3i6 north AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY

Manuel d^archeologie amcricaine. By H. Beucliat. Paris, 1912.
^‘Mythology of Indian Stocks North of Mexico,’^ by A. F. Cham-
berlain, in JAFL xviii (1905). Also, same author, "^Hndians,
North American,” in Encyclopaedia Britannica, nth ed.

‘‘Ethnology in the Jesuit Relations,” by J. D. McGuire, in JJj new
series, hi (1901). (Guide to the materials in JR.)

Ill COLLECTIONS AND PERIODICALS

Publications of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.:
Contributions to North American Ethnology^ vols. i-vii, ix,
iB77~93-

Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology^ 1881 ff.
Bulletin^ Bureau of American Ethnology^ 1887 ff.

Report of the United States National Museum^ 1884 ff-

Publications of the American Museum of Natural History, New
York:

Anthropological Papers, 1907 ff.

Memoirs, 1898 ff.

Bulletin, 1881 ff.

Publications of the American Ethnological Society. F. Boas, editor*
Leyden, 1907 ff. (Texts and translations.)

Publications of the Field Columbian Museum. Anthropological Series*
Chicago, 1895 ff.

University of California Publications in Archaeology and Ethnology*
Berkeley, Cal, 1903 ff.

Memoirs of Canada Department of Mines. Anthropological Series*
Ottawa, 1914 ff.

Transactions of the Canadian Institute. Toronto, 1889 ff.

Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada. Mont-
real, 1st series, 1883-95; series, 1895 ff.

‘‘Ethnological Survey of Canada,” in Reports of the British Associa--
tionfor the Advancement of Science, i 8 g 7 -igo 2 . London, 1898-
1903.

Comptes rendus du Congres international des Americanistes. Paris
and elsewhere, 1878 ff.

Publications of the Hakluyt Society. Vols. Hxxix, London, 1 847-89,
Publications of the Champlain Society. Toronto, 1907 ff.

Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents. R. Thwaites, editor, Vols, i—
Ixx. Cincinnati, 1896-1901,



BIBLIOGRAPHY


317

Early W estern Travels, R. Thwaites, editor. Vols. i-xxxii. Cleve-
landj 1904-07.

V oyageSj relations et memoires originaux pour servir d Fhistoire de la
dkouverte de V Amerique, H. Ternaux-Compans, editor. Tomes
i-xx. Paris, 1837-41. (Mainly Latin America.)

Library of Aboriginal American Literature, D. Brinton, editor. Vols.
i-vi. Philadelphia, 1882-85.

Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, James Hastings, editor. Edin-
burgh and New York, 1908 ff.

American Anthropologist, Vols. i-xi, Washington, 1888-98; new
series, vols. i ff., New York, 1899 ff*

Journal of American Folk-Lore, Boston and New York, 1888 ff.

Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, Boston and New York,
1894 ff.


IV. GENERAL WORKS
{a) Descriptive

Catlin, George, [a]. Illustrations of the Manners and Customs and
Condition of the North American Indians, 2 vols. 2d ed., Lon-
don, 1866.

. Letters and Notes on the Manners^ Customs^ and Condi-
tion of the North American Indians, 2 vols. New York and
London, 1844.

De Smet, Life^ Letters and Travels of Father Pierre- Jean De Smet,
S,J, Chittendon and Richardson, editors. 4 vols. New York,

Lafitau, J. F., Mceurs des sauvages ameriguains. Tomes i-ii. Paris,
1724. (An edition in 4 vols. was also issued simultaneously.)

Schoolcraft, H. R., [a], Algic Researches. New York, 1839.

. Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the His-
tory^ Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United
States, Parts i-iv. Philadelphia, 1851-57.

(J) Critical

Brinton, D. G., [a], Myths of the New World, 3d ed., Philadelphia,
1896.

, American Hero Myths. Philadelphia, 1882.

[c], Essays of an Americanist. Philadelphia, 1890.

Lowie, Robert H., ‘‘The Test-Theme in North American Myth-
ology,’’ in JAFL xxi (1908).



3i8 north AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY

Powell, J. W., Sketch of the Mythology of the North American
Indians/’ in i ARBE (i88i).

Radin, Paul, Literary Aspects of North American Mythology {Museum
Bulletin No, id, Canada Department of Mines), Ottawa, 1915.

V. SELECT AUTPIORITIES
Chapter I

Amundsen, R., The Northwest Passage, London, 1908.

Boas, F,, [a], ‘‘The Central Eskimo,” in 6 ARBE (1888).

, “The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay,” in

BAM XV (1901).

[c], “Eskimo Tales and Songs,” in JAFL ii, vii, x (1889-97).

Gosling-, W. G., Labrador. London, 1910.

Murdoch, John, “Ethnological Results of the Point Barrow Ex-
pedition,” in p ARBE (1892).

Nansen, F., Eskimo Life, 2d ed., London, 1894.

Nelson, E. W., “The Eskimo about Bering Strait,” in 18 ARBE
(1899).

Peary, R., The Conquest of the Pole, New York, 1911.

Rasmussen, Knud, The People of the Polar North, London, 1908.

Rink, H., Tales a?id Traditions of the Eskimo, London, 1875,

Stefansson, V., My Life with the Eskimo, New York, 1913.

Thalbitzer, William, [a], “The Heathen Priests of East Green-
land,” in 15 Internat, Amerikanisten-Kongress, Vienna, 1910.

, “Eskimo,” in Handbook of American Indian Languages

{40 BBE^ part i). Washington, 191 1. (Bibliography of Eskimo
literature.)

Chapters II-III
{a) Algonquian Tribes

Barbeau, C. M., Huron and Wyandot Mythology {Memoirs of Canada
Department of Mines, A nthropological Series, No. 1 1 ) . Ottawa,

Blair, E. FL, Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi and the Great
Lakes Regions, z vols. Cleveland, ign. (Early documents.)

Brinton, D. G., [d], The Lendpe and their Legends {Library of Abo-*
riginal American Literature, v). Philadelphia, 1885.

Copway, George, The Ojibway Nation, London, 1850.



BIBLIOGRAPHY


319

Dixon, R. B., [a], *^The Mythology of the Central and Eastern
Algonkins,” in JAFL xxii (1909).

Heckewelder, John G. E., Account of the Indian Nations. Phila-
delphia, 1819. (Hiawatha legend.)

Hoffman, W. J., [a], ‘^The Midewiwin or Grand Medicine Society
of the Ojibwa,’’ in 7 ARBE (1891).

Jones, William, Fox Texts {Publications of the American Ethnologic
cal Society y i). Leyden, 1907.

JR. Especially Le Jeune’s ^‘Relations.’’

Leland, Charles G., The Algonquin Legends of New England.
Boston, 1884.

Mechling, W. H., Male cite Tales {Memoirs of Canada Department of
Mines. Anthropological Series^ No. iv). Ottawa, 1914.

Owen, Mary A., Folklore of the Musquakie Indians. London, 1904.

Parkman, Francis, [a], The Jesuits in North America. Boston, 1867.

. History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac. Boston, 1868.

Rabin, Paul, [a], ‘‘Winnebago Tales,” in JAFL xxii (1909).

, Some Myths and Tales of the Ojihwa of Southeastern On-
tario {Memoirs of Canada Department of Mines. Anthropological
Series^ No. 2). Ottawa, 1914.

Rand, S. T., Legends of the Micmacs. New York and London,
1894.

Speck, F. G., Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin and
Timagami Ojihwa {Memoirs of Canada Department of Mines.
Anthropological Series^ No. 9). Ottawa, 1915.

{b) Iroquoian Tribes

Canfield, William W., The Legends of the Iroquois. New York,
1912.

Colden, Cadwallaber, The History of the Five Nations of Canada.
2 vols. New York, 1902.

Converse, Harriet M., “Myths and Legends of the New York
State Iroquois,” in Bulletin 125^ New York State Museum.
Albany, 1908.

Hale, Horatio, The Iroquois Book of Rites {Library of Aboriginal
American Literature^ ii). Philadelphia, 1883.

Hewitt, J. N. B., [a], “Iroquoian Cosmology,” in 21 ARBE ( 1903 )*

— , artt. “Hiawatha,” “Tawiscaron,” “Tarenyawagon,” in

30 BBE.



320 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY

JR. Especially Brebeufs ‘‘Relation’^ from the Huron Mission and
Jogues’ Letter from the Iroquois country.

Morgan, L. H., League of the Iroquois. H. M. Lloyd, editor. 2 vols.,
New York, 1901.

Smith, Erminnie A., “Myths of the Iroquois,” in 2 ARBE (1883).

Chapter IV
{a) Iroquoian Tribes

Mooney, James, [a], “Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee,” in 7 ARBE
(1891),

, “Myths of the Cherokee,” in ig ARBE, part i (1900).

Royce, Charles C,, “The Cherokee Nation of Indians,” in 5
ARBE (1887).

{b) Muskhogean Tribes

Bushnell, D. L, [a], “The Choctaw of Bayou Lacomb, Louisiana,”
in 48 BBE (1911).

, “Myths of the Louisiana Choctaw,” in AAj new series,

xii (1910).

Gatschet, a. S., [a], A Migration Legend of the Creek Indians (Library
of Aboriginal American Literature^ iv), Philadelphia, 1884.

MacCauley, Clay, “The Seminole Indians of Florida,” in 5 ARBE

(1887).

Speck, F. G., “Notes on Chickasaw Ethnology and Folklore,” in
JAFL XX (1907).

(c) Uchean Stock

Gatschet, A. S., , “Some Mythic Stories of the Yuchi Indians,”
in AA vi (1893).

Chapters V-VI
(a) Northern Athapascan

Jette, P. J., [a], “On the Superstitions of the Ten’a Indians,” in
AnthropoSj vii (1912).

, artt. in Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great

Britain and Ireland^ xxxviii-xxxix (1908-09). (Texts and
myths.)

Lofthouse, Bishop, “Chipewyan Stories,” in Transactions of the
Canadian Institute^ vol. x, part i (1913).

Morice, A. G., [a], “The Great Dene Race,” in Anthropos^ i-Y
(1906-10).



BIBLIOGRAPHY


321

Morice, a. G., , artt. in Transactions of the Canadian Institute^ Pro^
ceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada^ Comptes
rendus du Congres international des Americanistes .

Petitot, Emile, Traditions indiennes du Canada nord--ouest, Alen-
9on, 1887.

{b) Algonquian and Kiowan

Dorsey, G. A., [a], ‘‘The Arapaho Sun Dance,” in PCM iv (1903).

, “The Cheyenne,” in PCM ix (1905).

Dorsey and Kroeber, “Traditions of the Arapaho,” in PCM v

(1903)-

Grinnell, George B., [a], Blackfoot Lodge Tales, New York,
1892,

McClintock, Walter, The Old North Trail. New York, 1910.

Mooney, James, [c], “Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians,” In
17 ARBE^ part i (1898).

WissLER and Duvall, “Mythology of the Blackfoot Indians,” in
PAM ii (1909),

{c) Siouan Tribes

Dorsey, G. A., [c], “Traditions of the Osage,” in PCM vii (1904).

Dorsey, J. Owen, [a], “Dhegiha Texts,” in Contributions to North
American Ethnology^ vi (1890).

, “Omaha Sociology,” in 5 ARBE (1883).

W? ‘‘Osage Traditions,” in 6 ARBE (1888).

[d], “A Study of Siouan Cults,” in ii ARBE (1894).

[e], “Siouan Sociology,” in 15 ARBE (1897).

Eastman, Charles A., [a], The Soul of the Indian. Boston, 1911.

, Indian Boyhood, New York, 1902.

Fletcher, Alice C., and La Flesche, F., “The Omaha Tribe,”
in 27 ARBE (1911).

Lowie, Robert H., [a], “The Assiniboine,” in PAM iv (1910).

Mooney, James, [d], “The Ghost-Dance Religion,” in 14 ARBE,
part 2 (1896).

Will and Spinden, “The Mandan Indians,” in Peabody Museum
Papers, hi. Cambridge, 1906.

{d) Caddoan Tribes

Dorsey, G. A., [d], Mythology of the Wichita, Washington, 1904.

— [e], Traditions of the Skidi Pawnee, Boston and New York,

1904,



322 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY

Dorsey, G. A., [f], Traditions of the Caddo, Washington, 1905.

[g], The Pawnee^ Mythology^ part i. Washington, 1906.

[h], Traditions of the Arikara, Washington, 1904.

Fletcher, Alice C., ‘‘The Hako: a Pawnee Ceremonial/’ in 22
ARBE^ part 2 (1903).

Grinnell, George B,, , The Story of the Indian, New York,
1898.

[c], Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales, New York, 1909.

Chapter VII
(a) Salishan Tribes

Farrand, L., “Traditions of the Quinault Indians,” in MAM iv
(1909).

McDermott, Louisa, “Folklore of the Flathead Indians of Idaho,”
in JAFL xiv (1901).

Teit, James, [a], Traditions of the Thompson River Indians of British
Columbia {Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society , vi).
Boston and New York, 1898.

, “The Thompson River Indians of British Columbia,”

in MAM ii (1900).

[c], “The Lillooet,” in MAM iv (1909).

[d], “The Shuswap,” in MAM iv (1909).

{b) Shahaptian Tribes

Packard, R. L., “Notes on the Mythology and Religion of the Nez
Perces,” in JAFL iv (1891).

Spinden, H, J., [a], “Myths of the Nez Perce Indians,” in JAFL xxi
(1908).

, “The Nez Perce Indians,” in Memoirs of the American

Anthropological Association, ii (1908).

(r) Shoshone an Tribes

Kroeber, a. L., [a], “Ute Tales,” In JAFL xiv (1901).

Lowie, Robert H., , “The Northern Shoshone,” in PAM ii
(1908).

Mason, J. A., “Myths of the Uintah Utes,” in JAFL xxiii (1910).

Mooney, James, [d], “The Ghost-Dance Religion,” in 14 ARBE,
part 2 (1896).



BIBLIOGRAPHY


3^3

Powell, J. W., ^‘'Sketch of the Mythology of the North American
Indians,’’ in J ARBE (i88i).

Sapir, Edward, ‘'^Song Recitative in Paiute Mythology,” in JAFL
xxiii (1910).

Chapter VIII
{a) Southern Athapascans

Bourke, John G., [a], ‘‘The Medicine Men of the Apache,” in g
ARBE (1892).

Goddard, P. E., [a], “ Jicarilla Apache Texts,” in PAM vhi (1911).

Matthews, Washington, [a], Navaho Legends {Memoirs of the
American Folk-Lore Society^ v). Boston and New York, 1897.

, “The Mountain Chant: a Navajo Ceremony,” in 5

ARBE (1887).

[c], “The Night Chant: a Navaho Ceremony,” in MAM vi

(1902)

Stevenson, James, “Ceremonial of Hasjelti Dailjis and Mythical
Sand-Painting of the Navajo Indians,” in 8 ARBE (1891).

{h) Piman and Yuman Tribes

Bourke, John G., , “Cosmogony and Theogony of the Mojave
Indians,” in JAFL ii (1889).

DuBois, C. G., “The Mythology of the Dieguehos,” in JAFL xiv
(1901).

James, George W., The Indians of the Painted Desert Region, Bos-
ton, 1904.

Kroeber, a. L., , “Preliminary Sketch of the Mohave Indians,”
in A A, new series, iv (1902).

Lumholtz, Carl, [a]. Unknown Mexico, 2 vols. New York, 1902.

. New Trails in Mexico, New York, 1912.

Russell, Frank, “The Pima Indians,” in 26 ARBE (1908).

Chapter IX

Cushing, F, H., [a], “Zuhi Fetiches,” in 2 ARBE (1883).

, “Outlines of Zuni Creation Myths,” in jj ARBE (1896).

[c], Zu^i Folk Tales. New York, 1901.

Dorsey, G. A., , Indians of the Southwest, Published by Atchison,
Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, 1903. (Bibliography.)

Dorsey and Voth^ “The Stanley McCormick Hopi Expedition,”
in FCM iii (1901-03).



NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY


324

Fewkes, J. W.5 [a], ^‘Tusayan Katcinas/’ in 15 ARBE (1897),

, ^^Tusayan Snake Ceremonies,’’ in 16 ARBE (1897).

— [c], ‘^^Tusayan Flute and Snake Ceremonies,” in Jp ARBE

(1900).

[d], ‘^‘Tusayan Migration Traditions,” In ig ARBE (1900). •

[e], ^‘^Hopi Katcinas,” in 21 ARBE (1903).

[f], ^‘The Tusayan Ritual: a Study of the Influence of Envi-
ronment on Aboriginal Cults,” in Annual Report of the Smithso^
nian Institution^ 1896.

Lummis, Charles F., Pueblo Indian Folk Stories. New York, 1910.
Stevenson, Matilda Coxe, [a], “The Religious Life of the Zuni
Child,” in 5 ARBE (1887).

, “The Sia,” in ii ARBE (1894).

[c], “The Zuni Indians,” in 2j ARBE (1904).

VoTH, H. R., “The Traditions of the Hopi,” in FCM viii (1905).

