Tlingit and Haida TraditionKeeper of the Earth-Post
Old-Woman-Underneath
Hayicâ'nak!u(Hayicâ'nak!u (Swanton's 1909 orthography; modern Tlingit spellings vary))
Also known as Hayicâ'nak!u
- the post that holds up the earth
- the tides
- earthquakes
In the Tlingit Raven cycle, the old woman beneath the earth who tends the post it rests on and controls the tides; when she is hungry the earth shakes, and Raven forces her to let the tide rise and fall.
About Old-Woman-Underneath
Under the world
Swanton's Sitka Raven cycle describes the earth as resting on a post attended by Old-woman-underneath (Hayicâ'nak!u). When she is hungry the earth shakes, and people put grease into the fire to send to her. She also controls the rising and falling of the water.
Raven and the tide
Raven, wanting to see everything under the sea, has the water raised, gathers sea urchins, and then comes to the cliff from which the old woman speaks. He breaks it open, knocks her down, and jabs her with sea-urchin spines until she agrees to let the tide go down. Mink, Raven's companion, reports the water falling. Raven makes her promise to let the tide rise and fall regularly from then on, which is why there are tides, and the story also gives a humorous explanation of marks on the bodies of old women.
A figure beneath the Raven stories
Old-woman-underneath is one of the few figures in the Tlingit cycle whose activity continues in the present world: every earthquake is her, and every tide is Raven's bargain with her. Spellings of her name vary between Swanton's orthography and modern Tlingit writing.
Worship and cult
Temples, festivals, and practices recorded for Old-Woman-Underneath
Swanton records that grease was put into the fire to send to Old-woman-underneath when the earth shook; No ceremony is described here; clan-owned (at.óow) forms of Tlingit stories and crests belong to their clans, and this site follows only published public tellings.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- John R. Swanton, Tlingit Myths and Texts (Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 39), "Raven" (Sitka, recorded in English)
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Parallels are editorial comparisons across traditions: a shared role does not, by itself, establish a shared origin.
Genealogy
Family tree
Old-Woman-Underneath's parents, consorts, children and rivals, as recorded in the atlas.