Tale #38 -- Raven the Trickster

These stories are from the Winter 2002 issue of Spellbound.

The Tlingit people, who first told these stories, live on the southeastern coast of Alaska. This is a land of glacier peaks, humid spruce forests, and many green islands. The traditional way of life of the Tlingit people is one of fishing, hunting, and gathering. They spend the summer in camps and the winter in large houses in their villages. Several families live together in one house.

The Tlingit people weave colourful cloth for their clothing. They record their history by carving tall totem poles out of trees. They carve masks out of wood and use them in dances and ceremonies.

They see real-life ravens every day -- large, talkative black birds who are always hungry. They are clever thieves who like bright objects.

In the mythology of the Tlingit, the first Raven was larger than life. He was clever and had special powers. He created the world, taught the Tlingit how to hunt and fish, and saw that they had everything they needed to live well. However, he also liked to play tricks on them.


HOW RAVEN MADE THE WORLD

When Raven was born, he was white all over, except for his watchful black eyes. One day, while he was playing on the wind currents, he got the idea of making a world. He found some dirt and rocks and put them together. They would not stick. He tried mixing some water with the dirt and began to shape the world. Sometimes the mountains fell off. Sometimes the oceans ran in the wrong places. Sometimes he got into a temper and kicked the whole thing to pieces. But he kept trying until he made it stick together. It was lumpy and bumpy and not at all what he had in mind, but he was tired of working on it, so he left it the way it was.

He stole the moon, stars, and a box of daylight from a man who lived at the Nass River. When the people saw light for the first time, they were frightened and started rushing around looking for shelter. Some jumped into the water and became sea creatures. Others ran into woods and became forest animals. Raven laughed, ate the food they left behind, and took a nap in the sunshine.

Next, Raven visited Petrel, who had an everlasting spring of fresh water in his house. While Petrel was busy outside, Raven drank as much water as he could hold and tried to escape through the smoke hole. The weight of the water slowed him down, giving the smoke hole spirits time to grab his feet. While Raven was struggling to escape, the soot from the fire blackened his feathers. He finally got away and spit out the water to make the big rivers. The drops of water from his beak made the little salmon streams. No matter what he did to clean himself, his feathers stayed black.


HOW THE PEOPLE SANG IN THE FISH

One cold day, Raven wished for fire to keep himself warm. The fire appeared floating on the sea, far from shore. Raven persuaded Chicken Hawk to fetch it by telling him he would be famous. Chicken Hawk took some of the fire and brought it safely back, even though it burned most of his beak. Raven told him his beak would always be short, but it would be strong.

Now that the people had fire, Raven wanted to have a special feast in honour of his mother. He carved a cane and put a lot of magic in it. The people saw something out at sea with birds sitting on it, but nobody knew what it was. Raven told them that his magic would bring them good things for their feast. He made everybody sit down on the beach and reached out with his cane. It stretched all the way to the mysterious thing in the water. Raven began to pull it towards the beach. He told the people to sing to make it come. Whenever they stopped for breath, it would go back out to sea. The fourth time they tried, they managed to keep singing until Raven pulled the big thing in. Just as it touched the shore, a wave burst it open and all kinds of fish tumbled out. They went into every river and stream. The people filled their canoes with the fish and prepared a fine feast.


HOW RAVEN LOST HIS BEAK

Raven taught the people how use canoes, how to collect shellfish, and how to fish. When they fished for halibut, they used fat for bait. Raven loved fat more than anything. He swam in the water under the canoes, nibbling the bait off the hooks. One fisherman jerked his line so quickly that he caught Raven's beak. Raven kicked and tried to get away. The fisherman pulled so hard that Raven's beak came off. The fisherman took the beak to his village and hung it on the wall in the chief's house.

Raven made himself a nose out of spruce gum. Then he put on a big hat and pulled it down to hide his face. He went to the chief's house and asked to see the beak. He said, "That's really something. I sure would like to hold it." When they gave it to him, he said, "My, it's too dark to see in here. Could you open the smoke hole cover?" As soon as they opened the hole, Raven stuck his beak back on his face and flew up through the smoke hole so fast nobody knew what happened.


RAVEN IN THE WHALE

Raven was very curious. He was watching a whale one day and wondered what it was like inside. When the whale came up to the surface, Raven flew into its mouth and slid down its throat. The whale's stomach was like a big room. Raven sat down, built himself a fire, and ate some of the fish the whale had swallowed. Then he found a soft space to sleep. When he woke up, he ate more fish, then started carving the fat out of the whale's stomach.

That poor whale ate and ate, but it was hungry all the time. Raven started looking at the whale's heart. At first, he left it alone, but greed overcame him. He cut out the heart. The whale leaped up and died. After he ate the heart, Raven realized that he was trapped in the middle of the ocean. He wished very hard for the whale to drift to a sandy beach, and it did.

Some boys who were playing on the beach came up to the whale and heard a voice inside telling them to cut a hole in the top. They ran to the village in terror. All the people came to the beach. Two bold young men cut a hole in the whale, and Raven flew out. Then the people cut up the whale and took the meat back to the village. Some of them were worried because the whale had no heart.

Raven cleaned himself up and visited that village just as the people were getting ready to eat. They did not recognize him. When they told him about the voice coming from the whale, he looked very shocked. "Don't you know that a voice from a dead whale is a warning? If you don't leave right away, you will all die." The people were very scared when he told them that. They gathered up their children and their possessions, and ran away. Raven stayed behind and lived there until all the food was gone.