t
good for me to carry!'

"Raven knew this evil intent, and said, 'When you have taken hold of the
object, do not drop it till you have brought it ashore.'

"So the chicken-hawk left in no good humor, and flew out to the wave,
where he found a mass of fire floating there. He was a coward, such as
all mist-made creatures are, and he feared to bring in the great ball of
fire, yet he dared not disobey the command of a superior being like
Raven. So he tore off a mouthful only, and that is how he came to be so
badly burned. Had he caught hold of the whole mass of flame, the
outside of which really had been cooled as it rolled about upon the
waves, he could have escaped without an injury.

"He brought the piece of fire to shore, and Raven said, 'Because you
were cowardly and obeyed me only through fear, your beak shall remain
forever burned off and short as it now is.'

"And so it is to this day, and shall be until Light redeems all things.

"Raven then took some chips of red cedar and some white stones, and
mixed them in the fire. These were distributed over all the earth, so
that many great forests grew up from the cedar shavings, and thus
absorbed the surplus moisture on the land. And mighty volcanoes were
formed of the red-hot stones, and these, in consuming the water under
the surface, steamed and spewed forth the massive rocks and varied-hued
stones that gave peaks and cliffs as pleasant places for deer and sheep
to roam upon.

"Thus, with the face of the earth so beauteous, Raven sat down and
rejoiced. But Petrel and Chicken-hawk were left to wander in the fog.

"Finally, Raven's mother died, and he sorrowed greatly, for she saw not
the Great Light that he had established to overcome the darkness of
Death. Still, because she had always dwelt in the House of Light and had
given birth to Raven, Son of Raven, she was given an honorable place in
the Firmament of Heaven.

"And Raven, as the custom was in the realm where his mother had lived,
prepared a great feast in honor of his mother. But he began thinking how
he might honor her in a different way. So he cut a witch-hazel wand with
which to point at anything he wished to use in the preparation of this
feast. Thus he collected wood and stones and many things on the face of
the earth. And when all this was assembled he built him a great house.

"Then he called the rain and sunshine to hide the house until he was
ready for the feast. He then sat down to think and