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https://archive.org/details/mythologyofallra10gray/page/n8
GEORGE FOOT MOORE, A.M., D.D., LL.D., Consulting Editor
NORTH AMERICAN
BY
HARTLEY BURR ALEXANDER, PH.D.
PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA
VOLUME X
. BOSTON
MARSHALL JONES COMPANY
M DCCCC XVI
Copyright, 1916
By Marshall Jones Company
Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London
All fights reserved
Printed April, 1916
OTNTED IN tTHE TOUTED STATES OE AMERICA BY TEE TOIVERSIXY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
BOUND BY THE BOSTON BOOKBINDING COMPANY
AUTHOR’S PREFACE
N O one can be more keenly aware of the sketchy nature
of the study here undertaken than is the author. The
literature of the subject, already very great, is being aug-
mented at a rate hitherto unequalled; and it is needless to
say that this fact alone renders any general analysis at present
provisional. As far as possible the author has endeavoured
to confine himself to a descriptive study and to base this
study upon regional divisions. Criticism has been limited to
the indication of suggestive analogies, to summaries in the
shape of notes, and to the formulation of a general plan of
selection (indicated in the Introduction), without which no
book could be written. The time will certainly come for
a closely analytical comparative study of North American
myths, but at the present time a general description is surely
the work which is needed.
Bibliographical references have been almost entirely rele-
gated to the Notes, where the sources for each section will be
found, thus avoiding the typographical disfigurement which
footnotes entail. The plan, it is believed, will enable a ready
identification of any passage desired, and at the same time
will give a convenient key for the several treatments of related
topics. The Bibliography gives the sources upon which the text
Is chiefly based, chapter for chapter. Other references, inci-
dentally quoted, are given in the Notes. The critical reader’s
attention is called, in particular, to Note i, dealing with the
difficult question of nomenclature and spelling. The author
has made no attempt to present a complete bibliography of
American Indian mythology. For further references the litera-
ture given in the “Bibliographical Guides ” should be consulted;
VI
AUTHOR’S PREFACE
important works which have appeared since the publication
of these “Guides” are, of course, duly mentioned.
For the form and spelling of the names of tribes and of
linguistic stocks the usage of the Handbook of American
Indians is followed, and the same form is used for both the
singular and for the collective plural. Mythic names of In-
dian origin are capitalized, italics being employed for a few
Indian words which are not names. The names of various
objects regarded as persons or mythic beings — sun, moon,
earth, various animals, etc. — are capitalized when the per-
sonified reference is clear; otherwise not. This rule is difficult
to maintain consistently, and the usage in the volume doubt-
less varies somewhat.
The word “corn,” occurring in proper names, must be under-
stood in its distinctively American meaning of “maize.”
Maize being the one indigenous cereal of importance in Ameri-
can ritual and myth, “Spirits of the Corn” (to use Sir J. G.
Frazer’s classic phrase) are, properly speaking, in America
“ Spirits of the Maize.” A like ambiguity attaches to “ buffalo,”
which in America is almost universally applied to the bison.
The illustrations for the volume have been selected with a
view to creating a clear impression of the art of the North
American Indians, as well as for their pertinency to mythic
ideas. This art varies in character in the several regions quite
as much as does the thought which it reflects. It is interesting
to note the variety in the treatment of similar themes or in
the construction of similar ceremonial articles; for this reason
representations of different modes of presenting like ideas
have been chosen from diverse sources: thus, the Thunderbird
conception appears in Plates III, VI, XVI, and Figure l;
the ceremonial pole in Plates XII, XVII, XXX; and masks
from widely separate areas are shown in the Frontispiece and in
Plates IV, VII, XXV, XXXI. In a few cases (as Plates II,
VIII, IX, XI, XVIII, and probably XIX) the art is modified
by white influence; in the majority of examples it is purely
AUTHOR’S PREFACE
Vll
aboriginal. The motives which prompt the several treatments
are interestingly various: thus, the impulse which lies behind
Plates II, VIII, IX, XVIII, XIX is purely the desire for pic-
torial illustration of a mythic story; mnemonic, historical, or
heraldic in character — prompted by the desire for record —
are Plates V, X, XI, XVII, XX, XXI, XXX, XXXII, XXXIII;
while the majority of the remaining examples are representa-
tions of cult-objects. Through all, however, is to be observed
the keen aesthetic instinct which is so marked a trait of North
American tribes.
The author desires to express his sense of obligation to the
editor of this series. Dr. Louis H. Gray, for numerous and
valuable emendations, and to Dr. Melvin R. Gilmore, recently
of the Nebraska State Historical Society, now Curator of the
State Historical Society of North Dakota, especially for the
materials appearing in Note 58 and Plate XIV.
HARTLEY BURR ALEXANDER.
Marcb 1, 1916.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Author’s Preface v
Introduction xv
Chapter L The Far North i
I Norseman and Skraeling i
II The Eskimo’s World 3
III The World-Powers 5
IV The World’s Regions 6
V The Beginnings 8
VI Life and Death * 10
CHAPtER IL The Forest Tribes
I The Forest Region
II Priest and Pagan
' III The Manitos
IV The Great Spirit
V The Frame of the World
VI The Powers Above
VII The Powers Below
VIII The Elders of the Kinds
Chapter IIL The Forest Tribes
I Iroquoian Cosmogony
II Algonquian Cosmogony
III The Deluge
IV The Slaying of the Dragon
Y The Theft of Fire
Sun-Myths
VII The Village of Souls
VIII Hiawatha
Chapter IV. The Gulf Region
I Tribes and Lands
,^J[I^-Worship
13
13
IS
17
19
21
24
27
30
33
33
38
42
44
46
48
49
SI
S3
S3
5S
X
CONTENTS
PAGE
III The New Maize S 7
IV Cosmogonies 6o
V Animal Stories 64
VI Tricksters and Wonder-Folk 67
VII Mythic History 69
Chapter V. The Great Plains 74
I The Tribal Stocks 74
II An Athapascan Pantheon 77
III The Great Gods of the Plains 80
IV The Life of the World 82
V “Medicine” 85
Father Sun 87
VII Mother Earth and Daughter Corn 91
VIII The Morning Star 93
IX The Gods of the Elements 97
Chapter VI. The Great Plains (continued) 102
I Athapascan Cosmogonies 102
II Siouan Cosmogonies 105
III Ca.ddban Cosmogonies 107
X^JJf^-The Son of the Sun iiz.
V The Mystery of Death 115
VI Prophets and Wonder-Workers 120
VII Migration-Legends and Year-Counts 1 24
Chapter VIL Mountain and Desert 129
I The Great Divide 129
II The Gods of the Mountains 132
III The World and its Denizens 135
IV Shahaptian and Shoshonean World-Shapers .... 139
V Coyote 141
VI Spirits, Ghosts, and Bogies 145
VII Prophets and the Ghost-Dance 149
Chapter VIIL Mountain and Desert .... 154
I The Navaho and their Gods 154
II The Navaho Genesis ijg
III The Creation of the Sun 166
IV Navaho Ritual Myths igg
CONTENTS
XI
PAGE
V Apache and PIman Mythologf 175
VI Yuman Mythology 179
Chapter IX. The Pueblo Dwellers 182
I The Pueblos 182
11 Pueblo Cosmology 185
III Gods and Katcinas 187
IV The Calendar 192
V The Great Rites and their Myths 196
VI Sia and Hopi Cosmogonies 202
VII Zuni Cosmogony 206
Chapter X. The Pacific Coast, West 212
I The California-Oregon Tribes 212
II Religion and Ceremonies 215
III The Creator 217
IV Cataclysms 221
V The First People 225
VI Fire and Light 230
VII Death and the Ghost-World 233
Chapter XL The Pacific Coast, North 237
I Peoples of the North-West Coast 237
II Totemism and Totemic Spirits 240
III Secret Societies and their Tutelaries 245
IV The World and its Rulers 249
V The Sun and the Moon 254
VI The Raven Cycle 258
VII Souls and their Powers 262
Notes 267
Bibliography 315
ILLUSTRATIONS
FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
plate facing page
I Zuni masks for ceremonial dances — Coloured Fro^itispiece
II Encounter of Eskimo and Kablunait 2
III Harpoon-rest with sketch of a mythic bird capturing a
whale 8
III Dancing gorget 8
IV Ceremonial mask of the Iroquois Indians 14
V Chippewa pictograph — Coloured 18
VI Ojibway (Chippewa) quill-work pouch 22
VII Seneca mask 26
VIII Iroquois drawing of a Great Head — Coloured ... 30
IX Iroquois drawing of Stone Giants — Coloured ... 38
X Onondaga wampum belt 44
XI Iroquois drawing of Atotarho — Coloured 52
XII Florida Indians offering a stag to the Sun 56
XIII Fluman figure in stone 62
XIV Sacrifice to the Morning Star, pencil sketch by Charles
Knifechief 76
XV Portrait of Tahirussawichi, a Pawnee priest — ^Col-
oured 80
XVI Thunderbird fetish 84
XVII Sioux drawing — Coloured 90
XVIII Kiowa drawing — Coloured 112
XIX Cheyenne drawing 124
XX Kiowa calendar 128
XXI Ghost-Dance, painted on buckskin — Coloured . . 150
XXII Navaho gods, from a dry- or sand-painting — Col-
oured 156
XXIir Navaho dry- or sand-painting connected with the
Night Chant ceremony — Coloured. ....... 170
xiv
ILLUSTRATIONS
plate facing page
XXIV Apache medicine-shirt — Coloured 178
XXV Zuhi masks for ceremonial dances — Coloured ... 188
XXVI Wall decoration in the room of a Rain Priest, Zuni . 192
XXVII Altar of the Antelope Priests of the Hopi — Coloured 200
XXVIII Maidu image for a woman 216
XXIX Maidu image for a man 216
XXX Frame of Haida house with totem-pole 240
XXXI Kwakiutl ceremonial masks — Coloured 246
XXXII Haida crests, from tatu designs 256
XXXIII Chilkat blanket — Coloured 260
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
FIGURE PAGE
1 Birdlike deity 71
2 Map of the world as drawn by a Thompson River Indian 148
MAP
FACING PAGE
Map of the Linguistic Stocks of North America — Coloured • . 326
INTRODUCTION
I F the term be understood as signifying a systematic and
conscious arrangement of mythic characters and events,
it is certainly a misnomer to speak of the stories of the
North American Indians as “mythology.” To be sure, cer-
tain tribes and groups (as the Iroquois, the Pawnee, the Zuni,
the Bella Coola, to mention widely separate examples) have
attained to something like consistency and uniformity in
their mythic beliefs (and it is significant that in just these
groups the process of anthropomorphization has gone farthest);
but nowhere on the continent can we find anything like the
sense for system which in the Old World is in part evidenced
and in part introduced by the epic literatures — Aryan,
Babylonian, Greek, Norse.
Mythology in the classic acceptation, therefore, can scarcely
be said to exist in North America; but in quite another sense
— belief in more or less clearly personified nature-powers and
the possession of stories narrating the deeds and adventures
of these persons — the Indians own, not one, but many
mythologies; for every tribe, and often, within the tribe, each
clan and society, has its individual mythic lore. Here again
the statement needs qualifying. Beliefs vary from tribe to
tribe, even from clan to clan, and yet throughout, if one’s
attention be broadly directed, there are fundamental similari-
ties and uniformities that afford a basis for a kind of critical
reconstruction of a North American Indian mythology. No
single tribe and no group of tribes has completely expressed
this mythology — much less has any realized its form; but the
student of Indian lore can scarcely fail to become conscious of
a coherent system of myths, of which the Indians themselves
XVI
INTRODUCTION
might have become aware in course of time, if the intervention
of Old-World ideas had not confused them.
A number of distinctions are the necessary introduction to
any study of Indian myth. In the first place, in America, no
more than in the Old World, are we to identify religion with
mythology. The two are intimately related; every mythology
is in some degree an effort to define a religion; and yet there is
no profound parallelism between god and hero, no immutable
relation between religious ceremony and mythic tale, even
when the tale be told to explain the ceremony. No illustra-
tion could be better than is afforded by the fact that the great-
est of Indian mythic heroes, the Trickster-Transformer, now
Hare, now Coyote, now Raven, is nowhere important in ritual ;
while the powers which evoke the Indian’s deepest veneration.
Father Sky and Mother Earth, are of rare appearance in the
tales.
The Indian’s religion must be studied in his rites rather than
in his myths; and it may be worth while here to designate the
most significant and general of these rites. Foremost is the
calumet ceremony, in which smoke-offering is made to the sky,
the earth, and the rulers of earth’s quarters, constituting a kind
of ritualistic definition of the Indian’s cosmos. Hardly second
to this is the rite of the sweat-bath, which is not merely a means
of healing disease, but a prayer for strength and purification
addressed to the elements — earth, fire, water, air, in which
resides the life-giving power of the universe. Third in order
are ceremonies, such as fasting and vigil, for the purpose of
inducing visions that shall direct the way of life; for among the
Indian’s deepest convictions is his belief that the whole en-
vironment of physical life is one of strength-imbuing powers
only thinly veiled from sight and touch. Shamanistic or me-
diumistic rites, resting upon belief in the power of unseen
beings to possess and inspire the mortal body, form a fourth
group of ceremonies. A fifth is composed of the great com-
munal ceremonies, commonly called “dances” by white men.
introduction xvii
These arc<ahnosl invariably in the fonai of dramatic prayers -
combinations ot sacnhcc, song, and symbolic personation —
addressed tc' the great nature-powers, to sun and earth, to the
rain-bringers, and to tlic givers of food and game. A final
group is formed of rites honour of the dead or of ancestral
tutelari<-s, eereinomes usually annual and varying in purpose
from solicitude bn- the welfare of the departed to desire for
their assistance aitd propitiation of their possible ill will.
In these rituals are defined the essential beings of the In-
dian s pagan religion. There is the Great Spirit, represented
by Father Sky or by the sky’s great incarnation, the Sun
Father. Ihcic are Mother Earth and her daughter, the Corn
Mother. 1 here arc the intermediaries between the powers be-
low and those above, iitcluding the birds and the great mythic
Thunderbird, the winds and the clouds and the celestial bodies.
There are the Elders, or Guardians, of the animal kinds, who
replenish the earth with game and come as helpers to the hunts-
men; and llicre is the vast congeries of things potent, belong-
ing both to the seen and to the unseen world, whose help may
be won in the form of “medicine” by the man who knows the
usages of Nature.
Inevitably these powers find a fluctuating representation in
the varying imagery of myth. Consistency is not demanded,
for the Indian’s mode of thought is too deeply symbolic for
him to regard his own stories as literal: they are neither alle-
gory nor history; they are myth, with a truth midway between
that of allegory and that of history. Myth can properly be
defined only with reference to its sources and motives. Now
the motives of Indian stories are in general not difficult to
determine. The vast majority are obviously told for enter-
tainment; they represent an art, the art of fiction; and they
fall into the classes of fiction, satire and humour, romance,
adventure. Again, not a few are moral allegories, or they are
fables with obvious lessons, such as often appear in the story
of the theft of fire when it details the kinds of wood from which
X — ' .
svm
INTRODUCTION
fire can best be kindled. A third naotive is our universally
human curiosity: we desire to know the causes of things,
whether they be the forces that underlie recurrent phenomena
or the seeming purposes that mark the beginnings and govern
the course of history. Myths that detail causes are science in
infancy, and they are perhaps the only stories that may
properly be called myths. They may be simply fanciful ex-
planations of the origin of animal traits — telling why the
dog’s nose is cold or why the robin’s breast is red; and then we
have the beast fable. They may be no less fanciful accounts of
the institution of some rite or custom whose sanction is deeper
than reason; and we have the so-called aetiological myth.
They may be semi-historical reminiscences of the inauguration
of new ways of life, of the conquest of fire or the introduc-
tion of maize by mythical wise men; or they may portray re-
coverable tribal histories through the distorted perspective of
legend. In the most significant group of all, they seek to con-
ceptualize the beginnings of all things in those cosmogonic
allegories of which the nebular hypothesis is only the most
recently outgrown example.
Stories which satisfy curiosity about causes are true myths.
With this criterion it should perhaps seem an easy task for the
student to separate mythology from fiction, and to select or
reject from his materials. But the thing is not so simple.
Human motives, in whatever grade of society, are seldom un-
mixed; it is much easier to analyze them in kind than to
distinguish them in example. Take such a theme as the well-
nigh universally North American account of the origin of
death. On the face of it, it is a causal explanation; but in very
many examples it is a moral tale, while in not a few instances
both the scientific and the moral interest disappear before the
aesthetic. In a Wikeno story death came into the world by the
will of a little bird, — “How should I nest me in your warm
graves if ye men live forever?” — and however grim the fancy,
it is difficult to see anything but art in its motive; but in the
-
INTRODUCTION
XIX
version known to the Arctic Highlanders, where the poign-
ant choice is put, “Will ye have eternal darkness and eternal
life, or light and death?” — art and morality and philosophy
are all intermingled.
To perfect our criterion we must add to the analysis of mo-
tive the study of the sources of mythic conceptions. In a
broad way, these are the suggestions of environing nature,
the analogies of human nature both psychical and physi-
ological, imagination, and borrowings. Probably the first of
these is the most important, though the “nature-myth” is far
from being the simple and inevitable thing an elder genera-
tion of students would make of it. Men’s ideas necessarily re-
flect the world that they know, and even where the mythic
incidents are the same the timbre of the tale will vary, say
from the Yukon to the Mississippi, in the eastern forest, or on
the western desert. There are physiographical boundaries
within the continent which form a natural chart of the divi-
sions in the complexion of aboriginal thought; and while there
are numberless overlappings, outcroppings, and intrusions,
none the less striking are the general conformities of the char-
acter of the several regions with the character of the mythic
lore developed in them. The forests of the East, the Great
Plains, the arid South-West, secluded California, the North-
Western archipelago, each has its own traits of thought as it
has its own traits of nature, and it is inevitable that we sup-
pose the former to be in some degree a reflection of the latter.
Beyond all this there are certain constancies of nature, the
succession of darkness and light, the circle of the seasons, the
motions of sun, moon, and stars, of rivers and winds, that
affect men everywhere and everywhere colour their fancies;
and it is not the least interesting feature of the study of a wide-
spread mythic theme or incident to see the variety of natural
phenomena for which it may, first and last, serve to account,
since the myth-maker does not find his story in nature, but
writes it there with her colouring.
XX INTRODUCTION
The second great source of myth material is found in the
analogies of human nature. Primarily these arc psychical:
the desires and purposes of men are assumed, quite uncon-
sciously, to animate and to inspire the whole drama of nature’s
growth and change, and thus the universe becomes peopled with
personalities, ranging in definition from the senselessly vora-
cious appetites incarnated as monsters, to the self-possessed
purpose and, not infrequently, the “sweet reasonableness”
of man-beings and gods. Besides the psychical, however,
there are the physical analogies of humankind. The most
elementary are the physiological, which lead to a symbolism
now gruesome, now poetic. The heart, the hair, and the breath
are the most significant to the Indian, and their inner meaning
could scarcely be better indicated than in the words of a
Pawnee priest from whom Alice Fletcher obtained her report
of the Hako. One act of this ceremony is the placing of a
bit of white down in the hair of a consecrated child, and in
explaining this rite the priest said: “The down is taken from
under the wings of the white eagle. The down grew close to
the heart of the eagle and moved as the eagle breathed. It
represents the breath and life of the white eagle, the father of
the child.” Further, since the eagle is intermediary between
man and Father Heaven, “the white, downy feather, which is
ever moving as if it were breathing, represents Tirawa-atius,
who dwells beyond the blue sky, which is above the soft, white
clouds”; and it is placed in the child’s hair “on the spot where
a baby’s skull is open, and you can see it breathe.” This is the
poetic side of the symbolism; the gruesome is represented by
scalping, by the tearing out of the heart, and sometimes by
the devouring of it for the sake of obtaining the strength of
the slain. Another phase of physiological symbolism has to do
with the barbarian’s never-paling curiosity about matters of
sex; there is little trace of phallic worship in North America,
but the Indian’s myths abound in incidents which are as un-
consciously as they are unblushingly indecent. A strange and
INTRODUCTION
XXI
recurrent feature of Indian myth is the personification of
members of the body, especially the genital and excretory
organs, usually in connexion with divination. The final step
in the use of the human body as a symbol is anthropomor-
phism — that complete anthropomorphism wherein mythic
powers are given bodies, not part human and part animal,
but wholly human; it marks the first clear sense of the dig-
nity of man, and of the superiority of his wisdom to that of
the brutes. Not many Indian groups have gone far in this
direction, but among the more advanced it is a step clearly
undertaken.
Imagination plays a part in the development of myth which
is best realized by the aesthetic effect created by a body of
tales or by a set of pictorial symbols. The total impression of
Indian mythic emblems is undoubtedly one of grotesquerie, but
it is difficult to point to any pagan religious art except the
Greek that has outgrown the grotesque; and the Indian has a
quality of its own. There is a wide difference, however, in
the several regions, and indeed as between tribes of the same
region. The art of the North-West and of the South-West are
both highly developed, but even in such analogous objects as
masks they represent distinct types of genius. The Navaho
and the Apache are neighbours and relatives, but they are
poles apart in their aesthetic expression. Some tribes, as the
Pawnee, show great originality; others, as the northern Atha-
pascans and most of the Salish, are colourless borrowers.
Borrowing is, indeed, the most difficult of problems to solve.
In the abstract, it is easy to suppose that, with the main simi-
larities of environment in North America and the general even-
ness of a civilization everywhere neolithic, the like conditions of
a like human nature would give rise to like ideas and fancies.
It is equally easy to suppose that in a territory permeable
nearly everywhere, among tribes in constant intercourse, bor-
rowing must be extensive. Both factors are significant, though
in general the obvious borrowing is likely to seem the more
XXll
INTRODUCTION
impressive. Nevertheless, universal borrowing is a difficult
hypothesis, for innumerable instances show an identity of Old-
World and New-World ideas, where communication within
thinkable time is incredible. Even in the New World there are
wide separations for identical notions that seem to imply dis-
tinct origins. Thus the Arctic Highlanders, who have only
recently learned that there are other peoples in the world, pos-
sess ideas identical with those of the Indians of the far South.
When such an idea is simply that there is a cavernous under-
world which is an abode of spirits, there Is no need to assume
communication, for the notion is world-wide; but when the two
regions agree in asserting that there are four underworld cav-
erns — an idea which is in no sense a natural Inference — then
the suspicion of communication becomes inevitable. Again,
constellation-myths which see in Corona Borealis a circle of
chieftains. In the Pleiades a group of dancei's, in Ursa Major
a quadruped pursued by three hunters, might have many
independent origins; but when we encounter so curious a story
as that of the incestuous relations of the Sun and the Moon
told by Eskimo in the north and Cherokee in the south, com-
munication is again suggested; and this suggestion becomes
almost certainty when we find, further, that a special incident
of this myth — the daubing of the secret lover with paint or
ashes by which he Is later identified — appears in another
tale found in nearly every part of the continent, the story of
the girl who bore children to a dog.
In the story just mentioned the children of the girl and the
dog sometimes become stars, sometimes the ancestors of a tribe
or clan of men; and this is a fair illustration of the manner in
which incidents having all the character of fiction are made to
serve as explanatory myths by their various users. The funda-
mental material of myth is rather a collection of incidents
fitted into the scheme of things suggested by perception and
habit than the stark invention of nature; and while the inci-
dents must have an invention somewhere, the greater portion
INTRODUCTION
XXlll
of them seem to be given by art and adopted by nature, —
borrowing and adaptation being, for the savage as for the civil-
ized man, more facile than new thinking.
In every considerable collection of Indian stories there are
many adaptations of common ideas and incidents. In different
regions this basic material comes to characteristic forms of
expression. Finally, in the continent as a whole, viewed as one
great region, there is a generally definable scheme, within which
the mythic conceptions of the North American fall into place.
It is in this sense, and with reference to this scheme, that we
may speak of a North American Indian mythological system.
On the side of cosmology, the scheme has already been
indicated. There is a world above, the home of the Sky
Father and of the celestial powers; there is a world below, the
embodiment of the Earth Mother and the abode of the dead;
there is the central plane of the earth, and there are the genii
of its Quarters. But cosmology serves only to define the
theatre; it does not give the action. Cosmogony is the essen-
tial drama. In the Indian scheme the beginning is seldom
absolute. A few tribes recognize a creator who makes or a
procreator who generates the world and its inhabitants; but
the usual conception is either of a pre-existent sky-world,
peopled with the images of the beings of an earth-world yet to
come into being, or else of a kind of cosmic womb from which
the First People were to have their origin. In the former type
of legend, the action begins with the descent of a heaven-born
Titaness; in the latter, the first act portrays the ascent of the
ancestral beings from the place of generation. Uniformly, the
next act of the world drama details the deeds of a hero or of
twin heroes who are the shapers and lawgivers of the habitable
earth. They conquer the primitive monsters and set in order
the furniture of creation; quite generally, one of them is slain,
and passes to the underworld to become its Plutonian lord.
The theft of fire, the origin of death, the liberation of the ani-
mals, the giving of the arts, the institution of rites are all
XXIV
INTRODUCTION
themes that recur, once and again, and in forms that show
surprisingly small variation. Universal, too, is the cataclysmic
destruction of the earth by flood, or fire and flood, leaving a
few survivors to repopulate the restored land. Usually this
event marks the close of a First, or Antediluvian Age, in which
the people were either animal in form or only abortively hu-
man. After the flood the animals are transformed once for
all into the beings they now are, while the new race of men is
created. It is not a little curious to find in many tribes tales
of a confusion of tongues and dispersion of nations bringing
to a close the cosmogonic period and leading into that of
legendary history.
Such, in broad outline, is the chart of the Indian’s cosmic
perspective. It is with a view to its fuller illustration that the
myths studied in the ensuing chapters have been chosen from
the great body of American Indian lore.
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
NORTH AMERICAN
MYTHOLOGY
CHAPTER I
THE FAR NORTH
I. NORSEMAN AND SKRAELING
I N the year of our Lord 982 Eric the Red, outlawed from
Iceland, discovered Greenland, which shortly afterward
was colonized by Icelanders. Eric’s son, Leif the Lucky, the
first Christian of the New World, voyaging from Norway to
Greenland, came upon a region to the south of Greenland
where “self-sown corn” and wild vines grew, and which,
accordingly, he named Vinland. This was in the year 1000,
the year in which all Mediaeval Europe was looking for the
Second Advent and for earth’s destruction, but which brought
instead the first discovery of a New World.
As yet no people had been encountered by the Scandina-
vians in the new-found lands. But the news of Vinland stirred
the heart of Thorfinn Karlsefni and of his wife Gudrid, and
with a company of men and two ships they set out for the
region which Leif had found. First they came to a land which
they called Helluland, “the land of flat stones,” which seemed
to them a place of little worth. Next they visited a wooded
land full of wild beasts, and this they named Markland.
Finally they came to Vinland, and there they dwelt for three
winters, Gudrid giving birth to Snorri, the first white child
born on the Western Continent. It was in Vinland that the
Norsemen first encountered the Skraelings: “They saw a
number of skin canoes, and staves were brandished from
their boats with a noise like flails, and they were revolved in
the same direction in which the sun moves.” Thorfinn’s band
2
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
was small, the Skraelings were a multitude; so the colony re-
turned to Greenland in the year 1006.
Apparently no further attempt was made to settle the main-
land, though from time to time voyages were made thither for
cargoes of timber. But the Greenland colony continued, un-
molested and flourishing. About the middle of the thirteenth
century peoples from the north, short and swart, began to
appear; encounters became unfriendly, and in 1341 the north-
ernmost Scandinavian settlement was destroyed. Meanwhile,
ships were coming from Norway less and less frequently, and
the colony ceased to prosper, ceased to be heard from. At the
time when Columbus discovered the Antilles there was a
Bishop of Greenland, holding title from the Pope, but there is
no evidence that he ever saw his diocese, and when, in 1585,
John Davis sailed into the strait now bearing his name all
trace of the Norsemen’s colony was lost.
But the people of the Far North had not forgotten, and
when the white men again came among them they still pre-
served legends of former Kablunait.’' The story of the first
meeting of the two peoples still survived, and of their mutual
curiosity and fear, and of how an Eskimo and a white man
became fast friends, each unable to outdo the other in feats of
skill and strength, until at last the Eskimo won in a contest at
archery, and the white man was cast down a precipice by his
fellow-countrymen. There is the story of Eskimo men lying
in wait and stealing the women of the Kablunalt as they came
to draw water. There are stories of blood feuds between the
two peoples, and of the destruction of whole villages. At Ikat
the Kablunait were taken by surprise; four fathers with their
children fled out upon the Ice and all were drowned; sometimes
they are visible at the bottom of the sea, and then, say the
Eskimo, one of our people will die.
Such are the memories of the lost colony which the Green-
landers have preserved. But far and wide among the Eskimo
tribes there is the tradition of their former association with
PLATE II
Encounter of Eskimo and Kablunait, from a Grcen-
landic drawing. After H. Rink, Taks am/ T?yif/itioas
of the Eskimo,
V
THE FAR NORTH
3
the Tornit, the Inlanders, from whom they were parted hy feud
and war. The Tornit were taller and stronger and swifter
than the Eskimo, and most of them were blear-eyed ; their
dress and weapons were different, and they were not so skil-
ful in boating and sealing or with the bow. Finally, an Es-
kimo youth quarrelled with one of the Tornit and slew him,
boring a hole in his forehead with a drill of crystal. After that
all the Tornit fled away for fear of the Eskimo and since then
the Coast-People and the Inland-Dwellers have been enemies.
In the stories of the Tornit may be some vague recollections
of the ancient Norsemen; more plausibly they represent the
Indian neighbours of the Eskimoan tribes on the mainland,
for to the Greenlanders the Indians had long become a fabulous
and magical race. Sometimes, they say, the Tornit steal women
who are lost in the fog, but withal are not very dangerous;
they keep out of sight of men and are terribly afraid of dogs.
Besides the Tornit there are in the Eskimo’s uncanny Inland
elves and cannibal giants, one-eyed people, shape-shifters,
dog-men, and monsters, such as the Amarok, or giant wolf,
or the horrid caterpillar that a woman nursed until it grew so
huge that it devoured her baby — for it is a region where
history and imagination mingle in nebulous marvel.^
II. THE ESKIMO’S WORLD
There is probably no people on the globe more isolated in
their character and their life than are the Eskimo. Their nat-
ural home is to the greater part of mankind one of the least
inviting regions of the earth, and they have held it for centuries
with little rivalry from other races. It is the coastal region
of the Arctic Ocean from Alaska to Labrador and from Labra-
dor to the north of Greenland: inlandward it is bounded by
frozen plains, where even the continuous day of Arctic sum-
mer frees only a few inches of soil; seaward it borders upon
icy waters, solid during the long months of the Arctic night.
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
4
The caribou and more essentially the seal are the two animals
upon which the whole economy of Eskimo life depends, both
for food and for bodily covering; the caribou is hunted in
summer, the seal is the main reliance for winter. But the
provision of a hunting people is never certain; the seasonal
supply of game is fluctuating; and the Eskimo is no stranger to
starvation. His is not a green world, but a world of whites
and greys, shot with the occasional splendours of the North.
Night is more open to him than the day; he is acquainted
with the stars and death is his familiar.
“Our country has wide borders; there is no man born has
travelled round it; and it bears secrets in its bosom of which no
white man dreams. Up here we live two different lives; in
the Summer, under the torch of the Warm Sun; in the Winter,
under the lash of the North Wind. But it is the dark and
the cold that make us think most. And when the long Dark-
ness spreads itself over the country, many hidden things are
revealed, and men’s thoughts travel along devious paths ”
(quoted from “Blind Ambrosius,” a West Greenlander, by
Rasmussen, The People of the Polar North, p. 219).
-
INTRODUCTION
XIX
version known to the Arctic Highlanders, where the poign-
ant choice is put, “Will ye have eternal darkness and eternal
life, or light and death?” — art and morality and philosophy
are all intermingled.
To perfect our criterion we must add to the analysis of mo-
tive the study of the sources of mythic conceptions. In a
broad way, these are the suggestions of environing nature,
the analogies of human nature both psychical and physi-
ological, imagination, and borrowings. Probably the first of
these is the most important, though the “nature-myth” is far
from being the simple and inevitable thing an elder genera-
tion of students would make of it. Men’s ideas necessarily re-
flect the world that they know, and even where the mythic
incidents are the same the timbre of the tale will vary, say
from the Yukon to the Mississippi, in the eastern forest, or on
the western desert. There are physiographical boundaries
within the continent which form a natural chart of the divi-
sions in the complexion of aboriginal thought; and while there
are numberless overlappings, outcroppings, and intrusions,
none the less striking are the general conformities of the char-
acter of the several regions with the character of the mythic
lore developed in them. The forests of the East, the Great
Plains, the arid South-West, secluded California, the North-
Western archipelago, each has its own traits of thought as it
has its own traits of nature, and it is inevitable that we sup-
pose the former to be in some degree a reflection of the latter.
Beyond all this there are certain constancies of nature, the
succession of darkness and light, the circle of the seasons, the
motions of sun, moon, and stars, of rivers and winds, that
affect men everywhere and everywhere colour their fancies;
and it is not the least interesting feature of the study of a wide-
spread mythic theme or incident to see the variety of natural
phenomena for which it may, first and last, serve to account,
since the myth-maker does not find his story in nature, but
writes it there with her colouring.
XX INTRODUCTION
The second great source of myth material is found in the
analogies of human nature. Primarily these arc psychical:
the desires and purposes of men are assumed, quite uncon-
sciously, to animate and to inspire the whole drama of nature’s
growth and change, and thus the universe becomes peopled with
personalities, ranging in definition from the senselessly vora-
cious appetites incarnated as monsters, to the self-possessed
purpose and, not infrequently, the “sweet reasonableness”
of man-beings and gods. Besides the psychical, however,
there are the physical analogies of humankind. The most
elementary are the physiological, which lead to a symbolism
now gruesome, now poetic. The heart, the hair, and the breath
are the most significant to the Indian, and their inner meaning
could scarcely be better indicated than in the words of a
Pawnee priest from whom Alice Fletcher obtained her report
of the Hako. One act of this ceremony is the placing of a
bit of white down in the hair of a consecrated child, and in
explaining this rite the priest said: “The down is taken from
under the wings of the white eagle. The down grew close to
the heart of the eagle and moved as the eagle breathed. It
represents the breath and life of the white eagle, the father of
the child.” Further, since the eagle is intermediary between
man and Father Heaven, “the white, downy feather, which is
ever moving as if it were breathing, represents Tirawa-atius,
who dwells beyond the blue sky, which is above the soft, white
clouds”; and it is placed in the child’s hair “on the spot where
a baby’s skull is open, and you can see it breathe.” This is the
poetic side of the symbolism; the gruesome is represented by
scalping, by the tearing out of the heart, and sometimes by
the devouring of it for the sake of obtaining the strength of
the slain. Another phase of physiological symbolism has to do
with the barbarian’s never-paling curiosity about matters of
sex; there is little trace of phallic worship in North America,
but the Indian’s myths abound in incidents which are as un-
consciously as they are unblushingly indecent. A strange and
INTRODUCTION
XXI
recurrent feature of Indian myth is the personification of
members of the body, especially the genital and excretory
organs, usually in connexion with divination. The final step
in the use of the human body as a symbol is anthropomor-
phism — that complete anthropomorphism wherein mythic
powers are given bodies, not part human and part animal,
but wholly human; it marks the first clear sense of the dig-
nity of man, and of the superiority of his wisdom to that of
the brutes. Not many Indian groups have gone far in this
direction, but among the more advanced it is a step clearly
undertaken.
Imagination plays a part in the development of myth which
is best realized by the aesthetic effect created by a body of
tales or by a set of pictorial symbols. The total impression of
Indian mythic emblems is undoubtedly one of grotesquerie, but
it is difficult to point to any pagan religious art except the
Greek that has outgrown the grotesque; and the Indian has a
quality of its own. There is a wide difference, however, in
the several regions, and indeed as between tribes of the same
region. The art of the North-West and of the South-West are
both highly developed, but even in such analogous objects as
masks they represent distinct types of genius. The Navaho
and the Apache are neighbours and relatives, but they are
poles apart in their aesthetic expression. Some tribes, as the
Pawnee, show great originality; others, as the northern Atha-
pascans and most of the Salish, are colourless borrowers.
Borrowing is, indeed, the most difficult of problems to solve.
In the abstract, it is easy to suppose that, with the main simi-
larities of environment in North America and the general even-
ness of a civilization everywhere neolithic, the like conditions of
a like human nature would give rise to like ideas and fancies.
It is equally easy to suppose that in a territory permeable
nearly everywhere, among tribes in constant intercourse, bor-
rowing must be extensive. Both factors are significant, though
in general the obvious borrowing is likely to seem the more
XXll
INTRODUCTION
impressive. Nevertheless, universal borrowing is a difficult
hypothesis, for innumerable instances show an identity of Old-
World and New-World ideas, where communication within
thinkable time is incredible. Even in the New World there are
wide separations for identical notions that seem to imply dis-
tinct origins. Thus the Arctic Highlanders, who have only
recently learned that there are other peoples in the world, pos-
sess ideas identical with those of the Indians of the far South.
When such an idea is simply that there is a cavernous under-
world which is an abode of spirits, there Is no need to assume
communication, for the notion is world-wide; but when the two
regions agree in asserting that there are four underworld cav-
erns — an idea which is in no sense a natural Inference — then
the suspicion of communication becomes inevitable. Again,
constellation-myths which see in Corona Borealis a circle of
chieftains. In the Pleiades a group of dancei's, in Ursa Major
a quadruped pursued by three hunters, might have many
independent origins; but when we encounter so curious a story
as that of the incestuous relations of the Sun and the Moon
told by Eskimo in the north and Cherokee in the south, com-
munication is again suggested; and this suggestion becomes
almost certainty when we find, further, that a special incident
of this myth — the daubing of the secret lover with paint or
ashes by which he Is later identified — appears in another
tale found in nearly every part of the continent, the story of
the girl who bore children to a dog.
In the story just mentioned the children of the girl and the
dog sometimes become stars, sometimes the ancestors of a tribe
or clan of men; and this is a fair illustration of the manner in
which incidents having all the character of fiction are made to
serve as explanatory myths by their various users. The funda-
mental material of myth is rather a collection of incidents
fitted into the scheme of things suggested by perception and
habit than the stark invention of nature; and while the inci-
dents must have an invention somewhere, the greater portion
INTRODUCTION
XXlll
of them seem to be given by art and adopted by nature, —
borrowing and adaptation being, for the savage as for the civil-
ized man, more facile than new thinking.
In every considerable collection of Indian stories there are
many adaptations of common ideas and incidents. In different
regions this basic material comes to characteristic forms of
expression. Finally, in the continent as a whole, viewed as one
great region, there is a generally definable scheme, within which
the mythic conceptions of the North American fall into place.
It is in this sense, and with reference to this scheme, that we
may speak of a North American Indian mythological system.
On the side of cosmology, the scheme has already been
indicated. There is a world above, the home of the Sky
Father and of the celestial powers; there is a world below, the
embodiment of the Earth Mother and the abode of the dead;
there is the central plane of the earth, and there are the genii
of its Quarters. But cosmology serves only to define the
theatre; it does not give the action. Cosmogony is the essen-
tial drama. In the Indian scheme the beginning is seldom
absolute. A few tribes recognize a creator who makes or a
procreator who generates the world and its inhabitants; but
the usual conception is either of a pre-existent sky-world,
peopled with the images of the beings of an earth-world yet to
come into being, or else of a kind of cosmic womb from which
the First People were to have their origin. In the former type
of legend, the action begins with the descent of a heaven-born
Titaness; in the latter, the first act portrays the ascent of the
ancestral beings from the place of generation. Uniformly, the
next act of the world drama details the deeds of a hero or of
twin heroes who are the shapers and lawgivers of the habitable
earth. They conquer the primitive monsters and set in order
the furniture of creation; quite generally, one of them is slain,
and passes to the underworld to become its Plutonian lord.
The theft of fire, the origin of death, the liberation of the ani-
mals, the giving of the arts, the institution of rites are all
XXIV
INTRODUCTION
themes that recur, once and again, and in forms that show
surprisingly small variation. Universal, too, is the cataclysmic
destruction of the earth by flood, or fire and flood, leaving a
few survivors to repopulate the restored land. Usually this
event marks the close of a First, or Antediluvian Age, in which
the people were either animal in form or only abortively hu-
man. After the flood the animals are transformed once for
all into the beings they now are, while the new race of men is
created. It is not a little curious to find in many tribes tales
of a confusion of tongues and dispersion of nations bringing
to a close the cosmogonic period and leading into that of
legendary history.
Such, in broad outline, is the chart of the Indian’s cosmic
perspective. It is with a view to its fuller illustration that the
myths studied in the ensuing chapters have been chosen from
the great body of American Indian lore.
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
NORTH AMERICAN
MYTHOLOGY
CHAPTER I
THE FAR NORTH
I. NORSEMAN AND SKRAELING
I N the year of our Lord 982 Eric the Red, outlawed from
Iceland, discovered Greenland, which shortly afterward
was colonized by Icelanders. Eric’s son, Leif the Lucky, the
first Christian of the New World, voyaging from Norway to
Greenland, came upon a region to the south of Greenland
where “self-sown corn” and wild vines grew, and which,
accordingly, he named Vinland. This was in the year 1000,
the year in which all Mediaeval Europe was looking for the
Second Advent and for earth’s destruction, but which brought
instead the first discovery of a New World.
As yet no people had been encountered by the Scandina-
vians in the new-found lands. But the news of Vinland stirred
the heart of Thorfinn Karlsefni and of his wife Gudrid, and
with a company of men and two ships they set out for the
region which Leif had found. First they came to a land which
they called Helluland, “the land of flat stones,” which seemed
to them a place of little worth. Next they visited a wooded
land full of wild beasts, and this they named Markland.
Finally they came to Vinland, and there they dwelt for three
winters, Gudrid giving birth to Snorri, the first white child
born on the Western Continent. It was in Vinland that the
Norsemen first encountered the Skraelings: “They saw a
number of skin canoes, and staves were brandished from
their boats with a noise like flails, and they were revolved in
the same direction in which the sun moves.” Thorfinn’s band
2
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
was small, the Skraelings were a multitude; so the colony re-
turned to Greenland in the year 1006.
Apparently no further attempt was made to settle the main-
land, though from time to time voyages were made thither for
cargoes of timber. But the Greenland colony continued, un-
molested and flourishing. About the middle of the thirteenth
century peoples from the north, short and swart, began to
appear; encounters became unfriendly, and in 1341 the north-
ernmost Scandinavian settlement was destroyed. Meanwhile,
ships were coming from Norway less and less frequently, and
the colony ceased to prosper, ceased to be heard from. At the
time when Columbus discovered the Antilles there was a
Bishop of Greenland, holding title from the Pope, but there is
no evidence that he ever saw his diocese, and when, in 1585,
John Davis sailed into the strait now bearing his name all
trace of the Norsemen’s colony was lost.
But the people of the Far North had not forgotten, and
when the white men again came among them they still pre-
served legends of former Kablunait.’' The story of the first
meeting of the two peoples still survived, and of their mutual
curiosity and fear, and of how an Eskimo and a white man
became fast friends, each unable to outdo the other in feats of
skill and strength, until at last the Eskimo won in a contest at
archery, and the white man was cast down a precipice by his
fellow-countrymen. There is the story of Eskimo men lying
in wait and stealing the women of the Kablunalt as they came
to draw water. There are stories of blood feuds between the
two peoples, and of the destruction of whole villages. At Ikat
the Kablunait were taken by surprise; four fathers with their
children fled out upon the Ice and all were drowned; sometimes
they are visible at the bottom of the sea, and then, say the
Eskimo, one of our people will die.
Such are the memories of the lost colony which the Green-
landers have preserved. But far and wide among the Eskimo
tribes there is the tradition of their former association with
PLATE II
Encounter of Eskimo and Kablunait, from a Grcen-
landic drawing. After H. Rink, Taks am/ T?yif/itioas
of the Eskimo,
V
THE FAR NORTH
3
the Tornit, the Inlanders, from whom they were parted hy feud
and war. The Tornit were taller and stronger and swifter
than the Eskimo, and most of them were blear-eyed ; their
dress and weapons were different, and they were not so skil-
ful in boating and sealing or with the bow. Finally, an Es-
kimo youth quarrelled with one of the Tornit and slew him,
boring a hole in his forehead with a drill of crystal. After that
all the Tornit fled away for fear of the Eskimo and since then
the Coast-People and the Inland-Dwellers have been enemies.
In the stories of the Tornit may be some vague recollections
of the ancient Norsemen; more plausibly they represent the
Indian neighbours of the Eskimoan tribes on the mainland,
for to the Greenlanders the Indians had long become a fabulous
and magical race. Sometimes, they say, the Tornit steal women
who are lost in the fog, but withal are not very dangerous;
they keep out of sight of men and are terribly afraid of dogs.
Besides the Tornit there are in the Eskimo’s uncanny Inland
elves and cannibal giants, one-eyed people, shape-shifters,
dog-men, and monsters, such as the Amarok, or giant wolf,
or the horrid caterpillar that a woman nursed until it grew so
huge that it devoured her baby — for it is a region where
history and imagination mingle in nebulous marvel.^
II. THE ESKIMO’S WORLD
There is probably no people on the globe more isolated in
their character and their life than are the Eskimo. Their nat-
ural home is to the greater part of mankind one of the least
inviting regions of the earth, and they have held it for centuries
with little rivalry from other races. It is the coastal region
of the Arctic Ocean from Alaska to Labrador and from Labra-
dor to the north of Greenland: inlandward it is bounded by
frozen plains, where even the continuous day of Arctic sum-
mer frees only a few inches of soil; seaward it borders upon
icy waters, solid during the long months of the Arctic night.
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
4
The caribou and more essentially the seal are the two animals
upon which the whole economy of Eskimo life depends, both
for food and for bodily covering; the caribou is hunted in
summer, the seal is the main reliance for winter. But the
provision of a hunting people is never certain; the seasonal
supply of game is fluctuating; and the Eskimo is no stranger to
starvation. His is not a green world, but a world of whites
and greys, shot with the occasional splendours of the North.
Night is more open to him than the day; he is acquainted
with the stars and death is his familiar.
“Our country has wide borders; there is no man born has
travelled round it; and it bears secrets in its bosom of which no
white man dreams. Up here we live two different lives; in
the Summer, under the torch of the Warm Sun; in the Winter,
under the lash of the North Wind. But it is the dark and
the cold that make us think most. And when the long Dark-
ness spreads itself over the country, many hidden things are
revealed, and men’s thoughts travel along devious paths ”
(quoted from “Blind Ambrosius,” a West Greenlander, by
Rasmussen, The People of the Polar North, p. 219).
-
The religious and mythical ideas of the Eskimo wear the
hues of their life. They are savages, easily cheered when food
is plenty, and when disheartened oppressed rather by a blind
helplessness than by any sense of ignorance or any depth of
thought. Their social organization is loose; their law is
strength; their differences are settled by blood feuds; a kind
of unconscious indecency characterizes the relations of the
sexes; but they have the crude virtues of a simply gregarious
people — ready hospitality, willingness to share, a lively if fit-
ful affectionateness, a sense of fun. They are given to singing
and dancing and tale-telling; to magic and trance and spirit-
journeys. Their adventures in real life are grim enough, but
these are outmatched by their flights of fancy. As their life
demands, they are rapacious and ingrained huntsmen; and
perhaps the strongest trait of their tales is the succession of
THE FAR NORTH
S
images reflecting the intimate habits of a people whose every
member is a butcher — blubber and entrails and warm blood,
bones and the foulness of parasites and decay: these replace
the tenderer images suggested to the minds of peoples who
dwell in flowered and verdured lands.
HI. THE WORLD-POWERS
For the Eskimo, as for all savage people, the world is up-
held by invisible powers. Everything in nature has its Inua,®
its “owner” or “indweller”; stones and animals have their
Inue, the air has an Inua, there is even an Inua of the strength
or the appetite; the dead man is the Inua of his grave, the soul
is the Inua of the lifeless body. Inue are separable from the
objects of which they are the “owners”; normally they are
invisible, but at times they appear in the form of a light or a
fire — an ill-seen thing, foretokening death.
The “owners” of objects may become the helpers or guard-
ians of men and then they are known as Tornait.^ Especially
potent are the Inue of stones and bears; if a bear “owner”
becomes the Tornak of a man, the man may be eaten by the
bear and vomited up again; he then becomes an Angakok, or
shaman,® with the bear for his helper. Men or women with
many or powerful Tornait are of the class of Angakut, endowed
with magical and healing power and with eyes that see hidden
things.
The Greenlanders had a vague belief in a being, Tornarsuk,
the Great Tornak, or ruler of the Tornait, through whom the
Angakut obtained their control over their helpers; but a like
belief seems not to have been prevalent on the continent.®
In the spiritual economy of the Eskimo, the chief place is
held by a woman-being, the Old Woman of the Sea, — Nerri-
vik, the “Food Dish,” the north Greenlanders call her, — while
Sedna is a mainland name for her.'^ Once she was a mortal
woman; a petrel wooed her with entrancing song and carried
6
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
her to his home beyond the sea. Too late she found that he
had deceived her. When her relatives tried to rescue her,
the bird raised such a storm that they cast her into the sea to
save themselves; she attempted to cling to the boat, but they
cut off her hand, and she sank to the bottom, her severed fin-
gers being transformed into whales and seals of the several
kinds. In her house in the depths of the sea Nerrivik dwells,
trimming her lamp, guarded by a terrible dog, and ruling over
the animal life of the deep. Sometimes men catch no seals,
and then the Angakut go down to her and force or persuade
her to release the food animals; that is why she is called the
“Food Dish.” It is not difficult to perceive in this Woman of
the Sea a kind of Mother of Wild Life — a hunter folk’s god-
dess, but cruel and capricious as is the sea itself.
In the house of Sedna is a shadowy being, Anguta, her father.
Some say that it was he who rescued her and then cast her
overboard to save himself, and he is significantly surnamed
“the Man with Something to Cut.” Like his daughter, Anguta
has a maimed hand, and it is with this that he seizes the dead
and drags them down to the house of Sedna — for her sover-
eignty is over the souls of the dead as well as over the food of
the living; she is Mistress of Life and of Death. According to
the old Greenlandic tradition, when the Angakut go down to
the Woman of the Sea they pass first through the region of
the dead, then across an abyss where an icy wheel is forever
revolving, next by a boiling cauldron with seals in it, and lastly,
when the great dog at the door is evaded, within the very en-
trance there is a second abyss bridged only by a knifelike way.
Such was the Eskimo’s descensus Averno.^
IV. THE WORLD’S REGIONS
As the Eskimo’s Inland is peopled with monstrous tribes,
so is his Sea-Front populous with strange beings.® There are
the Inue of the sea — a kind of mermen; there are the mirage-
THE FAR NORTH
7
like Kayak-men who raise storms and foul weather; there are
the phantom women’s boats, the Umiarissat, whose crews,
some say, are seals transformed into rowers. Strangest of all
are the Fire-People, the Ingnersuit, dwelling in the cliffs, or,
as it were, in the crevasse between land and sea. They are of
two classes, the Pug-Nosed People and the Noseless People.
The former are friendly to men, assisting the kayaker even
when invisible to him; the Noseless Ones are men’s enemies,
and they drag the hapless kayaker to wretched captivity down
beneath the black waters. An Angakok was once seal-hunting,
far at sea; all at once he found himself surrounded by strange
kayaks — the Fire-People coming to seize him. But a commo-
tion arose among them, and he saw that they were pursued
by a kayak whose prow was like a great mouth, opening and
shutting, and slaying all that were in its path; and suddenly
all of the Fire-People were gone from the surface of the sea.
Such was the power of the shaman’s helping spirit.
In the Eskimo’s conception there are regions above and re-
gions below man’s visible abode, and the dead are to be found
in each.^“ Accounts differ as to the desirability of the several
abodes. The mainland people — or some of them — regard the
lower world as a place of cold and storm and darkness and
hunger, and those who have been unhappy or wicked in this
life are bound thither; the region above is a land of plenty
and song, and those who have been good and happy, and also
those who perish by accident or violence, and women who die
in child-birth, pass to this upper land. But there are others
who deem the lower world the happier, and the upper the realm
of cold and hunger; yet others maintain that the soul is full
of joy in either realm.
The Angakut make soul-journeys to both the upper and the
lower worlds.^^ The lower world is described as having a sky
like our own, only the sky is darker and the sun paler; it is
always winter there, but game is plentiful. Another tale tells
of four cavernous underworlds, one beneath the other; the
X— 3
8
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
first three are low-roofed and uncomfortable, only the fourth
and lowest is roomy and pleasant. The upper world is beyond
the visible sky, which is a huge dome revolving about a moun-
tain-top; it is a land with its own hills and valleys, duplicating
Earth. Its “owners” are the Inue of the celestial bodies, who
once were men, but who have been translated to the heavens
and are now the celestial lights. The road to the upper world
is not free from perils: on the way to the moon there is a
person who tempts wayfarers to laughter, and if successful
in making them laugh takes out their entrails.® Perhaps this
is a kind of process of disembodying; for repeatedly in Es-
kimo myth occur spirit-beings which when seen face to face
appear to be human beings, but when seen from behind are
like skeletons.^®
V. THE BEGINNINGS
The Sun and the Moon were sister and brother — mortals
once. In a house where there was no light they lay together,
and when the sister discovered who had been her companion,
in her shame she tore off her breasts and threw them to her
brother, saying, “Since my body pleaseth thee, taste these,
too.” Then she fled away, her brother pursuing, and each
bearing the torches by means of which they had discovered
one another. As they ran they rose up into the heavens;
the sister’s torch burned strong and bright, and she became
the Sun; the brother’s torch died to a mere ember, and he be-
came the Moon.“ When the Sun rises in the sky and summer
is approaching, she is coming “to give warmth to orphans,”
say the Eskimo; for in the Far North, where many times in
the winter starvation is near, the lot of the orphan is grimly
uncertain.
The Greenlanders are alert to the stars, especially those
that foretell the return of the summer sun; when Orion is
seen toward dawn, summer is coming and hearts are joyous.
PLATE III
I
Example of gorget, or breast-ornament, of wood,
used by the Eskimo of western Alaska in shaman istic
dances, often in combination with a mask. On the
original (now in the United States National Museum),
the central figure of a man standing on a whale and
holding fishes is painted in red, all the other figures be-
ing in black. The central figure represents a marine
god or giant, probably the Food-Giver. See Note 9,
(p. 274).
2
Harpoon-rest with sketch of a mythic bird captur-
ing a whale. From Cape Prince of Wales, Now in
United States National Museum. The bird is prob-
ably the Thunderbird, as in the similar motive in the
art of the North-West Coast Indians.
THE FAR NORTH
9
The Eskimo tell how men with dogs once pursued a bear far
out on the ice; suddenly the bear began to rise into the air,
his pursuers followed, and this group became the constellation
which we name Orion. A like story is sometimes told of the
Great Bear (Ursa Major). Harsher is the tale which tells of
the coming of Venus: “He who Stands and Listens” — for
the sun’s companion is a man to the Eskimo. An old man, so
the story goes, was sealing near the shore; the noise of chil-
dren playing in a cleft of rock frightened the seals away;
and at last, in his anger, he ordered the cleft to close over them.
When their parents returned from hunting, all they could do
was to pour a little blood down a fissure which had been left,
but the imprisoned children soon starved. They then pursued
the old man, but he shot up into the sky and became the lumi-
nous planet which is seen low in the west when the light begins
to return after the wintry dark.^^
The Eskimo do not greatly trouble themselves with thoughts
as to the beginnings of the world as a whole; rather they take
it for granted, quite unspeculatively. There is, however, an
odd Greenlandic tale of how earth dropped down from the
heavens, soil and stones, forming the lands we know. Babies
came forth — earth-born — and sprawled about among the
dwarf willows; and there they were found by a man and a
woman (none knows whence these came), and the woman made
clothes for them, and so there were people; and the man
stamped upon the earth, whence sprang, each from its tiny
mound, the dogs that men need.^® At first there was no death;
neither was there any sun. Two old women debated, and one
said, “Let us do without light, if so we can be without death”;
but the other said, “Nay, let us have both light and death!”
— and as she spoke, it was so.“
The Far North has also a widely repeated story of a deluge
that destroyed most of the earth’s life, as well as another wide-
spread account of the birth of the different races of man-
kind — for at first all men were Eskimo — from the union of a
lO
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
girl with a dog; the ancestors of the white men she put in
the sole of a boot and sent them to find their own country,
and when the white men’s ships came again, lo, as seen from
above, the body of each ship looked precisely like the sole of a
boot!
VI. LIFE AND DEATH
Birth and death, in Eskimo conception, are less a beginning
and an end than episodes of life. Bodies are only instruments
of souls — the souls which are their “owners”; and what re-
spect is shown for the bodies of the dead is based upon a very
definite awe of the potencies of their Inue, which have been
augmented rather than diminished by the last liberation.
Souls may be born and reborn both as man and as beast,
and some have been known to run the whole gamut of the ani-
mal kingdom before returning to human shape.^® Ordinarily
human souls are reborn as men. Monsters, too, are born of
human parents : one of the most ghastly of the northern tales
is the story of “the Baby who ate its parents”; it tore off its
mother’s breasts as she suckled it, it devoured her body and
ate its father; and then, covered with its parents’ blood and
crying for meat, it crawled horribly toward the folk, who fled
in terror.^®
Besides the soul which is the body’s “owner” the Eskimo be-
lieve in a name-soul.®® The name of the dead man is not men-
tioned by his kinsfolk until a child has come into the world to
bear it anew. Then, when the name has thus been rAorn, the
dead man’s proper soul is free to leave the corpse and go to
the land of the departed. An odd variant of this Greenlandic
notion was encountered by Stefansson among the western
tribes: these people believe that the soul of the dead relative
enters the body of the new-born child, guarding and protect-
ing its life and uttering all its words until it reaches the age of
discretion; then the child’s own soul is supposed to assume
sway, and it is called after a name of its own. If there have
THE FAR NORTH
II
been a number of deaths previous to a birth, the child ma7
have several such guardian spirits.
Sometimes a child had dire need of guardian spirits. Such
a one was Qalanganguase; his parents and his sister were dead;
he had no kindred to care for him and he was paralysed in
the lower part of his body. When his fellow-villagers went
hunting, he was left alone; and then, in his solitude, the spirits
came and whiled away the hours. Once, however, the spirit
of his sister was slow in going (for Qalanganguase had been
looking after the little child she had left when she died), and
the people, on their return, saw the shadow of her flitting feet.
When Qalanganguase told what had happened, the villagers
challenged him to the terrible song-duel in which the Angakut
try one another’s strength; and they bound him to the sup-
ports of the house and left him swinging to and fro. But the
spirit of his mother came to him, and his father’s spirit, say-
ing, “Journey with us”; and so he departed with them, nor
did his fellow-villagers ever find him again.^®
Qalanganguase was an orphaned child and a cripple; his
rights to life — in the Polar North — were little enough.
Mitsima was an old man. He was out seal-catching in mid-
winter; a storm came up, and he was lost to his companions.
When the storm passed, his children saw him crawling like
a dog over the ice, for his hands and feet were frozen — his
children saw him, but they were afraid to go out to him, for
he was near unto death. “He is an old man,” they said, and
so they let him die; for the aged, too, have little right to life
in the Polar North.
Perhaps it is necessity rather than cruelty in a region where
life is hard. Perhaps it is that death seems less final, more
episodic, to men whose lives are always in peril. Perhaps it
is the ancient custom of the world, which only civilized men
have forgotten. “We observe our old customs,” said a wise
elder to Knud Rasmussen — and he was speaking of the ob-
servation of the rites for the dead — “in order to hold the
12
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
world up, for the powers must not be offended. We observe
our customs, in order to hold each other up. We are afraid of
the great Evil. Men are so helpless in the face of illness. The
people here do penance, because the dead are strong in their
vital sap, and boundless in their might.”
CHAPTER II
THE FOREST TRIBES
1. THE FOREST REGION
W HEN British and French and Dutch colonized North
America in the seventeenth century, the region which
they entered was a continuous forest extending northward to
the tree line of Labrador and Hudson’s Bay west, southward to
the foot-hills of the mountains and the shores of the Gulf, and
westward to about the longitude of the Mississippi River.
This vast region was inhabited by numerous tribes of a race
new to white men. The Norse, during their brief stay in Vin-
land, on the northern borders of the forest lands, had heard,
through the Skraelings, of men who wore fringed garments,
carried long spears, and whooped loudly; but they had not
seen those people, whom it had remained for Columbus first
to encounter. These men — “Indians” Columbus had called
them — were, in respect to polity, organized into small tribal
groups; but these groups, usually following relationship in
speech and natural proximity, were, in turn, loosely bound to-
gether in “confederacies” or “nations.” Even beyond these
limits affinity of speech delimited certain major groups, or
linguistic stocks, normally representing consanguineous races;
and, indeed, the whole forest region, from the realm of the
Eskimo in the north to the alluvial and coastal lands bordering
on the Gulf, was dominated by two great linguistic stocks, the
Algonquian and the Iroquoian, whose tribes were the first
aborigines encountered by the white colonists.
The Algonquians, when the whites appeared, were by far
the more numerous and wide-spread of the two peoples.
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
14
Their tribes included, along the Atlantic coast, the Micmac of
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the Abnaki, Pcnnacook,
Massachuset, Nauset, Narraganset, Pequot, etc., of New
England, the Mahican and Montauk of New York, the Dela-
ware of New Jersey, and the Nanticoke and Powhatan of Vir-
ginia and North Carolina. North of the St. Lawrence were the
Montagnais and Algonquin tribes, while westward were the
Chippewa and Cree, mainly between the Great Lakes and
Hudson’s Bay. The Potawatomi, Menominee, Sauk and Fox,
Miami, Illinois, and Shawnee occupied territory extending
from the western lakes southward to Tennessee and westward
to the Mississippi. On the Great Plains the Arapaho and Chey-
enne and in the Rocky Mountains the Siksika, or Blackfeet,
were remote representatives of this vast family of tribes.
In contrast, the Iroquoian peoples were compact and little di-
vided. The two centres of their power were the region about
Lakes Erie and Ontario and the upper St. Lawrence, south-
ward through central New York and Pennsylvania, and the
mountainous region of the Carolina and Virginia colonies.
Of the northern tribes the Five Nations,^® or Iroquois Con-
federacy, of New York, and the Canadian Huron, with whom
they were perpetually at war, were the most important; of
the southern, the Tuscarora and Cherokee. In all the wide
territory occupied by these two great stocks the only consid-
erable intrusion was that of the Catawba, an offshoot of the
famed Siouan stock of the Plains, which had established
itself between the Iroquoian Cherokee and the Algonquian
Powhatan.
-
As the territories of the forest tribes were similar — heavily
wooded, whether on mountain or plain, copiously watered,
abounding in game and natural fruits — so were their modes of
life and thought cast to the same pattern. Every man was a
hunter; but, except in the Canadian north, agriculture was prac-
tised by the women, with maize for the principal crop,*^ and
the villages were accordingly permanent. Industries were of
PLATE IV
Ceremonial mask of the Iroquois Indians, New
York. Carved wood painted red. This mask repre-
sents one of the great anthropic beings defeated in
primal times by the Master of Infc ; its face, pre-
viously beautiful, was contorted in the struggle*
Specimen in the United States National Museum.
THE FOREST TRIBES
IS
the Stone Age, though not without art, especiall7 where the
ceremonial of life was concerned. The tribes were organized
for war as for peace, and indeed, if hunting was the vocation,
war was the avocation of every Indian man: warlike prowess
was his crowning glory, and stoical fortitude under the most
terrible of tortures his supreme virtue; the cruelty of the
North American Indian — and few peoples have been more
consciously cruel — can be properly understood only as the re-
flection of his intense esteem for personal courage, to the proof
of which his whole life was subjected. For the rest, a love of
ritual song and dance, of oratory and the counsel of elders,
a fine courtesy, a subtle code of honour, an impeccable pride,
were all traits which the Forest Tribes had developed to the
full, and which gave to the Indian that aloofness of mien and
austerity of character which were the white man’s first and
most vivid impression of him. In the possession of these traits,
as in their mode of life and the ideas to which It gave birth,
the forest Indians were as one people; the Algonquians were
perhaps the more poetical, the more given to song and proph-
ecy, the Iroquoians the more politic and the better tacticians;
but their diff'erences were slight in contrast to an essential
unity of character which was to form, during the first two
centuries of the white men’s contact with the new-found race,
the European’s indelible impression of the Red Man.