Chapter X
{d) Californian Tribes

Bancroft, Hubert Howe, The Native Races of the Pacific States of
North America^ iii, “Myths and Languages”; also, “Authori-
ties Quoted,” i, for bibliography. New York, 1875.

Curtin, J eremiah, [a]. Creation Myths of Primitive A merica. Boston,
1912.

Dixon, R. B., , “Shasta Myths,” in JAFL xxiii (1910).

[c], “Maidu Myths,” in BAM xvii (1902-07).

[d], Maidu Texts {Publications of the American Ethnological

Society y iv). Leyden, 1912.

Goddard, P. E., , “Hupa Texts,” In UFC i (1904).

[c], “Kato Texts,” in UFC v (1907-10).

Kroeber, a. L., [c], “Indian Myths of South Central California,”
in UFC iv (190s).

[d], “The Religion of the Indians of California,” in UFC iv

(1905)-

[e], “Wishosk Myths,” in JAFL xviii (1905).

Merriam, C. Hart, The Dawn of the World: Myths and Weird Tales
Told by the Mew an Indians of California. Cleveland, 1910*

Powers, Stephen, “Tribes of California,” in Contributions to North
American Ethnology ^ iii (1877).



BIBLIOGRAPHY


32s


(J) Oregonian Tribes

Boas, F., [d], ‘^Chinook Texts,” in 20 BBE (1894).

[e], ‘‘Kathlamet Texts,” in 26 BBE (1901).

Curtin, Jeremiah, , Myths of the Modocs. Boston, 1912.
Frachtenberg, L. J., [a], Coos Texts {Columbia University Con-
tributions to Anthropology^ i). New York, 1913.

, Lower Umpqua Texts {Columbia University Contributions

to Anthropology^ iv). New York, 1914.

Gatschet, a. S., [c], ^‘Oregonian Folk-Lore,” in JAFL iv (1891).

[d], ‘‘^The Klamath Indians of Southwestern Oregon,” in

Contributions to North American Ethnology^ ii (1891).

Sapir, Edward, Wishram Texts {Publications of the American Eth-
nological Society^ ii). Leyden, 1909.

Chapter XI

Boas, F., [f], ‘‘The Kwakiutl Indians,” in Report of the United States
National Museum, 1895.

[g], Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Kiiste. Berlin,

1895. (Reprinted from Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, xxiii-xxvii.)

[h], “Tshimshian Texts,” in 2^ BBE (1902).

, Tshimshian Texts {Publications of the American Ethnolog-
ical Society, iii). Leyden, 1912.

[j], “The Mythology of the Bella Coola Indians,” in MAM ii

(1900),

[k], “The Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island,” in MAM viii

(1909).

[ 1 ], “Tshimshian Mythology,” in 31 ARBE (announced).

Boas, F., and Hunt, G., [a], “Kwakiutl Texts,” in MAM v (1905).

, “Kwakiutl Texts. Second Series,” in MAM xiv (1908).

.Johnson, E. Pauline, Legends of Vancouver. 8th ed., Vancouver,

1913.

Jones, L. F., A Study of the Tlingits of Alaska. New York, 1914.
SwANTON, John E., [a], “Contributions to the Ethnology of the
Haida,” in MAM viii (1909).

, “Haida Texts,” in MAM xiv (1908).

[c], “Haida Texts and Myths,” in 2g BBE (1905).

[d], “Tlinglt Myths and Texts,” in 39 BBE (1909).

[e], “The Tlingit Indians,” in 26 ARBE (1908).

302 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY

85 16, 26; [e]. No. 17). — CL XL v (Boas [g], ili. i, 8; v. 2; viii. 8;
xiii. 66).

52. The Bear. — It is doubtless the cave-dwelling and hibernat-
ing habits of the bear, coupled with his formidable strength, that give
him his position as chief of the underworld Manitos. In the Midewi-
win the bears are the most important of the malignant Manitos bar-
ring the progress of the candidate during his initiation. See Hoffman
[a], pp. 167-69, and cL Note 14. Text references: Ch. III. vi. — Ch.
X. vi (Powers, p. 342; Dixon [c], No. 9; Goddard [c], No. 17;
Merriam, pp. 103, III; Kroeber [c], p. 180, No. 10). — Ch. XL v.

53. Return of the Dead. — Stories on the theme of Orpheus and
Eurydice are sufficiently frequent to form a class by themselves. In
some cases the return of the beloved dead is defeated because of the
breaking of a tabu, as in the Greek instance; in others the seeker is
given wealth or some other substitute; in still others the dead is
returned to life, but usually with an uncanny consequence; altogether
ghastly are the stories where the revivification is only apparent, and
the seeker awakes to find himself or herself clutching a corpse or
skeleton. See Notes 10, 12, 17. Text references: Ch. III. vii (JR x.
149-53; Smith, p. 103). — Ch. VI. v (G. A. Dorsey [g]. Nos. lo,
34). — Ch. VII. iii, vi (W. D. Lyman, The Columbia River ^ New
York, 1909, pp. 28-31). — Ch. X. vii (Kroeber [c]. Nos. 24, 25;
Powers, p. 339). — Ch. XL vii.

54. Hiawatha. — For the story of Hiawatha consult 50 BBE,
“Dekanawida,^’ ^Tiiawatha,” Wathototarho’’; Plale, Iroquois Book
of Rites^ a study of the traditions of the League as retained by the
Iroquois and reduced to writing in the eighteenth ccntuiy; Morgan,
i. 63-64; Smith; Beauchamp, ‘‘Hi-a-wat-ha,’* in JAFL iv; School-
craft [a], i.; , part iii, pp. 314 ff. Text reference: Ch. III. viii.

55. Hair and Scalp. — Of the parts of the body, the hair and the
heart seem to be particularly associated with the life and strength of
the individual. The scalp-lock was a specially dressed wisp or braid
of hair, separated out when the boy reached manhood, and it was this
that was taken as a trophy from the slain. The custom of scalping
seems to have originated in the east and from there to have spread
westward, replacing the older practice of decapitation, which, on
some parts of the Pacific Coast, was never superseded. Plair-sym-
bolism appears not only in scalping, but in the wide-spread custom
of giving a pregnant woman a charm made of the hair of a deceased
relative whose rebirth was hoped for (cf. JR vi, 207, for an early
instance). Hair-combing episodes are frequent in myth, usually
with a magic significance. In Iroquois cosmogony Ataentsic combs
the hair of her father, apparently to receive his magic power. Hia-
watha’s combing of the snakes from the hair of Atotarho is perhaps



NOTES


303


a symbolic incident. The character of Atotarho’s hair may be in-
ferred from Captain John Smith’s description of that of the chief
priest of the Powhatan: ‘‘The ornaments of the chief e Priest was
certain attires for his head made thus. They tooke a dosen or 16 or
more snakes, and stuffed them with mosse; and of weesels and other
vermine skins, a good many. All these they tie by their tailes, so as
all their tailes meete in the toppe of their head, like a great TasselL
Round about this Tassell is as it were a crown of feathers; the skins
hang about his head, necke and shoulders, and in a manner cover
his face” {Description of Virginia^ 1612, “Of their Religion”).
See Note 37. Text references: Ch. III. viii (Morgan, i. 63). — CL
V. ix (Fletcher and La Flesche, pp. I22-26).

56. Gamblers. — American Indians are inveterate gamesters, and
their myths accordingly abound in stories of gambling contests, in
which the magic element is frequently the theme of interest. See
Note 21. Text references: Ch. IV. vi (Mooney , pp. 311-15). —
Ch. VII. hi (Teit [a]. No. . — Ch. VIII. ii (Matthews [a], “Origin
Myth”); iv (Matthews [a], “The Great Shell of Kintyel”; cf.
Goddard [a], No. 18; Russell, p. 219). — Ch. IX. vi.

57. Migration-Myths and Histories. — Migration-myths and
more or less legendary histories are possessed by all the more ad-
vanced North American tribes. Such traditions are usually closely
interwoven with cosmogonic stories, so that there are formed fairly
consistent narratives of events since the “beginning.” Chronology
is generally vague, though there are some notable attempts at exac-
titude (see Ch. VI. vii). Text references: Ch. IV. vii (Gatschet [a];
Mooney , pp. 350-97). — Ch. VI. vii (G. A. Dorsey , pp. 34 ff.;
Mallery, “Picture Writing of the American Indians,” in 10 ARBEy
ch. x; Mooney [c], pp. 254-64). — Ch. IX. iv (see especially G. P.
WiNSHiP, “The Coronado Expedition,” in 14. ARBE; cf. Note 67,
infra),

58. Petalesharo. — See5oR-8jF,“Petalesharo.” The story is told
by Thomas M’Kenney, Memoirs Official and Personaly New York,
1846, ii. 93 ff., but Dr. Melvin R. Gilmore, recently of the Nebraska
State Historical Society, states that the Skidi of today deny its truth;
the Morning Star sacrifice lapsed, they say, by common consent.
Dr. Gilmore has very kindly given the writer the following data re-
garding Petalesharo and the Morning Star sacrifice which correct
many statements current in government and other publications:

“In the contact of two races of widely variant modes of thought
and manners of life there is abundant room for misunderstandings
and mistaken ideas to be formed of each by the other, and when one
race possesses the art of writing and the other does not, the people
with the superior advantage may, without any wrong intention,



304


NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY


perpetuate false views and impressions equally with true statements
of facts. Thus the misapprehension of one observer is thereafter
propagated and confirmed by every writer who deals with the given
subject. In such light, I think, is to be regarded the character of
Pita Leshara [Petalesharo], and especially one deed commonly as-
cribed to him in white men’s accounts,

‘'^Pita Leshara was chief of the Tshawi [Chaui] tribe of the Pawnee
nation. He was a forceful character, wise, brave, and benevolent,
and was in the height of his power just at the time that his nation
was coming into the closest contact with the white race. Because
of his outstanding ability and force of character, and because he
was a chief, the whites popularly regarded him as the principal chief
of the nation.

^‘Of the four tribes, originally independent, but in later times
confederated into the Pawnee nation, one, the Skidi, possessed the
rite of human sacrifice, the ofiFering of certain war captives, pro-
vided that at the time of their capture they had been devoted by
the consecrational vows of their captors. This ceremony was prac-
tised by the Skidi Pawnee until some time after the middle of the
nineteenth century. It died out at that time because of the various
influences incident to increasing contact with, and more constant
propinquity of, the white race. The cessation of this practice oc-
curring contemporaneously with the period of Pita Leshara’s public
activities, a belief obtained among white people, and crystallized
into a dictum, that it was due to a mandate of the chief that the
practice of the rite ceased. But the observance of religious ceremo-
nies does not originate nor terminate by mandate.

“By careful inquiry among the old people of the Pawnee I am
unable to find any support for either of the statements current
among the whites that Pita Leshara was head chief of the nation
and that he, by edict, caused the Skidi tribe to abandon their pecu-
liar ritual. The following account will serve as an example of the
information on the subject given me very generally by old people
now living who were contemporaries of Pita Leshara. My informant
in this instance was White Eagle, a chief of the Skidi Pawnee. He
was about eighty-three years old at the time he gave me this account
in 1914. His father was the last priest, or Ritual Keeper, of the rite
of human sacrifice who performed the ceremony, and White Eagle
himself, as his father’s successor, now has in his keeping the sacred
pack pertaining to the sacrifice and described below.

“White Eagle’s account follows. I told him the current story,
an educated young Skidi named' Charles Knifechief being our in-
terpreter. White Eagle listened with attention and at the close he
said; Ht is not a true account. Now let me tell you. At one time



NOTES


30s

there was a Skidi chief named Wonderful Sun (Sakuruti Waruksti),
This chief ordered the [Skidi] tribe on the buffalo-hunt. So they
made ready with tents and equipment. The people went south-
west, beyond the Republican River. While they were in that region,
they came into the vicinity of a Cheyenne camp. One of the Chey-
enne women was gathering wood along the river bottom many miles
from camp. Some Pawnees overtook her and made her captive.
The Pawnees at this time had finished the hunt and were returning
home. They brought the captive Cheyenne woman along. A man
of the Skidi declared the woman to be waruksti [a formula of conse-
cration], They continued on the return journey and camped on the
way at Honotato kako [the name of an old village site on the south
bank of the Platte River where the Tshawi, Kitkahak [Kitkehahti]
and Pitahawirat [Pitahauerat], the other three tribes of the Pawnee
nation, had formerly resided]. From this place they travelled along
the south bank of the Platte to the ford at Columbus. Before they
crossed the river one of the old men of the Skidi, a man named Big
Knife (Nitsikuts), went up to this woman and shot her with an arrow.
He did so because he thought that the white men at Columbus would
take her away from them and send her back to her own people if
they learned that the Skidi had a captive. And now this story as
I have told it to you is the real truth of the reason that the Skidi
Pawnee no longer continued the sacrifice. The captor of the Chey-
enne woman was a man named Old Eagle. He pronounced her to
be waruksti. Big Knife killed her because she had been made wa-
ruksti. The story of Pita Leshara is untrue. If he had interfered,
he would have been killed, because he had no authority over the
Skidi. He was chief of the Tshawi.^

“The sketch [mentioned below] was made by Charles Knifechief
as he sat interpreting for us. He has drawn a Pawnee earth lodge
in the distance as seen from the Place of Sacrifice. The door-way of
the house opens toward the rising sun. The victim was bound by
the hands to the upright posts, standing on the upper of four hori-
zontal bars, the ends of which were bound to the upright posts.
White Eagle said that the human sacrifice was not connected with
the planting ceremony, but was for atonement, planting being con-
trolled by another Sacred Pack. He declared that he has the Human
Sacrifice Pack which he inherited from his father, but he was not
instructed in the ritual, so that it is now lost. He said that the body
was sacrificed to the birds of the air and to animals, and was left on
the scaffold until it was consumed. The victim was put to death by
the authorized bowman of the ritual, by shooting with the four
sacred arrows. After the archer had thus slain the sacrifice, four
men advanced with the four ancient war-clubs from the Sacred Pack



3o6 north AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY

and in turn struck the body, after which it was at the will of the
populace. The Sacred Pack pertaining to this ritual contains the
sacred bow, the four sacred arrows, four sacred war-clubs, and a
human skull, the skull of a man who was a chief long ago, distin-
guished by his great human sympathy.”

Despite White Eagle’s statement that the sacrifice was not con-
nected with agricultural rites, it may still be noted that neighbour-
ing tribes associated the Pawnee offering of human beings with
agriculture. Thus an Omaha narrative (J. 0 . Dorsey [a], p. 414)
declares that the Pawnee greased their hoes” in the flesh of a vic-
tim “as they wished to acquire good crops.”

The illustration to which Dr. Gilmore refers, and which is repro-
duced, through his courtesy, opposite p. 76, is of particular interest
since there is, so far as the author knows, no other existing picture of
the manner in which the famous sacrifice to the Morning Star was con-
ducted. Text reference: Ch. V. i. Cf. De Smet, pp. 977-88.

59. War and War-Gods. — Most North American Indians are
courageous warriors, though tribes vary much in their reputations.
On the Great Plains the northern Athapascans form an exception,
having, as a rule, little inclination for fighting. The Californian
tribes, also, were on the whole peaceful, and in the South-West the
Pueblo Dwellers, valorous in defence, were little given to forays.
The Sun and the Thunder are the war-divinities of the greater part
of the continent; in the South-West the war-gods arc the twin sons
of the Sun. Usually the Indian warrior relied more upon his personal
tutelary or Medicine-Spirit — especially the Bear, Wolf, and Eagle
— than upon any war-god of a national type. The bearing of palladia
into battle was common, however; and the loss of such a treasure
was regarded as a great disaster. See Notes 25, 37, 55. Text refer--
ences: Ch. 11 . ii. — Ch. V. i, ix. — Ch. VIII. ii. — Ch. IX. iii.

60. Feather-Symbolism. — The use of feather-symbols is one of
the most characteristic features of Indian dress and rituals. Eagle
feathers, denoting war-honours, are in the nature of insignia; but there
are many ritualistic uses in which the feathers seem to be primarily
symbols of the intermediation between heaven and earth which is
assigned to the birds. Feathers thus have a ghostly or spiritual char-
acter. Boas records a story in which a house is haunted by feathers
and shadows ([g] xxv. i, 13), and one of the most curious of Plains
legends is the Pawnee tale of Ready-to-Give, whom the gods restored
to life with feathers in place of brains. In the South-West feathers
are attached to prayer-sticks addressed to the celestial powers. Cfi
Notes 21, 27, 30, 31, 40, 61. Text references: Ch. V. vii (Fletcher,
The Hako, is perhaps the most important single source on feather-
symbolism). — Ch. VL vi (for stories of Ready-to-Give, G. A.



NOTES


307

Dorsey [e], No. 10; [g], Nos. 39-76; Grinnell [c], pp, 142-60). —
Ch. VIII. i, iii. — Ch. IX. Hi.

