2 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL V. 



have transcribed, it is because I think that, though each of them is given 

 the outward garb of an apologue, the events they refer to can, without 

 exaggeration, be considered as endowing them with the character more 

 of traditions than of myths properly speaking. My meaning will become 

 more apparent from a perusal of the comments wherewith I have ventured 

 to accompany them. 



These, I fully expect, will find many an incredulous reader, when they 

 do not excite the supercilious pity of the modern critic. Speaking of 

 the Vedas and the Rigveda is much more fashionable in certain circles 

 than quoting the Bible and referring to the momentous events mentioned 

 in Moses' Genesis. Another school of folk-lorists would also see in the 

 native American myths nothing but personifications of natural phe- 

 nomena. But I cannot help thinking that the latter's ingenuity would 

 have to be exercised to a rather remarkable degree if they were looking, 

 as they are wont, to the following detailed legends for a figurative ac- 

 count, say, of the daily conflict between light and darkness or some other 

 physical phenomenon. As to the former, I suppose one may always be 

 permitted to refer to the Biblical narratives, were it only as to historical 

 chronicles, independently of the inspired character of their authors. 



Moreover, it is but just to add that most of my commentaries are 

 merely hints thrown out more in the shape of queries than as incontro- 

 vertible facts. Attempts at identifications, I know, are generally danger- 

 ous, especially when their basis is such vague and disconnected elements 

 as those furnished by the stories upon which the present paper is founded. 

 Yet these stories contain a few points v/hich, to my mind, are not without 

 significance, and these I shall try to bring out in all sincerity. I am 

 wedded to no pet theory as to the origin of our Indians, and this freedom 

 from preconceived ideas leaves me so much the more at liberty to speak 

 out my mind frankly. 



To the proper understanding of an aboriginal myth's meaning, one 

 should not forget that the native chronicles have absolutely no regard for 

 chronology and very little, indeed, for consistency. They abound in 

 anachronisms no less than in synchronisms ; and no wonder. A people 

 having no written literature cannot be expected to have preserved in 

 narratives handed down by word of mouth only the exact order of 

 events. Furthermore, the real facts thereby related are almost invariably 

 hidden under a thick veil of details more or less puerile, and these de- 

 tails are always coloured after the particular environment of the tribe. 

 The human mind cannot grasp or imagine that a duplicate of which the 

 eyes have never seen in whole or, separately, in its component parts. 

 Therefore one cannot reasonably exact from a native story a correct ac- 



