Raven And The Hunters

: TSIMSHIAN TALES
: Indian Legends Retold

One day Raven happened to see a boat load of hunters coming home with

plenty of game. As usual, he was hungry, and it occurred to him to

take the shape of a woman in the hope of obtaining some food.



Sure enough, when the hunters noticed a good-looking young woman on

the shore, they beached their canoe and took her on board. She had a

child in her arms, and the child cried incessantly.



"It is
hungry," the woman explained; so they made much broth of wild

ducks and fed the child and its mother. They feasted most of that

night, and the head man was so well pleased with the supposed woman

that he offered to marry her. All went well till they awoke in the

morning, when, to his surprise and disgust, the new wife looked like a

man.



"So it is you, up to your tricks again, you good-for-nothing Raven! Be

off with you!" exclaimed the angry hunter, and he cast him overboard.



Raven put on his feathered robe and flew off without any trouble, and

at the same moment the baby turned to a crow and flew away also.



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