II. PRIEST AND PAGAN
Men’s beliefs are their most precious possessions. The gold
and the furs and the tobacco of the New World were bright
allurements to the western adventure; but it was the desire
to keep their faith unmolested that planted the first permanent
English colony on American shores, and Spanish conquistadores
and French voyageurs were not more zealous for wealth and
war than were the Jesuit Fathers, who followed in their foot-
steps and outstayed their departure, for the Christianizing of
i6 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
the Red Man’s pagan soul. It is to these missionary priests
that we owe most of our knowledge of the Indian’s native be-
liefs — at least, for the earlier period. They entered the wilder-
ness to convert the savage, and accordingly it became their
immediate interest to discover what religious ideas this child
of nature already possessed. In their letters on the language,
institutions, and ideas of the Indians, written for the enlighten-
ment of those intending to enter the mission field, we have the
first reliable accounts of Indian myth and religion.
To be sure, the Fathers did not immediately understand
the aborigines. In one of the earliest of the Relations Pere
Lalemant wrote, of the Montagnais: “They have no form of
divine worship nor any kind of prayers”; but such expressions
mean simply that the missionaries found among the Indians
nothing similar to their own religious practices. In the Rela-
tion of 1647-48 Pere Raguenau said, writing of the Huron:
“To speak truly, all the nations of these countries have re-
ceived from their ancestors no knowledge of a God; and, before
we set foot here, all that was related about the creation of the
world consisted of nothing but myths. Nevertheless, though
they were barbarians, there remained in their hearts a secret
idea of the Divinity and of a first Principle, the author of all
things, whom they invoked without knowing him. In the for-
ests and during the chase, on the waters, and when in danger
of shipwreck, they name him Aireskouy Soutanditenr,^'^ and
call him to their aid. In war, and in the midst of their battles,
they give him the name of Ondoutaete and believe that he alone
awards the victory.®® Very frequently they address themselves
to the Sky, paying it homage; and they call upon the Sun to
be witness of their courage, of their misery, or of their inno-
cence. But, above all, in treaties of peace and alliance with
foreign Nations they invoke, as witnesses of their sincerity,
the Sun and the Sky, which see into the depths of their hearts,
and will wreak vengeance on the treachery of those who betray
their trust and do not keep their word. So true is what Ter-
THE FOREST TRIBES 17
tullian said of the most infidel Nations, that nature in the
midst of perils makes them speak with a Christian voice, —
Exclamant vocem naturaliter Christianam, — and have recourse
to a God whom they invoke almost without knowing him, —
Ignoto Deo.” ®
Exclamant vocem naturaliter Christianam! Two centuries
later another Jesuit, Father De Smet, uses the same expression
in describing the religious feeling of the Kansa tribe: “When
we showed them an Ecce Homo and a statue of our Lady of the
Seven Dolours, and the interpreter explained to them that that
head crowned with thorns, and that countenance defiled with
insults, were the true and real image of a God who had died
for love of us, and that the heart they saw pierced with seven
swords was the heart of his mother, we beheld an affecting illus-
tration of the beautiful thought of Tertullian, that the soul
of man is naturally Christian!”
It is not strange, therefore, that when these same Fathers
found in America myths of a creation and a deluge, of a fall
from heaven and of a sinful choice bringing death into the
world, they conceived that in the new-found Americans they
had discovered the lost tribes of Israel.
III. THE MANITOS*
“The definition of being is simply power,” says a speaker
in Plato’s Sophist; and this is a statement to which every
American Indian would accede. Each being in nature, the
Indians believe, has an indwelling power by means of which
this being maintains its particular character and in its own way
affects other beings. Such powers may be little or great,
weak or mighty; and of course it behooves a man to know which
ones are great and mighty. Outward appearances are no sure
sign of the strength of an indwelling potency; often a small
animal or a lethargic stone may be the seat of a mighty power;
but usually some peculiarity will indicate to the thoughtful
i8
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
observer the object of exceptional might, or it may be revealed
in a dream or vision. To become the possessor of such an ob-
ject is to have one’s own powers proportionally increased; it
is good “medicine” and will make one strong.
Every American language has its name for these indwelling
powers of things. The Eskimo word is Inua, or “owner”;
the Iroquois employ the word Orenda, and for maleficent
powers, or “bad magic,” Otgon; the Huron word is Oki;^® the
Siouan, Wakanda. But the term by which the idea has become
most generally known to white men, doubtless because it was
the word used by the Indians first encountered by the colo-
nists, is the Algonquian Manitou, Manito, or Manido, as it is
variously spelled. The customary translations are “power,”
“mystery,” “magic,” and, commoner yet, “spirit” and “medi-
cine” — and the full meaning of the word would include all
of these; for the powers of things include every gradation from
the common and negligible to the mysterious and magical:
when they pertain to the higher forces of nature they are in-
telligent spirits, able to hear and answer supplications; and
wherever they may be appropriated to man’s need they are
medicine, spiritual and physical.
The Indian does not make, as we do, a sharp division be-
tween physical and spiritual powers; rather, he is concerned
with the distinction between the weak and the strong: the
sub-human he may neglect or conquer, the superhuman he
must supplicate and appease. It is commonly to these latter,
the mighty Manitos, that the word “spirit” is applied.
Nor must we suppose that the Manitos always retain the
same shape. Nature is constantly changing, constantly trans-
forming herself in every part; she is full of energy, full of life;
Manitos are everywhere effecting these transformations, pre-
senting themselves now in this shape, now in that. Conse-
quently, the Indian does not judge by the superficial gift of
vision; he studies the effects of things, and in objects of hum-
blest appearance he often finds evidences of the highest pow-
PLATE V
Chippewa pictographic record of Midcwiwin songs
and rites. After Schoolcraft, Indian Trilm^ part i,
Plate LI. Two records arc given ; they arc read from
right to left, and upward. Following are interpre-,
rations of the figures, abridged from Schoolcraft.
Upper record: ,i. Medicine lodge with winged
figure representing the Great Spirit come to instruct
the Indians. 2. Candidate for admission with pouch
attached to his arm; wind gushes from the pouch.
3. Pause, indicating preparation of feast. 4, Arm
holding a dish, representing hand of the master of
ceremonies. 5. Sweat-lodge. 6. Arm of the priest
who conducts the candidate. 7. Symbol for gifts,
the admission fee of candidate. 8. Sacred tree, with
medicine root. 9. Stuffed crane medicine-bag. lo.
Arrow penetrating the circle of the sky. n. A
small high-flying hawk. 12. llie sky, the Great
Spirit above it, a manito’s arm upraised beneath in
supplication. 13. Pause. 14. Sacred or magic
tree. 15. Drumstick. 16. Half of thes sky with a
man walking on it, symbol of midday. 17. The
Great Spirit filling all space with his beams and halo.
18. Drum. 19. Tambourine with feather orna-
ments. 20. Crow. 21. An initiate or priest hold-
ing in one hand a drumstick, in the other the clouds
of the celestial hemisphere.
Lower record: i. A Wabeno’s, or doctor^s, hand.
2. Sacred tree or plant. 3. A Wabeno dog. 4.
Sick man vomiting blood. 5. Pipe, here represent-
ing ‘^bad medicine/’ 6. A worm that eats decaying
wood. 7. A Wabeno spirit, addressed for aid. 8.
A hunter with Wabeno powers. 9. The Great
Spirit, filling the sky with his presence. 10. Sky
with clouds. II. Fabulous monster chasing the
clouds. 12, Horned wolf. 13. The war eagle*
14. Bow and arrow, magically potent. 15. A
Mide initiate, or doctor, holding the sky* 16. The
sun. 17. Bow and arrow shooting power, 18.
Man 'with drum,' in ecstasy. Cf. Plate XX.
THE FOREST TRIBES
19
ers. Stones do not seem to us likely objects of veneration, yet
many strong Manitos dwell in them — perhaps it is the spark
of fire in the impassive flint that appeals to the Red Man’s
imagination; perhaps it is an instinctive veneration for the
ancient material out of which were hewn the tools that
have lifted man above the brute; perhaps it is a sense of the
age-long permanence and invulnerable reality of earth’s rocky
foundations®’’: —
Ho! Aged One, e?ka,
At a time when there were gathered together seven persons,*
You sat in the seventh place, it is said.
And of the Seven you alone possessed knowledge of all things.
Aged One, e^ka.
When in their longing for protection and guidance.
The people sought in their minds for a way.
They beheld you seated with assured permanency and endurance.
In the center where converged the paths,
There, exposed to the violence of the four winds, you sat.
Possessed with power to receive supplications.
Aged One, efka.
It is thus that the Omaha began his invocation to the healing
stones of his sweat lodge — a veritable omphalos, or centre of
the world, symbolizing the invisible, pervasive, and enduring
life of all things.
IV. THE GREAT SPIRIT*
The Algonquians of the north recognize as the chief of their
Manitos, Gitche (or Kitshi) Manito, the Great Spirit, whom
they also call the Master of Life.®* It should not be inferred
that a manlike personality is ascribed to the Great Spirit. He
is invisible and immaterial; the author of life, but himself
uncreated; he is the source of good to man, and is invoked
with reverence: but he is not a definite personality about whom
* The spirits of the seven directions, above, below, here, and the four cardinal
points. The passage is translated bf Alice C. Fletcher, 27 ARBE, p. 586. The
word “e?ka’' may be roughly rendered “ I desire,” ‘‘ I crave,” “I implore,” “I seek,”
etc., but has no exact equivalent in English,
20
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
myths are told; he is aloof from the world of sense; and he is
perhaps best named, as some translators prefer, the Great
Mystery of all things.
Yet the Great Spirit is not without proper names. Pcre
Le Jeune wrote thus in 1633, concerning the Montagnais:
“They say that there is a certain one whom they call Atahocan,
who made all things. Talking one day of God, in a cabin, they
asked me what this God was. I told them that it was he who
could do everything, and who had made the Sky and Earth.
They began to say to one another, ‘Atahocan, Atahocan, it is
Atahocan.’” Winslow, writing in 1622, mentions a similar
spirit, Kiehtan, recognized by the Massachusetts Indians;
and the early writers on the Virginia Indians tell of their belief
“that there is one chiefe God that hath beene from all eterni-
tie” who made the world and set the sun and moon and stars
to be his ministers. The Iroquoian tribes have no precise
equivalent for the Algonquian Kitshi Manito, but they be-
lieved in a similar spirit, known by the name of Areskoui or
Agreskoui, to whom they offered the first-fruits of the chase
and of victorious war. The terrible letter in which Pere Isaac
Jogues recounts his stay among the Iroquois, as a prisoner,
tells of the sacrifice of a woman captive to this deity: “And
as often as they applied the fire to that unhappy one with
torches and burning brands, an old man cried in a loud voice:
‘Aireskoi, we sacrifice to thee this victim that thou mayst
satisfy thyself with her flesh, and give us victory over our
enemies.’”
The usual rite to the Great Spirit, however, is not of this
horrible kind. From coast to coast the sacred Calumet is
the Indian’s altar, and its smoke is the proper offering to
Heaven.*® “The Sceptres of our Kings are not so much re-
spected,” wrote Marquette, “for the Savages have such a
Deference for this Pipe, that one may call it the God of Peace
and War, and the Arbiter of Life and Death.” “It was really
a touching spectacle to see the calumet, the Indian emblem
THE FOREST TRIBES
21
of peace, raised heavenward by the hand of a savage, present-
ing it to the Master of Life imploring his pity on all his chil-
dren on earth and begging him to confirm the good resolutions
which they had made.” This is a comment of Father De
Smet, who spent many years among many different tribes,
and it is he who preserves for us the Delaware story of the
gift of the Calumet to man: The peoples of the North had
resolved upon a war of extermination against the Delaware,
when, in the midst of their council, a dazzling white bird
appeared among them and poised with outspread wings above
the head of the only daughter of the head chief. The girl
heard a voice speaking within her, which said: “Call all the
warriors together; make known to them that the heart of the
Great Spirit is sad, is covered with a dark and heavy cloud,
because they seek to drink the blood of his first-born children,
the Lenni-Lennapi, the eldest of all the tribes on earth. To
appease the anger of the Master of Life, and to bring back
happiness to his heart, all the warriors must wash their hands
in the blood of a young fawn; then, loaded with presents, and
the Hobowakan [calumet] in their hands, they must go all
together and present themselves to their elder brothers; they
must distribute their gifts, and smoke together the great calu-
met of peace and brotherhood, which is to make them one
forever.”
V. THE FRAME OF THE WORLD
Herodotus said of the Persians: “It is their wont to per-
form sacrifices to Zeus, going up to the most lofty of the moun-
tains; and the whole circle of the heavens they call Zeus;
and they sacrifice to the Sun and the Moon and the Earth,
to Fire and to Water and to the Winds; these are the only
gods to whom they have sacrificed ever from the first.” The
ritual of the calumet indicates identically the same concep-
tion of the world-powers among the American Indians. “On
all great occasions,” says De Smet, “in their religious and
22
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
political ceremonies, and at their great feasts, the calumet pre-
sides; the savages send its first fruits, or its first puffs, to the
Great Waconda, or Master of Life, to the Sun, which gives
them light, and to the Earth and Water by which they are
nourished; then they direct a puff to each point of the com-
pass, begging of Heaven all the elements and favorable winds.”
And again: “They offer the Calumet to the Great Spirit, to
the Four Winds, to the Sun, Fire, Earth and Water.”
The ritual of the calumet defines for the Indian the frame
of the world and the distribution of its indwelling powers.
Above, in the remote and shining sky, is the Great Spirit,
whose power is the breath of life that permeates all nature and
whose manifestation is the light which reveals creation. As
the spirit of light he shows himself in the sun, “ the eye of the
Great Spirit”; as the breath of life he penetrates all the world
in the form of the moving Winds. Below is Mother Earth,
giving forth the Water of Life, and nourishing in her bosom
all organic beings, the Plant Forms and the Animal Forms.
The birds are the intermediaries between the habitation of men
and the Powers Above; serpents and the creatures of the waters
are intermediaries communicating with the Powers Below.
Such, in broad definition, was the Indian’s conception of the
world-powers. But he was not unwilling to elaborate this sim-
ple scheme. The world, as he conceived it, is a storeyed world:
above the flat earth is the realm of winds and clouds, haunted
by spirits and traversed by the great Thunderbird; above this,
the Sun and the Moon and the Stars have their course; while
high over all is the circle of the upper sky, the abode of the
Great Spirit. Commonly, the visible firmament is regarded
as the roof of man’s world, but it is also the floor of an arche-
typal heavenly world, containing the patterns of all things
that exist in the world below: it is from this heaven above the
heavens that the beings descend who create the visible uni-
verse. And as there are worlds above, so are there worlds
beneath us; the earth is a floor for us, but a roof for those
-
PLATE VI
Chippewa side pouch ot black dressed buckskin
ornamented with red, blue, and yellow quill-work.
The two large birds represented are Thunderbirds.
Specimen in the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Massa-
chusetts. Sec Note 32 (pp. 287-88), and compare
Plates III, XVI, and Figure i.
i i*'"
li'-\
THE FOREST TRIBES
23
aelow — the powers that send upward the fructifying springs
ind break forth as spirits of life in Earth’s verdure. Further,
Doth the realms above and the realms below are habitations
for the souls of departed men; for to the Indian death is only a
:hange of life.
The Chippewa believe that there are four “layers,” or
storeys, of the world above, and four of the world below.
Fhis is probably only a reflection in the overworld and the
aether world of the fourfold structure of the cosmos, since
four is everywhere the Indian’s sacred number. The root of
the idea is to be found In the conception of the four cardinal
points or of the quarters of the world,®^ from which came the
ministering genii when the Earth was made, and in which
these spirits dwell, upholding the corners of the heavens.
Potogojecs, a Potawatomi chief, told Father De Smet how
Nanaboojoo (Manibozho) “placed four beneficial spirits at
the four cardinal points of the earth, for the purpose of con-
tributing to the happiness of the human race. That of the
north procures for us ice and snow, in order to aid us in dis-
covering and following the wild animals. That of the south
gives us that which occasions the growth of our pumpkins,
melons, maize and tobacco. The spirit placed at the west
gives us rain, and that of the east gives us light, and com-
mands the sun to make his daily walks around the globe.”
Frequently the Indians identify the Spirits of the Quarters
with the four winds. Ga-oh is the Iroquoian Wind Giant, at
the entrance to whose abode are a Bear and a Panther and a
Moose and a Fawn: “When the north wind blows strong, the
Iroquois say, ‘The Bear is prowling in the sky’; if the west
wind is violent, ‘The Panther is whining.’ When the east wind
blows chill with its rain, ‘The Moose is spreading his breath’;
and when the south wind wafts soft breezes, ‘The Fawn is
returning to its Doe.’” Four is the magic number In all In-
dian lore; fundamentally it represents the square of the direc-
tions, by which the creator measured out his work.
24
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
VI. THE POWERS ABOVE
Even greater than the Wind Giant is the Thunderer,
whom the Iroquois deemed to be the guardian of the Heavens,
armed with a mighty bow and flaming arrows, hater and de-
stroyer of all things noxious, and especially to be revered as
having slain the great Serpent of the waters, which was de-
vouring mankind. Hino is the Thunderer’s name, and his
bride is the Rainbow; he has many assistants, the lesser Thun-
derers, and among them the boy Gunnodoyah, who was once
a mortal. Hino caught this youth up into his domain, armed
him with a celestial bow, and sent him to encounter the great
Serpent; but the Serpent devoured Gunnodoyah, who com-
municated his plight to Hino in a dream, whereupon the
Thunderer and his warriors slew the Serpent and bore Gunno-
doyah, still living, back to the Skies. Commonly the Thun-
derer is a friend to man; but men must not encroach upon his
domain. The Cherokee tell a tale of “the Man who married
the Thunder’s sister”: lured by the maiden to the Thunder’s
cave, he Is there surrounded by shape-shifting horrors, and
when he declines to mount a serpent-steed saddled with a
living turtle. Thunder grows angry, lightning flashes from his
eye, and a terrific crash stretches the young brave senseless;
when he revives and makes his way home, though it seems to
him that he has been gone but a day, he discovers that his
people have long given him up for dead; and, indeed, after
this he survives only seven days.®®
One of HIno’s assistants is Oshadagea, the great Dew Eagle,
whose lodge is in the western sky and who carries a lake of dew
in the hollow of his back. When the malevolent Fire Spirits
are destroying Earth’s verdure, Oshadagea flies abroad, and
from his spreading wings falls the healing moisture. The Dew
Eagle of the Iroquois is probably only the ghost of a Thunder-
bird spirit, which has been replaced, among them, by Hino the
Heavenly Archer. The Thunderbird is an invisible spirit; the
THE FOREST TRIBES
25
lightning is the flashing of his eye; the thunder is the noise of
his wings. He is surrounded by assistants, the lesser Thunder-
ers, especially birds of the hawk-kind and of the eagle-kind;
Keneu, the Golden Eagle, is his chief representative. If it
were not for the Thunderers, the Indians say, the earth would
become parched and the grass would wither and die. Pere
Le Jeune tells how, when a new altar-piece was installed in
the Montagnais mission, the Indians, “ seeing the Holy Spirit
pictured as a dove surrounded by rays of light, asked if the
bird was not the thunder; for they believe that the thunder is
a bird; and when they see beautiful plumes, they ask if they
are not the feathers of the thunder.”
The domain above the clouds is the heaven of the Sun and
the Moon and the Stars. The Sun is a man-being, the Moon a
woman-being; sometimes they are brother and sister, some-
times man and wife.^® The Montagnais told Pere Le Jeune
that the Moon appeared to be dark at times because she held
her son in her arms: “‘If the Moon has a son, she is married,
or has been?’ ‘Oh, yes, the Sun is her husband, who walks all
day, and she all night; and if he be eclipsed or darkened, it is
because he also sometimes takes the son which he has had by
the Moon into his arms.’ ‘Yes, but neither the Sun nor the
Moon has any arms.’ ‘Thou hast no sense; they always hold
their drawn bows before them, and that is why their arms do
not appear.’” Another Algonquian tribe, the Menominee,
tell how the Sun, armed with bow and arrows, departed for
a hunt; his sister, the Moon, alarmed by his long absence,
went in search of him, and travelled twenty days before she
found him. Ever since then the Moon has made twenty-day
journeys through the sky. The Iroquois say that the Sun,
Adekagagwaa, rests in the southern skies during the winter,
leaving his “sleep spirit” to keep watch in his stead. On the
eve of his departure, he addresses the Earth, promising his
return: “Earth, Great Mother, holding your children close
to your breast, hear my power! ... I am Adekagagwaa!
26
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
I reign, and I rule all your lives! My field is broad where
swift clouds race, and chase, and climb, and curl, and fall
in rains to your rivers and streams. My shield is vast and cov-
ers your land with its yellow shine, or burns it brown with
my hurrying flame. My eyes are wide, and search everywhere.
My arrows are quick when I dip them in dews that nourish
and breathe. My army is strong, when I sleep it watches my
fields. When I come again my warriors will battle throughout
the skies; Ga-oh will lock his fierce winds; Heno will soften
his voice; Gohone [Winter] will fly, and tempests will war
no more!”
The Indians know the poetry of the stars. It is odd to find
the Iroquois telling the story of the celestial bear, precisely
as it is told by the Eskimo of northern Greenland: how a
group of hunters, with their faithful dog, led onward by the
excitement of the chase, pursued the great beast high into the
heavens, and there became fixed as the polar constellation
(Ursa Major). In the story of the hunter and the Sky Elk
the sentiment of love mingles with the passion of the chase.
Sosondowah (“Great Night”), the hunter, pursued the Sky
Elk, which had wandered down to Earth, far up into the
heaven which is above the heaven of the Sun. There Dawn
made him her captive, and set him as watchman before the
door of her lodge. Looking down, he beheld and loved a
mortal maiden; in the spring he descended to her under the
form of a bluebird; in the summer he wooed her under the
semblance of a blackbird; in the autumn, under the guise of a
giant nighthawk, he bore her to the skies. But Dawn, angered
at his delay, bound him before her door, and transforming
the maiden into a star set her above his forehead, where he
must long for her throughout all time without attaining her.
The name of the star-maiden, which is the Morning Star, is
Gendenwitha, “It Brings the Day.” The Pleiades are called
the Dancing Stars. They were a group of brothers who were
awakened in the night by singing voices, to which they began
PLATE VII
Secret society mask of the Seneca. The Cireat
Wind Mask/’ a medicine or doctor mask, used in the
ceremonies of the False Face Company. This society
is said to have originated with the Stone Giants, who
are represented in one of the masks used. Repro-
duced by courtesy of Arthur C. Parker, Archaeologist
of the New York State Museum. Sec Note 65
(pp. 309-10), and compare Frontispiece and Plates
IV, XXV, XXXL
THE FOREST TRIBES
27
to dance. As they danced, the voices receded, and they, fol-
lowing, were led, little by little, into the sky, where the pitying
Moon transformed them into a group of fixed stars, and bade
them dance for ten days each year over the Red Man’s council-
house; that being the season of his New Year. One of the danc-
ing brothers, however, hearing the lamentations of his mother,
looked backward; and immediately he fell with such force that
he was buried in the earth. For a year the mother mourned
over his grave, when there appeared from it a tiny sprout,
which grew into a heaven-aspiring tree; and so was born the
Pine, tallest of trees, the guide of the forest, the watcher of
the skies.
VII. THE POWERS BELOW
As there are Powers above so are there Powers below. Earth
herself is the eldest and most potent of these.®^ Nokomis,
“Grandmother,” is her Algonquian name, but the Iroquois
address her as Eithinoha, “Our Mother”; for, they say, “the
earth is living matter, and the tender plantlet of the bean and
the sprouting germ of the corn nestling therein receive through
their delicate rootlets the life substance from the Earth. . . .
Earth, indeed, feeds itself to them; since what is supplied to
them is living matter, life in them is produced and conserved,
and as food the ripened corn and bean and their kinds, thus
produced, create and develop the life of man and of all living
things.”
Earth’s daughter, in Iroquois legend, is Onatah, the Corn
Spirit.®® Once Onatah, who had gone in search of refreshing
dews, was seized by the Spirit of Evil and imprisoned in his
darkness under the Earth until the Sun found her and guided
her back to the lost fields; never since has Onatah ventured
abroad to look for the dews. The Iroquois story is thus a
parallel of the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone. The
Chippewa, on the other hand, make of the Corn Spirit a
heaven-sent youth, Mondamin, who is conquered and buried
28
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
by a mortal hero: from his grave springs the gift of maize.
Other food plants, such as the bean and the pumpkin, as
well as wild plants and the various species of trees, have their
several spirits, or Manitos; indeed, the world is alive with
countless mysteries, of every strength and size, and the for-
est is all thronged with armies of Pukwudjies, the Indian’s
fairy folk.®® “During a shower of rain thousands of them are
sheltered in a flower. The Ojibwa, as he reclines beneath the
shade of his forest trees, imagines these gods to be about
him. He detects their tiny voices in the insect’s hum. With
half-closed eyes he beholds them sporting by thousands on a
sun-ray.”
The Iroquois recognize three tribes of Jogaoh, or Dwarf
People: the Gahonga, of the rocks and rivers, whom the In-
dians call “Stone Throwers” because of their great strength
and their fondness for playing with stones as with balls; the
Gandayah, who have a care for the fruitfulness not only of
the land — for they fashion “dewcup charms” which attract
the grains and fruits and cause them to sprout, — but also
of the water, where they release captive fish from the trap
when the fishermen too rapaciously pursue; and the Ohdowas,
or underground people. The underworld where the Ohdowas
live is a dim and sunless realm containing forests and plains,
like the earth of man, peopled with many animals — all of which
are ever desirous to ascend to the sunny realm above. It is
the task of the Ohdowas to keep these underworld creatures
in their proper place, especially since many of them are venom-
ous and noxious beasts; and though the Ohdowas are small,
they are sturdy and brave, and for the most part keep the mon-
strous beings imprisoned; rarely do the latter break through
to devastate and defile the world above. As there are under-
earth people, so are there underwater people® who, like the
Fire-People of the Eskimo, are divided into two tribes, one
helpful, one hurtful to man. These underwater beings are
human in form, and have houses, like those of men, beneath
THE FOREST TRIBES
29
the waters; but they dress in snake’s skins and wear horns.
Sometimes their beautiful daughters lure mortal men down
into the depths, to don the snake-skin costume and to be lost
to their kindred forever.
Of monstrous beings, inhabiting partly the earth’s surface,
partly the underworld, the Iroquois recognize in particular
the race of Great Heads and the race of Stone Giants.
The Great Heads are gifted with penetrating eyes and provided
with abundant hair which serves them as wings; they ride on
the tempest, and in their destructive and malevolent powers
seem to be personifications of the storm, perhaps of the tornado.
In one tale, which may be the detritus of an ancient and crude
cosmogony, the Great Head obviously plays the role of a
demiurge; and a curious story tells of the destruction of one
of the tribe which pursued a young woman into her lodge and
seeing her parching chestnuts concluded that coals of fire were
good to eat; partaking of the coals, it died. These bizarre
creatures are well calculated to spice a tale with terrors.
The Iroquoian Stone Giants,®® as well as their congeners
among the Algonquians (e. g. the Chenoo of the Abnaki and
Micmac), belong to a wide-spread group of mythic beings of
which the Eskimo Tornit are examples. They are powerful
magicians, huge in stature, unacquainted with the bow, and
employing stones for weapons. In awesome combats they fight
one another, uprooting the tallest trees for weapons and rend-
ing the earth in their fury. Occasionally, they are tamed by
men and, as they are mighty hunters, they become useful
friends. Commonly they are depicted as cannibals ; and it may
well be that this far-remembered mythic people is a reminis-
cence, coloured by time, of backward tribes, unacquainted
with the bow, and long since destroyed by the Indians of his-
toric times.® Of course, if there be such an historic element in
these myths, it is coloured and overlaid by wholly mythic con-
ceptions of stone-armoured Titans or demiurges (see Ch. Ill,
i, ii).
30
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
VIII. THE ELDERS OF THE KINDS «
The Onondaga story of the beginnings of things closes with
these words: “Moreover, it is verily thus with all things
that are contained in the earth here present, that they sev-
erally retransform or exchange their bodies. It is thus with all
things that sprout and grow, and, in the next place, with all
things that produce themselves and grow, and, in the next
place, all the man-beings. All these are affected in the same
manner, that they severally transform their bodies, and, in
the next place, that they retransform their bodies, severally,
without cessation” (Hewitt, 2 i ARBE, pp. 219-20).
Savages, and perhaps all people who live near to Nature, are
first and inevitably Heracliteans : for them, as for the Greek
philosopher, all things flow, the sensible world is a world of
perpetual mutation; bodies, animate and inanimate, are but
temporary manifestations — outward shadows of the multi-
tude of shape-shifting Powers which govern the spectacle from
behind the scene. Yet even the savage, conscious as he is of
the impermanency of sensible things, detects certain constant
forms, persistently reappearing, though in various individual
embodiments. These forms are the natural kinds — the kin-
dreds or species into which Nature is divided; they are the
Ideas of things, as a greater Greek than Heraclitus would say;
and the Indians all develop into Platonists, for they hold that
each natural kind has its archetype, or Elder (as they prefer),
dwelling in an invisible world and sustaining the temporary
lives of all its earthly copies by the strength of its primal
being.
The changing seasons themselves — which, for all peoples
beyond the tropics, are the great facts governing the whole
strategy of life — become fixed in a kind of constancy, and
are eventually personified into such beings as we still fanci-
fully form for Spring and Summer and Winter and Autumn.®®
To be sure, the seasons are not so many for peoples whose sus-
PLATE VIII
Iroquois drawing of a Great Head — a type of
bodiless, man-eating monster (see Note 37, pp. 290--
91). The picture, reproduced from Schoolcraft, Indian
Trihesj part i, Plate LXXII, is an illustration of the
story of the outwitting of the (Jrcat Hea<l by an In-
dian woman, a story common to many of the Eastern
tribes (see p. 29),
-
THE FOREST TRIBES
31
tenance is mainly obtained by the chase: for them, the open
and closed, the green and the white, are the important divi-
sions of the year. The Iroquois say that Winter is an old
man of the woods, who raps the trees with his war-club: in
very cold weather one can hear the sharp sound of his blows;
while Spring is a lithe young warrior, with the sun in his
countenance. The Montagnais were not sure whether the two
Seasons were manlike, but they told Pere Le Jeune that they
were very sure that Nipin and Pipoun were living beings:
they could even hear them talking and rustling, especially at
their coming. “For their dwelling-place they share the world
between them, the one keeping upon the one side, the other
upon the other; and when the period of their stay at one end
of the world has expired, each goes over to the locality of the
other, reciprocally succeeding each other. Here we have, in
part, the fable of Castor and Pollux,” comments the good
Father. “When Nipinoukhe returns, he brings back with him
the heat, the birds, the verdure, and restores life and beauty
to the world; but Pipounoukhe lays waste everything, being
accompanied by the cold winds, ice, snows, and other phenom-
ena of Winter. They call this succession of one to the other
Achitescatoueth; meaning that they pass reciprocally to each
other’s places.” Perhaps as charming a myth of the seasons
as could be found is the Cherokee tale of “ the Bride from the
South.” The North falls in love with the daughter of the South,
and in response to his ardent wooings is allowed to carry her
away to his Northland, where the people all live in ice houses.
But the next day, when the sun rises, the houses begin to
melt, and the people tell the North that he must send the
daughter of the South to her native land, for her whole nature
is warm and unfit for the North.
But it is especially in the world of animals that the spirits
of the Kinds are important.^® “They say,” says Le Jeune,
speaking of these same Montagnais (whose beliefs, in this
respect, are typical), “that all animals, of every species, have
32
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
an elder brother, who is, as it were, the source and origin of all
individuals, and this elder brother is wonderfully great and
powerful. The elder of the Beaver, they tell me, is perhaps as
large as our cabin, although his Junior (I mean the ordinary
Beaver) is not quite as large as our sheep. ... If anyone,
when asleep, sees the elder or progenitor of some animals, he
will have a fortunate chase; if he sees the elder of the Beavers,
he will take Beavers; if he sees the elder of the Elks, he will
take Elks, possessing the juniors through the favor of their
senior whom he has seen in the dream. I asked them where
these elder brothers were. ‘We are not sure,’ they answered me,
‘but we think the elders of the birds are in the sky, and that
the elders of the other animals are in the water.’ ” In another
connexion the Father tells the following story, which he had
from a Montagnais: “A man, having traveled a long distance,
at last reached the Cabin or house of God, as he named him
who gave him something to eat. . . . All kinds of animals
surround him [the god], he touches them, handles them as he
wishes, and they do not fly from him; but he does them no
harm, for, as he does not eat, he does not kill them. However,
he asked this new guest what he would like to eat, and having
learned that he would relish a beaver, he caught one without
any trouble, and had him eat it; then asked him when he in-
tended going away. ‘In two nights,’ was the answer. ‘Good,’
said he, ‘you will remain two nights with me.’ These two
nights were two years ; for what we call a year is only a day or
a night in the reckoning of him who procures us food. And
one is so contented with him that two winters, or two years,
seem only like two nights. When he returned to his own coun-
try he was greatly astonished at the delay he had experienced.”
The god of the cabin is, no doubt, Messou (Manabozho),
the Algonquian demiurge, for he is “elder brother to all
beasts” and the ruler of animal life. Similarly, the Iroquoian
demiurge louskeha is the bringer and namer of the primal
animals: “They believe that animals were not at liberty from
THE FOREST TRIBES
33
the beginning of the world, but that they were shut up in a
great cavern where louskeha guarded them. Perhaps there
may be in that some allusion to the fact that God brought all
the animals to Adam,” adds Pere Brebeuf; and in the Seneca
version of the Iroquoian genesis, the youth who brings the
animals from the cavern of the Winds does, in fact, perform
the office of Adam, giving them their several names.
CHAPTER III
THE FOREST TRIBES
{Continued)
L IROQUOIAN COSMOGONY‘5
T he Onondaga version of the genesis-myth of the Iro-
quois, as recorded by Hewitt, begins in this fashion:
“He who was my grandfather was wont to relate that,
verily, he had heard the legend as it was customarily told by
five generations of grandsires, and this is what he himself was
in the habit of telling. He customarily said ; Man-beings dwell
in the sky, on the farther side of the visible sky. The lodges
they severally possess are customarily long [the Iroquoian
“long house,” or lodge]. In the end of the lodges there are
spread out strips of rough bark whereon lie the several mats.
There it is that, verily, all pass the night. Early in the morning
the warriors are in the habit of going to hunt and, as is their
custom, they return every evening.”
This heaven above the visible heavens, which has existed
from eternity, is the prototype of the world in which we
dwell; and in it is set the first act of the cosmic drama. Sorrow
and death were unknown there; it was a land of tranquil abun-
dance. It came to pass that a girl-child was bom of a celestial
maid, her father having sickened and died — the first death
in the universe — shortly before she was bom. He had been
placed, as he had directed, on a burial scaffold by the Ancient-
Bodied One, grandmother to the child; and thither the girl-
child was accustomed to go and converse with the dead parent.
When she was grown, he directed her to take a certain journey
through the heaven realm of Chief He-Holds-the-Earth, whom
THE FOREST TRIBES
35
she was to marry, and beside whose lodge grew the great
heaven tree.^^ The maiden crosses a river on a maple-log,
avoids various tempters, and arrives at the lodge, where the
chief subjects her to the ordeals of stirring scalding mush
which spatters upon her naked body and of having her burns
licked by rasp-tongued dogs. Having successfully endured
these pains, he sends her, after three nights, to her own people,
with the gift of maize and venison. She returns to her chief,
and he, observing that she is pregnant, becomes ill with an
unjustified jealousy of the Fire-Dragon. She gives birth to
a daughter, Gusts-of-Wind; whereupon the chief receives
visits from the Elders of the Kinds, which dwell in heaven,
among them being the Deer, the Bear, the Beaver; Wind,
Daylight, Night, Star; the Squash, the Maize, the Bean; the
Turtle, the Otter, the Yellowhammer; Fire, Water, Medicine,
— patterns of the whole furniture of creation. Aurora Borealis
divines what is troubling his mind, and suggests the uprooting
of the heaven tree. This is done, and an abyss is disclosed,
looking down into a chaos of Wind and Thick Night — “the
aspect was green and nothing else in color,” says the Seneca
version. Through this opening the Chief of Heaven casts his
spouse and the child, who returns again into the body of her
mother, first providing her with maize and venison and a fag-
got of wood, while the Fire-Dragon wraps around her a great
ray of light.
Here ends the Upper World act of the drama. The name
of the woman-being who is cast down from heaven is, as we
know from the Jesuit Relations, Ataentsic or Ataensic,'^ who
is to become the great Earth Mother. The Chief of Heaven
is her spouse, — so that these two great actors in the world
drama are Earth and Sky respectively; while their first-born
is the Breath-of-Life.
The second act of the drama is set in the World Below.
The Onondaga myth continues:
“So now, v6rily, her body continued to fall. Her body was
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
36
falling some time before it emerged. Now she was surprised,
seemingly, that there was light below, of a blue color. She
looked and there seemed to be a lake at the spot toward which
she was falling. There was nowhere any earth. There she saw
many ducks on the lake where they, being waterfowl of all
their kinds, floated severally about. Without interruption the
body of the woman-being continued to fall.
“Now at that time the waterfowl called the Loon shouted,
saying: ‘Do ye look, a woman-being is coming in the depths of
the water, her body is floating up hither.’ They said: ‘Verily,
it is even so.’
“Now in a short time the waterfowl called Bittern said:
‘ It is true that ye believe that her body is floating up from the
depths of the water. Do ye, however, look upward.’ All
looked up, and all said: ‘Verily, it is true.’
“One of the persons said: ‘It seems, then, that there must
be land in the depths of the water.’ At that time the Loon
said:. ‘Moreover, let us first seek to find some one who will
be able to bear the earth on his back by means of the forehead
pack strap.’”
All the animals volunteer. Otter and Turtle attempt the
feat and fail; the Muskrat succeeds, placing the soil brought
up from below on the back of the Turtle. “Now at this time
the carapace began to grow and the earth with which they
had covered it became the Solid Land.” Upon this land
Ataentsic alights, her fall being broken by the wings of the
fowl which fly upward to meet her.^°
On the growing Earth Gusts-of-Wind is reborn, and comes
to maturity. She receives the visits of a nocturnal stranger,
who is none other than the ruler of the winds, and gives birth
to twins ^ — Sapling and Flint, the Yoskeha and Tawiscara
of the Relations^ — who show their enmity by a pre-natal
quarrel, and cause their mother’s death in being born. From
the body of her daughter Ataentsic fashions the sun and the
moon, though she does not raise them to the heavens. Sapling
THE FOREST TRIBES
37
she casts out, for Flint falsely persuades her that it is Sapling
who is responsible for their mother’s death.
The third act of the drama details the creative acts of Sap-
ling and Flint, and their enmities. Sapling (better known as
Yoskeha, though his most ancient title seems to be Teha-
ronhiawagon, He-Holds-the-Sky) is the demiurge and earth-
shaper, and the spirit of life and summer. Flint, or Tawiscara,
is an imitator and trickster, maker of malevolent beings, and
spirit of wintry forces, but the favourite of Ataentsic.®®
The act opens with the visit of Sapling to his father, the
WindrRuler, who gives him presents of bow and arrows and
of maize, symbolizing mastery over animal and vegetable food.
The preparation of the maize is his first feat, Ataentsic ren-
dering his work imperfect by casting ashes upon it: “The way
in which thou hast done this is not good,” says Sapling, “for
I desire that the man-beings shall be exceedingly happy, who
are about to dwell here on this earth.” Next he brings forth
the souls of the animal kinds, and moulds the traits of the dif-
ferent animals.^^ Flint, however, imprisons them in a cavern,
and, although Sapling succeeds in releasing most of them, some
remain behind to become transformed into the noxious crea-
tures of the underworld. Afterward, in a trial of strength.
Sapling overcomes the humpback Hadui, who is the cause of
disease and decrepitude, but from whom Sapling wins the
secret of medicine and of the ceremonial use of tobacco. The
giving of their courses to the Sun and the Moon, fashioned
from his mother’s head and body by Ataentsic, was his next
deed.^® The grandmother and Flint had concealed these bodies
and had left the earth in darkness ; Sapling, aided by four ani-
mals, typifying the Four Quarters, steals back the Sun, which
is passed from animal to animal (as in the Greek torch-race in
honour of Selene) when they are pursued by Ataentsic and
Flint. The creation of man, which Flint imitates only to pro-
duce monsters, and the banishment of Flint to the under-
world complete the creative drama.
38 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
“Moreover, it is said that this Sapling, in the manner in
which he has life, has this to befall him recurrently, that he
becomes old in body, and that when, in fact, his body becomes
ancient normally, he then retransforms his body in such wise
that he becomes a new man-being again and again recovers
his youth, so that one would think that he had just grown to
the size which a man-being customarily has when he reaches
the youth of man-beings, as manifested by the change of voice
at puberty. Moreover, it is so that continuously the orenda
immanent in his body — the orenda with which he suffuses
his person, the orenda which he projects or exhibits, through
which he is possessed of force and potency — is ever full, un-
diminished, and all-sufficient; and, in the next place, nothing
that is otkon or deadly, nor, in the next place, even the Great
Destroyer, otkon in itself and faceless, has any effect on him,
he being perfectly immune to its orenda; and, in the next place,
there is nothing that can bar his way or veil his faculties.”
In the Relation of 1636 Brebeuf says of the Hurons: “If
they see their fields verdant in the spring, if they reap good
and abundant harvests, and if their cabins are crammed with
ears of corn, they owe it to louskeha. I do not know what God
has in store for us this year; but . . . louskeha, it is reported
has been seen quite dejected, and thin as a skeleton, with a
poor ear of corn in his hand.”
II. ALGONQUIAN COSMOGONY^®
As compared with the Iroquoian cosmogony, that of the
Algonquian tribes is nebulous and confused: their gods are
less anthropomorphic, more prone to animal form; the order
of events is not so clearly defined. There is hardly a person-
age or event in the Iroquoian story that does not appear in
Algonquian myth, and indeed the Algonquians would seem
to have been the originators, or at least the earlier possessors,
of these stories; yet the same power for organization which
PLATE IX
Iroquois drawing of Stone Giants. After School-
craft, Indian Tribes^ part i, Plate LXXIIL The
Stone (JiantsS are related to such cosniogonical beings
as Flint (Tawiscara) and Chakekenapok (sec pp. 36,
41). They are generally malevolent in character.
See Note 38 (pp. 291-92),
THE FOREST TRIBES
39
is reflected in the Iroquoian Confederacy appears in the Iro-
quois’s more masterful assimilation and depiction of the cosmic
story which he seems to have borrowed from his Algonquian
neighbours.
The central personage of Algonquian myth is Manabozho,^^
the Great Hare (also known by many other names and variants,
as Nanibozho, Manabush, Michabo, Messou, Glooscap), who
is the incarnation of vital energy: creator or restorer of the
earth, the author of life, giver of animal food, lord of bird and
beast. Brinton, by a dubious etymology, would make the
original meaning of the name to be “the Great White One,”
identifying Manabozho with the creative light of day; but if
we remember that the Algonquians are, by their own tradi-
tion, sons of the frigid North,^^ where the hare is one of the
most prolific and staple of all food animals, and if we bear
in mind the universal tendency of men whose sustenance is
precarious to identify the source of life with their principal
source of food, it is no longer plausible to question the identi-
fication, which the Indians themselves make, of their great
demiurge with the Elder of the Hares, who is also the Elder
Brother of Man and of all life.'^*
With Manabozho is intimately associated his grandmother,
Nokomis, the Earth, and his younger brother, Chibiabos,
who himself is customarily in animal form (e. g., the Micmac
know the pair as Glooscap and the Marten; to the Montag-
nais they were Messou and the Lynx; to the Menominee,
Manabush and the Wolf).'*^ This younger brother is sometimes
represented as a twin; and it is not difficult to see in Noko-
mis, Manabozho, and Chibiabos the Algonquian prototypes
of the Huron Ataentsic, louskeha, and Tawiscara.
Various tales are told as to the origin of the Great Hare.
The Micmac declare that Glooscap was one of twins, who
quarrelled before being born; and that the second twin killed
the mother in his birth, in revenge for which Glooscap slew
him. The Menominee say: “The daughter of Nokomis, the
X— s
40
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Earth, is the mother of Manabush, who is also the Fire. The
Flint grew up out of Nokomis, and was alone. Then the Flint
made a bowl and dipped it into the earth; slowly the bowlful
of earth became blood, and it began to change its form. So
the blood was changed into Wabus, the Rabbit. The Rabbit
grew into human form, and in time became a man, and thus
was Manabush formed.” According to another version, the
daughter of Nokomis gave birth to twins, one of whom died,
as did the mother. Nokomis placed a wooden bowl (and we
must remember that this is a symbol of the heavens) over the
remaining child for its protection; upon removing the bowl,
she beheld a white rabbit with quivering ears: “0 my dear
little Rabbit,” she cried, “my Manabush!”
Other tribes tell how the Great Hare came to earth as a gift
from the Great Spirit. The Chippewa recognize, high over
all, Kitshi Manito, the Great Spirit, and next in rank Dzhe
Manito, the Good Spirit, whose servant is Manabozho. The
abode of all these is the Upper World. “When Minabozho,
the servant of Dzhe Manido, looked down upon the earth he
beheld human beings, the Anishinabeg, the ancestors of the
Ojibwa. They occupied the four quarters of the earth —
the northeast, the southeast, the southwest, and the north-
west. He saw how helpless they were, and desiring to give
them the means of warding off the diseases with which
they were constantly afflicted, and to provide them with
animals and plants to serve as food, Minabozho remained
thoughtfully hovering over the center of the earth, endeavor-
ing to devise some means of communicating with them.” Be-
neath Minabozho was a lake of waters, wherein he beheld an
Otter, which appeared at each of the cardinal points in suc-
cession and then approached the centre, where Minabozho de-
scended (upon an island) to meet it and where he instructed it
in the mysteries of the Midewiwin, the sacred Medicine Society.
According to the Potawatomi, also, the Great Hare appears
as the founder of a sacred mystery and the giver of medicine.
-
THE FOREST TRIBES
41
The story is recorded by Father De Smet: “A great manitou
came on earth, and chose a wife from among the children of
men. He had four sons at a birth; the first-born was called
Nanaboojoo, the friend of the human race, the mediator be-
tween man and the Great Spirit; the second was named
Chipiapoos, the man of the dead, who presides over the coun-
try of the souls; the third, Wabasso, as soon as he saw the
light, fled toward the north where he was changed into a white
rabbit, and under that name is considered there as a great
manitou; the fourth was Chakekenapok, the man of flint, or
fire-stone. In coming into the world he caused the death of
his mother.” The tale goes on to tell the deeds of Nanaboojoo.
(l) To avenge his mother he pursues Chakekenapok and slays
him: “all fragments broken from the body of this man of
stone then grew up into large rocks; his entrails were changed
into vines of every species, and took deep root in all the for-
ests; the flintstones scattered around the earth indicate where
the different combats took place.”®® (2) Chipiapoos, the
beloved brother of Nanaboojoo, venturing one day upon the
ice, was dragged to the bottom by malignant manitos, where-
upon Nanaboojoo hurled multitudes of these beings into the
deepest abyss. For six years he mourned Chipiapoos, but at
the end of that time four of the oldest and wisest of the mani-
tos, by their medicine, healed him of his grief. “The mani-
tous brought back the lost Chipiapoos, but it was forbidden
him to enter the lodge; he received, through a chink, a burning
coal, and was ordered to go and preside over the region of
souls, and there, for the happiness of his uncles and aunts,
that is, for all men and women, who should repair thither,
kindle with this coal a fire which should never be extinguished.”
Nanaboojoo then initiated all his family into the mysteries
of the medicine which the manitos had brought. (3) After-
ward Nanaboojoo created the animals, put the earth, roots,
and herbs in charge of his grandmother, and placed at the four
cardinal points the spirits that control the seasons and the
42
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
heavenly bodies, while in the clouds he set the Thunderbirds,
his intermediaries.^^
III. THE DELUGE«
The second of these episodes of the Potawatomi legend, in
its more universal form, is the tale identified by the Jesuit
Fathers as a reminiscence of the Biblical Deluge. In his
Relation of 1633, Le Jeune gives the Montagnais version:
‘'They say that there is one named Messou, who restored
the world when It was lost in the waters. . . . This Messou,
going hunting with lynxes, instead of dogs, was warned that it
would be dangerous for his lynxes (which he called his brothers)
in a certain lake near the place where he was. One day as
he was hunting an elk, his lynxes gave it chase even into the
lake; and when they reached the middle of it, they were sub-
merged in an instant. When he arrived there and sought his
brothers everywhere, a bird told him that it had seen them at
the bottom of the lake, and that certain animals or monsters
held them there; but immediately the lake overflowed, and
increased so prodigiously that it inundated and drowned the
whole earth. The Messou, very much astonished, gave up all
thought of his lynxes, to meditate on creating the world anew.
He sent a raven to find a small piece of earth with which to
build up another world. The raven was unable to find any,
everything being covered with water. He made an otter dive
down, but the depth of the water prevented it from going to
the bottom. At last a muskrat descended, and brought
back some earth. With this bit of earth, he restored every-
thing to its condition. He remade the trunks of the trees,
and shot arrows against them, which were changed into
branches. It would be a long story to recount how he re-
established everything; how he took vengeance on the mon-
sters that had taken his hunters, transforming himself into a
thousand kinds of animals to circumvent them. In short,
THE FOREST TRIBES
43
the great Restorer, having married a little muskrat, had chil-
dren who repeopled the world.”
The Menominee divide the story. They tell how Moqwaio,
the Wolf, brother of Manabush, was pulled beneath the ice
of a lake by the malignant Anamaqkiu and drowned; how
Manabush mourned four days, and on the fifth day met the
shade of his brother, whom he then sent to the place of the
setting sun to have care of the dead, and to build there a
fire to guide them thither. The account of the deluge, how-
ever, comes in connexion with the conflict of the Thunderers,
under the direction of Manabush who is bent on avenging his
brother, and the Anamaqkiu, led by two Bear chiefs. Mana-
bush, by guile, succeeded in slaying the Bears, whereupon the
Anamaqkiu pursued him with a great flood. He ascended a
mountain, and then to the top of a gigantic pine; and as the
waters increased he caused this tree to grow to twice , its height.
Four times the pine doubled in altitude, but still the flood
rose to the armpits of Manabush, when the Great Spirit made
the deluge to cease. Manabush causes the Otter, the Beaver,
the Mink, and the Muskrat, in turn, to dive in search of a
grain of earth with which he can restore the world. The first
three rise to the top, belly uppermost, dead; but the Muskrat
succeeds, and the earth is created anew.
A third version of the deluge-myth tells how the Great Hare,
with the other animals, was on a raft in the midst of the waters.
Nothing could be seen save waterfowl. The Beaver dived,
seeking a grain of soil; for the Great Hare assured the ani-
mals that with even one grain he could create land. Neverthe-
less, almost dead, the Beaver returned unsuccessful. Then the
Muskrat tried, and he was gone nearly a whole day. When he
reappeared, apparently dead, his four feet were tight-clenched;
but in one of them was a single grain of sand, and from this
the earth was made, in the form of a mountain surrounded by
water, the height ever increasing, even to this day, as the
Great Hare courses around it.
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
44
It is obvious that in this chaotic flood we have an Indian
equivalent of “the waters below the firmament” in the midst
of which, according to the Hebrew genesis, the dry land
appeared. And the Indians, like the Semites, conceived the
world to be a mountain, rising from the waste of cosmic
waters, and arched by the celestial dome. “They believe,”
says the author of the Relation of 1637, “that the earth is
entirely flat, and that its ends are cut off perpendicularly;
that souls go away to the end which is at the setting Sun
and that they build their cabins upon the edge of the great
precipice which the earth forms, at the base of which there
is nothing but water.”
IV. THE SLAYING OF THE DRAGON
The deeds of the Great Hare include many contests with
the giants, cannibals, and witches who people Algonquian
folk-tales. In these he displays adept powers as a trickster
and master of wile, as well as a stout warrior. The conflict with
Flint turns, as in the Iroquois tradition, upon a tricky dis-
covery of what substance is deadly to the Fire-Stone Man:
Flint asks the Hare what can hurt him; he replies, the cat’s-
tail, or featherdown, or something of the sort, and, in turn,
puts the question to Flint, who truthfully answers, “the horn
of the stag”; and it is with stag’s horn that the Hare fractures
and flakes his body — a mythic reminiscence, we may suppose,
of the great primitive industry of flint-flaking by aid of a
horn implement.
The great feat of the Hare as a slayer, however, was his
destruction of the monstrous Fish or Snake which oppressed
and devoured men and animals. This creature like the Teu-
tonic Grendel was a water monster, and ruler of the Powers of
the Deep.® Sometimes, as in the Iroquoian myth, he is a
horned serpent; commonly, among the Algonquians, he is a
great fish — the sturgeon which swallows Hiawatha. The
PLATE X
Onondaga wampum belt believed to commemorate
the formation of a league (possibly the Iroquois Con-
federacy) or an early treaty with the Thirteen Colonies
(there are thirteen figures of men). After JRBEj
p. 252.
THE FOREST TRIBES 45
Menominee tell how the people were greatly distressed by
Mashenomak, the aquatic monster who devoured fishermen.
Manabush allows himself to be swallowed by the gigantic
creature, inside of which he finds his brothers, the Bear, the
Deer, the Raven, the Pine-Squirrel, and many others. They
all hold a war-dance in the monster’s maw, and when Mana-
bush circles past the heart he thrusts his knife into it, causing
Mashenomak to have a convulsion; finally, he lies motionless,
and Manabush cuts his way through to the day. In another
version, Misikinebik, the monster who has destroyed the
brother of Manabush, is slain by the hero in the same fashion.
The Micmac, who live beside the sea, make the great fish to
be a whale, who is a servant rather than a foe of Glooscap,
and upon whose back he is carried when he goes in search of
his stolen brother and grandmother. The Clams (surely tame
substitutes for water demons!) sing to the Whale to drown
Glooscap; but she fails to understand them, and is beached
through his trickery. “Alas, my grandchild!” she lamented,
“you have been my death. I can never get out of this.”
“Never you mind, Noogumee,” said Glooscap, “I’ll set you
right.” And with a push he sends her far out to sea. It is
evident that the legend has passed through a long descent!
In his war against the underwater manitos, the assistants
of the Great Hare are the Thunderbirds. In the Iroquoian
version it is the Thunderboy who is swallowed by the horned
water-snake, from whose maw he is rescued by Thunder and
his warriors — as in the Hiawatha story it is the gulls who re-
lease the prisoner from the sturgeon’s belly in which he has
been engulfed as a consequence of his rash ambition to con-
quer the ruler of the depths. The myth has many variants
however, and while it may sometimes represent the storm
goading to fury the man-devouring waters, in a more uni-
versal mode it would seem to be but an American version of
the world-old conception of the conquest of the watery Chaos
by the creative genius of Light.
46
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
V. THE THEFT OF FIRE«
The conquest of fire by man deservedly ranks among the
most impressive of all race-memories, for perhaps no one nat-
ural agency has done so much to exalt the potency of the human
race as has that which gives us heat and light and power.
Mythic imagination everywhere ascribes a divine origin to
fire; the heaven, or some other remote region over which
guardian powers preside, is the source of this great agency,
from which — as in the Greek tale of Prometheus — it is
“stolen in the pith” and borne among men to alleviate their
estate.
In Algonquian myth the Great Hare, here as elsewhere, is
“the benefactor of mankind.” A Menominee version begins
quite naively; “Manabush, when he was still a youth, once
said to his grandmother Nokomis, ‘Grandmother, it is cold
here and we have no fire; let me go to get some.’” Nokomis
endeavours to dissuade him, but the young hero, in his canoe,
starts eastward across the waters to an island where dwells
the old man who has fire. “This old man had two daughters,
who, when they emerged from the sacred wigwam, saw a little
Rabbit, wet and cold, and carefully taking it up they carried
it into the sacred wigwam, where they set it down near the
fire to warm.” When the watchers are occupied, the Rabbit
seizes a burning brand and scurries to his canoe, pursued by
the old man and his daughters. “The velocity of the canoe
caused such a current of air that the brand began to burn
fiercely”; and thus fire is brought to Nokomis. “The Thun-
derers received the fire from Nokomis, and have had the care
of it ever since.”
It is not difficult to see in the old man across the Eastern
waters a Sun-God, nor in the sacred wigwam with its maiden
watchers a temple of fire with its Vestals. “Fire,” says De
Smet, “is, in all the Indian tribes that I have known, an em-
blem of happiness or good fortune.” It is the emblem of life,
THE FOREST TRIBES
47
too. Said a Chippewa prophet: “The fire must never be suf-
fered to go out in your lodge. Summer and winter, day and
night, in storm or when it is calm, you must remember that
the life in your body and the fire in your lodge are the same
and of the same date. If you suffer your fire to be extinguished,
at that moment your life will be at its end.” Even in the
other world, fire is the source of life; there Chibiabos keeps the
sacred fire that lights the dead thither; and, says De Smet,
“ to see a fire rising mysteriously, in their dreams or otherwise,
is the symbol of the passage of a soul into the other world.”
He narrates, in this connexion, the fine Chippewa legend of
a chief, arrow-stricken in the moment of victory, whose body
was left, in all its war-panoply, facing the direction of the
enemy’s retreat. On the long homeward return of the war-
party, the chief’s spirit accompanies the warriors and tries to
assure them that he is not dead, but present with them;
even when the home village is reached and he hears his deeds
lauded, he is unable to make his presence known; he cannot
console his mourning father; his mother will not dress his
wounds; and when he shouts in the ear of his wife, “I am
thirsty! I am hungry!” she hears only a vague rumbling.
Then he remembers having heard how the soul sometimes for-
sakes its body, and he retraces the long journey to the field of
battle. As he nears it, a fire stands directly in his path. He
changes his course, but the fire moves as he does; he goes to
the right, to the left, but the spirit-fire still bars his way. At
last, in desperate resolution, he cries out: “I also, I am a spirit;
I am seeking to return to my body; I will accomplish my de-
sign. Thou wilt purify me, but thou shalt not hinder the
realization of my project. I have always conquered my ene-
mies, notwithstanding the greatest obstacles. This day I will
triumph over thee, Spirit of Fire!” With an intense effort he
darts through the mysterious flame, and his body, to which
the soul is once more united, awakens from its long trance on
the field of battle.*®
48
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
VI. SUN-MYTHS
The Old Man and the Maids from whom Manabush steals
the fire belong to the Wabanunaqsiwok, the Dawn-People,
who dress in red; and, should a man or a woman dream of the
Dawn-People, he or she must forthwith prepare a ball game.
This, it is said, was instituted by Manabush in celebration of
his victory over the malignant manitos; he made Kineun,
the Golden Eagle and Chief of the Thunderers, leader of one
side, and Owasse, the Bear and Chief of the Underground
People, leader of the other; “ but the Thunderers always win
the game, even though the sky be darkened by cloud and rain.^®
It is easy to recognize in the ball, which bears the colours
of the East and the West, red and yellow, a symbol of the
Sun; and in this myth (as in the Iroquois legend of the rape
of the Sun) “ to see a story of the ceaseless conflict of Day
and Night, with Day the eternal conqueror. Sun-symbolism,
also, seems to underlie the tale of Ball-Carrier, i® the boy who
was lured away by an old witch who possessed a magic ball
that returned of itself to her wigwam when a child pursued it,
and who was sent by her in search of the gold (Sunlight) and
the magic bridge (Rainbow) in the lodge of a giant beyond
the waters. Ball-Carrier, who is a kind of Indian Jack the
Giant-Killer, steals the gold and the bridge, and after many
amazing adventures and transformations returns to his home.
A similar, perhaps identical, character is the Tchakabech of
Le Jeune’s Relation of 1637.^ Tchakabech is a Dwarf, whose
parents have been devoured by a Bear (the Underworld Chief)
and a Great Hare, the Genius of Light. He decided to ascend
to the Sky and climbed upward on a tree, which grew as he
breathed upon it, until he reached the heavens, where he found
the loveliest country in the world. He returned to the lower
world, building lodges at intervals in the branches of the
tree, and induced his sister to mount with him to the Sky;
but the little child of the sister broke off the end of the tree,
THE FOREST TRIBES
49
just low enough so that no one could follow them to their des-
tination. Tchakabech snared the Sun in a net; during its cap-
tivity there was no day below on earth; but by the aid of a
mouse who sawed the strands with his sharp teeth, he was at
last able to release the Sun and restore the day. In the Menom-
inee version recorded by Hoffman, the snare is made by a
noose of the sister’s hair, and the Sun is set free by the un-
aided efforts of the Mouse.
In these shifting stories we see the image of changing Na-
ture — Day and Night, Sunlight and Darkness, the Heavens
above and the Earth beneath, coupled with a vague appre-
hension of the Life that Is in all things, and a dim effort to
grasp the origins of the world.
VII. THE VILLAGE OF SOULS
The Great Hare, the Algonquians say, departed, after his
labours, to the far West, where he dwells in the Village of
Souls with his Grandmother and his Brother. Perrot tells of
an Indian who had wandered far from his own country, en-
countering a man so tall that he could not descry his head.
The trembling hunter hid himself, but the giant said: “My
son, why art thou afraid? I am the Great Hare, he who has
caused thee and many others to be born from the dead bodies
of various animals. Now I will give thee a companion.” Ac-
cordingly, he bestowed a wife on the man, and then continued,
“Thou, man, shalt hunt, and make canoes, and do all things
that a man must do; and thou, woman, shalt do the cooking
for thy husband, make his shoes, dress the skins of animals,
sew, and perform all the tasks that are proper for a woman.”
Le Jeune relates another tale: how “a certain savage had re-
ceived from Messou the gift of immortality in a little package,
with a strict injunction not to open it; while he kept it closed
he was immortal, but his wife, being curious and incredulous,
wished to see what was inside this present; and having opened
50 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
it, it all flew away, and since then the savages have been
subject to death.” Thus, in the New World as in the Old,
woman’s curiosity is mankind’s bane.^®
-
A story which has many versions is that of the journey of
a group of men — sometimes four, sometimes seven — to the
abode of the Great Hare. He receives them courteously,
entertains them after their long journey, and asks each his
wish. One asks for skill in war, another for success in hunting,
another for fame, another for love, and the Master of Life
assures each of the granting of his request. But there is
one man yet to be heard from, and his plea is for long life;
whereupon he is transformed into a tree or, better, a stone:
“You shall have your wish; here you shall always remain for
future generations to look upon,” says the Hare. An odd sequel
to this story is that the returning warriors And their journey
very short, or again that what has seemed only a brief period
turns out to have been a stay of years — shifts of time which
indicate that their travel has led them into the spirit-world.
In another tale, this time from the Huron country, the fate-
ful journey to the Village of Souls is undertaken by a man who
has lost his beloved sister. Her spirit appears to him from time
to time as he travels, but he is unable to touch her. At last,
after crossing an almost impassable river, he comes to the
abode of one who directs him to the dancing-house of the spir-
its. There he is told to seize his sister’s soul, imprison it in a
pumpkin, and, thus secured, to take it back to the land of the
living, where he will be able to reanimate it, provided that,
during the ceremony, no one raises an eye to observe. This he
does, and he feels the life returning to his sister’s body, but at
the last moment a curious person ventures to look, and the
returning life flees away.®* Here is the tale of Orpheus and
Eurydice.
