1892-93.] NOTES ON THE WESTERN DENIES. 195 



From this short Carrier myth, the sociologist will learn that : — Firstly, 

 the observation of the Great Bear as a means of reckoning time was a 

 national custom among Carriers. Secondly, the heavenly bodies were 

 regarded as quasi divine powers which it is wrong to speak lightly of, a 

 deduction which might easily be proven to be legitimate by other points 

 of Carrier psychology. Thirdly, to look handsome, a Carrier of the old 

 stock must paint his face. Fourthly, the Carriers had a correct idea of 

 the immensity of the universe. Fifthly, the injunction not to travel in 

 a northern direction might perhaps be interpreted as a reminiscence of 

 the tribe's migrations southwards. Sixthly, a woman having her menses 

 is legally impure, and must be deprived even of the sight of any object 

 endowed with magic powers. Lastly, more than one of those writers 

 who are so fond of parallelisms between American mythologies and the 

 Biblical narrative will no doubt be tempted to compare the beneficial, 

 food-giving and road-finding staff of the young traveller with the 

 marvellous miracle working wand of Moses which, during similarly life- 

 long peregrinations, opened the way and found water where none was to 

 be seen. This suggestion, however, is given for what it may be worth, 

 and I must leave it to others to decide whether it is not too far fetched.* 



Now that we have extracted morals enough from our fable, we revert 

 to the description of the few items which still claim our attention. 



If my information is reliable, there were formerly no fortified villages 

 amonsf the Western Denes. One should not however infer from this that 

 there was no warring among them ; on the contrary, I think I am 

 warrante^d in stating that atonement by compensation for losses of life, 

 even involuntary or -accidental, was much less practised here than on the 

 Coast. But hostilities were seldom of so general a character as to involve 

 whole villages, though some such cases are recorded in the traditions of 

 the tribes. More commonly they were restricted to two different gentes, 

 and their cause may have been the killing of a man openly or, as was 

 supposed, through the black art of the shamans. In the latter case, the 

 dying person usually revealed the name of the magician to whom he 

 attributed his death, and nobody dreamt of questioning the truth of his 

 would-be revelation. Naturally, mofe than once personal 'grievances 

 must have been thus avenged. The cognate families of the real or 

 fancied murderer would then expect reprisals at the hands of the co- 

 gentile families of the deceased, and they would erect, generally in 

 secluded spots of the forest, what was called pd^-pa-ydV. or " a house for 



* The TsilKoh'tin possess a different tradition, the principle hero of which worlcs innumerable 

 marvels with the help of a magic wand which they call V^R, a word not employed to designate 

 any other kind of wand or staff. 



