he found a widower. He said to this man, “I am in the same fix as you.
My wife also has died.” Raven wanted to marry the daughter of the chief
in that town, so he said, “Of course I have to marry a woman of as
high caste as my first wife. That is the kind I am looking for.” But
Tsᴀgwâˊn (a bird), who was also looking for a high-caste wife, followed
Raven about all the time. He said to the people, “That man is telling
stories around here. His first wife left him because he was cruel to
her.” For this reason they refused to give the girl to him. Then he
said to the chief, “If I had married your daughter you would have had
a great name in the world. You will presently see your daughter take
up with some person who is a nobody, and, when they speak of you in
the world, it will always be as Chief-with-no-name. You may listen to
this Tsᴀgwâˊn if you want to, but you will be sorry for it. He is a man
from whom no good comes. Hereafter this Tsᴀgwâˊn will live far out at
sea. And I will tell you this much, that neither Tsᴀgwâˊn nor myself
will get this woman.” This is why Tsᴀgwâˊn is now always alone. Raven
also said to the chief, “You will soon hear something of this daughter
of yours.” All the high-caste men wanted to marry this woman, but she
would not have them.
Going on again, Raven came to an old man living alone, named Dᴀmnāˊdjî,
and said to him, “Do you know the young daughter of the chief close by
here?” “Yes, I know her.” “Why don’t you try to marry her?” “I can’t
get her. I know I can’t, so I don’t want to try.” Then Raven said, “I
will make a medicine to enable you to get her.” “But I have no slave,”
said the old man; “to get her a man must have slaves.” “Oh!” said
Raven, “you do not have to have a slave to get her. She will take a
liking to you and nobody can help it. She will marry you. Her father
will lose half of his property.” Then he made the old man look young,
got feathers to put into his hair and a marten-skin robe to put over
him so that he appeared very handsome. But Raven said to him, “You are
not going to look like this all of the time. It is only for a day or
so.”
After this the rejuvenated man got into his skin canoe, for this was
well to the north, and paddled over to where the girl lived. He did not
ask her father’s consent but went directly to her, and she immediately
fell in love with him. Although so many had been after her she now
said, “I will marry you. I will go with you even if my father kills me
for it.”
When the chief’s slaves found them in the bedroom at the rear of the
house, they said to the chief, “Your daughter is married.” So her
mother looked in there and found it was true. Then her father said,
“Come out from that room, my daughter.” He had already told his slaves
to lay down valuable furs on the floor for his daughter and her husband
to sit on. He thought if she were already married it was of no use for
him to be angry with her. So the girl came out with her husband, and,
when her father saw him he was very glad, for he liked his looks, and
he was dressed like a high-caste person.
Then the chief related to his son-in-law how a fellow came along
wanting to marry his daughter, and how Tsᴀgwâˊn had come afterward and
told him that he had been cruel to his first wife. Said the chief,
“This man had a wife. His first wife is living yet. I don’t want to
hurt his wife’s feelings.”
After that his son-in-law said, “My father told me to start right out
after him to-day in my canoe.” He was in a hurry to depart because he
was afraid that all of his good clothing would leave him. He said to
his wife, “Take only your blanket to use on the passage, because I have
plenty of furs of every description at home.” So she took nothing but
her marten-skin robe and a fox robe.
As she lay in the canoe, however, with her head resting on his lap
she kept feeling drops of water fall upon her face, and she said many
times, “What is that dripping on my face?” Then he would say, “It must
be the water splashing from my paddle,” but it was really the drippings
that fall from an old man’s eyes when he is very filthy. Her husband
had already become an old man again and had lost his fine clothing, but
she could not see it because her face was turned the other way. When
the woman thought that they were nearly at their destination she raised
herself to look out, glanced at her husband’s face, and saw that he was
an altogether different man. She cried very hard.
After they had arrived at his town the old man went from house to house
asking the people to take pity on him and let him bring his wife to
one of them, because he knew that his own house was not fit for her.
These, however, were some of the people that had wanted to marry this
woman, so they said, “Why don’t you take her to your own fine house?
You wanted her.” Meanwhile she sat on the beach by the canoe, weeping.
