Myths and Legends of British North America — A Closer Reading

f the Bella Coola River, and one kept always a fire burning in his house. One could see the smoke, and this fire warned its master, the mountain, whenever an enemy appeared. When Afraid of Nothing came down in her canoe, the fire gave warning. When she approached, the mountain broke her canoe and turned it into stone. So she returned to heaven. The canoe is still there at the foot of the mountain.

Afraid of Nothing is a great warrior. She visits the earth now and then; but when she does, her visits cause sickness and death.

Under the world where she lives is the House of the Sun. Our own earth is an island swimming in the ocean.

CREATION OF THE WORLD

The people were living beyond the sky. They were Wyandots. One day the shaman told the people to dig around the roots of the wild apple tree standing by the chief’s lodge and Indians at once began to dig. The chief’s daughter was lying near by. As the men dug, a sudden noise startled them. They jumped back. They had broken through the floor of the Sky Land, and the tree and the chief’s daughter fell through.

Now the world beneath was a great sheet of water. There was no land anywhere. Swans swimming about on the water heard a peal of thunder. It was the first peal ever heard in this world. When they looked upward, they saw the tree and the strange woman falling from the Sky Land. One of them said, “What strange thing is falling down?” Then he added, “The water will not hold her up. Let us swim together so she will fall upon our backs.” So the chief’s daughter fell upon their backs, and rested there.

After a while one swan said, “What shall we do with her? We cannot swim about this way very long.” The other said, “Let us ask Big Turtle. He will probably call a council. Then we shall know what to do.”

They swam around to Big Turtle and asked him what to do with the woman on their backs. Big Turtle at once sent a runner with a moccasin to the animals, so they came at once for a great council. The council talked a long while. Then someone stood up and asked about the tree. He said perhaps divers might go down and get just a little earth from its roots, if they knew where it had sunk. Big Turtle said, “Yes. If we can get earth, perhaps we might make an island for this woman.” So the swans took them all to the place where the tree had fallen in the waste of waters.

Big Turtle called for divers. First down went Otter, the best of them all. He sank at once out of sight. He was gone a long, long while. At last he came up, but he gasped and was dead. Then Muskrat was sent down. He also was gone a long, long while. Muskrat also died. Next Beaver was sent down to get earth from the roots of the tree. Beaver also was drowned. Many animals were drowned.

Big Turtle called, “Who will offer to go down for the earth?” No one offered himself, until at last Old Toad said she would try. All the animals laughed. Old Toad was very small and very ugly. Big Turtle looked her over, but he said, “Well, you try then.”

Down went Old Toad. At last they could not see her at all, though she went down slowly. Then they waited for her to come back. They waited, and waited, and waited. They began to say, “She will never come back.” Then they saw a little bubble break on the water. Big Turtle said, “Let us swim there. That is where Old Toad is coming up.” So it was done. Then Old Toad came slowly to the surface, close to Big Turtle. She opened her mouth and spat out a few grains of earth that fell on Big Turtle’s shell. Old Toad was done for, too.

Small Turtle at once began to rub the earth around the edge of Big Turtle’s shell. It began to grow into an island. The animals were looking on as it grew. Then the island became large enough for the woman to live on, so she stepped onto the earth. The island grew larger and larger, until it became as large as the world is today.

When an earthquake occurs, it is because Big Turtle moves his foot. Sometimes he gets tired.

HOW THE EARTH WAS FORMED

One winter day Wisagatcak was chiseling the ice, trying to catch Big Beaver. At last he caught him by shutting up the creek with stakes, leaving only an opening in the center of the stream. Then Wisagatcak stood there, waiting for Big Beaver to attempt an escape in that way. He stood there a long while. Just as evening came, Wisagatcak saw a beaver coming along, but just as he was about to kill him, Muskrat came up quietly behind him and scratched him. Wisagatcak was so startled he did not catch the beaver.

At last it became dark, so he went ashore and built a fire, but he had nothing to eat. He said to himself, “Tomorrow I will try to break the dam down and dry up the creek.”

Early next morning Wisagatcak made a pointed stick from juniper wood. Then he broke the dam down, but yet the creek did not dry up. The water rose, and rose, and rose, until Wisagatcak no longer stood on dry ground. So he at once made a raft and got on that. He took on the raft with him two of every kind of animal, and stayed there with them for two weeks. So they drifted about because there was no chance to land anywhere. And while he drifted, Big Beaver was making medicine against him for breaking the dam.

Now after two weeks, Wisagatcak wished to know the depth of water under the raft. He tied a long string to the feet of Muskrat and asked him to dive down and bring up some mud.

Muskrat went down, down, down! He could not even reach the bottom, and drowned before Wisagatcak could bring him up. Then he waited three days and told Crow to go and see if he could find any moss. Crow came back without anything in his bill. When Crow came back without any moss, Wisagatcak was frightened. He had a little moss on his raft, so he took that and began to make medicine. The next day he asked Wolf to take the moss in his mouth and run around the raft with it. Wolf did so, and as he ran around, earth began to appear and grow on the raft.

