"Before there was anything, before the great flood had covered the earth and receded...an old man lived in a house ...with his only child, a daughter...at that time the whole world was dark...blacker than anywhere has been since...The reason for all this blackness...was a box so small all it could contain was all the light in the universe...Raven was somewhat less than satisfied with this state of affairs...It took only an instant for the Raven to decide to steal the light for himself...he changed himself into a single hemlock needle, and was caught in the basket the girl was dipping in the river...she took a deep drink from the basket, and in doing so, swallowed the needle... Raven went to sleep for a long while... triumphantly emerging in the shape of a human boy child...Ravenchild begged his grandfather in his most pitiful voice to be allowed to hold the light for just a moment...The old man lifted the light, in the form of a beautiful, incandescent ball, from the final box and tossed it to his grandson...as the light was travelling towards him the child changed from his human form...The Raven snapped up the light in his jaw, thrust his great wings downward and shot through the smokehole of the house into the huge darkness of the world...he dropped a good half of the light he was carrying. It broke into pieces - one large piece and many small ones...They bounced back into the sky and remain there even today as the moon and the stars...Eagle pursued the Raven beyond the rim of the world...exhausted by the long chase Raven finally let go of his last piece of light beyond the rim of the world, it floated gently on the clouds and started up over the mountains lying to the East " (Reid 1984: 19-23) - The Raven Steals the Light