Finally the shabby sister of this old man, who was still older than
he, came down to her and said, “See here, you are a high-caste girl.
Everybody says this man is your husband, and you know he is your
husband, so you better come up to the house with me.” Then she saw the
place where he lived, and observed that his bed was worse than that of
one of her father’s slaves. The other people also paid no attention
to her, although they knew who she was, because she had married this
man. They would eat after everybody else was through, and, while he was
eating, the people of the town would make fun of him by shouting out,
“Dᴀmnāˊdjî’s father-in-law and his brothers-in-law are coming to his
grand house to see him.” Then he would run out to see whether it were
so and find that they were making fun of him. Every morning, while he
was breakfasting with his wife, the people fooled him in this way.
Although he had not said so, the father-in-law and the brothers-in-law
of Dᴀmnāˊdjî thought that he was a very high-caste person because
he was dressed so finely. So they got together all their expensive
furs to visit him, and they had one canoe load of slaves, which they
intended to give him, all dressed with green feathers from the heads
of mallard drakes. One morning the people again shouted, “Dᴀmnāˊdjî’s
father-in-law and his brothers-in-law are coming to see him.” Running
out to look this time, he saw canoe after canoe coming, loaded down
deep. Then he did not know what to do. He began to sweep out the house
and begged some boys to help him clean up, but they said, “You clean up
yourself. Those are your people coming.” The people of the place also
began hiding all of their basket-work pots, and buckets.
As they came in, the people in the canoes sang together and all of
them were iridescent with color. They were very proud people. Then the
old man begged the boys to carry up the strangers’ goods, but they
replied as before, “You carry them up yourself. You can do it.” So the
strangers had to bring up their own things into the house and sit about
without anyone telling them where. The old man’s sister was crying all
the time. Then the strangers understood at once what was the matter and
felt very sorry for these old people.
After that the old man kept saying to the boys who came in to look
at his visitors, “One of you go after water,” but they answered, “Go
after water yourself. You can do it.” He tried to borrow a basket for
his guests to eat off of, but they all said, “Use your own basket.
What did you go and get that high-caste girl for? You knew that you
couldn’t afford it. Why didn’t you get a poor person like yourself
instead of a chief’s daughter? Now you may know that it isn’t fun to
get a high-caste person when one is poor.” His brothers-in-law and his
father-in-law felt ashamed at what they heard, and they also felt badly
for him. Then the old woman gave her brother a basket that was unfit
for the chief’s slaves to eat out of, and he ran out to get water for
his guests.
When he got there, however, and was stooping down to fill his basket,
the creek moved back from him and he followed it. It kept doing this
and he kept running after it until he came to the mountain, where it
finally vanished into a house. Running into this, he saw a very old
woman sitting there who said to him, “What are you after? Is there
anything I can do for you?” He said, “There is much that you can do
for me, if you can really do it. My friends are very mean to me. My
father-in-law and the other relations of my wife have all come to my
place to visit me. I married a very high-caste woman, and the people
of my place seem to be very mean about it. I am very poor and have
nothing with which to entertain them.” He told all of his troubles to
her from the beginning, and, when he was through, she said, “Is that
all?” “Yes, that is all.” Then the woman brushed back his hair several
times with her hand, and lo! he had a head of beautiful hair, while his
ragged clothes changed into valuable ones. He was handsomer and better
clothed than at the time when he first obtained his wife. The old woman
that brought him luck is called ʟǃêˊnᴀxx̣īˊdᴀq-that-lives-in-the-water
(Hīntᴀk-ʟǃêˊnᴀxx̣īˊdᴀq). The old basket he had also turned into a very
large beautiful basket. Then she said to him, “There is a spring back
in the corner. Go there and uncover it and dip that basket as far down
as you can reach.” He did so and, when he drew it out, it was full of
dentalia.
Now Dᴀmnāˊdjî returned home very quickly, but nobody recognized him at
first except his wife and those who had seen him when he went to get
her. Afterward he gave water to his guests, and they could see dentalia
shells at the bottom. The house was now filled with spectators, and
those who had made fun of him were very much ashamed of themselves.
