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away into the sky, and it was transformed into the full-orbed sun.
Then Machito appointed times and seasons, and ways for the heavenly
bodies; and the gods of the firmament have obeyed the injunctions of
Machito from the day of their creation to the present." *
Among the Thlinkeets of British Columbia there is a legend that the
Great Crow or Raven, Yehl, was the creator of most things:
"_Very dark, damp, and chaotic_ was the world in the beginning;
nothing with breath or body moved there except Yehl; in the likeness
of _a raven he brooded over the mist; his black winds beat down the
vast confusion; the waters went back before him and the dry land
appeared_. The Thlinkeets were placed on the earth--though how or
when does not exactly appear--while the world was _still in darkness,
and without sun, moon, or stars_."[2]
The legend proceeds at considerable length to tell the doings of
Yehl. His uncle tried to slay him, and, when he failed, "he
imprecated with a potent curse a deluge upon all the earth. . . . The
flood came, the waters rose and rose; but Yehl clothed himself in his
bird-skin, and soared up to the heavens, where he stuck his beak into
a cloud, and remained until the waters were assuaged.
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