1894-95. ] THREE 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. Four days afterwards she gave birth to twins, who in four days
grew to manhood, and for four days more remained near the 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
them 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-lorists are well aware of the fact that
the Mayas, the Aztecs, the Sioux, the Algonquins, in fact almost all other
American tribes, attach the same importance to the number four2.

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 made of two serpents when one would have
done just as well for the purpose ; the unfaithful wife has two sons; her
head is swallowed by two whales (a circumstance rather hard to account
for!); the old man with the precious 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 Déné Noah’s 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 of Carrier
Hercules mentions among the latter’s victims two giant snakes, two giant
toads, two giant spiders, etc.

1A part of the Navajo’s mythology, by W. Matthews, Am. Antiq., April 1883.

* Speaking of the symbolism of the number four, I cannot refrain from hazarding a remark
which may have its usefulness. There is a very prevalent disposition on the part of such folk-
lorists as 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 of the sacred-
ness or of the widespread use of the number four among American aborigines. Their theory is
probably grounded on fact as regards certain southern, half-civilized tribes ; but I cannot help
thinking that, in some cases at least, their explanation is wide of the mark. It should not be
forgotten that the points of the compass are but imaginary divisions of space introduced for the
sake of convenience by the abstract-grasping mind of the white and other superior races. At
all events, some American tribes hardly know any such divisions. This is so true that 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 sa pas'ath tséh, ‘* whence the
sun rises up ;” the west, sa naa‘ath ¢t’séh, ‘where the sun sets ;” the north, 4o’hwaz fsa, **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, 7é, “up” (ze, up stream or opposite to the outlet of a lake); 2Za’,
“down” (stream); #o°, “inland” (ze. away from the water); 7¢sev, **down,” towards the
shore, etc., etc.