After he had given them water, he gave them handfuls of dentalia,
for which his father-in-law and his brothers-in-law gave him slaves,
valuable furs, and other property. So he became very rich and was
chief of that town. That is why the Indians do the same now. If a
brother-in-law gives them the least thing they return much more than
its value.
Now he had a big house built, and everything that he said had to be
done. The people that formerly made fun of him were like slaves to him.
He also gave great feasts, inviting people from many villages. But,
after he had become very great among them, he was too hard upon the
people of his town. His wife was prouder than when she was with her
father and if boys or anyone else displeased her they were put to death.
As they were now very proud and had plenty of people to work for them,
the husband and wife spent much time sitting on the roof of their house
looking about. One spring the woman saw a flock of swans (g̣oqł) coming
from the southeast, and said, “Oh! there is a high-caste person among
those birds that I was going to marry.” Another time they went up,
and a flock of geese (tǃāwᴀˊq) came along. Then she again said to her
husband, “Oh! there is the high-caste person I was going to marry.”
By and by some sand-hill cranes (dūł) flew past, and she repeated the
same words. But, when the brants (qên) came over, and she spoke these
words, they at once flew down to her and carried her off with them.
Her husband ran after the brants underneath as fast as he could, and
every now and then some of her clothing fell down, but he was unable to
overtake her.
When the birds finally let this woman drop, she was naked and all of
her hair even was gone. Then she got up and walked along the beach
crying, and she made a kind of apron for herself out of leaves.
Continuing on along the beach, she came upon a red snapper head,
which she picked up. She wandered on aimlessly, not knowing what to
do, because she was very sad at the thought of her fine home and
her husband. Presently she saw smoke ahead of her and arrived at a
house where was an old woman. She opened the door, and the old woman
said, “Come in.” Then she said to the old woman, “Let us cook this
red snapper head.” “Yes, let us cook it,” said the latter. After they
had eaten it, the old woman said to her, “Go along the beach and try
to find something else.” So she went out and found a sculpin (wēqǃ).
Then she came back to the house and cooked that, but, while they
were eating, she heard many boys shouting, and she thought they were
laughing at her because she was naked. She looked around but saw no
one. Then the old woman said to her, “Take it (the food) out to that
hole.” She went outside with the tray and saw an underground sweathouse
out of which many hands protruded. This was the place from which the
shouting came. She handed the tray down and it was soon handed up again
with two fine fox skins in it. Then the old woman said to her, “Make
your clothing out of these furs,” and so she did.
After she had put the skins on, this old woman said, “Your father and
mother live a short distance away along this beach. You better go to
them. They are living at a salmon creek.” So the girl went on and soon
saw her father and mother in a canoe far out where her father was
catching salmon. But, when she ran down toward the canoe to meet them,
her father said to his wife, “Here comes a fox.” As he was looking for
something with which to kill it, she ran back into the woods.
Then she felt very badly, and returned to the old woman crying. “Did
you see your father?” said the latter. “Yes.” “What did he say to you?”
“He took me for a fox. He was going to kill me.” Then the old woman
said, “Yes, what else do you think you are? You have already turned
into a fox. Now go back to your father and let him kill you.”
The woman went to the same place again and saw her father still closer
to the shore; and she heard him say, “Here comes that big fox again.”
Then she ran right up to him, saying to herself, “Let him kill me,”
and he did so. Years ago all the high-caste people wore bracelets and
necklaces, and each family had its own way of fixing them. Now, as this
woman was skinning the fox, she felt something around its foreleg.
She looked at it and found something like her daughter’s bracelet.
Afterward she also cut around the neck and found her daughter’s
necklace. Then she told her husband to come and look saying, “Here on
this fox are our daughter’s necklace and bracelet.” So they cried over
the fox and said, “Something must have made her turn into a fox.” They
knew how this fox ran toward them instead of going away.
Now they took the body of the fox, placed it upon a very nice mat, and
laid another over it. They put eagle’s down, which was always kept in
bags ready for use, on the body, crying above it all the time. They
also began fasting, and all of her brothers and relations in that
village fasted with them. All cleaned up their houses and talked to
their Creator (Cagūˊn). One midnight, after they had fasted for many
days, they felt the house shaking, and they heard a noise in the place
where the body lay. Then the father and mother felt very happy. The
mother went there with a light and saw that her daughter was in her own
proper shape, acting like a shaman. Then the woman named the spirits in
her. The first she mentioned was the swan spirit, the next the goose
spirit, the next the sand-hill-crane spirit, the next the brant spirit.
