%. 
 
 
 A^ 
 
 
 IMAC'E EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 T 
 
 /. 
 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 1.25 
 
 25 
 
 1^' 1^ {11112.2 
 
 m 
 
 1.4 
 
 — 6" 
 
 2.0 
 
 1.6 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 
 Corporation 
 
 m 
 
 s 
 
 ^\^ 
 
 V 
 
 \\ 
 
 ^<b 
 
 -If 
 
 
 6^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 V 
 
 «V 
 
 23 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, N.Y MS80 
 
 (716) 872-4503 
 
T 
 
 "1^^ 
 
 ^4 
 
 w 
 
 r^ 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 
 Microfiche 
 
 Series. 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 Collection de 
 microfiches. 
 
 Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 
 
Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques 
 
 The Institute has attempted to obtain the best 
 original copy available for filming. Features of this 
 copy which may be bib!iographically unique, 
 which may alter any of the images in the 
 reproduction, or which may significantly change 
 the usual method of filming, are checked below. 
 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 D 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 Coloured covers/ 
 Couverture de couleur 
 
 I I Covers damaged/ 
 
 Couverture endommagAe 
 
 Covers restored and/or laminated/ 
 Couverture restaurie et/ou pelliculAe 
 
 □ Cover title missing/ 
 Le 
 
 titre de couverture manque 
 
 I I Coloured maps/ 
 
 Cartes g^ographiques en couleur 
 
 □ Coloured init (i.e. other than blue or black)/ 
 Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) 
 
 I I Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ 
 
 Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur 
 
 Bound with other material/ 
 RellA avec d'autres documents 
 
 Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion 
 along interior margin/ 
 
 La reliure serr^e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la 
 distortion le long de la marge int^rieure 
 
 Blank leaves added during restoration may 
 appear within the text. Whenever possible, these 
 have been omitted from filming/ 
 II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajoutAes 
 lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte. 
 mais, lorsque cela Atait possible, ces pages n'ont 
 pas 4tA filmAes. 
 
 Additional comments:/ 
 Commentaires supplAmentairf^s: 
 
 L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire 
 qu'il lui a 4t6 possible de se procurer. Lus details 
 de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-Atre uniques du 
 point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier 
 une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une 
 modification dans la mithode normale de filmage 
 sont indiquto ci-dessous. 
 
 □ Coloured pages/ 
 Pages de couleur 
 
 □ Pages damaged/ 
 Pages andommag^es 
 
 □ Pages restored and/or laminated/ 
 Pages restaur^e^ et/ou pelliculAes 
 
 I — ~> Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ 
 
 Th 
 to 
 
 Pages d^colories, tachatAes ou piques 
 
 Pages detached/ 
 Pages ddtachdes 
 
 Showthrough/ 
 Transparence 
 
 Quality of prir 
 
 Qualiti indgaie de i'lmpression 
 
 Includes supplementary maturii 
 Comprend du materiel supplimentaire 
 
 I ~\ Pages detached/ 
 
 I I Showthrough/ 
 
 I I Quality of print varies/ 
 
 I I Includes supplementary material/ 
 
 Th 
 po 
 of 
 filr 
 
 Or 
 be 
 th« 
 sic 
 oti 
 fin 
 sic 
 or 
 
 n 
 
 Only edition available/ 
 Seule Edition disponible 
 
 Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata 
 slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to 
 ensure the best possible image/ 
 Les pages totalement ou partiellement 
 ')bscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, 
 etc., ont 6t6 filmAes A nouveau de fapon h 
 obtenir la meilleure image possible. 
 
 Th 
 8h< 
 TIf 
 
 w^ 
 
 Mi 
 dif 
 em 
 bei 
 rig 
 rac 
 me 
 
 This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ 
 
 Ce document est film6 au taux de reduction indiquA ci-dessous. 
 
 10X 
 
 
 
 
 14X 
 
 
 
 
 18X 
 
 
 
 
 22X 
 
 
 
 
 26X 
 
 
 
 
 aox 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 y 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X 
 
 \ 
 
Ills 
 
 lu 
 
 difiar 
 
 ine 
 
 age 
 
 Tha copy filmad haro has baan raproducad thanks 
 to tha ganarosity of: 
 
 Library Oivition 
 
 Provincial Archives of British Columbia 
 
 Tha imagas appaaring hara ara tha bast quality 
 possibia considaring tha condition and lagibility 
 of tha original copy and in kaaping with tha 
 filming contract spacifications. 
 
 Original copias in printad papar covars ara filmad 
 baginning with tha front covar and anding on 
 tha last paga with a printad or illustratad impras- 
 sion, or tha back covar whan appropriata. All 
 othar original copias ara filmad baginning on tha 
 first pai;a with a printad or illustratad impras- 
 sion, and anding on tha last paga with a printad 
 or illustratad imprassion. 
 
 Tha last racorded frama on aach microfiche 
 shall cor.tain tha symbol — ^ (meaning "CON- 
 TINUED"), or tha symbol V (meaning "END"), 
 whichever applies. 
 
 L'exemplaira film* fut reproduit grAce A la 
 gtnArosit* de; 
 
 Library Division 
 
 Provincial Archives of British Columbia 
 
 Les imagas suivantas ont At* raproduites avac la 
 plus grand soin. compta tanu de la condition at 
 de la nattetA da l'exemplaira filmA, at an 
 conformit6 avac las conditions du contrat da 
 filmaga. 
 
 Les exemplairas originaux dont la couverture en 
 papier est imprimie sont filmAs en commen^ant 
 par la premier plat at en terminant soit par la 
 derniAre paga qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par la second 
 plat, salon la cas. Tous las autras exemplairas 
 originaux sont film6s en commen9ant par la 
 premiere page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par 
 la derniAre page qui comporte une telle 
 empreinte. 
 
 Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la 
 dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le 
 cas: le symbole — »• signifie "A SUIVRE", le 
 symbole V signifie "FIN". 
 
 Maps, plates, charts, etc . may be filmed at 
 different reduction ratios. Those too large to be 
 entirely included in one exposure are filmed 
 beginning in the upper laft hand corner, left to 
 right and top to bottom, as many frames as 
 required. The following diagrams illustrate the 
 method: 
 
 Las cartas, planches, tableaux, etc., pauvent dtre 
 film6s A des taux de reduction diffArents. 
 Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre 
 reproduit en un seul cliche, il est filmA A partir 
 da Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droits, 
 et de haut en bas, en prenant la nombre 
 d'imagas n^cessaire. Les diagrammas suivants 
 illustrent la m^thoda. 
 
 ata 
 
 Blure, 
 
 3 
 
 I2X 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
IPVMMW- 
 
 WiJwW- 
 
 ^i^f^gm 
 
 e^ifm^—w^fw^ 
 
 TRANSACTIONS 
 
 or 
 
 THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE, 
 
 THREE CARRIER MYTHS. ' • 
 lVi//i Notes and Comments. 
 By the Rev. Father Morice, O. M. I. •' ^ 
 
 [Read 2nd November, i8g^.'\ 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In point of length and general diffusion, the most important of the 
 legends current among the Carrier Indians is that which ecords the 
 adventures and many deeds of gstas, their national culture hero. But 
 it cannot be described as a Carrier legend : it is merely a Carrier version 
 of a myth nhich is ihe original property of the Pacific Coast Indians. 
 Barring some details due mainly to local colouring, its chief incidents are 
 identical, and its hero is but a counterfeit of the Y6tl of the Clingit, the 
 Ni-kil-stlas of the Haida and the Kaneakeluh of tiie Kwakwiutl. Hence, 
 as my studies have so far had for objective the distinctive traits of 
 strictly IMnc- life and the morphology of the D<l'nd languages, I do not 
 acknowledge myself open to the charge of negligence in not having, to 
 this day, collected more than fragments of that story. 
 
 It were tedious, as well as unprofitable, to repeat here what I have said 
 in my former essays of the mixed origin of the Carrier sociology and 
 mythology'. It mu.st suffice to remark that better opportimities and 
 prolonged investigations have not changed by the length o'" one iota my 
 convictions iji that respect. Even one of the three legends which I now 
 introduce to the lovers of folk-lore, the second, has but a dubiously 
 V)in€ origin. I find no equivalent of it in the collection of the " Tra- 
 dttions indienncs dii Canada Nord-Ouest" |)ublished in 18H8 by the Abb^ 
 E. Petitot". Yet its details and intrinsic features would .seem genuinely 
 Carrier. 
 
 With the exception of the third, which is widely diffused among 
 different D6n«5 tribes, none of them has, in the eyes of the natives, any 
 paramount importance. If I single them out among the others which I 
 
 'Are the Carrier Sociology and Myllioloyy indigenous or exotic? Trans. Royal Soc 
 Canada, Seel. II, 1892. 
 
 ^Alcn^on, E. Rcnaud tic Bioise, Place d'Arnies, 5. 
 
 34^7 
 
 •^■r 
 
! ' 
 
 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTR. 
 
 [Vol V. 
 
 have transcribed, it is because I think that, though each of t!iem is given 
 the outward garb of an apologue, the events tliey refer to can, without 
 exaggeration, be considered as endowing them with the character more 
 of traditions than of mytihs properly speaking. My meaning will become 
 more apparent from a perusal of the comments wherewith I he. ve ventured 
 to accompany them. 
 
 These, I fully expect, will find many an incredulous reader, when they 
 do not excite the supercilious pity of the modern critic. Speaking of 
 the Vedas and the Rigveda is much more fashionable in certain circles 
 than quoting the Bible and referring to the momentous events mentioned 
 in Moses' Genesis. Another school of folk-lorists would al.so see in the 
 native American myths nothing but personifications of natural phe- 
 nomena. But I cannot help thinking that the latter's ingenuity would 
 have to be exercised to a rather remarkable degree if they were looking, 
 as they are wont, to the following detailed legends for a figurative ac- 
 count, say, of the daily conflict between light and darkness or some other 
 physical phenomenon. As to the former, I suppose one may always be 
 permitted to refer to the Biblical narratives, were it only as to historical 
 chronicles, independently of the inspired character of their authors. 
 
 Moreover, it is but just to add that most of my commentaries are 
 merely hints thrown out more in the shape of queries than as incontro- 
 vertible facts. Attempts at identifications, I know, are generally danger- 
 ous, especially when their basis is such vague and disconnected elements 
 as those furnished by the stories upon which the present paper is founded. 
 Yet these stories contain a few points v/hich, to my mind, are not without 
 significance, and these I shall try to bring out in all sincerity. I am 
 wedded to no pet theory as to the origin of our Indians, and this freedom 
 from preconceived ideas leaves me so much the more at liberty to speak 
 out my mind frankly. 
 
 To the proper understanding of an aboriginal myth's meaning, one 
 should not forget that the native chronicles have ab.solutely no regard fo»- 
 chronology and very little, indeed, for consistency. They abound in 
 anachronisms no less than in synchronisms ; and no wonder. A people 
 having no written literature cannot be expected to have preserved in 
 narratives handed down by word of mouth only the exact order of 
 events. Furthermore, the real facts thereby related are almost invariably 
 hidden under a thick veil of details more or less puerile, and these de- 
 tails are always coloured after the particular environment of the tribe. 
 The human mind cannot grasp or imagine that a duplicate of which the 
 eyes have never seen in wh' le or, separately, in its component parts. 
 Therefore one cannot reasonably exact from a native story a correct ac- 
 
.: 
 
 I 
 
 1894-95.] 
 
 THKKE CAKRIKR MYTHS. 
 
 count of things the like of which the narrator has not seen. Such long 
 ages have elapsed since the events hinted at have occurred and so many 
 generations of aborigines have been accustomed to the mode of life of 
 their present descendants that it is but in order to be indulgent when it 
 is a matter of detail. 
 
 One and the same personage is also often made to play the role of 
 various historical heroes, as we shall see further on. 
 
 Another point of mythological exegesis which it is hardly necessary to 
 mention is that when the narrative, turning into an apologue, introduces 
 animal characters, these are not. of course, to be taken literally. 
 
 There is also a last point which might be noted here, that relative to 
 the mystic or .«r.cred numbers of some myths. But this will be found 
 explained at length in the course of my remarks on our first legend. 
 
 The Carrier stories are generally much more elaborate and longer than 
 those current among the Eastern Denes. They evidence also a tendency 
 to become apologues or allegories not to be found in their Eastern 
 counterparts. Must this be regarded as i mark of a more cultivc^ted 
 mind and consequently of later origin, or should their very completeness 
 be looked at rather as indicative of greater purity ? This I leave to the 
 reader to decide. 
 
