The Pea-Pod Man Raven The Creator
Time was, there were no people on earth. The first man still lay inside the pea pod.
Four days passed, and on the fifth day, he pushed with his feet. He broke through the bottom of the pod and fell to the ground. When he got up, he had become a grown man. He looked at everything and himself, his arms and legs, his hands; felt his neck. The pod that held him still hung on the vine with a hold in its bottom.
The grown man walked a little away from the pod where he had started. The ground under him felt as if it were moving, too. It was firm, but soft.
The way it moved under him made him feel sick. He stood still, and slowly a pool of water formed at his feet. He bent down and drank from the pool. It felt good the way the water went from his mouth down inside of him. It made him feel better.
He stood up again, refreshed. Next, he saw something. It was a dark thing flapping along, and it was coming. Then, it was there before him. It stood looking at him.
It was Raven. Raven lifted one of his wings and pushed his beak up to his forehead. He raised it like a mask. And when he moved his beak up, Raven changed into a man. He walked all around the first man to get a good look at him.
"Who are you?" Raven asked, at last. "Where did you come from?"
"I came from the pea pod," said the man, pointing to the vine and the broken pod.
"I made that vine!" said Raven. "I never thought something like you would come from it. Here, this ground we're standing on is soft. I made it later than the rest. Let's go to the high ground. It's hard and thick."
Man and Raven went to the high ground, and it was quite hard under them.
"Did you have anything to eat?" Raven asked.
Man told him about the wet stuff that had pooled at his feet. "Ah, you must have drunk water," Raven said. "Wait here for me."
He drew the beak-mask down and changed once more into a bird. Raven flew up into the sky and disappeared.
Four days later, he returned. The whole time, Man had been waiting.
Raven pushed up his beak and was again a man. He had four berries-two raspberries and two heathberries.
"I made these for you," he said. "I want them to grow all over the earth. Here, eat them."
Man put the berries in his mouth and ate them.
"I feel better," he said.
Next, Raven too Man to a small creek. There, the man-bird found two pieces of clay and molded them into tiny mountain sheep. He held them on his palm. When they dried, he let Man take a close look at them.
"They look nice," Man said.
"Now shut your eyes," Raven told him. Man did close his eyes.
Raven pulled down his beak and made his wings wave back and forth, back and forth over the clay figures. They came to life and bounded away as grown mountain sheep. Raven lifted his mask.
"Look!" he said.
Man saw the sheep moving very fast. They were full of life, and that pleased him. He thought people would like them. For there were more men growing on the vine.
But when Raven saw the way Man was looking at the mountain sheep with such delight, he put them high so that people would not kill too many of them.
Raven made more animals, moved his wings, and brought them to life. Every animal and bird and fish that Raven made, Man viewed with pleasure. That worried Raven. He thought he'd better create something Man would fear, or else Man might eat or kill everything that moved.
So Raven went to another creek. He took some clay and created a bear, making it come alive. Quickly, Raven got out of the way of the Bear because the animal was so fierce it would tear him apart and maybe eat him.
"You will get lonely if you stay by yourself," Raven said to Man. "So I will make somebody for you."
Raven went off a ways, where he could view Man but where Man couldn't be sure what he was doing. There, off a ways, he made a figure out of clay much like Man's, although different. He fastened watercress on the back of its head for hair. When the figure had dried in the palm of his hand, he waved his wings several times. It came to life. It was a lovely woman. She got up, grew up, and stood beside Man.
"That if your helper and your mate," said Raven.
"She is very pretty," said Man, and he was happy.
Raven went on doing what he needed to do. And Man and Woman had a child. Soon, there were many, many people and animals. All that was living grew and thrived.
The world prospered.
Comment: This is a wonderful, dramatic Eskimo myth, parts of which are widely known, spread from Siberia to Greenland. The myth speaks of society rather than the universe. Raven is a trickster god who travels from heaven to earth and sometimes, in some stories, to the seafloor. He has sacred power and can change form. Raven instructs people in living. He creates first-man through the pea vine and other people and animals from clay taken from the earth-creek.
In The Beginning
Creation Stories From Around The World
Virginia Hamilton
ISBN 0-15-238742-0
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