Tlingit (Wrangell)
ONCE Raven went to Ground-hog’s house for the winter. Now Ground-hogs go into their holes in September. At home they live like people. People to them are animals.
So Raven spent the winter with Ground-hog and became very tired of it. But he could not get out. Ground-hog enjoyed himself, but Raven acted like a prisoner. Raven kept shouting, “Winter comes on. Winter comes on.” Raven thought that Ground-hog had power to shorten the winter.
Now at that time, Ground-hog had to stay in his hole for six months; at that time, Ground-hog had six toes, one for each month of winter. Then Raven pulled one toe off each foot, so that the winter would be shorter. That is why the Ground-hog now has but five toes.
RAVEN’S FEAST
Tlingit
RAVEN’S mother died, so he gave a great feast, but first he went to the Ground-hog people to get food. Now the Ground-hog people know when slides descend from the mountains, and they know that spring is then near at hand, so they throw all of their winter food out of their burrows. Raven wanted them to do this. He said, “There is going to be a world snowslide.” Ground-hog chief answered, “Well, nobody in this town knows about it.”
In the spring when the snowslides did come, the Ground-hogs threw out all their green herbs, and their roots from their burrows.
Therefore Raven said to the people, “I am going to have a feast. I am going to invite the whole world.” Raven was going to invite every one because he had heard that the Gonaqadet had a Chilkat blanket and a Chilkat hat and he wanted to see them.[2] First he invited the Gonaqadet and afterward the other chiefs of all the tribes in the world. At the right time they came.