61. Sacred Poles. — The most conspicuous use of sacred poles
is in the Sun-Dance rite, where the central object of the Medicine
Lodge is a post adorned with emblematic objects, especially a bundle
tied transversely so as to give the general effect of a cross. Sacred
poles appear as palladia in a number of instances. The Creek migra-
tion-legend recounts such a use, and the Omaha tribal legends refer
not only to the pillar mentioned in Ch. V. ix, but to another and
older sacred post of cedar. In the Hedawichi ceremony of the same
tribe a pole made from a felled tree was a symbol of life and strength,
and of cosmic organization. The relation of these pillars to the pole
employed in the Sun-Dance, all forming a single ritualistic group,
seems obvious. The transition from poles to xoana, or crude pillar-
like images, is apparent in the wooden statuettes made by the Zuhi
and other Pueblo, which are little more than decorated stocks. On
the North-West Coast an entirely individual development is found in
the carved “totem-poles’’ and grave memorials carved with totemic
figures; but these seem to be heraldic rather than ritualistic in inten-
tion. See Notes 4, 42, 65. Text references: Ch. IV. vii (Gatschet [a]).
— Ch. V. ix (Fletcher and La Flesche, pp. 216-60). — Ch. VIII.
v (Lumholtz [a]). — Ch. IX. iii. — Ch. XL i, ii.

62. Magic. — Magic is the science of primitive man, his means
of controlling the forces of nature. Imitative and sympathetic magic
underlie most Indian rites to a degree that frequently makes it im-
possible to determine where magic coercion of nature gives place,
in the mind of the celebrant, to symbolic supplication. Both elements
are present in all the important ceremonies, and it is often a matter
of interest or prepossession on the part of the reporter as to which —
'magic or worship — will be emphasized in his record. Magic motives
in myth are too numerous to classify, but a few types may be men-
tioned. (l) Transformations (see Notes 5, 41). (2) Magic increase
and replenishment. The idea underlying this form is: Given a little
of a substance, it may be magically increased; possibly animal and
vegetable multiplication is the analogy which suggests this; at all
events it seems less difficult for the primitive mind to imagine con-
tinuity and increase than creation ex nihilo. Typical notions are
the creation of the earth from a kernel of soil, the stretching of the
world, the continuous growth of the heaven-reaching tree or rock,
the constant replenishment of a vessel of food which, like the widow’s
cruse, is never exhausted during need, or is emptied only by an orphan
after all others have partaken. (3) Songs and spells. The Indian
has an inveterate belief in the power of words, and even thoughts, to
produce mechanical and organic changes; hence the importance of



3o6 north AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY

and in turn struck the body, after which it was at the will of the
populace. The Sacred Pack pertaining to this ritual contains the
sacred bow, the four sacred arrows, four sacred war-clubs, and a
human skull, the skull of a man who was a chief long ago, distin-
guished by his great human sympathy.’’

Despite White Eagle’s statement that the sacrifice was not con-
nected with agricultural rites, it may still be noted that neighbour-
ing tribes associated the Pawnee offering of human beings with
agriculture. Thus an Omaha narrative (J. 0 . Dorsey [a], p. 414)
declares that the Pawnee greased their hoes” in the flesh of a vic-
tim ^‘as they wished to acquire good crops.”

The illustration to which Dr. Gilmore refers, and which is repro-
duced, through his courtesy, opposite p. 76, is of particular interest
since there is, so far as the author knows, no other existing picture of
the manner in which the famous sacrifice to the Morning Star was con-
ducted. Text reference: Ch. V. i. Cf. De Smet, pp. 977-88.

NOTES


289

references: Ch. IL vi (Mooney , pp. 345-47). — Ch. III. vi. —
Ch. IV. V (Mooney , p. 324). — Ch. VII. ii (J. H. Williams, The
Mountain that Was God^ Tacoma, 1910).

34. Mother Earth. — The personification of the Earth, as the
mother of life and the giver of food, is a feature of the universal
mythology of mankind. It prevails everywhere in North America,
except among the Eskimo, where the conception is replaced by that
of the under-sea woman, Food Dish, and on the North-West Coast,
where sea deities again are the important food-givers, and the under-
world woman is no more than a subterranean Titaness. In many
localities the myth of the marriage of the Sky or Sun with the Earth
is clearly expressed, as is to be expected of the most natural of all
allegories. The notion that the dead are buried to be born again
from the womb of Earth is found in America as in the Old World (cf.
A. Dieterich, Mutter Erde^ Berlin, 1905); and there is more than one
trace of the belief in an orifice by which the dead descend into the
body of Earth and from which souls ascend to be reborn. De Smet
(p. 1378) mentions a cavern in the Yellowstone region which the
Indians named “the place of coming-out and going-in of under-
ground spirits,” and the South-Western notion of the Sipapu is an
instance in point; other examples appear in the mythologies of the
Creek, Kiowa, and Mandan. In the South-West, where large ground-
nesting spiders abound, the Spider Woman seems to be a mythic
incarnation of the earth; though elsewhere, very generally, this in-
sect is associated with aerial ascents to and descents from the sky,
by means of web-hung baskets, and Spider itself is often masculine.
In the Forest and Plains regions the conception of the life of the earth
as due to a Titaness, fallen from heaven, is the common one; and the
magic Grandmother who appears in so many hero-myths is certainly
in some cases a personification of the earth. See Notes 7, ii, 18,
28, 35, 43, 70. Text references: Ch. II. vii (Hewitt [a], p. 138). —
Ch. V. vii (Fletcher, pp. 31, 190, 721, et passim; Fletcher and
La Flesche, pp. 376 ff.; cf. Fletcher, “A Study of Omaha Indian
Music,” m Archceological and Ethnological Papers] Peabody Museum,
1893, i; H. B. Alexander, The Mystery of Life, Chicago, 1913). —
Ch. VI. ii (J. 0 . Dorsey [d], p. 513). — Ch. VIIL v, vi. — Ch. IX.
iii, vii (M. C. Stevenson , p. 22; Cushing , p. 379; Fewkes

p. 688).

35. Corn Spirits. — Spirits of the maize and other cultivated
plants are prominent figures in the mythologies of all the agricultural
peoples. Ordinarily they are feminine, the Algonquian Mondamin
being an exception. Corn, Squash, and Bean form a maiden triad in
Iroquois lore, and in the South-West there is a whole group of maiden
Corn Spirits. Hopi girls of marriageable age wear their hair in two



2go


NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY


whorls at the sides of the head, imitating the squash blossom, which
is with them the symbol of fertility. As a rule Corn Spirits are far
more vital in ritual than in myth. Ears of maize are important as
sacra or fetishes in numerous rites, especially in the South-West and
among the Pawnee, who show many South-Western affinities; ears
and grains of different colours are conspicuous in the symbolism of
the world-quarters; blades and stalks are often employed in adorning
altars; and corn meal [maize flour] is in constant use in South-West-
ern ceremonial. A similarly ritualistic use is made of other plants.
In the South-West the creation of men from ears of maize is a fre-
quent incident. See Notes 7, 24, 31, 34, 39. Text references: Ch.
II. vii (Converse, pp. 63-66; Smith, p. 52). — Ch. III. i (JR x.
139), viii. — Ch. IV. iv (Mooney , pp. 242-49). — Ch. V. vii

(Fletcher). — Ch. VI. hi (G. A. Dorsey [h]. Nos. 3-7; cf. [e],

No. 4), vii. — Ch. VIII. i, ii. — Ch. IX. hi, v, vi (Fewkes , pp.

299-308; [e], pp. 22, 58, 118; [f], p. 696; M. C. Stevenson [cj, pp.

29-32, 48-57; Cushing , pp. 391-98, 430-47).

36. Fairies. — The fairy folk of Indian myth are generally dimin-
utive and mischievous. A romantic version of the myth of the mar-
riage of a human hero with a sky-girl is given by Abbe Em. Domenech
(Seven Years’ Residence in the Great Deserts of North America^ Lon-
don, i860, i. 303 ff.), which he calls the Legend of the Magic Circle
of the Prairies.’’ There are on the prairies, he says, circles denuded
of vegetation which some attribute to buffaloes, while others regard
them as traces of ancient cabins. The myth tells of a hunter who
saw a basket containing singing maidens descend from the sky to
such a circle, where the girls danced and played with a brilliant ball.
He succeeded in capturing one of the girls, who became his wife;
home-sick for the sky-world, she, with their baby, reascended to the
heaven during the hunter’s absence; but her star-father commanded
her to return to earth and bring to the sky her husband, with tro-
phies of every kind of game. All the sky-people chose, each for
himself, a trophy; and they were then metamorphosed into the cor-
responding animals, the hunter, his wife, and son becoming falcons.
The dancing and singing sky-girls, on the magic circle, certainly sug-
gest the fairy dances and fairy rings of European folk-lore. Text
references: Ch. II. vii (Copway; Converse, pp. 101-07; Smith, pp.
65-67; Mooney , Nos. 74, 78), — Ch. IV. vi (Mooney , pp.

330-35)-

37. Great Heads, Cannibal Heads, Pursuing Rocks, etc. —

Myths of heads that pursue in order to devour or destroy are found
in every part of America. In some instances they have obvious
significations, but it is not difficult to surmise that the idea is older
than the meanings. Possibly it is connected with the custom of de-



NOTES


291

capitation which prevailed in America everywhere before scalping
largely displaced it; possibly the tumble-weed of the Plains, in the
autumn borne along by the wind like a huge ball, may have some-
thing to do with the idea; possibly it was suggested by the analogy of
sun and moon, conceived as travelling heads or masks, or by the tor-
nado — (the Iroquois have Great Head” stories in which the heads
are apparently wind-beings). In many examples there is a cosmo-
gonic suggestion in the myths. In Iroquois cosmogony the severed
body and head of Ataentsic are transformed into the sun and moon,
and there is a Chaui (Pawnee) tale of a rolling head that is split by
a hawk and becomes the sun and moon (G. A. Dorsey [g]. No. 5).
The cosmogonic character of the legend appears also in the Carrier
version (Ch. VI. i), though this same tradition as told by the Skidi
Pawnee (G. A. Dorsey [e]. No. 32) shows no cosmogony. Arapaho
stories (Dorsey and Kroeber, Nos. 32-34) are instances in which a
travelling rock is substituted for a head; in one instance (ib., No. 5)
the pursuer is a wart, and it is interesting to note that Flint”
bears the epithet “Warty” in Seneca cosmogony (Hewitt [a]). Pur-
suing heads and rocks appear in the far West as well as in the East
(examples are McDermott, No. 8, Flathead; Kroeber [a]. No. 2,
and Mason, Nos. 10, ii, Ute; Matthews [a], sect. 350, Navaho;
Goddard [a]. No. 10, Apache). Usually they are bogies or monsters
— folk-lore beings rather than mythic persons. A curious story found
among the Iroquois (Canfield, p. 125, variants of which are very
common in the North-West, e. g.. Boas [j], p. 30; [g], viii. 18; xvii.
8, 9; XX. 8; xxi. tells of a cannibal head which is transformed into
mosquitoes after it has been killed and burnt. One of the most in-
teresting versions is a Californian story preserved by Dixon ([c],
No. 14; cf. Curtin [a], “Hitchinna,” , “Ilyuyu”), which tells of
a man who dreams that he eats himself up; afterward he goes to
gather pine-nuts, and his son throws one down and wounds him;
he licks the blood, likes its taste, and eats all of himself but the head,
which bounces about in pursuit of people until it finally leaps into
the river. In connexion with head stories it is worth noting that a
number of myths relate to a tribal palladium or “medicine” consist-
ing of a skull (e. g. G. A. Dorsey [e]. Nos. i, 12). See Notes 2, 19,
27, 38. Text references: Ch. II. vii (Smith, pp. 59-62). — Ch. VI.
i (Morice ; Lofthouse, pp. 48-51; Lowie [a], No. 22). — Ch.
XL iv.

38. Stone Giants. — Apparently these beings are personifica-
tions of implements of stone, especially flint, and they find their best
mythic representative in “Flint” of Iroquoian cosmogony. In the
far West birds with flint feathers or heroes armoured with flint
knives appear. The Chenoo with the icy heart is a familiar concep-



292


NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY


tion in eastern Canada and New England, and may refer to rocky
recesses in which cores of ice are preserved through the summer.
Like other giants, the Stone Giants arc usually cannibals. See Notes»
2, 19, 37, 46. Text references: Ch. IL vii (Smith, pp. 62-64; Mooney
, Nos. 8, 67, p. 501; Leland, pp. 233-51; Rand, Converse,
etc.). — Ch. III. i, ii. — Ch. IV. vi (Bushnell [a]; Mooney fb]). —
Ch. VII. ii (Powell, pp. 47-51; Lowie , p. 262). — Ch. IX. iii.

— Ch. X. V (Merriam, pp. 75-82).

39. The Seasons. — The seasons that appear in North American
myth are almost invariably two, the hot and the cold, summer and
winter. Other divisions of the year occur, especially among agricul-
tural tribes (see 30 BBE, “Calendar”)? governing ritual, but even
here the fundamental partition of the year is twofold. What may be
called the supernatural division of the year into seasons, in one of
which the ancestral gods are present and in the other absent, with a
corresponding classification of rites, is found both in the South-West
and on the Pacific Coast, and it is in these two regions, likewise, that
we meet the interesting suggestion of antipodes — i. e. of underworld
seasons alternating with those of the world above. Everywhere the
open season — spring to autumn — is the period in which the great
invocations of the powers of nature take place in such ceremonies as
the Busk (Ch. IV. iii), the Sun-Dance (Ch. V. vi), the liako (Ch. V.
vii), and the Snake-Dance (Ch. IX. v); while rites in honour of the
dead or of ancestral and totemic spirits occur (like their classical
analogues) in autumn and winter. Text references: Ch. IL viii (Con-
verse, pp. 96-100; Rand, Nos. xl, xlvi; Schoolcraft , part iii,
p, 324 — obviously the original of the form used by Longfellow,
Hiawatha^ canto ii; JR vi. 161-63). — Ch. IV. iii (Gatschet [a],
pp. 179-80; Speck, JAFL xx. 54-56; MacCauley, pp. 522-23;
20 BBE “Busk”); vi (Mooney , p. 322). — Ch. V. ii, vi
(jo BBE , “Sun Dance”; J. 0 . Dorsey [d], pp. 449-67; Mooney [c],
pp. 242-44; McClintock, chh. xi-xxiii; G. A. Dorsey [a], ). —
Ch. VI. i (Lofthouse). — Ch. VII. iii (Teit [a], No. 10; , p. 337)-

— Ch. VIII. iv. — Ch. IX. iv (M. C. Stevenson [c], pp. 108 ff.;
Fewkes [a], pp. 255 ff.; [e], pp, 18 ff.; [f], p. 692). — Ch. X. iv
(Curtin [a], “Olelbis”). — Ch. XI. iii (Boas [f], pp. 383 ff., 632 ff.).

40. Animal Elders. — One of the most distinctive of American
mythic ideas is the conception that every species of animal is repre-
sented by an Elder Being who is at once the ancestor and protector
of its kind. These Elders of the Kinds appear in various rdles. Where
a food animal is concerned — deer, buffalo, rabbit, seal, etc. ' — the
function of the Elder seems to be to continue the supply of game;
he is not offended by the slaughter of his wards provided the tabus are
properly observed. Some tribes believe that the bones of deer are



NOTES


293


reborn as deer, and so must be preserved, or that the bones of fish
returned to the sea will become fish again. Many myths tell of pun-
ishment wreaked upon the hunter who continues to slay after his
food necessities are satisfied. The Elders of beasts and birds of
prey are the usual totems or tutelaries of hunters and warriors; the
Elders of snakes, owls, and other uncanny creatures are supposed to
give medicine-powers. Divination by animal remains and the use of
charms and talismans made of animal parts are universal. Magic
animals that have the power of appearing as men and men who can
assume animal forms occur along with stories of the swan-shift
type, in which the beast- or bird-disguise is stolen or laid aside and
human form is retained. Frequently animals assume symbolic rdles.
Thus the porcupine is an almost universal symbol for the sun, and the
mink and red-headed woodpecker appear in a like relation; the bear
is frequently an underground genius, and is conceived as a powerful
being in the spirit-world; the birds are regarded as intermediaries
between man and the powers above; the turkey, in the South and
the South-West, is a mythic emblem of fertility, and an interesting
episode in the Hako ritual tells how the turkey was replaced by the
eagle as the symbolic leader of the rite, on the ground that the fer-
tility of the turkey was offset by its lack of foresight in the protec-
tion of its nests (Fletcher, pp. 172-74); the whole Hako Ceremony
is dominated by bird-symbolism. Animal-beings are rarely to be re-
garded as deities in any strict sense. Rather they are powerful genii
and intermediaries between men and gods. In the cosmogonic cycles
three animals, the hare, the coyote, and the raven, appear as creative
agents, but they are beings that belong to the domain of myth rather
than to that of religion. Two incidents in which animals conspicu-
ously figure are found the length and breadth of the continent: (i)
the diving of the animals after soil from which the earth may be magi-
cally created or renewed — most frequently encountered east of the
Rocky Mountains, — and (2) the theft of fire — or of the sun or of
daylight — by relays of animals who bear afar the brand snatched or
stolen from the fire-keepers. The myth of the origin of the animals
(Note 41) is almost as ubiquitous. See Notes 3, 4, 5, 9, 13, 18, 46, 47,
48, 50, 52. Text references: Ch. 11 . viii {JR vi. 159-61; ix. 123-25;
xxxix. 15). — Ch. III. i. — Ch. IV. iv, vi (Mooney ). — Ch. V.
vii (Fletcher). — Ch. VI. vi (the legend of the Nahurak as here
recorded follows a version given by White Eagle — Letekots Taka —
a Skidi chief, to Dr. Melvin R. Gilmore, recently of the Nebraska State
Historical Society; see also Grinnell [c], pp. 161-70; G. A. Dorsey
[g], Nos. 84, 85); vii (Mallery, 10 JRBE, ch. x). — Ch. VIL iii. —
Ck IX. iii, V. — Ch. X. V (Curtin [a], Introd.; Merriam, Introd.).
— Ch. XL iv.



