44. Explanation of the Abalone Bow

In olden times there was a great chief of the Raven Clan called Ayagansk. He was a very rich man among his people, and he was a great warrior. He had gained victory in many battles, and he was an excellent hunter.

One day he called his three companions and asked them to go with him to hunt seals. On the following day they went out in their canoe, They passed around the large island on which the village was situated, The weather was very bad. They had a good-sized canoe, and went on until they came to the foot of a steep cliff. As soon as they came there, the water all of a sudden began to move up and down, Then a live abalone bow appeared on the water, carved with the figure of a raven, and inlaid with costly abalone shells. Then the hero stretched out his hands and took hold of it at one end, They paddled away. The brave man held on to the bow, and the three men paddled away as hard as they could. Then the live bow died, but the green abalone shells were still as beautiful as before, Ayagansk gave a great feast to all the tribes, and he gave away the red wood of the bow, and he proclaimed that no other clan should use the abalone bow as their crest; and so all his relatives after this generation kept the abalone bow, and no other clan have it except the Raven Clan. It is a chief’s crest, and they had a song of this bow. The chief of the Raven Clan used it when he was raised to a high position and he took a new name. Not all members of the Raven Clan used this bow. Only one chief in each generation used it at a time. When they take it, they give away many costly coppers, canoes, slaves, and ail kinds of goods, and then they give out the story where they obtained it first, and thus all the clans understand it. Some of these abalone bows were kept through four or five generations; and they changed them only when the wood was rotten, but the abalone shells were kept.