So he let it go. That is why we always know, when we see fog coming out of an open space in the woods and going right back again, that there will be good weather.
Leaving this place, Raven came to another where he saw some thing floating not far from shore, though it never came any nearer. He assembled all kinds of fowl. Toward evening he looked at the object and saw that it resembled fire. So he told a chicken hawk (kA!k u ) which had a very long bill to fly out to it, saying , "Be very brave. If you get some of that fire, do not let go of it." The chicken hawk reached the place, seized some fire and started back as fast as it could fly, but by the time it got the fire to Raven its bill was burned off. That is why its bill is short. Then Raven took some red cedar, and some white stones called neq! which are found on the beach, and he put fire into them so that it could be found ever afterward all over the world.
After he had finished distributing the fire he started on again and came to a town where there were many people. He saw what looked like a large animal far off on the ocean with fowl all over the top of it. He wondered very much what it was and at last thought of a way of finding out. He said to one of his friends, "Go up and cut a cane for me." Then he carved this cane so as to resemble two tentacles of a devil fish. He said, "No matter how far off a thing is, this cane will always reach it."
Afterward he went to the middle of the town and said, "I am going to give a feast. My mother is dead, and I am going to beat the drums this evening. I want all of the people to come in and see me." In the evening he assembled all of the people, and they began to beat drums. Then he held the cane in his hands and moved it around horizontally, testing it. He kept saying "Up, up, up."[1] He said, "I have never given any feast for my mother, and it is time I did it, but I have nothing with which to give a feast. Therefore I made this cane, and I am going to give a feast for my mother with this wonderful thing."
Then he got the people all down on the beach and extended his cane toward the mysterious object until it reached it. And he began to draw it in little by little, saying to the people, "Sing stronger all the time."[2] When it struck land, a wave burst it open. It was an everlasting house, containing everything that was to be in the waters of the world. He told the people to carry up fish and they did so. If one had a canoe, he filled it; if he had a box, he filled that; and those that had canoes also boiled eulachon in them. Since then they have known how to boil them. With all of these things Raven gave the feast for his mother.
