Tlingit myths and texts / recorded by John R. Swanton.

  • John R. Swanton
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Tlingit myths and texts / recorded by John R. Swanton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Tlieii he came to the snipes and said to them: “You will always go in flocks. You will never go out alone.” Therefore we always see them in flocks. lie said to the asijlaca'tci, a small bird with greenish-yellow plumage: “You will always go in flocks. You will always be on the tops of the trees. That is where your food is.” To a very small bird called kotlai', about the size of a butterfly, he said: “You will be a very respectable bird. You will be seen only to give good luck. People will hear your voice always but never see you.” Then Raven came to the blue jay and said: “You will have very fine clothes and be a good talker. People will take jiatterns (prob- ably “colors”) from your clothes.” Then he went to a bird called xunkAha' and said: “You will never be seen unless the north wind is going to blow.” That is what its name signifies. He came to the crows and said: “You will make lots of noise. You will be great talkers.” • That is why, when you hear one crow, you hear a lot of others right afterward. He came to a bird called guslyiadu'l and said to it: “You will be seen only when the warm weather is coming on. Never come near except when warm weather is coming.” He came to the humming bird and said: “A person will enjoy seeing you. If he sees you once, he will want to see you again.” He said to the eagle: “You will be very powerful and aboA'-e all birds. Your e3^esight will be very good. What jmu want Avill be very^ easy for you.” He put talons on the eagle and said that they would be very useful to him. And so he went on speaking to all the birds. Then he said to the land otter: “You will live in the ivater just as well as on land.” He and the land otter were good friends, so they went halibut fishing together. The land otter was a fine fisherman. Finally he said to the land otter: “You will always have your house on a point where there is plenty of breeze from either side. Whenever a canoe capsizes with people in it }mu will save them and make them jmur friends.” The land-otter-man (ku'cta-qil) originated from Raven telling this to the land otter. All Alaskans know about the land-otter-man but ver\^ few tell the storj^ of Raven correctly. If the friends of those who have been taken away by the land otters get them back, they become shamans, therefore it was through the land otters that shamans were first known. Shamans can see one another by means of the land-otter spirits although others can not.
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