



Produced by Rachael Schultz, Sam W. and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)









         MYTHS AND LEGENDS
             OF ALASKA


      SELECTED AND EDITED BY

      KATHARINE BERRY JUDSON

  Author of "Myths and Legends of
    the Pacific Northwest," and
  "Montana, 'The Land of Shining
            Mountains'"


            ILLUSTRATED


          [Illustration]


              CHICAGO
        A. C. McCLURG & CO.
               1911


             Copyright
        A. C. McCLURG & CO.
               1911

     Published September, 1911

    W. F. Hall Printing Company
              Chicago




  [Illustration: Tlingit Indians in Dancing Costume]




    _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_

    MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST.
      Especially of Washington and Oregon.
      _With 50 full-page illustrations. Small 4to._
        _$1.50 net._

    MONTANA: "The Land of Shining Mountains."
      _Illustrated. Indexed. Square 8vo._
        _75 cents net._

    A. C. McCLURG & CO., Publishers




PREFACE


Long ago, even before the days of the animal people, the world was
only a great ocean wherein was no land nor any living thing except a
great Bird. The Bird, after a long, long time, flew down to the
surface of the water and dipped his great black wings into the flood.
The earth arose out of the waters. So began the creation. While the
land was still soft, the first man burst from the pod of the beach pea
and looked out upon the endless plain behind him and the gray salt sea
before him. He was the only man. Then Raven appeared to him and the
creation of other beings began. Raven made also animals for food and
clothing. Later, because the earth plain was so bare, he planted trees
and shrubs and grass and set the green things to growing.

With creation by a Great Spirit, there came dangers from evil spirits.
Such spirits carried away the sun and moon, and hung them to the
rafters of the dome-shaped Alaskan huts. The world became cold and
cheerless, and in the Land of Darkness white skins became blackened by
contact with the darkness. So it became necessary to search for the
sun and hang it again in the dome-shaped sky above them. Darkness in
the Land of Long Night was the cause, through magic, of the bitter
winds of winter--winds which came down from the North, bringing with
them ice and cold and snow. This was the work of some Great Spirit
which had loosened the side of the gray cloud-tent under which they
lived, letting in the bitter winds of another world. Spirits blow the
mists over the cold north sea so that canoes lose sight of their
home-land. Spirits also drive the ice floes, with their fishermen, far
over the horizon of ocean, into the still colder North. Spirits govern
the run of the salmon, the catching of whales, and all the life of the
people of the North who wage such a terrific struggle for existence.

So there must needs be those who have power over the evil spirits,
those who by incantations and charms of magic, by ceremonial dancing
in symbolic dress, can control the designs of those who work ever
against these children of the North. Thus there arose the shamans with
all their ceremonies.

The myths in this volume are authentic. The original collections were
made by government ethnologists, by whose permission this compilation
is made. And no effort has been made, in the telling of them, to
change them from the terse directness of the natives. The language of
all Indian tribes is very simple, and to the extent that an effort is
made to put myths and legends into more polished form, to that extent
is their authenticity impaired.

Only the quaintest and purest of the myths have been selected. Many
Alaskan myths are very long and tiresome, rambling from one subject to
another, besides revealing low moral conditions. These have been
omitted, as have also those which deal with the intermarriage of men
and birds, and men and animals. Such myths are better left among
government documents where they can be readily consulted by those
making a special study of the subject. They are hardly suitable for
any collection intended for general reading. The leading myth of the
North, however, the Raven Myth, is given with a fair degree of
completeness. It would not be possible, nor would it be wise, to
attempt a compilation of all the fragments of this extensive myth.

Especial thanks are due to Dr. Franz Boas for the Tsetsaut and
Tsimshian myths, to John R. Swanton for the Tlingit myths, to Edward
Russell Nelson for the Eskimo myths, to Ferdinand Schnitter, and to
others. Thanks are also due for courtesies in securing photographs to
Mr. B. B. Dobbs and particularly to Mr. Clarence L. Andrews, both of
whom have spent many years in Alaska.

