[Told by John Sky of Those-born-at-Skedans] [173]
Over this island [174] salt water extended, they say. Raven flew about.
He looked for a place upon which to sit. After a while he flew away to
sit upon a flat rock which lay toward the south end of the island. All
the supernatural creatures lay on it like Genō′, [175] with their necks
laid across one another. The feebler supernatural beings were stretched
out from it in this, that, and every direction, asleep. It was light
then, and yet dark, they say.
[Told by Job Moody of the Witch People [176]]
The Loon’s place [177] was in the house of Nᴀñkî′lsʟas. One day he went
out and called. Then he came running in and sat down in the place he
always occupied. And an old man was lying down there, but never looking
toward him. By and by he went out a second time, cried, came in, and
sat down. He continued to act in this manner.
One day the person whose back was turned to the fire asked: “Why do you
call so often?” “Ah, chief, I am not calling on my own account. The
supernatural ones tell me that they have no place in which to settle.
That is why I am calling.” And he said: “I will attend to it
(literally, ‘make’).”
[Continued by John Sky]
After having flown about for a while Raven was attracted by the
neighboring clear sky. Then he flew up thither. And running his beak
into it from beneath he drew himself up. A five-row town lay there, and
in the front row the chief’s daughter had just given birth to a child.
In the evening they all slept. He then skinned the child from the foot
and entered [the skin]. He lay down in its place.
On the morrow its grandfather asked for it, and it was given to him. He
washed it, and he put his feet against the baby’s feet and pulled up.
He then put it back. On the next day he did the same thing and handed
it back to its mother. He was now hungry. They had not begun to chew up
food to put into his mouth.
One evening, after they had all gone to bed and were asleep, Raven
raised his head and looked about upon everything inside the house. All
slept in the same position. Then by wriggling continually he loosened
himself from the cradle in which he was fastened and went out. In the
corner of the house lived a Half-rock being, [178] who watched him.
After she had watched for a while he came in, holding something under
his blanket, and, pushing aside the fire which was always kept burning
before his mother, he dug a hole in the cleared place and emptied what
he held into it. As soon as he had kneaded it with the ashes he ate it.
It gave forth a popping sound. He laughed while he ate. She saw all
that from the corner.
Again, when it was evening and they were asleep, he went out. After he
had been gone for a while he again brought in something under his
blanket, put it into the ashes and stirred it up with them. He poked it
out and laughed as he ate it. From the corner of the house the
Half-rock one looked on. He got through, went back, and lay down in the
cradle. On the next morning all the five villages talked about it. He
heard them.
The inhabitants of four of the five towns had each lost one eye. Then
the old woman reported what she had seen. “Behold what that chief’s
daughter’s child does. Watch him. As soon as they sleep he stands up
out of himself.” His grandfather then gave him a marten-skin blanket,
and they put him into the cradle. At his grandfather’s word some one
went out. “Come to sing a song for the chief’s daughter’s baby
outsi-i-ide, outsi-i-ide.” As they sang for him one in the line, which
extended along the entire village front, held him. By and by he let him
fall, and they watched him as he went. Turning around to the right as
he went, he struck the water.
And as he drifted about he cried without ceasing. By and by, wearied
out with crying, he fell asleep. After he had slept a while something
said: “Your mighty grandfather says he wants you to come into his
house.” He turned around quickly and looked out from under his blanket,
but saw nothing. Again, as he floated about, something repeated the
same words. He looked quickly around toward it. He saw nothing. The
next time he looked through the eyehole in his marten-skin. A
pied-billed grebe came out from under the water, saying “Your mighty
grandfather invites you in,” and dived immediately.
He then got up. He was floating against a kelp with two heads. He
stepped upon it. Lo! he stepped upon a house pole of rock having two
heads. He climbed down it. The sea was just as good as the world above.
