10 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. V. 



He then put him on his raft and set out in company with a muskrat 

 and a young beaver. The water was soon noticed to rise up at a pro- 

 digious rate. It rose and rose until it covered the highest mountains. 

 Rising still higher, it almost touched the sky, when the child, striking at 

 it with his dagger, the flood began gradually to subside. 



He waited a long time, and then sent down in search of land both 

 the muskrat and the young beaver. Very long after, they both came up 

 to the surface, dead. The young beaver had his paw clutched, but 

 empty, while the muskrat's contained a little mud\ This the child took 

 out and kneaded with his hands so as to extend it into an island. After 

 additional handling, it became a large island on which he and his brother- 

 wolf landed. 



He then sent his brother-wolf to see how the land was. On taking 

 leave of his brother, the wolf said : " If I come back silent, you shall 

 know thereby that the land is not yet inhabitable. If I howl from a very 

 long distance, it shall be a sign that the land is well." Then he added : 

 " Know you also that you shall die before me." 



So he said, and went. Long thereafter he came back in silence, as 

 the land was not yet inhabitable. But the second time that he had set 

 out to explore the island, he was heard howling from a very great dis- 

 tance. Therefore, T[stas^ settled definitely. As for the wolf, he is still 

 in existence, while 7[stas is no more. 



COMMENTS. 



The above is the exact reproduction of what the Carriers give as one 

 continuous legend ; but its equivalent among their congeners east of the 

 Rocky Mountains is contained in two or more separate stories. Our 

 narrative is, as to form, of a genuinely Dene character; yet as the histori- 

 cal facts of which I believe it to be but a disfigurement belong to the 

 whole human race, that myth is far from local in origin or diffusion. To 

 the unprejudiced reader, at least two most important events of the 

 remotest antiquity will appear as hinted at by the Carrier tradition : I 

 mean the fall of the first woman and the destruction of mankind b3^ the 

 Noachian deluge. These two points shall be separately treated of 



^ In the native mythology, while some animals are assigned a ridiculous or luirtful role, 

 others constantly play the part of a benefactor or of a wiseacre. Among the latter is the musk- 

 rat, to wliich is here due the re-creation of the earth, while in another legend (See At-e the 

 Carrier Sociology and Mythology Indigenotis or Exotic? Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, Sect. II., 

 1892, p. 125), it is made instrumental in procuring fire for men. 



* Another proof of the influence of western on eastern mythology. gstas should hav 

 nothing to do with the present legend. 