294


NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY


41. Origin of Animals. — A North American myth found prac-
tically throughout the continent tells of the release of the animals
from a cave, or chest, or the inside of a cosmic monster, whence they
distributed themselves over the earth. This event is sometimes
placed in the First Age, as an episode of a creation-story, sometimes
it follows the cataclysmic flood or conflagration which ends the pri-
meval period. The people of the First Age are very generally repre-
sented as human in form but animal in reality, and a frequent story
tells of the transformation of the First People Into the animals they
really are, as soon as genuine human beings appear. The converse of
this recounts how the original animal-beings laid aside their animal
masks and became human beings and the ancestors of men at the
beginning of the human era. Often both the transformation and the
liberation stories appear; in such instances the liberated animals are
usually of the food or game varieties. A vast body of traditions and
incidents account for the origin of animal traits; and it is these legends
which represent what is perhaps the most primitive stratum of
Indian mythology. See Notes 36, 40. Text references: Ch. II. viii
(JR X. 137; Hewitt [a], pp. 194-97; 232-41; 302-09). — Ch. III. ,i.
— Ch, IV. iv (Mooney , pp. 242-49); v (Mooney , pp. 261-
311; p. 293, quoted; Bushnell [a], pp. 533 ^ 34 ; M, P- — Ch.
VII. iv (McDermott, No. 2; W. D. Lyman, The Columbia River y
New York, 1909, pp. 19-21). — Ch. IX. vi. — Ch. X. iv. — Ch.
XI. vi.

42. Heaven Tree. — The conception of a great tree in the upper
world magically connected with the life of nature occurs in more than
one instance. In the Mohawk cosmogony (Hewitt [a], p. 282) it is
said to be adorned with blossoms that give light to the people in
the sky-world, while in the Olelbis myth (Curtin [a], “Olelbis’’) the
celestial sudatory is built of oak-trees bound together with flowers.
The Tlingit regard the Milky Way as the trunk of a celestial tree.
In many stories on the Jack-and-the-Beanstalk theme, the hero or
heroine ascends to the sky on a rapidly growing tree, sometimes be-
lieved to be a replica of a similar tree in the world above. In South-
Western genesis-stories the emergence from the underworld is by
means of magically growing trees, reeds, sunflowers, and the like.
Ascents to and descents from the sky occur with a variety of other
methods: the tradition of an upshooting mountain or rock, common
in California, is clearly related to the tree conception; the rainbow
bridge is a frequent idea, and is sometimes, like the Milky Way,
regarded as the Pathway of Souls; in the South-West lightning is
conceived as forming a bridge or ladder; and a similar idea in con-
nexion with the fall of Ataentsic is the Fire-Dragon episode; descents
and ascents by means of a basket swung from spider-spun filaments



NOTES


295

are common In Plains mythology, while magic shells, boats, and bas-
kets, raised to the sky by song or spell, occur east and west; on the
West Coast the arrow chain is frequent. The cult use of poles, orig-
inating from magically endowed trees, is associated with some of
the most picturesque myths and important rites. See Notes 13, 14,
6i. Text references: Ch. III. i, vi {JR xii. 31-37; Schoolcraft ,
part iii, p. 320; Hoffman , p. 181). — Ch. IV. iv (Gatschet [a]).
— Ch. VI. iv (see Note 13, for references). — Ch. VII. Iii. — Ch.
VIII. ii. — Ch. IX. vi. — Ch. X. iii (Curtin [a], ‘'Olelbis’’); vi
(Powers, p. 366).

43. Ataentsic. — Spelled also, JR viii. 117, Eataentsic. Hewitt
(^‘Cosmogonic Gods of the Iroquois,” in Proceedings of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, 1895) gives Eyatahentsik,
and regards her as goddess of night and earth- She is also named
Awenhai (“Mature Flowers”). Cf. 30 BBE, “Teharonhiawagon,”
and Lang, Myth, Ritual and Religion, 3d ed., London, 1901. See
Note 34. Text reference: Ch. III. i.

44. Hero Brothers. — A common feature of American cosmo-
gonic myths is the association of two kinsmen, usually described as
brotkers or sometimes as twins. In Iroquoian legend one of the
brothers is good, the other evil, and the evil brother is banished to

this is clearly the meaning of the Modoc myth of Kumush, the
creator, who annihilated by fire the beautiful blue man, but could
not destroy the golden disk which was his life, and so used it to
transform himself into the empyrean (Curtin , pp. 39-45). Doublet
suns and moons, in the worlds below and above our own, are fre-
quently mentioned; often the sun is supposed to pass to the under-
world after the day’s journey is completed, in order to return to his
starting-point; possibly the notion of an underworld whose days and
seasons interchange with ours (a Pacific-Coast notion) is due to the
assumption that the sun alternates in the world above and the world
below. Among the important sun-myths are: (a) the well-nigh uni-
versal story of the hero or heroic brothers whose father is the sun or
some celestial person closely akin to the sun (cf. Note 44); (b) the
Phaethon myth, common in the North-West, in which the Mink is
permitted to carry the sun-disk and, as a consequence, causes a con-
flagration; (c) the related legend of the creation of the sun, which,
until it is properly elevated, overheats the world; (d) traditions of
the theft of the sun, which are variants of the Promethean tale of
the theft of fire (cf. Note 51), Text references: Ch. 1 . v (Rink, No.
35; Rasmussen, pp. 173 - 74 ; Boas [a], pp. 597-98). — Ch. II. vi
{JR vi. 223; Converse, pp. 48-51; Hoffman , p. 209). — Ch.
III. i, vi (for the “Ball-Carrier” story, see Schoolcraft [a], part
iii, p. 318; Hoffman , pp. 223-38). — Ch. IV, ii (Mooney [a],
p. 340; , pp. 239-49, ^56; Lafitau, i. idy'-dS); iv. — Ch. V. vi
(Fletcher, pp. 30, 134-40; for Sun-Dance references see Note 39).
— Ch. VI. iii, iv (G. A. Dorsey [e], No. id; [h], Nos. 14, 15; [a],
pp. 212-13; Dorsey and Kroeber, Nos. 134-38; Simms, FCM ii,
No. 17; Mooney [c], pp. 238-39; Lowie [a], No. 18). — Ch. VII.



278 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY

iii (Teit [a], No. 8; Lowie , No. 8; Powell, p. 24); Iv (Powell,
pp. 52-56). — Ch. VIIL ii, iii (James Stevenson, pp. 275-76); v
(Russell, p. 251; Lumholtz [a], i. 295 ff., 311; , pp. 357 ff.). —
Ch. IX. iii, iv, vi, vii. — Ch. X. vi (Goddard [c], Nos. 3, 4). — Ch.
XL iv, V (Boas [j], pp. 28-36; [g], v. 2; viii. 2; xv. i; xviii, i; xx. i, la;
xxii. I, 19; xxiii. i, 3, 4; Swanton [a], p. 14. For the Mink cycle:
Boas [g], xvii. i; xviii. 7; xx. 2, 3; xxi. 2; xxii. i, 2; Boas and Hunt
, pp. 80-163; Boas [j], p. 95).

14. Stars and Constellations. — No group of myths is more
uniform on the North American continent than those relating to
constellations; usually they are extremely simple. The Great Bear,
Pleiades, and Orion’s Belt are the groups most frequently men-
tioned; and the commonest tale is of a chase in which the pursued
runs up into the sky, followed by eternally unsuccessful pursuers.
This myth seems quite natural as a description of Ursa Major —
the four feet of a fleeing quadruped (usually in America, too, a bear),
and three pursuers. Equally obvious is the conception of Pleiades as a
group of dancers, or of Corona Borealis as a council circle. Of the stars,
Venus, as morning star, which is generally regarded as a young war-
rior, messenger of the Sun, and the Pole Star, believed by the Pawnee
to be the chief of the night skies, are the only ones widely indi-
vidualized in myth. The Milky Way is universally the Spirit Path.
Star-myths are especially abundant and vivid among the Pawnee
(cf. Ch. VI. iii). Text references: Ch. I. v (Rink, pp. 48, 232; Boas
[a], p. 636; Rasmussen, pp. 176-77, 320). — Ch. II. vi (Converse,
pp. 53-63; Smith, pp. 80-81; cf. E. G. Squier, American Review^
new series, ii, 1848, p. 256). — Ch. V. viii (Fletcher, p. 129.
G. A. Dorsey [e] states that the Evening Star is of higher rank among
the Pawnee. The legend of Poia has been made the subject of an
opera by Arthur Nevin and Randolph Flartley. The version here
followed is that of Walter McClintock, The Old North Trails ch.
xxxviii. Other versions are Grinnell [a], pp. 93-103; Wissler and
Duvall, ii. 4. The story belongs to a wide-spread type; cf. G. A.
Dorsey [e]. No. 16, and note 117; [f]. Nos. 14, 15; Note 36, infra.
For constellation-myths see Fletcher, p. 234; Lowie [a], p. 177;
McClintock, pp. 488-90; J. 0 , Dorsey [d], p. 517). — Ch. VI. i
(Morice, Transactions of the Canadian Institute^ v. 28-32); iii (G. A.
Dorsey [e], No. i, and Introd.); iv (see Note 13 for references); v (G.
A. Dorsey [e], No. 2; [g]. No. 35). — Ch. VIIL v (Lumholtz [a],
pp. 298, 3 1 1, 361, 436). — Ch. IX. iii, vi.

15. Cosmogony. — American cosmogonies ought perhaps to be
described as cosmic myths of migration and transformation. In a
few instances (notably the Zuni cosmogony and some Californian
legends) there is a true creation ex nihilo; but the typical stories



NOTES


279


are of sky-world beings who descend to the waters beneath and
magically expand a bit of soil into earth, or the characteristically
southern tale of an ascent of the First People from an underground
abode, followed by a series of adventures and transformations which
make the world habitable. The cataclysmic destruction of the first
inhabitants by flood, sometimes by fire, is universal in one form or
another; it is succeeded by the transformation of the survivors of
the antediluvian age into animals or men, by the creation of the
present human race, and frequently by a confusion of tongues and
a dispersion of peoples. There can be no doubt as to the truly aborig-
inal character of all these episodes, though in some instances the
native stories have clearly been coloured by knowledge of their
Biblical analogues. See Notes 6, ii, 31, 40, 49, 57, 70. Text refer--
ences: Ch. 1 . v. — Ch. III. i (Hewitt [a] gives an Onondaga, a
Seneca, and a Mohawk version of the Iroquois genesis, the first
of these being the one here mainly followed; other authorities on
Iroquoian cosmogony are: Hewitt and ‘‘Cosmogonic Gods of
the Iroquois,” in Proceedings of the American Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science^ 1895; Brebeuf, on the Huron, JR x, 127-39;
Brinton [a], pp. 53-62; Parkman [a], pp. Ixxv-lxxvii; Hale, JAFL
i. 177-83; Converse, pp. 31-36; Schoolcraft [a], part iii, p. 314;
and, for the Cherokee, Mooney , pp. 239 ff.); ii (important sources
on Algonquian cosmogony are: JR^ Index, “Manabozho”; Charle-
voix, Journal historique, Paris, 1840; Perrot, MSmoire^ English
translation in Blair, i. 23-272; Schoolcraft [a], i.; Brinton [d];
Rand; Hoffman [a], ; A. F. Chamberlain, “Nanibozhu amongst
the Otchipwe, Mississagas, and other Algonkian Tribes,” in JAFL
iv. 193-213). — Ch. IV. iv (Mooney , pp. 239-49; Gatschet [a],
; BusHnell [a], ). — Ch. V. ix (Fletcher and La Flesche,
pp. 63, 570). — Ch. VI. i (Morice, “Three Carrier Myths,” in
Transactions of the Canadian Institute^ v.; Lofthoxjse, “Chipewyan
Stories,” in ib. x.); ii (Lowie [a]. Nos. i, 2, 22, et al.; Will and
Spinden, pp. 138-41; Fletcher and La Flesche; J. O. Dorsey

[a] ; Eastman ; see Mooney [c], p. 152, for a Kiowa instance);
iii (G. A. Dorsey [e], No. i, is the authority chiefly followed here
for one of the finest of American cosmogonic myths); vii (G. A.
Dorsey , pp. 34-49). — Ch. VIII. ii (Matthews [a]); v (Russell,
pp. 206-38; cf. Lumholtz [a], pp. 296 ff.; , pp. 357 ff-); vi (Bourke

; Kroeber ; DuBois; James, chh. xii, xiv). — Ch. IX. vi
(M. C. Stevenson , pp. 26-69; Voth, Nos. 14, 15, 37); vii (M. C.
Stevenson [a], [c]; Cushing , [c]). — Ch. X. iii. — Ch. XL vi (see
Note 48 for references).

16. Origin of Death. — Stories of the origin of death are found
from Greenland to Mexico. What may be termed the Northern type


X — 20



28 o


NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY


represents a debate between two demiurgic beings, one arguing for
the bestowal of immortal life upon the human race, the other in-
sisting that men must die; sometimes the choice is determined by-
reason, sometimes by divination maliciously influenced. A South-
Western type tells of a first death, caused by witchcraft or malice,
which sets the law. On the Pacific Coast the two motives are com-
bined; the first death is followed by a debate as to whether death
shall be lasting or temporary; and often a grim reprisal upon the
person (usually Coyote) who decrees the permanency of death
appears in the fact that it is his child who is the second victim.
Other motives are occasionally found. These myths seem to be typi-
cally American. Text references: Ch. 1 . v (Rasmussen, pp. 99-102;
Rink, p. 41). — Ch. III. vii {JR vi. 159). — Ch. VI. v (G. A. Dor-
sey [e]. No. 2; [g]. No. 35; Wissler and Duvall, i. 3, 4; Dorsey
and Kroeber, No. 41). — Ch. VII. v (Powell, pp. 44-45; cf. Lowie

, No. 2). — Ch. VIII. ii (Matthews [a], “Origin Myth”); v (God-
dard [a]. No. i); vl (DuBois). — Ch. IX. vi. — Ch. X. iii (Dixon [d],
Nos. I, 2); vii (Kroeber [c]. Nos. 9, 12, 17, 38; Dixon , No. 7;

[c] , No. 2; Frachtenberg [a], No. 5; Curtin [a], pp. 163-74; , pp,
60, 68; Goddard , p. 76). — Ch. XL vi (Boas [g], xxiv. i); vii
(Boas [g], xiii. 2, 6b).

17. Miscegenation. — Stories of supernatural and unnatural
marriages and sexual unions are very common. Sometimes they
are legends of the maid who marries a sky-being and gives birth to
a son who becomes a notable hero; sometimes a young man weds
a supernatural girl, as the Thunder’s Daughter or the Snake Girl,
thereby winning secrets and powers which make him a great theur-
gist; sometimes it is the marriage of the dead and the living; fre-
quently the union of women with animals is the theme, and a
story found the length of the continent tells of a girl rendered preg-
nant by a dog, giving birth to children who become human when she
steals their dog disguises. This legend is frequently told with the
episode found in the tradition of the incest of sun-brother and moon-
sister: the girl is approached by night and succeeds in identifying
her lover only by smearing him with paint or ashes. See Notes 13,
32, 50. Text references: Ch. 1 . v (Rasmussen, p. 104; Boas [a], p.
637; Rink, No. 148). — Ch. II. vi (Mooney , pp. 345-47). — Ch.
IV. ii (Mooney , p. 256). — Ch. VL i (Morice, Transactions of
the Canadian Institute^ v. 28-32). — Ch. IX. vii (M. C. Stevenson
[c], p. 32; Cushing , pp. 399 ff.). — Ch. X. v (Dixon [c], No.
7; , Nos. X, 2; Curtin [a], “Two Sisters”).

18, Transmigration. — Belief in the possibility of rebirth is gen-
eral, although some tribes think that only young children may be
reincarnated, and certain of the Californians who practise crema-



NOTES


281

tion bury the bodies of children that they may the more easily be
reborn. Again, rebirth is apparently easier for souls that have
passed to the underworld than for those whose abode is the sky.
The Bella Coola allow no reincarnation for those who have died a
second death and passed to the lowest underworld. See Notes 10,
20, 46. Text references: Ch. I. vi (Rasmussen, p. 116). — Ch. V. ii,
viii (J. 0 . Dorsey [d], p. 508). — Ch. XL iv (Boas [j], pp. ay-zS).