 A word now as to the way the text.s have been collected. Most 
 published accounts of native legends purpcr-: to be the English version of 
 the words of some old Indian written on dictation by the transcriber. I 
 tried this system when 1 resided among the Tsi|>ioh'tin some twelve years 
 ago, but the results were most unsatisfactory. 1 could find no Indian 
 clever enough to dictate to me without interruptions, repetitions or 
 omissif)ns, any single legend. Therefore it is but fair that I .should give 
 an idea of my preseiit mode of transcribing abori.^inal myths, so that the 
 reader may be in a position to gauge the degree of accuracy of the 
 following text.s. 
 
 I have a reliable Indian narrate me as clearly as possible the whole of 
 one myth (when this is not too longj in his native language. I then 
 repeat as verbatim as I can what I have heard, subject to corrections 
 when such may be necessary, and then I write down the whole in Indian. 
 My la.st .step is generally to read out my version in the hope of provoking 
 further notices of inaccuracies. 
 
 This mode of gathering native legends may appear rather loose and 
 fanciful. Yet it is but justice to myself, no less than to the present ver- 
 sions, to remark that, as I speak ('arrier more fluently than ICnglish or 
 even than my native French, my thoughts are generally through the 
 channel of the aboriginal idiom, so that I find no great difficulty in 
 
TRANSACTIONS OF TIIK CANADIAN INSTITUTIS. 
 
 [Vol. V. 
 
 repeating, and afterwards in writinjj down in almost the same terms what 
 has been told me. This method has also the advantage of preventing the 
 narrative from being cut up in tho.se short, half-line sentences common ta 
 the stories transcribed on dictation, and which some may wrongly believe 
 to be the normal condition of Indian phraseology. . 
 
 The English translations of the following legends have been made iiv 
 as simple a style and as literal as was possible consistently with in- 
 telligibility and clearness of expression. Hence the quaintness of some 
 passages. 
 
 I.— I'UKSUED BY THEIR MOTHER'S HEAD. 
 
 Told by Uzette F.ltnvk, of Stella ( West End of Lake Fraser). 
 
 A man was living with' a woman. He always slept away from her 
 whenever he w.is preparing his traps'^, and he observed faithfully all the 
 ancient prescriptions. Yet he could catch no game. Animals wanted 
 him not-' ; they all avoided his traps. Each time that he returned home 
 from a visit to his traps he found his wife with h. r face painted and her 
 hair carefully combed. 
 
 One day that he had left as usual, he spied her from afar, and noticed 
 her painting her face and carefully combing her hair. Then she set out 
 for a tree, dried up yet standing*. Once she had reached its ba.se, she 
 seized a .stick and therewith struck the tree several blows. Presently 
 two big serpents crept down from the top of the tree and knew her^ 
 
 Now that he knew why game avoided his traps, her husband returned 
 home unseen by her, and there arrived, he spoke not a word. Hut 
 shortly after, he took a big knife, concealed it in his bosom'' and made 
 for the dried-up tree. Then he did as he had seen his wife do, struck 
 the tree with a stick and when the two big .serpents had come down 
 creeping on him, he cut their heads off with his dagger. He next set 
 their mouths and eyes a-yawning by means of splinters and carried them 
 home. 
 
 ^Yi-r)-sta, \v. "was sillinj; near". Is used to designate the matrimonial union. 
 '.See " Notes on tlie Western 'V'nts," Trans. Can. Inst., Vol. IV., p. io8. 
 
 ' Carrier idiom. The n.itives always speak of caught game as if a sort of sympathy 
 existed between it and themselves. 
 
 *The Carrier word li}>i-!fai/i means '.II that. 
 
 •In the hi ,in.al sense of the word. 
 
 •The dress of the primitive Carriers being devoid of pockets, any object carried about the 
 person was either iuspended from the neck or from the belt, or, if concealment was desired^ 
 stored in the folds of the tunic. 
 
 i\ 
 
 'I . 
 
 'mmm. 
 
T 
 
 isgi-e-").] 
 
 TIIRBR CAKRIKR MYTIIH. 
 
 i> 
 
 t 
 
 'I . 
 
 As soon as he got home, lie ordered his two little children off, and 
 before they went, he gave to the cklest one, a child of five or six snows, 
 a stone arrow-iiead, a JtvJstco^ thorn, a red woodpecker's- tail and a 
 stone dagger. At the same time, he loaded the eldest child with his 
 little brother who was still in the nioss''. He finally passed his hand 
 •over tlic little one's mouth, and thenceforth the babe could talk as a 
 grown up child. 
 
 The two children, the elder packing the younger, had no .sooner 
 <lei)arted than their father killed his wife by hurling at her the two big 
 scrpent.s' heads. Hut as often as a well-directed blow had cut her body 
 asunder, tt; ; disjointed parts immediately reunited themselves, .so that 
 he could not tear her up to pieces as he wished. Therefore he hail to 
 give it up. He simply cut her head off and t'.ircw it out of the lodge. 
 Her body he dropped in a rapid near by. 
 
 While the two brothers were going on at random, the younger, who 
 was packed by the other^, saw of a .sudden their mother's head coming 
 out after them. Then he said : " Elder brother, mother's head is 
 pursuing us". VVhereujKjn his elder brother threw out behind him.self, 
 without turning back, the stone arrow-head which his father had given 
 him. The arrow-head became at once a mountain which, for the while, 
 cut them off from their mother's pursuit. 
 
 Hut their mother's head was changed into wind and continued to 
 pursie them. " ICIder brother, mother's head is still after us," .said the 
 little one in the swaddling clothes. Thereupon his brother threw 
 behind him, without looking back, the jivastco thorn handed him by 
 his father. The thorn transpierced the head and set it bleeding, after 
 which it was transformed into a thorny bush. The bush grew to a 
 prodigious height, and for a moment it barred the passage to their 
 mother's head. But the head finally jumped ov< r it and continued to 
 pursue them. 
 
 Therefore, the child in the moss said again: "Elder brother, mother's 
 head is still coming after us." Then the eldest child threw behind him 
 
 ' Cra/efus tonientosa. 
 
 ' Sphyiapicus variiis. 
 
 •'I'he Carriers use moss as swaddling clothes. See "Notes on the Western Denes," 
 Trans. Can. Inst., Vol. IV. 
 
 ♦The reader should also remember that our alwriyines always carry their babes on 
 the b.ick with their face turneil in an opposite direction from that of the packer, and that the 
 child is carried in an upright position. 
 
TRANSACTIONS Or THR CANADIAN IN8T1TUTB. 
 
 [Vol V. 
 
 the woodpecker's tail, which was instantaneously changed into fire'. Yet 
 the head passed through the flames and was still after them. 
 
 They then reached a very large lake, a lake so large that the opi)o- 
 site shore was invisible. A narrow dam was formed across the lake, or* 
 top of which they passed as on a trail. The dam was disappearing 
 immediately behind them, so that no roadway was left. Yet their 
 mother's head was following them in the air. The eldest child sent it a 
 blow2 with his dagger, whereupon two whales'' jumped out of the water 
 and swallowed it. 
 
 When they had landed on the other side of the lake, the elder child 
 deposited his little brother down against a stump and made him a ball* 
 to play with. 
 
 While the little one was amusing himself therewith, an old man was 
 sighted on the lake who manned an iron raft''. Soon after, the old man 
 landed his craft close by the two brothers. Now it happened that the 
 little child's ball fell by accident on the stranger's raft. As the babe was 
 crying for his toy, the old man bade his brother come and fetch it over 
 to him. Hut as soon as the child was aboard, the old man drew out and 
 made for the middle of the lake. Which seeing, the babe left on shore 
 leaped out of his swaddling clothes and, transformed into a wolf, set out 
 to follow as well as he could the outgoing raft, even as a dog uses to run 
 for us when we are navigating a piece of water. 
 
 Meanwhile his brother was bewailing his fate, and kept constantly 
 weeping after him. Therefore, to console him, the old man said: "Weep 
 not ; 1 have at home two beautiful daughters : I will give them out tO' 
 you as wives." 
 
 When they had reached the opposite side of the lake, the old mar* 
 left the child on the iron raft, and went out to his lodge which was built 
 close by the shore. His two daughters were there. So he said to them: 
 " Go and bring over him who shall be your husband." They therefore 
 went down to the beach, and as soon as they had seen the child" who 
 had so far remained on the raft, they remarked between them.selves that 
 
 ' Tlie tail of that bird is red. Hence the passage is allegorical. 
 
 ' V»/'si aPto, "struck at it," but without releasing his weapon, as Moses did at the crossings 
 of the Ketl Sea. 
 
 *'Jf-tco, "fish-big." No land-locked fish is called by that name. 
 
 * Nijpk. Known to the prenistoric Carriers. 
 
 * Others say a copper canoe. Iro'i or copper, however, have here the same signification, 
 which is tliat the craft was of a magic or wonderful description. 
 
 •.Since he was of marriageable age, he must have been more than a cliild. Yet the legend 
 calls him a child down to the end. Consistency must not be sought out in al)original tales. 
 
1894-96.J 
 
 THRKE CAKKIRR MVTII8. 
 
 I' 
 
 he was not the first beautiful child whom their father would destroy. 
 VVherefrom he concluded that the old man was wont to kill children. 
 Yet he followed them into their lodge, and was at once placed bctweei» 
 them'. 
 
 Aftc- a little while, the old man said to the child : " Let us go by 
 water and bring over some wood to make arrows with." They went out 
 therefore and, crossing the lake, arrived at a place where amclanchicr was 
 plentiful'-. This was the slope of a mountain. So the old man, staying 
 on his raft, sent the child a.shore to collect the wood. But while the 
 child was climbing up the mountain, the old man pushed his raft off and 
 left for home. 
 
 When he was as yet a short distance from the shore, he called out 
 after the big serpents, whereupon two gigantic snakes darted out of the 
 mountain to devour the child. But the child cut their heads off with the 
 dagger which their father had bequeathed him. He then took one of 
 them, set its mouth and eyes ajar by means of splinters, and, making the 
 circuit of the lake by land, got back to the lodge before the old man had 
 arrived by water. Then he hung the snake's head immediately above 
 his father-in-law's sleeping place. 
 
 The old man finally came home suspecting nothing. But having ac- 
 cidentally remarked on his own moccasin a spot .as of blood just dropped 
 from above, he looked up and .saw the snake's head hanging. T his so 
 much frightened him that he ran out for fear and commenced crying 
 after his big serpents ; for his he called them. 
 
 Some time thereafter he said to the child : " Now that we have the 
 wood for the arrows, let us go for the featl.iers to fletch them." There- 
 fore they went out again by water and crossed the great lake. As soon 
 as they had reached the shore, the old man told the child that the top of 
 the mountain was covered with the feathers of the thunder-bird'' and 
 sent him up to fetch some for him. But the child was no sooner out of 
 sight ascending the mountain than his father-in-law drew out again with 
 his iron raft and and set out to return home. 
 
 While the child was searching for feathers amidst the rocks of the 
 summit, he suddenly came upon a house and he also met two winged 
 
 ' I.e., was m.irried to iheni, subject to the trials which he was to undergo at the hands of hi* 
 prospective fatlier-iu-law. 
 
 'The shaft of the Carrier arrows was invariably of A. ainifolia or service-tree wootl. 
 
 •It is a well known fact that most American aborigines believe the effects of thunder to be 
 due to a gigantic bird of the eagle family. The winkings of its eyes produce lightning, while 
 the peals are caused by the llapping of its wings. 
 
^m 
 
 ■" ■ I m< 
 
 8 
 
 TRANSACTIONS OF TUB CANADIAN IN8TITUTK. 
 
 [Vol. v. 
 
 maidens'. One of them coming up to him said : "Our father is terrible 
 and our mother, too, is terrible; they will kill you." Then the youngest 
 said to him : " It is I whom people call Su-ne-H^/ri, the skillful con- 
 cealer." Therefore she took the child up and hid him under one of her 
 winds' feathers. 
 
 When her father came home, he remarked : " How is that ? It smells 
 of %istas'^!" To which she made answer, sayinj^: "We have seen 
 nobody." But the father-thunder set upon inspecting each of her vt'xu^ 
 feathers .successively. As .soon Jis he got to the one concealiuf,' the child, 
 who was no other than %jstas^, the young girl slipped him off so 
 dexterously under the feather just examined that her father did not .1.2 
 him. 
 
 Then the thunder-bird began to send forth his bolts. The whole 
 mountain was soon trembling under his peals and his bolts were for a 
 while falling right and left on the rocks of the mountain. It was very 
 ter"ible. Little by little, however, the father-thunder calmed himself, 
 antl the child, whose presence was no more suspected, was at liberty to 
 come out of his place of concealment. 
 
 In his agitation the thunder-bird had strewn the top of the mountain 
 with a large number of his feathers. These the child picked up, made a 
 bundle of them and .set out to return to the house of his father-in-law, 
 who by that time had got home. 
 
