1894-95.] THREE CARRIER MYTHS. 



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. 7 his 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 



^ I.e., was married to them, subject to the trials which he was to undergo at the hands of his 

 prospective falher-in-law. 



*The shaft of the Carrier arrows was invariably of A. alnifolia or service-tree wood. 



* It 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. 