19. Cannibals and Man-Eaters. — Cannibals occur in many
stories. Three forms of anthropophagy, practised until recently by
North American tribes, are to be distinguished: (i) the devouring
of a portion of the body, especially the heart or blood, of a slain
warrior in order to obtain his strength or courage (cf. JR i. 268;
De Smet, p. 249); (2) ceremonial cannibalism, especially in the
North-West, where it is associated with the Cannibal Society; (3)
cannibalism for food. This latter form, except under stress of famine,
is rare in recent times, although archaeological evidence indicates
that it was formerly wide-spread. The ill repute borne by the
Tonkawa is an indication of the feeling against the custom, which,
on the whole, the cannibal-myths substantiate (cf. Ch. VIII. v).
In many legends the anthropophagist’s wife appears as a protec-
tor of his prospective victim, as in European tales of ogres, and it
is interesting to find the ‘‘Fe fo fum” episode of English folk-lore
recurring in numerous stories. The grisly “cannibal babe’’ tradi-
tion of the Eskimo has a kind of parallel in a Montana tale (Ch.
VIL vi); while the obverse motive, of the old female cannibal who
lures children to their destruction, is a frequent North-West story. •
Legends of man-eating bears and lions are to be expected; the man-
devouring bird of the Plateau region is more difficult to explain,
though the idea may be connected with that of the Thunderbird
and the destructiveness of lightning. See Notes 2, 37. Text refer--
ences: Ch. I. vi (Rasmussen, p. 186; Rink, No. 39). — Ch. IV. vii.
— Ch. VII. iii (Teit [a], No. ; vi (O. D. Wheeler, The Trail of
Lewis and Clark^ New York, 1904, ii. 74; cf. McDermott, No. 5,
where Coyote takes vengeance on the babe). — Ch. VIII. ii. — Ch.
XL ii (Boas [f], pp. 372 - 73 ; Igl Sj 6, 7; [j], pp. 83-90; Boas
and Hunt [a]); iii (Boas [f], pp. 394-466; [g], xv. 9; xvii. 8, 9; xx. 8;
SwANTON [a], ch. xi).

20. Names and Souls. — Ghosts and souls are very generally
distinguished. The disembodied soul, or spirit, is mythically con-
ceived as related to fire and wind, and as transiently human in
form, sometimes as a manikin. Names also have a kind of person-
ality. Individuals believed to be the reincarnation of one dead are
given the same appellation as that borne by him, and Curtin tells
a story of a babe that persistently cried until called by the right name



282


NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY


(, p. 6). A curious custom of renaming a living man after a dead
chief, that the character and traits of the departed may not be
lost, is described by the Jesuit Fathers {JR xxii. 289; xxvi. ISS™'63).
See Notes 12, 18, S3- references: Ch. 1 . vi (Stefansson, pp.

395-400). — Ch. III. V (De Smet, pp. 1047-53). — Ch. V. ii. —
Ch. VIL vi (Lowie , Nos. 38, 39; Teit , pp. 342, 358; [d],
p. 611). — Ch. XI. iii (Boas [f], pp. 418 ff.; [j], p. 37); vii (Boas
[f], p. 482; [g], xiiL 2, 6; Swanton [a], p. 34 )-

21. Ordeals. — Ordeals may be classified as follows: (i) initia-
tion trials and tortures, of which flogging and fasting are the com-
monest methods; (2) trials of a warrior’s fortitude, in the forms
of torture of captives, expiatory sacrifices and purifications of men
setting out on the war-path, and fulfilment of a vow for deliverance
from peril or evil; the famous Sun-Dance tortures belong to the
latter class; body scarring and the offering of finger-joints are fre-
quent modes of expiation; (3) punishment for crime, especially mur-
der; (4) mourning customs involving mutilation and hardship, par-
ticularly severe for widows; (5) duels, especially the magical duels
of shamans, which range from satirical song-duels to contests of skill
resulting in degradation or even death for the defeated. Text refer^
ences: Ch. 1 . vi (Rasmussen, p. 312). — Ch. V. vi. — Ch. IX. iv. —
Ch. X. vi (Frachtenberg [a]. No. 4).

22. Orphans and Poor Boys. — Tales of orphans and poor boys
who are neglected and persecuted form a whole body of litera-
ture, second in extent only to the “Trickster-Transformer” stories.
The return of the hero, after a journey to some beneficent god, who
often is his father, and his subsequent elevation to power, as a chief
or medicine-man, are recurrent motives. The whole group might
be called Whittington stories, but there are many variations. Text
references: Ch. I. vi. — Ch. IV. vii. — Ch. VI. vii (G. A. Dorsey
[e] makes a class of “Boy Hero” stories, many of them tales of
orphans). — Ch. VIII. iv.

23. The Five Nations, or tribes of the original Iroquois Confed-
eracy, included the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca;
later the Tuscarora were admitted, whence the league is also called
the Six Nations.

24. Agriculture. — Pumpkins, squash, beans, sweet potatoes,
and tobacco are other crops cultivated in various localities by the
aborigines. Wild rice and the seeds of grasses were gathered; roots
and wild fruits were eaten; in the maple-tree zone maple sugar is a
native food, and particularly in the far West acorn meal forms an
important article of aboriginal diet. It seems certain that the Algon-
quians came from the north and learned agriculture of the south-
ern nations, especially the Iroquois. The northern Algonquians ~



NOTES


283

Montagnais, etc. — practised no agriculture when the Jesuits began
missionary work among them, though the cultivation of maize was
well established among the New England tribes before the appear-
ance of the Colonists. The introduction of maize among the Chippewa
is remembered in the myth of Mondamin (cf. Brinton [d], ch. vi,
and Perrot, Memoir ch. iv, English translation in Blair, i).
The Omaha, Navaho, and a number of other tribes among whom
agriculture is recent have traditions or myths recording the way
in which they first learned it. See Notes 35, 39. Text references:
Ch. II. i. — Ch. III. ii. — Ch. V. i. — Ch. IX. i.

25. Areskoui. — Lafitau, i. 126, 132, 145, discusses Areskoui, or
Agriskoue, whom he regards as an American reminiscence of the
Greek Ares. This seems to be the primary ground for the assertion
that Areskoui is a god of war, though it is to a degree borne out by
the nature of the allusions to him in the Jesuit Relations^ especially
Jogues’s letter (JR xxxix. 219). The members of the Huron mission,
who had a better chance to understand this deity, evidently con-
sidered him a supreme being, or Great Spirit; cf. with the passage

VII. SOULS AND THEIR POWERS

In no section of America is the belief in possession by spirits
and spiritistic powers more deeply seated than in the North-
West; shamanism is the key to the whole conception of life
which animates myth and rite. Scarcely any idea connected
with spiritualism is absent: stories of soul-journeys are fre-
quent, while telepathic communication, prophetic forewarnings
of death and disaster, and magic cures through spirit aid are
a part of the scheme of nature; there are accounts of crystal-
gazing, in which all lands and events are revealed in the trans-
lucent stone, which recurs again and again as a magic object;
and there are tales of houses haunted by shadows and feathers,
of talking skulls and bones that are living beings by night,
and of children born of the dead, which are only abortively
human. There is also a kind of psychology which is well de-
veloped among some tribes.®® The disembodied soul is not a
whole or hale being: “Why are you making an uproar, ghosts?
You who take away men’s reason!” is a fragment of Kwakiutl
song; and a certain story tells how a sick girl, whose heart was
painted, went insane because the colouring was applied too
strongly. The Haida have three words for “ soul ” ; two of these
apply to the incarnate soul, and are regarded as synonyms;
the third designates the disembodied soul, although the latter
is not the same as the ghost, which is marked by a distinct
name. A curious feature of Haida psychology is that the word
for mind is the same as that for throat — less strange, perhaps,
when we reflect upon the importance of speech in any descrip-
tion of the mind’s most distinctive power, that of reason.

The origin of death is explained in many ways.'® A Tlingit
story has been given, and a Nootka tale tells of a chieftain
who kept eternal life in a chest; men tried to steal it from him



THE PACIFIC COAST, NORTH 263

and almost succeeded, but their final failure doomed them to
mortality. A significant Wikeno (Kwakiutl) myth recounts the
descent from heaven of two ancestral beings who wished to
endow men with everlasting life, but a little bird wished death
into the world: “Where will I dwell,” he asked, “if ye always
live.? I would build my nest in your graves and warm me.”
The two offered to die for four days, and then arise from the
tomb ; but the bird was not satisfied, so finally they concluded
to pass away and be born again as children. After their death
they ascended to heaven, whence they beheld men mourning
them; whereupon they transformed themselves into drops of
bipod, carried downward by the wind. Sleeping women in-
breathe these drops and thence bear children.

The abodes of the dead are variously placed.^® Beneath the
sea is one of the most frequent, and there is an interesting story
telling of the waters parting and the ghost, in the form of a
butterfly, rising before a young man who sat fasting beside
the waters. The Haida believe that the drowned go to live with
the killer whales; those who perish by violence pass to Taxet’s
house in the sky, whence rebirth is difficult, though not impos-
sible for an adventurous soul; while those who die in the sick-
bed pass to the Land of Souls — a shore land, beyond the
waters, with innumerable inlets, each with its town, just as in
their own country. Although the dying could decide for them-
selves to what town in the Land of Souls they wished their
own spirits to go, there is occasionally, nevertheless, an appor-
tionment of the future abode on a moral basis; thus, in Tlingit
myth, after Nascakiyetl has created men, he decrees that when
the souls of the dead come before him, he will ask: “What were
you killed for.? What was your life in the world.?” Destiny is
determined by the answer; the good go to a Paradise above;
the wicked and witches are reborn as dogs and other animals.
The Bella Coola assign the dead to the two lower worlds, from
the upper of which alone is return possible through reincarna-
tion. An old woman who, in trance, had seen the spirit world,

X — 19



264 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY

described it as stretching along the banks of a sandy river.
When it is sumnaer in the world above, it is winter in the earth
below (an idea which appears in Hopi conceptions of the world
order); and the ghosts, too, are said to walk with their heads
downward. They speak a different language from that in the
world above, and each soul receives a new name on entering
the lower realms.

The ever-recurring and ever-pathetic story of the dead wife
and of her grieving lord’s quest for her — the tale of Orpheus
and Eurydice — appears in various forms in the North-West.*®
Sometimes it is the story of a vain journey, without even a
sight of the beloved, though the Land of the Dead be dis-
covered; sometimes the searcher is sent back with gifts, but
not with the one sought; sometimes the legend is made a part
of the incident of the carved wife — the bereaved husband
making a statue of the lost spouse, which may show a dim
and troubled life, as if her soul were seeking to break through
to him; and again it is the true Orphean tale with the partial
success, the tabu broken through anxiety or love, and the spirit
wife receding once more to the lower world. It is not necessary
to invoke the theory of borrowings for such a tale as this ; the
elemental fact of human grief and yearning for the departed
will explain it. Doubtless a similar universality in human na-
ture and a similar likeness in human experiences will account
for the multitude of other conceptions which make the mythic
universe of the men of the Old World and the men of the New
fundamentally and essentially one.



NOTES




NOTES


I. Spelling. — Kahluna {kavdlundk^ qadluna are variants) is
the Eskimo’s word for “white man”; kablunait is the plural. Simi-
larly, tornit {tunnit) is the plural of tunek {tuniq, tunnek); tornait of
tornak {tornaq, tornat ) ; angakut of angakok^ other forms of which are
angekkoky angatkuk^ angaqok^ etc. These differences in spelling are
due in part to dialectic variations in Eskimo speech, in part to the
phonetic symbols adopted by investigators. Their number in a
language comparatively so stable as is Eskimo illustrates the diffi-
culties which beset the writer on American Indian subjects in choos-
ing proper representation for the sounds of aboriginal words. These
difficulties arise from a number of causes. In the first place, aboriginal
tongues, having no written forms, are extremely plastic in their
phonetics. Dialects of the same language vary from tribe to tribe;
within a single tribe different clans or families show dialectic pecu-
liarities; while individual pronunciation varies not only from man to
man but from time to time. In the second place, the printed records
vary in every conceivable fashion. Divergent systems of trans-
literation are employed by different investigators, publications, and
ethnological bureaux; translations from French and Spanish have
introduced foreign forms into English; usage changes for old words
from early to later times; and finally few men whose writings are
extensive adhere consistently to chosen forms; indeed, not infre-
quently the form for the same word varies in an identical writing.
In formulating rules of spelling for a general work, a number of
considerations call for regard. First, it is undesirable even to seek
to follow the phonetic niceties represented by the more elaborate
transliterative systems, which represent sound-material unknown in
English or other European tongues. Aboriginal phonetics is impor-
tant to the student of linguistics; it is unessential to the student
of mythology; and it is detrimental to that literary interest which
seeks to make the mythological conceptions available to the general
reader; for the mythologist or the literary artist a symbol conform-
ing to the genius of his own tongue is the prime desideratum. In
the light of these considerations the following rules of spelling for
aboriginal terms have been adopted for the present work:

(i) In the spelling of the names of tribes and linguistic stocks the
usage of the Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico (50



268


NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY


BBE) has been chosen as the standard. The same form (as a rule)
is used for the singular and for the collective plural; also, frequently,
for the adjective.

(2) Where a term has attained, through considerable usage, a
frequent English form, especially if this has literary (as distinct
from scientific) sanction, such form is preferred. This rule is neces-
sarily loose and difficult to apply. Thus the term manito^ which has
many variants, is almost equally well known under the French
form manitou, for which there is the warrant of geographical usage.
Again, Manabozho is preferred to Nanabozho (used for the title of
the article in jo BBE) for the reason that Manabozho is more widely
employed in non-technical works.

(3) In adaptations of transliterations all special characters are
rendered by an approximation in the Anglo-Roman alphabet and
all except the most familiar diacritical marks are omitted. This is
an arbitrary rule, but in a literary sense it seems to be the only one
possible.

(4) Vowels have the Italian values. Thus tipi replaces the older
form teepee. Changes of this type are not altogether fortunate, but
the trend of usage is clearly in this direction. In a few cases (notably
from Longfellow’s Hiawatha) older literary forms are kept.

2. Monsters. — Monstrous beings and races occur in the my-
thology of every American tribe, and with little variation in type.
There are: (a) manlike monsters, including giants, dwarfs, cannibals,
and hermaphrodites; (b) animal monsters, bird monsters, water
monsters, etc.; (c) composite and malformed creatures, such as one-
eyed giants, headless bodies and bodiless heads, skeletons, persons
half stone, one-legged, double-headed, and flint-armoured beings,
harpies, witches, ogres, etc. As a rule, these creatures are in the
nature of folk-lore beings or bogies. In some cases they have a clear-
cut cosmologic or cosmogonic significance; thus, myths of Titans
and Stone Giants are usually cosmogonic in meaning; legends of
serpents and giant birds occur especially in descriptions of atmos-
pheric and meteorological phenomena; the story of the hero swal-
lowed by a monster is usually in connexion with the origin of ani-
mals.^ See Notes 9, 12, 19, 32, 36, 37, 38, 40, 41, 49, 50, 64. The
principal text references are: Ch. I. i (cf. Rink, Nos. 54, 55). — Ch.
IL vii. — Ch. IV. vi (Mooney , pp. 325-49). — Ch. V. ii (Jette
[a]). — Ch. VII. ii (Lowie . Nos. 10-15, 3^; Teit [a]. Nos. 29-30;
Powell, pp. 45-49). — Ch. VIIL i, ii. — Ch. IX. vi (Cushing [c],
Lummis, Voth). — Ch. XL iv.

3. Animism. — The Eskimo’s Inue belong to that universal group
of elementary powers commonly called “animistic,” though some
writers object to this term on the ground that it implies a clear-cut



NOTES


269

spiritism in aboriginal conceptions (cf. Clodd, Hartland, et aL, in
Transactions of the Third International Congress for the History of
Religions j Oxford, 1908; Marett, Threshold of Religion, London, 1909;
Lang, ^‘Preanimistic Religion,” in Contemporary Review, 1909; see
also, Powell, i ARBE, pp. 29-33). Taking anima in its primitive
sense of ‘^breath,” “wind,” no other word seems really preferable as
a description of the ancient notion of indwelling lives or powers in
all things, — “panzoism,” if that term be preferred. The American
forms under which this idea appears are many, manito, orenda, and
wakanda being the terms most widely known. The application of
the words varies somewhat, (a) Manito, the Algonquian name, desig-
nates not only impersonal powers, but frequently personified beings,
(b) Orenda, an Iroquoian term, is applied to powers, considered as
attributes, (c) Wakanda, the Siouan designation, connotes, in the
main, impersonal powers, though It is sometimes used of individuals,
and apparently also for the collective or pantheistic power of the
world as a whole. Usually in Indian religion there is some sense of
the difference between a personality as a cause and its power as an
attribute, but in myths the tendency is naturally toward lively per-
sonification. Cf. Note 4. Text references: Ch. 1. iii {inua, plural
inue, is cognate with inuk, “man,” and means “its man” or “owner”).
— Ch. 11. iii (Brinton [a], p. 62; Hewitt [a], pp. 134, 197, note a;
JR V. 157, 17s; Ixvi. 233 ff.). — Ch. V. ii (Jette [a], ); iv (Fletcher
and La Flesche, pp. 597-99). — Ch. VIIL i (Matthews [a]). —
Ch. X. V. — Ch. XI. ii (Boas [f]; Swanton [a], chh. viii, ix); iv
(S WANTON [e], p. 452).