 The child therefore descended to the ba.se of the mountain and followed 
 the shore of the lake until he got back to the lodge of the old man. 
 His father-in-law was immensely surprised to see him arrive, inasmuch 
 as he had for a time thought him dead. " Thus it is that this one^ 
 torments people ! " said the child entering the lodge, and then he cast 
 the bundle of feathers down in the fire-place, the ashes of which, floating 
 up in clouds, fell back on the old man. For the child was angrj* indeed. 
 
 Some time afterwards the old man said to his son-in-law : " Let us fly 
 one against the others" To which the child made answer, saying : " It 
 is you who make the proposition, therefore commence yourself." The 
 old man transformed himself into a grey jay**, and set out to fly 
 
 •This whole episode is subslanlially found in a separate legend of an Eastern Dene tribe. 
 'The introduction of ^.jstas here is evidently an interpolation. 
 *So said my narratrix. 
 • That is the old m.in ; expressive of spite. 
 
 ^ Wlo pt f gaf stlitih, that is "let us see which one of us can fly the best." 
 *Perisoreus Canadensis, a binl constantly laughed at liy the natives, and synonymous among 
 them with stupidity and vain talk. 
 
 i> % 
 
 . «Kii^... v^.;-i:£#«^^,V'%^^( |^v.if .^z*;: 
 
1894-95.] 
 
 TIIKKK CAHniKK MYTIIH. 
 
 «• '^ 
 
 across tlic lake. Me had proceeded but a sliort distance when the child 
 clapped his hands t(jj,'cther, wliicli caused the j.iy to fall in the water. 
 He was so helpless that he got dr(Avneil, whereupon a great darkness 
 ensued. 
 
 Then the old i.i.. ' . daughters commenced lumcnting the loss of their 
 father. " He is tern'i-.c' ; he will cause the death of all of us," the\' said 
 between their sob« ' Do revive him." Their husband went out, therefore, 
 in the old m.-' • . raft l > whcve the bird was flojiting, dead, on the surface 
 of the water. He U )k il aboard and jumped across it, thereby res'oring 
 life to it-. 
 
 Afterwards the 'hild changed liimsclf into a water-ousel", and flew 
 across the lake and l):»ck without mislui]). Consequently, the old man 
 avowed him.sclf beaten. He gave him his own iron raft, together with 
 his'two daughters, and let him go anil search for his ) oungcr brother, 
 who was now a wolf 
 
 Sf) the child went out with his two wives. Thev alone were doing 
 all the paddling. The) landed theii husband at cvcr\- promontory that 
 projected into the lake, and let him follow on foot all the sinuosities oi 
 the bays, looking out for his brother-wolf. ' 
 
 After a long journey they reached a place full of footprints. These 
 were caused by dwarfs* who were playing on the shore with his brother's 
 skin. Now the child transformed himself into a stump and planted him- 
 self near by. When the dwarfs saw it, some said : " It looks like him.*" 
 Others diflfered, saying : " No, it is not like him." Theielore, to identify 
 the stump, they brought out a big snake which coiled itself round it, and 
 which, after uncoiling, declared : " It is a real stump." 
 
 Then, during their sleep, the child cut their throats with his stone 
 dagger, and g.ithering up his brother's bones, he put them back within 
 their skin. After he had jUmped across the whole, it began to crawl as 
 does a worm. Some little bones which he had overlooked he added to 
 the others, and again jumped across the whole, when his brother-wolf 
 commenced to walk naturally. 
 
 PehwxDtiift. I transhte literally, but the htclden meaning is no doubt tliat theii father is 
 endo\ve<i with maijic powers. 
 
 • As well as givinjj him back his former liiiman coiidilion. 
 
 • Ciiiclus aquaticus. 
 
 • y/liuine, which means also foreigners, and is at tiie present day applied by the Carriers to 
 Indians of all but Dene parentage. Uwarfs, in their mythology, generally play a malefic, 
 noxious role. 
 
 •That is, like his elder brother. 
 
?^ 
 
 9R 
 
 ia^ ^S ty^ yBT^ ^^SS 
 
 10 
 
 TRAN8AUT10MB OP THK CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
 
 [Vol. V. 
 
 He then put him on his raft and set out in company with a muskrat 
 and a young beaver. The water was soon noticed to rise up at a pro- 
 digious rate. It rose and rose until it covered the highest mountains. 
 Rising still higher, it almost touched the sky, when the child, .striking at 
 it with his dagger, the flood beojan gradually to subside. 
 
 He waited a long time, and then sent down in search of land both 
 the muskrat and the young beaver. Very long after, they both came up 
 to the surface;, dead. The young beaver had his paw clutched, but 
 empty, while the muskrat's contained a little mud'. This the child took 
 out and kneaded with his hands so as to extend it into an island. After 
 additional handling, it became a large island on which he and his brother- 
 wolf landed. , 
 
 He then sent his brother-wolf to see how the land was. On taking 
 leave of his brother, the wolf said : " If I come back silent, you shall 
 know thereby that the land is not yet inhabitable. If I howl from a very 
 long distance, it shall be a sign that the land is well." Then he added : 
 " Know you also that you shall die before me." 
 
 So he said, and went. Long thereafter he came back in silence, as 
 the land was not yet inhabitable. But the second time that he had set 
 out to explore the island, he was heard howling from a very great dis- 
 tance. Therefore, Tjstas''^ settled definitely. As for the wolf, he is still 
 in existence, while ;iistas is no more. 
 
 COMMENT.S. 
 
 The above is the exact reproduction of what the Carriers give as one 
 continuous legend ; but its equivalent among their congeners east of the 
 Rocky Mountains is contained in two or more .separate stories. Our 
 narrative is, as to form, of a genuinely l)cn6 character; yet as the histori- 
 cal facts of which I believe it to be but a disfi^^urement belong to the 
 whole human race, that myth is far from local in ori<j[in or diffusion. To 
 the unprejudiced reader, at least two most important events of the 
 remotest antiquity wilJ appear as hinted at by the Carrier tradition : I 
 mean the fall of the first woman and the destruction of mankind by the 
 Noachian deluge. These two points shall be separately treated of 
 
 ' In the native mythology, wliile some animals are assigned a ridiculous or hurtful role, 
 others constantly play the part of a benefactor or of a wiseacre. Among liie latter is the musk- 
 T'at, to wliich is here due the re-creation of tiie earth, while in another legend (.See /Ire the 
 Carrier Sociology and Mytholo'^y Indigenous or Exolic? Trans. Roy. .Soc. Canada, l^ect. II., 
 1892, p. 125), it is made instrumental in procuring fire for men. 
 
 •Another proof of the influence of western on eastern mythology. %jstas shouid hav 
 nothing to do with the present legend. 
 
 •* i 
 
 • ■■1 ■* 
 
 - !H,, 
 
 <',*:^<1S.*5if a.« 
 
KBR 
 
 rsTS* 
 
 rssswsRffs 
 
 k .JU,-J»«*»-. 
 
 1894-96.J 
 
 TIIRER CARRIEK MYTHS. 
 
 11 
 
 * J 
 
 "ll 
 
 W, 1 '^. , 
 
 And first as to the relations of the woman with the serpent. Here is, 
 after the original text of Petitot, the Chippewayan counterpart of the 
 tradition : 
 
 "A woman lived with her husband. While her husband was hunting, 
 she said : ' I will go and fetch fire-wood''; but she went instead to a big 
 tree full of snakes with which she was living criminally. Then her hus- 
 band being much displeased and seeing a big tree loaded with fruit and 
 growing among tall grass, he said": 'Husbands, I have come for you; 
 come down creeping!' Then the big snakes came down and the husband 
 killed them all instantly. After he had made a soup of their blood for 
 his wife, his wife said when she came back: ' Husband^ wait awhile; I 
 will go for some wood and then I will eat.' But her husband : ' No, 
 there is plenty of fire,' said he ; 'eat, and then you will chop wood.' 
 
 " Finally she went for wood, and, as soon as she got to the big tree, she 
 got very angry and was heard to say : ' I loved dearly my husbands in- 
 deed, and behold now they are certainly dead !' Whereupon she returned 
 to her husband ; but as soon as .she drew near him, he cut her head off 
 with an axe. 
 
 " Then M went to the shore of a river, where he found an old woman 
 called the Locust. ' Help me and ferry mc across,' he said to her. 
 Immediately the old woman stretched her legs across and let him pass. 
 Then his wife's head having followed him, said to the Locust: ' Ferry me 
 acros!? the river.' Then the old Locust let the head come rolling on her 
 legs ; but when the head was midstream, the old woman spread her legs 
 apart, causing the head to drop in the river. Ever since people have not 
 seen it."* 
 
 It will soon be seen that not only is the Carrier myth more detailed 
 and elaborate, but that it affords much better material for identification 
 with history. 
 
 With the exception of that relative to the deluge, few myths have been 
 more generally diffused than that of the woman and the serpent. It is 
 well nigh impossible that such a notion be not founded on fact, nay, on a 
 
 'The text says "fire," but evidently me.ins " fire-wooil." 
 
 ''Tliat is, in imitation of his wife's actions. The e.istern narrative could he niiidi clearer, 
 anil thoujjh the transcriher does not sipte his nitthoil of writing down Indian stories, I sus|iect 
 that the obscurity of some passat;es must be due to their having been written on dictation, a dis- 
 advantage which would have been avoided by letting the natives narrate uninterrupted the whole 
 legend. 
 
 'Among the Western Denes, no woman will ciiU her spouse "husband." 
 
 ♦ Triuiitioiis indieniKs, etc., p. 389. Another version of the same myth has a somewhat 
 ditfcrent ending. 
 
mmmm 
 
 12 
 
 TRANSACTIONS OF TUB CANADIAN INSHTUTB. 
 
 [Vol. v. 
 
 fact with momentous consequences, since it has left its impress on peoples 
 so utterly devoid of all kinds, of literature as the American aborigines. 
 Woman, serpent and guilt — always of a lascivious character — are three 
 points which seem insep.irably connected. In a few cases, it is true, 
 woman and man-serpent may be replaced by man and woman-serpent ; 
 but the nature cf the relations between the couple remains identical. 
 People will talk of ophiolatry ; they will discourse on the Ophites and 
 their unnatural cult of the matter, the serpent, as opposed to the spirit 
 personified by their so-called Dcmiurgos, the Jehovah of the Bible ; they 
 will write learned dissertations on the serpent mounds of the old world 
 and of the new ; but if they cared to go to the root cf the question, I 
 think they would infallibly find guilty relations, cither by word or by 
 deed, between a representative of the human species and a serpent as the 
 ultimate source of such monuments or religious systems. 
 
 • In the ':ase of the Ophites, it is a matter of notoriety tha' they 
 worshipped the serpent because, by tempting Eve, he had introduced 
 "knowledge" — intclli}^c)tti pixiica — into the world. That the serpent 
 effigies of America had a cognate origin can be proved by the relics a 
 few of them have been found to contain : but more especijilly by the 
 prevalence among the aborigines of the tradition of immoral commerce, 
 in times remote, of a woman with a serpent. 
 
 Thus in Adams county, Illinois, a serpent effigy has been discovered 
 with fire-beds and evidences of cremation of bodies in the bottom of the 
 mound. Now, the phallic symbol was found there. Nay more, "the 
 skeletons of two snakes were found coiled up between the hands near the 
 secret parts " of some of the bodies'. The connection between the ser- 
 pent and the woman, at least by implication, is here evident. In the 
 first case, we have the ophidian mound and the phallic symbol, and in 
 the second, serpent and lasciviousness are associated in a still more 
 suggestive manner. 
 
 No less suggestive are the following facts gleaned from the mytho- 
 logies and the archajological remains of the most important American 
 nations. 
 
 As is gathered from the Codex Vaticanus, corporal ills were supposed 
 among the early Mexicans to be produced by as many causes corres- 
 ponding to the different parts of the body. Their therapeutics must 
 have had something of a homoeopathic character, since their doctors 
 cured, for instance, the diseases of the tongue by the earthquake, those of 
 the breath by the air, those of the teeth by a flint, etc. A coloured plate 
 
 ' American Aiiti(iuarian, Vol. XVI., p. 17. 
 
 ■*,f0fimsm 
 
 a.^t^nUPi^ii. 
 
mmm 
 
 mm 
 
 ■^ 
 
 1894-95.J 
 
 THREE CARRIER MYTHS. 
 
 13 
 
 ,'^ 
 
 reproduced in the Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology* 
 explains these mysterious relations. Now the cause assigned to venereal 
 diseases was the serpent, and the serpent was regarded according to the 
 commentary thereon "as that from which their diseases proceeded in 
 their commencement-." 
 
