Traditions of the Thompson River Indians (cont.)
The main features of the transformer legend appear very clearly in the Raven tales of the Tlingit and Tsimshian3. The tale begins with the miraculous birth of the Raven. The faithless wife of a chief was killed and buried by her husband. After her death she gave birth to a child which was eventually found and raised by a chief. The boy made a blanket of birdskins, by means of which he flew up to the sky, where he married the Sun's daughter. They had a son who owing to an accident fell down from heaven and was found drifting in the sea. He was brought to an old chief, who loved him very much and worried because the child would not eat. By the advice of two old men who appeared in a miraculous manner, he was given a certain kind of food. As soon as he tasted it he became so voracious that he ate all the accumulated winter provisions of the tribe. Then the people deserted him. Now he assumed the shape of the raven and began to traverse the world in search of food. He came to the mouth of a large river, where he met some fishermen whom- he asked to give him fish. They scorned him and refused his request. The fishermen were fishing in the dark, for at that time the sun did not shine on our world. He threatened them, saying that he would make the sun unless they would give him some fish, but they merely said: " We know you, Raven, you liar ! " He flew away enraged, and went straight to the house of the chief who owned the daylight. Here he transformed himself into the spike of a hemlock-tree, in which form he was swallowed by the chief's daughter. In course of time she gave birth to a child who was no, other than the Raven. The old chief dearly loved his grandson, and was unable to refuse any of his requests. One day the boy asked to be allowed to play with the box containing the daylight. As soon as he had obtained it, he resumed the shape of the raven and flew away. He returned to the place where he had left the fishermen, liberated the sun, and then saw that the fishermen were the ghosts. They fled frightened, leaving their fish for the Raven. He ate as much as he desired, and became very thirsty. But at that time there was no fresh water in the world. Therefore he set out to obtain the water, and deceived the old chief who held it in his possession. On being pursued he spilled the water, and for this reason we find water all over the world. At another time, when he was hungry, he set out to obtain the herring, which he obtained by fraud. He also cheated the cormorant, tearing out his tongue and thus depriving him of the faculty of speech. For that reason the cormorant says wulewulewule up to this day. It is not necessary to go into any further details. It will be seen that the main characteristic of these tales is the fact that the Raven gave the world its present shape while trying to satisfy his own wants, and that he employed fair means and foul to reach his own selfish ends. While his actions benefit mankind, he is not prompted by altruistic motives, but only by the desire to satisfy his own needs. I find that in most tales of the transformer, or of the culture hero, the prime motive is, as in this particular case, a purely egotistical one, and that the changes which actually benefit mankind are only incidentally beneficial. They are primarily designed by the transformer to reach his own selfish ends.
It will be well to illustrate the peculiar mental attitude of the transformer by giving a few other examples. Among the Chinook4 we find the Coyote as the principal transformer or culture hero. He was the first to catch salmon with nets. He was hungry and tried to learn the art of catching salmon. He made a little man of dirt, whom he asked about the method of obtaining salmon. -This artificial adviser told him how to make a net, and informed him regarding all the numerous regulations referring to the capture of salmon. He obeyed only partially, and consequently was not as successful as he had hoped to be. He became angry, and said "Future generations of man shall always regard many regulations, and shall make their nets with great labor, because even I had to work, even I had to observe numerous regulations." He used to drive his baskets filled with dry salmon to his winter quarters, but one day they all ran away and jumped into the river. Since he had failed in this attempt at making life easy, he cursed all future generations, condemning them to carry all loads on their backs and taking away their powers of making the loads go by themselves.
The Tillamook5, a Salish tribe, tell 'the following story of the transformer: In the beginning there were two animals in each mussel, and one day the transformer overate himself. This annoyed him, and he threw away one of these animals, so that each mussel should not have too much meat. It will be seen from this that all the changes that these transformers made were in a way changes for the worse, and that they made them in anger at some disappointment that they had had, or at some discomfort that they had suffered, not with a view of benefiting mankind. While the Raven was regardless of man, the Coyote of the Chinook made most of the changes to spite him.