4. Medicine. — The term “medicine” has come to be applied
in a technical sense to objects and practices controlling the animistic
powers of nature, as the Indian conceives them. “Medicine” is,
therefore, in the nature of private magical property. It may exist
in the form of a song or spell known to the owner, in the shape of a
symbol with which he adorns his body or his possessions, or in the
guise of a material object which is kept in the “medicine-bag,” in
the “sacred bundle,” or it may be present in some other fetishistic
form. It may appear in a “medicine dance” or ceremony, or in a
system of rites and practices known to a “medicine lodge” or so-
ciety. The essential idea varies from fetishism to symbolism. On
the fetishistic level is the regard for objects themselves as sacred
and powerful, having the nature of charms or talismans. Such
fetishes may be personal belongings — the contents of the “medicine-
bag,” etc. (sometimes even subject to barter) — or they may be
tribal or cult possessions, such as the sacred poles and sacred bundles
of the Plains tribes, or the fetish images, masks, and sacra of the
Pueblo and North-West stocks; a not infrequent form is the sacred



270


NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY


drum or rattle. Symbolism is rarely absent even from the fetishistic
object, and usually the fetish is lost in the symbol, which is the
token of the union of interests between its owner and his “helper/’
or tutelary. It is in this latter sense, as designating the relation
between the owner and his guardian or tutelary, that the Algon-
quian term “totem” is most used. The totem is not a thing mate-
rially owned, as is the fetish; it is a spirit or power, frequently an
animal-being, which has been revealed to the individual in vision as
his tutelary, or which has come to him by descent, his whole clan
participating in the right. The Tornait of the Eskimo belong to this
latter class; the word “totem,” however, is not used in connexion
with such guardians, and indeed is now mainly restricted to the tute-
laries of clans, right to which passes by inheritance. Text references:
Ch. 1 . iii. — Ch. V. V (De Smet, pp. 1068-69). — Ch. VIL vi. —
Ch. IX. iii (Cushing [a]; M. C. Stevenson [c]; Fewkes, passim).

5. Shamanism. — The terms applied to Indian priests and wonder-
workers are many, but they do not always bear a clear distinction
of meaning. The word “shaman” is especially common in works on
the Eskimo and the North-West tribes; “medicine-man” is used
very largely with reference to the eastern and central tribes; “priest”
is particularly frequent in descriptions of Pueblo institutions. In
general, the following definitions represent the distinctions implied:

(a) Shaman. A wonder-worker and healer directly inspired by a
“medicine ’’-power, or group of such powers, “shamanism” signify-
ing the recognition of possession by powers or spirits as the primary
modus operandi in all the essential relations between man and the
world-powers.

(b) Medicine’-Man, Doctor. Not radically different from shaman,
though the employment of naturalistic methods of healing, such as
the use of herbal medicines, the sweat-bath, crude surgery, etc., is
often implied, especially where the term “doctor” is employed.

(c) Priest. One authorized to preside over the celebration of tradi-
tional ceremonies. Such persons must be initiates in the society or
body owning the rites, which are sometimes shamanistic in char-
acter, though more frequently the shaman is supposed to get his
powers as the result of an individual experience.

Every degree of relationship is found for these offices. In tribes
of low social organization (e. g. the Eskimo and the Californians)
the shaman is the man of religious importance; in tribes with well
developed traditional rites the priestly character is frequently com-
bined with the shamanistic (as in the North-West); still other peo-
ples (as the Pueblo) elevate the priest far above the medicine-man,
who may be simply a doctor, or medical practitioner, or who, on
the shamanistic level, may be regarded as a witch or wizard, with

THE PACIFIC COAST, NORTH 245

excellence in art, and more than one myth is adorned with
tales of houses in which the sculptured pillars or the painted
pictures are evidently alive, while stories of living persons
rooted to the floor apparently have a similar origin. The carv-
ing of a wife out of wood is a frequent theme, and occasionally
she, like Galatea, is vivified; when the husband’s name is
Sitting-on-Earth, we may suspect that here, too, we have a
myth connected with the house-post. In creation stories the
first human pair are sometimes represented as carved from
wood by the demiurge and then endowed with life, although
this may be a version of the Californian legend of the creation
of men from sticks, modified by a people with a native genius
for wood carving.


III. SECRET SOCIETIES AND THEIR TUTELARIES

Of even greater ceremonial significance than the possession
of crests is membership in the secret societies of the North-
West. Everywhere in North America, as the clan system loos-
ens in rigidity, the Medicine Lodge or the Esoteric Fraternity
grows in importance. In its inception the medicine society is
seldom unrelated to the clan organization, but it breaks free
from this either in the form of a ceremonial priesthood, as
among the Pueblo, or in that of a tribal or inter-tribal religious
order, as in the mystery societies of the Great Plains. Among
the peoples of the North-West the fraternities have had a de-
velopment of their own. Apparently they originated with the
Elwakiutl tribes, among whom the social organization Is either
a compromise or a transitional stage between the matrilinear
clans of the northward stocks and the patriarchal family or
village-groups of the southerly Coast-Dwellers. Membership
in the secret societies Is in a sense dependent upon heredity,
for certain of the tutelary spirits of the societies are supposed
to appear only to members of particular clans or families; but
with this restriction the influence of the clan upon society



246 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY

membership ends. Perhaps no sharper indication of the differ-
ence could be given than the very general custom of changing
the names of the society members, during the season of their
ceremonials, from their clan names to the spirit names given
them at the time of their initiation; the family system tem-
porarily yields place to a mystic division into groups defined by
patron spirits, the genii or guardians of the societies.

These spirits are distinguished from the totems that mark
descent in that the latter are not regarded as giving continued
revelations of themselves: the totem appeared to the ancestor
and revealed his mystery, which then became traditionary;
the spirits of the societies manifest themselves to, and indeed
must take possession of, every initiate; they still move among
men, and the ceremonials in their honour take place in the
winter season, when these supernatural beings are supposed to
be living in association with their neophytes.’’® The most
famed and dreaded of the secret society tutelarics is the Canni-
bal, whose votaries practise ceremonial anthropophagy, biting
the arms of non-initiates (in former times slaves were killed
and partly eaten).’’® Cannibals are common characters in the
myths of the North-West, as elsewhere; but the Cannibal of
the society is a particular personage who is supposed to dwell
in the mountains with his servants, the man-eating Grizzly
Bear and the Raven who feeds upon the eyes of the persons
whom his master has devoured, and who is a long-beaked bird
which breaks men’s skulls and finds their brains a daintymorsel.
The cult of the Cannibal probably originated among the Heil-
tsuk Kwakiutl, whence it passed to neighbouring tribes in com-
paratively recent times. The Warrior of the North is a second
spirit, his gifts being prowess in war, and resistance ^to wounds
and disease. Still others are the Bird-Spirit which makes one
able to fly, and the ghosts who bestow the power of returning
to life after being slain. The Dog-Eating Spirit, whose votaries
kill and eat a dog as they dance, is the inspirer of yet another
society with a wide-spread following. The more potent spirits




PLATE XXXI


Kwakiutl ceremonial masks. Upper, an ancestral
or totemic double mask, the bird mask, representing
the totem being opened out to show the inner man-
faced mask. Lower, mask representing the Sisiutl,
or double-headed and horned serpent. After MAM
viii, Plates XLIX, LX.






THE PACIFIC COAST, NORTH 247

e regarded as malignant in character, but there are milder
ings and gentler forms of inspiration derived from the greater
iwers, some of these latter types belonging to societies exclu-
tqIj for women.

The winter ceremonials, accompanying initiations into the
sret societies, are the great festivals of the North-West,
ley are made the occasion for feasts, mask dances of the clan
itiates in honour of their totems, potlatches, with their rival-
;s, and varied forms of social activity and ceremonial puri-
ation. The central event, however, is the endowment of the
ophyte with the powers which the genius of the society is be-
ved to give. The underlying idea is shamanistic;® the initiate
ust be possessed by the spirit, which is supposed to speak and
t through him: he must become as glass for the spirit to
ter him, as one myth expressively states. The preparation
the. novice is various: sometimes he is sent into the wilder-
ss to seek his revelation; sometimes he is ceremonially killed
entranced; but in every instance seizure by the controlling
irit is the end sought. The Haida call this “the spirit speak-
g through” the novice; and an account of such possession
' the Cannibal Spirit, Ulala, is given by Swanton: “The one
lo was going to be initiated sat waiting in a definite place.
2 always belonged to the clan of the host’s wife. When the
ief had danced around the fire awhile, he threw feathers upon
e novice, and a noise was heard in the chiefs body. Then
e novice fell flat on the ground, and something made a noise
side of him. When that happened, all the ‘inspired’ said,
o and so fell on the ground.’ A while after he went out of
e house. Walala (the same as Ulala) acted through him.
le novice was naked; but the spirit-companions wore dancing
irts and cedar-bark rings, and held oval rattles (like those
ed by shamans) in their hands. Wherever the novice went in,
e town people acted as if afraid of him, exclaiming, ‘ Hoy-hoy-
ly-hoy hiya-ha-ha hoyil’ Wherever he started to go in, the
irit-companions went in first in a crowd. All the uninitiated

X — 18



248 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY

hid themselves; not so the others. When he passed in through
the doorway, he made his sound, ^ Ap ap ap!’ At the same time
the Walala spirit made a noise outside. As he went around the
fire he held his face turned upward. In his mouth, too, some-
thing (a whistle) sounded. His eyes were turned over and
showed the whites.’’ The cannibal initiate among the Kwakiutl
is called ‘‘hamatsa”; and Boas has recorded (Report of the
United States National Museum^ 1895, pp. 458-62) a number
of hamatsa songs which reveal the spirit of the society and its
rites better than mere description. The poetry of the North-
West tribes, like their mythology, seems pervaded with a spirit
of rank gluttony, which naturally finds its most unveiled ex-
pression in the cannibal songs: —

Food will be given to me, food will be given to me, because I ob-
tained this magic treasure.

I am swallowing food alive: I eat living men.

I swallow wealth; I swallow the wealth that my father is giving
away [in the accompanying Potlatch].

This is an old song, and typical. A touch of sensibility and a
grimly imaginative repression of detail is in the following: —

Now I am going to eat.

My face is ghastly pale.

I shall eat what is given to me by Baxbakualanuchsiwae.

Baxbakualanuchsiwae is the Kwakiutl name for the Cannibal
Spirit, and the appellation signifies ^^the first to eat man at the
mouth of the river,” i. e., in the north, the ocean being con-
ceived as a river running toward the arctic regions. In some
of the songs the cosmic significance of the spirit is clearly set
forth: —

You will be known all over the world; you will be known all over the
world, as far as the edge of the world, you great one who safely
returned from the spirits.

You will be known all over the world; you will be known all over
the world, as far as the edge of the world. You went to Bax-
bakualanuchsiwae, and there you first ate dried human flesh.



THE PACIFIC COAST, NORTH 249

You were led to his cannibal pole, in the place of honor in his house,
and his house is our world.

You were led to his cannibal pole, which is the milky way of our
world.

You were led to his cannibal pole at the right-hand side of our world.

From the abode of the Cannibal, the Kwakiutl say, red
smoke arises. Sometimes the “cannibal pole” is the rainbow,
rather than the Milky Way; but the Cannibal himself is re-
garded as living at the north end of the world (as is the case
with the Titanic beings of many Pacific-Coast myths), and it is
quite possible that he is originally a war-god typified by the
Aurora Borealis. A Tlingit belief holds that the souls of all who
meet a violent death dwell in the heaven-world of the north,
ruled by Tahit, who determines those that shall fall in battle,
of what sex children shall be born, and whether the mother
shall die in child-birth.^® The Aurora is blood-red when these
fighting souls prepare for battle, and the Milky Way is a huge
tree-trunk (pole) over which they spring back and forth. Boas
is of opinion that the secret societies originated as warrior
fraternities among the Kwakiutl, whose two most famed tute-
laries are the Cannibal and Winalagilis, the Warrior of the
North. Ecstasy is supposed to follow the slaying of a foe;
the killing of a slave by the Cannibal Society members is in
a sense a celebration of victory, since the slave is war booty;
and it is significant that in certain tribes the Cannibals merely
hold in their teeth the heads of enemies taken in war.

IV. THE WORLD AND ITS RULERS

The usual primitive conception of the world’s form prevails
in the North-West. It is flat and round below and surmounted
above by a solid firmament in the shape of an inverted bowl. As
the people of this region are Coast-Dwellers, Earth is regarded
as an island or group of islands floating in the cosmic waters.
The Haida have a curious belief that the sky-vault rises and



250


NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY


falls at regular intervals, so that the clouds at times strike
against the mountains, making a noise which the Indians say
they can hear. The world above the firmament is inhabited,
and one Haida myth (which closely resembles the Pueblo
cosmogony) tells of Raven, escaping from the rising flood in
the earth below, boring his way through the firmament and
discovering five successive storeys in the world above; a five-
row town is the more characteristically North-West concep-
tion, given in another version. The Bella Coola believe that
there are five worlds, one above the other, two being heaven-
worlds, two underworlds, and our Earth the mid-world — an
arrangement which is of significance in their theology. Belief
in an underworld, and especially in undersea towns and coun-
tries, is universal in this region; while the northern tribes all
regard the Earth itself as anchored in its mobile foundation by
a kind of Atlas, an earth-sustaining Titan. According to the
Haida, Sacred-One-Standing-and-Moving, as he is called, is the
Earth-Supporter; he himself rests upon a copper box, which,
presumably, is conceived as a boat; from his breast rises the
Pillar of the Heavens, extending to the sky; his movements are
the cause of earthquakes. The Bella Coola, following a myth
which is clearly of a South-Coast type, also believe in the Earth-
Titan, who is not, however, beneath the world, but sits in the
distant east holding a stone bar to which the earth island is
fastened by stone ropes; when he shifts his hold, earthquakes
occur. The Tsimshian and Tlingit deem the Earth-Sustainer
to be a, woman. The earth, they say, rests upon a pillar in
charge of this Titaness, Old-Woman-Undemeath;'^ and when
the Raven tries to drive her from the pillar, earthquake follows.

The sun, moon, stars, and clouds are regarded as material
things, — sometimes as mechanically connected with the firma-
ment; sometimes as the dwellings of celestial creatures; some-
times, as in the South-West, as masks of these beings.^® The
winds are personified according to their prevailing directions,
but there is little trace in the North-West of the four-square



THE PACIFIC COAST, NORTH 251

conception of the world, amounting to a cult of the Quarters.®^
As might be expected among seafarers, tide-myths are common.
Among the southern tribes animal heroes control the movement
of the sea, as in the Kwakiutl story of the Mink who stole the
tail of the Wolf that owned the tides, and caused them to ebb
or flow by raising or lowering it. In the north a different con-
ception prevails : the Haida regard the command of the tide as
the possession of an Old Man of the Sea, from whom the ebb
and flow were won by the craft of the Raven, who wished to
satisfy his gluttony on the life of the tide-flats ; the. same story
is found among the Tlingit, who, however, also believe the
tide to issue from and recede into a hole at the north end of
the world, an idea which is similar to the Bella Coola notion
of an undersea man who twice a day swallows and gives forth
the waters.

The universe so conceived is peopled by an uncountable
number of spirits or powers, whom the Tlingit call Yek.®
According to one of Swanton’s informants, everything has
one principal and several subordinate spirits, “and this idea
seems to be reflected in shamans’ masks, each of which repre-
sents one main spirit and usually contains effigies of several
subsidiary spirits as well.” There is a spirit on every trail, a
spirit in every fire, the world is full of listening ears and gazing
eyes — the eyes so conspicuous in the decorative emblems of
the North-West. Earth is full and the sea is full of the Keres
loosed by Pandora, says Hesiod, and an anonymous Greek
poet tells how the air is so dense with them that there is no
chink or crevice between them; for the idea is universal to
mankind.

Among these spirits appear, up and down the Coast, almost
every type of being known to mythology.® There are the one-
eyed Cyclops, the acephalous giant with eyes in his breast;
the bodiless but living heads and talking skulls, sea-serpents,
mermen, Circes, the siren-like singers of Haida lore, anthro-
pophagi of many types. Harpy-like birds, giants, dwarfs.



252


NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY


treasure-wardens, witches, transformers, werefolk, ghosts, and
a multitude of genii locorum, to say nothing of magically
endowed animals, birds, and fishes. The Haida even have
a double nomenclature for the animal kinds; as “Gina teiga”
they are creatures of their several sorts, and the proper prey
of the hunter; as “Sgana quedas” they are werefolk or man-
beings, capable of assisting the human race with their magic
might.'*® The Haida make another interesting distinction be-
tween the world-powers, classifying them, as their own tribes
are divided, into Ravens and Eagles; and they also arrange
the ruling potencies in a sort of hierarchy, sky, sea, and land
having each its superior and subordinate powers.