 The culture hero of the Aztecs, in whom was also worshipped the 
 human reproductive principle, was Quetzalcoatl. According to Dr. D. G. 
 Brinton', who speaks after Torquemada'*, "he was the god on whom 
 depended the fertilization of the womb," and " .sterile women made 
 their vows to him, and invoked his aid to be relieved from the shame of 
 barrenness." Now one correct translation of his name is "the beautiful 
 serpent" and one of his surnames is, in the Nahuatl language, .synonymous 
 with the virile member. Serpent and phallus — and, by implication, 
 woman — are here again associated. 
 
 In the volume emanating from the Bureau of Ethnology quoted 
 above is also reproduced what looks as a pictograph which is stated 
 to have been found in Guatemala. It represents two personages, one, 
 a skeleton, probably symbolical of death, and the other, a person with 
 an emaciated face and in a recumbent position, evidently indicative of 
 a state of sickness. The cause of this is clearly shown in the shape of 
 the serpent, which here again has the same suggestive relation to man, 
 since it is made to encircle the loins of the diseased personage^ 
 
 But a still stronger argument can be derived from the prevalence of the 
 serpent myth among the American aborigines. We have already noticed 
 it among two different D^ne tribes. Among the Abenakies the story is 
 that an oft-married woman was followed by her sixth husband to a wild 
 place among the rocks and finally to a pond. After she had sung a song, a 
 .serpent came out of the deep which twined around her and enveloped her 
 limbs and body in its folds ''. Here we have, therefore, adulterous inter- 
 course with death as its consequence, viz., that of her successive husbands. 
 A variation of the same myth recounts the similarly guilty commerce 
 between a married woman and Atosi.s, a beautiful serpent. 
 
 Among the Zunis, the serpent is said to have gained power over the 
 daughter of a priest-doctor who was wandering near a lake and married 
 her. 
 
 •Washington, 1893, Plate X LI X. 
 
 • Tenth Annual Report, etc., )i. 614. 
 
 • American I lero-Mylhs, p. 128. I'hil.aiielpliia, l88x. 
 
 • Atonar</iiia Ituitattj, Lib. XI, Cap. .\XIV. 
 ^UbiSuprit, p. 730, fig. 1235. 
 •American Antiquarian, Vol. XVI, p. 29. 
 
pi 
 
 u 
 
 TRANSACTIONS OF THR CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
 
 [Vol. v. 
 
 A .story of the Tusayans relates the adventures of a mystic Snake 
 Youth, who brought back and married a strange woman. She gave birth 
 to rattlesnakes which, biting the people, compelled them to migrated 
 
 In the Blackfeet mythology the story of the woman and the serpent 
 is so much alike to that of our Carriers that we must trace its main 
 details to a common origin. Briefly told, it is as follows -.—The wife of a 
 hunter had a black-snake for a lover, which lived in a cavern or den in 
 a patch of timber. The children .set fire to the timber and were chased 
 by the head of their mother, while the body went after the father. The 
 children threw sticks behind them, which became forests; stones, which 
 became mountains ; moss, which became a river, into which the head 
 rolled and was drowned-. 
 
 Now as to the identification of these various traditions with sacred 
 history. According to the Carrier legend, a wife had criminal relations 
 with two big serpents — why tzvo will soon be explained. Her husband 
 kills the snakes, cuts off his wife's head and throws it out of the lodge 
 with the result that her children become miserable, wandering over land 
 which is not theirs and incessantly pursued by their mother as if they had 
 to pay for her own guilt. In the same manner, through guilty inter- 
 course with the serpent hailing, as in the American legend, from the 
 tree of " knowledge ", Eve deserved death at the hands of her Lord and 
 was punished even in her posterity. She was driven out of the terrestrial 
 paradise, and her children have now to suffer for the sin of their first 
 parent. 
 
 The myth as current among the D^n^ (Carrier and Chippewayan) .1. . 
 the Algonquin (lilackfeet) tribes i.s rendered even more sigiiificar.t by 
 the fact that even in far-off Ceylon, the natives venerate a statue represent- 
 ing the first woman naked and with a snake coiled round her. Now that 
 woman is represented there headless and at the door of the temples, while 
 her head is, according to Petitot', placed on the outside of houses as a 
 talisman against her own malefic powers. 
 
 As to the two serpents of the Carrier myth, the duality of the reptile is 
 a matter of mere mysticism of numbers. The sacredness of the number 
 seven among the Semitic nations is well known. Persons ever so little 
 conversant with American mythology are no less aware of the frequent 
 occurrence in native legends of the number four and the mystic virtue 
 
 ' A study of Pueblo Architecture, by Victor MiiuldcfT. Kighth Annual Report Hur. 
 Ethnol., 1 89 1, p. 17. 
 
 'Rev. .S. U. I'eet in Am. Anliti., Vol. XVI, p. 30. 
 
 * Traditions iiuiitiiiies i/ii Noni-Outsl, p. 393. 
 
 .1 
 
 ; ;*>.i,«4' 
 
 esEtxPTSiiaM 
 
mmsm^BrnF 
 
 l«94-95.] 
 
 THRRB CARRIER MYTHS. 
 
 15 
 
 supposed to be attached thereto. Thus, to choose an example among 
 hundreds, according to the Navajos, the adopted daughter of the first 
 woman reached maturity in four days ; a stranger appeared to her in the 
 woods on four successive days, with whom she thereafter passed four 
 nights. F"our days afterwards she gave birth to twins, who in four days 
 grew to manhood, and for four days more remained near tlie place of 
 their birth. Having gone to the house of their father, who was no other 
 than the sun, the latter's wife was asked four times what had become of 
 them, and, upon their being delivered up to their father, the sun impaled 
 tiiem on spikes of iron set up at each of the four corners of the earth, 
 etc' The same tribe's mythology speaks constantly of four worlds, four 
 winds, four mountains, etc. Folk-Iorists are well aware of the fact that 
 the Mayas, the Aztecs, the Siou.x, the Algonquins,in fact almost all other 
 American tribes, attach the same importance to the number four-. 
 
 Now, by a curious exception, this is replaced among the Carriers — and 
 possibly among other adjacent tribes — by the number two. Thus in the 
 preceding myth, mention is madt of two serpents when one would have 
 done just as well for the purpose ; the unfaithful v/ife has two sons; her 
 head is swallowed by two whales (a circumstance rather hard to account 
 for!); the old man with the f.recious raft has two daughters, and kills 
 people by means of two serpents. The thunder-bird has likewise two 
 daughters. Finally two animals are taken on the D^n6 Noah'i raft, and 
 the hero does not settle on the new land before the wolf has gone twice 
 to explore it. Another myth recounting the deeds of a sort ui" Carrier 
 Hercules mentions among the latter's victims two giant snakes, two giant 
 toads, two giant spiders, etc. 
 
 h 
 
 * A part of the Navajo's mythology, by W. Matthews, Am. Antiq., .\pril 1883. 
 
 'Speaking of the symbolism of the number four, I cannot refrain from haz.irciing a remark 
 which may have its usefulness. There is a very prevalent disposition on ihe part of such folk- 
 lorisls a> look to nature and the natural phenomena exclusively for an explanation of native 
 myths, to see in the cardinal points north, south, east and west, the chief reason o( the s.iv;;— ■'. 
 ness or of the widespre.id use of the number four among American aborigines. Their theory is 
 probably grounded <>n fact as regards certain southern, half-civilizeil tribes ; but I cannot help 
 thinking that, in some cases at least, their ixplanaticm is wide of the mark. It should not be 
 forgotten that the points of the comp.iss are but imaginary ilivisions of space introduced for the 
 sake of convenience by the abstract-gras;)ing mind of the white and other superior races. At 
 all events, some American tribes hardly know any such divisions. This is so true thai the 
 Carriers, whose vocabulary possesses some abstract terms, have not even any name for these 
 would-be all important cardinal points. With them the east is .ra /VW<r«A /V//, " whence the 
 sun rises up;" the west, ja iio'ai/t t's^h, " where the sun sets ;" the north, //o'^<('« /V, "the 
 direction of the cold," etc., all explicative phrases, but no real words. Yet their language is 
 rich in locative terms, most of which express some reference to a piece of water, lake or river. 
 Such are. for instance, mi, "up" (i.e., up stream or o])posite to the outlet of a lake); nta', 
 "down" (stream); no\ "inland" (i.e., away from the water); ntsfti, "down," towards the 
 shore, etc., etc. 
 
mm^^^ 
 
 i 
 \ 
 
 16 
 
 TRANSACTIONS OF THR CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
 
 [Vol. v. 
 
 Therefore the two adulterous serpents of our present legend can be 
 considered as one. 
 
 A detail which the reader may have noticed in that legend is that the 
 injured husband sets ajar by means of splinters the mouth and eyes of 
 the decapitated snakes. As this circumstance occurs twice in the course 
 of the same story, it is evidently mentioned on purpose. What that pur- 
 pose may be is more than I can say. Is it revengeful irony at the now 
 helpless condition of the monster, or allegorical of its malice as the source 
 of all evil .' An important analogy might be found between this point of 
 the myth and the style of drawing serpent heads common to the semi- 
 civilized nations of Mexico and Peru. On the codices, these heads are 
 generally remarkable for their mouth kept yawning by means of what 
 
 Serpent Ilfodt from the Codieet. 
 
 looks more like extraneous adjuncts than natural teeth. I herewith 
 figure two examples in confirmation of my remark. 
 
 Another point of the native theogony perhaps worth noticing is the 
 suppo.sed efificacy of the act of jumping across a subject. Thus the Child 
 of our tradition jumps across the corpse of his metcmpsychosed father-in- 
 law, who thereby recovers life. So he does later on, and with similar 
 results, with regard to the bones of his brother. This act must have had 
 to the original Indian mind a hidden meaning ; for we find that the 
 Kutchin or Loucheu.x of the Mackenzie River, in common with the 
 Hare Indians, have a periodic festival, not unlike the Phaset of the 
 Hebrew.s, on the occasion of which the death chant is sung, thus: "O 
 mouse with the pointed nose', hasten to jump twice across the face of 
 the earth-'!" One feels inclined to hazard as a possible explanation the 
 Egyptian cross, the key of life and health and its probable equivalent on 
 the ancient tau-shaped coppers of the North Pacific tribes, both of which 
 were perhaps nothing else than the symbol of the daily course of the life- 
 giving sun across the heavens. If this be the case, our Indians have long 
 lost all idea of the true signification of this mysterious act. 
 
 Might not the flight and vicissitudes of the two Carrier heroes pursued 
 
 •The French musaraigne. ' Traditions iudieiines, etc., pp. 62 et 186. 
 
 
 (^Il 
 
 ' 
 
 '•*1V,SW»S-V>,»,i*.. 
 
1894-96.]^ 
 
 TIIKKK CAUKIKK MVTB8. 
 
 IT 
 
 
 m 
 
 by their mother's head be considered as a vague reminiscence o'"the con- 
 tinual journeying of the Hebrews led by the two broth>*rs, Mo'^es and 
 Aaron, away from the laiiu of Egypt which had nursed them for four 
 centuries? There would be nothing very extraordinary in one point of 
 a native myth recalling two facts of analogous nature. The issue of the 
 feud between pursuer and pursued, at least, seems in both cases strikingly 
 similar. After having pursued by land the fugitive Israelites, Pharaoh, 
 reaching the shores of the opened Red Sea, makes bold to follow therein 
 the tracks of his former slaves. But Moses stretches forth his hand over 
 the sea and his pursuer comes to grief together with his army, all being 
 drowned by the return of the waters. In like manner, the D<5n6 Moses 
 long followed by the head of his mother, finally comes upon a large lake 
 which he cro.sses in a miraculous way. As his tormentor is still after 
 him, even in the middle of the lake, he stretches forth his wonder- 
 working dagger, whereupon his enemy is instantly drowp'^d, or devoured 
 by a monster fish, which is practically the same. 
 
 The Carrier hero's adventure on top of the mountain and his meeting 
 with the thunder's children, followed by their father's anger, have counter- 
 parts in the mythology of no less than three different native tribes east 
 of the Rockies. It would be too long to reproduce each of them. This 
 part of the myth being so widely-spread must have some importance. 
 Might it not be a vague reminiscence of tlic giving of the tables of the 
 law to Moses amidst the peals of thunder on the Mount of Sinai and of 
 the casting away of the same at the sight of the prevarication of Israel? 
 The anger of the Carrier hero who throws the bundle of feathers in the 
 fires, the ashes of which finally cover up the old man who has treacher- 
 ously left him for dead on the mountain, might then recall to mind the 
 irritation of Moses caused by the unfaithful Israelites who had aban- 
 doned him and were despairing of his ever coming back to them, and who, 
 on his return, were compelled to swallow the very ashes of the golden 
 calf This, however, might be too far-fetched, and is given simply as a 
 hint to lovers of id.ntifications. 
 