[179]
He then stood in front of a house. And some one called him in: “Enter,
my son. Word has arrived that you come to borrow something from me.” He
then went in. An old man, white as a sea gull, sat in the rear part of
the house. He sent him for a box that hung in the corner, and, as soon
as he had handed it to him, he successively pulled out five boxes. And
out of the innermost box he handed him two cylindrical objects, one
covered with shining spots, the other black, saying “I am you. That
[also] is you.” He referred to something blue and slim that was walking
around on the screens whose ends point toward each other in the rear of
the house. And he said to him: “Lay this round [speckled] thing in the
water, and after you have laid this black one in the water, bite off a
part of each and spit it upon the rest.”
But when he took them out he placed the black one in the water first
and, biting off part of the speckled stone, spit it upon the rest,
whereupon it bounded off. Because he did differently from the way he
was told it came off. He now went back to the black one, bit a part of
it off and spit it upon the rest, where it stuck. Then he bit off a
part of the pebble with shiny points and spit it upon the rest. It
stuck to it. These were to be trees, they say. [180]
When he put the second one into the water it stretched itself out. And
the supernatural beings at once swam over to it from their places on
the sea. In the same way Mainland [181] was finished and lay quite
round on the water.
He floated first in front of this island (i.e., the Queen Charlotte
islands), they say. And he shouted landward: “Gū′sga wag̣elai′dx̣ᴀn
hā-ō-ō” (Tsimshian words meaning “Come along quickly”) [but he saw
nothing]. Then [he shouted]: “Ha′lᴀ gudᴀñā′ñ łg̣ā′gîñ gwā′-ā-ā” (Haida
equivalent of the preceding). Some one came toward the water. Then he
went toward Mainland. He called to them to hurry, [saying] “Hurry up in
your minds,” but he saw nothing. He spoke in the Tsimshian tongue. Then
one with an old-fashioned cape and a paddle over his shoulder came
seaward. This is how he started it that the Mainland people would be
industrious.
Pushing off again toward this country, he disembarked near the south
end of the island. On a ledge a certain person was walking. Toward the
woods, too, among fallen trees, walked another. Then he knocked him who
was walking along the shore into the water. Yet he floated, face up.
When he again knocked him in the same thing was repeated. He was unable
to drown him. This was because the Ninstints people were going to
practise witchcraft. And he who was walking among the trees had his
face cut by the limbs. He did not wipe it. This was Greatest-crazy-one
(Qōnā′ñ-sg̣ā′na), they say.
He then turned seaward and started for the Heiltsuk coast (ʟdjîñ).
[182] As he walked along he came to a spring salmon that was jumping
about and said to it: “Spring-salmon, strike me over the heart.” Then
it turned toward him. It struck him. Just as he recovered from his
insensibility it went into the sea. Then he built a stone wall close to
the sea and behind it made another. When he told it to do the same
thing again the spring salmon hit him, and, while he was on the ground,
after jumping along for a while, it knocked over the nearer wall. But
while it was yet moving along inside the farther wall he got up, hit it
with a club, killed it, and took it up. [183]
He then called in the crows to help him eat it. They made a fire and
roasted it [on hot stones]. He afterward lay down with his back to the
fire. He told them to wake him when it was cooked. He then overslept.
And they took everything off from the fire and ate. They ate
everything. They then poked some of the salmon between his teeth. And
he awoke after he had slept a while and told them to take the covering
off the roast. And they said to him: “You ate it. After that you went
to sleep.” “No, indeed, you have not taken the coverings off yet.”
“Well, poke a stick between your teeth.” He then poked a stick between
his teeth. He poked out some from his teeth. He thereupon spit into the
crows’ faces and said: “Future people shall not see you flying about
looking as you do now.” They were white, they say, but since that time
they have been black.
And walking away from that place he sat down near the end of a trail.
