22 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [Vou V-

of the name of both in one Algonquin dialect, if Dr. Brinton’s interpreta-
tion be the correct one, it must be paramount to stating that the myth
itself has an Algonquin origin, since the same play with the words is
impossible in connection with their Déne names (yan and ¢tsékér). Is
there any real proof of this priority of origin?

II—THE BURNING DOWN OF A COUNTRY.
Told by Abel Noathatcas, Chief of Thatce, on Lake Stuart.

A young man was living with a young woman. All the other women
were bringing to their husbands basketsful? of ” barmih? or sap; and yet
his wife used to come home with a single shaving of it which she brought
him in the hand.. He wished to ascertain the reason of this ; therefore
he followed her one day ata 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: £2/¢ f
kalé !®, 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 ’kormih, 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 *kermih.
See how the other women are always loaded when they come home.
Therefore, lend me your blanket* and your 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 ‘cazya7®>. But he stopped
not with them among the scrub pines ; he went on as far as the dried up

1 Tcapyay tézpan. The tcatya, cannot quite properly be called a basket, but it is its equiva-
lent among our Indians. For figure and description of the utensil, see Motes on the Wester
Dénés, Trans. Can. Inst., Vol. IV., p. 120.

2The ’karmih is the sap or cambium layer of the scrub pine (2. coztorta), scraped off in
thin shavings by means of a bone scraper. Of. c?t., p. 76.

§ Words now devoid of meaning, at least among our Indians.
“That is ber outer garment.

5 See note } above.