Page:Tlingit Myths and Texts.djvu/33

Rh Raven had a blanket which kept blowing out from him, so he threw it into the water and let it float away. Then he obtained a wife, and, as he was traveling along with her, he said, &quot;There is going to be a great southwest wind. We better stop here for a little while. I expect my blanket ashore here.&quot; After a while it came in. Then his wife said to him, &quot;Take your blanket ashore and throw it on some branches.&quot; He did so and it became Rebis bracteosum (Tlingit, cāx). When they went on farther the sea became so rough that his wife was frightened, and told him to put ashore some of the fat with which his canoe was loaded. He did this, but was so angry with his wife for having asked him, that he said to her, &quot;You better put ashore your sewing basket/ and so she did,

Then he left his wife and went along by himself. He assembled very many young birds, and, when he camped told them to go after catlk!, the term he at that time applied to drinking water.

Afterwards he came to a certain place and started to make a salmon creek. He said, &quot;This woman shall be at the head of this creek.&quot; The woman he spoke of had long teats, so he called her Woman-with-long-teats-floating-around (Hln-cAkxe nayi), saying, &quot;When the salmon come to the creeks, they shall all go up to see her.&quot; That is why salmon run up the creeks.

After this he went into the woods and set out to make the porcupine. For quills he took pieces of yellow cedar bark, which he set all the way up and down its back so that bears would be afraid of it. This is why bears never eat porcupines. He said to the porcupine, &quot;Whenever anyone comes near you, throw your tail about.&quot; This is why people are afraid of it when it does so.

Now Raven went off to a certain place and made the west wind, naming it Q!axo. He said to it, &quot;You shall be my son's daughter. No matter how hard you blow you shall hurt nobody.

He took up a piece of red salmon and said to it, &quot;If anyone is not strong enough to paddle home he shall take up this fish and blow behind him.&quot;

Raven is a grandchild of the mouse (kule JtAlni). That is why a mouse can never get enough to eat.

Raven also made the south wind (sa naxet). When the south wind climbs on top of a rock it never ceases to blow.

He made the north wind (xun), and on top of a mountain he made a house for it with something like ice hanging down on the sides. Then he went in and said to it, &quot;Your buttocks are white,&quot; This is why the mountains are white with snow.

He made all the different races, as the Haida and the Tsimshian. They are human beings like the Tlingit, but he made their languages different.