1894-95, | THREE CARRIER MYTHS. 3

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 sacred 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 Dénés. They evidence also a tendency
to become apologues or allegories not to be found in their Eastern
counterparts. Must this be regarded as a mark of a more cultivated
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 texts have been collected. Most
published accounts of native legends purport to be the English version of
the words of some old Indian written on dictation by the transcriber,
tried this system when I resided among the Tsijyoh’tin some twelve years
ago, but the results were most unsatisfactory. I could find no Indian
clever enough to dictate to me without interruptions, repetitions or
omissions, any single legend. Therefore it is but fair that I should give
an idea of my present mode of transcribing aborizinal myths, so that the
reader may be in a position to gauge the degree of accuracy of the
following texts.

I have a reliable Indian narrate me as clearly as possible the whole of
one myth (when this is not too long) 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 last 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 Carrier more fluently than Enelish 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