In both Algonquian and Iroquoian myth the path to the
Village of Souls is guarded by dread watchers, ready to cast
into the abyss beneath those whose wickedness has given them
THE FOREST TRIBES 51
into the power of these guardians — for this path they find in
the Milky Way, whose Indian name is the Pathway of Souls.®
VIII. HIAWATHA^
Tales recounting the deeds of Manabozho, collected and
published by Schoolcraft, as the “myth of Hiawatha,” were
the primary materials from which Longfellow drew for his
Song of Hiawatha. The fall of Nokomis from the sky; Hiawa-
tha’s journey to his father, the West Wind; the gift of maize,
in the legend of Mondamin;®® the conflict with the great Stur-
geon, by which Hiawatha was swallowed; the rape and res-
toration of Chibiabos; the pursuit of the storm-sprite, Pau-
Puk-Keewis; and the conflict of the upper and underworld
powers, are all elements in the cosmogonic myths of the Al-
gonquian tribes.
Quite another personage is the actual Hiawatha of Iroquoian
tradition, certain of whose deeds and traits are incorporated
in the poet’s tale. Hiawatha was an Onondaga chieftain whose
active years fell in the latter half of the sixteenth century.
At that time the Iroquoian tribes of central New York were
at constant war with one another and with their Algonquian
neighbours, and Hiawatha conceived the great idea of a union
which should ensure a universal peace. It was no ordinary
confederacy that he planned, but an intertribal government
whose affairs should be directed and whose disputes should be
settled by a federal council containing representatives from each
nation. This grandiose dream of a vast and peaceful Indian
nation was never realized; but it was due to Hiawatha that the
Iroquoian confederacy was formed, by means of which these
tribes became the overlords of the forest region from the
Connecticut to the Mississippi and from the St. Lawrence to
the Susquehanna.
This great result was not, however, easily attained. The
Iroquois preserve legends of Hiawatha’s trials; how he was
52
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
opposed among his own people by the magician and war-chief
Atotarho; how his only daughter was slain at a council of
the tribe by a great white bird, summoned, it is said, by the
vengeful magician, which dashed downward from the skies and
struck the maiden to earth; how Hiawatha then sadly departed
from the people whom he had sought to benefit, and came to
the villages of the Oneida in a white canoe, which moved with-
out human aid. It was here that he made the acquaintance
of the chief Dekanawida, who lent a willing ear to the apostle
of peace, and who was to become the great lawgiver of the
league. With the aid of this chieftain, Hiawatha’s plan was
carried to the Mohawk and Cayuga tribes, and once again to
the Onondaga, where, it is told, Hiawatha and Dekanawida
finally won the consent of Atotarho to the confederation.
Morgan says, of Atotarho, that tradition “ represents his head
as covered with tangled serpents, and his look, when angry,
as so terrible that whoever looked upon him fell dead. It
relates that when the League was formed, the snakes were
combed out of his hair by a Mohawk sachem, who was
hence named Hayowentha, ‘the man who combs,’” — which is
doubtless a parable for the final conversion of the great war-
chief by the mighty orator.®® After the union had been per-
fected, tradition tells how Hiawatha departed for the land of
the sunset, sailing across the great lake in his magic canoe.
The Iroquois raised him in memory to the status of a demigod.
In these tales of the man who created a nation from a medley
of tribes, we pass from the nature-myth to the plane of civil-
ization in which the culture hero appears. Hiawatha is an
historical personage invested with semi-divinity because of his
great achievements for his fellow-men. Such an apotheosis is
inevitable wherever, in the human race, the dream of peace
out of men’s divisions creates their more splendid unities.
PLATE XI
Iroquois drawing of Atotarho (i), receiving two
Mohawk chieftains, perhaps Dekanawida (2) and
Hiawatha (3). After Schoolcraft, Indian TribeSy part i,
Plate LXX.
CHAPTER IV
THE GULF REGION
I. TRIBES AND LANDS
T he states bordering the northern shores of the Gulf
of Mexico — the “Cotton Belt” — form a thoroughly
characteristic physiographic region. Low-lying and deeply
alluvial, abundantly watered both by rains and streams, and
blessed with a warm, equable climate, this district is the
natural support of a teeming life. At the time of its discovery
it was inhabited by completely individuated peoples. While
there were some intrusions of fragmentary representatives from
the great stocks of other regional centres — Iroquoian and
Siouan tribes from the north, and Arawak from the Bahamas
— the Gulf-State lands were mainly in the possession of lin-
guistic stocks not found elsewhere, and, therefore, to be re-
garded as aboriginals of the soil.
Of these stocks by far the largest and most important was
the Muskhogean, occupying the greater part of what is now
Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, as well as a large portion
of Tennessee, and including among its chief tribes the Choc-
taw, Chickasaw, Creek (or Muskhogee), Alabama, Apalachee,
and Seminole Indians. Probably the interesting Natchez of
northern Louisiana were an offshoot of the same stock. Two
other stocks or families of great territorial extent were the
Timuquanan tribes, occupying the major portion of the Flori-
dan peninsula, and the Caddoan tribes of Louisiana, Texas,
Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Of the beliefs of few aboriginal
peoples of North America is less known than of the Timu-
quanan Indians of Florida, so early and so entirely were they
54 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
destroyed; while the southern Caddo, by habit and thought,
are most properly to be regarded as a regional division of the
Great Plains tribes. Minor stocks are the Uchean of South
Carolina, early assimilated with the Muskhogean, and the
highly localized groups of the Louisiana and Texas littoral,
concerning whom our knowledge is slight. In the whole Gulf
region, it is the institutions and thought of the Muskhogeans
— with the culturally afElIated Cherokee — that are of domi-
nant importance and interest.
Historically, the Muskhogean tribes, in company with the
Cherokee of the Appalachian Mountain region, who were a
southern branch of the Iroquoian stock, form a group hardly
less important than the Confederacy of the north. The “Five
Civilized Tribes” of the Indian Territory, so recognized by
the United States Government, comprise the Cherokee, Chick-
asaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes, the major por-
tion of whom removed from their eastern lands between the
years 1832 and 1835 and established themselves in the Terri-
tory under treaty. In a series of patents to the several nations
of this group, given by the United States (1838 to the Chero-
kee, 1842 to the Choctaw, from whom the Chickasaw derived
their title, and 1852 to the Creek, who. In turn, conveyed
rights to the Seminole), these tribes received inalienable
titles to the lands into which they immigrated; and they ad-
vanced so rapidly in the direction of self-government and
stable organization, building towns, and encouraging and
developing industry, that they came to be known as “the five
civilized tribes,” in contrast to their less progressive brethren
of other stocks. The separate government of these tribes,
modelled upon that of the United States, but having only a
treaty relation with it, continued until, as the result of the
labours of a commission appointed by the United States Gov-
ernment, tribal rule was abolished. Accordingly, in 1906 and
1907, the Indians became citizens of the United States, and
their territories part of the state of Oklahoma.
THE GULF REGION
55
IL SUN-WORSHIP
It is not extraordinary that the Gulf-State region should
show throughout a predominance of solar worship. Every-
where in America the sun was one of the chief deities, and, in
general, his relative importance in an Indian pantheon is a
measure of civilization. In the forest and plains regions he is
likely to be subordinated to a still loftier sky-god, whose min-
ister he is; but as we go southward we find the sun assuming
the royal prerogative of the celestial universe, and advancing
to a place of supremacy among the world-powers.. Possibly,
this is in part due to the greater intensity of the southern sun,
but a more likely reason is the relative advance in agricul-
ture made by the southerly tribes. Hunting peoples are only
vaguely dependent upon the yearly course of the sun for their
food-supply, and hence they are only slightly observant of it.
Agricultural peoples are directly and insistently followers of
the sun’s movements; the solar calendar is the key to their
life; and consequently it is among them that the pre-eminence
of solar worship early appears. Proficiency in agriculture is a
mark of the Muskhogean and other southern Indians, and it
is to be expected that among them the sun will have become
an important world-power.
It is interesting to find that the Cherokee, an Iroquoian
tribe, assimilated their beliefs to the southern type. There is
little that is metaphysical in their pantheon. Above a horde of
animal-powers and fantastic sprites appear the great spirits
of the elements. Water, Fire, and the Sun, the chief of all.
The sun is called Unelanuhi, “the Apportioner,” in obvious
reference to its position as ruler of the year. Curiously enough,
the Cherokee sun is not a masculine, but, like the Eskimo sun,
a feminine being. Indeed, the Cherokee tell the selfsame story
which the Eskimo recount concerning the illicit relations of the
sun-girl and her moon-brother: how the unknown lover visited
the sun-girl every month, how she rubbed his face with ashes
X — 6
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
S6
that she might recognize him, and how, when discovered, “he
was so much ashamed to have her know it that he kept as
far away as he could at the other end of the sky; ever since he
tries to keep a long way behind the sun, and when he does some-
times have to come near her in the west he makes himself as
thin as a ribbon so that he can hardly be seen.” The Chero-
kee myth of the raising of the sun by the animal elders, hand-
breadth by handbreadth, until it was just under the sky-arch,
seven handbreadths high, is evidently akin to the similar legend
of the Navaho of the South-West; while the story of the two
boys who journeyed to the Sunrise, and the Cherokee version
of the myth of Prometheus — in which, after various other
animals have failed in their efforts to snatch fire from the sacred
sycamore in which Thunder had concealed it, the Water-Spider
succeeds — are both doublets of tales common in the far West.
Thus legends from all parts of the continent are gathered in
the one locality.
Like the Cherokee, the Yuchi Indians, who were closely
associated with the Creek politically, regarded the sun as a
female. She was the ancestress of the human race, or, accord-
ing to another story, the Yuchi sprang from the blood trickling
from the head of a wizard who was decapitated when he at-
tempted to kill the sun at its rising — a tale in which the head
would seem to be merely a doublet of the sun itself. Among
the Muskhogean tribes generally the sun-cult seems to have
been closely associated with fire-making festivals and fire-tem-
ples, in forms strikingly like those of the Incas of Peru. Per-
haps the earliest account is that preserved, with respect to
the Natchez, by Lafitau, in his Mesurs des sauvages ameri-
quains, i. 167-68:
“In Louisiana the Natchez have a temple wherein without
cessation watch is kept of the perpetual fire, of which great
care is taken that it be never extinguished. Three pointed
sticks suffice to maintain it, which number is never either in-
creased or diminished — which seems to indicate some mys-
PLATE XII
Florida Indians offering a stag to the Sun. The
drawing is from Picart {Ceremonies and religious CuS'-
toms of the various Nations of the known IV or Id ^ Lon-
don, 1733-39, iii, Plate LXXIV [lower]), and
represents a seventeenth century European conception
of an American Indian rite. The pole is a symbol
in the sun-worship of many Plains and Southern
Indians.
THE GULF REGION
57
tery. As they burn, they are advanced into the fire, until It
becomes necessary to substitute others. It is in this temple that
the bodies of their chiefs and their families are deposited. The
chief goes every day at certain hours to the entrance of the
temple, where, bending low and extending his arms in the
form of a cross, he mutters confusedly without pronouncing
any distinct word; this is the token of duty which he renders
to the Sun as the author of his being. His subjects observe
the same ceremony with respect to him and with respect to
all the princes of his blood, whenever they speak to them,
honouring In them, by this external sign of respect, the Sun
from which they believe them to be descended. ... It is
singular that, while the huts of the Natchez are round, their
temple is long — quite the opposite of those of Vesta. On the
roof at its two extremities are to be seen two images of eagles,
a bird consecrated to the Sun among the Orientals as it was to
Jupiter in all the Occident.
“The Oumas and some peoples of Virginia and of Florida
also have temples and almost the same religious observances.
Those of Virginia have even an Idol which they name Oki or
Kiousa, which keeps watch of the dead. I have heard say,
moreover, that the Oumas, since the arrival of the French who
profaned their temple, have allowed It to fall into ruin and
have not taken the trouble to restore it.”
III. THE NEW MAIZE®*
The most famous and interesting ceremony of the Mus-
khogean tribes is that which has come to be known in English
as “the Busk” (a corruption of the Creek puskita, meaning
“fast”). This was a celebration at the time of the first ma-
turing of the maize, in July or August, according to locality,
though it had the deeper significance of a New Year’s feast,
and hence of the rejuvenation of all life.
In the Creek towns, the Busk was held in the “great house,”
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
S8
which consisted of four rectangular lodges, each divided into
three compartments, and all open-faced toward a central
square, or plaza, which they served to bound. The lodges were
fitted with banks of seats, and each compartment was assigned
to its own class of men. The place of honour (in some towns at
least) was the western lodge, open to the morning sun, where
was the seat of the head chief. In the centre of the square was
kept burning a fire, made from four logs oriented to the four
cardinal points. The structure is highly suggestive of a kind of
temple of the year, the central fire being the symbol of the sun
and of the four-square universe, and the twelve compartments
of the lodges perhaps indicative of the year’s lunations. Al-
though the Busk was not a festival of the summer solstice, it
came, none the less, at the season of the hottest sun, and so
marked a natural change in the year.
The Busk occupies four days in the lesser towns, eight in the
greater; and the ceremony seems to have four significant parts,
the eight-day form being only a lengthening of the performance.
On the first day, all the fires of the village having been pre-
viously extinguished, a new fire is kindled by friction, and fed
by the four logs oriented to the cardinal points. Into this fire
is cast a first-fruits’ offering, consisting of four ears of the newly
ripened maize and four branches of the cassine shrub. Dances
and purificatory ceremonies occupy the day. On the second
day the women prepare new maize for the coming feast, while
the warriors purge themselves with “war physic,” and bathe
in running water. The third day is apparently a time of vigil
for the older men, while the younger men hunt in preparation
for the coming feast. During these preliminary days the sexes
are tabu to one another, and all fast. The festival ends with
a feast and merry-making, accompanied by certain curious
ceremonies, such as the brewing of medicine from a great vari-
ety of plants, offerings of tobacco to the cardinal points, and a
significant rite, described as follows:
“At the miko’s cabin a cane having two white feathers on its
THE GULF REGION
59
end is stuck out. At the moment when the sun sets, a man of
the fish gens takes it down, and walks, followed by all spec-
tators, toward the river. Having gone half way, he utters the
death-whoop, and repeats it four times before he reaches the
water’s edge. After the crowd has thickly congregated at the
bank, each person places a grain of ‘old man’s tobacco’ on
the head and others in each ear. Then, at a signal repeated
four times, they throw some of it into the river, and every
man, at a like signal, plunges into the water to pick up four
stones from the bottom. With these they cross themselves on
their breasts four times, each time throwing one of the stones
back into the river and uttering the death-whoop. Then they
wash themselves, take up the cane with the feathers, return
to the great house, where they stick it up, then walk through
the town visiting.”
-
In the opening ceremony (according to one authority) the
fire-maker is said to converse with “the Master of Breath.”
Doubtless the cane tipped with white feathers is (as white
feathers are elsewhere) a symbol of the breath of life, and the
rite at the riverbank is thus to be interpreted as the death of
the year throughout the world’s quarters.
That the Indians regarded the Busk as a period of momen-
tous change is clear from its attendant social consequences.
The women burned or otherwise destroyed old vessels, mats,
and the like, replacing them with new and unused ones; the
town was cleansed; and all crimes, except murder, were for-
given. The new fire was the symbol of the new life of the
new year, whose food was now for the first time taken;
while the fasting and purgation were purificatory rites to
prepare men for new undertakings. The usual date for the
ceremony was in July or August, though it varied from town
to town with the ripening of the maize. Ceremonies similar
to the Creek Busk, though less elaborate, were observed by
the Chickasaw, Seminole, and, doubtless, by other Muskho-
gean tribes.
6o
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
IV. COSMOGONIES «
The Gulf States, representing a region into which tribes
from both the north and the west had pressed, naturally show
diverse and contradictory conceptions, even among neighbour-
ing tribes. Perhaps most interesting is the contrast of cos-
mogonic ideas. The Forest tribes of the north commonly find
the prototype of the created world in a heaven above the
heavens, whose floor is the visible Armament; the tribes of the
South-West very generally regard the habitable earth as an
upper storey into which the ancestors of man ascended from
their pristine underground abodes. Both of these types of cos-
mogony are to be found in the Gulf region.
Naturally the Cherokee share with their Iroquoian cousins
the belief in an original upper world, though their version of
the origin of things is by no means as rich and complicated as
the Iroquois account. “The earth,” they say, “is a great island
floating in a sea, and suspended at each of the four cardinal
points by a cord hanging down from the sky vault, which is
of solid rock. When the world grows old and worn out, the
people will die and the cords will break and let the earth sink
down into the ocean, and all will be water again.” Originally
the animals were crowded into the sky-world; everything was
flood below. The Water-Beetle was sent on an exploration,
and after darting about on the surface of the waters and find-
ing no rest, it dived to the depths, whence it brought up a bit
of mud, from which Earth developed by accretion.^® “When
the earth was dry and the animals came down, it was still
dark, so they got the sun and set it in a track to go every day
across the island from east to west, just overhead. It was too
hot this way, and Tsiskagili, the Red Crayfish, had his shell
scorched a bright red, so that his meat was spoiled; and the
Cherokee do not eat it. The conjurers put the sun another
handbreadth higher in the air, but it was still too hot. They
raised it another time, and another, until it was seven hand-
THE GULF REGION
6i
breadths high and just under the sky arch. Then it was right,
and they left it so. This Is why the conjurers call the highest
place ‘the seventh height,’ because it Is seven handbreadths
above the earth. Every day the sun goes along under this arch,
and returns at night on the upper side to the starting place.” ^
The primeval sky-world and the chaos of waters, the episode
of the diving for earth, and the descent of life from heaven all
indicate a northern origin; but there are many features of this
myth suggestive of the far South-West, such as the crowding
of the animals in their original home, the seven heights of
heaven, and the raising of the sun. Furthermore, the Cherokee
myth continues with an obvious addition of south-western
ideas: “There is another world under this, and It is like ours
in everything — animals, plants, and people — save that the
seasons are different. The streams that come down from
the mountains are the trails by which we reach this under-
world, and the springs at their heads are the doorways by
which we enter it, but to do this one must fast and go to water
and have one of the underground people for a guide. We
know that the seasons in the underworld are different from
ours, because the water in the springs is always warmer in
winter and cooler in summer than the outer air.”
Among other Cherokee myths having to do with the begin-
nings of things is a legend of the theft of fire — a tale widely
distributed throughout America. The world was cold, says
the myth, until the Thunders sent their lightnings to implant
fire in the heart of a sycamore, which grew upon an island.
The animals beheld the smoke and determined to obtain the fire
to warm the world. First the birds attempted the feat, Raven
and Screech Owl and Horned Owl and Hooting Owl, but came
away only with scorched feathers or blinking eyes. Next the
snakes. Black Racer and Blacksnake, in succession swam
through the waters to the Island, but succeeded only in black-
ening their own skins. Finally, Water-Spider spun a thread
from her body and wove it into a tusti bowl which she fastened
6z
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
on her back and in which she succeeded in bringing home a
live coal.®^ Game and Corn came into the world through the
activities of two bo7s, one the son and one the foster-son of
old man Lucky Hunter and his wife Corn. The boys followed
their father into the woods, saw him open the rock entrance
of the great cave in which the animals were confined, and after-
ward in mischief loosed all the animals, to people the world
with game.^^ Their mother Corn they slew, and wherever
her blood fell upon the ground there maize sprang up.^® The
parents went to the East and dwelt with the sunrise, but the
boys themselves became the Thunderers and abode in the
darkening West, and the songs which they taught to the
hunters are still used in the chase of deer.
Like the Cherokee, the Yuchi held to the northern cosmog-
ony — an upper world, containing the Elders of men and ani-
mals, and a waste of waters below. Animal after animal
attempts to bring up earth from the deep, until, in this legend,
the crayfish succeeds in lifting to the surface the embryonic
ball whence Earth is to grow. The Yuchi add, however, an
interesting element to the myth: The new-formed land was
semi-fluid. Turkey-Buzzard was' sent forth to inspect it, with
the warning that he was not to flap his wings while soaring
above earth’s regions. But, becoming wearied, he did so, to
avoid falling, and the effect upon the fluid land of the winds so
created was the formation of hill and valley.
In contrast to these tales of a primeval descent or fall
from an upper world are the cosmogonic myths of an ascent
from a subterranean abode, which the Muskhogean tribes share
with the Indians of the South-West. “At a certain time, the
Earth opened in the West, where its mouth is. The earth
opened and the Cussitaws came out of its mouth, and set-
tled near by.” This is the beginning of the famous migra-
tion-legend of the Creeks, as preserved by Gatschet.®^ The
story recounts how the earth became angry and ate up a por-
tion of her progeny; how the people started out on a journey
PLATE XIII
Human figure in stone, probably representing a
deity ; height 2 i }4 inches. Found in Bartow County,
Georgia. After Report of the United States National
Museum^ 1896, Plate XLIV.
THE GULF REGION 63
toward the sunrise; how they crossed a River of Slime, then a
River of Blood, and came to the King of Mountains, whence a
great fire blazed upward with a singing sound. Here there was
an assembly of the Nations, and a knowledge of herbs and of
fire was given to men : from the East came a white fire, which
they would not use; from the South a blue fire, neither would
they have this; from the West came a black fire, and this, too,
was refused; but the fire from the North, which was red and
yellow, they took and mingled with the fire from the mountain,
“and this is the fire they use today; and this, too, sometimes
sings.” On the mountain they found a pole which was rest-
less and made a noise; they sacrificed a motherless child to
it,^® and then took it with them to be their war standard.'*®
At this same place they received from singing plants knowl-
edge of the herbs and purifications which they employ in
the Busk.
The Choctaw, like the Creek, regard themselves as earth-
born. In very ancient times, before man lived, Nane Chaha
(“high hill”) was formed, from the top of which a passage led
down into the caverns of earth from which the Choctaw
emerged, scattering to the four points of the compass. With
them the grasshoppers also appeared, but their mother, who
had stayed behind, was killed by men, so that no more of the
insects came forth, and ever after those that remained on
earth were known to the Choctaw as “mother dead.” The
grasshoppers, however, in revenge, persuaded Aba, the Great
Spirit, to close the mouth of the cave; and the men who re-
mained therein were transformed into ants.'*®
The Louisiana Choctaw continue their myth with the story
of how men tried to build a mound reaching to the heavens,
how the mound was thrown down and a confusion of tongues
ensued, how a great flood came, and how the Choctaw and
the animals they had taken ?with them into a boat were saved
from the universal deluge — all elements of an obviously
OldrWorld origin; though the story of the smoking mountain,
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
64
and of the cavern peopled by the ancestral animals and men,
is to be found far in the North and West on the American
continent, to which it is undoubtedly native.
V. ANIMAL STORIES
To the most primitive stratum of myth belong those tales of
the beginnings of things which have to do, not with the source
of the world — for the idea that man’s habitat is itself a single
being, with beginning and end, is neither a simple nor a very
primitive concept — but which recount the origins of animal
traits. How Snake got his poison, why ’Possum has a large
mouth, why Mole lives underground, why Cedar is red-grained
— these are titles representative of a multitude of stories nar-
rating the beginnings of the distinctive peculiarities of ani-
mals and plants as the Indian’s fancy conjectures them. The
Gulf-State region is particularly rich in tales of this type,
and it has been urged very plausibly that the prevalence of
similar and identical animal stories among the Indians and
negroes points to a common and probably American source
for most of them.
The snakes, the bees, and the wasps got their venom, ac-
cording to the Choctaw story, when a certain water- vine, which
had poisoned the Indians who came to the bayou to bathe,
surrendered its poison to these creatures out of commisera-
tion for men; the opossum got his big mouth, as stated by
these same Indians, from laughter occasioned by a malev-
olent joke which he perpetrated upon the deer; the mole lives
underground, say the Cherokee, for fear of rival magicians
jealous of his powers as a love-charmer; and in Yuchi story
the red grain of the cedar is due to the fact that to its top is
fastened the bleeding head of the wizard who tried to kill
the sun.
The motives inspiring the animal stories are various. Doubt-
less, the mere love of story-telling, for entertainment’s sake, is
THE GULF REGION
65
a fundamental stimulus; the plot is suggested \>y nature, and
the fancy enlarges upon it, frequently with a humorous or
satirical vein. But from satire to moralizing is an easy turn;
the story-teller who sees human foible in the traits of animals
is well on the way to become a fabulist. Many of the Indian
stories are intended to point a moral, just as many of them are
designed to give an answer, more or less credible, to a natural
difference that stimulates curiosity. Thus we find morals
and science, mingling instruction with entertainment, in this
most primitive of literary forms.
Vanity is one of the motives most constantly employed.
The Choctaw story of the raccoon and the opossum tells how,
long ago, both of these animals possessed bushy tails, but the
opossum’s tail was white, whereas the raccoon’s was beauti-
fully striped. At the raccoon’s advice, the opossum undertook
to brown the hairs of his tail at a fire, but his lack of caution
caused the hair to burn, and his tail has been smooth ever
since. A similar theme, with an obvious moral, is the Chero-
kee fable of the buzzard’s topknot: “The buzzard used to
have a fine topknot, of which he was so proud that he refused
to eat carrion, and while the other birds were pecking at the
body of a deer or other animal which they had found he would
strut around and say: ‘You may have it all, it is not good
enough for me.’ They resolved to punish him, and with the
help of the buffalo carried out a plot by which the buzzard
lost not his topknot alone, but nearly all the other feathers
on his head. He lost his pride at the same time, so that he is
willing enough now to eat carrion for a living.”
Vengeance, theft, gratitude, skill, and trickery in contest
are other motives which make of these tales not only explana-
tions but lessons. The fable of the lion and the mouse has a
Cherokee analogue in the story of the wolf whose eyes were
plastered shut, while he slept, by a malicious raccoon; a bird,
taking pity on the wolf, pecked the plaster from his eyes; and
the wolf rewarded the bird by telling him where to find red
66
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
paint with which he might colour the sombre feathers of his
breast. This was the origin of the redbird. The story of the
hare and the tortoise is recalled by the race of the crane and
the humming-bird; the swift humming-bird outstripped the
crane by day but slept at night; the lumbering crane, because
of his powers of endurance, flying night and day, won the
race. Even more suggestive of the same fable is the tale of
how the terrapin beat the rabbit, who had challenged him to
a race, by posting at each station on the course a member of
his family, himself awaiting his antagonist at the finish.
Magic and transformation stories form still another class
presenting many analogies to similar Old-World tales.^® The
Cherokee have a story, immediately reminiscent of German
folk-tales, of a girl who found a bullfrog sitting beside the
spring where she went for water; the bullfrog transformed
himself into a young man, whom she married, but his face
always had a froggish look. In other cases transformation is
for the sake of revenge, as the eagle who assumed human form
after his mate had been killed, and who took vengeance upon
the tribe of the hunter. Probably the moral of the broken
tabu lies at the basis of this story, for this is a frequent motive
in tales where men are transformed into animals or animals
assume human shape. Thus, a hungry hunter is turned into a
snake for eating squirrel meat, which was tabu to him; another
has his death foretold by a katydid whose song he ridicules;
another is lured by a doe, which comes to life after he has
slain her, to the cavern of the deer, and is there himself trans-
formed into a deer, returning to his own people only to die.
Stories of the Rip Van Winkle type develop from this theme
of the hunter lured away by animals, as in the instance of the
man who spent a night with the panthers, and found, upon his
return, that he had been lost a whole season; while Euro-
pean tales of merfolk find their parallels in stories of under-
water towns to which fishermen are dragged or lured by wizard
fishes.
THE GULF REGION
67
VI. TRICKSTERS AND WONDER-FOLK«
The telling of animal stories leads naturally to the formation
of groups of tales in which certain animals assume constant
and characteristic rUes, and attain to the rank of mythic be-
ings. The Brer Rabbit stories, made famous as negro tales
by Joel Chandler Harris, appear as a veritable saga cycle
among the Cherokee, from whom they are doubtless borrowed.
There can be little question that “ Brer Rabbit” — vain, tricky,
malicious — is a southern and humorous debasement of the
Great Hare, the Algonquian demiurge and trickster; while
the Turtle, also important in northern cosmogony, is repre-
sented by the put-upon, but shifty, “Brer Terrapin” of the
southern tales. The “tar baby” by which the thieving Rabbit
was tricked and caught appears in Cherokee lore as a “tar
wolf,” set as a trap ; the Rabbit, coming upon it by night, kicks
it and is stuck fast; the wolf and the fox find him caught, and
debate how he shall be put to death; the Rabbit pleads with
them not to cast him into the thicket to perish, which accord-
ingly they do, and thus he makes off. The escape of an animal
from his captors through pretending fear of his natural ele-
ment and thus inducing them to throw him into it is a frequent
incident in animal tales, while the “tar baby” story has va-
riants, as Mooney says, “not only among the Cherokee, but
also in Mexico, Washington, and southern Alaska — wher-
ever, in fact, the pinon or the pine supplies enough gum to
be molded into a ball for Indian uses.” Another legend found
from coast to coast, and known to Cherokee and Creek, is the
story of how the Rabbit dines the Bear (the “imitation of
the host” theme, as it is called, which has endless variants
throughout the continent) : “The Bear invited the Rabbit to
dine with him. They had beans in the pot, but there was no
grease for them, so the Bear cut a slit in his side and let the
oil run out until they had enough to cook the dinner. The
Rabbit looked surprised, and thought to himself, ‘That’s a
68
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
handy way. I think I’ll try that.’ When he started home he in-
vited the Bear to come and take dinner with him. When the
Bear came the Rabbit said, ‘I have beans for dinner, too.
Now I’ll get grease for them.’ So he took a knife and drove it
into his side, but instead of oil, a stream of blood gushed out
and he fell over nearly dead. The Bear picked him up and
had hard work to tie up the wound and stop the bleeding.
Then he scolded him, ‘You little fool, I’m large and strong
and lined all over with fat; the knife don’t hurt me; but
you’re small and lean, and you can’t do such things.’”
-
The world is peopled, however, with other wonder-folk
besides the magic animals, and many of these mythic beings
belong to ancient and wide-spread systems. Thus, the Chero-
kee Flint (Tawiskala) is obviously the evil twin of the north-
ern Iroquois cosmogony; and although he has ceased to be
remembered as a demiurgic Titan, his evil and unsociable na-
ture remains the same.'*’’ In Choctaw tales, the Devil who is
drowned by a maiden whom he has lured from her home, and
whose body breaks into stony fragments, is apparently the
same being.®* The Ice Man, with his northerly winds and
sleety rains, who quenched the fire that threatened to consume
the world; the North who kept the South for Bride until the
hot sun forced him to release her; Untsaiyi, the Gambler,
who games away his life, and flees to the world’s end, where
he is bound and pinned by the two brothers who have pursued
him, there to writhe until the world’s end — all these are
tales with familiar heroes, known in many tribes and lands.
Nor are the tribes of magic folk different in kind from those
found elsewhere. There are the helpful spirit warriors, who
dwell in rock and hill, the Nunnehi; there are the Little
People, fairies good and evil; ** there are the Tsundigewi, the
Dwarfs who lived in nests scooped from the sand, and who
fought with and were overcome by the cranes;* the Water-
Cannibals, who live upon human flesh, especially that of
children; ® the Thunderers, whose steed is the great Uktena;
THE GULF REGION
69
the horned snake with a diamond in his forehead,®^ and to
whose cave a young man was lured by the Thunder^s sister,
only to find, when he returned to his folk to tell his story and
die, that the night he had spent there comprised long years.
Kanati, Lucky Hunter, the husband of Selu, Corn, and Tsui-
kalu, the slant-eyed giant, held dominion over the animals
and were gods of the hunter; while the different animals, each
in its kind, were under the supervision of the animal Elders,^®
such as the Little Deer, invisible to all except the greatest
hunters, the White Bear, to whom wounded bears go to be
cured of their hurts, Tlanuwa, the Hawk impervious to
arrows, Dakwa, the great fish which swallowed the fisherman
and from which he cut himself out, and the man-eating Leech,
as large as a house.
Such Is the general complexion of the Cherokee pantheon —
hordes or kinds of nature-powers, with a few mightier per-
sonalities emerging above them, embryonic gods. Altogether
similar are the conceptions of the Muskhogean tribes — giants
and dwarfs, fairies and wizards, now human, now animal in
shape, peopling hill and stream, forest and bayou.
VIL MYTHIC HISTORY57
Tribes, such as the Cherokee, Creek, and allied nations,
with settled towns and elaborate institutions are certain to
show some development of the historical sense. It is true that
the Cherokee have no such wealth of historic tradition as
have their northern cousins, the peoples of the Iroquois Con-
federacy; but at the same time they possess a considerable
lore dealing with their past. Hero tales, narrating the deeds of
redoubtable warriors of former days, and incidentally keeping
alive the memory of the tribes with whom the Cherokee were at
war in early days, naturally form the chief portion of such tra-
ditions; but there are also fabulous stories of abandoned towns,
ancient mounds, and strange peoples formerly encountered.
70 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
In one particular the Cherokee are distinguished above all
other tribes. In the first years of the nineteenth century
Sequoya, having observed the utility of the white man’s art
of writing, invented the Cherokee alphabet, still employed for
the native literature. He submitted his syllabary to the chief
men of the nation; it was adopted, and in a few months thou-
sands of the Cherokee had learned its use. Nevertheless, this
innovation was not made without antagonism; and the oppo-
nents, to make strong their case, told a tale of how, when In-
dian and white man were created, the Indian, who was the
elder, received a book, while the white was given bow and
arrows. But since the Indian was neglectful of his book, the
white man stole it, leaving the bow in its place, so that thence-
forth the book belonged legitimately to the white man, while
hunting with the bow was the Indian’s rightful life. A similar
tale makes the white man’s first gift a stone, and the Indian’s
a piece of silver, these gifts becoming exchanged; while an-
other story tells how the negro invented the locomotive, which
the white man, after killing the negro, took from him.
To an entirely different stratum of historical myth belongs
the story of the massacre of the Anikutani. These were a
priestly clan having hereditary supervision of all religious
ceremonies among the Cherokee. They abused their powers,
taking advantage of the awe in which they were held, to over-
ride the most sacred rights of their fellow tribesmen, until
finally, after one of the Anikutani had violated the wife of a
young brave, the people rose in wrath and extirpated the clan.
In later versions it is a natural calamity which is made re-
sponsible for the destruction of the wicked priests; so that here
we seem to have a tale which records not only a radical change
in the religious institutions of the tribe, but which is well on
the way toward the formation of a story of divine retribution.®
The Creek “Migration Legend,” edited by Gatschct, and
recorded from a speech delivered in 1735 by Chekilli, head
chief of the Creek, is a much more comprehensive historical
THE GULF REGION
71
myth than anything preserved for us by the kindred tribes.
The legend begins with the account of how the Cussitaw (the
Creek) came forth from the Earth in the far West; how they
crossed a river of blood, and came to a singing mountain
where they learned the use of fire and received their mysteries
and laws. After this the related nations disputed as to which
was the eldest, and the Cussitaw, having been the first to
Copper plate found in Etowah Mound, Georgia, representing a Birdlike
Deity. Now in the United States National Museum, Washington
cover their scalp-pole with scalps, were given the place of
honour. Since a huge blue bird was devouring the folk, the
people gave it a clay woman to propitiate it and to induce it to
cease its depredations. By this woman the bird became the
father of a red rat, which gnawed its parent’s bowstring. Thus
the bird was una.ble to defend itself, and the people slew it,
though they regarded it as a king among birds, like the eagle.
They came to a white path, and thence to the town of
X— 7
72 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Coosaw, where they dwelt four years. A man-eating lion
preyed upon the people of this town. “The Cussitaws said
they would try to kill the beast. They digged a pit and
stretched over it a net made of hickory bark. They then laid
a number of branches crosswise, so that the lion could not
follow them, and going to the place where he lay they threw
a rattle into his den. The lion rushed forth in great anger and
pursued them through the branches. Then they thought it
better that one should die rather than all, so they took a
motherless child and threw it before the lion as he came near
the pit. The lion rushed at it, and fell in the pit, over which
they threw the net, and killed him with blazing pinewood.
His bones, however, they keep to this day; on one side they
are red, on the other blue. The lion used to come every seventh
day to kill the people. Therefore, they remained there seven
days after they had killed him. In remembrance of him, when
they prepare for war they fast six days and start on the seventh.
If they take his bones with them they have good fortune.”
After this, the tribe continued its journey, seeking the people
who had made the white path. They passed several rivers,
and came to various towns; but when they shot white arrows
into these towns, as a sign of peace, the inhabitants shot back
red arrows. Sometimes the Cussitaw went on without fight-
ing, sometimes they fought and destroyed the hostile people.
Finally, “they came again to the white path, and saw the
smoke of a town, and thought that this must be the people they
had so long been seeking. This is the place where nowthe tribe
of Palachucolas live. . . . The Palachucolas gave them black
drink, as a sign of friendship, and said to them: Our hearts are
white and yours must be white, and you must lay down the
bloody tomahawk, and show your bodies, as a proof that they
shall be white.” The two tribes were united under a common
chief. “Nevertheless, as the Cussitaws first saw the red
smoke and the red fire and made bloody towns, they cannot
yet leave their red hearts, which are, however, white on one
THE GULF REGION 73
side and red on the other. They now know that the white
path was the best for them.”
Such is the migration-legend of the Creek, altogether similar
to other tales of tribal wandering both in the New World and
the Old. Partly it is a mythical genesis ; partly it is an exodus
from a primitive land of tribulation and war into a land of
peace; partly it is historical reminiscence, the tale of a conquer-
ing tribe journeying in search of richer fields. The sojourn by
the mountain of marvels whence came the talismanic pole,®^
as well as knowledge of the law and the mysteries, recalls the
story of Sinai, while the white path and the search for the
land of peace suggest the promise of Canaan. The episodes
of the man-devouring bird and the man-eating lion possess
many mythic parallels, while both seem to hark back to a time
when human sacrifice was a recognized rite.^® Doubtless the
whole tale is a complex of fact and ritual, partly veritable
recollection of the historic past, partly a fanciful account of
the beginnings of the rites and practices of the nation. Last
of all, comes the bit of psychological analysis represented by
the allegory of the parti-coloured heart of the Red Man who
knows the better way, but, because of his divided nature, is
not wholly capable of following it. This gives to the whole
myth an aetiological rationality and a dramatically appro-
priate finish. The fall of man is narrated; his redemption re-
mains to be accomplished.
Unquestionably many myths of the type of this Creek legend
have been lost, for it is only by rare chance that such heroic
tales survive the vicissitudes of time.
72 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Coosaw, whei'c they dwelt four years. A man-eating Hon
preyed upon the people of this town. “The Cussitaws said
they would try to kill the beast. They digged a pit and
stretched over it a net made of hickory bark. They then laid
a number of branches crosswise, so that the lion could not
follow them, and going to the place where he lay they threw
a rattle into his den. The lion rushed forth in great anger and
pursued them through the branches. Then they thought it
better that one should die rather than all, so they took a
motherless child and threw it before the lion as he came near
the pit. The lion rushed at it, and fell in the pit, over which
they threw the net, and killed him with blazing pinewood.
His bones, however, they keep to this day; on one side they
are red, on the other blue. The lion used to come every seventh
day to kill the people. Therefore, they remained there seven
days after they had killed him. In remembrance of him, when
they prepare for war they fast six days and start on the seventh.
If they take his bones with them they have good fortune.”
After this, the tribe continued its journey, seeking the people
who had made the white path. They passed several rivers,
and came to various towns; but when they shot white arrows
into these towns, as a sign of peace, the inhabitants shot back
red arrows. Sometimes the Cussitaw went on without fight-
ing, sometimes they fought and destroyed the hostile people.
Finally, “they came again to the white path, and saw the
smoke of a town, and thought that this must be the people they
had so long been seeking. This is the place where nowthe tribe
of Palachucolas live. . . . The Palachucolas gave them black
drink, as a sign of friendship, and said to them: Our hearts are
white and yours must be white, and you must lay down the
bloody tomahawk, and show your bodies, as a proof that they
shall be white.” The two tribes were united under a common
chief. “Nevertheless, as the Cussitaws first saw the red
smoke and the red fire and made bloody towns, they cannot
yet leave their red hearts, which are, however, white on one'
THE GULF REGION 73
side and red on the other. They now know that the white
path was the best for them.”
Such is the migration-legend of the Creek, altogether similar
to other tales of tribal wandering both in the New World and
the Old. Partly it is a mythical genesis; partly it is an exodus
from a primitive land of tribulation and war into a land of
peace; partly it is historical reminiscence, the tale of a conquer-
ing tribe journeying in search of richer fields. The sojourn by
the mountain of marvels whence came the talismanic pole,®’-
as well as knowledge of the law and the mysteries, recalls the
story of Sinai, while the white path and the search for the
land of peace suggest the promise of Canaan. The episodes
of the man-devouring bird and the man-eating lion possess
many mythic parallels, while both seem to hark back to a time
when human sacrifice was a recognized rite.*® Doubtless the
whole tale is a complex of fact and ritual, partly veritable
recollection of the historic past, partly a fanciful account of
the beginnings of the rites and practices of the nation. Last
of all, comes the bit of psychological analysis represented by
the allegory of the parti-coloured heart of the Red Man who
knows the better way, but, because of his divided nature, is
not wholly capable of following it. This gives to the whole
myth an aetiological rationality and a dramatically appro-
priate finish. The fall of man is narrated; his redemption re-
mains to be accomplished.
Unquestionably many myths of the type of this Creek legend
have been lost, for it is only by rare chance that such heroic
tales survive the vicissitudes of time.
CHAPTER V
THE GREAT PLAINS
I. THE TRIBAL STOCKS
T he broad physlographical divisions of the North Ameri-
can continent are longitudinal. The region bounded on
the east by the Atlantic seaboard extends westward to parallel
mountain ranges which slope away on the north into the
Labrador peninsula and Hudson’s Bay, and to the south into
the peninsula of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. West of the
eastward mountains, stretching as far as the vast ranges of the
Rockies, is the great continental trough, whose southern half
is drained by the Mississippi into the Gulf, while the Macken-
zie and its tributaries carry the waters from the northern divi-
sion into the Arctic Ocean. The eastern portion of this trough,
to a line lying roughly between longitudes 90 and 95, is a
part of what was originally the forest region; the western
part, from far beyond the tree line in the north to the des-
erts of northern Mexico, comprises the Great Plains of North
America, the prairies, or grass lands, which, previous to white
settlement, supported innumerable herds of buffalo to the south
and caribou to the north, as well as a varied and prolific life
of lesser animals — antelope, deer, rabbits, hares, fur-bearing
animals, and birds in multitude. Coupled with this plenitude
of game was a paucity of creatures formidable to man, so that
aboriginally the Great Plains^ afforded a hunting-ground with
scarcely an equal on any continent. It was adapted to and did
support a hale population of nomadic huntsmen.
As in similar portions of the earth having no natural bar-
riers to passage and intercourse, the human aboriginals of the
THE GREAT PLAINS
75
region fell into few and vast linguistic stocks. Territorially
the greatest of these was the Athapascan, which occupied all
central Alaska and, in Canada, extended from the neighbour-
hood of the Eskimo southward through the greater part of
British Columbia and Athabasca into Alberta, and which,
curiously enough, also bounded the Great Plains population
to the south, Athapascan tribes, such as the Navaho and
Apache, occupying the plains of southern Texas, New Mexico,
and northern Mexico. Just south of the northern Athapascans
a stratum of the Algonquian stock, including the important
Cree and Blackfoot tribes, penetrated as far west as the moun-
tains of Alberta and Montana, while north of the southern
Athapascans, as it were reciprocally, a layer of the western
Shoshonean stock extended eastward into central Texas, the
Shoshonean Comanche forming one of the fiercest of the Plains
tribes. Between these groups, occupying the greatest and
richest portion of the prairie region in the United States, were
the powerful and numerous Siouan and Caddoan peoples, the
former, probably immigrants from the eastern forests, having
their seat in the north, while the Caddo, whose provenance
seems to have been southern, were divided into three segre-
gated groups, Texan, Nebraskan, and Dakotan. The Pawnee,
Wichita, Arikara, and Caddo proper are the principal tribes
of the Caddoan stock; the Siouan stock is represented by
many tribes and divisions, of whom the most famous are the
Dakota or Sioux, the Omaha, Assinaboin, Ponca, Winnebago,
Mandan, Crow, and Osage. It is of interest to note that five
states, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and the two Dakotas,
either bear the designations of Siouan tribes or appellations
of Siouan origin, while many towns, rivers, and counties are
similarly named. Other important Plains tribes, occupying
the region at the base of the Rocky Mountains, from Wyoming
south to northern Texas, are the Arapaho and Cheyenne of the
intrusive Algonquian stock and the Kiowa, linguistically un-
related to any other people.
-
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
76
The manner of life of the Plains tribes was everywhere
much the same. They were in the main hunters, living in
towns during the winter and in summer moving their portable
camps from place to place within the tribal hunting range.
The skin tipi, or Indian tent, was the usual type of dwelling,
generally replacing the bark wigwam of the forests; but the
Caddoan and some other tribes built substantial earth lodges
— a form of dwelling which archaeological research shows to
have been ancient and wide-spread along the banks of the
great western rivers. Agriculture,^'* too, was more important
and more highly developed among the earth-lodge dwellers,
being partly a symbol and partly a consequence of their more
settled life. It found its reflection, also, in ideas, the most
significant and terrible instance being that underlying the
Morning Star sacrifice of the Skidi Pawnee, which, like the
similar rite of the Kandhs (or Khonds) of India, consisted in
the sacrifice of a virgin, commonly a captive from a hostile
tribe, whose body was torn to pieces and buried in the fields
for the magical fructification of the grain.®® One of the most
romantic stories of the West is of the deed of Pctalesharo, a
Skidi warrior of renown.*’® A Comanche maiden was about to
be sacrificed according to custom when Petalesharo stepped
forward, cut the thongs which bound the captive, declaring
that such sacrifices must be abolished, and bearing her through
the crowd of his tribesmen, placed her upon a horse and con-
veyed her to the borders of her own tribal territories. This was
in the early part of the nineteenth century, and it is said that
his act put an end to the rite.
In warlike zeal and enterprise the Indians of the Plains
were no whit inferior to the braves of the East. The coming
of the horse, presumably of Spanish introduction, added won-
derfully to the mobility of the Indian camp, and opened to
native daring a new field, — that of horse-stealing; so that the
man who successfully stole his enemy’s horses was little less
distinguished than he who took hostile scalps. The Indian’s
PLAl'E XIV
Pencil sketch by Charles KniFcchicf, representing
the scaffold used by the Skidi l^iwnee in the sacrihee
to the Morning Star. See Note 58 (pp. 303 06),
By courtesy of Dr, Melvin R, (iilmore.
THE GREAT PLAINS
77
wars were really in the nature of elaborate feuds, giving oppor-
tunity for the display of prowess and the winning of fame, like
the chivalry of the knight-errant; they were rarely intentional
aggressions. Nor was Indian life wanting in complex rituals
for the making of peace and the spread of a sense of brotherhood
from tribe to tribe. Under the great tutelage of Nature noble
and beautiful ceremonies were created, having at their heart
truths universal to mankind; and nowhere in America were
such mysteries loftier and more impressive than among the
tribes of the Great Plains.
II. AN ATHAPASCAN PANTHEON®
Of all the great stocks of the Plains the Athapascan tribes
(with the exception of the Navaho) show the least native ad-
vancement. The northern Athapascans, or Tinne tribes, in
particular, while good hunters and traders, are far from war-
like, even in self-defence, and their arts are inferior to the
general level of the Plains peoples. The ideas of these tribes
are correspondingly nebulous and confused. Father Jette,
who has made a study of the mind of the Yukon Indians, says
of them that “whereas there is a certain uniformity in the
practices” of these people, “there are very few points of belief
common to several individuals, and these are of the vaguest
kind.” And he and other observers find a certain emptiness
in the rites of the far north, as if the Indians themselves had
forgotten their real significance.
Father Jette gives a general analysis of the Yukon pantheon.
The Tinne, he says, are incapable of conceiving really spiritual
substances, but they think of a kind of aeriform fluid, capable
of endless transformations, visible and invisible at will, pene-
trating all things and passing wherever they wish; and these
are the embodiments of spiritual power. There is little that is
personal and little that is friendly in these potencies; the relig-
ion of the Tinne is a religion of fear.
78 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
The four greater spirits among these powers are Man of
Cold, Man of Heat, Man of Wind, and a Spirit of Plague
(Tena-ranide), the evil that afflicts man’s body, known by
many names and appearing in many forms. Man of Cold
“reigns during the winter months, causes the frost and the
snow, kills people by freezing them to death, takes possession
of the body at death, and faithfully covers the grave of the
Tena with a shroud of snow.” Man of Heat is the foe of Cold,
whom he has conquered in the summer, as he succumbs in
turn during the season of cold.^® He is more friendly to man
than is Cold, but still must be kept in check, for he, too,
stifles and suffocates when the chance is offered him. Wind
brings death and destruction in storm; while Tena-ranide is
Death itself stalking the earth, and ever in wait for man —
literally, says Father jette, the name means “the thing for
man,” that is, “the thing that kills man.”
It is obvious enough that here we have the world-scheme of
a people for whom the shifts of nature arc the all-important
events of life. Changes of season and weather are great and
sudden in the continental interior of North America, becoming
more perilous and striking as the Arctic zone is approached;
and so we find, as we might expect, that the peoples of the
northern inland make Heat and Cold and Windy Storm fore-
most of their gods, with the grisly form of ever-striking Death
for their attendant. Below these greater spirits there is a
multitude of confused and phantom powers. There are souls
of men and animals, the soul which is “next to” the body
and makes it live; there are the similar souls of “those who are
becoming again,” or awaiting reincarnation; finally, there
is a strange shadow-world of doubles, not only for men and
animals, but for some inanimate objects. The Yoga (“pic-
ture,” “shadow”), as the double is called, is “a protecting
spirit, jealous and revengeful, whose mission is not to avert
harm from the person or thing which it protects but to punish
the ones who harm or misuse it.” When a man is to die, his
THE GREAT PLAINS
79
Yega is first devoured by Tena-ranide or one of the malevolent
Nekedzaltara, who are servants of the death-bringer. The
familiars, or daemons, of the shamans, form another class of
personal spirits, similar to the Tornait of the Eskimo Angakut,
whose function Is to give their masters knowledge of the hidden
events and wisdom of the world, as well as power over disease
and death.
The Nekedzaltara, “Things,” form a class or classes of the
hordes of nature-powers, visible and invisible, which people
the world with terrors. Father Jette gives a folk-tale descrip-
tion of one of these beings — one form out of a myriad. The
story seems to be a version of the wide-spread North American
tale of the hero who is swallowed by a water-dwelling mon-
ster, from whose body he cuts his way to freedom. The hero
has just gotten into the Nekedzaltara’s mouth; ^
“Then he stopped and looked around him. He was in a
kettle-shaped cave, the bottom of which was covered with
boiling water; from this large bubbles were constantly coming
forth. Looking up he saw stretching above his head a huge
jaw; and looking down he saw another enormous jaw beneath
him. Then he realized that he had put himself into the very
mouth of a devil: he had gone into It unawares. He was deep
in it, close to the throat, where the boiling water was bubbling
up. The long twisting ropes were appendages to the devil’s
jaw, and now they began to encircle him and closed fast upon
him. But he drew his sword and cut them. Then he ran out
of the dreadful cave. Before going, as he saw the big teeth on
the monster’s jaw, he pulled out one of them and took it with
him. . . . And he gave the devil’s tooth to his master.”
It is easy to see in this monster a whale, says the recorder;
and certainly it is quite possible that this version of the story
got its picturesque detail from the Arctic and the Eskimo, to
whose beliefs those of the Tinne tribes show so many parallels.
Of course, the story is known far to the South also, — in the
episode of Hiawatha and the sturgeon, for example.
8o
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
III. THE GREAT GODS OF THE PLAINS
On the plains there is a majestic completeness of almost
every view of earth and sky. There are no valley walls to
narrow the horizon; there arc no forests to house men from
the heavens. The circle of the horizon is complete and whole,
and the dome of the sky, where the rainbow forms frequently
in perfect arc, is vast and undiminished. To men accustomed
to the broad spaces and simple lines of such vision, the brilliant
blue of predominantly sunny skies, the green of the summer
prairies, the sparkling white of the winter plains, the world
seemed at once colossal and intelligible. Its plan was the plan
of their own lodges: a flat and circular base over which was
hung the tent of the skies, with door to the east, the direction
of the rising sun. “If you go on a high hill,” said a Pawnee
priest, “and look around, you will see the sky touching the
earth on every side, and within this circular enclosure the people
dwell.” The lodges of men were made on the same plan, to
“represent the circle which Father Heaven has made for the
dwelling-place of all the people”; and, in many tribes, the camp
form was also circular, the tipis being ranged in a great ring,
within which each clan had its assigned position.
The great gods of men in such a world form a natural, in-
deed an inevitable, hierarchy. Supreme over all is Father
Heaven, whose abode is the highest circle of the visible uni-
verse.® Tirawa-atius is his Pawnee name. All the powers in
heaven and on earth arc derived from him; he is father of all
things visible and invisible, and father of all the people, per-
petuating the life of mankind through the gift of children.
The Pawnee symbols of Tirawa are white featherdown, typi-
fying the fleecy clouds of the upper heavens — and hence the
cloud-bearing winds and the breath of life — and, in face-
painting, a blue line drawn arch-like from check to check over
the brow, with a straight line down the nose which symbolizes
the path by which life descends from above. Yet the Pawnee
PLAT!-: XV
Portrait of Tahirussawichi, a Pawnee priest.^ bearing
in hi<; hands an cagle-phnnc wand^ symbol of Mother
Kartli^ and a rattle marked with blue lines embkntiatic of
the Sky, After JRHH, part 2, Plate LXXXV,
THE GREAT PLAINS
8i
are not anthropomorphic in their ideas. “The white man
speaks of a Heavenly Father; we say Tirawa-atius, the Father
above, but we do not think of Tirawa as a person. We think of
Tirawa as in everything, as the Power which has arranged and
thrown down from above everything that man needs. What the
power above, Tirawa-atius, is like, no one knows; no one has
been there.”
The priest who made this remark also said: “At the crea-
tion of the world it was arranged that there should be lesser
powers. Tirawa-atius, the mighty power, could not come near
to man, therefore lesser powers were permitted. They were to
mediate between man and Tirawa.” The Sun Father and Earth
Mother were the two foremost of these lesser powers, whose
union brings forth all the moving pageantry of life. The Morn-
ing Star, the herald of the Sun, is scarcely less important.
The Winds from the four quarters of the world, the life-giving
Vegetation, Water, -the Hearth-Fire — all these are powers
calling for veneration. In the intermediate heavens, below
Sun and Moon, yet above man’s reach, are the bird messen-
gers, with the Eagle at their head, each with its special wisdom
and guidance. Here, too, dwell the Visions which descend to
the dreamer, giving him revelations direct from the higher
powers ; and here the dread Thunder wings his stormy course.
With little variation, these deities — Heaven, Earth, Sun,
Moon, Morning Star, Wind, Fire, Thunder — form the com-
mon pantheon of the Plains tribes. The agricultural tribes,
as the Pawnee and Mandan Indians, give the Corn Mother
a prominent place. Animal-gods, the Elders of the animal
kinds, are important according to the value of the animal as
game or as a symbol of natural prowess. The Eagle is supreme
among birds; the Bear, the Buffalo, the Elk, among quad-
rupeds; while the Coyote appears in place of the Rabbit as the
arch-trickster. The animals, however, are not gods in any
true sense, for they belong to that lesser realm of creation
which, with man, shares in the universal life of the world.
82
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
IV. THE LIFE OF THE WORLD
It has recently been much the custom of writers dealing
with Indian beliefs to assert that the conception of a Great
Spirit or Great Mystery is imported by white teachers, that
the untutored Indian knows no such being; the universality
of the earlier tradition as to the native existence of this idea is
regarded as of little consequence, almost as a studied misin-
terpretation. Nevertheless, when we find such definite con-
ceptions as that of Kitshi Manito among the Algonquians or
Tirawa-atius in Pawnee religion, or even such indefinite ones
as that of the Carrier Indian’s Yuttoere (“that which is on
high”),® we begin to question the truth of the modern asser-
tion. As a matter of fact, there is hardly a tribe that does not
possess its belief in what may very properly be called a Great
Spirit, or Great Mystery, or Master of Life. Such a being is,
no doubt, seldom or never conceived anthropomorphically,
seldom if ever as a formal personality; but if these preconcep-
tions of the white man be avoided, and the Great Spirit be
judged by what he does and the manner in which he is
approached, his difference from the Supreme Deity of the
white man is not so apparent.
Probably the Siouan conception of Wakanda, the Mystery
that is in all life and all creation, has been as carefully studied
as any Indian religious idea.® In general, Wakanda is the
Siouan equivalent of the Algonquian Manito, not a being but
an animating power, or one of a scries of animating powers
which are the invisible but potent causes of the whole world’s
life. “All the Indians,” says De Smet, of the Assiniboin,
“admit the existence of the Great Spirit, viz., of a Supreme
Being who governs all the important affairs of life, and who
manifests his action in the most ordinary events. . . . Every
spring, at the first peal of thunder, which they call the voice
of the Great Spirit speaking from the clouds, the Assiniboins offer
it sacrifices. . . . Thunder, next to the sun, is their great
THE GREAT PLAINS
83
Wah-kon. ... At the least misfortune, the father of a family-
presents the calumet to the Great Spirit, and, in prayer,
implores him to take pity on him, his wives and children.”
“Prayer to Wakanda,” another observer was told, “was not
made for small matters, such as going fishing, but only for
great and important undertakings, such as going to war
or starting on a journey.”
Doubtless the most illuminating analysis of this great Siouan
divinity which is in all things is that made by Miss Fletcher in
her study of the Omaha tribe. Wakanda, she says, “stands
for the mysterious life power permeating all natural forms and
forces and all phases of man’s conscious life. . . . Visible na-
ture seems to have mirrored to the Omaha mind the ever-
present activities of the invisible and mysterious Wakonda
and to have been an instructor in both religion and ethics.
. . Natural phenomena served to enforce ethics. Old men
have said: ‘Wakonda causes day to follow night without varia-
tion and summer to follow winter; we can depend on these
regular changes and can order our lives by them. In this way
Wakonda teaches us that our words and our acts must be truth-
ful, so that we may live in peace and happiness with one an-
other. Our fathers thought about these things and observed
?the acts of Wakonda and their words have come down to us.’
. . . All experiences in life were believed to be directed by
Wakonda, a belief that gave rise to a kind of fatalism. In the
face of calamity, the thought, ‘This is ordered by Wakonda,’
put a stop to any form of rebellion against the trouble and
often to any effort to overcome it. . . . An old man said:
‘Tears were made by Wakonda as a relief to our human nature;
Wakonda made joy and he also made tears!’ An aged man,
standing in the presence of death, said: ‘From my earliest
years I remember the sound of weeping; I have heard it all my
life and shall hear it until I die. There will be parting as long
as man lives on the earth. Wakonda has willed it to be sol’
. . . Personal prayers were addressed directly to Wakonda.
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
84
A man would take his pipe and go alone to the hills; there he
would silently offer smoke and utter the call, JVakonda ho!
while the moving cause, the purport of his prayer, would
remain unexpressed in words.'’® If his stress of feeling was great,
he would leave his pipe on the ground where his appeal had
been made. . . . Women did not use the pipe when praying;
their appeals were made directly, without any intermediary.
Few, if any, words were used; generally the sorrowful or bur-
dened woman simply called on the mysterious power she be-
lieved to have control of all things, to know all desires, all
needs, and to be able to send the required help.”
The mere quotation of Indian utterances, the mere descrip-
tion of their simple rites, out-tell all commentary. Yet the
testimony of one whose first and native education was in this
belief may well be appended. “The worship of the ‘great
Mystery,’” says Dr. Eastman, “was silent, solitary, free fnun
all self-seeking. It was silent, because all speech is of necessity
feeble and imperfect; therefore the souls of my ancestors as-
cended to God in wordless adoration. It was solitary, because
they believed that He is nearer to us in solitude, and there
were no priests authorized to come between a man and his
Maker. None might exhort or confess or in any way meddle
with the religious experience of another. Among us all men
were created sons of God and stood erect, as conscious of their
divinity. Our faith might not be formulated in creeds, nor
forced upon any who were unwilling to receive it; hence there
was no preaching, proselyting, nor persecution, neither were
there any scoffers or atheists. There were no temples or shrines
among us save those of nature. Being a natural man, the In-
dian was intensely poetical. He would deem it sacrilege to
build a house for Him who may be met face to face in the
mysterious, shadowy aisles of the primeval forest, or on the
sunlit bosom of virgin prairies, upon dizzy spires and pinna-
cles of naked rock, and yonder in the jeweled vault of the night
sky! He who enrobes Himself in filmy veils of cloud, there on,
-
PLATE XVI
Riiwhidc image of a Thunderbird for use as a head-
band ornament in ceremonial dances. The image is
beaded and painted, the zigzag lines representing the
lightning issuing from the heart of the Thunderbird.
See Note 3Z (pp. 28/ 88), and compare Plates III,
VI, XII, XXII, XXIV, XXVi; and Figure i . After
/./ JRBE^ part 2, p. 969.
THE GREAT PLAINS
85
the rim of the visible world where our Great-Grandfather Sun
kindles his evening camp-fire, He who rides upon the rigorous
wind of the north, or breathes forth His spirit upon aromatic
southern airs, whose war-canoe is launched upon majestic
rivers and inland seas — He needs no lesser cathedral!”
V. “MEDICINE”"
To make the impersonal and pervasive life of nature more
particularly his own, the Indian seeks his personal “medicine”
— half talisman, half symbol. Usually the medicine is revealed
in a fast-induced vision, or in a dream, or in a religious initia-
tion. It then becomes a personal tutelary whose emblem is
borne in its possessor’s “medicine-bag” — to which miraculous
powers are often attributed. “A skin of a weasel, heads and
bodies of different birds stuffed, images made of wood and stone,
of beads worked upon skin, rude drawings of bears, of buffalo
bulls, wolves, serpents, of monsters that have no name, nor
ever had an existence, in fact everything animate and inanimate
is used, according to the superstition and belief of the indi-
vidual. This object,” continues Father De Smet, “is envel-
oped in several folds of skin, with a lock of some deceased rela-
tive’s hair and a small piece of tobacco enclosed and the whole
placed in a parfieche [buffalo skin stripped of hair and
stretched over a frame] sack neatly ornamented and fringed,
and this composes the arcanum of the medicine-sack. This
sack is never opened in the presence of any one, unless the
owner or some of his family fall dangerously ill, when it is
taken out and placed at the head of his bed and the aid of the
Great Spirit invoked through it. Ordinarily this sack is opened
in secret; the medicine smoked and invoked and prayers and
sacrifices made in its presence, and through it, as a tangible
medium to the Great Spirit, who is unknown and invisible.”
The Indian’s “medicine” is, in fact, a symbol of superhuman
power, just as his pipe is a portable altar of sacrifice; having
86
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
these articles with him, he is equipped for all ordinary religious
service. As the medicine was so often revealed in vision, so
its potencies were partly to extend the knowledge of its owner
by giving him guidance in the hour of need. Indeed, the fun-
damental demands underlying the Indian’s use of his medicine
were, first, for clairvoyance, the power to see behind the
screen of appearances and to give man a longer time for adap-
tation to exigencies than his mere physical vision might allow,
and, second, for prowess, the strength to cope with environ-
ing perils, be they human enemies, elemental dangers, or the
insidious onslaughts of disease. The means for thus raising
the tension of man’s native abilities is the concentration of
diffuse natural forces by means of the emblem, be it image or
relic. With the more advanced Indians such “medicine” is
regarded as no more than a symbol of the greater Medicine of
nature — though still a symbol which is, in some vague sense,
a key for the unlocking of nature’s larger store.
Nor is “medicine” limited to private possession. Every
Indian had his own “medicine-bag,” but tribe and clan and
religious society all owned and guarded sacred objects not dif-
fering in character from the individual’s magic treasure, except
for their greater powers and the higher veneration attached
to them.
The “medicine” potency of objects is not limited to per-
sonal talismans and sacred things. The various tokens, such
as eagle feathers, animal skins or teeth or claws, with which
the Indian adorned his costume, were also supposed to have
powers which entitled them to be treated with respect. Simi-
larly, the painting of face and body, of robe and tipi, fol-
lowed the strictest of rules, and was for the specific purpose
of increasing the potencies of the owners of the decoration.