After he had wept there for a while some people with feathers on their
heads and gambling-stick bags on their backs came to him and asked him
what the matter was. “Oh, my mother and my father are dead. Because
they told me I was born [in the same place] as you I wander about
seeking you.” They then started home with him. Lo, they came to a
house. Then they made him sit down. One of the men went around behind
the screens by the wall passage. After staying away for a while [he
came in and] his legs were wet. He brought a salmon with its back just
broken. They rubbed white stones against each other to make a fire.
Near it they cut the salmon open. They put stones into the fire,
roasted the salmon, and, when it was cooked, made him sit down in the
middle. There they ate it. These were the Beavers, they say. They were
going out to gamble, but turned back on account of him.
One of them again went behind the screens. He brought out a dish of
cranberries, and that, too, they finished. Again he went in. He brought
out the inside parts of a mountain goat, and they divided them into
three portions, and made Raven’s portion big. Then they said to him:
“You had better not go away. Live with us always.” They then put their
gambling-stick bags upon their backs and started off.
When it was near evening they came home. He was sitting in the place
[where they had left him]. Again one went in. He again brought out a
salmon. They steamed it. And they also brought out cranberries. They
also brought out the inside parts of a mountain goat. After they had
eaten they went to bed. On the next day, early in the morning, after
they had eaten three sorts of food, they put the gambling-stick bags
upon their backs and started off again.
He then went behind the screen. Lo, a lake lay there. From it a creek
flowed away in which was a fish trap. The fish trap was so full that it
looked as if some one were shaking it. There were plenty of salmon in
it, and in the lake very many small canoes were passing one another.
Several points were red with cranberries. Lēn [184] and women’s songs
[185] resounded.
Then he pulled out the fish trap, folded it together, and laid it down
at the edge of the lake. He rolled it up with the lake and house, put
them under his arm, and pulled himself up into a tree that stood close
by. They were not heavy for his arm.
He then came down and straightened them out. And he lighted a fire, ran
back quickly, brought out a salmon, and cooked it hurriedly. He ate it
quickly and put the fire out again. Then, sitting beside it, he cried.
As he sat there, without having wiped away his tears, they came in.
“Well, why are you crying?” “I am crying because the fire went out some
time ago.” They then talked to each other, and one of them said to him:
“That is always the way with it.”
They then lighted the fire. One of them brought out a salmon from
behind [the screens] and they cut it across, steamed, and ate it. After
they had finished eating cranberries and the inside parts of a mountain
goat they went to bed. The next morning, very early, after they had
again eaten the three kinds of food, they took their gambling-stick
bags upon their backs and went off.
He at once ran inside. He brought out a salmon, cooked it, and ate it
with cranberries and the inside parts of a mountain goat. He then went
in and pulled up the fish trap. He flattened it together with the
house.
After he had laid them down he rolled the lake up with them and put all
into his armpit. He pulled himself up into a tree standing beside the
lake. Halfway up he sat down.
And after he had sat there for a while some one came. His house and
lake were gone from their accustomed place. After he had looked about
the place for some time he glanced up. Lo, he (Raven) sat there with
their property. Then he went back, and both came toward him. They went
quickly to the tree. They began working upon it with their teeth. When
it began to fall, he (Raven) went to another one. When that, too, began
to fall he sat down with his [burden] on one that stood near it. After
he had gone ahead of them upon many trees in the same way they gave it
up. They then traveled about for a long time, they say. After having
had no place for a long time they found a lake and settled down in it.
Then, after he (Raven) had traveled around inland for a while, he came
to a large open place. He unrolled the lake there. There it lay. He did
not let the fish trap or the house go. He kept them to teach the
Seaward (Mainland) people and the Shoreward (Queen Charlotte islands)
people, they say.
While he was walking along near the edge of the water [he saw] a part
of some creature looking like a woman sticking out of the water at the
mouth of Lalgī′mi. [186] He was fascinated by her, made a canoe, and
went to her. When he got near she went under the water in front of him.
After he had made a canoe of something different he went to her again.