                                                    K. B. J.

    _University of Washington,
       Seattle, Washington
           July, 1911._




TABLE OF CONTENTS


                                                                  PAGE
  The Raven Myth                   _Eskimo_ (_Bering Straits_)      17

  The Flood                        _Tlingit_ (_Wrangell_)           33

  The Origin of the Tides          _Tsetsaut_                       37

  How the Rivers were Formed       _Tlingit_ (_Wrangell_)           39

  The Origin of Fire               _Tlingit_                        40

  Duration of Winter               _Tlingit_ (_Wrangell_)           41

  Raven's Feast                    _Tlingit_                        42

  Creation of the Porcupine        _Tlingit_                        44

  How Raven Taught the Chilkats    _Tlingit_ (_Wrangell_)           45

  Raven's Marriage                 _Eskimo_ (_Bering Straits_)      46

  Raven and the Seals              _Tsimshian_                      51

  Raven and Pitch                  _Tsimshian_                      53

  Raven's Dancing Blanket          _Tsimshian_                      55

  Raven and the Gulls              _Tsimshian_                      56

  The Land Otter                   _Tlingit_ (_Wrangell_)           57

  Raven and Coot                   _Athapascan_ (_Upper Yukon_)     58

  Raven and Marmot                 _Eskimo_ (_Bering Strait_)       59

  The Bringing of the Light
    by Raven                       _Eskimo_ (_Lower Yukon_)         61

  Daylight on the Nass River       _Tlingit_ (_Wrangell_)           65

  The Naming of the Birds          _Tlingit_ (_Wrangell_)           67

  The Origin of the Winds          _Tlingit_                        70

  Duration of Life                 _Tlingit_ (_Wrangell_)           71

  Ghost Town                       _Tlingit_ (_Wrangell_)           72

  How Raven Stole the Lake         _Haida_ (_Queen Charlotte
                                         Islands_)                  73

  The Killer Whale                 _Haida_                          75

  Origin of the Chilkat Blanket    _Tsimshian_                      77

  Origin of Land and People        _Eskimo_ (_Lower Yukon_)         80

  Creation of the World            _Athapascan_ (_Upper Yukon_)     81

  Origin of Mankind                _Eskimo_ (_Bering Straits_)      82

  The First Woman                  _Eskimo_ (_Bering Straits_)      83

  The First Tears                  _Eskimo_ (_Bering Straits_)      85

  Origin of the Winds              _Eskimo_ (_Lower Yukon_)         87

  Origin of the Wind               _Athapascan_ (_Upper Yukon_)     91

  North Wind                       _Tlingit_ (_Wrangell_)           92

  East Wind and North Wind         _Tlingit_                        93

  Creation of the Killer Whale     _Tlingit_                        94

  Future Life                      _Tlingit_ (_Wrangell_)           96

  The Land of the Dead             _Eskimo_ (_Lower Yukon_)         97

  The Ghost Land                   _Tlingit_                       100

  The Sky Country                  _Tlingit_                       103

  The Lost Light                   _Eskimo_ (_Port Clarence_)      105

  The Chief in the Moon            _Eskimo_ (_Bering Straits_)     109

  The Boy in the Moon              _Eskimo_ (_Lower Yukon_)        110

  The Boy in the Moon              _Athapascan_ (_Upper Yukon_)    112

  The Meteor(?)                    _Tsetsaut_                      113

  Sleep House                      _Tlingit_                       114

  Cradle Song                      _Koyukun_                       115

  Proverbs                         _Tsimshian_                     118

  How the Fox became Red           _Athapascan_                    119

  Beaver and Porcupine             _Tsimshian_                     120

  The Mark of the Marten           _Athapascan_ (_Upper Yukon_)    126

  The Wolves and the Deer          _Tsimshian_                     127

  The Camp Robber                  _Athapascan_ (_Upper Yukon_)    129

  The Circling of Cranes           _Eskimo_ (_Bering Straits_)     131

  The Last of the Thunderbirds     _Eskimo_ (_Lower Yukon_)        132

  How the Kiksadi Clan Came
    to Sitka                       _Tlingit_                       135

  Origin of the Grizzly Bear
    Crest                          _Tlingit_                       137

  Origin of the Frog Crest         _Tlingit_                       138

  Origin of the Beaver Crest       _Tlingit_                       139

  Origin of the Killer Whale
    Crest                          _Tlingit_                       140

  The Discontented Grass Plant     _Eskimo_ (_Bering Straits_)     142

  The Wind People                  _Koryak_ (_Siberia_)            147

  Tricks of the Fox                _Koryak_ (_Siberia_)            148




ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                                  PAGE
    Tlingit Indians in Dancing Costume                  _Frontispiece_

    Reindeer on the Tundra                                          20

    "Raven taught them how to build houses of driftwood and
      bushes, covered with earth"                                   21

    "The next morning the baby was a big boy"                       24

    "The clay became a beautiful girl"                              25

    Ivory Pipe Stems                                                28

    Kayak Man Casting a Bird Spear                                  29

    Eskimo Woman from Cape Prince of Wales                          34

    Fur Parkas Worn by Eskimo Women                                 35

    Reflection of Mountain Peaks                                    38

    "So the smoke-hole spirits held Raven until the smoke
      blackened his white coat"                                     39

    Pine Falls, Atlin                                               42

    Elk Falls                                                       43

    Porcupine                                                       44

   