One day Raven, who desired to rob Beaver of his treasures, disguised himself as a poor, ugly person. In this shape he went to Beaver’s house. In the evening Beaver came home, bringing a fish and berries, which he intended to boil. Raven arranged it so that he should meet him. Then Beaver asked: “What are you doing here?” Raven replied: “My father has just died. He said that you are my brother. We have the same ancestors. He told me to go to visit you and to ask you for food.” Then Beaver invited him to his house. He boiled his fish, and when it was cooked he let Raven partake of the meal. He believed him and pitied him.
Next day Beaver went to the lake. He told Raven to stay at home. Toward noon he returned, carrying a salmon, and he spoke kindly to Raven, promising to feed him all the time. He told him that there were always fish in the lake and ripe berries on its shores. [[146]]
On the following day Raven went out to the lake. He rolled up the water like a blanket, took a number of fish out, boiled them, and ate them. When Beaver came home he found Raven crying and pretending to be hungry. On the following day Raven went out again. He rolled up the water, took it in his beak, and flew away. He alighted on the top of a large cedar tree.
When Beaver went out in order to fish in his lake he found that it was gone, and he saw Raven sitting on a tree, holding the water. Then Beaver called the monster Tā′ʟat’adᴇga,[104] which has a long body, a long tail, and many legs; and he called all the beavers and the bears and asked them to throw the tree down. The wolves dug up its roots, the beavers gnawed the trunk of the tree, and all the animals tried to do what was in their power. Finally the tree fell. Then Raven flew off to another tree. They tried to throw this tree down. All the animals of the forest helped Beaver. After they had thrown down four trees they asked a favor of Raven: “Please give us our chief’s water. Don’t make us unhappy!” But he did not comply with their request. He flew away, and spit some of the water on the ground as he flew along. Thus originated all the rivers on Queen Charlotte islands. He also made the Skeena and Stikine rivers.
There was a man named K·ʼî′lkun, who lived at Skidegate. He asked Raven to give him some water. Raven complied with his request, but gave him very little only. This annoyed him so much that he fell down dead. He forms the long point of land near Skidegate.[105] The same thing happened at Naēku′n.[106] For this reason there is a long point of land at that place.
This is the best known, as it is the longest, of all stories told on the upper northwest coast, and many writers have given fragments of it. Although often spoken of as the creation legend, it would be more correct to say that it explains how things were altered from one state or condition into that in which we now find them. Thus topographic features, natural phenomena, the tastes, passions, habits, and customs of animals and human beings are mainly explained by referring to something that Raven did in ancient times. He was not the only originator of all these things, but he was the principal, and for that reason he was known as Nᴀñkî′lsʟas (“He-whose-voice-is-obeyed”). Until Qî′ñgî adopted him he was called Nᴀñkî′lsʟas-łîña′-i (“The-potential-Nᴀñkî′lsʟas”). Some even said that Nᴀñkî′lsʟas was a great chief who put on the skin of a raven only when he wanted to act like a buffoon. Among the three peoples who have developed this story most—Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian—the Raven clan is also of very great importance, and it is evident to me that there is a causal relation between the two facts. I have, however, discussed the singular prominence of the Raven clan among the people in this region in volume V, part 1, of the Memoirs of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, page 104.
Aware of the important position held by this myth, I made a special endeavor to secure as much of it as possible and consulted several different story-tellers. The main portion of the story was given me by John Sky, a Kloo man, who also related the five next and that on page 86. A long section was added by Walter McGregor, who belonged to the people of the west-coast town of Kaisun, and fragments were contributed by Abraham, an old man of Kloo, by Tom Stevens, chief of Those-born-at-House-point, the ancient people of Rose spit, and by Job Moody, a man of the [[147]]Witch people of Cumshewa and father of my interpreter. A second version is appended. This was obtained in English by Prof. Franz Boas from Charlie Edenshaw, chief of the great Masset family Stᴀ′stas. He spent his earlier years at Skidegate, so I am not certain whether it is more like the story as told at Skidegate or as told at Masset. I am inclined to think, however, that it approaches the form in which it was told by the people of Rose spit. While at Masset I secured several additional texts bearing on events in the life of Raven, some of them differing considerably from the above. An abstract of these texts will be found on pages 207–211 of volume V, part 1, of the Memoirs of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. On pages 233–238 of the same memoir will be found two sections of the story obtained from two old Kaigani. They probably contain much of the Tlingit Raven story. Finally, it must be stated that Raven is brought forward to explain so many local phenomena that an absolutely complete Raven story is neither practicable nor necessary. [[151]]
[1] The first six of these stories belong to one series and are said to have been formerly recounted at Skedans in the same order. [↑]