The Indian’s art was in a curious sense a private possession.
If a man invented a song, it was his song, and no other had a
right to sing it without his permission — usually, only after
a formal ceremony of teaching. In similar fashion, societies
THE GREAT PLAINS
87
had songs which could be sung only by their members; and
there were chants that could be sung only at certain periods
of the day or at fixed seasons of the year. So also in respect
to pictorial design: certain patterns were revealed to the
owner in dream or vision, and thereafter they were for his
person or clothing or dwelling, and might not be copied or ap-
propriated by any other, at least not without a proper trans-
fer. All this was a part of the Indian’s implicit belief that all
nature, including human thought and action, represents one
web of interknitted forces whose destined order may not be
broken without peril. White men call this belief superstition,
but in its essence it is not radically different from their own
notion of a nature fabricated of necessity and law.
VI. FATHER SUNi»
“Shakuru, the Sun, is the first of the visible powers,” said
the Pawnee priest, quoted above. “It is very potent; it gives
man health, vitality, and strength. Because of its power to
make things grow, Shakuru is sometimes spoken of as atius,
‘father.’ The Sun comes direct from the mighty power above;
that gives it its great potency.”
Here we have a compendium of the theology of sun-worship,
perhaps the most conspicuous feature of the Plains Indian’s
religion. The sun was regarded as a mighty power, though
not the mightiest; he was the first and greatest of the inter-
mediaries who brought the power of Father Heaven down to
earth, and he himself was addressed as “Father” or “Elder”
because of his life-giving qualities. Especially potent were his
first rays. “Whoever is touched by the first rays of the Sun
in the morning receives new life and strength which have
been brought straight from the power above. The first rays
of the sun are like a young man : they have not yet spent their
force or grown old.” Inevitably this expression brings to mind
the boy Harpocrates and the youth Horus, personations of
X — 8
88
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
the strength and splendour of the morning sun, as he leaped
from the couch of night before the eyes of the priests of old
Egypt.
Indeed, the Pawnee ritual in connexion with which this ex-
planation was given seems to afford us a glimpse of just such
a rite as must have been practised centuries before Heliop-
olis was founded or the temple of the Sphinx oriented to the
morning sun. All night long, in a ceremonial lodge whose door
is toward the east, priest and doctor chant their songs; as the
hour of dawn approaches, a watcher is set for the Morning
Star; and the curtain at the lodge door is flung back that the
strength-giving rays may penetrate within. “As the Sun rises
higher the ray, which is its messenger, alights upon the edge
of the central opening in the roof of the lodge, right over the
fireplace. We see the spot, the sign of its touch, and we know
that the ray is there. The fire holds an important place in the
lodge. . . . Father Sun is sending life by his messenger to
this central place in the lodge. . . . The ray is now climbing
down into the lodge. We watch the spot where it has alighted.
It moves over the edge of the opening above the fireplace and
descends into the lodge, and we sing that life from our Father
the Sun will come to us by his messenger, the Ray.” All day
long the course of the life-giving beam is followed with songs
of thankfulness. “Later, when the Sun is sinking in the west,
the land is in shadow, only on the top of the hills toward the
east can the spot, the sign of the ray’s touch, be seen. . . .
The ray of Father Sun, who breathes forth life, is standing on
the edge of the hills. We remember that in the morning it
stood on the edge of the opening in the roof of the lodge over
the fireplace; now it stands on the edge of the hills that, like
the walls of a lodge, inclose the land where the people dwell.
. . . When the spot, the sign of the ray, the messenger of
our Father the Sun, has left the tops of the hills and passed
from our sight ... we know that the ray which was sent
to bring us strength has now gone back to the place whence it
THE GREAT PLAINS 89
came. We are thankful to our Father the Sun for that which
he has sent us by his ray.”
Of Stonehenge and Memphis and Pekin and Cuzco, the
most ancient temples of the world’s oldest civilizations, this
ritual is strangely and richly reminiscent. Far anterior to the
olden temples must have been such shrines as the sacred if
temporary lodges of the Indian’s worship, within which the
daily movements of the sun’s ray were watched by faithful
priests — Horus of the morning, Re‘ of the midday, Atum of
the sunset — and by which the first invention of the gnomon,
and hence the beginnings of the measured calendar, were sug-
gested. Who, remembering the sculptures of Amenophis IV,
with rays reaching down from the Divine Disk to rest hands of
benediction upon the king, but will feel the moving analogy
of the Pawnee conception of the Ray, the Sun’s messenger,
touching his worshippers with life.? Or, indeed, who will fail to
find in the Indian’s prayers to Father Sun the same beauty and
aspiration that pervades the psalms of the heretic king?
The Sun-Dance of the Prairie tribes is their greatest and
most important ritual.®^ This is an annual festival, occupying,
usually, eight days, and it is undertaken in consequence of a
vow, sometimes for an escape from imminent death, especially
in battle; sometimes in hopes of success in war; sometimes as
the result of a woman’s promise to the Sun-God for the recov-
ery of the sick. In the main, the ceremonies are dramatic,
consisting of processions, symbolic dances, the recounting and
enactment of deeds of valour, and the fulfilment of vows of
various kinds undertaken during the year. The last and
central feature is the building of a great lodge, symbolic of
the home of man, in the centre of which is erected a pole, as
an emblem of earth and heaven, sometimes cruciform, some-
times forked at the top, and adorned with symbols typifying
the powers of the universe. Warriors under vow were for-
merly attached to this pole by ropes fastened to skewers in-
serted under the muscles of back and chest, and they danced
90
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
about it until the lacerated body was freed; but this and
other forms of sclf-tortui'c — a kind of atonement to the life-
giving Sun for the life he had spared — were not essential to
the ceremony, and in some tribes were never permitted;
among the Kiowa the more appearance of blood during the
ceremony was regarded as an ill omen.
Not only were vows of atonement and propitiation fulfilled
on the occasion of the Sun-Dance, but the dead of the year
were mourned, babes had their cars pierced by the medicine-
men, young men who had distinguished themselves were given
formal recognition, and tribal and intertribal affaii's and poli-
cies were discussed, for visiting tribes were often participants.
The central feature, however, was a kind of cosmic thanks-
giving, in which the people, through the Sun-Symbol, were
brought directly into relation with Father Sun. The prayer
of a chief directing this ceremony, in a recent performance
of it, gives its meaning perhaps more fully than could any
commentary:
“Great Sun Power! I am praying for my people that they
may be happy in the summer and that they may live through
the cold of winter. Many arc sick and in want. Pity them
and let them survive. Grant that they may live long and have
abundance. May we go through these ceremonies correctly,
as you taught our forefathers to do in the days that arc past.
If we make mistakes pity us. Help us. Mother Earth! for we
depend upon your goodness. Let there be rain to water the
prairies, that the grass may grow long and the berries be abun-
dant. 0 Morning Star! when you look down upon us, give us
peace and refreshing sleep. Great Spirit! bless our children,
friends, and visitors through a happy life. May our trails lie
straight and level before us. Let us live to be old. We are all
your children and ask these things with good hearts” (Mc-
Clintock, The Old North Trail, p. 297).
“We are all your children and ask these things with good
hearts”! Is not this the essence of religious faith?
PLATE XV n
Sioux drawings representing the Sun-Dance pole
and tortures c^Fdevotees (see p, 89). After / /
Plate XLVIIL See Note 61 (p, 307).
THE GREAT PLAINS
91
VIL MOTHER EARTH AND DAUGHTER CORN®-*
“H’Uraru, the Earth,” said the Pawnee priest, “is very-
near to man; we speak of her as Atira, Mother, because she
brings forth. From the Earth we get our food; we lie down
on her; wo live and walk on her; wc could not exist without her,
as wc could not breathe without Hoturu, the Winds, or grow
without Shakuru, the Sun.”
It is difficult to realize the deep veneration with which the
Indian looks upon his Mother the Earth. She is omniscient;
she knows all places and the acts of all men; hence, she is the
universal guide in all the walks of life. But she is also, and be-
fore all, the universal mother — she who brings forth all life,
and into whose body all life is returned after its appointed time,
to abide the day of its rebirth and rejuvenation. The concep-
tion was not limited to one part of the continent, but was
general. “The Sun is my father and the Earth is my mother;
on her bosom I will rest,” said Tecumsch to General Harrison;
and from a chieftain of the far West, the prophet Smohalla,
comes perhaps the i-nost eloquent expression of the sense of
Earth’s motherhood in Occidental literature. Urged to settle
his people in agriculture, he replied:
“You ask me to plow the ground! Shall I take a knife and
tear my mother’s bosom Then when I die she will not take me
to her bosom to rest.
“You ask me to dig for stone! Shall I dig under her skin for
her bones.? Then when I die I cannot enter her body to be
born again.
“You ask me to cut grass and make hay and sell It, and be
rich like white men! But how dare I cut off my mother’s hair?
“It is a bad law, and my people cannot obey it. I want
my people to stay with me here. All the dead men will come
to life again. Their spirits will come to their bodies again.
We must wait here in the homes of our fathers and be ready to
meet them in the bosom of our mother.”
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NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
On the Great Plains a remarkable ceremony, known to many
tribes, represented the union of Heaven and Earth and the
birth of Life. The fullest account of it is preserved from the
Pawnee, though the Sioux and Omaha tribes have ccmtribuled
many elements of the ritual. The ffako (sacra, or sacred ob-
jects, employed in the ceremony), as the Pawnee rite is called,
is a dramatic prayer for life and children, for health and pos-
terity. It is directed to the universal powers, to Father Heaven
and the celestial powers, and to Mother Earth and the terres-
trial powers, with the beautiful imagery of birds as the inter-
mediaries between earth and heaven.’*'* The central symbols of
the mystery — for mystery it is, in the full classical sense —
are the winged wands which represent the hlaglc, the highest
of the bird messengers; a plume of white featherdown, typi-
fying the llcecy clouds of heaven, and hence the winds and the
breath of life, “breathed down from abova; ” ; and an ear of
maize, symbol of “Mother Corn,” daugliter of Heaven and
Earth.
“The car of corn,” said the priest, “i-eprescnts the super-
natural power that dwells in IPUraru, the earth which brings
forth the food that sustains life; so we speak of the ear as
h’Atira, mother breathing forth life.® The power in the earth
which enables it to bring forth comes from above; for that
reason we paint the car of corn with blue. . . . The life of man
depends upon the Earth. Tirawa-atius works through it. The
kernel is planted within Mother Earth and she brings forth
the ear of corn, even as children are begotten and born of
women. . . . We give the cry of reverence to Mother Corn, she
who brings the promise of children, of strength, of life, of
plenty, and of peace.”
It is impossible to study the Hako ceremonial without being
struck by the many analogies which it affords for what is known
of the Eleusinian Mysteries. In the latter, as in the Hako, an
ear of corn was the supreme symbol, while the central drama
of both was the imaging of a sacred marriage of Heaven and
THE GREAT PLAINS
93
Earth and the birth of a Son, who symbolized the renewal of
life, physical and spiritual, in the participants. The Hako
did not, as the Eleusinian Mysteries did, convey a direct prom-
ise of life in a future world; but this is only a further step in
symbolism easy to take, and it is by no means beyond reason
to presume that the great religious mysteries of the ancients
took their origin from ceremonies of the type for which the
Indian rite furnishes us probably our purest and most primitive
example.
VIII. THE MORNING STAR^^
After the Sun the most important of the celestial divinities
among the Plains tribes is the Morning Star (Venus). The
Pawnee priest, Tahirussawichi, describes him thus:
“The Morning Star is one of the lesser powers. Life and
strength and fruitfulness are with the Morning Star. We are
reverent toward it. Our fathers performed sacred ceremonies
in its honor. The Morning Star is like a man; he is painted red
all over; that is the color of life. He is clad in leggings and a
robe is wrapped about him. On his head is a soft downy eagle’s
feather, painted red. This feather represents the soft, light
cloud that is high in the heavens, and the red is the touch of a
ray of the coming sun. The soft, downy feather is the symbol
of breath and life.”
This is the star for which the Pawnee watch, as the herald of
the sun, in the great ritual chant to the solar god. “The star
comes from a great distance, too far away for us to see the
place where it starts. At first we can hardly see it; we lose
sight of it, it is so far off ; then we see it again, for it is coming
steadily toward us all the time. We watch it approach; it
comes nearer and nearer; its light grows brighter and brighter.”
A hymn is sung to the star. “As we sing, the Morning Star
comes still nearer and now we see him standing there in the
heavens, a strong man shining brighter and brighter. The
soft plume in his hair moves with the breath of the new day.
-
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
94
and the ray of the sun touches it with color. As he stands there
so bright, he is bringing us strength and new life. As we look
upon him he grows less bright, he is receding, going back to his
dwelling place whence he came. We watch him vanishing, pa.ss-
ing out of our sight. He has left with us the gift of life which
Tirawa-atius sent him to bestow.”
Formerly the Skidi Pawnee were accustomed to sacrifice a
captive virgin to the Morning Star, her body being used
magically to fertilize the fields of maize. A similar association
of ideas, though on the plane of mythic poetry rather than on
that of barbarous rite, seems to underlie the Blackfoot legend
of Poi'a, “Scarfacc,” the Star Boy.
Long ago, according to this story, a maiden, F'cather Woman,
was sleeping in the grass beside her tipi. The Morning Star
loved her, and she became with child. Thenceforth she suf-
fered the disdain and ridicule of her tribesfolk, until one day,
as she went to the river for water, she met a young man who
proclaimed himself her husband, the Morning Star. “She saw
in his hair a yellow plume, and in his hand a juniper branch
with a spider web hanging from one end. He was tall and
straight and his hair was long and shining. His beautiful
clothes were of soft-tanned skins, and from them came a
fragrance of pine and sweet grass.” Morning Star placed the
feather in her hair and, giving her the juniper branch, directed
her to shut her eyes; she held the upper strand of the spider’s
web in her hand and placed her foot on the lower, and in a
moment she was transported to the sky. Morning Star led her
to the lodge of his parents, the Sun and the Moon; and there
she gave birth to a son, Star Boy (the planet Jupiter). The
Moon, her mother-in-law, gave her a root digger, saying,
“This should be used only by pure women. You can dig all
kinds of roots with it, but I warn you not to dig up the large
turnip growing near the home of Spider Man.” Curiosity
eventually got the better of caution; Feather Woman, with the
aid of two cranes, uprooted the forbidden turnip, and found
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95
that it covered a window in the sky looking down to the earth
she had left; at sight of the camp of her tribesfolk she became
sad with home-sickness, and the Sun, her husband’s father,
decreed that she must be banished from the sky, and be re-
turned to earth. Morning Star led her to the home of Spider
Man, whose web had drawn her to the sky, and, with a
“medicine-bonnet” upon her head, and her babe. Star Boy,
in her arms, she was lowered in an elk’s skin to earth. Here,
pining for her husband and the lost sky-land. Feather Woman
soon died, having first told her story to her tribesfolk. Her
son. Star Boy, grew up in poverty, and, because of a scar
upon his face, was named Poia, “Scarface.” When he became
a young man, he loved a chieftain’s daughter; but she re-
fused him because of his scar. Since a medicine-woman told
him that this could be removed only by the Sun-God himself,
Poia set out for the lodge of the solar deity, travelling west-
ward to the Pacific. For three days and three nights he lay
on the shore fasting and praying; on the fourth day he beheld
a bright trail leading across the water, and following it he
came to the lodge of the Sun. In the sky-world Poia killed
seven huge birds that had threatened the life of Morning
Star, and, as a reward, the Sun not only removed the scar
from Poia’s face, but also taught him the ritual of the Sun-
Dance and gave him raven feathers to wear as a sign that he
came from the Sun, besides a lover’s flute and a song which
would win the heart of the maid whom he loved. The Sun
then sent him back to earth — by way of the short path. Wolf
Trail (the Milky Way) — telling him to instruct the Black-
feet in the ritual of the dance. Afterward Poia returned to
the sky with the maiden of his choice.
“Morning Star,” said the narrator of this m3rth, “was given
to us as a sign to herald the coming of the Sun. . . . The ‘ Star
that stands still’ (North Star) is different from other stars,
because it never moves. All the other stars walk round it.
It is a hole in the sky, the same hole through which So-at-sa-ki
NORTH AMERICAN MYITIOLOGY
96
(Feather Woman) was first drawn up to the sky and then let
down again to earth. It is the hole through which she gazed upon
earth, after digging up the forbidden turnip. Its light is the
radiance from the home of the Sun God shining through. The
half circle of stars to the east (Northern Crown) is the lodge
of the Spider Man, and the five bright stars just beyond (in the
constellation of Hercules) ai-e his five fingers, with which he spun
the web, upon which Soatsaki was let down from the sky.”
Corona Borealis is an impoitant constellation in the mythic
lore of nearly all the tribes of the Plains. According to the
Pawnee, it is a circle of chiefs who are the guardians of the
mystic sign of Tirawaatius, and the Pawnee society of Rarite-
sharu (chiefs in charge of the rites given by Tirawa) paint their
faces with the blue lines representing the arc of heaven and the
path of descent, and wear upon their heads the featherdown
symbol of celestial life. “The members of this society do not
dance and sing; they talk quietly and try to be like the stars.”
Ursa Major and the Pleiades are other constellations con-
spicuous in Indian myth. The Assiniboin regard the seven
stars of Ursa Major as seven youths who were driven by pov-
erty to transform themselves, and who rose to heaven by means
of a spider’s web. For the Blackfeet also these stars are seven
brothers who have been pursued into the heavens by a huge
bear (an interesting reversal of the Eskimo story). The Man-
dan believed this constellation to be an ermine; some of the
Sioux held it to be a bier, followed by mourners. The Pleiades,
in Blackfoot legend, are the “lost children,” driven by poverty
to take refuge in the sky.
Everywhere stars were associated with the dead. The
Mandan considered them to be deceased men: when a child
is born, a star descends to earth in human form; at death, it
appears once more in the heavens as a star.'® A meteor was
frequently regarded as a forerunner of death; and the Milky
Way, as with the eastern tribes, is the path by which souls
ascend into heaven.
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97
IX. THE GODS OF THE ELEMENTS “
The typical dwelling of the Plains folk, whether tipi or earth
lodge, is circular in ground-plan, and, similarly, tribal encamp-
ments, especially for religious or ceremonial purposes, were
round in form. On such occasions the entrance to the lodge
faced the east, which was always the theoretic orientation of
the camp. A cross, with arms directed toward the four cardi-
nal points, and circumscribed by a circle, symbolizes the Plains
Indian’s conception of the physical world, and at the same time
represents his analysis of the elemental powers of Nature, and
hence of his analysis of the organization of human society,
which is so directly dependent upon these potencies.
The circle of the horizon, the floor of the lodge of heaven;
the circle of the tribal encampment; and the circular floor of
the lodge, the home of the family — these might be said to
typify so many concentrics, each a symbol of the universe, in
the Indian’s thought. In the Hako, the priest draws a circle
with his toe, within which circle he places featherdown. “The
circle represents a nest, and is drawn by the toe, because the
eagle builds its nest with its claws- Although we are imitating
the bird making its nest, there is another meaning to the ac-
tion; we are thinking of Tirawa making the world for the
people to live in. If you go on a high hill and look around, you
will see the sky touching the earth on every side, and within
this circular inclosure the people live. So the circles we have
made are not only nests, but they also represent the circle
Tirawa-atius has made for the dwelling place of all the people.
The circles also stand for the kinship group, the clan, and the
tribe.”
The tribal circle of the Omaha was divided into two groups, the
Sky-People occupying the northern, and the Earth-People the
southern, semi-circle. The Sky represented the masculine, the
Earth the feminine, element in nature; the human race was sup-
posed to be born of the union of Earth-People and Sky-People;
98 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
and in tlie tribe marriage was not customary within either of
these two groups, but only between members of Earth clans
and members of Sky clans. Each group also had its own chief-
tain and ceremonial, so that the whole tribe possessed a dual
organization, corresponding to the great dualism of nature.
J. O. Dorsey found a similar scheme prevalent throughout
the Siouan stock, and this scheme he generalized by the figure
of a quartered circle. The quarters of one half, which was the
side of peace, were devoted respectively to Earth and Water;
the quarters of the masculine, or Sky half, which was the side
of war, were sacred to the spirits of Fire and Air. Powers of
Earth, Water, Fire, and Air formed the great groups of the
elemental gods. The Dakota name for the Earth-Power is
Tunkan, “Boulder,”-^ and it should be remembered that
stones were not only the materials for the most important of
aboriginal implements, but that they played an almost magical
part in the venerated medicine rite of the sweat-bath lodge.
Tlic priests of the Pebble Society of the Omaha relate the fol-
lowing myth in this connexion: “At the beginning all things
were in the mind of Wakonda. All creatures, including man,
were spirits. They moved about in space between the earth
and the stars. They were seeking a place where they could
come into a bodily existence. They ascended to the sun, but
the sun was not fitted for their abode. They moved on to the
moon and found that it also was not fitted for their abode.
Then they descended to the earth. They saw it was covered
with water. They floated through the air to the north, the
east, the south, and the west, and found no dry land. They
were sorely grieved. Suddenly from the midst of the water up-
rose a great rock. It burst into flames and the waters floated
into the air in clouds. Dry land appeared; the grasses and the
trees grew. The hosts of spirits descended and became flesh
and blood, fed on the seeds of the grasses and the fruits of the
trees, and the land vibrated with their expressions of joy and
gratitude to Wakonda, the maker of all things.”
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99
The Water-Powers ® were divided into two classes, those of
the streams, which were masculine, and those of the sub-
terranean waters, which were feminine. According to the
Winnebago, the earth is upheld by the latter, which are some-
times represented as many-headed monsters — veritable levia-
thans. The Wind-Makers, occupying half the space devoted
to the Sky-Powers, were especially associated with the four
quarters whence the winds came, and with the animal gods or
Elders, who came from the quarters. An Omaha cosmogony
tells how, when the earth was covered with water and the
souls were seeking their dwelling, an Elk came, and with a
loud voice shouted to the four quarters, whereupon the four
winds, in response, blew aside the waters, and exposed the
rock which was the kernel of Earth. The tale of the diving of
the different animals for mud, to expand the earth, is added
to this legend.
Of the Fire-Powers, the Sun and the Thunderers or Thunder-
birds were of first importance. The position of the Sun in the
Prairie Indian’s lore has been stated. The Thunders were
even more important among the aborigines of the central
west than with their eastern cousins, perhaps because the elec-
tric storms of the Plains are so much more terrible and con-
spicuous. The Assiniboin regard the Thunder as “the voice of
the Great Spirit speaking from the clouds,” says De Smet;
and the Dakota, he adds, “pretend that Thunder is an enor-
mous bird, and that the muffled sound of the distant thunder
is caused by countless numbers of young birds! The great
bird, they say, gives the first sound, and the young ones re-
peat it: this is the cause of the reverberations. The Sioux de-
clare that the young thunders do all the mischief, like giddy
youth, who will not listen to good advice; but the old thunder,
or big bird, is wise and excellent, he never kills or injures any-
one.”
The Thunder was pre-eminently the power of destruction,
and, therefore, a tutelary of war.®® When the boy was initiated
lOO
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
into manhood, a lock of hair was cut from his crown by the
priest, and dedicated to the Thunder. The hair, it must be
borne in mind, was in many ways regarded by the Indian as a
man’s strength and life. Frequently a lock of the hair of a
dead relative was preserved, and if carried by a pregnant
woman it was thought to ensure the rebirth of the dead. When
the hair on the boy’s crown grew out once more, a special lock
was parted in a circle from the rest, and braided by itself.
Upon this lock war-honours were worn, and it was this that
was taken when the dead enemy was scalped. It was more than
a symbol; it was the magic vehicle of the vital strength of the
slain man.*’®
In few Indian rites is the relation of the elemental powers
to human society more impressively symbolized than in the
Omaha ceremony of tlie sacred pole.'’‘ According to the legend,
the tribe was tlircatened with disruption and was holding a
council to determine by what means it could be kept intact.
During this conference, a young hunter lost his way in the
forest, and in the night he came upon a luminous tree. He
made his way home and told his father, a chief of the tribe, of
his discovery, whereupon the old man said to the Council:
“My son has seen a wonderful tree. The Thunder birdvS come
and go upon this tree, making a trail of fire that leaves four
paths on the burnt grass that stretch toward the four Winds.
When the Thunder birds alight upon the tree it bursts into
flame and the fire mounts to the top. The tree stands burning,
but no one can see the fire except at night.” It was agreed that
this marvel was sent from Wakanda. The warriors, stripped
and painted, ran for the tree, and struck it as if it were an
enemy; and after it had been felled and brought back to the
camp, for four nights the chiefs sang the songs that had been
composed for it. A sacred tent, decked with symbols of the
sun, was made for the tree, which was trimmed and adorned.
They called it a human being, and fastened a scalp-lock to it
for hair. The tree, or pole, had keepers appointed for it, and
THE GREAT PLAINS
lOI
It became the symbol of tribal unity and authority — a true
palladium, which was carried on important excursions, and
for which an annual rite was Instituted, commemorating the
manner of Its discovery.
Perhaps the feeling of the Plains Indian for that great world
of nature which surrounds him may best be summed up in
the Blackfoot prayer to the Quarters, which Is recorded by
McClintock.®^ First, to the West: “Over there are the moun-
tains. May you see them as long as you live, for from them
you must receive your sweet pine as incense.” To the North:
“Strength will come from the North. May you look for many
years upon ‘the Star that never moves.’” To the East: “Old
age will come from below where lies the light of the Sun.” To
the South: “May the warm winds of the South bring you suc-
cess in securing food.”
CHAPTER VI
THE GREAT PLAINS
{Continued)
I. ATHAPASCAN COSMOGONIES^®
I N no portion of the American continent is intercourse of
tribe with tribe easier than on the Great Plains. Of natural
barriers there are none, and in the days of the aboriginal
hunter, when all the prairie nations spent a part of each year
in pursuit of the herds of game that crossed and rccrossed their
ill-defined hunting-grounds, it was inevitable that annually
there should be encounters of people with people, and even-
tually of ideas with ideas. It was on the Plains that the sign
language was developed and perfected, a mute lingua franca,
serving almost the explicitness of vocal speech. The funda-
mental ceremonials of a ceremonial race varied little from tribe
to tribe, and Indeed were often conveyed from one people to
another at the great intertribal gatherings, where feasting and
trading and the recounting of the deeds of heroes were the
order of the day. Loose confederacies were formed, and It was
sometimes the custom for friendly nations to exchange chil-
dren for a term that some might grow up in each nation ac-
quainted with the language of the other. Not infrequently
tribes or segments of tribes of quite distinct linguistic stocks
lived together in a more or less coherent nationality, sharing
the same territory and villages. Even in time of war there
were well recognized rules, forming a kind of chivalric code,
which obtained a general adherence; and one of the obvious
outcomes of Indian warfare was the constant replenishment of
tribal stocks with the blood of adopted captives.
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103
With all these sources of intermingling it was natural that
there should be interchange of stories, and indeed it is not un-
reasonable to suppose that the open country was the path
by which many of the tales found in both the extreme north
and the extreme south were transmitted from latitude to lati-
tude, while similarly there was here a meeting-ground for the
lore of the westward pressing tribes of the Forest Region and
the eastward intrusions of the Mountain and Desert stocks.
As a matter of fact, this meeting and commingling of myth is
just what we find on the Plains, perhaps nowhere better illus-
trated than in the field of cosmogony.
-
Even among the remote Athapascans of the north cosmo-
gonic myths are of diverse source. It is supposed that these
Indians came originally from the north-west, and it is, there-
fore, no matter of wonder that they know and tell legends of
the demiurgic Raven which form the characteristic cosmogony
of the Pacific Coast tribes. They are also acquainted with the
Forest Region tale of the deluge and of the animals that dived
for the kernel of soil from which the earth grew; and they tell,
likewise, the story known to the Eskimo, of the girl who bore
children to a dog, from whom mankind are descended, or who,
as in a Carrier version, became stars.^'^ According to this re-
cension, the girl was a virgin, who when her shame was dis-
covered, was abandoned to die; but she contrived to find food
for herself and her offspring, who were in the form of puppies.
One night, coming back to her abode, she saw the footprints of
children about the fireplace, and following this clue she re-
turned surreptitiously to the lodge on the next occasion, and
discovered her children in human form; she succeeded in de-
stroying the dog-dress of her three boys, but the girl-child
retransformed herself into a dog before her parent could inter-
fere. After this, the mother (who seems very clearly to be the
progenitress of all animal kinds, the Mother of Wild Life)
taught her boys to hunt the different animals, their sister,
the dog, aiding them in the chase; but one day brothers and
X — 9
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
104
sister pursued a herd of caribou up into the sky, where all
became stars, the Pursuers (Orion) and the Herd (Pleiades).”
The talc of the two boys who were followed by their mother’s
head seems to be a Great Plains version of the cosmogonic
stories of the Forest Region.®^ The mother of the boys was
decapitated by her husband for illicit intercourse with a ser-
pent; but the head remained alive and gave chase to the
children. With charms received from their father, the boys
protected themselves, first, by a mountain, but the head turned
itself into a wind and blew over it; second, by a heaven-
reaching thorn-bush, which sprang from a drop of blood drawn
from a wound in the head, but the head overleaped it; third,
by a wall of fire, but the head passed through it.®- Finally,
driven into the midst of a lake, the elder brother struck the
head with his knife, whereupon two water monsters emerged
and swallowed it. It is easy to sec in this pursuing head the
body of the cosmic Titaness, the Earth Goddess, overcoming
in turn earth, vegetation, and fire, and succumbing only to
that primeval flood upon which the earth rests; and it is inter-
esting to surmise in this legend the original of the gruesome
tales of cannibal heads, known to tribes of the greater portion
of North America.
A second part of the story tells of the adventures of the two
brothers,” one of whom is captured and held by a magician,
till he finally frees himself by proving his own greater magic;
the other is slain by water monsters, but restored by his brother,
although in the form of a wolf. The episode of the flood and
the diving animals also appears.®® All these themes are well
known in Algonquian myth. The stories of the journey of the
two young men to the village of souls, known as far as the
Gulf Region; the universal legend of the theft of fire; the
tradition of the creation of light; even the familiar South-
Western tale of the ascent of the ancestral Elders from the
under to the upper world, — each and every one is common
among the northern tribes. And perhaps nowhere in America
THE GREAT PLAINS
105
is there a more charming mythic conceit than that of the
Chipewyans of the Arctic Barren Lands, relative to the Ani-
mal Age: “At the beginning there were no people, only ani-
mals; still they resembled human beings, and they could
speak : when the animals could speak it was summer, and when
they lost the power of speaking winter followed.” Here in-
deed we have a picture of the primeval world: the stillness of
the dark Arctic winter, when even the animals were mute; the
loveliness of summer, musical and living with the multitu-
dinous voices of Nature.
II. SIOUAN COSMOGONIES IS
The Assiniboin, the most northerly Siouan tribe, have a form
of the story of the mother’s head, but their own tales of the
origins of things centre about the diving animals and the trick-
ster hero, Inktonmi, a Siouan cousin of Manabozho. Further
to the south the Mandan also possessed two cycles of cos-
mogonic myths. Apparently of southern provenance are the
legends of the storeyed universe: there were four storeys
below and four above the earth. Before the flood, men lived
in an underworld village, to which a grape-vine extended from
the world above. Up this, first the animals, then men, climbed,
until a very corpulent woman broke the vine. Next a flood
destroyed most of the human race. A Kiowa version of this
tale tells how the first people emerged from a hollow cotton-
wood log, until it came the turn of a pregnant woman, who'
was held fast — and this accounts for the small number of the
Kiowa tribe.
The second Mandan cycle evidently belongs to the more
properly Siouan version of the demiurgic pair. The Lord of
Life created the First Man, who formed the earth out of mud
brought up from the waters by a duck. Afterward the First
Man and the Lord of Life quarrelled, and divided the earth
between them. The Hidatsa believe that the Lord of Life,
io6 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
the Man-Who-Ncvcr-DicvS, lives in the Rocky Mountains; “
and they also say of the First Man, the Creator, that no one
made him, and that he is immortal. To the Old-Woman-Who-
Nevor-Dies,“ the Grandmother, who is none other than the
Earth, they ascribe a minor role in the creation; it was she who
gave them the “two kettles,” which are the tribal fetish, di-
recting that they be preserved in memory of the great waters
whence came all the animals dancing. When drought threat-
ens they hold a feast, ceremonially using the two kettles and
praying for rain. It seems altogether probable that these ves-
sels are the “bowls of earth and sky,” and so symbolize the
universe.
The Dakota tell the story of the drowning of the younger
brother of the First Man by the water monsters, and of his
resuscitation after they had been slain.'''-’ He was brought to
life, they say, by means of the swcat-batli, and it is not fanci-
ful to connect the cosmic forces with the symbolism of the
stones (earth) and steam (water) used in this rite.-’’ Indeed,
the Omaha make this symbolism definite. The idea of per-
manence, long life, and wisdom they typify by the stone;
“man’s restlessness, his questionings of fate, his destructive-
ness, arc frequently symbolized by the wolf”; and in myth
the wolf and the stone are the two demiurgic brothers — west-
ern duplicates of Flint and Sapling. One of the most inter-
esting of Omaha rituals is that of the Pebble Society, sung to
commemorate the great rock which Wakanda summoned from
the waters, at the beginning of the world, to be a home for the
animal souls that wandered about in primitive chaos (trans-
lated by Alice C. Fletcher, in 27 ARBE, p. 570) : —
Toward the coming of the Sun
There the people of every kind gathered.
And great animals of every kind.
Verily all gathered together, as well as people.
Insects also of every description.
Verily all gathered there together.
By what means or manner wc know not.
THE GREAT PLAINS 107
Verily, one alone of all these was greatest,
Inspiring to all minds,
The great white rock.
Standing and reaching as high as the heavens, enwrapped in mist,
Verily, as high as the heavens.
Thus my little ones shall speak of me.
As long as they shall travel in life’s path, thus shall they speak of me.
Such were the words, it has been said.
Then next in rank
Thou, male of the crane, stoodst with thy long beak
And thy neck, none like to it in length,
There with thy beak didst thou strike the earth.
This shall be the legend
Of the people of yore, the red people,
Thus my little ones shall speak of me.
Then next in rank stood the male gray wolf, whose cry,
Though uttered without effort, verily made the earth to tremble,
Even the stable earth to tremble.
Such shall be the legend of the people.
Then next in rank stood Hega, the buzzard, with his red neck.
Calmly he stood, his great wings spread, letting the heat of the sun
straighten his feathers.
Slowly he flapped his wings.
Then floated away, as though without effort.
Thus displaying a power often to be spoken of by the old men in
their teachings.
III. CADDOAN COSMOGONIES
Of the Caddoan stock the northerly Arikara were in close
association with the Hidatsa and the Mandan. Among them
it is natural to find again the story of the demiurgic pair —
^‘Wolf and Lucky Man,” as they name these heroes; but
the Arikara also have stories belonging to their own southerly
origin, especially legends of Mother Corn, the great goddess
of all the Caddoan tribes.^® It was Mother Corn who, with
the help of the animals, led the people from the under into
the upper world, after which she apportioned territories, and
io8 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
taught the use of implements and ceremonial rites. Previous
to their coming, the earth was inhabited by a race of people
“so strong that they were not afraid of anybody, but they did
not have good sense; they made fun of all the gods in heaven.”
This sounds curiously like the Greek myth of the race of Giants;
nor is the sequel unlike the Greek. “Nesaru looked down
upon them, and was angry. Nesaru said: ‘I made them
too strong. I will not keep them. They think that they arc
like myself. I shall destroy them, but I shall put away my
people that I like and that are smaller.’” The giants were
killed in a flood, while the animals and maize were preserved
in a cave. Eventually, from an car of maize which he had
raised in heaven, Nesaru created a woman. Mother Corn,
whom he sent into the underworld to deliver the people im-
prisoned there, and to lead them once more into the light of
day — a Descent into Hell, like that of Ishtar or PerseplK)ne
or many another Corn Goddess.
The Pawnee of Nebraska tell a more complicated tale of
first things, with a suggestively astrological motive under-
lying the myth.^'* In the beginning were Tirawa, Chief of
Tirawahut, the great circle of the heavens,” and Atira, his
spouse, the Sky-Vault. Around them sat the gods in council,
the place of each appointed by Tirawa. The latter spoke to
the gods, saying: “Each of you gods I am to station in the
heavens; and each of you shall receive certain powers from
me, for I am about to create people who shall be like myself.
They shall be under your care. I will give them your land to
live upon, and with your assistance they shall be cared for.”
Then he appointed the station of Sakuru, the Sun, in the cast,
to give light and warmth; and that of Pah, the Moon, in the
west, to illumine the night.^® Also, he allotted the stations of
the stars. To Bright Star, the evening star, he said, “You
shall stand in the west. You shall be known as Mother of all
things; for through you all beings shall be created.” To Great
Star, the morning star, he spake, “You shall stand in the
THE GREAT PLAINS 109
east. You shall be a warrior. Each time you drive the people
towards the west, see that none lag behind.” To the Star-That-
Does-Not-Move he appointed the north as station, and he
made him the star-chief of the skies. And in the south he
placed Spirit Star, “for you shall be seen only once in a while,
at a certain time of the year.” Four other stars he set over the
quartered regions, north-east and north-west, and south-east
and south-west, and commanding these four to move closer
to him, he said to them: “You four shall be known as the ones
who shall uphold the heavens. There you shall stand as long
as the heavens last, and, although your place is to hold the
heavens up, I also give you power to create people. You shall
give them different bundles, which shall be holy bundles.
Your powers will be known by the people, for you shall touch
the heavens with your hands, and your feet shall touch the
earth.”
After this, Tirawa said to Bright Star, the west star: “I
will send to you Clouds, Winds, Lightnings, and Thunders.
When you have received these gods, place them between you
and the Garden. When they stand by the Garden, they shall
turn into human beings. They shall have the downy feather
in their hair [symbol of the breath of life]. Each shall wear the
buffalo robe for his covering. Each shall have about his waist
a lariat of buffalo hair. Each shall also wear moccasins. Each
of them shall have the rattle in his right hand [symbol of the
garden of the Evening Star]. These four gods shall be the
ones who shall create all things.”
Then the Clouds gathered; the Winds blew; Lightnings and
Thunders entered the Clouds. When space was canopied,
Tirawa dropped a pebble into their midst, which was rolled
about in the thick Clouds. The storm passed, and a waste of
waters was revealed. Then to the Star-Gods of the World-
Quarters Tirawa gave war-clubs, bidding them to strike the
waters with them; and as they obeyed, the waters separated,
and the earth was made.
no NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
When all this had come to pass, Tirawa commanded the
Bright Star of the evening to tell the Star-Gods of the Quarters
to sing of the formation of the earth. As they sang, the ele-
mental gods, the Clouds and the Winds and the Lightnings
and the Thunders, again assembled, and from the might of
their storm earth was divided into hill and valley. Then again
Tirawa bade, through Bright Star, that the Star-Gods of the
Quarters should sing of timber and of vegetation, and again
there was a storm, and earth was given a dress of living green.
A third time they sang, and the waters of earth were cleansed
and sweetened and coursed in flowing streams. A fourth time
they sang, and all manner of seeds, which had been dropped
to earth, sprouted into life.
Now, at the decree of Tirawa, the Sun and the Moon were
united, and from their union was born a son; and the Morning
and the Evening Stars were united, and from them a daughter
was born. And these two, boy and girl, were placed upon the
earth, but as yet they had no understanding. Then Tirawa
again commanded: “Tell the four gods to sing about putting
life into the children. ... As the four gods rattled their
gourds, the Winds arose, the Clouds came up, the Lightnings
entered the Clouds. The Thunders also entered the Clouds.
The Clouds moved down upon the earth, and it rained upon
the two children. The Lightnings struck about them. The
Thunders roared. It seemed to awaken them. They under-
stood.”
To this pair a son was born, and then “they seemed to under-
stand all; that they must labor to feed the child and clothe
him. Before this time they had not cared anything about
clothing or food, nor for shelter.” Tirawa saw their needs, and
he sent the messenger gods to bear them gifts and to instruct
them. To the woman they gave seeds and the moisture to
fructify them; they bestowed upon her the lodge and the lodge
altar, the holy place; they presented her with the fireplace, and
they taught her the use of fire; the power of speech also was
THE GREAT PLAINS
III
granted her; and the space about the lodge was to be hers;
and the materials of the sacred pipes. To the man was given
man’s clothing and the insignia of the warrior: the war-club,
“to remind him that with war-clubs earth was divided from
the waters”; knowledge of paints, and the names of the ani-
mals; bow and arrows, and the pipes that should be sacred to
the gods. “As each star came over the land, the young man
went to the place where the Lightning had struck upon the
mountains.®* He found flint-stones with bows and arrows.
When the gods had sung the songs about giving these things
to these two people, the boy had seen the bow and arrows held
up by his father, the Sun.” **
After this. Bright Star came to the man in visions and
revealed to him the rites of sacrifice and the making of the
bundle of sacred objects which was to be hung up in the
lodge. Meanwhile the gods had created other people, and to
these also had been given bundles by the gods who had formed
them; but as yet they did not know the rites that were ap-
propriate to them. Then Bright Star said to the man: “Each
of these bundles contains a different kind of corn, given by the
gods. The Southwest people have the white corn; the North-
west people have the yellow corn; the Northeast people have
the black corn; the Southeast people have the red corn.”
She promised that one would be sent to reveal the rites of the
bundles. Thereupon Closed Man — for this was the chief’s
name — summoned the peoples from the four quarters, and
a man who had learned the rituals in a vision taught them the
songs and ceremonies. They made their camp in a circle, and
ranged the people in imitation of the stations of the stars;
and the priests performed a drama symbolizing the creation,
making movements over a bowl of water “to show the people
how the gods had struck the water when the land was divided
from the waters.”
Closed Man was the first chief. After he died, his skull was
placed upon a bundle; “for before he had died he had told the
II2
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
people that Tirawa had told him, through Bright Star, that
when he should die his skull should be placed upon the bundle,
so that his spirit should have power, and be ever present with
the Skidi people.”
-
This extraordinary myth offers a multitude of analogies, not
only with New-World, but also with Old-World cosmogonies.
There is in it not a little that is suggestive of the Biblical
Genesis, or of the time when the morning stars sang together
and cloud and thick darkness were earth’s swaddling-band.
The Star-Gods of the Quarters, whose feet touch earth and
whose hands uphold the heavens, are the very image of the
cosmic Titans of old Mediterranean lore, and of the Homeric
Strife, “who holdeth her head in the Heavens while her feet
tread the Earth.” In the earlier astronomical portion of the
legend there is much that is reminiscent of Plato’s account of
creation, in the Timaeus, with its apportionments of the heav-
ens among the stars and its delegation of the shaping of all
save the souls of men to the Demiurge and the Star-Gods.
Surely, there is sublimity in the Pawnee conception of Tirawa,
in his abode above the circle of the heavens, passing his com-
mands to the bright evening star, the Mother Star, mistress
of the spirit garden of the West; of the Stars of the Quarters
singing together their creative hymns; and of the Gods of the
Elements, amid turmoil of cloud and wind and thunder and
flame, shaping and fashioning the habitable globe, breathing
the breath of life into stream and field, into physical seed and
spiritual understanding, and striking the earth with the fires
of purification.
IV. THE SON OF THE SUNi»
The story of a woman of the primitive period ascending to
the sky-world; of her marriage with a celestial god, son of the
Sun Father; of her breaking a prohibition; and of her fall to
earth, where a boy, or twin boys, is born to her; and tales of
PLATE XVIII
Kiowa drawing, representing (upper) the Woman
who climbed to the Sky in pursuit of a Porcupine that
turned out to be Son of the Sun, and (lower) who
later fell to E^arth, after digging the forbidden root
(see p. 115). After jiRBR, Plate I.XVIL
THE GREAT PLAINS
113
the fu ture dee ds of the son of the sky-god_— all this is common,
in part or in whole, t6"‘mahy tribes and to all regions of the
American continent. Indeed, it has obvious affinities to world-
wide myths of a similar type, of which Jack and the Beanstalk
is the familiar example in English folk-lore.
The Iroquoian cosmogonic tale of the Titaness who is cast
down from heaven to the waters of primeval chaos is a part
of this mythic cycle, but it does not tell of the previous ascent
of the woman into the sky-world. The beautiful and poetic
Blackfoot tale of Poia, the son of the girl who married the
Morning Star, is a more complete version of the myth — or
perhaps a transformation of the legend, for here it is no longer,
as with the Iroquois, a cosmogony, but the tale of a culture
hero. In different tribes it shifts from one character to the
other — world origins and civilization origins — but in the
main its central event seems to be the bringing of a golden
treasure from the sky-world by a wonderful boy who becomes
a teacher of mankind — a son of the Sun bringing to earth a
knowledge of the Medicine of Heaven.
The Skidi Pawnee narrate the story almost exactly in its
Blackfoot form, although they do not tell of the poetical trans-
lation to and from the heavens by means of a spider’s web;
but the Ankara, in their version of the “Girl Who Married a
Star,” give an account of this journey, which is by climbing
an ever-growing tree that at last penetrates the sky-world —
a means known not only to Jack of beanstalk fame, but to
many another tale of the Old and the New Hemispheres.'*®
It is in this form that the' story is known to several tribes —
Arapaho, Crow, Kiowa, Assiniboin.**
The events of the legend, as told in the very perfect Ara-
paho version, begin with the sky-world family: “their tipi was
formed by the daylight, and the entrance-door was the sun.”
Here lived a Man and a Woman and their two boys — Sun and
Moon. In search of wives the youths go along Eagle River,
which runs east and west, the older brother. Sun, travelling
1 14 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
down the stream; the younger, Moon, in the opposite direction.
Sun takes for his wife a water animal, the Toad; but Moon
decides to marry a mortal woman, and when he sees two girls
in the field, he turns himself into a porcupine and climbs
a tree. One of the girls starts to follow the animal up the
tree, but it keeps ascending, and the tree continues growing.
Finally the sky is pierced, and Moon, resuming the form of a
young man, takes the girl to wife in the sky-world lodge. There
a son is born to her. Meanwhile the father of Sun and Moon
has presented his daughter-in-law with a digging stick, but
her husband forbids her to dig a certain withered plant. Out
of curiosity she disobeys and uncovers a hole through which
she looks down upon the camp circle of her people. She under-
takes to descend by means of a sinew rope, but just before
she reaches earth with her son. Moon throws a stone, called
Heated Stone, after her, saying, “I shall have to make her
return to me” — a remark which, the Indians declare, shows
that there is another place for dead people, the sky-world.
The woman is killed by the stone, but the boy is uninjured.
At first he is nourished from the breasts of his dead mother;
but afterward he is found and cared for by Old Woman Night,
who had come to the spot. “Well, well ! ” she says to him, “Are
you Little Star? I am so happy to meet you. This is the
central spot which everybody comes to. It is the terminus of
all trails from all directions. I have a little tipi down on the
north side of the river, and I want you to come with me. It
is only a short distance from here. Come on, grandchild, Little
Star.” The old woman made bow and arrows for Little Star,
and with these he slew a horned creature with blazing eyes
which proved to have been the husband of Night.’’® She trans-
formed the bow into a lance, and with this he began to kill
the serpents which infested the world. While he was sleeping
on the prairie, however, a snake entered his body and coiled
itself in his skull. All the flesh fell from him, but his bones
still held together, and “in this condition he gave his image to
THE GREAT PLAINS
IIS
the people as a cross.” Sense had not altogether deserted him;
he prayed for two days of torrential rain and two of intense
heat; and when these had passed the serpent thrust its panting
head out of his mouth, whereupon he pulled it forth, and was
restored to his living form. The reptile’s skin he affixed to his
lance, and thus equipped returned to the black lodge of Night,
where he became the morning star.
In other versions — Crow, Kiowa — the Sun, not the Moon,
is the celestial husband; and the porcupine, with his beautiful
quills, would seem to be more appropriately an embodiment
of the orb of day. The tabued plant, which the wife digs, ap-
pears as a constant feature in nearly every variant. That there
is close association with the buffalo is indicated by the fact
that a buffalo chip (dried dung of the buffalo) is substituted
in the Crow story, and that in the Kiowa the tabu is a plant
whose top had been bitten off by that animal. The Kiowa
version gives the interesting variation that the boy, who is
adopted in this instance by Spider Woman, the earth goddess,
is split into twins by a gaming wheel (a sun-symbol) which he
throws into the air. The story goes on with the drowning of
one of the twins by water monsters, while the other trans-
formed himself into “medicine,” and in this shape gave him-
self to the Kiowa as the pledge and guardian of their national
existence.
V. THE MYSTERY OF DEATH “
Why men die is a problem no less mysterious to the human
mind than is the coming of life. One account of the origin of
death, conimon to a number of Plains tribes, makes it the con-
sequence of an unfavourable chance at the beginning of the
world. As the Blackfeet tell it. Old Man and Old Woman
debated whether people should die. “People will never die,”
said Old Man. “Oh,” said Old Woman, “that will never do;
because, if people live always, there will be too many people
in the world.” “Well,” said Old Man, “we do not want to
ii6 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
die forever. We shall die for four days and then come to life
again.” “Oh, no,” said Old Woman, “it will b6 better to die
forever, so that we shall be sorry for each other.” Unable to
agree, they leave the matter to a sign: Old Man throws a buf-
falo chip into the water; if it sinks, men are to die. “Now, Old
Woman had great power, and she caused the chip to turn into
a stone, so it sank. So when we die, we die forever.” . . .
We must have death in order that we may pity one another!
— there is an elemental pathos in this simple motive, as in the
not dissimilar Eskimo parable of the Old Woman who chose
light and death rather than life amid darkness.
A tale of a different complexion, touched by the character-
istic astrological genius of the tribe, is the Pawnee story of
the origin of death.^^ Mankind had not yet been created when
Tirawa sent the giant Lightning to explore the earth. In his
sack — the tornado — given him by Bright Star, who has com-
mand of the elements. Lightning carried the constellations
which Morning Star is accustomed to drive before him; and,
after making the circuit of the earth. Lightning released the
stars, to encamp there in their celestial order. Here they
would have remained, but a certain star, called Fool-Coyote
(because he deceives the coyotes, which howl at him, thinking
him to be the morning star, whom he precedes), was jealous
of the power of Bright Star, and he placed upon the earth a
wolf, which stole the tornado-sack of Lightning. He released
the beings that were in the sack, but these, when they saw that
it was the wolf, and not their master Lightning, which had
freed them, slew the animal; and ever since earth has been the
abode of warfare and of death.
Another Pawnee myth, with the same astrological turn, tells
of the termination that is to come to all earthly life. Various
portents will precede: the moon will turn red and the sun will
die in the skies. The North Star is the power which is to pre-
side at the end of all things, as the Bright Star of evening was
the ruler when life began. The Morning Star, the messenger
THE GREAT PLAINS
117
of heaven, which revealed the mysteries of fate to the people,
said that in the beginning, at the first great council which ap-
portioned the star folk their stations, two of the people fell
ill. One of these was old, and one was young. They were
placed upon stretchers, carried by stars (Ursa Major and Ursa
Minor), and the two stretchers were tied to the North Star.
Now the South Star, the Spirit Star, or Star of Death, comes
higher and higher in the heavens, and nearer and nearer the
North Star, and when the time for the end of life draws nigh,
the Death Star will approach so close to the North Star that
it will capture the stars that bear the stretchers and cause
the death of the persons who are lying ill upon these stellar
couches. The North Star will then disappear and move away
and the South Star will take possession of earth and of its
people. “The command for the ending of all things will be
given by the North Star, and the South Star will carry out
the commands. Our people were made by the stars. When
the time comes for all things to end our people will turn into
small stars and will fly to the South Star, where they belong.”
Like other Indians, the Pawnee regard the Milky Way as the
path taken by the souls after death. The soul goes first to
the North Star, they say, which sets them upon the north end
of the celestial road, by which they proceed to the Spirit Star
of the south.
Yet not all the spirits of the dead go to the stars — at least,
not directly. For the Indian the earth is filled with ghostly
visitants, spirits of men and animals wandering through the
places which life had made familiar. One of the most grue-
some classes of these is formed by the Scalped Men. Men
slain and scalped in battle are regarded as not truly dead; they
become magic beings, dwelling in caves or haunting the wilds,
for shame prevents them from returning to their own people.
Their heads are bloody and their bodies mutilated, as left by
their enemies, and one horribly vivid Pawnee tale tells how
they address one another by names descriptive of the patches
Ii8 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
of hair still left upon their heads — “One-Hair, Forehead-
Hair, Hair-Back-of-the-Head, all of you come!”
The story in which this occurs is of a man who had lost wife
and son, and in his bereavement was wandering over the prai-
ries in quest of death. He was met by the Scalped Men of his
tribe, and these, taking pity upon him, implored Tirawa to
return the dead to the land of the living. The request was
granted with certain restrictions — dead and living were to
encamp for four days, side by side, without speaking to one
another; the bereaved father might speak to his son, but might
not touch him. The tribesfolk assembled in camp; they beheld
a huge dust approaching; the spirits of their departed friends
passed before them. But when the father saw his son among
the dead, he seized hold of him and hugged him, and in his
heart he said, “I will not let you go!” The people shrieked;
the dead disappeared; and death has continued upon carth.“
Not less deeply pathetic is another Pawnee talc on the Or-
pheus and Eurydice theme. A young man joined a war-party
in order to win ponies as a bridal fee for the girl of his desire.
When her lover no longer appeared, the maiden, not knowing
that he had gone to war, sickened and died. On the return of
the war-party, it was noised through the village that the young
brave had captured more ponies than any of the other men;
and when he arrived at his father’s lodge, his mother told him
the tribal gossip, but failed to mention the girl’s death. He
went to the spring where tlie maidens go for water, the meeting-
place of Indian lovers, but his sweetheart was not among them.
The next day his mother remarked that a girl of the tribe had
died during his absence, and then he knew that it was his love
who was dead. When he learned this, he called for meat and
a new pair of moccasins, and went forth in search of the girl’s
grave, for the people, following the buffalo, had moved from
the place in which she had died. He came to the spot where
the grave was and remained beside it for several days, weeping.
Then he went on to the empty village, where the people had
THE GREAT PLAINS
1 19
been when the girl died, for he saw smoke rising from one of the
earth lodges. He peeped in, and there he saw his beloved, to-
gether with the buffalo robes and other objects which had
been buried with her. As he stood gazing, the maiden said,
“You have been standing there a long time. Come into the
lodge, but do not come near me. Sit down near the entrance.”
Night after night he was allowed to return, each time coming a
little nearer to the girl, but never being permitted to touch
her. Finally, she told him that, if he would do in all things as
she said, he might be allowed to keep her. After this, invisible
dancers filled the lodge, each night becoming more visible,
until at last he saw himself surrounded by a group of spirits
of the girl’s relatives. The leader said to him, “Young man,
when you first started from the village where your people are
you began to cry. We knew what you were crying about.
You were poor in spirit because this girl had died. All of us
agreed that we would send the girl back. You can see her now,
but she is not real. You must be careful and not make her
angry or you will lose her. You have been a brave man to
stay with the girl when we came in, but this is the way we are.
You can not see us, but some time we can turn into people and
you can see us, though we are not real. We are spirits. There
is one thing you must do before the girl can stay with you.
We have smoked.” The feat that remained to be accomplished
was that, when her mortal relatives should return and approach
her grave with meat-offerings, he must be able to seize and hold
her in their presence. Four trials would be granted him; if
he failed in each essay, she would vanish forever. Thrice he
was thrown, and the girl escaped; the fourth time, with the
aid of her uncles, he succeeded in holding her, and she became
his wife. Only her mother seemed to be suspicious of her; the
old woman took her hoe, went out to her daughter’s grave,
and dug till she found the bones; but when she returned, the
girl said to her: “Mother, I know what you have done. You
do not believe that I am your daughter; but, mother, I am
X — 10
120 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
your d 3 .ughter. NIy body lies up there, but I cini hcic with
you. I am not real, and if you people do not always treat me
properly, I will suddenly disappear.”
The spirit bride gave birth to a son in due time, but the
child was never allowed to touch the ground, and the mother
never made moccasins for her husband. He had become a man
of renown and he wished to take another wife. The spirit
wife warned him not to do so, but he persisted. Eventually a
quarrel came, due to the jealousy of the new wife, and the
man struck his spirit wife. She said: “Do not strike me any
more, for you know what I told you. For one thing I am glad,
and that is I have a child. If I had remained in the Spirit
Land I should never have been allowed to have a child.
The child is mine. You do not love my child. ... I love my
child. When I am gone I shall take my child with me.” The
mother disappeared in a whirlwind, and the next morning the
child was found dead. The man, too, died of grief and remorse,
but the people buided him apart from the ghost wife’s grave.
VI. PROPHETS AND WONDER-WORKERS
In the legendary lore of all Indian tribes the part played by
wonder-workers in the affairs of men is the predominating
theme. Sometimes these are demiurgic beings, exercising and
evincing their might in the process of creation. Sometimes
they are magical animals, endowed with shape-shifting powers.
Sometimes they are human heroes who acquire wonderful po-
tencies through some special initiation granted them by the
Nature-Powers, and so become great prophets, or medicine-
men. Frequently such human heroes are of obscure origin
— in a very familiar type of story, a poor or an orphan boy
who passes from a place despised into one of prominence and
benefaction.
In these legends various motives are manifest — a feeling
for history and the truth of nature, love of the marvellous,
-
THE GREAT PLAINS
121
and moral allegory. G. A. Dorsey divides Pawnee myths into
four great classes: (i) Tales of the heavenly beings, regarded
as true, and having religious significance. (2) Tales of Ready-
to-Give,®“ the culture hero,®^ especially pertaining to the guar-
dian deity of the people in the matter of food-quests. (3)
Stories of wonder-deeds on earth, the majority of them being
concerned with the acquisition of “ medicine ’’-powers by some
individual. (4) Coyote tales, not regarded as true, but com-
monly pointing a moral. The coyote, among the Pawnee, usu-
ally appears as a low trickster, not as a magical transformer,
as in his more truly mythic embodiments; and apparently he
is with them a degraded m3rthological being, perhaps belong-
ing to an older stratum of belief than their present astronomi-
cal theology, perhaps borrowed frbm other tribal mythologies.
There is reason to believe, says Dorsey, that when the Pawnee
were still residents of Nebraska the word coyote was rarely
employed in these stories, and that the Wolf was the hero of
the Trickster tales, this Wolf being the truly mythological
being who was sent by the Wolf Star to steal the tornado-sack
of Lightning, and so to introduce death upon earth. If the
Wolf be indeed a kind of mythic embodiment of the tornado,
which yearly deals death on some portion of the Great Plains,
the Omaha description of “the male gray wolf, whose cry,
uttered without effort, verily made the earth to tremble,”
will be at once full of significance; and it will inevitably call
to mind the Icelandic dog, Garm, baying at world-destroying
Ragnarok, and the wolf, Fenrir, loosed to war upon the gods
of heaven.
Stories of the Trickster and Transformer are universal in
North America.^® In the eastern portion of the continent the
Algonquian Great Hare (and his degenerate doublet, “Brer
Rabbit”) is the conspicuous personage, though he sometimes
appears in human form, as in Glooscap and his kindred. On
the Great Plains, and westward to the Pacific, the Coyote is
the most common embodiment of this character. Sometimes
122 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
he appears as a true demiurge, sometimes as the typical ex-
ample for a well-shot moral or as the butt of satire and ridicule.
Occasionally, the Trickster and the Coyote appear as doubles,
as in some Arapaho stories of Nihanpan, vying with Coyote
in contests of trickery; the Assiniboin Tricksters, Inktonmi
and Sitconski, have similar encounters with the Coyote or the
Rabbit, and they are made heroes of tales which elsewhere have
the animals themselves as central figures. Nihanpan, Ink-
tonmi, Sitconski, and the Athapascan trickster, Estas, all
appear as heroes of cosmogonic events, though they are appar-
ently in no sense deities, but only mythic personages of the Age
of Giants and Titans, when animal-beings were earth’s rulers.
“Old Man” of the Blackfeet and “Old Man Coyote” of the
Crow tribe play the same rUe; so that everywhere among the
Plains tribes we seem to see a process of progressive anthro-
pomorphization of a primitive Wolf god, who was the demiur-
gic hero. Whether such a being was ever worshipped, as are
the heavenly gods in the cult of Sun and Stars, is a matter of
doubt.
Among other animals the buffalo, and among birds the eagle,
held places of first importance; but all known creatures were
regarded as having potencies worthy of veneration and de-
sirable of acquisition. The Pawnee spoke of the animal-
powers as Nahurak, whom they thought to be organized in
lodges. Of these lodges, Pahuk on the Platte River was re-
garded as the most important. According to a story of which
there are several variants, a chief slew his son — in one ver-
sion as a sacrifice to Tirawa, in other forms of the legend be-
cause he was jealous of the son’s medicine-powers — and cast
the body into the Platte. The corpse was observed by the King-
fisher, who informed the animals at Pahuk. When the body
floated down to their hill-side lodge, the animals took it, car-
ried it in by the vine-hidden entrance, and sent to the animals
of Nakiskat, the animal lodge to the west, to inquire whether
life should be restored to the body of the slain youth. The
THE GREAT PLAINS
123
animals of Nakiskat referred the matter to the animals of
Tsuraspako, still westward on the Platte, and these sent him
on to Kitsawitsak, southward in Kansas; there he was bidden
to go to Pahua and thence again to Pahuk, all the lodges
agreeing that the verdict should be left to the ruling Nahurak
of Pahuk. The latter decided to restore life to the body and to
send the youth back to his tribe instructed in the animal mys-
teries. There he became a great teacher and doctor, and taught
the people to give offerings to the Nahurak of Pahuk, which
was thenceforth a place of great sanctity.
A sojourn in the interior of a hill or a mountain which is
the lodge of Nature-Powers who instruct the comer in medic-
inal mysteries is a frequent episode, especially in stories ac-
counting for the origin of a certain cult or rite. The Cheyenne
legend of the introduction of the Sun-Dance is a tale of this
character.® In a time of famine a young medicine-man went
into the wilderness with a woman, the wife of a chief, journey-
ing until they came to a forest-clad mountain, beyond which
lay a sea of waters. The mountain opened, and they entered;
and Roaring Thunder, who talked to them from the top of the
mountain-peak, instructed them in the ritual of the dance.
“From henceforth, by following my teachings, you and your
children shall be blessed abundantly,” he said; “follow my
instructions accurately, and then, when you go forth from this
mountain, all of the heavenly bodies will move. The Roar-
ing Thunder will awaken them, the sun, moon, stars, and the
rain will bring forth fruits of all kinds, all the animals will
come forth behind you from this mountain, and they will fol-
low you home. Take this horned cap to wear when you perform
the ceremony that I have given you, and you will control the
buffalo and all other animals. Put the cap on as you go forth
from here and the earth will bless you.” Followed by herds of
buffalo, which lay down as they camped and marched as they
marched, they returned to their people, where the ritual was
performed; while the horned head-dress was preserved as a
124
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
sacred object and handed down in the tribe. In the Sun-Dance
ceremonial the altar is made of a buffalo skull, and it is often
by dragging buffalo skulls, attached by thongs to the muscles
of the back, that vows are fulfilled and penance is performed.
It is not difficult to see that the buffalo, as the great food ani-
mal of the Plains, is here the important personage, the gift of
the heavenly powers; and it would be interesting to theorize
on some similar origin for the bucrania which adorned the
places of sacrifice of classical peoples.
VII. MIGRATION-LEGENDS AND YEAR-COUNTS”
The historical sense had reached a certain development
among the Indians of the Plains as among those of the east.
Not only are migration-legends to be found, such as that of
the Creek, but pictographic records, like the Walum Olum of
the Delaware, are possessed by more than one western tribe.
Among the most interesting of these migration-traditions
— interesting because of their analogies with similar legends
of the civilized Mexican peoples — are the Cheyenne myths
reported by G. A. Dorsey. The tales begin with an origin
story,^® telling how, in the beginning, the Great Medicine
created the earth and the heavenly bodies; and, in the far
north, a beautiful country, an earthly Paradise where fruits
and game were plentiful, and where winter was unknown.
