| The Killing of the Grizzly Bear |
One day, the raven invited the Grizzly bear to go fishing with him. Before they went, the raven secretly caught
a salmon and cut it up to use as bait. but when the bear asked him what he was using, the raven claimed to have
taken his own testicles. He urged the bear to do the same, and the grizzly relunctantly agreed to be castrated.
As a result, the great bear died, overcome by the raven's superior wit.
_This story belongs to the Tsimshian, Haida, Tahltan, Kwakiutl, Nootka and Tlingit people of the Canadian West
Coast. |
| The Crow and the Pitcher |
A thirsty crow found a pitcher with some water in it, but so little was there that, try as she might, she could
not reach it with her beak, and it seemed as thought she would die of thirst within sight of the remedy.
At last she hit upon a clever plan. She began dropping pebbles into the pitcher and with each pebble the water
rose a little highter until at last it reached the brim, and the knowing bird was enabled to quench her thirst.
Necessity is the mother of invention
-Aseop's fable(s) |
| The Raven and the First People. |
As the raven scanned the beach a white flash caught his eye and when he landed he found at his feet,half buried
in the sand, a giagantic clamshell. When he looked more closely still he saw that the shell was full of little
creatures cowering in terror of his enormous shadow. Well, here was something to break the monotony of his day.
But nothing was going to happen as long as the tiny things stayed in the shell, and they certainly werent coming
out in their present terrified state.
So the raven leaned his great head close to the shell and with the smooth trickster's tounge that had got him into
and out of so many misadverntures during his troubled and troublesome existance, he coaxed and cajoled and coerced
the little creatures to come out and play in his wonderful, shiny new world.
Bill Reid and Robert Bringhurst, The Raven steals the light, 1984 |
| The Three Crows |
There were three crows, sat on a tree.
They're as black as crows can be.
One of them said to the mate:
What shall we do for grub to eat?
There's an old dead horse in yonder's lane,
Whose body has been lately slain.
We'll fly upon his old breast bone,
and pluck his eyes out one by one.
- A tradtional ballad
|
| The Raven and the Hunter |
A hunter dound an excellent run of seal breathing holes. Then he searched around for a good place to camp.
Along flew a raven which pointed to a certain plain beneath a mountain.
"There," the raven said," All the hunters who come here camp there." The man made his house
where the raven indicated. But in the night a big boulder rolled down the mountain and crushed him to death.
"I dont know why all these hunters believe my silly stories." said the raven, pecking out the man's eyes.
- A story told by a raven to nattiq of Gjoa Haven, Northwest territories and retold by Laurence Millman in "A
kayak full of ghosts" |
| Why the Raven is black |
In the olden days the Raven and the Peacock were close friends who lived on a plantation in vietnam. One day, the
two birds decided to amuse themselves by painting each other's feathers. The Raven willinginly set to work and
so surpassed itself so that the peacock becamse as it is today, one of the most beautiful birds on earth.
Unwilling to share its glory, even with it's friend, the mean-spirited peacock painted the raven plain black. |
| Crow doctors Raven |
Raven felt sick...A kind person sent for the village doctor -- a little female Crow. The Crow-doctor hopped
to Raven's front door and peered in.
"Oh, Raven, what have you done?", she cried.
She sang a medicine song, but she did not go inside Raven's house. Crow knew what caused Raven's pain; she could
see the past, present, and future...
Raven, wrapped in his sleeping robes, moaned and groaned, "Oh, Crow, help me, help me, I think I am dying,"
Over-sated Raven begged, "Help me, Crow, it hurts so much."
"I guess that's what you get for being greedy,'"Crow said. 'Let me take a look.' She snatched the blanked
away from Raven, and the assembled villagers gasped at what they saw. Protruding from Raven's distended belly
was the shape of two young dee antlers.
The men carried Raven away and sliced his belly open... Raven was left bleeding and alone, but his stomach was
greatly relieved to be rid of its burden. Patient Crow flew to Raven's side, stitched up his belly, and gave him
soothing herbs to help him sleep and heal. She made no judgmental remarks -- she just took care of him."