 Another part of the myth which I feel much bolder in assimilating to 
 the Biblical narrative, is the end of the Carrier text. This, I think, 
 everybody will agree, unmistakably points to the destruction of mankind 
 by the deluge. In Moses' account of the cataclysm, mankind is punished 
 for its sins by a flood, the waters of which cover the highest mountains 
 and from which only Noah and his family escape, being floated on the 
 waters by the ark. In the Dt§n^ narrative, the waters similarly reach 
 above the highest peaks, and the deluge immediately follows the wrongs 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
 
 [Vol. 
 
 inflicted by the dwarfs on the brother of the hero, gstas, who appears 
 here in the combined role of Noah and of Jehovah. 
 
 When the waters have subsided somewhat, the Biblical Noah sent out 
 a raven " which went forth and did not return till the waters were dried 
 up upon the earth'." The Carrier Noah sends down the beaver and the 
 muskrat, which do not return until one of them brings up a little mud. 
 
 Moses' Noah then sends forth a dove " to see if the waters had not 
 ceased upon the face of the earth,^" which returns as a sign that the land 
 is not yet fit for man to inhabit. Likewise the hero of the Carrier 
 legend sends out the wolf to see if the island is inhabitable, with the re- 
 sult that it soon returns with the silent message that it is as yet unfit 
 for him to dwell upon. It is not before a second trial, the equivalent of 
 the second sending of the dove, that he is told by the howling of the 
 wolf, as Noah was by the carrying of the bough of tli'-' olive tree, that 
 the earth is henceforth fit again fo** habitation. 
 
 Nobody, disbelieving the autochthony of our Indians, will be astonished 
 to find the remembrance of the deluge vivid among them. That tradi- 
 tion is universal throughout the old world. It is to be found, under one 
 form or another, among the principal nations of antiquity no less than 
 among the aborigines of the new world. Noah and his ark have their 
 counterparts in most of the known mythologies. Everybody is ac- 
 quainted with the Deucalion Sisyphes of the Greeks : now that personage 
 has duplicates in the Xisuthrus of the Chaldeans, the Yima of the 
 Iranians, the Khasisatra of the Babylonian inscriptions, the Manu of the 
 Hindoos and the Fo-hi of the Chinese. 
 
 The universality of the tradition baffles all attempts at incredulity on 
 the pnrt of the most hardened sceptic. What is not quite so clear is the 
 question as to the extent the catastrophe really prevailed. Three differ- 
 ent views have been advanced on the subject. There is the opinion, now 
 held by few well informed writers, that the deluge was universal both 
 geographically and ethnographically. The second view, which is now 
 very prevalent among competent critics of «!1 creeds and nationalities, 
 estimates that it was indeed universal ethnographically, but not geogra- 
 phically. Lastly a third opinion, vvhicli is held by authors of repute and 
 undoubted orthodoxy, would have it that the catastrophe had no really 
 universal effects, either as regards the earth, or relatively to its in- 
 habitants. 
 
 These remarks may appear in the light of an unnecessary digre.ssion ; 
 
 • Gen. viii., 7. 
 
 ^^- 
 
 ■ -.' 
 
 1SBBBES& 
 
 .'^Mm-aismtrnfi^ 
 
 ■WBHWWWWW 
 
 EEBIKKR 
 
181)4-95.] 
 
 THRRK CARRIKR MYTHS. 
 
 10 
 
 . 
 
 - %\:- 
 
 i^%'' 
 
 but if digression there be, I think it is not without its usefuhiess in a 
 paper on Indian traditions. This is my point : 
 
 If the Noachian dchjge was universal neither geographically nor ethno- 
 graphically speaking, our aborigines must be assigned a probable Asiatic 
 origin, either by descent or by contact, since they have not forgotten that 
 event. Asiatic, have I said : they could not be represented as coming 
 from Africa, for all the black races are remarkable for the absence in 
 their mythology of any allusion to the deluge. Moreover, the physio- 
 logical differences between the Africans and the Americans are, of course, 
 too pronounced to admit of any serious comparison between the two 
 races. They could not be said to originate from Oceanica, since the in- 
 habitants of that part of the world are no less devoid of any tradition 
 traceable to the deluge. They could hardly be represented as of Euro- 
 pean origin, as, in the laird hypothesis relatively to the extent of the 
 cataclysm, the flood is not supposed to have extended to that continent, 
 and the few versions of the Noachian deluge found among its primitive 
 inhabitants are of too vague a character to have stood the as.sault of ages 
 among the uncultured savages who would be supposed to have derived 
 their present traditions on the subject from the original European 
 peoples. 
 
 But, a student of the Algonquin mythology will object, the story of 
 the floating raft and the muskrat refers, not to the deluge, but to the 
 creation. I have noticed that position taken by a commentator on a 
 Blackfoot equivalent of that portion of the Carrier myth, and even Dr. 
 D. G. Brinton, who sees therein neither creation nor historical deluge, 
 calls it "the national myth of creation of the Algonquin tribes.'" In 
 answer to that objection, I need only refer the reader to the Carrier ver- 
 sion such as presented above, wherein we see the earth peopled before 
 the catastrophe and a gradual submersion of the globe. In confirmation 
 of this might also be adduced the fact that the Indians referring to that 
 event never call it the creation or re-creation of the world, but most 
 pointedly to /J-t/ia-d^t/itzpJu v/hich means "the filling up wii water."^ 
 
 To make it doubly sure that the end of the Carrier myth really refers to 
 the deluge, I reproduce here, after I'etitot, the corresponding tradition cur- 
 rent among the Hare Indians, their congeners in the North-East. It will 
 be seen that the latter can be identified with even less difficulty with the 
 
 'American Hero-Myths, p. 41. 
 
 'The expression is thus analysed : to, up, an ailverbial lorni which requires immediate and 
 intimate connection with the verb ; p, sign of tlie past tense proper to the actuahtive form of 
 some verbs ; d>thtzp.'n means "filled," and implies at the same time the be{;inning of a past 
 action. 
 
 -"-—°('r*r^'T^^ '*)•-►- ■WSMKWiVv'-'mH-wi.. 
 
20 
 
 TKANSACTIONS OF THK CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
 
 [Vou V. 
 
 Mosaical account. After several detail.s practically identical with those of 
 the Carrier legend, .such as the quest for arrow-shafts and arrow-feather- 
 ing, with the adventure with the thunder-bird and its children replaced 
 here by the eagle and the eaglets, the Hare story goes on to say : — 
 
 "Then the Wise One made a great raft at the horizon'. 'What do 
 you mean with this raft? 'they said. Then lie said: 'If plenty of 
 water comes, I will go aboard.' ' Oh ! as for us we will climb up the 
 trees,' they said. ' Then as for me, if* there is a flood, I will stay on the 
 raft,' he said. 
 
 " It being .so, he made big ropes so and so, worked with many thing.s. 
 and made a big raft. 
 
 " Therefore the water seemed suddenly to thunder forth, all men. 
 climbed on the trees, there came plenty of water, all men perished. 
 Therefore the Wise une having tied his raft with ropes, was floating 
 along. He also placed on his raft pairs of animals, of carnivores and 
 of birds. 
 
 " ' There will be no more land,' he said to them. For a long time 
 there was no more land : it was being said that there was no one to go 
 in search of land. The muskrat dived and went in search of land. He 
 came up to the surface almost dead. 'Nothing at all!' he said . . . The 
 beaver having dived after him, was not seen any more for a long time ; 
 but afterwards he came up swimining, having a little mud in his hand 
 which he gave to the Wise One. The old man put it on the water. As 
 he wanted the earth to exist again, he blew on the mud, making it a 
 little big. He placed on it a beautiful little bird, whereby it became 
 still larger. Then he let out on the land a fox which ran around it and 
 made it grow still more. He slept once, twice, thrice, four, five, six times 
 running around it^ ; whereby it became whole*. 
 
 "The Wise One having put back the animals on the earth, he landed 
 himself with his children. ' What a number of men there shall be again 
 on the earth!' he said. Then there were again many men^" 
 
 As hinted above, the Algonquin tribes have a myth wherein the musk- 
 rat plays exactly the same role as in the Carrier legend and the beaver 
 in its counterpart among the Hare Indians. The only difference in the 
 
 • Liter.illy, at the edjje of the sky. 
 
 •^aiul when are rendered hy llie same word in Dene. 
 
 • That is, the fox ran around it on six consecutive days. 
 
 * I.e., came back to its normal state of existence. 
 
 * Traditions itidientus dti Canada Ncni-Ouesl, p. 129. 
 
 
i 
 
 1894-95.] 
 
 THKKK CAKKIKR HYTilR. 
 
 21 
 
 narratives is that the j^stas of the one and the Wise One of tlie other 
 are replaced in so)nc Al^oncjuin versions by Michabo, the " (ireat Rabbit." 
 It has been fashionable in certain quarters to induljje in covert sneers at 
 the expense of those who see in some native lej^ends an echo of the past 
 rather than mysterious, enigmatic personifications of natural phenomena. 
 Therefore I will now give in a condensed form tlie exjilanation of that 
 myth proposed as the only true one by the most prominent among the 
 allegorical school of folk-lorists, Dr. I). G. Jkinton, leaving it to the 
 reader to decide whether his subtleties of speech are more convincing 
 than my own interpretation of the same story. 
 
 " In the Algf)n(|uin tongue the word for Giant Rabbit is Missahos, 
 comijoundcd from Mitclii or Missi, great, large, and ziuibos, a rabbit. 
 But there is a whole class of related words . . . which sound very 
 much lik-e wabos. They arc I'rom a general root %vabf which goes to form 
 such words of related signification as ^vahi, he .sees, 7i<aban, tiie east, the 
 Orient, 7vabis/i, white, bidnba" {bid-i^'abau), the dawn, wdbaii, daylight, 
 Tt'r/JJCA?, the light, and many others. Here is where we are to look for 
 the real meaning of the name Missabos. It originally meant the Great 
 Light. ... I believe that a similar analysis will explain the part 
 which the muskrat plays in the story. . . . The word for muskrat in 
 Algonquin is wti/as/ik, th'' " st letter of which often suffers elision. . . . 
 But this is almost the word for mud, wet earth, .soil, ajiski. There is no 
 reasonable doubt but that here again otosis and personification came in 
 and gave the form and name of an animal to the original simple state- 
 ment. T/iat state 'iient 2cas that from ivct tnud dried by the sunlight, the 
 solid earth ivas /ormed\" 
 
 The italics are mine. 
 
 In rebuttal of the above, I beg to submit that even in .some Algonquin 
 versions^ Michabo or Missabos is replaced by the Old One. and in that 
 case the ingenious fabric of Dr. Brinton loses its raison delre. Further- 
 more, even when the Algonquin hero's personality remains of an animal 
 character, his name varies from Michabo to Manibozho, Nanabush, 
 Messou, Mideathon and Hiawatha'', which I suppose could not be 
 diverted into meaning the Great Light, etc. As to the identification of 
 the muskrat vvith the wet earth, the soil, through the quasi-homonymy 
 
 'American Hero-Myths, p. 41-42. 
 
 '•' As in tli.it current among tlie Ulackfeet. See "The Owl," University of Ottawa, May 
 1890, p. 298. 
 
 'Notes on Primitive Man in Ontario, by David Boyle. Toronto, 1895, p. 18. It maybe 
 added that some Algonquins credit the os])rey with the success (generally attributed to the 
 muskrat. 
 
TRANHAOTIONB OK THE CANADIAN IN8TITUTB. 
 
 '^VOL. V. 
 
 of the name of both in one Algonquin dialect, if Dr. Hrinton's interpreta- 
 tion be the correct one, it must be |)arainoimt to statin^j that the myth 
 itself has an Algonquin origin, since the same play with the words is 
 impossible in connection with their D6n6 names (j>Jn and ts^-'k^r). Is 
 there any real proof of this priority of origin ? 
 
 ! i 
 
 1 ! 
 
 II. — THE nURNING DOWN OF A COUNTRY. 
 
 Told by Abel NMhitcas, Chief of Ihatce, on Lake Stuart. 
 
 A young man was living with a young woman. All the other women 
 were bringing to their husbands basketsful' of 'k^nuih- or sap ; and yet 
 his wife used to come home with a single shaving of it which she brouLjht 
 him in the hand. He wished to ascertain the reason of this; therefore 
 he followed her one day at a distance. As soon as her fellow-women had 
 reached a place in the woods planted with scrub pines, he saw her pro- 
 ceed on her way, while the others were busying themselves with the 
 scraping of the sap. 
 
 When she had reached the trunk of a tree, dried up but still standing, 
 she commenced striking it with a stick, repeating each time : kjli'/ ! 
 kflejl'^. Soon a beautiful young man, white as daylight, came out of the 
 top of the tree and played with her. 
 
 Thus the young man knew why his wife used to bring him so little 
 sap ; so he returned home and arrived there before she got back. Then 
 his wife scraped off as usual a single ribbon of 'karmih.and took it home 
 to her husband, carrying it in the hand. 
 