Here the first people lived on honey and fruits; they were
naked, and wandered about like the animals with whom they
were friends; they were never cold or hungry. There were
three races of these men: a hairy race; a white race, with hair
on their heads; and the Indians, with hair only on the top of
the head. The. hairy people went south, where the land was
barren, and after a time the Indians followed them; the white,
bearded men also departed, but none knew whither. Before
the red men left this beautiful country, the Great Medicine
blessed them and gave them that which seemed to awaken
PLATE XIX
Cheyenne drawing, representing the medicine-man
and his wife who brought back the Sun-Dance from
the Mountain of the Roaring Thunder (see p, 123),
After FCM ix, Plate XIV.
THE GREAT PLAINS 125
their dormant minds, for hitherto they had been without in-
telligence. They were taught to clothe their bodies with skins
and to make tools and weapons of flint.
The red men followed the hairy men to the south, where the
latter had become cave-dwellers. . These, however, were afraid
of the Indians, were few in number, and eventually disappeared.
Warned of a flood which was to cover the southland, the In-
dians returned to the north, to And that the bearded men
and some of the animals were gone from there. Nor were they
able, as before, to talk with the animals, but they tamed the
panther and bear and other beasts, teaching them to catch
game for the people. Afterward they went once more to the
south, where the flood had subsided, and where the land was
become beautiful and green. Another inundation came, how-
ever, and scattered them here and there in small bands, so
that they never again were united as one people. This deluge
laid the country waste, and to escape starvation they journeyed
north once more, only to And the lands there also barren.
After hundreds of years, the earth shook, and the high hills
sent forth fire and smoke; with the winter came floods, so that
all the red men had to dress in furs and live in caves, for the
winter was long and cold, and it destroyed all the trees. The
people were nearly starved when spring came; but the Great
Medicine gave them maize to plant and buffalo for meat, and
after that there were no more famines.
A second myth of the same people, which is in some de-
gree a doublet of the preceding, tells how the ancestors of
the Cheyenne dwelt in the far north, beyond a great body of
water. They were overpowered by an enemy and in danger
of becoming slaves, when a medicine-man among them, who
possessed a marvellous hoop and carried a long staff, led them
from the country. On the fourth night of their journey, they
saw before them a bright light, a little above the ground, and
this went in front of them as they advanced. When they came
to the water, the medicine-m-an told them that he was going
126
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
to lead them to a land where they should live forever. He sang
magic songs; the waters divided; and the people crossed on
dry land. The fire now disappeared, and when day came they
found themselves in a beautiful country.
In these events the missionary influence is obvious: the
Exodus of Israel is adapted to Cheyenne history. The story
goes on, however, with elements that seem truly aboriginal.
In the new country the Cheyenne were physically strong, but
mentally weak. They could carry off large animals on their
backs; they tamed the bear and the panther. Animals, too,
were huge. One variety was in the form of the cow, though
four times as large; it was tame by nature, and men used its
milk; twenty men and boys could get upon the back of one of
these creatures at a time. Another species resembled the horse,
but had horns and long, sharp teeth; this was a man-eater,
and could trail human beings through the rivers and tall grass
by scent; fortunately, beasts of this kind were few in number.
Most of the animals were destroyed in a great flood, after
which the Cheyenne who survived were strong in mind, but
weak in body.
It is tempting to see in these stories vague memories of
great physiographical changes, reaching back perhaps to the
glacial age, and to the period when the elephant kind was
abundant in North America, and the great sabre-tooth not
yet extinct. On the other hand, the northerly and southerly
wanderings of the tribe may well be historical, for it is alto-
gether in keeping with what is known of the drift of the tribal
stocks; naturally, such migrations in search of food would be
accompanied by changes in the conditions of life, in fauna
and in flora. The legend of the bearded white men in the far
north is interesting, both as recalling the Nahuatlan myths of
Quetzalcoatl, and for its suggested reminiscence of the North-
men: for may it not be possible that the hairy men of the
first races in the extreme north were the fur-clad Eskimo, and
that the bearded men, who came and disappeared, none knew
THE GREAT PLAINS
' 127
whither, were descendants of the Scandinavian colonizers of
Greenland?
Myths having to do with the gift of maize and of the buffalo
to mankind are of frequent occurrence. A Cheyenne tale re-
counts the adventures of two young men who entered a hill
by diving into a spring which gushed from it.^^ Inside they
found an old woman cooking buffalo meat and maize in
two separate pots; and they saw great herds of buffalo and
ponies and all manner of animals, as well as fields of growing
maize. The ancient crone ^ gave them the two bowls with
maize and meat, commanding them to feed all the tribe, last
of all an orphan boy and an orphan girl, the contents of
the vessels being undiminished until it came the turn of the
orphans, who emptied the dishes.®^ Buffalo arose from the
spring, while from the seed that the young men brought maize
was grown, this cereal being thereafter planted every year by
the Cheyenne. It is easy to see in the episode of the orphans
the symbol of plenty, for with wild tribes the lot of the
orphan is not secure: it is the orphan child that is sacrificed
in the hour of danger, the orphan who is left to starve in time
of famine, the orphan, too, who is sometimes led to a wonder-
ful career by the pitying powers of nature.®^
The Dakota divide their national history by the epochal de-
scent of the Woman-from-Heaven,'^ which, in the chronology
of Battiste Good (Wapoctanxi), a Brule, occurred in the year
901 A. D. All the tribes of the Dakota nation were assembled
in a great camp, when a beautiful woman appeared to two of
the young men, saying, ‘T came from Heaven to teach the
Dakotas how to live and what their future shall be. ... I
give you this pipe; keep it always.” Besides the pipe, she
bestowed upon them a package containing four grains of maize
— one white, one black, one yellow, one variegated — with
the words, “ I am a buffalo, the White Buffalo Cow. I will spill
my milk [the maize] all over the earth, that the people may
live.” She pointed to the North: “When you see a yellowish
128
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
cloud toward the north, that is my breath; rejoice at the sight
of it, for you shall soon see buffalo. Red is the blood of the
buffalo, and by that you shall live.” Pointing to the east,
symbolized by blue; “This pipe is related to the heavens, and
you shall live with it” — that is, the blue smoke of the pipe
is akin to the heavenly blue to which it ascends. Southward:
“Clouds of many colors may come up from the south, but look
at the pipe and the blue sky and know that the clouds will
soon pass away and all will become blue and clear again.”
Westward: “When it shall be blue in the west, know that it
is closely related to you through the pipe and the blue heavens,
and by that you shall grow rich. ... I am the White Buffalo
Cow; my milk is of four kinds; I spill it on the earth that you
may live by it.®^ You shall call me Grandmother. If you young
men will follow me over the hills you shall see my relatives.”
And with this revelation she disappeared."*®
Battiste Good’s chronology, or “ Cycles,” is one of the most
interesting pictographic records made by an Indian north of
Mexico. It recalls the Nahuatlan historical documents by
its cyclic character, although the numerical period, seventy
years, is different. Each cycle is represented by a circle,
surrounded by tipis, and containing emblems recalling note-
worthy events. Occurrences from 901, the year of the mythic
revelation, to 1700 are legendary, but from 1700 onward each
year is marked by an image emblematic of some event of an
historical character. The veracity of the record is proved in
part by the existence of other Dakotan “Winter-Counts” (so
called because the Dakota chiefly choose winter events to
mark their chronology) with corroborative statements. Simi-
lar pictographic chronologies have been discovered elsewhere,
those of the Kiowa showing a division of the year into sum-
mer and winter and even into moons, or months; but in no
other part of the American continent, north of Mexico, do we
find an antiquity of reference equal to that claimed for the
Siouan records.
PLATE XX
Kiowa calendar, painted on buckskin. The bars,
twenty-nine in number, represent the years from 1864
onward. The crescents, thirty-seven in number,
represent a lunar record, separate from the year-count.
I'he figures attached to these signs are symbols of the
events which mark the periods indicated. Compare,
for other forms of pictographic and mnemonic record,
Plates V, X, XXX, and Figure 2. After // JR BE,
Plate LXXX.
-
CHAPTER VII
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT
I. THE GREAT DIVIDE
W EST of the Great Plains, and extending almost the full
length of the continent, rises the long wall of the Rocky
Mountains — the Great Divide of North America. To the
east of this chain lie the open prairies, grassy and watered,
and beyond these the ancient forest lands, rich in vegetation.
To the west, extending to the coastal ranges which abruptly
overlook the Pacific, is a vast plateau, at its widest occupying
a full third of the continental breadth, the surface of which is
a continuous variegation of mountain and valley, desert and
oasis. To the north this plateau contracts in width, becom-
ing more continuously and densely mountainous as it narrows
in the high ranges and picturesque glaciers of the Canadian
Rockies. In the central region it opens out into broad inter-
montane valleys, like that of the Columbia, and eventually
expands into the semi-arid deserts of the south-west, the land
of mesa and canyon, wonderfully fertile where water is ob-
tainable, but mainly a waste given over to cactus and sage-
brush. Still farther south the elevated area contracts again
into the central plateau of Mexico, which becomes more fruit-
ful and fair as the Tropic of Cancer is passed, until it falls
away at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
This plateau region of North America is well-nigh as dis-
tinct ethnically as it is physiographically. In the mountains
of British Columbia and up into central Alaska its aborigi-
nals are Athapascan tribes, whose congeners hold the Barren
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NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Lands of the north and the Plains as far as Hudson’s Bay;
and in the south, in eastern New Mexico, in Arizona and south-
ern Texas, and on into Mexico itself, Athapascans are again
found in the Navaho and Apache peoples. Between these
limits, however — penetrating now westward to the Pacific,
now eastward into the Plains — is a succession of linguistic
stocks who are the characteristic autochthones of the moun-
tain and desert region, colouring with their beliefs and civil-
ization other intrusive tribes who have taken a habitation
beside them.
The northerly of these stocks is the Salishan, comprising
more than sixty tribes, of whom the Flathead and Pend
d’Oreille are perhaps best known. Southern British Columbia,
western Montana, and most of Washington, where they sur-
rounded Puget Sound and held the Pacific coast, is territory
which was once almost wholly Salishan; although, around the
headwaters of the Columbia, the Kutenai formed a distinct
stock consisting of a single tribe. Adjoining the Salish to the
south, and extending from the Columbia valley in Washington
and Oregon eastward to central Idaho, were the tribes of the
Shahaptian stock, made famous by the Nez Perce and their
great Chief Joseph. From central Oregon and Idaho, through
the deserts of Nevada, Utah, and southern California, east-
ward into the mountains of Wyoming and Colorado, and finally
out through the lower hills of New Mexico into the Texas
plains, were the tribes of the great Shoshonean family — Ban-
nock and Shoshoni in the north, Paiute and Ute in the central
belt, Hopi in Tusayan, and Comanche on the Great Plains. To
the south dwell the most characteristically desert peoples of
all — the Yuman Mohave and Cocopo of Arizona and Lower
California, the Pima and Papago of southern Arizona, whose
kindred extend far south into western Mexico. Another group,
culturally the most interesting of all, although territorially
the most limited, is formed by the Pueblo Indians — tribes of
various stocks forming little islets of race amid the engulfing
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT 131
Athapascans of Arizona and New Mexico — but to these a
separate chapter must be devoted.
The cultural characteristics of these peoples vary from zone
to zone, both in form and in originality. In the north, where
the headwaters of the Columbia and the Missouri approach
each other, and where the valleys of these rivers form easy
paths that lead down to the sea or out into the plains, it is to
be expected that we should find, as we do find, the civilization
of the Salish and the Shahaptian approximating in form and
idea to that of the neighbouring peoples of coast and prairie.
In the central region, where the mountain barriers on each
side are huge and the distances are immense, it is equally
natural to discover among the sparse and scattered Shosho-
nean peoples a comparatively isolated culture — inept and
crude, with that reliance upon roots and herbs to eke out
their meagre supply of animal food which has won for many of
them the epithet “Digger Indians.” In the more open south,
agriculture was practised in some degree by every people —
Yuman, Piman, Athapascan, and Pueblo — and civilization
was accordingly higher, the arts of pottery, basketry, and
weaving being developed into skilled industries, especially
among the more gifted tribes. Here, however, there is a sharp
line between the dwellers in well-built pueblos and the camp-
ers, content with grass hut or brush wikiup in summer and
earth-covered hogan in winter — a difference reflected in social
organization and in ideas.
The subsistence of the tribes of the mountain and desert
area had its own character. The range of the buffalo, nowhere
found in such numbers as on the Plains, was restricted to the
eastern portion of the region; and the deer kind and other
large animals, such as the bear and mountain goat, were not
sufficiently numerous to form an economic equivalent. Of
smaller animals the hare was perhaps most important, and
his dignity is reflected in his mythic rUes. Horses were early
used, and in recent times the Navaho have become accom-
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
132
plished herdsmen. The dog was, of course, ubiquitous. Vege-
table subsistence is abundant in places where water is suf-
ficient, but these are few, and hence it comes that a great
part of the religion, especially of the agricultural tribes of tlie
South-West, revolves about rain-making and the rain-bringing
powers.
II. THE GODS OF THE MOUNTAINS
The prairie tribes, and even tribes of the forest region, held
the western mountains in veneration, for to them the Rockies
were the limits of the known world. They regarded them as
the pillars of heaven, whose summits were the abode of mighty
beings, who spoke in the thunders and revealed themselves in
the lightning’s flash. There, too, on the Mountains of the
Setting Sun, many a tribe placed the Village of Souls, to reach
which the adventurous spirit must run a gauntlet of terrors
— snow-storm and torrent, shaking rock and perilous bridge;
only the valiant soul could pass these obstacles and arrive
at last in the land of plenty and verdure which lay beyond.
Again, the mountains were the seats of revelation; thither
went mighty medicine-men, the prophets of the nations, to
keep their solitary vigils, or to receive, in the bosom of these
lodges of the gods, instruction in the mysteries which were to
be the salvation of their people.
It is not extraordinary that the mountains exercised a like
fascination over the mythopoetic imaginations of the tribes
who inhabited their valleys or dwelt on the intermontane
plateau. There are many myths accounting for the formation
of natural wonders, and the wilds are peopled with monstrous
beings, oft-times reminiscent of European folk-lore.® Giants,
dwelling in stone houses or armoured with stone ' shirts, are
familiar figures, as are also eaters of human flesh, fang-mouthed
and huge-bellied. The cannibal’s wife, who warns and protects
her husband’s visitors, even to the point where they destroy
him, is a frequent theme; and the Ute tell stories of mortal
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT
133
men capturing bird-women hy stealing their bird-clothes while
they are bathing — exactly as the swan-maidens are taken in
Teutonic and Oriental folk-lore.^^ The home of these bird-
women is far away in the mountains, whither the human hero
makes his adventurous flight with magic feathers and a mantle
of invisibility.®^ In a Shoshonean tale, published by Powell,
Stone Shirt, the giant, slays Sikor, the crane, and carries
away the wife of the bird, but her babe is left behind and is
reared by his grandmother. One day a ghost appears and tells
the boy of the fate of his parents. He returns to his grand-
mother: “Grandmother, why have you lied to me about my
father and mother.?” — but she answers nothing, for she knows
that a ghost has told him all; and the boy sobs himself to sleep.
There a vision came to him, promising him vengeance, and he
resolved to enlist all nations in his enterprise; but first he com-
pelled his grandmother to cut him in twain with a magic
axe, which, when she had done, lo, there were two boys, whole
and beautiful, where before there had been only one.^ With
Wolf and Rattlesnake as their counsellors, the brothers set out
across the desert. From a never-failing cup they gave water
to their followers, when threatened with death from thirst;
and when hunger beset them, all were fed from the flesh of the
thousand-eyed antelope which was the watchman of Stone
Shirt, but which Rattlesnake, who had the power of making
himself invisible, approached and slew. In the form of doves
the brothers spied out the home of Stone Shirt, to which they
were taken by the gianPs daughters, to whom the two birds
came while the maidens bathed. In the form of mice, they
gnawed the bowstrings of the magic bows which the young
girls owned; and when Stone Shirt appeared, glorying in his
strength and fancied immunity, the Rattlesnake struck and
hurt him to the death. The two maidens, finding their
weapons useless, sang their death-song and danced their
death-dance, and passed away beside their father. The girls
were buried on the shore of the lake where their home had
134
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
been, but the bones of Stone Shirt were left to bleach as he
had left the bones of Sikor, the crane.
This myth surely recounts the conquests of the mountains
by the animal-powers, with the birds at their head. The
northern Shoshoni say that formerly there were numerous
Stone Giants (Dzoavits) dwelling in the hills; many of these
were killed by the Weasels, but most of them were destroyed
by birds who built fires which exterminated the race. In a
familiar western form of the Theft of Fire, it is a mountain
genius who is the fire’s jealous guardian, and from whom, by
craft and fleetness, the animals steal the precious element for
the succour of a cold and cheerless world.
It is not always the animals, however, who war against the
mountains. On the Columbia River, the canyon by which it
passes through the Cascade Range was at one time, the In-
dians say, bridged by rock, a veritable Bridge of the Gods;
but the snow-capped hills of the region engaged in war, hurl-
ing enormous boulders at one another, and one of these, thrown
by Mt. Hood at Mt. Adams, fell short of its mark, struck and
broke the bridge, and dammed the river where is now the great
cascade. A Salishan legend tells that this bridge was made
by Sahale, the creator, to unite the tribes of men who dwelt
on either side of the mountains. He stationed Loowit, the
witch, on guard at this bridge, where was the only fire in the
world,®^ but she, pitying the Indians, besought Sahale to per-
mit her to bestow upon them the gift of fire. This was done,
to the end that men’s lot was vastly bettered, and Sahale,
pleased with the result, transformed Loowit into a beautiful
maiden. But the wars brought on by the rivalry of two
chiefs, Klickitat and Wiyeast, for the hand of Loowit were so
disastrous to men that Sahale repented his act, broke down
the bridge, and, putting to death the lovers and their beloved,
reared over them, as memorials, the three great mountains
— over Loowit the height that is now St. Helens, over Wi-
yeast Mt. Hood, and over Klickitat Mt. Adams.
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT 135
Another great elevation of the vicinity, Mt. Tacoma, has
its own legends. Of its beautiful Paradise Valley, near the
snow-line, the Indians made a sanctuary, a place of refuge for
the pursued, upon attaining which none dared harm him, a
place of penance for the repentant, a place of vigil for the
seeker after visions. But beyond this valley, toward the moun-
tain-top, no Indian ventured. Long ago, they said, a man was
told in a dream that on the mountain’s top was great wealth
of shell money. He made his way thither, and under a great
rock, elk-shaped like the spirit that had directed him, he
found stores of treasure; but in his greed he took all, leaving
naught as an offering to the mountain. Then it, in its anger,
shook and smoked and belched forth fire; and the man, throw-
ing down his riches, fell insensible. When he awoke, he was at
his old camp in Saghalie Illahle, “the Land of Peace,” now
called Paradise Valley; but the time he had passed, instead
of a single day, had been years, and he was now an old man,
whose remaining life was passed as a counsellor of his tribe,
venerated because of his ascent of the divine mountain.®®
III. THE WORLD AND ITS DENIZENS
Men’s Ideas of the form of the world, in the pre-scientific
stage of thinking, are determined by the aspect of their natu-
ral environment: dwellers by the sea look upon the land as an
island floating like a raft on cosmic waters; plalns-folk believe
the earth to be a circle overcanopied by the tent of heaven;
mountaineers naturally regard the mountains as the pillars
of the firmament supporting the sky-roof over the habitable
valleys. The Thompson River Indians, of Salishan stock,
dwelling amid the dense mountains that stand between the
Fraser and Columbia rivers, consider the earth to be square,
says Teit,^^ the corners directed to the points of the compass.
It Is comparatively level toward the centre, but rises In
mountain chains at the outer borders, where, too, clouds and
X — II
136 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
mists ascend from the encircling lakes. The earth rises to-
ward the north; hence it grows colder as one travels in this
direction.
Long ago, these Indians say, earth was destitute of trees
and of many kinds of vegetation; there were no salmon nor
berries. The people of the time, though they had human form,
were really animals; gifted with magical powers.'*® Into the
world then came certain transformers, ‘‘® the greatest of whom
were the Coyote and the Old Man,®® and these were the beings
who put the earth in order, giving the mountains and valleys
their present aspects and transforming the wicked among the
ancient world denizens Into the animal shapes which are still
theirs; the descendants of the good among these pristine beings
are the Indians of today. Many of these creatures, too, were
transformed into rocks and boulders: on a certain mountain
three stone men may be seen sitting in a stone canoe; they are
three human beings who escaped thither when the deluge
overtook the world; Coyote alone survived this flood, for he
transformed himself into a piece of wood, and floated until
the waters subsided.
It was Coyote’s son, created by his father from quartz, who
climbed to the sky-world on a tree which he made to grow by
lifting his eyelids.^® In that realm he found all sorts of utensils
useful to man, but when he chose one, the others attacked him,
so that he cursed them all thenceforth to be servants of the
human race. He returned to the world of man by means of a
basket which Spider lowered for him; and on earth, in a series
of miracles, he distributed the food animals for the people to
live upon. The place where Coyote’s son came back from the
sky is the centre of the earth.
There is a world below the world of men as well as a world
above. In the world below the people are Ants, very active
and gay and fond of the game of lacrosse. On a certain
day one of two brothers disappeared; the remaining brother
searched far and wide, but could find no trace of him. Now the
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT
137
Ants had stolen him, and had carried him away to the under-
world, where he played with them at lacrosse. But one day,
as he was in the midst of a game, he began to weep, and the
Ants said that some one must have struck him with a lacrosse
stick. “No! Nobody struck me,” he answered. “I am sorrow-
ful because while I was playing a tear fell on my hand. It was
my brother’s tear from the upper world, and I know by it
that he is searching for me and weeping.” Then the Ants in
pity sent a messenger to the upper world to tell the bereaved
one that his brother was well and happy in the underworld.
“How can I see my brother.^” he asked. “I must not tell you,”
replied the Ant. “Go to the Spider, and he may tell you.”
But the Spider said, “ I cannot let you down, as my thread is
too weak. Go to the Crow.” The Crow answered, “I will not
tell you with my mouth, but I will tell you in a dream”;
and in the vision he was told to lift the stone over the fireplace
in his lodge, and there would be the entrance to the lower
world. He was to close his eyes, leap downward, and, when
he alighted, jump again. Four times he was to leap with closed
eyes. The bereaved brother did so, and the fourth jump
brought him to the lowest of the worlds, where he was happy
with his brother. This myth presents analogies not only
with the Navaho conception of an ant-infested series of under-
worlds, but far to the south, in Central America, with the Cak-
chiquel legend of the two brothers who played at ball with the
powers of the underworld; ^ and again, on a world canvas,
with the myriad tales of the bereaved one, god or mortal,
seeking the ghost of his beloved in gloomy Hades.®®
These same Indians tell a story that seems almost an echo
of the Greek tale of Halcyone or of Tereus lamenting the lost
Itys.* A certain hunter, they say, commanded his sister never
to eat venison while he was on the hunt, but she disobeyed, and
he struck her. In chagrin she transformed herself into a golden
plover and flew away, while he, since he really loved his sister,
began to weep and bemoan his fate, until he, too, became
-
138 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
a bird, crying disconsolately, “Na xlentcetca,” — ‘‘Oh, my
younger sister!”
Like the southern tribes, the Salish tell of a time when the
Sun was a man-slayer, nearer to earth than now.^^ Across a
bridge of fog an unlucky gambler made his way to the Sun’s
house, where the Sun’s son concealed him from his cannibal
fatherd® “Mum, mum, mum! There must be a man here,”
said the Sun; but his son persuaded him that there was none,
and sent the gambler back to earth, burdened with riches.
The Thunderbird is not so huge as the bird of the Plains
tribes; he is in fact a small, red-plumaged creature which shoots
arrows from his wing as from a bow, the rebound of the wing
making the thunder, while the twinkling of his eyes is the
lightning; the large black stones found in the country are
the Thunder’s arrows.®^ The winds arc people, dwelling north
and south; some describe the wind as a man with a large
head and a body thin and light, fluttering above the ground.
Long ago the South-Wind People gave a daughter in marriage
to the North, but their babe was thrown into the water by the
bride’s brother, whose southern warmth was unable to endure
the little one’s colder nature; and the child became ice float-
ing down the river. Where the powerful Chinook wind blows,
capable of transforming the temperature from winter to sum-
mer in a few hours, the Indians tell of a great struggle, a
wrestling-match of long ago, in which five brothers of the
Warm-Wind People were defeated and decapitated by the
Cold- Wind Brothers; but the son of one of the Warm- Wind
Brothers grew up to avenge his uncles, and defeated the Cold-
Wind Brothers, allowing only one to live, and that with re-
stricted powers. Both the stories — of the north marrying the
south and of the wrestling winds, or seasons — are found far
east among the Algonquians and Iroquois; but the allegory is
too natural to necessitate any theory of borrowing — any more
than we might suppose the bodiless cherubs of the old Italian
painters to be akin to the Salish wind-people.®®
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT
139
IV. SHAHAPTIAN AND SHOSHONEAN WORLD-SHAPERS
The Nez Perce are the most important tribe of the Sha-
haptian stock. In the primeval age, they say,^^ there was a
monster in what is now central Idaho whose breath was so
powerful that it inhaled the winds, the grass, the trees, and dif-
ferent animals, drawing them to destruction. The Coyote, who
was the most powerful being of the time, counselled by the Fox,
decided to force an entrance into this horrible creature, and
there he found the emaciated people, their life being slowly
drawn out of them, chill and insensible. He kindled a fire
from the fat in the monster’s vitals, revived the victims, and
then, with the knives with which he had provided himself,
cut their way out into the sunlight. From the different parts
of the body of the hideous being he created the tribes of
men, last of all making the Nez Perce from its blood, mingled
with water. Here is another world-wide myth, the tale of
the hero, swallowed by the monster, making his way again to
light; though in this Nez Perce version it seems to be a true
cosmogony, the monster being the world-giant from whose
body all life emerges.
The Shoshoni, or Snake, who border upon the Nez Perce,
regard the firmament as a dome of Ice, against which a great
serpent, who is none other than the rainbow, rubs his back.®®
From the friction thus produced particles of ice are ground off,
which in winter fall to earth as snow, while in summer they
melt into rain. Thunder they do not ascribe to birds, but to
the howling of Coyote, or, some say, to a celestial mouse run-
ning through the clouds.®* A great bird they know, Nunye-
nunc, which carries off men, like the roc of Arabian tales,
but he is not connected with the thunder. Like neighbouring
tribes, they tell of a time when the sun was close to the earth,
killing men with its heat. The Hare was sent to slay it, and he
shattered the sun into myriad fragments; but these set the
world ablaze, and It was not until the Hare’s eyes burst, and a
140
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
flood of tears issued forth, that the conflagration was quenched.
Thereafter the sun was conquered, and its course regulated.^®
The tale of the theft of fire recurs in many forms.®^ The fa-
miliar type is that in which the flame is guarded by its first
owners in some mountain lodge, until the tribes of animals who
dwell in cold and gloom decide to steal it. Entrance is gained
to the home of the guardians by craft, and a bit of the fire is
smuggled out under the coat or blanket of the thief. He is
discovered and pursued by the owners of the flame, but suc-
ceeds in passing it on to another animal, which in turn gives
it to another, and this one to yet another, until it is distributed
in all nature, or, perhaps, hidden in trees or stones. A Sho-
shoni version makes the great animal hero of this region, the
Coyote, the thief. With the aid of the Eagle he steals the fire
from its guardian, the Crane. Blackbird and Rock-Squirrel
are the animals who carry the flame farther, while Jack-Rabbit
revives the fallen fire-carriers. The Thompson River Indians
make the Beaver the assistant of the Eagle in the theft; and
they also tell a story of the Pandora type, of a man who
guarded fire and water in two boxes till an Elk, out of curios-
ity, opened the receptacles and set the elements free. A Nez
Perce variant also makes the Beaver the thief; the Pines were
the fire’s first guardians, but the Beaver stole a live coal, hid
it in his breast, and distributed it to willows and birches and
other trees which as yet did not possess it; and it is from these
woods that the Indians now kindle fire by rubbing.
Perhaps the most dramatic fire-myth of all is the elaborate
Ute version, in which Coyote is again the hero. It was in the
age when Coyote was chief, but when the animals had no fire,
though the rocks sometimes got hot. Once a small piece of
burnt rush, borne by the winds, was discovered by Coyote,
and then he knew that there was fire. He made for himself
a head-dress of bark fibre, summoned the animals in council,
and dispatched the birds as scouts to discover the flame coun-
try. The Humming-Bird descried it; and headed by Coyote,
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT
141
they made a visit to the fire-people, who entertained them with
dance and feast. As they danced, Coyote came nearer and
nearer to the flame, took off his bark wig, and with it seized
the fire. Then all fled, pursued by the enraged guardians.
Coyote passed the fire to Eagle, Eagle to Humming-Bird,
thence to Hawk-Moth, to Chicken-Hawk, to Humming-Bird
again, and once more to Coyote, who, nearly caught, concealed
himself in a cavern where he nourished the one little spark
that remained alive. The disappointed fire-people caused rain
and snow, which filled the valleys with water; but directed by
the Rabbit, Coyote discovered a cave containing dry sage-
brush. Here he took a piece of the dry sage-brush, bored a
hole in it, and filled it with coals. With this under his belt
he returned home and summoned the people who were left;
then he took the stick, made a hole in it with an arrow-point,
and whittled a piece of hard greasewood. After this h.e bored
the sage-brush with the greasewood, gathered the borings, and
put them in dry grass; blowing upon this he soon had a fire.
“This dry pine-nut will be burned hereafter,” he said. “Dry
cedar will also be burned. Take fire into all the tents. I shall
throw away the rocks. There will be fire in every house.”
V. COYOTE «
The animal-powers bulk large in the myths of the tribes of
the Mountain and Desert region. Doubtless in their religion,
apart from myth, the animal-powers are secondary; the Sho-
shoni, says De Smet, swear by the Sun, by Fire, and by the
Earth, and what men swear by we may be reasonably sure
marks their intensest convictions. The ritual of the calumet,
directed to the four quarters, to heaven, and to earth, is fa-
miliar here as elsewhere among the Red Men; and there is
not wanting evidence of the same veneration of a “Great
Spirit” which is so nearly universal in America.® Even in
myth there is a considerable degree of anthropomorphism.
142 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
The Transformer is not always an animal, but is often the
“Old One” or “Old Man,” the Ancient who is the true cre-
ator.®® Other manlike beings, good and evil, hold or have
held the rulership of certain provinces of nature; and in the
Age of Animals, before men were, the beasts themselves are
said to have had human form: their present shapes were im-
posed upon them by the Transformers. Nevertheless, they
were truly animals, in nature and disposition, and the heroic
age of Indian myth is the period of their deeds.
Among all these creatures Coyote is chief. It is difficult to
obtain a clear conception of the part which Coyote plays in
the Indian’s imagination. The animal itself, the prairie wolf,
is small and cowardly, the least imposing of the wolf kind.
In multitudes of stories he is represented as contemptible —
deceitful, greedy, bestial, with an erotic mania that leads him
even to. incest, often outwitted by the animals whom he en-
deavours to trick, without gratitude to those that help him;
and yet, with all this, he is shown as a mighty magician, re-
ducing the world to order and helping man with innumerable
benefactions, perhaps less the result of his intention than the
indirect outcome of his own efforts to satisfy his selfish appe-
tite. It is impossible to regard such a being as a divinity, even
among those tribes who make him the great demiurge; it is
equally out of the question to regard him as a hero, for his
character abuses even savage morals. In general he resem-
bles the Devil of mediaeval lore more than perhaps any other
being — the same combination of craft and selfishness, often
defeating its own ends, of magic powers and supernatural
alliances. The light in which the Indians themselves regard
him may best be indicated by the statement made to Teit
by an old Shuswap: “When I was a boy, very many stories
were told about the Old One or Chief, who travelled over the
country teaching people, and putting things to rights. Many
wonderful tales were related of him; but the men who told
these stories are now all dead, and most of the ‘Old One’
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT
143
tales have been forgotten. The majority of the Coyote tales
have survived, however, and are often told yet; for they are
funny, and children like to hear them. Formerly Coyote sto-
ries were probably commonest of all. Long before the arrival
of the first white miners, a Hudson Bay half-breed told the
Shuswap that after a time strange men would come among
them, wearing black robes (the priests). He advised them not
to listen to these men, for although they were possessed of much
magic and did some good, still they did more evil. They were
descendants of the Coyote, and like him, although very pow-
erful, they were also very foolish and told many lies. They
were simply the Coyote returning to earth in another form.”
Coyote stories have a wide distribution. They are told by
Athapascans in the north and in the south, and by men of the
stocks that lie between, from the prairies to the western coast.
Their eastern counterparts are the tales of the Great Hare;
but the two beings. Hare and Coyote, appear together in
many stories, often as contestants, and the Hare, or Rabbit,
is an important mythic being among the Shoshonean Ute as
well as among the Algonquian Chippewa. Nevertheless, in
the west it is Coyote who holds the first and important place
among the animal-powers; and it may reasonably be assumed
that his heroship is a creation of the plateau region.
Like the Hare, Coyote is frequently represented as having
a close associate, or helper. Sometimes this is a relative, as
Coyote’s son; sometimes another animal, especially the Fox;
sometimes it is the Wolf, whose character is, on the whole,
more dignified and respectable. A most interesting Shoshonean
myth, published by Powell, tells how Wolf and his brother
debated the lot of mortals. The younger of the pair said:
“Brother, how shall these people obtain their food? Let us
devise some good plan for them. I was thinking about it all
night, but could not see what would be best, and when the
dawn came into the sky I went to a mountain and sat on its
summit, and thought a long time; and now I can tell you a good
144
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
plan by which they can live. Listen to your younger brother.
Look at these pine trees; their nuts are sweet; and there on
the plain you see the sunflower, bearing many seeds — they will
be good for the nation. Let them have all these things for their
food, and when they have gathered a store they shall put them
in the ground, or hide them in the rocks, and when they re-
turn they shall find abundance, and having taken of them as
they need, shall go on, and yet when they return a second time
there shall still be plenty; and though they return many times,
as long as they live the store shall never fail; and thus they
shall be supplied with abundance of food without toil.” “Not
so,” said the elder brother, “for then will the people, idle and
worthless, and having no labor to perform, engage in quarrels,
and fighting will ensue, and they will destroy each other, and
the people will be lost to the earth; they must work for all they
receive.” Then the younger brother went away grieving, but
the next day he came with the proposition that, though the
people must work for their food, their thirst should be daily
quenched with honey-dew from heaven. This, too, the elder
brother denied; and again the younger departed in sorrow.
But he came to the Wolf, his brother, a third time; “My
brother, your words are wise; let the women gather the honey-
dew with much toil, by beating the reeds with flails. Brother,
when a man or a woman or a boy or a girl, or a little one dies,
where shall he go ? I have thought all night about this, and when
the dawn came into the sky I sat on the top of the mountain
and did think. Let me tell you what to do ; When a man dies,
send him back when the morning returns, and then will all
his friends rejoice.” “Not so,” said the elder; “the dead shall
return no more.” Then the younger went away sorrowing.
But one day he beheld his brother’s son at play, and with an
arrow slew him; and when Wolf, the father, sought his boy in
anguish, his younger brother, the Coyote, said to him: “You
made the law that the dead shall never return. I am glad that
you are the first to suffer.” “ In such a tale as this, it is self-
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT
H5
evident that we are hearing, not of heroes of romance, but of
fate-giving divinities; and it is not far to go back in imagina-
tion to a time when the Wolf was a great tribal god.
VI. SPIRITS, GHOSTS, AND BOGIES
Giants, dwarfs, talking animals, ogre-like cannibals, many-
headed water monsters, man-stealing rocs, sky-serpents, and
desert witches are all forms which, in the jargon of the north-
west, are regarded as tamanos, or powerful, though they are
neither gods nor spirits, and, indeed, may be destroyed by an
adroit and bold warrior. These beings must be put in the
general class of bogies, and, though one is tempted to see, es-
pecially in the prevalence and ferocity of cannibal tales, some
reminiscence of former practices or experiences, there is prob-
ably nothing more definite behind them than the universal
fancy of mankind.
To a somewhat different category belong the tutelaries, or
daemons attached as guardians to individuals, and the re-
sidua of once-living beings which correspond to the European’s
conceptions of ghosts and souls. Both of these classes of beings
are related to visionary experience. The Indian’s tutelary ^ is
commonly revealed to him in a fast-induced vision, especially
in the period of pubescence; from the nature of the revelation
comes his own conception of himself — vision of a weapon or a
scalp will mean that he is to be a warrior, of a game-animal
that he will succeed in the chase, of a ghostly being that he will
be a medicine-man of renown; and from it he fashions an image
or fabricates a bundle which is to be his personal and potent
medicine; sometimes, he even derives his name — the secret
name, which he may reveal only after some exploit has jus-
tified it — from the same source. Similarly, ghosts and their
kind are likeliest seen in the course of spirit-journeys, in trance
or dream; or, if beheld by the eyes of flesh, they may be dis-
pelled by the taunt, “Thou art only a ghost! Get thee gone.”
146 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
On the other hand, a ghost that is feared may be a fatal an-
tagonist.
Ghosts and souls are distinct. In several tribes ghosts are
regarded as the shadows of souls; they dress and appear like
the man himself. Souls may make journeys from the living
body and return again; in the case of shamans they may reach
the land of souls itself, and still come back. Souls of the dead
may be reincarnated in human bodies; usually this is in their
own families; some tribes say that only children are so reborn.
Again, souls are frequently regarded as manikins, a few inches
high — a conception found all over the earth ; and the noises
of the spirit-world, especially the voices of the shades, are thin
and shrill or like the crying of a child.®®
Ghosts, as distinguished from souls or spirits, are of a more
substantial character.^® They are wraiths of the dead, but they
assume material forms, and at times enter into human rela-
tions with living people, even marriage and parentage. Often
the ghost is detected as such only when his body is seen trans-
parent, with the skeleton revealed — and we are reminded of
the Eskimo ghosts, men when beheld face to face, but skeletons
when perceived from behind. Reminiscent of another Eskimo
idea, the Cannibal Babe, is the Montana legend of the Weep-
ing Child.^® A traveller passing a certain place would hear an
infant crying; going thither, he would find the babe and take
it in his arms and give it his finger to quiet it; but the child
would suck all the flesh from his bones, so that a great pile of
skeletons marked its monstrous lair. The Klickitat, a Shahap-
tian tribe of the lower Columbia, have a story of the union of
a mortal and a ghost curiously like the Pawnee tale of “The
Man who Married a Spirit.” The Klickitat buried their dead
on islands of the river, and it was here that the body of a young
chief was carried. But neither his soul, on the isle of the dead,
nor the mind of his beloved, who was with her people, could
forget one another, and so he came to her in a vision and called
her to him. At night her father took her in a canoe to the
-
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT
147
isle and left her with the dead. There she was conducted to the
dance-house of the spirits, and found her lover more beautiful
and strong than ever he was upon earth. When the sun rose,
however, she awoke with horror to find herself surrounded hj
the hideous remains of the dead, while her body was clasped
by the skeleton arm of her lover. Screaming she ran to the
water’s edge and paddled across the river to her home. But
she was not allowed to remain, for the fear of the departed was
now upon the tribe; and again she was sent back, and once
more passed a night of happiness with the dead. In the course
of time a child was born to her, more beautiful than any mor-
tal. The grandmother was summoned, but was told that
she must not look upon the child till after the tenth day; un-
able to restrain her curiosity, she stole a look at the sleeping
babe, whereupon it died. Thenceforth, the spirit-people de-
creed, the dead should nevermore return, nor hold intercourse
with the living.®®
The path from the land of the living to the land of the dead
is variously described by the different tribes. Generally it lies
westward, toward the setting sun, or downward, beneath the
earth. Often it is a journey perilous, with storms and trials
to be faced, narrow bridges and yawning chasms to be crossed
— a hard way for the ill-prepared soul. Teit has given us a
full account — of which the following is a paraphrase — of
the road to the soul’s world, as conceived by the Thompson
River tribes ® — a description interesting for its analogies to
the classical Elysium, lying beyond St)rx, and the three judges
of the dead :
The country of the souls is underneath us, toward the sun-
set; the trail leads through a dim twilight. Tracks of the people
who last went over it, and of their dogs, are visible. The path
winds along until it meets another road which is a short cut
used by the shamans when trying to intercept a departed soul.
The trail now becomes much straighter and smoother, and is
painted red with ochre. After a while it winds to the west-
148
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
ward, descends a long gentle slope, and terminates at a wide
shallow stream of very clear water. This is spanned by a long
slender log, on which the tracks of the souls may be seen.
After crossing, the traveller finds himself again on the trail,
which now ascends to a height heaped with an immense pile of
clothes — the belongings which the
souls have brought from the land
of the living and which they must
leave here. From this point the
trail is level, and gradually grows
lighter. Three guardians are sta-
tioned along this road, one on either
side of the river and the third at
the end of the path; it is their duty
to send back those souls whose time
is not yet come to enter the land of
the dead. Some souls pass the first
two of these, only to be turned back
by the third, who is their chief and
is an orator who sometimes sends
messages to the living by the re-
turning souls. All of these men are
very old, grey-headed, wise, and
venerable. At the end of the trail
is a great lodge, mound-like in form,
with doors at the eastern and the
Fig. 2. Sketch of the World ^ 1 . r j 11
, , - , , western sides, and with a double
Map of the world as drawn by* a ^ ^
Thompson River Indian, (a) West- row of fires extending through it.
U When the deceased friends of a per-
Sunrise point, (e) Middle place, son expect his soul to arrive, they
After 11, 343. assemble here and talk about his
death. As the deceased reaches the entrance, he hears people
on the other side talking, laughing, singing, and beating drums.
Some stand at the door to welcome him and call his name.
On entering, a wide country of diversified aspect spreads out
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT
149
before him. There is a sweet smell of flowers and an abun-
dance of grass, and all around are berry-bushes laden with ripe
fruit. The air is pleasant and still, and it is always light and
warm. More than half the people are dancing and singing to
the accompaniment of drums. All are naked, but do not seem
to notice it. The people are delighted to see the new comer,
take him up on their shoulders, run around with him, and
make a great noise.
VIL PROPHETS AND THE GHOST-DANCE^
A spirit-journey and a revelation is the sanction which cre-
ates an Indian prophet. Shaman and medicine-man alike
claim this power of spiritual vision, and the records of investi-
gators sufficiently show that the Indian possesses in full degree
this form of mystic experience. Behind nearly every important
movement of the Indian peoples lies some trance of seer or
prophet, to whom the tribes look for guidance. Underneath
the conspiracy of Pontiac” were the visions and teachings of
a Delaware prophet, who had visited the Master of Life and
received from him a message demanding the redemption of
the Indian’s lands and life from white pollution; the trances of
Tenskwatawa were the inspiration of his brother, the great
chief Tecumseh, In the most formidable opposition ever organ-
ized by Indians against the whites; Kanakuk, the prophet of the
Kickapoo, talked with the Great Spirit, and brought back to
his tribe a message of sobriety and industry, peace and piety.
Of the later prophets the most notable have been men of the
far West. Smohalla, chief of a small Shahaptian tribe of Wash-
ington, who was called by his people ^^The Shouting Moun-
tain” because they believed that his revelation came from a
living hill which spoke to him as he lay entranced, founded a
sect of Dreamers, whose main tenet was hostility to the ways
of the white man and insistence that the land of the Indian
should be Indians’ land: ^^My young men shall never work,”
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
ISO
he said; “men who work cannot dream, and wisdom comes to
us in dreams.” This was the doctrine which inspired Chief
Joseph and his Nez Perce in the wonderful exploit which
marked the exodus of his tribe in 1877 — “the Earth is our
Mother; she shall not be torn hy plow nor hoe; neither shall
she be sold, nor given from the hand of her children.”
Very similar is the teaching of the Paiute prophet, Wovoka,
the Indian “messiah,” whose promises of a regeneration of the
life of the Red Man, with the foreigner destroyed or driven
from his ancient holdings, spread throughout all the tribes of the
Plains and Mountains, and eventuated in the Sioux uprising
of 1890 and the tragedy of Wounded Knee. Wovoka is the
son of a prophet; his home a strip of valley prairie surrounded
by the dark walls of volcanic sierras. Here, when he was about
thirty-three, in the year “when the sun died” (probably the
eclipse of January i, 1889), he declared that he went up to
heaven, and saw God, and received a message to all Indians
that they must love one another, that they must not fight, nor
steal, nor lie, and he received also a dance which he was to
bring to them as pledge and promise of their early redemption
from the rule of the whites. The dead are all alive again, the
prophet taught; already they have reached the boundaries of
earth, led by the spirit captain in the form of a cloud. When
they arrive, the earth will shake, the sick be healed, the old
made young, and the free life of the Indian again restored.
Among many of the tribes the dance which they were to con-
tinue until the day of the advent assumed the form of ecstasy
and trance, in which visionary souls would perceive the advanc-
ing hosts of the spirit Indians, the bufFalo once more filling the
prairies, and the Powers of the Indian’s universe returning to
their ancient rule. Better than aught else the Ghost-Dance
songs, collected by Mooney from the various tribes among whom
the religion spread, give the true spirit of the creed, and at the
sartie time afford an insight into the religious feeling which
goes far deeper in the Indian’s experience than story-made
PLATE XXI
Ghost-Dance, painted on buckskin by a Ute captive
among the Cheyenne in 1891. Cheyenne and Arap-
aho are the dancers; the prostrate forms in the centre
represent persons entranced; the round object is a
blanket; before it stands a medicine-man hypnotizing
a subject. Now in United States National Museum.
After /./ ARBE^ part 2, Plate CIX.
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT 15 1
myth (See James Mooney, “The Ghost-Dance Religion,” in
14 ARBE, Part 2, pp. 953-1103).
A curious and lovely feature of these Indian hymns of the
Ghost-Dance is their intense visualization of Nature. The
words are elemental and realistic, but no song is without its
inner significance, either as symbolic of indwelling Powers or
as vocables of individual experiences too full for complete ex-
pression. Among the Paiute songs one seems to be a promise
of the advancing spirits, approaching by the Path of Souls to
an earth clothed in a kindred purity —
The snow lies here — rd’rani!
The snow lies here — rd’rani!
The snow lies here — ro’rani!
The Milky Way lies there!
Others tell of rejuvenated animal and vegetable life —
A slender antelope, a slender antelope,
He is wallowing upon the ground.
And —
The cottonwoods are growing tall,
They are growing tall and verdant.
Again it is the elements, astir with expectancy of the great
regeneration —
The rocks are ringing.
The rocks are ringing,
They are ringing in the mountains!
And especially there is the whirlwind, advancing, like the Spirit
Captain, as a cloud that foretokens the new life of earth —
There is dust from the whirlwind,
There is dust from the whirlwind,
The whirlwind on the mountain!
The Whirlwind! The Whirlwind!
The snowy Earth comes gliding, the snowy Earth comes gliding!
The more beautiful and intellectual Ghost-Dance songs
come, however, not from the Paiute, who originated the cere-
X — It
IS2
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
mony, but from the Plains tribes who developed it to its
intensest form. Especially fine are the Arapaho songs. The
Whirlwind is still the mighty power — the Psychopompos,
leading the ghostly visitants —
Our father, the Whirlwind —
By its aid I am running swiftly,
By which means I saw our father.
The Whirlwind is personified thus —
I circle around,
I circle around
The boundaries of the Earth,
Wearing the long wing feathers as I fly.
Many songs are devoted to the bird messengers of the Ghost-
Dance, to the mythical Thunderbirds and to the Crow which
is the sacred bird of the dance; and in these there is almost
always a note of exaltation —
I fly around yellow,
I fly around yellow,
I fly with the wild rose on my head,
On high —
On high —
Uplifted, too, and exultant is the note of another Arapaho
song, to the Father —
Father, now I am singing it — Hi^ni^ni!
Father, now I am singing it — Hi^ni^ni!
That loudest song of all,
That resounding song —
Again, the note struck is cosmogonic, with a reference back
to the old beliefs of the Indians — In this case to the Algon-
quian conception of the Turtle whose carapace supports the
Earth —
At the beginning of human existence — Fyehe^eye^^
It was the Turtle who gave this grateful gift to me,
The Earth — Fyahe^eye^!
Thus my father told me — Ahe^eyF-hieye\f
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT
153
But the commonest note of all, and the one that best sum-
marizes the whole spirit, not only of the Ghost-Dance, but of
the prophecy of the Indians through all the later period when
they have felt themselves inevitably succumbing before the
hard encroachments of the white race, is the note of sorrowful
supplication, a pleading for help. The most pathetic of these
songs, ^^sung,” says Mooney, “to a plaintive tune, sometimes
with tears rolling down the cheeks of the dancers,” is that which
he calls the Indian’s Lord’s Prayer —
Father, have pity on me,
Father, have pity on me;
I am crying for thirst,
I am crying for thirst;
All is gone — I have nothing to eat.
The hunger and thirst here meant are of the spirit, and the
sustenance that the Indian supplicates is the spiritual food
and drink which will support him through the harsh trials of
a changing life.
CHAPTER VIII
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT
{Continued)
I. THE NAVAHO AND THEIR GODS
T he Navaho speak an Athapascan tongue, but in blood
they are one of the most mixed of Indian peoples, with
numerous infusions from neighbouring tribes, additions having
come to them from the more civilized Pueblo dwellers as well
as from the wandering tribes of the desert. But various as is
their origin, the Navaho have a cultural unity and distinction
setting them in high relief among Indian peoples. They prac-
tise a varied agriculture, are herdsmen even more than hunts-
men, and have developed arts, such as blanket weaving and
silversmithing, which have made them pre-eminent among
Indian craftsmen. It is chiefly in the matter of habitation
that they are inferior to the tribes of the pueblos, for until
recently they have persistently adhered to temporary dwell-
ings (partly, it is supposed, because of the superstition which
calls for the abandonment of a house in which a death has
occurred) — the hogan, or earth hut, for winter, the brush
shelter for summer residence.
In particular the Navaho have developed an artistic power
which has won for them the admiration of the white race, with
whom their work finds a ready market; though it is perhaps in
the unmerchantable wares of the mind, in myth and poetry,
and their curiously ephemeral sand-painting that their powers
are revealed at their best. Their religious rituals are charac-
terized by elaborate masques, far more in the nature of drama
than of dance; by cycles of unusually poetic song (though their
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT 155
melodic gift is not comparable with that of some other tribes) ;
and by an elaboration and concatenation of myth which truly
deserves the name of a mythology, for it is no mere aggrega-
tion of unconnected legends, but an organized body of teach-
ing. Among all peoples on the way toward civilization there
is a tendency to organize the confused and contradictory
stories of uncritical savagery into consistently connected sys-
tems; and the Navaho are well advanced in this direction. Very
many of the tales found elsewhere in North America as dis-
jointed episodes have been incorporated by them into dramatic
series; and in no small sense is their artistic skill manifested
by the cleverness with which these stories are assimilated to
not wholly congruous contexts — for it is obvious that in their
mythology, as in their arts, the Navaho have been wide bor-
rowers, though In both art and mythology they have bettered
these borrowings in relation and design.
Another evidence of advancement in Navaho culture is the
degree of personification — anthropomorphic personification —
attained in their pantheon. Animal-beings are consistently of
less importance than manlike divinities, and in the concep-
tion of nature-powers the phenomenon is more likely to be
the instrument than the embodiment of the potency — light-
ning is the arrow or missile of the war-god or storm-god, the
rainbow is a bridge, light and clouds are robes or bundles, the
sun itself is dependent upon the Sun-Carrier, Tshohanoai, who
hangs the blazing disk in his lodge at the end of the day’s
journey. .All this represents that consistent intellectualization
of nature-myth, which finds one of its earliest expressions in
the replacing of immanent nature-powers by manlike gods
who make of nature their tool. In their curiously geometrical
representations of the gods, it Is not animals, nor part animals,
that the Navaho draw, but conventionalized men and women,
and in their ceremonial masques the divine beings still have
recognizably human form and feature.
Of course there are abundant traces of the more primitive
IS6 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
type of thinking. The background of the mythic world of the
Navaho is filled in with classes of beings, sometimes emerging
into distinct individuals, sometimes sinking back into vague
kinds, such as are found in the protean strata of every mythol-
ogy — beings like the Satyrs, Panes, Keres, and Daimones of
the Greeks, or the local and household godlings of the Romans.
The Yei of the Navaho, for the most part genii locomm, num-
ber among them many such kinds : ® fire-godlings and god-
lings of the chase, corn spirits and harvest deities, such as the
Ganaskidi, or “Humpbacks,” who bear cloud-humps upon their
backs and ram’s horns on their heads, and sometimes appear
in the guise of the Rocky Mountain sheep. Other Yei ap-
proach the dignity and importance of great gods, though their
homes are the wild places — mountains and caverns — of earth:
among these Thonenli, the Water Sprinkler, and especially
Hastsheyalti, the Talking God (also known as Yebitshai, “Ma-
ternal Grandfather of the Gods”), and Hastshehogan, the
House-God, hold high positions in the Navaho pantheon and
figure importantly in myth and ritual. Hastsheyalti is god of
the dawn and the east, Hastshehogan of evening and the west;
white maize is Plastsheyalti’s and yellow Hastshehogan’s; and
it is from white and yellow maize that man and woman are
created by the gods under the supervision of these two Yei
chieftains.®^
The Yei are in the main beneficent and kindly to man.
Another class, the Anaye, or Alien Gods, are man-destroyers
— monsters, giants, beasts, or bogies.^ The worst of them were
slain by the Sons of the Sun long ago, but the race is not yet
utterly destroyed. Still another evil kind is made up of the
Tshindi, or Devils, ugly and venomous, — among whom is
numbered the Corpse Spirit, which remains with the body when
the soul departs to the lower world.^^ Other classes comprise
the Animal Elders, such as are universal in Indian lore; the
Digini, half wizard, half sprite, dwelling In, the strange and fan-
tastic formations with which volcanic fire and eroding waters
-
PLATE XXII
Navaho gods, from a dry- or sand-painting. The
figure with the rectangular head is a female divinity,
with arms covered with yellow pollen. The round-
headed figures are male deities, the one carrying a
lightning bow and a rattle, the other having a cloud-
sack on his back and a basket before him. The
colours and ornaments are symbolic of maize and
other vegetation, of rain, lightning, fertility, etc.
After MAM vi, Plate VIIL
157
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT
have made the Navaho countrf picturesque; and
Powers, among whom -Tieholtsodi, of the watef® bent at \ t jc
earth, is the most powerful.®
The highest place in the Navaho pantheon is
natlehi,'^ the “Woman Who Changes ” — for, like the Phoenix,
when she becomes old, she transforms herself again into a
young girl and lives a renewed life.'*® Though she c>riginatc*d on
earth, her home is now in the west, on an island crealei.! ioi
her by the Sun-Carrier, who made her his wife, hroni that
direction come the rains that water the Navaho countr)* and
the winds that foretell the spring; and it is therefore appro-
priate that the goddess of nature’s fruitfulness should dwell
there. The younger sister of Estsanatlehi is Yolkai Estsan,
the White Shell Woman, wife of the Moon-Carrier, Klehanoai.
The white shell is her symbol, and she is related to the waters,
as her sister, whose token is the turquoise, is akin to the earth;
white is the colour of the dawn and the east, blue of luidtlay a mi
the south, and it is with the magic of these colour.s that tlu*
two sisters kindle the sun’s disk and the moon’s — althougdi,
according to Navaho myth, which is by no mcan.s alway.s
consistent, the Sun-God and the Moon-God were in c.^istence
before the sisters were created.
Of the male deities worshipped by the Navaho, the nuist
important are the brothers, Nayanezgani, Slayer of the ;\licn
Gods, and Thobadzistshini, Child of the Waters.** In .sotne
stories these are represented as twins of the Sun-Carrier and
Estsanatlehi; in others, Thobadzistshini is the child of Water
and Yolkai Estsan. These two brothers are the new genera-
tion of gods which overthrow the monsters and bring to an end
the Age of Giants. Their home is on a mountain in the centre
of the Navaho country, to which warriors betake thcinstilves
to pray for prowess and success in war. Klehanoai, the Moon-
Carrier, is sometimes identified with a deity by the nanie of
Bekotshidi, represented as an old man, and regarded as the
creator of many of the beasts, especially the larger game and
IS8 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
the domestic animals; his home is in the east, and many of the
Navaho think that he is the god worshipped by the white men.
Another mythic pair of importance are the First Man, Atse
Hastin, and the First Woman, Atse Estsan, who were created
in the lower world from ears of maize; it is they who led the
First People into the world in which we live. Coyote,^® who
is a conspicuous figure in adventures serious and ludicrous,
though he never plays the rUe of demiurge, such as he sustains
among many Indian tribes, is sometimes represented as ac-
companying these two Elders from the lower world. Spider
Woman is an underground witch (the large spiders of the
South-West make their nests in the ground), friendly with her
magic; and Niltshi, the Wind, saves many a hero by whispering
timely counsels in his ear. Other beings are little more than
lay figures : such are Mirage Boy, Ground-Heat Girl, White-
Corn Boy, Yellow-Corn Girl, Rock-Crystal Boy, Pollen Boy,
Grasshopper Girl, etc. — a few out of the multitude which
seem to be, in many cases, merely personifications of objects
important in ritual practices.
The most important cult-symbols employed by the Navaho
are arranged in groups according to their system of colour-
symbolism®^ — white, the mantle of dawn, for the east; blue,
the robe of the azure sky, for the south; yellow, the raiment
of the sunset, for the west; black, the blanket of night, for
the north. Thus, the “jewels” of the respective quarters are:
east, white shell beads and rock-crystal; south, turquoise;
west, haliotis shell (regarded by the Navaho as yellow); north,
black stones or cannel-coal.®'' Birds are similarly denoted by
the hues of their feathers; animals by their hides; maize by
the colour of its kernels — white, blue, yellow, and, for the
north, variegated (the north is sometimes all-colours, in-
stead of black). The colours are used also in the sand-paint-
ings, or drawings, which form an important and distinctive
feature of Navaho rites; and in the painting of the prayer-
sticks, frequently adorned with feathers,®® which, with pollen
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT 159
and tobacco, in the form of cigarettes, are the principal articles
offered in sacrifice.®® Navaho rituals comprise many elaborate
ceremonies, a conspicuous feature of which are masques, or
dramatic representations of myths, in which the actors per-
sonate the gods. A convention of these masques is the repre-
sentation of male deities with rounded, and of female with
rectangular faces, a distinction which is maintained in the
sand-paintings.
II. THE NAVAHO GENESIS^®
The Navaho believe that the world is built in a sequence of
storeys, the fifth of these being the earth on which men now
dwell.^^ The genesis-legend of this tribe divides into four epi-
sodic tales, the first of which, the Age of Beginnings, narrates
the ascent of the progenitors of Earth’s inhabitants from storey
to storey of the Underworld, and their final emergence upon
Earth. The second, the Age of Animal Heroes, tells of the set-
ting in order of Earth, its illumination by the heavenly bodies,
and the adventures of its early inhabitants. The third,
the Age of the Gods, recounts the slaying of the giants and
other monsters by the War-Gods and the final departure of
the great goddess to the West. The fourth, the Patriarchal
Age, chronicles the growth of the Navaho nation in the days
of its early wanderings; to this age, too, belong most of the
revelations which prophets and visionaries bring back in the
form of rites, acquired in their visits to the abodes of the gods.
The lowest of the world-storeys, where the Navaho myth
begins, was red in colour, and in its centre was a spring from
which four streams flowed, one to each of the cardinal points,
while oceans bordered the land on all sides. Tieholtsodi, the
water monster, the Blue Heron, Frog, and Thunder were
chiefs in this world; while the people who “started in life
there” were ants, beetles, dragon-flies, locusts, and bats (though
some say First Man, First Woman, and Coyote were in ex-
i6o NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
istence even here). For the sin of adultery these people were
driven out by a flood raised by the Underworld gods/® and as
they flew upward, seeking a place of escape, a blue head was
thrust from the sky and directed them to a hole leading into the
next storey. This second world was blue, and was inhabited
by the Swallow People. Here they lived till, on the twenty-
fourth night, one of the strangers made free with the wife of
the Swallow chief; and they were commanded to leave. Again
they flew upward, and again a voice — that of Niltshi, the
Wind — directed them to an opening by which they escaped
into the third storey. Here they were in a yellow world, in-
habited by Grasshoppers; but exactly what happened in the
world below was repeated here, and once more directed by a
Wind they flew up into the fourth storey, which was all-
coloured.®^
The fourth world was larger than the others and had a
snow-covered mountain at each of the cardinal points. Its in-
habitants were Kisani (Pueblo Indians), who possessed culti-
vated fields and gave the wanderers maize and pumpkins. The
four gods of this world were White Body, Blue Body, Yellow
Body, and Black Body, and these created Atse Hastin (First
Man) and Atse Estsan (First Woman), from ears of white and
yellow maize respectively.®® To this pair came five births of
twins, of whom the first were hermaphrodites,®^ who invented
pottery and the wicker water-bottle. The other twins inter-
married with the Mirage People, who dwelt in this world, and
with the Kisani, and soon there was a multitude of people
under the chieftainship of First Man.
“One day they saw the Sky stooping down and the Earth
rising to meet it.” At the point of contact Coyote and Badger
sprang down from the world above; Badger descended into
the world below, but Coyote remained with the people. It
was at this time that the men and women quarrelled and tried
the experiment of living apart; at first the women had plenty
of food, but eventually they were starving and rejoined the
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT i6i
men. Two girls, however, who were the last to cross the
stream that had separated the sexes, were seized by Tiehol-
tsodi, and dragged beneath the waters.^® Guided by the gods,
a man and a woman descended to recover them, but Coyote
surreptitiously accompanied them and, unperceived, stole two
of the offspring of the Water Monster. Shortly afterward, a
ffood was sent by the Monster, “high as mountains encircling
the whole horizon.” The people fled to a hill and various ani-
mals attempted to provide a means of escape by causing trees
to outgrow the rising- waters, but it was not until two men
appeared, bearing earth from the seven sacred mountains of
what is now the Navaho’s land, that a soil was made from
which grew a huge hollow reed, reaching to the sky.^ The
last of the people were scarcely in this stalk, and the opening
closed, before they heard the loud noise of the surging waters
outside. But there was still no opening in the sky above. They
sent up the Great Hawk, who clawed the heaven till he could
see light shining through; the Locust followed, and made a
tiny passage to the world above, where he was met by four
Grebes from the four quarters, and in a magic contest won
half of their world; finally, the Badger enlarged the hole so
that people could go through, and all climbed into the fifth
world, whose surface is our earth.
The place of emergence was an islet in the middle of a lake,
but the gods opened a passage, and they crossed to the shores.
It was here that they sought to divine their fate, and a hide-
scraper was thrown into the water: “If it sinks we perish, if it
floats we live.” It floated, but Coyote cast in a stone, saying,
?“Let me divine: if it sinks we perish, if it floats we live.” It
sank, and in answer to the execrations of the people, he said:
If we all live and continue to increase, the earth will soon be
too small to hold us. It is better that each of us should live
but a time on this earth and make room for our children.”
But the peril of the flood was not yet escaped, for waters
were observed welling up from the hole of emergence. Then
i 62
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
it was discovered that Coyote had with him the stolen off-
spring of Tieholtsodi. At once the people threw them into the
hole, and with a deafening roar the waters subsided. Shortly
after this, the first death occurred, and two hunters, looking
down into the lower world, beheld the deceased combing her
hair, as she sat beside a river. The two men died very soon;
so that the people knew that a ghost is a thing ill seen.