- Crow Doctors Raven,' myth from the Tse-Shaht of Canada contributed by 'crow |
| Raven gets caught in a lie |
The industrious crows strapped their burden-baskets across their foreheads and headed up the beach and into
the woods. Raven promptly went to sleep, awakening only when the sisters brought basketloads of the delicious
fruit
to the boat, where they dumped them and immediately returned to the berry-brambles to collect more. As each basket
was emptied, Raven nibbled on the berries, eating one after another. Ravenous, gluttonous Raven gobbled each and
every basketful of berries that his sisters brought... he had eaten the crow's' entire day's work. He knew that
his sisters would be upset and angry when they returned and discovered his obnoxious behavior.
Raven knew he was going to have to make up a story... the crows, out of love and concern, believed their brother.
"Oh, our poor brother, we will bind your wounds and takke you home,' the worried crows cried...
The crows loaded the canoes with their empty baskets; they were saddened by the loss of a full day's labor but
happy that their brother was safe and alive...
Upon closer examination of Raven, they realized that he was coverd with berry juice, not blood. The crows mobbed
Raven and boxed his ears, and for his punishment, made him row all the way back to the village to explain to
everyone why there would be no blackberries for supper."
- myth from the Lower Coast Salish of Vancouver Island, contributed by 'crow |
| Arapaho and Cheyenne tidbits |
The Arapaho believed that the spirit world was in the West, on the same level as their world, but on mountains
surrounded by water. Crow, a leader of the Spirit World and a messenger, collected the departed and brought them
to the hills overlooking this sea. To the east of the sea of the dead was the boundary of the living world...
In an Arapaho story, Crow took a pebble in his beak, dropped it into the water, and it became a giant mountain,
assisting the passage of the dead to the sea. Crow led the legions of the dead down to the seashore, and taking
some dirt in his beak, flew out and dropped the dirt in the water, magically transforming the dirt into a causeway
conecting the Spirit World to the Living World. Crow then flew away from the spirit-people, toward the East, to
the Living Land. When he returned to the shadow-legions, he held blades of grass in his bill; he dropped these
blades on the dirt causeway, and it was instantly covered with beautiful green sod. He flew to the East, and returned
again, carrying twigs and leaves in his bill. He dropped these, and from the causeway sprang a beautiful forest
of living trees. Crow flew to the base of the mountain he had made and supervised the passage of those in the
Spirit World across his causeway and into the Living World, the world he was revitalizing.
The Arapaho song continues:
The earth -- the crow,
The earth -- the crow.
The crow brought it with him,
The crow brought it with him.
In one Arapaho song, the devotee saw a crow in a vision, and the crow told him to get ready to meet his lost loved
ones, because he was bringing them back to earth...:
The crow is circling above me,
The crow is circling above me,
The crow has come for me,
The crow has come for me.
In another song, describing the meeting of the two worlds with Crow as a transformer, Crow hands the new world
to human beings...
Like many tribes, the Arapaho believed that Crow saw all, and knew all that was, all that is, and all that will
be. In the 1890s, an Arapaho band was reported to have cared for a hand-raised Crow who was said to speak in the
Arapaho language and to convey prophecies from the Spirit World to the Living World. This crow frequently appeared
a Arapaho dance circles.
In Cheyenne songs, Crow brought the whirlwind that heralded the arrival of the spirits and the restoration of the
world. Mo'ki, 'Little Woman,' a Cheyenne Ghost Dance leader, composed a number of songs about Crow, lord of both
the spirit and the newly restored world... She converted Grant [Left-Hand, son of a principal Arapaho Chief] to
the religion and he founded an auxiliary dance, the Arapaho 'Crow Dance...'
By becoming Crow Woman, Mo'ki assumed the responsibilities of a female messenger from the Spirit World, belonging
more to the Spirit World than to the world into which she was born."
- pages 83-84, _Ravensong_, contributed by 'crow |
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