STORIES 411

Raven was not interested in any of these replies and put the same
question to Cedar.

“T jump out on women’s bodies,” answered the tree.

Raven put his head on one side and pondered for some time, finally
deciding that if nothing better were available he would return to Cedar.
Next he asked Fir-Bark, who replied:

“T give off great heat. If I am piled in pyramidal form, which is the
best way of using me, I make a practice of jumping on the private parts
of step-children.”’

“You are the very wood I have been seeking,” said Raven.

Highly delighted, he filled his canoe with fir-bark and went home.

Raven built a blazing fire in his house and called his wife and her
daughter to come and enjoy it. As they were sitting naked, with legs
apart, a great chunk of bark leapt out from the fire, struck the girl, and
burnt her pudenda severely. The mother, alarmed at her daughter’s
injury, asked all her neighbours whether they knew a cure for such a
hurt, but none was able to assist her. Finally she asked her husband.

“Why, yes,”’ Raven replied. “‘A cure for this has been handed down
in my family. There is a small plant growing in the woods which, when
inserted in the passage, heals a burn there. But to be effective, the
sufferer must go alone to the forest. You can tell the right plant because
it moves back and forth as if pivoted at the ground.”

After giving this advice, Raven went into the woods where he lay on
his back and covered himself with leaves, his penis alone being exposed.
- Then he willed his step-daughter to come in that direction. As the girl
limped painfully along she saw what she took to be the plant in question
because it was bending back and forth. She was preparing to squat down
on it when she saw her step-father’s two beady eyes blinking at her from
their leafy covering. She ran away home and told her mother.

Raven, fearing his wife’s anger, prepared an alibi by stealing a bone
spoon, and, as a double precaution, by pretending to be very sick. He lay
on his bed, groaning and panting, and told everyone that he would be
dead within a day. Towards morning he seemed much worse, and gave
final instructions to his wife.

“Do not marry your daughter to anyone of this town,” he said.
“Choose for her a Kimsquit husband because food is more plentiful there,
and the men are all wealthy. As for myself, 1 am almost at my last gasp.
When I die, do not bury me in the ground, place me in a tree at some
distance from the village and do not fasten the cover of my coffin too
tightly.”

When the sun rose, Raven appeared to be dying, and soon all signs of
life ceased. After waiting a short interval, his fellow-villagers disposed

(je Gl