First Man and First Woman, Black Body and Blue Body,
built the seven mountains of the Navaho land, one at each
cardinal point, and three in the centre. “Through Tsisna-
dzini [Pelado Peak, New Mexico], in the east, they ran a bolt
of lightning to fasten it to earth. They decorated it with
white shells, white lightning, white corn, dark clouds, and he-
rain. They set a big bowl of shell on its summit, and in it they
put two eggs of the Pigeon to make feathers for the moun-
tain. The eggs they covered with a sacred buckskin to make
them hatch [there are many wild pigeons in this mountain
now]. All these things they covered with a sheet of daylight,
and they put the Rock-Crystal Boy and the Rock-Crystal
Girl into the mountain to dwell.” Mount Taylor, of the San
Mateo range, is the southern mountain, and this was pinned
to earth with a great stone knife, adorned with turquoise,
mist, and she-rain, nested with bluebird’s eggs, guarded by
Turquoise Boy and Corn Girl, and covered with a blanket of
blue sky. San Francisco, in Arizona, the mountain of the
west, was bound with a sunbeam, decked with haliotis shell,
clouds, he-rain, yellow maize and animals, nested with eggs
of the Yellow Warbler, spread with yellow cloud, and made the
home of White-Corn Boy and Yellow-Corn Girl. San Juan,
in the north, was fastened with a rainbow, adorned with black
beads, nested with eggs of the Blackbird, sheeted with dark-
ness, and made the abode of Pollen Boy and Grasshopper Girl.^^
In a similar fashion the three central mountains were built.
The Sun-Disk, the Moon-Disk, and the Stars were then made
by First Man and First Woman, and two men from among
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT
163
the people were appointed to be the Sun-Carrier and the Moon-
Carrier,^® these being the same two men who had caused the
reed to grow, by means of which the folk had ascended from
the world below.
The earth was now formed, but its inhabitants were not yet
in order. The myth goes on to tell of the birth of the giants and
other man-devouring monsters — the dread Anaye.^® They
were the offspring of women who had resorted to evU prac-
tices during the separation of the sexes in the world below.
The first-born was the headless and hairy being, Theelgeth;
the second the harpylike Tsanahale, with feathered back; the
third was the giant whose hair grew into the rock, so that he
could not fall, and who kicked people from the cliff as they
passed; the fourth birth produced the limbless twins, the
Binaye Ahani, who slew with their eyes; and there were many
other monsters besides these, born of sinful women to become
destroyers of men.®
The next event in this age was the descent of a gam-
bler from the heavens, He-Who-Wins-Men, who enslaved the
greater part of mankind by inducing them to bet their free-
dom.®® Now we first hear of the beneficent Yei, Hastsheyalti
and Hastshehogan, with their assistants. Wind, Darkness, the
animal-gods, and others. By their aid a young Navaho de-
feated the Gambler, and with a magic bow shot him into the
sky whence he came, and whence he was sent back into the
world to become the ruler of the Mexicans.
Coyote®® now appears upon the scene in a series of ad-
ventures such as are told of him by neighbouring tribes; the
unsuccessful imitation of his host, in which Coyote comes in-
gloriously to grief in endeavouring to entertain, first Porcu-
pine, then Wolf, as they had entertained him; a tradition of
Coyote’s hunt, in which he rounds up game by driving them
with fire from a faggot of shredded cedar-bark — a story with
many resemblances to the Ute version of the theft of fire; the
tale of the blinding of Coyote, who attempts to imitate birds
1 64 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
whom he sees toss up their eyes and catch them again in the
sockets, and of the substitution of gum eyes, which melt as
fire is approached, for the eyes he has lost; the story of how
Coyote killed a giant by pretending to break and heal his own
leg, and inducing the giant to follow his example; and the
legend, which is apparently a version of the fire-theft tale, of
how Coyote marries a witch who is unable to kill him, is con-
cealed by her from her man-devouring brothers, steals fire
from their lodge, is persecuted by animals at the instigation of
the brothers, and is avenged by his wife, who is transformed
into a bear. The youngest brother, however, with the aid of
the winds, escapes the Bear Woman and eventually kills her,
causing her to live again in the form of the several animals,
which spring from the parts of her body as he cuts it up.
Here end the adventures of the Age of Animals. The ensuing
is the Age of the New Gods. The Yei, under the leadership
of Hastsheyalti, create Estsanatlehi — the great goddess who
rejuvenates herself whenever she grows old — from an image
of turquoise, and her sister, Yolkai Estsan, from white shell.
Each sister gives birth to a son; Estsanatlehi becomes the
mother of Nayanezgani, whose father is the Sun; Yolkai
Estsan of Thobadzistshini, Son of the Waters.^ Counselled
by Niltshi, the Wind, and aided by Spider Woman, who gives
them life-preserving feathers, the boys journey to the home
of the Sun-Carrier — passing, with magic aids, clashing rocks
which, like the Symplegades, close upon those who go between
them; a plain of knifelike reeds and another of cane cactuses,
which rush together and destroy travellers, and finally a des-
ert of boiling sands.® Bear guardians, serpent guardians, and
lightning guardians still bar their way to the Sun’s house,
but these, too, they overcome by means of the Spider’s spells.
In the lodge of the Sun, which is of turquoise and stands on
the shore of a great water, the children of the Sun-Carrier
conceal them in a bundle; but the Sun-Carrier knew of their
coming, and when he had arrived at the end of the day’s
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT 165
journey, and had taken the Sun from his back and hung it on
a peg on the west wall of his lodge, he took down the parcel.
“He first unrolled the robe of dawn with which they were
covered, then the robe of blue sky, next the robe of yellow
evening light, and lastly the robe of darkness.” In a series of
tests he tried to slay the boys, but, finding at last that he could
not do so, he acceded to their request for weapons with which
to fight the beings that were devouring mankind — armour
from every joint of which lightning shot, a great stone knife,
and arrows of lightning, of sunbeams, and of the rainbow.
The brothers returned to earth on a lightning flash, and in a
series of adventures, like the labours of Hercules, cleansed the
world of the greater part of the man-devouring monsters which
infested it. On a second visit to the Sun, they received four
hoops by means of which their mother, Estsanatlehi, raised a
great storm which brought to an end the Age of Monsters and
formed the earth anew, shaping the canyons and hewing pil-
lars of rock from the ancient bluffs. “Surely all the Anaye
are now killed,” said Estsanatlehi; but Old Age, Cold, Poverty,
and Hunger still survived, and were allowed to live on; for
should they be slain, they said, men would prize neither life
nor warmth nor goods nor food.“
When this had been accomplished, the brothers returned to
the mountain which is their hoine, and whither warriors go to
pray for success in war.®* Then the Sun-God, after creating
the animals which inhabit the earth, departed for the far West
where he had made a lodge, beyond the waters, for Estsanat-
lehi, who became his wife and the great goddess of the west,
the source of the life-bringing rains. Every day, as he journeys
toward the west, the Sun-Carrier sings:
-
“ In my thoughts I approach.
The Sun-God approaches.
Earth’s end he approaches,
Estsanatlehi’s hearth approaches,
In old age walking the beautiful trail.
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
i66
“In my thoughts I approach,
The Moon-God approaches,
Earth’s end he approaches,
Yolkai Estsan’s hearth approaches.
In old age walking the beautiful trail.”
For Yolkai Estsan, too, became the bride of a god. But before
she departed for the divine lodge, she remained for some time
solitary. It was then, in the days of her loneliness, that Has-
tsheyalti came to her, and it was decided that a new race of
men should be created. With the assistance of all the gods a
man was formed from a white, and a woman from a yellow,
ear of maize. Niltshi gave them the breath of life; the Rock-
Crystal Boy gave them mind; the Grasshopper Girl gave them
voices. Yolkai Estsan gave them fire and maize, and married
the man to Ground-Heat Girl and the woman to Mirage Boy,
and from these two couples is descended the first gens of the
Navaho tribe — the House of the Dark Cliffs, “so named be-
cause the gods who created the first pair came from the cliff
houses.”
III. THE CREATION OF THE SUNi*
In the Navaho Genesis, just recounted, there is a brief de-
scription of the creation of the Sun-Disk. A somewhat differ-
ent and fuller version, recorded by James Stevenson, is as
follows:
“The first three worlds were neither good nor healthful.
They moved all the time and made the people dizzy. Upon
ascending into this world the Navaho found only darkness
and they said, ‘We must have light.’” Two women were sum-
moned — Ahsonnutli (Estsanatlehi) and Yolaikaiason (Yolkai
Estsan) — and to them the Indians told their desire. “The
Navaho had already partially separated light into its several
colors. Next to the floor was white, indicating dawn; upon
the white blue was spread for morning; and on the blue yellow
for sunset; and next was black representing night. They had
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT 167
prayed long and continuously over these, but their prayers
had availed nothing. The two women on arriving told the
people to have patience and their prayers would eventually
be answered.
Night had a familiar, who was always at his ear. This
person said, ^Send for the youth at the great falls. ^ Night sent
as his messenger a shooting star. The youth soon appeared
and said, ^Ahsonnutli has white beads in her right breast
and turquoise in her left. We will tell her to lay them on dark-
ness and see what she can do with her prayers.’ This she did.
The youth from the great falls said to Ahsonnutli, ^ You have
carried the white-shell beads and the turquoise a long time;
you should know what to say.’ Then with a crystal dipped
in pollen she marked eyes and mouth on the turquoise and on
the white-shell beads, and forming a circle round these with
the crystal she produced a slight light from the white-shell
beads and a greater light from the turquoise, but the light was
insufficient.
“Twelve men lived at each of the cardinal points. The forty-
eight men were sent for. After their arrival Ahsonnutli sang
a song, the men sitting opposite to her; yet even with their
presence the song failed to secure the needed light. Two eagle
feathers were placed upon each cheek of the turquoise and two
on the cheeks of the white-shell beads and one at each of the
cardinal points.®® The twelve men of the east placed twelve
turquoises at the east of the faces. The twelve men of the
south placed twelve white-shell beads at the south. The men
of the west placed twelve turquoises on that side, and the
men of the north twelve white-shell beads at the north, and
with a pollen-dipped crystal a circle was drawn around the
whole. But the wish remained unrealized. Then Ahsonnutli
held the crystal over the turquoise face, whereupon It lighted
into a blaze. The people retreated far back on account of the
great heat, which continued increasing. The men from the
four points found the heat so intense that they arose, but they
X— 13
i68
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
could hardly stand, as the heavens were so close to them.
They looked up and saw two rainbows, one across the other
from east to west and from north to south. The heads and
feet of the rainbows almost touched the men’s heads. The
men tried to raise the great light, but each time they failed.
“Finally, a man and a woman appeared, whence they knew
not. The man’s name was Atseatsine [Atse Hastin] and the
woman’s name was Atseatsan [Atse Estsan]. They were
asked, ‘How can this sun be got up?’ They replied, ‘We
know; we heard the people down here trying to raise it, and
this is why we came.’ ‘Sunbeams,’ exclaimed the man, ‘I have
the sunbeams; I have a crystal from which I can light the sun-
beams, and I have the rainbow; with these three I can raise the
sun.’ The people said, ‘Go ahead and raise it.’ When he had
elevated the sun a short distance it tipped a little and burned
vegetation and scorched the people, for It was still too near.
Then the people said to Atseatsine and Atseatsan, ‘Raise the
sun higher,’ and they continued to elevate it, and yet it con-
tinued to burn everything. They were then called to lift it
higher still, but after a certain height was reached their power
failed; it would go no farther.
“The couple then made four poles, two of turquoise and two
of white-shell beads, and each was put under the sun, and with
these poles the twelve men at each of the cardinal points raised
it. They could not get it high enough to prevent the people
and grass from burning. The people then said, ‘Let us stretch
the world’; so the twelve men at each point expanded the
worId.“ The sun continued to rise as the world expanded, and
began to shine with less heat, but when it reached the meridian
the heat became great and the people suffered much. They
crawled everywhere to find shade. Then the voice of Dark-
ness went four times around the world telling the men at the
cardinal points to go on expanding the world. ‘I want all
this trouble stopped,’ said Darkness; ‘the people are suffering
and all is burning; you must continue stretching.’ And the
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT
169
men blew .and stretched, and after a time they saw the sun
rise beautifully, and when the sun again reached the meridian
it was only tropical. It was then just right, and as far as the
eye could reach the earth was encircled first with the white
dawn of day, then with the blue of early morning, and all
things were perfect. And Ahsonnutli commanded the twelve
men to go to the east, south, west, and north, to hold up the
heavens [Yiyanitsinni, the holders up of the heavens], which
office they are supposed to perform to this day.’^
IV. NAVAHO RITUAL MYTHS«
The myth of the creation of the sun, just quoted, gives a
vivid picture of a primitive ritual, with its reliance upon mi-
metic magic and the power of suggestion; the magic depicted
is that of the gods, but all Navaho ceremonials, and indeed
Indian rituals generally, are regarded as derived from the
great powers. The usual form of transmission is through some
prophet or seer who has visited the abodes of the powers, and
there has been permitted to observe the rites by means of
which the divine ones attain their ends. On returning to his
people, the prophet brings the ceremony (or ‘Mance,” as such
rites are frequently called, although dancing is commonly a
minor feature) to his people, where it is transmitted from gen-
eration to generation of priests or shamans. It is interesting to
note that among the Navaho it is usually the younger brother
of the prophet, not the prophet himself, who conducts the rite,
when once it is learned; ^ and it is their custom to choose
younger brothers to be educated as shamans (though the elder
brothers are not deterred from such a career, if they so choose)
the Navaho reason being that the younger brother is likely to
be the more intelligent.
Indian rites may be broadly divided into three classes: (i)
rites pertaining to the life-history of the individual — birth,
pubescence, death; and to social life — clan and fraternity
170
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
rites, rites for the making of war and the cementing of peace;
(2) rites connected with the elements and seasons, maize fes-
tivals, rain dances, the magic fructification of fields and the
magic invocation of game; and (3) mysteries or medicine rites,
designed to bring health, both physical and spiritual, and to
ensure life and prosperity to individual and tribe, — a thera-
peutic which recognizes that all men are at all times ailing and
in need of some form of divine aid. The various elements of
the different types interlace, but in general, those of the first
class fall into a biographical or an historical series, those of
the second class tend to assume a ferial character, and those
of the third class depend upon the chance of necessity or of
desire for their performance — upon the fulfilment of a vow,
the need of the sick for cure, or the like.
Navaho ceremonials are mainly of the latter kind and are in
sharp contrast to the calendric rites of their Pueblo neighbours.
They are medicine ceremonies, undertaken in the interest of
the sick, who individually defray the expenses, although the
rite is supposed to benefit the whole tribe; and they are per-
formed at no stated times, but only in response to need. There
is, however, some restriction: the Night Chant, the most popu-
lar of all Navaho ceremonies, may be held only in the winter,
when the snakes are hibernating — perhaps because serpents
are regarded as underworld-powers, and related to the malefi-
cent deities of the region of the dead; a similar motive pro-
duces a reverse effect on the Great Plains, where the Hako
Ceremony and the Sun-Dance are observed only when the
world is green and life is stirring.®®
The Night Chant, like some other Navaho ceremonies, has
a nine-day period. On the first day holy articles and the sacred
lodge are prepared; on the second, the sweat-house and the
first sand-painting are made, and the song of the approach of
the gods is sung: prayers and a second sweat-house are features
of the third day, while the fourth is devoted to preparations
for the vigil which occupies the fourth night, at which the
PLATE XXIII
Navaho dry- or sand-painting connected with the
Night Chant ceremony. The encircling figure is the
Rainbow goddess. The swastika-like central figure
represents the whirling logs with Yei riding upon
them (see p. 173). At the East is Hastsheyalti
(white)*, at the West, Hastshehogan (black). Rain
spirits, with cloud-sacks and baskets, are North and
South. Symbols of vegetation are between the arms
of the cross. After MAM vi, Plate VL
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT
171
sacred masks of the gods are sprinkled with pollen and water
and a communal supper is followed hy a banquet; the prin-
cipal feature of each of the next four days is the preparation of
an elaborate sand-painting of the gods, each picture symbo-
lizing a mythic revelation, and the touching of the affected
parts of the bodies of the sick with the coloured sands from
the analogous parts of the divine images; the ninth day is
devoted to preparations for the great ceremony which marks
the ninth night, at which the masque of the gods is presented.
It is from this masque of the ninth night that the Night Chant
gets its name, and this is the night, too, of that prayer to the
dark bird who is the chief of pollen which is perhaps the most
poetic description of the genius of thunder-cloud and rain in
Indian literature, and which runs thus, abridged from Mat-
thews’s translation : —
In Tsegihi,
In the house made of dawn,
In the house made of evening twilight,
In the house made of dark cloud,
In the house made of rain and mist, of pollen, of grasshoppers,
Where the dark mist curtains the doorway,
The path to which is on the rainbow,
Where the zigzag lightning stands high on top,
Where the he-rain stands high on top,
Oh, male divinity!
With your moccasins of dark cloud, come to us.
With your leggings and shirt and head-dress of dark cloud, come to
us,
With your mind enveloped in dark cloud, come to us,
With the dark thunder above you, come to us soaring,
With the shapen cloud at your feet, come to us soaring.
With the far darkness made of the dark cloud over your head, come
to us soaring,
With the far darkness made of the rain and the mist over your head,
come to us soaring.
With the zigzag lightning flung out on high over your head,
With the rainbow hanging high over your head, come to us soaring.
With the far darkness made of the dark cloud on the ends of your
wings,
172 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
With the far darkness made of the rain and the mist on the ends of
your wings, come to us soaring,
With the zigzag lightning, with the rainbow hanging high on the
ends of your wings, come to us soaring.
With the near darkness made of the dark cloud of the rain and the
mist, come to us,
With the darkness on the earth, come to us.
With these I wish the foam floating on the flowing water over the
roots of the great corn.
I have made your sacrifice,
I have prepared a smoke for you,
My feet restore for me.
My limbs restore, my body restore, my mind restore, my voice re-
store for me.
Today, take out your spell for me,
Today, take away your spell for me.
Away from me you have taken it,
Far off from me it is taken,
Far off you have done it.
Happily I recover,
Happily I become cool,
My eyes regain their power, my head cools, my limbs regain their
strength, 1 hear again.
Happily for me the spell is taken off,
Happily I walk; impervious to pain, I walk; light within, I walk;
joyous, I walk.
Abundant dark clouds I desire.
An abundance of vegetation I desire.
An abundance of pollen, abundant dew, I desire.
Happily may fair white corn, to the ends of the earth, come with you,
Happily may fair yellow corn, fair blue corn, fair corn of all kinds,
plants of all kinds, goods of all kinds, jewels of all kinds, to the
ends of the earth, come with you.
With these before you, happily may they come with you,
With these behind, below, above, around you, happily may they come
with you,
Thus you accomplish your tasks.
Happily the old men will regard you,
Happily the old women will regard you,
The young men and the young women will regard you,
The children will regard you,
The chiefs will regard you,
Happily, as they scatter in different directions, they will regard you,
Happily, as they approach their homes, they will regard you.
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT 173
May their roads home be on the trail of peace,
Happily may they all return.
In beauty I walk,
With beauty before me, I walk,
With beauty behind me, I walk.
With beauty above and about me, I walk.
It is finished in beauty,
It is finished in beauty.
The Tsegihi of the first verse of this impressive prayer is
one of the sacred places with which the Navaho country
abounds. The myths which explain most of their rites fre-
quently recount the visits of prophets to such places, and it
was from such a trip that the Night Chant was brought back:
a hunter found his arm paralysed when he attempted to draw
the bow upon four mountain sheep; after the fourth endeavour
the sheep appeared to him in their true form, as Yei, and con-
ducted him to their rocky abode, where he was taught the
mystery and sent home to his people. This same man became
a great prophet: he made a strange voyage in a hollow log,
with windows of crystal, guided by the gods; finally, at a
place sacred to the Navaho, a whirling lake with no outlet and
no bottom, he beheld the ‘^whirling logs’’ — a cross upon
which rode eight Yei, two on each arm; and by these he was
instructed in a mystery of healing, in which maize and rain and
life-giving magic play the chief roles. There are other myths
representing similar journeys in god-steered logs, from which
the hero returns with a magic gift: on one such trip, the prophet
is said to have gone as far as the sea — ^‘the waters that had a
shore on one side only” — and there to have learned the art
of mixing colours and the use of maize, a food till then unknown
to the Navaho.
Upon another myth is based the ceremony of the Mountain
Chant. Like the Night Chant, this rite is characterized by a
nocturnal masque of the gods, depicting the mythic adven-
ture, and in it the hero ascends to the world above the sky,
where the people were Eagles. Here, with the aid of Spider
-
174
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Woman’s magic, he defeated the Bumble-Bees and Tumble-
Weeds who were the Eagles’ foemen, and in return was given
the sacred rite. He, however, used his powers to trick the
Pueblo people into surrendering their wealth to him; and in a
great shell which he obtained from them he was lifted by
ropes of lightning up into the heavens, surrounded by his
treasure.®® The story recalls similar ascents in the legends of
northern Indians.
Of all the ritual myths of the Navaho the most pathetic is
the story of the Stricken Twins.^ They were children of a
mortal girl by a god; and in childhood one was blinded, the
other lamed. Driven forth by relatives too poor to keep them,
they wandered from one abode of the gods to another in search
of a cure, the blind boy carrying the lame. At each sacred place
the Yei demanded the fee of jewels which was the price of
cure, and when they found that the children had nothing sent
them on with ridicule. Their father, Hastsheyalti, secretly
placed food for them, for he wished to keep his paternity con-
cealed, and finally gave them a cup containing a never-failing
supply of meal.®^ After twice making the rounds of the sacred
places, rejected at all, the children’s paternity was discovered,
and the gods, taking them to the sweat-house, undertook to
heal them, warning them that they must not speak while there;
but when the blind one became faintly conscious of light, in
joy he cried, “Oh, younger brother, I see!”; and when the
lame one felt returning strength, he exclaimed, “Oh, elder
brother, I move my limbs!” And the magic of the gods was
undone. Again blind and halt, they were sent forth to secure
the fee by which alone they could hope for healing. The gods
aided them with magic, and they tricked the wealthy Pueblo
dwellers into giving them the needed treasure. Provided with
this, they returned once more to the abode of the Yei, and
in an elaborate ceremony — a nine days’ rite — they were at
last made perfect. The ritual they took back to their people,
after which they returned to the gods, one to become a rain
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT
175
genius, the other a guardian of animals.®® In this myth the
abodes of the Yei are usually represented as crystal-studded
caverns, which are entered through rainbow doorways. An
interesting feature, as touching the primitive philosophy of
sacrifice, is the reason given by the Yei for refusing a cure:
you mortals, they say, have certain objects, tobacco, pollen,
feathers, jewels, which we lack and desire; in return for our
healing, you should give them to us: do ut des. The gods of
the Navaho are not represented as omnipotent, nor as much
more powerful than men: to save the passenger in the floating
log from capture by mortals, they must resort to the magic
device of raising a storm and concealing their hero — as Aeneas
is driven forth by the angry waves, or as Hector is hidden
from peril in a cloud.
V. APACHE AND PIMAN MYTHOLOGY
The mythology of the Apache, who like the Navaho are of
Athapascan stock, is of the same general character as that of
their kindred tribe, except that it lacks the organization and
poetry of Navaho myth, and in general reflects the inferiority
of Apache to Navaho culture. The same gods reappear, fre-
quently with the same names; similar stories are told of them,
though in a fragmentary fashion; rites and ceremonies show
many common elements. Occasionally, an Apache version re-
veals a dramatic superiority to the Navaho, as in the Jicarilla
story of the emergence, where a feeble old man and old woman
were left behind when the First People ascended into this world.
“Take us out,” they called, but the people heeded them not,
and the deserted ones cried after them, “You will come back
here to me”; and now they are rulers of the dead in the
lower world.^® Such improvements, however, are incidental;
the bulk of Apache lore is on an inferior level, with an emphasis
on the coarser elements and on the unedifying adventures and
misadventures of Coyote.
176 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Similar in grade Is the mythology of the other two wide-
spread stocks of the South-West, the Piman and Yuman,
who occupy the territories to the west and south-west of the
Navaho country, far into Mexico and Lower California, and
who form, in all probability, the true autochthones of the
arid region. In material culture these peoples are perhaps
superior to the Apache, their hereditary foe, for they are suc-
cessful agriculturists on the scale which their lands permit;
yet they are in no sense the equals of the Navaho. Their
mythology and religion have been slightly reported, but enough
is known to make clear the general relations of their ideas.
Among tribes of the Piman stock Sun, Moon, and Morning
Star are the great deities governing the world, while Earth
Doctor and Elder Brother are the important heroes of demiur-
gic myth.'® The Moon is the wife of Father Sun, the pair being
identified by some of the half-Chrlstlanized Mexican peoples
with the Virgin and the Christian God. Coyote is the son of
Sun and Moon according to the Pima, and all the tribes of
this stock have their full quota of tales of Coyote and his
kindred. The Devil is a mighty power in the eyes of the
Tarahumare, a Mexican tribe of Piman stock, and no mean
antagonist for Tata Dios (“Father God”), whom he 'slays
twice before he is finally cast down. Death, It may be noted,
is no annihilation in Piman view, for, as one shaman remarked,
“the dead are very much alive. ” It is among the Cora of Mex-
ico, that Chulavete, the Morning Star,'^ is most Important,
though the other tribes recognize him (or her, for with the
Pima “Visible Star” is a girl). Star-myths are found In various
tribes, an interesting instance being the legend, which occurs
in analogous forms in Tarahumare and Tepehuane lore, of
the women who commit the sin of cannibalism and flee from
their husbands into the heavens; there they are transformed
into stars, the Pleiades or Orion’s Belt, while the husband who
has vainly pursued them is changed into a coyote. The use of
the cross,®' apparently an ancient and indigenous symbol of
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT
177
the Sun Father, and the cult of the peyote (a species of plant,
especially the cactus Lophophora Williamsiiy used to exalt and
intensify the imaginative faculties) are features of the ritual
of tribes of this stock; the peyote, deified as Hikuli, the four-
faced god who sees all things, being one of the important deities
of the pagan Tarahumare.
Piman cosmogony contains the typically south-western
ascent of the First People from the Underworld and the uni-
versal story of the deluge, but the form and embellishment of
these incidents are original. As told by a shaman of the Pima
tribe: ^^In the beginning there was nothing where now are
earth, sun, moon, stars, and all that we see. Ages long the
darkness was gathering, until it formed a great mass in which
developed the spirit of Earth Doctor, who, like the fluffy wisp
of cotton that floats upon the wind, drifted to and fro without
support or place to fix himself. Conscious of his power, he
determined to try to build an abiding place, so he took from
his breast a little dust and flattened it into a cake. Then he
thought within himself, ‘Come forth, some kind of plant,’
and there appeared the creosote bush.” Three times the earth-
disk upset, but the fourth time it remained where he had re-
placed it. “When the flat dust cake was still he danced upon
it singing:
^ Earth Magician shapes this world.
Behold what he can do!
Round and smooth he molds it.
Behold what he can do!
‘Earth Magician makes the mountains.
Heed what he has to say!
He it is that makes the mesas.
Heed what he has to say!
‘Earth Magician shapes this world;
Earth Magician makes its mountains;
Makes all larger, larger, larger.
Into the earth the magician glances;
Into its mountains he may see.’ ”
178 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Assuredly this is an extraordinary genesis, with its con-
ception of a primeval void and fiat creation, to come from
the untaught natives, and it is possible that mission teachings
may have influenced its form, though the matter seems to
be aboriginal. The story goes on with the creation of insects;
then of a sky-dome which the Earth Doctor commanded Spider
to sew to the earth around the edges; then of sun, moon, and
stars, the two first from blocks of ice flung into the heavens, —
“I have made the sun!
I have made the sun!
Hurling it high
In the four directions.
To the east I threw it
To run its appointed course,” —
the stars from water which he sprayed from his mouth. Next
Earth Doctor created living beings, but they developed canni-
balism and he destroyed them. Then he said: “I shall unite
earth and sky; the earth shall be as a female and the sky as a
male, and from their union shall be born one who shall be a
helper to me.®^ Let the sun be joined with the moon, also even
as man is wedded to woman, and their offspring shall be a
helper to me.” Earth gave birth to Elder Brother, who in
true Olympian style later became more powerful than his
creator; and Coyote was born from the Moon. Elder Brother
created a handsome youth who seduced the daughter of South
Doctor, and the unrestrainable tears of the child of this union
threatened to destroy all life in a mighty flood.^® Elder Brother,
however, escaped by enclosing himself in a pot which rolled
about beneath the waters; Coyote made a raft of a log; while
Earth Doctor led some of the people through a hole which he
made to the other side of the earth-disk. After the flood Elder
Brother was the first of the gods to appear, and he therefore
became the ruler. He sent his subordinates in search of earth’s
navel, and when the central mountain had been discovered,
they set about repeopling the world.
PLATE XXIV
Apache medicine-shirt, painted with figures of
gods, centipedes, clouds, lightning, the sun, etc.
After p JRBE, Plate VI.
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT
179
myth continues with incidents having to do with the
of fire and the cremation of the dead; the freeing of the
[s, by the wile of Coyote/® from the cave in which they
mprisoned; the coming of the wicked gambler, who is
defeated and is changed into a vicious, man-devouring
the birth and destruction of a cannibal monster, Ha-ak,
e origin of tobacco from the grave of an old woman who
Dlen Ha-ak’s blood; and finally the destruction of Elder
;r by the Vulture, his journey to the underworld, and his
to conquer the land with the aid of some of the ante-
ins who had escaped to the other side of the world.
VI. YUMAN MYTHOLOGY “
tribes of the Yuman stock — of which the Mohave,
)pa, Havasupai, Walapai, Diegueno, and Yuma proper
; most important in the United States — occupy terri-
stending from the southern Californian coast and the
ula of Lower California eastward into the arid high-
Geographically they are thus a connecting link between
bes of the South-West and the Californian stocks, and
:ustoms and beliefs show relation to both groups; but
raditions assign their origin to the inland, and because
and of their great territorial extension, which is in con-
7ith the limited areas held by the stocks of the coastal
they may best be classed with the tribes of the desert
little that is recorded of their mythology tells of a time
Earth was a woman and Sky was a man.®^ Earth con-
(some say from a drop of rain that fell upon her while
pt), and twin sons were bom of her (some say from a
0 ), Kukumatz and Tochipa (Mohave), or Hokomata and
pa (Walapai, etc.). Earth at this time was close in the
:e of Sky, and the first task of the twins was to raise
avens, after which they set the cardinal points, defined
i8o NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
the land, and created its inhabitants — though the Mohave
say that the First People were created by Mustamho, who was
himself the son of a second generation born of Earth and
Sky; and the Walapai tell how the first man, Kathatakanave,
Taught-by-Coyote, issued with his friend Coyote from the
Grand Canyon.
The Walapai myth goes on to recount how Kathatakanave
prayed to Those Above (the di superi) to create companions
for him; how Coyote broke the spell by speaking before all
men had been created and so slunk away, ashamed; how To-
chopa instructed the human race in the arts and was beloved
accordingly, and how Hokomata out of jealousy taught them
war and thus brought about the division of mankind. The
Havasupai tell also of the feud between the brothers, and that
Hokomata in his rage brought about a deluge which destroyed
the world.^^ Before the waters came, however, Tochopa sealed
his beloved daughter, Pukeheh, in a hollow log, from which
she emerged when the flood had subsided; she gave birth
to a boy, whose father was the sun, and to a girl, whose fa-
ther was a waterfall (whence Havasupai women have ever
been called “Daughters of the Water”); and from these two
the world was repeopled. In the Mohave version, Mustamho
took the people in his arms and carried them until the waters
abated.
The origin of death is told by the Dieguefio. “Tuchaipai
thought to himself, ‘If all my sons do not have enough food
and drink, what will become of them.?’” He gave men the
choice of living forever, dying temporarily, and final death;
but while they were debating the question, the Fly said,
“‘Oh, you men, what are you talking so much about.? Tell
him you want to die forever.’ . . . This is the reason why the
fly rubs his hands together. He is begging forgiveness of the
people for these words.”
Another myth, which the Yuman tribes share with the
Piman, tells of Coyote’s theft of the heart from a burning
MOUNTAIN AND DESERT i8i
corpse. As the Diegueho tell it, it is Tuchaipai, slain through
the malevolence of the Frog, whose body is placed upon the
pyre; the Mohave recount the same event of the remains of
Matyavela, the father of Mustamho, who may be a doublet
of Tuchaipai, or Tochipa. When the pyre is ready, Coyote is
sent away on an invented errand, for his presence is feared;
but seeing the smoke of the cremation, he hurries back in time
to snatch the heart from the burning body, and this he carries
off to the mountains. For this reason men hate the Coyote.’’
It is tempting to see in this myth, coming to peoples whose
kindred extend far into Mexico, some relation to the Nahua-
tlan human sacrifice, in which the heart was torn from the vic-
tim’s body, which was not infrequently thereafter burned.^®
CHAPTER IX
THE PUEBLO DWELLERS
I. THE PUEBLOS
O NE of the most interesting and curious groups of people,
not only of North America but of the world, is composed
of the Pueblo dwellers of New Mexico and Arizona. The
Pueblo Indians get their name (given them by the Spaniards)
from the fact that they live in compact villages, or pueblos,
of stone or adobe houses, which in some instances rise to a
height of five storeys. These villages suggest huge commu-
nal dwellings, or labyrinthine structures like the “house of
Minos,” but in fact each family possesses its own abode, the
form of building being partly an economy of construction,
but mainly for ready defence; for the pueblos are islets of
sedentary culture in the midst of what was long a sea of
marauding savagery. For this same protective reason sites
were chosen on the level tops of the mesas, or villages were
built in cliff walls, hollowed out and walled in (the “cliff
dwellings ” of the desert region have been identified as former,
and probably the earliest, seats of Pueblo culture) ; but under
the influence of their modern freedom from attack many of
the villages are gradually disaggregating into local houses.
Anciently the Pueblo territory extended from central Colorado
and Utah far south into Mexico; now about three hundred
miles separate Taos in the east from Oraibi in the west, while
the north and south distance, from Taos to Acoma, is half of
this. Within the modern area the pueblos fall into two main
groups: those of northern and central New Mexico, clustered
along the Rio Grande, and those of the Moqui or Hopi reserva-
THE PUEBLO DWELLERS 183
tion in Arizona; between these, and to the south, are the large
pueblos of Laguna, Acoma, and Zuni, all in New Mexico.
The Pueblo tribes are of four linguistic stocks; three of them,
the Tanoan, Keresan, and Zuhian, are unknown elsewhere; the
fourth constitutes a special group of Shoshonean dialects, the
language of the Hopi of Arizona, related to the Ute and Sho-
shoni in the north and perhaps to the Aztec far to the south.
But if there is divergence in language, there is little difference
in the degree of aboriginal evolution (though power to pre-
serve it under the pressure of white civilization varies greatly) .
The most astonishing feature of this development is that it
is based primarily upon agriculture.^^ The Pueblo culture
is located, and apparently has evolved, in what is agricultu-
rally the least promising part of North America south of the
Arctic barren lands. The South-West is an arid plateau, wa-
tered by scant rains and traversed by few streams. Its one
favourable feature is that where water is obtainable for irri-
gation the returns in vegetation are luxuriant; but irrigation,
even where feasible, requires both toil and intelligence, and it
seems truly extraordinary that the most varied agriculture of
the continent, north of Mexico, should have developed in so
unpromising a region. It is not, however, surprising that the
religion of the Pueblo agriculturists should be found to centre
about the one recurrent theme of prayer for rain; to few other
peoples is a dry year so terrible.
But it is not alone in agriculture and housing that the Pueblo
dwellers show advancement. In the industrial arts of basketry,
pottery, weaving, and stone-working they were and are in the
forefront of the tribes, and it is altogether probable that it is
to the Pueblos that the neighbouring Navaho owe their skill
in these industries. In decorative art they display an equal
pre-eminence, both geometric and naturalistic design being
pleasingly adapted to their elaborate symbolism. Socially the
Pueblo dwellers form a distinctive group. Each village is a
tribal unit, with a republican system of government, formed
X — 14
-
1 84 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
of a group of clans, originally exogamous and frequently,
though not invariably, with matrilinear descent. There is no
inferiority of the women to the men, though there is a divi-
sion of privilege: the family home is the property of the wife,
but in each pueblo there is a type of building — varying in
number from one, in the smaller, to a dozen or more in the
larger villages — called the “kiva,” which is characteristically
the men’s house. The kiva is partly temple, partly club-
house or lounging room; the more primitive type is circular,
the later rectangular, like the houses; sometimes it is sub-
terranean. In the kiva men gather for work or amusement,
and in the kiva occur the secret rites of the various fraternities
and priesthoods. Women are rarely admitted, except in those
pueblos where they have a kiva of their own, or rites demand-
ing one. It is regarded as probable that the kiva is the original
nucleus of the pueblo — the primitive “men’s house,” con-
verted into a temple, around which first grew the fortified
refuge, and later the settled and permanent town.
Where the pagan religion of the Pueblo dwellers persists
— and in matters of belief they have shown themselves to be
among the most conservative of Indians — their elaborate and
spectacular rites are in charge of fraternities or priesthoods,
each with its own cult practices and its proper fetes in the
calendar. These festivals are devoted to the three great ob-
jects of securing rain, and hence abundant crops, healing the
sick, and obtaining success in war. Practically all Pueblo men
are initiates into one or more fraternities, to some of which
women are occasionally admitted. In certain pueblos, as the
Hopi, the fraternities appear to have originated from the war-
rior and medicine societies of the various clans, such socie-
ties being found in almost every Indian tribe; in others, clan
origin cannot be traced if it ever existed, admission being
gained either by the exhibition of prowess (as formerly in the
warrior societies), by the fact of being healed by the rites of the
fraternity, or by some such portent as that to which is ascribed
THE PUEBLO DWELLERS 185
the Znm Struck-by-Lightning fraternity, which was founded
by a number of Indians, including, besides ZunI men, one
Navaho and a woman, who were severely shocked by a thun-
derbolt.®^ In many of the fraternities there are orders or steps
of rank, and the head men or priests of the societies hold a
power over the pueblo which sometimes amounts, as at Zuni,
to theocratic rule. In spite of differences of language and ori-
gin, the general resemblances of the Pueblos to one another,
in the matter of ritual and myth as in outward culture, is
such as to make of them an essential group. At least this is
indicated from the results which have been recorded for Sia,
Zuni, and the Hopi towns — of Keresan, Zunian, and Shosho-
nean stock respectively — which are the only groups as yet
deeply studied.
II. PUEBLO COSMOLOGY^i
The symbolism of the World-Quarters, of the Above, and
of the Below is nowhere more elaborately developed among
American Indians than with the Pueblos.®^ Analogies are drawn
not merely with the colours, with plants and animals, and
with cult objects and religious ideas, but with human society
in all the ramifications of its organization, making of mankind
not only the theatric centre of the cosmos, but a kind of elab-
orate image of its form.
According to their Genesis, the ancestors of the Pueblo
dwellers issued from the fourfold Underworld through a Si-
papu, which some regard as a lake, and thence journeyed in
search of the Middle Place of the World, Earth^s navel, which
the various tribes locate differently; in Zuni, for example, it is
in the town itself. The world is oriented from this point and
the sunrise — east is “the before,” as in the ancient lore of
the Old World — the four cardinals, the zenith, and t|ie nadir
defining the cosmic frame of all things. It may be of interest
to note that if these points be regarded as everywhere equi-
distant from the centre, and that if they then be circumscribed
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
1 86
by circles in every plane about the centre, the resulting figure
will be a sphere; and it is not improbable that from such a
procedure arose the first conception of the spherical form of
the universe; the swastika and the swastika inscribed in a
circle are cosmic symbols in the South-West as in many other
parts of the world, and while no Indians had attained to the
concept of a world-sphere, the Pueblos at least were upon
the very threshold of the idea.®® Each of the six regions — the
Quarters, the Above, and the Below — possesses its symbolic
colour; in the Zuni and Hopi systems, the white of dawn is
the colour of the East; the blue of the daylit sky is the tint
of the West, toward which the sun takes his daily journey;
red, the symbol of fire and heat, is the hue of the South; and
yellow, for sunrise and sunset, perhaps for the aurora as well,
is the Northern colour; all colours typify the Zenith; black
is the symbol of the Nadir. As the colours, so the elements are
related to the Quarters ; to the North belongs the air, element
of wind and breath, for from it come the strong winter winds ;
the West is characterized by water, for in the Pueblo land rains
sweep in from the Pacific; fire is of the South; while the earth
and the seeds of life which fructify the earth are of the East.
In their rituals the Zuni address the points in this order:
prayer is made first to the Middle Place, then to the North
with whom is the breath which is the prime essential of life,
to the West whose rain-laden clouds first break the hold of
winter, to the South, the East, the Zenith, the Nadir which
holds in its bosom the caverns of the dead, and once again
the Middle Place. The tribal clans are grouped and organ-
ized with respect to these same points, while human activities,
as represented by the fraternities having them symbolically in
charge, are similarly oriented — war is of the North, peace and
the chase of the West, husbandry of the South, rite and medi-
cine of the East; to the Zenith belong the life-preservers, and
to the Nadir the life-generators, for not only do the dead de-
part thither to be born again, but it is from Below that the
THE PUEBLO DWELLERS
187
ancestors of all men first came; to the Middle Place, the heart
or navel of the world, belong the “Mythic Dance Drama
People,” representing all the clans, and having in charge the
presentation of the masques of the ancestral and allied divin-
ities. This sevenfold division is reflected in the six kivas and
shrine of the Middle Place of the town itself; and may be
associated with the original seven towns of the ancestral com-
munity, for it is taken as established that the Seven Cities of
Cibola, whose fame brought Coronado and his expedition from
the south, were the ancestral pueblos of the present Zuni.®’'
III. GODS AND KATCINAS
In such a frame are set the world-powers venerated by the
Pueblo dwellers. These cosmic potencies may be classed in
two great categories : the gods, which represent the powers and
divisions of nature; and the Katcinas, primarily the spirits of
ancestors, but in a secondary usage the spirit-powers of other
beings, even of the gods.
Father Sun*® and Mother Earth are the greater deities of the
pantheon; but each is known by many names, and may indeed
be said to separate into numerous personalities — among the
Hopi, for example, the Sun is called Heart of the Sky, while
Mother of Germs or Seed, Old Woman, Spider Woman, Com
Maid, and Goddess of Growth are all appellations of the Earth.®^
Superior even to this primeval pair, the Zuni recognize Awona-
wilona, the supreme life-giving power, the initiator and em-
bodiment of the life of the world, referred to as He-She, whose
earliest avatar was the person of the Sun Father, but whose
pervasive life is confined to no one being.® No similar Hopi
being is reported.
Along with the Sun are other celestial gods, the Moon
Mother and the Morning and Evening Stars, the Galaxy,
Pleiades, Orion, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the Polar Star,*^
and the knife-feathered monster whom the Zuni name Achi-
i88
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
yalatopa.®® Sun and Moon are masked by shields as they trav-
erse the skies, but, little by little, Awonawilona draws aside
the veil from Moon Mother’s shield and as gradually replaces
it, thus imaging the course of man’s life from infancy to the
fulness of maturity and thence to the decline of age. These,
with the meteorological beings, the cloud-masked rain-bring-
ers, are the di superi, “Those Above.” The di inferi, “Those
Below,” dwellers in the bosom of Mother Earth, include the
twin Gods of War,®® who in the years of the beginnings de-
livered mankind from the monsters; the Corn Father and Corn
Mother, the latter being Earth or Earth’s Daughters;®® and the
mineral “Men” and “Women” representing Salt, Red Shell,
White Shell, and Turquoise;®^ as well as the animal-gods, or
Ancients, which are the intermediaries between men and the
higher gods, and which also act as the tutelaries or patrons
of the several fraternities.^® Another deity, associated with
both the subterranean and the celestial powers, is the Plumed
Serpent, called Koloowisi by the Zuhi, Palulukoh by the
Hopi.®® This god is connected both with the lightning and with
fertility; a moving serpent is a natural symbol for the zigzag
flash of lightning, and it is probably this analogy which has
given rise in the South-West to the myth of sky-travelling
snakes; on the other hand, lightning is associated with rain-
fall, and rain, according to the South-Western view, is carried
aloft from the subterranean reservoirs of water; the connexion
of rain with fertility is obvious; in the Zuni initiation of boys
into the Kotikili (of which all who may enter the Dance-House
of the Gods, after death, must be members), Koloowisi is repre-
sented by a large image from whose mouth water and maize
issue, and in the highly dramatic Palulukonti of the Hopi
Indians there are several acts which seem to represent the
fructification of the maize by the Plumed Snake. Possibly
this deity is of Mexican origin, for far to the south, among
the Mayan and Nahuatlan peoples, the Plumed Serpent is a
potent divinity.
PLATE XXV
Zufii masks for ceremonial dances. Upper mask
of a Warrior God; lower, mask of the Rain Priest
of the North. After *?,’ JRBE^ Plates XVI, LIV.
See Note 65 (pp. 309~“io),and compare Frontispiece
and Plates HI, IV, VII, XXXI.
THE PUEBLO DWELLERS 189
The second great group of higher powers is composed of the
ancestral and totemic Katcinas which play an important part
in the Pueblo scheme of things.®® “While the term Katcina,”
says Fewkes, “was originally limited to the spirits, or personi-
fied medicine power, of ancients, personifications of a similar
power in other objects have likewise come to be called Katcinas.
Thus the magic power or medicine of the sun may be called
Katcina, or that of the earth may be known by the same
general name, this use of the term being common among the
Hopis. The term may also be applied to personations of these
spirits or magic potencies by men or their representation by
pictures or graven objects, or by other means.” The number
of Katcinas is very great, for every clan has its own, not to be
personated by members of any other clan; while others are
introduced by being adopted as a result of initiation into the
rites of neighbouring pueblos. In general, the Katcinas are
anthropomorphic. In ritual and in picture they appear as
masked, and to their representation is due the long series of
masques which characterize Pueblo ceremonial life.
The mask is certainly more than a symbolic disguise. The
mythology of the South-West, despite the extensive appear-
ance of animal-powers and the use of animal fetishes, is pre-
dominantly anthropomorphic in cast: the Sun and the Moon
are manlike beings, hidden by shields; clouds are shields or
screens concealing the manlike Rain-Bringers. The Hopi place
cotton masks upon the faces of their dead, and the Zuni
blacken the countenances of their deceased chieftains. Now
the dead depart to the Underworld “ (though the Zuni be-
lieve that members of the warrior society, the Bow Priesthood,
ascend to the Sky, thence to shoot their lightning shafts, while
the Rain-makers roll their thunderous gaming stones), there
to become themselves rain-bringers, or at least more potent
intercessors for rain than are their mortal brethren. “The
earth,” Mrs. Stevenson writes, “is watered by the deceased
Zuni, of both sexes, who are controlled and directed by
190 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
a council composed of ancestral gods. These shadow people
collect water in vases and gourd jugs from the six great waters
of the world, and pass to and fro over the middle plane,
protected from the view of the people below by cloud
masks.” These six great waters are the waters of the six
springs in the hearts of the six mountains of the cosmic
points. The Uwannami, as the Zuni name these shadowy
rain-makers, are carried by the vapour which arises from
these springs, each Uwannami holding fast a bunch of breath-
plumes®® to facilitate ascension. Clouds of different forms
have varying significance: cirrus clouds tell that the Uwan-
nami are passing about for pleasure; cumulus and nimbus
that the earth Is to be watered. Yet it is not from, but
through, the clouds that the rain really comes: each cloud is
a sieve into which the water is poured directly or sprinkled
by means of the plumed sticks, such as the Zuni use in their
prayers for rain. Of this same tribe Mrs. Stevenson says again:
“These people rarely cast their eyes upward without invoking
the rain-makers, for in their arid land rain is the prime object
of prayer. Their water vases are covered with cloud and rain
emblems, and the water in the vase symbolizes the life, or
soul, of the vase.” This picturesque conception of the office of
the ancestral gods is not shared by the Hopi, who regard the
rain as coming directly from a special group of gods, the Omo-
wuhs; but the Hop! do believe that the dead are potent in-
tercessors with these deities, and they call the mask which is
placed over the face of the deceased a “prayer to the dead to
bring rain.”
Pueblo maskers personate divine and mythological beings of
many descriptions, as well as the ancestral dead, and to the
masks themselves attaches a kind of veneration, due to their
sacred employment. Besides the masks, however, many other
objects are used as ritualistic sacra. Sticks painted with sym-
bolic colours, and adorned with plumes which convey the
breath of prayer upward to the gods, are offered by the thou-
THE PUEBLO DWELLERS
191
sand, the placing of such prayer-plumes at notable shrines
being a feature of the ceremonial life of each individual.®®
The fraternities, or cult societies, erect elaborate altars, sand-
paintings, images, and symbolic objects, indicating the powers
to which they are devoted. Meal and pollen, seeds, cords of
native cotton, maize of various colours, tobacco in the form of
cigarettes, and stone implements, nodules, and figures are all
important adjuncts of worship. What are called fetishes are
employed in numbers, and vary in character from true fetishes
to true idols. Many of the stone fetishes are private prop-
erty, of the nature of the “medicine” universal in North
America.^ Others are properties of the fraternities, and are in
the keeping of certain priests or initiates who bring them forth
on the occasion of the appropriate festivals. Still others are of
the nature of tribal palladia, in charge of the higher priest-
hoods. Thus, at Zuni, the images of the Gods of War (wooden
stocks with crudely drawn faces, such as must have been the
most ancient xoana) are under the guardianship of the Bow
Priesthood, who are servants of the Lightning-Makers.®^
In Zuni the supreme sacerdotal group consists of the Ashi-
wanni, the rain priesthood, which comprises fourteen rain
priests, two priests of the bow, and the priestess of fecun-
dity.® Six of the rain priests are known as Directors of the
House, this house being the chamber which marks the Middle
Place of the world, in which is kept the fetish of the rain
priests of the North, who are supposed to be exactly over the
very heart of the world. The priest of the sun and the direc-
tor and deputy of the Kotikili, added to the Ashiwanni, form
the whole body of Zuni priests duplicating in the flesh the
Council of the Gods, which assembles in Kothluwalawa, the
Dance-House of the Gods. The Kokko constitute the entire
group of anthropic gods worshipped by the Zuni. The Koti-
kili is the society of those who may personate them in masques
(including in its membership all of the men and a few of the
women of Zuni) ; and it is only the members of the Kotikili
-
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
192
who are admitted into Kothluwalawa after death. The other
fraternities of Zuhi have in charge the service of animal, not
anthropic, deities — beings regarded rather as powerful inter-
mediaries between men and gods, and as magical assistants
of hunters and doctors, than as rulers of creation. In the Hopi
towns priests and fraternities likewise form the sacerdotal
organization, though with a clearer dependence upon what
is evidently a more ancient and primitive system of clan
worship.®
IV. THE CALENDAR®®
Agriculture makes a people not only non-migratory, but
close observers of the seasons, and hence of the yearly stations
of the sun. The count of time by moons is sufficient for nomadic
peoples, or for tribes whose subsistence is mainly by the chase,
but in a settled agricultural community the primitive lunar
year is sooner or later replaced by a solar year, determined by
the passage of the sun through the solstitial and equinoctial
points. The lunar measure of time will not be abandoned,
but it will be corrected by the solar, and gradually give way
to the latter. Such, indeed, is the outline of all calendric
development.
The Zuni year is divided into two seasons, inaugurated by
the solstices, each of which is composed of six months — luna-
tions, subdivided into three ten-day periods. The significa-
tions of the month names are interesting: the month of the
winter solstice, which is the beginning of the year, is called
Turning-Back, in reference to the Sun Father’s return from
the south; it is followed by Limbs-of-the-Trees-Broken-by-
Snow, No-Snow-in-the-Road, Little-Wind, Big-Wind, and No-
Name. For the remaining half of the year, these appellations,
though now inappropriate, are used again, the months of the
second half-year being, strictly speaking, nameless. A similar
duplication occurs in the Hopi calendar, where the names of
five moons are repeated, but in summer and winter rather
PLATE XXVI
Wall decoration in the room of a Rain Priest,
Zuili. Beneath the cloud-symbols are Plumed Ser-
pents, while a sacred Frog, wearing a cloud cap and
shooting forth lightnings, stands on their protruding
tongues. After 2j ARBR, Plate XXX VL
^ ';JBi
sffiiSiifispS
TEE PUEBLO DWELLERS
193
than in the solstitial division, which, however, plays an impor-
tant role in the ferial calendar. Fewkes records an interesting
remark that may give the true reason for the arrangement:
“When we of the upper world are celebrating the winter Pa
moon,” said the priest, “the people of the under world are
engaged in the observance of the Snake or Flute [summer fes-
tivals], and vice versa.” The priest added that the prayer-
sticks which were to be used by the Hopi in their summer
festivals were prepared in winter during the time when the
underworld folk were performing these rites. “From their
many stories of the under world,” writes Fewkes, “I am led to
believe that the Hopi consider it a counterpart of the earth’s
surface, and a region inhabited by sentient beings. In this
under world the seasons alternate with those in the upper
world, and when it is summer in the above it is winter in the
world below.” Ceremonies are said to be performed there,
as here.
Both Zuni and Hopi have priests whose special duty it is to
observe the annual course of the sun, and hence to determine
the dates for the great festivals of the winter and summer
solstices.^® The Zuhi sun priest uses as his gnomon a petrified
stump which stands at the outskirts of the village, and at which
he sprinkles meal and makes his morning prayers to the sun,
until, on the day when that luminary rises at a certain
point of Corn Mountain, the priesthood is informed of the
approaching change. Every fourth morning, for twenty days,
the sun priest offers prayer-plumes to the Sun Father, the
Moon Mother, and to departed sun priests; on the twentieth
morning he announces that in ten days the rising sun will
strike the Middle Place, in the heart of Zuni, and the ceremony
will begin. This rite occupies another twenty-day period, be-
ginning with prayers to the gods and ending in days of carnival
and giving; during this time the gods are supposed to visit
the town, images and fetishes are brought forth and adorned,
prayer-plumes are deposited by each family in honour of its
194
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
ancestral rain-bringers, boys arc initiated by ceremonial flog-
ging,®’- the sacred fire is kindled by the fire-maker, and there
is a great house cleaning, moral as well as physical, for per-
sonators of the gods make it a part of their duty to settle
family quarrels and to reprimand the delinquents, young and
old. At each solstice the sun is believed to rest in his yearly
journey (the Hopi speak of the solstitial points as “houses”);
when the sun strikes a certain point on Great Mountain five
days In succession, the second change of the year takes place.
The ceremonies of the summer solstice include pilgrimages to
shrines and elaborate dances, and this is also the season when
it Is especially lucky to fire pottery, so that all the kilns are
smoking. An Instructive feature Is the igniting of dried grass
and trees and bonfires generally; for the Zuni believe clouds
to be akin to smoke, and by means of the smoke of their
fires they seek to encourage the Uwannami to bring rain.®*
The ceremony of the summer solstice, in fact, is the inaugura-
tion of the series of masques in which they, in common with
the other Pueblos, implore moisture from heaven for the crops
that are now springing up.
The Hopi sun priests make use of thirteen points on the
horizon for the determination of ceremonial dates. Their ritual
year begins in November with a New Fire ceremony, which
is given in an elaborate and extended form every fourth year,
for it then includes the Initiation of novices into the fraterni-
ties. Other cer monies are similarly elaborated at these same
times; while still other rites, as the Snake- and Flute-Dances,
occur in alternate years. The Hopi year is divided into two
unequal seasons, the greater festivals occurring in the longer
season, which includes the cold months. Five and nine days
are the usual active periods for the greater festivals, though
the total duration from the announcement to the final purifica-
tion is in some instances twenty days. Of the greater festivals,
the New Fire ceremony of November is followed at the winter
solstice by the Soyaluna, in which the germ god is supplicated
THE PUEBLO DWELLERS
195
and the return of the sun, in the form of a bird, is dramatized;
the Powamu, or Bean-Planting, comes in February, its main
object being the renovation of the earth for the coming sow-
ing and the celebration of the return of the Katcinas, to be
with the people until their departure at Niman, following the
summer solstice; the famous Snake-Dance of the Hopi alter-
nates with the Flute-Dance in the month of August. These are
only a few of the annual festivals, a striking feature of which
is the arrival and departure of the Katcinas. The period dur-
ing which these beings remain among the Hopi is approxi-
mately from the winter to the summer solstice, and it may be
supposed that their absence is due in some way to their func-
tion as intercessors for rain during the remaining half-year.
A secondary trait, found only in Katcina ceremonies, is the
presence of clowns or “Mudheads” — a curious type of fun-
maker whose presence in Zuni Cushing ascribes to the ancient
union of a Yuman tribe with the original Zuhian stock.
Neither Zuni nor Hopi succeed in entirely co-ordinating the
primitive lunar and solar years. The lunations and sun-
stations are observed, rather than counted in days; appar-
ently no effort is made to keep a precise record of time nor
to correct the calendar, unless indeed the uncertainty which
Fewkes found among the Hopi priests as to the true number
of lunations in the year, twelve according to some, thirteen
and even fourteen according to others, may represent such an
attempt. On a sun shrine near Zuni there are marks said to
represent year-counts; certain it is that few North American
Indians have a more ancient and verifiable tradition than is
possessed by the Pueblo dwellers.®^
Analogies between the Pueblo periods and festivals and
those of the more civilized peoples of ancient Mexico seem to
point to a remote identity — the five-, nine-, and twenty-day
periods,®® the general character of many of the rites and
mythological beings, the significance of the heart as the seat
of life.®® But one in search of parallels need not confine him-
196 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
self to the New World. The great summer solstice festival of
the Celts, with its balefires, is of a kind with that of the Zuhi,
while the purification ceremonies of the winter solstice have
points of identity with the Roman Lupercalia, the Anthesteria
of the Greeks, and similar festivals, which close analysis would
multiply. The quadrennial and biennial character of many
Pueblo ceremonies, as well as the division into greater and lesser
rites, are still other noteworthy analogues of Greek usage.
V. THE GREAT RITES AND THEIR MYTHS
Perhaps no feature of Pueblo culture is more distinctive
than the calendric arrangement of their religious rites. Other
tribes in North America have ceremonies as elaborate as any
in the pueblos, and probably in most cases these rituals are
regarded as appropriate only to certain seasons of the year,
but it is not generally the season that brings the performance:
sickness and the need for cure, the fulfilment of a vow, the
munificence or ambition of a rich man, are the commoner oc-
casions. In the pueblos, on the other hand, not a moon passes
without its necessary and distinctive festivals, which are fruit
of the season rather than of individual need or impulse, thus
marking a great step in the direction of social solidarity and
cultural advancement.
The origin of these ceremonies harks back to the genesis of
the tribes. Most of these are formed of an amalgam of clans
which from time to time have joined themselves to the initial
tribal nucleus, and have eventually become welded Into a single
body. Each of these clans has brought to the tribe Its own rites,
the mythic source of which is zealously recounted; and thus
the general corpus of the tribal ritual has been enriched. But
the joining of clan to tribe has entailed' a modification: by
adoption and Initiation new members have been added, from
without the clan, to the ceremonial body, and eventually (a
process which seems to have gone farthest in ZunI) a cult
THE PUEBLO DWELLERS
197
society, or fraternity, has replaced the clan as the vehicle of
the rite; again, clans with analogous or synchronous rites
have united their observances into a new and complicated
ceremony, partly public, partly secret — for the esoteric as-
pect is never quite lost, each organization having its own rites,
such as the preparation of ceremonial objects, the erecting of
altars, etc., shared only by its initiates and usually taking place
in its proper kiva.
A famous ceremony of the type just named is the Snake-
Dance of the Hopi Indians, the most examined of all Pueblo
rites.®“ This ritual occurs biennially in five of the Hopi vil-
lages; remnants of a similar observance have been recorded
from Zufii and the eastern group of pueblos; and it is probable
that a form of it was celebrated in pre-Columbian Mexico.
The participants in the Hopi Snake-Dance are the members of
two fraternities — the Snake and the Antelope — each of which
conducts both secret and public rites during the nine days of
the festival. In the early part of the ceremony serpents are
captured in the fields and brought to the kiva of the Snake
priests, where the reptiles undergo a ritual bathing and tending;
the building of the Snake altar, with personifications of the
Snake Youth and Snake Maid, the initiation of novices, the
singing of songs, and the recitation of prayers are other rites
of the secret ceremonial. The Antelope priests meantime erect
their own altar, on which are symbols of rain-clouds and light-
ning, as well as of maize and other fruits of the earth; and
lead in a public dance in which symbols of vegetation and water
are displayed. The Antelope priests, moreover, are the first
to appear in the public dance on the final day, when the snakes
are brought forth from the Snake kiva. These are carried in
the mouths of the dancing Snake priests, who are sprinkled
with meal by the women; and finally the serpents are taken
far into the fields and loosed, that they may bear to the Powers
Below the prayers for rain and fertility which is the object
of the whole ceremony.
198 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
The symbolism of the Snake-Dance is in part explained by
the myth which, in varying versions, the Hopi tell of the Snake
Youth and Maid. It is a story very similar to the Navaho tale
of the Floating Log. A youth, a chief’s son, spent his days
beside the Grand Canyon, wondering where all the water of
the river flowed to and thinking, “That must make it very
full somewhere.” Finally, he embarks in a hollow log and is
borne to the sea, where he is hailed by Spider. Woman, who
becomes his wizardly assistant. Together they visit the kiva
of the mythic Snake People, at the moment human in shape,
who subject the young man to tests, which, with the aid of
Spider Woman, he successfully meets. The Snake People then
assume serpentine form; at the instigation of Spider Woman
he seizes the fiercest of these, whereupon the reptile becomes
a beautiful girl who, before the transformation, had caught the
youth’s fancy. This is the Snake Maid, whom he now marries
and leads back to his own country. The first offspring of this
union is a brood of serpents ; but later human children are born,
to become the ancestors of the Snake Clan. In some versions,
the Snake Maid departs after the birth of her children, never
to return; or her offspring are driven forth, from them spring-
ing a strange goddess of wild creatures, a sorceress who gam-
bles for life with young hunters, and who carries a child that
is never born.
In this mythic medley it is easy to see that the forces of
generation are the primary powers. The Snake Maid, from the
waters of the west, is the personification of underworld life,
the life that appears in the cultivated maize of the fields and
the reproduction of animals in the wilds (there are many in-
dications that other animals besides snakes were formerly im-
portant in the rite). Fewkes regards her as the Corn Goddess
herself and in one Hopi myth a Corn Maid is transformed into
a snake.®® The Snake Youth is probably a sky-power, for in
at least one version the Sun-Man bears the youth on his back
in his course about the earth. The significance of the antelope
THE PUEBLO DWELLERS
199
in the ceremony is not so clear, though the altar of the Ante-
lope priests is obviously associated also with the powers of fer-
tility; but it may not be amiss to assume that the horn of the
antelope, like the horn of the ram in Old-World symbolism,
is also a sign of fertility; certainly the conception of descent
from an ancestral horn is not foreign to South-Western myth.^“
The Flute Ceremony, which alternates with the Snake-
Dance, has a similar purpose, though here the emblem of the
Sun, an adorned disk encircled by eagle feathers and streamers.
Is significant of the pre-eminence of the Powers Above; and
in the LalakontI, which follows, in September, the Flute or
Snake Ceremony of August, the women, who have charge of
the festival, erect an altar on which images of the Growth God-
dess and the Corn Goddess are conspicuous.’' In this ritual the
women dance, carrying baskets, while the two Lakone maids,
adorned with horn and squash-blossom symbols of fertility,
throw baskets and gifts to the spectators — all a dramatic plea
for a bountiful harvest.
The Corn Maidens®® are omnipresent in Pueblo rites, one of
the most sacred and guarded of the Zuni ceremonials being the
quadrennial drama representing their visit to their ancestors,
an observance occurring, like the Snake-Dance, in August.