 One day that she was to return with the other women to collect sap 
 the young man said to her : " Really you do bring me too little 'karniih. 
 See how tlie other women are always loaded when they come hoine. 
 Therefore, lend me your blankef* and ;'our scraper : I will go for it 
 myself." 
 
 So he said, and then he clothed himself with his wife's garments and 
 went with the other women, packing an empty toi/yaf'. But he stopped 
 not with them among the scrub pines ; he went on as far as the dried up 
 
 ' Tcaiyaj tlzpin. The lca|yai cannot qiiile properly he called a haskcl, but it is its eipiiva- 
 lent amon(4 our Indians. Kor fijjure and description of the utensil, see Notes on the lyestertt 
 Dhih, Trans. Can. Inst., Vol. IV., p. 120. 
 
 'Tlie 'k>rniih is the sap or caniliiuni layer of the scrub pine (/'. contorla), scraped ofT in 
 thin shavings by rr .ans of a bone scraper. Of<, cil., p. 76. 
 
 • Words now devoid of meanin);, at least an.ong our Indians. 
 *That is her outer garment. 
 
 * See note • above. 
 
 \\. .. 
 / ■ 
 
 'I 
 
 -If ,,,*^*^'WT .-<»S"^»:fv 
 
^^ 
 
 lft'J4-96.] 
 
 TIIRUR CAHHrER MVTH8. 
 
 •23 
 
 tree. Inunediatcly b set upon striking; it with a stick, rcjjeating the 
 words he had heard his wife utter. 
 
 Soon enough tlie beautiful younjj man wliite as dayliylit niad^^ his 
 appearance, fell down upon the disjjuised hu.sband and played with him 
 as one would with a woman. He was trying to know him', when the 
 husband cut his head and testicles off with a knife he had kept concealed 
 in his bosom-'. The head was no sooner separated from the trunk than 
 it was changed into h red woodpecker's scalp. Then he scraped off a 
 great quantity of sap. When he had filled up his tcajyaj therewith, he 
 hid among the shavings of the 'kdrraih what he had torn from the dciy- 
 light young : hr,. 
 
 Home again, iic presented his wife with the whole, saying : " See what 
 a load of sap I have brought you. Kat it." She therefore began to eat 
 of the 'karmili, suspecting nothing. Hut as soon as she had seen the red 
 woodpecker's scalp, she hung down her head, refu.sed to eat any more and 
 commenced to weep. " WMiat ails you.''' Why weep you?" asked her 
 husband. Hut she answered not and continued weeping. 
 
 At the same time columns of smoke were seen all around and tongues 
 of fire appeared on all sides. They soon concentrated themselves to- 
 wards the point where the couple stood. Very many men perished by 
 fire ; only a few escaped. 
 
 Meanwhile the red-headed woodpecker* was flying to and fro amidst 
 the smoke and flames repeating its usual cry : /cnnf /cun!'-' This caused 
 a few drops of rain to fall which, however, had no marked effect on the 
 conflagration. Then he was heard to say : " Let the scalp of my cousin** 
 be given back to me !" For a time people did not know what he meant. 
 At last some one remarked : "Since he wants his cousin's scalp, let it be 
 thrown up" to him!" Therefore, while the little woodpecker was flying 
 amidst the flames, the red womlpccker's head** was thrown up to him. 
 
 A shower fell at once, which soon extinguished the fire. But in his 
 
 * In ihe Utblical sense of the word. 
 
 'In the Carrier mythology, wcai)ons carried in the bosom are always for a nefarious purpose 
 See first legend, [i. 4, also " Notes on the Western Uencs," p. 52. 
 
 * TAniqa ! lit., "What are you feeling?" 
 
 * Melaner/k-s erytliroreplialHs : in Carrier, tsc'ri-^ii, "red-head." 
 
 ' Ti<in, which to the ii.itive ear represents that bird's cry, means "rain " in Carrier. 
 
 * I.e., the red woodpecker f5'/»^^/'(7/;'i-«.f Tariiis). 
 
 'To throw to ami present with are renderetl by the same word in Carrier. 
 
 •The similarity of names renders this part of the myth rather obscure in English. This is 
 not the case in Carrier, where the smaller woodpecker is called ts^Phn, whilst its "cousin " goes 
 by the name of littzi/. 
 
 1P 
 
>P1I3IIW#WP^" 
 
 msm 
 
 4' 
 
 24 
 
 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
 
 [Vol. v. 
 
 '. 
 
 efforts to attract attention, the little woodpecker got the end of his tail 
 burnt, and this ex . ;ains why it is to this day coal-coloured. 
 
 COMMENTS. . 
 
 This is one of the shortest of the Carrier legends. It is either an idle 
 tale, to while away the long night hours of a hyperborean winter ; an 
 allegory concealing under a circuitous phraseology a truth of more or less 
 importance or some cosmogoi."<:al phenomenon, or again a legend to be 
 considered as a feeble echo of a nistorical event. The first hypothesis 
 is, to my mind, entirely gratuitous. Aboriginal tales do not, as a rule, 
 veb their fallacious thread around a moral thesis of such an extraordinary 
 description as that pointed out in our myth. There is no lack among our 
 Indians of fabulous stories which are real meaningless talcs ; it would 
 suffice to reproduce one here to make the difference between them and 
 the above plain beyond dispute. !f an allegory, I would ask : Where 
 have our people gone for the subject matte.-, sodomy, to be thereby re- 
 proved? They know the crime neither in name nor in deed. Or, again, 
 what natural phenomenon could be said to be thereby hinted at ? There 
 remains the third hypothesis which may be a mere supposition, yet a 
 supposition with something like a basis and not a little probability in its 
 favour. 
 
 The very title of the story is, in the native tongue, grammatically my.s- 
 terious and mythologically suggestive. Intsi] 'qa Invotitif kan, the name 
 it receives in the various versions, means literally : " He ^or it) burru^d 
 down (a country or a town or the universe') against (/>., in opposition 
 to, in punishn.ent of) the Red Woodpecker." Hwotstif kan is a transitive 
 verb and as such it must have not only a 5i'biect but a complement, ex- 
 pressed or implied. What is the subject ? Is it K«//^rf-, the impersonal 
 Deity of the ancient Carriers ? It would seem that none other could be 
 imagined. As for the implied complement, it must refer to some locality, 
 not the whole universe, since the te.\t affirms positively that some men 
 escaped from the conflagration. We are thus warranted i; translating 
 the title : A country was burned down by the Deity in punishment for 
 the Red Woodpecker's misdeeds. 
 
 Barring the mention of the bird's name, which is here evidently sym- 
 bolical, I would ask in al! frankness : Docs history record the burning of 
 any other inhabited region than that of the famous cities of the plain, 
 
 ' Were not an extent of country, town or district, implied, the verb would be UtSfkan, not 
 hxuot>tSfkaii. 
 
 'Lit., "tluit wiiich is on liigh." See "The Western Denes," Proceedings Can. Inst., Vol. 
 VII, p. 157. 
 
 :u~.' 
 
 :'^||»^•»«J»J((lV■ft!l^»^%f^«^J:||,«»4;'U<'! A*^ 
 
1894-95.J 
 
 THREE CARKIEIl MYTHS. 
 
 an 
 
 ♦ ♦ 
 
 Sodom and Gomorrha? It may seem strange that '. historical event 
 of comparatively so local an importance should be commemorated in the 
 folk-lore of an American people. Yet it might perhaps be explained 
 that the awfulness of its nature compensates for the limitedness of the 
 territory which it affected. I may be mistaken in my interpretation of 
 this, as indeed i;i that of the preceding myth ; but I cannot help seeing 
 therein some resemblance to the story of Sodom's prevarication and 
 chastisement, and a corresponding dissimilitude from any other event 
 recor led either by history or mythology. Let us rather analjse the main 
 points of our present legend and compare them with the Biblical recital. 
 
 And here I must premise an important remark. This myth, in com- 
 mon with the preceding, recounts the story of a crime and its conse- 
 quences ; but a ' -ry little reflection will make it clear that the guilt 
 pointed out as material '"or punishment is, in the second legend, of a quite 
 different nature from that of the first. In the first story, we .see criminal 
 relations of a woman with a serpent punished by the death of the 
 woman and the wretchedness of her children. In the second, we have 
 also guilty intercourse of a married woman with a person other than her 
 husband ; but, let it be carefully noted, this is not put down as the cau.->e 
 "if the conflagration that ensues. After her unseemly conduct, the 
 woman suffers no other pain or anguish than regret for the death of her 
 lover, while the whole country, and with it a large portion of the people, 
 are burnt down in expiation of the attempted crime of the beautiful 
 young man with the cjutragcd husband. Can sodomy be more graphic- 
 ally described or its punishment better assimilated to that of the ungodly 
 inhabitants of the plain cities ? 
 
 The husband iiere, no le.ss than the God-fearing Lot of the Bible, 
 escapes free ; while the cause of the conflagidtion, the voluptuous young 
 man, in common with tiie majority of the population, pays with his life 
 his unnatural crime. 
 
 The gathering of the sap or cambium layer of the pine with the apo- 
 logue of the little red-headed woodpecker are naturally nothingel.se than 
 the pod which contains the fruit, the shell that conceals the pearl, namely, 
 the historical fact. So much so, that these circumstances vary with the 
 locality of the narrator, while the nature of the guilt itself with its con- 
 sequences remains identical. 
 
 The native fondness for the apologue is no doubt responsible for the 
 anecdote at the end, no less than for the transformation of the young 
 man's head into a bird's scalp. Unable to account for the fact related 
 by their ancestors, the aborigines must ha\'e thought the)- had discovered 
 
 -rHKm^ -V'% 
 
26 
 
 TRANSACTION OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
 
 [Vol. v. 
 
 in nature an adequate explanation of it. The woodpecker (Jntaii) is 
 fire-coloured ; therefore to it must be ascribed the cause of the raging 
 flames. Its congener, the tsH'km, is fond of crying for rain: tcan ! tcan ! 
 Who else then could have been instrumental in extinguishing the fire? 
 This is what is called fiction ; it widely differs from the part of the tra- 
 dition above commented on. 
 
 But, a reader may object, if such a characteristically Jewish tradition has 
 found its way even into far-off America, must not the aborigines who 
 now relate it be assigned a similarly Jewish origin } Now, has not this 
 theory been exploded long ago ? To which I beg to answer : — 
 
 To conclude from this single fact to a Jewish or simply Semitic origin 
 for our Indians, would be to outreach the premises. On the other hand, 
 to pretend that their ancestors have had no intercourse, direct or indirect, 
 even possibly by intermarriages, with a population of Semitic descent is, 
 I think, more than could consis<^"ntly be done. I am not here to discuss 
 the origin of the D^n^s, a que. cion on which, I repeat, I have no fixed 
 convictions ; but I may be permitted to remark that several peculiarities 
 of their mode of life, their customs, their language, and even some of 
 their mythological allusions' would assigti theni a mixed origin. As the 
 question at present stands, they cannot be considered as autochthonous 
 on the American continent; several of the traditions of the Eastern Den^s 
 point to a western region as the place of the tribes' birth. Now, west of 
 their present territory you are confronted by the North Pacific Coast. 
 If the aboriginal hordes crossed from Asia to America, a journey entail- 
 ing but very little difficulty, what would prevent their having been in 
 contact with populations initiated into the theogony of the Jews and the 
 principal points of their wonderful history? It is well known that the 
 world-wide dispersion of that nation does not date from the destruction 
 of Jerusalem by the Romans. Clannish as they are, the Jews have, from 
 time immemorial, been more or less cosmopolitan. Even before the 
 famous Habylonish captivity, they were to be found throughout the 
 larger part of the Asiatic continent. In 719 B.C., Salmanassar, king of 
 the As.syrians, had transported £he inhabitants of Samaria into the most 
 remote village of Media. In 676 n.c. Assaharaddon distributed the 
 remnant of the kingdoms of Syria and Israel over Persia, Media and the 
 distant provinces of the East. Dispersed after the captivity of Babylon 
 over the whole of the then known Asia, the Israelites of the ten tribes 
 proceeded in numerous caravans to Persia, India, Thibet and even China. 
 Their first migration into the latter country appears to have taken place 
 over 2CXX) years ago under the dynasty of the Khars. They numbered 
 
 ' See first part of tliird legend. 
 
 ■I*. 
 
 1^ 
 
 ;. ;)^*«'i»((li«!M*^W' 
 
m^ 
 
 1894-95.] 
 
 THREE CAHRIER MYTHS. 
 
 27 
 
 ^%: 
 
 /O families, all of the same name, which were soon dispersed into several 
 cities, even in Peking". At length, according to Strabo, who wrote in the 
 days of Pompey and Caesar, " the Jews were scattered into all the cities, 
 and it was not easy to find a spot on earth which had not received them 
 and where they were not settled." 
 
