Gray
Eagle had a beautiful daughter, and Raven fell in love with her. At
that time Raven was a handsome young man.
He changed himself
into a snow-white bird, and as a snow-white bird he pleased Gray Eagle's
daughter. She invited him to her father's lodge.
When Raven saw
the sun and the moon and the stars and fresh water hanging on the
sides of Eagle's lodge, he knew what he had to do. He waited for his
chance to seize them when no one was watching. He stole all of them,
and a brand of fire also, and he flew out of the lodge though the
smoke hole.
As soon as Raven
got outside, he hung the sun up in the sky. It made so much light
that he was able to fly far out to an island in the middle of the
ocean. When the sun set, he fastened the moon up in the sky and hung
the stars around in different places. By this new light he kept on
flying, carrying with him the fresh water and the brand of fire he
had stolen.
He flew back
over land. When he had reached the right place, he dropped all the
water he had stolen. It fell to the ground and there became the source
of all the fresh-water streams and lakes in the world.
Then Raven flew
on, holding the brand of fire in his bill. The smoke from the fire
blew back over his white feathers and make them black. When his bill
began to burn, he had to drop the firebrand. It struck the rocks and
went into the rocks. That is why, if you strike two stones together,
fire will drop out. Raven's feathers never became white again after
they were blackened by the smoke from the firebrand. That is why Raven
is now a black bird.
