1894-95.] THREE CARRIER MYTHS. 35 



was thus translated up to the sky, and she it is whom we see every 

 morning under the shape of a big star. Her basket full of burning coals 

 explains how it is that the star is so bright. 



COMMENTS. 



I think that it requires but little acumen to perceive the difference 

 which exists between the present and the preceding stories. The purely 

 mythic character of the one is as clear as the legendary complexion of 

 the others. This remark applies more especially to the second part of 

 the latter narrative, which is altogether mythic or fabulous, while the 

 episode of the procreation of the hybrid brothers and sister might per- 

 haps be regarded as figurative of the mixed origin of the D^ne stock. 

 Unless we choose to see in the representative of the canine gens and its 

 nocturnal visits to the maiden a counterpart of the Incubus, the male 

 demon who was formerly believed to consort with women in their sleep. 

 But the first hypothesis is much more probable and natural. Taken as 

 a whole and compared with the other American, and some Asiatic, races^ 

 the Dene nation is of a relatively moral disposition, and the monstrous 

 union of the virgin with the old dog might be taken as symbolical of the 

 former intermarriages between the original ancestors of the D^ne, who- 

 ever they may have been, and some immoral and dissolute race either in 

 Asia or on the coast of America. 



Indeed, a particular Dene tribe, that of the Dog-Ribs^, owes its dis- 

 tinctive name to a similar traditional intercourse of a dog with a woman, 

 and the members of that tribe believe themselves to be the offspring of 

 that union. Shorn of a few repetitions and unimportant monologues, 

 their story is as follows : — 



A woman belonging to the tribe of the Yellow-Knives^ was living with 

 her brothers when a beautiful stranger came from an unknown land, 

 whom she was made to marry, as so far she had persisted in remaining 

 single. As she awoke during the night she was surprised not to find 

 her husband by her side, but instead she heard a dog gnawing some 

 bones left on the hearth. As she had no dog, she was puzzled and was 

 curious to ascertain whence the canine had come. Fire was rekindled, but 

 no dog was seen. After some more rest, she again awoke to hear the 

 same gnawing in the dark, when one of her brothers threw his axe in the 

 direction of the noise. There was a great outcry, and after the fire had 

 been kindled again, a big black dog was seen lying lifeless, whereby she 



* An Eastern Dene tribe whose habitat lies between Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake^ 

 ^ Habitat east of Lake Athapaska. 



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