Wolf ran around the raft for a week, and the land grew larger and larger. It continued to grow for two weeks. By that time the earth had grown so large that Wolf never came back.

This is how the earth came to be built over water. And this is why there are springs in the earth.

When Wolf had been gone for a week, Wisagatcak said to the other animals, “I guess now the land must be large enough for us all to live on.”

Beaver asked, “How are we going to live? We are eating willows and poplars here, but there are no trees on earth yet.”

Wisagatcak said, “Um-m-m-m! Yes, you will need a little creek to live in also.”

Beaver said, “Why, yes, of course.”

Wisagatcak said, “I’ll do something tonight.”

That night Wisagatcak made magic again. He tried to dig down through the earth to his raft, to get a log from it; but the earth was so thick, and the pressure of it so great, he could not even find a trace of a log. When he failed to get even a stick, he said to Beaver, “I’ll make a creek for you, and you will have to live on grass roots until trees grow up.”

That is why, even today, Beaver eats certain white roots as well as bark.

When Wisagatcak came back, he found that Beaver had dug ditches in every direction in his search for roots.

Before the days of the grandfathers, all was water. Old One lived then in the Sky Land.

He still lives in the Sky Land, just where it is reached by the snow-capped mountains. But in the days before the grandfathers, Old One became tired of looking down at the waste of waters beneath him. There was no earth at all. Old One thought, “I will make an island in the middle of that great lake, which will be pleasant to look at.”

He took some soil from the Sky Land, and made a large hollow ball of it. Then he threw it down on the water. The lower side of the ball spread flat, and all the upper part caved in and spread out into a very large island. The earth even now lies on the water just as it was when Old One threw down the ball. It is all broken up into flats and hollows, hills and islets, just as it spread out from the hollowed ball.

But even then the bare earth was not pleasant to Old One, so he himself came down afterward and made the grass and trees and flowers to grow.

That is why the earth is surrounded by water.

CREATION OF THE EARTH

Long, long ago, everything was a blank. There was nothing at all, anywhere, except a number of people who lived together in a camp. They were Sun and his wife Earth. There were also Moon and Stars living there in that camp.

Now Earth scolded Sun all the time. She kept saying, “Oh, you’re so hot! Go out of doors; you make the house too hot!” She kept telling Sun how cross he was. Then Sun got tired of it. He moved away, and as Stars and Moon were his relatives, they went with him. So Earth Woman was left all alone in the camp. Then Earth Woman wept because she was alone.

Old Man came around just then, and he asked what was the matter. He asked all about it and Earth Woman told him everything. Then he went to Sun’s camp. He talked to Sun.

Then Old Man said, “This will never do. There’ll be people after a while. Something has to be done for them.” So Old Man sent Sun, Moon, and the Stars up into the sky. He made them just what they are now. He said to them, “Henceforth you shall not desert people nor hide yourselves; you shall remain where everybody can see you, either by day or by night.”

Then Old One changed Earth Woman into the earth upon which we live. Her hair became flowers and grass. Her bones are the rocks. Earth is never alone now, because she can always see Sun.

When people came, Old Man taught them how to spear fish and shoot deer with bows and arrows, how to cook the meat and dress the skins. Old Man taught people all they know.

Not long ago, there was no land to be seen.

Then there was a little thing in the ocean.

This was all open sea, and Raven sat upon this. He said, “Become dust!” It became earth. Then it increased and he divided it, and he put this earth into the water on each side of him. One earth he made small, but he made the one on the other side larger. Because he made one earth small, this island is small. So he finished this country. White men call it the Queen Charlotte Islands.

Again Raven started off. He came to where Eagle lived. And Eagle owned the fresh water. Before that there was none to be seen. Raven wanted to drink the water, but Eagle did not want to give it to him. A long time Raven wanted to drink this water. Then he drank it secretly, unseen by Eagle. Then he made off with it.

Then Raven spit it out. He spit out water upon all lands. He spit out Quilan first, therefore that is the elder brother of all the streams on Masset Inlet. When the water was almost gone from his mouth he came back to Masset. That is why the water here at Masset is red.

This is the way the story was told in the days of the grandfathers. But some of the story-tellers say that when Raven had taken all the fresh water from the Owner-of-the-Water, he carried it in his bill. He let a drop fall and it became the Chilcat River. When he spit it out, all the water flowed away and the ground became dry. Then he spit out more, and the ground also dried up after the water flowed away. Raven saw that. Then he let still more drop, and as soon as he let it drop he bent it together. He made a circle out of it; then it stopped running off. Because Raven bent the water together, all the streams keep on running, although they run every day.

ORIGIN OF RIVERS IN QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS

Beaver lived in a beautiful house on the shore of a large lake. In the lake were salmon and on the shores were berries of all kinds.

One day Raven disguised himself as a poor, hungry person. He went to Beaver’s house. Beaver was just coming home with a fish and berries. Beaver said, “What are you doing here?”

Raven said, “My father has just died. We have the same ancestors. He told me to visit you and ask for food.”

Beaver believed Raven and pitied him. He told Raven to stay at home, promising to give him much food. There were always fish in the lake and ripe berries on the shores.

