Note 78 — MYTHS RECORDED IN ENGLISH AT WRANGELL (continued 2)

“This part of the story was referred to when one wished to imply that a person was trying to make people believe that he was better than he really was. So nowadays, when a high-caste man wants to marry an orphan, people find out who her father is, because Raven made believe her own father was a chief. Some women will go off to a strange place and say falsely, ‘I am so-and-so’s daughter,’ making people think that she belongs to a very high family. The same sort of woman will assume mourning for her husband, and make people believe she is mourning when she is really thinking what she is going to do and where she is going. If she finds out she can get her living falsely, she will keep on being false. That is why Raven told so many stories about her husband’s death. When a mother sees that her girl is very foolish, she will say to her, ‘When you marry and become a widow, you will eat up your husband’s body,’ meaning that, if her husband leaves her any property, she will use it up foolishly. She also says to her, ‘You are so foolish now, I believe you will steal after you are married,’ meaning that she will be foolish with what her husband earns. Then, she says, ‘They will find you out by finding something of yours in the place where you have been, and it will be a disgrace to your brothers and your father.’” (From the writer’s informant.)