20 TRANSACTIONS OP THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VOL. V. 



Mosaical account. After several details practically identical with those of 

 the Carrier legend, such as the quest for arrow-shafts and arrow-feather- 

 ing, with the adventure with the thunder-bird and its children replaced 

 here by the eagle and the eaglets, the Hare story goes on to say : — 



" Then the Wise C)ne made a great raft at the horizon^. ' What do 

 you mean with this raft? 'they said. Then he said: ' If ^ plenty of 

 water comes, I will go aboard.' ' Oh ! as for us we will climb up the 

 trees,' they said. ' Then as for me, if^ there is a flood, I will stay on the 

 raft,' he said. 



" It being so, he made big ropes so and so, worked with many things 

 and made a big raft. 



" Therefore the • water seemed suddenly to thunder forth, all men 

 climbed on the trees, there came plenty of water, all men perished. 

 Therefore the Wise One having tied his raft with ropes, was floating: 

 along. He also placed on his raft pairs of animals, of carnivores and 

 of birds. 



" * There will be no more land,' he said to them. For a long time 

 there was no more land : it was being said that there was no one to go 

 in search of land. The muskrat dived and went in search of land. He 

 came up to the surface almost dead. 'Nothing at all!' he said . . . The 

 beaver having dived after him, was not seen any more for a long time ; 

 but afterwards he came up swimming, having a little mud in his hand 

 which he gave to the Wise One. The old man put it on the water. As 

 he wanted the earth to exist again, he blew on the mud, making it a 

 little big. He placed on it a beautiful little bird, whereby it became 

 still larger. Then he let out on the land a fox which ran around it and 

 made it grow still more. He slept once, twice, thrice, four, five, six times 

 running around it^ ; whereby it became whole*. 



" The Wise One having put back the animals on the earth, he landed 

 himself with his children. ' What a number of men there shall be again 

 on the earth!' he said. Then there were again many men^" 



As hinted above, the Algonquin tribes have a myth wherein the musk- 

 rat plays exactly the same role as in the Carrier legend and the beaver 

 in its counterpart among the Hare Indians. The only difference in the 



^ Literally, at the edge of the .sky. 



'y/"ancl when are rendered by tlie same word in Dene. 



' That is, the fox ran around it on six consecutive days. 



*/.^. , came bacic to its normal state of existence. 



' Traditions indie nnes du Canada Nord-Ouesl, p. 129. 