The next day Raven went to the lake. He rolled up the water like a blanket. He took it in his beak and flew away. He alighted on the top of a large cedar tree.

When Beaver went out to fish, he found his lake was gone. Then Beaver called all the Beavers to help him, all the Wolves and Bears. He called also a monster Talat-adega, which has a long body, a long tail, and many legs. He asked them to throw the tree down.

The Wolves dug up the roots of the tree, Beavers gnawed the trunk of the tree. All the animals worked until the tree fell; then Raven flew to another tree.

All the animals of the forest worked hard. They tried to throw this tree down. But when it fell down, Raven flew to another tree.

After they had felled four trees, the animals said, “Please give us our chief’s water. Don’t make us unhappy.”

But Raven only flew away. He spilled some of the water on the ground as he flew along. Thus originated all the rivers on Queen Charlotte Islands. Raven also made the Skeena and Stikine rivers.

There was a man named Kilkun at Skidegate. Kilkun said to Raven, “Give me some water!” Raven gave him only a few drops. Then Kilkun became angry and fell dead. He forms the long point of land at Skidegate.

Before the days of the grandfathers there was nothing but water. All was water, except a single reef. Here lived the supernatural beings. They were much crowded. They all lay heaped together. Then Raven flew all about trying to get a footing, but he could alight nowhere.

Then Raven looked at the sky. It was solid. It was very beautiful and Raven was fascinated by it. He said, “I’ll go up there,” so he ran his beak into the sky and climbed up.

Now in the Sky Land was a large town. The chief lived there and in the chief’s house was a baby. When night came, Raven took the baby by the heel and shook all his bones out. Then he crept into the skin and pretended to be the baby. But at night he stole out of the baby’s skin and became Raven. He flew into all the houses and made much mischief. Then at last a woman saw him and told all the people.

Then the chief called all the people together and they sang a song for Raven. It was a magic song, and in the midst of it the one holding Raven let him fall, and he dropped down out of the Sky Country until he fell upon the great waters.

Now the cradle drifted about on the water for a long time. Raven cried; then he cried himself to sleep; but as Raven slept, something said, “Your powerful grandfather invites you in.” Raven sat up quickly. He looked toward the sound, but there was nothing there. Soon the voice said the same words.

Raven looked through the hole in his marten’s-skin blanket. Presently up through the water came a grebe saying, “Your powerful grandfather invites you in.”

Then Raven stood up. His cradle was floating against a kelp with two heads. He stepped upon it, and behold! it was really a two-headed house pole made of stone. When Raven climbed down, he found he could breathe as easily as in the air above.

Beneath the house pole was a house. Someone said, “Come inside, my son, I hear that you come to borrow something from me.” Raven entered. In the back part of the house sat old Sea-Gull Man. The old man sent him for a box which hung in the corner. There were four others inside of this. Raven pulled them all apart and took out two long pieces of something. One was black and the other was covered with shining points.

Sea-Gull Man took the two pieces and showed them to Raven. He said, “Lay this speckled stone in the water first, and this black one last. Then bite off a piece of each, and spit it out and the pieces will reunite;” so he said.

When Raven went out, he put the black piece into the water first. When he had bitten off part of the rock with shining points and laid it in the water, the points rebounded. He had not done as he had been told. Now he went back to the black one, and bit off part of it, and spit it out again. Then the pieces stuck. These were going to become land. He put this into the water, and it stretched itself out and became the Haida Country. Of the other piece he made the Seaward Country—the mainland.

Laggan, Alberta, Canada _Courtesy of Canadian Pacific Ry._]

Raven became the son of Moon Woman. He cried a great deal. When he cried, he said, “Boo-hoo, moon!” Then his mother said, “He talks about a thing beyond his reach, which the supernatural beings own.” So Raven began to cry again, “Boo-hoo, moon!”

Then, when Moon Woman’s mind was tired out with his noise, she stopped up all the holes in the house. She stopped up the smoke hole, and all the small holes as well.[2] Then she untied the strings of the box. Although they were very strong, she untied them. She did this because the moon was inside the box. Then she took the moon out and let Raven play with it. She did not give it to him; she only let him play with it to quiet him.

After his mother had gone out, Raven took up the moon in his beak. He turned himself into a raven and flew about the house with it. He made himself small. Just before his mother returned, he made himself a child again. Then he again played with the moon.

Then Raven again began crying loudly, when his mother returned. He cried, “Boo-hoo, boo-hoo, smoke hole!” So he cried, “Boo-hoo, boo-hoo, smoke hole!” He cried this way for a long time. Then he tired his mother’s mind with his crying, and she opened the smoke hole a little. Raven cried, “Boo-hoo, more! Boo-hoo, more!” for a long time. Then she made the opening in the smoke hole larger, and he kept crying, “Boo-hoo, more!” until she had made it quite large.

Then again Raven played with the moon. Raven cried because he wanted the moon, and his mother did not want to give it to him. When he cried very much, she gave it to him and made that large opening in the smoke hole.

Now at that time it was always dark. Raven did not like darkness.