Another spirit was the red-snapper head spirit which called itself
Spirit-with-a-labret-in-its-chin (Tūts-ya-ūˊwu-yēk), and another the
fox spirit (Nāg̣ᴀsǃeˊ koyēˊk). Now the father and mother of this woman
were very happy, but her husband lost all of his wealth and became poor
again.[77]
* * * * *
Raven went to another place and turned himself into a woman. Then
she thought within herself, “Whose daughter shall I say I am?” She
saw a sea gull sitting out on a high rock and thought she would call
that her father. Years ago a chief would always pick out a high
place in the village on which to sit in the morning, and when Raven
saw the sea gull she thought within herself, “I am Tᴀcᴀkītūᴀˊn’s
(Sitter-on-a-high-cliff’s) daughter.” A canoe came along filled with
killer whales returning to their own village, and she married one
of them. When they got near the town, some one on the beach called
to them, “Where is that canoe coming from?” and one replied, “We
have been after a wife and we have her.” “Which chief’s daughter is
that?” they inquired, because in olden times people never went for any
woman by canoe except the daughter of a chief. “It is Tᴀcᴀkītūᴀˊn’s
daughter,” said they. “It is Cudāˊxduxōˊ’s (Barked-hemlock’s)
daughter.” All of the killer whales believed this.
After that, the killer whales began to notice that their food was
disappearing very rapidly, although they were always out fishing and
hunting and had had their house piled full of boxes of grease. They
said, “What is wrong? What has become of all the grease and fat in
these boxes?” They could not find out for a long time. Raven wore a
labret at that time set with abalone shell which was formerly very
valuable, and it is from him that high-caste people afterward used
these. After some time they found this labret in one of the boxes
of grease and said, “Just look at this labret in here.” Then Raven
exclaimed, “Ih! my labret, that is always the way with my labret.
Whenever it feels like doing so, it will leave my lip and go off
anywhere.”
By and by Raven said, “I wonder what is wrong that I have such bad
dreams. I dreamt that all the people of this village were asleep, and
my husband went to sleep and never woke up. My dreams always come true.
Whatever I dream surely happens.” Late the next night she got a stick,
sharpened the ends, and killed her husband; and early in the morning
they heard her crying, “My husband, Cāwᴀˊt-kaʟᴀˊqdagê’s father.” Years
ago, before the white laws came in force, when a chief used these words
in his speech, people knew that he had a grudge against some one and
was going to murder him. The killer whales, however, did not know what
she meant.
Then Raven told the people that her husband had said, “Take me and
place me quite a distance from the town.” They did so, and she said,
“When you hear me cry, I don’t want any of you to pass the place where
I am mourning. Tie up the fingers of my right hand. Allow me to eat
with my left hand only. You people must also wait upon me. You must
bring me everything I eat. Also paint my face black.” She being the
widow, they had to do everything just as she told them, and these are
the regulations people have observed up to the present time. When they
heard her crying around the spot where her husband’s body had been
laid, no one dared go near, and to this day those who go by a house
where people are mourning have to be very quiet. Nor do they pass it at
all unless they are compelled to.
Raven stayed there mourning for a long time, but she was really eating
the killer-whale’s body. After she had remained by it for a very
long time, she would come home chewing gum, but, when the husband’s
relations asked her for a piece, she would say, “No, no one can chew
this gum but Macaˊ,” which was the name she gave to herself.
She lived there for a long time, continually crying out of doors, but
she was really crying for joy because she intended to kill all of the
killer whales.
