1H94-95.] 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 four-. 



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 Dene 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. 



^ A 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 .m pas'aih fs^h, " whence the 

 sun rises up;" the west, ja nai'aihfseh, " where the sun sets ;•" the north, //^^'.('K'^'s /'j^, "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, w/, )'up" {.i.e., up stream or opposite to the outlet of a lake) ; nta', 

 "down" (stream); no', "inland" (i.^., away from the water); ntssn, "down," towards the 

 shore, etc., etc. 



