1894-95. | THREE CARRIER MYTHS. 7

he was not the first beautiful child whom their father would destroy.
Wherefrom he concluded that the old man was wont to kill children.

Yet he followed them into their lodge, and was at once placed between
them!

After 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 amelanchier was
plentiful?. This was the slope of a mountain. So the old man, staying
on his raft, sent the child ashore 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. This 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 feathers 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

1 7.e,, was married to them, subject to the trials which he was to undergo at the hands of his
prospective father-in-law.

2 The shaft of the Carrier arrows was invariably of A. a/zdfolia or service-tree wood.

8Tt 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 flapping of its wings.