When their fathers issued from the lower world, the Zuni say,
the ten Corn Maidens came with them and for four years ac-
companied them, unseen and unknown, but at Shipololo, the
Place of Fog, witches discovered them and gave them seeds
of the different kinds of maize and the squash. Here the Maid-
ens remained while the AshiwI, the fathers of the Zuni, con-
tinued on their journey; they whiled away their hours bathing
in the dew and dancing in a bower walled with cedar, fringed
with spruce, and roofed with cumulus cloud; each maiden held
in her hand stalks of a beautiful plant, with white, plumelike
leaves, brought from the lower world. Once the Divine Ones,
twins of the Sun and Foaming Waters, while on a deer hunt,
found the Maidens in their abode, and when their discovery
-
200
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
was related they were sent, at the command of the Sun priest,
to lead them to the people. The Maidens came and danced
before them all in a court decorated with a meal-painting of
cloud-symbols. But as they danced the people fell asleep, for
it was night, and during their slumber Payatamu, the diminu-
tive flower-crowned god who plays his flute in the fields, caus-
ing the flowers to bloom and the butterflies to crowd after
him (Pied Piper and god Pan in one), came near and saw the
Maidens dancing. He thought them all beautiful, but deemed
the Yellow Corn Maiden the loveliest of all. They read his
thoughts, and in fear kept on dancing until he, too, fell asleep,
when they fled away, by the first light of the morning star,
to the Mist and Cloud Spring, where the gods, in the form of
ducks, spread their wings and concealed the Maidens hiding
in the waters. But famine came to the people, and in their dis-
tress they called upon the Gods of War to find the Corn Maid-
ens for them. These two besought Bitsitsi, the musician and
jester of the Sun Father, to aid them, and he from a height
beheld the Maidens beneath the spreading feathers of a duck’s
wings. In their kiva the Ashiwanni were sitting without fire,
food, drink, or smoke: “all their thoughts were given to the
Corn Maidens and to rain.” Bitsitsi, borne by the Galaxy,
who bowed to earth to receive him, went to the Maidens with
the message of the Ashiwanni, which he communicated with-
out words; “all spoke with their hearts; hearts spoke to hearts,
and lips did not move.” He promised them safety and brought
them once more to the Ashiwi, before whom they enacted the
ceremonial dance which was to be handed down in the rites
of their descendants. Even Payatamu assisted. His home is a
cave of fog and cloud with a rainbow door, and thence he came
bringing flutes to make music for the dancers. “The Corn
Maidens danced from daylight until night. Those on the north
side, passing around by the west, joined their sisters on the
south side, and, leaving the hampone [waving corn], danced in
the plaza to the music of the choir. After they had all returned
PLATE XXVII
Altar of the Antelope Priests of the Hopi. The
central dry-painting represents rain-cloiuls and light-
ning. About this arc arranged symbols of vegetation,
prayer sticks, offerings of meal, etc. After /y JR Blij
Plate XLVI.
THE PUEBLO DWELLERS
201
to their places the Maidens on the south side, passing by the
west, joined their sisters on the north, and danced to the music,
not only of the choir, but also of the group of trumpeters led
by Payatamu. The Maidens were led each time to the plaza by
either their elder sister Yellow Corn Maiden, or the Blue Corn
Maiden, and they held their beautiful thlawe (underworld plant
plumes) in either hand. The Corn Maidens never again ap-
peared to the Ashiwi.”
Not all myths connected with the maize are as innocent or
poetic as this. The witches that gave the seed to the Corn
Maidens were the two last comers from the Underworld at the
time of the emergence. At first the Ashiwi were in favour of
sending them back, but the witches told them that they had in
their possession the seeds of all things, in exchange for which
they demanded the sacrifice of a youth and a maid, declar-
ing, “We wish to kill the children that the rains may come.”
So a boy and a girl, children of one of the Divine Ones, were
devoted, and the rain came, and the earth bore fruit — bitter
fruit it was, at first, till the owl and the raven and the coyote
had softened and sweetened it. Here we have one of the many
legends of the South-West telling of the sacrifice of children to
the Lords of the Waters which seem to point to a time when
the Pueblo dwellers and their neighbours, like the Aztecs of the
south, cast their own flesh and blood to the hard-bargaining
Tlaloque.®®
The one theme of Pueblo ritual is prayer for rain. When
asked for an explanation of his rites, says Fewkes {Annual
Report of the Smithsonian Institution, 1896, pp. 698-99),
there are two fundamentals always on the lips of the Hopi
priest. “We cling to the rites of our ancestors because they
have been pronounced good by those who know; we erect our
altars, sing our traditional songs, and celebrate our sacred
dances for rain that our corn may germinate and yield abun-
dant harvest.” And he gives the call with which the town crier
at dawn announces the feast:
202
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
All people awake, open your eyes, arise.
Become children of light, vigorous, active, sprightly.
Hasten clouds from the four world quarters ;
Come snow in plenty, that water may be abundant when summer
comes;
Come ice, cover the fields, that the planting may yield abundance.
Let all hearts be glad!
The knowing ones will assemble in four days;
They will encircle the village dancing and singing their lays . . .
That moisture may come in abundance.
VI. SIA AND HOPI COSMOGONIES
No Indians are more inveterate and accomplished tellers of
tales than are the Pueblo dwellers. Their repertoire includes its
full quota of coyote traditions and stories of ghosts, bugaboos,
cannibals, ogres,* and fairies, as well as legends of migration
and clan accession, of cultural innovations and the found-
ing of rites, the historical character of which is more or less
clear. But for insight into fundamental beliefs the cosmogonic
myths of these, as of other peoples, are the most valuable of all.
To be sure, not all the beings who play leading roles in cos-
mogony are equally important in cult: many of them belong to
that “elder generation” of traditionary powers which appear
in every highly developed mythic system; and often the po-
tencies for which there is a real religious veneration are sym-
bolized in myth by more or less strange personifications — as
Spider Woman, in the South-West, appears to be only an image
of the Earth Goddess, suggested by the uncannily huge earth-
nesting spiders of that region. Nevertheless, it is to cosmog-
onies that we must look for the clearest definition of mythic
powers.
In their general outlines the cosmogonies of the Pueblo
dwellers are in accord with the Navaho Genesis, with which
they clearly share a common origin. They differ from this,
and among themselves, in the arrangement and emphasis of
incidents, as well as in dramatic and conceptual imagination.
THE PUEBLO DWELLERS
203
The cosmogony of the Sia is very near in form to that of the
Navaho. The first being was Sussistinnako, Spider, who drew
a cross in the lower world where he dwelt,®® placed magic
parcels at the eastern and western points, and sang until two
women came forth from these, Utset, the mother of Indians,
and Nowutset, the parent of other men. Spider also cre-
ated rain, thunder, lightning, and the rainbow, while the two
women made sun and moon and stars. After this there was
a contest of riddles between the sisters, and Nowutset, who,
though stronger, was the duller of the two, losing the contest,
was slain by Utset and her heart cut from her breast.®® This
was the beginning of war in the world. For eight years the
people dwelt happily in the lower world, but in the ninth a
flood came and they were driven to the earth above, to which
they ascended through a reed.'*® Utset led the way, carrying
the stars in a sack; the turkey was last of all, and the foaming
waters touched his tail, which to this day bears their mark.'*^
The locust and the badger bored the passage by which the
sky of the lower world was pierced, and all the creatures
passed through. Utset put the beetle in charge of her star-
sack, but he, out of curiosity, made a hole in it, and the stars
escaped to form the chaotic field of heaven, although a few re-
mained, which she managed to rescue and to establish as con-
stellations.^* The First People, the Sia, gathered into camps
beside the Shipapo, through which they had emerged, but they
had no food. Utset, however, “ had always known the name
of corn,” though the grain itself was not in existence; accord-
ingly, she now planted bits of heart, and, as the cereal grew, she
said, “This corn is my heart, and it shall be to my people as
milk from my breasts.” ®® The people desired to find the Middle
Place of the world, but the earth was too soft, and so Utset
requested the four beasts of the quarters — cougar, bear, wolf,
and badger — to harden it; but they could not, and it was
a Spider Woman and a Snake Man who finally made a path
upon which the people set forth on their journey. The quar-
204
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
rel of the men and women, their separation, and the birth of
cannibal beings from the women — events which the Navaho
place in the Underworld — now occur; a little while later the
sexes reunite, and a virgin, embraced by the Sun, gives birth
to Maasewe and Uyuuyewe, the diminutive twin Warriors,
who visit their Sun Father, and are armed to slay the monsters,
as in Navaho myth.^ After the departure of the Warrior
Twins, the waters of the Underworld began to rise, and the
people fled to the top of a mesa, the flood*® being placated only
by the sacrifice of a youth and a maiden. When the earth
was again hardened, the people resumed their search for the
Middle Place, which they reached in four days and where they
built their permanent home. Shortly afterward a virgin gave
birth to a son, Poshaiyanne,®® who grew up, outcast and neg-
lected, to become a great magician; gambling with the chief,
he won all the towns and possessions of the tribe, and the people
themselves, but he used his power beneficently and became a
potent bringer of wealth and game. Finally, he departed, prom-
ising to return; but on the way he was attacked and slain by
jealous enemies. A white, fluffy eagle feather fell and touched
his body, and as it came in contact with him, it rose again,
and he with it, once more alive. Somewhere he still lives, the
Sia say, and sometime he will come back to his people. Here
we meet a northern version of the famous legend of Quetzal-
coatl.®®
Hopi myths of the beginnings contain the same general in-
cidents. In the Underworld there was nothing but water; two
women, ^ Huruing Wuhti of the East and Huruing Wuhti of
the West, lived in their east and west houses, and the Sun made
his journey from one to the other, descending through an open-
ing in the kiva of the West at night and emerging from a simi-
lar aperture in the kiva of the East at dawn. These deities
decided to create land, and they divided the waters that the
earth might appear. Then from clay they formed, first, birds,
which belonged to the Sun, then animals, which were the prop-
THE PUEBLO DWELLERS
205
erty of the two Women, and finally men, whom the Women
rubbed with their palms and so endowed with understanding.’®
At first the people lived in the Underworld in Paradisic bliss,
but the sin of licentiousness appeared, and they were driven
forth by the rising waters, escaping only under the leadership
of Spider Woman, by means of a giant reed, sunflower, and
two kinds of pine-tree."^ Mocking-Bird assigned them their
tribes and languages as they came up, but his songs were ex-
hausted before all emerged and the rest fell back into nether
gloom. At this time death entered into the world, for a sorcerer
caused the son of a chief to die. The father was at first deter-
mined to cast the guilty one back into the Sipapu, the hole of
emergence, but relented when he was shown his dead son
living in the realm below; “That is the way it will be,” said
the sorcerer, “if anyone dies he will go down there.”
The earth upon which the First People had emerged was
dark and sunless,’® and only one being dwelt there. Skeleton,
who was very poor, although he had a little fire and some maize.
The people determined to create Moon and Sun, such as they
had had in the Underworld, and these they cast, with their
carriers, up into the sky. They then set out to search for the
sunrise, separating into three divisions — the White People
to the south, the Indians to the north, and the Pueblos in
the centre. It was agreed that whenever one of the parties
arrived at the sunrise, the others should stop where they
stood. The whites, who created horses to aid them, were the
first to attain their destination, and when they did so a great
shower of stars informed the others that one of the parties had
reached the goal, so both Indians and Pueblo dwellers settled
where they now live. The legends of the flood and of the
sacrifice of children are also known to the Hopi, while the
Warrior Brothers — Pookonghoya and Balongahoya — per-
form the usual feats of monster-slaying.^^ Additional incidents
of a more wide-spread type are found in Hopi and other Pueblo
mythologies: the killing of the man-devouring monster by
2o6
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
being swallowed and cutting a way to light, thus liberating the
imprisoned victims; the creation of life from the flesh of a
slain animal; the freeing of the beasts from a cave, to people
the world with game; the adventures of young hunters with
Circe-like women of the wilderness — all of them myths which
represent the detritus of varied cosmogonies.
VIL ZUNi COSMOGONY^
Of all the Pueblo tales of the origin of the universe the Zuni
account is the most interesting, for it alone displays some power
of metaphysical conceptualization. “In the beginning Awona-
wilona with the Sun Father and the Moon Mother existed
above, and Shiwanni and Shiwanokia, his wife, below. . . .
(Shiwanni and Shiwanokia labored not with hands but with
hearts and minds ; the Rain Priests of the Zuili arc called Ashi-
wanni and the Priestess of Fecundity Shiwanokia.) . . . All
was shipololo (fog), rising like steam. With breath from his
heart Awonawilona created clouds and the great waters of
the world. . . . (He-She®'‘ is the blue vault of the firmament.
The breath-clouds of the gods are tinted with the yellow of the
north, the blue-green of the west, the red of the south, and the
silver of the east of Awonawilona. The smoke clouds of white
and black become a part of Awonawilona; they are himself, as
he is the air itself; and when the air takes on the form of a
bird it is but a part of himself — is himself. Through the light,
clouds, and air he becomes the essence and creator of vege-
tation.) . . . After Awonawilona created the clouds and the
great waters of the world, Shiwanni said to Shiwanokia, ‘I,
too, will make something beautiful, which will give light at
night when the Moon Mother sleeps.’ Spitting in the palm of
his left hand, he patted the spittle with the palm of his right
hand, and the spittle foamed like yucca suds and then formed
into bubbles of many colors, which he blew upward; and thus
he created the fixed stars and constellations. Then Shiwanokia
THE PUEBLO DWELLERS
207
said, ‘See what I can do,’ and she spat into the palm of her
left hand and slapped the saliva with the fingers of her right,
and the spittle foamed like yucca suds, running over her hand
and flowing everywhere; and thus she created Awitelin Tsita,
the Earth Mother.”
Light and heat and moisture and the seed of generation —
these are the forces personified in this thinly mythic veil. In
the version rendered by Cushing there is a still more sin-
gle beginning: “Awonawilona conceived within himself and
thought outward In space, whereby mists of increase, steams
potent of growth, were evolved and uplifted. Thus, by means
of his innate knowledge, the All-container made himself in per-
son and form of the Sun whom we hold to be our father and
who thus came to exist and appear.^® With his appearance
came the brightening of the spaces with light, and with the
brightening of the spaces the great mist-clouds were thickened
together and fell, whereby was evolved water in water; yea,
and the world-holding sea. With his substance of flesh out-
drawn from the surface of his person, the Sun-father formed
the seed-stuff of twin worlds, impregnating therewith the great
waters, and lo! in the heat of his light these waters of the sea
grew green and scums rose upon them, waxing wide and
weighty until, behold! they became Awitelin Tsita, the ‘Four-
fold Containing Mother-earth,’ and Apoyan Tachu, the ‘All-
covcrlng Father-sky.’ From the lying together of these twain
upon the great world-waters, so vitalizing, terrestrial life was
conceived; whence began all beings of earth, men and the crea-
tures, in the Four-fold womb of the World. Thereupon the
Earth-mother repulsed the Sky-father, growing big and sink-
ing deep into the embrace of the waters below, thus separat-
ing from the Sky-father in the embrace of the waters above.
“As a woman forebodes evil for her first-born ere born, even
so did the Earth-mother forebode, long withholding from birth
her myriad progeny and meantime seeking counsel with the
Sky-father. ‘How,’ said they to one another, ‘shall our chil-
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NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
dren, when brought forth, know one place from another,
even by the white light of the Sun-father?’ . . . Now like
all the surpassing beings the Earth-mother and the Sky-father
were changeable, even as smoke in the wind; transmutable
at thought, manifesting themselves in any form at will, like
as dancers may by mask-making. . . . Thus, as a man and
woman, spake they, one to another.
“‘Behold!’ said the Earth-mother as a great terraced bowl
appeared at hand and within it water, ‘this is as upon me the
homes of my tiny children shall be. On the rim of each world-
country they wander in, terraced mountains shall stand, mak-
ing in one region many, whereby country shall be known from
country, and within each, place from place. Behold, again!’
said she as she spat on the water and rapidly smote and stirred
it with her fingers. Foam formed, gathering about the terraced
rim, mounting higher and higher. ‘Yea,’ said she, ‘and from
my bosom they shall draw nourishment, for in such as this
shall they find the substance of life whence we were ourselves
sustained, for sec!’ Then with her warm breath she blew
across the terraces; white flecks of the foam broke away, and,
floating over above the water, were shattered by the cold
breath of the Sky-father attending, and forthwith shed down-
ward abundantly fine mist and spray! ‘Even so, shall white
clouds float up from the great waters at the borders of the
world, and clustering about the mountain terraces of the hori-
zons be borne aloft and abroad by the breaths of the surpass-
ing soul-beings, and of the children, and shall hardened and
broken be by thy cold, shedding downward, in rain spray, the
water of life, even into the hollow places of my lap! For therein
chiefly shall nestle our children, mankind and creature-kind,
for warmth in thy coldness.’ . . . Lo ! even the trees on high
mountains near the clouds and the Sky-father crouch low
toward the Earth-mother for warmth and protection! Warm
is the Earth-mother, cold the Sky-father, even as woman is
the warm, man the cold being! . . .
-
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
214
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
2i6
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
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
2i8
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
-
than help the beneficent intentions of the creator, toll, pain,
and death being due to his Interference. “I was the oldest in
the olden time, and if a person die he must be dead,” says
Coyote to Earth-Maker in a Maidu myth, reported by Dixon.^®
The first act of this Maidu creation already implies the covert
antagonism ;
“When this world was filled with water, Earth-Maker floated
upon it, kept floating about. Nowhere in the world could he
see even a tiny bit of earth. No person of any kind flew about.
He went about in this world, the world itself being invisible,
transparent like the sky. He was troubled. ‘ I wonder how, I
wonder where, I wonder in what place, in what country we
shall find a world!’ he said. ‘You are a very strong man, to
be thinking of this world,’ said Coyote. ‘I am guessing in
what direction the world is, then to that distant land let us
float!’ said Earth-Maker.” The two float about seeking the
earth and singing songs : “ Where, 0 world, art thou ? ” “ Where
are you, my great mountains, my world mountains?” “As
they floated along, they saw something like a bird’s nest.
‘Well that is very small,’ said Earth-Maker. ‘It is small. If
it were larger I could fix it. But It Is too small,’ he said. ‘ I
wonder how I can stretch It a little!’ . . . He extended a rope
to the east, to the south he extended a rope, to the west, to
the northwest, and to the north he extended ropes. When all
were stretched, he said, ‘Well, sing, you who were the finder
of this earth, this mud! “In the long, long ago, Robin-Man
made the world, stuck earth together, making this world.”
Thus mortal men shall say of you, in myth-telling.’ Then
Robin sang, and his world-making song sounded sweet. After
the ropes were all stretched, he kept singing; then, after a time,
he ceased. Then Earth-Maker spoke to Coyote also. ‘Do
you sing, too,’ he said. So he sang, singing, ‘My world where
one travels by the valley-edge; my world of many foggy
mountains; my world where one goes zigzagging hither and
thither; range after range,’ he said, ‘I sing of the country I
219
THE PACIFIC COAST, WEST
shall travel in. In such a world I shall wander,’ he said. Then
Earth-Maker sang — sang of the world he had made, kept
singing, until by and by he ceased. ‘Now,’ he said, ‘it would be
well if the world were a little larger. Let us stretch it!’ ‘Stop!’
said Coyote. ‘ I speak wisely. The world ought to be painted
with something so that it may look pretty. What do ye two
think?’ Then Robin-Man said, ‘I am one who knows nothing.
Ye two are clever men, making this world, talking it over;
if ye find anything evil, ye will make it good.’ ‘Very well,’
said Coyote, ‘I will paint it with blood. There shall be blood
in the world; and people shall be born there, having blood.
There shall be birds born who shall have blood. Everything —
deer, all kinds of game, all sorts of men without any exception
— all things shall have blood that are to be created in this
world. And in another place, making it red, there shall be red
rocks. It will be as if blood were mixed up with the world,
and thus the world will be beautiful!’ ” After this Earth-Maker
stretched the world, and he inspected his work, journeying
through all its parts, and he created man-beings in pairs to
people earth’s regions, each with a folk speaking differently.
Then he addressed the last-created pair, saying: “‘Now,
wherever I have passed along, there shall never be a lack of
anything,’ he said, and made motions in all directions. ‘The
country where I have been shall be one where nothing is ever
lacking. I have finished talking to you, and I say to you that
ye shall remain where ye are to be born. Ye are the last people;
and while ye are to remain where ye are created, I shall return,
and stay there. When this world becomes bad, I will make it
over again; and after I make it, ye shall be born,’ he said.
(Long ago Coyote suspected this, they say.) ‘This world will
shake,’ he said. ‘This world is spread out flat, the world is
not stable. After this world is all made, by and by, after a
long time, I will pull this rope a little, then the world shall
be firm. I, pulling on my rope, shall make it shake. And
now,’ he said, ‘there shall be songs, they shall not be lacking,
220
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
ye shall have them/ And he sang, and kept on singing until he
ceased singing. ^Ye mortal men shall have this song,’ he said,
and then he sang another; and singing many different songs,
he walked along, kept walking until he reached the middle
of the world; and there, sitting down over across from it, he
remained.”
In another myth of the Maidu, Earth-Maker descends from
heaven by a feather rope to a raft upon which Turtle and a
sorcerer are afloat. Earth-Maker creates the world from mud
brought up by the Turtle, who dives for it, and Coyote issues
from the Underworld to introduce toil and death among men.
The Maidu Earth-Maker has close parallels among neigh-
bouring tribes,® perhaps the most exalted being Olelbis, of the
Wintun: ^^The first that we know of Olelbis is that he was in
Olelpanti. Whether he lived in another place is not known,
but in the beginning he was in Olelpanti (on the upper side),
the highest place.” Thus begins Curtin’s rendering of the myth
of creation. The companions of Olelbis in this heaven-world
— completing the triad which so often recurs in Californian
cosmogonies — are two old women, with whose aid he builds
a wonderful sweat-house in the sky: its pillars are six great
oaks; its roof is their intertwining branches, from which fall
endless acorns; it is bound above with beautiful flowers, and
its four walls are screens of flowers woven by the two women;
‘‘all kinds of flowers that are in the world now were gathered
around the foot of that sweat-house, an enormous bank of
them; every beautiful color and every sweet odor in the world
was there. The sweat-house grew until it became wonder-
ful in size and splendour, the largest and most beautiful thing
in the world, placed there to last forever — perhaps the most
charmingly pictured Paradise in Indian myth.
Other creators, in the myths of this region, are Taikomol,
He-Who-Goes-Alone, of the Yuki; Yimantuwinyai, Old-One-
Across-the-Ocean, of the Hupa; K’mukamtch, Old Man, of
the Klamath, tricky rather than edifying in character; and the
221
THE PACIFIC COAST, WEST
Wishosk Maker Gudatrigakwitl, Old-Man-Above, who per-
forms his creative work by “joining his hands and spreading
them out.” Among these the Hupa creator seems not to have
existed forever: “It was at Tcoxoltcwedin he came into being.
From the earth behind the inner house wall he sprang into
existence. There was a ringing noise like the striking together
of metals at his birth. Before his coming smoke had settled on
the mountain side. Rotten pieces of wood thrown up by
someone fell into his hands. Where they fell there was fire.”
This surely implies a volcanic birth of the universe, natural
enough in a land where earthquakes are common and volcanoes
not extinct. Something of the same suggestion is conveyed by
a myth of the neighbouring Coos Indians, in which the world
is created by two brothers on a foundation of pieces of soot
cast upon the waters.'** In this Kusan myth the third person
of the recurrent Californian triad is a medicine-man with a
red-painted face, whom the brothers slay, spilling his blood in
all directions — an episode reminiscent of the role of Coyote in
the Maidu genesis. When the world Is completed, the brothers
shoot arrows upward toward the heavens, each successive bolt
striking into the shaft of the one above, and thus they build
a ladder by means of which they ascend into the sky.
IV. CATACLYSMS*®
The notion of cataclysmic destructions of the world by flood
or fire, often with a concomitant falling of the sky, is frequent
in West-Coast myth. Indeed, many of the creation-stories
seem to be, in fact, traditions of the re-forming of the earth
after the great annihilation, although in some myths both the
creation and the re-creation are described. One of the most
interesting is the genesis-legend of the Kato, an Athapascan
tribe closely associated with the Porno, who are of Kulanapan
stock.
The story begins with the making of a new sky, to replace
222 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
the old one, which is soon to fall. ^^The sandstone rock which
formed the sky was old, they say. It thundered in the east; it
thundered in the south; it thundered In the west; It thundered
in the north. ‘The rock is old, we will fix it,’ he said. There
were two, Nagaitcho and Thunder. ‘We will stretch it above
far to the east,’ one of them said. They stretched it.®^ They
walked on the sky.” So the tale begins. Nagaitcho, the Great
Traveller, and Thunder then proceed to construct an outer
cosmos of the usual Californian type: a heaven supported by
pillars, with openings at each of the cardinal points for winds
and clouds and mist, and with winter and summer trails for
the sun’s course. They created a man and a woman, presum-
ably to become the progenitors of the next world-generation.
Then upon the earth that was they caused rain to fall: “Every
day it rained, every night It rained. All the people slept. The
sky fell. The land was not. For a very great distance there was
no land. The waters of the oceans came together. Animals of
all kinds drowned. Where the water went there were no trees.
There was no land. . . . Water came, they say. The waters
completely joined everywhere. There was no land or mountains
or rocks, but only water. Trees and grass were not. There were
no fish, or land animals, or birds. Human beings and animals
alike had been washed away. The wind did not then blow
through the portals of the world, nor was there snow, nor
frost, nor rain. It did not thunder nor did it lighten. Since
there were no trees to be struck, it did not thunder. There
were neither clouds nor fog, nor was there a sun. It was very
dark. . . . Then it was that this earth with its great, long
horns got up and walked down this way from the north. As It
walked along through the deep places the water rose to Its
shoulders. When It came up into shallower places, it looked
up. There is a ridge in the north upon which the waves break.
When it came to the middle of the world, In the east under the
rising of the sun, it looked up again. There where it looked up
will be a large land near to the coast. Far away to the south it
223
THE PACIFIC COAST, WEST
continued looking up. It walked under the ground. Having
come from the north it traveled far south and la7 down.
Nagaitcho, standing on earth’s head, had been carried to the
south. Where earth lay down Nagaitcho placed its head as it
should be and spread gray clay between its eyes and on each
horn. Upon the clay he placed a layer of reeds and then another
layer of clay. In this he placed upright blue grass, brush, and
trees. ‘I have finished,’ he said. ‘Let there be mountain
peaks here on its head. Let the waves of the sea break against
them.’”
The Wintun creation-myth, narrated by Curtin, possesses
a plot of the same type. Just as he perceives that the end
of the First World and of the First People is approaching,
Olelbis, He-Who-Sits-Above, builds his paradisic sweat-house
in the sky-world to become a refuge for such as may attain to
it. The cataclysm is caused by the theft of Flint from the
Swift, who, for revenge, induces Shooting Star, Fire Drill,
and the latter’s wife, Buckeye Bush, to set the world afire.®^
“Olelbis looked down into the burning world. He could see
nothing but waves of flame; rocks were burning, the ground
was burning, everything was burning. Great rolls and piles
of smoke were rising; fire flew up toward the sky in flames, in
great sparks and brands. Those sparks are sky eyes, and all
the stars that we now see in the sky came from that time when
the first world was burned. The sparks stuck fast in the sky,
and have remained there ever since. Quartz rocks and fire in
the rocks are from that time; there was no fire in the rocks
before the world fire. . . . During the fire they could see noth-
ing of the world below but flames and smoke.” Olelbis did not
like this; and on the advice of two old women, his Grand-
mothers, as he called them, he sent the Eagle and the Humming-
Bird to prop up the sky in the north, and to summon thence
Kahit, the Wind, and Mem Loimis, the Waters, who lived be-
yond the first sky.® “The great fire was blazing, roaring all
over the earth, burning rocks, earth, trees, people, burning
224
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
everything. Mem Loimis started, and with her Kahit. Water
rushed in through the open place made by Lutchi when he
raised the sky. It rushed in like a crowd of rivers, covered the
earth, and put out the fire as it rolled on toward the south.
There was so much water outside that could not come through
that it rose to the top of the sky and rushed on toward Olel-
panti. . . . Mem Loimis went forward, and water rose moun-
tains high. Following closely after Mem Loimis came Kahit.
He had a whistle in his mouth; as he moved forward he blew
it with all his might, and made a terrible noise. The whistle
was his own; he had had it always. He came flying and blow-
ing; he looked like an enormous bat with wings spread. As
he flew south toward the other side of the sky, his two cheek
feathers grew straight out, became immensely long, waved up
and down, grew till they could touch the sky on both sides.”
Finally the fire was quenched, and at the request of Olelbis,
Kahit drove Mem Loimis, the Waters, back to her underworld
home, while beneath Olelpanti there was now nothing but naked
rocks, with a single pool left by the receding waters. The myth
goes on to tell of the refashioning and refurnishing of the world
by Olelbis, assisted by such of the survivors of the cataclysm
of fire and flood as had managed to escape to Olelpanti. A
net is spread over the sky, and through it soil, brought from
beyond the confines of the sky-capped world, is sifted down to
cover the boulders. Olelbis marks out the rivers, and water is
drawn to fill them from the single lakelet that remains. Fire,
now sadly needed in the world, is stolen from the lodge of Fire
Drill and Buckeye Bush — the parents of flame — without
their discovering the loss (an unusual turn in the tale of the
theft of fire). The earth is fertilized by Old Man Acorn and
by seed dropping down from the flower lodge of Olelbis in
the skies. Many animals spring into being from the feathers
and bits of the body of Wokwuk, a large and beautiful bird,
with very red eyes; while numerous others are the result of the
transformations wrought by Olelbis, who now metamorphoses
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the survivors of the first world Into the animals and objects
whose nature they had In reality always possessed.^^ A par-
ticularly charming episode tells of the snaring of the clouds.
These had sprung into being when the waters of the flood struck
the fires of the conflagration, and they were seeking ever to
escape back to the north, whence Kahit and Mem Loimis had
come. Three of them, a black, a white, and a red one, are cap-
tured; the skin of the red cloud is kept by the hunters, who
often hang it up in the west, though sometimes in the east;
the black and the white skins are given to the Grandmothers
of Olelbis. “Now,” said the two old women, “we have this
white skin and this black one. When we hang the white skin
outside this house, white clouds will go from it, — will go
away down south, where its people began to live, and then they
will come from the south and travel north to bring rain.
When they come back, we will hang out the black skin, and
from it a great many black rain clouds will go out, and from
these clouds heavy rain will fall on all the world below.”
The Pacific Coast is a land of two seasons, the wet and the
dry, and these twin periods could scarcely be more beautifully
symbolized.^®
V. THE FIRST PEOPLE^
A little reflection upon the operations of animistic imagina-
tion will go far to explain the conception of a First People,
manlike In form, but animal or plant or stone or element in
nature, which is nowhere In America more clearly defined than
on the West Coast.® The languages of primitive folk are built
np of concrete terms; abstract and general names are nearly
unknown; and hence their thought is metaphorical in cast and
procedure. Now the nearest and most intelligible of meta-
phors are those which are based upon the forms and traits of
men’s own bodies and minds: whatever can be made familiar
in terms of human instinct and habit and desire is truly
familiar, — “Man is the measure of all things,” and primitive
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mythic metaphor is the elementary form of applying this stand-
ard. At first it is the activities rather than the forms of things
that are rendered in terms of human nature; for it is always
the activities, the powers of things, that are important in
practical life; the outward, the aesthetic, cast of experience
becomes significant only as people advance from a life of
need to a life of thought and reflection. Hence, at first,
mythopoetic fancy is content to ascribe human action and
intention, human speech and desires, to environing creation;
the physical form is of small consequence in explaining the
conduct of the world, for physical form is of all things the
most inconstant to the animistic mind, and it is invariably
held suspect, as if it were a guise or ruse for the deluding of the
human race. But there comes a period of thought when anthro-
pomorphism — an aesthetic humanizing of the world — is as
essential to mental comfort and to the sense of the intelligi-
bility of nature as is the earlier and more naive psychomor-
phism: when the phantasms, as well as the instincts and
powers, of the world call for explanation.
Such a demand, in its incipiency, is met by the conception
of the First People. This is a primeval race, not only regarded
as human in conduct, but imagined as manlike in form. They
belong to that uncertain past when all life and all nature were
not yet aware of their final goal — a period of formation and
transformation, of conflict, duel, strife, of psychical and physi-
cal monstrosities, before the good and the bad had been clearly
separated. “As the heart is, so shall ye be,” is the formula ever
in the myth-maker’s half unconscious thought, and the whole
process of setting the earth in order seems to consist of the
struggle after appropriate form on the part of the world’s
primitive forces.^®
West-Coast lore is in great part composed of tales of the
First People, and it is instructive that the stories and events
in this mythology are far more constant than are the personali-
ties of the participants. This harks back to the prime impor-
227
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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
-
236 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
loved ones depart, and over and again occurs the story of the
quest for the dead, at times almost in the form of Orpheus and
Eurydice.^® Thus the Yokut tell of a husband grieving beside
his wife’s grave, until, one night, her spirit rises and stands
beside him. He follows her to the bridge that arches the river
separating the land of the living from the realm of them that
have passed away, and there wins consent from the guardians
of the dead for her return to earth, but he is forbidden to sleep
on the return journey; nevertheless, slumber overtakes him
on the third night, and he wakes in the morning to find that
he lies beside a log. The Modoc story of Kumush and his
daughter and of the creation of men from the bones of the dead
is surely akin to this, uniting life and death in one unbroken
chain. This conception is brought out even more clearly in
a second version of the Yokut tale, wherein the man who has
visited the isle of the dead tells how, as it fills, the souls are
crowded forth to become birds and fish.
That the home of those who have gone hence should lie
beyond the setting sun is a part of that elemental poetry by
which man sees his life imaged and painted on the whole field
of heaven and earth: the disk of morning is the symbol of
birth, noon is the fullness of existence, and evening’s decline is
the sign of death. But dawn follows after the darkness with a
new birth, for which the dead that be departed do but wait
— where better than in those Fortunate Isles which all men
whose homes have bordered on the western sea have dreamed
to lie beyond its gleaming horizons?
CHAPTER XI
THE PACIFIC COAST, NORTH
I. PEOPLES OF THE NORTH-WEST COAST
F rom Puget Sound northward to the neighbourhood of
Mt. St. Elias and the Copper River the coast is cut hy
innumerable fiords and bays, abutted by glaciated mountains,
and bordered by an almost continuous archipelago. The rainy
season is long and the precipitation heavy on this coast, which,
on the lower levels, is densely forested, conifers forming the
greater part of the upper growth, while the shrubbery of bushes
furnishes a wealth of berries. The red cedar {Thuja flicata)
is of especial importance to the natives of the coast, its wood
serving for building and for the carvings for which these people
are remarkable, while its bark is used for clothing, ropes, and
the like. Deer, elk, bear, the wolf, the mountain goat, the
beaver, the mink, and the otter inhabit the forest, the hills,
and the streams, and are hunted by the Indians; though it is
chiefly from the sea that the tribes of this region draw their
food. Besides molluscs, which the women gather, the waters
abound in edible fish ; salmon and halibut, for which the coast
is famous, herring, candlefish, from which the natives draw the
oil which is an important article of their diet, and marine
mammals, such as the seal, sea-lion, and whale. The region is
adapted to support a considerable population, even under
aboriginal conditions of life, while at the same time its easy
internal communication by water, and its relative inacces-
sibility on the continental side, encourage a unique and special
culture.
Such, indeed, we find. While no less than siz linguistic divi-
238 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
sions are found on the North-West Coast, accompanied by a
corresponding diversity of physical types, the general cul-
ture of the region Is one, and of a cast unlike anything else
on the continent. Its foundation is maritime, the Indians of
this region building large and shapely canoes, and some tribes,
such as the Nootka and Quileute, even attacking the whale
in the open sea. Villages are built facing the beach, and the
timber houses, occupied by several families, represent the high-
est architectural skill of any Indian structures north of the
pueblos. The wood-working craft is nowhere in America more
developed, not only in the matter of weapons and utensils,
but especially in carvings, of which the most famous exam-
ples are the totem-poles of the northern tribes. Work in
shell, horn, and stone is second in quality only to that in wood,
while copper has been extensively used, even from aboriginal
times. Basketry and the weaving of mats and bark-cloth are
also native crafts. In art the natives of the North-West at-
tained a unique excellence, their carvings and drawings show-
ing a type of decorative conventionalizing of human and animal
figures unsurpassed in America, as is also the skill with which
these elements are combined. The impulse of this art is almost
wholly mythical, and it finds its chief expression in heraldic
poles, grave-posts, and house-walls, in ceremonial masks and
rattles, and in the representation of ancestral animals on
clothing and utensils.
The social structure of the peoples of the North-West re-
flects their advancement In the crafts. The majority of the
tribes are organized into septs and clans determining descent
and marriage relations. In the northern area descent is counted
matrillnearly, in the southern by the patrilinear rule. The
Kwakiutl have an institution which seems to mark a transi-
tion between the two systems: descent follows the paternal
line, but each individual inherits the crest of his maternal
grandfather. In some village-groups parents are at liberty to
place their children in either the maternal or the paternal
THE PACIFIC COAST, NORTH 239
clan. Clan exogamy is the rule. Within the tribe the various
clans are not of equal status; consequently, there is a similar
gradation in the rank of the nobles who are the clan heads
or chiefs. These nobles are the real rulers of the North-West
peoples, whose government is thus of an oligarchic type. Clan
membership carries with it the right to use the ancestral crest,
certain totems involving the privileges of rank, while others
mark plebeian caste. Slavery is another institution prominent
in the North-West, slaves being either prisoners of war or
hopeless debtors.
Perhaps the most distinctive feature of these tribes is the
Potlatch. Primarily this word designates a festival at which
a chieftain or a man of means distributes a large amount of
property, often the accumulation of years. These riches are
not, however, a free presentation, since the recipients are bound
to return, with interest, the gifts received, so that a wealthy
man thus ensures to himself competence and revenue, as well
as importance in the tribal councils. Rivalry of the intensest
sort is generated between the great men of the several clans,
each striving to outdo the others in the munificence of his
feasts, which thus become a matter of family distinction, enti-
tled to record on the family crest. The recognized medium of
exchange is the blanket, but a curious and interesting device is
the “Copper” — the bank-note of the North-West — a ham-
mered and decorated sheet of copper of a special form, having
the value of many hundred or of several thousand blankets,
according to the amount offered for it at a festal sale. These
Coppers are, in fact, insignia of wealth; and since the destruc-
tion of property is regarded as the highest evidence of social
importance, they are sometimes broken, or even entirely de-
stroyed, as a sign of contempt for the riches of a less able rival.
Of the stocks of the North-West the most northerly is the
Koluschan, comprising the Tlingit Indians, whose region ex-
tends frond the Copper River, where they border upon the
Eskimoan Aleut, south to Portland Canal. The Skittagetan
240
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
stock, of the Queen Charlotte Islands and the southern part
of Prince of Wales Island, is formed of the Haida tribes; while
on the opposite mainland,. following the Nass and Skeena riv-
ers far inland, is the district of the Tsimshian and other Chim-
mesyan peoples. South of these begin the territories of the
Wakashan stock, which extend on the mainland to Johnston
Strait and, beyond, over the whole western part of the is-
land of Vancouver. Powell divided this stock into the Aht
and Haeltzuk (Bellabella) tribes, but later authorities prefer
Kwakiutl and Nootka, the latter holding the seaward side of
Vancouver. The fifth group comprises the Coast Salish: a
northern division, about Dean Inlet and the Salmon and Bella
Coola rivers, adjoining the Wakashan territories; a central di-
vision extending from the head of the Strait of Georgia south-
ward to Chinook lands about the Columbia; and a southern
group holding the Oregon coast south of the Chinook peoples.
A single tribe, the Quileute, about Cape Flattery in Wash-
ington, represents the almost extinct Chimakuan stock. In
general, the culture of the Tlingit and Haida tribes show
an identity of form which distinguishes them as a group from
the like community manifested by the Tsimshian, Kwakiutl,
Nootka, and North-Coast Salish.
II. TOTEMISM AND TOTEMIC SPIRITS*
The ceremonies of the tribes of the North-West fall into
two classes, following their social and ceremonial organi?:ation.
The social division into clans, which are matrilinear and exo-
gamic in the north, while patrilinear or mixed systems prevail
in the south, finds outward expression in totemic insignia and
in ceremonial representations of the myths narrating the be-
ginnings of the septs. These origins are ascribed to an ancestor
who has been initiated by animal-beings into their mysteries,
or dances, thus conferring upon him the powers of the initiating
creatures; the animals themselves are not regarded as ancestral,
PLATE XXX
Frame of Haida house with totem-pole. After
MAM viii, Plate XL
THE PACIFIC COAST, NORTH 241
nor are the members of the clan akin to the totemic being,
except in so far as they possess the powers and practise the
rites obtained through the ancestral revelation. The manner of
revelation is precisely that in which the Indian everywhere in
North America acquires his guardian or tutelary, his personal
totem : in fast or trance the man is borne away by the animal-
being, taken perhaps to the lodge of its kind, and there given
an initiation which he carries back to his people. The dis-
tinctive feature of the North-Western custom, however, is
that a totem so acquired may be transmitted by inheritance,
so that a man’s lineage may be denoted by such a series of
crests as appears upon the totem-pole.®^ Correspondingly, the
number and variety of totemic spirits become reduced, ani-
mals or mythic beings of a limited and conventionalized group
forming a class fixed by heredity. Yet the individual character
of the totem never quite disappears; what is transmitted by
birth is the right to initiation into the ancestral mysteries;
without this ceremony the individual possesses neither the use
of the crest nor knowledge of its myths and songs.
The animal totems of the Tlinglt, as given by Boas, are
the Raven and the Wolf; of the Haida, the Raven and the
Eagle; of the Tsimshian, Raven, Eagle, Wolf, and Bear; of
the Heiltsuk Kwakiutl, Raven, Eagle, and Killer Whale; while
the Haisla (like the Heiltsuk Kwakiutl of Wakashan stock)
have six totems, Beaver, Eagle, Wolf, Salmon, Raven, and
Killer Whale. Among the remaining tribes of the region —
Nootka, Kwakiutl, and Salishan — family crests, rather than
clan totems, are the marks of social distinction; but even in
the north, where the totemic clan prevails, crests vary among
the clan families: thus, the families of the Raven clan of the
Stikine tribe of the Tlinglt have not only the Raven, but also
the Frog and the Beaver, as hereditary crests.
In addition to acquisition by marriage and inheritance,
rights to a crest may pass from one family or tribe to another
through war; for a warrior who slays a foe is deemed to have
242 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
acquired the privileges of the slain man’s totem; if this be one
foreign to the conqueror’s tribe, slaves may be called upon
to give the proper initiation, which is still essential. Thus the
rights to certain crests pass from clan to clan and from tribe to
tribe, forming the foundation for a kind of intertribal relation-
ship of persons owning like totems. Wars were formerly waged
for the acquisition of desired totemic rights, and more than
once, the legends tell, bitter conflicts have resulted from the
appropriation of a crest by a man who had no demonstrable
right to it, for no prerogatives are more jealously guarded in
the North-West. Only persons of wealth could acquire the
use of crests, for the initiation must be accompanied by feast-
ing and gift-giving at the expense of the initiate and his kin-
dred. On the other hand, the possession of crests is a mark of
social importance; hence, they are eagerly sought.-
The origin of crests was referred to mythic ancestors. The .
Haida are divided into Eagles and Ravens. The ancestress of
the Raven clan is Foam Woman, who rose from the sea and is
said to have had the power of driving back all other super-
natural beings with the lightnings of her eyes; Foam Woman,
like Diana of the Ephesians, had many breasts, at each of
which she nourished a grandmother of a Raven family of the
Haida. The oldest crest of this clan is the Killer Whale, whose
dorsal fin, according to tradition, adorned the blanket of one
of the daughters of Foam Woman; but they also have for crests
the Grizzly Bear, Blue Hawk, Sea-Lion, Rainbow, Moon, and
other spirits and animals. Curiously enough, the Raven crest
among the Haida does not belong to families of the Raven clan,
but to Eagles, whose ancestor is said to have obtained it
from the Tsimshian. All the Eagles trace their descent from
an ancestress called Greatest Mountain, probably denoting a
mainland origin of this clan, but the Eagle is regarded as the
oldest of their crests. The animals themselves are not held to
be ancestors, but only to have been connected in some signifi-
cant fashion with the family or clan progenitor; thus, an Eagle
THE PACIFIC COAST, NORTH 243
chief appeared at a feast with a necklace of live frogs, and his
family forthwith adopted the frog as a crest.
Many creatures besides animals appear as totemic or family
crests, and the double-headed snake (represented with a head
at each end and a human head in the middle), known to the
Kwakiutl as Sisiutl, is one of the most important of these
beings.®® A Squawmish myth tells of a young man who pur-
sued the serpent Senotlke for four years, finally slaying it;
as he did so, he himself fell dead, but he regained life and, on
his return to his own people, became a great shaman, having
the power to slay all who beheld him and to make them live
again — a myth which seems clearly reminiscent of initiation
rites. The Sisiutl is able to change itself into a fish, whose flesh
is fatal to those who eat it, but for those who obtain its super-
natural help it is a potent assistant. Pieces of its body, owned
by shamans, are powerful medicine and command high prices.
The Bella Coola believe that its home is a salt-water lake be-
hind the house of the supreme goddess in the highest heaven,
and that the goddess uses this mere as a bath. The skin of the
Sisiutl is so hard that it cannot be pierced by a knife, but it
can be cut by a leaf of holly. In one Bella Coola myth the
mountain is said to have split where it crawled, making a
passage for the waters of a river. It would appear from these
and other legends that the Sisiutl, like the horned Plumed
Snake of the Pueblos, is a genius of the waters, perhaps a
personification of rain-clouds. A Comox tradition, in many
ways analogous to the South-Western story of the visit of the
Twin Warriors to the Sun, tells of the conquest of Tlaik, chief
of the sky, by the two sons of Fair Weather, and of the final
destruction of the sky-chief, who is devoured by the double-
headed snake — a tale which suggests clearly enough the efface-
ment of the sun by the clouds.
Another being important in clan ritual is the Cannibal
woman (Tsonoqoa, Sneneik),^® whose offspring are represented
as wolves, and in whose home is a slave rooted to the ground
244
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
from eating the food which the demoness gave her. This anthro-
pophagous monster dwells in the woods and carries a basket
in which she puts the children whom she steals to eat, and she
also robs graves; but at last she is slain by a sky-boy to whose
image, reflected in the water, she makes love. Komokoa, the
Rich One,'^ is the protector of seals, and lives at the bottom
of the sea; the drowned go to him, and stories are narrated
of persons who have penetrated to his abode and afterward
returned to give his crest to their descendants. A frequent form
of legend recounts how hunters harpoon a seal and are dragged
down with incredible velocity until the home of Komokoa is
reached; there they are initiated, and receive crests and riches
with which they go back to their kindred, who have believed
them long since dead. The Thunderbird,^^ described as a huge
creature carrying a lake on its back and flashing lightnings from
its eyes, is also a crest, traditions telling of clan ancestors being
carried away to its haunts and there initiated. Whales are said
to be its food, and the bones of cetaceans devoured by it may
be seen upon the mountains. Monstrous birds are of frequent
occurrence in the myths of the North-West, as in California,
many of them seeming to derive their characteristics from the
Thunderbird, while the latter is sometimes asserted to resemble
types of the Falconidae, as the hawk or the eagle.
The wooden masks, carved and painted, employed in the
initiation ceremonies connected with the clan totems are the
ritual representations of the clan myth.®® Many of these
masks are double, the inner and outer faces representing two
moods or incidents in the mythic adventure. Frequently the
outer is an animal, the inner a human, face — a curious ex-
pression of the aboriginal belief in a man-soul underlying the
animal exterior. Masks are not regarded as idols; but that a
kind of fetishistic reverence attaches to wood-carvings of super-
natural beings in the North-West is shown by the number of
myths telling of such figures manifesting life. “The carvings on
the house posts wink their eyes,” is a Haida saying denoting
-
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
-
254
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
of the mosquito, for in a myth frequent throughout the North-
West these insects spring from the ashes to which the Cannibal
is reduced in the effort to destroy herd’’ Various inferior gods,
including the Fates and the ten deities presiding over the great
ceremonies, dwell in the House of Myths; at the rear of it are
two rooms, in the first of which lives the Cannibal, organizer of
the Cannibal Society, and in the second another ecstasy-giv-
ing god: these two are the sons of Senx and Alkuntam. In-
tercessors and Messengers, Sun Guardians and Sky Guardians
(whose business it is to feed the sky continually with firewood),
the Flower Goddess, and the Cedar-Bark Goddess are other per-
sonages of the Bella Coola pantheon. Four brothers, dwellers
in the House of Myths, gave man the arts, teaching him carv-
ing and painting, the making of canoes, boxes, and houses,
fishing, and hunting.*® They are continually engaged in carv-
ing and painting, and seem to be analogous to the Master Car-
penter, who often appears in Haida myths. Earth, in Bella
Coola lore, is the home of a multitude of spirits — chiefly
Animal Elders — and in the ocean are similar beings, though
there seems to be no power corresponding to the Haida Nep-
tune, The-Greatest-One-in-the-Sea. The two underworlds
have their own raison d^Hre, the upper one belonging to reve-
nant spirits, who are at liberty to return to heaven, whence
they may be reborn on earth; and the lower being the abode
of those who die a second death, from which there is no re-
lease.^®
V. THE SUN AND THE MOON«
The place of sunrise, according to the Bella Coola, is guarded
by the Bear of Heaven,*® a fierce warrior, inspirer of martial
zeal in man; and the place of sunset is marked by an enor-
mous pillar which supports the sky. The trail of the Sun is a
bridge as wide as the distance between the winter and summer
solstices; in summer he walks on the right-hand side of the
bridge, in winter on the left; the solstices are “where the sun
255
THE PACIFIC COAST, NORTH
sits down.” Three guardians accompany the Sun on his course,
dancing about him; but sometimes he drops his torch, and then
an eclipse occurs.
Not many Pacific-Coast tribes have as definite a concep-
tion of the Sun’ as this, and generally speaking the orb of day
is of less importance in the myths of the northern than in those
of the southern stocks of the North-West. It is conceived both
as a living being, which can even be slain, and as a material
object — a torch or a mask — carried by a Sun-Bearer. One
of the most wide-spread of North-Western legends is a Phae-
thon-like story of the Mink, son of the Sun, and his adventures
with his father’s burden, the sun-disk. A woman becomes preg-
nant from sitting in the Sun’s rays; she gives birth to a boy,
who grows with marvellous rapidity, and who, even before he
can talk, indicates to his mother that he wants a bow and ar-
rows ; other children taunt him with having no father, but when
his mother tells him that the Sun is his parent, he shoots his
arrows into the sky until they form a ladder whereby he climbs
to the Sun’s house; the father requests the boy to relieve him of
the sun-burden, and the boy, carelessly impatient, sweeps away
the clouds and approaches the earth, which becomes too hot
— the ocean boils, the stones split, and all life is threatened;
whereupon the Sun Father casts his offspring back to earth
condemning him to take the form of the Mink. In some ver-
sions the heating of the world results in such a conflagration
that those animal-beings who escape it, by betaking themselves
to the sea, are transformed into the men who thereafter people
the earth. It is obvious that in these myths we have a special
North-Western form of the legend of the Son of the Sun who
climbs to the sky, associated with the cataclysm which so fre-
quently separates the Age of Animals from that of Man.
A curious Kwakiutl tradition tells of a Copper given up by
the sea and accidentally turned so that the side bearing a pic-
tured countenance lay downward; for ten days the sun failed
to rise or shine: then the Copper was laid face upward, and the
256 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
light again appeared. It would seem from this that copper is
associated with the sun. Other myths tell of a hero who marries
a copper woman, whose home — an underworld or undersea
mansion — is also made of copper. The connexion of the bones
of the dead with an abundance of food and mineral wealth
would imply that the hero of this tale, Chief Wealthy, is a
kind of Pluto. One of the most widely disseminated of North-
Western legends, in which the Raven is usually the principal
figure, tells of a time when darkness reigned throughout the
world. The sun, or daylight, was kept imprisoned in a chest,
under the jealous protection of a chieftain. The hero of the
story realizes that daylight cannot be obtained by force, so he
enters the womb of the chieftain’s daughter when she comes
to the spring for water; thence he is born, an infant insatiate
until he gets possession of the precious box, from which the
light is freed. A Salish version makes the Gull the guardian of
the chest; the Raven wishes a thorn into the Gull’s foot; then
he demands light to draw the thorn; and thus day and light
are created. Still another tale (which seems to be derived
from the South-West) narrates how the Raven bored his way
through the sky or persuaded the beings above to break it
open, thus permitting sunlight to enter the world below.
The origin of fire®^ is sometimes associated with the sun, as in
a Salish account which tells how men lived “as in a dream”
without fire until the Sun took pity upon them and gave it to
them; but in very many North-Western myths the element is
secured, curiously enough, from the ocean — perhaps a remi-
niscence of submarine volcanoes. Thus another Salish story
recounts how the Beaver and the Woodpecker stole fire from
the Salmon and gave it to the ghosts; the Mink captured the
head of the ghost-chief and received fire as its ransom. Possibly
the salmon’s red flesh may account for its connexion with the
igneous element, but the most plausible explanation of the fire
as the gift of the sea is in the popular tale which ascribes its
theft to the stag. An old man had a daughter who owned a
PLATE XXXII
Haida crests, from tatu designs. Upper left, the
Sun; right, Moon and Moon Girl. Central, left,
Eagle; right, Sea-Lion. Lower, left, Raven; right,
Killer Whale. After MAM viii, Plate XXL
THE PACIFIC COAST, NORTH 257
wonderful bow and arrow; in the navel of the ocean, a gigan-
tic whirlpool, pieces of wood suitable for kindling were carried
about, and when the daughter shot her arrows into this mael-
strom the wood was cast ashore, and her father lit a huge fire
and became its keeper; but the stag, concealing bark in his
hair, entered by craft, lay down by the flame as if to dry him-
self, caught the spark, and made off with the treasure.
The Sun and the Moon are sometimes described as hus-
band and wife, and the Tlingit say that eclipses are caused by
the wife visiting her husband. Again, they are the “eyes of
heaven,” and it is quite possible that the prominence of eyes
and eyelashes in North-Western myth is associated primarily
with these heavenly bodies. The Sun’s rays are termed his
eyelashes; one of the sky-beings recognized by the Haida is
called Great Shining Heaven, and a row of little people is said
to be suspended, head down, from his eyelashes. The Haida,
Kwakiutl, and Tlingit believe that they see in the moon figure
a girl with a bucket, carried thither by the Moon; and the
Kwakiutl have also a legend of his descent to earth, where
he made a rattle and a medicine lodge from an eagle’s beak and
jaw, and with the power so won created men, who built him a
wonderful four-storeyed house, to be his servants. An interest-
ing Tsimshian belief makes the Moon a kind of half-way house
to the heavens, so that whoever would enter the sky-world
must pass through the Home of the Moon. The Keeper of
this abode is Pestilence, and with him are four hermaphrodite
dwarfs.®^ When the quester appears, he must cry out to the
Keeper, “I wish to be made fair and sound”; then the dwarfs
will call, “ Come hither, come hither!” If he obeys them, they
will kill him; but if he passes on, he is safe.® A certain hero
found his way to the Moon’s House by the frequent mode of
the arrow ladder, and was there made pure and white as snow.
Finally the Keeper sent him back to the world, with the com-
mand: “Harken what you shall teach men when you return
to Earth. I rejoice to see men upon the Earth, for otherwise
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
258
there would be no one to pray to me or to honor me. I need and
enjoy your worship. But when you undertake to do evil I will
thwart you. Man and wife shall be true to one another; ye
shall pray to me; and ye shall not look upon the Moon when
attending to nature’s needs. I rejoice in your smoke. Ye shall
not spend the evening in riotous play. When you undertake
to do what I forbid I will deny you.” This revelation of the
law is a truly primitive mixture of morality and tabu, based
upon the do ut des relationship of god and man so succinctly
expressed in a Haida prayer recorded by Swanton: “I give this
to you for a whale; give one to me, Chief.”
VI. THE RAVEN CYCLE'®
The most characteristic feature of the mythology of the
North-West is the cycle of legends of which the hero is the
Raven ^ — the Yeti of the Northern tribes. Like Coyote in
the tales of the interior. Raven is a transformer and a trickster
— half demiurge, half clown; and very many of the stories that
are told of Coyote reappear almost unchanged with Raven as
their hero; he is in fact a littoral and insular substitute for
Coyote.
Nevertheless, he is given a character of his own. Like Coyote,
he is greedy, selfish, and treacherous, but gluttony rather than
licentiousness is his prevailing vice. He is engaged in an in-
satiable food-quest: “Raven never got full,” says a Tlingit
teller, “because he had eaten the black spots off of his own toes.
He learned about this after having inquired everywhere for
some way of bringing such a state about. Then he wandered
through all the world in search of things to eat.” The journeys
of Raven form the chief subject of most of the myths ; he trav-
els from place to place, meets animals of every description, and
in contests of wit usually succeeds in destroying and eating
them or in driving them off and securing their stores of food.
As is the case with Coyote, he himself is occasionally over-
THE PACIFIC COAST, NORTH 259
come, but always manages to make good his escape, even
(again like Coyote) returning to life after having been slain.
A touch of characteristic humour is added to his portrait by
the derisive “Ka, ka,” with which he calls back to his oppon-
ents as he flies away — frequently through the smoke-hole, to
which he owes his blackness, having once been uncomfortably
detained in this aperture.
Despite all their ugliness and clownishness, the acts of Raven
have a kind of fatefulness attached to them, for their conse-
quence is the establishment of the laws that govern life, alike
of men and animals. A Haida epithet for Raven is He-Whose-
Voice-is-Obeyed, because whatever he told to happen came to
pass, one of his marked traits being that his bare word or even
his unexpressed wish is a creative act. In one Haida version
there is a suggestion of Genesis in the Raven’s creative lacon-
ism: “Not long ago no land was to be seen. Then there was a
little thing on the ocean. This was all open sea. And Raven
sat upon this. He said, ‘Become dust.’ And it became Earth.”
The Haida, Swanton says, make a distinction between the
events in the flrst portion of the Raven story — the truly crea-
tive acts — and the mad adventures of the later anecdotes : the
flrst division is called “the old man’s story,” and the chiefs
will not allow the young men to laugh while it is being told,
hilarity being permissible only during the latter part.
Raven is not, apparently, an object of worship, although it
is said that in former times people sometimes left food on the
beach for him. Rather he is numbered among those heroes of
the past about whom indecorous tales may be narrated without
sullying the spirit of reverence which attaches to the regnant
gods. One of the most comprehensive of Raven stories — a
Tlingit version — states that at the beginning of things there
was no daylight; the world was in darkness.^® In this period
lived Raven-at-the-Head-of-Nass, who had in his house the
sun, moon, stars, and daylight. With him were two aged men,
Old-Man-Who-Foresees-All-Trouble-in-the-World and He-
26 o
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Who-Knows-Everything-that-Happens, while Old-Woman-Un-
derneath was under the world. Raven-at-the-Head-of-Nass
had a sister, who was the mother of many children, but they
all died young, the reason, according to the legend, being the
jealousy of her brother, who did not wish her to have any male
offspring. Advised by Heron, who had already been created,
she circumvented his malicious intent by swallowing a red-
hot stone, as a consequence of which she gave birth to Yeti,
the Raven, who was as hard as rock and so tough that
he could not easily be killed. Nascakiyetl (Raven-at-the-
Head-of-Nass) thereupon made Raven the head man over the
world. Nascakiyetl appears as the true creator in this myth,
however, for it is he who brought mankind into existence.
He undertook to make people out of a rock and a leaf at the
same time, but the rock was slow and the leaf quick; there-
fore human beings came from the latter. Then the creator
showed a leaf to the new race and said, “You see this leaf.
You are to be like it. When it falls off the branch and rots
there is nothing left of it.” And so death came into the world.^®
A striking Tsimshian myth tells how a woman died in the
throes of child-birth; how her child lived in her grave, nour-
ished by her body; how he later ascended to heaven, by means
of Woodpecker’s wings, and married the Sun’s daughter; and
how her child by him was cast down to earth and adopted by
a chieftain there, but abandoned because the gluttonous in-
fant ate the tribe out of provisions; this child was the Raven.
Usually, however, the myth begins abruptly with the wander-
ing Raven. The world is covered with water and Raven is
seeking a resting-place. From a bit of flotsam or a rocky islet
upon which he alights he creates the earth. His adventures,
creative in their consequences rather than in Intention, follow.
He steals the daylight and the sun, moon, and stars from an
old man who keeps them in chests or sacks and who seems
to be a kind of personification of primeval night. Raven’s
mode of theft being to allow himself to be swallowed by the
PLATE XXXIII
Chilkat blanket. The design is interpreted as a
Killer Whale motive. Above the lower fringe arc
two kites in profile. Above these the mouth and
teeth of the whale, whose nostrils are central in the
mouth. The whale’s eyes are just above, the figure
between them representing water from the blowhole,
which is indicated by the central human face. The
body of the whale is denoted by the upper face, the
figures on either side of the two faces representing
fins. The upper eyes represent the lobes of the whale’s
tail; the figure between them, the dorsal fin. After
MAM xn^ Plate XXVII.
THE PACIFIC COAST, NORTH 261
old man’s daughter, from whom he is born again. He steals
water from its guardian, the Petrel, and creates the rivers and
streams, and he forces the tide-keeper to release the tides. He
captures fire from the sea and puts it in wood and stone for the
use of man. He seizes and opens the chest containing the fish
that are to inhabit the sea, also creating fish by carving their
images in wood and vivifying them; or he carries off the Sal-
mon’s daughter and throws her Into the water, where she be-
comes the parent of the salmon klnd.^^ In addition he enters
the belly of a great fish, where he kindles a fire, but his ever-
present greed causes him to attack the monster’s heart, thereby
killing It; he wishes the carcass ashore, and is released by the
people who cut up its body. In some versions the walrus is
Raven’s victim, the story being a special North-West form of
the myth of the hero swallowed by the monster, which is found
from ocean to ocean In North America. Finally, in various ways
he is responsible for the flood which puts an end to the Age
of Animal Beings and inaugurates that of Men.'*® A Haida
legend repeats the Tlingit tale of the jealous uncle, who is
here Identified with the personified Raven, Nankilstlas (He-
Whose-VoIce-is-Obeyed) . The sister gives birth to a boy, as
a result of swallowing hot stones, but the uncle plots to de-
stroy the child, and puts on his huge hat (the rain-cloud?),
from which a flood of water pours forth to cover the earth.
The infant transforms himself Into Yeti, the Raven, and flies
heavenward, while the hat of Nankilstlas rises with the Inun-
dation; but when Yeti reaches the sky, he pushes his beak
into it and, with his foot upon the hat, presses Nankilstlas
back and drowns him. This tale appears in many forms in
the North-West, the flood-bringing hat often belonging to the
Beaver. After the deluge, the surviving beings of the first
age are transformed into animals, human beings are created,
with their several languages, and the present order of the world
is established — all as in Californian myths. One curious in-
version of events, in a Kwakiutl story, tells how the ante-
262
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
diluvian wolves, after the subsidence of the flood, took off their
wolf-masks and became human beings.^®
-
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
-
NOTES
271
an evil reputation. The tendency toward formal and hereditary
priesthoods is naturally confined to the socially advanced peoples
(of whom the Creek and Pueblo are examples), while “mystery”
societies and ceremonies, the aim of which is spiritual and physical
well-being, and often material prosperity in addition, occur in all
but the lowest tribal stocks. The principal text references are: Ch,
1 . iii. — Ch. IV. vii (Mooney , p. 392). — Ch. VI. vi (G. A.
Dorsey , pp. 46-49). — Ch. VII. vii (Mooney [d], for trans-
lated songs, pp. 958-1012, 1052-55). — Ch. VIII. iv (Matthews [a],
“Natinesthani,” “The Great Shell of Kintyel”; [c], “The Vision-
ary,” “So,” “The Stricken Twins,” “The Whirling Logs”; James
Stevenson, “The Floating Logs,” “The Brothers”; cf. Goddard
[a], Nos. 18, 22, 23). — Ch. IX. iii (M. C. Stevenson [c], pp. 32-33,
62-67, 289-90; Fewkes [a], pp. 310-11). — Ch. X. ii. — CL XL iii
(SwANTON [a], pp. 163-64; Boas [f]).
6. Great Spirit. — The Greenlander’s Tomarsuk is another ex-
ample of the faineant supreme being for which Lang so astutely
argued {Myth, Ritual and Religion, 3d ed., London, 1901, Introd.),
citing Atahocan and Kiehtan as early instances. Writers on Ameri-
can Indian religion frequently assert that the idea of a “Great
Spirit” is not aboriginal (cf. Brinton [a], p. 69; Fewkes [f], p. 688).