While sitting outside one day a kēkǃᵘ (a small sea gull with black head
and white body) flew past, and Raven said, “Here comes the man I made
white.” By and by she saw another, called kuʟêˊta, also white, and
repeated the same words. Then some swans came along far up in the sky,
and she said the same thing about them. The killer whales heard all
this and said, “Since you have made them white, can’t you make us white
also?” “It will hurt you to be made white,” said Raven. “Those people
that came along were made white because they were brave.” Then she
sharpened the same hardwood stick with which she had killed her husband
and told all of the killers to lie in a row. She began pounding this
into their ears, and so killed all of them but the last. This looked
up in time to see what she was doing and rushed into the sea saying,
“Raven has finished us sure enough” (Qothagᴀˊsînīˊyēł). Raven remained
there for some time eating the whales she had killed.
The reason why there are so many cowards among men nowadays is because
Raven, being a man, made himself into a woman at that time. The people
that live single all their lives are such as came from Raven at that
period. This is also why thieves are great talkers and, when they have
gotten into trouble, have a way of getting out, and why some women are
bad and deceive their husbands; for Raven said that his husband had
wanted to be buried a long way from town, and they believed him. This
is why the Tlingit used to be very careful of the way they spoke and
even of the way they walked when in public.[78]
After that Raven came to a fish-hawk (kūnackᴀnỵēˊt) and exclaiming,
“Oh! my friend” entered its house, where was a great quantity of food.
He felt very happy at the sight, and said to the bird, “I will stay
with you all winter.” Then he stayed so long that the hawk began to get
tired of him, because Raven would not work. When he saw that the bird
was getting weary of him he would say, “The time for me to work hasn’t
come yet. When I work you will have plenty of rest. You will not have
to do a thing. This beach will be covered with all kinds of fish, and
you will be tired of preparing them.” So the hawk would think of what
Raven was going to do for him, forget everything else, and work all the
harder to supply him with food while Raven stayed in the house. Raven
would also talk to him, saying, “I remember to have seen you long ago.
You were very high-caste. I remember it very well.” In that way he made
the hawk forget for a time all the bad feelings he had had toward him.
But finally the little hawk determined to go away, and he left Raven
there alone.[79]
Then Raven went to another industrious bird, called hīnỵîkłēˊx̣î, a
fishing bird living along the river. He called him “brother-in-law,”
and was invited to have something to eat, but next morning the bird
left him for he knew that he was a lazy fellow.[80]
After that Raven came to the goose people, and married a woman among
them. By and by they said to him, “We are going to leave for other
countries. I don’t think you can stand the journey.” “Oh! yes,” said
Raven, “I think I can stand the journey. If you can, I can.” So they
set out, and, when Raven became tired, his wife flew along under him
to hold him up. Finally they came to camp and began going out on the
beaches to dig roots. Raven helped them, but he did not like the goose
life nor the food they ate, so he commenced to get very lean. One day
he killed a goose and began cooking it apart by himself, but they
discovered him and said, “He is a man-eater.” So they left him.[81]
Raven went to another place, and they said to him, “There will soon
be a great feast here,” and they asked him to make a totem pole. He
finished it, and, when they put it up, they had a big dance. The people
who gave this were of the Wolf clan, so he danced with one of the two
Raven parties. Afterward he made a long speech to the host. Then they
danced again, and Raven held a spear in his hands. This meant that he
was going to invite to a feast next, and was done that they might give
him more than the others. So nowadays some are in earnest in doing this
while others go through the performance and leave without keeping it in
mind. Raven was the person who first had those dances and speeches.
While they were engaged in the last dance the opposite company of
Ravens danced very hard and showed fight by crossing the line which
is always set between. For this reason Raven would not go to the next
feast, to be confronted by these people. They sent after him many
times, and when they finally became tired of sending, began the feast
without him. Then he told his slave to go over and see if they were
already eating, and on his return he said, “They are having a grand
time. They are eating a great quantity of food.” “Take me there,”
said Raven to his slaves. So they went along with him, one on each
side. When he came there he saw that they were having a grand time
distributing boxes of food to all the head chiefs, and he said to a
slave, “Ask them where this chief shall sit.” He did so, but they went
on with their feast without paying the slightest attention to him. Then
Raven made his slave ask again, “Where shall this chief sit? Where
shall this chief sit?” and again they paid no attention, although he
shouted so that all in the house could hear him. When the people left
he was still standing around, so his slaves said to him, “Why were you
so particular? We could have had a great deal to eat.” After all were
gone Raven ate the leavings.