 Speaking only of Asia, we fine that in 87* of the Christian era, Hoang- 
 Tchas, the founder of a Chinese dynasty, having taken the town of 
 Kahn-Fou, which had shut its gates against him, he put to the sword 
 120,000 of its inhabitants, among whom Jews and Christians are men- 
 tioned.^ 
 
 De.scribing his vasl dominions, the famous and somewhat enigmatic 
 Prester John said in his letter addressed in 1 165 to the emperor of Con- 
 stantinople, and regarded by some as authentic : " Beyond that river are 
 ten Jewish tribes who, although they choose their own kings, are never- 
 theless the slaves and tributaries of our Excellency-'." 
 
 The great Kublai-Khan, though a Buddhist by religion, is reported to 
 have been tolerant towards all creeds, notably that of the Jews. He said 
 that there were four great prophets, Jesus Christ, Mahomet, Moses and 
 Chakia-Mouni. His army, which was composed of troops from all the 
 countries that paid tribute to him, counted Jews and Mohammedans who 
 were numerous enough to be constantly mocking the Christians. Now 
 his empire comprehended the whole of China, Corea, Thibet, Tonquin 
 and Cochin-China, a great part of India beyond the Ganges, many islands 
 of the Indian Ocean, and the whole north of the continent of Asia from 
 the Pacific to the Dnieper. 
 
 Lastly, Andre de Perouse wrote in 1326 that in the empire of the great 
 Khan, one of the latter's successors, there were men of all nations under 
 the sun, adding that among the Jews no conversions had been made*. 
 
 Now, as the Biblical ti-aditions accompanied the Jews in all their 
 migrations and as the latter were then, as they are now, very tenaciovis of 
 their faith, if there were arything to be surprised at, it would be that after 
 this, people should manifest surprise at finding among the .Asiatic nations, 
 and through them among the American aborigines. Biblical reminiscences 
 cither in their customs or in their mythology. 
 
 But I am drifting on to slippery ground. This is not the time to seek 
 
 ' M. il'Escayrac de Lanture, quoted hy La France Jtiive, by Kd. Drumont, Vol. I., p. 47. 
 * Christianism in China, etc., by the Abbe Hue, Vol. I., p. 85. 
 
 * Ihid, p. 93. 
 
 * W.-idding, Amiinlts Minorum, Vol. VI., p. 56. 
 
wmmm 
 
 I kiM\ i "IIH 
 
 wgm 
 
 mmmmm 
 
 28 
 
 TRANSACTIONS OP THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
 
 [Vol. V. 
 
 out the origin of our Indians ; let us return to our legends. I have said 
 that our D^nes seem to be of mixed blood ; the following myth will per- 
 haps strengthen us in that opinion. 
 
 III. — MADE CELESTIAL.! 
 
 ToM by Zacharic Nusihel ( Woh'erine), of Stella. 
 
 A taneza'"'^ had a daughter, and she was a virgin^. He made her pass 
 every night quite close to his pillow, for he was rearing her with the 
 greatest care. Many a young man asked for her*, but in vain : her 
 father would not part with her. 
 
 Now it happened that on several nights the maiden awoke suddenly 
 and then was aware that somebody was getting away from her. She 
 wanted to know who it was; she guessed indeed that she was being 
 abused during her sleep. Therefore she filled a little satchel with ver- 
 milion and placed it near her pillow. The following night she threw the 
 vermilion at her violator before he had time to get out of the lod<,'e. On 
 the morrow, she inspected all by her.self a crowd of young men who were 
 playing at the end of the village^ but all to no purpose. As she was re- 
 turning to her father's habitation, she noticed an old snotty dog spotted 
 on the shoulders with her vermilion. Her heart was exceedingly sorry 
 at seeing this. At the same time she became conscious of having con- 
 ceived, and after a while people knew that she was pregnant. 
 
 Therefore her father, being a nobleman, prepared a lot of tanned skins. 
 Laid one over another, they formed a pile as high as the width of one s 
 hand. These were to serve as a bed for his daughter's delivery" and 
 afterwards to be distributed to his fellow-villagers to celebrate" the birth 
 of his grandchild. 
 
 After a short period of pregnancy, as short as that of dogs, the girl was 
 delivered of four little ones, all dogs, three males and one female. Their 
 
 'This is a rather free translation of its Indian title: ya-'kl-ututil, " they arrived on the 
 sky." 
 
 'Or hereditary i,ol)loman. .See "The Western Denes," Proceedinijs Can. Inst., Vol. VII. 
 
 ^ Sah-»sta, lit., "she is sittinij alone." The virginity of such persons had nothinj; very 
 meritorious in itself, as it was all but voluntary. It consisteil simply in constant seclusion enforced 
 nolens voleiis on the girl by the parents. 
 
 ^ jane jt'nja-Hiii, i.e., wanted to marry her. ' 
 
 'Carrier villages consisted very generally of a single row of lodges terminated by the funeral 
 posts, the ground of which served at the same time as campus or ]ilay-ground. 
 
 •Illegitimate births were not looked upon l)y Carriers with the same degree of shame as they 
 now inspire. 
 
 'Or atone for. See "The Western Denes," Proc. Can. Inst., Vol. VII., p. 164. 
 
 .^PPf«*^tl1Wwj||[^=>*-'H .=.4B*.«. 
 
 I 
 
yim^i, ,1-' mu\ 
 
 1894-95.] 
 
 THREE CARKIER MYTHS. 
 
 29 
 
 grandfather was so mad at this that he tore the dressed skins off from 
 under them and cast them in the fire. Then he packed all his belongings 
 and, going away together with his wife, he abandoned his daughter. All 
 •the inhabitants of the village did likewise, and they migrated to a distant 
 country ; for they were too much ashamed. Moreover, to cause the death 
 of the woman and of her little dogs, they carefully extinguished the fire 
 of each lodged But an old woman there was who thought herself un- 
 able to undertake a long journey. She succeeded in snatching away by 
 stealth a firebrand, which she concealed until all had left. This fire 
 prevented them from dying of cold and hunger. 
 
 Shortly after she had been abandoned, the mother of the little dogs 
 heard a slight noise as of the gnawing of a piece of wood. She soon 
 perceived that a rabbit had made a hole in the board wall of the lodge. 
 A like hole was afterwards made by rabbits at each of the other walls. 
 At each of them the mother seta Jiiare wherewith she soon caught plenty 
 of rabbits. Their flesh she ate herself, and with their skins she made 
 blankets for her little ones. The latter grew up very fast, and they seemed 
 to be very fond of play. 
 
 Now it happened that their mother left one day to gather at some 
 short distance bear-berries- for the family. When she got back, she saw 
 on the floor of the lodge many iiuman foot-prints, and perceived that the 
 whole house was full of dust as if a dance had been in progress. She 
 was very much surprised at this. So .she set her mind upon discovering 
 who had made the foot-prints. Therefore, she left a-jain as usual to pick 
 up bear-berries. But once arrived at the place where the fruit was abun- 
 dant, she disposed her blanket as a mannequin, which she laid up against 
 a stump. She wanted thereby to deceive her little dogs and make them 
 believe that she was still at the berries. 
 
 Meantime she returned by a round-about way to the lodge. She sur- 
 prised the little ones dancing without their dog-skins, while their sister 
 was keeping watch over the mannequin. By a rapid movement, their 
 mother seized the skins of the three dogs now become boys, and threw 
 them in the fire. Their sister-dog had cnnie out of her skin as far down 
 as the waist only ; she had time to leenter it befoie her mother could 
 snatch it away from her. Therefore, she remained a she-dog forever. 
 " Then you arc men after all, and yet it is on account of you that I have 
 become so wretched!" exclaimed their mother as she burned their spoils. 
 
 ' riie fire-ihill or Icm-tlil was known to the primitive Carriers, but the critical condition of 
 the mo'lieranil the ilejjree of decrepitmle of the old woman rendered its preparation and use 
 impossible. 
 
 'Vulgarly calle<l kinnikinik { Arctostaphylos uva ursi). 
 
 '■vmiif^'- 
 
mm 
 
 30 
 
 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADtAN INSTITUTE. 
 
 [Vol. V. 
 
 She then made the three brothers a wooden arrow and began to exer- 
 cise them to the hunt. Therefore they went out with their sister, who 
 henceforth was to act as their hound. She was soon heard barking at a 
 grouse. iUjt her brothers knew not what to do. .So they dispatched one 
 of themselves to their mother for advice and directions. " Mother," said 
 he, "our little sister-dog' is barking at something perched on a tree. It 
 is all grey, covered with feathers and down, and looks down at us. What 
 is it, and what shall we do vvith it?" Then his mother answered, saying: 
 " My son, this is what we call a bird. It is good to eat. Let them kill 
 it with their wooden arrow." Thereupon her son ran back to his brothers, 
 who shot the grouse, after which they killed great numbers of like fowl. 
 
 Their mother next made them a stone-tipped arrow, and again sent 
 them out hunting. Soon thereafter, one of them came back to consult 
 her in the name of his brothers. "Mother," he said, in arriving, "our 
 little sister-dog is barking at something with short ears and grey neck. 
 What is it, and what shall we do vvith it ? " Then his mother answered, 
 saying : " My son, this is what is called a fisher. Its fur is used to make 
 blankets with. Let them shoot it with their stone-tipped arrow." This 
 they did, and subsequently they killed large numbers of similar animals. 
 
 Another day that they had gone ac usual on a hunting expedition, one 
 of them came back to consult again their mother, saying : " Mother, our 
 little sister-dog is barking at something long ; it is grey all over and has 
 a short nose and a rounded head. What is it, and what shall we do with 
 it ? " Their mother made answer thus : " My son, this is what is called 
 a lynx. Its skin is that wherewith blankets are chiefly made. Let them 
 kill it with their arrow." They shot it, and afterwards man> an animal 
 of the same kind. 
 
 Another day one of them came back again from the chase to take 
 advice from his mother. "Mother," he sai ., "our little sister-dog is 
 barking after something which is big, very black and has no tail. It "s 
 gruntinn- at us. What is it, and what shall we do with it?" Then their 
 mother answered : " My son, this is what is called a bear. Its flesh is 
 good to eat. Let them shoot it with their arrow." They killed it, and 
 thereafter a great number of bears. 
 
 Still another day they sent one of themselves to consult their mother. 
 He said to her: " Mother, our little sister-dog is barking at something 
 very big and all grey. It seems very bad-tempered and angry, as it is 
 constantly rushing at her; but she is so swift-footed that she successfully 
 avoids it. What is it, and what shall we do with it ? " " This must be a 
 
 ^ A/eits-iil's/, our youiijjer si.ster-dog, in the same sense .as Jacob was Esau's junior. 
 
 . 
 
 "<-nyw!<f^:ft,.-^v -. .,^.<^<,f,i, 
 
T 
 
 1894-95.] 
 
 THKEE CARRIER MYTHS. 
 
 31 
 
 ,'* 
 
 
 grizzly bear, my son," said his mother. " It is also occasionally eaten. 
 Therefore let them kill it." So they did, and thenceforth they killed 
 great numbers of those animals. 
 
 Another day that one of them had returned from the chase to take 
 advice from his mother, he said to her: "Mother, our little sister-dog 
 is pursuing an animal which has long legs and on the head something 
 resembling the upright roots of a fallen tree'. What is it and what shall 
 we d' with it?" Then she made answer thus: " My son, that animal is 
 callcj a caribou. Its meat is very good, and its skin serves to make 
 moccasins with. Let them shoot it." Therefore they shot it, and after- 
 wards many more caribou. 
 
 Lastly, one day that one of them was again consultinfj his mother, he 
 said to her: "Mother, our little sister-dog is chasing a very large animal 
 not unlike the caribou, but bigger. What can it be and what to do with 
 it? " Upon which his mother said in answer : " My son, this is what we 
 call a moose. Its flesh is excellent, and its skin is also very useful. Let 
 them shoot it." After they had shot it, they also killed manj' more 
 moose. 
 
 They were now exercised to hunt all kinds of animals, and they had 
 grown to be young men and successful hunters. In recognition of the 
 service rendered their mother by the old woman wiio hac' ^reserved fire 
 for her at the time that she had been abandoned, they used to present 
 her, after each hunt, with the fat of the animals mixed with their blood. 
 One day that they wanted to fool her, they mixed pieces of rotten wood 
 with blood and offered the whole to her, saying: "Grandmother^, fry this 
 fat mixed with blood which we give you as is our wont." The old 
 woman did as she was bid, but she soon detected the fraud, upon which 
 she exclaimed : " P^ssa ! ya V/// 'ghinhtii /' Oh ! may you be translated 
 up to the sky !" For she was indeed very angry. 
 