When he got near to her she sank into the water. He made one of
something still different. Again she sank into the water before him.
Now, after he had searched about for a while, he opened a wild pea
(xō′ya ʟū′g̣a, “Raven’s canoe”) with a stick and went out to her in it.
When he came near to get her that time she did not go under the water.
He came alongside of her and took her in. She wore a dancing skirt and
dancing leggings. He then got the canoe ashore, untied her dancing
leggings and dancing skirt, and wiped her all over. He ran to the
woods, got a tcā′łg̣a, [187] and drew it over her for a blanket.
He then launched the canoe and put her in it, and they started
landward. [188] He set her ashore on the west arm of Cumshewa inlet
(G̣a′oqons) and also took out the house for her, but kept the fish trap
in his armpit. He did so because he was going to teach [some one] about
it.
He then went back again. After he had passed along Seaward land (the
mainland) in his canoe for some time, behold, a person came along by
canoe. The hair on the top of his head was gathered in a pointed tuft.
And he (Raven) held his canoe off at arm’s length for a while. The
canoe was full of hair seal. Then he questioned him: “Tell me, where
did you gather the things you have?” “Why, there are plenty of them”
[he replied], and he picked up his hunting spear. After he had looked
between the canoes he speared something. He pulled out a hair seal.
“Look in” [he said], and he (Raven) looked in. He could see nothing. “I
say, I am this way (i.e., have bad eyesight) because a clam spit upon
me. Since then I have been unable to see anything.” He then stretched
his head over. He stretched it to him. And, having pulled a blood clot
out of his eye with his finger nails, he put it back again. He used bad
words to him, therefore he did not take it out for good. Now, he
(Raven) treated him well. He made many advances to him, but he could
not get [what he wanted] and started off.
After he had gone along for some time, lo, Eagle [189] was coming; and
he said to him: “Comrade, I have been drinking sea water. You, too, had
better drink sea water.” And he drank some in his sight. At once he
defecated as he went along. Then Eagle, too, drank some. He also
defecated as he went, and he said: “Cousin, come, let us build a fire.”
“Wait, I am looking for the place.” Then Eagle pulled a water-tight
basket out from under his armpit and drank from it. At once what he had
drunk spurted from his mouth as he went along. After they had gone
along for a while they landed upon certain flat rocks extending into
the sea.
Then Raven went up first and lighted a fire. He again watched Eagle as
he kept taking out his basket and drinking water. He intended to take
it, but he did not have an opportunity. Eagle also let the contents of
his stomach run into the ground, and they went out of sight. Then he
(Raven) took a walk. “I am going to drink,” he said, and passed into
the woods. Having taken roots and put root sap into the hat he wore, he
went to him. While coming back he drank of it on the way. And he asked
Eagle to taste it. He handed it to him. He looked into it. He sniffed
at it. “Tell me, cousin, why does your water smell like pitch?” “Well,
cousin, the water hole was in clay.”
He then broke off tips of branches from a hemlock that had clusters of
twigs sticking out all round them and gave them to him. “Cousin, put
these upon the fire.” And he put them upon the fire. Wā-ā-ā, it burned
brightly. And after he had done this a while, lo, Eagle pulled out his
basket. As soon as he saw that, he (Raven) ran to the end of a clump of
limbs and stepped heavily upon it to break it. “Clump of branches, fall
down, fall down” [he said], and it broke and was coming down. Then he
said to Eagle, “Hukukukuk.” [190] Eagle ran from his water in terror.
Then Raven put on his feather clothing and flew away with it. Eagle,
too, put on his feather clothing and flew after him. He tried to hook
his claws into him, and water was jerked out of [the basket]. As this
happened the salmon streams were formed. Eagle gave up the pursuit, and
he (Raven) continued scattering water out of his mouth. After a while
he emptied the last where he had stretched out the first [lake]. He
treated this island in the same manner. After that he emptied [the
last] at the head of Skeena. [191]