n to
another, but the original goes back before the days of Moses. I was
deeply interested in a few of these tales because they sounded so much
like our story of Creation as told in Genesis, that I wondered if a
white missionary had sown his seeds of Christianity in the fertile soil
of the Alaskan Esquimaux' mind.

"But as far as I could ascertain this legend was told many hundreds of
years before white man ever stepped on Alaskan ground. Recently I
learned that Iceland has similar legends, and it may be that the Alaskan
Esquimaux are descended from those of Iceland. It is well known that
Iceland is the oldest civilized land in the world--that it was famous
for its learning before the days of Solomon the Wise."

CHAPTER FIVE

A STORY OF CREATION*

A Legend of Raven

*This legend, given in various ways by different tribes of
the Icelandic and Alaskan Indians, each with its own variations,
but all with one thread of similarity woven through the
tales--was partly interpreted and grouped by the author into
the legend that appears in this book. It is said to date back
thousands of years before Abraham and our Bible. Acknowledgments
for original texts and tales are due the Smithsonian
Institute.

"No one knows just how Raven first came to be, and we have many
different beginnings to start from, but in Sitka we know that Raven
never had beginning nor will he have an ending.

"Raven was always the All-in-all, and, as he knew all things and made
all, he began to wish to have a form of his wisdom that, too, would live
on with him forever. So it was that he made him a son to help in the
creation. And the son's name, also, was Raven. And now it is of Raven,
Son of Raven, that we speak.

"Raven was instructed in every form of knowledge and he was trained in
every wise thing, so that when he grew up he would have everything
necessary to make a glorious world, where all beautiful wishes and every
good idea would be objectified, and would remain forever a praise and
prayer to Raven, the Father Creator.

"So Raven made the world, but he found there was no light with which to
show the beauty and form of what he had created. Then, after deep
thinking, he remembered his father to have said that there was a large
lodge far up the Nass where One kept all the Light that ever could be
found.

"Raven tried many ways in which to reach this house on the Nass, but the
way was unknown to