanted to go back to his people, but before he started she told him not to smile at or touch his Indian wife or take up either of his children.

After his return, he would go out for seal, sea lions, and other animals which he carried up into an inlet where his bear wife was awaiting him.

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Then the cubs would come down, pull the canoe ashore violently, take out the game and throw it from one to another up to their mother. On account of the roughness of these cubs it came to be a saying in Sitka, “If you think you are brave, be steersman for Kats.”

One day Kats pitied one of his children and took it up. The next time he went up the inlet, however, the cubs seized him and threw him from one to another up to their mother, and so killed him. Then they scattered all over the world and are said to have been killed in various places.

What is thought to have been the last of these was killed at White Stone Narrows. When some people were encamped there a girl spoke angrily about Kats’s child, and it came upon them, killing all except a few who escaped in their canoes, and this woman, whom it carried off alive, making her groan with pain. One man tried to kill it but did not cut farther than its hair. Finally all the Indians together killed it with their spears and knives. [Because a human being married among the grizzly bears, people will not eat grizzly-bear meat]

Running and expanding this site requires resources: from maintaining our digital platform to sourcing and curating new content. With your help, we can grow our collection, improve accessibility, and bring these incredible narratives to an even wider audience. Your sponsorship enables us to keep the world’s stories alive and thriving. ♦ Visit our Support page

The poor man who caught wonderful things

A poor fisherman, mocked for his lack of success, accidentally catches a radiant, enormous abalone. Persuaded to release it, he regrets losing such a treasure. Later, he uses his ingenuity by baiting with blood-soaked sponge, catching an abundant, valuable fish nest. Sharing his catch, he gains wealth and respect, turning his fortunes around while symbolically reclaiming the abalone’s promise of prosperity.

Source: 
Tlingit Myths and Texts 
by John R. Swanton 
[Smithsonian Institution] 
Bureau of American Ethnology 
Bulletin 39 
Washington, 1909

► Themes of the story

Transformation: The protagonist’s fortunes change dramatically from poverty to wealth through his ingenuity and perseverance.

Cunning and Deception: The fisherman uses a clever method—baiting with a blood-soaked sponge—to attract and catch the valuable fish nest, showcasing his resourcefulness.

Moral Lessons: The tale imparts lessons about resilience, the value of sharing, and how resourcefulness can lead to success, as the fisherman shares his catch and gains respect and prosperity in return.

► From the same Region or People

Learn more about the Tlingit people

Myth recorded in English at Sitka, Alaska
January-April 1904

There was a long town from which all the people used to go out fishing for halibut and other large fish every day. In those times, before bone was used, they made hooks of two pieces of spruce from young trees, sharpened the point and hardened it in the fire. For lines they dried slender kelp stems.

A very poor man living at one end of the town fished among the others, but did not catch anything. While they were having a good time fishing he remained perfectly quiet, and they kept laughing at him.

One day, when he pulled at his line, it acted as if it were fast to something. He thought it had caught upon a rock and pulled it about in the endeavor to free it. All at once it began to come slowly up, and, although every one laughed at him, he held on.

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After he had brought it close to the canoe, he looked down and saw that it was a great live abalone caught in the flesh. Its color shone out of the water. As it ascended it was so big that all the canoes seemed to come inside of it, and it shone in every one’s face. Then some people who wanted to take this valuable thing away from him, said, “Cut the line. It is a great thing that you have caught. You better let it go.” After a while he became tired of the people’s talk, so he cut his line. Then it began to go down very slowly, shining all over.

Then others came to him and said, “You did not do the right thing. It is a very valuable thing you let go.” He said, “Has it sunk?” So nowadays, when a person has lost a valuable thing, they say to him, “Is it an abalone that has sunk?” (De’ca gu’nxa ak we wuta’q) Whenever he thought about this he cried at the riches he had let go.

Another time they went out fishing, and he was with them. He had a sponge in his hand, and taking a piece of flesh out of his nose inside so as to make it bleed, he filled the sponge with blood and let it down into the ocean. When he began to pull up his hook, it was again fast. He pulled it up slowly, for it was very heavy. It was another valuable thing, the nest of a fish called icqe’n. Then he filled his canoe with these fishes, called the other canoes to him and filled them. After that he stood up in his canoe and said, “The abalone has not been drowned from me yet. I still have it.” He distributed these fishes all over the town and began to get rich from the property he received. People gave him all kinds of skins — moose, caribou, fox, etc. He had great stores of riches from having caught the abalone and the nest of fishes.

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