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where, and in their etiological myths merely described how they had 
been brought into their present relationship with man. 
The principal character in many of these myths is a powerful 
“ trickster ” known to the different tribes under various names. The 
Algonkians of eastern Canada call him Glooscap, Nanibush, or 
Wisakedjak; the plains’ Indians name him “the Old Man”; the 
Salish Indians of British Columbia identify him with the coyote; and 
the Pacific Coast tribes with the raven. Whatever his name, animal 
or otherwise, he is always what the Carriers call him, “ the trickster ”, 
who delights in playing pranks on every one and everything. He 
invites the ducks to a new kind of feast so that he may twist their 
necks while they are dancing, and he frightens away his daughters 
with a rumour of enemies that he may surreptitiously eat all their 
food. The tales of his adventures and misadventures (for as often 
as not he over-reaches himself) would fill an entire book. They 
provided the folk-lore with a comic element that never failed to 
amuse the Indians, pld and young alike. 
Another group of tales widely spread over the Dominion relates 
how the “ trickster ”, or else a separate culture hero, roams over 
the earth rearranging phenomena and destroying all the devouring 
monsters that prey u])on mankind. There was no place for altruism 
in the character of the “ trickster ” himself, so that whenever he 
appears as the hero of these tales he perforins his services uninten- 
tionally, merely to gratify his personal wdiims. But whenever there 
is a separate character, as among the Carriers, we have a hero 
analogous to Perseus or 8t. Andrew, a genuine crusader who fights 
and sometimes dies for the cause of humanity. Many tales in this 
group afford interesting glimpses of tribal life during pre-European 
days, and a few reveal touches of true romanticism. Thus in one 
Carrier story the hero begins life as a despised orphan, marries the 
daughter of a powerful chief through the help of his supernatural 
guardian, wins fame ami honour by his skill and courage and becomes 
the champion of the countryside. After destroying various monsters 
that ravage the villages he receives a mortal wound in the death 
agonies of a supernatural lynx. His countrymen then carry home 
his body for honourable burial, but his widow, overwhelmed with 
grief because a faulty stitch in his moccasin had caused his death, 
commits suicide. 
