1894-95,] THREE CARRIKR MYTHS. 21 



narratives is that the gstas of the one and the Wise One of the other 

 are replaced in x^?;//^ Algonquin versions by Michabo, the " Great Rabbit." 

 It has been fashionable in certain quarters to indulge in covert sneers at 

 the expense of those who see in some native legends an echo of the past 

 rather than mysterious, enigmatic personifications of natural phenomena. 

 Therefore I will now give in a condensed form the explanation of that 

 myth proposed as the only true one by the most prominent among the 

 -allegorical school of folk-lorists, Dr. D. G. Brinton, leaving it to the 

 reader to decide whether' his subtleties of speech are more convincing 

 than my own interpretation of the same story. 



" In the Algonquin tongue the word for Giant Rabbit is Missabos, 

 ■compounded from Mitdii or Missi, great, large, and ivabos, a rabbit. 

 But there is a whole class of related words . . . which sound very 

 much like zvabos. They are from a general root wab, which goes to form 

 such words of related signification as ivabi, he sees, ivabati, the east, the 

 Orient, zvabish, white, bidaban (bid-ivaban), the dawn, tvdban, daylight, 

 ^vasseia, the light, and many others. Here is where we are to look for 

 the real meaning of the name Missabos. It originally meant the Great 

 Light. ... I believe that a similar analysis will explain the part 

 which the muskrat plays in the story. . . . The word for muskrat in 

 Algonquin is wajashk, the first letter of which often suffers elision. . , . 

 But this is almost the word for mud, wet earth, soil, ajiski. There is no 

 reasonable doubt but that here again otosis and personification came in 

 and gave the form and name of an animal to the original simple state- 

 ment. That statement xvas that from zvet mud dried by the sunlight, the 

 solid earth zvas formed^." 



The italics are mine. 



In rebuttal of the above, I beg to submit that even in some Algonquin 

 versions^ Michabo or Missabos is replaced by the Old One, and in that 

 case the ingenious fabric of Dr. Brinton loses its raiso7i detre. Further- 

 more, even when the Algonquin hero's personality remains of an animal 

 character, his name varies from Michabo to Manibozho, Nanabush, 

 Messou, Mideathon and Hiawatha^, which I suppose could not be 

 diverted into meaning the Great Light, etc. As to the identification of 

 the muskrat vvith the wet earth, the soil, through the quasi-homonymy 



' American Hero-Myths, p. 41-42. 



^Asin that current among the Blackfeet. See "The Owl," University of Ottawa, May 

 4890, p. 298. 



* Notes on Primitive Man in Ontario, by David Boyle, Toronto, 1895, p. 18. It may be 

 added that some Algonquins credit the osprey with the success generally attributed to the 

 muskrat. 



