blackness. Then there lived in a house at the head of Nass river a
being called Raven-at-the-head-of-Nass (Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł), the principal
deity to whom the Tlingit formerly prayed[51] 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 ᴀxcagūˊn, or
ᴀxkînayeˊgî, My Creator, and Wayîgênaˊłxe, Invisible-rich-man. With him
were two old men called Old-man-who-foresees-all-troubles-in-the-world
(Adawūˊlǃ-caˊnakǃᵘ) and He-who-knows-everything-that-happens
(Łiuˊwᴀt-uwadjīˊgî-can). Next to Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł, they prayed to
the latter of these. Under the earth was a third old person,
Old-woman-underneath (Haỵicāˊnakǃᵘ), placed under the world by
Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł.[52] Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł was unmarried and lived alone with
these two 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 Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł created the Heron (Łᴀqǃ) as a very
tall and very wise man and after him the Raven (Yēł), 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 Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł’s sister and it was Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł
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 Ītcᴀˊkǃᵘ, the name of a very
hard rock, and he was hence called Tᴀˊqłîkǃ-īc (Hammer-father). This is
why Raven was so tough and could not easily be killed.
Heron and Raven both became servants to Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł, but he thought
more of Raven and made him head man over the world. Then Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł
made some people.
All of the beings Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł 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 Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł 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 Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł’s daughter was about
to drink. Then she swallowed it and soon after became pregnant.
Although all this was by the will of Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł 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 Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł instructed them to
get moss for his daughter to lie upon, and on that the child was born.
They named him Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł also. Then Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł 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.
Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł 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.”
Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł 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.”[53]
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
(Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł) 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 Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł 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
Łiuˊwᴀt-uwadjīˊgî-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 Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł 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 Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł. 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 (G̣ᴀnūˊk) was one of the first persons created by Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł.
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 Dekīˊ-nū
(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 (Yēł) went about among the natives of Alaska telling them
what to do, but Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł 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 Nās-cᴀˊkî-yēł, 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 Gîdzag̣ēˊt and Gîdzanūˊqǃu. 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 (kᴀt). It has many barbs,
and there are different kinds. One is called tsa-cᴀxîctdzāˊs. 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 îcqēˊn, 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 G̣onaqᴀdēˊt, 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 g̣onēˊt-łuwuˊ
(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 Sea-lion
is your grandchild. You must be generous, get four more pebbles and
give them to him.” That is how the sea-lion 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 sea-lion
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” (sǃāsǃ), 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 (kūn): “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 ługᴀˊn, 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 āsqǃacāˊtcî, 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 kotǃaiˊ, 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 x̣ūnkᴀhāˊ 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 gusǃyiadūˊł 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 (kūˊcta-qā) 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 Kîksᴀˊdî
named Kᴀkaˊ. 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 Kᴀkaˊ 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
Qōwułkaˊ, 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 Qōwułkaˊ 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 Kᴀkaˊ 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 Kᴀkaˊ’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 Kᴀkaˊ
with them. The land-otter tribe goes to this place every year. Then
an old land-otter-woman called to Kᴀkaˊ: “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 Kᴀkaˊ’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 Kᴀkaˊ
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 Kᴀkaˊ 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 Kᴀkaˊ 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 (Kūˊcta-kocaˊnqo-yek).” This was the name of
the old woman who first told him what to do. The next spirit was
The-spirit-that-saves (Qōsîneˊxe-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 Kᴀkaˊ 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 (kūˊcta-qa). By means of his spirits Kᴀkaˊ was
able to stand going naked for two years. This story of Kᴀkaˊ is a true
story, and it is from him that the Tlingit believe in shamans’ spirits
(yēk).[54]
After leaving the land otters Raven appeared at Taku. There is a cliff
at the mouth of that inlet called Wᴀsǃᴀsǃeˊ 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 G̣ānᴀxteˊdî family,”
said Raven, “I could not have stood that sweat house.” For this reason
the G̣ānᴀxteˊdî now claim the raven as an emblem and think they have
more right to it than anybody else.