When Raven entered his house, Owner-of-the-Fire said to him, “Come and sit here, chief.” Raven said, to him, “Will the chief give me fire?”
Owner-of-the-Fire gave fire to Raven, as he had been desired, and when he gave it to him, he put it in a stone tray. A cover was over it.
Raven went away with it. After he had gone up to the shore, Raven put a fragment of live coal into a cedar standing there. Because he put fire into the cedar, when people want to start a fire they use a drill of cedar, because fire comes from it.
WHEN MINK CARRIED THE TORCHES
Bella Coola
Mink’s father was “Walking-through-the-Heavens.” He was Sun, but no one knew it, and one day when Mink was playing with the children of his village, they laughed at him saying that he had no father. Mink began to cry and went home to his mother.
Mink’s mother said, “Why, your father is Walking-through-the-Heavens.” Then Mink demanded bows and arrows, and his mother gave them to him.
Mink went outside the lodge and began to shoot his arrows into the sky. The first arrow struck the sky and stuck there. The second arrow hit the notch of the first, and held there; and the third arrow stuck in the notch of the second. So with four arrows Mink made an arrow chain which became a rope. He called to his mother and said, “Hold the rope so it will not shake,” and she did so.
Then Mink began to climb up into the Sky Land, while his mother held the rope. After a long time he reached the door to the upper world. Then he climbed in and looked around him. He began to walk toward a bright house in the distance. It was Sun’s house. As he came near it, a woman came out to pick up wood. When she saw Mink, she said, “Oh, little one! Where do you come from, sonny?” The woman went at once back into the house and told Sun.
Now Walking-through-the-Heavens was tired that day. He did not climb the trail through the sky, but left it covered with clouds. Therefore it was gray and cloudy in the Earth Land. When there are clouds in the sky, that is the time that Walking-through-the-Heavens rests.