 Now it came to pass that a short time afterwards their sister-dog 
 scented a herd of caribou. They set at once in pursuit of the game. Far, 
 very far away they ran on the tracks gf their sister-dog, and yet they 
 could not catch up with her. The more they advanced, the higher up 
 they were going. At length, after a very long chase, one of the three 
 thought of sitting down to rest awhile. Looking back, he discoA'ered 
 that they had reached the sky, and then he was terrified indeed. He 
 
 ' A'az, a primary root, tiicaiia aii that. 
 
 ' In the Dene legends, the old women are always addressed as grandmothers. 
 • Archaic form of words in the Lower Carrier dialeci. P^sscj ! has no modern e(|uivalent 
 and is expressive of spite anil rage. 
 
 ^334.^7 
 
 s.SS»i5 
 
 ■^r*?''^f'*iKWl?^»«^'-'^T^» 
 
m 
 
 1* 
 
 \. 
 
 32 
 
 TRANSACTIONS OF THK CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
 
 [Vol. v. 
 
 iM 
 
 
 told his brothers and they looked down. Then they also felt their hearts 
 falling down at this. After a little time, the)' held consultation together 
 as to the best means of returning to the earth. Then, on the advice of 
 the eldest but one, they dropped down the little packages of dried salmon ' 
 which each of ^hem had carried so far as provisions for the journey. They 
 hung underneath a grey jay, and carefully cautioned the bird not to look 
 up until tiiey had all got back to their country. They expected to be 
 taken down to the earth along with the flying bird. Ikit the jay could 
 not resist the temptation of taking a look at the .salmon which he con- 
 sidered as his prospective prey. Therefore the whole assemblage of the 
 three brothers with their packages of salmon underneath was fixed for- 
 ever in the sky, men and salmon being changed into stars. 
 
 These we now see every clear night. The three brothers we call 
 Em'tij or the Pursuers'-. Their sister underwent a like transforma- 
 tion, and we can also see her a short distance off under the shape of 
 a solitary star. Ahead of the whole is S^mtjnu^ which is nothing else 
 than the herd of caribou chased by the three brothers. Those stars are 
 always scintillating as if constantly on the move. This is because the 
 caribou are fleeing from the three brothers. In a straight line beneath 
 the hunters are three smaller stars , they are the packages of salmon 
 changed into stars by the curiosity of the jay. As for the bird, he flew 
 away, and therefore he cannot now be seen. 
 
 When the mother of the three brothers and of the she-dog .saw that the 
 sun had disappeared below the horizon without their coming back, she 
 became very anxious ; for they used to return home by daylights /\t 
 last, having accidentally looked up to the heavens, she beheld them there 
 stationary under the form of stars. Mad with sorrow and guessing that 
 this was due to the witchcraft of the old woman, she ran out to her and 
 loaded her with a coiled-root basket^ full of burning coals which she 
 placed on her back, constantly to pack thereafter. Then she thrust a 
 roasting-spit through her and hurled her up to the East, saying, "Hence- 
 forth yiu shall be she after whom daylight comes"." The old woman 
 
 'The daily bread of the Carriers. 
 'Orion. 
 
 'Tlie Pleiades. 'I'heir Carrier name is an olil word, the nearest equivalent of which would 
 be "star island." 
 
 * In Carrier legends, hunters are very generally supposed to return before night, unless tiiey 
 meet with some accident. 
 
 •There are no such baskets among the Carriers, but they are very common among the 
 Tsii>ioirtin, the southern neighbours of the sub-tribe to which my narrator belongs. 
 
 • U kwe-y3i!(aih oHle. The morning star. 
 
m 
 
 ^^p 
 
 1894-95.] 
 
 THRKE CAIIRIER MYTHS. 
 
 33 
 
 was thus translated up to the sky, and she it is whom we see every 
 morning under tlie shape of a big star. Her basket full of 'burning coals 
 explains how it is that the star is so bright. 
 
 COMMEN1S. 
 
 I think that it requires but little acumen to perceive the difference 
 which exists between the present and the preceding stories. The purely 
 mythic character of the one is as clear as the legendary complexion of 
 the others. This remark applies more especially to the second part of 
 the latter narrative, which is altogether mythic or fabulous, while the 
 episode of the procreation of the hybrid brothers and sister might per- 
 haps be regarded as figurative of the mixed origin of the Di5n(^ stock. 
 Unless we choo.se to see in the representative of the canine gens and its 
 nocturnal visits to the maiden a counterpart of the Incubus, the male 
 demon who was formerly believed to consort with women in their sleep. 
 But the first hypothesis is much more probable and natural. Taken as 
 a whole and compared with the other American, and some Asiatic, races, 
 the D^n^ nation is of a relatively moral disposition, and the monstrous 
 union of the virgin with the old dog might be taken as symbolical of the 
 former intermarriages between the original ancestors of the D(^n^, who- 
 ever they may have been, and some immoral and dissolute race either in 
 Asia or on the coast of America. 
 
 Indeed, a particular Den(5 tribe, that of the Dog-Ribs\ owes its dis- 
 tinctive nanik, to a similar traditional intercourse of a dog with a woman, 
 and the members of that tribe believe themselves to be the offspring of 
 that union. Shorn of a few repetitions and unimportant monologues, 
 their story is as follows : — 
 
 A woman belonging to the tribe of the Yellow-Knives'^ was living with 
 her brothers when a beautiful stranger came from an unknown land, 
 whom she was made to marry, as so far she had persisted in remaining 
 single. As she awoke during the night she was surprised not to find 
 her husband by her side, but instead she heard a dog gnawing some 
 bones left on the hearth. As she had no dog, she was puzzled and was 
 curious to ascertain whence the canine had come. Fire was rekindled, but 
 no dog was seen. After some more rest, she again awoke to hear the 
 same gnawing in the dark, when one of her brothers threw his axe in the 
 direction of the noise. There was a great outcry, and after the fire had 
 been kindled again, a big black dog was seen lying lifeless, whereby she 
 
 ' An Eastern Dene tribe whose habitat lies between Great Slave Lake and Great Hear Lake. 
 ' Habitat east of Lake Athapaska. 
 
 -w. : * .: m'3a«Ki«?"-''^««'^ - 
 
Ill 
 
 34 
 
 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
 
 [Vol.. V. 
 
 and her brothers knew that the animal was nobody else than her hus- 
 band who, man by the daytime, became dog during the night. 
 
 For her relations with the brute, the woman was abandoned, and in due 
 course of time she bore six little dogs, which she kept in a satchel. One 
 day that she came back from a visit to her rabbit-snares, she noticed foot- 
 prints as of children on the hearth. Desirous of learning whence they 
 proceeded, she attached a Iin^ cord to the lacing-string of the sack con- 
 taining her little ones and, telling them that she was going again to visit 
 her snares she left, but merely went to hide herself a short distance off 
 behind a bush. The little dogs believing themselves alone and unseen, 
 came out of their sack, when their mother pulled the cord, thereby closing 
 it against three, two males and one female, who had come out transformed 
 into boys and girl respectively. Tho.se that remained dogs she aban- 
 doned, while the two boys became powerful hunters and, marrying their 
 sister, were the ancestors of the Dog- Rib tribe.' 
 
 Here ends in the original text of Petitot what that branch of the D6t\6 
 family regards as its national legend. One particular of some sociologi- 
 cal importance we seem justified in inferring from the above, viz.: that 
 polyandry did not seem repulsive to the social notions of the Dog-Ribs, 
 any more than their congeners, the Tse'kehne, deemed it, until a recent 
 date, inconsistent with propriety. That the forincr tribe is too exclusive 
 in its appropriation of the tale is shown by the fact that the Tsij>joh'tin 
 possess a tradition substantially the same as that just related, and all the 
 main details of which are identical with those of the Carrier story. 
 Among the Tsij>joh'tin, the lodge is simply replaced by the tjiz^^ii or 
 subterranean hut, while the bear-berries of the Carrier myth are with 
 them a species of tuberculous root, of which they are particularly fond. 
 
 The Hare Indians, another D<^n^ tribe''^, share with the Kutchin, the 
 northernmost division of that exclusive family, the belief in a tradition 
 according to which "they formerly dwelt very far away in the west and 
 beyond the sea, in the midst of a very powerful nation among which 
 magicians used to transform themselves into dogs or wolves during the 
 night, while they became men again during the day. These people had 
 taken wives from among the Dene^" The Kutchin describe that nation 
 as very immoral and going almost naked. According to I'etitot, the 
 same Indians believe also in the existence, on the Asiatic continent, of a 
 nation of dog-men, the upper part of whose body they state to be that of 
 
 ' Tradiliotis indiennes du Camiia Nord-Ouest, par /' Ahhh E. Petitot, p. 301. 
 ^ Habitat : Mackenzie, An'lerson and MacF'arlane Rivers. 
 * Essai siir t'arigine des Dinf-DindjU ; Paris, 1876, p. xxviii. 
 
 A 
 
 ■«ptS ■Sf'^J J^/'*|«WSJ«»*'' 
 
:ns 
 
 >^ ■J 
 
 ■^-■^i 
 
 1894-W.] 
 
 THREH OARKIBH MYTHS. 
 
 35 
 
 •i 
 
 a man, while the lower part is that of a dofj.' Their name for these 
 monsters is Thn-akcni, which meaijs at the same time Dog-feet and Dog- 
 race (^/s de cliien). 
 
 To return to our legend. It would seem as if its first part were a sort 
 of national tradition among the hyperborean races of America, since even 
 the Kskimo have a story which is evidently the equivalent of it. Ac- 
 cording to Dr. I'", lioas, an old Eskimo was living alone with his daughter 
 who, for a long time, would not marry. At length a dog, spotted white 
 and red, won her affection and became her husband. By him she had 
 ten children, five of whom were dogs and five were Adlct, a ♦^.ibe of 
 fabulous beings half-men, half-dogs. The former became the ancestors of 
 the Europeans, while the latter were the progenitors of a numerous 
 people'^. 
 
 As to the second part of our myth, namely, the beautiful story of the 
 initiation of the three brothers into the mysteries of the hunt, and their 
 final transformation into stars, it is, as far as I know, found among no 
 other D<^n^ tribe, except the Tsi[>ioh'tin. IJutthe Central Eskimo have a 
 legend which, though strongly impregnated with local colouring, bears a 
 close resemllance thereto. Here it is, after Dr. Boas : — 
 
 " Three men went bear hunting with a sledge and took a young boy 
 with them. When they approached the edge of the' floe, they saw a bear 
 and went in pursuit. Though the dogs ran fast they could not get nearer, 
 and all of a suddeiT they observed that the bear was lifted up and their 
 sledge followed. At this moment the boy lost one of his mittens and in 
 the attempt to pick it up fell from the sledge. Then he saw the men 
 ascending higher and higher, finally being transformed into stars. The 
 bear became the star Nanuqdjung (Bctelgcux); the pursuers, Udleqdjun 
 (Orion's belt), and the sledge, Kamutiqdjung (Orion's sword). The men 
 continue the pursuit up to this day ; the boy, however, returned to the 
 village and toM how the men were lost."^ 
 
 It is but natural to see savages believe in the personal nature of the 
 heavenly bodies, when even Plato, the great philosopher, thought that the 
 stars were as many animated beings. All the mythologies are unanimous 
 in personifying, each according to the particular bias and the favourite 
 avocation of the people, the constellations and princip.U stars of the 
 firmament. Hence, the Pleiades, which are among the sedentary people 
 
 ' IhiJ, p. xxix. 
 
 'The Central Eskimo, by Dr. F. Hoas, Sixtli Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol.; Washington, 1888, 
 P- 637- 
 
 *Ibid, p. 637. 
 
 ''.a?t,nj"'""''«*iw*'*?' 
 
30 
 
 TKANSACTI0N8 OK THE CANADIAN INSTITUTR. 
 
 [Vol,. V. 
 
 
 
 of Europe the 'Hen and Her Chickens," and were ainong the poetic 
 inhabitants of Greece tiic seven daughters of Atlas, become a herd of 
 caribou among the native huntsmen of North America. It is perhapa 
 worth noticing, in this connection, that the Greeks believed also that the 
 Pleiades were being pursued by Orion, the gigantic hunter who, after his 
 death at the hands of his fair but jealous companion, Artemis, was placed 
 among the stars together with his hound. 
 
 "««i>r?s^" 
 
 '<fif^:'^f*^yf'^>W^''i' 
 
^^^^^^^ 
 
 ; I 
 
 "■^i 
 
 '^ fi . 
 
 
 r 1 ^ 
 
 'f: 
 
 r\' " 
 
 i'^Hg 
 
 'iJ'ir,'»?'i',ti; 
 
 '."^■J^K-.^'M 
 
 
 ;.,■?•*.'::' 
 
 ,«s^&#^ 
 
i