The greatest of these potencies is a true divinity, who is
named Power-of-the-Shining-Hcavens,® and who, in a prayer
recorded by Swanton, is thus addressed: “ Power-of-the-Shin-
ing-Heavens, let there be peace upon me; let not my heart be
sorry.” He is not, however, a deity of popular story, although
a legend is told of his incarnation. Born of a cockle-shell which
a maiden dug from the beach, he became a mighty getter of
food; a picturesque passage tells how he sat “blue, broad and
high over the sea”; and at his final departure for heaven, he
said, “When the sky looks like my face as my father painted
it there will be no wind; in me (i. e., in my days) people will
get their food.” It is Power-of-the-Shining-Heavens who de-
termines those that are to die, although Wigit, another celestial
deity, who is the same as the Raven, is the one who apportions
the length of life of the new-born child, according as he draws
a long or a short stick from the faggot which he keeps for this
purpose. The Tsimshian have a conception of the sky-god
similar to that of the Haida, their name for him being Laxha.

The idea of a Fate in the sky-world, deciding the life of
men, is common to the northern tribes. Tahit, the Tlingit
divinity of this type, has already been mentioned; and the
same god (Taxet, “the House Above”) is recognized by the
Haida, though here he is the one who receives the souls of



253


THE PACIFIC COAST, NORTH

those slain by violence, rather than the determiner of death.
The Bella Coola have an elaborate system of Fates. When
Senx creates the new-born child, an assistant deity gives it its
individual features, while a birth goddess rocks It in a pre-
natal cradle; and this is true also of animals whose skins and
flesh are foreordained for the food and clothing of man. Death,
according to the Bella Coola, is predestined by the deities who
rule over the winter solstice (the season of the great cere-
monies) : two divinities stand at the ends of a plank, balanced
like a seesaw, while the souls of men and animals are collected
about them; and as the plank rises or falls, the time of the pass-
ing of the souls is decided.

It is among the Bella Coola that the hierarchic arrangement
of the world-powers has reached, apparently, the most system-
atic and conscious form on the North Pacific. As stated above,
this tribe separates the universe into five worlds or storeys,
two above and two below the earth. In the upper heaven re-
sides Qamaits,^ who is also called “Our Woman” and “Afraid-
of-Nothlng.” The house of this goddess is in the east of the
treeless and wind-swept prairie which forms her domain, and
behind her home is the salt-water pond in which she bathes
and which forms the abode of the Sisiutl. In the beginning of
the world she is said to have waged war against the moun-
tains, who made the world uninhabitable, and to have con-
quered them and reduced them in height. Qamaits is regarded
as a great warrior, but she is not addressed in prayer, and her
rare visits to earth cause sickness and death. In the centre of
the lower heaven stands the mansion of the gods, called the
House of Myths. Senx, the Sun,^® Is master of this house, “the
Sacred One” and “Our Father” are his epithets; and it is to
him that the Bella Coola pray and make offerings. Almost
equal In rank to Senx is Alkuntam, who, with the sun, presided
over the creation of man.^® Alkuntam’s mother is described
as a Cannibal, who inserts her long snout into the ears of men
and sucks out their brains. She seems to be a personification

THE PACIFIC COAST, WEST

tance of the action: it is as if the motives and deeds of the
natural world were being tried out, fitted, like vestments, now
upon this type of being, now upon that, with a view to the dis-
covery of the most suitable character. It indicates, too, that
the tales are probably far older than the environment, which
they have been gradually transformed to satisfy. To be sure,
certain elements are constant, for they represent unchangeable
factors in human experience — as the relation of Earth and
Sky, Light and Darkness, Rain, Fire, Cloud, and Thunder;
but the animal personalities, and to a less extent the monstrous
beings, vary for the same plot in different tribes and differ-
ent tellings — vary, yet with certain constancies that deserve
note. Coyote, over the whole western half of North America,
is the most important figure of myth: usually, he is not an
edifying hero, being mainly trickster and dupe by turns; yet
he very generally plays a significant role in aiding, willy-nilly,
the First People to the discovery of their final and appropriate
shapes. He is, in other words, a great transformer; he is fre-
quently the prime mover in the theft of fire, which nearly all
tribes mark as the beginning of human advancement; and in
parts, at least, of California, his deeds are represented as al-
most invariably beneficent in their outcomes; he is a true, if
often unintentional, culture hero. Other animals — the Elk,
the Bear, the Lion — are frequent mythic figures, as are cer-
tain reptiles — the Rattlesnake, the exultant Frog Woman,
who floats on the crest of the world-flood, and the Lizard who,
because he has five fingers and knows their usefulness, similarly
endows man when the human race comes to be created. But
it is especially the winged kind — the birds — that play, after
Coyote, the leading roles in West-Coast myth. The Eagle, the
Falcon, the Crow, the Raven, and to a less degree the Vulture
and the Buzzard, are most conspicuous, for it is noticeable
that among birds, as among animals, it is the stronger, and
especially the carnivorous, kinds that are the chiefs of legend.
Nevertheless, this is no Invariable rule, and the Woodpecker,



228 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY

whose red head-feathers were used as money among the Cali-
fornian tribes, the Humming-Bird, and indeed most other birds
known to them, figure in the myths of the region. Nor are
smaller creatures — the Louse, the Fly, and the Worm — too
insignificant for the maker of traditions.

All of these beings, in the age of the First People, were
human in form; the present order of existence began with their
transformation into the birds and animals we now know. In
West-Coast myth, this metamorphosis often follows directly
upon the cataclysm of fire or flood by which the First World
was destroyed, thus giving the two periods a distinctness of
separation not common in Indian thought. In many versions
the transformation is the work of the world-shaper — Coyote
or another — as in the myth of Olelbis, who apportions to
each creature its proper shape and home after the earth has
been restored. Even more frequently there is a contest of
some sort, the outcome of which is that victor and vanquished
are alike transformed. This may be a battle of wits, as in the
Coos story of the Crow whose voice was thunder and whose
eyes flashed lightning:®^ a certain man-being persuaded the
Crow first to trade voices with him, and then to sell the light-
nings of his eyes for the food left by the ebb-tide, whereupon
the Crow degenerated into what he now is, a glutton with a
raucous voice, while the man became the Thunderer. Again,
the struggle may be of the gaming type: in a Miwok legend
Wek-wek, the Falcon, participated with a certain winged giant,
Kelok, in a contest at which each in turn allowed himself to
be used as a target for red-hot stones hurled by his opponent;
through over-confidence Wek-wek is slain, but he is restored to
life again by Coyote, who is shrewd enough to beat the giant
at his own game; while from the body of the slain monster is
started the conflagration that destroys the world.®® In a third
case, the contest is one of sorcery: the story of the Loon Woman
tells how she fell in love with the youngest of her ten brothers
as they danced in the sweat-lodge; by her magic she com-



THE PACIFIC COAST, WEST 229

pelled him to accompany her, but he escaped, and the brothers,
with the aid of their elder sister. Spider Woman, ascended to
heaven in a basket; Loon Woman perceived them, set fire to
the sweat-house, and all save the Eagle fell back into the flames;
their bodies were burned and Loon Woman made herself a neck-
lace of their hearts. Nevertheless, her triumph was brief, for
the Eagle succeeded in slaying her, and placing her heart along
with those of his brothers in a sweat-house, brought them all
back to life, but with the forms and dispositions which they
now possess.

The creation of the human race ™ marks the close of the age
of the First People. Usually the World-Maker is also the shaper
of men, and it is the West-Coast mode to conceive the process
quite mechanically: men are fashioned from earth and grass,
or appear as the transformations of sticks and feathers; the
Kato story is altogether detailed, telling how Nagaitcho made
a trachea of reed and pounded ochre to mix with water and
make blood. A more dignified creation was that of Gudatri-
gakwitl, the Wishosk Maker, who used no tools, but formed
things by spreading out his hands. “When Gudatrigakwitl
wanted to make people, he said, ‘I want fog.’ Then it began to
be foggy. Gudatrigakwitl thought: ‘No one will see it when
the people are born.’ Then he thought: ‘Now I wish people to
be all over, broadcast. I want it to be full of people and full
of game.’ Then the fog went away. No one had seen them
before, but now they were there.” Most imaginative of all is
the Modoc myth, recorded by Curtin. Kumush, the man of
the beautiful blue, whose life was the sun’s golden disk, had a
daughter. He made for her ten dresses: the first for a young
girl, the second the maturity raiment in which a maiden
clothes herself when she celebrates the coming of womanhood,
the third to the ninth festal and work garments such as women
wear, the tenth, and most beautiful of all, a burial shroud.
When the girl was within a few days of maturity, she entered
the sweat-house to dance; there she fell asleep and dreamed



230


NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY


that some one was to die, and when she came out she demanded
of Kumush her burial dress. He offered her each of the others
in turn, but she would have only this ; when she had donned It,
she died, and her spirit set out for the west, the home of them
that had passed away. Kumush, however, would not let her
go alone, and saying, “ I know all things above, below, and in the
world of ghosts; whatever is, I know,” he accompanied her
down into the caverns of the dead. There father and daughter
dwelt, by night dancing with the spirits, which became skeletons
by day. But Kumush wearied of this, and determined to return
to earth and restore life upon It. He took a basketful of the
bones and set out, but they resisted and dug sharply Into his
body. Twice he slipped and fell back, but the third time he
landed in the world above, and sowing there the bones of the
ghosts, a new race sprang up from them — the race of men who
have since inhabited the earth.

VI. FIRE AND LIGHTS

In the beginning the First World was without light or heat;
blackness and cold were ever)rwhere, or if there were light and
warmth, they were distant and inaccessible: “the world was
dark and there was no fire; the only light was the Morning,
and it was so far away in the high mountains of the east that
the people could not see it; they lived in total darkness” —
with this suggestive image of valley life begins a Miwok tale
of the theft of Morning. Sometimes it is Morning or Day-
light that is stolen, sometimes it Is the Sun, oftenest it is Fire;
but the essential plot of the story seldom varies : on the con-
fines of the world there is a lodge in which the Light or the Fire
is guarded by jealous watchmen, from whom their treasure
must be taken by craft; generally, the theft is discovered and a
pursuit is started, but relays of animals succeed in bearing off
a fragment of the treasure.

Coyote is the usual plotter and hero of myths of fire and light.



231


THE PACIFIC COAST, WEST

In a dramatic Kato story he dreams of the sun In the east.^^
With three mice for companions he sets out, coming at last to
the lodge where two old women have the sun bound to the
floor. When they sleep, the mice gnaw the bands that hold the
sun, and Coyote seizes it, pursued by the awakened women,
whom he changes into stone. From the stolen sun he fashions
all the heavenly bodies: ^^Moon, sun, fly into the sky. Stars
become many in it. In the morning you shall come up. You
shall go around the world. In the east you shall rise again in
the morning. You shall furnish light.’’ Not always, however,
is the venture so successful; in the Mlwok tale the stealing
of the sun results in the transformation of the First People into
animals, and the like metamorphosis follows on the theft of
fire as narrated by the Modoc. Sometimes the fire-origin story
is literal and simple, as in the Wishosk legend of the dog who
kindled the first flame by rubbing two sticks; sometimes it is
dramatic and grim, as in the duel of magicians, which the Coos
tradition narrates, in which one is eaten by maggots till he is
nothing but bones, before he finally succeeds in so terrifying
his opponent that the latter flees, and his wealth of fire and
water — a unique combination — is taken.^^ Again, there are
poetic versions — the Shasta story which makes Pain and his
children the guardians of fire; or the Miwok tale of the Robin
who got his red breast from nestling his stolen flame, to keep
it alive; or that of the Mouse who charmed the fireowners with
music and hid a coal in his flute.

The Maidu, naturally enough, make Thunder and his Daugh-
ters (who must be the lightnings) the guardians of fire.®^ They
tell, in a hero story, how the elder of two brothers is lured away
by, and pursues, a daughter of Thunder. He shoots an arrow
ahead of her, and secures it from her pack-basket (the storm-
cloud) without harm. He makes his way through a briar field
by the aid of a flint which cuts a path for him. Protected by
moccasins of red-hot stone, he follows her through a field of
rattlesnakes, and when he finds her he cuts off the serpent teeth



232


NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY


?which surround her vagina (a variant of one of the most wide-
spread of North American myth-incidents) . On his moccasins
he crosses a frozen lake, and with the assistance of a feather —
the universal symbol of life — he fords a deep river and passes
the Valley-of-Death-by-Old-Age.® Arrived at the house of
Thunder, he avoids poisoned food, breaks a pitch-log for
firewood, escapes a water monster that nearly drowns him,
and slays a grizzly bear which pursues him, when on a deer-
hunt, by shooting it in the left hind foot, its only vulnerable
spot. These labours performed, the North American Hercules
takes the daughter of Thunder to wife, and returns to his
home.

This is one of the many hero tales in which the West-Coast
mythology is rich. The red-hot moccasins suggest the personi-
fication of volcanic forces, so that the whole myth may well
be the story of a volcano, wedded to its lightnings, cleaving
lake and river and valley, and overcoming the mighty of earth.
A similar origin may be that of the Miwok giant Kelok, hurl-
ing his red-hot rocks and setting the world ablaze — surely a
volcanic Titan.

Another type of hero is the child of the Sun.^® The Maidu
story of the exploits of the Conquerors, born a't one birth to
Cloud Man and a virgin, is strikingly like the South-Western
tales of the divine twins, sons of the Sun; and a somewhat
similar legend is narrated by the Yuki.^ The kind of hero
more distinctive of the West Coast, however, is “Dug-from-
the-Ground.” In the Hupa recension a virgin, forbidden by
her grandmother to uproot two stocks (the mandrake super-
stition), disobeys, and digs up a child. He grows to manhood,
visits the sky-world, and finally journeys to the house of the
sun in the east, where he passes laborious tests, and in the game
of hockey overcomes the immortals, including Earthquake and
Thunder. Tulchuherris is the Wintun name for this hero; he
is dug up by an old woman, and when he emerges a noise like
thunder is heard in the distant east, the home of the sun.



233


THE PACIFIC COAST, WEST

Curtin regards Tulchuherris as the lightning, born of the fog
which issues from the earth after sunrise.

In another story, one of the most popular of Californian
tales,®^ the Grizzly Bear and the Doe were kindred and friends,
living together and feeding in the same pasture. One day
while afield the Bear killed the Doe, but her two Fawns dis-
covered the deed, and beguiling the murderess into letting them
have her cub for a playmate, they suffocated it in a sweat-
house. Pursued by the Bear, they were conveyed to heaven
by a huge rock growing upward beneath them ; and there they
found their mother. The story has many forms, but the Fawns
are always associated with fire. Sometimes they trap the
mother bear, but usually they kill her by hurling down red-
hot rocks. They themselves become thunders, and it is in-
structive that the Doe, after drinking the waters of the
sky-world, dies and descends to earth — clearly she is the
rain-cloud and her Fawns are the thunders. The legend of
the heaven-growing rock, lifting twins to the skies, occurs
more than once in California, most appropriate surely when
applied to the great El Capitan of the Yosemite.'^^

It is perhaps too easy to read naturalistic interpretations
into primitive myth. In many instances the meaning is un-
mistakably expressed and seems never to be lost, as in the
Promethean theft of fire; but in others — and the hero of
Herculean labours is a fair example — it is by no means cer-
tain that long and varied borrowing has not obscured the
original intention. Volcanic fire, lightning, and sunlight itself
seem to be the figures suggesting the adventures; but it may
well be that for the aboriginal narrators these meanings have
long since vanished.

VII. DEATH AND THE GHOST-WORLD

The source of death, no less than the origin of life, is a riddle
which the mind of man early endeavours to solve; and in the



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NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY


New World, as sometimes in the Old, the event is made to
turn upon a primal choice. In the New-World tales, however,
it is not the creature’s disobedience, but deliberate selection
hy one of the primal beings that establishes the law. The typ-
ical story is of a conflict of design : the Author of Life in-
tends to create men undying, but another being, who is Coyote
far more often than any other, jealous of the new race, wishes
mortality into the world, and his wish prevails. In very many
versions, neither rational nor ethical principle is concerned in
the choice; it is a result of chance; but on the West Coast not
a few examples of the legend involve both reason and morals.
As it is told, one of the First People loses a child; its resurrec-
tion is contemplated; but Coyote interferes, saying, “Let it re-
main dead; the world will be over-peopled; there will be no
food; nor will men prize life, rejoicing at the coming of chil-
dren and mourning the dead.” “So be it,” they respond, for
Coyote’s argument seems good. But human desires are not
satisfied by reason alone, as is shown in the grimly ironical
conclusion; Coyote’s real motive is not the good of the living;
selfishness and jealousy prompt his specious plea; now his own
son dies, and he begs that the child be restored to life; but
“Nay, nay,” is the response, “the law is established.”