Thus Morgan (Appendix B, sect. 62): “The beautiful and elevating
conception of the Great Spirit watching over his red children from
the heavens and pleased with their good deeds, their prayers, and
their sacrifices, has been known to the Indians only since the Gospel
of Christ was preached to them.” Yet in the section just preceding,
on Indian councils, he says: “The master of ceremonies, again ris-
ing to his feet, filled and lighted the pipe of peace from his own fire.
Drawing three whiffs, one after the other, he blew the first toward
the zenith, the second toward the ground, and the third toward the
Sun. By the first act he returned thanks to the Great Spirit for the
preservation of his life during the past year, and for being permitted
to be present at this council. By the second, he returned thanks to
his Mother, the Earth, for her various productions which had minis-
tered to his sustenance. And by the third, he returned thanks to the
Sun for his never-failing light, ever shining upon all.” No one ques-
tions the aboriginal character of this pipe ritual, its pre-Columbian
antiquity, or its universality (cf., e. g., De Smet, Index, “Calumet”);
and equally there is abundant evidence that Morgan’s interpreta-
tion of its meaning is correct: the first whiff is directed to the Great
Spirit, the Master of Life, whose abode is the upper heaven. Very
commonly this being is referred to as “Father Heaven,” and invari-
ably he is regarded as beneficent and all-seeing, and as “pleased
with the good deeds of his red children.” The only truth in the as-
272
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
sertion that the Indian’s idea of a Great Spirit is derived from white
missionaries is that the Indian conception is less anthropomorphic
than that commonly entertained by an unphilosophic white (though
it is one that would have been readily comprehended by the Stoics
of antiquity, and would not have seemed remote to the thought of
Plato or Aristotle). If a separation of ideas be made, and the Bibli-
cal epithet “Heavenly Father” be understood for what it doubtless
originally was, a name for a being who was (i) the sky-throned ruler
of the world, and (2) its creator, a better comprehension of Indian
ideas will follow; for it is rare in America to find Father Heaven in
the creative rdle (the Zuni and Californian cosmogonies are excep-
tions). It is partly for this reason that he plays so small a part
in myth; he belongs to religion rather than to mythology proper.
Lang is probably wrong in regarding the Supreme Being as fainSa 7 it,
a do-nothing; occasionally the Indian expresses himself to this
effect, but no one can follow the detail of Indian ritual without
being impressed by his intense reverence for the Master of Life and
his firm conviction in his goodness. That the Indian more often
addresses prayer to the intermediaries between himself and the
ruler of the high heaven, or makes offerings to them, is as natural
as that a Latin should approach his familiar saints. A particularly
good bit of evidence, if more were needed, for the aboriginal char-
acter of the heaven-god is given by S wanton ([a], p. 14). “The-
Chief-Above” is the Haida name for God, as taught them by the
missionaries; “ Power-of-the-Shining-Heavens ” is their aboriginal
Zeus: “Some Masset people once fell to comparing The-Chlef-Above
with Power-of-the-Shining-Heavens in my presence. They said
they were not the same. The idea that I formed of their attitude
toward this being was, that, just as human beings could ‘receive
power’ or ‘be possessed’ by supernatural beings, and supernatural
beings could receive power from other supernatural beings, so the
whole of the latter got theirs in the last analysis from the Power-of-
the-Shining-Heavens.” The same idea of a hierarchy in space with
the heaven-god at its summit appears in the ritual of the Midewiwin,
in the Hako Ceremony, and in the Olelbis myth. These are only a
few instances from different parts of the continent; there are numer-
ous other examples, for wherever the breath of Heaven is identi-
fied with the descent of life from on high, and the light of day is
regarded as the symbol of blessings bestowed upon man, the con-
ception of Father Heaven, the Great Spirit, is found. See Notes 13,
15, 25, 26, 30, 34, 63. Text references: Ch. 1 . iii (cf. Boas [a], p. 583:
“The Central Eskimo . , • believe in the Tornait of the old Green-
landers, while the Tornarsuk (i. e. the great Tornaq of the latter)
is unknown to them”). — Ch. 11 . ii {JR xxxiii. 225); iv (see Note
NOTES
273
28). — Ch. V. iii (Fletcher, pp. 27, 216, 243); iv (Morice ;
De Smet, p. 936; Eastman , pp. 4--6). — Ch. VIL v. — Ch. IX.
iii (M. C. Stevenson [c], pp. 22-24). — Oh. X. iii (Kroeber [c],
pp. 184, 348; [e], p. 94; Goddard , No. i; Gatschet [c], p. 140;
Curtin [a]; , pp. 39-45). — Ch. XL iv (Swanton [a], pp. 13-15,
190; , p. 284; [c], pp. 26-30).
7. Goddesses. — There are several occurrences in North Ameri-
can mythology of a goddess as the supremely important deity of a
pantheon. Nerrivik, ‘Tood Dish,’^ is the epithet given by Rasmus-
sen to the divinity called Arnarksuagsak, ‘'Old Woman,” by Rink,
Arnakuagsak by Thalbitzer, and Sedna and Nuliajoq by Boas. Her
character as the ruler of sea-food sufficiently accounts for her impor-
tance in the far North. A somewhat similar goddess appears among
the North-West Coast tribes; she is the owner of the food animals
of the sea which come forth from a chest that is always full (Boas
[g], XX. 7). Foam Woman, the Haida ancestral divinity, is perhaps
the same personage. The Bella Coola deity, Qamaits, who dwells
in the highest heaven, belongs to a different class; apparently she is
the one example of a truly supreme being in feminine form in North
America, for she is a cosmic creator and ruler rather than a food-
giver; on the other hand, the fact that she has a lake of salt water
as her bath may indicate a marine origin. In the South-West god-
desses are important both in cosmogony and in cult. There is no
higher personage in the Navaho pantheon than Estsanatlehi, and
her doublets in Pueblo myth enjoy nearly equal rank. Again it is
her association with food-giving from which this goddess derives
her status, for in the South-West the Great Goddess of the West
presides over the region whence come the fructifying rains. Cos-
mogonic Titanesses occur in many myths, in almost every instance
as personifications of the Earth, which in turn is almost universally
recognized as the great giver of life and food. See Notes 34, 35, 43.
Text references: Ch. I. iii (cf. Rasmussen, pp. 142, 151; Rink, p. 40;
Boas [a], pp. 583-87), — Ch. VI. vii. — Ch. VIII. i (Matthews
[a]). — Ch. IX. V (see Note 35 for references), vi, — Ch. XL ii:
The marine god of the North-West Coast is a masculine equivalent
of Sedna (Boas [f], p. 374; [g], passim); iv (Boas [j], pp. 27-28).
8. The Perilous Way. — Descriptions of the dangers besetting
the journey to the Land of Spirits, whether for the dead souls that
are to return no more, the adventurous spirits of shamans, or the
still more daring heroes of myth who seek to traverse the way in the
flesh, are found in practically all Indian mythologies. The analogues
with Old-World myth will occur to every reader. The special perils
associated with the moon in journeys to the sky-world are interest-
ingly similar in Greenland and on the North-West Coast. Cf. Notes
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
274
10, 42, 53. Text references: Ch. 1 . lii, iv. — Ch. Ill, vil {JR vi. 181;
Converse, pp. 51-52; De Smet, p. 382). — CL VIL vi. — CL
VIIL ii. — Ch. X. vi, — Ch. XL v.
9. Water Monsters. — There is a striking similarity in the per-
sonnel of the mythic sea-powers among the Eskimo and on the
North-West Coast, nearly every type of being in the one group hav-
ing its equivalent in the other — mermen, phantom boatmen, mouth-
prowed and living boats, and, most curious of all, the Fire-People.
Nowhere else in North America, except for the Nova Scotian Mic-
mac, has any considerable body of marine myths been preserved.
Everywhere, however, there are well defined groups of under-water
beings, sometimes reptilian or piscine, sometimes human in form.
Among the important myths in which under-water monsters are
conspicuous are: (a) the common legend of a hero swallowed by a
huge fish or other creature (not always a water-being; cf. Note 41),
from whose body he cuts his way to freedom, or is otherwise released;
(b) the flood story, in which the heroes brother, or companion, is
dragged down to death by water monsters which cause the deluge
when the hero takes revenge upon them (see Note 49); (c) the
South-Western myth of the subterranean water monster who threat-
ens to inundate the world in revenge for the theft of his two children,
and who is appeased only by the sacrifice of other two children or of
a youth and a maid (cf. Note 29). Text references: Ch. I. iv (Rink,
p. 46; Rasmussen, pp. 307-08). — Ch. II. vii. — CL III. iv. — Ch.
IV, vi (Mooney , pp. 320, 349). — Ch. V. ix (J. O. Dorsey [d],
p. 538; Fletcher and La Flesche, p, 63). — CL VIIL i. — CL
X. iv.
10. Abode of the Dead. — Cavernous underworlds, houses in
heaven, the remotely terrene village beyond the river, or the earthly
town on the other side of the western sea are all included in the
American’s mythic homes of the dead. In the Forest and Plains
regions a western village, situated beyond a river which the living
cannot cross even if they win to its banks, is perhaps the most
common idea, though throughout this portion of the continent the
Milky Way is the “Pathway of Souls.” In the South-West the sub-
terranean land of souls is usual, and on the Pacific the spirits of the
dead are supposed to fare to oversea isles ; but nowhere is there great
consistency of belief. The idea of divergent destinies for different
classes of people finds what is doubtless its most primitive form in
the notion that those who die by violence, especially in war, and
women in child-birth have a separate abode in the after-life. The
Eskimo, Tlingit, and Haida place the dwelling-place of persons so
dying in the skies, and it is interesting to note that the same dis-
tinction was observed by the Aztecs, who believed that men dying
NOTES
275
in battle, persons sacrificed to the gods (except underworld gods),
and women dead in child-birth all went to the house of the Sun,
others to a subterranean Hades. The Norse Valhalla is a European
counterpart, though it is difficult to say whether the American in-
stances had any clearly conscious moral value in view. The Zufil
make a similar discrimination for a different reason, the souls of the
members of the Bow priesthood going to the sky-world, but only
because of their office as archers and hence as lightning and storm-
bringers. A further Zuni distinction limits entrance to the Dance-
House of the Gods, inside a mountain, to initiates in the Kotikili.
A moral value is clear enough in the Tlingit conception of the judge-
ment of Nascakiyetl, and in this and other North-West notions it
appears that the possibility of rebirth is more or less dependent upon
the abode attained, though it may be doubted whether the mode of
death is not really the final crux even here, the mutilated and slain
finding reincarnation more difficult. One of the most ghastly of
North American superstitions is the belief that scalped men lead a
shadowy life (ghosts rather than spirits) about the scenes where they
met their fate, but this properly belongs to ghost-lore. See Notes
47 ? S3- references: Ch. I. iv. — Ch. III. vii (Perrot, Memoire^
English translation in Blair, i. 39; JR x. 153-55; Rand, Nos. x,
XXXV, xlii; Hoffman , pp. 118, 206). — Ch. IX. iii, vii (M. C.
Stevenson [c], p. 66). — Ch. X. vii. — Ch. XI. iii (Boas [g], xxv.
3); vii (Boas [g], zv. i; [j], pp. 37-38; Swanton [a], pp. 34-36; [d],
p. 81).
II. The Cosmos. — All American tribes recognize a world above
the heavens and a world below the earth. Many of them multiply
these worlds. Thus the Bella Coola believe in a five-storey universe,
with two worlds above and two below our earth. Four worlds above
and four below is a recorded Chippewa and Mandan conception,
and in the South-West the four-storey underworld is the common
idea. It is of extraordinary interest to find the same belief in Green-
land. The fact that the earth is divided into quarters, in the Indian’s
orientations, and that offerings are made to the tutelaries of the quar-
ters in nearly every ritual, may be the analogy which has suggested
the multiplication of the upper and under worlds, but it is at least
curious that the conception of a storeyed universe should be so. defi-
nite among the Northern and North-Western Coast peoples, with
whom the cult of the Quarters is absent or rare. The notion of a
series of upper worlds appears in the rituals of some Plains tribes;
thus the Pawnee recognize a “circle” of the Visions (apparently the
level of the clouds), a “circle” of the Sun, and the still higher “circle”
of Father Heaven; and the Chippewa believe in a series of powers
dwelling in successive skyward regions. It is possible that the analogy
276 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
of this upper-world series has been symmetrically extended to the
world below, and yet it is the four-fold underworld that recurs
most definitely. See Notes 6, lo, 31, 66, 68. Text references: Ch. 1 .
iv. — Ch. IL V (45 BBE, p. 21; Mooney , pp. 236-40, 430,
note i). — Ch. V. ix (J. 0. Dorsey [d], pp. 520-26; Fletcher and
La Flesche, pp. 134-41; cf. J. 0. Dorsey , [e]). — Ch. VI. ii
(Will and Spinden); iii (G. A. Dorsey [e], note 2, states that
‘^Tirawahut’’ refers to “^^the entire heavens and everything con-
tained therein”; Tahirussawichi, the Chaui priest quoted in 22
JRBE, part 2, p. 29, said: “Awahokshu is that place • . . where
Tirawa-atius, the mighty power, dwells. Below are the lesser powers,
to whom man can appeal directly, whom he can see and hear and
feel, and who can come near him. Tirawahut is the great circle in
the sky where the lesser powers dwell.”). — Ch. VII. iii (Teit [a],
p. 19, and Nos. 2, ro, 27, 28; , p. 337; Mason, No. 26). — Ch. VIII.
ii. — Ch. IX. ii (Cushing ; M. C. Stevenson , [c]; Fewkes
[a], [e]). — Ch. XL iv (Swanton [a], ch. ii; [e], pp. 451-60; Boas
Ul PP- 27-37)-
12. Ghosts. — The ghost or wraith of the dead is generally con-
ceived to be different from the soul, and is closely associated with the
material remains of the dead. Animated skeletons, talking skulls,
and scalped men are forms in which the dead are seen in their former
haunts; sometimes shadows and whistling wraiths represent the de-
parted. In a group of curious myths the dead appear as living and
beautiful by night, but as skeletons by day. Marriages between the
dead and the living, with the special tabu that the offspring shall
not touch the earth, occur in several instances, as the Pawnee tale
(Ch. VI. v) or the Klickitat story of the girl with the ghost lover
(Ch. VIL vi), for which Boas gives a Bella Coola parallel in which
the offspring of the marriage is a living head that sinks into the earth
so soon as it is inadvertently allowed to touch the ground ([g], xxii.
17). See Notes 8, 20, 53. Text references: Ch. I. iv. — Ch. VI. v
(G. A. Dorsey [g], Nos. 10, 34; [e]. No. 20; Grinnell [c], "'The
Ghost Wife”). — Ch. VII. vi (see Notes 20, 53 for references). —
Ch. VIII. i.
13. Sun and Moon. — The sun is the most universally venerated
aboriginal deity of North America; and this is true to such an extent
that the Indians have been reasonably designated " Sun-Worshippers.”
Nevertheless, there are many tribes where the sun-cult is unimpor-
tant, but on the other hand, there are well defined regions where it
becomes paramount, particularly among the southern agricultural
peoples. The moon is regarded as a powerful being, yet quite fre-
quently as a baneful or dangerous one (cf. Note 8). Usually the sun
is masculine and the moon feminine, though in a curious exception
NOTES
277
(Cherokee, Yuchi) the sun is the woman and the moon the man;
in the South-West and North-West both are generally described as
masculine. Husband and wife is the usual relation of the pair, and
the Tlingit explain the sun’s eclipse as due to a visit of wife to hus-
band; but in a myth which is told by both Eskimo and Cherokee,
sun and moon are brother and sister, guilty of incest (cf. Note 17).
In the South-West, and more or less on the Pacific Coast, the sun
and moon are conceived as material objects borne across the sky by
carriers, and the yearly variations of the sun’s path are explained
by mechanical means — poles by which the Sun-Carrier ascends to
a sky-bridge,. which he crosses and which is as broad as the ecliptic,
etc. While the sun is a great deity — “Father Sun” — he is seldom
truly supreme; he is the loftiest and most powerful of the interme-
diaries between man and Father Heaven, and both he and the moon
are invariably created beings. Sometimes, however, the sun seems
to be regarded as the life of heaven itself, and as its immortal life;
-
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. 8); 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
-
quoted in the text, from JR xxxiii. 225, the similar statement
in xxxix. 13: ‘^And certainly they have not only the perception
of a divinity, but also a name which in their dangers they invoke,
without knowing its true significance, — recommending themselves
Ignoto Deo with these words, Airsekui Sutanditenr^ the last of which
may be translated by miserere nobis.^^ Morgan, Appendix B, sect.
62, says: ^‘Areskoui, the God of War, is more evidently a Sun God.
Most of the worship now given to the Great Spirit belongs histori-
cally to Areskoui.” This seems to concede the case; Areskoui is,
like Atahocan, a name for the Great Spirit, addressed in times of
peril by an epithet, the Saviour.” Cf. Note 6. Text reference:
Ch. II. ii.
26. Oki. — The Huron Oki is regarded by Brinton ([a], p. 64)
as of Algonquian origin. A Powhatan Oke, Okeus, is mentioned by
Captain John Smith, and a few other traces of it are found in Algon-
quian sources. Lafitau, i. 126, calls “Okki” a Huron god, and so it
appears in the early Relations {JR v. 257; viii, 109-10; x. 49, 195),
though Nipinoukhe and Pipounoukhe {JR v. 173) are Montagnais.
It is not certain whether oki is a term belonging to the same class as
manito^ or whether it is the proper name of a supreme being, as
Lang regarded it {Myth^ Ritual and Religion^ 3d ed., London, 1901,
Introd.). Text reference: Ch. II. hi.
27. Stones. — Stones are of great importance in both Indian ritual
and myth; they are regarded as magically endowed, and a not infre-
quent notion is that if potent stones be broken they will bleed like
flesh. Their principal ceremonial uses are four in number, (i) The
284 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
sweat-bath — a universal North American institution, used for healing
and purification, and regarded as capable of effecting magical trans-
formations — consists of a small hut, large enough for the body of
the patient, which is filled with steam by means of water thrown
upon heated stones. (2) Stone fetishes, particularly nodules crudely
representing animals, which are sometimes partly shaped by hand,
form one of the commonest types of personal “medicine” (cf. espe-
cially Cushing [a]). (3) Stones of a special kind are frequently used
symbolically. This is particularly true in the South-West, where
crystal, turquoise, and black stones are symbols of light, the blue
sky, and night. The magic properties of white stones and crystals
appear in myths from many quarters: it is with crystal that the
Eskimo youth slays the Tunek (see p. 3); a crystal is in the head
of the Horned Serpent (cf. Note 50); a suggestion of crystal-gazing
is in the Comox myth recorded by Boas ([g], viii. 10), where the
serpent gives a transparent stone to a man who thereupon falls as
if dead, while the stone leads his soul through all lands. (4) Rocks
in situ are venerated for various reasons, as seats of power or as nat-
ural altars. Mythic themes in which stones are important include:
(i) stories of the placing of fire in flint and quartz; (2) stories of
“Flint” and the Stone Giants; (3) “Travelling Rock” stories; (4)
stories of red-hot rocks hurled by giants — apparently volcanic
myths; (5) stories of magic crystals and jewels; ( 6 ) cosmogonies with
a stone as the earth kernel; and (7) stories of living beings changed
into rocks, though sometimes only a part of the body is so trans-
formed. See Notes 31, 32, 37, 38, 62. Text references: Ch. IL iii,
vii. — Ch. V. be (Fletcher and La Flesche, pp. S7a-'7i). — Ch.
VI. ii (Fletcher and La Flesche, pp. 565-71: the name of the
Omaha “Pebble Society,” Inkugthi athin, means literally, “they who
have the translucent pebble”); iii (G. A. Dorsey [e], No. i). — Ch.
VII. iii. ~ Ch. VIII. i, ii, iii. — Ch. IX. iii.
28. Kitshi Manito. — This term is apparently the original after
which the English “Great Spirit” is formed, and Hoffman [a] renders
“Kitshi Manido” as “Great Spirit.” This is a Chippewa form;
the Menominee “Kisha Manido” and “Masha Manido” he trans-
lates “Great Mystery” or “Great Unknown.” S 3 BBE^ p. 143,
note, states: “The word manido is defined by Baraga as ‘^spirit,
ghost.’ The following explanation of the word . . . was given by
Rev. J. A. Gilfillan: Kijie Manido^ literally, ^he who has his origin
from no one but himself, the Uncreated God.’” De Smet, passim^
employs “Great Spirit.” The case for a spirit supreme over the evil
forces of nature is not so clear as that for the beneficent Great Spirit,
although there is some early evidence of Algonquian provenience
that points strongly in this direction. Thus Le Jeune in the early
NOTES
285
Relation of 1634 writes: ^‘Besides these foundations of things good,
they recognize a Manitou, whom we may call the devil. They re-
gard him as the origin of evil; it is true that they do not attribute
great malice to the Manitou, but to his wife, who is a real she-deviL
The husband does not hate men’’ {JR vi. 175 )- The wife of Mani-
tou, we are informed, is “the cause of all the diseases which are in
the world” (cf. p. 189); and it is possible that she is the Titaness
who was cast down from heaven, as the eastern cosmogonies tell,
and from whose body both beneficent and maleficent forces arise.
Mother Earth is, on the whole, beneficent, although Indian thought
fluctuatingly attributes to her the fostering of noxious underworld
powers. Bacqueville de la Potherie, Histoire de VAmerique septen--
trionale, Paris, 1753? i* ff-? says of the northern Algonquians, with
whom he was associated, that they recognized a Good Spirit, Qui--
•chemanitoUy and an evil, Matchimanitou^ but the latter is clearly the
name for a “medicine spirit,” magical rather than evil. The same
statement is probably true with regard to the Abnaki Matsi Niouask
which Abbe Maurault contrasts with the good Ketsi Niouask {His--
ioire des Abenakis^ Quebec, 1866, pp. 18--19); and we may suppose
it to have been the original force of the Potawatomi distinction be-
tween Kchemnito, “goodness itself,” and Mchemnito, “wickedness
personified,” recorded by De Smet, p. 1079. The devil is less a moral
being than a physiological condition, at least in his aboriginal status
(cf. the Hadui episode In Iroquoian cosmogony, Hewitt [a], pp. 197-
201, 232--36, 333~3S)* Mitche Manito is described in the Hiawatha
myth as a serpent, — a universal symbol. The Menominee have a
name “Matshehawaituk” (Hoffman , p. 225) for a similar being.
See Notes 3, 6. Text reference: Ch. II. iv.
29. Human Sacrifice. — Human sacrifice, in one form or another,
appears in every part of aboriginal America. It is necessary to dis-
tinguish, however, sporadic propitiations from customary and ritual-
istic offering of human life. The latter, north of Mexico, is rare,
(l) The sacrifice of captives taken in war, frequently with burning
and other tortures, was partly in the nature of an act of vengeance
and a trial of fortitude, partly a propitiation of the Manes of the
dead; captives made by a war-party were much more likely to be
spared if it had suffered no casualties. The tearing out and eating of
the heart of a slain enemy or sacrificed captive was not unusual, the
idea being that the eater thus receives the courage of the slain man
(cf. JR i. 268). The symbolism of the heart as the seat of life and
strength occurs in numberless mythic forms and reaches its ex-
treme consequences in the Mexican human sacrifices, the usual form
of which consisted in opening the breast and drawing forth the heart
of the victim. Possibly the mythic references to this form of offering.
286
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
occurring in the South-West (cf. M. C. Stevenson , pp. 34, 39,
45, 47), point to a like custom, more or less remote. (2) The sacrifice
of children, especially orphans, is not uncommon. A number of
instances are mentioned in the Creek migration-legend (cf. Ch. IV.
vii); in the cosmogonies of the Pueblo Indians there are references
to the sacrifice of children to water monsters, a rite obviously related
to the Nahuatlan offering of children to the tlaloque, or water-gods;
the myth also appears among the Piman-Yuman tribes, and doubt-
less refers to the same practice. De Smet mentions a Columbia River
instance of a child offered to the Manes of one of its companions
(De Smet, p. 559). (3) The sacrifice of slaves, especially in the rites
of the Cannibal Society, prevailed until recently on the North-West
Coast, and is mentioned in the myths of this region. (4) The most
notable instance of ritualistic sacrifice is that of the Skidi Pawnee,
who formerly offered a female captive to the Morning Star in an
annual ceremony for the fertilization of the maize fields. — See
Notes 9, 19, 21, 58. Text references: Ch. II. iv {JR xxxix. 219). —
Ch. IV. iv, vii (Gatschet [a]). — Ch. V. i (De Smet, pp. 977-
88, gives an account of the sacrifice of a Sioux girl by the Skidi
Pawnee). — Ch. VIII. ii, vi (DuBois, p. 184; Bourke , p. 188;
Russell, pp. 215-17). — Ch. IX, iv, v, vi, vii (M. C. Stevenson
, pp. 34, 45, 47, 67; [c], pp. 21, 30, 46, 61, 176; Cushing ,
p. 429).
30. The Calumet and Tobacco Rites. — The use of tobacco is
of American origin. As smoked in pipes it is North American, cigars
and cigarettes being the common forms in Latin portions of the
continent. The Navaho, Pueblo, and other South-Western peoples
generally employ cigarettes both for smoking and for ritualistic
use, though the pipe is not unknown to them. The ritual of the
ceremonial pipe, or calumet, is the most important of all North
American religious forms, and is certainly ancient, elaborate pipes
being among the most interesting objects recovered from prehistoric
mounds. The rite is essentially a formal address to the world-powers;
its use in councils and other formal meetings naturally made the
pipe a symbol of peace, as the tomahawk was a token of war. Cf.
Notes 63 31, 63. Text references: Ch. II. iv, v (cf. De Smet, pp.
394, 681, 1008-11, and Index). — Ch. V. iv (Fletcher and La
Flesche, p. 599). — Ch. VI. vii. — Ch. VIII. i, v.
31. The World-Quarters and Colour-Symbolism. — No idea
more constantly influences Indian rites than that of the fourfold
division of the earth’s surface, in conjunction with the conception
of a world above and a world below. The four quarters, together
with the upper and the under worlds, form a sixfold partition of
the cosmos, affording a kind of natural classification of the presiding
NOTES
287
world-powers, to whom, accordingly, sacrifice is successively made
and prayers addressed, as in the calumet ritual. The addition of
colour-symbolism, each of the quarters having a colour of its own,
forms the basis for a highly complex ritualism; for objects of all
kinds — stones, shells, flowers, birds, animals, and maize of dif-
ferent colours — are devoted to the quarter having a colour in some
sense analogous. In the South-West the Navaho and Pueblo Indians
employ a sixfold colour-symbolism, with a consequent elaboration
of the related forms. There is, however, no uniformity in the dis-
tribution of the colours to the several regions, the system varying
from tribe to tribe, while in some cases two systems are employed
by the same tribe (see jo BBE, “Color Symbolism,” with table).
In addition to the Quarters, the Above; and the Below, the Here,
or Middle Place, which typifies the centre of the cosmos, is of cere-
monial and (especially in the South-West) of mythic importance. As
in the Old World, the Middle Place is often termed the “Navel”
of the earth. The most usual form of naming the directions is after
the prevailing winds, and sometimes seven winds are mentioned for
the seven cardinal points (cf. JR xxxiii. 227). Settled communities,
however, employ names derived from physical characteristics (cf.
Cushing , p. 356); in the South-West names of directions are appar-
ently related in part to bodily orientation: thus, “East is always
^the before’ with the Zuni” (M. C. Stevenson , p. 63). It may
be taken as certain that the division of the horizon by four points,
naming the directions, is fundamentally based upon the fact that
man is a four-square animal: “The earliest orientation in space,
among Indo-Germanic peoples,” says Schrader (Indogermanische Al-
tertumskunde^ Strassburg, 1901, p. 371), “arose from the fact that
man turned his face to the rising sun and thereupon designated the
East as ‘the before,’ the West as ‘the behind,’ the South as ‘the right,’
and the North as ‘ the left.’ ” Evidence from Semitic tongues indicates
that a similar system prevailed among the early desert dwellers of
Arabia. In America orientation to the rising sun is abundantly illus-
trated in the sun rituals and shrines, and to some degree in burials.
Colour-symbolism, too, points in the same direction, the white or
red of dawn being the hue ordinarily assigned to the east. See
Notes II, 13, 30, 66, 68. Text references: Ch. II. v (De Smet, p. 1083;
Converse, p. 38). — Ch. III. ii. — Ch. IV. iv (Gatschet [a], p.
244; Bushnell [a], p. 30; , p. 526). — Ch. V. ix (J. O. Dorsey
[d], pp. 523-33; McClintock, p, 266). — Ch. VI. vii. — Ch. VIII.
i, ii, iii. — Ch. IX. ii (Fewkes [a], [e]; M. C. Stevenson , [c];
Cushing , pp. 369-70). — Ch. XI. iv.
32. Thunderers. — The well-nigh universal American conception
of the thunder is that it is caused by a bird or brood of birds — the
288 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Thunderbirds. Sometimes the Thunderbird is described as huge,
carrying a lake of water on his back and flashing lightnings from
his eyes; sometimes as small, like some ordinary bird in appear-
ance — even the humming-bird occurring as an analogy. Very often
the being is the ‘‘^medicine’’ or tutelary of one who has seen him
in vision, and Thunderbird effigies are common among the Plains
tribes. Almost the only tribal groups unacquainted with the con-
cept are the Iroquois, in the East, whose Dew Eagle is related to
the Thunderbird idea, and some of the tribes of the far West and
the South-West, such as the Zuni, who regard the thunder as made by
the gaming stones rolled by the celestial Rain-Makers and the light-
ning as the arrows of celestial Archers. It is notable that a huge
man-devouring bird appears in the mythologies of the South-West-
ern peoples, from whose lore the Thunderbird is absent. See Notes
2, 27, 33, SO- Text references: Ch. II. vi (Converse, pp. 36-44;
JR V. 223; X. 45, and note 3; Schoolcraft , part iii, p. 322). —
Ch. V. ix (De Smet, pp. 936, 945; Fletcher and La Flesche, pp.
122-26). — Ch. VI. iii. The belief that stone axes, arrow-heads, and
celts are “thunderstones’’ or lightning-bolts is world-wide (cf. C.
Blinkenberg, The Thunderweapon in Religion and Folklore^ Cam-
bridge, 1911). The cult of the lightning in almost its Roman form,
i. e. the erection of bidentalia, was practised by the Peruvians (Gar-
ciLASSO DE LA Vega, Royal Commentaries, book ii, ch. i); and a
similar suggestion is found in the Struck-by-Lightning Fraternity
of the Zuni (M. C. Stevenson [c]). The Omaha have a ^"'Thunder
Society’’ (Fletcher and La Flesche, p. 133), whose talisman is
a black stone — suggestive enough of the black baetyl brought to
Rome, 205 B, c., as an image of Rhea-Cybele, or of the hoary sanctity
of the Black Stone of Mecca. — Ch. VIL iii, iv (Lowie , p. 231;
Powell, p. 26). — Ch. VIII. iv (Matthews [a], pp. 265-75; [c],
pp. 143-45). — Ch. IX. i, iii (M. C. Stevenson [c], pp. 65, 177,
308, 413). — Ch. X. V (Frachtenberg [a], No. 2); vi (Dixon [c],
No. 3; Kroeber [c], p. 186). — Ch. XL ii (Swanton [e], p. 454;
Boas [j], p. 47; [g], passim),
33. Rip Van Winkle. — In a note to Rip Fan Winkle, Irving
describes an Indian goddess of the Catskills who presides over the
clouds, controls the winds and the rains, and is clearly a meteoro-
logical genius. She may be a thunder spirit also, for the incident of
the gnomes playing at ninepins, and so producing the thunder, has a
parallel in the Zuni Rain-Makers, who cause the thunder by a similar
celestial game with rolling stones. The incident of foreshortened
time, years being passed in the illusion of a brief space, occurs in
several stories of visits to the Thunder; but this is a common theme
in tales of guestship with all kinds of supernatural beings. Text
-
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. 8) 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
-
the underworld. In Algonquian tradition (and the same notion is
found among Siouan and other Plains tribes), the younger brother
is dragged down to the underworld by vengeful monsters. An under-
world relative of one of the brothers appears also in the South-West,
where the father of the elder is always the Sun, while the younger
is sometimes regarded as the son of the Waters, welling up from
below. Almost always the elder brother, or first-bom in case of twins,
is the hero, the doer; while the younger is frequently a magician and
clairvoyant. It seems evident that the brothers represent respectively
the upper and underworld powers of nature, and it is doubtless for
this reason that Flint is described as the favourite of his mother
Ataentsic (the Earth) in Iroquois myth. In the South-West Coyote
often takes the evil part: thus the maladroit creations assigned to
Flint by the Iroquois are there the work of Coyote. Hero brothers
occur in other types of myth, and it is interesting to note that the
younger brother is the one to whom medicine-powers are ascribed.
See Notes 45, 69. Text references: Ch. III. i, ii. — Ch. VI. i, iii (G. A.
Dorsey [h], No. i), vii. — Ch. VIL ii, iii. — Ch. VIII. i, ii (Mat-
thews [a]; James Stevenson, pp- 279-80); iv (Matthews [c], “The
Stricken Twins”). — Ch, IX. vi, vii. — Ch. X. iii (Frachtenberg
[a], No. i); vi Dixon [d], No. 3; Kroeber [c], p. 186).
45. Yoskeha and Tawiscara. — The names of these twins are
variously spelled — as loskeha, louskeha or Jouskeha, Tawiskara,
X — 21 '
296 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Tawiscaron, Tawiskala, etc. Yoskeha, called ‘‘Sapling” by the
Onondaga and “Maple Sapling” by the Mohawk, has been identi-
fied with the sun or light by Brinton ([a], p. 203), though there seems
better reason in Hewitt’s view that he is “the reproductive, rejuvenat-
ing power in nature” (“Cosmogonic Gods of the Iroquois,” in Pro-
ceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science ^
189s). Tawiscara is rendered by Brinton “the Dark One,” and in-
terpreted as “the destructive or Typhonic power.” “Flint” is the
name given to Tawiscara by the Onondaga; the Mohawk designate
him by the Huron name which in their language signifies “flint” or
“chert”; while the Seneca know him by the epithet “Warty” (cf.
Note 37). He is described as “a marvelously strange personage . . .
his flesh is nothing but flint . . . over the top of his head, a sharp
comb of flint.” Brebeuf s narrative tells how, when Tawiscara was
punished by Jouskeha and fled, “from his blood certain stones sprang
up, jike those we employ in France to fire a gun” (JR x. 131). In
Cherokee myth Tawiscala appears in association with the Algon-
quian “Great Rabbit,” which would indicate, what is indeed obvious,
that Yoskeha and Manabozho are one and the same. Hewitt re-
gards Flint (Tawiscaron, which he interprets as from a root signify-
ing “ice”; see jo BBE^ “Tawiscaron”) as a personification of Winter;
while Sapling, whom he identifies with Teharonhiawagon, personifies
Summer; but this can be, at best, only in a secondary mode. The
name Teharonhiawagon Flewitt interprets as meaning literally “He-
is-holding-the-sky-in-two-places,” referring to the action of the two
hands (50 BBE^ “Teharonhiawagon”). Other interpretations are:
Lafitau, i. 133, Tharonhiaouagon, “il affermit le ciel de toutes parts”;
Brinton [a], p. 205, Taronhiawagon, “he who comes from the sky”;
Morgan, ii. 234, Tarenyawagon, stating that he was “the sender of
dreams”; Hewitt [a], p. 137, Tharonhiawakon, “he grasps the sky,”
i. e. in memory. Mrs. Smith (p. 52) says that little more is known of
this god than that he brought out from Mother Earth the six tribes
of the Iroquois. The name is not much used, the cosmogonies pre-
ferring an epithet, as Odendonnia (“Sapling”), which is probably
also the meaning of Yoskeha. See Notes 38, 44, 47, 69, Text refer-
ences: Ch. III. i. — Ch. IV. vi.
46. Metamorphosis. — Transformations are of course common
mythic incidents. They may be classified into (i) phoenix-like period-
ical rejuvenations, as in the case of Sapling (Yoskeha) in Iroquoian
and of Estsanatlehi in Navaho myth; (2) the metamorphosis of the
People of the First Age into the animals or human beings of the final
period, in which men now live; (3) incidental changes of form,, as dis-
guises assumed by magicians or deities, “swan-shift” episodes, were-
folk incarnations, all in the general field of folk-tales; (4) reincarnation
NOTES
297
or transmigration changes, which may be from human to animal
form, as in the Tllngit concept that the wicked are reborn as ani-
mals, or the Mohave belief that all the dead are reincarnated in a
series of animal forms until they finally disappear; (5) transforma-
tions, frequently by way of revenge, wrought by a mythic Transformer
or other deity. Especially in the North-West and South-West stone
formations are explained as representing transformed giants of earlier
times; ( 6 ) animal trait stories, in which the distinctive character-
istic of an animal kind is held to be the result of some primitive
change, usually the consequence of accident or trick, wrought in
the body of an ancestral animal. See Notes 3, 5? iB, 35, 40, 41, 43,
48, 62. Text references: Ch. III. i (Hewitt [a]). — cL IV. iv, v
(Mooney , pp. 293, 304, 310-11, 320, 324; Bushnell [a], p. 32).
— Ch. VII. ii (Kroeber [a], No. 10; Mason, No. 25; Powell, pp.
47-51); hi (Teit [a]. No. 27). — Ch. VIIL i. — Ch. X. v (Curtin
[a], Introd.; Merriam, Introd.). — Ch. XI. vi (Boas and Hunt ,
p. 28).
47. Manabozho and Chibiabos. — These two are the Algonquian
equivalents of the Iroquoian Yoskeha and Tawiscara. Manabozho,
the Great Hare, is one of the most interesting figures in Indian myth,
and probably he owes his importance to a variety of traits: the
hare’s prolific reproduction and his usefulness as a food animal were
the foundation; his speed gave him a symbolic character; and per-
haps his habit of changing his coat with the seasons enhanced his
reputation as a magician. At all events, in one line of development
he becomes the great demiurge, the benefactor of mankind, spirit
of life, and intercessor with the Good Spirit; while in another direc-
tion he is evolved into the vain, tricky, now stupid, now clever hero
of animal tales, whose final incarnation, after his deeds have passed
from Indian into negro lore, appears in the “Brer Rabbit” stories
of Joel Chandler Harris. In Indian myth the relation between the
demiurgic Great Hare and the tricky Master Rabbit varies with tribe
and time. The tendency is to anthropomorphize the Great Hare
or to assimilate his deeds to an anthropomorphic deity. This has
gone farthest with the Iroquois, by whom indeed the conception of
a rabbit demiurge may never have been seriously entertained. The
Iroquoian Cherokee have many Rabbit stories, but they are folk-
tales rather than myths. Among the Abnaki there seems to be a
clear separation between Glooscap, the demiurge, and the Rabbit
(cf. Rand, Leland) ; Glooscap is, however, an obvious doublet of the
Hare, having all his tricky and magic character. It is interesting to
note that among the Ute, of the western Plateau, where, as in the
far North, the rabbit is a valuable food animal, the Rabbit again
becomes an important mythic being, though still subordinate to the
298 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Coyote, which effaces him everywhere in the West. Apparently
the Coyote or some other Wolf was the original companion or
brother'’ of the Hare; for in practically every version in which two
animals are present as the Hero Brothers, one is a carnivore. In the
east it is often the lynx, which, like the wolf, preys upon the rabbit.
Sometimes birds replace quadrupeds, as in the Omaha myth of
“Haxige” (J. 0 . Dorsey [a]), where the duck and buzzard appear;
but the relation of prey and carnivore is constant. It is at least note-
worthy that the food animal should be the eminent hero in Forest
Region myth, while the beast of prey takes this rdle on the Plains and
westward. The Algonquian names and epithets for the Great Hare
are many; Messou, Manabush, Minabozho, and Nanaboojoo are
mentioned in the text (cf. Note i). Chibiabos (also Chipiapoos), the
companion of Manabozho, almost invariably occurs in the form of
a carnivore, as the marten, lynx, or wolf. In the interesting Pota-
watomi version given by De Smet (pp. 1080-84) two mythic cycles
seem to be mingled: Chakekenapok, with whom Nanaboojoo fights,
is clearly Flint, the wicked twin of the Iroquoian tale; Chipiapoos,
the friendly brother, is Algonquian, and the same being who be-
comes lord of the ghost-world after being dragged down by the water
monsters; Wabasso is clearly another name for the Great Hare, and
from the nature of the reference it is plausible to suppose that the
Arctic hare is meant — i. e. Nanaboojoo-Wabasso and Chiplapoos-
Cliakekenapok are in reality only two persons. See Notes 15, 44,
45, 49. Text reference: Ch. III. ii (Rand, No. lx; HoFr'MAN , pp.
87, 1 13-14; [a], p. 166; for general references, see Note 15).
48. Hero-Transformer-Trickster. — A being who is at once
a demiurge, a magical transformer, and a trickster both clever and
gullible is the great personage of North American mythology. In
some tribes the heroic character, in some the trickster nature pre-
dominates; others recognize a clear distinction between the myths,
in which creative acts are ascribed to this being, and the folk-tales or
fictions, in which his generally discreditable adventures are narrated.
Of the mythic acts the most important ascribed to him are: (i) the
setting in order of the shapeless first world, and the conquest of its
monstrous beings, who are usually transformed; (2) the prime rdle
in the theft of fire, the sun, or daylight; (3) the restoration of the
world after the flood; and (4), the creation of mankind and the insti-
tution of the arts of life. Where these deeds are performed by some
other being, only the trickster character remains in a group of fairly
constant adventures, nearly all of which have close analogues in
European folk-tales. The important hero-tricksters are: (i) the
Great Hare, or Master Rabbit, of the eastern part of the continent;
(2) Coyote, the chief hero of Plains folk-tales and in the far West
NOTES
299
the great demiurge; (3) the Raven, which plays the parts of both
demiurge and trickster on the North-West Coast; and (4) “Old
Man/’ who is chiefly important in the general latitude of the Oregon
trail, from Siouan to Salish territory. In some instances (as in cer-
tain Salish groups) there are a number of hero-trickster characters,
Coyote, Raven, Old Man, and the Hero Brothers all being present;
such cases seem to be the consequence of indiscriminate borrowing.
See Notes 40, 44, 45, 47, 63, 69. Text references: Ch. III. ii. — Ch.
IV. vi (Mooney , pp. 233, 273, quoted). — Ch. VI. vi. — Ch.
VII. iii (for references see Note ii); v (Teit [c], p. 621). — Ch. VIII.
i, ii, V, vi (Goddard [a], Nos. 15, 16, 23, 33, etc.). — Ch. X. iii, vi
(Goddard . No. 2; Dixon . No. 10). — Ch. XL vi (Boas [g],
esp. xvii~xxv; Swanton [a], pp. 27-28; , p. 293; [c], pp. 110-50;
[d], pp. 80-88).
49. The Deluge. — The conception of an abyss of waters from
which the earth emerges, either as a new creation or as a restoration,
is found in every part of the American continent. Not infrequently
both the evocation of the world from primeval waters and its subse-
quent destruction by flood occur in the same myth or cycle, and in
many instances what passes for a creation-story is clearly nothing
more or less than the post-diluvian renewal of the earth. The same
episode of the diving animals is found in connexion, now with the
creation, now with the deluge, so that it is difficult to say to which
myth it originally belonged. On the whole, it is best developed and
most characteristic in the East and North, where its cosmogonic
features are also most clearly evolved. The other most familiar deluge
motive, the upwelling of a flood because of the wrath of underworld
water monsters, is characteristic in the South-West, though it also
occurs in the Manabozho stories, generally in conjunction with the
diving incident. Physiographic conditions no doubt affect the cir-
cumsta;nces of the myth. Thus in the arid South-West the idea of
primeval waters is generally absent; the flood is an outpouring of
underworld waters, which we may presume is associated with the
sudden floodings of the canyons after heavy rains in the mountains;
it is curious to find the incidents of the South-Western myth repeated
in the North-West (cf. Boas [g], xxiv. i ; Swanton [d], p. no), although
this is not the customary form in that region. Again, in California
the notion of a refuge on a mountain-peak is common, and here, too,
we find the cataclysm of fire in conjunction with that of water,
indicating volcanic forces. Most, if not all, of the incidents of the
Noachian deluge are duplicated in one or other of the American
deluge-myths — the raft containing the hero and surviving animals,
the sending out of a succession of animals to discover soil or vege-
tation, the landing on a mountain, even the subsequent building of
300
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
a ladder to heaven, the confusion of tongues, and the dispersal of
mankind. There is no reasonable question but that these incidents
are aboriginal and pre-Columbian, although in some instances later
coloured by knowledge of the Bible talc; and it is hardly a matter
of wonder that the first missionaries were convinced that Indian
mythology is only a perverted reminiscence of the events narrated in
the Scriptures. See Notes 9, 15, 48, 50, 51. Text references: Ch.
III. iii iJRv. 155-57; ji. 157-S9; Hoffman , pp. 87-88, 13 1 ff.;
Perrot, Memoire, ch. I, English translation in Blair, i.). — Ch. IV.
iv (Bushnell ). — Ch. VI. i, ii; — Ch, VII. iii. — Ch. VIII. ii,
V, vi. — Ch. IX. vi, vii. — Ch. X. iii (Kroeber [c]; [d], pp. 342-46;
Powers, p. 383); iv (Powers, pp. 144, 161, 227, 383; Kroeber
[c], pp. 177, 178, 184, 189; Nos. I, 7, II, IS, 25, 37; Merriam, pp.
75, 81, 139; Dixon [c]. Nos. i, 2 ; [d]. Nos. i, 2; Curtin [a]). — Ch.
XI. vi (Boas [g], xxiv. i).
50. The Serpent. — Snakes seem naturally associated with under-
world-powers, and are so in many instances, notably the snake rites
of the Hopi (Ch. IX. v); but the great mythic serpent of Indian lore
is quite as much a sky- as a water-being — probably he is mainly the
personified rainbow and lightning and therefore associated with both
sky and water. Commonly he is represented as plumed or horned;
frequently he carries a crystal in his head; in the North-West the
Sisiutl has a serpent head at each end and a human face in the middle.
Flying snakes occur in Navaho myth as a genre; the Shoshoni regard
the rainbow as a great sky-serpent, and the rainbows on the waters of
Niagara may be the suggestion which makes this cataract the home
of a great reptile. The Sia (M. C. Stevenson , p. 69) have a series
of cosmic serpents — one for each of the quarters, one for heaven,
and one for earth; the heaven-serpent has a crystal body, and it is so
brilliant that the eyes cannot rest upon it; the earth-serpent has a
mottled body, and is to be identified with the spotted monster which
rules the waters beneath the world and, in South-Western myth
generally, causes the flood that drives the First People to the upper
world. The most frequent identification of the serpent, however, is
with lightning. It is partly as connected with the lightning, partly
as associated with the underworld-powers, that the snake becomes
an emblem of fertility, especially in the South-West, There may be
some connexion with the same idea in the frequent myth of the in-
tercourse of a woman with a serpent. In many hero-stories the rep-
tile appears as an antagonist of the Sun or the Moon or of the Hero
demiurge. Sometimes he is the husband of Night, and an obvious
impersonation of evil. On the Pacific Coast the horned serpent is a
magic rather than a cosmic being, though the latter character is by
no means absent. Very frequently medicine-powers are ascribed to
NOTES
301
snakes, and there are numerous myths of potencies so acquired by
visits to the snake-people. In the incident of the hero swallowed by
the monster, this being is in many cases a serpent, as in the Iroquois
version. E. G. Squier {American Review^ new series, ii, 1848, pp.
392-~98) gives a type of the Manabozho story with the following
incidents: (i) the seizing of the “cousin” of Manabozho, as he was
crossing the ice, by Meshekenabek, the Great Serpent; (2) Mana-
bozho’s transformation of himself into a tree and his shooting of the
Serpent; (3) the flood caused by the water serpents, and the flight
of men and animals to a high mountain, whence a raft is launched
containing the hero and many animals; (4) the diving incident; and
(S) Manabozho’s remaking of the earth. See Notes 2, 9, 41, 49.
Text references: Ch. III. iv (Hoffman , pp. 88-89, 125 ff.; Rand,
Nos, I, xxxiii; Mooney , pp. 320-21). — Ch. IV. vi. — Ch. VL i
(Morice, Transactions of the Canadian Institute^ v. 4-10); iv (Powell,
p. 26). — Ch. VII. iv. — Ch. IX. hi (M. C. Stevenson [c], pp. 94 if.,
179; Fewkes [f], p. 691); V (jo BBE^ “Snake Dance”; Fewkes ,
[c]; Dorsey and Voth, especially pp. 255-61; 349-53; Voth, Nos.
6, 7 > 27, 37). — Ch. XL ii (Boas [f], p. 371; [g], vi. 5, 5a; viii. 3, 4;
xvii. 2; [j], pp. 28, 44, 66).
51. The Theft of-Fire. — The Promethean myth is one of the
most universal in America. Sometimes it is the sun that is stolen,
sometimes the daylight; but in the great majority of cases it is fire.
The legend frequently has a utilitarian turn, describing the kinds
of wood in which the fire is deposited. Usually the flame is in the
keeping of beings who are obviously celestial, but there are some
curious variations, as in the North-West versions which derive fire
from the ocean or from ghosts (cf. Boas [g], xvii. i). It is impossible
to believe that the fire-theft stories refer to the actual introduction
of fire as a cultural agency; more likely the ritualistic preservation
and kindling of fire, with the distribution of the new fire by relays
of torch-bearers — rites of which there are traces in both North
and South America — constitute the basis of the myth in its com-
monest form, that is, theft followed by distribution by relays of
animals. See Notes 13, 40. Text references: Ch, III. v (Hoffman
, pp. 126-27; Mooney [d], p. 678; De Smet, pp. 1047-53); vi
(Hewitt [a], pp. 20i ff., 317 ff.). — Ch. IV. iv (Mooney , pp.
240-42). — Ch. VII. ii (W. D. Lyman, The Columbia River^ New
York, 1909, pp. 22-24; cf. Eels, Annual Report of the Smithsonian
Institution^ 1887, part i); iv (Kroeber [a], No. i; Lowie , No.
3; Packard, No. i; Teit [a], Nos. 12, 13; [c]. No. ii). — Ch. X.
iv, vi (Curtin [a], p. 365; , p. 51; Merriam, pp. 33, 35, 43-53,
89, 139; Goddard , No. 12; [c], Nos. 3, 4, 5; Frachtenberg [a],
No. 4; Dixon , No. 3; [c], No. 5; [d], No. 8; Kroeber [c], Nos.
-
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. 8). — 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.
-
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 are the twin sons
of the Sun. Usually the Indian warrior relied more upon his personal
tutelary or Medicine-Spirit — especially the Bear, Wolf, and E.agle
— 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 . il. — 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. Cf.
Notes 21, 27, 30, 31, 40, 61, Text references: Ch. V. vii (Fletcher,
The Hakoy is perhaps the most important single source on feather-
symbolism). — Ch. VI. 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. VIIL i, iii. — Ch. IX. iii.
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
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
308
song in his rituals, and the tabus which forbid songs to be sung out
of season (a hunting song in the closed season, for example). (4)
The magic flight. This is an incident that recurs many times: the
hero is pursued by a monster; as he flees he creates successive ob-
stacles by means of charms, which the monster in turn overcomes
(an example is given Ch. VI. i). The conception of the perilous way
to the underworld or spirit-world is related to this idea (see Note 8).
(5) Magic use of stones, wands, and other talismans. See Notes 4,
27, 30, 35, 60, 61. Text references: Ch. VI. i, vii. — Ch. VIL ii. —
Ch. VIIL hi, iv. — Ch. IX. iv. — Ch. X. iv (Goddard [c], Nos. 1,2).
63. Old Man. — The personage usually called “Old Man’^ is a
distinctly Western figure who seems to be in some instances a per-
sonification of the Great Spirit, though for the most part he is clearly
a member of the “Trickster-Transformer’’ group. The Blackfeet
and Arapaho, western Algonquians, share this character with their
neighbours of Siouan and Salish stocks (cf. De Smet, p. 525; Wissler
and Duvall, Nos. 1--23). Old Man is the hero of the raft story and
the diving animals in Arapaho myth, their version of which, as given
by G. A. Dorsey ([a], pp. 191--212; also, Dorsey and Kroebcr, Nos.
I, 2, 3), is one of the best recorded. It is interesting to note in this
legend that the raft is made of four sticks — the cruciform symbol of
the quarters — and that it supports a calumet, personified as “Flat-
pipe,” the “Father,” and representing the palladium of the tribe.
This connects both with the far north and the extreme south, for the
story of the raft is known to the Athapascans of the North, while the
Navaho and Pueblo traditions of the floating logs and the cruciform
symbol are an interesting southern analogue (cf. S JRBJS, p, 278;
and Chh. VIIL iv; IX, v). The Cheyenne creator, “Great Medicine’^
(G. A. Dorsey , pp. 34-37), is a similar, if not an identical being,
personifying the Great Spirit, or Life of the World, as a creative in-
dividual. This Cheyenne myth tells of a Paradisic age when men
were naked and innocent, amid fields of plenty, followed by a period
in which flood, war, and famine ensued upon the gift of understanding.
The Crow (Siouan) name for the creator, “Old Man Coyote” (FCM
ii. 281), is an interesting identification of this character with Coyote.
See Notes 6, 48. Text references: Ch. VI. ii (J. O. Dorsey [d], p.
Si3).-Ch. VILiii,v.
64. Hermaphrodites. — Unsexed beings appear not infrequently,
especially In the mythology of the western half of the continent.
Matthews ([a], note 30) says: The word (translated “hermaphrodite”)
“is usually employed to designate that class of men, known perhaps
in all wild Indian tribes, who dress as women, and perform the duties
usually allotted to women in Indian Camps.” The custom is certainly
wide-spread. Father Morice describes it among the northern Atha-
NOTES
309
pascans; and De Smet (p. 1017) gives a noteworthy Instance of the
reverse usage: “Among the Crows I saw a warrior who, in conse-
quence of a dream, had put on women’s clothing and subjected him-
self to all the labors and duties of that condition, so humiliating to
an Indian. On the other hand there is a woman among the Snakes
who once dreamed that she was a man and killed animals in the chase.
Upon waking she assumed her husband’s garments, took his gun and
went out to test the virtue of her dream; she killed a deer. Since
that time she has not left off man’s costume; she goes on hunts
and on the war-path; by some fearless actions she has obtained the
title of ‘brave’ and the privilege of admittance to the council of the
chiefs.” Perhaps the most interesting case recorded is that of Wewha,
a Zuhi man who donned woman’s attire, described by Mrs. Steven-
son ([c], p. 310) as “undoubtedly the most remarkable member of
the tribe . . . the strongest both mentally and physically.” The
assumption of woman’s attire and work by youths reaching puberty
is a matter of choice. This choice the boy makes for himself among
the Zuhi, and doubtless also in the other Pueblos where the practice
exists. “Hermaphrodites” have a certain mythic representation in
Zuhi ceremonies, and it is noteworthy that the Zuhi Creator is a bi-
sexed being, “He-She” (M. C. Stevenson [a], pp. 23, 37). Among
the tribes of the North-West Coast mythic hermaphrodite dwarfs,
life-destroyers, appear as denizens of the moon (Boas [g], xxiii. 3;
[j], p, S3). Text references: Ch. VIII. ii. — Ch. IX. vii. — CL XL v.
65. Masks and Effigies. — The use of masks in rites intended
as dramatic representations of deities finds its highest development
in the South-West (among the Navaho and Pueblo tribes) and on
the North-West Coast, though it is not limited to these regions.
The purpose of the mask is impersonation, but their employment is
not on the purely dramatic plane, since they can be worn only by
persons qualified by birth or initiation — i. e. the mask is to some
extent regarded as an outward expression of an inward character
already possessed. In both regions masks are associated with cere-
monies in honour of ancestral spirits or clan or society tutelaries
rather than concerned with the worship of the greater nature-powers.
The use of masks has to a degree affected myth: the Zuni regard the
clouds as masks of the celestial Rain-Makers; the Sun and Moon are
masked persons; and in the North-West an interesting mythic inci-
dent is the laying aside of animal masks and the consequent conver-
sion of the animal-beings of the First Age into mankind. Wooden
images of divine beings also occur in these same regions, and with
some ritual use, but on the whole idols are rare in America north of
Mexico; objects of especial sanctity are more often in the nature of
“Medicine,” and even tribal sacra have the character of talismans
310
NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
rather than of symbols. Elaborate masques, or ceremonies in which
maskers are the chief performers, are given in the Pueblos during the
season in which the katcinas, or ancestral spirits, are supposed to
be present. A similar division of the ritual year, for a like reason,
obtains in the North-West. It is difficult to characterize these rites
precisely. They are not ancestor-worship in the Oriental or classi-
cal sense; for while the spirits of ancestors are supposed to be repre-
sented, they are associated with mythic powers and totemic tute-
laries rather than with the well-being of households and clans as
such. Rites at the grave and prayers to the dead are a Pueblo cus-
tom, but the deceased are addressed primarily in their mythic rdk
of the Rain-Makers. On the whole, the distinctly ancestral character
is more marked in the South-West, where the masks are chiefly
anthropomorphic, while the totemic signification is more in evidence
in the mainly animal masks of the North-West. See Notes 4, 27,
30, 61. Text references: Ch. VIII. iv. — Ch. IX. iil (Fewkes [a], pp.
265, note, 312; [e], p. 16; M. C. Stevenson , pp. 20-21, 62 ff.,
316, 576 ff.)* — Ch. XL ii (SwANTON [c], pp. 26, 28; [d], No. 41;
Boas and Hunt [a], pp. 499, 503, 508, 509; Boas [g], xxii. i).
-66. The Swastika. — Cruciform symbols arc pre-Columbian in
both the Americas. Probably the commonest form is the swastika,
the symbolism of which is certainly in some, and perhaps in most,
uses that of an emblem of the World-Quarters and their presiding
powers. The most elementary geographical frame is the cross, each
arm of which, for cult purposes, is provided with an extension for
the support of the genii of the directions — especially tlie powers of
wind and storm. The circular horizon is a natural image with which
to circumscribe this cross; and thus is derived a kind of primitive
projection of the plane of earth. The sky above is conceived as an
inverted bowl; not infrequently the earth beneath is symbolized by
a corresponding bowl (as in the Pawnee Hako ceremony, while the
Pueblo Dwellers, who live in a land environed by mountain and
mesa, employ terraced bowls in the same sense); and thus the spher-
ical universe is defined in all but word (cf. the ‘^two kettle” palladium
of the ‘"Two Kettle Sioux” — a division of the Teton). It is inter-
esting to note that in the Sia cosmogony the first act of Spider, about
to create the world, is to draw a cross and to station goddesses at
the eastern and western points. See Notes ii, 31, and cf. Thomas
Wilson, "'^The Swastika,” In Report of the United States National
Museum^ 1894; and jo BBE^ ‘Xross.” Text references: Ch. IX.
ii, vi.
67. Seven Cities of Cibola. — The Kingdom of Cibola,” with
its ‘‘seven cities,” was discovered by Fray Marcos of Niza in 1539,
and the consequence of his glowing description was the Coronado ex-
NOTES
311
pedition of 1540, which resulted In the first contact of the Spaniards
with the Pueblo Indians. The “seven cities” are identified as a
group of pueblos of which Zuni is the modem representative, and
Zunian legends still recount the history of the period. It was while
among the Pueblos that Coronado learned of “Quivira” and set
out for that country, guided by an Indian whom the Spaniards
called “the Turk,” and who is believed to have been a Pawnee.
This is interesting in connexion with the many affinities of Pawnee
and South-Western rites (cf. Fletcher, pp. 84--85 and Note 35,
supra). It is supposed that Coronado penetrated into what is now
Kansas on this expedition, and that the great chief Tartarrax, of the
province of Plarahey, was a Pawnee chieftain. See 30 BBE^ “Qui-
vira,” “Zuni.” Text reference: Ch. IX. ii.
68. Number. — Four is generally said to be the “sacred number”
of the North Americans, and it occurs as the natural consequence
of the emphasis on the World-Quarters in cult practices. Possibly
the number three, which is occasionally found in Indian myths, simi-
larly reflects ritualistic relations to the Upper, Middle, and Lower
Worlds, while the combination of the two gives the sacred seven,
employed in Pueblo rites, or (with the Mid-World omitted) six.
Usually four is the magic number in myths — the “fourth time is
the charm.” The duration of Pueblo ceremonial periods of five and
nine days has been explained as the addition of a day of preparation
to a four-day period or its double. On the Pacific Coast the impor-
tance of the Quarters in ritual is not great; consequently four as a
mythic number is not so common there as elsewhere. See Note 31.
Text reference: Ch. IX. iv.
69. Culture Hero. — The term “culture hero” is not infre-
quently applied to the Trickster-Transformer, who is, however, a
demiurge on his heroic side. A second group of beings who may be
regarded as culture heroes are the mortals who make journeys to
supernatural abodes and bring thence to mankind not only medicine-
powers but gifts of various sorts. The acquisition of fire, of maize,
of utensils, and of methods of hunt and chase are the chief events
about which these myths centre. Usually some sort of tribal palla-
dium is acquired along with any distinct innovation in the mode of
life. “Medicine” heroes, who institute new rites and found societies,
appear in all important collections of myths; and the Messianic
promise of the return of a departing hero is again a frequent inci-
dent, suggesting the Quetzalcoatl legend of the Aztecs. See Notes
44 ? 54? $4 57 * references: Ch. VI. vi. — Ch. IX. vl, vii. —
Ch. XL iv (Boas [j], pp. 32-33)*
70. Creation of Men. — The creation of mankind in Indian
legends, as distinct from metamorphosis or from descent from
X— 22
312 NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
earlier beings animal or semi-human in form, Is usuallf a rather
unimportant theme, with little mythic expansion. Men are made
from clay, sticks, feathers, grass, ears of maize, and, In one interest-
ing myth recorded by Curtin, from the bones of the dead. Some-
times they are ^‘earth-born,” or issue from a spring or swamp; and
in the North-West carved images are vivified to become human
ancestors. See Notes 15, 18, 34, 35, 46, 57, Text references: Ch, IX.
vi. — Ch. X. V (Goddard [c], p. 185; Kroeber [e], p. 94; Curtin
, pp. 39'-4S)-“Ch. XL ii (Boas [g], xxii. i, 2); iv (Boas [j]j PP*
29-32).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I. ABBREVIATIONS
AA .
ARBE
BAM.
BBS .
FCM
JAFL
JR ?
MAM
PAM.
UFC .
American Anthropologist.
Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology.
Bulletin, American Museum of Natural History.
Bulletin, Bureau of American Ethnology.
Anthropological Series, Field Columbian Museum.
Journal of American Folk-Lore.
Jesuit Relations, Thwaites edition and translation.
Memoirs, American Museum of Natural History.
Anthropological Papers, American Museum of Natural
History.
University of California Publications in American
Archaeology and Ethnology.
Note. — Citation by the author’s name refers to the work noted under “General
Works” or “Select Literature” (below). Where the same author has several works
listed, they are distinguished by letters in the list and correspondingly referred to in
the Notes.
II. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL GUIDES
Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico (50 BBE). Espe-
cially in part I (Washington, 1907), art. “Bureau of American
Ethnology”; in part 2 (Washington, 1910), “Bibliography,”
pp. 1179-1221.
List of Publications of the Bureau of American Ethnology with Index
to Authors and Tides {5^ BBE). Washington, 1914.
The Literature of American History. A Bibliographical Guide. J. N.
Lamed, editor. Boston, 1902.
The Basis of American History (vol. ii of The American Nation, Hart,
editor). By L. Farrand. Especially pp. 272-89. New York,
1904,
Narrative and Critical History of America. By Justin Winsor. Vol. 1 ,
Aboriginal America, “Bibliographical Appendix.” Boston,
1889.
Native Races of the Pacific States of North America. By H. H. Ban-
croft. Vol. i, “Authorities Quoted.” New York, 1875.
-
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).