The most beautiful myth of this type that has been recorded
is Curtin’s “Sedit and the Two Brothers Hus,” of the Wintun.
Sedit is Coyote; the brothers Hus are buzzards. Olelbis,
about to create men, sends the brothers to earth to build a
ladder of stone from it to heaven; half way up are to be set a
pool for drink and a place for rest; at the summit shall be two
springs, one for drinking and the other for bathing — internal
and external purification — for these are to be that very Foun-
tain of Youth whose rumour brought Ponce de Leon from Spain
to Florida. When a man or a woman grows old, says Olelbis,
let him or her climb to Olelpanti, bathe and drink, and youth
will be restored. But as the brothers build. Coyote, the tempter,
comes, saying, “I am wise; let us reason”; and he pictures con-



235


THE PACIFIC COAST, WEST

temptuously the destiny which Olelbis would bestow: “Sup-
pose an old woman and an old man go up, go alone, one after
the other, and come back alone, young. They will be alone as
before, and will grow old a second time, and go up again and
come back young, but they will be alone, just the same as at
first. They will have nothing on earth whereat to rejoice. They
will never have any friends, any children ; they will never have
any pleasure in the world; they will never have anything to
do but to go up this road old and come back down young
again.” “Joy at birth and grief for the dead is better,” says
Coyote, “for these mean love.” The brothers Hus are con-
vinced, and destroy their work, though not until the younger
one says to Coyote: “You, too, shall die; you, too, shall lie
in the ground never to rise, never to go about with an otter-
skin band on your head and a beautiful quiver at your back!”
And when Coyote sees that it is so, he stands muttering:
“What am I to do now.^ I am sorry. Why did I talk so much.^
Hus asked me if I wanted to die. He said that all on earth
here will have to die now. That is what Hus said. I don’t
know what to do. What can I do?” Desperate, he makes him-
self wings of sunflowers — the blossoms that are said always
to follow the sun — and tries to fly upward; but the leaves
wither, and he falls back to earth, and is dashed to death.
“It is his own deed,” says Olelbis; “he is killed by his own
words; hereafter all his people will fall and die.”

Such is the origin of death; but death is, after all, not the
end of a man; it only marks his departure to another world
than this earth. The body of a man may be burned or buried,
but his life is a thing indestructible; it has journeyed on to
another land. The West-Coast peoples find the abode of the
dead in various places.^® Sometimes it is in the world above,
and many are the myths detailing ascents to, and descents
from, the sky; sometimes it is in the underworld; oftenest, it
is in the west, beyond the waters where the sun is followed by
night. Not always, however, are mortals content to let their

THE PUEBLO DWELLERS


209


“‘Even so,’ said the Sky-father; ‘Yet not alone shalt thou
helpful be unto our children, for behold!’ and he spread his
hand abroad with the palm downward and into all the wrinkles
and crevices thereof he set the semblance of shining yellow
corn-grains ; in the dark of the early world-dawn they gleamed
like sparks of fire, and moved as his hand was moved over the
bowl, shining up from and also moving in the depths of the
water therein. ‘See!’ said he, pointing to the seven grains
clasped by his thumb and four fingers, ‘by such shall our chil-
dren be guided; for behold, when the Sun-father is not nigh,
and thy terraces are as the dark itself (being all hidden therein),
then shall our children be guided by lights — like to these lights
of all the six regions turning round the midmost one — as in
and around midmost place, where these our children shall
abide, lie all the other regions of space! Yea! and even as these
grains gleam up from the water, so shall seed-grains like to
them, yet numberless, spring up from thy bosom when touched
by my waters, to nourish our children.’ Thus and in other ways
many devised they for their offspring.”

The Zuni legend continues with events made familiar in
other narratives. As in the Navaho Genesis, the First People
pass through four underworlds before they finally emerge on
earth: “the Ashiwi were queer beings when they came to this
world; they had short depilous tails, long ears, and webbed feet
and hands, and their bodies and heads were covered with moss,
a lengthy tuft being on the fore part of the head, projecting
like a horn”; they also gave forth a foul odour, like burning
sulphur, but all these defects were removed by the Divine
Ones, under whose guidance the emergence and early journey-
ing of the First People took place. These gods, Kowwituma and
Watsusi, are twins of the Sun and Foam, and are obviously
doublets of the Twin Gods of War (whose Zuni names are
variants of those known to the Sia), by whom they are later
replaced.^^ Other incidents of the Zuni story tell of the origins
of institutions and cults near the place of emergence, of the



210


NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY


hardening of the world, of the search for the Middle Place,
and of the cities built and shrines discovered on the way.
Incidents of the journey include the incest of a brother and
sister, sent forward as scouts,^’ to whom a sterile progeny
was born, and who created Kothluwalawa, the mountain
home of the ancestral gods; the accession and feats of the
diminutive twins, the Gods of War; the coming of the Corn
Maidens, already recounted; the flood and the sacrifice of a
youth and a maid, which caused the waters to recede; the
assignment of languages and the dispersal of tribes; stories
of Poshaiyanki,®^ the culture hero, and of the wanderings
of Kiaklo, who visited Pautiwa, the lord of the dead, and re-
turned to notify the Ashiwi of the coming of the gods to endow
them with the breath of life “so that after death they might
enter the dance house at Kothluwalawa before proceeding to
the undermost world whence they came.”

In the cosmogonies of the Pueblo dwellers, thus sketched,
the events fall into two groups: gestation of life in the un-
derworld and birth therefrom, and the journey to the Middle
Place — Emergence and Migration, Genesis and Exodus. The
historical character of many of the allusions in the migration-
stories has been made plausible by archaeological investiga-
tions, which trace the sources of Pueblo culture to the old
cliff-dwellings in the north. Characteristically these abodes are
in the faces of canyon walls, bordering the deep-lying streams
whose strips of arable shore formed the ancient fields. May it
not be that the tales of emergence refer to the abandonment of
these ancient canyon-set homes, never capable of supporting
a large population? Some of the tribes identify the Sipapu
with the Grand Canyon — surely a noble birthplace! — and
when in fancy we see the First People looking down from the
sunny heights of the plateau into the depths whence they had
emerged and beholding, as often happens in the canyons of the
South-West, the trough of earth filled with iridescent mist, with
rainbows forming bridgelike spans and the arched entrances



THE PUEBLO DWELLERS


2II


to cloudy caverns, we can grasp with refreshened imagination
many of the allusions of South-Western myth. Possibly a
hint as to the reason which induced the First People to come
forth from so fairylike an abode is contained in the Zuhi
name for the place of emergence, which signifies “an opening
in the earth filled with water which mysteriously disappeared,
leaving a clear passage for the Ashiwi to ascend to the outer
world.”

One other point in South-Western myth is of suggestive in-
terest. This is the moral implication which clearly appears
and marks the advancement of the thought of these Indians
over more primitive types. In the world below the First People
dwelt long in Paradisic happiness; but sin (usually the sin of
licentiousness) appeared among them, and the angry waters
drove them forth, the wicked being imprisoned in the nether
darkness. The events narrated might be ascribed to mission-
ary influence, were it not that these same events have close
analogues far and wide in North American myth, and for the
further fact of the pagan conservatism of the Pueblos. That
the people are capable of the moral understanding implied is
indicated by the reiterated assertion of priest and story that
'‘the prayer is not effective except the heart be good.”



CHAPTER X


THE PACIFIC COAST, WEST

L THE CALIFORNIA-OREGON TRIBES

A GLANCE at the linguistic map of aboriginal North
America will reveal the fact that more than half of the
radical languages of the continent north of Mexico — nearl7
sixty in all — are spoken in the narrow strip of territory extend-
ing from the Sierras, Cascades, and western Rockies to the
sea, and longitudinally from the arid regions of southern Cali-
fornia to the Alaskan angle. In this region, nowhere extending
inland more than five degrees of longitude, are, or were, spoken
some thirty languages bearing no relation to one another, and
the great majority of them having no kindred tongue. The
exceptional cases, where representatives of the great continen-
tal stocks have penetrated to the coast, comprise the Yuman
and Shoshonean tribes occupying southern California, where
the plateau region declines openly to the sea; small groups of
Athapascans on the coasts of California and Oregon; and the
numerous Salishan units on the Oregon-Washington coast and
about Puget Sound.

It is this latter intrusion, the Salishan, which divides the
Coast Region into two parts, physiographically and ethnically
distinct. From Alaska to Mexico the Pacific Coast is walled
off from the continental interior by high and difficult moun-
tain ranges. There are, in the whole extent, only two regions
in which the natural access is easy. In the south, where the Si-
erra Nevada range subsides into the Mohave Desert, the great
Southern Trail enters California; and here we find the ab-
origines of the desert interior pressing to the sea. The North-



213


THE PACIFIC COAST, WEST

ern, or Oregon, Trail follows the general course of the Missouri
to its headwaters, crosses the divide, and proceeds down the
Columbia to its mouth; and this marks the general line of
Salishan occupancy, which extends northward to the more
difficult access opened by the Fraser River. The Salishan
tribes form a division, at once separating and transition-
ally uniting a northern and a southern coastal culture of
markedly distinct type. Indeed, the Salish form a kind of
key to the continent, touching the Plains civilization to the
east and that of the Plateau to the south, as well as the two
coastal types; so that there is perhaps no group of Indians
more difficult to classify with respect to cultural relationships.

The linguistic diversity of the southern of the two Coast
groups bounded by the Salish is far greater than that of the
northern. In California alone over twenty distinct linguistic
stocks have been noted, and Oregon adds several to this score.
Such a medley of tongues is found nowhere else in the world
save in the Caucasus or the Himalaya mountains — regions
where sharply divided valleys and mountain fastnesses have
afforded secure retreat for the weaker tribes of men, at the
same time holding them in sedentary isolation. Similar con-
ditions prevail in California, the chequer of mountain and
valley fostering diversity. Furthermore, the nature of the lit-
toral contributed to a like end. The North-Western coast,
from Puget Sound to Alaska, is fringed by an uninterrupted
archipelago; the tribes of this region are the most expert In
maritime arts of all American aborigines; and the linguistic
stocks, owing to this ready communication, are relatively few.
From the mouth of the Columbia to the Santa Barbara Is-
lands, on the contrary, the coast is broken by only one spacious
harbour — the bay of San Francisco — and little encourage-
ment is offered to seafarers. Among the tribes of this coast the
art of navigation was little known: the Chinook, on the Colum-
bia, and the Chumashan Indians, who occupied the Santa
Barbara Islands, built excellent canoes, and used them with



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NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY


skill; but among the intervening peoples rafts and balsas, crud-
est of water transports, took the place of boats, and even sea-
food was little sought, seeds and fruits, and especially acorn
meal, being the chief subsistence of the Californian tribes.

In the general character of their culture the tribes of
this region form a unity as marked as is their diversity of
speech. Socially their organization was primitive, without
centralized tribal authority or true gentile division. They
lived in village communities, whose chiefs maintained their
ascendancy by the virtue of liberal giving; and a distinctive
feature of many of the Californian villages was the large
communal houses occupied by many families. Grass, tule,
brush, and bark were the common housing materials, for
skill in woodworking was only slightly advanced; northward,
however, plank houses were built, such as occur the length
of the North-West Coast. Of the aboriginal arts only basket-
making, in which the Californian Indians, and especially the
Athapascan Hupa, excel all other tribes, was the only one highly
developed; pottery-making was almost unknown. In other
respects these peoples are distinctive: they were unwarlike
to the point of timidity; they did not torture prisoners; and
in common with the Yuman and Piman stocks, but in con-
trast to most other peoples of North America, they very gen-
erally preferred cremation to burial. Intellectually they are
lethargic, and their myths contain no element of conscious
history; they regard themselves as autochthones, and such
they doubtless are, in the sense that their ancestors have con-
tinuously occupied California for many centuries. Physical
and mental traits point to a racial unity which is in part borne
out by their language itself; for although their speech is now
divided into many stocks between which no relationship can
be traced — a clear indication of long and conservative segre-
gation, — yet there is a similarity in phonetic material, the
Californian tongues being notable, among Indian languages,
for vocalic wealth and harmony.



THE PACIFIC COAST, WEST


21


3


II. RELIGION AND CEREMONIES

The religious life and conceptions of the Californian tribes
reflect the simplicity of their social organization. In northern
California and Oregon the religious life gains in complexity
as the influence of the North-West becomes stronger, and a
similar increase in the importance of ceremonial is observed in
the south; but in the characteristic area of the region, central
California, the development of rites is meagre. The shaman
is a more important personage than the priest and ritual is
of far less consequence than magical therapy; in fact, the Cali-
fornian Indians belong to that primitive stratum of mankind
for which shamanism is the engrossing form of religious inter-
est, the western shamans, like the majority of Indian “medi-
cine-men,” acquiring their powers through fast and vision In
which the possessing tutelary is revealed.®

Of ceremonies proper, the most distinctive on this portion
of the Coast Is the annual rite in commemoration of the dead,
known as the “burning” or the “cry” or the “dance of the
dead.” This is an autumnal and chiefly nocturnal ceremony in
which, to the dancing and wailing of the participants, various
kinds of property are burned to supply the ghosts; the period
of mourning Is then succeeded by a feast of jollity. In few
parts of America are the tabus connected with the dead so
stringent: typical customs Include the burning of the house
in which death occurs; the ban against speaking the name of
the deceased, or using, for the space of a year, a word of
which this name is a component; and the marking of a widow
by smearing her with pitch, shearing her hair, or the like,
until the annual mourning releases her from the tabu. Such
usages, along with cremation, disappear as the North-West is
approached.

A second group of rites have to do with puberty. Her first
menstruation is marked by severe tabus for the girl concerned;
and a dance is given when the period is passed. Boys undergo

X — 16



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an initiation into the tribal mysteries, the ceremony including
the recounting of myths. Rites of this character are not al-
ways compulsory, nor are they limited to boys, since men who
have passed the age period without the ceremony sometimes
participate later. The body of initiates forms a kind of Medi-
cine Society, having in charge the religious supervision of the
village. Still a third ceremonial group includes magic dances
intended to foster the creative life of nature, the number of
such rites varying from tribe to tribe.

Ceremonial symbolism, so elaborate in many portions of
America, is little developed in the West-Coast region. Picto-
graphs are unknown and fetishes little employed; nor is there
anything approaching in character the complicated use of
mask personations which reaches its highest forms in the
neighbouring South-West and North-West. Mythic tales and
ritual songs have a similar inferiority of development, the ex-
tremes of the region, north and south, showing the greatest
advancement in this as in other respects. In one particular
the Californians stand well in advance: throughout the cen-
tral region, their idea of the creation is clearly conceptualized;
and it is their cosmogonic myths, with the idea of a definite
and single creator, which form their most unique contribution
to American Indian lore. The creator is sometimes animal,
sometimes manlike, in form, but he is usually represented as
dignified and beneficent, and there is an obvious tendency to
humanize his character.

Northern California and Oregon, however, know less of such
a single creator. In this section stories of the beginnings start
with the Age of Animals — or rather, of anthropic beings who
on the coming of man were transformed into animals — whose
doings set the primeval model after which human deeds and
institutions are copied. Here is a cycle assimilated to the
myth of the North-West, just as the lore of the south Cali-
fornian tribes approaches the type of the plateau and desert
region.




PLATE XXVIII


Maidu image for a woman, used at the Burning
Ceremony in honour of the dead (see p. 215).
After BAM xvii, Plate XLIX.







PLATE XXIX

Maidu image for a man, used at the Burning Cere-
mony in honour of the dead. After BAM xvii,
Plate XLVIII.








THE PACIFIC COAST, WEST


217


HI. THE CREATOR!®

In the congeries of West-Coast peoples it is inevitable that
there should be diversity in the conception of creation and
creator, even in the presence of a general and family likeness.
But the differences in the main follow geographical lines. To
the south, while creation is definitely conceived as a primal
act, the creative beings are of animal or of bird form, for the
winged demiurge is characteristic of the Pacific Coast through-
out its length.^® In the central region of California and Oregon
the creator is imaged in anthropomorphic aspect, the animals
being assistants or clumsy obstructionists in his work. To the
north, and along the coast, the legend of creation fades into a
delineation of the First People, whose deeds set a pattern for
mankind.

Tribes of the southerly stocks very generally believed in
primordial waters, the waters of the chaos before Earth or of
the flood enveloping it. Above this certain beings dwell — the
Coyote and the birds. In some versions they occupy a moun-
tain peak that pierces the waves, and on this height they abide
until the flood subsides; in others, they float on a raft or rest
upon a pole or a tree that rises above the waters. In the latter
case, the birds dive for soil from which to build the earth; it
is the Duck that succeeds, floating to the surface dead, but
with a bit of soil in its bill — like the Muskrat in the east-
ern American deluge-tales. The Eagle, the Hawk, the Crow,
and the Humming-Bird are the winged folk who figure chiefly
in these stories, with the Eagle in the more kingly role; but
it is Coyote — though he is sometimes absent, his place being
taken by birds — who is the creator and shaper and magic
plotter of the way of life.

In the region northward from the latitude of San Francisco
— among the Maidu, Porno, Wintun, Yana, and neighbouring
tribes — the Coyote-Man, while still an important demiurgic
being, sinks to a secondary place; his deeds thwart rather



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